Field of Graves(89)

“Is he gone? Gabriel? Is he gone? Did you kill him?”

“Shhh. We’re going to get you out of here.”

“Are you the police?”

“Yes, honey, we are.” She unlocked the handcuffs and reached down to untie her feet.

Jill cried, “Thank God. Thank God you’re here. He’s going to kill me—he’s insane. Please, get me out of here.”

Fitz moved beside the bed and helped Jill sit up. She was obviously a little woozy, but they needed to get as much information out of her as possible if they were going to find Gabriel.

“Do you know where he is, Jill? Is he in the house?”

“I don’t know. He’s kept me locked in this room the whole time. How long have I been here?”

“We think at least five days, maybe more. But you’re safe now, honey—we’ve got you. Can you stand?” He got her to her feet, eyeing the swelling in her belly. “How far along are you, Jill?” he asked.

“Eight months. Are my parents here? Are they okay? Oh, they must be freaking out.”

Taylor patted her on the shoulder. “They’re here in town, honey. They came as soon as they heard you were missing. They’re gonna be real glad to see you. Can you tell us any more about Gabriel Lucas?”

Jill lost her balance when she got to her feet and toppled against Taylor.

“Oops, here you go, sit back down.”

Jill plopped back on the bed, embarrassed, and gave Taylor a smile. “I’m okay. My feet are just asleep. My parents are going to kill me when they see I’m pregnant.”

“Trust me—your parents are going to be thrilled to have you back, you and the baby. Tell me what you can, okay?”

Jill shook her head. “I’m having a hard time remembering a lot. I’ve been trying to think. I know it’s been a while since he was here. I’ve been awake since right before dark. Usually he comes in and gives me a shot of something the minute I wake up and he hears me. He tells me stories while I’m drifting off, nutty stuff I can’t really understand about these women and their ‘representations,’ stuff about the Bible. Whatever is in the shot makes me fall asleep almost immediately, and I kept having all these weird hallucinations. When I was awoke he was talking crazy.” She put a hand protectively over her stomach. “He kept telling me I was carrying the Messiah. He’s out of his mind.”

Taylor nodded and looked at Fitz. “The injectable morphine.” She turned back to Jill. “We think he was giving you morphine. Did he tell you he has cancer?”

“What? No.”

“He has brain cancer. We think it’s affected him to the point where he’s not thinking rationally. He’s hurt a lot of people in the past couple of weeks.”

“Brain cancer? Giving me morphine? My God, what was he planning on doing to me?”

Fitz held out a hand. “We think he was planning on keeping you safe. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to you or his baby. Do you think you can stand up now?”

He got her to her feet, and they made their way into the great room. Between the room and the kitchen was a small breakfast bar with stools. He got her seated, checked in with the rest of their force.

“You find anything?”

Wills was keeping watch by the front door. “He’s not here, and there’s nothing much to go on. Doesn’t look like he’s living here—it’s just a safe place for him to hold the girl. We’ll keep looking around.”

“Okay. I want you guys to be ready for anything. He’ll come back for her at some point. When he sees we’ve found her, he’s liable to go nuts, and I can’t predict what he’ll do. I want you to be ready.”

They nodded and melted into the background. Fitz watched them for a moment as they set up their defensive positions. Satisfied they wouldn’t be ambushed, he turned his attention back to Taylor and Jill.

Taylor was on the radio. “Fourteen to base. We’ve got the package. She’s a single, repeat, no one else found. Copy?”

“Copy that, fourteen. Eighteen is on the way, ETA five minutes.”

“Copy. Base, we need a bus sent here. No ME. Copy?”

“Copy, fourteen, bus, no ME. Got it. Out.”

Taylor smiled at Fitz. An ambulance was on the way for Jill. Marcus and Baldwin had found enough evidence at the Granny White address to sink Gabriel Lucas. But they couldn’t celebrate yet. They were only halfway there. Now they had to find Lucas.

“It doesn’t look like he’s living here, just has some bare essentials to keep Jill fed. Didn’t find any drugs or syringes either. He must keep them with him,” Taylor said.

Fitz started opening drawers and cabinets in the kitchen. Taylor went to the window. From this angle, she could see a large shed about one hundred feet away from the house, backed up to the woods.

She turned to Fitz, who was ministering to Jill, getting her a glass of water. “Hey, Fitz, there’s a shed out here. I’m going to go check it out.”

“Miller’s out there. Make sure he knows it’s you.”

“Gotcha.” She went out the front door and whistled sharply. Miller stepped out from the side of the house, and she pointed at the shed. He nodded and melted back into the darkness.

She crossed the hundred feet or so to the shed. It was old and rickety, didn’t look like it would stand a good storm. Miller slid around the side of the shed from the back, and they took up standard positions on either side of the door.