Almost Dead (Lizzy Gardner #5)(68)

She wrapped her arms around her legs, as though that would actually warm her. She had no idea how much time had passed. She had kicked and clawed at every wall in the room, but these walls weren’t made of plaster and drywall. They were solid cinder block.

Mr. Chalkor had apparently gone out of his way to find the ideal place to keep her hostage.

What kind of monster was she dealing with?

Was he going to come back?

Was this his way of teaching her a lesson?

What if he didn’t come back?

Was she going to die in this tiny room?

She had no water, no food. She wouldn’t last more than three days without water—four or five, if luck was on her side. But how would anyone find her?

Her car.

They’d find her car. That might be her only chance. But then she remembered that she had driven here in her mom’s car. Her mom wouldn’t know she was missing for another week, when she and Kitally’s father returned from their trip.

If Hayley or Lizzy reported her missing and the police found Kitally’s car, it would be parked safely at her parents’ home.

Nobody would know to look for her mom’s car.

She raked her hands through her hair and then fiddled with her dread as though it were rosary beads. Looking heavenward, she realized she might see her brother, Liam, sooner than she thought.




Lizzy tossed and turned. It was no use. She couldn’t sleep. She got up, put on a terry cloth robe over her T-shirt and sweats and headed out of her room and down the stairs. On her way to the home office, she stepped into Kitally’s room. Looked around. The bed was made. The cat was curled into a ball on the middle of the mattress.

Kitally had not returned.

In the office, she turned on one small lamp on the desk and opened her laptop. As soon as it booted up, she took another look at the list of people Dean Newman planned to apologize to. There were forty-four people on his list—thirty-three women and eleven men.

What the hell did he do to all these people?

Once again she pulled out the list of suspects Melony Reed had given her. Not one person on Melony’s list of people whom she thought might seek revenge matched the list of people Dean Newman felt he needed to apologize to.

Damn.

What sort of club would purposely set out to mess with so many people?

She decided to combine the two lists and then, assuming the woman who had called her twice now was the person responsible for the deaths of the Ambassador Club, she would concentrate on the women first.

Joan Liskie.

She typed the name into her database. The woman had a record. Two DUIs and at the moment she was in jail for armed robbery. Joan had no background in anything to do with toxic chemicals or poisons. In fact, she never did graduate from high school.

Lizzy crossed Joan off the list.

An hour later, she had crossed off ten more names.

The twelfth female on the list: Dana Kohl.

Lizzy yawned, kept on typing, searching, reading. Dana had married her high school sweetheart, then divorced three years later. She was a biochemical engineer. Lizzy sat up straight. Bingo.

“She’s still not home.”

Lizzy’s head snapped up. Her hand flew to her heart. “You scared me.”

“Didn’t mean to,” Hayley said. “Did you hear what I said?”

“Yes. Kitally hasn’t returned. I’ve left a few messages for her, but her phone must be shut off. I’m not getting a read on the GPS tracking application she downloaded on my iPhone.”

“Yeah, her phone is definitely off. Something’s not right. I called her parents’ number. No answer there, either. I’m going to take a drive to their house in El Dorado Hills.”

“It’s not even four in the morning. Some people shut their phones off for the night.”

“Yeah, some people do. But we won’t know for sure until I go there.”

Lizzy had never seen Hayley look so worried . . . or so tired. “Give me a call when you get there, will you?”

Hayley nodded and headed out.





CHAPTER 48

Lizzy said goodbye and hung up the phone. Hayley had found Kitally’s car parked at her parents’ house in El Dorado Hills, but no one was home. What to do about it? Lizzy’s mind drew a great big blank, a common occurrence of late.

She was halfway through the combined list of names of possible suspects in the Ambassador Club killings, and still the only name that stood out was Dana Kohl. Lizzy decided to pay her a visit. If she waited until eight o’clock and called Detective Chase, he would simply tell her they didn’t have the manpower to send someone to the woman’s house. Lizzy couldn’t just sit there and wait for the killer to take out another person.

Lizzy rubbed her eyes.

It felt as if she might never sleep through the night again.

Kitally was missing. Shelby was missing. A serial killer was getting away with murder. The entire world had shifted and was crumbling beneath her feet. She pushed away from the chair, grabbed a sweatshirt and her keys, and headed out.

Lizzy’s navigation system delivered her to Dana Kohl’s house in less than twenty minutes. She climbed out of her car, didn’t bother peeking through the windows or checking the backyard. She just walked up the flagstone path to the front entry and knocked three times.

She heard footfalls and then a woman’s voice ask, “Who is it?”