Where the Blame Lies(34)

Which was good, because he and Jimmy had some leads to follow up on after Zach’s meeting with the roommate. A secret boyfriend . . . a possible pregnancy that Aria had terminated. Daisy. The flower possibly symbolized her unborn child, and she’d tattooed it on her ankle? Something about that . . . left a sort of sour taste in his mouth. It wasn’t his job to judge Aria’s alleged actions though, it was up to him to bring her justice. And frankly, for whatever poor choices Aria may have made, she suffered greatly for them.

They needed to find out who this secret boyfriend had been, why they’d broken up, and where that man had been when she disappeared, even if it had ended six to eight months before. It was a lead, somewhere to go.

Zach dialed Jimmy using the hands-free option. Jimmy’s voice boomed into the interior of the car. “Yo.”

“How’s it going there?”

“Not bad. Put on a garage sale, loaded some furniture. You know, all in a day’s work.”

Despite the stab at humor, Jimmy’s tone was serious, tinged with something Zach wasn’t sure what to call. But before he could ask about it, Jimmy said, “Give me the update from your end.”

Zach did, telling him about the interview with Aria’s roommate Tessa. Jimmy whistled. “That’s something. You think this ex could have held a grudge all that time that she’d aborted his baby and then abducted and tortured her?”

“Either that, or he was angry that she broke up with him. I don’t know, but it’s more than we had before.”

Zach described his meeting with Archibald Phillips, his bitterness at Josie, the likelihood of financial issues.

“Sounds like he very well could be the one who left that rat. He wouldn’t have even had to break in.”

“My thoughts too. Hey Jimmy, the boss is calling in. I’m headed your way. Be there soon.”

“See ya.”

Zach clicked over to the other line, greeting his sergeant. “Where are you, Copeland?” His boss’s voice was low, tone dead serious.

“I’m headed to Oxford. It looks likely that Josie Stratton’s cousin—”

“Turn around. We got another DOA. Girl, chained, starved to death, carving in leg.”

Ice hit Zach’s core. He muttered a curse, swerving to the side of the road to a bevy of horn blasts. He swung his vehicle around. “On my way.”





CHAPTER SIXTEEN


Before



Josie woke with a start, a scream rising to her lips as something crawled over her ankle. She jerked her legs up, using her unshackled arm to push up on the mattress and quickly bring herself to a sitting position. Oh God! A rat. Josie screamed and kicked at it, her heart hammering in her chest, bile moving up her throat as she began to shake. The large rat let out an angry shriek but didn’t move from the place where it was digging at her mattress. Josie jolted as another one scampered across the floor, joining the first one.

The food. They’d smelled the food she was keeping hidden under the mattress, the food she was rationing. She’d thought she heard mice—she’d told herself they were mice—in the walls a couple of times, but they’d never come out before. But now they would because they’d been drawn by the smell of the food, and they’d keep coming back for it. Why now though? She’d been hiding the food for months, serving herself small, but regular meals. Had they smelled the food before and just now figured out a way into the room? That had to be it. They’d used their sharp teeth to gnaw through the wall. Sharp teeth. Oh GodGodGod. This couldn’t be happening. Couldn’t be getting worse than it already was.

Hell, apparently, had even lower levels.

She kicked at them again and as she did so, her chains rattled loudly, the sound apparently scaring the ugly creatures so that they retreated backward, turning, and disappearing into the dark corner from which they’d come. Josie’s body shook all over as she drew her limbs as close to her body as possible. Her baby kicked, a gentle tap, that served to slow her heart rate. She ran her hand over her expanding bump. “It’s okay. We’re okay. They can’t hurt us,” she whispered, voice soothing. Not while she was alive anyway. If she had to dispose of the food by eating it all, she would, but already, the small, daily portions were making her feel stronger, not just of body, but of spirit. It was another thing that she controlled now, and she was loathe to give it up to a couple of greedy rats. She’d stay awake at night and sleep during the day. Rats came out in the cover of darkness, didn’t they? Or would they care?

She stayed awake that night and they came again, their beady eyes shining in the low light as they moved toward her. Her breath came quickly, heart leaping with fear. She rattled her chains loudly, yelling as she shook her body back and forth. They retreated, scampering backward. Tears rolled down Josie’s cheeks. How many times could she scare them before they grew bold enough to test her again? To move closer? Attack her maybe? She didn’t know anything about rats, or how aggressive they might be.

With the sunrise, she slept, unable to keep her eyes open. A sharp pain roused her and she moaned, something scratching at her foot, and moving near her shoulder. She screamed, sitting bolt upright as one rat scurried away and the other one dug at her mattress near where her foot had been hanging off the side.

She screamed, rattling her chains hysterically, kicking at the creatures. She heard footsteps and the door opened. Marshall stood there in his mask, his chest rising and falling as his gaze fell to the rats scurrying back to the corner in reaction to his arrival.