Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107766 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107766 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
* * *
What a prick.
Zach pulled out of the parking lot where Cousin Archie’s office was located. A nice area of town, rent was probably high. And Zach suspected business wasn’t great. He probably needed cash, was bitter that his mother hadn’t left a property worth half a million dollars to him instead of his cousin. He figured he’d lowball her, turn it for a good profit, and use the cash to bail himself out of whatever financial fix he was in.
Was it possible that in believing Josie to be emotionally fragile and mentally unstable, Archie had set out to spook her by leaving a dead rat in her kitchen so she’d change her mind about selling to him? As angry as the suspected scenario made Zach, it also brought relief. It seemed likely her cousin had either used his key to enter Josie’s house the night before or hired someone to do it. It wasn’t the dangerous copycat who had been in her home but a disgruntled relative. Or at least there was a very good chance that was the case.
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 vehicle. “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 grunted. “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 loath 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?