Chapter 35

The waiting room was crowded, and every seat was filled with people holding bloody rags to their heads or wrapped around their injured hands, looking pale and haggard. Others paced back and forth across the large room, hands pressed to their stomachs or chests, moaning in obvious discomfort. Red-faced babies wailed in their parent’s arms, and toddlers whined. Hunched under a tattered blanket on the floor in a corner, a blond-haired man shouted obscenities.

The glass entry doors slid open with a whoosh, and two EMTs rushed in, wheeling a stretcher bearing a woman writhing in pain, her mouth and nose covered with an oxygen mask.

Two nurses and a doctor joined the ambulance techs, and the woman was hustled through a swinging door into the Emergency ward.

Joe and Aiden threaded their way through the throng to a desk manned by a nurse in dark-pink scrubs. Her pale-blonde hair was tugged back into a ponytail that bounced with her every movement.

“Excuse me,” Aiden said. “We’d like to see one of your patients.”

She barely glanced up. “Take a number—” She pointed to a machine that dispensed numbered tickets. “—and someone will see you as soon as possible.” She returned to her paperwork.

Joe and Aiden exchanged looks.

Joe slipped his ID wallet out of his coat pocket and slapped it down on the desk. “We don’t need a number.”

She stared at the police badge and photo ID, and then looked up. Her gaze shifted from Joe to Aiden.

Aiden flashed his ID.

“How can I help you, officers?”

“Detectives.” Aiden slipped his wallet back in his coat.

She nodded.

“We’d like to talk to one of your patients.”

She nodded again. “It’s a full house this morning. You’re going to have to do better than that. Do you have a name?”

“Tom Wakefield,” Joe said.

She consulted a chart and pointed down a corridor to her left. “He’s in room 435, cubicle number three.”

“Thanks,” Aiden said, but the harried nurse had already returned to her reports.

“Come on.” Joe tugged on Aiden’s arm.

They found room 435 easily enough. Cubicle three consisted of a narrow hospital bed with a curtain around the bed providing the illusion of privacy. One side of the curtain was open, and a lean, fit-looking, middle-aged man lay on his back on the bed. His right ankle was wrapped in a tensor bandage and was supported by a pillow.

“Mr. Wakefield?” Aiden stepped forward and flashed his ID.

“You’re the police? I’ve been waiting for you.” He shifted on the bed and winced as he adjusted his injured ankle.

Aiden nodded at the man’s bandaged ankle. “How’s your ankle doing, Mr. Wakefield?”

“Call me Tom.” He stuck out his hand and winced again as the movement shifted his ankle. “This sprain will keep me off my feet for a few weeks, but the ankle’s not broken at least.” He grimaced. “It’s nothing compared to that poor girl’s injuries.” He rubbed his hands over his face as if trying to erase his memory of Amanda’s wounds. “Is she going to be all right?” He sagged back on the pillow. “No, of course she won’t. How could she?” He looked at Aiden with a pleading gaze. “How is she doing?”

“Still unconscious at last report,” Joe said. “We’d like to talk to you about how you found her.”

“Of course.” Tom’s Adam’s apple bobbed in his thin throat. “I was out for my early-morning run.” He grimaced. “I’m training for the state cross-country marathon race in August. I like to run the trails at Creighton Springs State Park. They’re challenging and—”

"Can you get to the point?” Joe asked.

“I’m sorry. Of course.” Tom twisted his hands together on his lap. “It was still dark, but I had my headlamp, and the trail’s pretty wide, so I was fine. I run there three times a week before work. I’m a foreman at the mill, and—”

“You pack any bear spray with you?” Joe interrupted again, his opinion of night runs more than clear.

“Of course, but I’ve never had any problems. Not until today.” Tom swallowed again, and his face paled.

“Tell us what happened,” Aiden asked. Maybe Tom would be able to tell them something that would help find the man who took Candace. It was looking more and more certain the same man took both women. The connection to Creighton Springs State Park was impossible to ignore. His gaze strayed to the clock on the wall.

Tom settled back against a pillow. “Like I said, I was running on the trail—"

“What trail?” Impatience wafted off Joe in almost-visible waves.

“The Turnkey Trail. It’s the one that starts at the parking lot and swings past Mercer Lake and along the Eggleston River and up to the ridge and back.”

Aiden nodded. He and Candace had walked part of that trail the day they’d found the cave with the human remains buried in the dirt. “And then what happened?”

“It was still dark out, but I had on my headlamp. I saw something on the trail ahead. It wasn’t moving, but I heard moaning, as if an animal were in pain.” He inhaled a shaky breath. “At first, I thought it was an injured deer or bear, but as I got closer, I realized it was a person…a young girl.” His eyes reddened.

“Go on. You’re doing great,” Aiden encouraged. The poor man was struggling with the horror of what he’d seen. Who could blame him? Finding a severely injured girl on a remote trail in the woods would have been terrifying.

Tom sniffled and swiped his hand over his damp eyes. “When—” He swallowed. “—when I saw it was a girl, I didn’t know what to do. She was lying on the ground, naked, covered in dirt and blood. There were gashes on her thighs and her stomach…as if someone had beaten her.” He grabbed the blanket covering him and squeezed his hands until his knuckles turned white. “She was hurt real bad.

“There’s no cell reception in the park, and my wife makes me carry my satellite phone.” He met Aiden’s gaze. “You know, just in case.” He hiccupped a shaky breath. “I called 911 right away. When the girl saw me, she screamed. She wouldn’t let me touch her, and she tried to crawl away, but her leg—” He shook his head. “I was just trying to help her.”

“Did she say anything? Anything at all?” Aiden leaned closer, his muscles tense.

Tom’s forehead furrowed, and he was quiet for so long Aiden wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake the words out of him.

Finally, Tom nodded. “I’m not sure she knew I was there to help her. I think she thought I was someone else.” He looked at them with pleading eyes. “Maybe the man who hurt her?”

“Why do you say that?” Aiden prodded.

“She was moaning and crying, and she covered her head with her hands as if she was afraid I was going to hit her. It was hard to understand what she was saying, but I think she spoke a name.”

“What name, Tom?” Aiden’s gaze zeroed in on the man.

“I’m not sure.” He looked at Aiden and then Joe. “Something biblical.” He scrunched up his forehead. “Maybe Adam?” He shook his head. “No. That’s not right. Abraham? Yes. That’s it! I’m sure of it.”

Joe and Aiden stared at each other as the man’s words sank in.

Aiden moved a step closer to the bed. “Think very carefully, Tom. Are you sure she said Abraham?”

“I think so. She said the name a few times. She was so scared. I think she thought I was him.”

“Did she say anything else?” Joe asked.

Tom shook his head. “She passed out after that. I covered her with my coat and sat with her while I waited for the paramedics.” He blew out a ragged breath. “Poor girl. She’s only a kid. What the hell happened to her?” His eyes opened wide. “She’s not that girl who’s been missing for months, is she?” He pressed his hand over his mouth. “Oh my God. Did I find Amanda Jacobs?”

Not wanting to give away any information, Aiden ignored his questions, thanked the man, and he and Joe left the room and headed down the brightly lit corridor for the exit.

“Are you thinking the same thing I’m thinking?” Joe asked.

Aiden nodded. “Strawski’s son’s name is Abraham. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“You bet your life it ain’t.” Joe popped a gum bubble with a loud crack. “Strawski must be Isaiah. We never caught that monster. You don’t suppose he’s back at his old tricks, do you?”

Aiden shook his head. “Isaiah would be in his late seventies now; too old to be attacking and abducting women. Besides, the vet at the clinic said he was dead.”

“So, what’s the deal then? A copycat?”

“I think Junior’s following in Daddy’s footsteps.” Aiden’s gut lurched at the nightmare possibility, but he was onto something. Damn right he was. Every cell in his body vibrated.

They stopped at the front desk.

The same nurse manned it. She looked up when Joe tapped his fingers on the desk and sighed. “What do you want now?”

Aiden eased Joe aside and took over. Sometimes Joe’s abrasive personality rubbed people the wrong way. Sometimes? He smiled at the nurse and read her name on the badge pinned to the front of her scrub top. “Diana, I wonder if you could check and give us a status report on another patient brought in this morning.”

She returned his smile. “Sure. No problem, Detective…?”

“Farrell, but you can call me Aiden.” He ignored Joe’s snort. “We’d like to know Amanda Jacobs’s current condition.”

Her face altered. “That poor girl. I heard all about her. It’s terrible what happened.”

“How’s she doing? Can we see her?”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but she’s in surgery. She has a fractured arm and dislocated shoulder, to say nothing of all her other injuries.”

Aiden’s gut knotted. What sort of man would do that to a young girl? But she’d survive. He’d bet a year’s salary on that. She was strong. She’d somehow managed to escape her captor. She was going to make it. He refused to consider any other outcome. He’d make damn sure he caught the monster that hurt her and toss him into a cell. “When will we be able to talk to her?”

“Not for several hours.” She batted her eyelashes and smiled coquettishly. “Why don’t you give me your card, and I’ll call you when she’s out of surgery?”

“Thanks, Diana.” He ignored her blatant flirting and smiled. “That would be great.” He slipped a card out of his wallet and laid it on the desk.

She picked the card up and slipped it into her breast pocket, smiling at Aiden. “I’ll talk to you soon, Detective.”

He flashed her another smile and turned and headed into the Emergency waiting room, through the waiting throng, and to the hospital front doors.

Joe followed, and once they were seated in the sedan, he turned to Aiden and smirked. “Still using the same tactics that got you in trouble in Seattle, Loverboy. Guess you haven’t learned your lesson.”

Aiden brushed off Joe’s snarky comment. Too much was at stake to waste energy arguing with his partner. “Come on. Let’s go. We need to get to the state park and check out the scene. Maybe we can find something that will tell us where Amanda was held, something that might lead us to Candace.”

“You’re pretty sure the same guy who’s been holding Amanda all these months is the one who took the Cooper woman.” Joe started the car.

“I am. It’s too much of a coincidence that Candace saw those footprints in the park in November, and Amanda turns up there this morning. There has to be a connection.”

“And you think he’s holding her somewhere in the park.” The bright-yellow fluorescent lights of the hospital shone on Joe’s rugged face. “Then what are we sitting here for? Let’s go find her.” He shifted the car into gear, and they roared out of the parking lot, sirens blaring, lights flashing.