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Her face scrunched up, but Fleming fought through whatever it was. “I thought… I mean, he was handsome. He asked me to come to his house, and I wore my nicest dress.”
Kenna winced inwardly where this woman wouldn’t see it. “A house?”
“When I got there, it was just dirt. There was a tiny hut in the middle of nowhere, like a shed. I knocked. I thought I was going to get murdered by some stranger, but the door opened, and he was there. He led me through the whole place, giving me the tour so I could see what I’d designed. He seemed…giddy. The place was empty. I remember our footsteps echoed on the floor. There weren’t any missing children or other doctors. It was just him.” She lifted her chin.
Kenna asked, “When was this?”
“Six years ago.”
Bruce said, “When the disappearances started. The ones where people saw men and women in old-timey medical outfits with scary white masks. He takes them and doesn’t care who might witness it and have to live with the nightmares for the rest of their lives.”
“I didn’t know!” Terri wailed.
Kenna looked at Ms. Romeo and saw zero empathy on the woman’s face. “I guess you can explain to her how she got caught up in this.”
“Representing her will be sufficient.” She turned to the woman beside her and said, “I spoke with the DA. They’re going to offer you ninety days in a minimum-security prison, and then you’ll have community service hours to complete. It’s a very generous offer.”
Bruce said, “Some of those prisons are like resorts. Golf. TV. Hobnobbing with rich people who are in there for insider trading.”
Kenna leaned forward. “Terri, where is the silo?”
“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry for everything.” She looked at Kenna and nodded. “I’ll give you the address.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ramon stopped at the driver’s door and turned to her, his face shadowed by the streetlights around the law office parking lot. “We have the address. Let’s just go.”
She shook her head, moving to the passenger’s side. “If we go in with guns blazing, we could get killed or captured.”
“I mean…” He shrugged. “Captured is fine. We’ll just fight our way out and rescue everyone as we go.”
She didn’t share his same certainty. In fact, she was barely holding it together right now. Thinking any second that her phone was going to ring or beep with a text. Gregorio might contact her with information about Jax—a photo or another threat. Or the FBI could call to say they’d found his body somewhere, mangled and cold.
Bruce wandered over to where his car was parked, alongside hers. He stopped in the space between her door and his without crowding her. “What are you thinking?”
She shifted her weight, too amped up to be still. “Gregorio lied to get Jax and I to that state park area. He said he was following the retirement home guys, but if he wasn’t, then we can contact them. Use the number they gave us.”
Ramon asked, “Didn’t Maizie say that was for a pay phone in New York?”
“We have to try,” she said, half aware that the law office towered over them to one side. Were the lawyers up there, watching them have this conversation? For all she knew, they could have surveillance in the parking lot that allowed them to listen in to everything she and her associates were saying.
“We can find out if they know about security at the silo or if there’s another way in.”
Bruce said, “You really think they’re going to help us get in and take down that doctor guy?”
Kenna worked her mouth side to side. “I have an idea about that. Let’s go.”
She climbed into the passenger’s seat of Ramon’s car, not wanting to make this call where there was a chance the lawyers might hear it. If only she was in Jax’s car with her husband. Leaving it where they had, back where he had disappeared, made a whole lot more sense. It was proof he’d been there. Proof he hadn’t left to go somewhere else.
Because he’d been taken.
Ramon hit the gas and peeled out of the spot. She checked the side mirror and saw Bruce behind them.
Kenna glanced over at Ramon. “Thanks for helping me.”
“Just make your call.”
She figured that meant, “You’re welcome,” but ignored the fact his gruff response sounded curt. Jax was missing, and Ramon was all in for helping her do what it took to get him back. Despite how he might’ve felt about her.