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“Excuse me. Did you see a dog run through here? A little Jack Russell terrier?”

Nicole shook her head. “No, sorry.”

“You been in the park long?”

“Half hour, maybe.”

The man stood and turned in a circle as he surveyed the dark playground. “I knew I shouldn’t have taken her off the leash.”

Nicole stood from the swing, dizzy. The swaying had magnified the effects of the cannabis. She righted herself after a second. Felt good. “Roxie is her name?”

“Yeah,” the man said. He pulled out his phone. “Here’s a picture. Have you seen her before?”

Nicole moved closer to look at the man’s phone, which glowed like a flashlight in the dark night. Her eyes narrowed and her lips separated when she looked at the photo. She stuttered her words until they finally formed.

“That’s my cousin. Julie.”

“It is?” the man said. “That’s a shame. She’s missing, too. And she’s never coming home.”

Before Nicole could react, a burlap bag came down over her head. Her muscles flexed and tensed, but the element of surprise was too great to overcome. Hands groped her and pulled her until she was shoved into the backseat of a car. She felt the momentum pull her into the seat as the car lurched from the parking lot and sped away.

The ride was twenty minutes, during which her hands were duct-taped behind her back and the burlap sack secured over her head. She cried and pleaded but got no response from the man who’d taken her. She knew there were others in the car.

“Why do you have that picture of my cousin?”

She heard the roll of duct tape unpeel. Then twohands reached inside the burlap and sealed the tape across her mouth. She bucked in the backseat, only to be subdued roughly by the man next to her.

Nicole finally gave in. Stopped moaning and fighting and kicking. She lay still under the weight of the stranger until the car ride ended and they lifted her from the backseat and dragged her through the woods. Nicole could feel the moss and sticks and leaves as they pulled her along, her feet barely working. She thought she felt train tracks under her shoes. Down a steep slope, eventually the rattle of a metal lock filled her ears, and then a door squeaked open. She was dragged through an entryway and forced to her knees, with the man behind her. She closed her eyes despite the burlap sack over her head. His mouth was by her ear and his breath penetrated the sack.

“How do you like it? Same as your cousin? What was her name? Julie?”

His hand slid along her waist and over her abdomen, then up to her chest, where he grabbed her breast and moaned into her ear.

Nicole tried to scream through the tape as she bucked wildly away from his grasp. The man released his grip and pushed her forward. She fell face-first to the cold ground, hands behind her back and unable to break her fall. The burlap was yanked from her head.

“We’ll wait until you calm down. Ain’t no fun when you fight the whole time.”

The door closed before she could see his face. She stayed on her stomach and listened. No voices. No footsteps. Just silence. After a minute, she rolled onto her back and pulled her taped hands behind her legs and over her feet until her arms were in front of her.Then she ripped the tape from her mouth—a slow pull that distorted her lips and ruined her skin. She licked her lips and felt the sticky remains of adhesive.

Several deep breaths helped rid the shakes brought on by the man whispering in her ear. She tried to think, to pull reason from the darkness around her. The effects of the joint were not helping. On her feet now, she walked slowly to the door, feeling her way through the dark until her bound hands grasped the door handle. She shouldered it hard but found no trace of give. She threw her hip into it, then a wild front kick that knocked her backward and landed her on the ground. Then she cried. All she could imagine was Julie, young and scared and shoved in some dark place like this. Her stomach swam with nausea. Finally, Nicole sat up, pushed herself into the corner, and allowed the damp earth to seep through her jeans and suck the warmth from her body.

CHAPTER 14

July 2016

Four Weeks Before the Abduction

“Nicole.”

The voice was far off and jovial, turning her name into a three-syllable word. Ni-coooo-ole.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

Her eyes opened. She’d fallen asleep. Not sure if she was dreaming, she stood up and listened. The seat of her jeans was soaking wet and her upper thighs numb with cold. She’d been asleep long enough that the marijuana no longer had a hold on her.

“Oh, little Ni-cooo-ole. Where are you?” The voice was singsongy.

Nicole waited. The voice grew closer. Then a loud bang on the wooden door.