Page 62

The Night of the Abduction

T he headlights of Nicole’s car shined into the backseat of the Buick Regal. The girl had settled down now. She no longer kicked at the door or pounded her shoulder into the window. Casey was certain she was lying on the backseat, sleeping in a coma-like slumber. He’d seen it before.

“Come on,” he said. “It’s time.”

He climbed from Nicole’s car and opened the back door of the Regal. The girl was indeed unconscious, lying like a drunk in the backseat, burlap over her head and zip ties securing her wrists behind her back, one leg splayed across the torn vinyl seat and the other limp on the floorboard.

“What’s wrong with her?” Nicole asked. She and Casey were bleached by the headlights from Nicole’s car, which also highlighted Megan’s unconscious body.

“Just taking a little nap.”

Nicole hesitated. “You give her something? ”

“She’ll be good as new in about an hour.”

Casey reached in and pulled Megan—floppy-armed and bobbleheaded—out of the car and over his shoulder. He clicked on a flashlight and headed toward one of the houses.

“What are we doing with her?” Nicole asked.

Casey didn’t answer, just walked ahead. After a moment of hesitation, Nicole followed.

Away from the headlights it was pitch-black.

Casey shined his flashlight onto the house numbers above the front door.

67. He’d delivered Nancy Dee, a year before, to the house next to this one.

And a year before that, he’d brought the Georgia Tech girl named Paula D’Amato to the house two doors down.

He’d never had the courage to revisit those homes to see what remained.

He knew the Dee girl was gone. But the others .

. . he never gathered the nerve to check.

He walked through the front door with the unconscious girl over his shoulder and Nicole following.

“What are these empty houses doing here?” Nicole asked.

Casey kept moving. Toward the cellar door, which he kicked open with his foot and then started down.

“Casey, stop! This is screwed up.”

But he was gone a moment later. Swallowed by the dark stairwell.