Page 86 of Watch Me

Reagan:I can’t fucking sleep, Ethan!

Me:I know. I’m trying tohurry.

Reagan didn’t reply, and I went back to looking at the screen. Finally, after what felt like forever, I spotted a white four-door sedan. It parked a little down from Judy’s, and a person got out of the car. It was hard to tell for sure if it was a woman or a small man, but the person was wearing his or her hair back in a ponytail. I sighed. We were looking for astrongman. Someone who could overtake a woman without a struggle. My mind quickly changed when I saw the person stand outside of Judy’s, waiting, and then when Maddie exited the bar, he followed. My gaze cut to Shawn’s briefly. This was it. I swallowed hard as I saw the person take something out of his pocket and then reach out and place it on Maddie’s face. The viewpoint was as if we were looking from the back, so I couldn’t see what the person lookedlike.

“We need another view,” Istated.

Maria pressed some buttons and then we were looking at the screen from the front view. She sped up the feed until it was at the time we needed, and we watched as Maddison was again grabbed from behind, her body going limp, and the person dragging her a few feet to thesedan.

“I want every person here running a cross-check on the vehicles registered to Lakeshore U’s staff,” I ordered. “And pause on this bitch’s face.”

Maria did, and I squinted. It was gray andgrainy.

“It’s a woman,” Shawnsaid.

I nodded. It definitely looked like a woman. “Yeah,” I agreed. “See if you can clean this up,” I stated toMaria.

“Will do.”

Shawn and I went back upstairs and started to cross reference the employee list with the car records the school had for all of their employees. I didn’t want to tell Reagan that we saw Maddie get taken. I wanted to wait until I knew more. Unfortunately, we had fewer people working because it was the dead of night, and a holiday weekend, but every single person was helping us. I thought we finally had the break we needed. I just hoped Maddison’s kidnapping was connected to the murders. I hated to wish for that, but I was running onfumes.

“Sergeant,” Officer Kendrick called, walking up to mydesk.

“Yeah?” I replied and looked up athim.

“I think I have something.” My heart started to race as he set the paper down in front of me. “Katrina Carpenter owns a white Toyota Camry. She works in the IT department at Lakeshore U.”

“Address?” Iquestioned.

He flipped the page. “Yes, right here. I also have her facility photo.”

“A redhead?” I asked, hoping andpraying.

“Yes.”

We fucking had her.

“All right. Roll out. This fucking ends now.”

“Who the fuck is this, Katrina?” Jack asked.

I stepped toward the still struggling girl and ran my finger along her cheek. “This is Mini Reagan.”

“Mini Reagan?” He balked, clearly surprised. I thought the resemblance wasuncanny.

“Who are you? What are you doing? Let me go!” Mini Reagan shouted and struggled against therope.

“What do you mean ‘Mini Reagan’?” he questioned again, ignoring the girl as he stared atme.

“Well, I was going to get the actual Reagan, but then I saw the younger version and thought you’d like her more.”

“Like her more for what?”

“Let me go!” Mini Reagan shouted.

I grabbed a piece of duct tape and placed it over her mouth. She mumbled against the barrier and still tried to wiggle free from the rope. I ignored her as I turned back to Jack. “You said you wanted to have a threesome.”

He drew back his head. “You have a girl tied up in your basement, and you think this is what I want?”