“Before I left last night, I started a property search.”
“On Dugan?” Baz asked.
“No. In general. I took in the details of the houses we know William Dugan’s owned in the past. I honestly didn’t expect much because my main parameter was houses with basements. And we all know how rare those are in this area. I added in any that had storm cellars. There were a few, so I pulled up the owners. This one’s about half an hour north of here.”
The map on the screen zoomed in, changed to street view.
“Let me put in a call to—”
“No,” Brantley interrupted. “Let’s go there now.”
Baz frowned. “Now? It’ll take us a good hour to get there with traffic.”
“Your point?” Brantley was already moving to his desk, tapping something on his computer.
Because he was not about to let Brantley go on his own, nor did he want to get left behind, Reese followed.
“JJ, stay here and stay available,” Brantley called out on his way to the door.
“I will.”
“You know he’s right,” Reese told Brantley when they were in the truck. “With rush-hour traffic, it’ll take an hour to get there.”
“You got anything better to do?”
Well, when he put it that way…
***
Cori was cold. She was shivering despite the fact she had the scratchy wool blanket draped over her.
It was due more to fear than temperature, she knew.
Lauren.
She still couldn’t believe Lauren was here, living in this house with Principal Dugan. Granted, she called herself Emily, as did he. And when Cori had accused him of kidnapping Lauren all those years ago, he had argued—actually argued—that she was wrong, that the woman who clearly looked like Lauren wasn’t who Cori claimed her to be.
Of course, he was right to a degree. Lauren was no longer that sweet, kind, innocent girl Cori had grown up with. No. She’d been gone too long for that, held prisoner by this lunatic. Her mind was now warped and she honestly believed her name was Emily Dugan. Professor Bill Dugan’s wife.
Another chill raced down Cori’s spine.
The woman who was wandering around this house was definitely Lauren. The moment she saw her face, Cori had recognized her, although she had changed drastically in the nine years since she’d gone missing. Her hair was longer, nearly to her waist, but still the same interesting shade of brown it had been. Her face had filled out, no longer radiating with adolescence. But it was her eyes that made her look like an entirely different person. There was absolutely no life in them. As though a part of her had died.
Cori had been hoping Lauren would come back so she could talk to her, but Principal Dugan—Bill—wasn’t letting her. No, he had taken over bringing her food, sitting with her while she ate. The man liked to talk, mostly about how happy he was that she was here, how he knew one day she would come to think of this place as home the same way Lauren—Emily—did.
The guy was a complete lunatic. Absolutely batshit crazy.
But Cori had learned that telling him as much wasn’t conducive to survival. The first time she’d told him had been when he had Lauren bathe her while she was strapped down to the bed. After he had stripped her of her clothes, cutting them off because of the restraints, he had stood over her, watching intently. His beady eyes had followed Lauren’s hands as they dragged a lukewarm washcloth over Cori’s naked body.
The thought had her shivering again.
She had to get out of here. Based on her calculations, she’d been here at least four days, maybe five. Or was it six? At one point, she was pretty sure Bill had drugged her, making her lose track of time. He’d put something in her food. When she woke, it was to find him lying on the bed with her, his naked body up against her side. She had gotten violently ill at that point. Partially thanks to whatever drugs he’d plied her with, partially because he disgusted her.
But he hadn’t touched her.
Not yet, anyway.
Cori had a feeling it was coming, though.
And she knew she had to get out of here before that happened.
She wasn’t going alone, she knew that much. All these years, she had blamed herself for Lauren’s disappearance. If only she hadn’t been sick that day. If only she’d been there to walk home with Lauren. Now that she knew who had taken her, she wasn’t completely convinced she’d been responsible back then. But she was responsible for ensuring Lauren got out of here now.
The question was, how?
Chapter Seventeen
Because they hadn’t made a formal plan and that was clearly something the APD was familiar with, Baz called him on their way to the house where they suspected William Dugan was holding Corinne.
“How’s this gonna play out, boss man?” Baz inquired. “What’s your plan?”
