This is the road that leads toward the state park trail, Darcy recalls as she leaps from the SUV before Hensel can stop her. She hears him curse and fumble for the window controls as Darcy closes the gap on the fleeing girl. When the girl looks back, Darcy recognizes Nina Steyer from Margaret’s picture. She’s wearing the same faded, beaten blue jeans, her head hidden inside the hood of her gray sweatshirt. A windbreaker with a rip down one sleeve isn’t staving off the chilly evening, but Nina doesn’t miss a step as she pushes through a row of shrubberies and hurries past a rundown one-story house with a sagging porch.
“Nina, don’t run. I just want to talk to you.”
A dog barks in the night. Somewhere a car door slams. Nina vanishes into the shadows when she runs through a backyard. Darcy follows, listening for the girl’s sneakers swishing through the long, frosty grass as she ducks beneath a close line. Hensel’s headlights sweep across the homes as he swerves up the lane and speeds up. Darcy worries he’ll spook Nina, but if he gets ahead of the girl, she might double back and run into Darcy.
Nina materializes two properties ahead of Darcy. She’s running for the trees. Darcy sprints until her lungs burn, closing the distance. Sensing Darcy coming up behind her, Nina runs harder. Though Darcy stays in shape by running, she’s no match for Nina when the girl kicks into high gear. The woods loom ahead. Once they lose the girl inside the trees, they’ll never catch up. As Darcy struggles to keep pace, Hensel exits the SUV running and aims for the tree line, aiming to cut Nina off. When the girl sees Hensel, she spins around.
And crashes into Darcy’s waiting arms.
Darcy and Nina struggle until the former FBI agent wraps her arms around the girl.
“Please don’t fight me, Nina. I promise I won’t hurt you.”
Hearing her name gives the girl pause, and she relaxes for a heartbeat. Darcy keeps a tight hold on the girl. If she lets her guard down and Nina escapes, Darcy knows she won’t catch her again.
“That’s right. I know your name, Nina. Many people have been searching for you. Shh…you’re safe now.”
Nina’s back stiffens when Hensel approaches. The agent stops several paces away and holds his hands up.
“It’s all right,” Darcy whispers into Nina’s ear. “Agent Hensel works for the FBI. He’ll keep you safe and make sure you get back to your mother.”
The girl’s eyes swing to Darcy’s. Disbelief sharpens her glare, and her forehead furrows in confusion. Nina’s body slackens a split-second before she twists around and almost wiggles out of Darcy’s grip. Hensel shifts his body in front of the girl and extends his arms, a net cast to catch Nina if she breaks free.
Hensel returns Darcy’s glare. Nina panicked when Darcy promised they’d return the girl to her mother. Was Cherise Steyer involved in her daughter’s abduction? Darcy recalls crazier revelations during her brief FBI career, but Cherise couldn’t be working with the kidnapper. Darcy looked into the mother’s eyes and saw injury, loss, and a frantic need to find her daughter. So why did Nina run at the mention of her mother?
“A friend of mine saw you at the diner. She said you tried to hitch a ride on a tractor trailer. Are you running from somebody, Nina?”
The girl’s lower lip quivers, and her gaze travels down the hill to the busy parking lot beside Maury’s. The outside world troubles and confuses Nina, but she understands travelers come through Scarlet River and stop at the diner. For a girl searching for a way out of town, the diner’s parking lot is her ticket.
Hooking elbows with Nina, Darcy leads her down the grassy hillside as Hensel lifts the radio to his lips. Tipton and his deputies will be here soon. This worries Darcy. A cruiser or ambulance pulling curbside might send Nina into hysterics. She’s already too petrified to stand near Hensel. So Darcy diverts Nina’s attention, all the while keeping a grip on the girl. Someone locked Nina away ten years ago, and discovering his identity is key to rescuing Jennifer and Sandy Young. Did Nina escape? Though time ticks against the abducted teenagers, Darcy steers the conversation toward calming subjects, things Nina experiences daily and understands.
“You amaze me, Nina. It can’t be over forty-five degrees tonight, and I can’t stop my teeth from chattering. Yet you’re outside in a light jacket and doing fine.”
Nina’s eyes dart from the houses to Hensel, then back to the diner’s parking lot. She’s focused on escaping Scarlet River, even if it means never seeing her mother.
Darcy glances at the warm SUV up the hill. It’s too soon to coax Nina into the vehicle. Not until Darcy builds trust.
“Tell me why you want to leave Scarlet River, Nina.” The girl’s head swivels toward Maury’s again. “If you’re afraid of someone, I’ll protect you. And so will Agent Hensel.”
Hensel pockets the radio and edges closer. Darcy appreciates the care with which he approaches the terrified girl. When Nina’s hands grasp Darcy’s jacket, Darcy assumes the girl is cowering from the agent and wants protection. To Darcy’s shock, Nina speaks.
“He told me he killed Mommy.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Darcy paces outside the van. Emergency lights from the two cruisers swirl hot and frozen colors across her face. An ambulance idles curbside while looky-loos mass in their yards for a better look at the commotion. Two paramedics lean with folded arms against the van and whisper back and forth. A second SUV, belonging to Reinhold and Fisher, stands behind Hensel’s vehicle.
Reinhold, Hensel, and Tipton are inside the van with Nina, the door closed as the profiler interviews the girl. The sheriff, his face pale after seeing Nina up close, phoned Cherise Steyer and told her they found a girl they believe to be her lost daughter. Darcy expects Cherise Steyer’s car to squeal to a halt outside the van any second now, though the sheriff implored the mother to allow the FBI to interview the girl first. Cherise Steyer must be in a state of shock, Darcy expects. Darcy imagines the reunion and pictures Jennifer.
Until the FBI convinces Nina to direct them to her abductor’s home, there’s nothing for Darcy to do but fret and wear a groove in the blacktop. When she can’t wait another second for Reinhold to coax Nina into talking, Darcy marches to the van just us Agent Fisher climbs down and blocks the entrance.
“Hold your horses, Ms. Gellar. They’re almost finished with Nina.”
Sipping from his coffee, Fisher offers a second cup to Darcy. She accepts, knowing the hot drink will burn the chill off her bones.
“Please tell me she knows where Jennifer and Sandy are.”
Fisher gulps the coffee and stares with squinted eyes beyond the emergency vehicles. Whatever the agent learned inside the van, it shook him.
“Getting to the truth with that girl is like prying a stuck lid off a jar. This guy abducted Nina and kept her for a decade. Imagine someone buries you inside a time capsule, shutting you off from news of the outside world, then unearths you ten years later. And somehow you didn’t age during the process. That’s Nina Steyer. She’s an adult, but mentally, Nina’s still a kid.”
“The kidnapper told Nina he murdered her mother?”
“From what I overheard, he told Nina many things to break her.”
“So he brainwashed her.” Darcy paces to keep the cold from catching her. “The killer kept her alive after murdering the other girls, so he considered Nina special.”
“Nina filled some need for him, so he chose not to kill her. That explains why the abductions and murders stopped for eight years. He found what he was looking for.”
Darcy can’t imagine someone stealing her from her parents and locking her away for ten years. No chance she’ll allow him to do the same to Jennifer. Is Jennifer a replacement for Nina?