A path that had nearly disappeared led to a shell of a building that had once been a church. It had been built for a small Puritan flock, and it was simple in the extreme. Just a building with slanted roof, once white-washed.
There was nothing inside but fading graffiti. On weekends, the civic organization that tried to keep up the church and graveyard sold T-shirts and water from the little church. People likely came to take advantage of the solitude, high schoolers and drifters, but though the nearly abandoned building might have been filled with debris or garbage, it wasn’t; court-ordered community service brought petty offenders through semiregularly and kept the place clean enough to be safe.
Safe.
It hadn’t been safe for Annie Hampton.
As they stood there, Kylie thought the day—sunny so far—was becoming gray. She closed her eyes for a minute, clenching her teeth hard. “Now that we’re here...” she murmured.
“Tell me what you remember from the beginning. You were walking...”
“Coming to meet someone,” she said softly. “I didn’t climb over the little wall. I walked alongside it and I came down the path. I headed straight for the church.”
“Okay, shall we do that?” he suggested.
She nodded somberly.
They walked alongside the wall. As they moved, a feeling of immense dread began to fall over her.
“Stop,” Jon said.
She halted, frowning as she looked at him.
“You’re ashen. This isn’t good.”
“I’m fine. I’m a pale person.”
He smiled at that. “Give me your hand,” he told her.
She complied. His hand was large, his fingers long. They walked along again and while she still felt the sense of something terrible, she felt as if she had the strength to face it.
They came through the opening and walked along the overgrown path.
She paused and closed her eyes for a minute. She could feel the breeze, and a sense of anticipation. She shook her head, confusion plaguing her. “Annie... If I was somehow in her shoes... She was glad to be here. She came here often. She was excited at first. She came to meet someone.”
“So she was happy,” Jon said.
“Anticipating what was going to happen. I think she was waiting for someone. Someone she’d met here before... It was probably a natural place to meet for her. She didn’t live far. She was a teacher and interested in old graves, in history, and from the little I know from the news, she was very happy here. She loved her home.”
“And the person she was meeting?” Jon asked her.
She shook her head. “She was waiting for him, but what he was feeling, I don’t know. Until he arrived, that is, until they were together.”
She stopped walking just outside the church. “I think he found her just about here.” She paused. An area of the graveyard was still roped off with crime scene tape. It looked as if large portions of earth had been dug up.
She recoiled inwardly.
Blood had seeped into the ground there, and the forensic crew had dug up the earth to test it, hoping Annie Hampton might have taken some of the killer’s blood with a good scratch, and there might be his blood cells mixed in with hers, bits of skin...
“He dragged her,” she said softly.
She felt his hand, holding hers tightly. “I’m here. You’re safe,” he told her.
She nodded and closed her eyes. For just a few seconds, she could see it again: the man, his furious face, and the way he dragged her.
She’d been stunned. It was supposed to have been a romantic interlude, something that broke up her humdrum life. Annie was a good girl, she went to work, she came home, she loved children and charities, and this... This was different for her. Wild and a bit crazy and new. She had been in love, perhaps, partially with the secrecy he demanded, with the mystery.
She’d been stunned by the fury in his face, and she knew right away something was wrong.
The knife. She had begged and pleaded.
She saw the knife, saw it coming for her, felt it...
She cried out, and the world began to go dark and she started to fall.
She felt his arms as he caught her, and she struggled around the darkness, finally finding light again.
Jon was holding her, and she was looking into his eyes, dark with deep concern.
“I think I found out all that I can,” she whispered. “She was in love. She was meeting him here. She came because she wanted to.”
He was still holding her; she hadn’t tried to pull away. She wasn’t sure she could. She couldn’t read his expression. “You must think I’m... I don’t know.”
But he shook his head. “I’m not thinking anything. I’ve seen too much, and I... Well, let’s get out of here, and then we’ll talk.”
She was silent as they headed back to his car. Finally, once they were on the road, she had to say something. “I don’t understand this. At Dr. Sayers’s office, we had tea, and at first I thought he’d drugged the tea. But I never drank mine. And then, when he hypnotized me...” She broke off and shrugged helplessly. “The most awful part is that it’s as if I still feel it. As if I know what it’s like to feel a knife in my flesh, and my blood...spilling.”
“Now, you need to... Well, I guess you can’t forget it, but—”
She looked over at him. “You believe me. I’m not even sure I believe me.”
He watched the road as he drove, but she saw his jaw tighten slightly, as if he was contemplating his next words. “There was a case in Denver I worked a few months ago. A kidnapping. The husband swore he could see his wife, who’d been taken. He had a vision of a warehouse filled with computer monitors. He didn’t know how he saw it... He dreamed it, dreamed her voice, calling to him. He was able to describe the warehouse in detail. We had to check out a few places, but we found her, because of what he saw.”
“And you’re sure the husband wasn’t involved?” Kylie asked skeptically.
He glanced over at her. “The husband was in the military, deployed to an air base in Saudi Arabia, when she was first taken. He called us in a panic. No, he had nothing to do with his wife’s kidnapping. So, while ideas that may be a bit strange aren’t the first line of inquiry, we never discount anything. And on this case, we’re desperate. We have so little to go on.”
“But you knew he was going to strike here. He just did it ridiculously fast.”
“If it is him.”
She looked at him. “You think it’s a different murderer?”