Karen Rose - Have You Seen Her?

"Did you hurt Casey? Were you the one who cut my brakes?" she asked, trying to roll, to scoot, to get away, but he just held her down with one hand. Effortlessly.

"Don't be ridiculous. That's not my style at all. If I'd wanted to hurt you, you would have been hurt. My brother's friends cut your brakes, ineptly as usual."

"What's in the needle?" she asked, trying to make her voice cocky, but failing miserably. She heard her own fear and so did he.

With a confident grin he grabbed her arm and with a pair of scissors cut her sleeve at the shoulder, then ripped it from her shirt. "You already guessed it, Miss Marshall. It's Special K."

"Why? Why the drugs, Josh?"

He tied a rubber band around her arm and tested her vein with his thumb. "You know, I've given that considerable thought myself. I think I just got so damn tired of doctors pumping me full of shit that I decided to have a little payback."

Jenna struggled, wildly now, and he frowned in irritation. "Hold still. I don't want to hurt you. Not yet anyway."

"No."

He grunted and held her down with his knee. " Yes . I'm in charge, dammit, and I say yes ." He grabbed the syringe and slid it into her vein. "Now, Miss Marshall, settle down and I'll tell you a story. You're going to sleep soon, but when you wake up"-he lifted his brows, his dark eyes sparkling- "you'll be in… a forest. Yes, that's good. A forest, surrounded by wolves. I like that. It's very… apropos given your love for such beasts. Large, vicious wolves with fangs. Snarling, drooling fangs. And one by one, they'll creep up to you and… tear your flesh from your bones. And it will hurt. A lot."

Jenna stared up at him, feeling her body grow numb. "What…?"

He sat down next to her, cross-legged, and carefully capped the syringe. "Ketamine has some pretty cool effects, Miss Marshall," he explained, now sounding incredibly like a teenager. "When you're going under you're suggestible and when you come out, you'll dream." He smiled. Satisfied.

"You'll dream whatever I tell you to dream. Because I'm in charge here."

Jenna struggled, but only in her mind now. Her body was frozen. "Sweet dreams, Miss Marshall," she heard him say. Then nothing.

Friday, October 14, 1:00 P.M.

The darkroom was in the small closet of an unused bedroom and what Steven found there chilled his blood. Pictures, hundreds of pictures in stacks, hanging from drying lines. He plucked one off the line and his heart plunged.

It was he and Jenna. Together. Shots above the waist, but they showed… He swallowed, remembering the night very well. He'd practically torn the sweater from her body in their passion and she'd wrapped herself around him, her arms around his neck, her legs around his waist, pressing her warm breasts into his chest. But he didn't have to rely on his memory. Josh Lutz had captured everything in full color.

"Steven." Sandra was behind him and she carefully took the pictures and placed them in a folder. "We'll take them as evidence, but I'll make sure no one sees them," she said softly.

Straightening, Steven rested his hands on his hips and blew out a sigh. "Thanks. I'm kind of glad he's not here right now," he said grimly. "I might kill him myself."

Sandra squeezed his arm and turned away to continue the search.

Steven picked up another stack and felt adrenaline kick even as his stomach turned over. "Sandra, look. He's taken pictures of the girls' bodies, but inside somewhere. It looks like a barn." He flipped through the photos quickly. "Here's one showing a table saw."

"The sawdust in Kelly's bedroom."

"Yeah. And circular saw patterns the ME found on Alev's arms and legs." Steven flipped through some more photos. "Here's one with a window in view. The sun's coming up."

"Or going down," Sandra said, her own voice tight with tension. "It faces a road. You can see a little bit of it through the trees here. Let me get this to the lab. Maybe they can get more detail."

"The negatives will be here somewhere," Steven said, putting aside a stack of pictures, only to have the stack slide sideways. "Dammit," he gritted, moving to straighten the stack. Then a single print jumped out at him and he froze. "Oh, God. Sandra," he whispered and heard her indrawn breath as she looked over his shoulder. "It's Nicky. With Jenna in the park."

"I'll get a cruiser over to your house right away."

Steven put the picture in Sandra's steady hands, wishing his were. "Thanks."

"Nicky's fine. He's with your aunt and we would have heard if there was any trouble."

He nodded. Tried to breathe. "You're right. I know you're right." Still he remembered how it felt to know his baby had been stolen. It couldn't happen again. He wouldn't let it.

"Go get some water, Steven," Sandra commanded. "You can't keel over on us now."

Steven forced a grin. "Yes, ma'am." Then his cell phone jangled and Sandra stopped, two steps from the door. Her face went white and he could see she was thinking the same thing he was. His hands shaking, he answered, "Thatcher."

"Steven." It was Nancy and her voice was frantic.

Steven sagged against a wall of the darkroom. "Not Nicky. Please."

"No, no, not Nicky. It's Jenna. She's gone."

Friday, October 14, 1:45 P.M.

Wolves . Coming. She tried to run, but they chased her, drooling, fangs shimmering. She stumbled and fell and they were on her. No, no . The screams tore from her throat as sharp teeth sank into the back of her thigh. She pulled herself into a ball, but it did nothing to save her. Teeth ripped, tore. The pain, white-hot and excruciating… She tried to crawl away, but they descended…

"No!" she screamed, and woke up, huddled in a ball, drenched in sweat, her eyes clenched shut.

Clap, clap, clap . Applause.

"Not bad. Not bad at all. Sammie was better, but she was also in the drama club."

Jenna dragged in a breath. It was a dream. A dream. That was all. There was no pain, no ripped flesh. She opened her eyes. Only Josh Lutz standing over her with ropes in his hands.

He knelt and briskly tied her hands. "Next time I'll just have to think of something better. What are you afraid of, Miss Marshall? Samantha was afraid of snakes. Slithering silently. Coming closer. With fangs. Sssss ." His hands dropped to her legs. "So what are you afraid of?"

"Not you," Jenna spat, trying to wrench away, and Josh just chuckled and grabbed her ankles.

"Feisty. I'd hoped you would be." He pulled another rope from his back pocket and Jenna made her mind function. Made herself remember all the self-defense she'd learned.

how to hold her feet to create the most give in the knot Josh was about to tie. Prayed she could pull it off.

He tied her ankles and she pretended to struggle, but in the end her ankles were placed exactly as she'd planned. She realized she could now see more of the barn. She could see the far wall, the table that held the plastic case he'd brought to her apartment that night. Her heart contracted. She could see the table that held Kelly's nude body. She strained to see if Kelly still breathed.

"She's still alive," Josh said. "But not for much longer."

Kelly was alive. So am I . But Kelly was nude and Jenna was still clothed. Why? Why had he not taken her clothes? Kelly was bald, her head shaved clean, her hair mounted on the wall. But he hasn't done that to me yet. Why ?

Jenna kept her questions to herself in the unlikely event asking would trigger Josh to action. It was far more likely he had his own reasons for not proceeding. Miss Marshall , she thought. In school, he called her Dr. Marshall , but here, where he was in charge, it was Miss. A deliberate attempt to undermine her authority, learned from his dear old dad. But he didn't use her first name, so she still wasn't at the level of the other girls in his mind. She hoped to use it against him. She needed to search the walls she could see, looking for a way to escape. Because she had to. She would .