Talia was a little woman with a sweet smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Alex.”

“Talia’s been interviewing all the women in the pictures.”

And Alex could see the day had taken its toll. Although Talia’s smile was sweet, her eyes were weary. “It’s nice to meet you, too.” She looked at the table and saw the two pictures Hope had identified.

Garth Davis, the mayor, and Randy Mansfield, the police deputy.

“What did they say when you arrested them?”

Chase shook his head. “We haven’t arrested them.”

Alex’s mouth fell open in disbelief, then anger started to rise. “And why not?”

Daniel smoothed his hand over her back. “That’s what we wanted to talk to you about. We don’t know which of them abducted Bailey. Maybe both.”

“So arrest them both and sort it out later,” she said from between gritted teeth.

“At this point,” Chase said patiently, “it’s the word of a four-year-old against two men who are respected in the community. We need evidence before we can bring them in.”

He said the words as if she were four years old herself. “This is insane. Two men can abduct a woman and beat her head in and you won’t do anything?” She whipped her gaze up to Daniel. “You were there at the pizza parlor. Garth Davis walked up to our table and a minute later, Hope’s smearing sauce all over her face like blood.” The memory had surfaced as soon as she’d seen the picture. “Garth Davis kidnapped Bailey. Why is he walking free? Why haven’t you even brought him in for questioning?”

“Alex-” Daniel started, but she shook her head.

“And Mansfield… he’s a cop. He has a badge and a gun. You can’t just let him roam free while you figure all this out. Everything he’s ever done has to be suspect. I mean, he shot the guy who tried to kill me after the guy killed Sheila Cunningham. Isn’t that enough evidence? What does it take to get arrested in this goddamn state?”

“Alex.” Daniel’s voice was sharp, then he sighed. “Just show it to her, Ed.”

Ed moved a box filled with books, revealing a silver flute. Alex’s mouth dropped open. “You found the flute Bailey was playing.”

Ed nodded. “We sent out a team with metal detectors and found it behind a fallen log. It had been buried under about a half inch of dirt and a pile of leaves.”

“Where Bailey hid Hope.” She glared at them all, her breath hitching in her chest. “While those men beat her senseless, until her blood soaked the ground.”

“Alex.” Daniel bit her name out. “If you can’t hold it together, you’ll have to leave.”

She stopped, still furious, but now embarrassed as well. Chase only talked to her like a four-year-old. Daniel treated her like one. But perhaps he’d had a right. She was closer to hysteria than she’d ever been. She drew on her control and nodded. “I’m sorry,” she said coolly. “I’ll hold it together.”

Daniel sighed again. “Alex, please. The flute isn’t what we wanted you to see.”

Ed held out a pair of gloves and obediently Alex pulled them on. Then her eyes widened when he handed her a piece of paper, creased where it had been folded longways multiple times like a child’s fan.

“Ed found the note inside the flute,” Daniel said. “It’s from Wade to Bailey.” He held a chair out for her and she sank into it, her eyes fixed to the page as she read aloud.

“Dear Bailey, after years of trying, I’ve finally succeeded. I’ve been hit and I’m dying. Don’t worry. There’s a chaplain here and I’ve done my confession. But I don’t believe God will forgive me. I haven’t forgiven myself. Years ago you asked me if I killed Alicia. The answer was no then and it still is. But I did other things and so did Dad. I think some you guessed. Some you never will and that’s for the best.

“Some of the things that I did, I did with others. They won’t want anyone to know. At first there were seven of us, then six, then five. When I die, there will still be four men who share the secret. They live in fear and distrust, always watching each other, wondering who will be the first to fall. The first to tell.

“I’m enclosing a key. Do not carry it with you. Put it somewhere safe. If you’re ever threatened, tell them you’ll turn it over to the authorities. But not to the police. Not in Dutton, anyway. The key will unlock a secret that some of the four would pay to keep and some would kill to keep. Two have already been killed to keep the secret.

“I won’t tell you the names of the four, because you’d feel you had to report them. Once you go down that road, you’d be as dead as me. Them knowing that you have the key will be the only thing that will keep you alive.

“I know you’ve stayed in the house, waiting for Dad to come back. I’ve told you before, he won’t. He’s not capable of the goodness you want him to have. If you see him, give him the other letter. If you don’t, then burn it. Then let Dad go. Let him kill himself on booze and drugs, but don’t let him drag you down with him. Leave the house. Leave Dutton. And for God’s sake, don’t trust anyone.

“Least of all me. I’ve never earned it, although God knows I’ve died trying.

“Take Hope and leave Dutton and never look back. Promise me that. And promise me you’ll have a good life. Find Alex. She’s the only family you have left now. I never told you before, but I love you.”

Alex drew a breath. “Lt. Wade Crighton, United States Army.” She looked up. “He sent her a key. Do you think that’s what Bailey sent to me?”

Daniel sat in the chair next to her. “We think so. Three of the four victims this week were found with keys tied to one of their toes. Now we know why.”

“Do you think the keys tied to their toes are the same as Wade’s key?”

“No. The keys we found this week are brand-new. It’s a sign, a message. Like the hair he tied around their toes.”

“Alicia’s hair.” She stared at the note, trying to focus. “He says there were seven. Two died before him. Both killed to keep the secret. But Simon died in Philadelphia.”

“Wade didn’t know that when he wrote the letter,” Daniel said. “He died a few weeks before Simon. He thought Simon was still dead from the first time.”

“So they all thought that Simon’s first ‘death’ was done by one of them,” she murmured. “They live in fear and distrust. So one of the dead men he’s talking about is Simon. Who is the other?”

“We don’t know yet,” Chase said, “but we have an idea of three of the remaining four.”

“Garth Davis and Randy Mansfield,” she said. “And I guess Rhett Porter would have been the third.”

“That means we still have to identify two,” Daniel said. “One living, one dead.”

“What will you do?”

“Try to use the two we know to turn on the one we don’t,” Chase said. “But in the meantime, we still don’t know who’s behind all of this.”

“It’s revenge,” Daniel said. “We figure that much. Someone is using Alicia’s death to get us to focus on these men. We have to be careful, Alex. We can’t let them know what we know until we know what it all means, or at least until we know more. If Garth Davis or Randy Mansfield had something to do with Bailey’s disappearance, we’ll find out and they’ll answer for it. I promise you that. But, Alex, I’ve got six women and four men in the morgue. At this point nothing else is more important than making this stop.”

Alex dropped her eyes, ashamed. She worried about Bailey. Daniel worried about all the victims. Six women. Four men. Rhett Porter, Lester Jackson, Officer Cowell, and Sean Romney. That was four. But six women… Janet, Claudia, Gemma, Lisa, and Sheila. That was only five. Slowly she lifted her eyes. “Six women, Daniel?”

He closed his eyes, drained. “I’m sorry, Alex. I meant to tell you… differently. Sister Anne died this afternoon. Even though we think Crighton is responsible, we’re counting her among the fatalities. She would be the tenth.”