Stranded

them?”
    He was watching her. His tongue darted out the corner of his mouth. Gwen was starting to recognize the mannerism as a tell, a nervous twitch when he was trying to decide if he should confide or reveal what was evidently on the tip of his tongue.
    “Well, it’s not just the killing.” His voice was so quiet and soft, Gwen found herself leaning over the table between them so she could hear him.
    Otis hesitated, either struggling to find words or measuring them. Gwen wasn’t sure which.
    “He said he enjoys seeing what they’re made of, you know. What they’re willing to do, what kinds of things they’ll say just to stay alive. What they’ll tell him and what not, just so he won’t kill them.”
    He paused. Eyes darted up to the ceiling, again, for a moment. Back to Gwen.
    “And he said he likes to … oh, I don’t know … he likes to feel what they’re made of, too. Their skin and their blood, what have you. He really enjoys cutting them. Cutting up a person isn’t really any different from butchering a hog.” Another pause, but now he was watching Gwen to see her reaction. “At least that’s what he said.”
    The room felt hot. Gwen’s blouse stuck to her back. She resistedthe urge to wipe her forehead. She didn’t want Otis to see that she was uncomfortable. That she was sweating. She had forgotten her mission. Somehow they had verged way off the path. She didn’t need to know all this. She needed to focus. She needed to get what she came for.
    “It’s been over a year since you talked to Jack. You think you’d still be able to recognize him?”
    “Oh, I don’t know. He’s pretty ordinary looking.”
    “Did he tell you where he lived or worked?”
    Otis’s smile grew wider but he twisted up his face, then shook his head. He knew exactly what she was doing and he wasn’t playing.
    “You found one of his dumping grounds.” He said it like the discovery should mean something more.
    “Does he live close by?”
    Still shaking his head. Gwen wasn’t sure it meant “no,” or if he just couldn’t believe she was asking.
    “I can’t give you Jack.”
    She stifled a sigh and shifted in her chair. This was a big waste of time.
    “But I can give you another one of his dumping grounds.”
    “There really is another one?”
    “Oh yeah. Several.”
    Gwen reminded herself that everything he had told her so far had been true.
    “Okay.” She nodded.
    “But this time there’s something I want. I want to go along and show you.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “I’m not gonna tell anything more unless I get to go along.”
    And sure enough he pushed his chair away and stood up asbest he could with the limitations of the shackles. He was finished with her.
    “Otis, I don’t know that I can arrange that.”
    The guard came in and Otis lifted his hands to him.
    “You let me know. I’ll be waiting. I’m not going anywhere.”

CHAPTER 38

    MANHATTAN, KANSAS
    “He’s afraid,” Maggie told Detective Lopez and Tully.
    “That this so-called madman will come back and get him?” Lopez wasn’t buying it. “Then why not give us a description? Why not tell us where we can find his friend?”
    “This killer is not just confident and efficient, he’s …” Tully paused to search for the right word. “To put it mildly, he’s brutal.”
    Lopez shook his head.
    They were waiting at the rest area for Ryder Creed and Grace. Lopez had brought two of his uniformed officers to assist, but he’d already explained how he had a crew of a dozen men search the woods for ten straight hours the day before. They hadn’t found anything valuable for their efforts.
    “And it’s mushroom season,” Lopez said.
    “Mushroom season?” Maggie asked, glancing at Tully to see if he had any idea what that meant.
    “As soon as the redbuds bloom, wild mushrooms sprout up,” Lopez explained. “They’re a delicacy. People hunt for them. Which means there’s been a bunch of people traipsing around these hillsand bluffs and nobody’s reported finding a lost teenager. Or a body.
    “You want to know what I think,” Lopez continued. “I think Noah Waters is afraid, all right. I think he’s afraid I’ll arrest his ass. You say this killer you two are looking for is confident and efficient? Pretty sloppy to let one of his victims go. This case obviously doesn’t have anything to do with your guy.”
    “You still think Noah did something to Ethan?”
    “Hell yes. Why else would that kid be throwing up