Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Randy looked at both of us, and said, “I shouldn’t be telling you this, and you cannot tell anyone, do you understand?”
Chad and I both agreed we wouldn’t tell anyone.
Randy let out a long breath. “We found it,” he said quietly. “The basement where Mallory was held. We saw the area where she worked the brick free, even found the brick that she used to hit who, according to David York, was Jonathon, over the head. They’ve collected a large amount of DNA; it’s very likely some of it is from other victims.”
“Shit,” I said as I stumbled back a couple steps. “Was there…anyone…in there?”
He shook his head. “No. But Liam, we found some other things.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “What kind of other things?”
Glancing at the ground, Randy seemed to be trying to gather the strength to tell me. He met my gaze and said, “There was a back room in the barn that had a lock on the door. Three different locks, actually. Inside the room were boxes, all labeled with initials. The top box was labeled ‘MW’.”
“Mallory Wilson,” I whispered.
“When we opened it, it had a few things in there: a cell phone, Mallory’s driver’s license. A folder that held her resume and some other personal items. The note that Mallory wrote, about the woman who was looking for a roommate, was in there as well. It looks like David cleaned out the motel of all of Mallory’s items to make it look like she’d checked out.”
“He kept it all? Why?”
Randy slowly shook his head. “It appears he kept a box for each of his victims, and they contained what the victims had on them at the time. One box had items in it much like Mallory’s…including a note from the victim written for her boyfriend, on motel stationery in Billings, stating she was going for a run and would be back later.”
My legs became weak. “How…how many boxes are there?”
The look of disgust on my cousin’s face nearly brought me to my knees. “We counted twelve.”
Everything started to spin. Randy quickly moved toward me and took hold of my arm. “Are you okay?”
All I could do was nod. “Yeah, I’m…I’m okay.”
Randy cleared his throat. “Liam…we found another box that contained a purse, shoes, and a small horseshoe charm. The initials were EL.”
I instantly dropped to my knees and started to cry. “Emily…”
Chad was at my side, his hand on my back as I leaned over. I had a small hope she might have been transported to Canada. Grief hit me so quick, I could hardly breathe. I had known deep in my soul that Emily wasn’t alive, but getting proof that she really was gone made me want to cry out in rage. I wanted to find Jonathon and kill him with my bare hands.
“Why? Why would he do this?” I whispered as I struggled to get my emotions in check. “Why take Emily?”
“I’m so sorry, Liam. I don’t know what to say.”
Chad sat down on his ass; his arms were rested over his knees. “He liked her.”
Turning to look at my brother, I asked, “What did you say?”
“Jonathon liked Emily. I remember when he asked her out in high school and she turned him down. She told him she was going out with you. He was so pissed about it, and I never really understood why. Plenty of girls had turned him down before, but with Emily, he was distraught over it.”
“Do you think he took her because she was going to marry Liam?” Randy asked.
Chad looked up, and the look of pain on his face caused me to reach for his shoulder and give it a squeeze.
“Chad, you didn’t know. None of this was your fault.”
He ran his hand down his face. “The trips he went with me on. Chicago, Seattle, Denver…what if he and David and were using them as scouting trips to find women? I invited him to go with me each and every time. That bastard.”
Randy put his hand on Chad’s other shoulder. “Dude, you could not have known. None of us knew. Hell, he was my boss, and I worked side by side with him on missing cases all the time. With him being a cop, he knew all the things to do to cover it all up. Hide all the things he was doing.”
After a few minutes, we all stood. My fists clenched. “I hope he rots in hell.”
“There’s more,” Randy added in a lowered voice.
“More?” I asked, a chill running through my body. “What more could you have possibly found?”
“The FBI called the state police to bring in cadaver dogs to see if we can locate any human remains. We think Jonathon might have buried his victims, or at least the ones that weren’t transported to Canada, out here somewhere.”