few days. I had my suspicions but nothing firm, so I didn’t ask.”
As Karen continued to press her, Jessie walked around the residence, looking for anything she might have missed earlier. By the front door in the dining area, she saw a fresh stain on the floor, reinforcing her belief that someone had been here recently. Maybe they’d spilled some food. She knelt down and the unexpected smell of blood hit her nostrils.
Glancing around, she saw a small trail of droplets leading into the entertainment room and then the bedroom. Then they stopped, as if someone had found a way to staunch the bleeding. On a hunch, she walked into the bathroom. It seemed unremarkable. She walked over to the hamper and opened it. Inside she found pants and a shirt. The latter was covered in blood, as if it had been used as a tourniquet.
“In here,” she yelled.
When Karen and Salter arrived, she pointed out the clothes.
“Whose are these?” she asked.
Salter’s eyes widened.
“That’s what Jasper was wearing,” she said, clearly concerned.
Jessie’s worry that she’d misjudged the nature of the situation only increased.
“It looks like your boss may have gotten on the wrong side of the man he was trying to protect. If you want to help him, your best bet would be to tell us where he might have taken Gilliard. His life might depend on it.”
Salter thought for a moment, then shook her head.
“I honestly don’t know,” she said. “I assume they would have left via the private door over there to avoid being seen by staff. But after that, I don’t know.”
Jessie hurried over to the door, which she’d originally missed, as it was cleverly disguised as a wall panel. She opened it and looked outside to discover that it had a clear view of nearly the entire back of the estate. From here she could see the edge of the pool, the petting zoo, the hedge maze, and even a few guest houses. They could have gone anywhere.
She tried to picture Gilliard looking out from this same spot. Where would a desperate man, holding another one hostage, go? How could he best avoid detection?
“Is there a back way out of the estate?” she asked Salter.
“Yes,” the woman said. “There’s an alley that runs along the back of the entire estate and a connecting gate just beyond the hedge maze.”
It was like fireworks suddenly went off in Jessie’s head.
“Didn’t you say that the only parts of the estate where the cameras are never on are the private residence and the hedge maze?”
“Yes,” Salter confirmed. “Jasper often used it for…liaisons and didn’t want them recorded.”
Jessie turned to Karen.
“Let’s go,” she said.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
Hannah knew something was wrong.
Rico seemed fidgety. There was none of the chilly confidence of yesterday. In fact, it seemed to Hannah that he was scared.
“Are we going to be back by one thirty?” she asked. “I have a calculus test fourth period.”
That wasn’t true but she wanted to keep the guy talking, anything to get a clue as to what he was thinking.
“I wouldn’t count on it,” he said. “These interviews take a while. You’ll probably have to make it up.”
“But it will be an unexcused absence,” she protested, as if she didn’t have any idea that something far more significant was happening.
“Look,” he said, clearly agitated. “Karl wants to talk to you. If you want this setup to work, stop worrying about some test. This is bigger than that.”
“So if Karl likes me, I’m in?” Hannah asked, trying anything she could think of to get Rico to give up more details. She suspected that if he wasn’t so agitated, he would never have mentioned Karl’s name.
“Maybe,” he said. “But I think you’re going to have a hard time doing that.”
“Why?” she asked.
He looked over at her, clearly debating how much to share. Even before he spoke, she knew the answer. He’d passed along her name to Karl or whoever was in charge. Maybe Rico didn’t know what they’d learned about her but they’d obviously told him to bring her to them ASAP.
Maybe they wanted to determine if she was just a rebellious teenager acting out by doing something illicit. But more likely they wanted to learn if her famous profiler sister knew about any of this. She doubted they’d ask her nicely. And based on the way he was behaving, Rico knew he was delivering her to people who had ill intent.
“You just don’t seem totally into this,” he finally said as he turned