reached for her face and pulled at the cloth in her mouth. Tori snapped the rope holding her ankles together.
The girl scrambled away.
Tori placed the tool back on the floor. She glanced at the door. Hoped Alice didn’t walk in for a few more minutes.
“Who tied you up here?”
The girl’s eyes were wild as if she’d turned feral.
“What’s your name?” Tori asked.
She stared at Tori. It was at that moment Tori recognized her.
Violet Redmond. The missing student from Walker Academy. Her face was all over the news and the internet.
“Oh my God. Are you okay, Violet?”
“Help me,” the girl whispered, her voice rusty.
Realization of the situation flashed in her brain. Tori rushed to Violet, grabbed her hand. “We have to get out of here.”
They moved to the door. Violet stumbled a couple of times. Probably from being cramped up in that cabinet for two days. Tori eased the door open enough to check outside. She didn’t see Alice or anyone else.
“Come on.” Holding Violet’s hand tightly in hers, Tori led the way from the shed toward the road. The driver had turned off Birmingport Road and driven down a fairly long drive that ended at these warehouses. If they could make it to the main road, they might be able to flag down a car.
“What’re you doing?”
Tori froze. Violet started to sob.
Alice.
Tori turned around, ushered Violet behind her. “We’re leaving,” she announced.
Alice smiled. She waved the big knife in her hand. “No you’re not. You two are my only loose ends. I have to take care of you. If you run, I’ll just have my grandfather send his soldiers to kill you.”
Was the threat more of Alice’s tales about being a princess? Tori reached behind her, grabbed Violet by the arm, and pulled her closer. She whispered over her shoulder. “Run to the road. I’ll stall her, and then I’ll run in the other direction. Don’t stop running until you find help.”
Violet whimpered.
“Run,” Tori growled.
Violet tore away.
Alice started after her.
Tori rushed toward Alice. Threw her full body weight against her shoulder.
They slammed down onto the asphalt.
42
9:00 a.m.
Cortez Residence
Eleventh Avenue South
Birmingham
Kerri had called the LT. He’d issued an endangered child alert and sent Sykes and Peterson to the Cortez residence.
Kerri couldn’t help remembering how he’d put her off about issuing an alert when Amelia was missing. But Tori was younger than Amelia had been at the time. Still, Kerri was fairly certain the LT remembered making that decision.
Pushing the thoughts away, Kerri centered her attention back on the woman who refused to answer her or the other detectives’ questions. She’d finally begun to talk when Falco had threatened to arrest her.
“My husband went looking for Alice as soon as he realized she was missing. He hasn’t returned or called, so I am sure he is still looking and contacting her friends’ parents.”
“Funny,” Kerri said, her voice tight, “he hasn’t checked with me.”
The woman picked up her cell phone from the coffee table and called her husband again.
Falco held up his hands in a let’s-take-it-down-a-notch manner. “She’s talking,” he said in an aside to Kerri. “Let’s be grateful for that.”
Kerri bit her lips together. It was difficult to be grateful at the moment. She had called Tori’s cell phone repeatedly, but it just kept going to voice mail. She should have put that tracking app on her daughter’s phone, but she’d never worried that she would need it. Tori never got into trouble . . . she was a good kid. Trustworthy.
Jesus Christ, she needed her little girl to be okay.
Sykes sidled up next to Kerri. “Peterson is giving Foster a call to have him put the school’s weekend guards on alert. It’s possible they may have gone there. We’ve also got people watching the hospital where the Talley girl is.”
Kerri nodded. “Thanks.” She should have thought of those moves herself.
Goddamn it.
She’d called Diana and Jen and had them checking with everyone they knew. The twins were surfing social media. Robby was driving around the neighborhood.
And Kerri was standing here doing nothing with no idea where to go next.
The door opened, and Peterson swaggered back inside. On his heels was Sadie Cross.
She walked straight to Kerri and looked her dead in the eyes. “If you can clear the room, I’d like to talk to Mrs. Cortez alone.”
Kerri looked from Sykes, who was watching the two of them, to Falco. “We need to step outside a moment.”
Falco gave her a nod and executed an about-face and strode straight to the door. Sykes and