remains may belong to one of those women, but, given the height and some bone characteristics, it’s definitely not Melanie Cruz.’
‘I’d like to see the pictures.’
Banville handed her an envelope.
It was difficult to look at the harsh color photographs of Melanie bound and gagged in the wine cellar in Boyle’s basement. The camera had captured the terror in her face. In each photo, Melanie was alone. In each photo, she was crying.
That could have been me.
‘Do we have any idea how she died?’
Banville shook his head. ‘If we find her remains, we might have a shot. You think Manning or Boyle buried her out in the woods?’
Ask… your… mother.
Darby shifted in her chair. ‘I don’t know what to think anymore.’
‘Carter said that unless we come across some specific piece of information or evidence which can pinpoint where Melanie Cruz is buried, then we’ll probably never find her.’
Darby tucked the photos back in the envelope. Melanie fumbled with the charms on her bracelet as she listened to Stacey crying behind the Dumpster. ‘Why can’t we go back to being friends?’ Mel asked later, at school.
If only I had said yes, Darby thought.
It took her a moment to find her voice. ‘What about the other women? Do you know anything?’
‘Boyle brought them all to the basement and did different . .. things to them.’ Banville handed her a larger envelope. Inside were bundles of Polaroids bound together by rubber bands.
Darby immediately recognized some of the faces – Tara Hardy, Samantha Kent, and the faces of the women who disappeared after them. At the bottom of the envelope were pictures of a woman with a thin face and long blond hair. Like Rachel Swanson, she appeared to have been starved.
Darby held up one of Samantha Kent’s photos. ‘This is the woman I saw in the woods,’ she said. ‘Do we know what happened to her?’
‘We have no idea what happened to her, or where her remains are,’ Banville said. ‘Did Manning tell you anything?’
‘Just that she was missing.’ Darby didn’t want to hold the pictures anymore. She placed the envelopes on the corner of the desk and wiped her palms on her jeans.
‘Do you want to hear the rest of it?’
Darby nodded. She took in a deep breath and held it.
‘The basement you were in was wired with cameras,’ Banville said. ‘Boyle stored the videos on his computer. They go back about eight years, roughly around the time he returned east. In the beginning, Boyle and Manning hunted one victim at a time, then two, then three .. . Then Boyle built more of those cells and changed the rules of the game. He released his victims into the maze, and if they made it to the other side, the cell doors would be open and food would be waiting for them, and they’d be allowed to live.’
‘That’s how Rachel Swanson had survived for so long,’ Darby said. ‘She had figured out a way through each door.’
‘If I had to guess, I’d say Boyle did the kidnapping while Evan worked on planting the evidence based upon whatever case he was working on – Victor Grady, Miles Hamilton, Earl Slavick. I’m sure there are others we don’t know about.’
Coop said, ‘How long have they been doing this? Do we have any idea?’
Banville stood. ‘I’ll show you what we’ve found.’
Chapter 73
Darby followed him through tight corridors humming with conversations and ringing with phone and fax machines.
Banville brought them into the large conference room where he had outlined the details of the trap to catch Traveler. The chairs had been stacked together and pushed to one corner to make space for presentation-style corkboards mounted on wheels. There were about a dozen boards in here, and each one held 8 × 10 pictures of severalwomen.
‘Someone from the computer division came out this morning and broke the security on Boyle’s laptop,’ Banville said. ‘All these pictures you’re looking at were stored on there. We transferred the pictures to CDs and printed them out here. Fortunately for us, Boyle had the pictures organized in folders named after the states he visited. We think Boyle started here after he left Belham.’
Banville stopped in front of a board marked ‘Chicago.’ The top picture was of a pretty blond woman with a bright and inviting smile. Her name was Tabitha O’Hare. She had been missing since 10/3/85.
Underneath Tabitha O’Hare’s picture was another 8 × 10: Catherine Desouza, missing since 10/5/85.
Next: Janice Bickeny, missing since 10/28/85.
Four more women were listed, but they didn’t