Mission: Without a Trace - Nicole Edwards Page 0,75
his arm around a woman, both mugging for the camera. But Reese immediately saw what Brantley had. There, on his right hand, was a tattoo, in the same spot as the one from the image.
“Show me his profile page.”
It appeared on the screen and there it was, hometown: Coyote Ridge.
“Well, that solves that mystery,” JJ said, relief in her voice.
“Not quite.” Brantley instructed her to bring the image back up. “How tall is this guy?”
“Five ten, according to the information we pulled up,” Reese answered.
“And Corinne’s what? Five seven? Five eight?”
“About, yeah.”
“This guy’s not as tall as the one from the video,” Brantley stated. “That guy had a couple of inches on her. Closer to six one, maybe six two.”
“I’m sure there’s plenty of guys who’ve got hand tattoos,” JJ added, her disappointment evident.
Brantley glanced back at them. “How tall is Professor William Dugan?”
JJ began tapping keys, pulling up the man’s information. “Six…” Her gaze shot to Brantley. “Two.”
“What’re you thinkin’?” Reese asked.
“Just that it seems awfully damn convenient that Dugan offers up Jason Montgomery’s name and the guy who takes Corinne’s got the same hand tattoo.”
“You think he staged it? To make it look like Montgomery took her?”
“It’s possible.” Brantley turned to JJ. “Get in touch with this guy. I want to chat with him. I don’t think he’s our man, but we need to rule him out.”
“We should also run through the previous day’s footage,” Reese stated. “See if Montgomery or Dugan came into the building at some point. If either of them is our guy, they’d have to case the place to know where all the cameras are.”
“Good point,” Brantley noted, glancing at JJ. “While you do that, we’ll pay Mr. Montgomery a visit.”
“But you don’t think he’s the guy?” JJ countered.
“No, but maybe he can give us some insight as to why Dugan would want to put the heat on him,” Reese answered, believing he was on the same page as Brantley.
It was something, he figured. Not much, but better than nothing.
***
Cori sat on the concrete floor, legs crisscrossed, staring at the stairs, waiting for someone to appear. From her vantage point, she’d be able to see the person and she wanted to get a good look at the woman, figuring she was her only hope of getting out of here.
Of course, she was also on the lookout for William—or rather Bill, as he had insisted she call him. That was due to self-preservation, of course. She planned to be ready the next time he came in. She had to be. She needed to get out of here but that wasn’t going to happen unless she made the effort.
As it was, the woman had continued to bring her food. A tray every few hours. Peanut butter on wheat bread, and a glass of lukewarm water. Although she wasn’t hungry, Cori had forced herself to eat it, to drink because she had to keep her strength up. No way could she fight him off if she was starved and dehydrated.
The sound of footsteps signaled someone was coming.
Cori hopped to her feet, held her breath, waited. There was nowhere for her to hide, no element of surprise to be had thanks to the bars that provided no cover.
She doubted they were coming to bring her food since it had only been an hour since they’d delivered the last sandwich. The footsteps were loud, meaning only one thing. This wasn’t the woman paying her a visit. It was him.
Oh, God.
A tremor of terror coiled in her stomach at the thought of what he might want. He hadn’t come to visit her since he’d forced her out of her apartment at gunpoint and tossed her into this room, and she’d been hoping he wouldn’t.
The clank of the lock disengaging sounded overly loud in the concrete room, but Cori remained where she was, held her breath.
“Don’t even think about it,” came the warning.
Next thing Cori knew, she was being manhandled backward, tossed in the direction of the cot. Her body missed, slamming hard into the metal side as she sprawled onto the floor. Pain ricocheted through her entire body, drawing a cry from her as she slumped to the floor. Despite her best efforts, tears sprang to her eyes.
“It’s time for your bath.”
Cori’s eyes widened in fear, her pain suddenly numbed by the threat she could see in his eyes. “No. I don’t want a bath. I want to go home. Just let me go and I swear I won’t tell