obtain a clue. “I’m on a scavenger hunt,” he said.
The woman gave him a blank stare.
“What’s your name?” Ethan asked.
“Tammy.”
“Hi, Tammy. I’m Ethan. I wish we could’ve met under different circumstances. I’m on a scavenger hunt. The reason I found you is because my next clue was in that spot. So I need to know if you have the clue.”
She dropped back onto the pavement and began to sob again. Then she started tearing at her hair.
What was he supposed to do? In any other situation, the interrogation could wait, but he desperately needed the clue.
Ethan sat down next to her. “I’ll get you to a hospital,” he said. “I’ll get you some help. I just need to know if anybody said anything to you about a clue.”
“What clue?”
“Any clue.”
The next obvious location was the house where the old lady had been murdered, but that was pretty far to travel without knowing for sure, and he didn’t want to have to search an entire two-story home. The clue had to be here. Maybe he needed to pull the cardboard coffin entirely out of the ground and check the entire thing.
“Is there anything in your pocket?” he asked.
She shoved her hands into each pocket. “No.”
“Nothing in your...bra or anything?”
“Address?” Tammy asked.
“What?”
“Address?”
“Do you have an address for me?”
Tammy just stared at him.
“What do you mean by address?” Ethan asked.
“I got an address. I think.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’m sorry.”
“No, no, don’t apologize. You’re doing fine. You’ve been through a lot. Are you saying that somebody gave you an address?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, I think. Yeah, yeah. He did. An address.”
“Do you remember it?”
Tammy closed her eyes.
“Do you remember the address?”
“I’m thinking!” she screamed.
“All right, that’s fine, take your time.”
“One,” Tammy said. “One two? One three? One something.”
“One something. That’s a start.”
“One two one. One two one one? No. One two one. I think.”
“One twenty-one. That’s good.”
“One two one, not one twenty-one.”
“One two one. Do you remember the street?”
Tammy shook her head.
“It’s really important that you remember the street,” said Ethan. “Do you remember the first letter?”
“No.”
“Just try to think. Relax. We’ve got all the time in the world.”
“Maybe an H.”
“An H. Excellent. We’re making a lot of progress.”
“Or an R.”
“Okay, those are two very different letters, but that’s fine, we’ve still narrowed it down.”
“I can’t remember,” said Tammy. “I just can’t remember.”
“But they told you something, right?”
“I guess.”
“It’ll come to you. You’re really stressed out right now. Do you want to take some deep breaths with me?”
“No, I don’t want to take any fucking deep breaths! I want to go home!”
“I’ll take you home,” said Ethan. “Where’s home?”
“My arm hurts.”
He looked at her arm. She was bleeding through her long-sleeve shirt.
“Let me take a look,” said Ethan.
“Don’t touch my arm.”
“Let’s see how bad it is.”
“It’s bad.”
“Did you cut yourself when I pulled you out of there?”
“I think they did it.”
“The people who buried you alive cut your arm?”
Tammy nodded.
“Can I see?”
“No.”
“Please?”
Tammy pulled up her sleeve. Letters had been carved into her arm.
121 Roberts Lane.
“Oh,” she said.
“I need you to come with me,” Ethan told her. “I don’t think you’re safe.” Nobody had said he had to leave Tammy behind, and if he didn’t bring her along, he assumed she’d meet a similar fate to the old woman.
“None of us are safe.”
“No, but you’ll be safer with me.” He didn’t even know if that was true. “Let’s go. We need to move fast.”
He took Tammy by the hand and they hurried out of the park. She stood in front of his car as if she’d never seen a motor vehicle before, but when he opened the door for her she got inside.
He put “121 Roberts Lane” into his GPS. Fourteen minutes away. Not bad.
As they drove away, Tammy leaned against the door and just stared out the front windshield, looking comatose. Ethan was too busy with his own thoughts to try to make conversation, so they drove in silence.
He made it to the house in eleven minutes.
This was most definitely not the kind of place he’d normally visit, even in the daytime, even with a couple of friends. There were several cars in the driveway and loud music coming from inside. Ethan had never personally been to a crack house, and perhaps he was wrong because he was the furthest thing from an expert in such matters, but this place had an extremely strong “crack house” vibe.
Or maybe it was a meth den. Either way, no