missing persons’ databases as we speak. I wondered if you’d care to take a look.”
“Or Adam can send me the pictures for you to look at later. Maybe tomorrow.” Jude didn’t know where the objection came from. He provided protection services, but he didn’t do protective . At least not on a personal level. And if there were ever a woman more self-sufficient than Mia Deleon, he’d yet to meet one.
“No.” The resolute tone was familiar. “I’ll look at them now.”
Raiker lifted the remote and clicked a button. A three-dimensional head fashioned of plaster appeared on the screen. Another click had it revolving slowly. Headshot. Left profile. Right. Before it returned to forward position again. “This process isn’t exact, of course. Hairline, eyebrows, and lips are the most difficult to get correct.”
Jude didn’t even pretend to look at the screen. He was watching Mia. Her features were arranged in the expressionless mask he was beginning to recognize. The chair scraped the floor as she pulled it out. Collapsed into it as if her bones would no longer support her body.
Her voice was a whisper. “She should have come with me. Why didn’t she come with me?”
“Do you recognize this woman, Miss Deleon?”
“She was one of us. He called her Eight.”
5
“I don’t know her name.” Mia spoke to forestall Raiker’s next question. “That was his first rule. No names. No talking. The first month I was taken…I was in isolation. I think he did that with all of them. Chains on the wall. A bare mattress. He called it boot camp. Constant assaults and beatings. Drugs.” A violent shudder shook her then. The hallucinogens had heightened the nightmare. One more tool in his quest for mind control. “The time was spent learning his rules. His…needs. But I know now that his intent was really to strip us of our identities. Numbers rather than names. Completely shaven. No clothes. We didn’t exist as people anymore. He wanted to make sure we remembered that.”
She stopped and considered the sculpture on the screen more critically. They hadn’t been allowed to keep eyebrows. But the lips were close to Eight’s. Perhaps a bit thinner. “Her eyes…they were brown. It was hard to keep track of time, but I know she came well after I did. Maybe a year. No more than eighteen months.”
“Eight came after you? So the numbers…they weren’t chronological?”
She shook her head in response to Jude’s question. “I don’t know what the numbers represented to him. Four was his first. She reminded us of that often. But Eight…” Her gaze returned to the screen. “I always thought…she might have come from Michigan. Or at least visited there.”
“Why would you say that?” Raiker’s question was sharp.
“We could earn privileges.” Hers had been damn infrequent. She hadn’t been a model pupil. “Sometimes he let us paint. I saw a picture she’d done. It was a street scene of Mackinac Island.” At Jude’s blank look she added, “I went on vacation there when I was a senior in high school with a friend’s family. I recognized it.” She went silent then. A year after graduating she’d been at the mercy of a monster, her future forever detoured. Fate was a miserable bastard.
And it had been even more so for the woman she’d known only as Eight.
Abruptly she pushed her chair back. Stood. “I want to leave now.” She was only half conscious of Jude rising as well.
“You’ve been more than cooperative. I realize this has been difficult.” Raiker’s voice gentled. “I appreciate your help.”
“Maybe you can do more with it than the police could five years ago.” It was difficult to keep the bitterness from her voice. “Because if they’d found him back then, Eight wouldn’t be dead.”
She turned, her eyes burning, but dry. She’d lost her capacity for tears long ago. Mia pulled open the door. Was met by the guard who had accompanied them to the building. Silently she
“Or Adam can send me the pictures for you to look at later. Maybe tomorrow.” Jude didn’t know where the objection came from. He provided protection services, but he didn’t do protective . At least not on a personal level. And if there were ever a woman more self-sufficient than Mia Deleon, he’d yet to meet one.
“No.” The resolute tone was familiar. “I’ll look at them now.”
Raiker lifted the remote and clicked a button. A three-dimensional head fashioned of plaster appeared on the screen. Another click had it revolving slowly. Headshot. Left profile. Right. Before it returned to forward position again. “This process isn’t exact, of course. Hairline, eyebrows, and lips are the most difficult to get correct.”
Jude didn’t even pretend to look at the screen. He was watching Mia. Her features were arranged in the expressionless mask he was beginning to recognize. The chair scraped the floor as she pulled it out. Collapsed into it as if her bones would no longer support her body.
Her voice was a whisper. “She should have come with me. Why didn’t she come with me?”
“Do you recognize this woman, Miss Deleon?”
“She was one of us. He called her Eight.”
5
“I don’t know her name.” Mia spoke to forestall Raiker’s next question. “That was his first rule. No names. No talking. The first month I was taken…I was in isolation. I think he did that with all of them. Chains on the wall. A bare mattress. He called it boot camp. Constant assaults and beatings. Drugs.” A violent shudder shook her then. The hallucinogens had heightened the nightmare. One more tool in his quest for mind control. “The time was spent learning his rules. His…needs. But I know now that his intent was really to strip us of our identities. Numbers rather than names. Completely shaven. No clothes. We didn’t exist as people anymore. He wanted to make sure we remembered that.”
She stopped and considered the sculpture on the screen more critically. They hadn’t been allowed to keep eyebrows. But the lips were close to Eight’s. Perhaps a bit thinner. “Her eyes…they were brown. It was hard to keep track of time, but I know she came well after I did. Maybe a year. No more than eighteen months.”
“Eight came after you? So the numbers…they weren’t chronological?”
She shook her head in response to Jude’s question. “I don’t know what the numbers represented to him. Four was his first. She reminded us of that often. But Eight…” Her gaze returned to the screen. “I always thought…she might have come from Michigan. Or at least visited there.”
“Why would you say that?” Raiker’s question was sharp.
“We could earn privileges.” Hers had been damn infrequent. She hadn’t been a model pupil. “Sometimes he let us paint. I saw a picture she’d done. It was a street scene of Mackinac Island.” At Jude’s blank look she added, “I went on vacation there when I was a senior in high school with a friend’s family. I recognized it.” She went silent then. A year after graduating she’d been at the mercy of a monster, her future forever detoured. Fate was a miserable bastard.
And it had been even more so for the woman she’d known only as Eight.
Abruptly she pushed her chair back. Stood. “I want to leave now.” She was only half conscious of Jude rising as well.
“You’ve been more than cooperative. I realize this has been difficult.” Raiker’s voice gentled. “I appreciate your help.”
“Maybe you can do more with it than the police could five years ago.” It was difficult to keep the bitterness from her voice. “Because if they’d found him back then, Eight wouldn’t be dead.”
She turned, her eyes burning, but dry. She’d lost her capacity for tears long ago. Mia pulled open the door. Was met by the guard who had accompanied them to the building. Silently she
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