CHAPTER 36

Karma's A Bitch

My rights?

I hadn't heard a word Agent Shaw had said. I looked to Cyrus to see what was going on. His eyes stayed on mine a beat longer than necessary, warning me that this was more serious than he'd first thought and to be careful.

"Is my client under arrest?"

"This is just a formality. We need to do everything by the book," Agent Shaw explained.

Cyrus turned back to me and tipped his head, indicating it was okay for me to answer.

"Do you understand your rights as they have been read to you?" Agent Shaw asked. I looked at him and nodded. "I need a verbal answer, Ms. Plum.

I cleared my throat and said, "Yes."

"Ms. Plum, can you identify the man we found shackled in the cellar?"

He certainly didn't waste time getting to the point and that was fine with me. The quicker I told him what he needed to know, the sooner I'd be able to get the hell out of here. Plus, I owed it to the women to tell their stories one last time. I met his eyes head on, imploring him to understand. "The last thing I want to do is relive what happened in the cellar, but I realize that eight women are dead, and you need answers." I swallowed to ease the knot forming in my throat. "It'll be easier for me if I start at the beginning and tell you what I know about each of the women. When I'm finished, I'll answer any questions you have."

I could tell he was debating on whether he'd get more information by letting me speak in my own time or demanding my cooperation by doing things his way. While he deliberated, I got to my feet and calmly walked over to the table where the black body bag lay. The closer I got, the more intense the putrid smell became. My stomach started doing summersaults, threatening to eject the small bits of roast beef I'd eaten for lunch. I swallowed hard and surveyed the black plastic. A strange feeling of detachment came over me. I felt oddly peaceful as I reached for the zipper, needing to see for myself that he was dead.

The forensic tech made a choking sound. "You can't touch that," she said as she glanced back at the agents for reinforcement.

I pulled my hands back but didn't take my eyes off the bag. "I need to see," I explained.

Agent Shaw must have given his okay because the tech began sliding the zipper down. The sound of the metal teeth separating, triggered a flash of Durant sitting in his chair, lowering the zipper of his jeans to pleasure himself at our expense. I shivered and pushed the thought away. First his forehead was revealed and then his nose and then his chin. My throat filled with bile as the stench of foul-smelling flesh wafted through the plastic opening. I put my casted hand over my mouth as a barrier even though it did little to help.

His face was pale and swollen, mottled with bruises. His once disturbingly handsome visage was no more, but I could still tell it was him. I let out the breath I hadn't known I was holding. He was just an abandoned vessel with no power to hurt me anymore. It was finally over. But I was going to make sure I got the last word. I leaned down and whispered. "Sleep tight, Princess." When I straightened, it was with renewed vigor. "Thank you," I murmured to the lab tech to let her know that I was finished. As she zipped the bag, I turned back around and did my best to forget he ever existed.

I didn't want to see their reactions, but I couldn't stop myself. I glanced behind agent's Kinkade and Shaw and saw that Ranger and Joe were looking at me with expressions of sympathy and compassion. I couldn't stand their pity, so I looked away.

I raised my voice, speaking clearly enough that Agent Shaw could hear me from his seat behind the table. "His name was Hunter Durant." All eyes were on me except for Agent Kinkade. While she presumably typed Durant's name into her computer, I squared my shoulders and continued. "He was born and raised in a coal mining town in Western Pennsylvania."

Agent Shaw's eyes widened for a moment and then he leaned over to quietly confer with Agent Kinkade. Her fingers sped over the keyboard as he spoke to her. When her fingers stopped, she read the screen, surprise coloring her cheeks. "There's a thirty-four-year-old Hunter Durant from Johnstown, Pennsylvania." She tilted her computer so he could see. After he read the screen, he motioned for her to take the computer over to me. "Is this the same man?" she asked while holding the device in front of me.

The screen showed a picture of him that must have been taken several years ago because he appeared younger. Innocent. I couldn't stop staring. He was so attractive his face could've been splashed across the cover of magazines. I was having a hard time reconciling this man with the one who terrorized me, but it was him, there was no doubt in my mind. "Yes, that's him," I told her.

While she went back to her seat, I moved in front of the first glass case. I knew this was Jenny because she was wearing a faded yellow dress and was the most decomposed of all the women. Based on the dates he'd given me, I did a quick calculation in my head, and found that she'd been dead for more than twelve years. I dug what was left of my fingernails into my palms as I stared at her. Angry tears threatened and I had to squeeze my eyes shut to keep them at bay. Out of all the women, I had a soft spot for Jenny. She'd been a kid when she died. It wasn't fair. She'd never get to fall in love, get married, or have children. All because Durant needed her to love him. Against my will, tears slipped out anyway and I angrily wiped them away.

During the month I was in the cellar, I'd been more terrified than I could ever recall. I couldn't imagine how Jenny had felt. It made me want to kill Durant all over again. I looked over at his body bag, rage burning hotter than fire. The beating I'd given him seemed like nothing in comparison to what he'd done to us. My hands itched for a belt—a bat—a knife. One swing wouldn't be enough.

I knew I had to give the feds all the information I had about the women but opening my mouth to speak was harder than I thought. "This is the first girl he abducted. Her name is Jenny Pucket." My voice cracked and I had to pause. I looked down at the ground, clenching and unclenching my fists. Get it together, Stephanie. Jenny's counting on you to tell her story one last time. I cleared my throat and continued. "She was sixteen-years-old and living in Drakesboro, Kentucky."

Agent Kinkade busily typed away at her computer. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know she was searching her databanks for a missing girl named Jenny.

I'd been so focused on what Agent Kinkade was doing that I jumped when a voice sounded in my ear. "Are you okay, Stephanie?" Cyrus pushed a handkerchief into my hand. "We can request a break whenever you need it."

"I'm fine." I wiped my eyes and blew my nose. "Thank you."

I tried giving the monogrammed cloth back to him, but he shook his head and patted my hand in a grandfatherly way. "Keep it," he said and went back to his seat.

"Sir," Agent Kinkade said to Agent Shaw. "Missing persons has a Jenny Pucket that disappeared in 2005."

Agent Shaw nodded, but didn't take his steady gaze off me. "What else can you tell us about this victim?" he asked me.

I didn't have to think; I knew their stories by heart. "She'd just gotten her first job working at the Dairy Queen when Durant stopped in for a blizzard. She took his order and he became fixated on her. He waited around until she got off work, and then he followed her. It was hot and she was tired of walking. He pulled over and offered her a ride home. As soon as she got in his car, he drugged her, and brought her to the cellar where he kept her alive for sixteen months."

"Do you know how he drugged her?"

"He put a sedative in his fountain drink. By the time he pulled up beside her, she was tired and thirsty. She took the ride and the drink." My anger spiked. Jenny had made a horrible mistake by trusting a stranger, but she hadn't deserved to pay for it with her life.

"Sixteen months is a long time," Agent Shaw stated. "Do you know what made him decide to finally kill her?"

"He didn't give a specific reason, but I think, in his mind, he was giving her time to fall in love with him. She was probably able to fool him for a while, but I guess it wasn't long enough. And then he stopped feeding her."

"This all happened fourteen years ago. How do you know the specific details?" Agent Shaw asked.

I let my eyes fan along the glass cases, vacantly staring at the carnage that one man wrought. It took a moment for my anger to recede enough for me to speak. Everyone remained still as they waited for me to continue. "He shared the stories of how he met and fell in love with each of his wives. It was part of his game."

"Game?" Agent Shaw asked as he leaned forward with his elbows on the table.

I chewed on the inside of my jaw while staring at my feet. I was in full support for getting justice for the women, but I wasn't keen on spilling too many of my own personal details. What was the point? It wasn't like anything I said was going to magically change what happened. Durant wasn't going to be put on trial, and he wasn't going to be sentenced according to how awful his crimes were. He was already dead. He'd paid his final price and it was finished. I cleared my throat and lifted my head high. "Every time he came to visit, he would make me recite their love stories. When I got something wrong or out of order, he'd hit me with his belt."

I heard soft growls and cursing coming from the back of the tent. I couldn't bring myself to look in Ranger and Joe's direction. I waited for Agent Shaw to ask another question and when none came, I stepped in front of the next case and told Sharon's story. By the time I stepped in front of the third case, the tent was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"This is Ashley Allen." I blinked back tears, my voice raw and cracking as I spoke. "She was eating lunch with a group of nursing friends in a restaurant in the Butler University Student Center. Durant was sitting at a nearby table. He hadn't been looking for a replacement for Sharon, but when he heard Ashley laughing, he was drawn to her. That was on October 11, 2009." I took a cleansing breath and dried the last of my tears. "She was with him in the cellar for three months."

Agent Kinkade typed furiously on her computer and then suddenly stopped. I didn't know what she was viewing on her screen, but whatever it was had prompted her to sit up and take note. She leaned to the side, whispering to Agent Shaw, then turned her computer so he could see. His somber expression turned to amazement as his eyes moved over the screen. They silently communicated with one another and then their eyes flashed to me. Before I knew what was happening, Agent Shaw was in front of me. "What exactly did he tell you about Ashley Allen?"

His single-minded focus made my throat go dry and my breathing accelerate. "Only that he followed her for a couple days to learn her routine and then he abducted her from a parking lot after one of her classes."

"The other two had been drugged. Did he drug Ashley Allen as well?"

"He used some type of crushed sedative to drug Jenny and Sharon, but by the time he found Ashley, he'd learned a better way. From then on, he injected some kind of drug cocktail into our necks that immobilized us instantaneously."

"Do you know why he was at the college in Indianapolis?"

"Uh… he said he was meeting a guy at the student center to buy nitrogen gas."

"Why did he need the nitrogen gas?"

"To preserve the women's bodies," I told him.

"Where did he get the glass cases?"

"I don't know." I shrugged. "Durant said the man who specially makes them thinks he uses them to display historical clothing. Like in a museum or something."

"What else can you tell me about Ashley Allen." I was getting irritated with all the questions. I wanted to know why Ashley was so important. What made her any different than Jenny or Sharon? "It's very important we get every detail," he reminded me.

I wasn't sure I could say it out loud, but they were going to find out one way or the other. "She was pregnant." The forensics techs had been quietly cataloging evidence, but after that announcement, all movement ground to a halt.

His voice was low and gravelly when he spoke. "Are you telling me he got her pregnant?"

I shook my head as tears rolled down my face. "She was already pregnant when he abducted her. He was furious when he found out. He wouldn't feed her anymore. When she begged for food, he punished her." I nearly choked on that last part. I took a moment to grieve for Ashley and once I was able to talk around the blockage in my throat, I continued. "She and her baby died of starvation four days later."

Agent Shaw's eyes darkened, but his voice turned softer. "How could he be certain the baby wasn't his?"

"Probably because he hadn't had sex with her," I calmly stated, keeping my eyes on him so I didn't have to endure the speculative glances from anyone else.

His eyes narrowed. "Did he tell you that?"

"No."

"Then how do you know?"

"I just do." I shrugged and looked at the ground. I didn't want to talk about this anymore. Why couldn't he just take my word?

"Are you saying he never had sex with any of the women?"

I wish I could say that. I lifted my head, fighting the urge to groan. "I'm saying he didn't have sex with Ashley."

He waited, giving me a chance to add more and when I didn't, he blew out a sigh, frustrated that I wasn't being as forthcoming as he'd have liked. He turned back to the table, speaking to Agent Kinkade. "Get the Special Agent in Charge of the Indianapolis field office on the phone."

While Agent Kinkade waited for the call to connect, Cyrus handed me a bottle of water. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Agent Shaw disconnected the call and approached us. I straightened, letting my anger show. "What's going on? Why are you only interested in Ashley and not the others?"

He frowned at my judgmental tone and I wasn't sure if he was going to answer. "It's not that we think Ashley Allen is more important than the other victims, but we have more information on her because she's Indiana State Governor Gary Allen's niece."

I was stunned. Governor? I wonder if Durant knew… or cared.

He barely gave me time to digest this new information before he started questioning me again. "Do you have any idea who the father of her baby might be?"

"No." I shook my head. "If Durant knew, he never told me, and I doubt he cared enough to ask."

"You may continue," Agent Shaw said before leaving me and Cyrus in front of the cases and taking his seat at the table once again.

"Would you like me to stay or head back to the table?" Cyrus asked.

"I'm okay."

For the next hour, I stood in front of each of the women and gave the agents a detailed account of everything I knew. After I finished, everyone in the room appeared ill. Their clinical objectiveness turned to deep sadness and it was suffocating me, making me feel even more exposed. I gave the women a final once-over, silently communicating my respect and hope that they could rest peacefully now.