Nick sits in the living room of Natalie Drake's house in Louisville. Amanda sits next to him on the couch.
"I am not sure why you're here," she admits.
"We wanted to ask you about the man who abducted you, seven years ago."
"Eight," she corrects him.
"Tell us about it."
"The cops didn't believe me. They thought that I was having delusions. I hadn't eaten in days. They thought I was delirious."
"Natalie," Amanda says softly, "We believe you. We think whoever abducted you took one of our co-workers. Is there anything you can tell us, that will help us out?"
She nods, "I woke up, in the middle of the night. He was in my room. He put a knife against my throat and told me not to scream. He injected me with something. The next thing I remember was waking up in a basement."
"What did he look like?"
"Average. Neatly cut hair, no facial hair."
"How long did he keep you?"
"He kept me for a year. Every day he would mark off the date on the calendar."
"What did he do to you?" Amanda follows up.
"He beat me. He raped me. The tortured me."
"How did you escape?" Nick wonders.
"He was all about schedules, and routines. One day, he left for work. I had stuck a piece of cardboard in the door, from my cereal box. After I knew that he had left I waited a little while. I knew he wouldn't be back for at least twelve hours. Finally I got enough courage to leave. I left the basement. I left the house. I looked down the driveway, and I could see that there was a road, but I was afraid he would know. I took off in the woods. I ran as fast as I could. I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, for over an hour, and I was still in the woods. His house must have been on a nature preserve, or a national forest, because it must have been more than three hours before I got out of the woods. Finally I came to a road. It was dark by then. He never left until around six pm. It was at least nine o'clock before I made it to the road. There weren't any cars out. I was tired, but I kept walking. I stopped, and rested in an abandoned barn. It was forever before I came to a house. It wasn't dawn yet, so I didn't stop. I was afraid that he would find me, so I just kept walking."
"How long did you walk for?" Nick questions.
"For three and a half days. I was on back roads for three days. It was like a maze. I was already hungry, and tired, and disoriented. When I finally made it to the highway I knew someone would find me. The police picked me up, after dark that night."
"Do you remember any of the road signs?" Amanda probes.
"No."
"If you drove it could you remember?" Nick hopes.
"Even if I could I couldn't find his house. There is no way I would find my way back through the woods."
"Do you know how far you walked?" Amanda queries.
"Probably sixty miles," she guesses, "And there is no way of knowing if he's even in the same place."
He puts cuffs on her, and opens the door. He leads her around like a dog on a leash. He allows her to exit the room, and go into the hallway. She surveys her surroundings. Behind her, at the end of the hallway there is another automatically locking door. Halfway down the hall there is another door like hers. Her pushes her forward. She looks ahead, there is nothing but cinderblock ahead of her.
"Where are we going?"
"You wanted out of your cage, so here you go," he tells her.
"There is nothing out here, but some doors."
They reach the end of the hallway, he stops, and points upwards. She looks up, and finds a small window. She approximates that it is six inches wide, by eighteen inches wide. She sees that it is dark outside. She can also see that the window doesn't open.
"What am I looking at?"
"You're not looking at anything, just listen."
She hears the hum of the fluorescent bulbs, overhead. She strains her ears trying to figure out what it is she's trying to hear. Finally she hears it. There is a boom of thunder, and brief moment of light. She listens to the rain, as it beats against the glass of the window. The flickering light causes a thought to flicker into her mind.
"Don't worry," he tells her, "I have a back up generator."
Nick enters the precinct, with Amanda. As he comes into the squad room his five o'clock shadow is noticeable. They both look exhausted from two red eye flights in less than two days. The captain comes out of his office, as they arrive.
"What did we find out?"
Amanda drags out the cork board, with a map on it. She puts a push pin in it.
"This is where the victim was found. Where he was is anywhere in a sixty mile radius."
John looks at the board, "Can we add pins for each victim?"
Amanda nods, and places pins in for each victim. There is no clear pattern.
"We don't even know if he's still in the same place," Nick points out.
"No, but we do know, he was headed in that direction, with Olivia," Fin looks at the map.
"That is a lot of area. It's a lot of deep woods. There is no way we would be able to cover that much ground. We have to narrow it down," Nick points out.
"What can the victim remember?" Don wonders.
"Not enough to narrow it down. She was too dehydrated, and exhausted when she left," Amanda adds.
John sits in front of his computer. "And pregnant," John adds.
Nick looks up, with a furrowed brow, "What?"
"I did a records search. She gave birth to a baby boy seven and a half months later."
Amanda shakes her head, in disbelief, "She said she had a kid, she never said how old he was."
"That is why she never introduced us, even though he was outside playing in his tree house," Nick realizes.
"We couldn't see him. She didn't want us to," Amanda adds.
"We have to get that kid's DNA," Don insists.
"And compare it to what? It's not in the system," Fin points out.
"Any of the victims that we know about. But if we isolate the mitochondrial DNA all that will be left is..." Don begins to explain.
John cuts him off, "And if he has victims that we don't know about, maybe it will lead us to him."
Nick disagrees, "I think that he's too smart for that."
"He got his victim pregnant," Amanda points out, "Clearly he isn't that smart."
