The Hunted Girls by Jenna Kernan (best book club books for discussion txt) 📕

on much of the interview of Simon. He denied any involvement with either woman but appeared confused to Nadine but was cooperative. The interview ended when the Kilpatricks’ attorney arrived just after 3 p.m.

“You get anything on the search warrant?” she asked Skogen.

“Nope. Nothing to hold him for. But he’s a very strong suspect. This might be our guy. I’m going to question him again tomorrow with his attorney present.”

She shook her head. “It isn’t Simon.”

“Well, forgive us if we make that determination.”

“Our guy has an above average IQ,” she said.

“What?”

“He’s smart. Capable. Clever. And Simon is an underachiever.”

“With a high voice.”

Nadine raised her voice. “Anyone can change their voice.”

He continued as if she had not spoken.

“Rita Karnowski’s boyfriend rented the tandem kayak from Big Water Marina on Saturday, March 20th. Simon put their kayaks into the water.”

She recognized the deadlock and moved on.

“Anything on Tolan’s camera equipment or that gun?”

“All still missing. We have her weapon in the database. Fingers crossed we get a hit on that firearm.”

Without it killing someone, she thought.

“I’m sorry the hypnosis didn’t offer any further details,” she said.

“Me as well. Oh, our crime techs have finished going over her vehicle,” he said.

“Any prints?”

“Yes. Too many. They are sorting them now. You’ve seen the sketch?” Skogen referred to the rendering of the unsub Tolan had worked on with their sketch artist.

She shook her head and he pulled it up on his phone.

Sunglasses covered their unsub’s eyes and brow. The cap covered much of his head. The jawline was distinctive, pointed, and his mouth was wide. This could be Simon, she thought.

Really it could be almost anyone.

“Not very helpful, I think.”

“It’s a start.” He tucked away his phone. “Heading back to the office?”

She nodded, turning to go, and then faced Skogen again.

“One more thing,” she said. “I recommend that the public be alerted to Linda Tolan’s abduction so they can take precautions.”

“Press conference scheduled in one hour. We want it on the front page.”

She fidgeted with her thumbnail.

“You will not be in attendance, Dr. Finch. Confidential, as we agreed? My secret weapon.”

Back at the office, Special Agent Coleman stopped by just after Nadine returned from the sheriff’s.

“Heading over to the press conference now, but I wanted to alert you that Tolan was discharged.”

“She won’t be alone?”

“No. Her sister is driving her home to Jacksonville and staying for a few days.”

Linda Tolan would need years of therapy, and even then, the attack and capture would change her forever. How could it not?

“Okay. See you tomorrow.”

“Oh, and the items recovered from Tolan’s vehicle are now on the file share. Have a look.”

“Will do.”

Coleman waved and headed out.

Nadine didn’t think the contents of the vehicle would have much to add to her victim profile, but she scrolled down the list of the sort of things you would find in anyone’s glove box. But one item stopped her.

A black-and-gold headband.

Her stomach pitched. She moved her mouse to open the PDF document that included photos and there it was. Her Versace headband, with a distinctive pattern of three bleach spots. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

She felt it in the ice water now circulating in her bloodstream.

How could her headband have ended up inside Linda Tolan’s vehicle?

“He knows I’m here.”

Thirteen

Nadine’s first called was to Demko.

“I’ll have the security office pull the tapes from last Wednesday night,” he said. “Where’s Skogen?”

“They’re all at the press conference.”

“Okay. I’m heading to the hotel. Meet me in the security office.”

She was glad to have Demko be the one in charge. She trusted him, while Skogen had not earned that yet.

“Could you check the security footage on my floor?”

“Absolutely.”

Before leaving the office, she left a message on Skogen’s phone.

Delayed by traffic, Nadine arrived at the hotel at five to find both parrots in their cages eating from their food dishes. Rosie welcomed her from the front desk, checked to see if it was all right to let her back to the security offices and then escorted her. En route, Nadine’s stomach gave a tremendous growl and Rosie laughed.

“Well, I’ll bring you one of the cookies we have in the afternoon for guests.”

“You have cookies?” Why was she just hearing about this now?

“Three to five every day. I mentioned them on check-in”

And there was her answer. She’d been exhausted on arrival and she never got back here until after five.

“Thanks, Rosie. I appreciate that.”

Rosie knocked on the office door and Demko let her in, introducing her to the night guard.

“We found something,” Demko said. “This is Wednesday evening, March 31st, the day you came back to the hotel with Juliette and Tina after we found the trail cam.”

She recalled the crippling migraine and her late-night visit to reception to collect policy manuals that no one wanted or, likely, ever read.

For the next twenty minutes she looked at footage of her arrival to the room and then her departure, including her toppling into her neighbor’s door the night of her migraine.

Demko glanced at her with a concerned expression and she shrugged.

“Lost my balance.”

“Why?”

“Migraine.”

Demko turned to the playback, pointing out that she was wearing the headband to reception and that the door across from hers opened when she made her initial exit. So she’d woken him twice.

The next series included her at the front desk, then waiting for the elevator, in the car and finally her exiting onto the second floor, envelope in hand.

“Why are you covering one eye?” asked Demko.

“Light sensitivity.”

The camera picked up clearly that she had dropped the envelope into the bin while righting it. The door across from hers opened again when she was fumbling with the trash bin. The headband had slipped off her head but remained in her hair as she reached the corridor.

Nadine was glad there was no audio for the bit when her female neighbor had come out to shout at her. The woman snatched Nadine’s key card and opened her door for her. She’d forgotten that part.

At this point Rosie returned with a cookie the size of a