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

“To you.”

“Where’s the letter?” She needed to read it. See his exact words.

“It’s actually a greeting card, this time. That reporter, Murphy, read it to me over the phone.”

“What did it say, exactly?”

“He mentioned three new victims.”

Her voice rasped as horror gripped her throat. “Three?”

“He said so. We just picked one up at Silver Glen Springs. And he cited that location in the card. But he also referred to Lake Bryant and Grass Lake.”

“We don’t have three missing persons. Only one. Only Linda Tolan.” She rushed on, rejecting the possibility.

“I know. I have a team up at the other sites now with search and rescue.”

She barely registered this as her mind raced. Three victims. “He said three?”

Skogen nodded.

Was their unsub bluffing? No. This killer didn’t bluff. He’d killed three more women. The horror of that settled heavy in her stomach. Nadine thought she might be ill.

Her heart gave a panicky little flutter of recognition as she recalled just moments ago looking at the blackened skin on the partial remains right now awaiting autopsy. The body had been recovered from Grass Lake. A possible drowning victim, the ME had said.

“We found a body in Grass Lake,” Nadine said, explaining it to Skogen.

“So you think the possible drowning victim is one of the three?”

“I don’t know.” She pressed a hand to the top of her head. “Yes. Yes, I do. But it’s not Linda Tolan. She’s been eliminated. They don’t match.” She had out her phone, dialing Juliette.

“Tolan might be in Lake Bryant. That would make the three.”

Her heart pounded as unease prickled across her neck. The call to Juliette continued to ring. Her friend was performing an autopsy. Nadine would have to leave a message or send someone to tell her the partial might be a victim.

“He’s issued a challenge to you directly, Nadine. He asked why you didn’t recognize any of them.”

“Recognize them?” The unease now sent hot darts of fear through her heart. “Agent Skogen! Why should I recognize them?”

They pulled into the lot of the Orlando Star fifty minutes later, leaving Skogen’s vehicle, followed by Nadine’s new security detail.

Nadine’s mind spun like a crashing plane. Did she know the victims?

She had not attempted to recognize either body because she never expected even a chance encounter with any of his victims. But she’d met Linda Tolan before her abduction, at the hotel. Had she met others?

He was indicating that she had. Which confirmed that he wasn’t just targeting those women. He was targeting her.

“I’ve got to keep the Star from publishing that damn letter,” said Skogen. “Let’s go.”

Juliette’s text chimed on Nadine’s phone and she glanced down at the screen, pausing before the building entrance.

Arrow point in hip of partial #1, Grass Lake vic. ID made on vic #2, Silver Glens Springs. Call me.

“Just a minute,” she said to Skogen and called her friend.

Before she could say a word, Juliette broke in.

“Nadine, it’s April Rupp. They made a positive ID.”

Nadine gasped and pressed her hand to her forehead. Cold sweat beaded there.

“What?” barked Skogen.

She plugged her ear to block out Skogen and focus on Juliette.

“We know her! Our landlady! Nadine, I called Clint. He says this is bad. This is personal.”

She’d seen their landlady only yesterday morning. The woman had been angry that they had not disclosed they were FBI. Could that bloated, unrecognizable corpse they’d dragged from the weeds really be April Rupp? The warm springwater had sped decomposition, making her unrecognizable but, yes, it could be.

Nadine wrestled with accepting that someone she knew was so suddenly gone, when the fear began seeping in. She knew her. She knew April Rupp and she knew Linda Tolan.

“We didn’t have Mrs. Rupp listed missing,” said Nadine, as if that would make this any less true.

“I know. Clint’s checking.”

Nadine had met two of the missing. Skogen was right. This was not a coincidence. Then what, exactly, was it?

“The arrowpoint in the partial?”

“Yeah. I got your message it might be connected. The arrow point confirms. Do we know her, too?”

“Call Tina. Ask her to confirm that Bianca Santander is being held in the Glades County Detention Center.”

“Okay. Right now.”

“Then call me back.”

Clint’s call came in as she was speaking to Juliette.

“What’s happening?” asked Skogen as his phone began ringing. A glance showed Special Agent Coleman calling.

He took his call as Nadine took Demko’s.

She heard Skogen say, “Who?”

“Clint?” she said into her phone.

“Did Juliette get to you first?”

“Yes. She said that it’s Mrs. Rupp.”

“Where are you?”

She told him about the letter and that they were in Orlando now.

“Did you say three victims?”

“Yes. And that I should have recognized them. Clint, I never thought to even try to recognize them.”

“You couldn’t. Not after they were out that long in the heat.” He scrubbed his mouth with his palm. “This is because of that damn leak. It put you front and center before this madman.” He spit out the words like venom.

“But I met Tolan before the leak.”

This was met with silence. She swallowed the lump in her throat and listened to snatches of Skogen’s call.

The sound of Clint’s rapid breathing did not reassure.

“How does he know you didn’t recognize them?”

That thought was equally disturbing.

“I don’t know.”

“He’s watching you. Possibly us.”

She thought of the security tape of the hotel corridor and the man she had seen, but the camera had not, and shivered.

“So Linda Tolan is connected to you. Rupp is connected. Who is the third?”

“The partial remains?” she asked.

“From Grass Lake?”

“Juliette said there is an arrow point in her hip.”

“Our guy?”

“Yes.”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know. But I asked Juliette to check with Tina about the woman from the poster.” Her voice sounded so breathless.

“Bianca Santander? She’s still in detention.”

“I know, but… No one else is missing.”

“That we know of. Demko never found Rupp listed as missing. Besides, you don’t know Santander.”

She turned to see Skogen staring at her. His mouth was hard set. The grim expression only increased her panic.

“Are you with Skogen?” asked Demko.

“Yes.”

“I mean right