Claire sat across from Dr. Montgomery in what the Shadow Point team called the ‘interview room.’ It looked more like a therapist’s office than an interrogation space—comfortable chairs, soft lighting, a box of tissues on the side table. A pair of bonded parakeets trilled every once in a while, lending a touch of beauty and lightness to the room.
But Claire knew that was exactly what this was—an interview. A psychological profile. An excavation of her worst memories.
Wolf stood behind the one-way mirror in the observation room. She couldn’t see him, but she felt him there. Watching. Listening. Learning things about her she’d spent fifteen years trying to forget.
“Take your time,” Vivi said gently. “I know this is difficult.”
Claire wrapped her hands around the mug of tea someone had given her. “What do you need to know?”
“Everything. Start from the beginning. The night Lily died.”
The night that divided Claire’s life into before and after. The night that made her who she was. The night she’d relived a thousand times in therapy, in nightmares, in the quiet moments when her guard was down.
Detach from the trauma. Report the facts.“We went to see a movie,” Claire began. “It was a Friday night in September. We were fourteen. Lily’s mom had dropped us off at the theater at seven. We were supposed to call when it was over for a ride home.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No. We decided to walk. It was only a mile. We’d done it before.” Claire stared into her mug, seeing a different time and place. “It was warm that night. We were laughing and talking about the movie. About boys. About nothing important.”
The doctor’s pen scratched on her notepad. “What happened next?”
“A car pulled up beside us. A man asked for directions.” Claire’s hands tightened on the mug. “We stopped. We were stupid, naive fourteen-year-old girls who didn’t think anything bad could happen to us.”
“You weren’t stupid,” Vivi said quietly. “You were children.”
Claire had heard that so many times it didn’t mean anything anymore. “He got out of the car. I remember thinking he was too close. Something felt wrong. I grabbed Lily’s arm, told her we should go.”
“Did she listen?”
“She started to, but he moved so fast. He grabbed me. I hit him, screamed, fought.” Claire’s voice cracked. “He twisted my arm and hit me in the head with a rock. Everything went gray and fuzzy. I vomited.”
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
“Lily screaming my name. And me on the ground. I tried to get up. Tried to help her. But everything was spinning. I couldn’t make my body work.” Tears burned behind Claire’s eyes. She blinked them away. “I heard the car drive away. Heard Lily still screaming. And then... nothing.”
“You lost consciousness.”
“When I woke up, I was in the hospital. My parents were there. The police.” Her voice hitched. “ And Lily was gone.”
Vivi leaned forward. “According to the hospital report, your skull was fractured.”
“I was in the hospital for a week.”
“And your memory of the attack?”
“Fragmented.” Claire finally looked up and met Vivi’s eyes. “I gave the police a description of the man. White male, thirties or forties, dark hair, average height. But it was dark, and after he hit me, all I wanted to do was get away. They showed me photo lineups. Sketches. I couldn’t identify him with certainty.”
“That must have been frustrating.”
“It was torture.” Claire’s voice was raw now. “They found Lily three days after I got out of the hospital in a field twenty miles from the abduction site. The medical examiner said she’d been alive for at least thirty-six hours after she was taken. Thirty-six hours that I could have saved her if I’d just remembered his face. If I’d been stronger. If I’d fought harder.”
“You have to quit blaming yourself.”
“I failed her.” The truth that lived in her chest like a stone. “I was supposed to protect her. We were best friends. And I let him take her.”
“Why do you think Brands didn’t take you?”
She’d been over that thousands of times in her mind. “Because I fought back? Because he didn’t want to deal with a damaged girl with a broken arm and a concussion?” She shrugged. “When they caught up to him, he committed suicide by cop, so they couldn’t get answers.”
