That spiked his attention. “Why did they think that?”
“Because all the girls looked like Brooke.”
Fuck. That hit him hard. While the news had reported the attacks, none of the victims were shown on TV, only the description of the stalker. “She knew they all looked like her but still didn’t come home. She didn’t call to tell us she was in danger.”
Mindy Sue didn’t respond.
How could she? He’d done this to Brooke and himself. He’d left her no way to come home or talk to him.
“He wore a mask, so none of his victims could ID him. He picked easy targets. All the girls were drunk and walking alone. So Brooke never went anywhere alone anymore.” Mindy Sue’s gaze drifted back out the window and her eyes filled with tears.
“If Brooke never went anywhere alone, how did he get his hands on her? What happened, Mindy Sue? What happened to Brooke and my baby?”
She finally turned back to look at him. The tremendous guilt in her eyes unsettled him. “It’s my fault. I was late. I had a movie date with Tony. We were on our way to pick up Brooke at the library. Brooke was there working on her term paper and studying for a final exam. It’s tomorrow,” she said absently.
“Everyone on campus was warned not to walk alone at night. That’s when all the attacks happened. She waited inside the library as long as she could, but they closed. I spoke to her on the phone. I was only minutes away. To save time, she said she’d walk to the parking lot behind the library, and we’d meet there. She followed a few other students out.” Mindy Sue’s voice driftedoff, then came back on a whisper. “We should have gotten there just a minute or two after her. We hit every red light on the way, delaying us even more.” Her watery gaze met his again. “That’s all it took. Just her falling behind those other students, and he grabbed her and dragged her into the bushes and trees.”
Cody scooted his chair around the table, close to Mindy Sue’s, and took her hands. They were as cold as his whole being felt from the inside out. “Go on. What happened next?”
The tears swimming in her eyes fell one after the next. “He grabbed her as she came around the side of the building. He said he had a surprise for her, or something. She tried to play along. It seemed like he thought she knew who he was, but he was behind her so she couldn’t see him. But she thought she recognized his voice.”
Cody waited. Whatever was coming was difficult for Mindy Sue to say, and it was going to be even harder to hear.
“My father thinks she was his ultimate goal. The other girls were just…practice. He wanted her, had fixated on her. He dragged her farther away from the library. He told her he had a car. But then…”
“What?”
“She begged him not to hurt her or the baby, and he snapped. He didn’t know she was pregnant. She hadn’t gained a lot of weight, and all of it was in her boobs and belly. We joked that being pregnant would be the only time we’d ever have a really great rack.”
Cody almost found a smile. Brooke had a good sense of humor. It sounded like she was happy with the pregnancy and looking forward to the baby coming, even though she didn’t have his support. She had her friends. She had Mindy Sue.
“She only really popped in the last few weeks. Besides that, to be more comfortable, she mostly wore loose dresses and a cardigan. I think you gave it to her for Christmas and her momsent it because she’d left all her gifts at the ranch. Anyway…the clothes made it hard to tell if she was pregnant, which is what the police advised her to do.”
Cody got the gist of that statement. The police thought the stalker would take exception to Brooke being pregnant with someone else’s baby.
Mindy Sue carried on with the disturbing story. “That night, she was wearing leggings and a tunic that showed everything off. My father thinks until that moment and because he grabbed her from behind, he didn’t get a good look at her until he turned her around.” She stopped and wiped away tears. “He went nuts and said she’d betrayed him. He stabbed her twice in the shoulder.”
Cody gasped and rocked back into the seat.
Mindy Sue went silent.
“Go on. I need to know everything.” So he could help Brooke get through this.
Mindy Sue sucked in a breath. “The stabbings didn’t stop her. She fought hard to save herself and the baby. At one point, she ripped off the ski mask. She knew him. She said something to him, I’m not sure what, and it sent him into a rage again. He still had the knife and sliced up her hands and arms as she tried to fend him off. She never gave up. Not even when…he stabbed her in the stomach.”
Cody’s heart slammed against his chest in deep aching beats. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think past the grotesque images assailing his mind.
Mindy Sue’s voice droned on and echoed through his mind. “The knife came out of his grip, so he grabbed her arm and threw her to the ground. He broke her wrist. She tried to get away even then. He held on to her foot and twisted it pretty good. It’s in a brace now. When he got her back under him, he looked down at her and realized what he’d done. She said he looked horrified. He ran. She heard the sirens and the police calling for her. Shecalled out to them but there was nothing they could do to saveher.”
Her. His daughter.
Tears fell down Cody’s face. His heart barely beat. He couldn’t get a breath. “He stabbed the baby?” Cody asked, not really believing that’s what happened.
“I’m so sorry. The umbilical cord had been severed. Brooke’s heart was literally pumping the blood right out of her.”
Cody shook with the revelation of how close he’d come to losing Brooke, too.
“They delivered the baby by C-section. It’s left a large scar. All her other wounds weren’t life threatening. Her shoulder required some surgical repair to the muscle and tissue and another bad bleed. Her broken wrist will be in a brace for several weeks. They stitched the worst of the cuts on her hands and arms. The others were minor and will heal on their own. And none of those things is as bad as looking into her empty eyes.”
