After a couple of hours, I turned the truck around, and Chad and I sat on the truck bed and watched as FBI agents and officers brought out what was most likely evidence. Two more trucks pulled up and the officers got out with dogs.
“Dogs?” I asked the officer.
He shrugged. I had to hand it to the guy, he wasn’t saying much.
Chad had stepped aside to call Krista and check to see how she was doing. I had taken that time to call Bubba. I knew he was on pins and needles and wanted to be here as well, especially if Emily had been kept here. He assured me he was where he wanted to be, and that everything seemed good there. He did, however, tell me he had a feeling that something was off. I hadn’t wanted to say anything to anyone, but I’d had the same feeling. I knew Mallory did as well. Last night she had gotten up and stared out the window when she thought I had fallen asleep. It was an eerie feeling that we all had, like someone was watching the house. Bubba had called an old buddy of his who trained dogs for the police force. He called in a favor and asked the guy to bring a dog to the house, just to make sure someone wasn’tcamping out waiting to make a move. Unfortunately, he was in Missoula and couldn’t leave for another three days, since he was working a shift. But we at least had that lined up.
Randy suddenly appeared, looking tired as hell. Chad and I both jumped off the truck and waited for him to come talk to us. He stopped and spoke to a guy who was wearing an FBI jacket. He pointed to me, and the guy turned and nodded. Then they both made their way toward us.
“Here we go,” Chad mumbled.
“Liam, Chad, this is Agent Taylor Hollows. Agent Hollows, this is Liam and Chad Sanders. Liam was the person who found Mallory, and Chad is good friends with Jonathon.”
“Have you located Jonathon yet?” I asked.
They both shook their heads. “Mr. Hayes has indicated that he’s fled the country, crossed into Canada, but I’m not buying it,” Agent Hollows said.
“Why not?” Chad asked.
He looked at me, then at Randy. “I can’t say much with it being an ongoing investigation, but these women were like prizes to him. According to Mr. Hayes, they’ve transported women across state lines on more than one occasion, but when he saw Ms. Wilson, he knew Jonathon wouldwant her. His words, not mine.”
My hand pushed through my hair. “Jesus. Had he been following her?”
“According to him, he had been watching her for at least a month. Just happened to have gone into the restaurant where she worked one day.”
“My God,” Chad said as he sat back down on the truck bed. “That man was around my wife.”
Agent Hollows cleared his throat. “I better get back, but I would like to interview Ms. Wilson as quickly as possible, preferably today.”
“Yes, of course, she won’t mind speaking with you,” I said.
“Great. I’ve got your number from Officer Sanders here, so I’ll give you a call and work out a time.”
All I could do was nod and reply, “Sounds good.”
The three of us watched as the FBI agent walked away. Randy motioned with his head for us to walk away from the officer who had been babysitting us.
Randy looked at both of us, and said, “I shouldn’t be telling you this, and you cannot tell anyone, do you understand?”
Chad and I both agreed we wouldn’t tell anyone.
Randy let out a long breath. “We found it,” he said quietly. “The basement where Mallory was held. We saw the area where she worked the brick free, even found the brick that she used to hit who, according to David York, was Jonathon, over the head. They’ve collected a large amount of DNA; it’s very likely some of it is from other victims.”
“Shit,” I said as I stumbled back a couple steps. “Was there…anyone…in there?”
He shook his head. “No. But Liam, we found some other things.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “What kind of other things?”
Glancing at the ground, Randy seemed to be trying to gather the strength to tell me. He met my gaze and said, “There was a back room in the barn that had a lock on the door. Three different locks, actually. Inside the room were boxes, all labeled with initials. The top box was labeled ‘MW’.”
“Mallory Wilson,” I whispered.
“When we opened it, it had a few things in there: a cell phone, Mallory’s driver’s license. A folder that held her resume and some other personal items. The note that Mallory wrote, about the woman who was looking for a roommate, was in there aswell. It looks like David cleaned out the motel of all of Mallory’s items to make it look like she’d checked out.”
“He kept it all? Why?”
Randy slowly shook his head. “It appears he kept a box for each of his victims, and they contained what the victims had on them at the time. One box had items in it much like Mallory’s…including a note from the victim written for her boyfriend, on motel stationery in Billings, stating she was going for a run and would be back later.”
