“He’s still unconscious, isn’t he?” Pete asked.

“Sedated actually. But his sister might know,” Luke said. “I’ll ask her.”

Chase nodded. “Sounds like we have a plan. Let’s-”

“Wait,” Ed said. “What about Mack O’Brien?”

Chase frowned. “He’s dead. Daniel killed him.”

Luke drew a breath. “Oh my God, you’re right, Ed. Remember, Mack O’Brien found out about the rape club because he stole his brother’s journals from Jared’s widow. We never found where Mack hid the journals. Jared’s widow told Daniel that he wrote about each rape in detail. What if he also wrote about the one night they went to the cabin? What if those journals have the same information Garth Davis refuses to tell us?”

Chase smiled, a genuine smile for the first time all night. “Find them.” He pointed to Pete. “You find Davis ’s wife, just in case we don’t find those journals. She had to have left a trail. Nancy, you get back to Mansfield ’s and as soon as the bomb squad disables the detonator, you search that house from top to bottom. Ed, keep searching the bunker. Nate, you’d be helping us a lot if you could track Angel.”

“And I’ll interview Beardsley again,” Luke said. “He might remember something now that he’s had a chance to recover.”

“Then let’s go. Be back here tomorrow at eight a.m. And be careful.”

Atlanta , Friday, February 2, 10:15 p.m.

That’s her, Rocky thought, relieved she’d come a little early. The shift didn’t change for a while. Nursey must have left early and her step was brisk as she walked toward her car. Not the step of a woman who’d just committed her first murder and not a good sign at all. Rocky was now responsible for making sure this nurse killed the girl. It was a test, she knew. If she succeeded, she’d earn her way back into Bobby’s good graces.

She pulled next to the nurse and slowed to match the woman’s pace. “Excuse me.”

“Not interested,” the nurse snapped.

“Yes, you are. Bobby sent me.”

The nurse stopped abruptly and turned, fear in her eyes. But no guilt. Rocky sighed. “You didn’t do it, did you?”

The nurse stiffened. “Not exactly.”

“What does that mean, not exactly?”

Desperate fury flared in the woman’s eyes. “It means I didn’t kill her,” she hissed.

“Get in.” Rocky drew the pistol from her pocket and pointed it. “Draw a breath to scream and it will be your last,” she said calmly, even though her heart was pounding. Please get in. Please don’t make me shoot. The nurse obeyed, shaking visibly, and Rocky let herself breathe.

“Are you going to kill me?” the woman whispered hoarsely.

“Well, that depends. Start by telling me exactly what ‘not exactly’ means.”

The nurse stared straight ahead. “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill her. But I made sure she wouldn’t talk to anyone else.”

“Else? What do you mean, anyone else?” Shit.

“She had two visitors tonight. A man and a woman.”

Bailey and Beardsley. Damn that Granville. Rocky had had no idea he’d brought them to the bunker until Bobby’d confronted her with it-and her lie. You said they were dead. You said you were sure. You lied to me. This girl could ruin us all.

She’d thought fast, but her lie that she had checked but simply missed the girl’s thready pulse hadn’t been good enough. Rocky resisted the urge to waggle her jaw. Bobby had hit her hard. Her jaw wasn’t broken, but it throbbed like a bitch.

Still, she knew she’d hurt a lot more if the girl talked. The damage would be worse depending on which girl had escaped. Angel had been there the longest, but Monica was the boldest. Don’t let it have been Monica. “Who were the visitors?”

“He was GBI. Special Agent Papa-something. Papadopoulos. The woman was the one who found her, down at that bunker on the river. Her brother is also in ICU.”

Rocky blinked. “Susannah Vartanian found the girl on the side of the road?”

Wonderful. It was, actually. Rocky didn’t know why, but Bobby hated Susannah Vartanian. There was a photo of the judge’s daughter next to Bobby’s computer with a red X penned through her face. Dealing with Susannah might be a way to regain favor. At a minimum the guaranteed wrath that would be generated when Rocky shared this tidbit of news might take some of the heat off herself.

“Did the girl say anything to Susannah?”

“I heard that she only got a few words out when they first found her, that someone had ‘killed them all.’ I assumed this meant the girls they found in the bunker.” The nurse glanced nervously from the corner of her eye. “I heard it on the news.”

She’d seen Granville kill the others. This was very bad. “And later, in the hospital? What did she say then?”

“Nothing. She still has her breathing tube in. They used a letter board and found out her name started with M. But their time was up and they had to leave.”

Monica. This was going from bad to worse. I should have shoved her in the boat. I should have made room. I should never have left her behind. “What else?”

“The GBI agent asked her if she knew a girl named Ashley and she blinked ‘yes.’ ”

Ashley? How the hell had Papadopoulos known about Ashley? What more did he know? She kept her voice level. “So how did you keep her from saying any more?”

The nurse sighed out a breath. “I put a paralytic in her IV bag. When she wakes up, she won’t be able to open her eyes, blink, move, or say anything.”

“How long will it last?”

“About eight hours.”

“And what had you planned to do then?” Rocky asked sharply, then laughed bitterly. “You hadn’t planned to do anything, had you? You were going to run.”

The nurse looked straight ahead, her throat working. “I can’t kill her. You have to understand. GBI posted a guard outside the ICU, 24/7. He checks every ID. The minute she stops breathing alarms will go off. They’ll catch me.” Her jaw cocked slightly. “And when they do, what should I tell them? Your description? What kind of car you drive? Your name, maybe? I don’t think you want that, either.”

Panic mixed with rage. “I should kill you right now.”

The nurse’s lips curved. “And in eight hours your Jane Doe’s paralytic will wear off and she’ll sing like a bird. What will she tell the cops? Nothing about me. She didn’t see me.” Her head turned slightly. “Did she see you?”

Maybe. Dammit, yes. In that last moment at the bunker. She’d stared at her face, memorizing every feature. The girl had to die, before she spoke to anyone. And Bobby can’t find out I was so damn careless. “How long before she’s out of ICU?”

Satisfaction and relief flickered in the nurse’s eyes. “She’ll stay in ICU until the breathing tube is removed and they won’t do that until they’re certain she can breathe on her own. Whoever beat her up did too good a job. She’s got four broken ribs on her right side. Her lung is collapsed. She’ll be in the hospital for several days, at least.”

Rocky ground her teeth. “How long before she’s out of ICU?” she repeated.

“I don’t know. If she weren’t paralyzed, maybe in twenty-four or forty-eight hours.”

“How long can you keep her paralyzed?”

“Not long, a day or two, max. The staff will start to suspect and someone will order an EEG. The paralytic will show up.” Her chin lifted. “And I’ll probably be caught-”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rocky interrupted. “Then you’ll tell on me and we all go to jail.”

Heart racing, Rocky considered her options. The situation was rapidly snowballing from bad to worse to devastating. Bobby can’t find out about this. She’d made enough mistakes today. One more fuck-up and… her stomach rolled over. She’d seen the results of Bobby’s “employee separation.” She swallowed hard. The last guy who messed up this badly was separated from his head. There had been a lot of blood.