Chapter Eleven
Captain Erick Marshall was waiting for us when we walked into the police station. It took almost twenty minutes to talk my sister out of calling my mom and having her meet us here. Mom was by my side through everything the first time. She held my hand and even put a few officers in their place when they made me cry. But if the video is as bad as I think it is then I don’t want her seeing it. She saw enough last time. If I can spare her from reliving that nightmare then I will.
Plus, it’s not like I’m alone, Greg and Riker are with me. Doing this alone was never an option, I’m not that strong. I need someone to hold my hand, to let me cry, and to fight for me when I can’t. And right now, I’m trusting Riker to be that person.
“Miss. West, thank you for coming.” Erick greets me. “Follow me please.” He starts walking toward the elevators. “I know this will be hard on you. The other women had a hard time watching their videos. We are just hoping one of you can remember something that will help us nail this SOB once we find him.”
The elevator doors open. There in the elevator is Amy, one of Bradley’s other survivors. We had met several times after Bradley was arrested but had lost contact when Bradley jumped bail.
“Darcy!” Amy gasps then runs over to hug me. “Oh my God, he is worse then we ever thought.” She starts crying and I can’t help but hug her tighter.
“I haven’t seen my video yet. I just got here.” I tell her once she’s calmed down.
“He’s a sick, sick man.” She sighs. “I have to go find my brother. That jerk,” She points at Erick. “Had him removed from the building.”
“He shattered one of the windows in my office. I didn’t have a choice but to remove him.” Erick defends himself.
Amy rolls her eyes at him before turning back to me. “I hope you have someone with you who can keep their temper.” She gives me one last hug before going to look for her brother.
“Really Erick?” I hear Greg mutter as we get on the elevator.
“I know he was just reacting to what was on the video, but had I not have had him removed he would have ended up hurting himself or others the way kept going off. The window was the last thing he broke. My office looks like a crime scene. He even broke the pencil holder my niece made me for Christmas. Anything he could get his hands on he tried to break.”
I can hear the sympathy in Erick’s voice. But if the Amy’s video upset her brother that badly, how will Riker react to mine? I’m sure Amy’s brother went through this with her last time, so he must have already known most of what happened to her. Riker only knows what I told him, which was everything I knew, but I don’t remember everything.
The elevator dings and the doors open. Erick leads us down the hall and into a large conference room. The TV on the wall is on, the blue screen shows a pause symbol in the middle, meaning all they have to do is hit play and Bradley’s message for me will start. One button and my nightmare will appear on the screen. I start to feel dizzy, so I grab on to the closest chair.
“Are you ok?” Riker asks from behind me. His hands go to my hips and holds on like I’m going to fall to the floor. Which I might.
“I’m fine, just a little dizzy.” I tell him.
“Remember what I said, you don’t have to do this.” He steps in closer to me, wrapping his arms around my waist.
“He’s right,” Erick says from across the room. “You don’t have to do this. Two of the other victims chose not to watch their messages. We can’t force you to watch it.”
“How many videos did he make?” I have no clue why I asked that. It’s not like it really mattered.
“He left us eight but two of the families of the victims that died has reported finding their own videos in their mail. We have officers checking in with all the others right now. We don’t know what this sick fucker is up too, but we are working day and night to find him.” Erick’s voice is hard and angry.
“Eight? That doesn’t add up.” Greg says. He’s right. There were six of us who survived our attacks, and one who was able to get away. That’s only seven women.
“Who was the eighth video for?” Riker asks before I could.
“Us,” Erick grunts. “Bradley made a memory video about his case and all who worked on it. The original detective died last year, Taylor Banks, but all the original officers are still here. None took too kindly to Bradley taunting them. He claims he’s the one who got away, but what he doesn’t know is with every second of his videos he’s leaving us clues on how to find him.”
Bradley really was a sick, twisted man. He wasn’t the one who got away. He ran away like a coward.
“Did any of the others remember anything after watching their videos?” I ask Erick.
“Are you sure you want to know?” Greg asks me before Erick can answer me. Do I really want to know?
“Yes, I need to know.” I stress to him.
“Amy said that it was like seeing small flash backs. Like she had dreamed it, but couldn’t remember all of it. One of the others said it didn’t help her remember anything. Another one had a break down and couldn’t finish hers. Other than you the only one who hasn’t seen their video is Miss April. She moved away last year but has agreed to fly in tomorrow to meet with us.” Erick explains.
April was the one who Bradley probably hated the most. She was the only one who he didn’t get to hurt. Why she was carrying a stun gun no one knew, and no one really cared. It’s because of her that Bradley was caught it the first place.
“Let’s get this over with.” I mutter as I take a seat at the table. Riker stands behind me with one of his hands on my shoulder. Greg and Erick take a seat across from us. Erick picks up a remote off the table and hits play.
Bradley’s face appears on the screen. I immediately feel sick to my stomach. There is a lot of trees and a small creek behind him, but the color of the trees was wrong. They were red, yellow, and orange. All fall colors. Problem was it was still summer time. The tree hadn’t changed colors yet.
“He recorded this last year.” I mumble.
Erick stops the video. I hadn’t heard a word Bradley had said. I had zoomed in on the trees and tried to stay focused on them.
“We thought that too until one of our officers said his father had just come back from a fishing trip up north and said the trees had already started changing. He showed us some pictures and it matches the same type and color of trees that are in Bradley’s video. The state police and the FBI have a crew up there now seeing if that could be where he’s been hiding all this time.” I nod but don’t answer. “You didn’t listen to anything he said, did you?” Erick asks me.
“No.”
Greg takes the remote from Erick and turns the TV off. “This is pointless.” Greg growls. “All he wants to do is make these women relive their nightmare. Darcy doesn’t need to do that. You have the FBI involved, make them review the tapes and figure out why he sent them. Hell, make them figure out why he is back in the first place.”
Greg storms out of the room and Erick was quick to follow him. What Greg said was stuck on replay in my head. Why was Bradley back? Why? Why now? What happened to make him come back now?
Riker had been silent this whole time. I turn to look up at him and find him starring down at me. I give him a weak smile, but he just shakes his head. He leans down and give me a soft, sweet kiss before walking out of the room.
I didn’t listen to what Bradley said but I know Riker did. I wonder how much of the story he had heard before Erick stopped it. I can hear the guys shouting at each other in the hallway. It sounds like Riker is trying to calm his brother down but isn’t having much success. Spying the remote on the table I do the dumbest thing I’ve even done in my life. I turn the TV back on and hit play. I force myself to listen to the monster on the screen.