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made no sense since it was dark outside. He’d pulled her out and left her standing there, trembling, waiting to see what he would do. Then he’d put her back in the box, closed the doors. She tensed, wondering what creature, what horror to expect this time. And then she heard it, shuffling toward her—a whimper.
    That was what she’d needed to remember!
    Another beep. Lethargy flooded her veins, dragging her down. They were drugging her. No, she couldn’t sleep! She had to tell them what she’d remembered!
    With a Herculean effort, she forced her heavy lids open. A man in a white coat was pulling a needle out of her IV tubing. He stood beside the man she now knew was Cole. She jerked to her right. Zack. He was still there, standing by the railing, watching her, his brows drawn down in a look of concern.
    She flailed blindly, reaching for him.
    His large, warm hand, open-palmed, lifted hers. “It’s okay, Kaylee. I promise I won’t leave. Rest—”
    “Have to tell...” Her tongue felt thick in her mouth. “Have to...tell.” She shook her head, trying to clear the dark fog closing over her eyes. Desperately trying to hold on to the memory that she’d fought so hard to retrieve.
    “It’s just a sedative, to help you rest. Don’t fight it,” he said. “Go to sleep. I promise I’ll watch over you. No one will hurt you. Sleep.”
    Her eyes fluttered shut against her will. Tears leaked out from the corners. “You have to find her. You have to...save her. He has her, too. Find M...Mary.”
    * * *
    Z ACK ’ S EYES WIDENED as he stared down at Kaylee, now lying unconscious on the hospital bed. He jerked his head up and saw the same shocked look on Cole’s face that he imagined was on his own.
    “Doctor, can you reverse the drugs? Wake her up,” Zack demanded.
    The doctor’s mouth tightened into a hard line. “I could. But I won’t. Did you see her pulse reading on the screen before I put her under? Way too fast. She’s going to suffer a breakdown, or stroke out, if she’s pushed too fast. She’s exhausted. Her body needs rest, Chief. And time for her potassium and electrolytes to get back into balance. Don’t plan on asking her any more questions for at least twelve hours, probably longer.”
    Zack swore and carefully freed his hand from Kaylee’s before running past Cole and the startled doctor. He yanked the door open and Special Agent Willow, the FBI agent who’d stood at the foot of Kaylee’s bed earlier, turned around, stopping midsentence in his conversation with the other officers waiting in the hallway.
    “What are the names of the women who are still missing?” Zack demanded, as Cole joined him in the doorway.
    “What?” Willow’s brow furrowed in confusion.
    “You told us earlier that two women besides Kaylee are missing. One of them disappeared five months ago, the other three weeks. You also mentioned that you think they could have been taken by the same man who took Kaylee. What are the women’s names?”
    “Fullerton and Watkins.”
    Zack waved his hand impatiently. “Their first names. What are their first names?”
    “Sue Ellen Fullerton.”
    “And?”
    “Mary. Mary Watkins.”

Chapter Five
    Zack leaned back against the brick wall of the hospital’s outdoor atrium, thankful the recent rains had cleared up, at least momentarily. This quiet enclosed garden, with the sun peeking through the clouds and shining down, might be just what Kaylee Brighton needed.
    Over the past few days, she’d been grilled with questions inside her hospital room. But no one could call any of those interviews successful. Hopefully, today’s session would finally yield the answers everyone wanted and she could be left in peace.
    A nurse sat at a table a few feet away from Kaylee’s wheelchair. The psychologist that had been assigned as her advocate crouched down, whispering to her patient. It was the psychologist who’d recommended the change in venue when Kaylee had become agitated and