Page 67 of Silent Ridge

“Why do you care about Dan? What is he to you?”

“He was yours. And now he’s mine. An eye for an eye. That’s what you do. Right, Rylee?”

My breath catches. Alex Rader, serial killer, said those words to my mom. He told my mom she belonged to him. ThatIbelonged to him. And he was going to have me. But Alex Rader is dead.

“I did believe that once,” I say cautiously. I don’t want to go into details with Ronnie sitting right here, but the person calling obviously wants to rub my nose in it. “Let me talk to him.”

Rader, or that damn program, laughs. “I know your friend is in the car. Let me speak to her.”

Asshole. He knew I wouldn’t do that. “What do you want?”

“I’ve got what I want from you. You understand? I’ve taken two ofyours.”

“Listen to me, Michael. I don’t—”

The laughing starts again in that peculiar Siri way. “You don’t know whoIam, but I know whoyouare, Rylee.”

I’m quiet, thinking furiously. He’s lying. Trying to confuse me. Or he thinks I’m recording the call and he’s trying to keep his name out of this. But if it’s not Michael, then who? Maybe there’s another brother I don’t know about. A son. Maybe one of Marie’s kin.

“I know you’re the one who’s leaving the pictures. First at Monique’s and then at Dan’s.”

“I left something for Sheriff Gray. Did he get it?”

He’s talking about the newspaper article.

“Rylee, Rylee. You’re wasting time and you don’t have much left.Dandoesn’t have much. He’s alive now, but I think I’ll carve him like the bear he gave you. I’ve never used a chainsaw before. Sounds like fun.”

“Listen to me, Michael. If you let Dan go, unhurt, I won’t track you down and show you real pain. You know I can do it. I won’t stop until I find you. Do you hear me?” I feel more than anger or hate. Rage has taken me to a new plane.

“Feel better? You know I’m watching you. I’m coming after you. And your friends. You won’t know when or where I’ll take one again. You can only be certain of one thing. In the end I will kill you, Rylee.”

I shouldn’t have pushed his buttons. I realize too late that he might kill Dan sooner. “Let me talk to Dan,” I say into a dead phone.

I drop the phone on the seat. Ronnie is silently watching me. I don’t know how much of the call she could hear, but even a little is too much.

“You should have recorded the call,” Ronnie says.

I struggle with this for only a second.

“No need to.”

“Why not?”

Good question. I didn’t have an answer. I take the phone back out and bring up the last number. “If I give you the number, can you track it?”

“I can try.”

I give her the number and she gets busy on her phone. “No luck,” she says. “I can try getting the last cell tower it pinged when we get back to the office. If we’re going back, that is.”

I have no choice but to go to the office and hope Rader calls again. He’s playing with me. He won’t kill Dan until he’s finished torturing me.

Fifty-Seven

“This isn’t the way to Port Hadlock,” Ronnie says.

“Pit stop.”

“Are we going to Port Townsend?”

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