Page 43 of Dolly

A growl breaks free from my chest.

I pull another out.

Gabby – age five

My heart jackhammers in my ears. The first CD is marked with only her name, no age. It’s sick that I’m standing among such perversion praying to a God I discarded long ago that five years old is when he began. Please don’t let the monster have ruined her from the very beginning of her life.

“Some of them aren’t me,” Dolly says from her spot at the desk. “Some of them aren’t me. He calls all his girls Gabby.”

All his girls?

“Are there more? Other girls out there?” I ask stupidly. Did I think finding her would be the end of the terror? That she was the lone victim?

She hesitates before nodding. She doesn’t like to make me upset and has to know this knowledge isn’t going to sit well.

“Who are they? Where are they?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes he’d bring home a girl and I thought I was going to get to play with someone, but they brought her in here instead. I wasn’t allowed. After they were done, he took the girl home.” She casts her eyes downward.

My grip cracks the plastic casing of the disk. “They?”

She sucks in a breath and nods again. “Mom played with her too.”

That woman did not deserve the kind ending she was given, but it’s too late now.

My jaw snaps shut, and my teeth clench to keep my bellow of rage inside. I will not scare Dolly. I shuffle back a step, and my foot kicks a box on the floor. I push off the lid, my thirst for getting to the bottom of things drowning me in more information than my heart is going to be able to handle.

Money.

The entire file box is filled with bundles of cash. Hadn’t he said he needed cash? Maybe it’s his payout from his transaction with Bossman.Transaction.That’s how her father saw it, how Bossman looked at it. Money for a product. No consideration that Dolly was a person—a living, breathing, feeling being.

Where are all these girls? How did her father find them?

There could be clues on the discs. If I had the support of the department behind me, it would take weeks to watch them all. I don’t have the time, and my stomach can’t handle seeing more than I already have. There’s room in the box for at least a dozen discs, so that’s all I take. I randomly grab them and shove them inside with the cash before laying the cover back on top.

Using my elbow, I turn off the light. I head back to the desk, kicking the door shut behind me. The files finished transferring.

I toss the flash drive into the same box.

“Okay. Let’s get out of here.” I put my hand out to help her to her feet.

Her hand is cold as she places it in mine.

“Are you okay?” I drop the box on the desk and pull her to me, wrapping my arms around her and kissing her head. Facing him has drained her.

“I’m fine. Just chilly in here.” She pushes her hands against my chest and tilts her chin to look up at me. Her eyes are wide and clear. “We’re going to help the other girls?”

“We’re going to do our best,” I vow. If we can find the leader, the one who pulled Bossman’s strings, we might be able to take down the ring. We might be able to save a few more girls. I’m not crazy enough to believe we can save them all. My hero complex died years ago after watching case after case get filed away unsolved. But if we can find as many as possible, then we’re doing good work.

“Okay.” She nods firmly and steps away from me. “Then let’s get out of here so we can get to work.” Determination blossoms in her eyes. She’s not as weak as she believes. Not even close. But it’ll take more time for her to see that.

It’s a good thing I’m a patient man.

She follows me out of the office and down the hall to the front door. I step outside while she resets the alarm and closes the door, joining me on the front porch.

“Do you still have the gun?” I ask her after putting the box in the truck.

She lifts up her t-shirt to show me the Glock tucked into her leggings. I grin at how adorable she is.

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