Page 71 of Preying Game

By the time Jonah and Grant returned to the office, Frank had already submitted the samples for expedited DNA, and Teddy Granada was moving ahead with the public records.

It took a few weeks to get a final list of victims.

Frank and Jonah called in Alice when they had the names.

Her stomach was churning as she joined them in one of the computer rooms.

“Okay,” Teddy Granada said. “The whole thing has been a massive effort of detective work. But we’re 99 percent certain we’ve identified the five women Hayward took—using contemporary accounts and the DNA. We’ve got Lisa Sams, Karen Anderson, Beth Jorgenson, Paula Hammond, and Jean Shombert.”

The names gave Alice a jolt. Before this, they had just been victims. Now they were real women

“And what do you know about them?” she asked.

“I don’t want to minimize them, but as far as we can tell, they were all pretty ordinary,” Teddy began. “Except for their athletic abilities. But none of them was training for an Olympic team.”

Alice glared at him. “Put me in that category. I was ordinary.”

“Of course not!” Jonah objected.

“I was a farm girl who was into 4H and good at sports. Being ‘ordinary’ was probably part of his reason for taking me. But each of them was special if you go into the details of her life.”

“Okay, yeah,” Teddy agreed.

“And he’s not going to get them. We can stop him.” Alice reached for Jonah’s hand and clasped it tightly.

The look in his eyes made her want to weep. She saw his pride in her, but also his panic at the thought of losing her. They were acting like this was going to be an easy fix. In reality, all their hopes and dreams for a life together could vaporize in an instant. Yet neither one of them could turn away from the road they had started down.

“Where was the first abduction?” Alice asked.

“Just across the Pennsylvania line in Garrison, Pennsylvania. There was a flood, and Lisa Sams was supposedly swept away. Her body was never recovered.”

“He used a flood?” she asked, hardly able to believe it.

“I guess he knew from the weather reports that it was coming, and he went up there and scooped her up.”

Frank looked at Jonah. “And you think you can get there—in solid enough form to stop Hayward?”

“I hope I can.”

Her eyes shot daggers at him. “What do you mean—I? I assumed we were going together. We’re you just stringing me along?”

“I’m hoping you see reason. This is too dangerous for you,” he snapped, letting her know how much he was on edge.

Alice wasn’t going to give in. “We’re not really rescuing her from a flood. We’re rescuing her from Hayward.”

They glared at each other, Alice determined to go, and Jonah determined to handle it alone.

The stalemate was broken by Frank, who said, “She’s right. You’ll have a better chance if Alice is with you. One of you needs to grab the girl, and the other needs to take care of Hayward.”

Alice knew Jonah would defer to Frank. “I guess I’m outnumbered.”

“And there’s another reason she has to be with you,” Frank said. “We don’t know what will happen to her after you stop the first abduction and she’s no longer dead as far as the world is concerned. To be safe, the two of you will have to get to the scene of the rock slide pretty quickly.”

oOo

They spent the next two weeks doggedly practicing the time-travel techniques that they were going to need.

Still, as they drove north in Alice’s old Chevy, Jonah couldn’t help thinking the mission was insane.

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