Page 29 of Seeking Evil

She craned her neck. Dawn’s barrel was still empty. “You haven’t killed her yet. Is she with your partner?”

Henry recoiled. “I have no partner.”

Sierra had hit a sensitive spot. “You do. I met him before he almost killed me.” She recalled the tall figure who had been waiting for her. The man had wanted to keep his identity hidden. Had she run into him in town? Would she recognize him without the mask?

Henry glanced up at the corner of the room. Sierra saw the camera. “Someone else is watching.” That’s how Sierra had been found out before she escaped.

She felt weak and woozy. Sierra fought the nausea.

“Who’s really calling the shots?” She kept goading him, hoping for something. Maybe a chance to get closer to Henry to disable him. If she had the strength.

She glanced down at her doubly secured wrists and ankles. Then what?

One step at a time.

“I’m calling the shots.” Henry bristled. “No one else is in charge. This is all mine.” His hand swept across the room.

“I don’t buy it, Henry,” she murmured. “You’re not the “in charge” kind of person.”

His cheeks flushed with anger. “Shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“But you let your partner do the killing.”

He recoiled as if she’d hit him.

She’d struck pay dirt. Her strength buoyed with the small victory. Sierra knew she was on the right track and went in for the final blow. “What do you do? Abduct the victims and then turn them over to the real killer? Is that what you did with the others? What did you do with Dawn?”

“Never!” Henry stood up and yelled. “I would never let them take my Dawn.”

His Dawn. What was going on here?

Henry headed toward the camera that was positioned above one of the chairs in his “sitting area.” He grabbed a baseball bat from the corner and stood on the chair.

Sierra knew what he planned, and yet it was still a shock to see Henry pound the camera until it hung by a single wire. He yanked it free and tossed it to the floor. Once he was off the chair, he stomped it to oblivion.

Well, all right. At least they were no longer monitored.

Henry moved past the stack of boxes. He stood in front of a wall and pressed a certain spot. A portion of the wall opened, revealing a dark room.

Henry searched along the interior wall and flipped on the light switch. From her limited vantage point, Sierra could only see a sliver of space.

It looked like a small bedroom. What on earth?

Sierra continued to watch as Henry went inside. She could hear him talking to someone. And then he returned with a woman in a wheelchair.

Even though Sierra’s eyes were foggy, as they neared she recognized Dawn.

“Sierra, meet Dawn Collins.”

Dawn’s wrists were bound to the chair as were her ankles. She didn’t wear a gag.

Dawn’s frightened eyes latched onto Sierra’s.

“It’s going to be okay.” Sierra did her best to reassure her of what she had no idea was true.

Sierra turned her attention to Henry. “You saved her. Why?”

Henry shook his head and returned to his seat. “I couldn’t let them hurt Dawn. She reminds me of . . .”

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