Page 11 of What's Left of Me

“Well, preferably from the beginning. Can you start from the night you were kidnapped? Go from there, and take your time.”

I focused on a small scar on the wooden table; I sort of disassociated from the memory but at the same time felt like I was plunging back in.

I opened my mouth and began.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Noel

Phoenix stared at the tabletop,his finger brushing over an imperfection in the wood. His voice was level as he recounted that night.

“I was leaving the mall with my friend Diane. We’d had to pick up new shoes and leotards for our class. She was parked somewhere different from me, so we split off. When I got to my car, I hit the button, it unlocked, I gripped the door handle, and pulled. I remember someone pressing against my back. His hand covered my mouth, I felt a prick in my neck, and then I was out.”

The guy had injected him with something. It could be nothing, but if he’d gotten his hands on a drug that wasn’t easily accessible, that could be used to track him down.

“Do you know what drug he used?” I interjected. Agent Rose glared at me, likely because he was promised we wouldn’t talk, but fuck him.

“No, it was the only time he ever used it.”

I relaxed in my seat, and Rose continued. “When you woke up, were you in the same place where those hikers found you?”

“Yes, I never left there.”

“And when you got there, were you alone or were there others with you?”

Phoenix bit his bottom lip briefly. “Guy and a girl.”

He’d been found alone, so the other two were likely victims we’d already seen in the media.

“Mr. Briar, if I showed you some photos, could you tell me if you recognize any of them?”

He nodded, and Agent Rose removed pictures from his bag. A quick glance proved they were the photos likely used for the missing persons, so they weren’t graphic.

He laid out the pictures of Kimberly Henning, Richard Bells, Henry Miller, and Rochelle Hammer.

Phoenix looked at each one carefully. I wasn’t sure how exposed he’d been to the other people in that shed with him and if he’d even be able to identify anyone.

His brow crinkled as his finger glided across all four photos. He stopped at Henry’s but then pulled away.

“No.”

“No?” Rose was shocked. “Did you see the faces of the other two that were in there with you?” Phoenix nodded again. “And none of them are any of these four?”

“Why?”

“This is Kimberly, Richard, Henry, and Rochelle. All of them were killed by the man who took you.”

Phoenix pursed his lips. “I had a feeling he was going to kill them.” It was said in such a haunting, detached way that if I hadn’t known he was a victim I’d have wondered if he were behind it all.

“And you don’t remember their names?”

“No.”

Agent Rose took out another photo. “Do you know her?” He showed him another missing person’s photo.

This time Phoenix’s eyes widened. “Yes. She was there.”

This must have been the last victim found. Her name was Jennifer Fenberg, and she was discovered in Kindley Park across town. Same as the others, she’d been dressed like a doll, posed on the ground with dead flowers all around her.

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