(Blood and Bone, #2) Sin and Swoon(53)
“Let’s get back to it; I want this over.” I gulp, closing my eyes again. “So Ashley wakes in the cell, she’s scared, and from what I could tell there was a drug in her system. I suspect drugs were part of the food or water all along. The water bottles never cracked like they were brand new; the lids were always opened prior to being put in the minibar. The food would have been enriched, to help with vitamins and nutrients. Loads of vitamin D and all the Bs to stop them from dying down there.”
“To prevent them getting sick down there with no sunlight.”
“Right. But it’s a guess.” I shrug. “She wakes, panics, and then settles. It’s too easy a transition in the beginning. She has no fight in her, and it didn’t feel natural. Her friendship with the girl next to her, Bethany, was what saved her in the long run.”
“Bethany Jones, the girl who died saving Ashley. She was twenty-four, an orphan, and a college student at University of Portland. She was an only child, and the only person who ever looked for her was her caseworker from her days in the system. She was a lot like ya, actually.”
I open my eyes. “What?”
She nods. “Looked similar; parents died when she was young, in a house fire. Dad tied Mom up and lit the place up. No siblings. Bethany was at Grandma’s when it happened. Grandma died two years later, putting Bethany in the foster system at the tender age of seven.”
“No one would have missed her?”
She shakes her head, biting her lip. “The girls in the cellar were all fairly similar. Girls who had just spoken about traveling Europe or cut themselves off from their family.”
“That’s what was so different from them and Ashley, then? She did feel different in that hole. She seemed to be a bit of a rule breaker compared to the other girls.”
She nods again. “Ashley Potter was close to her brother, who is older and at school in Portland. His name is Jason, but ya named him Simon and made him a twin?”
I smile weakly. “He was an unknown to me in her mind, so I made him known. I have to make certain I remain in control in her mind so I don’t get lost.”
She wriggles her lips. “From how it looks in the reports and facts we have found, Ashley really was the odd man out in the cells. The other girls were hardly missed. Considered runaways and part of the stats until Miss Ashley went missing. Then dust started getting kicked up. The uniforms and FBI started to notice there’s a pattern in all the other missing girls. That’s how we got involved.”
“Okay, back to it.” I settle back in and close my eyes. “Bethany and Ashley became friends, often holding each other through the tiny gap in the corner of their walls. They sat and picked at the wall, flushing the pieces in toilet paper. The girls were each other’s rocks. At one point I would have to assume Bethany knew what she had to do. I couldn’t enter Bethany’s mind, so I don’t know if it was a plan, but it seemed like one. As one of the original girls down there, Bethany didn’t get a lot of time with Mr. X. So she waited for him to come to her, and when he finally did, she attacked, and tossed the key to Ashley. Ashley escaped, freeing one of the girls along the way, Lacey perhaps.”
“Lacey Kavinsky. Aged twenty-six, been missing the longest,” Angie adds. “Why did you pretend to be Bethany if you were in Ashley’s mind?” She asks with her eyes on her notes.
“Because I needed to get Ashley’s trust. She trusted no one in her life the way she did Bethany. She loved her like a sister. So I made her think I was Bethany. I needed her to try to show me more. And Dash and Rory screwing around with things meant I had to think fast.” I shake my head. “So Ashley frees Lacey and runs above, blazing a trail for the other girls. But somehow Mr. X manages to convince Lacey to unlock his door. He then goes after Ashley. She hides out in the woods, in shock I think that Bethany has died, and the girls down below never even tried to escape. But they aren’t as strong as Ashley is. They are all broken down, maybe even before Mr. X came along. Ashley runs to a cabin, sitting behind it, sort of defeated, I think. She’s so tired and lost. She needs to figure out a plan, but the drugs in her system have her blurry a bit. Hazy in the brain so to speak. She hears a car, thinks it’s him, returning to the cabin. So she gets up and runs through the woods, heading for the cabins on the lower part of the road. She finds an unlocked truck with keys in the visor, and drives it down the hill. But Mr. X is waiting down there for her. It clearly wasn’t him who came up the hill. He rams the truck, causes an accident. Hits her over the head and takes her back.” This is the part I can’t take. I cringe.