Jessica trudged through the mud, her gaze on the moonlight reflecting off the water’s surface up ahead. “What are you going to do with me?”
“What I should have done in the beginning.”
Jessica opened her mouth to keep him talking when her gaze landed on a shovel resting next to a deep hole in the earth a few feet ahead of her.
She dug in her heels, spinning around to face him. “Oh, my God. Please, Jasper. I don’t know why you’re doing this, but I’ll do anything. Just tell me what you want from me.”
“Get in the hole, Jessica.”
A sob escaped her. Tears of terror spilled from her eyes to mingle with the rain tracking down her face. She glanced at the pistol he held and then shifted her gaze back to his face. “I’m begging you, Jasper!”
He took a step closer, raising the gun higher. “Get in the fucking hole.”
An image of a smiling Owen flashed through Jessica’s mind—a smile she would never have a chance to look upon again. She stepped into the hole.
“I really don’t enjoy having to do this,” Jasper admitted in an offhanded manner.
Jessica took a shuddering breath, scared beyond anything she’d ever experienced before. “Then don’t. Please. I won’t tell anyone.”
“It’s far too late for that. Someone has to take the blame for Sandy and Eustice Martin’s deaths.”
Understanding dawned. “You killed Sandy and Eustice? But why?”
“When Melanie told me about your unexpected visit to see her, and that you’d tracked down Sandy Weaver, I had to do something to stop you from digging deeper. So I killed Sandy, knowing full well the police would find your fingerprints there.”
He continued speaking, his finger caressing the trigger of his gun. “Eustice was simply a casualty of circumstance. Once the police find the knife that killed him and Sandy, they’ll spend the next decade searching for you.”
Jessica thought about poor Owen, and how he would spend the rest of his life thinking his wife murdered two people. “Why kill those people just to frame me? It makes no sense. All I ever wanted was to find out what happened to your son.”
Jasper rolled his head on his neck as if Jessica’s words struck a cord in him. “You really want to know what happened to my son? I had him killed.”
The ground tilted beneath Jessica’s feet. She covered her mouth with her hand to hold back the cry that rose in her throat.
“I had no choice,” Jasper murmured, rubbing at his forehead with his free hand. “He’d seen something he shouldn’t. I couldn’t risk him telling his mother. I would have spent the rest of my life in prison if I didn’t die in the electric chair first.”
His manic gaze locked on Jessica once more. “I’m a monster, Mrs. Nobles. As was Eustice. For years, we traveled to different states, abducting young girls and selling them to the highest bidder.”
“Sex trafficking,” Jessica whispered through numb lips.
Jasper shrugged. “Something like that. We made a lot of money in those few short years. Until Eustice started damaging the merchandise…which significantly lowered their value on the market if they survived at all.”
Bile rushed into Jessica’s mouth. She leaned forward and heaved into her waiting grave.
“The last girl we brought home,” Jasper continued as if discussing the weather, “was a pretty one. I decided to keep her in my basement overnight to ensure Eustice didn’t damage or kill her. I never dreamed that Terry would wake up and find her down there.”
More horror slammed into Jessica. Terry had witnessed the little girl’s terror at the hands of his own father.
Jasper took a step forward, his weapon aimed at Jessica’s chest. “You see? He left me no choice. He began crying, growing hysterical. I was afraid he would wake Melanie. So, I took him to Eustice to take care of.”
“You had Eustice kill your only child?” Jessica cried, unable to keep the horror from her voice. “What did he do to him?”
Jasper nodded to a place on Jessica’s left. “He’s buried there next to that willow tree.”
“The little girl,” Jess choked out. “The girl who’s face I saw in the lake?”
“There’s more than one girl in that lake.” He pulled the trigger.
An explosion rocked Jessica’s skull, and something slammed into her body with a force that took her feet out from under her.
She couldn’t inhale, couldn’t move or think. Her eyes began to roll back in her head until she knew nothing more.
Chapter Forty-Five
The sound of gunfire ricocheted through the trees, followed by the rumble of distant thunder.
“Jessica!” Owen shouted, vaulting over a downed fence now illuminated by the lightning.
He could hear Ruckle running through the brush behind him, his labored breathing, mirroring Owen’s own.
Owen suddenly burst through a clearing, his legs eating up the ground as he raced toward a small cabin in the distance.
“I’ll check around back,” Ruckle barked, sailing past the open door of the cabin.
Owen burst inside, his gaze scanning the interior of the place to find it empty.
He rushed back into the rain and ran toward the lake he’d seen in the distance.
Another shot rang out, sending Owen’s heart into his throat. “Jessicaaaa!”
More lightning arced across the sky, illuminating a figure holding a gun.
“That’s far enough,” the figure snarled from the shadows.
Owen skidded to a stop, nearly falling over Ruckle, who lay still at his feet. “Where’s my wife?”
“You must be Owen. Jessica’s dead, same as Steven.” He nodded toward Ruckle’s downed form.
A moan of denial ripped from Owen’s chest. He jumped over Ruckle’s body, not caring that he would die next. “Fuck you, you piece of shit!”
A deafening explosion resonated through Owen’s head, followed by another and yet another. With every shot that rang out, Jasper’s body violently jerked until he dropped limply to his back.
Owen spun in a half circle, his gaze scanning the darkness beyond. There was someone else out there, someone besides Jasper. It took him a moment to realize his legs shook too much for him to stand. He dropped to his knees in the mud.
Melanie staggered from the shadows still holding a gun in her trembling hands.
“He killed my baby,” she groaned, emptying two more rounds into Jasper’s body. “He killed my Terry…” She began to sob uncontrollably before crumpling to heap next to Jasper.
Owen crawled forward on his hands and knees, searching the darkness for signs of Jessica. She couldn’t be dead, he mentally chanted…she just couldn’t be.
Another lightning strike provided enough light to see the hole in the earth ahead.
Owen scrambled closer until his upper body hung over the edge. He could see the outline of a body huddled inside.
In a panic, he threw his legs over the side, careful not to step on Jessica. And he knew it to be Jess as surely as he knew he would die without her.
“Ah, God, Jess…no.” Tucking an arm behind her head and one beneath her knees, he lifted her wet, muddied body high against his chest and climbed from that hole.
He didn’t slow until he nearly ran into a white truck parked around back of the cabin. He opened the passenger side door, crying anew as the interior light spilled across Jessica’s bloodied form.
“Jess?” he choked out, pressing his ear against her muddied lips. The slightest hint of breath could be felt tickling his skin.
She lived. His Jessica was still alive.
Owen gently laid her on the seat, quickly shut the door, and ran around to the driver’s side. He jumped behind the wheel and pulled Jessica’s head onto his lap.
Putting the truck in reverse, Owen gave it as much gas as he could without burying the tires in the mud, and then circled the cabin. “Hang on, baby. I’m gonna get you some help!”
The headlights of the truck touched on Melanie Dayton long enough for Owen to see her lift the gun to her head and pull the trigger. She dropped limply across Jasper’s body.
But Owen had no time to dwell on the Daytons. Jessica was hurt, and he needed to get her some help before it was too late.