“What?”
“The one she was wearing when she disappeared.” Chloe pulled up her cousin’s Instagram account and found the last picture posted. “Here, look.”
He studied the picture, then lifted his gaze to look at the girl with the shirt Chloe was so interested in. “Whoa. That’s freaky. But Penny disappeared six months ago. There’s no way that’s hers.”
“Stranger things have happened. I want to talk to her.”
She started toward the group of girls huddling together on the side of the road. A bus had been called to transport them to the hospital.
Derek’s hand fell on her upper arm, halting her. “Let’s wait and follow them to the hospital,” he said. “They’re going to be there for a while.”
Chloe stayed still, but chafed at the restraint. However, he was right. They needed to get the girls off the road and away from the scene. Help them feel safe.
The bus arrived and the officers helped the girls onto it. They shuffled along, heads down, eyes averted. All but two. The girl with the shirt like Penny’s and another dark-headed young woman who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen. The two of them huddled together, whispering words Chloe would give her right arm to be able to hear. One of the girls stumbled and pressed a hand to her side. The girl wearing Penny’s shirt held her upright.
Chloe frowned and made her way over to the one who appeared hurt. “Are you all right?”
Without looking up, she nodded. “I’m fine.”
“I don’t think so. Let’s get you taken care of.”
“No, I—”
“Hey, Stephanie,” Chloe called to the nearest female paramedic, “come here, will you?”
“No! I’m fine!” She backed away from Chloe. Hank stepped forward with a whine and the girl froze.
Chloe placed a hand on Hank’s head. “Don’t be scared of him. He won’t hurt you, he’s just concerned like I am.”
Stephanie hurried over. “What’s up?”
“Can you make sure this young lady is okay? She seems to be in pain and I don’t like the way she’s breathing.”
The girl’s frantic eyes met hers. She did not want to be examined. Chloe held her gaze. “It’s okay, really. You’re safe.”
The other girl wrapped an arm around her friend’s shoulder. “Let them check you, Skye,” she said softly.
“What if they’re watching? They’re always watching. They’ll know. Remember the consequences. There are always consequences.” The last word came out on a gasp as a sob slipped from her. Pain contorted her face and she went to her knees while she continued to babble about secret cameras and eyes everywhere.
Chloe, Stephanie, and Skye’s friend acted as one. The friend grabbed Skye’s upper arm while Chloe and Stephanie lowered her to the hard concrete. Her words stopped and her breathing grew shallow and labored. Wheezing. Her eyelids fluttered.
Chloe looked at Skye’s friend. “What happened to her?”
“He tossed her down the stairs,” she muttered. “Then kicked her.”
Anger burned bright and hot in Chloe’s midsection. She pressed a fist to her stomach and drew in a breath to get her emotions under control. “What’s your name?”
The girl hesitated. “Beth.”
Stephanie looked up and met Chloe’s gaze. “We need to get her to the hospital now. I think she’s got a couple of broken ribs and a possible punctured lung. Jeff!”
Her partner looked up from the woman he’d just finished bandaging, saw the expression on her face and rushed over. “What is it?”
“Broken ribs, a pneumothorax, trouble breathing, and a fever. She needs to be transported immediately.”
Within seconds, they had Skye loaded into the back of the ambulance.
Beth climbed in beside her.
“Hey, you can’t go,” Stephanie said.
The young girl met the paramedic’s gaze. “Then she’s not going.”
Chloe looked at Stephanie. “Let her ride, Steph, she’s going there anyway.”
After a brief hesitation, Stephanie nodded. “Fine. We’ll be at Providence Health Hospital.”
The doors shut and they were gone. Chloe rushed to let Hank into his area in the back of the SUV, then climbed behind the wheel.
From his vehicle, Derek saluted her with two fingers and motioned for her to go first. She pulled away from the edge of the bridge and made her way as fast as she dared to follow the path the ambulance had taken.
She arrived and parked in the police parking spot near the door. Derek pulled in behind her. The other girls would be arriving soon. They’d bring them to the hospital first to have them checked out. Then they’d assign them victim advocates and question them. It was going to be a long day for them. But at least they would get to go home at the end of it.
Chloe left Hank locked in his temperature-controlled area for now and hurried through the emergency room doors. Derek stayed on her heels. She stopped at triage and showed her badge. The woman at the desk buzzed the doors and she headed for the back. She stopped one of the nurses she’d met a few weeks ago. “Eve, hey.”
“Hey, Chloe, I’ve got a busload coming in.”
“I know. Two are already here. Skye and Beth. That’s all I know to call them.”
She walked behind the counter and clicked her keyboard. “Ah . . . yes. Room 2. But the girl, Skye, she’s headed for surgery.”
“Okay, what about her friend, Beth? She okay?”
“At first glance. I left her in the room to be checked out.”
“Is it all right if I talk to her for a minute?”
“Sure.”
Chloe made her away into room 2. Beth looked up and leapt to her feet, only to drop back into the chair when she saw Chloe. “Oh. It’s you.”
“Waiting for news on your friend?”
“Yes.” She rubbed her hands together. “She’s not strong. She wouldn’t get on the trailer without me.”
“What do you mean?”
She shook her head. “When they were loading the girls on, Skye was crying and screaming and they told me to go with her. But she still fought and he threw her down the stairs. I managed to get her back up and in the trailer so they wouldn’t hurt her anymore. So, where is she?”
“In surgery. They took her right back because of the broken ribs and lung issue.” Chloe processed the load of information the girl had just dumped in her lap while trying to decide on the best line of questioning.
Beth glanced at the clock on the wall and stood, pacing from one end of the room to the other. Every so often, she would shove a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. A fine tremor ran through her hand. Before Chloe could speak, Beth had turned the waistband of her pants down. “I need to switch out my pod.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve got type 1 diabetes. My pod—my insulin—is almost empty. And I need a PDM. They didn’t give it to me to take when they put me on the truck.”
“PDM?”
“Personal Diabetes Manager. The thing that allows me to control the dosage amount and provides other information.”
“Ah. Okay. We’ll make sure you get exactly what you need.” Chloe sighed. “Look, I can’t begin to understand what you and the other girls have been through—”
“No, you can’t.”
“But could you please tell me where you got that shirt?”
Beth stilled. “What?” She looked down at the top. “This?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because my seventeen-year-old cousin was wearing it—or one like it—the night she disappeared and now you’re wearing the same shirt. I need to know if the two things are connected.”
The air around them stood still. Cold. Frozen. Carson said nothing as his friend paced the wooden front porch, then turned and unloaded on him. “Where are they? More importantly, where is she? How’d you lose her? I thought you had her under control.”