Chapter 11: Part 4

Bill stared at the artist's rendering from Amanda's description. He swallowed over the lump in his throat. He'd seen the resemblance when she'd told the artist about the jaw line. He'd hit that same jaw with his fists more than once. Then the eyes had cinched it. Maybe he was crazy. It had been years since he'd been in school with Samuel Taylor.



Samuel had been the poor boy on scholarship. Bill the rich kid who wished his family was poor so they could be normal. Neither he nor Sam could have stopped what happened. They were too young and too bored to get along.



He didn't believe that Sam would ever be the type of person to do the horrible acts committed against Amanda, but maybe you never really knew anyone.



Hell, Shana had shocked the hell out of him when she changed. He still didn't get her swing in attitude. Maybe Sam had gone off the deep end.



Bill went back into Amanda's room, he needed more questions answered and the only way to get those answers was to ask, but the poor girl was exhausted. Why did have to develop a conscious on this one.



He knew not to get involved with the victim. He also knew that letting his emotions rule how he ran the case wouldn't help anyone.



Amanda opened her eyes, she moaned when she looked at him. "More questions?"



"I'm sorry, but I need information."



"I'm tired."



"Okay, two questions now then we'll talk again later."



"Shoot."



"Where did you meet this man?"



"The first time I saw him I was at the grocery store. My cart bumped his. We were both in South Palm Beach."



"Florida?"



"Yep, Florida."



"When he..."



"Took me?"



"Yeah, took you, were you in Florida?"



"No, I left the States and went to my house on Paradise Island the next day. Took a sailing ship over."



"When did you see him again?"



"He was at a bar I frequent. Then he showed up at the pool."



"Was there anything special that drew you to him?"



"I was lonely. My boyfriend and I had just broken up. I felt reckless and wanted someone to talk to. He seemed harmless."



Tears formed in Amanda's eyes. "I know this is difficult."



"I need to rest now."



"I'm going to do some work, but I'll be back later."



She shut her eyes and drifted off to sleep before he could get out of the room. Poor girl had been through so much. If only he'd met her before this. She didn't deserve so much pain.



Bill drove over to the police station and begged for the use of a computer. He'd been given access through an old piece of crap that would do. The connection was slow but still he was able to connect to the FBI and find out if there was a warrant out for Sam.



He logged on to the old alumni site to search for Sam. He was sure the guy was somewhere in New York working his ass off building an obscene amount of income so he could create an empire.



Just like he thought he would find there were lines and lines about Sam Taylor and all the companies he owned. There was Taylor Enterprise, Taylor Shipping, Metro Dynamix, Taylor Investment Group and the list went on and on. Apparently Samuel Taylor had been a busy little beaver. No way would a guy like Mr. Taylor have the time to commit to two weeks of torture.



To be thorough Bill Googled Taylor. He was sure he'd find Taylor's exploits on the dating scene. The guy had always been the type to love 'em and leave 'em.



When the page popped up he was surprised to see nothing on Sam's dating. Instead, there was an article about Sam leaving New York, his companies and his home to live on a sailboat in the Caribbean. Bill's gut clenched and his head grew foggy.



Fuck, Sam was on a sailboat with free time galore. Enough leisure time to spend weeks stalking and torturing young women.



Bill picked up the phone and dialed his boss in the States. The voice mail picked up. He didn't want to leave a message so he hung up.



He held his head in his hands, his blood pressure skyrocketing. Of all the crappy luck. Not only did he know the suspect, he wanted to get to know the victim.



Only an ulcer and the shits would make this more sucky. He needed a break. Maybe he could get Sam's information from one of his companies and just leave off the fact that he was FBI. "Holy crap, this sucks."

Copyright Sara Thacker 2011