“It’s my choice,” Lizzie told herself in the blackness of the closet. “It’s my choice to live or die, not his. Not the Wolf’s. Not anybody else’s.

“I choose to live.”

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

THE NEXT MORNING, just about everybody attached to the White Girl task force assembled in the main conference hall at Quantico. We hadn’t been told much yet, just that there was breaking news, which was good; there had already been too much bureaucracy and wheel spinning for me.

Senior Agent Ned Mahoney, the head of HRT, arrived when the room was already filled. He walked to the front, turned, and faced us. His intense gray blue eyes went from row to row, and he seemed more pumped up than usual.

“I have an announcement. Good news for a change,” Mahoney said. “There’s been a significant break. Word just came down from Washington.” Mahoney paused, then he continued. “Since Monday, agents from our office in Newark have been monitoring a suspect named Rafe Farley. The suspect is a repeat sex offender. He did four years in Rahway Prison for breaking into a woman’s apartment, beating and raping her. At the time, Farley claimed that the victim was a girlfriend from where he worked. What alerted us to Farley is that he went into an Internet chat room and had a lot to say about Mrs. Audrey Meek. Too much. He knew details about Mrs. Meek, including facts about her family in the Princeton area, her house there, even the physical layout inside.

“The suspect also knew precisely how and when Mrs. Meek was abducted at the King of Prussia Mall. He knew that her car was used, what kind of car it was, and that the children were left behind.

“In a subsequent visit to the chat room, Farley provided specific details that even we don’t have. He claimed that she was knocked out with a specific drug and then taken to a wooded area in New Jersey. He left it vague whether Audrey Meek is alive or dead.

“Unfortunately the suspect hasn’t gone to visit Mrs. Meek during the period we’ve been watching him. It’s been nearly three days. We believe it’s possible he may have spotted the surveillance. It is our decision, and the director concurs, that we take Farley down.

“HRT is already on the scene in North Vineland, New Jersey, assisting the local field office and the police. We’re going in this morning, probably within the hour. Score one for the good guys,” said Mahoney. “Congratulations to everyone involved at this end.”