Verb bower (third person singular simple present bowers, present participle bowering, simple past and past participle bowered, obsolete embower)

1. To enclose.

Caitlin closed the dictionary. “Son of a bitch.”

Branford’s chosen identity was a man who enclosed women in cages. How long did kept animals survive? How long had Angela? They found Paige Lauffer twelve days after her disappearance.

Embower had held Caitlin for five days. She didn’t want to know what he’d try once her monthly visitor left town.

She slid Shakespeare back in place, started at the far left of the bookshelf.

What else did Chapman try?

Caitlin spent the next three hours going book by book, page by page.

Chapter 70

CHAPTER

70

RATHER THAN FACE a restless night in Bloomington’s cheapest hotel room, Mike followed the nameless female detective’s advice and filled Mary and Lakshmi in on his interactions with the BPD. The trio convened in Lakshmi’s apartment and spent Saturday night into Sunday morning behind computer keyboards. By nine AM, the Daily Student’s online edition had published one article under the headline “Famous Reporter Goes Missing in Bloomington” and another titled “Did BPD Drop the Ball?” By noon, both stories had been picked up by the Associated Press, and the student paper was fielding calls from national broadcast outlets.

At four o’clock that afternoon, Mike woke on the couch, with Lakshmi standing over him. “Caitlin called when I was asleep.”

He sat up, saw Mary stretching through a yawn nearby, and took the phone from Lakshmi’s hand. “Slow down. What am I looking at?”

“The call history,” Lakshmi said. “I had my ringer off, and the phone was on the charger. I didn’t look until now.”

Mike scrolled through the list. The last incoming call came from a local number at 12:37 PM. He handed the phone back. “Three hours and twenty-three minutes ago. How do you know it was Caitlin?”

Lakshmi told them how Caitlin had given her the number before they’d called the Bro-duce farm for the first time. “I’m not sure if she used it for anything else. She told me she’d only use it when her main phone’s battery was dead.”

“No voicemail?”

The girl shook her head. “I tried calling the number back, but she didn’t pick up, and there’s no mailbox.”

Mike took his own phone out, tried the number, but got no answer.

“I never turn my ringer off,” Lakshmi said, lowering her head.

Mary put her arm around the girl. “Everybody has to sleep.”

“But why would she call and not talk right after both stories went out on the wire services?” Lakshmi said. “Is this Caitlin’s way of telling us to lay off the Bro-duce coverage, let her work undercover?”

Mary laughed. “Too late for that. You went national, girl.”

Lakshmi’s hand went to her mouth. “Ohmigod. Will they have to print retractions? Is this her getting back at me?”