Lucy lowered her head and Jesse put his arm around her shoulders. “What do we do now?” he asked.

Lucy looked up. Sachs could see tears in her eyes. “We’re gonna get that boy, that’s what,” she said with a grim determination. “We’re going to pick the most logical path and keep in that direction till we find him. And we’re going to go fast. That all right with you?” she asked Sachs, who had no problem momentarily yielding command to the deputy.

“You bet it is.”

… chapter fifteen

Lydia had seen this look in men’s eyes a hundred times.

A need. A desire. A hunger.

Sometimes, a pointless itch. Sometimes, an inept expression of love.

This big girl, with stringy hair, a spotted face in her teens and a pocked face now, believed she had little to offer men. But she knew too that they would, for a few years at least, ask one thing from her and she’d decided long ago that to get by in the world she would have to exploit the little power that she had. And so Lydia Johansson was now on a playing field that was very familiar to her.

They were back in the mill, in the dark office once again. Garrett was standing over her, his scalp glistening with sweat through the patchy crew cut. His erection was obvious through his slacks.

His eyes slid over her chest, where her soaked, translucent uniform had ripped open in her fall down the sluice (or had he done it when he grabbed her on the trail?), her bra strap snapped (or had he torn it?).

Lydia eased away from him, wincing at the pain in her ankle. Pressing against the wall, sitting, legs splayed, as she studied that look in the boy’s eyes. Feeling a cold, spidery repulsion.

And yet she thought: Should I let him?

He was young. He’d come instantly and it would be over with. Maybe afterward he’d fall asleep and she could find that knife of his and cut her hands free. Then knock him out and tape him up.

But those red bony hands of his, his welty face next to her cheek, his disgusting breath and body stench…. How could she face it? Lydia closed her eyes momentarily. Uttered a prayer as insubstantial as her Blue Sunset eye shadow. Yes or no?

But any angels in the vicinity remained silent on this particular decision.

All she’d have to do was smile at him. He’d be inside her in a minute. Or she could take him into her mouth …. It wouldn’t mean anything.

Fuck me fast then let’s watch a movie. … A joke between her boyfriend and her. She’d greet him at the door, in the red teddy she’d bought mail-order from Sears. She’d throw her arms around his shoulders and whisper those words to him.