Another in-depth investigation into the Hydra, this one by the Philadelphia Inquirer, quoted criminology professors observing that the Hydra Killer would have been active earlier, to sharpen and refine his methods. One of the professors had speculated that—given its proximity to Boston and New York, its remoteness, and the disturbing number of unsolved cases—Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom could easily have been the Hydra’s first hunting ground.

On the Hydra’s possible link to northern Vermont, the article quoted an unnamed FBI source with the multiagency Hydra task force as saying, “We can’t rule anything out.”

Can’t rule anything out.

Wyatt considered the comments, and his own experience with the Hydra case. The last series of stories he did for First Press Alliance was about a grisly double-decapitation murder deep in Upstate New York’s Starving Wolf Trail and its ties to the Hydra.

That story had exacted an enormous toll.

Especially on Jill and Alison.

Wyatt took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and then went back to the VPS map on unsolved missing-person cases. He wondered how many were homicides, or suicides, or death by animal attack, or by misadventure, where someone got hurt in the wilderness and died of exposure.

And where does Sam Moore’s case fall?

He was startled when his phone’s alarm sounded.

Wyatt had set it for this time because he wanted to adhere to a timeline on the Moore case that the state police had issued early in the case. It was about this time of the evening that Sam Moore had left this motel room to go to the vending machine for drinks.

Wyatt got his key and his phone, and followed in Moore’s steps.

The still night air was sweet.

Crickets serenaded the stars, but the drone of the vending machine drew him to the breezeway. In the pale light, Wyatt surveyed the empty rear parking lot where the canned drinks had been found.

Nothing stood here now as Wyatt looked to the mountains, silhouetted against the horizon like a row of teeth.

Are you out there, Sam? Are you gone forever, like so many others, or are you still breathing?

CHAPTER 20

Northeast Kingdom, Vermont

I know I’m alive.

I know I’m a prisoner.

I’ve got to escape.

Sam mentally recited her mantra every time she could. She had become used to the fear. Her body shook with it—and the cold. But her prayer was her way to fight back. It fueled her will to survive.

I know I’m alive.

I know I’m a prisoner….

What she didn’t know was where she was, why she’d been taken, who her captor was—or the monster, as she called him—and what he was going to do to her.