have been the fifth victim.” He turned to stare at her dully. “Did your friend

tell you that?” “No, he didn’t actually know about Jackie Puller’s

disappearance.

 

That’s just speculation on my part.” “We need more than speculation.” “Well,

let’s see where this all logically leads us. Your mother disappeared from Fort

Monroe. Building Q is located there.

 

Whatever happened to those four women seems to have emanated from Fort Monroe.

Your mother disappears right in the middle of all that and is never seen again.

Just a coincidence?” she added sarcastically. “No, probably not.” “So if a

government project went haywire and resulted in four, or five, murders—including

the wife of a one-star no less—that means there was a cover-up of massive

proportions.” Puller said, “Do you think the women could have been killed by

someone on our side, and then it was all made to look like a serial killer’s

work?” “For what reason?” Puller said, “The women might have known something

incriminating. They might have all had a connection to Building Q.” “Well,

that’s something we’ll never know, since their places of employment had been

deleted from their files. But remember what the Williamsburg homicide detectives

said about the injuries. Like an animal, only human. Crushing.” “So maybe the

disturbing and classified research at Building Q thirty years ago had to do with

building some sort of…” “Fighting super freak?” suggested Knox. “Yeah.” She

hiked her eyebrows. “This is all speculation, Puller.” “That’s all we have,

Knox! Speculation! That’s what happens when you have no damn facts to work with.

But my theory is no more out there than yours. You think a cover-up happened at