Binding Ties (Book 3 - Katie Prentice, Ghost Interpreter)

Chapter Thirteen

Katie

I breathed a sigh of relief as John left. This vision of Vanessa being tortured was almost too much to bear, and I was off balance as a result. I sat down on the sofa, still shaking, and Griff went and got my charcoals and sketchpad. "Draw", he said as he came back again and handed the supplies to me.

I took the paper and the charcoals and sat, the pad open in front of me. I could still feel the pain in my groin from Vanessa's clitoris burning, and I shifted uncomfortably. I didn't know what to draw, and the images in my mind were so horrific that I didn't want to put them down on paper. "Just draw", said Griff quietly as he looked at my tortured face. "Anything. Abstract art, realism, doodling, anything. Get your emotions out."

I took my charcoal and started to draw Tieron's face, his look evil as he shot a syringe full of liquid into my arm. "I can only assume that he's giving her heroin", I said. "He said that he'll get her addicted to the drug so that she'll do anything to keep on getting it."

"If it's in liquid form and he's shooting it into a vein, it probably is heroin. Sometimes heroin is too easy to get."

I shaded in some of his face. "He was evil", I said. "I wonder where he was keeping her. He said it was an old mushroom farm. There were steps down to the cavern. There were no windows. I don't know how far down in the ground the cavern is."

"Did you see anything out the door when Tieron came in?"

I finished the drawing of Tieron and the needle, and turned to another page in my sketchbook. I drew the door open, the steps leading upwards. I drew the bottom of the floor shaded, and the top of the steps open. And I drew it from the vantage point of when the door was open and Vanessa was in the process of trying to leave. The steps up. The sun shining down. As I shaded in a shape, Griff looked at the drawing. "Wait", he said, "what is the shape that you're drawing? It looks like a car. Do you remember what color the car was?"

I thought for a moment. "Dark green", I said. "And it was covered with dirt. The wheels were muddy. And it wasn't a car. It was a pickup truck."

"Okay. That gives us something else to go on." Griff looked up the contact information on Sloane and texted him the information. Several minutes later, Sloane wrote back with a thank you, saying that Tieron drove a dark green pick-up truck.

I continued to draw. Abandoning the view of the stairs, I drew a picture of Vanessa's clitoris on fire, her legs locked wide, her arms held at her wrists, her face twisted into an expression of agony. Griff looked over at the drawing. "Christ", he breathed out. His hand snaked out and wiggled under my hair and massaged the back of my neck. I stopped drawing and put my sketchpad on the side table, and angled my head down so that he could get better access. My mind was still spinning on the events that I had seen. My clitoris still felt sensitive, and I still felt cold. "How are you doing?" he said.

"I'm shaky", I said. "I can't get my mind off what I saw. My body still feels the things the man did to her. It still feels the pain of the burn, the discomfort of the needle prick, the cold of the cellar. It still feels everything. The horror, the fear, the helplessness."

"I think it's a good thing that we're staying until this woman is rescued."

"Yes, it is. I would never be able to sleep otherwise."

An hour later, Sloane sent a text to them. "Found Tieron. There is no proof yet that he did it, but we'll be able to hold him for questioning for forty-eight hours before we have to charge him. That gives us forty-eight hours to find the mushroom farm. Want to help?"