Kerry glared at her husband.
“Then let the drunk stay here. He’s the one who—”
Detective Rainsford let out such a huge sigh that both Kerry and Keith went silent.
“The longer we stand around here arguing, the less time we have until the sun goes down. And I don’t think I have to tell you what happens after twenty-four hours pass, and then forty-eight. My only—”
A black Cadillac suddenly slalomed between the squad cars blocking the entrance to the fairgrounds, nearly sideswiping a dunk tank in the process.
“What the fuck is this now?” Detective Rainsford muttered as the smoke cleared and a man in a white suit stepped out of the car. “Shit, I have to deal with this. Keith, you go with Detective Dwight, Kerry, you stay with me.”
The man moved with purpose, striding toward them while waving the dust from his face.
“Detective Rainsford, I told you I didn’t want this—” when the mayor’s eyes fell on Kerry, his jaw went slack. “My God, Kerry, tell me this isn’t… tell me this has nothing to do with Georgina or Chase.”
This interaction, as abbreviated as it was, seemed odd to Keith. He knew the mayor, as did Kerry; you couldn’t live in rural Tennessee without knowing your mayor. But he didn’t think that the man knew them.
Kerry suddenly strode forward and aimed a finger at the mayor’s chest.
“David, I want every single man in the county out looking for them. I want my girls found.”
David?
The mayor visibly swallowed but when he opened his mouth to reply, Detective Rainsford interjected.
“We only have a few hours of daylight left, Keith,” he said. “If you want to look for your daughters, I suggest you get started with Detective Dwight.”
The aforementioned suddenly appeared at Keith’s side.
“Come on, Mr. Adams,” the detective said, indicating with a tilt of his head a field off to the left. “Let’s get out there and find your girls.”
Chapter 9
“Come on, sweetheart, it’s time to come out of there now.”
Georgina couldn’t stop shaking. Her body was trembling so badly that she couldn’t rise to her feet, let alone go to the man who stood in the open doorway of her cell.
The very same man with the hairy arms that had thrown her into the back of the van.
“I won’t hurt you, I promise.”
Georgina didn’t even look up. In fact, she did the opposite; she closed her eyes and tried to will this nightmare away.
She heard the man crouch—his knees popped as he did—and then she felt him lean in close.
“My name is Brian, sweetie. I promise I won’t hurt you. I’m here to look after you.”
Georgina took a deep breath and put her hands up to her ears in an attempt to block out the man’s voice.
It didn’t work.
Brian sighed heavily.
“I think it’s about time you meet your family; your sisters.”
It was this final word—sisters—that finally got Georgina’s attention. Her eyes snapped open and she pulled her hands away from her ears and turned her head in the direction of the door.
As she’d expected, the man who had introduced himself as Brian was crouching and holding his hands out to her, palms up. He was also smiling. Georgina glanced briefly at him, before raising her eyes above his head.
There were three girls standing in the hallway behind him, ranging in age from about five to eight or nine. But unlike how Chase and the other girl who had escaped looked, these girls were clean; their hair was brushed, and they were all wearing similar-looking white dresses.
And like Brian, they too were smiling as they stared back at her.
“My name is Brian,” the man repeated, rising to his feet. He gestured to the girls, indicating each one of them in sequence. “And these are your sisters: Melissa, Portia, and Sue-Ellen.”
The man waited for Georgina to take this all in.
Sisters? These aren’t my sisters; I’ve never seen these girls before in my life. Chase is my sister. Chase… who left me here.
An image of her sister’s filthy face as she ran by, their fingertips barely touching, flashed in Georgina’s mind and her breath hitched.
“And, girls, this is Riley.”
Confusion washed over Georgina. The man had already told her these girls' names, and none of them had been Riley. The girl who had been introduced as Melissa stepped forward and said, “Hello, Riley. I’m really looking forward to having a new sister.”
Things finally came into focus for Georgina.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “My name is not Riley. It’s Georgina… and you are not my sisters. Chase is my sister… my only sister.”
The smile on Brian’s face faltered, but only for a moment.
“I get how this might be confusing to you, given that you’re dirty and tired. But I assure you, your name is Riley. Your name is Riley Jalston, and these are your sisters.”
Georgina scowled and shook her head violently from side to side.
“No, that’s not true! My name is Georgina and my sister is Chase!”
The smile was now permanently gone from Brian’s face, but Georgina didn’t care.
She rose to her feet, forcing her shaking knees to support her weight. Then she balled her fists, but before she could get into striking distance of the man, he stepped backward. A second later, the cell door was closed and locked again.
Georgina grabbed the bars and gripped them tightly in her tiny hands.
“No, please, let me out of here—I don’t want to be alone anymore.”
Brian shook his head.
“Not while you’re still confused, Riley. When you’re ready to join your sisters, we’ll let you out. After all, we want what’s best for you. We want what’s best for you and the family.”
With that, the man gestured for the girls to follow him back down the hallway.
Georgina watched them go. She would’ve cried then, only all her tears were gone.
“Come back! Please, don’t leave me alone down here! Come back!”
But only one of the girls turned. It was Melissa, the oldest of the girls, the one with the beautiful, long dark hair that flowed past her shoulders. She stared at Georgina with large brown eyes that were compassionate while at the same time concerned.
“Please, come back,” Georgina whispered.
Soon, Melissa mouthed, before turning her head and hurrying to catch up to the other girls.
When they were gone, Georgina collapsed into the fetal position and started to shake again.
Chapter 10
Keith wiped the sweat from his eyes and stared at the horizon. He’d been searching for hours; Detective Rainsford had long since called in all of the search parties, had instructed them to return to the makeshift command center at the fair, but Keith had refused.
So far, neither he nor his quiet partner Detective Dwight had found anything. And, judging by the dispatcher’s tone every time they checked in, none of the other crews had identified anything of interest, either.
His beautiful baby girls were missing, and nobody had a fucking clue where they were.
Now it wasn’t just sweat in his eyes, but tears. He wiped these away, too, and turned to look at Detective Dwight, who was digging in the earth with his pen.
Keith sniffed, cleared his throat, and said, “Did you find something? Anything?”
When, instead of replying, the detective’s brow furrowed, and he squatted, Keith hurried over to him. He knew not to get his hopes up but couldn’t help himself.
Hope was a dangerous desire, a ruthless curse that only brought with it the false expectation of positive results.
As Keith approached, the detective raised a lanyard with some sort of school ID dangling from the end.
Keith’s heart sank.
Neither of his girls had anything like this. Besides, it was so faded by the sun that the lettering was nearly ineligible.
<
br /> The detective donned a rubber glove and then used his thumb to rub some of the loose dirt off the laminated ID.
“What is it?”
Detective Dwight frowned and lowered it back to the ground.
“Some sort of school ID from years ago. Some boy—Bobby Jenson. Nothing to do with your missing girls, I’m afraid.”
The detective grimaced and stretched his back as he rose to his feet. He looked to the horizon, and Keith followed his gaze. By his estimation, they only had about thirty minutes of light left before darkness fell. And, out here, in the absence of lights from the city, the dark really was a blanket.
Only it wasn’t the kind that would keep his girls warm, should they still be out here.
“We should really—”
Keith shook his head, anticipating what the man was going to say.
“I’m not going back. I’m not going back unless I have Georgina and Chase in my arms. I won’t—”
The radio on the detective’s hip crackled, and Keith’s breath caught in his throat.
Please… please be good news. Please, God, I beg you.
His hand instinctively went to the cross around his neck.
“Detective Dwight, come in,” the dispatch said.
“Dwight here, what’s going on, Valerie?”
There was a short pause; Keith still hadn’t breathed yet.
“We… we found one. We found a girl, Dwight. I think you should come in.”
Keith’s heart nearly exploded. He instinctively reached for the radio, but Dwight turned his back to him so that he couldn’t grab it.
“Thank you,” Keith sobbed. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“She’s alive, Dwight. I think you should come back to the command center.”
Keith fell to his knees and he buried his head in his hands, sobbing uncontrollably now.
Dwight placed a comforting hand on his back.
“We’ll be there in ten, Valerie.”
“Thank God,” Keith whispered, squeezing the cross so tightly that his palm started to ache. “Oh, thank God.”
But then he stopped blubbering and raised his head.
“Wait,” he whispered, using Dwight’s support to rise again. “Just one? They only found one of my girls? Is that… is that what she said? Dwight… just one?”
A stern-faced Dwight brought the walkie up to his mouth again.
“Valerie, can you confirm that you found both Adams girls?”
As the seconds ticked by and there was no response, Keith started to become lightheaded from holding his breath.
But when the reply finally came, he collapsed to his knees once more.
“Just one, Dwight. And I don’t… I don’t think it’s either of the Adams girls. I think it’s someone else.”
Chapter 11
This time when Georgina heard the door at the end of the hallway open, she didn’t utter her sister’s name. The first dozen or so times, the word, ‘Chase,’ had left her mouth without even thinking about it.
But now… now came the sinking realization that Chase was gone, that she wasn’t coming back.
And sure enough, when a small figure made her way down the hallway towards her cell bearing a gift of a cookie and a glass of what looked like milk, it wasn’t her sister.
It was Melissa.
“Riley?” the girl asked softly as she approached.
Georgina lifted her rheumy eyes and stared at the girl. Her eyes were once again big and caring and filled with… love?
Georgina blinked several times then shook her head.
“My name’s not Riley, it’s Georgina.”
Melissa hesitated for a moment, before taking a seat in front of the bars. Then she surprised Georgina by nodding.
“I know,” she said, holding the cookie out to Georgina. Under normal circumstances, Georgina would have never taken the cookie—her parents had taught her better than that. She might only be four, but she knew not to take food from a stranger, even if said stranger was a girl only a few years older than herself.
But she had to eat and just seeing the cookie was enough to send her stomach into a fit. Without thinking, Georgina’s hand shot out and she grabbed it.
And then she scarfed it in two bites.
“And my name’s not Melissa. It’s Teresa.”
Georgina stopped mid-chew.
“Teresa?” she repeated, but the word came out in a hail of cookie crumbs.
The girl giggled and despite everything, Georgina did too.
“Yeah, Teresa. But as soon as I came here, they started calling me Melissa.”
Stunned, Georgina stared at the girl in the white dress. When she offered the milk, Georgina took it and washed down the dry cookie.
Then she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and gave the empty glass back.
“Look, I know that you don’t want to be here, ‘cuz I used to feel that way, too. I used to be in your spot.”
Georgina didn’t say anything. The milk tasted a bit strange to her, a little sour, and she licked her lips several times to try to get rid of the flavor.
It lingered.
“We’re really nice people… me and your other sisters and Brian and Timothy. We’re just a big, happy family here.”
Georgina shook her head again. This time when she stopped, however, her eyes seemed to keep on shifting for an extra second or two.
“You’re not my family,” she said.
Melissa or Teresa or wherever the girl’s real name was rose to her feet and looked down at her.
“You should sleep now,” she said quietly. As if these words held some sort of supernatural power, Georgina realized that she suddenly did feel sleepy. “I think you’re going to be happy here. It took me a while to get used to my new family, but that’s because I didn’t have any other girls to hang out with. But you’ve got us. You’ve got me, you’ve got Portia, you’ve got Sue-Ellen. We’re here for you, Riley.”
Georgina tried to protest, but when she blinked, her eyes opened very slowly.
Melissa was smiling down at her now.
“Get some rest, Riley. Get some rest and think about how you want this to go. How badly you want to wear one of these pretty dresses. How much you want to be part of the family. Because I promise you one thing, I will never leave you. I will never leave you, Riley. That’s a promise that I will never break.”
With that, the girl offered a nod and then spun on her heels and started down the hallway.
Georgina desperately wanted to call after her, to yell that she wasn’t Riley, that she was Georgina, and that these people in this place were not her family.
That her sister was Chase Adams, that her mom was Kerry and her dad was Keith.
But she felt so sleepy that she couldn’t manage anything more than a feeble croak.
As Georgia drifted off into unconsciousness, the girl’s words echoed in her head.
I will never leave you.
Chase had said something similar, but that had been a lie. Chase had left. Chase had abandoned her.
Chase had given her up to a new family.
Chapter 12
“Let me see her! Come on, let me see her!” Keith begged. The back of the girl’s head was covered in so much dirt and her clothes were so filthy that he couldn’t make out if it was Georgina or Chase. “I need to see her!”
But Detective Dwight and two uniformed officers continued to hold him back.
“I need to see her!”
Detective Rainsford, who was squatting on his haunches and talking to the girl, cast him a furtive glance.
It was preposterous that he couldn’t hold her, couldn’t hold his missing daughter in his arms.
Keith didn’t care what dispatch had said; this was Chase… it had to be Chase. The girl was Chase’s height, her build, her age.
It was her.
He redoubled his struggles, knowing that if he pushed any harder, he would likely end up in handcuffs and thrown back in the back o
f one of the dozen or so cop cars that surrounded them.
But Keith didn’t care. So long as his girls were safe, he didn’t care what happened to him.
“Please! I need to see her!”
Keith continued to try to break free and, as he’d predicted, one of the officers eventually grew tired of his tirade and twisted his arms behind his back. He yelped, and Detective Dwight ordered the officer to let go of him.
Now’s my chance, he thought as he twisted free and sprinted toward his daughter.
Two other officers were drawn to the commotion and tried to get in his way. But they were confused, unsure of how much force to use, and Keith managed to squeeze by them. Keith was nearly at the girl when he saw a man and a woman, both with cheeks mottled with tears, emerge from the nearest police cruiser.
No officer held them back, Keith noted; they ran unabated to the girl. Seconds before they embraced her tightly, she turned and looked in his direction, a curious expression on her cherubic face.
It wasn’t her—it wasn’t either of them. It was a terrified young girl with blood and dirt streaking her face, but it wasn’t Chase and it wasn’t Georgina.
Keith dropped to his knees.
“Louisa! Louisa! Oh, God, Louisa, you’re okay!”
The man embraced his daughter so tightly that her face started to turn red even through the dirt and grime. Then he pulled her away and kissed her face, leaving muddy tracks in his wake.
Before Keith realized what was happening, Detective Dwight was by his side, helping them to his feet. He shook the man off.
“Where’s Georgina?” he shouted at the girl and her parents. “Where’s Chase?”
The girl’s mother, her own face streaked with tears, turned to look at him, her brow knitted in confusion.
“Where are they?” Keith demanded. When he took several aggressive steps forward, Detective Dwight hooked his arm and Detective Rainsford positioned himself between Keith and the reunited family.
“I want to know where they are! Make the girl tell me where they are!”
“You need to calm down, Mr. Adams,” Dwight whispered in his ear.
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