by Rita Herron
No… he couldn’t do that to her. If he killed Hiram, he’d be no better than the twisted man who’d taken Kim from them.
Cursing, he pulled himself up. He handcuffed the man, then snagged his phone and called for an ambulance.
By the time he crossed to Cord, the ranger had lain Ellie on the ground and was checking for a pulse.
Derrick held his breath as he waited. Cord’s grim expression matched his tone. “She’s not breathing. Get a blanket from my backpack.” Derrick scrambled to retrieve the blanket while Cord started CPR.
“What about the girls?” Derrick asked.
Cord shook his head. “They weren’t in there.”
Derrick’s pulse jumped. Were they too late to save Penny and Chrissy?
90.
“Come on, Ellie, breathe for me.”
The sound of Cord’s voice drifted through Ellie’s mind as she floated up from the darkness. She gasped for a breath and jerked her eyes open to see him hovering over her. His hands were on her chest, but he lifted them and raked her hair from her face. Worry darkened his amber eyes, softening the angry lines.
“You’re okay now, El, you’re okay,” he murmured.
Her mind raced to play catch-up. Memories of the last few hours rolled past in slow motion, jumbled in her head. But slowly she sorted through them. She’d been looking for Hiram. For Penny and Chrissy. Her skin crawled. She tasted dirt. Felt it on her clothes. Her skin. In her hair.
“Hiram,” she murmured.
“Hiram’s unconscious. Handcuffed.” This time it was Derrick speaking. He stood beside her, looking down, his expression filled with anger and other emotions she couldn’t read.
“Medics are on the way,” Derrick said. “Where are the girls?”
“Oh, God, Penny and Chrissy!” Ellie pushed herself up. “I have to find them.”
“They’re still alive?” Derrick asked.
“They were when he dragged me out here.” She pushed to her feet, swayed slightly, then steadied herself and slogged through the snow toward the mine shaft.
Derrick and Cord chased after her. “Wait, Ellie, let me go!” Derrick shouted.
Cord yelled at her, too. “I’ll help.”
But Ellie couldn’t wait. The girls needed her.
Lungs straining for air, she kept running. Her chest ached as she battled the memory of being buried. The darkness was back. She hated the dark.
Get Penny and Chrissy! Don’t give up now.
Determined, she darted into the dark mine shaft. For a brief second, she paused to adjust to the light. To remember where she’d been and where Hiram had taken the girls. She ran down the tunnel, following it until she reached the room where Hiram had first held them. But they weren’t there.
Waves of dizziness threatened to bring her to the ground, but she blinked and struggled through it. He’d hit her… knocked her out… then he’d scooped up the girls and carried them deeper into the cave.
Remembering crawling after them, she followed the tunnel toward the next room, shining her flashlight around the interior until she spotted the wooden board on the floor. Dropping to her knees, she yanked at it, but it refused to budge, and splinters jabbed her skin.
“Hang in there, Penny, Chrissy, I’m coming!”
Footsteps pounded toward her. Derrick’s voice. “Ellie?”
“Here,” she yelled. “I need a tool, something to pry this board loose. Hiram nailed it down.”
Derrick rounded the corner then knelt beside her, pulled a knife from his pocket and began to work to loosen the board. She pulled at it as Derrick freed the nails. They removed the cover and exposed a hole the size of a small room. “Penny? Chrissy? It’s Ellie.”
The little girls whimpered, clinging to each other. A suffocating dizziness overcame Ellie, and she swayed again as she tried to breathe through the claustrophobia.
Derrick laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’ve got it.” He leaned over the edge of the opening. “Penny, can you crawl to me, sweetie.”
“No, Ellie,” the little girl said in a tiny whisper.
Dammit. Ellie cursed her weakness. She didn’t have time to indulge her phobia now. Penny and Chrissy had been traumatized, and they trusted her.
“I can do it,” she murmured. She held her breath and leaned into the hole, but suddenly Mae was there. Mae holding the dolls. Calling out to Ellie for help.
Mae huddled in the dark with tears streaking her cheeks. Mae begging her to save her.
The world blurred. Bile burned her throat. She dropped her head into her hands and groaned, blinking away the image.
Derrick’s hand squeezed her shoulder. “Ellie, are you okay?”
She nodded, although she wasn’t okay. But she had to keep going, so she summoned her courage and lowered herself inside the hole. The scent of dirt and the rotting wood buttresses assaulted her, along with Hiram’s musty odor.
Penny whimpered again and Chrissy sobbed, forcing Ellie to stoop down in front of them.
“Come on, girls, it’s all right now.” She pulled them both into a hug, their little bodies quivering against her. “I’m going to take you back to your mommies.”
“What about that big mean man?” Chrissy asked between sobs.
Ellie rubbed their backs. “You don’t have to worry about him anymore,” she said softly. “Now, just do as I say, and we’ll get out of here. Okay?”
“Okay,” the girls whispered.
“First you, Penny.” Penny wrapped her arms around Ellie’s neck, and Ellie lifted her. “I’m going to hoist you up,” she told Penny. “The man up there, his name is Derrick. He’s my friend, and here to help. He’ll pull you up, then I’ll lift Chrissy.”
Tears trickled down Penny’s face, dampening Ellie’s clothes, but the little girl looped her arms around Ellie’s neck.
“Derrick,” Ellie called. “I’ve got her. I’m going to lift her up.”
“Got it.” Derrick sprawled onto his stomach and leaned over the edge of the opening, reaching down inside the space.
Still weak from her earlier ordeal, Ellie’s muscles strained, pain stabbing her ribs with every breath, as she lifted Penny toward the opening. Derrick clasped the little girl’s arms and pulled her up. Pausing for a fortifying breath, Ellie ignored her aching body and lifted Chrissy.
After both girls were up, Derrick helped Ellie from the hole. Then Ellie wrapped her arms around the children.
“I’ve got you, girls.” She brushed her thumb across each of the girls’ cheeks. “Now we’re going home.”
91.
As soon as they made it out of the cave, Cord brought blankets and they wrapped the girls in them. Ellie quickly examined the children to see if they were hurt, but except for scraped fingers and broken nails where they’d probably tried to dig their way out of the hole, neither girl had any visible injuries.
Ellie soothed them with soft words, rocking the girls in her arms as they waited on the medics. “Did he hurt you?” Ellie asked.
Penny shook her head. “I was just scared. He wouldn’t take me home.”
Chrissy’s lower lip quivered. “He was big and smelled bad, and he told me to shut up.”
Penny tugged at Ellie’s sleeve. “He yelled at me not to be a crybaby.”
Ellie’s heart clenched. The girls looked physically okay but would need counseling to overcome the ordeal. She prayed that being taken didn’t traumatize them for the rest of their lives.
God knows, she understood what it was like to be paralyzed with fear at times.
Cord stood by silently while Derrick made certain Hiram was still handcuffed.
“You’ll be home soon,” Ellie said in a soft voice. “And that man can’t ever get you again. I promise.”
“He called me Mae,” Penny said. “I told him my name was Penny, but he made me say Mae, that that was my name.”
Ellie’s heart stuttered. Mae?
“He said that to me, too,” Chrissy said in a small voice.
&nb
sp; Ellie closed her eyes, stunned and confused. Mentally, she tried to piece together the truth about what had happened. Hiram was her mother’s son. Her half-brother. He’d called Penny and Chrissy Mae.
Mae was the name of her imaginary friend. When Mae disappeared, Ellie had cried endlessly, had nightmares for months.
What if… what if Mae was real? What if Mae was her best friend or even her sister and Hiram had done something to her? What if Mae was Hiram’s first victim?
92.
Stony Gap
On the way to the hospital, Ellie phoned Captain Hale and filled him in on what had happened. They arrived just after 8 p.m. Angelica and her cameraman rushed toward them, capturing their images as the girls were brought into the ER and reunited with their families.
Still shaken and her body aching, Ellie stepped aside for the emotional reunion. Her eye was swelling, her ribs hurting from the beating she’d taken. Her head wound had opened again, and the bruising around her other eye from the Dugan farm was still livid.
“Penny!” Stan and Susan ran toward the little blonde girl and swept her into a hug, the three of them crying as their daughter hugged Toby the teddy to her.
Mr. Larkin enveloped his wife and daughter into his arms.
“My precious Chrissy,” Mrs. Larkin sobbed as she closed her arms around Chrissy. “I was so scared, baby.”
Out of respect for the parents, Derrick was waiting for the families to go back to the exam rooms before he allowed the medics to bring Hiram in. His face was beaten badly, and he was still unconscious.
Penny’s parents looked over at Ellie. “Thank you,” Susan said, still clinging to Penny.
Stan looked contrite, tears in his eyes. “Yes, thank you, Detective. You saved our family.”
Emotions overwhelmed Ellie, robbing her of her voice.
Mrs. Larkin’s eyes were filled with turmoil—she regretted her outburst, but she would do it again. Ellie shrugged it off. If she’d been in the woman’s shoes, there was no telling how she would have reacted.
She was just grateful she’d found the girls alive.
Angelica skimmed her gaze over Ellie and seemed shocked at her appearance. Ellie hadn’t thought about what she looked like. Her face was bloody, bruised, her clothes wet and damp from being thrown in that hole. Dirt and snow were embedded in her hair, and mud streaked her face and hands.
“Detective Reeves,” Angelica said. “Please tell us about the harrowing rescue of Penny Matthews and Chrissy Larkin.”
Ellie offered her a tentative smile. Her head and body ached, and as the adrenaline wore off, she felt weak in the knees. She also had more questions that needed answering.
But she couldn’t avoid the press forever. Maybe knowing Hiram had been arrested would ease the panic in town. “Today we tracked down the man who adducted both Penny Matthews and Chrissy Larkin. The girls are now being reunited with their parents. We believe the man we have in custody is the person responsible for the kidnappings and deaths of nearly a dozen other children.” She heaved a breath. “At the moment, that is all the information I have to share. As soon as I tie up loose ends, have time to question the perpetrator, and analyze forensics, I will make an official statement.”
Angelica’s gaze met hers, an understanding passing between them. Ellie had promised Angelica an exclusive, and she would give it to her.
The girls were inside now, and the medics wheeled an unconscious Hiram in. His face was bruised and bloody, his clothing torn, and his nose looked broken. In spite of how Derrick must feel about the man, he shielded him from the cameraman.
When Hiram regained consciousness, she planned to interrogate him until he told them where he’d left the other girls’ bodies. But she wanted all the facts. If Hiram was her brother, her mother’s child, she had to verify it.
Angelica lowered the microphone and motioned for the cameraman to put away the camera. “You look like you need to be examined yourself, Detective.”
Ellie shook her head. The physical pain she could handle. But she needed the truth. And she was damn well going to find it.
93.
Ellie hurried to the ICU. According to the nurse, her father was in a deep sleep from a fresh injection of pain meds and her mother had gone home to shower.
One of the crime scene investigators had volunteered to drive her SUV home from the trail, so Ellie left the hospital and Ubered to her parents’ house. Vera’s car was not in the drive when she arrived. The lights outside were off, but a lamp glowed in the den. Her last confrontation with her mother teased her mind. She’d threatened to arrest her.
She still might have to. But first she wanted an explanation.
Why had Hiram talked about Mae when her parents insisted Ellie had invented the little girl?
“Mom?” she called out as she walked through the downstairs. No answer, only a hollow emptiness that mirrored how she felt right now.
If Hiram was her mother’s son and Vera had known what he’d been doing all these years, there had to be some evidence to prove her parents’ involvement, or their innocence.
If she’d known Hiram was a predator, how could Vera live with herself?
Her earlier search in her father’s office and workroom had yielded nothing, so she raced up the steps to her parents’ bedroom. She paused at the doorway, the sense she was violating their privacy so overwhelming that for a moment she hesitated. Didn’t know if she could go inside.
But hadn’t they violated her with their deceit?
Betrayal knifed through her and she pushed through the door. She searched her mother’s dresser drawers and closet. Nothing. She noticed a small chest shoved in the back of the closet and tried to open it.
Locked.
She went to her mother’s jewelry box and found a key beneath her mother’s pearls. She unlocked the chest. Inside, she found a shawl and handmade blanket, then her mother’s wedding veil. Emotions thickened her throat, and she started to close the chest, but something in the bottom caught her eye.
Her fingers trembled as she lifted the wedding veil and laid it on the floor, a chilling sense of déjà vu striking again.
A hand carved little wooden doll lay inside the chest. Just like the dolls she’d found in the graves and on her doorstep.
A wave of nausea engulfed her, blurring her vision, and she began to tremble. Mae… she was there. Mae holding the little doll…
Dear God. What was going on?
Pulling herself back together, she inhaled and focused again. An envelope lay below the doll, along with a journal of drawings she recognized. The childhood sketches Ellie had done in therapy. She hadn’t realized her mother had kept some of them.
Flipping open the journal, she thumbed through the entries. Her childlike pictures depicted her and Mae playing in the woods, building a fort, having picnics, chasing fireflies. The two of them running hand in hand through the creek. Playing hide and seek. Swinging from the tire swing by the river.
Another showed her standing on their back porch staring into the thicket of trees beyond the house. Her face looked sad and frightened, as if she wanted to go after Mae, but was too terrified of the monsters living in the woods to venture off the porch. Another showed her huddled in a dark cave, her arms around her knees as she fought her fear of the dark. And another—she was combing the tombstones in the graveyard, looking for a marker with Mae’s name on it.
The other scenes were of her nightmares. Or had they been memories? She no longer knew what to believe.
Trembling, she opened the envelope and discovered a photograph of a little blonde-haired girl. The picture looked exactly like her.
But when she flipped it over, the name Mae was scribbled on the back.
Dear God. Mae was real. A tremble started deep inside her and wouldn’t let go. Was Mae her twin sister?
Shock cut through her, sharp and painful. Her parents insisted she’d invented Mae.
They’d forced her to attend counseling, medicated her for depres
sion and hallucinations. Let her think something was wrong with her. That she was crazy.
Reeling with the revelation, she snatched the doll and picture, grabbed the keys to her father’s truck in the kitchen, rushed outside and climbed in. More snow pelted the windshield, falling in a sheet of white again. Tiny ice crystals looked like spiderwebs on the glass.
Cranking up the defroster and the wipers, she peeled down the drive toward the hospital.
94.
Back at the hospital, Ellie found her mother hovering by her father’s side. She must have passed her on the road to her parents’ house.
“My God, Ellie, you look terrible,” her mother gasped.
Ellie shrugged. She didn’t care how she looked. She could clean up and rest later.
Her father’s coloring looked better, and he was breathing on his own. When he opened his eyes and looked at her, a depth of turmoil and regret lined his pale face.
Her mother started to stand, but Ellie raised a warning hand. “Don’t bother to tell me to leave. I’m not going anywhere until I get some answers.” She removed the wooden doll from her pocket and twisted it between her fingers. “In case you’re wondering, we found the missing little girls.”
“I know, Bryce told us,” her mother said in a raspy whisper.
“Thank God.” Her father heaved.
“We found Hiram, too,” Ellie said, grateful her voice didn’t crack.
A tense heartbeat passed. Her mother clenched the edge of her chair. “Is he… alive?”
Ellie didn’t bother to hide the disdain from her voice. “Banged up, but yeah. He’ll be on his way to jail once he’s cleaned up in the ER.”
Tears filled her mother’s eyes. Ellie had no sympathy. There were too many lies. “A wooden doll like this one was found in each grave.” Her ribs ached as she released a painful breath. “But I found this one in your bedroom chest, Mom.”
