by Willow Rose
I texted her back,
I AM SORRY, BABY. I AM SURE IT’LL BE BETTER SOON.
“That was the lab,” Matt said when he hung up.
“Any news?”
“The syringe that the kids found. They’ve analyzed it and believe it contained ketamine.”
“A date rape drug?” I asked.
He nodded. “They also found traces of Carina Martin’s blood on it. It matched the blood sample we had from Carina Martin’s doctor that was taken a few days before she disappeared while she was in for a checkup.”
“So, this was what he used to drug her, and probably the others too, when abducting them,” I said, then glanced toward the interrogation room where Jordan Daniels was still waiting. “Or maybe she.”
“The phone was also Carina’s, as I suspected,” Matt said.
“Okay, so now we can safely say that the three girls have been taken, am I right?” I asked and looked at the board behind Matt. “The theory of them having run away seems to be shrinking.”
“I think it is safe to say,” he said.
“Good. Did they have anything else?” I asked. “Any news on the bomb?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. But they got the results of the tests run on Molly Carson.”
I sat up straight. “And?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. The rapist left no DNA. There was condom lubrication and no semen present. No DNA elsewhere on her either. Probably wore gloves when touching her.”
“Of course, he did,” I said and sipped my coffee. It suddenly tasted bitter. I glanced up at Molly’s picture and felt guilty. I had promised Melissa I would catch this guy, but of course it wasn’t going to be that easy. God forbid I had even one good lead to go on.
Matt sighed and finished his cup. He put it down heavily. “So, now what, Agent Thomas? What’s our theory here? We have a woman in custody, but do we really think she raped and blinded Molly?”
“Maybe not. But I do think she might know who did,” I said and finished my cup as well. I crushed it and threw it in the trash can in the corner.
Chapter 42
They heard footsteps. Carina was the first to hear them and open her eyes. Next to her slept Tara, who was now so skinny she was barely awake at all anymore.
“What was that?” Carina said and sat up.
Carina had lost track of time and barely knew if it was night or day anymore, but she did know that Ava had been gone a very long time. Carina worried about her and whether she had managed to get to a doctor’s office. It was the plan that she should pretend to be sick and then alert the doctor once she got there. Since the day Carina had seen the masked man take her away, she had been waiting and waiting for someone to come. She had tried to stay awake for as long as she could, but the lack of food made her exhausted and, eventually, she had fallen asleep. Once she woke up, she had expected the police to come crashing down the door at any minute, but it hadn’t happened.
Where are you now, Ava?
The wait was painful. Still, she kept her hopes up. The man hadn’t been there since he came and took Ava. They had no more clean water and no more food. Carina felt her ribs and realized they were poking out now, and her stomach was in pain because of hunger. The worst part was the thirst.
Now, as she listened for more footsteps and didn’t hear any, she thought that maybe it had just been another dream.
Carina crawled to the water bucket and poked her head into it. There was a little left on the bottom, and she lifted the bucket in the air, emptying it completely. Then she glanced at Tara, wondering if she should have left some for her in case she woke up. But maybe she wouldn’t wake up at all, and then it would just be a waste. They would both die. At least Carina now knew she could get by for a little while longer, even though the dryness of her mouth and throat was painful.
Carina crawled to Tara and felt her neck. At first, she didn’t feel her pulse, and she feared she had died, but by pressing harder into the paper-thin skin, she finally felt it.
She was still alive.
“Come on, Ava,” she said. “Have you told them yet?”
Please, say they’re on their way. Please, tell me they’re coming. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.
Carina sat down on her mattress and leaned her head against the back wall, a position she found herself sitting in constantly. She cried weakly and closed her eyes, dreaming about being on the beach with her friends, running around playing ball, eating chips, and swimming in the ocean. She had just drifted away when she heard more footsteps coming from above her head. Carina’s eyes shot open.
“I heard it again,” she said into the room. “Someone is up there. Someone is here!”
She tried to wake up Tara but had no luck. Now, she heard voices too, muffled voices, and more footsteps. Carina rose to her feet and started hammering on the walls. The foam was soft and made barely any sound, and soon she realized it was no use. Carina took a deep breath, then opened her mouth and started to scream.
“HEEEELP!!! HEEELP!”
There were steps outside of their door now, and she looked at it in anticipation, almost laughing.
“Tara. Tara! Wake up. They’ve found us. They’re coming for us. Help is coming now.”
But Tara didn’t wake up. Carina stared at the door as the deadbolts were pushed aside.
“HEEELP!” she screamed. “We’re in here!”
The door opened slowly, and a face appeared behind it. Carina almost cried with happiness until she realized it was the masked man. And he was alone.
He rushed toward her, then slammed his fist into her face. Carina felt the blow and sunk to her mattress, the room spinning around her.
“Don’t you think I know what you’ve been up to? You think I would fall for your little trick, huh?”
Carina looked up at him, not sure she completely understood.
“A-Ava?” she asked.
As a grin spread behind the mask, she started to cry. “What have you done to her, you creep? What did you do to Ava?”
The man stared down at her but didn’t answer. Instead, he walked to the door, found the light switch, and flipped it, turning off the small lamp beneath the ceiling, the source of all their light. Then he slammed the door shut, leaving Carina and Tara in complete darkness.
Chapter 43
“Did you call Dad?”
Christine had barely entered the house before she asked me. Her sweet eyes stared up at me in anticipation, and it broke my heart.
“You didn’t, did you?” she said, disappointed. “I knew you wouldn’t.”
I exhaled and wiped my hands on a dishtowel. I had been cleaning up the kitchen since I got home. My mom hadn’t been home all day since she was out with a friend shopping at the mall, so I decided to clean up from breakfast before the kids came home from school.
“As a matter of fact, I did,” I said.
I had been thinking about this so intensely since I spoke to Chad, wondering what to tell the kids when they asked, and I had to admit that I hadn’t come up with anything that wouldn’t at some point end up hurting them.
“And? What did he say?”
Her eyes gleamed with excitement while I pondered what to do, what to say. I could hardly tell her the truth, that the woman her dad lived with now didn’t want them there. She would only end up hurt and then hating Kimmie, and that wouldn’t make their visits with their father any easier.
“You know what? Right now, he’s a little overwhelmed with his new job, and he has to work a lot, but he promised that as soon as it slows down a little, he’ll have you come visit, okay?”
Christine stared at me, her smile frozen in place. I bit my lip, wondering what was going on inside of her. Did she buy it? It wasn’t a complete lie. But it wasn’t exactly the truth either.
“So…so…he didn’t say when?” Christine asked. “Because summer break is coming up, and we could go up there for a longer time, maybe a week?”
“I…sweetie,
I don’t think…”
Alex came out into the kitchen and looked at both of us while standing behind his sister. I didn’t want him to hear any of this and wanted to finish this conversation now.
“Hey, buddy,” I said addressed to him. “Are you hungry? How about I make us some cinnamon rolls, huh?”
“Yay,” Alex said, his eyes lighting up. He grabbed a stool and sat down at the counter with his firetruck in his hand. He looked at his sister, then at me. I forced a smile.
Christine’s shoulders slumped, and I knew she didn’t buy my excuse. We had been through this before, back in the fall when her dad had told her not to come, and she almost went anyway on her own but was stopped at the airport. It pained me that nothing seemed to have changed much. For a little while, I had believed things had changed since they actually went to visit him every month, and we seemed to have gotten into some sort of routine. It somehow felt even worse that he was now pulling out once again. The kids were going to feel like it was their fault. They were going to wonder if they did something wrong on their last visit.
“It’s her, isn’t it?” she asked. “She doesn’t want us there.”
“Who?” Alex asked.
“Kimmie,” Christine said. “She doesn’t like us. Remember the last time we were up there? Remember how she and Dad had that big fight in the kitchen when we were in the living room, and they thought we couldn’t hear them, but we could?”
Alex nodded, bowing his head.
So, that’s what happened. That’s why the girls didn’t ask to visit him anymore for several months. They didn’t feel welcome. They knew they were the cause of their fight. They were in their way.
“I’m sorry, baby…I…”
Christine nodded. “I get it. Dad doesn’t want us to come because she doesn’t want us there.”
“Daddy?” Alex asked. “He doesn’t want us?”
“Of course, your dad wants you to visit. He’s just trying to figure out a way to make it happen because they don’t have so much room in the condo, okay? He promised me he’d make it happen somehow. Don’t worry, okay?”
But none of the eyes looking back at me believed a word I had just said. Especially not Christine. She grabbed her phone and started tapping on it, disappearing into that world of her own that I couldn’t reach her in, while Alex slid down from the stool, saying, “I’m not hungry.”
“Me either,” Christine said and turned around without even looking up from her screen.
I opened my mouth to try and say something but couldn’t really find the right words. A knock on the door grabbed my attention, and as I walked to open it, both my children disappeared upstairs.
Chapter 44
The woman standing outside my door was dressed in a long gorgeous gown that reached the ground. To her side, standing a little behind her, was a younger man, dressed in a Hugo Boss polo shirt and what looked like very expensive Cartier sunglasses.
“Kelly Stone?” I said. “What are you doing here?”
“This is where you live, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Yes, it is, but…”
I stared at the man near her shoulder. “This is Noah. He’s my fiancée.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said, still flabbergasted. It wasn’t every day that a Hollywood movie star knocked on your door.
“Can we come in?” she asked with her heavy British accent. I couldn’t stop staring at her. I had been thinking so much about her since I had seen her at her house that day. Especially every time I saw her face in the check-out line at Publix, where she was often on the covers of many of the magazines.
“Yes, yes of course,” I said and stepped aside. They walked past me, and I closed the door. I picked up some shoes and toys and threw them all inside a cabinet and closed the door.
“I’m sorry for the mess.”
Kelly Stone stopped in front of Alex’s teddy bear that was lying on the Spanish tiles. She picked it up.
“How old are they?” she said and looked toward the stairs.
I swallowed, still holding one of Alex’s firetrucks under my arm. “Alex is six, Christine twelve, and Olivia fourteen, no sorry fifteen; she just turned fifteen. It’s hard to keep track, you know?”
Kelly Stone looked at me. She had taken off her sunglasses and held them in her hand.
“Is it? I wouldn’t know.”
Remembering that my sister was two years older than me, and that meant she was now forty-three, I realized it was probably too late for her to have children. It wasn’t impossible, but it had to be something that she wondered about as well. Had she chosen career over family? There was so much I wanted to ask her but didn’t dare to.
“Are they here?” she asked, still looking toward the stairs. “The children?”
“The two youngest are,” I said. “Olivia has a volleyball game this afternoon, so she won’t be home until later.”
Kelly Stone smiled, then looked down at the teddy bear.
Just tell her, you fool. Tell her you know who she is and that you’re her sister.
“Can I get you anything? Coffee?” I asked.
She looked at me and smiled again. “We won’t stay long. We have to get to the airport. I’m shooting a new movie in Canada.”
“Canada, huh? Sounds cold,” I said. “How long will you be gone? You know, in case we need to get ahold of you for…you know…the event.”
Our eyes met, and I felt such a warmth spread in my stomach. God, how I wanted to tell her the truth right there, but for some reason, I didn’t. I guess I was scared of how she might react.
“I’ll fly back in a couple of days,” she said.
“Okay, okay, that’s good. I bet you have your own plane and everything, huh? Not that it matters. You’re busy and have to leave soon. What can I do for you? Is it about the event? Because my mom and I are working out the details as we speak, and we should have a program for you any day now.”
“I know who you are.”
I looked up, and our eyes met again. My stomach lurched.
“I…I’m sorry?”
“I know who you are and why you came to me.”
I swallowed hard.
“I…I…”
“Why now? Why did you come to find me now?” she asked, still fiddling with the teddy bear between her hands. “After all these years, why now all of a sudden?”
My heart was racing in my chest, and I took in a deep breath to calm myself.
“I just recently learned about you, that you were still alive,” I said, my voice quivering. “Up until then, I thought you were dead. My entire life, I thought you had been killed.”
Kelly Stone looked at our mother’s picture on the wall, then nodded toward it.
“What about her? Did she think I was dead too?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, to be honest. She never talked to me about it. We still don’t talk much about any of it.”
“You know, you were the reason I came here,” she said. “To the Space Coast. I don’t remember much about my childhood, but I did remember having a sister. My dad would never talk about any of you, so I had to figure it out on my own. But all I remembered was you on the beach, playing, and then watching rockets and shuttles being sent off into space. That’s how I figured that you might be here, but I couldn’t find you. I didn’t know your name. My dad wouldn’t help me, and we lost contact because of it. But now I do. Eva Rae Thomas.”
“And you’re Sydney Thomas,” I said, tears welling up in my eyes. “That was your name back then.”
Kelly Stone reached out her hand and stroked my cheek gently, a tear running down her cheek. I fought hard to hold mine back. My lips were quivering.
“I might have been that once, but I’m not her anymore,” she said as something changed in her eyes. A hardness settled in them. She put the teddy bear down in the recliner before she faced me once more. “And seeing you again causes me too much pain. I can’t do this anymore. I need you never to contact me again.”
My eyes grew wide. Startled, I stood back and stared at my sister as she turned around and rushed out of the house, clicking along on her high heels on the tiles, her boyfriend giving me an apologetic smile, then hurrying after her. I stood in the doorway as they got back into the limousine and drove off, feeling like someone had just ripped a part of my heart out.
Chapter 45
Boomer watched the screen on his computer. In the right corner, he saw Eva Rae’s young son, Alex, as he ran through the living room, screaming loudly, arms above his head, wearing only pajama pants. Seconds later, he saw Eva Rae come into the picture, then yell something at the boy, trying to grab him, but he jumped away from her, laughing. Eva Rae Thomas then placed her hands on her hips and, seconds later, the boy stopped, and she grabbed him, then tickled him till he screamed for her to stop. Then they disappeared out of the camera’s sight. A few minutes later, they reappeared in the left bottom corner of his screen as they entered the boy’s bedroom, and she was finally able to get him to lay down. He was still only wearing pants when she put the covers over him, and they prayed together before she turned out the light. Boomer had been in her house while she was at the police station to set up the small cameras under the ceiling. They were wireless, smaller than a pea, and looked like a screw in the wall. He got them off eBay for only twenty dollars per camera. Easiest thing in the world. He had placed enough of them in her house to be able to follow her every move. He could use his phone if he didn’t have his computer nearby.
Easiest thing in the world.
Boomer grabbed a beer from the fridge and opened it. He stood still and listened to see if he could hear the girls, but there was no sound coming from under the house. Either he had soundproofed it well, or they were both dead. Right now, he didn’t care either way. He was so angry at them for trying to trick him that he wanted them to die. He only wished he could have shown them what he did to their little friend. Then they would learn never to try anything like that again; they’d know he wasn’t someone you took for a fool. Boomer was no ordinary kidnapper or sexual predator. No, what he wanted was different and so much more devious than what any of those fools could come up with. But so far, he didn’t feel like he had really been able to show the world what he was capable of. It was about time he turned up the heat a little.
