The Water

by Nancy Jackson

  “He probably didn’t realize at the time how important it would be now,” Carrie said.

  As they reached the porch, Carrie noticed the patches of dead grass and the unkept yard. On the porch was an old aluminum lawn chair with webbing that had seen better days. She could smell the stale stench of old cigarette butts and knew the old coffee can beside the chair had to be full.

  At the sound of Rick tapping on the screen door, Carrie turned back waiting for someone to answer. Rick tapped again, louder this time, announcing that they were law enforcement.

  Carrie looked at Rick’s face for silent communication. When he shrugged, she looked back at the door. Then she opened the screen door and banged on the wooden door.

  “This is Carrie Border with the OSBI. We had an appointment to talk with you. Please answer this door.”

  She stepped back a pace and waited. Finally, the door cracked slightly, and a lady peered out.

  “Are you Mrs. Anderson?” Rick asked. He couldn’t see enough of her to know if it was the lady he had spoken with before, or not.

  Soon the door opened wider, and Mrs. Anderson pushed aside the screen door to welcome them in.

  Rick had been here before in their initial inquiry, but this was Carrie’s first visit to see where Cami had grown up. It was a mess. There were beer cans clustered on the coffee table among other stuff. Carrie couldn’t even decipher exactly what.

  The TV was on low, and the lady walked over and turned it off. “You can sit there.” She motioned toward the sofa behind the beer cans. The mess didn’t seem to bother her. Often when going into a home, the residents apologized profusely, embarrassed by the mess. This lady didn’t seem to care.

  “I’m Carrie Border with the OSBI. We haven’t met, but I wanted to come with Rick today to ask a few more questions.”

  The lady sat in a chair angled to the side of the sofa and nodded. Rick began, since he had met the lady before. Carrie would let him interview her while she watched. Then she would jump in for further clarification should she feel the need for it.

  “Ma’am I talked to a…,” Rick paused to look down at his notes, “Ralph Nunez. He owns the store on the corner.” Rick looked up to gauge her reaction. When there was none, he continued.

  “Mr. Nunez said the day Cami and Sam went missing, they were at the store hanging out outside the front of the store. Apparently, they did this often.” It was not a question, but Rick’s tone rose at the end as if it were one.

  Still the lady just sat looking at them, saying nothing. Carrie wondered if she was on some kind of medication. Her eyes didn’t seem like they were glossy or glazed over, but sometimes you didn’t know. But then, she had just been told about her daughter’s death four days ago.

  Finally, after a period of silence, Sue, Mrs. Anderson, filled the void. “Yes, they used to hang out at the store. All the girls did. Ralph didn’t mind. He seemed to like the girls.”

  “On the day they went missing, Mr. Nunez said an old black Bonneville pulled up with a man driving. Then the girls, Cami and Sam walked up to the passenger side and leaned in to talk with the man. After a few minutes, Cami sat back down in front of the store and Sam got in the car with the man.

  “Mr. Nunez went out and asked Cami about Sam going with the man. He was conerned, since he hadn’t seen the man before and didn’t know who he was. He said Cami assured him it was okay.

  After Cami left that day, she never returned to the store. It seems that is the day that both girls went missing.” Rick stopped once again to see if what he had said would draw out an emotional response from Mrs. Anderson.

  She sat numbly listening to Rick’s words. Finally, her eye dipped to the old shag carpeting, and she sat staring at it for what seemed to Carrie, like an eternity. About the time she was certain it had locked the lady into a catatonic state, she saw tears flow down both of her cheeks.

  “Mrs. Anderson, are you okay?” asked Carrie.

  She looked up at Carrie and shook her head no. “I may never be okay. I’ve not been a good mom to these girls.” The tears had stopped but her voice was still thick with emotion.

  “Buster works a lot, but he doesn’t make much money. Most of what he does make goes to the bar or liquor store. I had to go to work when the girls were real young to pay the bills and for food.

  “They were good girls too. I trusted that. I trusted that they were okay since there were so good. They learned to cook and take care of themselves when they were real young.” Sue stopped, lost in her memories. She had that faraway look that was evidence of an escape to another place and time.

  “I don’t know cars very well. It would be two years ago. Do you have a picture of that kind of car?” Sue asked.

  Carrie quickly searched the internet for that age of Bonneville. Finding one, she held the phone up where Sue could see it. Carrie wasn’t sure if that was recognition she saw in her eyes or something else. Finally, Sue handed the phone back to Carrie.

  Her face was pinched in thought. “I’m not sure. No one I know comes to mind. You said Cami wasn’t alarmed that Sam had gotten in the car with the man?” Sue’s voice was taught like a wire. Her face held fear and concern that was two years too late.

  “No ma’am, apparently she wasn’t,” said Rick. “Do you think the other two girls might know the man or who he was?”

  Sue slowly nodded, “Maybe.”

  “Where are they? Could we speak with them?” asked Carrie.

  Sue’s gaze swiveled from Rick to Carrie, then absently around the room, “I’m not sure where they are.”

  Sandy had agreed to spend the night at the safe house since Beth would be gone. It was Friday and school didn’t start until Monday. She would go home early the next day, which was Saturday, and get her kids ready for their school and her house in order.

  Randy was furious, once again, when she had said she wanted to spend the night. She knew she was pushing her limit with him. But hoped that in time, he would see everything running smoothly and would relax.

  She knew Lisa and Jenny were up to something, or so she thought. Keeping an eye on them without their realizing it was Sandy’s goal for the evening. This was her chance to prove herself to Beth, and she didn’t want to fail.

  Dinner time went by without a hitch. The cooks had done a great job of preparing a salad with grilled chicken. The salad was full of several chopped veggies and even pecans.

  The new girls were still timid and unsure of what to do and when to do it. Some picked at their food, others devoured it. All were thin and needed to eat as much healthy food as they could to regain their health, both mental and physical.

  Emma's parent had picked her up around three. The warm greeting thrilled Sandy. That truly was what it was all about and why she was here. What would these girls success stories look like, and how could she make them happen, she wondered as she looked around the room at the remaining girls?

  After dinner, they had played board games. It was a good way for the girls to interact casually and get to know each other. Sandy watched Jenny and Lisa. Something was off. Earlier she had wondered if it had all been her imagination, but by bedtime she was convinced that it wasn’t.

  During the games they were quiet and rarely interacted with anyone but each other, and that communication was usually in whispers. Not a good sign.

  Some girls trickled off to their rooms around nine and others stayed up until eleven when it was all lights off in the main part of the house. They did not want to restrict their bedtime once in their private rooms, but felt that turning off the television and the lights in the main part of the house would help them establish a more normal nighttime routine.

  These girls were used to sleeping late into the day and staying up most of the night. Changing their routine would need to be done gradually. They could stay up as late as they wanted in their own rooms where there were no electronics to busy themselves and keep them awake.

  They could read or visit with each other. It rarely took l
ong for them to get bored enough to go to sleep. Beth had told Sandy that after about a week of this routine, the girls were pretty much on a new sleep pattern.

  Jenny and Lisa had both stayed up in the TV room until eleven, then went to their room together. Sandy had tried to engage them both in casual conversation, but neither one took her bait.

  Sandy was exhausted from the full day, but knew she couldn’t go to sleep in the room provided for house moms and other volunteers. If she did, she knew she would not be able to keep track of the girls and then learn what they might be up to.

  Once all the girls were in their rooms, Sandy visited each one wishing them a good night’s sleep and reaffirming that she was there if needed. She took two quilts out of the cabinet and the pillow off the bed and went to the sofa.

  If she slept there, she could hear if someone came down the stairs and through the hallway to either door. She felt confident that the security system would alert her should they try to leave.

  The doors had keypads with specific codes in order to leave without an alarm sounding. The windows also had alarms. They stayed locked for safety reasons, but if someone unlocked and opened one while the keypad by the door was engaged, an alarm would alert the entire house.

  Sandy fought sleep for the next hour and then without realizing it, she drifted and was soon sound asleep.

  Jenny and Lisa had been there earlier when Emma’s parents picked her up. It was an exciting time and there were many people in and around greeting the parents and issuing hugs to Emma.

  When it was time for them to leave, Sandy punched in her door code. Standing with her in the back hallway was only Emma and her parents. They would not be back, so it was irrelevant whether they saw the code, thought Sandy.

  But what she hadn’t known was that both Jenny and Lisa were watching from around the corner. Each one stood in an adjacent room and were peering around the door facing, watching from different angles. They had thought this through. If someone moved and blocked the keypad, then they would have two perspectives to view from.

  Maybe it was the excitement, or maybe it was because Sandy was so new, but she hadn’t taken extra precautions to hide the keypad when entering her own personal code.

  As soon as Jenny and Lisa had seen the code, they ducked back, and then quietly retreated to their room. Their plan was coming together. Then all they had to do was wait for Sandy and the others to go to sleep.

  They wanted to make it late enough at night so hopefully everyone would be asleep. They had taken turns sleeping so they would not be tired, but that didn’t work. They were both so full of anxiety that the minutes seemed to tick by like hours.

  At two in the morning, they tiptoed down the hallway to see if they could hear if any of the other girls were awake. They were too eager to get underway to wait any longer. If they found anyone still up though, they would go back to their room and wait.

  Luckily they were all asleep. They had few items to take with them, so each girl could carry what they had in a small bag.

  When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they stopped dead in their tracks. They hadn’t expected to see Sandy asleep on the sofa in the television room. The house was old and didn’t have an open floor plan like newer homes, so they didn’t have to walk through the room Sandy was in. But, the old wooden floors creaked from time to time and in the quiet could be heard throughout the house.

  From the bottom step, Jenny carefully touched the hallway floor with her foot. First the toe of her shoe, and then she eased her heal down. She’d held her breath the entire time, as if holding her breath would deaden the sound her footfall would make.

  She exhaled when she’d been able to step without a sound. Each sequential step was made with the same deliberate care as both girls made their way down the hall to the back door.

  They had made it to the backdoor when they heard Sandy move on the sofa. They both froze in fear of being discovered. After a few minutes, they realized that she had only moved in her sleep and was not awake. They could hear her steady breathing and relaxed.

  Lisa was standing at the backdoor and dropped the small cover to reveal a lighted keypad. Suddenly she stopped and looked at Jenny.

  “Does the keypad make a noise when the numbers are pressed?” she asked Jenny.

  Jenny was trying to remember earlier in the day when Sandy had pressed the numbers. There had been so much talking and laughter it was hard to remember a specific sound the keypad had made.

  “I don’t remember,” Jenny whispered.

  “Me either.” Lisa’s face was pinched in concern. What if they got caught? They might get kicked out, anyway. They wouldn’t be wanted here if they broke the rules. But they wanted to get away not make a big production of leaving where Gus would see.

  Finally, Lisa pressed the first number on the pad. Only a slight, quiet beep emerged. Relieved, she gently pressed the other numbers into the pad and heard metal shift in the door. They were free.

  Now they had to turn the knob quietly so it wouldn’t rattle. The outer doors were not the old original doors for safety reasons. Someone had replaced them with steel security doors. They were solid and tight.

  The door handle turned with almost no sound. Then they slipped through the sliver of an opening they had created, and just like that, they were enveloped by the dark night.

  It was that last click as the back door settled back into place that woke Sandy. It was so low she wasn’t even sure she had heard it. But something had woke her, and she knew she had to get up and check out the girls and the house.

  She had fallen into such a deep sleep she had only registered that a sound had woken her, not what the sound had been or where it had come from.

  Stepping into the hall from the television room, she looked to her left towards the front door and entryway, and then to her right towards the back entrance. The back door was not visible from where she stood so she stepped quietly towards it.

  When she came to the back entry, nothing looked amiss. The cover was closed over the keypad. And the door was closed. She peered out the window but couldn’t see anyone or any movement outside.

  Letting the curtain fall back, she decided she needed to check on the girls. Walking quietly from room to room so she wouldn’t wake them, she gently opened each room and peered in.

  Most rooms were dimly lit by street lights outside their windows and it was enough light to see that they were in place. Jenny’s and Lisa’s room faced the backyard and there was no light shining in their window. At first glance, Sandy could see nothing amiss, but she stood looking into the room long enough that her eyes adjusted to the dark.

  Soon, she realized that the lumpy forms on the beds were lumps of quilts and pillows. It took another minute for reality to sink in; the reality was that Jenny and Lisa were gone!

  She sucked in a deep breath trying to not panic. Thinking clearly was her most important asset, and panic would prevent that.

  First, she thought to call Beth, but she wanted so desperately to prove to her she could be trusted to take care of the girls. Then she thought of Randy, but if she called him, he would never let her come back.

  She walked back down the hall and down the stairs. She stood in the hallway with her hand over her mouth, desperately trying to determine what to do. The girls' lives were more important than what Beth or Randy thought about her. Maybe she didn’t belong here anyway if she couldn’t stop something like this from happening.

  Tears slid over her face and hand. Then she had a thought. What if she called Carrie? Would she come help and not tell Randy? Maybe they could get the girls back, and neither Randy nor Beth would ever know.

  Carrie had been working the case and would know where the girls might go. She also cared about the girls and what would happen to them. In a split second, her decision was made. Sandy hurried to her locker and retrieved her cell phone from her purse.

  She dialed Carrie’s number and waited. What was she doing? Was she doing the right thin
g? She was about to hang up when Carrie’s voice came over the phone. It sounded like she’d been awake, which relieved Sandy.

  “Hello. Sandy?” Carrie asked. She’d just come home from playing pool and was proud of herself for having had only a few beers earlier in the evening. She’d been stone cold sober by the time she had driven home.

  “Carrie, I need your help.” Sandy was trying not to break down over the phone, but the full reality of the situation had hit her, and it was tearing her apart inside.

  “What’s going on?” Carrie was instantly concerned. Why had Sandy called her and not Randy? “Where are you?”

  “I… I’m at Safe At Last.” She then blurted out what had happened midst sobs and tears.

  “I can’t call Randy. He will not let me come back. I can’t call Beth. She won’t let me volunteer anymore either. Please help me Carrie. Please.” At her final plea Sandy broke down into sobs.

  Carries mind raced. Did she dare not call Randy? He was her partner. They didn’t keep secrets from each other, or did they? He hadn’t been forthcoming about his little tête-à-tête with Bracket earlier in the day.

  “Okay, but is there someone to stay there with the girls?” Carrie was gathering her things and rushing out the door.

  “There’s another lady who cooks breakfast. I’ll leave her a note. I don’t want to wake her. I’m hoping we can get the girls and be back before anyone knows they left.”

  “I’m not too sure about this.” Carrie had a knot in her stomach. Everything within her told her this was the wrong thing to do, but if she hurried, maybe they could get Jenny and Lisa back before they came to any harm. Time was of the essence.

  “I know,” Sandy said as she paced the floor. “But we have to hurry. Text me as soon as you get here and I’ll come out. I have to enter a code in the keypad to open the door. I’ll write a note while I wait for you.”