Count to Three
Page 25
As Dani and Tinsley walked up the path toward the white Tudor home, Dani thought about the crazy whirlwind of a year it had been since Tinsley had been found. Her daughter was being tutored and would be entering sixth grade in the fall.
During that time, Dani had made a point of being in the courtroom when Hattie Goodwin was convicted of kidnapping. She would be serving twenty years in prison. Matthew wouldn’t be released for another six months, after serving eighteen months in prison for making false statements and lying to the FBI. Tinsley wasn’t sure if and when she would be ready to meet with him. That would be her decision. She had been talking to a therapist since coming home. She was doing well. Dani had a habit of staring at her when she wasn’t looking, unable to believe her baby was home. It still didn’t feel real. She no longer lived in the past. She smiled more and loved her job. For the first time in years, she was living in the present and loving every minute.
Dani and Tinsley were greeted at the door by Detective James Whitton. He took Tinsley into his arms and gave her a fierce bear hug.
“Uncle Jim,” Tinsley said, laughing, “I can’t breathe.”
He let go and said, “Quinn is in the backyard.”
After she disappeared inside the house, Dani looked Detective Whitton over. His eyes were as bright as twinkling stars, and he had a nice glow to his face. “Retirement looks good on you.”
“A week in Kauai didn’t hurt,” he said with a smile as he ushered Dani inside and shut the door behind them. “Ethan is here, and he brought a surprise.”
Dani’s eyebrows arched. The boy had grown on her and Quinn. They’d thought he might not come around anymore after Ali was found, but they’d been wrong. He stopped by almost every week to say hi and see what they were working on, always offering to post flyers or do other odd jobs, just because. He had grown two inches at least, was going to school regularly, and had quit smoking.
Dani followed Detective Whitton through the house to the backyard, where they found everyone talking at once. It wasn’t until Quinn stepped to the side that Dani saw Ali Cross. Dani had talked to Mary Cross on the phone many times. Of course, Quinn visited the family on a regular basis, helping them in any way she could, but the last time Dani had seen Ali was not an image she wanted to remember.
Dani introduced herself and Ali chuckled. “I know who you are,” Ali said. “I’ve been away at college; otherwise I would have come to see you and thank you for everything you did to help rescue me.”
“Ethan and Quinn are the real heroes,” Dani said, and she meant it. If not for Ethan’s and Quinn’s determination and perseverance, they never would have found Ali.
Dani and Ali stood under the warm sun, where smoke from the grill floated upward, and talked about school and how much Ali was enjoying UCSB. Her teeth had been fixed, but she had a scar on the left side of her mouth. Despite multiple surgeries on her ankle, she still walked with a slight limp. She talked about Dylan and the shocking moment she’d found out he was truly gone. Therapy helped with the guilt, but she missed him terribly. Dani was surprised when Ali brought up Carlin Reed. Ali was writing a book about her experience. She said she’d talked to a therapist about memory erasure but decided to write the book after she’d begun transferring her nightmares to paper. The process was difficult but also cathartic—an exorcism of sorts to help evict the monster from her memories.
According to Detective Whitton, if Carlin Reed hadn’t gone into cardiac arrest and died in the hospital, he would have been serving two life sentences for the torture and kidnapping of Ali Cross and for the murders of his mother, Gretchen Myles, and Dylan Rushdan.
After Ali was pulled away, Dani’s gaze gravitated to her daughter.
While listening to Ali talk about her time with Carlin Reed, Dani thought about how Tinsley rarely talked about her time with Hattie. From what Dani gathered, Tinsley had not been physically harmed, but she had been fed a constant string of lies and lived a lonely existence in what was not a loving environment. It pained Dani to imagine Tinsley being on her own for so long, but she would follow Tinsley’s lead and move forward as best she could.
The smell of shish kebabs wafted through the screen door as Dani made her way inside the house to help Teresa in the kitchen. She was chopping carrots when Teresa stopped and pointed at the TV in the family room. Teresa set down her knife, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel as she walked into the living room and turned up the volume.
“Wasn’t Quinn’s mom driving an orange Volkswagen Bug when she went missing?”
“Why?” Dani asked as she stopped to listen to the news to see what had caught Teresa’s attention.
A reporter was at the scene, broadcasting live as a car in the background was being pulled from the water. “Scuba divers found a rusty orange Volkswagen Bug in the murky water off Old River Road with skeletal remains still inside. The condition of the car pulled from the river suggests that it has been in the water for years. Much of the car was still intact after being winched to shore. Foul play is being ruled out after partial remains in the trunk pointed to signs of this being nothing more than a trip to a grocery store gone awry. Once the remains have been identified, authorities hope the divers’ find can give one family closure.”
Goose bumps traveled up Dani’s arms, and her breath caught in her throat. Later, she would make a few calls to confirm what she already knew in her heart—that the driver was Jeannie Sullivan. Quinn’s mom had never meant to leave her family. When Dani and Quinn were alone, she would tell her the tragic story of a mother who’d gone out to get groceries and never made it home.
Quinn stepped inside just as the story ended and a commercial came on. “The shish kebabs are ready! Who’s hungry?”
Teresa went to the kitchen to get the salad and headed outside.
Dani shut off the TV and turned to look at Quinn. Smiling as she walked over to her, Dani slung an arm over Quinn’s shoulders, and together they walked outside into the sunshine.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am so grateful to those who have given their valuable time to this book. A giant thank-you to my wonderful editors, Liz Pearsons and Charlotte Herscher; my super-supportive and incredible agent, Amy Tannenbaum; the amazing Karen B. and all the fact-checkers and proofers who never get enough credit; Detective Brian McDougle, who is always ready to answer any and all questions; Joe Ragan for listening to my endless chatter as I try to work out one plot problem after another; Cathy Katz for always being ready to give a first read; Brittany and Morgan Ragan for their social media expertise; Joey and Jesse, just for being awesome; and a big shout-out to James Lee Whitton and all my faithful readers!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2014 Morgan Ragan
T.R. Ragan is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of the Sawyer Brooks trilogy (Don’t Make a Sound, Out of Her Mind, and No Going Back), the Faith McMann trilogy (Furious, Outrage, and Wrath), the Lizzy Gardner series (Abducted, Dead Weight, A Dark Mind, Obsessed, Almost Dead, and Evil Never Dies), and the Jessie Cole novels (Her Last Day, Deadly Recall, Deranged, and Buried Deep). In addition to thrillers, she writes medieval time-travel tales, contemporary romance, and romantic suspense as Theresa Ragan. She has sold more than three million books since her debut novel appeared in 2011. Theresa is an avid traveler, and her wanderings have led her to China, Thailand, and Nepal. She and her husband, Joe, have four children and live in Sacramento, California. To learn more, visit www.theresaragan.com.