Shattered Secrets

by Karen Harper

  “Miss Etta, you know this is wrong.”

  “People must obey their mothers. Besides, Teresa, some things are only wrong in this big bad world when you get caught. Don’t you think we would have been stopped by now if what we are doing is wrong? Mama Sybil loves little girls, just like she loves me. Now let’s see about getting you more tightly tied.”

  “So Jill Stillwell is...gone?”

  “Why, yes. She’s out back. I told her she should be honored to lie among the pioneer Falls family, but she didn’t know what I meant. So I put her to sleep and buried her between two graves.”

  Oh, dear Lord in heaven, Tess prayed, please don’t let Jill be dead. But this crazy woman had buried her in that pioneer graveyard Tess recalled seeing from an attic window upstairs. But recalled much too late...

  Miss Etta continued to speak as if all was normal. “She would have been entirely too heavy and large for Mama Sybil’s lap by now anyway. But Sandy’s upstairs in the attic, where I’ll take you until we can settle everything, and I can make the final preparations. Oh, dear, you’ve got blood on your neck from where you moved when I gave you that shot. Here, let me get that off with this handkerchief.”

  With the saliva-soaked cloth, she dabbed at Tess’s neck, then wiped her hands. “Oh, blood on my hands, just like Lady Macbeth, but then I’ll bet you don’t know about her, do you?”

  She pulled a small bottle of hand sanitizer from her sweater pocket and washed her hands. “This does wonders for erasing fingerprints on bottles and doorknobs, though it’s not as good as wearing gloves. You know, in the fifties and early sixties we wore white gloves to shop in a nice store, to church, so much more ladylike and sanitary than all that hand shaking and hugging these days.”

  Miss Etta efficiently tied Tess’s wrists and legs right over her earlier bonds, then took tape from a box labeled Book Cover Repair and wound it around Tess and one of the supporting roof beams. She ignored Tess’s pleas as she worked, dumping Tess’s cell phone on the floor with the other things from her purse. Positioning the phone, she went into a back corner and returned with another version of the Mr. Mean scarecrow and smashed the phone to bits.

  “There!” she declared, clapping her hands free of dust, then digging out the sanitizer again. “It would give me great pleasure to get rid of all of those. You know, people were much better off when they spoke face-to-face. For example, when we chatted at the church service the other night, you told me that you were recalling too much. That’s why I left a version of Mr. Mean when I took Sandy, to see if it would jog your memory at all. Then I would know if I had to get rid of you fast, but now will do. I was trying to plan how, and here you came into the library alone.”

  “How did you get in the house to drug my wine?”

  “With a key, of course. I took it from your cousin Grace’s coat pocket at the library when she was still living in the Lockwood house, the very day she told me you were coming back to town. You see, I’ve been buying sleepy-time drugs from Dane for years, but he wanted to charge me more. I said that was immoral and outrageous, but I was afraid he’d tell someone I was using them—I told him I needed them to keep my ill mother calm.”

  “So you...you shot him?”

  “I had to. I left a so-called suicide note, which was really an old excuse he’d penned to me—tongue-in-cheek, obviously—about some overdue books on new dog breeds he’d borrowed from the library. My, he had a big fine for those books. The day he left this world, I had him bring his own antique pistol. I told him I’d buy it for an exorbitant price. But the thing is, I’m not certain that the last batch of sleeping potions he gave me are full strength, and I never was good with an intravenous needle, so sorry about that jab on your neck.”

  Tess wanted to break down in sobs, but she had the strangest urge to laugh hysterically. Etta Falls should have been committed to the Falls County Insane Asylum in town before it was closed. And her mother must be just as mad.

  “Now, Teresa, I can’t move you into the big house until after dark, but I’ll be back sooner than that,” she announced with a pat on Tess’s shoulder. “My, you were such a pretty little girl. Mama Sybil’s favorite, I really think so, and then you had to sneak away. But not this time. Not this time.”

  She produced another neatly ironed and sweetly scented handkerchief and pushed it into Tess’s mouth. Tess fought to keep from gagging and hyperventilating. While, humming, Miss Etta swept up what had been Tess’s phone into a dustpan. She put the other items spilled from her purse back inside it. Then she went out and locked the book-barn door. The sound of the bookmobile driving away faded, but the hushed roar of the waterfall and the piercing shriek of a distant train hovered heavy in the air.

  * * *

  “What do you mean she stepped out and never came back?” Gabe shouted at Peggy.

  “She got a cup of coffee. I gave her a little break. I was on the phone with a medical emergency call, and she just stepped out, that’s all. You didn’t tell me to tie her to her chair!”

  “I know, I know. Vic, will you take my gear and stow it? I’m going to call Tess, tell her to get the heck back here.” He punched in her number as he went back to his office.

  Nothing. He got nothing but voice mail when he knew she kept her phone on during the day. His gut twisted tighter. He rushed back out into the hall.

  “She’s not answering. I’m going to look for her.”

  “Look where?” Vic said, still holding both vests and rifles.

  “I don’t know! I obviously don’t know where to look for anyone missing!”

  “Calm down. She’s probably just at the church helping to set up the search and hasn’t recharged her phone or forgot to turn it on. Call Jace.”

  “I’ll walk down there myself.”

  Gabe strode outside, furious at Peggy, Tess, himself, the world. He scanned the street and sidewalks toward New Town, then walked toward Old Town. Only a few people were on the street, none of them Tess. Man, I should have locked her up, he thought. Part of the reason he was having Peggy train her was so he’d know where she was during the day and she’d be at his place at night.

  According to Peggy, she’d been gone over an hour. Horrible memories hit him hard. Little Teresa missing in the cornfield. “Well, where is she?” her mother was screaming. “She can’t just disappear! You were supposed to be watching her!” His own mother was on the phone, calling his dad to come home. Gabe’s panic soared.

  He ran across the street and into the Kwik Shop, walked the ends of the aisles. No Tess. He called Jace.

  “No, she’s not here, Sheriff. I’ll keep an eye out. We’ve got the team leaders set for the search for Sandy....”

  Gabe said a fast goodbye. If he didn’t spot Tess soon, there’d be a double search to organize.

  Creekside Gifts had reopened, but he was pretty sure it was being staffed by friends of the Kentons right now. Still, he went across the street again. Lindell Kenton and Tess seemed to have bonded over Tess’s agreeing to read from the Bible at the service. They’d had a long talk on the phone and another at the church. Yeah, she could be here. But when he stuck his head in the door, they told her they hadn’t seen Tess.

  As he walked toward the library, it hit him. She’d probably come down here to get that book for him. And when talking to Miss Etta, it could be hard to get away. As he reached for the door, he saw a hand turn the Closed sign around to Open. When he opened the door, it almost hit Miss Etta.

  “Oh, Sheriff. I just got back from an early lunch. Did you decide you need that book on stress?”

  His hopes fell. “I thought maybe Tess Lockwood came down to get it for me.”

  “Oh, she was here but just to ask if she could keep the books I gave her longer. Just as you had told me, she said they were of some help to her, but she didn’t stay long. I got the impression she was going for
a walk.”

  “Thanks, Miss Etta,” he said, and ignored her suggestion for the second time to take the book about stress from her desk. He hurried outside.

  His phone rang. Thank God. But it was Vic’s phone. Tess was really going to hear it from him when he found her. It sobered him to think how much he cared for her, not just as the first victim, not just because both he and his father had lived and breathed these kidnap cases.... He really wanted her, loved her.

  “Sheriff McCord here.”

  “Gabe, it’s Vic. Haven’t seen Tess, but Pastor Snell tracked down that woman who counseled Tess after she was returned to her family. Melanie Parkinson. She lives in Columbus, but I have her contact info if you want to call her. She works late hours but will be at this number after nine this evening.”

  “Yeah, I want to call her. You know my motto—any clue will do. Anything. Vic, Tess has vanished into thin air.”

  Vic read Gabe the phone number, then said, “I’ll go into New Town to look for her. Leave Peg on the phones here. Don’t panic, okay?”

  “Aren’t you worried too? Instead of New Town, how about you drive out to my place, then hers?”

  “Because I drove her this morning—remember? She doesn’t have a car.”

  “But maybe she had someone take her out to get it, since you and I were gone. It’s a long shot, but—”

  “Okay, sure. Stay in touch.”

  Stay in touch. Gabe felt haunted by the past. What he feared most in all this was losing Tess a second time.

  * * *

  It was just after dark when Miss Etta returned to the book barn, gave Tess another shot—this time in her upper arm—and cut the bonds around her feet. “That drug is for people, not an animal drug, and doesn’t take long to work, believe me.”

  She pulled the gag from Tess’s mouth. Tess gasped for air and moved her tongue, trying to get some saliva going so she could speak. She had to talk this woman out of whatever her warped brain had planned. And facing Miss Etta’s mother, whom she recalled now as scary and sadistic, would be a trial too. Why was Miss Etta, at her age, still so completely under her mother’s thumb? Tess remembered how Sybil Falls had demanded hugs and kisses and complete obedience or Miss Etta would beat her as the old woman called her bad and evil. Was there some strain of dementia in this family, or had the entire world gone mad?

  But then a thought hit Tess. She’d been just about ready to tell Miss Etta that Gabe knew about Dane’s drug source and that he’d found a list in Dane’s house of who bought drugs from him. She was hoping the lie would scare the woman, but suddenly realized it might make her move quicker to get rid of her—maybe put her out in that graveyard with Jill.

  But, especially since Miss Etta didn’t know how much of a dose to give an adult and was worried Dane had been giving her weaker doses, Tess wondered if she could pretend to be under the influence of the drug and wait for her chance to stop this woman? If it was the drug she and Gabe had researched, she knew it made a person cooperate with a doctor’s commands. Maybe she could shove Miss Etta, hit her—something. Mama Sybil must be frail, wheelchair-bound, a paraplegic, so, unless they had more old pistols loaded here, Tess hoped she’d have a chance. She had to fight the effects of the drug, keep telling herself that she could get away from this woman, only pretend to obey her, to stay alert. But she had to find and save Sandy too.

  “Upsy-daisy, little Teresa,” Miss Etta said, and helped her to her feet. Tess gasped. Upsy-daisy, just like the word smackings, triggered a flood of terrible memories. Tess longed to shake off the woman’s hands, but, pretending to be just a bit slow, she let Miss Etta lead her from the book barn. They shuffled past the bookmobile, across the dark yard, up onto the porch and through the back door of the big frame house. Though her hands were still tied behind her, she was desperate to flee. She only felt a bit groggy and thought she could do it. But she had to keep telling herself to comply with this woman’s orders until she could find Sandy.

  Miss Etta led her up a set of back stairs that must have once been used by servants. How familiar the house seemed. Her ankles burned, and her legs were sore from being tied so long. Her cut wrist pained her. She had to pretend to be subdued, out of it. Her thoughts rampaged when she needed to keep calm.

  If Sandy was upstairs, how Tess wanted to comfort the girl. If only Gabe would realize who had taken her, what had happened. Tess tried to recall what she’d said to Peggy when she left the sheriff’s office. She’d been on the phone with that call about a raccoon bite. Tess couldn’t remember if she’d told Peggy that she was going to the library or not.

  Gabe would kill her for walking into a trap—if Miss Etta didn’t kill her first.

  29

  Gabe took Sandy Kenton’s mother aside in the church parking lot being used as the base, where scores of volunteers had fanned out for the search. Some were already reporting in—that they’d found nothing.

  “Lindell, I need to tell you something.”

  “You’ve found her?” she demanded, grabbing his arm.

  “No, though we keep eliminating possibilities. Tess Lockwood’s gone missing. I just wanted you to know that my deputy and I notified the groups before they left to look for Tess too. I know you’ve talked to her lately. Any unusual hints about where she could be?”

  The woman’s face went blank for a moment. She’d aged so much in the six days since Sandy disappeared. Stringy hair, no makeup, the ravages of little sleep. The torment of not knowing what was happening to her only daughter—if she was still alive.

  “Tess?” she asked, her voice shaky. “Like, the kidnapper’s taken her again? An adult this time?”

  “Around noon today, she walked from the sheriff’s office to the library, left there and disappeared.”

  Her eyes widened. “Oh, no! Oh, no, no!” She lifted her clasped hands to her mouth, clenching her fingers. “But wouldn’t that mean the same person who has Sandy and Jill wants to harm her—shut her up? Gabe, I know you’ve lived and breathed this.”

  “I— Yes, all over again, times three.”

  “I hear Tess is special to you. Don’t look so surprised. This is Cold Creek, you know. Word gets around. I felt close to Tess the few times we talked. She helped me so much, not only that she came back, but just that she understood my pain. We have to find her and the girls.”

  “You and Win did a great job with the TV plea you made,” he said. “It’s been running on most channels, some nationwide.”

  “So the mayor told me. You know, Tess said she’d thought of running home to Michigan, but there was more than one reason to stay here now. She said she had to help you, stay close to you.”

  Tears stung his eye. “Thanks, Lindell. She hadn’t put it like that to me. I’d like to keep her here, but all this has to end. I need to find her—and Sandy—fast.”

  He touched the brim of his hat and started away, but she grabbed his elbow. “Maybe they’re together. Sandy, Tess and Jill. I’d like to think that. Tess helped me, and I’ll bet she could help Sandy too.”

  “Hold that thought. I’ve got to get back to the search. You’ll be the first to know anything,” he told her and headed toward his vehicle.

  He got in, started the engine and pulled away. He was so focused on Tess he’d forgotten to tell Lindell that the Ohio State Highway Patrol was going to fly a chopper over local wooded areas using FLIR, heat thermal imaging. Vic was keeping him updated on any tips or other information that came in on the sheriff’s phone lines or reports from searchers in the field. In the field—the standard cop term almost made him laugh, but this time it was literal.

  * * *

  “Hitchetty-hatchetty, up we go,” Miss Etta recited as they climbed the back stairs, passed the door to the second floor and kept going toward the attic. Tess was convinced Miss Etta sometimes believed Tess was Teresa, a little girl ag
ain.

  She had hoped that would help to get the woman off guard, but the librarian from hell had outsmarted her again. She held a cocked antique pistol pressed tight to her ribs as they climbed. “As you know I have not one moment’s hesitation about using this!” she’d said, and had given Tess a lecture about the gun’s pioneer history. Tess’s heart nearly pounded out of her chest and not from the exertion of the climb. What if that old gun went off? It was aimed right at her heart.

  Miss Etta chattered nonstop about next to nothing until she said something that put Tess on alert. “I swear I’m going to have blisters on my hands from all that digging. It’s been a while since I dug that much, and my shoulder and back muscles are aching like the very dickens. Interesting that one of the greatest writers in the English language had a last name that’s a euphemism for the word devil. That’s Charles Dickens, my dear, but he did have a mistress and was unfaithful to his wife, so he wasn’t lily-white. Your father wasn’t either.”

  However much Tess wanted to scream at this woman, she had to try to convince her the drug had made her dopey. “He’s gone,” she mumbled.

  “Yes, I know, and that is sad for you Lockwood girls that he’s so far away, but perhaps best he’s out of your lives. In the old days, you know,” she rattled on, “these servant stairs were important. The maids and kitchen help slept on the top floor and needed to go up and down without being seen by the family. Speaking of Dickens, servant stairs are very Victorian. Well, times have changed and even my family doesn’t have an ‘upstairs, downstairs’ lifestyle anymore. And this is hardly Downton Abbey.”

  Tess tried to ignore all that and desperately looked for her chance. She concentrated on what she’d say when she saw Sandy Kenton, the treasure for which Gabe had searched so hard. She was excited that the most recent drug that had been injected into her arm wasn’t making her particularly groggy.