by Reid, Terri
“Yeah, scared the heck out of me too,” Stanley agreed. “And maybe it learnt Clarissa a lesson.”
“Well, just before she left she asked me to tell Mary she loved her,” Rosie said, “so I think maybe things are on the mend.”
“That’s fine then,” he said. “That’s just fine.”
The glass sliding doors opened again and Katie Brennan walked through them. She looked quickly around the room, saw Rosie and Stanley and hurried to them. “How’s Mary doing?” she asked, sitting next to them.
Stanley told her what he’d told Rosie and she sighed with relief.
“So, how did it happen?” she asked.
“There were some papers on the floor in the kitchen,” Rosie said. “Mary didn’t see them and she stepped on one and slipped backwards. She caught her head on the corner of the butcher-block counter.”
“Ouch,” Katie said, wincing. “I bet that hurt.”
“She cut her head, so there was blood everywhere,” Stanley added. “Knocked her out for a while too.”
“She lost consciousness?” Katie asked. “Well, that makes it a little more serious. I’m glad they’re doing the CT scan.”
They sat in silence for a few moments, the television running a cable news channel in the background. Finally, Katie turned to Rosie and Stanley and asked, “So, who’s watching Clarissa?”
Rosie started. “Why you are, aren’t you?”
“What?” Katie exclaimed.
“Clarissa came downstairs after Mary went to the hospital and told me you called and asked her to come over to your house, so I could come to the hospital,” Rosie said, her voice filled with concern.
Katie shook her head. “I never called,” she said. “I just found out about Mary because Maggie came into the house and told me she was in the hospital.”
“Could Maggie have invited her?” Stanley suggested. “Could she be there and you just didn’t know?”
Katie pulled out her cell phone and called her house. “Andy, it’s Mom,” she said. “Please ask Maggie to come to the phone.”
They all waited, their hearts in their throats, until Maggie answered. “Hi. Mom,” she said.
“Maggie, is Clarissa there with you?” she asked.
“No, Mom,” Maggie said. “She’s not here.”
“Thank you,” Katie said, shaking her head at Rosie and Stanley. “I want you to get your brothers and start looking around the neighborhood for her. I’ll be home soon.”
Stanley stood up and walked to the doors that separated the waiting room from the exam rooms. The nurse at the entrance looked up from her computer screen. “Can I help you?”
“I gotta talk to Police Chief Alden right away,” he said. “There’s another emergency at his home.”
She nodded. “Just push the button on the wall for access,” she said. “He’s waiting in exam room three.”
Stanley did as she said and the doors opened automatically. He rushed down the wide corridor and quickly found the room. Pausing outside the door, he knocked sharply.
“Come in,” Bradley called.
Stanley pushed open the door and saw Bradley sitting alone in the room. “Where’s Mary?” Stanley asked.
“Getting her CT scan,” Bradley replied.
“We got another problem,” Stanley said. “Clarissa’s run away.”
Standing and dropping the magazine he’s been leafing through, Bradley stared at Stanley as though he couldn’t believe what he’d just said. “Run away?”
“Yeah, she told Rosie the Brennans had invited her over,” he explained. “But Katie Brennan just arrived to check on Mary and she never called Clarissa. She called her house, just to see if Clarissa was playing with Maggie. But Maggie told her Clarissa wasn’t there. She’s got her boys searching the neighborhood.”
“Mike,” Bradley said, looking over at the guardian angel who had jumped up as soon as Stanley came in. “Can you check on her?”
Mike shook his head, sadly. “She’s made a decision she knows is wrong,” he said. “At this point, I can’t see or do anything unless she prays for help.”
“Well, damn,” Bradley muttered. “Mike, you stay with Mary. I’ve got to go find Clarissa. Make Mary stay put. We’ll find her.”
Mike nodded. “I’ll keep her here,” he said.
Grabbing his coat, he nodded, “Thanks Mike. Stanley, let’s go.”
Chapter Fifty-one
Ray dropped the newspaper in his lap and looked over at the GPS tracking screen, the alert alarm was going off. The Alden kid was moving. He pulled out of the parking lot at Reed Park and headed down American Street toward his target. She’s moving pretty quickly, he thought, she’s not walking.
He drove slowly, staying a couple blocks away from the moving target. Don’t be too eager, he cautioned himself, you don’t want to have to deal with her dad.
He watched the indicator move across the screen into a neighborhood behind the Lincoln Mall. What the hell is she doing back there?
The streets behind the Lincoln Mall were circular, one leading into the other. They were not often traveled and it was fairly difficult to remain anonymous once you pulled onto the street. Ray knew that he would have to wait until she reached her destination before he could follow.
Pulling into the far end of the Lincoln Mall, in front of the now empty supermarket, he found a parking spot that was hidden from the street and placed his car in park. He pulled out the plastic bag he’d placed under the passenger seat and put it on top of the seat. The washcloth soaked in chloroform was still damp.
Closing his eyes for a moment, he fantasized about her capture. He would simply walk up behind her and placed the washcloth over her nose and mouth. She would struggle. His smile widened, he loved when they struggled. He would pull her closer to him, so he could feel her struggles against his body. Then, when it was almost too much to bear, when he was almost ready for release, she would lay limp in his arms.
Taking a deep breath, he allowed the erotic tension to seep from his body. He couldn’t think of the pleasure yet; he had to have a clear head to catch her. She would be his last for a while. He would spend the entire night enjoying her and, in the morning, he would tend to his garden one last time before leaving town.
He watched the indicator slow and then finally stop in front of an address on Winter Drive. He waited a few moments, then put his car into drive and smiled to himself. She was nearly his.
Chapter Fifty-two
Clarissa slowed down as she got closer to her old house. The surrounding houses had changed since her mom and she had run away two years ago. She slid to a stop and straddled the bike, just looking at her home from a house away. Someone had painted it. Her mom’s flower pots weren’t on the front porch. The curtains over the big window in the front room were different. Would her dad still be in a house that wasn’t theirs anymore?
She slid one leg over the center bar and walked the bike closer to the house. “Dad?” she whispered, not quite sure how she should be doing this. “Dad, can you hear me?”
She wheeled the bike closer, up the front path and to the porch. “Dad, it’s Clarissa, I need you,” she whispered urgently. “Please show me that you’re here.”
She looked around, studying any little detail that might prove her dad was nearby. The leaves on the lilac bush rustled and she moved closer, but then a small bird flew out of the branches. The gutters on the porch clattered, but when she looked up, she saw a squirrel running along the roof with a nut in its mouth. “Dad, you have to be here,” she repeated. “I need to talk to you. I need to see you.”
She waited, looking all around, but nothing happened.
Then front door opened behind her, she twirled around, expectation and a little fear, filling her heart. “Da…,” she froze.
Her dad wasn’t at the door, instead a young girl about her age stood on the porch. “Hi,” the girl said. “Are you lost?”
Clarissa shook her head. “No, I’m not,” she replied.
“I used to live here and I was…looking for something.”
“Oh,” the girl replied brightly. “We’ve lived here for a month now. It’s a very nice house. But we didn’t find anything. What are you looking for?”
“Um, it’s not important,” Clarissa said. “I just was passing by and I thought I’d check.”
“Where’s your mom?”
“She’s in the…,” Clarissa stopped. She was going to tell her where Mary was; why hadn’t she thought about her mother first. “She’s dead. She died a few months ago.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” the girl exclaimed. “That would be awful. Where’s your dad?”
An image of Bradley flashed into her mind, but she shook her head to clear it. “My dad died two years ago,” she said firmly, trying to block Mary and Bradley from her thoughts.
“So you’re an orphan, just like Annie,” the girl said.
“No…I mean, yes. I mean…it’s complicated.”
“Are you all by yourself?”
Tears pricked at the back of Clarissa’s eyes. Yes, she thought, I am all by myself.
She nodded. “Sort of.”
“Lydia, why are standing there with the door open?” a woman’s voice called from inside the house.
The little girl turned her head and shouted. “Mom, there’s an orphan girl outside who used to live here.”
“No, please,” Clarissa said.
But it was too late; the mother was already standing behind her daughter on the porch. “Who are you?” she asked.
“I’m Clarissa,” she replied, deciding not to add her last name.
“Well, Clarissa, do you want to come inside?” she asked. “It’s getting dark. I could call someone for you.”
Clarissa shook her head. “No, that’s okay,” she replied. “I should get going anyway.”
“Where are you going?” the woman insisted.
“Um, probably back home,” she lied.
“Young lady, I can tell when someone is not telling me the truth,” she said. “I insist you come in, so we can call your folks.”
Slipping her leg back over the center bar, she backed the bike up. “Really, I’ll be fine,” she said.
“I can drive you somewhere,” the woman insisted, stepping forward on the porch.
“No thank you,” Clarissa called as she pushed the bike back to the sidewalk and turned it away from the house. She jumped on the bike and pedaled quickly down the street.
The woman stood on the porch and watched her, shaking her head. That little girl is frightened of something, she thought, I wonder if there’s an Amber Alert out for her?
She started to turn into the house when a movement caught her eye. She turned and watched a car moving slowly down the street, the driver’s eyes on the departing little girl. She pulled out her cell phone and took a photo of the license plate. She’d save that just in case there was an Amber Alert about the child.
Chapter Fifty-three
Mary was wheeled down the corridor from the radiology section toward the examination room by the technician who performed the CT Scan. “I’ll finish processing the test and get the results to the radiologist as quickly as possible,” she said. “Then he’ll call it down to the emergency room doctor.”
“Thank you. In the meantime, can I change back into my own clothes?” she asked, fingering the hospital gown she was wearing. “Not that I don’t love the style.”
The technician laughed and nodded. “Yes, I think we’re done poking at you for the time being,” she said. “Go ahead and change.”
Mary climbed out the wheelchair and nodded. “Thanks again,” she said.
The technician closed the door behind her and Mary turned to Mike, standing next to her bed. “Where’s Bradley?” she asked.
“Well, there was a little misunderstanding at home,” Mike replied. “It seems that we’ve misplaced Clarissa.”
“What?” Mary exclaimed.
Mike hurried over. “Okay, you sit down and calm down, okay?” he said. “Bradley, Rosie, Stanley and the entire Brennan crew are searching for her. They’ll find her in no time.”
“How could this happen?”
“Well, Clarissa told Rosie that the Brennans had called and wanted her to stay with them, so Rosie could be here with you,” Mike explained. “But when Katie showed up here and had no knowledge of the conversation, they put two and two together.”
“What did Maggie say?” Mary asked.
“Katie called Maggie and asked her if Clarissa was there,” Mike said. “Maggie said no.”
“Do you honestly believe that Maggie doesn’t know more about this or doesn’t at least have a clue where Clarissa might be going?” she insisted.
Mike slapped his forehead. “Of course she does,” he said. “Those two are as thick as thieves.”
“Okay, I’ll get dressed and then let’s get going,” Mary said, pulling her clothes out of the closet.
“No,” Mike said. “I promised Bradley that you would stay put until the doctor released you. So, you need to stay put.”
“But, they need me,” she insisted.
“I’ll go talk to Maggie,” he said. “I can pull angel rank on her and get her to confess. Then I’ll tell Bradley anything I learn. In the meantime, you sit here and wait. Okay?”
She sighed loudly. “Fine,” she said. “But if you don’t find her within thirty minutes, I’m stealing an ambulance and going out searching on my own.”
Mike chuckled, “Yes, momma bear, I understand.”
As soon as Mike faded away, Mary quickly dressed, hesitating a couple of times when she felt a little dizzy. She finally finished and looked around the room for her purse and her cell phone. She needed to call Bradley to find out what was going on. She searched the closet and all of the drawers, and then realized the awful truth. “Well, crap,” she said. “They didn’t bring my purse.”
She sat down on the bed and fumed. “They better bring me some news, fast.”
Chapter Fifty-four
Clarissa hurried down the street before the woman on the porch could call the police. She didn’t want to go to jail. She rode to the end of the block and stopped, looking up and down the intersecting streets. But where was she going to go? She couldn’t contact her dad; she didn’t have any other friends in town. She sighed; the only place she could go was home.
She started to turn the bike when she saw the car glide to the curb. “Hello there Clarissa,” Ray Giles said, hanging out of the window. “Your father sent me over to get you. He said it was getting dark and he needed you to come home now.”
Clarissa shook her head. “No, that’s okay,” she said, her heart tripping in her chest. “I’ll just ride home by myself.”
“But there’s been an accident,” he said. “Your mother has been hurt. They need you to hurry home.”
How did he know that Mary had been hurt? she wondered. Could he be telling the truth?
He watched her hesitate and opened the car door, the washcloth hidden in his hand. “She’s hurt badly,” he continued. “Stepping onto the curb. She was in a car accident.”
That was all she needed to hear. Clarissa jumped down on the pedal and wheeled away from him as fast as she could. “Get back here,” he shouted. “You get back here right now.”
Clarissa sped down the sidewalk, knowing she couldn’t beat him back home. She crossed the road at the small cul-de-sac on Winter Drive and rode alongside one of the houses. She crossed through the back yard and into the adjacent back yard and then up onto Bailey Avenue. She rode across the street and then peered down driveways to find a house that didn’t have a fence. Finally, halfway down the block she found a house whose yard backed up to another yard without a fence, she turned her bike alongside the house and drove through both yards to end up on Wise Street.
At the end of the driveway, she paused to catch her breath and decide what she was going to do next. She couldn’t make it home, it was too far away and no one was there. Suddenly she hea
rd the sound of a helicopter and saw that it was very low to the ground. Of course, the hospital was just at the end of this street and a little way down Stephenson. She could make it to the hospital. Mary and Bradley would be there. They would save her.
She jumped back on her bike and pedaled in the direction of the hospital, pausing only to wait for the light on Stephenson. She turned into the parking lot and rode along the back to the emergency room, dropping her bike outside the door and running into the lobby.
To her dismay the waiting room was empty. Where were Stanley and Rosie? They were supposed to be here.
She saw car lights reflected against the glass doors and turned around. Her blood ran chill as she saw Ray’s car slowly drive past the emergency room, his eyes meeting hers. As she watched him pull to a stop, she knew she had to find Mary.
A nurse, pushing a gurney, came out through the large brown doors that led to the examination rooms. Keeping herself hidden, Clarissa waited until the gurney passed and slipped through the doors as they were closing. She hurried down the corridor, praying she could find Mary before anyone found her and threw her out.
“Mary,” she called, as she walked near the rooms. “Mary.”
“Clarissa?”
Clarissa’s heart leapt with joy when she heard Mary’s voice. When the door opened and Mary stepped into the hallway, Clarissa ran to her and wrapped her arms around her waist. “I’m so sorry,” she cried. “I’m so sorry.”
Mary guided the little girl into the room, closing the door behind her, and then knelt down and wrapped her arms around her daughter. “I’m so glad you’re safe,” she said. “Everyone is out looking for you. You should never run away.”
Suddenly the alarms in the emergency area sounded. Ear-spitting sirens sounded throughout the floor.
Clarissa raised her head, her face wet with tears. “The bad man was after me,” she shouted. “So I came here. The bad man wanted to snatch me.”
“What bad man?” Mary asked.
