The Girl in the Woods

by Patricia MacDonald

‘Ellis? He’s here? What does he want? He never comes here.’

  ‘I think he wants to leave Malcolm here. Maybe you better go talk to him.’

  ‘Will you take these into Zach?’ she asked, handing him a plastic plate and cup.

  ‘Sure thing,’ he said.

  Amanda went through the kitchen and into the living room. Ellis was standing on the mat beside the door and Malcolm was standing beside him, yawning.

  Amanda put a proprietorial hand on Malcolm’s shoulder.

  ‘Hey Malcolm. How you doing, sweetie?’

  ‘Tired,’ said the boy.

  ‘I can see that.’ She looked up at Ellis. ‘What’s up? It’s kind of late for a visit.’

  ‘Blair didn’t come home,’ Ellis muttered, ‘and, no matter what I tell him, the kid’s all worried.’

  ‘A guy came looking for Aunt Blair,’ said Malcolm. ‘A private eye. He thought something might have happened to her.’

  ‘Probably a false alarm,’ said Ellis. ‘But he’s been bugging me to go look for her.’

  ‘She disappeared,’ said Malcolm gravely.

  ‘Oh no!’ Amanda cried.

  ‘Oh, she did not disappear. But I had to promise him I’d go look for her just to get him to pipe down. Anyway, I can’t be dragging him around,’ said Ellis. ‘Can he stay with you?’

  Amanda frowned. ‘The only thing is, Zach is sick. I don’t want Malcolm getting sick.’

  Ellis peered at her. ‘If he’s gonna live here, you better get used to that happening.’

  Amanda nodded. ‘You’re right,’ she said. She turned to Malcolm. ‘Are you hungry? Did you eat?’

  ‘I ate,’ he said.

  ‘Well, why don’t you go get settled in? Just don’t go into Zach’s room. I don’t want you to catch what he’s got.’

  ‘Ok,’ said Malcolm. He turned to Ellis and gave his uncle a hug which was briefly, awkwardly returned. ‘You find Aunt Blair, ok?’ Then he trudged off in the direction of his soon-to-be bedroom, dragging his backpack along the floor.

  Peter met him coming through and ruffled Malcolm’s hair. ‘Hey buddy.’

  ‘Hey,’ said Malcolm, trying to stifle a yawn.

  ‘Steer clear of Zach.’

  ‘Manda told me already.’

  Ellis opened the front door as if to exit. Amanda grabbed a handful of the sleeve of his coat.

  ‘Wait a minute, Ellis. What made this guy think something might have happened to Blair?’

  Peter walked up behind his wife and folded his arms over his chest.

  ‘She ain’t answering her phone,’ Ellis explained. ‘Nobody’s seen her.’

  ‘She’s used to being on her own,’ said Amanda.

  ‘You ain’t heard from her, have ya?’

  Amanda shook her head. ‘No. I haven’t.’

  ‘Does she always tell you where she’s going?’ Peter asked.

  ‘Nah. But that detective who came around had plans to meet her. He got Malcolm all worked up. I don’t think there’s much to it. But I guess I better go try to find her. She’s still my responsibility.’

  Amanda and Peter exchanged a glance that was part amusement, part disbelief.

  ‘I’m sure she’d appreciate that,’ said Amanda.

  ‘Maybe I could help,’ Peter said. ‘I could take a ride around town. Ask a few people if they’ve seen her.’

  ‘You can look for her car,’ said Ellis. ‘It’s a Nissan. A late model gray Nissan.’

  ‘Ok,’ said Peter. ‘I will. Do you have a photo of her I could show around, to see if anyone remembered seeing her?’

  Ellis looked annoyed by the question. ‘Just look for the car.’

  ‘Here,’ said Amanda, reaching into her pocket. ‘I have one on my phone that I took of her with Malcolm,’ said Amanda. She showed them the photo she took of Blair in her bathrobe, with Malcolm’s arm draped over her shoulders. ‘I’ll send it to your phone.’

  ‘Good,’ said Peter. ‘Got it.’

  ‘You try downtown,’ said Ellis. ‘I’ll look in the back roads.’

  ‘Ok. Can I have your cell phone number? In case I find her. You do have a cell phone, right?’

  ‘Of course I’ve got a cell phone,’ said Ellis irritably. He reeled off the number and Peter put it into his phone.

  ‘Do you want my number?’ Peter asked.

  ‘I’ve got your wife’s number. That’s good enough. Well, come on if you’re coming. I can’t stand around here talking all night.’ He glanced at Amanda. ‘Thanks for taking the kid.’

  ‘No problem,’ said Amanda, as Ellis Dietz walked back out on the porch and down the steps. Peter went to the coat closet and got his jacket. Amanda came over to him as he was shrugging it on.

  ‘You don’t think there’s anything really wrong, do you?’ she asked. ‘I can tell that Malcolm’s been crying. His eyes are still red.’

  ‘Well, I hope not. But she has been stirring some things up in this town,’ said Peter. ‘If Molly’s killer is still living around here, he might not be happy to have Blair making noise about it.’

  ‘I can’t believe anyone would harm her,’ said Amanda.

  Peter shrugged. ‘It doesn’t hurt to take a look,’ he said.

  Eventually, despite the novelty of a stranger appearing in their space, Trista’s eyelids began to droop and she nodded off on the floor. Ariel came over and looked blankly at her child. Then, she reached down, scooped her up into her own arms, and staggered to her feet.

  ‘Come on, baby,’ she whispered.

  ‘Where does she sleep?’ Blair asked.

  Ariel’s answer was a whisper. ‘There’s a closet back here in the hall. I put our clothes and pillows on the closet floor. She sleeps on that.’

  Blair watched Ariel settle her child onto the closet floor. She realized that her eyes were getting used to the gloom of the space. Sweat had broken out on her forehead and pooled under her arms, adding to the general misery of her conditions. Ariel returned and tossed a pillow at Blair which she had retrieved from Trista’s closet.

  ‘Sit on that,’ said Ariel. ‘That cold floor will make you sick.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Blair, arranging the pillow beneath her haunches. ‘I’m afraid I’m feeling a little bit feverish.’

  Ariel gazed at her indifferently.

  Blair thought how ridiculous and petty her complaints must sound to this woman who had been trapped here for years, along with her child. ‘That was clever of you, to make a room for Trista,’ Blair said.

  Ariel sat down on her one chair and stared back in the direction of the closet.

  ‘This way,’ said Ariel, ‘when he comes in here to rape me, I can put Trista in there and close the door. She still has to hear it, but at least she doesn’t have to watch it.’ She flashed a pained, chilly smile.

  The bluntness of the word and its attendant image, was shocking. Blair winced, as if she had been struck. ‘That’s … horrible,’ she said.

  ‘Might as well call it what it is,’ said Ariel.

  ‘No, of course. You’re right. It’s just … I’m so sorry.’

  Ariel nodded in acknowledgement and they both were silent for a few moments.

  Finally Blair said, ‘How did he pick you … I mean … where …’

  ‘You mean where did he abduct me?’ Ariel asked bluntly.

  Blair nodded.

  Ariel shrugged. ‘At the bus station, I was running away from home. Though I had no idea where I was going to run to. But I had to get out of that house. My mom’s new boyfriend had moved in. He was younger than her. She was acting all flirty and pouty around him, always trying to turn him on. Meanwhile, when she was at work, he was sneaking into the bathroom while I was taking a shower and pulling back the shower curtain, or walking into my room without knocking. I finally got the nerve to tell my mom about it and she had a fit. She said it was my fault and that I was a bitch for trying to steal him from her.’ Ariel shook her head despondently at the memory. ‘She believed him instead of me! I gra
bbed my backpack and walked out. I didn’t know where to go. I just wanted to disappear. So, I went down to the bus station and was hanging around there. This guy who was a bus driver and looked like my gramps offered me a chocolate bar. He started talking to me. Asking me questions. He said he’d let me on the bus and let me ride for free.

  ‘I got on the bus and sat behind him. He talked to me the whole way to New York. Wanted to know all about me. He said New York was too dangerous for a young girl. He said he wanted to help me and I believed him. He reminded me of a little rabbit. He offered me a place to stay with him and his wife, showed me her picture and all. So I stayed on the bus and rode it round trip, right back to Yorkville. I went home with him but there was no wife there. Just me and him. By the time I realized what he was really up to, I was drugged up and locked in here. I was trapped …’

  Blair thought about Malcolm, running away. Being noticed by Joseph Reese. Rescued by him. Their hero. ‘He did have a wife. She was alive back then.’

  Ariel sighed. ‘Well, she wasn’t here when he brought me home. I doubt she ever knew about me. I never saw her. A long time later he did tell me when she died, as if he expected me to feel sorry for him.’ Ariel shook her head, still in disbelief.

  ‘His sister lives here now. He has a twin sister.’

  ‘Is she as awful as he is?’ Ariel asked.

  ‘She’s a nice woman,’ Blair said quietly. ‘She’d be so shocked if she knew.’

  ‘Maybe,’ said Ariel.

  They were silent for a moment. Blair thought of Darlene and tried to imagine her countenancing this unspeakable crime. She couldn’t.

  ‘I guess now he’ll want to have his way with you too,’ said Ariel matter-of-factly.

  Blair looked up at her in surprise and then realized that Ariel was probably correct.

  ‘I’ll kill him,’ said Blair through gritted teeth.

  Ariel smiled wearily. ‘Yeah. You think that …’ The rest of her observation hung in the air, like a puff of smoke.

  Blair looked up at her, sitting in her chair, and wondered how in the world she had survived this ordeal. She shuddered and her teeth began to chatter again.

  ‘What?’ Ariel demanded, noticing her expression.

  ‘Nothing. I just … it’s hard to wrap my mind around all that you’ve been through. For all this time.’

  Ariel nodded and heaved a sigh. ‘What were you doing, poking around out here, anyway?’ Ariel asked. ‘Did someone send you to look for me?’

  Blair heard the plaintive note in the question. As if Ariel was clinging to that last little fragment of hope that someone was still looking for her. Still cared what had become of her. She did not know how she could answer without crushing that last flicker of hope. She tried to find some words.

  ‘Not … exactly.’

  ‘Never mind,’ said Ariel. ‘That’s stupid. No one even cares that I’m gone.’

  ‘I’m sure that’s not true,’ said Blair. ‘Do you have other family? Or was it just you and your mom?’

  ‘I had an older brother. But he was away, in the army. My grandparents lived in the next town over.’ Ariel sat, staring at the floor, her arms hanging limply over the sides of the chair. She lifted one palm up and dropped it again. ‘Doesn’t matter,’ she said dully. ‘They wouldn’t even know me now.’

  Blair nodded sadly. Ariel was probably right. This wasted shell of a woman must bear almost no resemblance to the girl trapped by Joe Reese all those years ago.

  ‘I’m sure they didn’t forget you,’ Blair insisted. ‘They wouldn’t.’

  ‘How would you know?’ Ariel asked irritably.

  ‘Because,’ said Blair, ‘you don’t forget the people you care about. The people you love.’

  ‘That’s what you think,’ said Ariel.

  Blair noticed that when she spoke, Ariel often sounded like the petulant adolescent she must have been when she was first imprisoned here. As if time had stood still since she became a captive.

  ‘So why were you here?’ Ariel asked.

  Blair started. ‘Oh, I’ve been looking into the murder of an old friend of mine, actually. It happened a long time ago.’

  ‘What made you look here?’ Ariel asked.

  Blair tried to think back to how she had ended up here. It seemed like another lifetime.

  ‘My friend lived on this road. They found her body in the woods on the other side. The police arrested a guy and he went to jail for her murder, but I recently learned that it wasn’t him who killed her. I have to determine and be able to prove, what really happened or he’s not going to get out of jail.’

  ‘The poor bastard,’ Ariel said with genuine sympathy.

  ‘So,’ said Blair, ‘we decided to start again. Start at the beginning. Talk to everyone along this road.’

  ‘Who’s we?’

  ‘I hired a detective to help me.’

  ‘Where’s the detective now?’

  Blair shook her head. ‘I wish I knew.’

  ‘Do you think he killed her?’ Ariel asked matter-of-factly. Blair did not need to ask who she meant.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Blair. ‘I can’t prove it. But how many monsters like him could be living in this town?’

  ‘How many do you need?’ Ariel rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. ‘It only takes one,’ she said.

  THIRTY

  Peter glanced at his watch. He had been out driving around for an hour and had parked several times. He had gone into the local gas station, to ask if anyone had pumped gas into Blair’s Nissan. If she was planning on leaving town, he reasoned, the gas station was a logical stop. But it had been a slow night and the lone attendant assured him that he had not filled up a gray Nissan. For the same reason he stopped in the local Wawa and described Blair to the cashier, thinking maybe Blair had bought a bottle of water or a snack for the road. But the cashier was certain she had not seen her.

  He stopped into Apres Ski and spoke to Janet and Robbie Sinclair, who were both at the restaurant that evening. Neither one of them had seen Blair.

  ‘Is something wrong?’ Janet had asked.

  Peter assured her that everything was fine. And, of course, it probably was, he thought, as he got back into his car and pulled out of his parking spot on Main Street. He had traveled only a few blocks when his phone rang. Peter pulled over by the bus station and answered it. Amanda was relaying Ellis’s latest message. He had made a circuit of the back roads, so far with no luck. Peter asked about Zach’s fever and Amanda said it had come down a little bit.

  ‘I’m gonna head home,’ he said. ‘I’ve tried everything I can think of.’

  ‘Where are you now?’ Amanda asked.

  ‘Outside the bus station,’ he said, glancing over at the stone façade of the old depot, which had buses parked diagonally in the lot. As his gaze passed over the parking lot, he noticed a gray car parked in between two large SUVs.

  ‘Just a minute,’ he said. ‘I want to look at something.’ He ended the call from his wife and got out of his car.

  He walked sideways down the embankment to the bus station parking lot, to get a closer look at the gray car. It took him only a moment to register the make and model. He put his face to the window and looked inside.

  There was a book entitled ‘Robotics’ on the back seat, a couple of empty water bottles and a yoga bag with some sort of mandala printed on the front.

  ‘This has to be it,’ he said aloud. He straightened up and dialed Amanda’s number. Amanda answered instantly.

  ‘Does she do yoga?’ he asked.

  ‘I don’t know. Wait. I think I remember her mentioning that she does, when we were sitting with Celeste. She was stiff from sitting and said she wished she could go to a yoga class. Why?’

  ‘I think I solved our mystery,’ he said. ‘It seems that, for some reason, Blair took the bus to Philly this time. Her car is here in the lot at the bus station.’

  ‘Isn’t that kind of odd?’ asked Amanda.

  �
�Maybe she had some cocktails and didn’t feel like it was a good idea to drive,’ Peter suggested.

  ‘Yes. Probably something like that.’

  ‘All right. I’m heading home.’

  ‘Thank goodness,’ said Amanda. ‘I was worried.’

  ‘Everything’s ok,’ he said. ‘Can you call Ellis and tell him? I’ll be home in a few.’

  Blair tried to make a pallet to sleep on out of the dingy pillow, her coat and a threadbare bath towel that Ariel offered her, from her limited supplies. Earlier, they had shared a can of chili warmed in the microwave. Now the chili sat like a greasy lump in her churning stomach making her want to gag. She hadn’t actually thought that she would be able to eat anything, but hunger asserted itself and she forced herself to ingest the dreary meal. Blair hoped she would not have to heave it up into the filthy toilet in the back hall.

  Ariel, worn out from making conversation after so many years of silence, lay down first on the narrow bed and pulled up the rank sheets and blankets over her clothes. Blair was far too distraught to be able to rest and she thrashed about in the meager covers until Ariel sat up in the bed.

  ‘You ok?’ she asked.

  Blair punched the pillow and then punched it again.

  ‘No, I’m not ok,’ she hissed. ‘I feel sick. I’m lying here and I can’t believe what has happened to me. I feel like I’m going to crawl out of my skin.’

  ‘You’ll get used to it,’ said Ariel. ‘I used to hope I would die, but I never could bring myself to … end it.’

  Blair felt tears seeping out from beneath her eyelids. She wiped them away angrily.

  ‘You don’t hope that anymore?’ she asked in a strangled voice.

  Ariel sighed. ‘I have Trista now. I have to think of her.’

  ‘I should think she would be a constant reminder …’ said Blair.

  ‘I don’t need any reminder,’ said Ariel.

  ‘No,’ said Blair glumly. ‘I suppose not.’ The wound in her head was throbbing, and she recoiled in pain if she so much as grazed it with her finger. She forced herself to concentrate on what Ariel was saying.

  ‘Somehow I have to protect her,’ said Ariel.

  Blair did not reply. What hope was there of protecting a child from a man who would keep his child and her mother prisoner in this cold, comfortless cell? Blair pictured the pious, aging bus driver and felt such hatred for him that it seemed to scald her from within. She had never been able to imagine killing anyone, but now she really thought that she would be capable of killing him, given the opportunity. She understood why Ariel was skeptical. Surely Ariel had spent hours ruminating about that very thing. But Joe still kept her a prisoner and controlled her life completely. All that ruminating had made no difference.