by Blake Pierce
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Mercy would never admit it to any of her friends—especially not Anne—but she was a closet Taylor Swift fan. Mercy had even liked her at the start of the singer’s career, when she’d been a country act. The only person who knew Mercy was a Taylor Swift fan was her mother…and that was only because she had walked into Mercy’s room when Mercy had been jamming out to “Blank Space” a year or so ago. It was a memory that Mercy held dear because rather than teasing her, her mother had danced with her in a spontaneous moment of goofiness—a moment that had ended with her mother making a shushing gesture and saying: “Your secret is safe with me.”
Mercy thought about that moment as she once again traced the shape and size of her dark prison. She thought of her mother, trying to grasp the fact that both of her parents were now dead. Or so she assumed, anyway. The way her father had screamed for her to run…there had been terror in his voice. And then the gunshots…
Thankfully, Mercy had “Blank Space” on repeat in her head, drowning out the sound of that memory.
She came to the end of what she was starting to think of as her prison cell. She felt the corner, where the two walls met. She was fairly certain that was she was thinking of as “the end” of her cell was a door of some kind. Based on the size and shape of whatever she was being held in, she thought the door would be the kind that rolled up, like the back of a U-Haul. When she thought of that, she was pretty sure the shape and size of her prison was pretty close to that. Maybe she was in a storage unit, or one of those big moving containers.
She got down on her hands and knees and felt at the space where the floor met what she now assumed was a door. There was the slightest dip between the floor and all five feet of the door. In the center of it, she felt some sort of indentation in the door—one that was supposed to be there, perhaps feeding further down into the floor where some kind of a latch held the door closed. She dug her fingers into that indentation but could feel nothing. If she was being held in some sort of moving container or trailer, she was pretty sure the only way to open it was from the outside.
As she investigated the door, she heard a light squeaking noise coming from somewhere off in the distance. It sounded like a door opening and then closing. She then heard light footsteps and then…whistling.
It was him. He was back.
He had come to her three times. So far, he had not actually come into her little prison. He had only come to the door to speak with her—to tease her. She supposed if he did ever actually come inside her prison, she would have to fight. She’d fight as much as she could because her mind went to the worst possible place: that he would rape her or kill her.
She backed away from the door. Instinct told her to go back and cower in the corner. But if he did come inside, that would be the worst place for her to be. He wouldn’t be expecting her to be right there at the door, waiting.
She decided right then and there that if he opened the door, she was going to make a run for it. She’d go right past him and slide out one of the far sides of the door. Her knees ached in anticipation, wanting to run.
The man tapped on the door from the outside. The sound was hollow but almost musical. “How’s my little one?” he asked.
She said nothing. She waited to see what else he had to say. She wondered if there was some way she could make him open the door. She knew she couldn’t open it from the inside. So if he would just open it…then maybe she’d have a chance.
“Answer me, Mercy.”
He knows my name, she thought. It sent a flare of terror through her heart. Still, she said nothing.
“Here’s the deal,” the man said. “I’ve had you for a little over three days. I know you’re hungry. Those crackers aren’t cutting it. And how many sodas do you have left? Wouldn’t you like some refreshing cold water?”
Her mouth ached at the mention of cold water. She almost spoke out to him at the mere thought of it. It was like a chess game, trying to figure out what his next move might be.
“Let me try it this way, then,” he said. “Mercy…no one knows where you are. Only me. I hold your fate in my hands. After a while, I suppose I’ll let you go. Maybe. But if you stand any chance of making it back home, you are going to have to talk to me. Do you understand?” He paused here for a moment and then, with delight in his voice, he added: “Besides, you miss your parents, right? Don’t you want to know how they’re doing? All you have to do it speak with me a bit…and I’ll let you know.”
She stifled back a cry at the thought of her parents. And with that surge of emotion, she was unable to keep her words from coming out.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Ah, there’s my girl. You have a beautiful voice, Mercy.”
“What do you want?” she asked again, her voice tearful and broken this time.
“Just to know you better. For example, what is your favorite color?”
It was such an unexpected question that she wasn’t sure she had heard him correctly at first. “Purple,” she said.
“Ah, yes. That’s a favorite of mine, too. And what is your favorite food?”
Her stomach seemed to buckle at the thought of it, and the answer came out of her mouth right away. “Cheeseburgers.”
“I’m more of a shrimp man myself,” he said. His voice was overly cheerful; he was loving every moment of this.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” he asked.
She wasn’t sure what to say. The truth of the matter was that she didn’t. Not really. Jeremy Branch didn’t count…did he? Still, she figured she should answer with what she thought he wanted to hear.
“No.”
“Really? A girl as pretty as you? Well…have you ever kissed a boy?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever had sex with a boy?”
The question made her angry for reasons she did not fully understand. It was private and certainly not something she wanted to share with a man that had abducted her…a man she had never even seen.
“Where are my parents?” she asked.
“We’ll get to that later, Mercy. You have my word. But you need to answer my questions first. Now tell me, Mercy. Have you had sex with a boy?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm,” he said. It sounded almost sensual and made Mercy feel dirty. Slowly, he started to back away from the door. The last thing she’d expected to feel in this situation was shame. And with each new question he asked her, the feeling was worse.
“Did you like it?” he asked. And before she could answer him, he kept going. “Oh, I bet you did. I bet you loved it. How did you take it?”
Mercy started to weep. She balled her fists to her eyes and slowly slid down against the wall, sinking to the floor.
“It’s okay, you know?” he said. His voice was quiet, reasoning. “I had no delusions. You’re beautiful. I’m sure many boys were tripping over themselves for a chance to be with you. I did not think I would be the first.”
The first? she thought. So he does plan on raping me…
“But you know what, Mercy? I’m sure between you and I, we can find something you haven’t done with a boy. I mean, there are lots of things we can do. I’m sure we can think of something.”
Everything went quiet then. Mercy wasn’t sure, but she thought she could hear him breathing heavily.
If he comes in now, I won’t be able to fight him. I’m too weak, I’m too—
Something slammed hard into the side of the door outside. The reverberation coursed through her bones.
“Tell me what you can do for me that you haven’t done for another boy,” he said. He sounded angry now, making her assume that the loud noise had been him striking the side of the door.
“Please,” she said, still crying. “Just tell me about my parents.”
“You’re not playing nice,” he said. “It’s important that we know one another first.”
“Please…”
“Is that really what you want, pet?”
“Yes,” she sobbed.
There was a moment’s pause and then his answer. He spoke slowly and deliberately, as if savoring each word. “Your parents are dead. I killed them. Your father first and then your mother. I would be having this conversation with your delicious-looking mother but I knew you were there, too. And I had to have you.”
“No…”
“Yes. I killed them both. Your mother begged me to spare you. But before the light went out of her eyes, I promised her I’d care for you. That I’d take care of you and—”
He said more, but Mercy tuned it out. She went into some ethereal void within her head where nothing existed…nothing other than the image of dancing with her mother like two goofballs to “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift.
And even beyond that, there was oblivion—a darkness beyond the darkness of her prison that she slowly and deliberately sank into as her abductor’s voice droned on and on as if on some other world.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The state police arrived at the Deton police department at 11:05 in the morning. DeMarco had not yet managed to tap into Edgar Lee’s laptop and Lee himself had not yet started talking—not even so much as asking for a lawyer. With the arrival of what Barnes kept referring to as “the Staties,” the place seemed to go into a tailspin. News crews clambered for the best position, only to get a string of “no comment” from the state police, Barnes, and Kate. The bullpen at the station became a madhouse as the state police started coordinating with officers like Foster and Barnes, while also being filled in on the inner workings of the case by Kate and DeMarco.
Kate started to feel the start of a headache brewing behind her eyes as she and DeMarco sat down with Barnes and the state trooper in charge of the trio of officers that had showed up. His name was Dale Murphy, a rotund African-American man who had the look of an officer of the law who had seen way too much shit in his time.
“Canine units are already on the way to the scene you indicated to us on the phone,” Murphy told Barnes. He then looked to Kate and DeMarco and added: “As for the laptop, we can’t help there. That’s going to probably be something that would be faster handled on your end.”
“I don’t even know that it matters,” Kate said. “It’s doubtful that whatever crimes he has hiding on that laptop is linked to the Fuller case. In terms of priorities, I’d say it’s low.”
“I’ve got a piece of software running on it right now that should be able to crack it open,” DeMarco said. “But that can be running in the background.”
“What else can we assist with?” Murphy asked.
“I think that covers it,” Kate said. “This case has essentially become a manhunt. The hope, as far as I can see it, is that we find Mercy Fuller alive and she will know who abducted her and killed her parents.”
“So it’s just scouring the forests for any signs of her—dead or alive?” Murphy asked.
“Seems that way for now. With her parents dead and no next of kin in town, there aren’t any further resources. Edgar Lee was our last one and, as I’ve said, I honestly don’t think he had any hand in the disappearance.”
Murphy shrugged and looked around the table. “Agents Wise and DeMarco…this is your show so long as you’re here in Deton. Give us the orders and we’ll jump.”
“Let your canine units know we’re on the way. Find out where they feel we would best be used in terms of searching the forest on foot.”
Murphy gave a polite nod and headed out to do just that. Kate and DeMarco also got up, a feeling of urgency pushing them. Kate had been on five different cases over her career where the entirety of a case had all come down to an on-foot manhunt. Four of those five cases had turned up a dead body; the fifth had resulted in them just barely getting to the victim in time, ushering her on to a three-week hospital stay but, ultimately, a full life afterward. She knew the urgency of the situation and did her best to remain upbeat.
On the way toward the front door, Kate paused at the door to the interrogation room. She figured she’d leave instruction with someone to release Edgar Lee in the next hour or so. They could keep his laptop a while longer and if anything came out of it, they could simply arrest him again. For now, though, she didn’t see the sense in keeping him around when the PD had already become a miniature madhouse.
She reached for the door handle as her eyes fell on DeMarco. She was sitting back behind the desk she had been using while she’d been trying to get into Lee’s laptop. She was hunched over with a shocked look on her face. She then looked up, saw Kate, and waved her over with a subtle little motion.
Kate made her way through the small throng of officers and troopers, heading over to the desk. “What is it?” she asked.
“I got in,” DeMarco said. “And look at this…”
She had opened a folder with at least one hundred files. DeMarco picked one at random and opened it. It was a video. In it, a woman was on a bed, totally naked, on all fours. Another woman was beside her, stroking the other woman’s back, holding what Kate assumed to be a sex toy that she had never seen nor even heard of before.
As if all of that wasn’t shocking enough, the next thing that registered in her mind was what did it.
These were not women. These were young women. The one on all fours might be fifteen or sixteen—right around Mercy Fuller’s age.
DeMarco clicked another one. It was another video. This time, there was one female and three males. All of the males looked to be of age—one maybe as old as fifty. The girl, however, was easily underage.
“My God,” Kate said, closing the laptop lid. She looked down to DeMarco’s face and saw that she was absolutely fuming.
“Kate…that last girl…she couldn’t have been older than fourteen.”
“I know. Go on outside. Don’t even think of going in there with Lee. Catch up to Barnes before he leaves and send him back in here.”
DeMarco moved slowly as she did as she was asked. She glanced in the direction of the interrogation room as she walked toward the front doors. Kate saw reporters and camera people still clambering around out there.
One thing after another, after another, Kate thought, looking to Edgar Lee’s laptop. What the hell else could possibly happen today?
She knew it was a dangerous question because it was barely even noon yet. She got her bearings straight, doing her best to erase the images of those two videos from her mind.
It was a bit easier than she expected because while she did so, her cell phone rang. She took it out of her pocket and saw that it was Melissa. She nearly ignored it, considering everything that was going on. But something in the back of her head said otherwise. Melissa rarely ever calls you, much less during the day…
Suddenly, a ball of worry dropped into her stomach. She found herself growing nervous as the phone continued to ring. The flurry of motion around her and the buzzing of reporters outside seemed to make it about one hundred times worse.
She answered the phone, Edgar Lee’s laptop suddenly the last thing on her mind. “Hey, Lissa. What’s up?”
“I, um…I just wanted you to know that we’re at the hospital. It’s…it’s Michelle. Mom…it might be really bad.”
That ball of worry exploded and for a moment, the world seemed to go still. Absolutely motionless. “What is it?” she asked, having to stifle back tears.
“We took her to the doctor yesterday afternoon because she just kept wailing. They couldn’t find anything wrong with her and did some blood tests and…we got the results this morning and they sent us straight to the hospital. They think…they think she might have cancer. Neuroblastoma, which I hadn’t even heard of and…oh God, Mom…what the hell am I going to do?”
“Do they know for sure?”
“No, not yet. But I think they suspect it. They’re running tests right now and they’ve been giving us the it’s-best-to-be-prepared talk.”
“Neuroblastoma…that’s what…that’s dealing with the nervous system, right?”
&nb
sp; “Yeah. But they’re more concerned about how it’s presenting. In the abdomen.”
“I can be there in about three hours.”
“No, Mom. We don’t even know for sure yet. I just…I wanted you to know what was going on. Because if it turns out she does have it, I didn’t want that to be the first call you got, hearing about it.”
“When will you know for sure?”
“This is the final test. This is supposed to tell us for certain.”
“Let me know, okay? Don’t wait. Let me know right away.”
She watched the front door as Barnes came in. He looked washed out and in a hurry. His eyes were narrowed with worry. Reporters crowded in behind him. He was headed right for her, a look of absolute defeat on his face.
“Okay, Mom,” Melissa said in her ear. “I don’t even know if you still do this sort of thing, but would you say a prayer for her? For us?”
“Of course I will. I love you, Lissa.”
“I love you, too.”
She could not remember the last time her daughter had spoken those three words to her. When she ended the call and pocketed her phone, she tried her best to nonchalantly wipe the beginnings of tears away from the corners of her eyes.
Barnes looked at her with a bit of surprise that then dissolved into slight embarrassment. “You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. What about you? Did DeMarco tell you what we found?”
“She did. But there’s something else. Something new. The canine unit called. They found something…and it’s not sounding promising.”
Before he could even explain to her what information had come across, Kate felt something pass through her head, something like a wind that rocked her balance. She felt lightheaded for a minute as the day’s toll caught up with her.
She saw the images from the videos on Edgar Lee’s computer.
She heard Melissa’s voice, still echoing in her head: “They think she might have cancer. Neuroblastoma, which I hadn’t even heard of…”
