She wore a T-shirt with a picture of a woman with lots and lots of curly hair that said JANIS under it and a pair of flowered pajama pants.
“This is my mom,” Julia told her as she cleaned the slices on Cate’s arm. “Put the blanket over Caitlyn’s shoulders, Dillon. She’s cold.”
“Let’s get a fire going in here, too.”
“I’m working on it, Gram.” The aggrieved boy came through, but she only gave his hair a stroke as she stepped toward the table. “I’m Maggie Hudson, but you can call me Gram. You look like a girl in need of hot chocolate. I’ve got my own secret recipe.”
She reached in a cupboard, took out a package of Swiss Miss, then sent Cate a wink.
“This is Caitlyn, Mom. She was about to tell us what happened. Can you do that, Caitlyn?”
“We were playing hide-and-seek after the life celebration for my great-grandda, and I went to the tree beside the garage to climb it and hide, and there was a man and he stuck me with something and I woke up somewhere else.”
The words tumbled out as Maggie put a big mug in the microwave, as Julia dabbed ointment on the cuts, as Dillon, crouched down to light the kitchen fire, goggled.
“They had masks like a mean clown and a werewolf, and said they’d break my fingers if I didn’t do what they said. And the clown one had a gun, and he said he’d shoot me. But I didn’t eat the soup or drink the milk because it tasted funny. They put drugs to make you sleep in things, bad guys do that, so I poured it down the toilet and pretended to sleep.”
“Holy crap!”
Julia merely shot Dillon a look to shut him up.
“That was smart. Honey, did they hurt you?”
“They knocked me down when they opened the door hard, and the bad clown pulled my hair really, really hard. But then they thought I was asleep, and one of them—it was the wolfman—came in and talked on the phone. I kept pretending and fooled him. I kept the spoon from the soup, and I used it to get the nails out of the window lock. One of them drove away. I could hear them talking outside, and he drove away, and that’s when I got the window open enough to get out, but it was too high to jump.”
The microwave went off, but Caitlyn kept looking right into Julia’s eyes. It seemed safe there in the gold and the green. In the kindness.
“I tied the sheets together. I couldn’t tear them, but I tied them, and then the one came back, and I was scared because if he came in, he’d see and he’d break my fingers.”
“No one’s going to hurt you now, baby girl.” Maggie set the hot chocolate on the table.
“I had to climb down, and my hands kept slipping, and there were lights on downstairs, and the sheets weren’t long enough so I had to jump. I hurt my ankle a little, but I ran. There were trees, a lot of trees, so I ran there and ran, and fell and hurt my knee, but I ran. I didn’t know where I was.”
Tears rolled now, tears Julia gently wiped away.
“Then I heard the ocean, a little, then more. And I saw the light. You had the light on, and I followed the light, and saw the cows, and the house, and the light. But I was afraid you were bad guys, too, so I snuck in. I wanted to call nine-one-one. I stole an apple because I was hungry, and Dillon came downstairs and found me.”
“That’s one hell of a story.” Maggie put an arm around Dillon. “You’re the bravest girl I’ve ever met.”
“If the bad guys find me here, they’ll shoot me, and everybody.”
“They’re not going to come here.” Julia brushed Cate’s hair back from her face. “Do you know the house where you played hide-and-seek?”
“My great-grandda’s house. He named it Sullivan’s Rest.”
“Sweet girl.” Maggie sat down. “Are you Liam Sullivan’s great-granddaughter?”
“Yes, ma’am. He died, and we had a celebration of his life. Did you know him?”
“I didn’t, but I admired him, his work, and his life.”
“You drink your hot chocolate, Caitlyn.” Smiling, Julia brushed back Cate’s disordered hair. “I’m going to call nine-one-one for you.”
“Can you call my daddy, too? Can you tell him how to find me?”
“Absolutely. Do you know the number? If not, I can—”
“I know it.” Cate rattled it off.
“Good girl. Mom, I bet Caitlyn could use a snack.”
“I bet she could. Dil, you sit down with Caitlyn, keep her company while I scramble up some eggs. Nothing like scrambled eggs in the middle of the night.”
He did. He would have just because she was a guest, and that’s what you did. But he did it more because he found her seriously awesome.
“You made a sheet rope and climbed out of a window.”
“I had to.”
“Not everybody could. That is awesome. I mean, you were like kidnapped, and you outsmarted them.”
“They thought I was stupid. I could tell.”
Since she didn’t seem to want it, Dillon picked up the drumstick, took another bite. “You’re really not. Was it like a house?”
“I think. I was in the back, I think, and all I could really see were trees and the hills. They kept the room dark. I saw the kitchen when I climbed down. It wasn’t as nice as this one, but it was nice. It’s just . . . I couldn’t tell where I was, and I got all turned around in the trees, so I don’t know. And I don’t know how long I slept from what he had in the needle.”
She sounded scared still, but more tired. To give her a boost, he wagged the drumstick. “I bet the cops’ll find the house and the bad guys. We’re friends with the sheriff, and he’s pretty smart. Maybe the bad guys don’t even know you escaped.”
“Maybe. He said, on the phone to somebody . . .” She frowned, tried to remember. Then Julia came over with the phone.
“Caitlyn, somebody wants to talk to you.”
“Is it Daddy?” Cate grabbed the phone. “Daddy!” The tears came again, spilling down her cheeks as Julia stroked her hair. “I’m all right. I got away. I ran and I’m with Julia and Gram and Dillon. Will you come? Do you know where to find me?”
Julia leaned down, kissed the top of Cate’s head. “I’m going to tell him exactly.”
“Gram’s making scrambled eggs. I’m so hungry. I love you, too, Daddy.”
She handed the phone back to Julia, swiped at her tears. “He cried. I never heard him cry before.”
“Joyful tears.” Gram put a plate with eggs and toast in front of Cate. “Because his little girl’s safe.”
The little girl plowed into the eggs while Gram plated up the rest.
She ate all the eggs, the toast, and had just started on the pie Julia put in front of her when someone knocked on the door.
“The bad guys—”
“Wouldn’t knock,” Julia assured her. “Don’t you worry.”
Still Cate’s chest hurt as if someone pressed on it when Julia walked to the front door. When Dillon took her hand, she squeezed it hard. And held her breath even though it made her chest hurt more when Julia opened the door.
Then everything fell away, everything, when she heard her father’s voice. “Daddy!”
She leaped out of the chair, ran out of the kitchen, ran to him as she’d run toward the trees. He caught her, swung her up, held her tight, tight, tight. She felt him shaking, felt his scratchy whiskers on her face. Felt his tears blur with her own.
Other arms went around her, folded her in—warm and safe.
Grandpa.
“Cate. Catey. Oh, my baby.” Aidan drew her back, and his eyes filled with more tears as he looked at her face. “He hurt you.”
“I fell, because it was dark. I ran away.”
“You’re safe now. You’re safe.”
As Aidan stood, swaying with her, Hugh turned to Julia, gripped her hands. “There aren’t words to thank you.” He looked beyond her to where Maggie and Dillon stood watching. “All of you.”
“You don’t need them. You have a smart, brave girl here.”
“Dillon found me, and his m
om fixed my cuts, and Gram made me eggs.”
“Ms. Cooper.” Aidan tried to speak, simply couldn’t get words out.
“Julia. I put on coffee. The sheriff’s on his way. I felt it best to call him, though I realize you probably want to take Caitlyn home and deal with that there.”
“I’d love some coffee. I just want to call my wife, let her and the others know we have our girl.” Hugh stroked a hand down Cate’s hair. “If it’s not imposing, I think talking to the sheriff here and now would be best.”
“There’s a phone in the kitchen.” Maggie stepped forward. “We don’t get decent cell service here. Maggie Hudson,” she added and offered a hand.
Ignoring the hand, Hugh embraced her.
“Well, this has been a day, and the sun’s not up. We meet the bravest girl in California, and I get a hug from Hugh Sullivan. Come on back, Hugh.”
“Cate’s mother finally took a sleeping pill not long before you called,” Aidan explained. “She’s going to be so happy, Cate, when she wakes up and sees you. We were so scared, so worried.” He lifted her bandaged arm, kissed it.
“Why don’t you and Cate sit down, catch your breath. I’ll go help with the coffee. How about some more hot chocolate, Cate?”
Still cuddled close to her father, she nodded. “Yes, please.”
But even as she said it, headlights swept across the front windows. “That should be the sheriff. He’s a nice man,” she told Cate.
“Will he go after the bad men?”
“I bet he will.” Julia walked to the door, opened it, stepped out on the porch. “Sheriff.”
“Julia.”
Red Buckman looked more like a surfer than a cop. He may have cruised past forty to inch his way toward fifty, but when time allowed, he still grabbed his board and hit the waves. His hair, a short, sun-bleached braid, fell just over the collar of his jacket. His face, tanned and lined from his hours on the beach, on the water, often held a deceptive “whatever” expression.
Julia knew him to be smart, sharp, and dedicated. Just as she knew he and her mother had an easygoing friends-with-benefits relationship.
“I don’t think you’ve met Deputy Wilson. Michaela, this is Julia Cooper.”
“Ma’am.”
Beside Red, the dark-skinned beauty with the honey-glazed eyes looked all spit and polish in her khaki uniform. Barely old enough to drink, Julia thought, and standing like a soldier in her high-shine shoes.
“Caitlyn’s in the living room with her father. Her grandfather’s here, too.”
“Let me ask you first. Are you sure the kid didn’t just run off from home?”
“There’s no question of that, Red. You’ll see for yourself when you talk to her. She’s settled down, but that child was terrified, and she’d damn well been terrorized. She wanted to call nine-one-one and her father.”
“Okay then. Let’s get to it.”
He went inside, his deputy a half step behind him.
From Aidan’s lap, Cate gave him an unblinking once-over. “Are you really the sheriff?”
“That’s right.” He pulled a badge out of his pocket, showed her. “It says so right here. Red Buckman,” he said to Aidan. “You’re Caitlyn’s dad?”
“Yes, Aidan Sullivan.”
“And you’re okay with us talking to her?”
“Yes. You’re okay to talk to Sheriff Buckman, aren’t you, Cate?”
“I was going to call nine-one-one, but Dillon found me before I could. So Julia did.”
“That was the right thing. Take a seat, Mic,” he told the deputy—who shot him a look at the “Mic” but complied. Red sat on the coffee table so he’d be face-to-face with Cate. “How about you tell me what happened, right from the start?”
“We had lots of people at Sullivan’s Rest because my great-grandda died.”
“I heard that. I’m sorry about your great-grandda. Did you know the people who were there?”
“Mostly. After people got up to talk about him, to tell stories and everything, I got to change into play clothes, and play outside with my cousins and the kids. And after a while, we were going to play hide-and-seek. Boyd was It, and I had my hiding place picked out.”
She frowned at that, just an instant, then told her story.
Red didn’t interrupt, only stood a moment when Maggie came in with Hugh Sullivan. He took his coffee, nodded at Cate. “You keep going, honey.”
He saw Aidan’s stricken face when she spoke of the threats—broken fingers, the gun—watched the father of the child battle tears.
In her chair, Michaela took meticulous notes, and watched everyone.
“Then I saw the light. I heard the ocean first,” she corrected, then told the rest.
“You must’ve been really scared.”
“Everything kept shaking, even inside. I had to make it stop when I pretended to sleep or he’d know.”
“How’d you think to use the sheets to make a rope?”
“I saw it in a movie. I thought it would be easier, but I couldn’t tear them, so they were big and thick to tie.”
“You never saw their faces.”
“I saw the one by the tree for a second. He had a beard and he had blond hair.”
“Would you know if you saw him again?”
“I don’t know.” She cringed back against her father. “Do I have to?” “We won’t worry about that. How about names? Did they ever say a name?”
“I don’t think so. Wait—On the phone, when I pretended to be asleep, he called the person he talked to ‘lover.’ That’s not really a name, I guess.”
“Do you know about how long it took for you to get here from when you climbed out of the window?”
She shook her head. “It seemed like forever. It was dark, and it was cold, and everything hurt. I was afraid they’d find me, or maybe a bear would come and eat me.” She laid her head back against Aidan. “I just wanted to go home.”
“I bet you did. How about if I talk to your dad and grandpa for a bit. Maybe Dil can show you his room.”
“I want to hear. It happened to me. I want to hear.”
“She’s right.” When she crawled from Aidan’s lap to his, Hugh stroked her. “It happened to her.”
“All right then. We’re going to need a list of everyone at the house. Guests, staff, outside vendors.”
“You’ll have it.”
“When we’ve got that, we’re going to go over when people left, how they left. For right this minute, tell me when you first noticed Cate was missing.”
“It was Nina, her nanny.”
“Full name?”
“Nina Torez. She’s been with us for six years—nearly seven,” he corrected. “When Catey didn’t come in with the other kids, Nina went to look for her. When she couldn’t find her, she came to us. Everyone looked. I think it was after six, maybe close to seven, I think, when Nina came in, worried.”
“Just before seven,” Hugh put in. “We spread out in groups, to look through the house, the outbuildings, outside. Nina had found Cate’s hair clip over by the garage.”
“I lost my barrettes.”
“We’ll get you new ones,” Hugh promised.
“We were about to call the police,” Aidan continued, “when the phone rang.”
“Which phone?”
“The house phone.”
“What time?”
“About eight. Yes, close to eight. It was a man’s voice. He said he had Cate, and if we called the police, the FBI, if we told anyone, he’d . . . hurt her. He said it would cost ten million, cash, to get her back, unharmed, and he’d call with further instructions.”
“Some of us still wanted to call the police.” Hugh continued to stroke, then turned Cate’s face to his. “We were so afraid for you. But my daughter-in-law was near hysterics by then, and she was adamantly against it. We decided to wait—the hardest thing I’ve ever done. To arrange for the money, and wait.” He kissed the top of Cate’s head. “And pray.”
; “The second call came in about ten-thirty. He said we had until midnight tomorrow—that would be tonight now. He’d contact us again to say where to bring the money, then he’d tell us where to find Cate.”
“Aidan and I talked, and we agreed to demand we speak to Cate, to be sure . . .”
“She screamed. She called for me.” Aidan dropped his head in his hands.
“Cate, you said one of the men drove away for a little while?”
“He did. They went outside. I heard them through the window. I saw the taillights.”
“Do you know how long he was gone?”
“I don’t know, but when he left I got the nails out of the window and started to make the sheets. And he came back before I could get out.”
“But you got out right after.”
“I was afraid they’d come back to the room and see I had the window open, and the sheets. So I climbed out.”
“You’re a smart kid. Hey, Dillon, what time did you come down and find Cate?”
“I don’t know exactly. I just woke up hungry, and thought about the fried chicken.”
“I can tell you Dillon woke me up right before one.”
“All right then.” He had the timeline in his head, got to his feet. “I’m going to let you take this girl home. We’re going to need to talk to the nanny, and the others still at the house. I’d like to do that this morning.”
“Whenever you want.”
“Let’s say around eight? Give you all time to settle in, get a little sleep.” He looked back at Cate. He had brown eyes, and put a smile in them for her. “I might need to talk to you again sometime, Cate. That okay with you?”
“Yes. Will you catch them?”
“That’s the plan. Meanwhile, you do some thinking, and if you think of anything—any little thing—you let me know.” He pulled a card out of his pocket. “That’s me, and the number at my office, and the number at home. Got my email, too. You keep that.”
After giving her leg a pat, Red got up, eased around the table. “We’ll be there around eight. We’re going to need to look around the place, especially where Cate saw the man who took her. And we’ll need to talk to everyone in the household. Get that list of guests and staff and so on.”
“We’ll have it ready.” Hugh passed Cate back to her father, got to his feet to shake Red’s hand. Then he walked to Dillon, did the same. “Thank you for doing everything right.”
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