The Way to Yesterday

by Sharon Sala

Daniel wished he felt as optimistic as Bobby Joe acted.

  “What did the clerk tell you that she didn’t tell the police?”

  Bobby Joe looked at him and then grinned.

  “She said the guy is a regular, that he shops in there at least once a week, and for the past few weeks has been buying the same kind of stuff that parents with small kids usually buy.”

  “How does that help us?”

  “If he’s recently started buying food geared toward kids, then we can assume he’s got some kids to feed. And…if he shops in there on a regular basis, then he must live in the area. I’ve got a friend in the department of motor vehicles running down the license numbers. Once we get a printout, we can compare it to the addresses in the area. It’s all a matter of elimination.”

  “How long will that take?” Daniel asked.

  “I don’t know…maybe first thing tomorrow.”

  Daniel groaned and hit the dashboard with the flat of his hand. “Damn…damn…damn.”

  “What?” Bobby Joe asked.

  “All night…in that man’s grasp? I can’t let that happen.”

  Bobby Joe shook his head. “I know, Daniel. I wish to hell I had a better answer.”

  “It’s not knowing that makes it so bad.”

  “Knowing what?”

  Daniel didn’t answer and Bobby Joe knew he was hurting bad.

  “Talk to me, friend.”

  Daniel shuddered and had to swallow twice before he could spit out the words.

  “What he’s doing to her. I don’t know what he’s doing to her. I imagine the worst. Every minute I breathe without knowing where she is is like a knife in my heart.”

  Bobby Joe sighed. “We’ll find her, Daniel.”

  “We have to.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  But he didn’t. He had no ties to anyone in the way that Daniel and Mary felt about each other, and it was just the way he liked it. If he screwed up, he didn’t have to answer to anyone but himself.

  Howard Lee drove into the hospital parking lot and parked in his usual space. He reached across the seat and got his lunch bucket from the passenger seat, then grabbed his cap as he got out of the van, taking care to lock it before heading for the employee entrance of Savannah Memorial. The shift change was already in progress as he reached his locker.

  “Hey, Martin…how’s it going?”

  Howard Lee nodded and waved as he got his coveralls off the shelf. He wanted to share the news of his new family with the man, but couldn’t take the chance. Not here. Not now. Maybe when they moved it would be better. And he’d been thinking about the move all evening. Even though his Sophie was still in a stage of revolt, it would pass, just like it did with his girls. Of course Amy Anne had gone a little too far the other way, but she would come back when she was ready.

  He put on his coveralls, then began to fill his cart with cleaning supplies, making sure he had everything he would need to work his shift before heading for the employee elevator. A couple of women waved at him—one even stopped and spoke a few words. Her name was Mavis. He liked to be part of the machine that ran the hospital even though his education was barely enough to qualify him for cleaning toilets.

  The elevator finally arrived and he pushed his cart forward. Mavis followed with her own cart as she continued to talk.

  “Did you hear about the break-in on Pediatrics?”

  Howard Lee’s heartbeat broke rhythm, but only for a moment. There was no way they would know it was him.

  “No, I didn’t. When did it happen?”

  “Earlier this morning, a little before nine.”

  “Oh…well, I clocked out at seven. I guess that’s why I hadn’t heard.”

  “Yeah, me too, but my sister is a nurse on four. She called and told me! Can you believe it?”

  Howard Lee shook his head. He didn’t really want to get into a conversation about the crime, especially since he was the one who’d committed it.

  “Well, here’s my floor.”

  “See you later,” she said, and smiled a goodbye as Howard Lee pushed his cart off the elevator onto the Pediatric ward, then headed for the first room on the right.

  It was a simple job—one he could perform without thought, leaving his mind free to entertain scenarios of him and his new family—picturing the evening meals together around the table. And the holidays. He couldn’t wait for the holidays. Maybe he’d dress up like Santa Claus. The girls would love it, he was sure.

  He reached room 301 and pushed the cart up against the wall, grabbed a handful of trash bags as he entered.

  The door was open. The two-bed room had only one occupant—a young boy with no hair. Howard Lee knew he was a cancer patient. He also knew the boy was dying. He headed for the bathrooms without looking at the boy, nodding only briefly to the sad-eyed parent sitting quietly at the bedside. He changed out the trash cans, refilled the paper towel holders and made sure there was sufficient antibacterial soap in the dispenser. Then he went to his cart, got the big dust mop from the rack and ran it over the cold, white-tiled floor, making sure to keep his head down and his thoughts to himself. The moment he was through, he was on to the next, taking comfort in the mindless routine of the job.

  It wasn’t until he neared the nurses’ station that his equilibrium shifted. They were talking about the theft. He smiled as he worked, silently congratulating himself on his prowess when one of the nurses saw him and called out.

  “Mr. Martin…we’re out of paper cups in the break room. Could you bring up a carton?”

  “Yes, certainly,” he said.

  The nurse smiled her thanks and went back to her paperwork. Moments later, the desk phone rang. Howard Lee was still nearby when he heard her answer.

  “Pediatrics. Nurse Hanson. Yes sir…send him up, we’ll be waiting.”

  She hung up, then called to a nurse who was coming out of a nearby room.

  “Security’s coming up to pull the tapes,” she said. “I’ve got to go down to 356. Will you wait and escort them into the drug room?”

  “Sure,” the nurse said, and moved behind the desk.

  Howard Lee straightened abruptly and turned toward the nurses’ station then to the room beyond. Tapes? What tapes?

  He searched the hallways with a frantic gaze, looking for signs of security cameras, but saw nothing that would put him on alert. He’d been so sure of the territory in which he worked he hadn’t thought past the need to get medicine for the girls. But in doing so, he’d moved beyond his safety zone into a place he’d never been, and so might have signed his own arrest warrant.

  He grabbed his cart, all but running as he started pushing it toward the employee elevator. Sweat was running down his back and his stomach was rolling in panic as he waited impatiently for the car to arrive. Behind him, he heard the ding as the public elevator stopped on third, heard the near-silent swish as the doors slid inward. He wouldn’t turn. He couldn’t look. He just held his breath and prayed.

  Moments later the employee elevator arrived. The moment the doors opened, he was shoving the cart inside. He fought nausea all the way down to the basement, and the moment the car stopped he was out and running. He shoved his cart into an alcove, stripped off his coveralls and bolted for the exit.

  “Hey, Martin…where are you going?” someone yelled.

  Howard Lee never answered and didn’t look back. He was all the way to the van before he realized he’d left his lunch box in the fridge. He hesitated, wondering if he should go back and retrieve it and then decided against it. There was nothing in it to incriminate him, although he wondered why he cared. He’d already taken care of that by stealing drugs in full view of his employer’s security cameras.

  His hands were shaking as he unlocked the van and jumped inside.

  “Oh God…oh God…oh God.”

  He jammed the key in the ignition and started the engine, then paused for a moment with his head on the steering wheel. What was he going to do? Yes, he’d planned on mov
ing, but not now. Not without proper planning.

  There was a sudden and sharp rap on the window. He jerked. A security guard was standing beside his van. God!

  “Hey, buddy…are you okay?”

  Certain he was about to be arrested, Howard Lee gunned the engine and peeled out of the parking lot, barely missing the toes of the stunned security guard. He needed to get home. All he had to do was get home, then he would be safe. Safe with his girls…and his bride.

  Chapter 12

  Mary tiptoed out of the bathroom, her skin still damp from the shower. She didn’t know what time it was because her watch had been broken when she’d been tossed into the van, but she kept feeling an overwhelming need to wash. It had something to do with being abducted—the mental trauma that rape victims go through in a constant need to wash their abductor’s touch from their bodies.

  At the thought of rape, she shuddered. She couldn’t let herself go there. Whatever else she might still endure was up to God, Daniel and the police. All she could hope was that whatever Howard Lee did to her, he didn’t do it in front of the girls.

  She tugged at her rumpled clothes, wishing for something clean to put on, then noticed the two little girls had finally gone to sleep. Since her arrival, she’d put them both in one bed, leaving the other bed for herself. Although she was sick at heart about being abducted, and could only imagine the hell that Daniel and Hope must be going through, she didn’t regret being here. Now that she’d seen Justine and Amy Anne, she couldn’t bear to think of them alone with this man or what he’d made them endure.

  She moved to their bedside. Amy Anne might not have much to say when she was awake, but there was obviously a part of her that was still fighting. Her covers were a mess—wadded at the foot of the bed and in a tangle beneath her feet. Justine slept with her face toward the wall with Amy Anne curled up behind her. Mary couldn’t help but think that putting the girls in bed together had been inspired. Before, Amy Anne had refused to instigate any form of communication. Now, she slept with her arm slung around Justine and her nose buried in the middle of her back.

  Mary could only imagine the fear their parents must be going through and wished they knew the girls were alive and no longer alone. Exhaustion hit as she bent down to untangle the covers. Her hands were trembling as she straightened the sheets and pulled them back over the girls. It made her think of her nightly ritual with Hope. Instead of going straight to bed, she turned back to the girls.

  “Good night, sweet babies,” she said softly, kissed them each on the cheek.

  She would like nothing better than to strip down to bare skin and crawl between the sheets, but there was no way she would risk being found naked by Howard Lee. He had decided she was going to be the girls’ mother. The last thing she needed was for him to decide she would also be his wife.

  She started to lay down, then glanced toward the stairwell and frowned. She was so exhausted, but was afraid to close her eyes. What if he came down here while she was sleeping and took one of the girls?

  She looked back toward the beds, studying the layout of the room, and then grabbed the foot of her bed and pulled, angling it until it was abutted firmly against the other bed with no space between. Now if Howard Lee tried to get to the girls, he would have to go over her to do it.

  Her shoulders slumped as she sat down and kicked off her shoes. Last night she’d slept in Daniel’s arms. Who could have known that tonight she would sleep in hell?

  Finally, she stretched out. Wincing from sore muscles, she pulled the covers up over her legs and then scooted backward until she could feel the warmth of the girls’ bodies against her back.

  The shadows from the nightlights cast strange shapes against the walls. She watched, half-expecting them to come to life and decimate what was left of her sanity, but they remained in place. Finally she was satisfied that, for the moment, they were alone and safe. At that point, she began to relax. Just before she drifted off to sleep, something occurred to her that she’d never thought of before.

  Maybe there had been more than one reason why she’d been sent back in time. Maybe it wasn’t all about being given a second chance with Daniel and Hope. She distinctly remembered that day—the day everything had changed. She’d been standing at the stop light, half-listening to the conversation that the two women had been having about the three missing children. Right after that, she’d found the antique shop and gone inside.

  Mary had finally accepted the unbelievable fact that she’d gone back in time and changed the outcome of her own fate, as well as Daniel and Hope’s. But in coming back, she’d also changed the fate of these children, as well. Unless Howard Lee had a third child stashed in another location, she’d changed his future, too, because he’d taken her, and not another little girl. And because Hope hadn’t died when she was a child, she’d lived to give the police a description of the man responsible for the abductions.

  Once, Mary might have thought these notions farfetched, but not now. Satisfied that she was in the right place whether she liked it or not, she snuggled a little farther beneath her covers and closed her eyes, unaware that their fragile world was about to shatter.

  It had started to rain—a soft, gentle shower that fell on the pavement and turned the puddles into psychedelic mirrors for the illumination from the streetlights above. Howard Lee drove with a patent disregard for rules, running through yellow lights, taking corners on two wheels, and sending up the occasional spray of water from beneath the van’s tires. His thoughts were scattered, his equilibrium shot. Had his mother still been alive, she would have predicted that he’d react in such a manner. Howard Lee had never taken surprises well.

  When he was about ten blocks from home, he saw the lights of an all-night ATM. Impulsively, he exited the street and turned toward the drive-thru, coming to a halt in front of the machine. Twice, he tried to get his wallet out of his pocket and both times it slipped out of his grasp. He took a deep breath, wiped the sweat from the palms of his hands onto his pants legs, and then reached for the wallet again. Finally, he got the ATM card and thrust it into the slot, entered his PIN number and took five hundred dollars out of his account. Once he had the cash in hand, he tried to repeat the process but was denied. Cursing the safeguard his bank had put on his own account, he pocketed the money and drove back onto the streets, heading for home.

  Minutes later, he pulled into his driveway, hit the garage door opener, and drove inside. Only after the door was down and the engine off, did he take a deep breath. His heart was still hammering, but he was beginning to regain focus.

  He was home. The familiarity of his surroundings calmed his panic. He took another deep breath and got out of the van. The sounds of his footsteps echoed loudly within the roomy old garage and he caught himself tiptoeing into the house, then cursed his foolishness. There was nothing to be afraid of here. This was his territory. Here was where he made the rules.

  He moved into the kitchen, quickly locking the door behind him, and then headed for the living room, gave the front door a quick tug to make sure it was locked, too, then paused.

  This wasn’t the way he’d planned their future, but plans were made to be changed. He patted his pocket, taking some assurance from the fat wad of bills he’d just withdrawn from the bank, and headed for the bedroom. As he started down the hall, he paused at the door to the guest bedroom, remembering all the preparations he’d made for the arrival of his new daughter, and frowned. After a moment, he sighed, reminding himself that the plan had already changed and the world hadn’t come to an end. In fact, things were already better now that his girls had a mother to look after them when he was at work.

  Then his frown deepened. Besides getting out of town, he was going to have to find a new job and possibly a new identity. This was a setback he hadn’t planned on, but he would find a way to make it work. He had to.

  He shrugged off his jacket and dropped it on the back of a chair as he moved across the hall into his bedroom. There were thin
gs to be done and not a lot of time to do them. He kicked away the throw rug over the cellar door and then took a key out of his pocket and unlocked the padlock. Halfway down the stairs, he knew something was different. By the time he reached the bottom, he was frowning.

  Mary was on her feet, standing between him and the bed where the girls were sleeping.

  “Sophie…why aren’t you asleep?”

  “Stop calling me that,” she said sharply. “As for not being asleep, I’m guessing you’re curious as to why I’m not doped out of my mind, right?”

  His frown deepened. How could she know this so quickly? What kind of a woman had he brought into his home?

  “What are you?” he asked.

  Mary took a step forward. “The biggest mistake you ever made.”

  For the second time tonight his fear spiked.

  “Don’t threaten me,” he said, and pointed a finger toward her. “I’m the one in charge.” Then he glanced toward the girls, who were obviously no longer asleep, either. “So you choose to sleep on your terms? Fine. But you will live on mine, so I suggest you put our girls back to bed and get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day.”

  “Why? What’s so special about tomorrow?” Mary asked.

  Howard Lee smiled. “Why…we’re moving, that’s what. I think it’s time for a change of scenery, don’t you? After all, you said it yourself. The girls need a more comfortable and healthy environment. I intend to see that they get what they need.”

  He pivoted quickly and took the stairs up two at a time. The cellar door was down and locked before Mary could react. She felt as helpless now as she had when he’d thrown her in the van. Filled with despair, she dropped down on the bed and covered her face with her hands.

  No…oh no…if he takes us away, Daniel might never find us. Please Lord…help me stop him before it’s too late.

  “Don’t cry, Mary.”

  Mary looked up just as Justine crawled into her lap. She wrapped her arms around the little girl. Once again, she was struck by how strong the spirit could be in such a tiny child.