Missy was already in Alice’s room and could see poor Alice all curled up in bed in a fetal position. She was naked, under a sheet. And, lying in plain sight on the nearby dresser was a condom, still in its wrapper which had already been torn open. It was very obvious what she was walking in on and had obviously stopped from happening. Just in time. Behind her, Tony came into the room and he was furious. But, Missy looked at him and yelled, “Stop! Stop right there or I’m calling the police on you!”
“You bitch!” he yelled at her. “You don’t know anything and you’re not calling anyone, you hear?” He tried to move forward but all of a sudden Missy was standing right in front of him. She’d moved so fast he never even saw her. She was just suddenly there. He took a step back and started to raise his right arm but she grabbed his wrist and said, “Really?” She held on with an iron grip and all of a sudden he realized she was an immoveable object, a force he could do nothing to stop. She just stood there, staring at him with eyes which were deep green with some yellow specs showing. He didn’t remember seeing those yellow specs before and he didn’t like the way she was looking at him now. It wasn’t that he was physically intimidated. But, he just suddenly knew. Missy was in total control and he was not going to bully or browbeat her.
Missy looked over at Alice and asked, “Are you okay, Alice? He’s not going to do anything. Not ever again, right?” With that, she turned around and stared at him. She let go of his wrist and squared her shoulders. Then she slowly pushed him backwards, out of the room. He was instantly aware that any excuse he might try would not work. No amount of bluster or outraged indignity was going to stand up to what Missy’s eyes were showing. He was looking at a wild predator, not a girl, and fear suddenly zinged right through him. He needed to find some way to control this situation. In a panicky voice, he asked her, “What do you want? Let’s be reasonable and talk about this, okay? No one has been harmed here. Alice, honey? Tell her you’re okay. Nothing happened. Right? Tell her.”
Missy went over to Alice and helped her get up. Slowly, Alice wrapped a blanket around herself and then looked up at Missy. Tears welled up in her eyes. She still couldn’t say anything. She sat back down on the bed. But, there was no longer any defeat in her expression; now she looked determined. And, relieved. Missy was there. Things would be okay, now.
Missy walked back out and pointed downstairs. “Move,” she commanded. Tony walked over to the stairs and went down, his mind racing through all the possible scenarios for handling this. Missy followed him into the living room and said, “Here’s what’s going to happen. You are leaving tonight. You will call your wife to tell her you’re moving out but you’ll say nothing about any of this. Not now, not ever. Do you understand?” When he looked at her, she added, “Tell her your marriage is over. Tell her you’re very sorry, but you just can’t go on here anymore. Then, tell her you’re signing over this house to her and you’re setting up a trust fund for Alice. You’ll continue paying off the mortgage plus taxes and insurance. They’ll both be taken care of financially, from now on, no more worries about that. Tell her things have simply not worked out and this is all for the best. You’re making a clean break and starting over. A fresh start. Best for everyone.”
He looked at Missy and slowly, he started thinking about his alternatives. What were his options? He said, “But, my wife loves me! She’ll never understand my just leaving this way. She’ll want me to give her a second chance …”
Missy said, “Cut the crap. I’ve seen what your daughter Roseanne’s life has turned out like and that’s never going to happen here. Not to Alice. Not to her Mom, either. Do you want to spend years in prison? For rape, incest, all kinds of charges which you know you truly deserve? Or, will you go quietly, without causing this family any more grief than you already have?”
He still wasn’t getting the whole picture. “But …”
Missy didn’t let him say anything more. “You can walk out now. Keep your mouth shut and no one will know. No one. Alice will not tell her Mom. Or, anyone else. You can come back and pack up your things later. You will make the financial arrangements just as I’ve explained them. You have those three restaurants, right? So I know you can afford to do all this. And, you then can live your life in freedom, without everyone knowing what a sick bastard you really are.”
He wasn’t convinced yet. He looked around. He looked back at Missy.
She said, “Did you see the news about me when I came home? Do you know why the FBI has covered everything up? About me? Do you really want to mess with me?”
Suddenly, he got it. Just like that, as though a switch had clicked in his head. He realized he didn’t know any details about those two years Missy had been gone. Sure, he’d even salivated at the thought of what it must have been like. How, whoever had grabbed her must have really enjoyed himself for those two years. But, now suddenly, things were coming quickly into focus. Missy was standing there in front of him. And, she didn’t really look very much like a victim. The FBI was in on it, whatever the hell had really happened. He’d even heard the senator’s office was somehow involved. She and her family had some friends in very high places and what did he have?
Missy saw the look of recognition when the realization washed though him. He had no viable options. Either he went quietly, doing things as she was insisting, or she was going to bring down some real trouble on his head. All those rationalizations he’d lived with, convincing himself he didn’t have any worries about getting caught. He’d always been sure no one would believe Alice, just as no one had ever considered Roseanne’s claims anything but ridiculous. Those beliefs were now up in smoke. Gone. Missy was standing there and he recognized she held all the cards. It was all in her power and if he didn’t play along, he’d be sitting in an interview room down at the police station. With her friends in the background, pulling the strings. Even if a good lawyer could save him from actually being convicted, his life would still be over.
Tony was not a brave or courageous individual. He was all bluster. And, he’d been living a fantasy. He’d be “innocent until proven guilty” and everyone would give him the benefit of the doubt, right? But now he was facing reality. Being dragged through a sordid trial, while Missy’s influential friends manipulated everything? He had nothing to go against all of that. Everyone would believe he was guilty and it wouldn’t even matter about the trial. His restaurant businesses would all go under. He’d lose all his friends. He’d be left with nothing.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll go. I’ll do as you say. But, how will I know you won’t turn me in later? What do I have …?”
“Please,” Missy told him. “Alice doesn’t want anyone to know what you’ve done to her. She won’t even tell her mother. She will, however, be talking to a psychologist that I’ll arrange for her to start seeing. And, you’re going to pay the bill for that. Someone to help her deal with the horror you’ve turned her life into these past three years. And, while I won’t be telling the police what you’ve done, I will have some of my good friends checking to make sure you’re never anywhere near young girls again. Are we clear?”
He nodded. Thinking better of that, he said aloud, “Yes. Clear. I just don’t want any of this to come out. You’re right. It wouldn’t be good for Alice. Or her mother. My businesses would be ruined. No one needs to get hurt. I can change. I won’t ever do this again. As you said earlier … a fresh start, right?”
Chapter Nineteen
Dec 2015
Drew Martinson had presented his credentials to Nurse Gladys and asked if he could discuss one of her cases with her. He was with the U.S. Government, in charge of their “P” Branch. When she’d learned he wanted to discuss that girl Missy McCrea from last August, she’d suggested he really should speak to Doctor Walker. But, Doctor Walker was away on a week’s vacation and he was only following up. He knew all about the two FBI agents. So, she could see no harm in answering one or two questions. For his file. They’d all kept Missy’s secrets safe at
the hospital and he wasn’t going to expose her. He, like those FBI agents, was part of the government, after all.
“Gladys, I really appreciate your taking the time to help me with this.” Drew had already showed her many of the documents he’d collected for Missy’s file. There were all the local news articles about that car accident up on the mountain. Plus, Senator Maxwell’s visit and those press conferences he’d given. And, that nice Stratton family; there were several articles about them as well. “I’m curious about the rescue which took place up there that day. These articles don’t really provide much detail. They do mention some teenage girl being involved, but none of the articles actually say it was Missy McCrea. They only mention there being this girl who was later identified. It’s reported she eventually recovered and left with her mother who showed up two days after the accident. But, her name was withheld due to her being only fifteen, is that right?”
“Well, that was the official reason, sure.” Gladys took a sip from the coffee he’d bought for her and looked around the hospital’s cafeteria. “Since she was a minor, the rest of it didn’t need to come out. About her being that girl who had gone missing for two years. And, the FBI was satisfied her kidnapper was no longer still out there … you know. Doctor Walker told me how absolutely positive Missy was about that. So, with no one for those FBI agents to chase after, there was no need to tell the press anything. Good riddance, I say!”
“Are you saying Missy might have done something to her kidnapper, Gladys?” Drew looked at her with raised eyebrows. He was a very nice looking man, quiet and easy going, with a warm pleasant demeanor. His manner made most people willing to readily share little tidbits of information and Gladys was quite comfortable talking to him. He continued, “I didn’t see any mention of that in Robert Ulrey’s report.”
“Robert Ulrey, yes. That was one of the FBI agents who came here. I recognize the name. He was very nice and Doctor Walker really liked him.” Gladys thought for a moment and then went on, saying, “Whatever happened up in those mountains to poor Missy, she somehow survived all that. Forced to run around naked. Those horrible injuries with no medical treatment … it’s amazing how she managed to heal up okay. Of course, she certainly amazed all of us by how quickly she healed up here. Looking back, I don’t think we actually did anything that helped her all that much. We gave her a place to sleep and rest up. And food, of course. That girl could sure eat! But, …”
“You were saying … about her kidnapper?”
“Oh, yes! Well, he obviously was dead. Missy never explained. She only said it now was safe.” Gladys strongly emphasized the word safe. “At least, that’s how Doctor Walker explained it to me. They all agreed, she and those FBI agents and even the senator. Since Missy wouldn’t give them any details about what happened and yet it was a hundred percent sure that now it was safe, there was no point in trying to force her. That girl had been forced enough! Good grief! If she did kill anyone, he deserved it. No one was going to bring any charges against Missy, a fifteen year old girl. Really!”
“I think I’m seeing it now,” said Drew. “And, I can see why exposing something like that would be rather sensational. The media would never have let any details stay hidden. Poor girl. You say she had some old injuries? From before?”
“Yes, Missy had those scars. One on her thigh from a rifle bullet. And, on her shoulder and back? Several claw marks. From some wild animal. She told Doctor Walker it was from a black bear! Can you imagine? A little girl, only thirteen or fourteen, being mauled like that? And, from the way those scars healed up, you could tell she had no stitches. It’s a miracle she didn’t die from infection.”
Drew Martinson wrote this information on his notepad. “And, you said something about her being forced to do things? Run naked? Was she sexually molested?”
“Actually, no,” Gladys said. “That’s a bit of a mystery … how she managed being held for over two years and was obviously abused, mentally and physically, but still came through it all with her virginity intact. Untouched. Doctor Walker suggested she was forced to do whatever he wanted because of threats to her family. She was able to run around free only she wasn’t really free, since she was so afraid. So, maybe he was just waiting before he touched her, you know? Since he thought he owned her? She couldn’t escape? He had her. So, he was just saving her for later?”
“An interesting theory.” Drew made more notes on his notepad. “Did she actually talk about this?”
“Not a word. But, she came here with clothes which didn’t belong to her. No underwear. And, no tan lines. She’d been running around for weeks, stark naked, that was obvious. If she didn’t want to talk about that, why try to force her? Doctor Walker says she’d been forced enough. Poor Missy!”
“I see. Very interesting. And, then she somehow did finally escape? So, the threat was gone and she was safe and her family was safe. And, nobody for the FBI to arrest? I see why it’s so obvious. Hmmm.” He was writing all this on his notepad and kept looking back up at her, noting how she was nodding her head in agreement.
Then he changed subjects and asked, “And, so, she just happened to be walking down the road when the Stratton car went over?” Drew looked at the nurse with raised eyebrows once again.
Gladys said, “Yes, she just appeared out of nowhere. Coming down from those mountains.”
“What about the rescue? Did she really help?”
“Oh, absolutely! That girl saved all three of them, pulling them out before their car exploded. No one knows how she managed that. One minute she’s up there on the road and the next minute she’s pulling them out of the car. You’ve seen that video which was on the TV, right? That car was down a sheer cliff, at least a hundred foot drop. Yet, she somehow climbed down there … and the Stratton couple, Bill and Mary? Bill was very groggy and Mary was actually knocked out, crashing down that cliff like that. Suddenly, Missy was there and went in through the back window. She just yanked them both right out. As though she had super strength. Just like Supergirl, you know? Then, she went back and got little Emily. Then, boom! Missy was injured pretty badly from that explosion, but Emily? Not a scratch.”
“Oh, so Missy’s injuries were bad?” asked Drew. “I thought she wasn’t hurt that much, since she was released only three days later.”
“Ha, just another of Missy’s many, many mysteries.” Gladys looked directly at Drew, as though she wasn’t sure he’d believe everything she had to say. “That girl was definitely hurt pretty bad from that explosion. That first MRI on the day she came in here? For her head injury, where she got knocked unconscious? Doctor Walker is still trying to understand that. It looked like severe brain damage was highly likely. Plus all the cuts she got from the broken car window. And she had burns and bumps and bruises everywhere. But, forty-eight hours later? The second MRI shows everything all healed up, just fine.”
“Well, there’s nothing in any of the reports which I’ve read about any of that, Gladys. Are you sure?”
“You can check with Doctor Walker next week. Missy’s head injury got all better, her cuts and burns all healed up right away and she walked out of here as though nothing had ever happened. She and her Mom, happy as could be. And, I hear she’s doing just great back home in Massachusetts.”
Drew asked, “Can you explain that? Any theories?”
“Doctor Walker has no clue. Me? I think it’s when she disappeared on us that second night. She never should have been able to wake up, with all the sedatives we were giving her. An induced coma, see? We increased the dosage after she woke up earlier. But, that didn’t matter. She just got up anyway and disappeared from her room. Gone all night while the hospital got searched from top to bottom. Then? She’s eating down in the kitchen. Wide awake, alert as can be. And eat? That girl never stopped eating. She devoured an entire chicken that night and kept eating everything at every meal after that like there was no tomorrow.”
“I did read something about the hospital being on alert. So, that was
when she disappeared, eh? Very interesting. Did she say where she went?”
“Well, she did say something about going up to the roof. For some fresh air. We searched everywhere, for hours, but I guess no one really thought to look up there. She was supposed to be in a coma, remember? We’re looking for a kidnapper maybe pushing her in either a wheelchair or whatever. Then she’s down in the kitchen, nice as you please, and looking just great, practically all better? I think something happened that night. We’ll just never know. Like I said before, she’s got many, many mysteries.”
-----
Drew returned to his hotel room and wrote up this latest update from all his notes. Yes, he thought. Missy McCrea was a girl with many, many mysteries. It had taken weeks before various items had found their way to his office and finally captured his attention. It was that rescue. Fortunately, since the Strattons were close friends to Senator Maxwell, their rescue had been widely reported. Otherwise, he might never have spotted anything. In spite of all the software he had searching for such stories. Stories where anything special or “superhuman” might have happened.
But, he now had a very complete file on Missy and would continue to update that file going forward. She was just a young teenage girl. But, if his suspicions proved to be true, she was the first female to show up. Drew Martinson, who headed up the U.S. Government’s “P” Branch, was definitely impressed. So far, his team had only found evidence of a few males. This “P” Branch which he headed up was the designation for Paranormal Branch but only those in a need to know actually knew that. And, there were very damn few who ever had any need to know.
Missy the Werecat Page 12
