by W. J. May
A car driving by slowed. I heard the driver get out of the car and I made my way out of the ditch, ready to pretend it was me who needed help.
“Seth?”
I looked at the older version of Brent and grinned, pulling him into a man-hug. “Nate! What’re you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be nursing off a hangover right now?” Nate was Brent’s older brother who was attending college right now. Except he was driving a rental vehicle from the airport at the moment.
Nate grinned. “My parents called me about Brent so I took the first flight I could get on.” He frowned when he noticed the car in the ditch. “I’m guessing you’re looking for him yourself?”
“It beats sitting on my hands.” I shrugged, not sure how much Nate knew. “I’m not losing my best friend.” The words came out fierce but I didn’t care.
“He’s my baby brother. Maybe I can help you.”
I couldn’t use my power around Nate, but it was getting me nowhere anyway. An extra set of eyes couldn’t hurt. “Sure! I’ve been all over this car. There’s really nothing.”
“Do you think he ran away?” Nate asked as we jumped into the ditch.
“Honestly, I think he was kidnapped.” I ran my fingers through my hair, watching his face closely. “There’s no reason he would run away. And if he did, he would have told one of us so we didn’t worry. He would have taken the car, not crash it right outside of town.”
“Who would kidnap him?” Nate asked.
I froze. “Good question!” I rubbed my hands together “My money’s on whoever killed Rylee, kidnapped him.”
While I continued looking in the car for anything, Nate examined the footprints and drag marks. “Whoever dragged him out of here was really strong unless Brent lost sixty pounds since the last time I saw him.”
“Believe me, he didn’t.” I found Brent’s wallet under the back wheel, half-hidden in the snow. I opened it up to find his ID, a credit card, social security card, and a hundred dollars all tucked safely away, untouched. “He would have taken this, though, if he ran away.” I showed Nate it.
He whistled when he looked at all of it. “Remind me to tell Brent how stupid he is to carry all of this around with him. One pickpocket could totally ruin his life.” He pocketed the wallet and looked at the ground, brow furrowed. “What’s this?” he asked, kneeling down. He picked something out of the dirt, holding it between his thumb and index finger.
My heart sank when I saw it. A stethoscope. “No way.” This couldn’t be. I grinded my teeth together. I told those guys tell Dr. Landers was a stupid idea.
“What?” Nate asked.
“I’m pretty sure that belongs to Zoe’s dad,” I said angrily. “Which means that either Brent is a clepto, or Dr. Landers kidnapped him.”
“That’s impossible!” Nate stared at me like I was crazy. “Why would Zoe’s dad want to kidnap Brent? He’s a pretty cool dude.”
I shook my head, betrayal and shock overwhelming every other emotion inside me. “It has to be him,” I whispered. “There’s no denying that fact.”
Nate pulled out his phone.
“Let’s go.” I started up the hill.
Nate stuffed his phone in his pocket and hurried after me. “What’re you going to do? Confront him?”
I remembered Zoe saying she was grounded and would be trapped at her father’s office all day. Trapped with him. She was in danger too. “We have to,” I growled. “Before he does something bad.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Zoe
“Dad, I’m going across the street for a coffee.” I grabbed my purse and slung it over my shoulder. “Do you want anything?”
“Sure. Grab me one too,” he said, not even looking up from the Internet article he was reading. “If you’re not back here in five minutes, I’m going to come looking for you. Keep your phone handy.”
“I know,” I grumbled. “I know.”
“Look, Zoe-zey,” he said, sighing. “I honestly don’t want you grounded either because I think you would be better off helping your friends than sitting here. But you did go out without your mother’s permission, and she had every right to ground you. I must respect your mother’s wishes. I also want you safe. Being with me or your mom seems the safest place at the moment.”
“Brent’s missing. I need to find him.”
“That’s what we are trying to do here.”
“And coming up with nothing!” I threw my hands in the air. “Three people looking are better than two,” I snapped. “But whatever.”
“It’ll work out, Zoe,” he called after me. “You’ll see.”
I knew he was right about me being grounded. I should be grounded, after all. But last thing I wanted right now was to be stuck doing nothing like I was right now. Every second was one less of Brent’s life. If… I refused to finish the thought.
The line to pay at the Starbucks across the street was mercifully short. I hurried back, not wanting to be on my own and constantly glancing over my shoulder. I set my coffee on top of the stack of magazines I had put on the waiting room coffee table before giving dad his coffee.
“Thanks, Zoe-zey,” He took a sip and grimaced.
“Oh crap. I forgot the sugar, didn’t I?” My mind was fried today.
“It needs a tad bit.” He smiled. “I think Eleanor has a bowl full of those little packets in one of her desk drawers. Can you grab me a couple?”
“Sure,” I said. It was Eleanor’s day off today, which I thanked my lucky stars on so we didn’t have to sit in the waiting room together for hours on end in awkward silence. I doubted she wanted me to rifle through her desk for anything, even if Dad had asked me to, which almost made me enjoy opening up all of the drawers to look for a stash of sugar.
It was the third drawer I opened where I found the sugar packets. Right next to it was a set of keys. I froze when I saw the keys. All of them were painted in nail polish to make it easy to find each key. I picked up the keychain with a shaking hand.
“Zoe, did you find the sugar?”
“Yes,” I called back. “Coming, Dad.” I pocketed the keys and quickly went to give Dad the sugar. I watched him stir it and take a sip.
He smiled. “Perfect,” he said. “Thank you.”
I fidgeted, looking back out at the desk. I needed to find more information about Eleanor to see if she was really the killer. “I was wondering... does Eleanor need her keys? Because I found them in her desk drawer.”
“She usually walks to work, so I didn’t know if she forgot them here on purpose or not.”
I held them up and put on my best concerned face, which wasn’t hard, because I was concerned. For Brent.
He looked at them, his brow furrowed. “Well, I’m assuming she left them here on purpose if she didn’t need them. But that does look like a house key. How about we run over and ask her? She only lives a few blocks away.”
I nodded. “Do you have her address? I don’t know what her house looks like.”
He looked up the address on his computer.
“How about I go on my own? Then you can keep researching radium halos.”
He pressed his lips together before handing me a sticky note with the address scrawled on it with barely legible handwriting. “Okay. Just remember—”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, pretending to be annoyed. “If I’m not back in ten minutes you’ll call the Secret Service and all that jazz.”
“Well, calling you would probably suffice,” my dad said dryly. “Worst case scenario, the Elliot Lake Police Department.”
“I know, but the Secret Service would be so much cooler and make for a much better story.” I ran over and kissed him on the cheek, leaving him with a surprised look and dashed out of his office and the building. I raced down the street, following the street signs and numbers and trying to read my dad’s handwriting. If I hadn’t spent over a decade learning to read doctors’ handwriting, it definitely would have taken me more than ten minutes just to find Eleanor’s place.
Eleanor’s house looked so normal. Living in the suburbs of Elliot Lake—the closest we ever got to city living in this town—she had a small yard that was neatly mowed with a couple of empty flower beds in front of her windows. There was a tree in the backyard that might be an apple tree, but it was dead right now from winter. Her white house was shuttered and looked shut down, as if giving the resident privacy and blocking out the rest of the world. It also could mean she was hiding a secret she didn’t want the rest of the world to know about.
There was no car in the driveway. The garage door was closed as well, but I cautiously walked up and looked through the windows.
I dropped the keys and bent down to quickly pick them up.
Inside the garage was a sporty, gray car.
I grabbed for my phone with shaking hands, but it slipped out of my hands. I caught it just before it hit the ground. I called Heidi. The phone rang and rang.
As I tried again, I hurried to the house and tried the door. It was locked. Ear to the door, I listened inside, hoping to hear anything to reassure me Brent was inside, alive. Nothing. There was complete silence inside the house except the ticking of a clock and the buzzing of lights.
Heidi’s phone went to voicemail again. Being in the woods, she probably didn’t have service. I swore silently and then tried Seth’s phone.
“Zoe!” an overly cheerful voice said from behind me. “What’re you doing here?” Eleanor had appeared behind me, looking at me with a smile that looked more like a threat than a sign of friendliness.
Seth’s phone went to voicemail. I slowly hung up and put the phone in my pocket before holding out the keys. “Dad saw you left these at the office. He asked me to put them in your mailbox.”
She stared at the keys and her face turned even colder. “Ah yes,” she said, taking them. “If I remember correctly, those were in my desk drawer. What was your father doing looking through my stuff?”
“He needed sugar for coffee.”
“And it was in my drawer.” Eleanor laughed. “How’s your search going for your friend? Brent? That’s his name, right? I heard he was missing and that you had gotten grounded looking for him.”
“It’s going well, actually. I think I know exactly where he is.”
“Really?” Anger and fear blazed in her eyes.
I steeled myself, more sure than ever now. Her body’s reaction to my words gave away the secrets she was hiding. “Yes,” I said, my eyes narrowing. “I have a pretty good lead.”
“That’s funny,” Eleanor said as she pulled a gun out of her pocket and aimed it at me. “Because I also know where Brent is. Why don’t I take you to him?”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Seth
Nate and I pulled up to the doctor’s office and stormed in. We didn’t bother knocking on Dr. Landers’ door.
He looked up, surprised at us. “Seth, Nate, what are—”
I didn’t give him time to answer. Instead I pulled him up out of the chair and slammed him against the wall. “Where are they?” I shouted. “I know you have them! Where are they?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Dr. Landers snapped, trying to shove me away from him. He could barely move me.
Nate crossed his arms over his chest. “We found Brent’s car, and we found your stethoscope right outside. It had to have fallen out when you were dragging Brent up the ditch to your car.” He held up the dirty stethoscope as proof.
Doc’s face paled and I was sure we had him, but then he started furiously shaking his head.
“No,” he said. “That’s Eleanor’s stethoscope, not mine!”
“Why should we believe you?” I hissed. “A sociopath like you who’s willing to kill innocent teenagers would throw anybody under the bus.”
“I’m telling you, that’s not mine.” He held his hands up. “Nate, check my bottom right-hand drawer. You’ll find my own stethoscope there. All of mine have my initials on them. Eleanor’s probably does as well.”
Nate went to the drawer anyway and pulled it out. “It’s here,” he said.
“Look at the metal ring,” Dr. Landers said. “You’ll find my initials engraved. Now look at the other stethoscope. You’ll find that the initials don’t match.”
“He’s right,” Nate said. “This one says Eleanor.”
Dr. Landers spun around when I released him. He paled. “I just sent Zoe over to Eleanor’s house! Damn it!”
“Why would Eleanor be kidnapping Brent or Zoe?” Nate shook his head. “There must be a reason other than that she’s crazy, right?”
Dr. Landers and I locked eyes and I nodded. We needed to tell him.
“I’ll explain on the way,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Zoe
I pulled my arm back and elbowed Eleanor in the face. The gun went flying and she spun around. I hit her again. She yelled out and grabbed her nose before punching me as hard as she could in the side of my head. Pain exploded in my temple and I realized she was much stronger than she looked. Suddenly the fly incident made sense. She had Rylee’s power. Everything made a lot more sense.
But in the time it took for me to realize, Eleanor had punched me again and pulled me up by my arm and started pulling me into the house.
I struggled to get free. I grabbed her hand, pulling it out and twisting her arm until I heard a satisfying snap. She yelled out and yanked me back inside her house. “I never liked you, brat,” she said through gritted teeth. “I’ll make it much more painful for you than I did for any of your other stupid friends.” She shut her front door, trapping me inside her house. She turned and swung her leg.
Suddenly everything went black.
#
I woke, a headache more painful than I had ever experienced pressed against my temples. I couldn’t remember where I was. Carefully, I opened my eyes. The room was dark and windowless, lit only by a dim, bare, lightbulb hanging in the center of the room.
Eleanor! Everything came rushing back!
She was nowhere to be seen, but Brent and Heidi were both strapped down to tables, their heartbeats faint and slow, but they were still beating – for now.
I carefully tilted my head, trying to hear Eleanor in the house.
Nothing.
The same room was soundproof.
That’s why I couldn’t hear anything before.
I wasn’t bound. My head spun and my vision blurred, but I stood unsteadily and crawled over to Brent. His eyes were half-closed and he was pale. Too pale. I slapped him lightly across the face. “Brent,” I whispered. “You need to wake up. Right now!”
He groaned and stirred slightly. His eyelashes cracked open as I started pulling at the ties binding him to the table. “Zoe?” he whispered faintly.
I saw him looking at me as his eyes tried to focus on me. “Let’s get out of here.”
His head fell to the side. “Heidi?”
“She’s here too.” I saw him staring at the table beside him.
“Seth?”
“I don’t know where he is right now. I’m sure he’s getting help.” It felt like forever to get Brent free, the knots were impossible to undo. I found a scalpel on an operating tray along the far wall and cut him loose. I tried to help him up, but he was dead weight against me. I kept the IV needle in him to keep him hydrated and hit the button to speed up the rate of the drip. I left him slumped on the table and checked Heidi. She had been here less time, maybe she could help me more.
I shook her awake and cut her free. She shot up, jumping off the table, ready to fight. She blinked and took a few seconds to focus on me. “Zoe!” She hugged me quickly. “Eleanor’s the kidnapper! She killed Rylee!”
“I know.” I nodded and turned back to Brent. “She got me too.” I swallowed, wishing the pain in my head would go away. “We need to get out of here right now! I need your help with Brent. He’s in really bad shape.”
Heidi stared at me. “You look in bad shape your
self.”
“I’m fine.”
“She’s been draining his blood.” Heidi glanced down at her arm. “She’s going to do the same with me, and you. She’s planning on selling it on the black market. I think she has powers too.”
“She does. Rylee’s power.”
Heidi ran to the door leading out at the top of the stairs and tried it. “It’s locked,” she said and hurried back down. “Is there anything down there we can break the lock with?”
I looked around. I couldn’t see anything right off. I checked my pockets, wondering if Eleanor could possibly be that stupid…
I pulled the keys out of my pocket. Apparently she was. I tossed them up to Heidi. “Try these.” I went back to Brent, who was on the verge of losing consciousness again. “Brent, you have to stay awake. I’ll get you to my dad as soon as possible but right now you have to help me.” I grabbed his arm and put it around my shoulders and put my arm around his ribcage. I groaned as I hoisted him off the table and dragged him toward the stairs.
At the top, Heidi tried key after key. I heard the click before she noticed. “Got it!” she cried out and pushed against the door.
As soon as it flew open, a rush of noise came all at once, including Seth’s voice and my dad’s voice. “Help!” I shouted, dragging Brent slowly up the stairs. “We’re down here!”
Heidi rushed back down to help me but I pushed her back up the stairs. “Get the others,” I huffed. “The sooner my dad can look over Brent, the better.”
She nodded and dashed up the stairs, leaving me to handle Brent alone.
He wasn’t as heavy as Seth, but I had no idea how Eleanor was able to get him up the ditch and then down to the basement. Even with the superhuman strength it would be a struggle. Unless she had an accomplice. The jewelry robber perhaps?
I heard everything upstairs like I was right there.
