The Girl Who Was Taken

by Charlie Donlea

  To quell his need to explore their stories, he made the club aware of the latest details and joined in the discussions when the members speculated on who took the girls and what might be happening to them.

  He parked his pickup now in the lot off Highway 57 and loitered around the rest stop. He used the bathroom and purchased a Coke from the vending machine. He paged through a few advertising brochures that rested by the front entrance, then took a seat at the picnic table out back. He waited thirty minutes until there was a lull in traffic and only one other car sat idle in the lot. Then he slid off the bench and walked into the woods. There was a trail he followed, and halfway along the beaten-down dirt path, he veered off into the dense forest.

  The heavy foliage lasted for three hundred yards, all downhill, until he emerged from the thorns and the burrs to find the small ravine he followed for a mile and a half. It was August and muggy, with mosquitos plump and ripe after a summer of stalking. He swatted them from his neck and arms as he walked. Finally, he saw the bunker door. Dense brush and a pair of twin blue spruce trees camouflaged the entrance. Evergreen pines provided shade, and the thick wooden door the color of the land—brown and green and dirty—bled into the forest in a way that could be missed by a hundred people a hundred times. A casual glance would never pick it up. But obvious today was the red bandana tied to the door handle. A request, he knew, was waiting. Excitement flooded his chest, as though his heart suddenly filled with a bolus of caffeine and nicotine and pumped it all at once into his system.

  Casey calmed his body and sat on a fallen log. He watched the bunker and the woods, listened for anything out of the ordinary. Convinced after an hour that he was alone, he approached the door and pulled it open. Heavy and thick, the door served several purposes. If someone got to screaming while they were in this place, the door and the three other walls made from earth would mute their cries. The fat door also allowed hinges to be secured with three-inch carpentry screws that could not be whittled loose. And the massive bar that slid over the entrance to the bunker was certainly enough to stop anyone from escaping.

  With the bunker door open, Casey saw the backpack and an urge overcame him, too powerful to quell. He entered the damp-smelling bunker and unzipped the pack. He ripped through the cash. Then, on the bottom, he found it. A single piece of white computer paper. He unfolded the request and read:

  BROWN HAIR, SHOULDER LENGTH

  THIN AND ATHLETIC, LATE TEENS

  TALL

  Casey read it again and again. He looked around, stunned by tunnel vision. He was, at last, here again. The desire boiling and tickling that part of him he knew no one else possessed—an eerie pond of dark and jagged emotions that made up his being. A black swamp in his soul he despised, formed years ago at the state fair when he ate sticky cotton candy and silently watched the greasy-haired man put his hand on Joshua’s shoulder and lead his brother into the gravel parking lot.

  The memories from that day—the sugary treat, the humid summer air, the stale smell of petting-zoo urine and pony manure—all mixed together over the years of his adolescence. Different concentrations of guilt bled into those memories. Remorse for his inaction that day. Shame for watching the stranger lead his brother away while Casey stayed mute and chewed on cotton candy. Those images and thoughts and memories all gelled together to form his humanity. He hated himself for allowing that dark swamp in his mind to define him. Hated when it boiled over and spilled from it banks. Hated it for controlling him. Hated it always. Except for the times he loved it.

  He looked back at the page in his hand, read the request again. The hunt was on.

  CHAPTER 26

  August 2016

  One Week Before the Abduction

  Megan McDonald finished her senior year at Emerson Bay High with an impressive résumé. She captained her cheer team since sophomore year and took them to the state championship three times. A leader on the debate team, she played varsity basketball, and was ranked first in her class in grade point average. She spent part of the previous summer in South Africa assisting at a makeshift hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, a bullet point for her medical school application in the coming years. Her greatest achievement, however, was her effort in spearheading a mentoring program during the summer after sophomore year that, in total, included 80 percent of the incoming freshman class, and was created to help arriving first-year girls make the transition from middle school to high school.

  Her determination to make the program perfect earned a write-up in the local paper. Teachers and administrators praised the mentoring program and the environment it created for freshman girls. Parents sent letters describing how well adjusted their daughters were during such a big changeover year. The superintendent spread the word about the program’s success, and neighboring high schools reached out to Megan for advice on creating their own summer platforms. Soon, an overachieving young man from a high school in New York called to ask for Megan’s help in creating a similar program for boys. All the attention led to an article in Events magazine featuring Megan McDonald and how she was taking the anxiety out of high school for not only the incoming class at Emerson Bay, but—as her program became widely adopted—for thousands of kids around the country.

  She walked now from the high school where she had graduated valedictorian three months earlier. With her was Stacey Morgan, an upcoming junior who would take over the mentoring program this summer when Megan headed off to college.

  “We’ve got another week to finish things up,” Megan said as they walked across the parking lot. “I know you’re stressed, but you’re going to be fine. You’ll likely do a better job than me, people like you more.”

  “Ha! Not true,” Stacey said. “The younger girls idolize you.”

  “They’ll feel the same way about you. You’ve just got to put it out there, you know? You’re the leader of this event. Everyone during the weekend has to see it and feel it. If you do that, everyone will look up to you. Even the seniors. You’re going to do great.”

  “Thanks.”

  They stopped at Megan’s Jeep. “I’ll miss you next year, you know that?”

  “Yeah,” Stacey said. “Me too. But you’ll be making new friends and joining a sorority and you’ll be on your own.”

  “Maybe,” Megan said. “I’ll only be in Raleigh. I’ll be back on weekends and we’ll hang out.”

  “Promise?”

  “Promise. You going to the beach party on Saturday?” Megan asked.

  “Yeah. I think everyone’s going. Isn’t that when Nicole Cutty puked in the fire last year?”

  Megan laughed. “Nicole’s an idiot. She chugs five beers to impress . . . who? I don’t know. Then tries to douse the fire with her vomit.”

  “She was such a slut the other night, I don’t understand her.”

  “Nicole? I don’t know. I’m trying to stay out of her way. She wants drama and I just wish no one would give it to her.”

  Stacey smiled. “Will Matt be at the beach party? I heard you guys hooked up last weekend.”

  “No!” Megan said. “We kissed in the bay, that’s the end of it.”

  “I thought you guys were together last year?”

  “Sort of.”

  Stacey waited.

  “It’s complicated. He was kind-of-sort-of dating this girl from Chapel Hill, but not really. And at one point, he was hanging out with Nicole. I don’t know. I could never get the full story. So things are brewing but not, you know . . .”

  “Fermenting?”

  “Gross. I’ve got to run. I’m meeting my dad for lunch. I’ll see you Saturday night.”

  Megan climbed into her Jeep and drove across town. As her father had grown increasingly depressed about Megan’s upcoming college career, she was making the effort this summer to spend more time with him. It was hard to see him this way. The pride she saw in his eyes was unmistakable, and Megan knew he was excited for her. But she also felt her father’s fear. Sadness came over him in the las
t few months since Megan had decided on Duke. The campus was just three hours away, but hours were not what upset her father. It was the idea that college was the first step in losing his daughter. Megan had never been deceptive in her desire to get out of Emerson Bay and live in a big city. Fascinated by Boston and New York since she was a little girl, Megan had been vocal about those cities being her first choices for medical school after college. Her interests might change, but for the moment she was enamored of the idea of neonatology, and St. Luke’s in New York had one of the best programs in the country.

  She pulled into the lot of Gateways, an Emerson Bay staple that served good salads and gourmet burgers. Parked out front was her father’s cruiser, SHERIFF stenciled across the side. Megan knew he was already inside chatting up the waitresses and bartenders and earning a free lunch from the owner. Her father had a certain charisma that made people comfortable. Some officers wielded their authority as a source of intimidation. Her father was never that way, which was likely why he was so successful as sheriff. Everyone in town knew him, most liked him, and the majority voted for him.

  She entered the diner and she saw the newspaper spread across the bar, a cup of coffee steaming next to it and the red-topped stool empty. As soon as she sat down, the waitress approached. “Hi, hon. Your pop’s in the bathroom. What can I get you?”

  “Diet Coke, thanks.”

  Megan scanned the paper. The sports page was open. She turned to the front page and skimmed the headlines. As Megan read, she heard the familiar jingle-jangle of her father’s keys and holster as he walked up behind her. When conjuring a persona of their fathers, most girls pictured their dads’ faces, hair color, or smiles. But Megan’s dad had always been the swashbuckling sheriff of Montgomery County. She pictured him in his uniform more than she ever did “street” clothes—keys jingling and leather holster squeaking.

  There was a part of her that was sad to leave for college. Not nervous. She’d flown alone to Africa and found her way to a desert village where she worked alongside strangers in a country where she didn’t speak the language. All the nervousness of her life had been spent on the Doctors Without Borders trip last summer. But there was a small ache of sadness when she thought of being away from her parents, and specifically her father, whom she’d worked her entire life to please.

  “Hi, Daddy,” Megan said when he kissed the back of her head.

  “How’d the retreat planning go?”

  “Good. Stacey’s got it covered. A few other details to work out, but we’ve still got a couple of weeks.” She swiveled on the barstool as her father sat next to her.

  “I’m sure you’ll get it all done.”

  She took a deep breath. “I’m kind of happy to hand it off, is that bad?”

  “The retreat? It’s a lot of work. There’s no dishonor in being relieved to turn it over to someone else.”

  “I love the program. I just don’t want that to be all I’m about.”

  “You’re only eighteen, sweetheart. Plenty of time to build a legacy.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  Her father looked down at his newspaper, now with ugly front-page headlines staring up at him. “What happened to my sports page?”

  “Lots of things happen in the world besides sports, Daddy.”

  Her father grumbled as he rustled the paper.

  “Hey,” Megan said. “I got a big packet from Duke yesterday. Included was the basketball schedule. Just before Thanksgiving, we’re playing North Carolina and it’s a big rivalry game. You and Mom should come that weekend and we’ll go to the game. It’ll be fun.”

  “Thanksgiving? That’s a long ways off.”

  “I’m not saying that’s the first time you guys come to visit, I’m just telling you to save the weekend so we can go to the game.”

  “What’s the date?”

  “It’s the weekend before Thanksgiving. Then I’ll just come home with you and Mom on Sunday for break.”

  Terry McDonald scrolled through his phone and set a reminder. How easy it was to think November would come without problems.

  “You ever hear from MACU?”

  Megan smiled and rubbed her father’s forearm. “Not yet, Daddy.”

  It was a longstanding joke, between just the two of them, for her father to ask about her status with the Mid-Atlantic Christian University, the closest college to Emerson Bay. He sometimes asked about Elizabeth City State, as well. Both schools were within thirty minutes. Megan had applied to neither.

  “Well, maybe they’re just making you sweat.”

  “You know I’ll be home for every holiday, and even some long weekends.”

  “MACU is twenty minutes. You could commute. Keep your room at home.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Sounds super fun for college. Keep checking the mail for me, okay?”

  They ordered lunch, two salads per Megan’s request. Her father, now in his early fifties, had gathered an impressive bulge around his waist Megan was constantly on him to lose.

  “So what’s going on this weekend?” her dad asked.

  “End-of-summer beach party.”

  “Adults going to be present?”

  “It’s right next to my friend’s house, so her parents will be around.”

  “Name?”

  “Jenny Walton.”

  “No drinking.”

  “Got it.”

  “And if you end up making a bad decision—”

  “I’ll call for a ride home.”

  “And when you’re at Duke, the same rules apply. I know kids drink, I’m not an idiot. I bust enough punks around town to know what’s going on. But no drugs, and no drunk driving. And that means—”

  “No drunk riding, either. Don’t drink and drive, don’t drink and ride. I got it, Daddy. I never have.”

  Terry McDonald leaned over and kissed his daughter’s cheek. “As long as you keep that deal with me, anything else can be worked out.”

  “Don’t forget the deal I have with you,” Megan said. “I get straight As first semester at Duke, you lose fifteen pounds by the end of freshman year.”

  Her father picked at the salad in front of him, pushing arugula to the side. “Yeah. Deal.” He took a deep breath. “Got a feeling I’m going to be eating a lot of this crap.”

  They ate a quiet lunch together, two weeks before college, discussing the future—basketball games and Thanksgiving break and weight loss and medical school and big cities. The future was something taken for granted. It was always there, waiting to be lived.

  CHAPTER 27

  August 2016

  One Week Before the Abduction

  Nicole helped Casey pack the generator into the back of his pickup truck, along with the chalkboard and folding tables. They took one last pass through Coleman’s to make sure the old brewhouse was empty of the club’s presence. They were sure to sanitize the ruins out back where they had kept Diana Wells, removing the tape and plastic wrap they had used to restrain her, and tossing the chair that held her onto the tracks for the next passing freight to demolish.

  When they were satisfied, they jumped into Casey’s pickup and headed up Highway 64, leaving Coleman’s as nothing more than a decaying brewhouse in West Bay.

  “She looked like a goddamn zombie when we cut her loose,” Nicole said in the passenger seat. “If she goes to the cops, they may not take her seriously.”

  “Either way,” Casey said, “better to close things down for a while just in case.”

  “What are the cops going to do to us? She agreed to it,” Nicole said. “Like all of us. You asked her if she wanted it, just like you asked me. She’s just mad because of how we did it. She was expecting us to grab her from a dark alley, and instead you seduced her.”

  “Doesn’t matter. All I know is that we’re done with club stuff for a while.”

  “This is bullshit,” Nicole said. “It’s not our fault she’s so soft.”

  Diana Wells’s breakdown while bound and gagged at
the brewery was proof that she expected none of it. Casey had misjudged her response to the ordeal when they finally cut her loose and welcomed her into the club. Nearly catatonic when they pulled the plastic wrap from her arms and wrists, Diana Wells could not walk. And when the gag came from her mouth, words never followed. Prepared to cheer and celebrate, the club instead dispersed quickly that night, some running with scared looks and coolers in tow when Diana collapsed to the ground and no one could rouse her. Casey finally drove her back to the bar and left her in the parking lot.

  The Diana Wells situation now posed a problem. There were rumors that she would go to the police, and that her parents knew about the club. With his deadline approaching for delivering the next girl, Casey couldn’t afford attention from the police. But he had to move forward. There were precautions he could take to cover his tracks should the cops hunt him down and ask about Diana Wells. Clearing out Coleman’s was the first step. Today’s errand was the next.

  He pulled off the highway and turned right at the end of the off-ramp. A strip mall unfolded along the side of the road. Casey pulled into the lot and parked a good distance from the entrance of a Goodwill store.

  “Here’s the list,” he said to Nicole, slipping her a piece of paper.

  “Why’d we come all the way out here for this stuff?”

  “Just go get it, okay? And throw some random stuff in with it.”

  “Like what?”

  “Whatever. Just buy some junk.”

  With the slip of paper in hand, Nicole walked the length of the parking lot and entered the Goodwill store. She purchased a long-sleeved button-down shirt, a pair of cargo pants, and an ugly pair of sneakers—all the items from Casey’s list that he would wear for the next take. He’d burn each item afterward, but should any evidence be left behind—from fibers to footprints—he would make sure it didn’t lead to him.