Goodbye Forever

by Bonnie Hearn Hill

  They didn’t say much as they drove back to John Paul’s place. Finally, Jasper shrugged as he did when he wanted to apologize for something.

  ‘It’s OK,’ John Paul told him.

  ‘I only said what I did because I know those media types.’

  ‘So do I,’ John Paul shot back. ‘Doyle’s not like that. She cares. Besides, she’s already following up that Fowler lead.’

  ‘Alone?’ Jasper’s voice dropped, barely audible among the sound of traffic.

  ‘With her ex.’ They pulled into John Paul’s driveway, beneath the overhanging branches he didn’t have the heart to cut back. ‘Come on,’ he told Jasper. ‘Let’s talk about anything else.’

  ‘You’re on.’

  On the way into the house, John Paul took out his phone and glanced at it. The number of the missed call wasn’t familiar, but the name on the voicemail was. ‘John Paul. This is Richard McCarthy, Kit Doyle’s husband. Call me as soon as you get this. I’ve already notified the police, but I need to talk to you too, because … well, because Kit has disappeared.’

  All the way down Highway 99, John Paul tried to shut off his thoughts the way he’d been taught when a personal situation became a professional one. Only this wasn’t professional. It was someone else’s case.

  When he pulled up in front of the Mexican restaurant, a pale, turned-off sign and the dim lights from the freeway lit the shape of Richard McCarthy pacing in front of the tiny building.

  Doyle’s little red Prius was in the lot. John Paul parked his truck. Make it professional, not personal. That was his goal. Find out what the fuck this guy knew.

  Richard walked up to his truck. John Paul got out and, for a moment, considered whether or not they should shake hands. Then his cop brain kicked in, and he studied Richard McCarthy. Six foot one, maybe two, dark hair covered by a baseball cap. Bloodshot, hyper-focused eyes. Something was off in his expression. Guilt. Yeah, that was an easy one to call.

  McCarthy looked numb, and not just from the weather. ‘The woman who owns this place closed early,’ he said. ‘I asked her to keep it open, but she said it was too cold.’

  ‘Tell me what happened.’

  ‘I let Kit out of the car this morning.’ McCarthy motioned vaguely toward town. ‘And when I came back around the block, she was gone.’

  ‘You what?’ John Paul pulled his jacket closer. For a moment, he caught Kit Doyle’s scent. ‘I was supposed to drive her here. We agreed. Why’d she change her mind?’

  ‘I wanted to do it,’ McCarthy said, ‘but then she met one of the kids – a guy named Ike – and she insisted that she had to talk to him again this morning.’

  ‘And then?’ John Paul felt his scalp burn. He could barely control his voice. ‘You let her go with this guy?’

  McCarthy glared at him. ‘You ever try to tell Kit she can’t do something? As I said, I drove around the block, and when I got back, she was gone. I already called the police, and I’ve driven every one of these country roads looking for her.’

  ‘Then you’ve done all you can, Doctor McCarthy,’ he said in what he hoped was a professional tone.

  ‘You’re not telling me to go home?’

  ‘That’s exactly what I’m suggesting. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing else you can do here.’

  ‘What about you?’ McCarthy demanded. ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘I’m going to call my former partner and ask if there’s been any word.’ John Paul stared into the darkness wondering how much more he should say. ‘Then I might drive around a little myself.’

  ‘Let me go with you,’ McCarthy said. ‘I can describe the truck to you.’

  Anything to keep from feeling useless. John Paul knew the feeling. ‘That won’t be necessary. I’m really not sure why you called me anyway since it’s a police matter now.’

  ‘Because you care about Kit. Whatever your official designation, it doesn’t matter to me. I think you can help.’ McCarthy shoved his cap back from his head, and John Paul could see how tortured he was. Yet he was the reason that Doyle was missing right now.

  ‘I’ll look into it.’ John Paul stared at him as if to make him realize that there was much more he’d like to say. ‘Good night, Doctor McCarthy.’

  ‘Wait.’ McCarthy came close to him, and John Paul realized they were about the same height, and that, eye-to-eye, Doyle’s ex or whatever he was could hold his gaze.

  ‘All I’m asking is for you to keep me informed about what you find out.’

  ‘That depends on what law enforcement wants to share. As you must know, she’s probably in danger now.’

  ‘I get that,’ McCarthy said.

  ‘And you’re the one who drove her here without protection. You’re the one who let her get into a vehicle with a stranger. Forgive me if I don’t have a lot of patience with you right now.’

  Fuck. He had done what he’d promised himself he wouldn’t. He had baited Richard McCarthy, made himself come off as less than professional.

  ‘She’s my wife.’ Under the light of the dim sky, McCarthy’s dark hair seemed to glow. ‘Where were you last year when she was nearly killed trying to find her mother? Where were you any day of any week when Kit couldn’t think about anything else?’

  ‘This isn’t about you and me,’ John Paul shot back.

  Then, for the first time that evening, Richard McCarthy paused and seemed to consider this conversation of theirs.

  ‘Isn’t it?’ he asked.

  John Paul felt the anger ease out of him. Without it, he felt exposed, beaten.

  ‘My friend Jasper will let me know what’s going on,’ he said. ‘I’ll keep you up to date on everything I hear. And that’s a promise.’

  SIXTEEN

  Kit couldn’t remember how long she had sobbed on the floor of that treehouse. The cold pizza and stale cake pretty much summed up her day and night. One way or another, she would be out of here by sunrise. She had to be, before Richard and her mom had to worry another moment. She had to admit that the pizza – with pineapple and some kind of red hot sauce – wasn’t bad. Four pillows stacked behind the sleeping bag formed a kind of headboard. Kit propped herself up on them and huddled in her jacket. Although she would be warmer inside the covers, she already felt creepy enough lying on top of Ike’s bed. She wasn’t about to venture inside it.

  Up here, at least, she could think, and she could let go of the darkness that had engulfed her when Ike had deserted her in the basement. Pictures flashed in her mind. Ike’s crazy smile. Richard’s arms around her, John Paul and Farley. Her mom. They would do everything they could to find her. She had to try to keep herself safe until they could, and that included pretending to herself that it was perfectly normal to be up in this insane imitation of a home.

  Tomorrow. Hours away. She had felt this way at the runaway shelter, just trying to pass time until morning. As she drifted off, she thought about Virgie, the girl who had rescued her when the blonde and her buddies had been willing to kill Kit for her boots. John Paul always said you can’t help them all. Kit hoped Virgie could be helped.

  She blinked back into the sunlight slanting through the upper window and reached for her phone to check the time. Then she remembered that she didn’t have a phone. The sooner she got out of this place, the better.

  Slowly, she crept down the steps. On each new rung, pressure and pain shot through her foot. That was OK. She could live with pain and move as slowly as she must to survive.

  A small camouflage dome tent she hadn’t noticed before sat just a few feet from the treehouse. A couple of immaculate tennis shoes partially covered by a blanket, extended from it. Ike.

  She tiptoed past the tent and looked out. The fog had lifted a little. She could see the road. If she followed it toward those shadows of cars along the freeway a few miles away, she could find the Mexican restaurant again. The woman who ran it seemed like a nice person. She would let Kit use her phone.

  ‘Hey.’

  Kit jerked arou
nd and came face to face with a tall, slender girl who appeared from behind the treehouse. She looked cold, as if she had been standing there for some time, and what Kit could see of her short fringe of burgundy hair under her fleece beanie looked damp and frizzed by the weather. Kit looked into the unsmiling face she had seen in numerous photos. This girl she had seen with Lucas yesterday was the one she had risked everything to find. Richard’s niece.

  ‘Jessica?’

  ‘How do you know my name?’

  ‘I saw you earlier,’ Kit said. ‘And Ike mentioned you to me.’

  ‘Are you with him?’

  ‘He’s a friend. That’s all. What are you doing out here so early? You look cold.’

  ‘I was meeting someone, but you’ve screwed that up. Come on inside.’ The sun filled the sky like a light switching on. Jessica squinted at Kit. ‘Does Lucas know you’re here?’

  ‘I think Ike talked to him.’

  ‘What are you staring at?’ Jessica demanded.

  ‘Nothing. I mean, I was just leaving.’

  ‘Hold on, both of you.’ Ike stepped out of the tent and loomed over them. ‘What’s going on out here, Jessica?’

  ‘You tell me.’

  ‘Does Lucas know you’re prowling around out here this early?’

  ‘I’m not prowling. And you can’t tell me what to do. I live my truth.’

  ‘Until when?’ he asked. ‘I’m impressed that someone as intelligent as you can remember the second rule, though.’

  ‘I remember all of them.’ She shot Ike a nasty look. ‘And you should have followed them. Take no chances. Remember?’

  ‘She’s OK,’ he said.

  ‘What do you think Lucas would say about that?’

  ‘I’ve already talked to him about her,’ Ike said. ‘Come on, Katherine.’

  Jessica didn’t budge. ‘As if you and Lucas are the two great leaders.’

  ‘Wait.’ Kit pulled her jacket closer with numb fingers. ‘I can fix this right now. By leaving.’

  ‘How’re you going to do that when you’re the problem?’ Jessica asked.

  Kit glanced back at Ike, so close to her now, so protective, that she could feel his body heat. ‘As I said, by leaving. I’m out of here.’

  ‘That works for me,’ Jessica said. She stepped on to the wooden porch. ‘Thanks for screwing up my morning. I’m going to go thaw out.’ The door slammed behind her.

  ‘I’ll be going too,’ Kit told Ike. ‘I’d sure appreciate it if you’d give me my phone back. I’ll feel a lot safer with it.’

  ‘You’ll get it.’ His expression hadn’t changed. ‘But Lucas won’t let you leave without his permission.’

  ‘He doesn’t even have to know until I’m gone.’

  ‘Lucas has to know everything,’ Ike said. ‘He’s inside. Let’s go.’

  ‘No.’ She turned toward the path and knew she could not make the walk to the freeway. She would have to hitchhike, try to get someone to stop and help her – assuming Ike or one of the others didn’t follow her.

  Along the path, facing them, a boy almost as tall as Ike walked up. With black curly hair to his shoulders and a guarded smile, he seemed almost an illusion, a trick of the light. Only the anger in his eyes made him human.

  ‘Where’s Jessica?’ he asked Ike. ‘And who’s that?’

  ‘Inside,’ Ike replied. ‘Katherine, this is Wyatt.’

  Wyatt nodded a greeting but didn’t address her directly. ‘Does Lucas know about her?’

  ‘We’re handling it,’ Ike said.

  ‘See you in there.’ He stomped his feet on the wooden steps as if shaking loose invisible snow.

  When the door closed behind him, Kit turned to Ike. ‘Does he think women don’t know how to speak?’

  ‘He’s not like that,’ Ike said. ‘We just distracted him from what he hoped to find here.’

  ‘Jessica?’

  ‘That’s not important right now,’ Ike told her, and nodded toward the house, ‘We need to go in there too. It’s the only way.’

  ‘I said no.’

  The door opened again, and Kit looked up, expecting Wyatt to reappear. Instead, Lucas stepped outside. Without the cowboy hat, he looked shorter, and his gelled hair did little to compensate. His wide blue eyes looked unnaturally innocent.

  ‘Welcome.’ He spoke in a clear, clipped voice that was larger than he in every way. ‘Are you the new friend who is causing all of the commotion around here?’

  ‘I don’t mean to cause anything,’ Kit said. ‘All I want to do is leave.’

  ‘She doesn’t really want to leave,’ Ike said. ‘She doesn’t have any place to go.’

  ‘Then why the sudden change of heart?’ Lucas walked up to her, and even though she had to gaze down to meet his eyes, she felt his power. It wasn’t like a charge of electricity. More like a gentle warmth pressing against her resistance.

  ‘Because I thought this would be a good place to stay,’ she said. ‘But then Ike took my phone, and he said some things that concern me. I just don’t think it’s going to work out.’

  ‘Oh, Ike.’ Lucas grinned at him and looked ready to give him a playful punch on the shoulder.

  Ike’s body stiffened.

  ‘She begged me to bring her here, Lucas. You know I’ve never done anything like this before. I’m just trying to help.’

  ‘But you took her phone away from her?’

  ‘He did,’ Kit said.

  ‘I was just following the first rule,’ Ike said. ‘Take no chances.’

  ‘If we return it, could we have a less tense discussion?’ Lucas asked. ‘Inside, perhaps?’

  His words came too easily to trust.

  ‘What’s wrong with right here?’ Kit asked.

  ‘Nothing,’ he said, ‘if you like freezing. Come on. Let’s go inside and talk. Sissy’s making tea.’

  ‘Come on, Katherine,’ Ike said.

  She shook her head.

  ‘Do come in,’ Lucas told her in that same clipped voice. ‘Even if you decide to leave us, we need at least to give you a decent meal and reunite you with your phone.’

  ‘Give it to me first.’

  ‘Ike?’ Lucas spoke with a smile in his voice, but Kit could hear the echo of much more there.

  ‘Are you serious?’ Ike dug into his jacket pocket.

  ‘Please retrieve what you took from her.’

  ‘Fine.’ Ike yanked it out and handed it to her.

  She gripped it and went straight for Richard’s number. The screen looked as blank and dead as the sky.

  Lucas watched her efforts to revive it and finally said, ‘We can charge it inside.’

  The phone was her lifeline, the only one she had left. As Kit followed Lucas up the stairs, her chest tightened, and she could barely breathe.

  He stepped ahead of them, went into the kitchen, and plugged the phone into a waiting charger.

  ‘While we wait, would you like some pizza?’

  ‘No, thank you,’ Kit said, keeping her gaze on the counter.

  ‘It may take some time. You might as well make yourself comfortable.’

  ‘I’m fine,’ she said.

  ‘You don’t look fine.’ Lucas strode up next to her, his voice as gentle as a concerned parent’s. ‘I’d say you look worried. Where will you go when you leave?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Why not hang out for a while?’

  ‘Ike said I’d have to go through some kind of test to stay, and I’m not into hazing.’

  ‘This is not a fraternity,’ Lucas said. ‘It’s a compound of like-minded individuals – a family, as it were. And whether you stay with us or not, you need to prove that you are who you say you are.’

  ‘I don’t have to prove anything to you.’ Kit moved closer to the counter.

  ‘You stayed at our compound, spent the night here. You know how to find us, and we need to know that we can trust you.’

  ‘I stayed against my will, and I’m leaving. No test.’ She reache
d out for the phone, and Lucas tried to grab it from her. It fell to the floor. Lucas picked it up and handed it to her.

  ‘Clumsy of me.’ He looked down at the phone with remorse so well replicated that she would have believed it if she didn’t know better. ‘We’re lucky it didn’t break.’

  Kit checked it. No signal.

  ‘What have you done to it?’

  ‘Kept it from smashing into pieces,’ Lucas said proudly.

  ‘But it’s not charging.’

  ‘Apparently not.’

  ‘You don’t have reception here?’ she asked.

  He shrugged. ‘We are careful about any of the electronic devices our generation was brainwashed into thinking we couldn’t live without.’

  His naïve way of speaking covered something much more arrogant – maybe more than arrogant. Kit reminded herself that he was the youngest person in this so-called compound.

  ‘Do you really expect me to believe that you don’t have a working phone in this place?’ she asked.

  ‘Of course we do,’ he replied in his clipped, friendly way. ‘If we were to experience an emergency, we would need contact with the outside world. But’ – he gazed at the others, even Ike, all of whom nodded – ‘we know where to find them. We don’t want them to be able to find us.’

  ‘How do you maintain that contact?’ she asked.

  ‘I’ll share that information with you once you agree to the rest of it.’

  ‘The rest of what? And if I don’t, what are you going to do to me?’

  ‘In our compound, we have no violent punishments.’ He glanced over at the basement door and the braided rug still bunched over it. ‘We have only one, actually. An opportunity to chill. A time out.’

  ‘I’m not going back down there.’

  Lucas glanced at Ike. ‘So that’s where you hid her. That’s strike two.’

  ‘Don’t push it.’ Ike’s voice dropped. ‘And let’s not start counting strikes.’

  ‘You’re right, friend.’ Lucas frowned down at the counter and lifted Kit’s dead phone. ‘No worries. If we can’t revive this one, we’ll get you another one.’

  ‘When?’ she asked.

  ‘Once you do this one thing to prove we can all trust each other.’