Secrets Boxset: A Riveting Kidnapping Mystery Collection

by J. S. Donovan

  Anna thought on it for moment. “I don’t know. Evan… he isn’t making it easy, that’s for sure.”

  Richard chewed his sandwich. His curly gray hairs jiggled with every bite. A scar on the top created a hairless junction across his crown. Anna had never noticed it. Her father rarely removed his fishing hat. Richard gulped down some sweet tea. “I know my memory isn’t like what it was. The other day I was halfway out of the driveway when I realized I’d forgotten my trousers. Gave the neighbors a little peep show.”

  Anna looked at him with sympathy. “We can hire someone to look after you, if you’d like.”

  Richard shook his head. “That’s not why I said it. You and Evan, I could never forget. Two peas in a pod playing Army in the backyard with wooden sticks for rifles.”

  An unintentional smile crept up Anna’s face as she recollected. “The good old days.”

  “Not always,” Richard corrected. “Both you and Evan were little troublemakers.”

  Anna remembered skipping class to play in the woods or trespassing in the neighbor’s yard just to see how far they could get before getting caught.

  “Evan,” her father got serious. “He was always different. His condition made him somewhat of an outcast. I remember that he’d come home from school and lock himself in his room. The Freak, they called him. The older he got, the more it affected him.”

  “I forgot about that,” Anna confessed. Her brother’s condition--congenital insensitivity--made him unique. He’d come back home with cuts and bruises, never realizing he was hurt. He fell into the creek, once, and sliced his back open. They got all the way home and then realized it because of the bloody puddle soaking through his shirt. Another time, he broke his arm playing football and used it for nearly two days before going to the hospital. Evan smiled coyly at the doctor’s office. It’s nothing, his eight-year-old self bragged. Superman doesn’t feel pain, either. If it had been discovered any later, it wouldn’t have healed properly.

  “Where do you think he’s been all these years?” Anna asked.

  Richard’s eyes glossed over. “I have no clue, but he isn’t the same boy I used to play ball with.”

  “He told me Mom wasn’t the only reason he left. Did something happen?”

  Richard looked at Anna’s untouched sandwich. “Finish your food. You don’t want to eat a stale sandwich.”

  “Dad, tell me the truth.”

  “The truth is, Anna, I don’t remember,” he said bitterly. “I try, but I can’t. One day he’s a normal kid and the next, he’s gone, just like my Ashley.”

  They looked at the picture on the wall. Ashley, Richard, Evan, and Anna. The whole Dedrick family by the lake. Anna took her father’s hand. “He isn’t gone, Dad. I’m going to find him and make sure he comes back home.”

  Richard placed his clammy hand on top of hers. “Start with one of his girlfriends. Call it fatherly intuition, but I have feeling that’s where he’s been hiding out the past few days. Also, he smelled of perfume the last time we spoke, and I found a bobby pin in his room.”

  “Thanks, Dad. I’ll look into it.”

  After eating, Richard headed to his recliner. He turned on the evening news as Anna slipped into the hall.

  “Renowned Prodigy has gone missing and the Van Buren Police Department has released an APB on their prime suspect--”

  Anna returned to the living room and hovered behind her father’s chair. Richard hiked up the volume.

  “-- Evan Dedrick.” A mug shot of Evan appeared on the screen. A frown ruled his face and a goatee circled his lips. His tired eyes were cold and uninviting. The picture was dated three years back. “Dedrick was released in February after serving three years for assault charges against Winona Hall, a school teacher and mother of three. ”

  Richard and Anna traded horrified looks.

  The still frame from the schoolyard video appeared adjacent to Evan’s mug shot. “Police believe that Dedrick spoke to Keisha Rines days before the abduction and are requesting any information on Dedrick and his current whereabouts. You can reach them at the tip line provided below.”

  Anna chewed her nail. “No… that footage is inconclusive. I reviewed it myself dozens of times. They’re setting him up.”

  “Anna,” Richard said, not taking his eyes off the screen. “This is Greenbell we’re talking about. I worked with him for years.”

  Anna remained unconvinced. The sheriff had been hostile to her since she’d returned home.

  A picture of Anna in her uniform appeared on TV. Her eyes went wide. “It’s come to our attention that Evan is the brother of Anna Dedrick, a lead detective in the Miami PD renowned for singlehandedly taking down the Dade County human trafficking ring and saving the lives of multiple abducted minors--” The picture shifted to her outside the police station, looking frazzled and angry. “—She was seen at the Van Buren Police Department an hour ago, in what we suspect was an attempt to clear her brother’s name. Is there a connection? More about Dedrick and Rines after this break.”

  A commercial started playing. Anna and Richard stared at the tube, slack-jawed and silent. Anna took out her phone and dialed Trisha. The phone rang and kept ringing.

  “Come on, pick up,” she mumbled.

  “Hi--”

  “Trisha, listen--”

  “-- You’ve reached Trisha and Avery. We can’t take your call right now, please leave a message after the…” Beep!

  Anna paced. “Trisha, it’s Anna. Call me.”

  After a few moments, she called again. Answering machine. Anna tried a third time.

  Her father watched her. “Take a deep breath.”

  “It’s not like them to avoid me,” Anna said with frustration. She grabbed her coat from the rack. “I’m going over there. Call me if Evan comes home, though I highly doubt that will happen.”

  Sliding her arm through her sleeve, she yanked open her truck’s door and hopped inside. Putting the shift into drive, she slammed the accelerator and roared down the road. Trisha’s mother’s house wasn’t far.

  Anna’s phone rang. She slammed on the brakes, almost skidding through a red light. “Trisha?”

  “It’s Avery.”

  “Thank God. You weren’t taking my calls. I was worried--”

  “We’re okay,” Avery interrupted.

  “Did you watch the news?”

  “Yes,” he replied, letting the response linger. “We also spoke to the Sheriff. He told us about Evan.”

  “I know how this looks.”

  “Do you?” Avery lashed out. “Your brother may be responsible for my daughter’s abduction. Her mutilation.”

  “We don’t know that,” Anna said as calmly as she could. “Honestly, Avery, we don’t know much, but I plan to find out. You have my word.”

  “Your word? What does that mean? You’re a headline chaser.”

  Anna’s knuckles coiled around the steering wheel. “That’s what the media wants to you to believe. While they’re chasing a story, I’m chasing Keisha.”

  The line went silent. Anna waited, unsure if the man had hung up.

  “There’s too much confusion, Anna, and way too many unanswered questions. I believe it would be better if the police and I finish this. Alone.”

  “If there’s anyone that can find my brother, it’s me,” Anna explained. “Put Trisha on the line. Let’s hear her opinion.”

  “No,” Avery replied. “You spoke to Trisha’s mother against our express directive. Whatever rapport you think you’ve built with my wife is gone. You should be happy we’re not demanding a refund.”

  “This isn’t about money,” Anna retorted. “It’s about your daughter.”

  She heard Avery breathing on the other side. “Good luck on your future endeavors, Ms. Dedrick.”

  The line went dead.

  Anna slammed her fist against the steering wheel. The car behind her beeped their horn, and Anna noticed the light had turned green. She swerved into the left lane and made a U-turn. />
  Back at her dimly lit office, she turned on the desk lamp, poured a glass of wine, and opened her laptop. She opened the file on her desk, revealing the pictures of Keisha and the Rines house. In one, the pampered little girl had a wide smile. Her silver bells bounced light and were tied into her slinky hair with ribbon.

  “I’m going to find you,” Anna whispered and sipped on the bitter red cabernet.

  A simple browser search of her brother revealed his charges. Winona Hall, thirty-six years of age, beautiful blonde hair and sloped nose, took Evan to court under a rape charge. Her husband, an influential member on the Jonesborough school board, returned home early and found Evan on top of his wife. Her wrists were bound to the bed and a sock gagged her mouth. When the police arrived, Winona claimed that she was enjoying lunch with Evan when he attacked her. The officers found Evan in a roach-infested hotel taking a nap. His lawyer got the charges dropped to assault and the judge had Evan locked away for four years. He got out in three for good behavior.

  Anna took another sip from the glass as she studied her brother’s mug shot. With his unexpressive face and hard frown, he even looked like a criminal. Feeling ill, she closed the tab and tried to find him on the various social media platforms. No luck. Evan Dedrick was a ghost. Worse, a ghost with a history of violence.

  She rubbed her forehead. Winona might be able to shed some more light on the situation, but calling her past nine o'clock in regards to the man that assaulted her might not be the polite thing to do. Anna wasn’t in a polite mood. She searched up the school website in which Winona worked and found her phone number. The woman answered with a confused hello.

  Anna introduced herself under an alias. “I’m looking into a Missing Persons case, and Evan Dedrick appears to be the main suspect. I was hoping you could shed some light on his personality. Maybe tell me about what happened between you and him.”

  “He tried to rape me,” the woman said without hesitation. “I have class tomorrow and must get my sleep. Don’t call here again.”

  Winona hung up.

  Either she was brutally honest, or there was more to the story. Anna poured another glass and followed her father’s lead. If Evan was staying with a girl in town, that narrowed the possibilities down to eleven thousand females. She wasn’t overjoyed with the prospect. She needed to trim down the list. Richard drove over with a stack of yearbooks.

  “Sorry,” Anna apologized for calling him over.

  “I wasn’t getting any sleep anyway. I never do on nights like this.” Her father smiled tiredly and placed the books on her desk. Cardboard boxes still lined the walls and no pictures were hung. “I could help unpack these.”

  “No, take a seat.” Anna handed him half of the yearbooks. “I need your help.”

  Taken off guard, her father sat and fumbled through the old pages. “What am I looking for?”

  “You were a detective once, what do you think?”

  Richard thought from a moment. His face lit up. “Evan’s childhood sweethearts.”

  “Exactly.”

  Her father’s joy left and he looking ashamedly at the desk. “Anna, my mind isn’t--”

  “Not two hours ago you told me you could never forget your children.”

  Richard nodded. “You’re right.”

  Anna smiled at him. “Start at the front and back binder. Kids always mark that with their name and leave a message at the end of the year. Some may be telling.”

  “It’s a long shot,” her father said, looking over the stack of ten books.

  “It’s all we have.”

  Anna started in the fourth grade. Evan had brown hair cut to a bowl and a big toothless grin. He lost his front tooth that year, Anna remembered, and showed it off to Mom like it was a million bucks. In the margins of most pages, sticks figures and pencil-drawn warriors battled. Anna had forgotten he’d drawn things like that. As Anna moved through the different grades, the battles and images grow more violent and spread across the page until the dismembered parts of stick figures were cast across his fellow classmates. Kids will be kids, but in light of recent information, it made Anna uneasy. She continued flipping pages.

  Very few girls stood out from the rest of the portraits. Their faces had little hearts or Xs drawn next to them.

  Anna researched them, finding that they’d either moved away, died, or gotten married. According to the Internet, that last fact didn’t deter Evan. In silence, she and her father continued through the years of her brother’s life, ending at sophomore year when he ran away.

  “Check this one out.” Her father pointed at a cute ten year old encircled multiple times by a black pen. It was a brunette with her haircut in a bob and freckled cheeks.

  Anna took the book from Richard and studied it. “Grace Kendale. I remember her. Evan asked me for advice on how to talk to her. I told him that he was eleven years old and didn’t need to bother himself with dating. He had quote-unquote girlfriends but when you’re that young, it never meant anything. This was the first he was shy around.”

  “I pointed it out because it’s in pen,” Richard explained while pointing at the black circles. His fingers moved to the doodles on the page’s blank spaces. “The rest are in pencil.”

  Anna flipped through the other books. He was right. Every marking was done in pencil but this. There was some small text written in the binding. Anna flattened the book out as far as it would go and drew out a magnifying glass from her desk drawer.

  “Old school,” her father chuckled.

  Anna smirked back at him and read the enhanced text. “August 12th…”

  She stopped herself.

  “What is it?” Richard said with an alarmed expression.

  Anna turned the book around and slid it to him. He accepted the magnifying glass and looked at the date. He looked back at her intensely. “That’s…”

  “Yeah,” Anna said slowly. “This year. A day before Keisha went missing.”

  7

  Left in the Woods

  Morning fog lingered outside the industrial eyesore constructed out of crude cement and suffering from a lifeless symmetrical design. Anna slammed the truck’s door and looked out at the three-story tenement. She abandoned her shades in the front seat, making no effort to conceal her bloodshot, sleepless eyes. Her gut told her that the residents wouldn’t care.

  “Grace Kendale?” Anna said into the wall-mounted intercom. “It’s Anna, Evan’s sister. We talked briefly last night.”

  The intercom gargled back, producing a slew of electronic snaps and pops.

  “Did she hear you?” Richard asked, looking over his shoulder at the quiet parking lot that most likely housed several nefarious dealings the previous night.

  The lock on the double doors clicked. “There’s our answer.”

  Anna pulled open the door and waited for her father to step through. He paused. “Are you sure I should come along?”

  “Don’t be shy, Dad.” Anna stepped through the threshold. “I need you here in case--”

  “Evan has the girl,” Richard finished with dread.

  Anna became lightheaded thinking of it. She hiked up the stairs, attempting to prepare for the worst-case scenario: that her own flesh and blood might be a pedophile. Fear stuck to her like grime. Each step drudged through a swamp of doubt-filled muck. The stench of dread became more and more prominent until she was suffocating in distress.

  “We’re here,” Richard said.

  Room 216.

  Three doors down, muffled hip-hop music rumbled the hall. In another, a couple screamed at each other until something smashed. A woman stormed out and marched down the stairs in a heated rage. Anna traded a look with Richard and knocked on the door.

  Three locks, by the sound of metal on wood, and Grace Kendale stood before them wearing a faded bathrobe. Her hair formed a lopsided lazy bun and the light wrinkles on her face proved she’d aged before her time. One hand rested on her hip and her deep, makeup-less eyes glared at Richard. “Who’s h
e?”

  “My father,” Anna said politely. “May I?”

  Grace stepped aside, allowing them entrance. Dirty brown carpet covered the floor. The living area contained discount furniture and a sixty-inch television. Dishes filled the kitchen sink, and white powder pesticide salted the foot of every wall and window like a ward against any unwanted spirits.

  With his hands folded around his back, Richard wandered the room and looked at the various pictures and posters on the wall.

  “Intercom broke, if you hadn’t notice,” Grace stated. “Been broke for a good two weeks and no one’s fixed it. Camera’s broke, too.”

  “Doesn’t seem safe,” Anna replied.

  Grace chuckled. “Nope.”

  She plopped down on the couch and crossed one leg under her thigh. “You’re looking for Evan?”

  Anna sat next to her. “It was a little muddled over the phone. You said you saw him?”

  “I live with him,” Grace smiled slyly. “Sorry, he lives with me.”

  “That must be interesting,” Anna replied, trying to gain some common ground. “He’s not the most open person.”

  “That’s the truth, but he’s good in bed.” Grace’s eyes flashed proudly.

  I could live without knowing that. By the look on Richard’s face, he could too. “How long has that been going on?”

  “We’ve always been on-and-off since he left home. He went quiet for a few years, but came back last week, practically begging me to take him in. I could never refuse Evan, even though we are night and day.”

  She doesn’t know Evan went to jail, Anna realized. “How so?”

  “Evan’s always been an enigma. He likes to go out at strange hours and take long walks by himself. Reflecting, he says. On what, I don’t know.”

  “Do you know where he is now?”

  Grace shook her head. “No. He left a few days ago, said he had some errands to run. If it had been anyone else, I would’ve called the police. But Evan likes his alone time, and he always finds his way back home.”

  “Is there any place in particular he might go?” Anna asked.