"We're talking with them right now," the officer said. I could tell he was in over his head. "So far, they're telling us that all the kids that were on the buses this afternoon have been dropped off."
"But they never came home," a dad said.
"We are aware of that," someone else cut in. He stepped forward, and I recognized Detective Jack Ryder. I knew him because he had helped me on a case around Christmas and we’d had him and his family over for dinner a few times since then.
My eyes locked with his. This was no time for catching up or even smiling at one another, though.
"Listen, guys. You've got to know that everyone is doing everything they can to figure this out. But you've got to give them some space to work."
"So, what are you doing about it?" another dad said. "Are we supposed to just stand here and wait? How do I know you're even doing all you can to get my daughter home?"
Jack put a hand on the man's shoulder. "Believe me, John, you know I have kids of my own in this school. I will do everything—and I do mean everything—in my power to get those kids back to you."
I could tell by the look on John's face that he knew Jack would. I just hoped and prayed it was enough.
9
May 2018
"Apparently, they were told to go on another bus."
We were all sitting in the commons area inside the school, waiting for news of our kids. Detective Jack Ryder had left for about twenty minutes, and now he had come back. I had started biting my nails while texting Sune, who was still back at the house and wanted to know what was going on. The woman next to me started sobbing. Her hands were shaking while holding her phone. She kept staring at it, checking if there was a signal every few seconds, her fingers frantically tapping the display.
"What do you mean they were told to go on another bus?" a dad said getting up from the bench.
All eyes were on the detective. He ran a hand through his long blond hair. His blue eyes told me he didn't have good news.
"We have spoken to several of the kids who were on the bus and who stood in the line outside while they waited for the bus, the way they usually do. A kid told us some of the kids in line were told to go on another bus today. The girl standing in front of him was one of them, he said."
"Another bus? What other bus? And how is that even possible?" the same dad asked. "Wasn't there a teacher present? Wasn't anyone supervising them?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out," Jack said. "According to Miss Elaine, it's usually Mrs. Braddock who supervises the buses, but she wasn’t here today. She’s at her cousin's wedding in Oklahoma. Mr. Meckler filled in for her today. He might have messed up and sent some children on the wrong bus. That's our theory so far."
Jack looked down at his phone as it was ringing. "I have to get this," he said and left.
The dad sighed and looked at the rest of us. "I can't believe this. This is all we get? Mrs. Braddock was gone, and then it all goes to hell in a handbasket?"
"Yeah, what were they doing putting the kids on a different bus anyway?" a mom asked. "Who told them to do it?"
"I bet Mr. Meckler is behind this," another mom said. I knew her as Mary but had never learned her last name. She was the mother of a girl named Haley in Julie's class. "I never trusted him much."
"What are you talking about?" Nancy said. "He's the nicest teacher. Why would he have anything to do with this?"
Mary shrugged. "I don't know. I just never trusted him."
"Because he's a man, is that it? He's the only male teacher we have," Nancy said.
"He's also new. Why do you choose to become a teacher when you're a male anyway?" Mary asked. "Studies have shown that forty-nine percent of kids that are molested are abused by their teachers."
"Where did you get that number?" John asked. "I, for one, think it’s great to have a male teacher at the school. The kids need a good male role model as well as a female. I have a son who was in Mr. Meckler's class, and he loved him."
"All the kids love him," Nancy said.
"But still," Mary argued. "There was that story of Adrian, remember? When he was in Mr. Meckler's fifth-grade class, he said Mr. Meckler had grop…"
"That case was dropped," John said, raising his voice. "Adrian lied. He admitted it himself. There is nothing to it."
"Maybe," Mary snorted. "But right now, our kids are missing, and I’m putting my money on Mr. Meckler. He did something to them."
"Please, stop pointing fingers till we know more about what really happened," a mom interrupted them. "Please, just stop it. You're making the rest of us even more nervous. We don't even know if anything bad has happened. Maybe they're just on this other bus somewhere and…well, maybe something happened to the driver of the bus or something. He could have had a stroke, and maybe he parked safely on the side of the road because he wasn't feeling well. Something like that. We still don't know that anything bad has happened, so please stop talking like it has."
"Wouldn't the police have found the bus by now?" Sue asked. "If it was parked in some rest area or on the side of the road?"
"Who knows…?" John said. "It could be a possibility."
"Wouldn't our kids have turned on their phones by now and called us?" Mary said.
That made all the parents stop talking and look down at the phones in their hands.
I looked at Jack Ryder, who was walking up and down the hallway while on his phone. My eyes met his in a quick glance, and I got the distinct feeling there was something he wasn't telling us.
10
May 2018
Alicia was sitting next to Julie on the bus. Behind her sat Alondra and Tonya, giggling and having all the fun in the world. When she was told to go on another bus, Alicia had been certain she wouldn't have to deal with them, but they too had come onboard the new bus, much to Alicia's regret.
Alicia didn't know Julie very well, and she was a little older than her, so they didn't talk much. She knew her because they were neighbors and Alicia had hung out at her house a few times since they came here from Denmark. Alicia liked Julie but was a little scared of talking to her since she was a sixth grader and Alicia had just started third grade.
They had been driving forever, and Alicia was beginning to get hot. There was no AC on the bus and no open windows. Alicia looked out the window and didn't recognize anything. It wasn't their usual way home. And why was it taking such a long time?
One of the girls in the front had told the bus driver earlier that this wasn't the way they usually went, but the driver had simply told her that it was a new route and not to worry about it.
"How long do you think it's gonna take before we're home?" Alicia asked Julie.
Julie shrugged. She looked at her watch. "We're usually home by now."
"I don't recognize anything outside," Alicia said and put her nose to the window to cool it down a little, but even the window felt warm, with the sun burning it from the outside. She turned to look at Julie. "Do you think we're lost?"
Julie grimaced. "I don't know. Maybe."
The bus continued through the landscape that got more and more foreign to Alicia. It kind of reminded her of where her Uncle Ryan lived in the middle of Florida. He had taken her hog hunting once when she came to visit, and she had seen a huge gator in the swamps, eating a poor deer, crunching its bones loudly. The deer had still been alive and watching her with its big brown eyes while the gator slowly devoured it. After that, she told her uncle she never wanted to go into the swamps again.
Ever.
"I think at least we're going in the wrong…" Alicia said when the bus suddenly slowed down and came to a halt.
All the girls looked up from their seats.
"Where are we?" Alondra asked behind Alicia.
"This is not Cocoa Beach," a girl from fifth grade named Emmy said.
They looked out the windshield, but there was nothing there. No houses, no buildings, no town. Just swamps. Alicia shuddered thinking about the deer in the gator's mouth.
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"This is definitely not Cocoa Beach," Alicia said in a low voice. "We are totally lost."
The bus driver got up from his seat and opened the front door. In front of them on the road, two vans were parked. Two men wearing pantyhose over their heads stepped inside the bus. Alicia felt herself grab Julie's hand when she spotted the guns in their hands.
11
February 1991
"Don't put Sweet-and-Low in your coffee. That stuff is poison for you."
Jane paused midair with the bag between her fingers. Then she put it down. Bob was right; that stuff was dangerous. She just really liked her coffee sweetened, and since Bob had told her to stop using real sugar if she wanted to lose weight, the sweetener was all she had left. But he was right. She really shouldn't put it in. If the coffee wasn't sweet, then chances were, she would drink less of it too, so maybe that was even healthier.
She sipped the bitter coffee and swallowed. Bob had taken her out for brunch this Sunday as he often did, generous and thoughtful as he was. Jane felt his hand touch her thigh under the table and she giggled. He leaned over and kissed her, gentle and caring as ever.
Things had been really good between them the past several months. He was so considerate it was hard to believe. Even their sex was good. And he made sure she had everything in the world she could ever wish for. Flowers at least once a week, surprise lunches, even jewelry when it wasn't her birthday or an anniversary. He liked to surprise her, he said. She always felt so embarrassed since she didn't get him anything. But he didn't want anything other than just to see her happy, he usually said.
"Is that a new nail polish?" he asked, looking at her hand in his.
"Yes, I put it on this morning. You like it?"
He made a face.
"You don't?" she asked, surprised.
"It's all right."
"You're lying. I can tell you don't like it, do you?" she asked a little disappointed. She had hoped he would.
"It makes you look like a bimbo," he said and drank from his glass of orange juice.
"Excuse me?"
"You know," he said with a shrug after swallowing. "Cheap."
"Really? I didn't even think about that," she said and hid her nails in her lap, so no one could see them.
"Good thing you have me to think for you, huh?" he said with a chuckle.
She nodded, biting her lip, thinking about a call she had received the night before from her best friend, Annabelle. She had told her she missed seeing Jane and that she wanted to go out for lunch soon or something.
"Even just a cup of coffee would do," she said.
"I don't really have time," Jane had told her. "You know how life gets sometimes. Busy, busy, busy!"
That was when Annabelle had gone quiet on the other end. "He doesn’t like me, does he?"
"What? No, no, he doesn’t know you, Annabelle."
"I haven't seen you in six months; what the heck is going on? Is he telling you who to see and who not to see?"
"No. Of course not."
"Then why do you keep blowing me off?" Annabelle asked.
Jane hadn't known what to say. She loved Annabelle, she really did, but she was right; Bob couldn't stand her. He thought she was bad news for Jane because she wasn't married.
"She doesn’t understand that you're a married woman now," he would say. "You have obligations; she doesn’t. You're different now, in another league than her. She wants to go out and find men; you don't."
He was right, Jane thought to herself as she watched him shovel scrambled eggs into his mouth. She really shouldn't be hanging out with someone like Annabelle. Not that she didn't want to, she just didn't want to go through all the trouble of Bob nagging at her for being with her. She didn't like that he couldn't stand her, but he was her husband now, and she had to put their marriage before anything else. She was a married woman, and that meant her lifestyle had to change.
12
May 2018
We were sent home. After two hours of waiting at the school for news about our children, the police told us to go home and stay by the phone. They had all our numbers and would make sure to call us as soon as they knew more.
We all did as we were told, reluctantly. I, for one, believed it was best for all of us. The atmosphere in the commons room had become quite nasty. There had been a lot of arguing and pointing of fingers, and Mary had insisted that Mr. Meckler had kidnapped all ten girls. It became so bad that John almost punched her at one point.
At the house, Sune was waiting with Tobias and William. He was holding onto his walker but let go of it when he saw me come in.
"Rebekka!"
We hugged, and William joined in by hugging my leg.
"So, there’s no news at all?" he asked when we had let go of one another. I spotted Tobias sitting in the kitchen. His eyes were avoiding mine.
"All they know is that ten girls have gone missing. All of them were told to go on another bus, but they don't know who told them that yet, nor do they know where the bus went after it left the school grounds. It's like it vanished. They’ve put out a search for it all over the county, but we don't know much about what it looks like. We just know what the kids told the police…that it was smaller than the normal buses and that it had dark tinted windows."
Tobias pretended to be playing on his iPad, but I could tell he was listening in on our conversation. I walked to him and sat down.
"Tobias? Look at me."
He lifted his head hesitantly.
"It's not your fault, okay?"
He swallowed. "But…but…I was there."
"So were a lot of other kids; they didn't do anything wrong either. Still not your fault. Do you hear me?"
"I hear you, but it's not true. Julie is my sister. She's my best friend. I should have stopped it. I should have seen where she went."
Tobias got up and rushed to the bathroom, where he closed the door. I walked to the door and could hear him crying on the other side of it.
"Tobias, please. Come on out," his dad yelled. "We need to stand together as a family in this."
"But you hate me! I let this happen!"
"No," I said. "No one hates you. No one believes you could have done anything."
The door opened, and Tobias peeked out. "But…"
I grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. "It's okay. We'll get her home. It's probably just all a big misunderstanding. She'll be home soon."
"You…you think so?"
"Of course."
"Yay," William yelled from the other end of the living room. "Ju-ju home soon!"
My eyes met Sune's, and he could tell I was lying. I didn't believe it one bit. Inside of me, everything was screaming loudly in panic. But I couldn't let the kids sense that. I simply couldn't. Especially not Tobias, not my sensitive stepson. It would break him.
"I knew something was wrong when Mr. Meckler asked Haley to come with him," he said and let go of me.
"What did you say?"
"Haley," he said.
"No, the other part."
"Mr. Meckler?"
"Yes, what did he do?"
"He told Haley to come with him. She was in front of me in the line when he tapped on her shoulder."
13
May 2018
"It was Mr. Meckler, wasn't it?"
I was so angry I was about to explode. I had seen it in Jack's eyes when he was on the phone at the school. He knew Mary was right. I held the phone close to my ear while walking into the back of the house where William wouldn't make too much noise.
"Rebekka…you know I can't answer that," Jack said.
"He's the one who told them to go on another bus, am I right?" I asked, not caring what he was allowed to tell me and what he wasn't. Jack and I had been involved in a case before, and I felt like we could be honest with one another.
He let out a heartfelt sigh. "I can't tell you about it because, if I do, then other parents might hear it and then the speculations will run wild, and I am not abo
ut to start a witch-hunt here, Rebekka. I am trying to get your kids home alive…dang it."
"Tobias told me that he heard Mr. Meckler tell Haley Robinson to get out of the line," I said. "In case you wonder how I know."
"Yeah, well. That's the second kid telling me about Mr. Meckler. I guess it'll be out soon anyway. I was just trying to buy us some time. We have him in for questioning."
"And what does he say?"
"He was in charge of supervising the kids today because Mrs. Braddock was out of town, so he did what he was told. It is true that he tapped Haley on the shoulder and pulled her out of the line, but he says it was because she had forgotten her lunch pack in the hallway. He told her to go get it."
"And then what? What about the other girls?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm.
"I…I don't know. So far, we only have a couple of witnesses telling us about him talking to Haley, not any other kids. We still haven't talked to all the kids, you know. These things take time."
"So, he didn't tell the girls to go on another bus?" I said and wrinkled my nose.
"Not to my knowledge, no."
My shoulders slumped. "So, he doesn’t know what happened to them?"
"He says he doesn’t."
"But…he was in charge of supervising them?"
"He had no idea which kid usually went on what bus. He just oversaw them getting in line and onto the buses. But again, that's all according to his own statement," Jack said, sounding tired.
"But he must have seen who told them to go on that other bus, right?" I asked. "Or at least who was driving that other bus?"
"He says he didn't see any unusual activity, no strangers. It was just him and the school nurse."