Colleen paused for a second, her back still turned to Jane.
"Please? I don't know when I'll see him again. Please?" Jane folded her hands and began to cry. She couldn't say goodbye to her kids already. She couldn't bear to see them leave. How was she supposed to survive this? How was she supposed to go on when she had no idea when she would see them and hold them again? Especially Matthew, who was still so young. The longing to be close to him was agonizing. It was killing her.
Colleen sighed deeply, then looked down at the girls. For a second, Jane was certain she would turn around and let her hold Matthew and kiss him one last time before they left, but she didn't. Instead, she said:
"Come on, kids. We need to get you home now."
57
May 2018
I actually slept a little. I hadn't expected to since I was so worried, but I had at least four hours of sleep and, when I woke up, I couldn't stop wondering what this day was going to bring. Would there be another one? Another note or text? Would it be Julie this time?
Before going to bed, I had stared at the lyrics of the nursery rhyme, and I was singing them out loud to myself in bed.
"Eight little Injuns gayest under heav'n.
One went to sleep
And then there were seven;"
Sune was still sleeping, and fortunately, I didn't wake him up by singing it over and over again, wondering what it would mean in the minds of some sick psycho kidnappers. How would they use it? If only I could guess that, then we could get ahead of them. The biggest problem was that I didn't even know what child would be next.
The door to our bedroom opened, and William stormed in, then jumped onto our bed, laughing and fooling around. I gave him a big kiss, then grabbed him and held him in a close embrace.
"Ju-Ju comin' home today?" he asked.
I exhaled and ruffled his hair. "I’m afraid that I don't know, big guy. We can only hope."
He tilted his head. "Mommy worried."
"Yes, your mom is worried," I said. "I want her to come home. I miss her. Don't you miss her?"
He looked like he was contemplating the question for a few seconds, then nodded.
"Good. I’m glad you miss her too. She's your sister, you know."
William shrugged, then jumped on Sune, who woke up with a roar. Will sat on his face with his wet diaper and Sune laughed, then grabbed him and lifted him off.
"Someone needs to get out of his diaper," he chuckled. William only used a diaper at night, and it was usually filled to the brim once he woke up after a long night's sleep.
Sune got out of bed and, almost without even limping or struggling, walked to the changing table where he removed William's diaper. I enjoyed watching him being almost back to normal. To think that a small thing like changing a diaper could be such a big deal, but it was to Sune. He loved being able to take care of things around the house again, to take care of the kids and me. And I enjoyed watching him do it with such pride.
"There we go," he said and lifted William down to the floor. "Good as new."
William squealed and then ran off.
"Who could have known that watching you remove a wet diaper would turn me on so much?" I asked.
He approached me, then crawled under the covers. He kissed me gently, then looked into my eyes.
"My legs aren't the only thing around here that has regained its mobility, you know," he said. "You want to? It's been a while?"
I stroked his hair gently, then sighed. "I…I can't. I'm sorry."
Sune's eyes lost their sparkle. He moved away from me.
"Okay. I get it."
I felt bad. "It's not because of you," I said. "I just…I can't with all that's been going on…you know with Julie and all the worry and…"
"It's been two years, Rebekka. Two and a half, actually. I’m beginning to think you lost interest in me. I could understand it if I was still stuck in that chair like I was for two years, but now that I’m not? Now that I’m actually capable of…"
"Sune, my daughter is missing. I can't just pretend like she isn't. I’m in pain. I’m sick with worry; how do you want me to…?"
He rose to his feet. "Just forget about it, Rebekka. I'll make us some breakfast."
58
May 2018
We ate breakfast outside under the umbrella. Sune made pancakes and bacon for us all, and for once, I actually ate some. I still couldn't stop worrying about this day and what it might bring, but I tried not to ruin everything by letting it affect me. Sune seemed to be still upset, but I couldn’t really deal with him right now.
After the boys were done eating, they grabbed a ball and ran down to the beach to play soccer, while I cleaned up. My wound in my thigh was still swollen and ugly, but it didn't hurt much anymore. It was healing very nicely, even though it was going to leave an ugly scar. I was going in for a checkup in a couple of days, but I felt sure that they were going to tell me it looked great.
Sune was already in the kitchen when I brought in the plates. He grabbed them from me and put them in the dishwasher. Then he leaned over and kissed me softly. He looked into my eyes, his showing deep concern for me.
"I know this is tough, Rebekka. I also know that I don't know exactly how tough it is. I can only imagine. But if it is any consolation, I think you're doing great; I really do."
He turned around and poured me some more coffee, then handed the cup to me.
"Thanks," I said and sipped it, relieved that he wasn't angry with me. I needed him right now. I needed him to understand me. "The worst part is the waiting. I mean, I’m pretty sure one of us will get a message somehow today, right? What if it’s me? What if I get the message? What if I get the riddle and need to go find Julie somewhere, not knowing if she will still be alive? What if I’m too late?"
"You won't be, Rebekka," Sune said and closed the dishwasher.
"How can you be so certain?"
He leaned over and kissed me again, then looked into my eyes. "Because I know you, Rebekka. Now…should we go check the mailbox together?"
"I already checked it," I said. "At two o'clock in the morning and then again at six and right before you woke up. But I need to check it again and, this time, it would be nice if we could do it together. I don't want to find the letter alone. I keep checking my phone for messages too, fearing the worst, jumping at every vibration it makes. It's silly. I don't even know how the kidnappers will get the next message out. They might even use a flippin' Pigeon Post for all I know."
Sune smiled. "Let's do it together. Come."
We walked out the front door, just as I spotted Sue Porter rushing up toward our house. By the look on her pale face, I knew this day it wasn't going to be my turn.
It was hers.
"Oh, dear Lord, Sue. Is it Alicia?"
"I…I just…I was checking the mail, you know…fearing to find a letter like Nancy did, but then my phone…it vibrated, and there was a phone call…it was Alicia's voice. She was singing…you know the song, the rhyme. But only one line from it. It sounded like a recording, because once it was done, it was repeated, and then they hung up."
"Let me guess," I said. "The line she sang was Eight little Injuns gayest under heav'n, right?"
Sue nodded. "I…I don't know what to do. Rebekka, please help me like you helped John. Please, just help me!"
59
May 2018
Julie couldn't believe that Alicia was gone. She kept glaring toward the hatch above her, wondering if she would ever see her again. Nikki moved in her corner, and Julie tended to her. She grabbed a bottle of water and realized they were running out quickly. The same went for the cereal and crackers. There were lots of empty boxes but very few full ones. Would they bring them new supplies soon?
Maybe they don't even care if we starve down here since we'll be dead soon anyway?
Julie felt so tired. Yet, somehow, something else seemed to be growing inside of her now, a spark of some sort that had lingered inside of her ever since Alicia had left.
&
nbsp; Anger.
Julie was angry. She was sick and tired of being a prisoner, of leaving her entire existence and her future in the hands of some sick bastards who, for all she knew, could be pedophiles. They could be selling the girls off to a life in slavery in what she had heard grown-ups refer to as trafficking.
She was sick of them deciding whether she should live or die, whether she was going to see her mother or not.
Nikki moaned in her sleep, and Julie rushed to her, put a hand on her forehead, then retracted it quickly. Nikki was burning hot, even worse than she had been earlier. The fever was rising, and Nikki was deeper in the land of the dead than that of the living.
If you don't do something, she'll die.
Julie put the water bottle against Nikki's lips and tried to pour the liquid into her mouth, but it ran down the sides of her mouth.
"Drink, dang it!" Julie said, a sense of deep dread overpowering her. Nikki had barely taken in any water over the past twenty-four hours. If she didn't drink soon, she would die. No one could survive without water. That much she knew.
Julie tried to lift Nikki's head up to make the passageway more open, then poured more water into her mouth, but the water simply ran back out, and she had no idea if Nikki even got anything inside her stomach at all.
Julie put her down again, then put her ear close to Nikki's face.
She's barely breathing!
Julie grabbed Nikki's wrist and felt for a pulse but could hardly feel it. It was there, but it was just very, very weak.
Julie felt it as her own pulse went up. The thought of not being able to save Nikki was crushing. Besides, Nikki wasn't the only one who had a fever by now. She wasn't going just to sit there and let them all die one after another. Second grade Aubrey had been coughing and broke into a fever the night before. She too was sleeping heavily most of the time now.
Julie rose to her feet, then drank the rest of the water from her own bottle. She threw the empty bottle in the pile, then walked to the hatch and looked up, mumbling to herself.
"We have to get out of here. Now. There has to be a way. There simply has to be."
It was when looking down at her feet and at what she was standing on that Julie realized that maybe there was and maybe they had been sitting on the solution the entire time.
60
May 2018
One went to sleep and then there were seven.
That was the line that kept buzzing in my mind. That was the riddle we had to solve before it was too late. At first, I had thought it was simple enough. She had to be somewhere sleeping, maybe even in her own bed, like we had found Alondra in her own garage. But we had already checked that and found nothing in her entire house.
I had called Jack Ryder and filled him in. He was sitting with us now and kept rubbing his forehead and running his hand through his long curly surf hair. He had all his patrols on high alert, driving around Cocoa Beach, looking for Alicia, but so far, we had no idea where to even begin looking for her.
"Maybe we need to look at the first line in the verse too," I said and pressed the display on my phone. I found the lyrics once again. My fingers were trembling. I couldn't stand the wait or the pressure. I couldn't stand the thought that every minute mattered; every second that passed could mean that we were too late to save her.
It was brutal.
"Eight little Injuns gayest under heav'n?" Jack asked.
"Yes, that has to mean something too, right?" I asked. "Like it did with Emmy."
Jack nodded. "Makes sense."
I stared at Sue. She had that look on her face that terrified me. She hadn't uttered a word in a long time. Her husband Emmett was standing by the fireplace, sipping a glass of whiskey. All I knew about him was that he was a highly esteemed judge, and it was obvious he was used to people doing what he told them to. Every now and then, he would get mad at Jack and tell him that if anything happened to his little girl, he would make sure he would never work again.
Jack was good at handling him, I was surprised to see. I’m not sure I could have remained so calm had he spoken to me like that. But not Jack. He spoke to him in a calm voice and let him know that the entire police department was on this case; everyone was doing all they could, and he would personally do his best to get his daughter home.
"But what does it mean?" Jack said.
"Gayest under heav'n," I said. "That must translate to the happiest place on earth, right?"
Jack's glare met mine and our eyes locked for a second.
"Well, there really is only one place it can be, then…right?" he said.
I nodded. Jack grabbed his phone and dialed a number. "I'll get ahold of Orange County's Sherriff department. They can get there faster." He put the phone to his ear and walked away. I sat in a chair next to Sue and held her hands in mine.
"We’ll find her. Don't worry. We'll get her."
I gave her a smile, trying to be as comforting as possible, secretly praying that when they found her, it would be in time. Disney World was a big place, after all.
61
May 2017
Julie grabbed a mattress and pulled it across the floor. She lifted the edge of it and then placed it on top of the first one. It was hard to breathe in the hot and humid air, and she ran out of breath very fast. Yet soon she had stacked five mattresses on top of one another. The other girls—those who were still awake and not feverish or too weak—helped her get the sixth one up there as well and, soon, they had built a tower.
To get the last mattress on top of it, Julie had to crawl up and pull it up. Then, as she stood on top of the tower, she stretched as far as she could and realized she could easily touch the hatch.
Why on earth hadn't they thought of this before? They had all been too sick with worry and paralyzed by fear to think about escaping. But now that Julie was touching the bottom of the hatch, she felt that spark of hope return. She reached her hands up and placed them both on the bottom of the hatch, then pressed with all her strength.
The metal plate didn't move.
"What's happening, Julie? Can you open it?" Haley asked.
Julie grunted and tried again. The metal plate still didn't move. It was too heavy.
"It's like there's something on top of it," she said, panting. "Something heavy."
Julie groaned, then gave up and sat down on the mattresses. The other girls were looking up at her, eyes filled with anticipation. How could she let them down?
"I can't," she mumbled to herself. "Not when we're this close."
Julie made a loud growl, then pressed her shoulder against the metal plate and tried with all her weight to lift it up. For the first time, the metal plate actually moved. Not much, but just a little bit. Enough for Julie to laugh and allow herself to be filled with hope.
"It moved," she yelled to the others. She had to stop and catch her breath and sat back on the mattress. "The plate moved."
The girls below her let out small shrieks of joy and laughter. Julie looked down at them from her tower.
You can't let them down now.
Then she rose to her feet and pressed using her shoulder again. The plate moved a little more but now a bunch of dirt fell onto her face, and she had to let herself fall back, spitting and rubbing it out of her eyes.
"What happened?" Haley asked.
Julie looked up at the plate above her. "It's dirt. They covered the plate with dirt. That's why it's so heavy. The bastards buried us."
The very thought filled Julie with claustrophobia.
"Can you get it to open?" Tonya asked.
Julie looked down at them. "I…I don't think so. There could be several feet of dirt up there. I think we're pretty far underground."
Trudy let out a shriek. Julie looked at Nikki, who lay motionless in the corner.
No, she couldn't give up now. There was no time to waste. Nikki had to get out, and it had to be now.
Julie felt the mattress beneath her. It was old and worn. The springs were poking out in plac
es, but so was something else. Julie felt it with her hand, sized it up, then used her nails to rip the molded fabric open. Then she pulled out a wooden stick. Happily, she felt the mattress and found more. Two…three more. Then she looked down at Haley and Tonya, the two strongest and healthiest among them.
"Get up here, girls. We’re going to start digging."
62
June 2000
"All rise, the Court is now in session."
Jane had finally been able to afford a good lawyer. Not an excellent one, but a decent one, one that believed she had a case that could help her get her children back. She had saved every penny she made working two jobs and, with her mom's help, she finally had enough money.
The past six months, she had only seen her children once a month, but she quickly came to dread the visits. They were so short, and saying goodbye made her feel like screaming in anger. It was awful. Colleen watched them like a hawk, taking notes on how she and the kids behaved together. But worst of all was that the kids began saying terrible things about her. They said that their aunt had told them that Jane was bad, that she was a drug addict, that she didn’t want them back.
And every time, at least one of them had shown visible signs of abuse. Yet the DCF had refused to act, even though Jane constantly pointed out that her children were suffering. The worst part was that the children were covering for their aunt and uncle or maybe even their father since Jane didn't know if they were seeing him, but she had a feeling they were. But whoever was abusing them, they didn't want to tell her who it was. And that meant they didn't want to tell the DCF either. Every week, Jane called Colleen, asking her if she had looked into it, and every time, she received the same answer.