The darkness outside was nothing compared to the darkness threatening to swallow Mallory whole. A black pit yawned in front of her, and its name was terror. Sheer terror at the thought of what Haylie might be going through right now.
And on the heels of that terror, she heard Carol’s voice in her head confessing who she was. Mallory pressed her hand to her throbbing head. That revelation was the last thing she wanted to deal with right now. How could Carol have just given her away like that? The woman she thought she knew wouldn’t have done it. Did she even know her?
Kate had insisted on driving the car to Bangor, and she glanced over at her. “I can see the tension in your shoulders. Hang on, Mallory. We’re following the kidnapper’s instructions. Kevin will find her.”
“I shouldn’t have been late.” Her warm breath fogged the window. “What kind of mother allows her daughter to be snatched from under her nose?”
“The guy would have just snatched her from her bed or something. A determined criminal is going to find a way.” Kate’s face was pale and set in shadows in the dim light of the instrument panel. “The other kids said she walks off by herself. Haylie is fourteen, old enough to know better with all the warnings you’ve given her. You did everything you could to make her aware of the danger, but she didn’t listen. This is on her, not you. You’re a good mother, the best.”
Was any of that true? Mallory groaned. She’d tried and tried to pray, but every time she thought she could move on from her past, something slammed her face-first into the mud again. Her face felt hot and her eyes burned.
“Mallory, are you listening?”
“I’m trying to.” She lifted her head and stared at the lights twinkling on the outskirts of Bangor. “I’d take her place if I could.”
“I know you would. So would her grandmother.”
“Don’t talk about her! I can’t even think about that now. She admitted that moving next to us may have brought this danger into our lives. I wish I’d never started looking for her. It’s all such a mess. What if I never see Haylie again?” It was hard to even force the horror in her brain past her lips.
It happened all the time. The news was full of children who died, of mothers who never came home, of fathers who died in car accidents. Why should she be special?
“Whoever took Haylie is the one to blame. Not Carol, not yourself. Not anyone else.”
“What if I’m being punished?”
“Oh, Mallory. God forgave you long ago. I don’t know why you can’t forgive yourself. Let it go. Let’s deal with this problem. It has nothing to do with punishment.”
Before she could answer, her phone rang and she grabbed it from her purse. The screen read Unknown. “Hello?” Her voice was shaky.
“Glad to see you’ve left town as I instructed.” The words were garbled by some kind of electronic device. “I’m going to let your daughter out down the street from your house just after noon tomorrow. Be waiting there to get her. Don’t come back to Folly Shoals, and stop any investigation into your father’s death. Do you understand?”
She licked her dry lips. “I do. Please, let me talk to Haylie. I have to know she’s all right.”
Kate steered the car to the shoulder and turned off the engine. She pulled out her phone and began to type something. The sound of a sent text message whooshed out.
“Remember what I said. If I hear you’re still poking around, I’ll kill her next time. There will be no call, no warning.”
Even through the distortion of the voice, the menace and intent were clear. Mallory gripped the phone tighter. “You have my word. Please, just let me hear her voice.”
“She’s sleeping, and I don’t want to wake her. If I hear her crying one more time, I might have to shut her up for good. Just do what you’re told and things will be fine. Tell the sheriff you don’t believe your father was murdered. Rein in the boyfriend too.”
Her gut clenched in a sudden spasm as she remembered the men and women searching Kevin’s yard. This had gone way beyond any amateur investigation she was doing. “I don’t know if I can. The sheriff isn’t in my control.”
“Do what I tell you or she’ll die.”
The cold words made her want to vomit. “How do I know Haylie is even still alive? You won’t let me talk to her.”
“If you do what you’re told, you’ll see for yourself tomorrow afternoon.”
The phone clicked, and Mallory held it out to look at it. The call had ended. A scream built in her chest and throat. What he wanted was more than she could do, more than she could control. How did she live under the constant threat of Haylie being killed?
Kate touched her arm. “Mallory? What did he say? I texted the sheriff to let him know he’d called, but I don’t think you were on long enough for him to trace it.”
“H-he wants me to get the sheriff to quit investigating.”
Kate’s eyes widened as Mallory told her what the kidnapper said. “They have to find him. We can’t live with a constant threat like that.”
Mallory’s phone dinged with a text message. It was a video. She pressed the Play button, and the screen showed a run-down house with a metal cot in one corner. Haylie was on the cot with her eyes closed, but as Mallory watched, her daughter rolled to one side. She was alive!
The sunlight glared in her face, and Julia groaned as she rolled over with her arm over her eyes. The kid had sobbed and cried for her mother last night until Julia was ready to scream. The musty smell of the old house had filled her chest with phlegm, and she couldn’t wait to get out of here.
She got up and glanced at the sleeping kid. It had to have been three before she finally shut up. Peeking at her watch, she saw it was after eight. No wonder the sun was so bright, even through the trees. She opened the cooler and took out a tub of strawberry yogurt, then dug in the bag she’d brought for a plastic spoon. This would all be over in a few hours. She’d be able to get out of this wilderness. The thought of Washington beckoned and eased her grumpiness. Soon.
The sound of a motor came through the windows. She grabbed the gun on the table and peered outside, then relaxed when she saw Frank get out of the black four-wheel-drive truck. He’d come after her demand last night. She glanced at Haylie and saw she was still sleeping. Stuffing the gun in the waistband of her jeans, she slipped out the door to meet him in weeds along the overgrown track.
Frank’s gray hair stood on end as if he hadn’t slept all night. He waved away the swarm of insects that dive-bombed him. “What was so important you had to drag me to this mud hole?” His voice was loud enough to cause a flock of birds to take flight.
“Let’s sit in the truck and get away from these bugs. I’ll tell you what we have to do. I can’t do it alone, and I need help.”
“Let’s get it over with.” He got in the truck.
She slid in the passenger side and shut the door. The truck’s new smell was overlaid with his overpowering cologne. “We have to eliminate the kid and Mallory.”
His sleepy black eyes looked her over. “I thought you didn’t want to hurt the kid.”
“Things have heated up and there’s no other choice.”
“I thought that might be the case so I came prepared. I brought an injection that will put her to sleep. Permanently. No pain, no fuss.” He pulled out a syringe and laid it on the console between them. “One little stick and our problems are over. And there’s a pond deeper into the woods. I brought you rope and an anvil to sink the body. No one will ever know. I assume you want me to grab the woman?”
She always wondered what he was thinking, but it was impossible to tell. Those black eyes were fathomless, like looking into a gravel pit at night. His evil was just as bottomless as a pit too. They made a good pair. Until the last few weeks, she hadn’t realized what she was capable of herself.
Her fingers closed around the syringe. How hard could this be? She could inject the kid and just leave her in the house. By the time she was found, the body would be decomposed, and the a
uthorities might not even know who it was. By then she’d be in Washington living the high life. She could do this.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Claire angled the dashboard vents to blow heat on her feet and turned to look at the budding trees crowding the narrow road. “It’s so chilly this morning. We’ll have to get that driveway done first thing. It’s nearly impossible for a truck big enough for building supplies to get down that muddy track.”
Luke, looking impossibly handsome in his red shirt and jeans, cranked the heat up a bit warmer. “I’ve already got that ordered.” He reached over and squeezed her hand. “Nine months and you’re all mine.”
She returned his squeeze. “I’m already all yours.”
“I can make sure of it.” His smile faded and he slowed the truck. “Looks like that truck is turning into our lane.”
Claire squinted through the glare of the windshield at the big black pickup. “It’s got out-of-state plates so I don’t think it’s a hunter. Plus, we have warnings posted.”
Luke slowed his SUV even more. “Everyone in the county is looking for Haylie. I’m sure it’s nothing, but I think I should have a little peek at what’s happening at the house.” He shoved the SUV into Park, then killed the engine and opened his door. “Stay here.”
“Not on your life.” She opened her door and got out. “We’re probably overreacting.”
“Not many know this place is even out here so how’d that truck know where it was? It’s not the contractor’s truck either. My Spidey sense is shooting fireworks.”
She tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow. “Let’s indulge it then, just in case.”
The truck had long since escaped their view, so they hurried up the muddy track. She stopped and clutched his arm tighter. “I hear voices, like maybe an argument.”
He nodded and pulled her with him to the turn in the drive where it angled toward the house. Car doors slammed as they neared, and she saw two heads inside the pickup, but the tinted rear window didn’t leave much detail. The door to the house stood open.
“They’re using the house for something,” she whispered. “I think we’d better call the sheriff and Kevin.” She tugged on his arm.
“I can handle this myself.”
“Luke, this isn’t your jurisdiction. We can go back to the road and wait for Kevin or the sheriff. If these are the kidnappers, they have to come back out this way.” She saw the reluctance on his face. “You know I’m right. Come on, we have to get out of the trees so I can get a signal.”
Luke finally began to move back the way they’d come. “What if Haylie is in danger? I don’t like this, Claire.”
“If help will be awhile, we’ll go back in. But let’s make sure of what’s going on first.” She pulled out her cell phone and saw two bars. “I’m calling Kevin.”
Mallory had forwarded the video two hours ago, but no matter how many times he watched it, Kevin couldn’t quite place why the room looked familiar. He’d seen it somewhere, but where? The vast forest along Downeast Maine held many abandoned buildings and cabins. This place could be anywhere.
He dropped his phone in his pocket and got up from the chair in his office. The place was a mess. He didn’t spend much time here, and the rabies case files were stacked high since he’d had so little time to work on them. He’d combed through his files looking for a clue to where Haylie might have been taken, and nothing was coming up. Maybe his boss would have an idea. He went down the hall to Chesterton’s office and rapped on the door.
“Come.”
He opened the door and stepped inside, taken aback to see his father slouched in a chair on the other side of Chesterton’s desk. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were busy.”
Entering his boss’s office was always like stepping inside the office of a taxidermist. The mounted heads and fish lining the walls always made him feel like he was being watched. Chesterton was an avid hunter, and his prize was the large moose head over his bookcase. The thing dominated the room, and Kevin had always wondered why his boss hadn’t taken it home to a place where the scale would be more in keeping with it than this boxy, gray room.
“Have a seat.” Chesterton looked alert in spite of the early hour. He indicated the chair beside Kevin’s dad. “Any news on the search for the little girl?”
“That’s why I’m here. The kidnapper sent this.” Kevin handed over his phone. “Could you look at this video and see if you recognize the house? Something about it is familiar to me, but I can’t place it.”
Chesterton leaned back in his chair while he watched the video. Kevin sank onto the chair beside his father but didn’t look at him. He’d hoped his parents would join the townspeople in looking for Haylie, but he hadn’t seen either of them at the organized search that spread out from Summer Harbor.
Chesterton handed it back. “Looks like a thousand other run-down houses in the area. At least she’s alive.”
“For now.” He recounted what the kidnapper had demanded of Mallory. “I need to drive to Bangor. I want to be there when Haylie is released.”
“If she’s released,” Dad said. “You and I both know it’s a crapshoot with these guys.”
Kevin pressed his lips together and refused to let his father bait him. None of them knew how this would end, but he was determined to hold on to hope.
His father held out his hand. “I’ll take a look.”
Kevin handed over the phone. His dad had been in these woods more than he and Chesterton combined. If Chesterton was an avid hunter, his father would be called a professional. They’d grown up on game meat.
“She’s supposed to be turned loose a little after twelve.”
His dad grunted and glanced at the clock on the wall next to the twelve-point buck head. “Best to catch them in the act if you can.”
“Exactly. We’ve called in the Bangor police to help us nab him when he lets her out, but I have a feeling it won’t all go down as planned. Why telegraph his intentions that early? He’d have to know we’d be waiting to arrest him. I think he has something else planned.”
His father straightened and frowned. “I know this place.”
Kevin tried to hide his excitement. It might be just like his dad to dangle some hope, then yank it away. “Where is it?”
“You and your brother used to like to play at an old hunting house while I checked my traps. It was down the old Paschal fire lane. I can’t remember the last time I was out that way. It’s mostly overgrown now, and I don’t think anyone really goes there.”
Kevin had a vague memory of it, but he couldn’t quite think how to get there. “On Folly Shoals?”
His father nodded. “There’s a big forest out behind Hotel Tourmaline. You go past the hotel on the way on the way to Mermaid Point. There used to be a sign for honey at the turnoff, but I think it fell down a few years back. There’s a break in the fence, and that’s about the only way to tell where it is.”
“I know where you’re talking about. Claire’s mother bought it for her and Luke. I’ll go there now.” Kevin took his phone from his father. “Thanks, Dad. Appreciate it.”
His dad cleared his throat. “I’ll go along with you if you like. Show you where to turn.”
Kevin was tempted to turn down his offer, but it felt almost like a peace offering. And he could use some backup. Most everyone was out combing the woods for Haylie. “Thanks. Let’s take my truck.”
His father fell in step with him as they hurried to Kevin’s truck. Clouds scudded across the sky in an ominous swirl that pointed to a coming storm. The wind tried to tug Kevin’s hat from his head, and he had to keep a hand on it. The crossing to Folly Shoals was going to be rough. He glanced at his watch. Nine o’clock. Only three hours before Haylie was supposed to be released. Was she still at the house, or had the kidnapper moved her?
Carol’s small house felt alien after being gone. Mallory peered out the living room window before resuming her pacing across the tan carpet. Carol had given her the house keys s
o they could wait here, and Mallory wanted to poke into every crevice and distract herself by learning more about the woman who had lied to her all this time.
Kate handed her a mug. “You need coffee.” She’d showered and changed into navy sweats this morning, and her dark-blonde hair was still damp.
Mallory wrapped her cold hands around the warm mug and inhaled the aroma. “Smells good.”
“I put some omelet muffins in the oven. I know you don’t feel like eating, but you should. It’s going to be a stressful day. They’ll be ready in a few minutes.” She set down her coffee and went to throw another log on the fire.
Mallory glanced at her phone again. Nothing. “Do you think he will really release her?” The question was the same one she’d asked ten minutes ago.
Kate put the poker back and turned to face her. “He said he would. We just have to hang on to hope. Why don’t you go take a shower while breakfast cooks? You’ll feel better.”
“He might call while I’m in the shower.”
“It’s only nine. Take the phone into the bathroom with you just in case. Besides, pacing the floor will just make the time go by even more slowly.”
Mallory forced a smile. “And you’re just worried I’ll wear a path in Carol’s carpet.”
“Guilty as charged. Take a bath instead of a shower and sip your coffee. Sometimes taking a bath gives me inspiration. You might think of something you’ve forgotten.”
Mallory turned toward the bathroom, but her phone rang. The screen revealed an unfamiliar number from Summer Harbor, and she caught her breath as she answered it. “Hello?”
“It’s Sheriff Colton, Mrs. Davis. I wanted to let you know the policemen are already in position around your house. You’re not there right now, correct?”
“I’m at Carol’s.” She mouthed, Sheriff to Kate, who was listening with wide blue eyes. “You think he might release Haylie sooner than noon?”
“I think it’s wise to be prepared. Also, Kevin and his father are on their way to a house Pete recognized from the video you forwarded to Kevin.”