Everyone raptly awaits his answer. We need some sort of clue to connect him to me. Can they connect him through the van?
I know if they don’t figure out something I’ll never be able to leave my house again. I’ll never be able to sleep at night. He knows too much about me. Where I live. Where I go. What I do. Who my friends are. He knows everything.
“They found a van,” he announces. Then he says into the phone, “Sweep it and get back to me.”
Just as he finishes his sentence, a screeching wail pierces the air.
WHOOOOOHHH!!! WHOOOOOHHH!!! WHOOOOOHHH!!! WHOOOOOHHH!!!
Someone’s house alarm is loudly shrilling.
Brooklyn’s phone buzzes.
He looks down at it, like he’s forgotten what it is. He blinks, then answers. “No, I didn’t accidentally set off the alarm. Yes, send the police right away!”
James and the two detectives look at each other, agree on something with their eyes, draw their weapons, and go tearing out the back door.
“Well, this has certainly been an exciting night,” Deron jokes. He’s trying to use his great sense of humor to keep us all calm.
It just doesn’t seem to be working.
Fifteen nerve-racking minutes later, the alarm wailing the entire time, James calls Brooklyn.
Brooklyn gives him the alarm code, and the night is silent again.
Brooklyn sets down his phone. “The house is clear. From what they can tell, it wasn’t robbed, but they want me to go see if anything is missing.”
Garrett picks up his walkie-talkie and says, “I need a two-man team to the back door.” He leads Brooklyn out the door, where armed security men are waiting to escort Brooklyn safely to his house.
We wait in tense silence.
While we wait, Garrett gets a call.
He listens, ends the call, and reports, “They did find a van outside the exit door he was taking you to. The keys were in it. It was stolen from a rental agency and the plates don’t match the van. Because it’s a rental, there are a million fingerprints in it. There’s nothing that’s going to make this stick.” He turns to Mom, who is standing at the bar in the kitchen picking the crust off a mini sandwich. “I think maybe you better sit down, Abby.”
“Why?” Mom says quietly.
“They found some things in the van that are quite disturbing and although we can’t prove he was trying to kidnap Keatyn, we know for sure that he was.”
“What was in the van, Garrett?” Tommy asks slowly. I get the feeling he doesn’t really want to know the answer.
“Duct tape, zip ties, syringes preloaded with a drug we’ve yet to identify.”
I start crying again, so Damian tightens his arms around me.
“It’ll be okay, Keats. You’re okay. You’re safe,” he mutters softly into my ear. When Damian talks, he practically sings. It’s very soothing.
I lean my head against his, but tears are still rolling down my face.
But I’m not crying because of what was in the van.
I’m crying because I know I have to tell them.
Tell them all how stupid I am.
Tell them that I was the one who invited him to the party.
Brooklyn, the detectives, and James walk through the back door about twenty minutes later.
Brooklyn looks freaked out.
James walks straight to Garrett and speaks to him in hushed tones.
Brooklyn swallows hard and looks at me. “Keatyn, your bikini. You didn’t grab it, did you? Remember, you left it on my floor?”
Mom says, “Why was your bikini on Brook’s floor?”
“Because it was wet,” I say. What I don’t say is that he stripped it off me, had sex with me, and then told me it was chilling.
Mom snaps at me. “How many times have I told you not to leave your wet bikinis on the floor?”
Tommy grabs Mom’s hand. “I don't think that's really the issue here.”
“I didn’t grab it.”
Brooklyn says, “I didn’t think so. I thought I remembered seeing it when I was getting ready for the party.”
James whispers something to Tommy.
“What’s going on? What’s with all the secrets?” I ask. “So he took my bikini. What else did he take?”
“He didn’t take anything else,” Garrett says a little too quickly.
“Fine. What did he leave?”
James sighs. “There was a manila envelope addressed to Abby.”
“Let me see it. Is it another letter?”
“We’ll talk about that later,” Garrett says quietly. “We, uh, need to fingerprint and analyze it first.” Then he turns to Mom and Tommy. “Let’s go in the other room.”
There’s something he doesn’t want to say in front of me.
Something bad.
That’s why Brooklyn looks so freaked out.
I wipe my eyes, sit up straight, and find a little bit of strength. “Whatever you want to tell them in private, you need to tell me about it too. You can’t protect me from him.”
“Keatyn . . . ” Garrett says.
But I stand up and interrupt him. “Don’t patronize me. All this expensive security didn’t do us any good. I could’ve been tied up in the back of a van tonight. And if that had happened, I suspect this little party would’ve been a whole lot different.”