Her throat was bone dry, and all she could do was hang there listlessly as Tim carried her up a cement walkway. She stared down at the concrete as he pushed a key into a lock and, after stepping inside, dropped her on a couch.
Riley looked around, startled. The couch was sagging and full of holes. The room smelled musty and earthy, as if every window was open. It was dark, but Riley could hear Tim moving around, and little by little, snatches of the room were lit up as Tim lit candles all around her. He finished with a Coleman lantern which was in what Riley supposed was the half-rotted kitchen.
Once things were sufficiently illuminated, Tim stood in front of her with a wide grin. He threw his arms wide. “We’re home!” he said, as if Riley was a willing participant.
Riley cringed on the musty couch, trying to find her voice. “Why are you doing this to me?”
Tim’s proud smile dropped. “Why am I bringing you home?”
“This isn’t my home. I don’t live here.”
“It’s only because it’s been so long since the last time you were here. Could have been longer but you changed all that.”
Riley blinked. “I changed that?”
Tim pointed to Riley and then to himself. “You were looking for me. I had alerts on my computer. You accessed the Granite Cay databases and searched Jane Elizabeth O’Leary. I thought it might just be a random hit but…” He shrugged, rolling up onto his toes like they were sharing a giddy reunion story. “But it was you!”
Riley’s mouth was suddenly bone dry. “How did you know it was me?”
“I traced your Internet for a while, but it had been so long I couldn’t be sure. I had to see for myself, so I came out to see you.”
“At the mall…”
“No.” Tim swiped at the air as if she had just said something silly. “I was watching you for a long time before that. You look so different.”
“You—you were in my house?”
He actually looked sheepish. “I gave you the postcard at the carnival, but you didn’t respond. I had to go inside.”
Riley’s whole body went heavy. “So you came to Crescent City because of me. I—I did this?”
“It was like a homing beacon. And then to find that you were only in the next state! Do you know how happy I was?”
The Witness Protection Program had only moved us one state away? Riley fumed. It didn’t seem logical. In the movies, they moved families halfway around the world, or into nondescript tract-home communities. Tim said they were lying. Tim said they would have made stuff up.
Riley tried to shake off the inching doubt as Tim rambled on.
“Once I found you, I knew there wouldn’t be a lot of time. That’s why the house—our house—doesn’t look as nice as it used to.”
“Our house?” Her eyes darted around the room. The house was clearly a tear-down, because sheets were tacked to the walls, little gusts of wind sucking the fabric through gaping holes. The floor was covered in garbage, dirt, and wood debris; there was a broken lamp tossed on a pile of scorched wood where the floor bowed. In the one spot that didn’t look about to be demolished was a small aluminum table with two chairs—rusty but workable. There was a small vase with a couple of mums stuffed in, and behind that, broken shelves were littered with cereal boxes, a loaf of bread, peanut butter, and jelly.
“You live here?” Riley asked.
Tim pointed to her and then to himself. “We live here. You’re my sister, remember?”
“I’m not your sister.” She tried her best to inject confidence in her voice. “Let me go, please.”
Tim looked down at her with an appraising expression that made Riley even more uncomfortable.
“Let me go.” She felt her strength and anger growing. “LET ME GO!” She twisted toward the dark, greasy window at her side and thumped her bound hands against it, trying to reach it with her feet.
“Help! Help!”
The toe of her sneaker caught a crack in the glass and she was able to kick through. Joy obliterated her fear and she screamed louder, a string of tear-choked nonsense words.
“Please help me! Someone, please, he’s crazy, please!”
Tim just stared down at her until Riley, covered with a thin sheen of sweat, stopped screaming. She flopped back hard on the couch, tears rolling from her eyes and into her ears.
“No one can hear you. There’s no one around here. The neighborhood is mostly abandoned. Except for us.” He smiled as if that were a good thing. “I can’t believe I found you. You look so much like Mom did when she was younger.”
Riley gritted her teeth. “I’m not your sister. We’re not siblings. I don’t even know you!”
A dark expression cut across Tim’s face. “Don’t say that. You are.” He advanced on Riley, pulling a small blade from the food shelves.
Riley pulled her knees up to her chest, trying to make herself as small as possible. Her whole body was shaking. It didn’t even slow Tim down. He grabbed her by the arm and brandished the blade then slit the duct tape down the center.
“But you have to promise me you’ll be good,” he said, pointing at her with the blade of the knife. “You have to listen to what your big brother tells you.”