“Hold off. I’ll be there in five minutes.”
“I’ll try my brother again.” Silence. “I’m going to kill him! I am sincerely going to kill him!”
Every second was interminable. Finally, he pulled into the library lot, found a space, and jumped out of the driver’s seat. Ro was on his heels.
Since the library wasn’t the proper place to start screaming out names, Ben’s eyes were in frantic search mode. The public reading room wasn’t all that big, and within a few moments, he saw Haley, sitting at a table, typing on her laptop.
He didn’t know whether to kill her or hug her.
Walking over, he scream-whispered, “What the fuck!” He glared at Griffen. “Is this what you call handling it?”
“She stormed out of the house. I had about two seconds to decide and I thought it was better if we all went together rather than split up.”
Ro hissed at him, “Why wasn’t your phone on?”
“It was. I had it on vibrate—”
“You didn’t answer it.”
“I probably didn’t feel it.” Griff sighed. “Honestly, Ben, what should I have done? Tied her up?”
“That would have been a great idea!”
They were promptly shushed by the librarian, who told them to take it outside.
Ben sat next to his sister. She was blushing, sweating, and had yet to speak. He lowered his voice. “Why did you do this to me, Haley? I know I can be a tyrant, but you gotta read the metamessage. I only wanted you to be safe. Now we’re both gonna miss graduation because I panicked and left rehearsal!”
Her lower lip trembled and her eyes teared up. “I’m . . . sorry. I just wanted to get out of the house.”
“You wanted to assert your independence because I’m bossy . . . which is fine any other day except today. You know you totally screwed me!”
She was trying to hold back sobs. “The truck was beeping and I couldn’t concentrate and that house has so many bad memories sometimes!” She wiped her tears on her sleeve. “I’m sorry.”
He sincerely wanted to strangle her. Instead he threw his arms around her and hugged her tightly. “It doesn’t matter. Just as long as you’re okay. That’s all I care about.”
“I’m so sorry!”
“Forget it.” To Ro, Ben said, “Go back to rehearsal and tell them I was stealing your car. Everyone saw me acting like a maniac. You’ll be fine.”
Her eyes were wet as well. “It’s fine. I don’t even care anymore. I’ll drive everyone back. I’m just glad for a happy ending.”
“Sorry, Griff,” Ben told him. “You did the right thing.”
“No, I should have insisted—”
“Let’s just get out of here. I feel like I’m gonna puke and I’d rather do it outside.” Ben got up and looked around. “Where’s Lilly?” The question was met with silence. Haley’s eyes went to Lilly’s purse and open laptop. A stack of books and papers sat next to the computer.
Haley couldn’t speak. Griffen stammered out, “I was studying . . . I . . .”
Instantly came the sinking feeling in the pit of Ben’s gut, just like when they got the phone call from his father three years ago.
“Do you know where Ellen is?”
Ro stammered out, “I’ll check out the bathroom.”
“Yeah . . . phew! That’s it!” Haley hit her head. “She said she was going to the bathroom, that I should watch her purse.”
Ben’s heart was racing. “How long has she been gone?”
“A few minutes—”
He caught up with Ro. Through the door, he heard her call Lilly’s name.
“Is she there?”
Silence.
“Ro, is she—”
“I hear you!” Ro threw open the door. “She’s not here!”
“Oh God!” Panic set in once again. Ben ran back to Haley and grabbed her shoulders. “She’s not in the bathroom. How long has it been since she left?”
When Haley couldn’t speak, Griffen said, “Maybe five minutes. I guess I shoulda gone with her.”
Ya think? Ben said, “Just five minutes?”
“Maybe a little longer. I wasn’t paying attention—”
“Lilly!” He shouted her name out loud. Everyone turned around. “We have a lost girl. Lilly!”
Everyone around them started yelling out her name, but after a minute it was crystal clear that she wasn’t in the building. The fact that her purse and computer were in the building meant only one thing in Ben’s mind.
Ro’s voice was trembling. “He couldn’t have dragged her out the front door.”
She was right. Unless there was an alternate escape route, Lilly had to be somewhere in the building. Ben backtracked to the bathroom, and to his horror found an unlocked emergency exit. When he opened it, there wasn’t a single chime or beep to let anyone know that the barrier had been breached. The exit led right to the library’s parking lot, where the light hit his eyes like a nuclear blast. After a moment to adjust, he scanned the asphalt, but no one was there. He didn’t recall exactly how many cars had been parked when he came in, but he distinctly remembered a white compact that was no longer there. There was an empty spot with a few drops of fluid where that white compact might have been. The liquid should have dried up very quickly in the direct sun. Ben figured that at most the car had been gone for less than ten minutes.
Ro suddenly materialized, the other two kids on her heels. They appeared shell-shocked. “Gimme your keys,” Ben barked to her.
“Where are we going?”
“I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m looking for a white compact, a Toyota or a Honda.”
“There must be a million white Toyota or Honda compacts.”
He didn’t bother to answer, needing to marshal all his energy for the hunt. His mind was reeling like a movie in reverse. “It was four-door . . . not a Honda. It was a Hyundai . . . probably an Elantra.” Brain snapping to the present, his eyes scoured the lot until he found what he was looking for. He pointed to a video camera.
“Ro, call up Shanks and meet him here at the library. You tell him what’s going on—”
“I’m coming with you, dude.”
Too frantic to argue, Ben said, “Okay, come with me. Griffen, you wait here for Shanks and show him that video camera. Tell him to put out an APB for a white Hyundai four-door compact that’s probably an Elantra. Tell him to call me if he finds the car or if he sees anything else on the tape. Even if he doesn’t see anything, tell him to look for that car.” He grabbed Ro’s hand. “Let’s go.”
“Anything else?” Griffen shouted to his back.
“Yeah. Tell him the motherfucker’s got Lilly!”
Chapter 12
He was like a chicken without a head, all impulses but without a working brain behind it. Ben knew that the fiend would end up burying her in the dead of night, near the River Remez in the mountains. The trouble was Ben didn’t have a clue as to where he’d do his monstrous activities. In all of the cases, the kill spot had been different from the burial spot.
Where, where, where?
Ro was talking to Shanks in a calm, cool voice that belied her panic. Finally, she hung up the cell. “He’s on his way to the library. He put out an APB for a white Elantra.”
“God, I hope I’m right.”