“Maybe we all are and this is hell. Sure feels like it.”
She has a point. Though my eyes are adjusting to the brighter light, they feel raw and my skin still burns.
My mouth and throat are so dry. It feels like I swallowed sand. No water today so far.
Of course I have no idea what time it is or what day it is.
I just want to go home.
Metal rattles and my gaze snaps to the steel cage-like door overhead in the center of the ceiling.
There’s a clink. Then I see something fall. Another clink and then another falling object. Just a blur in my weary gaze.
Moving slowly, I crawl across the floor.
Shiny. Metal.
Keys.
Keys?
The gate suddenly opens and a box slowly descends downward. It isn’t a large box. Slightly bigger than a shoe box. It comes down on a flat white shelf attached to metal things, not chains but wires of some sort.
The box settles on the floor. Carrie moves to my side. We sit on our knees and stare at the keys and the box that we now see holds three bottles of water.
I grab one and twist off the top and drink deeply.
“Put down the water!”
I almost drop my bottle of water.
Ellen has dragged herself to where we are. She reaches for the final bottle of water.
“If you wish to eat, each of you must swallow a key.”
I stare at the keys on the floor. Insane, I think. Why would we swallow keys?
“Now.”
We look at each other. We need to eat. I remember swallowing a quarter when I was a little girl. Didn’t hurt me, just scared my mother half to death.
Carrie picks up a key and puts it in her mouth. She swallows big gulps of the water, and then she smiles. “Not bad. Goes down pretty easy.”
I go next. Then Ellen. She has the most difficult time. She keeps gagging the key back up.
Finally she swallows the damned thing.
The box rises into the air again, the hydraulics of the lift whirring softly.
We stare upward as the box disappears.
We pray.
We are so hungry.
Then I smell something wonderful—maybe hamburgers.
The box lowers and sure enough there are three hamburgers inside. Just the meat and the bun but thankfully real food.
I grab a burger and take a big bite.
I gag.
The inside is completely raw. Only the outside is cooked.
I gag and heave but I force myself to eat it. I have to eat something and this is it. The others do the same.
The box disappears and the cage-like door slams into place once more.
I am thankful to have eaten.
No one wants to die on an empty stomach.
50
Aubri Lane’s Restaurant
1:50 p.m.
Jo didn’t want to stop to eat but Tony insisted.
Bobbie picked at the food on her plate.
“Morning sickness?” Jo had read a post by her sister-in-law that said her morning sickness came every afternoon rather than in the mornings.
Seemed silly to call it morning sickness if it occurred at different times of the day. Jo figured she would never know how it felt to carry a child. You had to be able to connect with other humans on a deeper level to form that kind of bond and she couldn’t quite accomplish the feat. Her gaze shifted to Tony and she cursed herself for being an idiot. They didn’t have a bond; they shared a mutual need. Not the same thing.
“Every day, several times a day.” Bobbie laughed softly. “But it’ll pass.”
Jo remembered that Bobbie had been pregnant before. Something else she couldn’t imagine—the pain of losing a child. Losing her family had been hard enough. She wondered if her brother had given her message to her mom. Probably. Ray always stood by his word.
She’d made a promise to go home for a visit when this was over. Could she really do that? Go back and pretend to be that person again? She could try, couldn’t she? There was much in this life that Jo was no longer capable of, but she could at least be as good as her word. When you had nothing else, you had that.
“How far along are you?” Since Tony and Nick were in deep conversation over a map, Jo figured she could at least be sociable. A totally novel concept for her. Bobbie and Nick had come a long way to help. They were nice. Tony was nice. She glanced at him again. He should stop beating up on himself.
If all the cops and these guys right here couldn’t find those missing girls, no one could. For the first time in eighteen years, Jo felt some sense of hope that this might actually be over soon. She could close her eyes at night and know that the people who stole her life and the lives of so many others wouldn’t be taking anyone else’s.
“Three months,” Bobbie said in answer to her question. “I only just started sharing the news. My uncle is over the moon. He’s looking forward to playing the part of grandfather...again.”
She lapsed into silence.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t ask so many questions.”
Bobbie smiled. She had the bluest eyes. So pale and bright. “It’s okay. I’m getting used to touching the past without it hurting so much. I don’t want to pretend my little boy never existed. Or his father. I love and miss them every day. I just realized that loving them didn’t mean I couldn’t love and be happy with Nick and the children we have together. Nick doesn’t take the place of James any more than this baby will take Jamie’s place. I never thought I’d reach this stage, but I’m glad I did.”
Jo wondered if she would ever find that place. “I’m glad for you.”
Bobbie reached across the table and put her hand on Jo’s. “You can find it, too. You just have to open your eyes and your heart to the possibility.”
Jo nodded. It was the best she could do without the risk of blurting out the emotions whirling inside her right now. The past few days had challenged her ability to stay indifferent.
Her cell vibrated.
She removed it from her pocket, expecting to see her boss’s name on the screen. A frown furrowed her brow. She didn’t recognize the number so she hit decline and shoved the phone back into her pocket.
“Excuse me.” She scooted back her chair. “Gotta hit the ladies’ room.”
Tony glanced at her as she turned toward the far end of the café.
Once she was in the ladies’ room, she pulled out her cell and stared at the number of the missed caller. The phone started to vibrate again with a call from the same number. She jumped. Almost dropped it.
“Hello.”
“Joanna Guthrie?”
Female.
“Yes.” The only woman who had this number was Ellen. Wait... She’d written the number on the back of the card Tony had given Madelyn Houser.
“I have a proposal for you.”
“Dr. Blume?” Had to be. Madelyn was dead. Who else could it be? Sounded way too mature to be Ellen’s daughter.
“Where are you at this moment?” Blume, presumably, asked.
Jo laughed. “What do you want?”
“You tell me where you are and I’ll tell you how to get here before I kill your new friend’s niece.”
Jo’s heart slammed into her sternum. She didn’t hesitate. “Aubri Lane’s restaurant on Wayne Street.”
“All right. You leave your friends right now,” the voice instructed. “Go out the back of the restaurant, slip through the alley and loop to your right which will take you to a street just beyond where you are now. Two blocks to your left is Franklin. Take the next left and a car will be waiting in front of Memory Hill Cemetery. If you don’t show up or you tell anyone else, they’ll all die. Including Ellen’s poor damaged daughter.”
The call ended.
Jo’s heart pounded faster and faster. She was familiar with the cemetery. Another of those haunted places new freshmen explored. First, she should tell Tony. No. She couldn’t go back out there. She couldn’t tell him and he would recognize something was wrong. Blume was right—had to be Blume—Jo had to go out the back. She had to do this.