He gave up on the door and turned to the windows next. Two had rusty old bars, and another was nailed shut, but a fourth at the back of the trailer opened with no trouble and didn’t even have a screen. It was higher up the wall than the others, but Johnny was sure he could manage it.
He went to his room and emptied his backpack before carrying it to the kitchen. He put the laptop and last two water bottles inside before adding a cinnamon roll and some packets of cheese crackers to be safe.
His dad had always told him to carry a knife and a flint or lighter when he went on an adventure. He was sure he wasn’t going to find a flint or lighter in that trailer, but he dug through the drawers and found a book of matches. He next took a dull carving knife from the silverware drawer. He would have preferred his pocketknife, but this would have to do.
The last thing he needed was to find some money. He searched the trailer for fifteen minutes but didn’t find so much as a penny. Mara had taken the cash he withdrew from the ATM at the hotel. He searched the backpack once more to be sure. He found two one-dollar bills and a dime stashed in an inside pocket, probably left from when he went to Charlottesville. He wouldn’t be able to buy much with that, but it was something.
He put the backpack on and went to the window. He considered throwing the backpack out first but decided against it in case he couldn’t climb out to retrieve it. Instead, he hung it on a bent piece of metal jutting from the trailer that he could reach from the ground. All that was left was to get his body through the window.
He leaned his torso against the sill and lifted himself by pushing his arms on the hand rests of his crutches. He was grateful for the upper body exercises Tony always made him do at PT. It was a tight fit in the window, and his shoulders kept getting stuck, but he was making progress. Once his body was high enough, he grabbed the top of the window frame and twisted sideways. Using every bit of muscle he possessed, he lifted the leg closest to the window through the opening. It wasn’t as hard as he’d expected. Tony would have been proud. He took a minute to catch his breath before lifting his other leg through the opening with his free hand.
Getting that far had drained him, but he’d nearly reached his objective. He picked up his crutches and hung them on the same piece of metal as the backpack before looking down to see how far he’d have to fall. The sloping weedy lawn was farther down than he’d hoped. His only choice was to pitch himself forward and tuck into a ball before he hit the ground and pray that he didn’t break anything. After that, he’d have to use the siding on the trailer to raise himself up to grab his crutches.
Being so close to freedom gave him a burst of adrenalin and the energy he needed for the final step. He didn’t know how long Mara had been gone, but it had been long enough that he knew he needed to hurry. He scooted as far forward as possible without falling, then took a few deep breaths and crossed his arms over his chest. Just as he leaned out to launch himself through the window, he heard Mara’s car in the driveway.
In his panic, he toppled backward, and his head slammed into the floor right on the bump. A light flashed through his vision, and he lay on the floor in a daze. With the adrenalin still in his system, his head cleared quickly enough for him to drag himself to the couch. Sweat dripped into his eyes as he pulled himself across the floor in a military crawl. He heaved himself onto the couch and grabbed a textbook off the floor just as Mara came through the door.
She carried grocery bags to the table before turning to face him. “What are you doing out here? I told you to stay in bed.”
Without taking his eyes from the book, he said, “I got bored. It’s dark, and it stinks in my room.”
She stared at him before shaking her head. “Whatever. I have to get the rest of the groceries.”
Johnny’s gaze flew to the back of the trailer the instant she went outside. The window was wide open, letting in the cold. If Mara didn’t notice that, she would definitely notice Johnny didn’t have his crutches, but there was no way he could crawl to the window and walk back to the couch before she came in. If Mara realized he’d tried to escape, she’d give him more than a headache. His head and heart pounded so hard he was afraid he’d pass out.
She made two more trips to the car before closing the front door and putting away the groceries. Johnny tried not to look at the window while she chatted away about her adventure to buy food. At least she seemed to be in a good mood.
She came to the couch and checked his pupils after she finished in the kitchen. The pain was blinding when she shined her penlight in his eyes. She stepped back and bit her lip when she finished. The concern was clear in her eyes.
“I don’t like this. You should have stayed in bed.”
And you shouldn’t have punched me in the gut, Johnny thought but wished he had stayed in bed. Aside from his pain and panic, he could feel something was seriously wrong.
“I’ll go back to my room in a few minutes. Can you fix me something to eat? The cinnamon rolls didn’t fill me up.”
She went to the kitchen and came back with a sub sandwich. “Figured you’d be hungry. You always are, but I guess that’s a good sign.” She handed Johnny a paper plate and his sandwich. While he unwrapped it, she went back to the kitchen for his drink. “I need a nap. I didn’t sleep much last night. Do you need anything else before I go to my room?”
He said no, and she squeezed Johnny’s shoulder as she walked by the couch. She passed the window without a glance. His escape plan had failed, but he’d been damned lucky not to get caught. He ate his sandwich and waited thirty minutes before dragging himself to the window. He grabbed his stuff and quietly shut the window before taking his backpack to his room to wait for the next time Mara left him alone.
* * *
Mara woke with a start to the sound of shouting and a blaring car alarm. Her heart sank when her head cleared, and she realized where she was. Still in this damned stinking trailer. She had planned to whisk Johnny back to Portland three days after nabbing him. Instead, they were stuck in Richmond after more than a week with no money. Her face was plastered all over the news and the FBI was hunting her like a dog.
She’d been foolish to believe she could take Johnny without anyone knowing where he’d gone. She’d considered ditching him more than once since everything blew up in her face. It would be simple to drop him at a hospital or street corner, disappear in the wind and start over in a new place. She’d done it before. She could do it again, but she’d have to cross into Canada like Rick had done. There wasn’t anywhere left in the U.S. for her to hide.
In the end, she had no choice but to see it through no matter the outcome. She’d agonized over the loss of Johnny in the years after Rick forced her to leave him and couldn’t go through that a second time. She’d devoted years and invested thousands of dollars in putting her plan into action. She wouldn’t abandon Johnny.
It would take a boatload of cash to set up a new life in Canada, and she only had one way to get it. She thought of the bags of drugs hiding in her backpack. The kind of people who’d buy her goods wouldn’t care about Johnny or what they’d heard on the news. They’d just be desperate for their next hit. Mara just needed to figure out how to connect with buyers without getting caught.
She sat up and rubbed her face. The room was dark, and it felt late but must only be around two. Her stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten since early morning, but before she fixed lunch, she needed to check Johnny. She hadn’t liked the look of his pupils when she came home from the store. Two days had passed since he bumped his head on the toilet, but he was getting worse, not better. As a nurse, she knew odds were that he had a subdural hematoma or maybe a slow bleed, and his intracranial pressure was increasing. If she was right, he’d need the kind of medical care she wasn’t equipped to provide.
She went to Johnny’s room and found him in a deep sleep. His breathing was regular, and his forehead was cool and dry. She lifted his arm and pressed her fingers into his wrist. His pulse was strong and steady.
The only red flag was that bump on his head. It felt bigger than it had been that morning.
Johnny didn’t stir while she examined him, so she left him to rest. She rolled the TV into the living room and turned on a craft show. The novelty of being famous had worn off, so she was glad there wouldn’t be any news on that time of day. She relaxed and learned how to make greeting cards while she ate her lunch.
She heard Johnny coming from the bathroom just as she finished eating. She put her plate down and stood as he approached. His left eye was swollen shut, and his cheek drooped. When he came into the light from the window, she saw that his face was ashen.
“Help me, Mara,” he said. “Something’s wrong.”
The last words came out in a slur as his legs gave out. He crumpled to the floor and began to seize. Mara shoved a pillow under his head and waited for the seizure to end, but it went on much longer than it should have. He didn’t open his eyes or respond when his body became still.
She picked up her phone to call 911 but debated whether it was worth the risk of exposing their location. She shoved her phone in her pocket without dialing and grabbed Johnny under his arms to drag him to the car. She didn’t worry about any of the trailer park residents reporting them. By the looks of most of them, the last thing they wanted was cops crawling around the area.
It took Mara ten minutes to get Johnny lying flat and seat-belted into the backseat. She ran through her options as she squealed out of the driveway. The closest hospital was Richmond City where she’d abandoned Johnny as a baby, and it had the best trauma center in the city. They stood the greatest chance of being recognized there, but she hoped the FBI had their eyes pointed elsewhere and wouldn’t think she’d dare take Johnny to such a conspicuous place.
Richmond City Hospital was in a different system than the one she’d taken Johnny to a few days earlier so they wouldn’t have access to his records. Her only chance of not getting caught was if the FBI hadn’t red-flagged the files, but she had to risk it to save Johnny’s life.
She pulled the car in front of the ER and ran inside shouting for help. Two orderlies rolled a gurney to the car and loaded Johnny onto it. Mara left the car and ran to keep up with them as they raced Johnny to the trauma center. Her heart pounded as much from fear of being recognized as from concern for Johnny.
A nurse blocked her way at the doors of the trauma room and directed her to a row of chairs in the hallway.
“Let the doctors do their work,” the nurse said. “Tell me what happened.”
Mara hesitated as she tried to concoct a new story to tell, but she was too distraught to think and decided to stay close to the truth in Johnny’s best interest. She lowered the pink ballcap she’d grabbed from the car over her forehead as she answered.
“My son has a seizure disorder from a car accident as a baby. He had a seizure the other day and hit his head. The doctors thought it was minor and released him, but he’s been getting worse. He passed out just as I was getting ready to bring him here. It’s never happened like this. I’m scared.”
The nurse put her hand on Mara’s arm. “This is the best trauma center in the region. We’ll take good care of your son. Come with me to registration, and we’ll do his paperwork.”
Mara thought it was best not to mention that she was a nurse. “I forgot my purse at home in my rush to get here. I think I can remember most of the information. We’re visiting from out of town.”
“Don’t worry. Just give us what you can. We’ll get the rest later.”
Mara brushed away a nonexistent tear and followed her to registration.
* * *
Mara paced the surgical waiting room like a caged tiger five hours later. She’d never been on that side of the operating room doors and had worried how another person’s surgery was going. She felt the security cameras watching her and knew her odds of getting caught increased with each passing minute.
Johnny had been in surgery for three hours. The surgeon said Johnny had a massive subdural hematoma and his intracranial pressure was critically elevated. They’d also found a densely packed bundle of vessels in his left frontal lobe that was probably a result of his earlier injury. The surgery was delicate and could take eight to ten hours, which meant they had five to seven hours left to go.
Mara stayed in the waiting room as long as could before needing to escape. She gave her phone number to the volunteer at the surgical desk and said she had an urgent matter to tend to. She forced herself to walk to the parking lot instead of bolting to the car. She didn’t know where she’d go, she just knew she had to get away from the hospital.
She headed to the trailer first to retrieve her purse. She hadn’t lied to the nurse about forgetting to bring it to the hospital. She unlocked the trailer and dropped onto the couch to take advantage of the quiet and get her head straight.
The urge to abandon Johnny and run resurfaced but she resisted, knowing she’d regret it for the rest of her life. She was destined to be Johnny’s mother. She had to stay the course to prove she was worthy of that destiny. She’d worked too hard to give up this close to her goal. She just needed to keep her wits sharp.
Asking herself what a real mother would do in her situation, she went to his room to put some of his personal items in his backpack to take to the hospital. After searching for a few minutes, she found it shoved under the bed and wondered if he’d been hiding it from her. She knew the answer as soon as she unzipped it. Her laptop, a kitchen knife, some food, water, and toiletries were stuffed inside. She sank to the floor with the pack on her lap. Johnny had been planning to run away from her.
The realization infuriated her. After all she’d done for him? Knowing all the plans she had for him, how could he dare leave her? A tear rolled down her face and dripped off the end of her nose. Wasn’t he coming to love her? Didn’t he care about the sacrifices she’d made? How could he not?
She pondered these questions for some time before an idea popped into her brain. Johnny was homesick. That had to be all it was. He was a teenage boy who was homesick for the only life he’d ever known. It didn’t matter how much he hated the Walkers; he missed his friends and his life. It was so simple. Mara told herself that she’d have to give him time to adjust to her and his new life. The week they’d spent together hadn’t exactly been normal. She’d have to learn patience and give him time to come to love her if he survived.
She took out the items he wouldn’t need at the hospital and left them in the middle of the floor. She left the toiletries and laptop where they were and packed his video game, and the comic books she’d bought that morning. It might be days before he’d be any condition to need them, but she wanted them there for him when he was ready. It would be good for him to see what a thoughtful mother she was.
She left the trailer with her purse and the backpack and got some fast food on her way back to the hospital. Remembering her purpose had helped her focus, and she was prepared to do whatever it took to save her son.
Chapter Nineteen
Grace finished Alec’s book on the sixteenth day since Johnny’s abduction. She tenderly laid the book on her lap and closed her eyes in the stillness, absorbing the lovingly crafted words her friend had put to paper. It was a profound and masterful work of art. Grace felt humbled and unworthy of the tribute Alec had paid her. The recounting of some details from Grace’s early life was not exactly as they’d happened, but the rest mirrored Grace’s memories.
The book had flown off bookstore shelves and online retailers in the week since its release. Alec’s publisher was scrambling to print enough copies to keep up with demand. Grace was happy for Alec. She had a promising future writing nonfiction, just as she did in children’s books. None of that mattered to Alec, though. Like the rest of the family, all she cared about was finding Johnny.
Grace had been so sure the $200,000 award would spark a frenzy around the country of people searching for him, but Mara’s trail had gone cold in the past week. The promise of an award hadn�
��t been enough to produce evidence that led to her capture.
It was pure torture each morning when Grace opened her eyes and realized Johnny was still missing. Her dreams were filled with bizarre and disjointed images of him that left her breathless and anxious. There were mornings she wished she hadn’t woken up, not that she’d do anything to cause that to happen. The strain and despair of their ordeal were enough to do her in.
She’d read the same despair in Wes’ eyes. He did his best to assure her that Mara had taken Johnny underground to wait for the uproar to quiet down and the public to forget the two of them. He didn’t believe those words even as he spoke them.
Grace had concluded that either Mara had killed Johnny and dumped his body before going underground, or she’d abandoned him, and he’d died of exposure or starvation and thirst. Images of Johnny lying dead in a ditch invaded her thoughts. She appreciated Alec’s book giving her a tangible reminder of him as her little man and not as a decomposing corpse.
She lowered her gaze to the book and studied the picture of Johnny as she tenderly ran her thumb over the cover. Alec came into the living room from the kitchen eating cannoli and stopped when she saw Grace.
“How many of those have you had today? It’s only ten in the morning,” Grace said, attempting to lighten her mood.
“Lost count around five. Who cares?” Alec glanced at the book on Grace’s lap. “Did you finish? What did you think?”
Grace wiped her tears and gazed up at her friend. “Extraordinary.”
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