by Willow Rose
"Could he be an inside guy?" I asked cautiously. This type of accusation wasn't something you'd just throw around lightly in the force.
Matt bit his lip and our eyes locked for a few seconds. I shook my head. "Nah, you can probably find all this information online. There are DIY tutorials for everything these days. I saw one recently for how to break into a hotel room. Nice."
I took another sip of my coffee while staring at Matt's screen. Matt placed a finger on Elijah's face. It was torture to watch. I finished my cup, then put it down. I looked at Matt again.
"Say, aren't we missing something?"
"What do you mean?"
"The killer put the others, Sophie, Scott, and Nathaniel, on display for us to find, right? Why haven't we found Elijah yet? Nathaniel Pullman was also in a video, and we were supposed to find him. The killer knew we would, that's why he chose the place that he did."
"So…you're saying we should be looking for a clue of where to find him?"
I nodded. "Let's watch the video again."
Matt played it again. About halfway through, something happened. There was a brief clip in the footage, and I asked Matt to pause it.
"Look."
"What am I looking at?"
"Can you go like one frame back?"
"I can try," he said, then pulled the cursor backward just enough for a picture to show up.
"The video was fast-forwarded to show us the time Elijah spent in there. In the middle, he inserted a picture that we wouldn't see if we didn't slow it down. See?"
Matt looked at me, then nodded. "But what is it?"
"It's a picture of a sign," I said.
"I can see that, but what does it mean?"
"It's from the port."
"But…but the port is a pretty big place?" he said.
I nodded, then rose to my feet. "Call Chief Annie on our way there. We might need a couple of your colleagues to help us."
Chapter 68
It was still dark out when Maddie opened her eyes. With the little light that was left in the room, she could see that the box was still gone.
She was alone.
Maddie sighed and kicked her legs to be able to turn herself around and look out underneath the blindfold. As she stared in the direction of where the box had been, she spotted something on the floor. Not knowing what it was, she wormed herself closer, then looked at it up close.
A nail.
A nail that had to have fallen out of the box when it was moved. Maddie couldn't believe it. She stared at the small thing, excitement—mixed with a load of fear—emerging in her stomach. Was this her break? Was this her chance?
She used her legs to turn her back to the nail, then moved her fingers to see if she could grab it. Her wrists throbbed painfully from behind the zip tie strips, but still, she managed to get the nail up between her fingers. Happily, she grunted in excitement, but then dropped the nail again. Maddie cursed herself for being clumsy, then felt her way to it again, found it, and once again picked it up between her thumb and pointer finger. Straining in concentration, she now fiddled with it till she got the pointy end placed at the lock of the strip. Using her pointer finger, she pushed it hard against the lock, but it slipped and poked her wrist instead. Sobbing in pain, she dropped the nail again.
Come on, Maddie. Stop being so freakin clumsy! This is your only chance.
Maddie took in another deep breath, then felt her way to the nail once more, grabbed it, and placed it back against the lock, pushed it down, forcefully, and felt how it pierced the plastic. The nail was now stuck in the lock and, with much force, Maddie wiggled it around, and suddenly the strip snapped.
Maddie laughed, a little startled, then pulled her hands up in front of her face and pulled off the blindfold completely. She grabbed the nail, then poked it through the plastic strip tying her feet together. Seconds later, she could move her legs again. Exhausted from the lack of food and drink, she now regained much of her strength just at the mere prospect of getting free and maybe escaping.
Mom, I am coming home.
Maddie rose to her feet, got dizzy from standing up too fast, and had to lean against the wall so she wouldn't fall. Her legs were wobbly, but she walked the few steps toward the window, where she peeked out through the crack in the shutters. Then she gasped. She was higher up than she had expected. She looked at the door, then ran to it and pulled the handle, but as she had expected, it was locked. Maddie returned to the window again. She grabbed the small tab poking out on top and unlocked it, then pulled it open. She couldn't believe the relief she felt when breathing in the fresh air once again. She put her nose close to the screen to take it all in.
She looked down through the cracks. Below her was a yard and a screened pool area. She was in someone's house.
Thinking she heard a sound coming from outside the door, she gasped once again and turned to look. There was a rustling behind it.
Her perpetrator was coming back, and there was no one else in the room other than her. Her captor had to be coming to kill her.
As the door was unlocked, Maddie stared through the crack at what was down below her. The yard ended in a seawall and the canal where all the boats passed by. Those had to be the engines Maddie had heard from time to time.
More rustling behind the door and now the handle was turning.
You've got to do something, Maddie. Now!
As the door opened and Maddie once again locked eyes with her captor, she did something she would never have thought possible.
She kicked her foot through the screen, then kicked the hurricane shutters as hard as she could, again and again, till they got loose and fell out, then pushed her body out the window, through the hole in the screen, and slid down the side of the roof till she reached the end of it and managed to stop when grabbing on to a tile on the roof. Then, as her captor yelled behind her and came to the window, she didn't even look back.
She stood up, ran as fast as she could toward the edge of the roof, closed her eyes, and jumped.
Chapter 69
THEN
She came to them one day as they were walking home from the school bus. She was waiting in the car at the bus stop and, as they began to walk, she drove after them, then rolled down the window.
"Hi there, sweetie."
The boy refused to look at her, but his sister couldn't hide her enthusiasm. The boy knew it was harder for her to understand how wicked their mother really was and how important it was for them to stay as far away from her as possible. But he did. The boy knew more than her, and it was his job to protect her. He understood what his dad told them and had taken it all to heart. He knew that it didn't matter how sweet she talked or how much she pleaded. It was important to keep her away and not give in to the emotions they might feel. 'Cause that was her trick. That was the way she would try and manipulate them. The boy wasn't quite sure he understood what exactly manipulate meant, but he knew it was bad.
"Hi, Momma!"
The boy shushed his sister, then pulled her arm forcefully to get her to walk a little faster. They weren't that far from their house, and in there, they would be safe. There was no telling what their mother might be on right now.
"Come on," he hissed at her, but his sister didn't want to walk anymore. She stopped and looked at her mommy in the car. She pulled her arm out of his grip, then walked to the open window and peeked inside.
"Hi there, baby. How was school?" their mother said.
"Great," the girl said. "I made a turkey."
His baby sister lifted the turkey that she had made by tracing her hands and feet. The boy rolled his eyes, then rushed to her and pulled her shoulder.
"We have to go. Now."
"No," his sister said.
And that was when the boy accidentally lifted his eyes and looked into those of his mother. And that was when he was betrayed. His emotions did it to him; they overwhelmed him and brought tears to his eyes.
"Hi, baby. How are you?" his mommy said.<
br />
The boy stared at her, then swallowed.
"We have to go; come on," he said addressed to his sister.
"I don't want to," his sister said angrily.
"Mom and Dad would be so angry if they knew what we were doing," he said.
"Mom, huh?" his mommy said. "You call her that?"
"She's our new mom," he answered.
The hurt in his mother's eyes was painful to watch, and he looked away. She exhaled.
"How about I take you two out for some ice cream, huh? What do you say?"
"Yay!" his baby sister exclaimed.
The boy shook his head. "We can't. We have to go home, come."
But his sister wouldn't hear of it. She grabbed the door handle, pulled the door open, and jumped inside the car before the boy could stop her. She giggled and strapped herself down, then yelled at him to come too.
"Just for half an hour," his mommy said and held out her hand toward him. "They'll never know. Come."
"Yes, come on!" his baby sister squealed from the back seat. "Don't be a party pooper."
The boy threw a brief glance down the road toward their house, then grabbed his mother's hand and jumped inside too.
Chapter 70
"How do you know where to go?"
We had parked the car at the port, and I was rushing off, Matt running after me. Tall cruise ships towered in front of us, along with several enormous cargo ships.
"I had a good friend in elementary school. Her dad worked at the docks," I said and ran down a dock where a big cargo ship was being loaded.
"And?" Matt asked as I slowed down, searching for what I remembered. "We used to come down here and play. I remember how there used to be…over there," I said and pointed. We ran the last part under a big crane.
"What's his statement?" I asked. "What's he trying to say?"
"Loneliness?" Matt said. "That kids in a divorce are often lonely?
"Yes, but more than that. It's also that Elijah is one in a crowd, only one out of many."
"Yes…and?"
I stopped and looked in front of me. Matt did too. In front of us was what looked like several hundreds of wooden boxes exactly like the one we had seen in the video. Some of them were being loaded onto the ship in front of us.
"Oh, dear God," Matt said, panting. "How? How are we supposed to find him?"
"We're looking for one with the word ALONE painted on the side of it," I said and looked around anxiously for someone to ask. There was a guy in a forklift, transporting three boxes of the same type as ours onto the ship, then returning. I ran to him, then waved my hands.
"Hey!"
He stopped and looked out. "What?"
"Police," I said. "We’re looking for a wooden box."
The man grinned a toothless grin. "I got plenty of those."
"It's got something written on the side. A word. ALONE. Have you seen it?" I asked, yelling through the noise from a huge cargo ship sailing past us, tooting their horn as they passed.
"Sure," he said. "I remember seeing it."
My eyes grew wide. "Great! Where?"
He nodded in the direction of the ship passing us. "I loaded it onto that one there. Earlier this morning."
My heart dropped as I saw the end of the big ship with the words SANTA MONICA on its back sail out of the canal.
Chapter 71
Water splashed in my face as we raced across the waves. Matt had gotten ahold of the coast guard, and they had taken us on board. The cargo ship had left the harbor completely and was far in the horizon as we rushed toward it, bumping along. Meanwhile, Matt was on the radio, trying to get ahold of the ship's captain to get them to slow down and let them know we were coming on board.
While we shot through the big ocean, my phone rang. It was from Alex's school. I picked it up, barely able to hear the person on the other end.
"Hello, Ms. Thomas? Melanie Lawson here."
Miss Melanie? Alex's teacher? Oh, no, the meeting! I had completely forgotten about the meeting I was called into. I looked at my watch. It was almost eleven thirty.
"I am so sorry, Mrs. Lawson, something came up."
"I figured as much," she said, sounding like she was personally offended that I hadn't shown up. I looked at Matt's concerned face as I spoke, reminding myself that right now this was more important. I couldn't allow myself to feel guilty over this. A boy's life was on the line.
"Could I come in later, maybe?" I asked.
I heard her sigh on the other end. "How about three o'clock?" she asked.
"Three o'clock sounds fantastic," I said, then hung up, secretly hoping I would be able to come in at three. There was no telling how long it would take to find that box.
We climbed onboard the ship, and they began opening the containers one after another. Three of Matt's colleagues were with us, among them Chris Cooper. I could tell Matt was out of it as I watched him frantically stare into one container after another. As I looked at how many containers there were on the ship, I realized this might take more than a few hours. This could take days.
"I found something!"
It was Chris. He called from the other end of the mountain range of containers. We rushed to him. He stood in front of an open container filled to the brim with wooden boxes.
"How do we do this?" Matt asked, rubbing his hair frantically. "It could be one of those, but it could also be in one of the other containers. How do we even check them? We have to turn the ship around. We need a forklift to get them out. We might have to go through all of them." The sound of deep despair was seeping through his voice. "And by the time we get to the right one, Elijah might be dead."
"I'll talk to the captain," Chris said and was about to leave when I heard something.
"Wait."
"What?" Matt asked.
I signaled for them all to remain silent, then walked closer to the stacked boxes. I put my ear to one of them when I heard it again.
"I hear something," I said. "It sounds like…a scraping!"
"It could be a rat," Chris said. "Plenty of them on ships like these."
Matt's face lit up. He disappeared for a second, and we heard glass being broken, and he returned with a fire ax between his hands.
"Which one?"
"Matt," I said. "You can't do that. You risk hurting him if he's inside."
"Which one?" he said again. "Where did you hear the noise from?"
I swallowed. "Middle row…the one on the very end, but…Matt."
"Elijah, this is your father. If you can hear me, move away from the sides of the box. Move into the middle. I’m coming in!"
I tried to protest once again, but he wouldn't listen. Matt swung the ax at the bottom of the box, and it cracked. He swung it again, and this time it went through. He then reached up and peeked inside. I could hear him sobbing between agitated pants. He looked inside the box, then reached in and grabbed something.
A second later, he pulled a lifeless body out of the box by the legs. He grabbed him in his arms, then staggered toward us, his face torn in pain and anguish. I rushed to him and helped him put the boy down on the ground.
"Is he…?" he asked.
I felt for a pulse but found nothing.
"He must be alive, right?" Matt asked. "I mean, you heard him; you heard the scraping. He must have been alive then, right? That was just a few minutes ago…?"
He looked at me as if I held all the answers, while I frantically searched for the boy's pulse. I shook my head, then placed my hand on the boy's chest and pushed it down, then blew air into his lungs. I kept repeating this for a minute or so. It felt like an hour. Meanwhile, Matt sat on his knees. He cried and prayed for his boy to be alive. I blew one more time into his lungs, then I put my ear to his chest and heard a heartbeat.
"I got a heartbeat!" I yelled. "I've got a heartbeat!"
I stared at Matt, whose eyes lit up in the middle of the gloom.
"I did," I said. "I heard his heartbeat. I can feel it now. His pulse. He's
alive, Matt. He's alive!"
Matt laughed and grabbed the boy in his arms, then held him up. He rocked him back and forth while repeating that he was going to be okay, over and over again.
Chris had the coast guard call for help, and soon a helicopter arrived, taking both Matt and Elijah with them. I looked after them as they were airlifted into the chopper, my heart jumping with joy.
We had won one. This time, the victory belonged to us.
Chapter 72
"Mommy, wake up. Please?"
Rylan grabbed his mother's cold hand and pulled it. When that didn't help, he kissed her like they did in the story of Snow White. He had been reading it to his baby sister, Faith, over and over again for the past few days, not knowing what else to do. Their mommy had to have been very tired since she was still sleeping.
"I'm hungry," Faith whimpered and held her stomach.
Rylan was too. They had eaten all the crackers they had found in the cabinet on the first day. The box was empty, and now their stomachs were growling again. There was a box of Cheerios in there too, and now Rylan grabbed it and started to eat out of the box, then handed it to his sister. The milk in the fridge smelled bad, and they didn't want to drink it. There was some juice left, and he poured them each half a glass, then the jug was empty. Then they drank and ate while looking at their mother in her bed. They hadn't left her side since the first morning they had woken up and realized she hadn't.
"I’m still thirsty," his sister said as she emptied the juice glass.
"There's only water now," he said.
He grabbed a chair and pulled it close to the cabinets, then crawled up and found a new glass for her before pulling the chair to the fridge and crawling up on it, managing to fill the glass with water. He then slid down and handed his sister the glass that she drank from greedily. When she was done, she gave him one of those smiles that their mother loved so much.