Brown nods and flips his iPad case closed. “Will do.”
With that, it seems like the meeting has ended, as many of the officers in the back begin to exit. Grady stands as if to leave.
“Grady, wait a minute,” says Leary, motioning for her to come closer to him.
“Yes, sir?”
“I’m not buying that this girl didn’t have any enemies. Pull phone records, look at her social media, whatever you have to do. Someone was out to get this girl, I just know it.”
Grady nods. “Yes, I agree one hundred percent. So you’ve decided this isn’t a random kidnapping?”
Leary shrugs. “I think it’s way too carefully planned to be random. This girl was taken and no one saw or heard anything?”
She thinks for a moment. She’s seen it happen before, but she doesn’t want to disagree with her boss. “I’ll do my best to look into it, sir.”
“Thanks, Grady.”
She nods in acknowledgment, then heads for the door. Although she isn’t quite as sure that this isn’t a random kidnapping, she does know one thing. The quietest people often have the most dangerous enemies.
RAYNA
NOW
The outside air burns Rayna’s bloodshot eyes as she leaves the precinct and heads toward the subway station. The detectives had told her to wait a bit and they would give her a ride but frankly, Rayna is tired the police station. She just wants to go home. The sun is barely rising, making everything appear in a pinkish hue.
She can’t believe she’s leaving the station without her sister. She was so sure this was just a misunderstanding, and that they would find her and she would be home by sunrise.
Rayna doesn’t know where to go. She could go back to the house she lives in with Zeki, but she knows the cops have tossed the place. It isn’t even really home for her anymore, anyway. She thinks about going to the place she shared with Remi, but then she knows she’ll feel more ineffective than she already does. Finally, she decides to go to the only place she knows she can relax: her parents’ home.
Suddenly, Rayna realizes they may not even know Remi is missing yet. Everything that went down in the past few hours started at ten p.m. Her parents are usually in bed by nine with their phones on silent. They have to wake up at five for their respective jobs.
She reaches into her pocket to check the time on her phone, and as if on cue, the phone vibrates in her hand and her mother’s number illuminates the screen.
“Hello?”
“Oh my God, Rayna! I just woke up and I saw the message from the police. Remi is missing!”
Rayna takes a deep breath. Dealing with their over-dramatic mother is never easy. “I know, mom. I just left the police station.”
“The police station! Why? Did they find her? Do they know where she is?” The questions come rapid fire without any room for response in between. Her mother is clearly about to hyperventilate.
“Mom, I was just talking to them, the police don’t know anything yet. Can you hand the phone to dad please?” At least her father will be able to discuss things rationally with her.
“Hi, honey,” her dad’s voice says over the line. “Now tell me what’s going on.”
“Dad, Remi is missing. They have no idea what happened to her.”
She can hear her father’s sharp intake of breath over the phone line. “When did this happen?”
“The police aren’t sure. Remi and I went out last night, then she stayed at my place. She never made it home this morning.” Rayna stops walking at the top of the empty steps leading down into the train station. “Listen, dad, I’m about to get on a train, but I’m headed your way. I’ll be there in fifteen.”
“Okay, we will see you then,” he responds somberly, and the line goes dead.
***
It’s almost twenty minutes later when Rayna arrives at her parents’ front door. They live on the opposite side of town from the police department that’s handling Remi’s disappearance. Their house isn’t in the nicest part of town, but there are definitely worse neighborhoods out there. When Rayna confronted them about maybe moving to a better subdivision, her parents stood their ground. Their house was paid off and they didn’t intend to “die in poverty” because they bought a new house at a late age. Rayna has to admit, they did have a point.
The door is opened just as she raises her hand to ring the doorbell, and her mom immediately pulls her into a bone crushing hug.
“Hi mom,” she squeaks out as best she can, as all the air is expelled from her lungs.
Her mom can’t even seem to find words, instead she simply bursts into tears. Her dad quickly ushers the two of them inside and closes the door.
“What did the police say?” her father questions without even bothering with formalities.
“They aren’t sure. They have a couple leads, but so far nothing has panned out.” Suddenly, Rayna feels a little weird telling her parents about the details of what happened last night. She isn’t sure Remi would want them to know about what occurred between John and her.
“What leads?” her dad asks, just as Rayna knew he would.
She makes the split second decision to skip over the details about John. Those are Remi’s to tell. “Well…” She opens her mouth to explain about Zeki, but then realizes she doesn’t want to tell her parents about her romantic life, either. Instead, she chooses the safe route. “Remi had this new roommate, and it turns out all the information she had provided was fake.”
“Fake?” her mom sobs.
Rayna nods.
“They find out who this roommate actually is?” Her dad sinks down on the couch next to her inconsolable mother.
“Not yet.” Rayna tries to supress a yawn. “I’ve been up all night. Mind if I get some sleep and we can talk more later?”
“Sure.” Her dad motions to the stairs. “The guest room is still set up.” By guest room, he means her old room that they’ve barely redecorated since she moved out with Remi years ago. She nods and heads toward the stairs.
“Oh, and some mail came for you, I put it in the drawer by the sink.”
Rayna nods and heads into the kitchen. Although both girls moved out years ago, many of their old acquaintances and schools only have this address, so they sometimes receive mail here.
She pulls open the old oak door by the sink and removes the pile of letters occupying the front half of the drawer. The first one looks like some sort of credit card application. Trash. Second one is a letter from the alumni association at her college, probably just looking for donations. She tosses that one aside as well. The third letter is addressed to Remi, so she sets it back in the drawer.
As she looks over the fourth and final envelope in her hand, something odd about the third letter she just set down catches her eye. Something is off, but she can’t figure out what.
She shakes off the feeling and with a sigh she tears open the fourth envelope to find a notice from the library the girls went to as a kid. The letter should actually be addressed to Remi because Rayna lost her library card about a week after they got them, so for years they just shared Remi’s.
The letter is just thanking Rayna for her book donation. Which is odd, as she doesn’t remember donating any books lately. She’s so tired she can’t focus any longer. Instead she slides the letter from the library back in the front of the drawer and stumbles upstairs to bed.
She doesn’t even bother changing, instead she lies across the bed in her clothes. She doesn’t even have a chance to turn off the lights before she falls into a deep sleep.
***
In her dream she’s an eight year old again, in the neighborhood library with Remi. They’re both dressed in one of the matching outfits they wore in their youth. Rayna looks down to see she holds books in her small hand.
“Where’s your card?” her sister whispers as she approaches with a stack of books twice the size of her twin’s.
Rayna looks around. Everything looks large and exaggerated. “I don’t know,” she professes, look
ing ahead at their mother standing by the check out desk. She can’t believe she lost her new library card so soon.
Remi looks down at the stack of books in her sister’s hands, then at the ones in her own. “I know, I’ll go first, then give my card to you. They’ll never know.”
The clerk scans Remi’s books, then her library card, then hands it back to her. Rayna comes to stand right next to her and quickly grabs the card from the hand behind her back. She looks up to see their mother’s attention is drawn somewhere else. Good, she hasn’t noticed.
Rayna places her books on the desk next, and watches as the clerk scans them. Next comes the moment of truth, as she reaches out her hand holding her sister’s card. The clerk scans it, then hands it back, as she does, Rayna’s eyes are drawn to the handwritten name at the bottom of the card. It’s Remi’s name, printed, as the girls are still learning cursive and haven’t quite mastered it yet. The writing looks familiar. And just like that, Rayna’s brain jolts.
***
She sits straight up in bed panting, shaking her head to clear the after-dream fugue that clouds her thoughts. After taking a minute to find her bearings, she jumps off the bed and makes her way down the stairs as quickly as she can.
When she rounds the corner into the kitchen, she finds her parents sitting at the table drinking coffee. Someone else is there, too, someone she doesn’t recognize.
“Rayna, you’re awake. This is our neighbor Carol.” Her father motions to her. Rayna can’t get her mouth to move to exchange pleasantries, she’s still half asleep. “And this is our daughter Rayna.” Her dad adds, noticing her predicament.
She half waves as she heads back to the drawer she went through just hours ago, sliding it open carefully as if something is going to jump out at her. The two letters are sitting right where she left them. She moves the letter addressed to her and picks up the one addressed to Remi.
The handwriting on the letter. It’s Remi’s own.
Why would she send a letter to herself? Rayna wonders. She flips it over to check the back. There’s no return address.
She’s so engrossed in what she’s doing, she hasn’t noticed that her father has come up to stand behind her.
“That’s Remi’s.”
Rayna shakes her head. “She addressed it to herself, dad, that’s her handwriting.” She points at the address on the envelope with a shaky hand.
“I better call the police.”
That’s her father, always the one with his head on straight.
Rayna squints so she can make out the postmark in the upper right hand corner. It’s dated two weeks ago. “Wait, dad, I don’t think this is a ransom note, Remi sent this to herself here two weeks ago.”
Her dad stops mid-dial. “Why would she do a thing like that?”
“I don’t know,” she responds as she slides a finger under the flap and tears the envelope open gently. Glancing inside, she notes the envelope is empty, except for a flash drive. She dumps it into her hand and holds it up so her dad can see it.
Without a word, he turns to finish dialing the phone.
REMI
NOW
A giant wave of water breaks through Remi’s dream. She’s back at the library, her refuge as a small child.
She chokes as a small amount of water enters her lungs.
A male voice speaks. “Get up.”
Remi tries to stand, but her legs betray her and she stumbles back to a kneeling position. She continues coughing, trying to dislodge the water in her airways. She squints, trying to get the man in front of her to come into focus. Her mind is still so fuzzy from all the drugs.
The man takes zip ties out of his pockets and slides them around her wrists. Remi wants to ask questions, but her tongue is useless in her mouth.
He once again pulls Remi to her feet, and again, she stumbles back to the ground. Her legs are like jelly, she wonders just how long she has been sleeping. It has certainly been awhile since she’s stood up.
With a huff, the man stands and tosses her over his shoulder in a fireman carry. She briefly thinks this might be her moment to escape, but realizes none of her limbs want to respond to her brain. She’s basically a rag doll.
She watches, upside-down, as the man carries her up the ladder into a nicely furnished room. There’s carpet, a wide screen TV, and a plush looking couch. Remi looks back at the hole they just emerged from, confused. Just where are they keeping her? Her eyes are telling her it’s a trap door of some sorts, but that can’t be right. What sort of house even has a trap door?
The man tosses her on the couch like a sack of potatoes, looking toward another man in the room. “She coming?” he asks.
“Yeah, any minute,” the other man replies. Once again, Remi tries to survey their features, but her brain still swims as if under water.
“She doesn’t look so good,” one of the men says.
Remi tries to open her mouth to say she’s fine, but then everything goes black.
RAYNA
NOW
She sits at her parents’ kitchen table as the police interview her parents in the other room regarding the envelope. She knows it’s most likely futile; her parents don’t check the mail every day, as they often don’t receive much. When they did get the letter, they saw Remi’s name and set it aside as always.
Detective Grady comes to sit next to her, with bags under her eyes to match the ones under Rayna’s.
“So how did you come to open the envelope?” She observes Rayna with curious eyes.
“I recognized her handwriting,” she replies. Grady holds up the plastic evidence bag, which now contains the envelope.
“Did you see what was on the flash drive?”
She shakes her head. “No, I saw it was a flash drive and my father called you guys right away.”
Detective Grady nods and pulls her phone out of her pocket. “I just got a call a few minutes ago. Apparently the flash drive is full of documents, spreadsheets and the like, that Remi used for her job. Did you know anything about that?”
“No, Remi was always much more mathematically gifted than me. When I look at a spreadsheet the numbers just float in front of my eyes and they don’t make any sense.”
“Did your sister mention she was having trouble at work?”
“No,” Rayna groans in desperation. “I had such a rough few months, I kind of fell out of the loop and I feel terrible about it. There’s so much I didn’t know.”
Grady is silent for a moment, then pulls out a manila envelope. She opens it up and lays its contents in front of Rayna.
They’re call logs for her sister’s phone.
“See this here?” She points to the listing “private caller,” which has been highlighted in pink at various times on the sheet. “Whoever this was seemed to call an awful lot.”
Rayna squints, looking at the times. It seems a lot of the calls occurred after her sister was home for work for the evening. She flips through the sheets, seeing other numbers interspersed between. The private caller called quite a bit in the last few weeks. She sets down the papers and raises her eyes to meet the questioning look of Grady.
“I don’t know who that could possibly be. My sister,” she takes a deep breath, “she didn’t really have many friends other than her boyfriend. Really, I don’t know who would call her like this.”
The officer nods, sliding the papers into a stack and putting them back in the envelope. “We found Zeki.”
Rayna waits for the usual pitter-patter of her heart that comes with her boyfriend’s name, only to notice the feeling is absent. How long has she not felt her heart race at the thought of her significant other? “And?” she asks.
A hint of a smile shows on Grady’s face. “He confessed to drug charges. But he’s accounted for almost all of his hours since Friday night at ten p.m., so we’ve ruled him out as a subject.” The officer’s smile fades quickly. “Since his house was acquired through illegal dealings, we will be repossessing it. I’m actually her
e to take you to get anything of yours out of it.”
Rayna feels a lump form in her throat. “O-okay,” she rasps and gets shakily to her feet. They walk through the living room to the door. As they step outside, she realizes she hasn’t told her parents she’s leaving. “I, uh, need to—“
Grady cuts her off. “Don’t worry, I told them we’d be back in a bit.”
“Did you tell them about the, uh, the—“
“Drugs?” she volunteers. “No, I figured you can let them know what you want them to know later, since Zeki has been cleared in this investigation.”
“Thanks,” she mutters quietly as she slides into the passenger side of the car.
“No problem. I know how tough parental relationships can be.”
Rayna doesn’t respond, she simply looks out the window as the city flies past. She catches a glimpse of her reflection in the side mirror and shudders. Her hair is unkempt, her eyes red rimmed and dark, her skin oily. This still doesn’t seem real. Actually, her life for the past few months doesn’t seem real. How has she gone from the happy-go-lucky popular girl to someone who can barely stand the look of herself in the mirror?
Grady doesn’t try to make conversation as they pull up in front of the house Rayna once called home.
As she steps out, she takes a mental picture of the modern two story she thought would be her home through her marriage and maybe the home of her children. Well, that dream is gone.
The pair make their way up the stairs and Grady watches as Rayna grabs a duffel bag from the closet and begins filling it with her favorite clothes and shoes. There are too many outfits for one bag, so she grabs a second wheeled suitcase and fills that as well. There are still more things, but Rayna realizes that many of the clothes were gifts from Zeki or are remnants of her old life she doesn’t want. It’s time to leave those behind.
She heads into the bathroom next and grabs her makeup bag and toothbrush. She’ll buy everything else new when she figures out where she’s going.
Before Now Page 14