The Toybox

by Charly Cox

  ‘Christ Almighty! Would you shut that one up already?’ The taller of the two men suddenly bit out, anger flushing his face a deep red.

  That’s when the noise filtered through to Rachel, and she realized Cheyenne or Meghan – she couldn’t remember which was which – had begun shaking back and forth as her fingers gripped her mattress, undecipherable words and spittle flying from her mouth in a chorus of high-pitched wails.

  Tendrils of dread worked their way up her spine as she watched the girl’s reaction to seeing the men. And then her gaze flew away as Tall Guy announced, ‘That one.’ When Rachel saw he was pointing at her, her eyes shot around the room, searching for a place to run, to hide, to escape. And then the man produced another key and unlocked their enclosure. As he stepped inside, she noticed a third man standing just off to the side, holding what appeared to be a weapon of some sort. A gun? Taser? She couldn’t tell.

  And then it didn’t matter because the three men ordered the other girls to stay put as they moved toward her with purpose. Rachel scrambled to get away though there was nowhere to go… except out there. The door was open, and without thinking about the consequences, she bolted between the men and was brought roughly to a halt when one of them reached out and wrapped a handful of her hair around his fist, yanking her to the ground.

  Ignoring the pain shooting through her skull, Rachel jerked her head forward trying to escape the man’s grip, relieved when his hold on her hair released. Taking advantage of being loose, she shuffled backwards and huddled into the corner of the enclosure, pulling her knees in as tightly as she could, wrapping her arms around them, violently shaking her head back and forth, barely recognizing the sounds coming from deep inside her.

  Stopping at her feet, the imposing figure of one of the men asked, ‘You going to cooperate, or do we do this the hard way?’

  Rachel didn’t have time to wonder what the hard way was because Faye answered for her, in a voice much softer and gentler now than the one she’d used before. ‘She’ll cooperate. She’s just scared. You don’t have to… she’ll cooperate.’

  Hysteria bubbled up inside, threatening to erupt. Scared? She wasn’t scared; she was freaking terrified. And despite her efforts to make herself invisible, rough hands reached down and dragged her out of her corner. Immediately, and regardless of Faye’s promise of cooperation, Rachel struggled, clawing her nails down the face of one of the men, eliciting an outraged howl of pain. Even as the men tried to control her flailing limbs, she kicked out at anything she could. It was only when the cold barrel of a gun pressed into her temple that the fight drained out of her, and her body went limp as Tall Guy and his partner gripped her arms and hauled her upstairs while the third man relocked the cell.

  After winding their way through a series of hallways, they entered a large room where two well-dressed men in business suits sat perched on the edge of a red velvet sofa, their bodies relaxed as they watched her being brought in, eyes gleaming with malicious interest. One of the men licked his lips as he inspected her from her highlighted hair to her painted toenails.

  Both men rose to their feet. ‘She’ll do nicely.’ They each pulled out a wad of bills which they thrust out towards Tall Guy. He grabbed the money and handed it to his partner behind him who slowly counted it. When he stuffed it into his pocket and nodded, Tall Guy shoved her forward.

  Right into the waiting arms of the two businessmen who latched onto her upper arms. Ignoring her pleas and the tears that fell in torrents down her face, they marched her down yet another hallway, this time ending at a closed door labeled ‘The Toybox.’

  When they led her through the doorway, and Rachel saw what was inside, her knees buckled, and only the force of their grip kept her on her feet.

  Chapter Ten

  Monday, May 20

  The fingers gripping Cord’s thighs turned white, and after he inhaled slowly through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, he began. ‘There’s something…’

  He shook his head the way Alyssa did when she was trying to dislodge a memory she didn’t want, then tried again. ‘There’s something I’ve never told you. It’s not because I don’t trust you; it’s because I don’t talk about it with anyone. Not even Sara – well, not anymore anyway.’ He sucked in an audible breath and expelled it in a rush. This time when he spoke, his words were quieter, not quite a whisper, but uttered almost reverently, and Alyssa found herself straining to hear.

  ‘My little sister was seventeen, on the dance team, happy, kind – really, I’m not just saying that because I’m the big brother. Everybody loved her. And she was smart.’ The way he gnashed his teeth made it sound like he was angry about it.

  At a stoplight, Alyssa angled her body toward him in time to witness the tortured look on his face, the way his mouth trembled just enough for her to notice. It made her want to reach over and remind him where he was. Instead, she made a right turn and drove a block until she reached a park where she pulled in but left the car idling. It was quiet here with only a handful of mothers and their toddlers running around in the sand. She kept her focus on them while Cord composed himself.

  ‘She was sharp as a whip. Except when it came to boys.’ He reached out and cranked the air conditioner to high, and Alyssa got the impression it had more to do with the fact that he needed to do something with his shaking hands than it did with the temperature inside the vehicle. Careful not to distract him, she pointed her vent away from her face.

  ‘Her senior year, she was dating some football jock who was possessive and abusive. I was off at college when I got the first phone call from my mom. Shelley came home after one of the games, her arms covered in red scratches which she attributed to mosquitoes. Of course, there were no bites, which my mother pointed out. Shelley became defensive and angry – something she never did – she was just never that kind of teenager – so Mom let it go until the next morning when she noticed something even worse than the scratches.’

  The tic in Cord’s jaw sped up as he stared out the windshield, and Alyssa’s galloping heart caused the blood to pulse in her ears, making it more difficult to hear or concentrate because she was suddenly sure she knew where this story would end, and she wasn’t certain she wanted to know this anymore. Sometimes ignorance really was bliss, and there was a reason her partner said he never spoke about it anymore.

  Memories stormed across his face. ‘Shelley’s throat was red, with strange lines circling her neck, like someone had been squeezing it. And when she spoke, her voice was hoarse and raspy. She tried telling our parents it was nothing but a cold and a sore throat from yelling. But if it came from yelling, it wasn’t from the cheering kind. Anyway, Mom pulled out her old Polaroid camera, and when Shelley went to lay down for a nap later that afternoon, she snuck into her room. That’s when she saw some of the old bruises that dotted her stomach. She snapped as many pictures as she could before my sister woke up. She wanted to have evidence.’

  ‘Cord, I’m so sorry,’ Alyssa said. ‘You don’t have to say anymore. I understand.’

  He continued as if he hadn’t heard her, his voice lower still, filled with strangled anguish. ‘I talked to Shelley, and then Mom and Dad made her break up with him, but three months later, towards the end of the school year, in May, Bradley Morrison and one of his buddies talked her into going to Morrison’s parents’ cabin where he beat and raped her. Repeatedly.’ A single tear rolled down his left cheek as he choked on the words.

  ‘My parents thought she was with some of her girlfriends, so when Shelley missed her curfew, they didn’t worry right away. After all, she wasn’t with Bradley anymore, and they didn’t want to overreact. But when she wasn’t home by three that morning, Mom knew something was wrong and called the police, then me. Shortly after they made the report, a jogger came across Shelley lying in some trees, barely alive, “painted in blood,” that’s how the witness described it. When he first spotted her feet sticking out, he almost ran by, thinking she was just some drunk sleeping it off.
But the closer he got, the more evident it was… that it was… more than that.’

  The emotions played across Cord’s face – anger to helplessness to heartbreak and back again – as he returned to that dark time in his life.

  ‘She was rushed to the hospital and kept in a medical coma for two days. When she woke, she told us what had happened.’ A harsh sound came from deep inside Cord’s chest as he bent forward slightly, almost as if he was reliving his own physical pain from what had happened to his sister.

  ‘Of course, Morrison and his buddy denied it all, said that she’d begged to go with them, and that she’d been the one to initiate… everything.’ His palm tapped against the dash. ‘He said she’d confessed it was her secret desire to be taken forcefully like that.’ A choked sound fell flat as he said, ‘As if that’s every young girl’s dream. To be raped and brutalized.

  ‘And his parents weren’t any better, brushing off their son’s involvement entirely, insisting Shelley was the only one to blame because she kept throwing herself at Bradley, was practically stalking him.’ He removed the hand that had been on the dash and wiped it down his face. ‘A few days after she was released from the hospital… Mom found her in the bathroom. She’d hanged herself.’

  His voice cracked, and he swallowed several times, and while Alyssa wanted to tell him ‘no more,’ she knew he needed to finish.

  ‘She left a note saying she was sorry but that she couldn’t deal with the stares and whispers, people wondering if any part of what Morrison and his parents said was true. Couldn’t handle people she thought were her friends turning their backs on her in support of him.’

  The fracture in Alyssa’s heart spread. Slowly, she reached out her hand and covered Cord’s arm. ‘I’m so sorry. I should never have asked.’

  ‘In exchange for a lighter sentence, his buddy gave a different version of events and turned state’s evidence, but of course, by then, at least for Shelley and my family, it was too late. That was twelve years ago this week.’

  When he turned his head toward her, the impact of his haunted past slammed into her with the force of a tropical storm.

  ‘That’s when I changed my degree. At first I thought I wanted to be a prosecutor, to put scum like them away for good. But it didn’t take long for me to realize what I really wanted was to capture them myself.’ His attention was drawn to two little children fighting over an action figure while their mothers tried to diffuse the situation before it turned into a full-blown tantrum. ‘So, I became a police officer and worked my way up the ranks to detective. When my folks died, Sara and I decided to pack up and start fresh here in New Mexico.’

  Alyssa had known he’d moved to Albuquerque from Seattle, but she didn’t know if that was where he was raised. ‘Was Seattle where Shelley…?’ Even though she investigated these types of crimes all the time, she still couldn’t bring herself to finish the question. For some reason, in this setting, with her partner’s soul exposed, it seemed too invasive.

  ‘Portland, Oregon. Mom and Dad couldn’t stay in the house after Shelley died, and since I was attending university in Seattle, they moved up there. Seven years ago, Dad had his stroke and died, and eighteen months after that, Mom lost her battle against breast cancer. Too many sad memories permeated the entire Pacific Northwest, and I wanted out.’

  Something akin to guilt passed over his features. ‘I’m not proud of it, but I was the biggest asshole around and did my best to push Sara away – both after what happened to Shelley and when my parents died. But my Sara’s pretty tenacious in her own right – she was like that in high school, too, which is why I fell for her our freshman year. Anyway, she wouldn’t let me shake her. Thank God.’ A sad smile lifted one corner of his mouth. ‘Do you know, what happened to Shelley is why Sara became a nurse? She just wanted to help heal other girls who’d… who’d had that happen… to remind them they could heal.’

  Alyssa had always liked and admired Cord’s wife, but a new respect filled her for the woman who seemed to have saved Cord from himself. The silence that filled the car was crushing as Alyssa allowed this glimpse into her partner’s past to swill around in her head. She knew she should say something, but what?

  Cord finally turned to look at her, dark circles shadowing his red eyes. ‘Remember three years ago when I suddenly had something come up and had to leave for Washington?’

  Alyssa nodded. ‘I remember.’

  ‘An old college buddy of mine called to let me know Morrison had been killed in the prison yard. Cliché as hell. But if rumor is true, he’d been bragging to a new guy about Shelley, trying to puff himself up to look like a badass. Turns out the guy he was spouting off to had a little sister who’d been raped and murdered. In fact, that’s why he was in prison, for taking the law into his own hands. I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say the only reason the person who’d killed his sister was able to be identified was because his face was left intact. Unlike the rest of him.’

  Cord’s face hardened, turned cold. ‘Ronald Erickson didn’t have the same weapons at his disposal inside prison, but he made do with what he had. Bradley Morrison’s face didn’t fare so well.’ He turned his head to stare out the passenger window. ‘I know we’ve dealt with cases like this in the past’ – he rubbed the back of his neck – ‘but it’s the anniversary of Shelley’s suicide, and Beau Cambridge and his father brought it all rushing back, their attitudes.’ He released a huff of sound and glanced at Alyssa. ‘I let it get the better of me, and I’m sorry. I should’ve had better control.’

  The grief in his eyes matched the grief in Alyssa’s heart. ‘Now I understand why we make such a good team. We’re connected by tragedies that brought us to this profession so we could try to make a change, no matter how small. And we’re making it work.’

  ‘Damn straight we are,’ he said at the same time his phone rang. ‘Talk about timing.’ His chuckle was forced but there.

  ‘Hey, Hal, do you have that address for us?’

  Aside from a slight trembling in his hand, Alyssa never would’ve guessed that just moments earlier, he’d been relaying the most tragic event of his life. Now she had to wonder how interviewing Chance Williams might affect him, especially if he was the player Angela Kazminski made him out to be. Would it be another Beau Cambridge all over again?

  ‘1901 Valley Crest Drive. The roommate was close. Ridgecrest is just a block north.’ Cord tapped in the address and asked Alyssa if there was anything else she needed Hal to do.

  ‘Actually, yes, he can call Tony and Joe and let them know we need them to help us round up and question potential witnesses to Rachel Otis’s disappearance.’

  ‘Hal says “Consider it done.” Anything else?’

  ‘Nope. Thanks, Hal.’

  Cord relayed the message and then put his phone away.

  Silence filled the cab of the Tahoe before Alyssa finally dove in. ‘Do you think you’re ready to interview Mr. Williams with me? Because I’m sure I can get Joe or Tony if you need some time.’

  ‘I can do my job…’ Cord held his palm up when she opened her mouth to explain she hadn’t meant to imply he couldn’t. ‘I know I let things get to me with Cambridge, but aside from that slip-up, have I ever given you reason to doubt I’m capable of maintaining my professionalism?’

  ‘No, you haven’t. But that’s not what I—’

  He cut her off. ‘That’s because I learned a long time ago to compartmentalize when it comes to things like that. I already apologized and said it won’t happen again. And it won’t. So, you can relax, and let’s get this done.’ He ended the conversation by settling back and buckling his seatbelt.

  Alyssa removed her hand from the gear shifter and touched Cord’s shoulder, waiting for his eyes to meet hers. ‘Thank you for trusting me with Shelley’s story. Trust me’ – a short, humorless laugh pushed past her lips – ‘I know more than some exactly how difficult that can be. We can agree on that, right?’

  Cord’s eyes glassed o
ver with moisture, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. ‘Right.’

  ‘So, for the record, I wasn’t asking for another apology. Nor was I doubting your ability to perform your job because I have absolute faith in you when it comes to that. I asked if you were ready to conduct this interview as your friend, not your co-worker. Okay?’

  One knuckle brushed away a stray tear as he shot her a watery smile. ‘I appreciate that. And thank you. But I can do this.’

  Chapter Eleven

  Monday, May 20

  Twenty-two minutes later, Alyssa and Cord pulled up to the Williams’ residence. She allowed herself a moment to glance around the property before getting out of the car. Surrounded on all sides by spongy grass, the house was a patchwork of wood, reminding her of the one in the Hansel and Gretel story she’d grown up hearing and then had shared with Holly and Isaac before they’d learned to read themselves. The green roof sloped over the frame of the house in a rounded dome, and the blazing red door was the exact same shade as the one on the dollhouse she’d once begged her parents for just before they learned her mother was pregnant with Timmy.

  In the passenger seat, one hand perched on the door handle, Cord, too, observed the house. ‘Reminds me of the witch’s house when she invited Hansel and Gretel in for candy.’ Alyssa chuckled since it was exactly what she’d been thinking. It was funny – and sometimes a little unsettling – how often the two of them were on the same wavelength.

  Two young men perched on the front porch, legs propped up on the wooden railing which was in bad need of a fresh paint job. They eyed Alyssa and Cord as they stepped out of the vehicle and onto the sidewalk, and when they were within feet of the front porch, the guy on the right lifted a can of a popular energy drink to his mouth and guzzled, wiping his hand across his mouth when he finished. Then holding her gaze, he let out a loud belch.