Snatched

by Pete Hautman

  Roni didn’t bother to argue. She pushed past Maurice, jumped into the driver’s seat, and punched the accelerator to the floor, leaving Maurice standing in a cloud of burnt rubber.

  “What are you doing?” Brian said.

  “Going after them, what do you think?” said Roni. She was leaning over the steering wheel, her jaw clenched.

  “I think you’re out of your mind.”

  “You know who that is, don’t you?” They were gaining rapidly on the old pickup.

  “Yeah, that same guy that picked us up hitchhiking—but what do we do if we catch him?”

  Roni started honking the horn. The driver of the pickup looked back at them, then sped up. Roni stomped on the gas and stayed close on their tail—way too close, in Brian’s opinion. They were coming up on the intersection with Highway 61 when a silver SUV turned onto Riverview, cutting across both lanes. The pickup swerved to avoid a collision, hit the curb, and spun out of control, taking out a mailbox and ending up sideways on the street.

  Roni slammed on the brakes. The wheels locked and the Explorer skidded toward the back end of the truck.

  What Roni found most surprising about her first car accident was the way everything slowed down. She knew the moment she saw the pickup truck skid sideways that they were going to hit it. She opened her mouth to share that bit of information with Brian, but for some reason her vocal cords weren’t working. Then it occurred to her that she hadn’t fastened her seat belt. Too late now, she thought as, in slow motion, the nose of the Explorer smashed into the side of the pickup truck box and the air bag exploded in her face with a loud bang.

  Brian found himself facedown on the floor between the seats. It took him a few seconds to make sure he wasn’t broken. His arms and legs seemed to work fine. He climbed back onto the seat. The cab was hazy with white dust from the exploded air bag. Roni was sitting behind the wheel with a shocked look on her face.

  “Are you okay?” Brian asked.

  “I think so.” She was covered with white powder from the air bag.

  “We’d better get out of here,” he said. “In case it blows up or something.”

  “That only happens in the movies.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “No.”

  Brian opened his door and hopped out of the Explorer.

  Roni’s door was jammed shut. She had to climb over the seat and follow Brian out the back door. As she stepped out of the Explorer, she felt a hand grasp her by the elbow to steady her. For a moment she thought it was Brian, and was surprised by his thoughtfulness. Then she saw who the hand belonged to.

  “Let me go!” she shouted, trying to yank her arm from his grasp.

  The red-haired man held on tight. “Calm down,” he said. He grabbed her by both shoulders. “Are you all right? Do you want to sit down?”

  “No!” Roni twisted out of the man’s grasp and backed away, looking around frantically. Brian stood helplessly a few feet away, just watching.

  “Those air bags are like a punch in the face,” said the man. He gave her a lopsided smile. “But they’re a lot softer than the windshield.”

  Roni looked past the man and saw Alicia standing right behind him, and suddenly she understood. “I know who you are,” she said.

  50

  red nails

  The silver SUV that caused the accident had pulled over a half block up the street. A man and a woman got out. Brian glanced at them, then did a double take. The woman was running toward them. The man followed her, only more slowly. It was Mr. and Mrs. Thorn. Mr. Thorn’s forehead was covered with a large white bandage.

  The redheaded man saw the Thorns coming and seemed to deflate.

  “I’m sorry, honey,” he said to Alicia.

  Alicia looked completely shattered. She backed up against the crumpled box of the pickup truck and hid her face behind her hands. The redheaded man wrapped his arms around her and looked defiantly at Mrs. Thorn as she ran up to them, her face red with anger.

  “I should have known it was you, you pathetic worm!”

  Brian edged over toward Roni. He heard a siren in the distance.

  “Now, Alice,” said the man. “Let’s all calm down. You know how you get.”

  “How I get? You kidnap my daughter and you want me to calm down?”

  The sound got louder. A police cruiser turned off the highway, siren howling, wheels skittering on the asphalt, and stopped with a whoop of its siren. Two cops jumped out—Garth Spall, with his hand on his gun, and a woman in plain-clothes: Brian’s mom.

  Brian noticed a third person in the police cruiser—a thin, clean-shaven man with a crewcut.

  Mrs. Thorn pointed a red-nailed finger at the man holding Alicia.

  “That’s my ex-husband, Bill Camden,” said Mrs. Thorn. “He kidnapped my daughter. Arrest him!”

  It was like a really bad movie, only it was happening all around her, and she was in it. Alicia squeezed her eyes closed, but she couldn’t close her ears.

  “Arrest me for what?” her father asked.

  “For kidnapping my daughter,” her mother shouted.

  “She’s my daughter, too,” her dad said.

  She was just a thing for them to fight over. A daughter thing. She opened her eyes and saw Arnold hovering in the background with that big white bandage on his head.

  The policewoman stepped in and raised her voice. “Now, people, I want everybody to CALM DOWN!”

  For a few seconds, nobody said a word.

  “Thank you,” said the policewoman. “Now, Mr. Camden, would you please step away from Alicia?”

  Camden released Alicia and took a step to the side. “I didn’t kidnap anybody,” he said. “She called and asked me to come and get her. Ask her if you don’t believe me.”

  Alicia hugged herself. Even after the divorce they were still fighting. She was nothing more than a game piece.

  “Is that true, Alicia?” asked the policewoman.

  Alicia thought furiously. She looked at her father, then she looked past her father and saw Maurice Wellington. They were all here now, everyone who had ever pretended to love her.

  “He wasn’t kidnapping me,” she said. “I wanted to go with him.” She looked at her mother. “I wanted to get away from her.”

  51

  confession

  Roni could hardly believe what happened next. The moment Alicia said she wanted to get away from her, Mrs. Thorn took two steps toward her daughter and hit her in the face so hard that Alicia fell to the ground.

  Bill Camden launched himself toward his ex-wife, but Officer Spall grabbed him and slammed him back against the pickup truck.

  Arnold Thorn stepped toward his wife, saying, “Now dear . . .”

  Mrs. Thorn was bent over Alicia, her face contorted with fury, saying, “You worthless little tramp! You don’t think of anybody but yourself! Do you ever think about me? No! All you want is to make out with your low-class boyfriend and make me look bad in front of my friends.”

  “You don’t have any friends,” Alicia muttered, looking up at her mother.

  Mrs. Thorn drew back her hand to hit Alicia again, but Detective Bain—Brian’s mother—grabbed her arms and twisted them behind her back.

  Mr. Thorn helped Alicia to her feet. She was bleeding where her mother’s red fingernails had raked across her cheek.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said, shaking off his hand. “No thanks to you.”

  “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t know she was going to do that.”

  “You never know anything!”

  “You know what Alice is like,” said Bill Camden to Arnold Thorn. “You should have protected Alicia. I always did.”

  “I didn’t want to get between mother and daughter,” Thorn said.

  “You’re worthless,” Camden snorted.

  Mrs. Bain kept an arm on Alice Thorn and gave Arnold Thorn a careful look. “Are you saying that this has happened before?”

  A
rnold Thorn shook his head helplessly.

  “It sure has,” said Maurice, stepping forward. “Her mom was always smacking her around.”

  “That’s a lie!” said Mrs. Thorn.

  “Why didn’t you say anything about this before?” Mrs. Bain asked.

  “Alicia made me promise not to,” Maurice said. “She said it would be too embarrassing for her family.”

  Mrs. Bain turned to Alicia. “Is that true, Alicia?”

  Alicia shrugged.

  “Last Friday, when you said you were attacked by a stranger, was it really your mother who hurt you?”

  Alicia looked at her mother, who was glaring at her with eyes squeezed down to tiny slits.

  “Alicia?” said Mrs. Bain. “Is that what happened?”

  “Ask him.” Alicia looked at her stepfather.

  Arnold Thorn looked at his wife, then looked away, his face reddening.

  “Yes,” he said. “It’s true.”

  Mrs. Bain frowned. “You knew this all along?”

  “I knew that they had . . . had a fight. Maurice had stopped by to visit Alicia. Alice had made it clear to Alicia that Maurice was not welcome in our home. They had words.”

  “It was more than words,” Maurice said.

  Thorn nodded. “Yes. Alicia was hurt. I tried to help her, but she ran off. The next thing we knew she had told the police she had been attacked by a stranger.” He spread his hands helplessly. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want our family name to be dragged through the mud. We hoped it would all blow over.”

  “You are worse than worthless,” said Bill Camden.

  “And I suppose Alicia wasn’t really abducted, either,” said Mrs. Bain.

  “No, that was real,” said Arnold Thorn. “I’m certain Alice had nothing to do with that.”

  Roni couldn’t hold herself back any longer. “We found the boat,” she said.

  Everyone turned and looked at her.

  “Who is ‘we’?” asked Detective Bain. She looked from Roni to Brian, who had been trying very hard to make himself invisible. “And what boat?”

  “The boat Alicia was locked up on,” Roni said. “The Cap’n Arnold.”

  “Alicia was on your boat?” Mrs. Bain said to Arnold Thorn.

  “Actually, Mr. Thorn sold the boat to Maurice,” Roni said.

  Mrs. Bain turned her attention to Maurice.

  “Is that true?”

  Maurice shrugged.

  Detective Bain looked at Officer Spall. “Maybe we should throw them all in jail.”

  “Look here,” said Bill Camden, “I don’t know anything about any boat. All I know is that Alicia isn’t safe here in Bloodwater. Not with her around.” He pointed with his chin at Mrs. Thorn.

  “She’s my daughter,” shouted Mrs. Thorn.

  Mrs. Bain turned to Alicia, who was sitting slumped over, looking as pale as a ghost. “Alicia, it’s time to tell us what happened.”

  Alicia shook her head and moved closer to her father. Bill Camden put his arm around her. Roni was surprised by how small Alicia looked, as if she’d shrunk two sizes in one week.

  “Alicia?” said Mrs. Bain.

  Alicia shook her head.

  “Tell them, Alicia,” said Brian, stepping up next to Roni.

  Alicia licked her lips, saying nothing.

  “Talk to us, dear,” said Mrs. Bain.

  Alicia shook her head. “It was a stranger. I never saw him before. He locked me in the boat.”

  “Your dad’s old boat? Your boyfriend’s boat? Why didn’t you tell the police whose boat it was?” Roni asked.

  “I didn’t . . . it was dark! I didn’t know!”

  “You had to know. The roses that Maurice gave you were in there,” Roni pointed out.

  Roni glanced at Maurice. His mouth was hanging open again. Not a good look. But not the look of a kidnapper about to be exposed, either. In fact, nobody looked particularly guilty. Even Mr. Thorn, peeking out from beneath his bandaged forehead, seemed more curious than worried.

  “Tell them, Alicia,” Brian said again. “Tell them what really happened.”

  What’s Brian getting at? Roni wondered. What does he know? And why don’t I know it, too?

  Alicia lifted her head, giving Brian a pleading, I-can’t-bring-myself-to-say-it look.

  “We’ve seen the boat,” Brian said. “The door was kicked in.”

  “I had to escape!” Alicia said, her voice small.

  “But the door was kicked in,” Brian said. “You had to kick the door in from the outside. You broke the lock to get into the cabin. There was no way to lock you in!”

  Alicia looked at her feet, saying nothing.

  “Is that true, Alicia?” asked Detective Bain.

  For several seconds, nobody said a word. Then Alicia looked up. She looked at her mother, and then at Maurice, and finally at her father.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess I snatched myself.”

  52

  all you need is love

  Everyone was looking at Alicia.

  Alicia shrugged. “I didn’t plan it. I just wanted to get away. The only place I could think to go was the boat. I wasn’t going to stay away for long.” She looked at Maurice. “I thought maybe Maurice would come. I thought he might look for me.”

  Maurice stared back at her with a confused expression on his face.

  Alicia continued. “But he never came. I fell asleep. Then the storm came and the boat broke loose and I got thrown into the river and had to swim in the storm and I passed out and the next thing I knew it was the next day. I got lost trying to get home, and when I found out everybody thought I’d been abducted . . . I just thought maybe if I let them think that, then people would be nicer to me.”

  Alicia looked at her mother and touched a hand to the scratches on her cheek. Then she looked back at Maurice. “I didn’t want to get anybody in trouble.”

  Everyone started talking at once. Brian couldn’t take it all in, but it was exciting. Roni was giving him a weird look, but he was getting used to that.

  Mrs. Thorn began shouting again. “How could you do this to me? All you’ve ever wanted to do is make me look bad.”

  “That’s not true!” said Alicia, her eyes overflowing with tears. “All I ever wanted was for you to stop hurting me and start loving me.”

  Mrs. Thorn dropped her eyes.

  Mrs. Bain went back to the squad car and opened the back door. The thin man with the crewcut got out. He was wearing handcuffs. Mrs. Bain unlocked the cuffs and led him over to Alicia.

  “I think you owe this man an apology,” she said.

  There was dead silence for a few moments, while everybody tried to puzzle out who this stranger could be and why Alicia should apologize to him.

  “Who are you?” Alicia finally asked.

  The man smiled. “My name is Douglas Unger,” he said.

  Roni and Brian both gasped. Driftwood Doug looked at them and winked.

  It took Brian’s mother another ten minutes to get everybody calmed down and off the street. Garth Spall seemed to think they should arrest somebody—but who? Eventually they decided to take Mrs. Thorn downtown. Roni overheard Mrs. Bain say to Spall, “Give her time to calm down and maybe talk to a family counselor.”

  Bill Camden wanted to take Alicia back to Mankato with him, but Mrs. Bain wouldn’t allow it.

  “My daughter will be safe with me,” Camden said.

  “We’ll see that she’s safe, but right now the Thorns have custody,” said Mrs. Bain. “You will have to go through the courts to change that.”

  “Believe me, I will!” Bill Camden left in his pickup truck, which was seriously dented but still driveable.

  Roni and Brian went over to Driftwood Doug, who was watching the drama with a little smile on his face. Without his hair and beard he looked more like an accountant than a wild woodsman.

  “What happened to all your hair?” Brian asked.

  “I thought nobody would recogni
ze me without my hair and beard. But your mother spotted me walking down the street. She knew me from back when I lived in that cursed mansion.” He smiled at Brian. “I guess being observant runs in the family.”

  “Roni and I never thought you were guilty,” Brian said.

  “I have to ask you one more thing,” Roni said.

  “Ask away,” said Doug.

  “Why did you run away from the police?”

  Doug blushed. “I guess that wasn’t very smart,” he said. “It was the ginseng, you see.”

  “The ginseng made you run?”

  “In a sense. You see, I’d been picking wild ginseng out of season and, well, I was afraid they’d come to arrest me for poaching.”

  “You mean we were drinking poached ginseng tea?”

  “I’m afraid so.” He looked over at Mrs. Bain, who was ordering Mr. Thorn and Alicia to return to Bloodwater House. “You know, I think I’ll head on back to my boat before your mother changes her mind about letting me go.” He shook hands with Roni and Brian and said, “Thanks for believing in me. Stop by for a cup of tea next time you’re in my neighborhood!” With that, he turned and walked away.

  Mrs. Bain, watching Douglas Unger’s long strides carry him quickly out of sight, said, “And to think I nearly put that poor man in jail!”

  “That’s what happens when you jump to conclusions,” Brian said.

  Mrs. Bain said, “Excuse me? Did I hear a voice?”

  “I—”

  “No,” said Mrs. Bain. “I could not possibly have heard my son’s voice, because my son is grounded!”

  “But I—”

  “In fact”—she rattled the handcuffs she had removed from Driftwood Doug’s wrists—“if I were to get home and find that boy anywhere other than in his room studying, I might just cuff him to his bed rail for the rest of his sorry life.” Mrs. Bain turned to Maurice. “If you happen to see my son, would you do me a favor and give him a ride home?”

  “Uh . . . sure, I guess,” said Maurice.