by Willow Rose
I nodded. “It’s not unlikely that it is someone you know. In most cases, it is someone close to the family.”
It was such a cliché and sounded even worse as it left my lips. Still, it was the truth, and we had to look at this possibility first.
Mary scoffed. “That’s what you said last time too. But Odell wasn’t close to the family. We didn’t even know him.”
I swallowed, then exhaled. That was another thing that I hadn’t liked about our case against him. But Odell was formerly convicted of having molested children. He was staying at the hotel at the time of their disappearance, and we did find Maggie’s swimsuit in his room. He argued that he had stolen it from her mother’s bag to have a memory of her, but the prosecutor and the jury never bought that. Neither did I. On top of it all, Odell had been seen near Blue Hole Lake in Key West, where the body of Blake washed up a few days after they disappeared. His truck was parked by the lake, and he was fishing there. Other fishermen testified to having seen him there regularly. In court, he had laughed at this and asked if it was illegal to fish now because he didn’t get the memo. Odell had been mocking them all through the trial like it meant nothing to him, and I had been convinced that meant he was guilty.
Had I just been fooling myself?
Doubt had started to nag in the pit of my stomach, and it wasn’t a pleasant feeling. It was painful for me to open this can of worms. If Odell wasn’t our guy from back then, then who was? And had he been roaming out there for the past ten years, pleased with himself for having gotten away with double murder?
Yes, doubt had found its way inside my mind, but I couldn’t let Mary and Peter see that. So far, there was nothing in this guy’s methods that told me it was the same—except the fact that he had chosen the same family.
“There’s something else,” Peter said suddenly, sounding like a light gasp was caught in his throat. “Something I just remembered.”
I looked at him, narrowing my eyes. “And that is?”
“Cole mentioned having met a secret spy last night before I tucked him in. He said he had met a real secret spy by the pool.”
My eyes grew wide, and my pulse quickened. Mary breathed raggedly. She could barely look at her husband.
“Why? Why didn’t you tell me this, Peter?”
He threw out both his arms. “I don’t know. I guess I didn’t think much of it. Kids say a lot of stuff. Cole talks constantly; I don’t know what he says half the time. I can’t treat everything like something bad is about to happen.”
It was obvious that Mary was fighting her increasing rage. She pulled away from him on the couch and dug a wedge between them.
“You didn’t think much of it? How could you not think much of it when Maggie said the exact same thing on the day she disappeared? How can you be so…so…?”
She stopped herself. I had known and seen the Marshalls through what I believed to be the toughest time in their life, and I had not known them to ever point fingers at one another. They had stood together through it all the first time, but now, I saw something in Mary’s eyes that I hadn’t before.
I saw a hint of blame.
“To be completely honest, I thought he was just making it up,” Peter said. “I kept thinking that it was strange, but also that this sort of thing couldn’t possibly happen twice. Besides, the guy was in prison about to be executed; it couldn’t be the same guy who had murdered Blake and Maggie. That was impossible, so it had to be a coincidence, right?”
He rose to his feet with a deep sigh, then walked to the window, rubbing his forehead. I got up too to grab a cup of coffee from the cart that the hotel personnel had rolled inside the room. Brad pulled me aside.
“What are they talking about? This is news to me.”
“One of the twins, the girl, Maggie, told her parents she had met a secret spy by the pool. It was one of the things that was never told to the public.”
Brad looked down at me, his eyes growing wide.
“Does that mean…?”
“That we caught the wrong guy?” I asked, trembling slightly at the very thought. I had been so sure back then. “It’s definitely a possibility. Or it could mean that this guy has profound knowledge of our investigation back then. Either way, it doesn’t look good if you ask me.”
Chapter 16
THEN:
The woman at the restaurant was called Pamela. Pamela worked with Roy’s dad, and they had known each other for years, Roy quickly learned. Just as he also quickly learned that she wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. After that dinner at the restaurant, she seemed to show up in all kinds of places, like when Roy’s dad asked if he wanted to go to the zoo with him, she was suddenly there…what a coincidence. And now she had brought her two-year-old daughter along with her.
“How fun that we should meet like this,” Pamela said with a light shrug as she narrowed her eyes in a smile.
Roy wasn’t amused. Especially not by the small child who kept running around, giggling goofily, and grabbing his legs when they were eating lunch outside at the little grill in the middle of the zoo.
“Aw, she likes you already, Roy,” Pamela said.
“Well, she is such an easy child,” his dad said and leaned close to Pamela’s face. The way he smiled when looking at her made Roy’s stomach turn to knots. “Always happy, isn’t that right, Roy? She’s just such a thrill to be with.”
Pamela leaned on his shoulder with a soft sigh, and Roy wanted to throw up. He ate his burger while staring at them, and not once did either of them look at him. Instead, they stared at the little girl, who was feeding bread to the birds by throwing it at them, giggling cheerfully, and dancing with joy.
What does she have to be so happy about? He asked himself while sipping his Coke through the straw.
“Look at her spin,” his dad cheered and clasped his hands together. “Just look at her; I can’t believe how cute she is. She is the most adorable thing I have ever seen. Isn’t that right, Roy? Roy?”
Roy glared up from his fries when his dad finally looked at him. The look in his eyes was of disgust, and Roy’s shoulders sunk.
“What?” Roy asked.
His dad scoffed, then turned to look at the girl again. The sight of her spinning around and then falling on her behind made him laugh out loud. The girl laughed too, and Roy decided to go to the bathroom. He got up and walked to the back of the building. Just as he turned the corner, he looked back at the three of them and realized they hadn’t even seen him walk away.
When he returned, the three of them were taking a picture together; his dad had asked a passerby to take it for them.
“Say cheese.”
The girl said something that barely sounded like a word, and both of them clasped their hands and got all excited about it. Roy went back to his seat and sat down heavily.
“How long are we going to stay here?” he asked. “Can we go home soon? I’m kind of bored.”
Pamela’s smile froze as she looked at him and nodded. “Sure. We can go now. I have to put her down for a nap anyway.”
On their way to the car, Roy’s dad pulled him aside.
“You’re not even trying, son. The least you can do is try to be with the rest of us.”
“Why?” he asked.
His dad’s expression went sour. “Well, since you’re asking, I might as well tell you right away. I was going to wait for a better time, but I might as well say it now.”
“Say what?”
“Pamela and I are getting married. I proposed to her, and she said yes. They’ll come live with us after the wedding. That’s why I want you to try a little harder. We’re going to be a family, and you better start behaving if you want to be a part of it. I will not have you ruin my happiness. Do you hear me?”
With that, he walked past Roy toward their car, dangling the keys in his hand. Roy stood behind, staring at his father’s back, then shook his head.
“Whatever,” he said, then put his headphones back on and pressed
play on his Walkman, turning up the sound so loud he knew his dad could hear it while they drove home, knowing perfectly well it drove him nuts.
Chapter 17
She had arrived. The agent from ten years ago, Eva Rae Thomas, was with them now in the room, helping on the case. It was all going the way it was supposed to so far.
Everything was falling into its rightful and beautiful place.
He looked at her old picture from the articles that were written back then about the case. She had gained maybe ten-fifteen pounds, probably from the children he had read she had given birth to when stalking her on Facebook. She had gotten bangs, that was new, but the rest of her red hair was pulled back in a ponytail, just like it had been back then, and she had gotten a few lines around the corners of her eyes. They looked good on her, though. It matched her eyes that were older and seemed heavier. He guessed it was because of all she had been through. Getting a divorce and having to quit your job had to be tough. Especially since her husband had cheated on her with another woman, and she hadn’t even seen it coming.
It was a lot to deal with.
His heart had almost skipped a beat when he saw her. The boy was still passed out from the sedative he had given him earlier and was sleeping quietly. He had placed him in a cabinet in the room, then left to take part in the fun activities downstairs. Just in case anyone entered his room, they wouldn’t find him. He had him wrapped in a blanket, so he wouldn’t even be seen if anyone opened the closet.
They had already searched the rooms before he brought the boy in, but they might come back. He didn’t take any chances.
The boy hadn’t been much trouble to take. He spotted him by the pool while going down the lazy river, then waved happily. As he came by the second time, they waved to one another again and the third time too. The fourth time, he had signaled for the boy to come to the edge, and he had done so, smiling. He had then handed him a lollipop, dipped in the sedative. As the boy sat with him by the poolside for a few minutes and ate it, he soon dozed off. He could carry him away, making it look like a father carrying away his son that had dozed off after hours of playing in the sun and heat. It wasn’t unusual in people’s eyes.
People were so gullible.
He had taken him to his car in the parking garage underneath the resort, where he had injected another portion of the sedative into him to make sure he stayed out for longer and didn’t realize what was going on around him. Then he had left him in the car for a few hours while he joined the search teams until they were done searching the hotel and the rooms. By then, he was able to easily walk down into the parking garage and grab the kid, then carry him inside the elevator and take him directly to his floor and his room. He hadn’t met anyone on his way, and he knew they had no security cameras in the elevators, hallways, or the parking garage underneath the building. People wrongfully assumed that hotels and resorts had cameras everywhere monitoring their guests’ every move, but the fact was, most didn’t. Usually, they only had cameras where money was exchanged. But even that wasn’t usually covered well either. It amazed him that they didn’t take better care of their guests. But it was all to his advantage.
It’s a terrible world we live in—so much evil.
He laughed to himself while he walked down the hallway, yet keeping a serious face as he nodded at the deputy from the local sheriff’s office walking out of the Marshalls’ hotel room.
The deputy shot him a friendly smile and greeted him back.
Chapter 18
Being out in the middle of the night proved to be a lot scarier than Jessica had thought it would be. She walked down her street, through her neighborhood, heart pounding in her chest, worried that this was a mistake, that it was doomed to be a failure from the get-go.
She took the bus from her neighborhood to downtown Tampa, and as she got out, she looked at her watch that could light up in the darkness and realized it was one in the morning. There were still many hours till daylight, and the bus she needed to take to Orlando wouldn’t leave until four a.m.
She walked past a bar, where some people standing outside whistled and yelled after her as she passed them. It made her feel very uncomfortable, and she began to run. She continued down the street till she thought she was far enough, then slowed to a stop. She rested while panting, leaning on her thighs.
Everything looked different in the darkness, and even the tall buildings that she used to love so much were creepy—all those dark windows glaring down at her. She stared up at them and remembered a story she had read recently about a girl who was walking out at night alone when she was attacked and murdered.
Jessica shivered when a van drove up next to her on the street. She started to walk, and the van slowly followed her. The person sitting in it was nothing but a shadow. Jessica felt her heart rate go up rapidly, and she walked faster. The van, still following her, drove up on her side, and someone rolled down the window. The person looking out at her had a big crooked nose and piercing black eyes.
“Hey there, pretty girl. Where are you going? Do you need a ride?”
“N-No, thanks.”
“Are you out here all alone?” he asked.
She shook her head. “N-no.”
“Sure looks like you are to me,” he said. “You a runaway?”
She shook her head again.
“Don’t lie to me, pretty girl,” he said. “Ain’t no one out here at this time of night but the homeless and runaways. A girl like you shouldn’t be out here now; she should be sleeping in a bed. Come, jump in the van. I can help you out.”
Jessica backed up, still shaking her head.
“Don’t make me come and get ya’,” the man said, grinning.
That made Jessica take off. She turned a corner and ran into a park. The van stopped, and the door opened. The man with the crooked nose jumped out, then sprang after her. Jessica screamed and ran across the park. The dark trees looked like they were reaching for her with their long branches. She ran as fast as she could, pushing herself forward, but still, the guy from the van was faster. She could hear his rapid footsteps behind her, tapping on the asphalt, and soon she felt his hand as it reached for her ponytail, then grabbed it and pulled her back forcefully.
Pain shot through her scalp, and she flew back, then landed on the asphalt, hurting her back as it slammed against the ground below.
Jessica screamed and put her arms up to protect herself like she knew to do when Dad beat her up. The guy stood above her, lingering. He was panting, but smiling as he brushed away a lock of his greasy combover that had fallen into his face.
“You’re coming with me,” he said.
“No, please,” Jessica whimpered, her heart pounding so hard in her chest it hurt. Why had she run away from home? Why couldn’t she just have stayed where she was?
The guy lifted her, kicking and screaming, into the air, then carried her on his shoulder toward the white van. He placed his hand on her mouth when she was put down inside the van, and he stared into her eyes as she squirmed beneath him. His eyes were black as the night; his breath smelled like rotten fish. His hands touching her lips tasted like cigarettes.
“Shh, if you’ll keep quiet, I won’t harm you, okay? But if you do scream, I will kill you. Do you understand?”
Jessica panted and struggled to breathe behind his hand. She knew from experience that fighting him wouldn’t get her anywhere. It was the same with Dad when he got in that mood and the punches rained down; it was best to lie still till he was done. Fighting him only made things worse.
“Do you understand?” he hissed.
She nodded behind the hand, and the guy smiled satisfied.
“That’s good, my girl. You and I are going to have a great time. Just you wait and see.”
With those words, he slammed the door shut and walked to the front seat, got in, and took off.
Chapter 19
We set up our “war-room” inside the Marshalls’ suite, while they rested in the bedroom. The Marsh
alls’ close friends, James and Brittney Cork, who lived only about half an hour away, had come back from searching the area, and now they were drinking coffee on the couches, looking exhausted and worried at us all.
I worked for hours, running on nothing but black coffee and the cookies they had brought us. I logged into the system and got all my old case files from back when I worked the case for the FBI as a field agent. Most were stored in boxes in Washington, so I had to do with what was digital until they could get the boxes here.
I had talked briefly to the director, Isabella Horne, who was also my good friend, and she begged me to lead the case. Brad was very inexperienced in the field, and I would be doing her a huge favor; besides, I knew the Marshalls better than anyone. She was beyond grateful for my willingness to help, especially since she knew I had turned my back on all of this when I decided to take care of my kids instead. I agreed to do it if I got free hands to run it the way I wanted to.
“Just get me the kid back,” she said with an exhale, knowing I didn’t always play by the rules.
I got the list of suspects that we had interrogated back then in Key West, then handed it to Brad. “Could you check each and every name on this list to see where they are today? Find out where they live, if they are on vacation anywhere close by—maybe checked into a hotel around here, or have they been seen in the area recently—stuff like that. I want to know exactly where each and every one of them is right now, at this moment…if they are sleeping or awake, and what they had for dinner.”
Brad nodded and grabbed the list. “I’m on it.”
“I also need someone to check all the phone calls the parents made in the days up until now. Who have they been talking to? We must consider them as possible suspects. Could there be an associate, someone helping them? If the mom killed the boy accidentally, for instance, then how did she get rid of the body? Could she have had help? Ask around, have either of them left the resort while they were here. Have they had any visitors? I need to know every move they have made since they got here. Chances are that the people at the resort won’t know; this is a big resort with many people coming in and out every day. But ask them anyway.”