Lucy's Chance

by Jackie D

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Erica opened her eyes, and it took her a moment to realize where she was. It came into focus quickly, the peg board with tools hanging from metal stems, the harsh fluorescent lighting. She was in the processing center.

  “What do you have?” she croaked, her voice still heavy with sleep.

  Stein pushed the paper toward her. “I had to send them off to the state facility. My findings were inconclusive.”

  Erica stood, frustration flooding her. “What?”

  “I’m sorry, Chance. I put a rush order on it and told them it involved a missing person.”

  Erica took in a deep breath, trying her best to control her irritation. This wasn’t Stein’s fault. If anything it was hers. She should have more evidence by now. There has to be something. “Any word when we’ll know for sure? I need to get that warrant.”

  Stein put her hand on her arm. “You know that’s going to take a bit more time.”

  “We don’t have more time.”

  She left, not bothering to listen to whatever Stein was saying to her back.

  A few minutes later, she was in front of the Rodriguez house. She sat out front for a few minutes, thinking about what she could say to Lucy. It wasn’t that she didn’t have feelings for her, she did. She always had. That was actually the problem. What if she revealed herself to Lucy again, let her back in? What would stop her from leaving again?

  MJ and Grayson came walking out the front door with Holly on a leash. Guess it’s time to deal with stuff. She got out of the car and walked around to the other side.

  Grayson waved. “Morning. Where’s Lucy?”

  Erica felt the first pang of anxiety flush her system. “What do you mean? She’s supposed to be here.”

  MJ scratched Holly’s head. “When she didn’t come home last night, we thought she was with you.”

  “No, I dropped her off…down the road a little way after we left the station.”

  Erica pulled out her phone. She called Lucy and it went straight to voice mail. The anxiety was now rapidly combining with adrenaline, rising in her body like a thermometer on a hot stove.

  She called Diego, and he answered on the second ring. “Hey, Chance.”

  “Is Lucy with you?” Please say yes. Please, God.

  “No, I thought she was at my parents’ house.”

  She got back in the driver’s seat. “She’s not, and they haven’t seen her. She’s not answering her phone, either.” She swallowed the bile of fear at the back of her throat. “What if he has her?”

  There was silence on the other end of the phone. Diego was processing the possibility of Frank Wilds having his little sister.

  “I’ll be at your house in five.” She pointed to Grayson and MJ. “Get your parents and go over to Diego’s house. I’m going to send a police cruiser over for protection.”

  “Chance, what’s going on?” MJ asked. “Is Lucy in trouble?”

  “Just go.”

  She barely got the car to a complete stop when Diego hopped in. She didn’t turn the siren on. She didn’t want to give him any indication that they were coming. She glanced over at Diego and saw he was checking the bullets in his gun. She didn’t need to say where they were headed.

  “If he has her, we’ll get her back.”

  He put the gun back in its holster and snapped it shut. “You’re damn right we will.”

  A few minutes later, they pulled into the dusty drive. Erica’s skin was tingling, and her senses were on high alert, courtesy of the adrenaline surge pulsing through her veins. After a moment, she parked the car in front of the Wildses’ house.

  She looked at Diego. “We still need to do this by the book.”

  “Which book?” Fury blazed behind his eyes.

  “Look, if this asshole has Lucy, I want his head on a platter. But if we do anything to fuck this up, he’s going to walk. We can’t let that happen.” What she really wanted to do was beat the living hell out of him until he told them where Jessica and Lucy were. She wanted to squeeze his neck until the words choked out of his throat. Luckily, she didn’t say it out loud, giving Diego more ideas than he already had about torturing Frank Wilds.

  They walked to the front door, a place they had just been a few days prior, unaware at the time the person they were speaking to was the man they had been looking for. He now had Lucy. He unknowingly had the power to break whatever remained of Erica’s heart, once and for all.

  Frank Wilds pushed the screen door open before they had a chance to knock. “Good morning, Detectives. What can I help you with today?”

  Erica could feel the hatred pouring off Diego in waves, but that wouldn’t get them anywhere. They didn’t have sufficient evidence yet, and if Diego came unhinged, he was going to end up doing something irrational, putting them all in danger.

  “We wanted to talk to you a bit more about your cousin. Can we come in?”

  Frank spun an apple around in his hand, then took a bite. “I don’t have a whole lot else to say. Like I told you before, he’s out of town.”

  “But you are familiar with Jessica Vargas?”

  “Yeah, I’m familiar with a lot of people in this town, Detective.”

  “What about Lucy Rodriguez?” Diego snarled from a foot away.

  Frank took his time replying, a large smile playing across his face as he took another bite of apple. “Why? She missing too?”

  Erica wanted to take the butt of her gun and smack the smug smile off his face. But this could be the opening they were looking for, the chance to trip him up. “Lucy? No, she’s down at the Clearbrook Press right now.”

  He might not have felt his body stiffen and his jaw clench, but Erica saw it. Then, just like that, he slipped back under his mask. “You sure about that?”

  “Are you?” Erica said.

  He took another bite from his apple. “Just kinda weird to question me if you already know she’s down at the Press office.”

  “Well, I just got off the phone with her. No worries. Back to Jessica.”

  He threw the apple into the field in front of his house and looked at Diego. “Why did you ask?”

  Diego wasn’t capable of playing along with Erica’s game. “You know why.”

  Erica was just about to interject when Diego exploded. “You know what, fuck this. Franklin Wilds, you are under arrest for the murder of Teresa Ortiz.” He flipped Frank around, pressing him against the front of his house. Frank didn’t resist, and a wicked smile crossed his lips as he stared coldly into Erica’s eyes.

  Diego put the handcuffs on him and pulled him off the wall, dragging him toward the car. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have a right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights?”

  Diego opened the car door and flipped him around. “Do you understand these rights?”

  “Yes,” Frank said as he slid into the back of the car. He continued to stare at Erica, chewing on the last bits of remaining apple in his mouth.

  Erica glared at Diego from across the roof of the car. She wanted to see this asshole locked up as bad as he did, but they didn’t have any hard evidence yet, nothing solid to give the DA. If they couldn’t produce something fast, he was going to walk, and that blood would now be on their hands. They needed a miracle. They needed that partial print to match and they needed it to come back quick. That, or they needed to get Frank talking, without invoking his right to a lawyer. The only upside to this was keeping him away from Jessica and Lucy for ninety-six hours. It wasn’t nearly enough, but it was something.

  * * *

  Lucy didn’t know what time it was, but she was sure several hours had passed. She had managed to fall asleep, but it was because of exhaustion and emotional depletion. She had finally gotten complete control back of her limbs and was able to move around the small space she had been dumped in.

  “I don’t
know why he didn’t tie you up.”

  Lucy was picking up items on his workbench and turning them over in her hand. “He’s getting cocky, overly confident. He thinks he’s untouchable.”

  Lucy ran her hands over the brown stains on the old wooden workbench. Bloodstains he’d never bothered to clean, assuming it would never be found. The scars and nicks that marked the table, shaped like half-moons and pitted valleys, were proof of the brutality and energy put into each endeavor. On the other side of the workbench was a bucket with a small scrub brush. Lucy picked it up, wondering why he never used it to clean up the remnants of his kills.

  As if reading her thoughts, Jessica answered. “He uses it to clean their nails.” She was still huddled in the corner, rocking slowly back and forth.

  “Hey,” she said, pulling a screwdriver off one of the hooks. “We’re going to get out of here.” She wanted to know more. She wanted to know exactly what Jessica had seen, everything she had been privy to, but she was too fragile right now. That would have to be a conversation for a later time.

  Lucy went over to the wooden staircase Frank had ascended the night before and pushed the screwdriver into one of the hinges, trying to pry it free. She could hear Jessica crying again, and she needed her to be ready to go with her if she was able to get the door off, but her current state wouldn’t do. “I met your cousin Sheila.”

  Being reminded of her life outside the dark, dismal cave seemed to breathe a bit of life into her. “You did?”

  Lucy continued to work on the hinge, trying a different angle. “I did, and she’s very worried about you. Everyone is.”

  “How about my parents? Are they okay? What about Zack?”

  Lucy hadn’t actually had the chance to meet any of them, but she figured there was no point in saying so now. “They’re okay. Hanging in there. They’re all waiting for you. I’m sure there will be a big party.”

  “Zack hates parties.”

  “I bet he’ll make an exception.”

  “I kind of thought Zack and I would get married. Before, well, before this.”

  Lucy stopped for a moment, wanting to make sure Jessica was looking at her. “Don’t talk like that. This isn’t over.”

  Jessica slowly walked over and started watching her closely. “I’m not sure I can ever go back. How will anything ever be normal again? I’m afraid this is all I will see every time I close my eyes, every time I walk to my car. What if I can never be the person he remembered, the person he loved?”

  Lucy had a flash of the Middle East and everything that had happened there and since. She thought of all the sleepless nights she had spent alone with her own thoughts. She thought of the way she still had to take a deep breath when she heard a car backfire and the way her body automatically recoiled at the smell of gunpowder on the Fourth of July. She knew Jessica was going to have her own moments after this was over, and it was going to take time and tears to recover. And the truth was, she probably never would fully recover. This would become a part of her. Something she would have to deal with forever, something that she would always dream about, and something she would always remember in detail. From this point forward, she would be tied to this story, to Frank Wilds’s name, and to the girls who hadn’t made it.

  Lucy put the screwdriver down and gently placed her hands on Jessica’s shoulders. “Listen to me, you were never going to stay the exact same person he fell in love with. You were always going to change. We’re meant to. It’s part of the human experience. What you’re going through right now will become part of you, but it will only define you if you let it. It might not seem like it right now, but you’ll learn how to manage the panic attacks, how to handle the situations that mentally thrust you right back here. You’ll learn how to cope with all of this because you’re a fighter.”

  “How do you know I’m a fighter?”

  “Because you’ve made it this far. You’ve adapted to whatever crazy game he’s playing. You found a way to survive and you will outside of these walls too. And if Zack really loves you, he loves all of you, including that fighter.”

  “Thanks, Lucy. I just hope you’re right.”

  The hinges weren’t going to budge, the top and bottom had both been soldered shut, but the attempt to try to help free them was making her feel better all the same. She wasn’t sure how much time she had or when Frank would be back, but she needed to do something to make her feel like she was at least trying.

  “Where are we exactly?” She was trying to figure out in her mind if there was a time table she could work from. If they were under the house, he could get to them quickly. If they were somewhere else, that could benefit them.

  “We’re under his barn.”

  “Under?”

  Jessica nodded. “He took me up to the house once. He let me take a shower after…” Her voice trailed off, and Lucy watched her eyes trail off to a memory.

  “After what?”

  “After he killed the other woman.” She started crying again, but there were no sobs, just tears.

  Lucy was going to push for more, but the look on Jessica’s face told her to let it rest for now. This poor woman had suffered a significant amount of physical and mental distress over the last several days.

  Jessica looked up at her again, and she seemed to fall on a topic she wanted to talk about. “Do you have a Zack?”

  It’s interesting, the way a kidnapping can bring two people together. Lucy almost laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. Two people who hardly knew each other could ask the most intimate of questions, because neither knew if they would have the opportunity to confide in anyone ever again.

  “I used to. Now, I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “Does he know you’re a fighter?”

  “She, and yeah, I think she knows.”

  If Jessica was surprised by the use of the pronoun, she didn’t show it. “Good. I’m glad to hear that. Maybe if we get out of here, you can remind her.”

  “I’ll make you a deal. When we get out of here, I’ll make sure of it.”

  She had said it without thinking and was surprised by the truth her statement held. She hadn’t intentionally made up her mind about the future she wanted with Erica, and yet there it was. She did want her, not just as a friend, but as her person. She didn’t want pieces of Erica. She didn’t want to be part of her life just to eventually see her with someone else. She wanted Erica, all of her. She didn’t need closure. She needed a beginning.

  Chapter Thirty

  Erica and Diego stood on the other side of the only interrogation room in their station. There was no need to question Diego for the choice he made. He understood the consequences, and they were a team. It didn’t matter now anyway. It was time to get to work.

  The chief pushed open the door. Erica called him about the arrest and he had been there within minutes. He stood on the other side of Diego, arms folded, looking intently at Frank Wilds.

  “You two better know what you’re doing. Jessica Vargas is still missing, you think he may have Lucy, and if you fuck this up, he’ll get away with all of it.” His voice was heavy and gravelly. It had always reminded Erica of the sound rocks make rolling under your shoes.

  “We got it, Chief,” Erica said.

  “You better, Chance. There’s no room for error. I’m about five minutes away from calling the FBI for help.”

  Diego made a move toward the door, and Erica put a hand on him. “I’ll go in first. He obviously has some issues with women. Let’s see how it pans out. He thinks he’s smarter than me. Maybe he won’t lawyer up right away.”

  Diego rubbed his face and nodded. “I’m here if you need me.”

  “I know.”

  She stood outside the door before going in, reminding herself to do everything by the book. Lucy, Jessica, and the cases of the other three women were at stake. She needed to be clearheaded and focused.

  She wasn’t sure if he would even talk to her, but she had to try, for Lucy’s sake. For her own as well. I
f she hadn’t let Lucy get out of her car, she would be here now, with her. They would be figuring this out together. She’d known she shouldn’t let her walk alone, but she’d gotten pissed off and let her do it anyway. Now she was in the hands of this twisted fuck, and it was Erica’s fault.

  “You don’t have anything on me. This is all in your head. The DA won’t risk prosecution without evidence. And there is zero evidence that I’m involved in any way. You have the wrong guy.”

  Erica sat at the table and stared at him. His eyes were clear and focused, but there was something missing. With most people, there was emotion, whether it be fear, guilt, or apprehension when sitting in a police interrogation room. But Frank Wilds’s eyes were vacant, void of anything except the fluorescent bulbs reflecting against them. She wanted to tell him they had a partial print and were just waiting for confirmation, she wanted to see if that would spur anything, but she held it back. If he knew there was actual evidence at this point, he might lawyer up, and she needed to know where to find Lucy and Jessica.

  “So here’s the thing, Frank. I didn’t want to arrest you. I don’t actually think you did this. Personally, I think it’s your cousin’s handiwork, and you just got caught in the middle.”

  “Like I told you, he hasn’t been around.”