The Getaway

by K. J. Emrick

  I couldn’t wait to show all this to James. Of course, I’d have to wait because he took off without me this morning.

  Then I found a page almost to the back that made my blood chill.

  A photocopy of James’s birth certificate. The one he’d shown me once before with the ripped right corner. It listed his year of birth and his parents and the hospital where he was born in Gawler. It wasn’t the certificate itself that disturbed me.

  I know where James keeps his birth certificate. It’s in a locked box under his bed in his house. In order for Stevie to get her hands on this, she would have had to break into his house. That definitely raised the level of crazy stalkerness.

  Well. Now I didn’t feel so bad about doing it to her. After all, turnabout is fair play.

  Taking a circular path back to our cabin I made sure to duck in the front door just as quickly as I could. I didn’t look over to Stevie’s cabin. If she was standing there watching me, waiting to spy on my boyfriend again, I wasn’t going to give her any reason to think it was me who had been going through her stuff. Of course, if she found that envelope missing then she was going to know it was me right off, but no sense making it obvious.

  Inside, I locked the door again. And the windows. And the back door, as well. Then I sat on the bed and thought about all the ways that my little escapade just now could have gone wrong. I wasn’t even a hundred percent sure that Stevie was the kidnapper. I just knew she was up to something. People with secrets were usually willing to do anything they could to keep those secrets hidden.

  In the last few years, I’ve been shot at more than once. Nearly choked to death. Threatened by an international criminal organization. Me and Death have been on intimate terms more than once. That didn’t mean I was going to ever be casual about inviting the Grim Reaper to dance. I’m a tad more cautious than that. So. The doors are locked and no one’s getting in unless I say so.

  Now what?

  If this had been Lakeshore, my home town, then I’d just pair up with my senior sergeant son and put my nose in where it didn’t belong. I’d go around asking all our neighbors what they knew. Unfortunately for me, this isn’t Lakeshore. I didn’t know anyone here. I didn’t know the police in this part of the world. Kevin had been with the Federal Police for a very short period of time, but that didn’t really give me any connections that I could tap.

  On the other hand, Kevin might have exactly the kind of connections that a mystery like this needed.

  My fingers hesitated over the phone. There was another call I needed to make first. Somebody else in Lakeshore that I needed to catch up with. With a smile, I accessed my contacts list and dialed the number for the Pine Lake Inn.

  Rosie Ryan answered my call on the third ring. I knew she’d be there at the Inn, running things in my absence and making sure everything was aces for our guests. Ordinarily she runs the kitchen side of our business while I crunch the numbers and worry about things like maximum occupancy and making reservations for the next two months. Our new employee Reinhold Springer was there to help her at the reception desk, and of course George our handyman would keep the place spotless and running properly, but for now Rosie was taking over all of my duties as well as hers.

  Especially hard on her, considering she was only a few months away from giving birth. Twins, as a matter of fact.

  “G’day,” Rosie’s tired but cheerful voice said, “Pine Lake Inn. How can we help you today?”

  “Hi, Rosie. It’s me.”

  I swear she squealed. “Dell! Oh, how’s it going? Everything aces over there? I’ve always wanted to go down to Port Arthur and see the sights. Just never have the time for travel anymore. Not that you ever did neither, I know that, but now you do and with James! I’ll bet it’s perfect. Is it perfect? Tell me everything!”

  Her excited questions cut off when the noise of something loud and large and metallic crashing to the floor reverberated through the phone causing me to hold it away from my ear for a second. I smiled as I imagined my klutz-prone friend with her newly enlarged baby-belly roaming around the kitchen and catching the edge of an unlucky pot or pan that got knocked into something else, and so on. “Rosie? You all right?”

  “Oh, sure, sure. Just knocked over the… well, it doesn’t matter.” Her voice became muffled as she held the phone away to talk to someone else in the room with her. “Pick that up. No, just toss it out. No saving it now. We’ll just have to have some other kind of salad with lunch. Ooh, maybe we’ll use those mushrooms!”

  I smiled. No matter how crazy and bizarre things got in my life, Rosie never changed.

  “So, Dell,” she said when she got back on the line with me. “What’re ya doing calling me? You should be out there enjoying yourself with James. I hear tell some of the beaches out there will turn a blind eye to a bit of skinny dipping!”

  “Rosie!” The laugh I managed to conjure up didn’t have a lot of humor in it. “That’s not true at all. Besides… James is out for the morning. I wanted to check in and see how you were doing. Did you get the house all ready for the big day?”

  “Yes,” she said, in a slow and distracted way. “We’ve got it all painted. We just need to put the furniture in. Dell, what d’ya mean, James is out? Without you?”

  “It’s all right Rosie,” I said. “Sometimes people do things apart.”

  “No, there’s something more to this. I can hear it in your voice.”

  “Rosie…” I sighed. My friend knew me really well. “There’s been a kidnapping out here. I suppose you haven’t heard about it yet.”

  “Oh, my! Well. No wonder you sound so odd. Bet you and James are hip deep in everything, am I right? You always are. Trouble finds you like a magnet finds, you know, something magnetic. Anything I can do?”

  She wasn’t completely right in what she was assuming, but I didn’t bother correcting the finer points. “Sounds like you’re busy so I’ll let you get back to things, then. I’ve got to call up Kevin next.”

  “Well, sure. That son of yours’ll be a big help. Always is.” Something else crashed around Rosie. I winced, because this time it sounded like something that couldn’t be fixed. “Oh, my. Oh… my. Uh, Dell, I’ve gotta go. Call me again?”

  “Will do, Rosie. You take it easy. Stay off your feet and let the staff do the work, hear me?”

  “Sure, sure. Hey! Don’t let that pot boil!”

  She hung up, and I realized she hadn’t been speaking to me. That little tidbit of wisdom at the end had been directed at the workers in the kitchen. Even this far into her pregnancy she was in command and taking charge.

  Truthfully I was glad Rosie had ended the call when she did. I don’t know what I would’ve said if she’d asked me anything else about James. Where me and him stood at this particular moment was a touchy subject with no clear answers. I didn’t want to face those questions yet. Not from my best friend.

  Time to give my son a call, I think.

  Yes, I have him on direct dial. Some of you might think that’s silly, a grown woman keeping her son’s number programmed into her phone like that, but me and Kevin are very close. We always have been. It was his father’s disappearance that brought us that close, and his death only brought us closer. His sister is finally getting to know what that feels like, too, and it’s been good for all of us. That reminds me, I never did put Carly’s number in my phone. I’ll have to get that from her next time I—

  “Mom?”

  Kevin’s voice is sleepy, and whisper-soft. I checked the clock next to the beds just to be sure. It’s eleven in the morning. “Did I wake you up?”

  “Sorta.” I hear rustling on his end of the line, and then it’s another few moments before I hear a door closing shut. “There. We can talk better now. Ellie’s still asleep. Kind of a late night for both of us.”

  His girlfriend must be in town again. Ellie alternates between his tiny home and her apartment up in Hobart. Her new job meant she had to be there at least part of the time, which meant
time away from Kevin. They made it work somehow, which was good to know considering Ellie had finally accepted his proposal to get married.

  “You’re the senior sergeant in a tiny town on the backside of Bourke,” I remind him. “What could you possibly have going on there that would keep you up late?”

  “Try an escaped convict from Hobart.”

  “From the Remand Center?” There weren’t many prisons still in operation in Tasmania. They’d mostly either been turned into historical sites like the one here at Port Arthur, or else closed down due to lack of funding. The one in Hobart wasn’t all that far away from Lakeshore. “Yikes. They think the guy came your way?”

  “It’s a woman, but yes they think she might come through here.” He did a bad job of stifling a yawn before adding, “She’s got family a little south in Dover and let’s face it, this wouldn’t be the first time someone hid themselves out in Lakeshore. We’re the last stop before the bush out here.”

  “Dover?”

  “Yup,” he confirmed. “That’s a good way from you. No worries, Mom.”

  “So you’ve been up all night organizing a search?”

  “Yup. The cops in town and the guys from the fire department, too.”

  “All right,” I said, leaning back against the headboard of the bed. “So that’s why you’re still asleep in the middle of the day. What’s Ellie’s excuse?”

  “She waited up for me.”

  Ah-ha. “I see. She was there to give some comfort to her fella, was she?”

  “That she was. She’s a great woman, Mom. I really lucked out with her.” Another yawn muffled his words. “So. What can I do for ya?”

  “I was hoping I could get my talented son to use some of his police connections.” I’d been trying to find some way of working up to asking, and he’d just given me the opening I need. “There’s been a kidnapping over here. I think maybe there were others in the past. I was wondering if maybe you could talk to the Federal Police and find out the whole story?”

  “A kidnapping?”

  “Yes, sorry to say.”

  He was silent for a long moment. “Mother. Is it possible for you to go anywhere without trouble following you?”

  “Well I don’t go to that many places.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “I do.” Leave it to Kevin to find a way to make me smile when I’m not feeling it. “Besides, it’s not just me. James is here. Found himself a friend, too. Alistair’s family has roots here, apparently, so why don’t we blame him for anything going wrong this time, hmm?”

  That sounded good to me. I could live with blaming Alistair for anything that went wrong. Maybe even global warming.

  “Fine,” my son says without much conviction. “So tell me what makes ya think there was other kidnappings before this one?”

  A ghost told me, is why, but I can’t exactly tell him that. “Just a hunch.”

  From behind Kevin, on the phone, I could hear a muffled woman’s voice. Ellie, just waking up. Kevin shifted the phone away from his face and his muffled voice joined hers, tender and sweet. That’s my boy. “Mom, I haveta go,” he said, getting back on the phone. “I’ll talk to the Federal boys about all this. Soon as I can. I’ll let ya know what they say, all right?”

  “Sure. Thanks, Kevin.”

  “Mom?”

  “Yes?”

  “Are you okay up there?” he asked me.

  How could I answer that? I was seeing dead people. The woman in the cabin next to us was stalking my boyfriend. A university girl had been kidnapped and might be in serious trouble, if she wasn’t dead already. Was I okay?

  “I’m fine,” I told him. “I’ve got James here with me.”

  After we said our goodbyes and hung up I wondered which part of that was the bigger lie. I wasn’t fine, and James wasn’t here with me.

  In my hand, my mobile buzzed and rang with the annoying preset song that came with the phone. I checked the display to find it was James calling.

  Well. He wasn’t with me, but apparently he hadn’t forgotten about me. That was something, I guess.

  “Where are you?” I asked him immediately. “I need to tell you something.”

  “Well at least one of us has something to tell.” His voice was very fuzzy and faint. Like he was going through a tunnel and shouting into his phone at the other end. “We came up empty over here. Didn’t even find…”

  The call faded out. Looking down at the screen I saw I still had four bars of signal. “James? You still there?”

  “…saying we didn’t find Snow.”

  I couldn’t have heard that right. “You didn’t find any snow? James it isn’t winter. There isn’t any snow.”

  His voice faded in and out again. “Hudson Snow. We didn’t find him.”

  “Who’s Hudson Snow?”

  “The American. Alistair and me went to his…” The call dropped. I think I even heard a beep. “…wasn’t here.”

  “Where are you?” I nearly forgot about the papers next to me on the bed. Something wasn’t right. There shouldn’t be any reason for his call to be breaking up like this. “Are you close by?”

  “We’re still in…”

  “James?”

  “…be there…”

  “Be where? James?”

  “…”

  “Hello?”

  Silence. White noise. I was just about to hang up.

  “Don’t let it happen again.”

  I dropped the phone away from me onto the mattress. That wasn’t James. I recognized the voice, faded and all full of static just like James’ had been, but it wasn’t him.

  It was the ghost from the restaurant’s car park.

  “Find her.”

  I wasn’t sure I’d heard the words right. The phone was over there and I was over here and apparently they don’t get the best reception from whatever plane of existence ghosts live on. Find her? That must mean the missing girl. But… that would mean she was still alive.

  Snatching up the phone from the muss of the bed covers I put it back to my ear. “Hello? Hello?”

  This time I heard it clearly. “Find her.”

  “Aces, sure, no problem. Tell me where she is and I’ll go right now. Where is Rory Hunter?”

  “…hear me? Dell? Helloo-oo?”

  James. His voice was coming through crystal clear now. The ghost was gone.

  Pounding my feet down in frustration against the floor over and over I asked myself why ghosts can’t just have mobile numbers like real people so we could dial them direct. Wouldn’t that make it so much easier if we could just dial up Grandma or Grandpa and ask for their advice?

  I had a friend over in the States who could also talk to ghosts. She had this way of communicating with them when she needed to. A kind of séance, I suppose you’d say. I don’t know how to do those. I’m rather at the mercy of whatever a ghost happens to tell me in the moment.

  Right now, all this ghost wanted to tell me was that I had to find the girl. It wasn’t much, but I held onto that bit of info like a diamond shining bright, because I was convinced that it meant the kidnapped girl was still alive.

  “Dell?”

  Oh, right. James. “Where are you?” I ask again.

  “Coming back now,” he said. “Me and Alistair struck out. Hudson Snow wasn’t in his motel room. Definitely staying there, but he was out and about.”

  “You think he left Port Arthur?”

  “Nah, his stuff is all here. He’ll be back.”

  Alistair’s voice joined in. James had the call on speaker. “We just don’t know where he is right now.”

  “That’s right,” James agreed. “He could be anywhere in the Never Never for all we know.”

  So we still had two suspects. At least, in my mind we did. A girl who was stalking James for unknown, sinister reasons, and an American who’d suddenly decided to disappear. Did the police have any others? What about the two kids she’d come to Port Arthur with, I suddenly wondered
. “James, after you drop Alistair off can you come right back to the cabin? I’ve some things I need to talk to you about. Bring some lunch with you? I’m starving.”

  “We’ll pick something up,” James promised. “Back in a bit.”

  We? “James. I need to talk to you. Just you.”

  “Dell, don’t be rude—”

  “That’s all right,” I heard Alistair say. “If you bring me back to my rental I can get my car, and meet you later. That will give you and Adelle time to talk.”

  I ground my teeth together to keep myself from saying anything. James had made a new friend, and all I could do was feel cheated that the two of them were spending time together. After all, I was the one breaking into people’s cabins and finding information about them being psychotic, shonky stalkers. That was me, not Alistair. Couldn’t James see what I was doing for him?

  “Dell?”

  “Fine, James,” I snapped, running my hand back through my hair. “Just get here.”

  Then I ended the call, and threw the phone back down on the bed. It bounced, and I left it where it landed. Was this it? Was this how the end started for me and James? Our relationship had seemed so solid before we got here and now it was just up and down and twisted all sideways. I’ve lost boyfriends before. I’ve broken up with men before, too. The way my heart felt all constricted… that’s what those other times had felt like.

  At the same time, I still had to wonder if it was just me overreacting. I still had a mound of emotions built up inside of me the size of Uluru. Maybe this was nothing more than my heartache and wounded feelings over what had been done to my husband… and to me.

  Deep breath, Dell. Life goes on.

  Sure it does. So long as we don’t mess it up. James was something good in my life. I couldn’t be upset that he had friends and a career and a life that didn’t always involve me. I didn’t need him to be with me every minute of the day. I’ve known women like that. Boorish, ignorant women who thought they owned their man and he couldn’t do anything at all without their permission.