by K. J. Emrick
Two other officers had joined Flanders now, and they were exchanging uneasy glances with each other. They knew something that I didn’t, to be sure. I looked from one of them to the next, and each of them was avoiding eye contact. “What? What is it?”
“Maybe you should sit down,” Constable Flanders suggested.
“Just tell me!” My patience was gone. The last thing that had been between me and James was an argument and I did not want things to end that way. I needed to find him and tell him I was sorry and even if I didn’t know what I’d done wrong or what he’d done wrong or why we’d even started fighting in the first place, I was still sorry. “What is going on? Why won’t you just go check the caves?”
“Ma’am,” one of the other two officers said. He was an older man, with hash marks on his sleeve to indicate more years of service than the others. “We’re not going to check the caves for your boyfriend, because there are no caves. I know this area pretty well. Grew up not far from here when I was a boy. I know the shoreline, and I know the roads, and I’m here to tell ya… there just aren’t any caves hereabouts.”
That made my mouth clamp shut. No caves? That couldn’t be right. “Then what was Alistair doing out here…?”
“I’m sure I don’t know,” the older officer admitted. “He took a bad hit to the head amongst other things. I’m going to catch up to him in the hospital a bit later, when he’s up and about. I’ll ask him then. In the meantime, you should do like Constable Flanders suggested and go back to your cabin. Tell ya what. I’ll make sure me or one of the other guys gives a ring later to let ya know what’s happened.”
I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry like sandpaper. There were no caves out here. James was gone. Alistair had said Hudson had been the one to take James but what if…
What if.
I ran back through my mind the events of the day and tried to remember how long James and Alistair had been gone before me and Stevie found the wrecked Commodore in the middle of this road. Twenty minutes? Thirty? Could it have been a little longer? Maybe. Plenty of time for Alistair to have taken James somewhere and left him tied up and gagged. Or worse.
My mind did not want to think about worse.
Stevie took me by the hand and led me back over to her car. The officers finally left after taking a few more pics of the scene. It was done. It was over and there was nothing more that I could do.
James was gone, and I’d let him drive off with a man who was lying to both of us. That’s all that kept running through my head. Kevin had tried to warn me about Alistair, and it was too late.
But wait… Alistair had been in the car accident. He’d been banged up very badly. The man had looked close to death’s door and if me and Stevie hadn’t shown up when we did who knows what would have happened. Those injuries weren’t fake. The accident wasn’t, either.
I’m so confused.
Sitting down on the ground in front of Stevie’s Micra I folded my legs and dropped my forehead into my hands. Breathe, I kept saying to myself. My voice was loud enough to drown out the pounding of my heart and it was only then that I realized I was actually saying the words out loud. “Breathe. Calm down. Think. Breathe. Think. Breathe. Breathe breathe breathe breathe breathe!”
“Dell,” Stevie’s soft voice said next to me. She was crouched down, waiting for me to focus on her. “Let’s go back to the cabins. There’s nothing else we can do here.”
“He promised us,” I said, tears in my eyes. “Alistair promised there were caves. Stevie, I’m so sorry. Your father…”
“Is fine, Dell. That’s what I believe. You haveta believe he’s fine, too.”
“Fine? He’s been kidnapped!”
She nodded at me, and now I could see the way she was fighting to keep her lip from trembling. “I heard what Alistair said. That don’t mean anything. He didn’t see where this Hudson bloke took James. He didn’t see anything after the car wreck. I choose to believe he’s okay. I choose to believe we’ll find him in time.”
The spark of hope that Stevie was kindling somehow caught inside of me, too. I could almost dare to believe that she was right. We could find James. We could find him and save him from a kidnapper who liked to take young, helpless women and murder them.
Something nagged at the back of my mind but I waved it away. I didn’t have time for stray thoughts trying to burn their way into my soul. I had to figure out what my next move would be. There had to be something I could do to save James.
But what that something was, I had no idea.
Chapter 8
There was nothing in my brain, and my heart was an empty husk.
Why did I ever fight with him like I did? We’d let everything get all twisted around and it was only now when I could literally lose James for good that I realized how incredibly stupid I was being. I’ve been carrying the pain of my husband’s death and murder and all of it with me like the world’s heaviest suitcase, refusing to put it down. James was willing to love me, if I let him.
Why wouldn’t I let him do that? Instead of building walls between us I could’ve let him in. I could’ve put everything else aside and just let him love me. Even if it meant losing him to his job every once in a while.
There were tears, but I barely remembered them. At some point I sat up abruptly in bed and blinked around me at the cabin I was supposed to be sharing with James. Stevie had left me here hours ago, I think, promising to come back with something to eat and sit with me for as long as I needed. Truth be told I think she kind of needed the company for herself. Poor girl. Her life was nearly as screwed up as mine at the moment and who did she have to depend on? Did she even have other family? At least I could always call Rosie and vent to her. I could call on Kevin for help.
Oh… Kevin. I should call him. I should have him find out what was really going on with the search for James, and for Rory Hunter. Were the police doing anything at all? Here it had been hours and I hadn’t gotten a single call from anyone.
Picking up my mobile to check the time against the annoying and unforgiving clock on the table by the bed, my brain suddenly clicked into gear. Was that the time? I really hadn’t heard from anyone in hours. Including Stevie.
I stared at the darkness peeking in through the curtains from outside. When had the sun gone down? Why wasn’t Stevie back? I reached over, past the clock, and flicked on the light switch.
On the other side of the room a young woman with a ghastly, pretty face and long hair flowing in a breeze that wasn’t there stared at me with blank eyes. Blood spotted her white dress. I jumped back in the bed so fast that I bumped up against the headrest.
Ghosts. Why can’t they knock first?
Charlotte Tebo stood up. How long had she been watching me in the dark? It didn’t matter, I guess. Now that I was awake and the lights were on, she had my attention, and she knew it.
“You could just ring my mobile,” I muttered. I don’t know how ghosts connect to people by phones but I know they can. After all, she did it earlier. That’s gotta be better for a woman’s heart than waking up to find one staring at you in the bedroom. “Are you going to tell me anything useful this time or are we going to play another game of charades?”
She lifted a hand, and pointed her finger at me.
Okay, so charades it was.
I’ve gotten pretty used to ghosts talking to me, and floating out of the walls of the Inn, or yes even trying to ring me up. But I will never not be scared when a dead woman points her finger at me like it’s all my fault.
Gathering my wits, I inched closer to her. “Charlotte… that’s your name, right? Charlotte Tebo?”
Her slightly translucent face registered surprise that I knew who she was. Maybe she was used to being forgotten. Slowly, she nodded her head.
“All right. I’m Dell Powers. Now that we’ve been introduced, can you please tell me where James is? I need to find him, Charlotte. Rory Hunter, too. I’ll help that girl. I won’t let it happen again but you have to hel
p me. I don’t know where to look.” The tears were threatening to fall again but I fought them back and made myself throw the covers off so I could face her. “I don’t know what to do next.”
The blank gaze of her stare held me in place while her hand started to move. Very slowly it turned away from me, until her finger was pointing at the wall.
Over in the direction of Stevie’s cabin.
Stevie.
Oh, snap.
I got it, or at least I thought I did. I’d been right to be worried about Stevie. Charlotte wanted me to go check on her and suddenly I couldn’t get out of bed fast enough. My fear and my crippling depression from before slipped away. I couldn’t let this happen again. I’d failed Rory Hunter by not acting soon enough. I’d failed James by pushing him away and sending him off with a man who could very well be the person behind all of this. I could not fail Stevie, too.
Don’t let it happen again.
When I’d laid down earlier I hadn’t bothered changing out of my clothes. Already in jeans and a heavy, long-sleeved t-shirt I shoved my feet into my sneakers and raced out the door. From the corner of my eye I saw Charlotte’s image blur into mist and then disappear. She’d delivered her message.
The night was quiet all around me as I ran over to Stevie’s cabin. All of the lights were on inside but with her curtains drawn I couldn’t see inside. I doubted that she would have left her windows unlocked after my earlier stunt. I wouldn’t be getting in that way.
Raising my hand in a fist I beat it against the door.
As soon as I did, it swung open.
Not locked. Not even closed. I took a step inside, carefully looking around the room and behind the door and between the beds. There was nothing here that looked out of place. The beds were made. An outfit of clothes was laid out neatly over the back of one of the chairs. Worst of all, it was dead silent.
Poor choice of words. I know.
“Stevie?” My voice didn’t echo. It just fell flat. “Stevie, are you here?”
A quick check of the shower and the closet and even a step out the back door showed me that no, she was not here. She was gone.
“No!” I screamed out loud. Not Stevie, too!
My mobile was back in the cabin. I rushed to the phone on the table by the beds, ready to call… who? The Federal Police again? They weren’t exactly being helpful so far. Sure, they had a lot of ground to cover and they already had two missing people to find but it just seemed to me like they should be doing something more than what they were. Tasmania is an island, for the love of God! How do you lose two—no, three—people on an island!
A figure loomed suddenly, filling the front doorway. I reacted without thinking and threw the first thing I could grab.
The pillow bounced harmlessly off my son’s chest.
“Kevin!”
He stayed where he was, one foot in and one foot out. “You threw a pillow at me.”
“I thought you were… I don’t know what I thought!” I took a few breaths, wondering how many years this trip had taken off my life expectancy so far. “You could have been a killer coming in here to, you know, kill me!”
“So your plan,” he said in an annoyingly dry tone of voice, “was to fight me off with a pillow.”
“Shut up,” I told him, as only a mother can order her son to do.
Now he did come in, and he hugged me to his broad chest like he’d done lots of times before to make me feel better. It almost worked.
Kevin has always been taller than me. I think he might have come out of my belly that way. His hair is the same auburn color as mine or at least it would’ve been, if he hadn’t trimmed it down so short that it was nearly black. Lots of people have commented on how much he looks like me. I took a certain amount of pride in hearing that. Strong and proud and raised by Dell Powers. At least in this world I know I’ve done one thing right.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him after taking another brief moment to enjoy the fact that he’s here. “You’re supposed to be finding an escaped criminal aren’t you?”
He stepped back from me and scrubbed a hand at the back of his neck, and I can see how tired he is. He’s still in his police uniform, too.
“Came straight here from Lakeshore after we talked this morning. I was worried. The stuff I read about that Alistair fellow, and this whole deal with the kidnapping.”
“Kidnappings,” I corrected him, emphasizing the plural. I sat down on one of Stevie’s beds, suddenly drained again. “James is… James is missing now, too.”
“What?” He nearly shouted that one word as he put his hands on my shoulders and searched my face. “You’re sure?”
I made a helpless gesture. “I’m sorry. I would’ve called you. I was going to, I swear, but I was just so upset and I came back here and then I fell asleep and when I woke up—”
A ghost appeared to me and told me to come check on Stevie. Right. Skip that part.
“When I woke up I found Stevie was missing, too.”
“Stevie? Who’s he? I heard you shouting over here and thought you were in trouble so I came racing over. Who’s staying here?”
Oh, wow. We could write a novel with what I’ve forgotten to tell Kevin, apparently. A whole mystery novel. We could call it The Getaway. “Stevie’s a girl,” I corrected him. “She’s James’s daughter.”
His eyes went wide, and he dropped down onto the bed next to me. “His daughter? Mom, how is that even possible?”
I sort of laughed at that. “It’s a really long story, Kevin. And besides, you’ve got some explaining of your own. How can you be here when you’re supposed to be back in Lakeshore finding an escaped convict?”
He shrugged, the wheels still turning behind his eyes, crunching down everything I’d just told him. “Apparently that escapee got seen last night in Lauderdale. Wherever she’s heading it’s nowhere near Lakeshore so I’m off the hook. Shoulda seen the police cars stacked up on the roads coming through Dodge’s Ferry though. I think that’s why you aren’t getting much of a response from the Federal Police out here. They’re spread pretty thin. Now. Tell me how James has a daughter, if ya please.”
“Like I said, it’s a long story. So’s the rest of it. Can I tell you on the way?”
“On the way to where? To the Federal Police? I can just call them from here. It’ll be quicker.”
“No, we’re not going to see… I mean, we should call them, sure. They need to know about Stevie.” I looked around the cabin one more time, worrying for my new friend and my boyfriend and a university student I didn’t even know. If there was any chance to save any of them, we had to act now, and I finally knew where we needed to go. “Come on. We’ll call the Feds but that’s not where we’re going. You drive, and I’ll explain on the way.”
“Mom, where are we going?”
“We’re going to find some caves,” I told him.
It had suddenly occurred to me that there was at least one thing I could do to help. If the Federal Police were spread too thin to check on every lead, then me and Kevin would just have to run this one down ourselves.
See, I believe that Alistair was serious about those caves he mentioned. I believe he was leading James there on purpose, and maybe me, too. I don’t know if his car wreck was staged or just bad luck, but I think the whole story about Hudson Snow kidnapping James was just to lead us off the trail. I think he has James in those caves right now. I’m willing to lay money down that Rory Hunter is there now, too, and hopefully still alive.
After all, I have a promise to keep to a ghost.
Kevin nodded along with everything I said to him, every detail as I laid it carefully out like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle coming together. We drove faster than the speed limit, which wasn’t hard in Port Arthur, although it wasn’t exactly safe at night especially on the narrow and winding roads outside of town. I kept waiting for him to say something, to add his opinion, to give me the benefit of his police experience. He just sat there silently listening to me
. We were almost up to the point where Alistair’s accident had happened when I finally asked him what he thought.
“Well,” he said, slowing on the dirt road. “Ya do realize, there’s a few flaws in your theory.”
“What? You mean because nobody knows about these caves? That’s not unusual. How many people in Lakeshore still don’t know about that one trail you and me like to use? The one with the fissure in the ground that smells like sulfur?”
“I know, I know, but it’s more than that.”
“Like what?” I asked, a little more cross than I maybe should’ve been.
“Like, how did Alistair kidnap Stevie if he’s laid up in the hospital from his accident?”
Oh. “Um. Well, maybe Stevie went off to investigate the caves, like we’re doing. Maybe she wasn’t kidnapped at all!” Hope rose up inside me. My new ghost friend might have been telling me to go after her, because Stevie was going to get into trouble looking for her father.
“All right,” Kevin said as we came up to the curve just before the accident scene. “Let’s say I give ya that one. Stevie’s safe and sound and up ahead of us somewhere looking for the same caves. There’s still one thing I don’t get.”
“Just one? Pull over here.”
“Yeah, just one.” He brought the car to a stop, as far over to the side of the road as the trees growing there would allow. As he put on the parking brake, he turned to me. “Why would Alistair kidnap James? I get the whole faking an accident thing, but why kidnap James? Everything points to women being his thing. Charlotte Tebo. Rory Hunter. Both cute, both young, and both blonde. God alone knows how many others. Serial killers don’t usually change their MO. So then, why’d he kidnap James?”
I lifted my fingers up to my mouth, feeling the way they trembled against my lips. Yes. Why James? That was what had been bugging me earlier. I’d been so caught up in berating myself for letting James get taken that I hadn’t seen the obvious. The killer liked young, pretty women of a certain type. Just about as different from James as you could get. So… why him?