“Ah, yes. The pills.” Gregson frowned and lowered the gun again. I breathed a sigh of relief. When he began to step out of the room, I started towards him but he raised the gun again, making me stop short. “You already have all of the information you need,” he whispered.
“Is she here?” I asked him. “Did you take her? Is she okay? Is Riley alive?”
“She’s alive,” he promised.
“Let me see her. Please.”
Gregson thought about this for a moment before he wagged a finger. “Wait right here.” With that, he closed the door behind him and I heard the deadbolt lock into place.
“Wait!” I screamed, lunging for the door. The sudden movement caused a sharp pain in my head. I gripped my skull and nearly knelt to the floor with a small scream of pain and frustration. I was still groggy but the pills were definitely starting to wear off. God only knew how long it would be until I would receive more. I started to sweat, heavy cold beads, as I squatted there, holding myself in a ball, rocking back and forth. I felt like a crazy person. Maybe I was going crazy.
A few minutes later, I heard the deadbolt click again and Gregson entered with his gun. When he saw me, however, he didn’t raise it, deciding that I wasn’t much of a threat. “You can see Riley,” he began, and my heart leapt with joy. She really was here. She was alive. Gregson would let me see her! “But first, you have to exercise those criminal investigation chops.”
I stared at him dumbfounded. “How? What do you mean?”
Gregson shifted and looked down the hallway before turning back to me. In a low whisper he said, “You’re focused on the wrong thing.”
“I shouldn’t be focused on trying to find my niece?” I asked him angrily, dropping my hands to the cold, hard ground and pushing myself to my feet. “Tell me, what should I be focused on in this whole mess?”
“I didn’t say any of that,” Gregson snapped easily. “Quit being so hot-headed and focus, Moyer.”
“I am so confused,” I said desperately. “I don’t know what you want from me.”
“Figure it out,” Gregson cried. “For Riley’s sake.”
With that, he stepped back and slammed the door shut, once again locking the deadbolt. This time, I didn’t even make a move for the door. My head was beginning to pound. I didn’t have much time to figure out Gregson’s riddles before my brain was rendered useless by pain. Knowing this, I slowly made my way down to the floor, where I laid down on the smooth, cool concrete. It felt good against my hot skin, which was prickling with sweat.
Once my body had cooled and the pounding in my head had diminished to a dull drumming, I tried to think. Gregson told me that I was focusing on all of the wrong things. What had we been talking about just before all of that? I squinted into the darkness, willing myself to remember. He’d wanted to know everything. What had he meant that I was focused on the wrong thing?
Suddenly a light bulb went off in my head, just as the dingy light bulb in my room flickered back on. “The ransom note,” I said aloud to no one in particular. That was odd. Was Gregson telling me that we shouldn’t be focused on the ransom note? I was beginning to get the feeling that he’d been in on Riley’s kidnapping, but I didn’t understand how that made the ransom any less important. I wasn’t entirely sure how he’d helped abduct her, as Riley could have easily escaped him. Someone else had to have been involved. Richard, perhaps. That didn’t really fit, though. Surely someone would have noticed Richard. A stranger of his appearance in a very small town would have been memorable to someone in the hours leading up to Riley’s disappearance.
I sighed and slowly rolled from my stomach to my back. My head began to hammer again and I closed my eyes tightly, begging the pain to subside just a little bit longer. When it did, I tried hard to think again. I didn’t have much longer before my brain was going to be completely useless. In that moment, I felt tears spring to my eyes. I thought of Riley, my parents, my brother, my friends who had come so far to help us find my niece. Did they have any idea where she was? Perhaps Janet had somehow gotten word home and they were on their way. Maybe the Chicago PD was going to burst in at any moment and rescue me. It’s not like I was really the damsel in distress type. I take pride in being able to hang my own picture frames and unclog my own sink. Still, there were always those rare occasions when you just needed a helping hand, and if this instance didn’t qualify, I wasn’t sure what did. “Focus,” I snapped to myself, angrily. “No pity parties.”
Gregson told me I was focused on the wrong thing. The ransom seemed the likely perpetrator. Originally, we’d thought that the amount was an amount owed for some horrible illegal debt. That’s what had originally led us to the bank accounts. Was it not owed? The amount could be for drugs that Rachel had sold but didn’t hand over the money for. That made sense, but it didn’t feel right in my gut. Did the ransom have nothing to do with the drug trafficking? That would be a real loop.
I pondered over this for a few seconds. It felt good. I dropped the possibility that the ransom amount was owed for drugs. Besides, all of that would mean that Rachel would have had to have sold them in the first place. I was pretty sure that Rachel didn’t know the first thing about actually selling narcotics, though moving them was totally different. Heck, I didn’t know the first thing about selling narcotics and I worked with the police. I suppose she could have dumped them somewhere so that they couldn’t be used but that just sounded plain stupid. Why would anyone simply get rid of a bunch of valuable drugs if it meant putting their life at risk for nothing?
I sighed. My headache was increasing with each passing moment. If the ransom had nothing to do with an amount owed, what could it possibly have to do with? Maybe if I could just figure that out, I’d be well on my way to solving this whole nightmare. “Probably just in time to be rescued because everyone else had it all figured out hours ago,” I mumbled. Granted, they all had a few hours on me. I’d been asleep for who knew how long.
I allowed my thoughts to stray from crime solving back to my niece. I could picture her adorable freckled face, her other physical features that were so strikingly like her mother’s. Her sharp wit. Her loud-mouthed attitude. Though it was still winter, I found my thoughts straying to her birthday coming up that next June. I had promised to take her to the Wisconsin Dells. Thirteen was a big year. It deserved something special. Would I ever see Riley again? Would we be able to go on that trip I’d promised her, her last birthday? Was she thinking about it, too, wondering if I’d save her in time?
I felt my heart spring to my throat with realization, though I wasn’t entirely sure why. I went back through my thoughts. Find Riley. Wisconsin Dells. Birthday. June. “Six,” I whispered. Grimacing against the pain, I rolled back onto my stomach and slowly pushed myself to my knees. The nausea was back. My stomach pitched but I ignored it as I climbed to my feet. Desperately, I started looking around the room for a security camera, hoping someone would pay attention to the fact that I had something to say. When I couldn’t find one, I lurched towards the door and began pounding against it. My head protested but I didn’t care. “Six Twenty-Three!” I screamed. “It’s Riley’s birthday! June 23rd is her birthday!” Gregson was right. Our group had been so convinced that the ransom was for some amount of money owed, when that was clearly far from the truth. Still, it had led us to Rachel’s hidden bank accounts which had led us to Gregson and to the bookstore and eventually here, even if it was all one big happy accident.
Just then, I heard the deadbolt click out of place. I went to grab for the knob but thought the better of it and took a step away from the door. For all I knew, they had a bazooka on the other side.
The door swung open and I saw two skinny shadows. One was Gregson, with his gun buried deep into the back of the shadow in front of him. “Riley?” I whispered.
“Aunt Em?” came her quiet, hesitant voice.
With a sob, we both launched ourselves into the other’s arms.
I stroked Riley’s hair with my l
eft hand. Through my tears, I gently ran my right hand over her shoulders, her arms, her back and her stomach, searching for any signs of injury or abuse. “Are you okay?” I asked her over and over.
“I’m okay,” she kept repeating back to me, nodding into my shoulder.
I’m not sure how long we stood there. I also didn’t realize that Gregson stood with his gun pointed towards us the whole time. “That’s sweet,” he sighed when our tears of happiness had finally subsided.
“Could you put that thing down?” I snapped at him, pointing towards the gun. “She’s been through enough, don’t you think?”
Gregson smiled at me but didn’t lower his gun. “I brought you something else,” he told me slowly.
Reaching into his pants pocket he removed two small, white pills. “More pain medicine?” I asked him. He nodded. “I can’t. I’ll fall asleep again.”
He shrugged and slowly went to set the pills on the floor by the door. “Suit yourself. Still have that water I gave you earlier?”
I wrinkled my nose and glanced at the cloudy half glass still sitting on the tray.
“Good,” he said with a curt nod.
“It’s not exactly-” I started.
“You’re lucky you’re getting hospitality at all,” Gregson cut me off. “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re not exactly in a room at the Ritz.”
“Believe me, I’ve noticed,” I told him dryly. He smiled wryly and I took this to mean that he was in a somewhat good mood, so I decided to press him for what I could. “Now what?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well, I solved the mystery,” I insisted. “The ransom was for nothing, it was just to throw us off. You probably didn’t even mean to kidnap Riley. You probably didn’t mean for any of us to be here.” Gregson said nothing but continued to aim the gun at us. Riley clung to my waist, her head buried in my shoulder. “So if that’s it, why don’t you just let us go? You don’t need us. It was a mistake. We’ll go. We won’t tell anyone about anything we’ve seen. Let’s just forget that any of this ever happened.”
Gregson laughed, a cold hollow sound. “You’re right, I don’t need you.” With those words, he removed the safety from the gun. “In fact, it’s too bad I’m not in charge because I trust you, Marian. I trust that you wouldn’t tell a soul,” Gregson said as he took a deep, shuddery breath. “But he doesn’t. He doesn’t trust anyone. Try to escape, I’ll shoot you. I told you. Me or you- I’ll always pick me.”
Confused, I started to ask him what he’d meant, but the door was already closing. “Wait!” I cried, letting go of Riley and moving towards the door. I managed to grab the handle and tug hard, but it was too late. The deadbolt had just clicked into place. “Damn it!” I screamed, slamming my fist hard into the door. “Yeow!” I cried, shaking my hand and hopping from foot to foot.
Whimpering, I slid to the floor. After the pain had subsided a bit, I looked up to Riley and smiled tightly. “What do we do now?” she asked, coming over to sit next to me.
I slid my arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “I have no idea,” I told her quietly. Kissing the top of her head, I added, “But I’m going to figure that out.”
One thing that quickly became obvious was that I wasn’t going to be getting Riley and myself out of anywhere given the amount of pain I was in. I had no choice but to take the pills that Gregson had offered. I found myself hoping that somehow, this round wouldn’t zonk me out as readily as the last one had, even though I realized how foolish that probably was.
Thankfully, consciousness came just as quickly as sleep had. When I awoke, I was sitting up, asleep against the door to our prison. Riley herself was strewn across my lap, snoring quietly, a small line of drool dried to her chin. Smiling, I lovingly pushed back her stick straight blond hair, causing her to snort and stir. A few seconds later, she blinked awake and stretched her arms wide. “What time is it?” she asked.
“No idea,” I admitted. “But I don’t think it’s been more than about a few hours. Any idea what time it was when they brought you in?”
Riley shook her head. I had the odd feeling like I always get in Vegas. Addison and I had gone there with a bunch of friends a few years ago, and again last year by ourselves. While neither of us were big gamblers, it was alarming how easily a casino can suck you in. With no clocks and no windows, you don’t know if you’ve been sitting at a slot machine for ten minutes or three hours. The feeling is enough to drive someone mad.
Between the crash, the two rounds of pills and getting Riley back, I suspected that I had been off the radar for at least 12 to 15 hours. It would be long enough that, even if Janet hadn’t been able to find help, everyone back home would know something was wrong. They might even be searching for us in the city right now. On the other hand, it wasn’t long enough to have filed a missing person’s report, so as far as the local police were concerned, I wasn’t actually missing yet. However, Riley definitely was and I could only hope that her face was receiving some national coverage.
I tried hard to shake the medicinal fog that surrounded my brain. The pain had reduced substantially. Nonetheless, I didn’t feel nearly as sharp as I needed to be in order to find Riley and I a way out. “There are so many things about this situation that just don’t fit,” I said, thinking aloud. Riley looked up at me curiously. “I guess first things first, though,” I said to her. “Who kidnapped you? I know Gregson couldn’t have acted alone. You’d have totally been able to take him.”
Riley grinned a toothy smile and shook her head. She was 12 going on 30, but appeared so much younger in that moment. I felt an angry fire begin to burn in my belly. It was beyond me who could possibly kidnap a child. “Mr. Gregson wasn’t even there,” Riley answered.
“Can you tell me what you remember?” I asked.
She nodded. As it turned out, she had been on her way to my mom and dad’s house when she was abducted. How she had gotten out of the house remains a mystery. My brother cut down the tree outside her window when she was younger. She used to shimmy down its trunk. Now that the tree was no longer there, it was a mystery to all of us, her parents included, how she still managed to sneak out of the house. When I interrupted her story to ask, she just gave me a sly smile and continued. She’d been about halfway to Grandma and Pop Pop’s when she heard a car crunching through the snow behind her. When she turned to look, she noticed that whoever it was had very tinted windows and out-of-state plates. She’d started to speed up and so did the car. Eventually, two men she didn’t recognize got out and dragged her kicking and screaming into the backseat. The sidewalks had been well shoveled, so she’d left behind no signs of struggle. Before they’d even driven out of town, someone had put a bag over her head. She’d felt a slight prick in her arm.
Next thing she knew, she had woken up in a room not so different from the one we were in now. Gregson had seemed surprised by her arrival but kind to her, and for that I was grateful. She’d had food, water and even a mattress. Not that you could get much sleep, given the situation. Every time the door opened, she confessed she’d been terrified that it was someone coming to drag her away and that she’d never see us again. She had no idea where she was or if she’d ever be released. On top of that, she had no idea why she’d been kidnapped in the first place. The girl was going to need therapy and I personally would be making these jerks pay for it.
“Were your parents still at home when you were kidnapped?”
Riley nodded and her eyes started to fill with tears. “They must be so angry that I snuck out of the house. If I hadn’t, none of this ever would have happened.” With that, her small body became wracked with sobs.
Horrified, I pulled her tightly to my chest. “Why would you even think that? They’ve been so worried about you.”
“I just mess everything up,” she sniffled, wiping her nose on her sleeve. “I try to be good, I really do. It’s hard. And I’m the only one, so they see everything. You’re so lucky that you
had a big brother!”
“Why were you grounded?” I asked her gently, ignoring the rest of her plight. Having an older brother had been no picnic. Sure we got along…now. Growing up, however, I’d had to share everything. Grass is always greener as they say.
Her cheeks reddened slightly and she looked down at her fingernails. “Grades,” she answered in a nearly inaudible whisper. “They were released for winter quarter.”
“Not so great, huh?”
Riley shook her head and smiled wryly. “Let’s just say I’m not in danger of making Honor Roll.”
I chuckled and pulled her close for another hug. “I’m not going to tell you that grades aren’t important, kiddo,” I murmured into her hair. “But they’re not nearly as important as your safety and well being. The circumstances that led to you being brought here were out of your control. Plus, I’m almost 30 and I’ve never once had to use the Pythagorean Theorem.”
“The what?”
“Forget it.”
Riley seemed to think hard for a few moments. Finally, she asked, “Aunt Em? Do you think I was kidnapped because of, er- what does Grandpop call it? Car moo?”
“Karma,” I corrected, giggling.
“Yeah, that,” she continued. “It’s like fate or something.”
“Sort of,” I agreed. “It’s the idea that what you did comes back to you. So good things will bring you good, and bad things will bring you bad.”
“And running away so many times might have finally caught up with me,” Riley admitted.
I smiled. “So when we get you out of here, you promise not to sneak out any more?” Riley grinned and shrugged, wiping her tear-stained cheeks with her palms. “I thought as much,” I laughed, pinching her arm. Talking to Riley had helped me to shake off the rest of my sleep. My brain was still clouded by medicine but I was gaining confidence in my ability to get us out before the pain came back in full force. “I need your help,” I told her quietly.
Allison Janda - Marian Moyer 02 - Seduction, Deceit & a Slice of Apple Pie Page 15