Girl Across the Water

by Jody Kihara

  way. I told her Jasper had been taken, and described Pa’s

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  truck and well as Revo’s car as best I could. Then the

  reception went crackly.

  “We’ll put out an APB on those vehicles,” she told

  me, before the phone gave a blast of static so loud that I

  had to pull it away from ear.

  “What?” I asked.

  This time I heard her: she cautioned us to stay

  inside and keep the doors locked until the police arrived.

  I wondered what she’d think if she saw me standing

  on the windowsill on the outside of the cabin, perfectly

  backlit by the bedroom light. Target. “Will do,” I told her,

  and clicked the phone shut.

  Dad helped me get back inside, and we both sank to

  the floor, breathing heavily. After everything that had

  happened that night, standing on the windowsill ready to

  fall to my death was the one thing that had made me

  physically shake. Or maybe it was the events of the past

  days finally taking their toll. I looked at my arms and

  hands: they were trembling.

  “Thanks, Paul,” Dad gasped.

  I nodded, unable, for a moment, to speak.

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  Chapter 15

  Nothing until now had felt as frustrating as waiting

  for the police. We couldn’t do anything apart from pace the

  cabin restlessly, and it seemed to be taking them forever to

  get here from Stanton. It was only a fifteen minute drive,

  maybe twenty in the dark, but it felt like an hour was

  slowly ticking by. We didn’t bother staying away from the

  windows ; Revo was no doubt driving off with Jasper, rather

  than waiting in the woods with a gun. I didn’t think any of

  them, redneck family included, would be stupid enough to

  remain at their cabin knowing we’d have the cops after

  them sooner or later. The longer the head start they had,

  the easier it would be for them to get away. I pictured

  Jasper in Revo’s car (assuming Revo and ‘Pa’ were each in

  their own vehicles) and wondered, was Jasper crying,

  distraught, ashamed? He should be, I thought, and a bitter

  taste came to my mouth as I thought of his involvement in

  the whole thing. We could have died!

  Dad was clearly impatient too, because he kept

  running his fingers through his hair and pacing in

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  semicircles. Finally he turned to me and said, “I wish you’d

  told me about it sooner.”

  I felt myself flush with anger “How would that have

  helped? We’d never have figured out that The Girl had

  anything to do with Revo,” I snapped.

  “Sorry, Paul.” He sat down, stood up, ran his fingers

  through his hair again. “I should have known something

  was up with Jasper. I guess he was acting moody, but I

  didn’t see it, it just seemed so…”

  “Normal,” I finished.

  He sighed, and for a moment seemed to accept that

  he couldn’t have done anything differently. This didn’t last

  long, however, and after a few minutes he started rambling

  on another self-guilt trip: “should have known… quieter

  than usual… didn’t spend enough time with you two…”

  I tried to tune it out as I paced the cabin in

  frustration — Hurry up! I thought. What was taking the

  cops so long? “Do you think there’s only one car?” I asked.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t have told them to come out here,

  because we need them to follow Revo! What if there’s only

  one car and we’re taking it up because I said there was an

  attempted murder, and I should have told them it’s the

  kidnapping that’s important!”

  “I’m sure they’ll send reinforcement from

  somewhere else,” Dad said, but I could see he was worried,

  too. How many cars would a middle-of-nowhere town like

  Stanton have? Compared to how many possible directions

  there were for Revo to head off in?

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  Finally we heard a car engine, then saw by two

  headlights sweeping down the drive. We were at the cabin

  door before the police had even opened their car doors.

  Two male cops, fully uniformed, got out the car and walked

  towards us — too slowly for my liking. Dad ushered them

  in.

  First, they wanted to make sure we were okay, and

  once we assured them that we were, they asked for the

  whole story. All Dad cared about, however, was: how many

  police were out looking for Revo’s car, had they found

  Jasper yet, were they closing all the roads out of town, had

  they notified all the neighboring towns? Would they close

  those roads down too? How easy would it be for Revo to

  get away, how hard would it be for them to catch him?

  The conversation was getting nowhere with both

  sides trying to talk about different things, so I stepped in.

  “Can you please let us know how soon you’ll hear about

  Revo and Jasper, and then we’ll answer everything?”

  “If they find them, they’ll radio the station and then

  the station will get in touch with us.” the older officer said.

  He had a wide stomach and bristling mustache.

  “Wouldn’t it be faster if we waited at the station?” I

  asked.

  “Yes,” Dad said, getting up from his chair, “and then

  we can get to Jasper faster when they catch them.”

  After a moment’s deliberation, the cops agreed. We

  climbed into the back of their car, and they drove slowly

  down the bumpy, winding dirt road. I wished they’d hurry it

  up.

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  “What will you do with Revo if you catch him?” I

  asked them from the back seat.

  “When,” Dad said firmly.

  “Whoever finds him will bring him to the station for

  questioning, which is why we need your statements first.”

  This was the younger cop. Officer Herd, I think he’d said his

  name was.

  “And Jasper? They’ll bring him there too?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  I was glad we’d be at the station before them,

  because Jasper would have a meltdown if he were dragged

  to a cop station along with his deadbeat dad in cuffs.

  Once we got onto the main road, it only took another

  minute to get to the station, and I hoped Revo wasn’t

  already there — I hated the thought of him telling them a

  pack of lies before we’d given them the real story.

  But he wasn’t, and there was still no word on

  locating him and Jasper. The lady officer I’d spoken to on

  my first visit to the police station — Officer Tully, she

  introduced herself — was handling the phones and radios,

  and she reassured Dad that the police in each of the four

  surrounding towns were out searching too, and that all

  neighboring motels had been notified in case Revo and

  Jasper stopped for the night. I doubted Revo would stop,

  though. Not till he
was in the next state.

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  “But they could be been miles past those towns

  already,” Dad said. “What about the next towns? Can they

  notify the whole region?”

  “Don’t worry, once an APB goes out, all the police

  stations will get it,” she reassured him. “We’re doing

  everything we can.”

  Dad and I were both worried, though, and the

  questioning that followed didn’t exactly help ease the

  tension.

  The police wanted to know about the kidnapping

  first, especially about ‘Pa’ pointing the shotgun at Dad,

  which meant the story came out backwards, and took

  several tries to explain. Once we’d worked back to the

  beginning, I was the one who told most of it, but it didn’t

  help that Dad interjected here and there, and that the cops

  listened to him more closely than me.

  “Why didn’t you tell us about the girl?” they asked

  me.

  “I promised her I wouldn’t.” I was already feeling

  defensive from them not believing my story the last time.

  “Didn’t you think a kid running away from home was

  a serious issue? Why didn’t you tell your dad?”

  “I did!”

  “But not till much later.”

  “No, I mean, I did think it was serious. But that was

  part of why I didn’t tell — I thought maybe she’d run away

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  because she was being abused or something, and I didn’t

  want to send her back to a dangerous situation.”

  “You didn’t think the appropriate authorities would

  look into the possibility of abuse?”

  “Yes… well, I mean, I guess I didn’t at the time, but

  she threatened to drown herself if I told anyone!”

  They looked skeptical.

  “I did try to find out who she was, and if she had run

  away from home,” I pointed out. “And it’s not like I didn’t

  come here to the station. And the police officer told me

  she’d have heard for sure if there were any missing kids.

  So then I figured it could have all be a prank. Which it

  was,” I reminded them.

  “But even if it was a prank, didn’t you think she

  might have drowned if she’d tried to swim away from the

  island, or suffer exposure or hypothermia?”

  “Yes, that’s why I left her a blanket. And the

  flashlight.” My explanations were starting to sound weak,

  even to me, and everything was getting twisted to make

  me come across like a liar. But they all knew my story was

  true, otherwise Revo wouldn’t have run off with Jasper! I

  shifted around in frustration.

  Dad finally stepped in. “Look, we all know now that

  Paul should have reported it sooner. But that’s not getting

  us anywhere now.”

  I gave him an indignant look. “You didn’t believe me

  when I told you! You didn’t!”

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  It took him a second to admit this was true. He

  sighed. “I’m sorry, Paul, but the story was a bit…”

  “You see?” I said. “I knew no one would believe me,

  and everyone would think I was making it up or crazy,

  because there was no missing girl!”

  “Yes but you’d seen her and you knew she was real,

  and therefore probably in danger, so you still should have

  told someone,” the younger cop said, making me want to

  jump up and shout my lungs out.

  “This is pointless!” I burst out. “Look, they set up

  this big hoax because they wanted me and Dad to have an

  accident, or if an accident hadn’t happened, then Revo

  might have taken it further and really hit us with the

  motorboat sometime. I mean, he was after the will money,

  and the only way you can get that is if someone dies! ”

  “Yes, but we can’t prove that,” the older cop said.

  “We don’t know what he hoped would happen, and you

  can’t charge someone with what they might have done

  next. I don’t know if we can even charge them on setting

  up the hoax — there isn’t any real proof so far. It’ll all

  depend on the statements of Revo and the other fellow.”

  “Hale Daewood,” Officer Tully said, looking up from

  her desk. “It’s in the report from when we ran the check on

  him. He’s been in and out of jail a bunch of times.”

  “You knew he’d been in jail and you didn’t tell us?” I

  asked.

  “No crime had been committed at that point,” she

  said, but kindly, and I gave her a grateful look. So far she

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  was the only one who was being nice to me. Still, that

  meant the police hadn’t told me when they’d said they

  would; how come no one was giving them a hard time for

  withholding information?

  “What I am concerned about is that this Daewood

  fellow pointed a gun at you, and that Revo took Jasper him

  against his will,” the older officer said.

  “Uh,” I said, exchanging glances with Dad. We’d

  maybe forgotten to mention that Jasper hadn’t exactly

  gone against his will. Dad gave a brief shake of his head,

  and I raised my eyebrows in surprise — so we were going

  to keep quiet about that little part?

  I guess he didn’t want to complicate things more, as

  our allegations seemed pretty shaky already. Plus, Vanessa

  was Jasper’s legal guardian, so it was probably illegal for

  Revo to take Jasper anywhere without her permission, even

  if Jasper said it was okay.

  “Daewood’s jail terms were mostly for petty theft,

  some fights, and one instance of carrying a concealed

  firearm without a license,” Officer Tully added, reading from

  her computer monitor.

  I wondered again about the beginning of the whole

  setup — had Revo come here scouting the place out, and

  found that his friend happened to be here? Or had he

  plotted the entire thing, including installing the neighbors in

  the cabin next to ours?

  “Greenville, Oklahoma, Montgomery,” Officer Tully

  finished.

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  I gave her a confused look.

  “The prisons he was in.”

  “Montgomery!” Dad burst out, looking ready to

  explode.

  “What, what?”

  “Revo spent a few months in Montgomery.”

  “So maybe that’s where they met!” I said.

  “Or they already knew each other and were in for

  something they’d pulled together.” Dad turned to Officer

  Tully. “Can you find out for us?”

  She started typing.

  “That would help prove they did this together,

  right?” I asked.

  The older cop scratched his head. “Well, it would

  lend some weight to the story, but it wouldn’t really prove

  anything. You can’t charge someone for something they’ve

  already served time for. We’ll just have to hope they’re

  caught, and then wait for their statements.”
/>
  “Unrelated charges, anyway,” Officer Tully said, and

  stopped typing. “So maybe that was how they met. But

  Officer Davis is right, it doesn’t prove anything.”

  I was still itching with frustration, and Dad seemed

  that way, too; he kept looking at his watch. “Surely if they

  would have caught them by now, if they’re able to.”

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  An uncomfortable silence went by. Then finally, the

  desk radio clicked into life. We all jumped up as Officer

  Tully took the call.

  “Officer Tully,” she answered, and we waited. “You’re

  sure? Where? Okay, we’ll be waiting.” She put the radio

  down. “They’ve found them. Both parties — Revo and

  Jasper, and Daewood and his kids.”

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  Chapter 16

  Revo came in snarling and straining like a Pitt bull,

  and I almost jumped away from him before I realized his

  hands were cuffed behind his back. This pit bull was

  restrained by a ‘leash’, in the form of two burly police

  officers at either side of him. Jasper followed behind them

  all, bawling.

  “You took my son!” Dad shouted, springing forward.

  This time we all jumped up in a confused mess: Officers

  Davis and Herd moved quickly to hold Dad back before he

  could get to Revo.

  “Step son,” I muttered in response to Dad’s

  comment, regarding Jasper as he stood there blubbering

  like a three-year-old.

  Revo continued to thrash around, his anger was now

  directed at Dad. “You always mess up everything! Always!”

  he snarled. The two looked like they were going to burst

  free from the cops holding them and tear at each other’s

  throats.

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  “You had no right to take him!” Dad yelled back.

  “Now I am going to put a restraining order on you.”

  “He’s my son!” Revo raged.

  “You have no legal guardianship — you can’t move

  him a foot without Vanessa’s permission, and you know it.”

  “Stop it!” Officer Davis ordered, “Or I’ll put you both

  in the cells.”

  They stopped shouting, but both were clearly

  seething. Now it was only Jasper’s wails echoing around the