by Jan Burke
“Ethan—”
“Don’t test my willpower,” he said.
“I won’t. But — thanks.”
“Better get some warmer clothes on.”
“Okay,” I said meekly, and hurried off to change.
Not much more than fifteen minutes later, Ben, Altair, and I were out the door.
CHAPTER 54
Wednesday, May 3
2:45 P.M.
SAN BERNARDINO MOUNTAINS
GENIE was in the kitchen, wiping the counters down with bleach the way Cleo wanted them cleaned, when she heard Aaron begin to cry. She hurriedly took off the too-big rubber gloves she was wearing and made her way to the living room.
“I said stop crying!” Cleo shouted.
Cleo grabbed Aaron by both arms, lifted him off the floor, and threw him hard. She threw him toward the sofa, and he landed against it, but Genie knew that even a landing on a sofa could hurt if you’re little enough and someone throws you hard enough.
“Stop it!” Genie shouted, and ran to her brother, who was now crying in earnest. Dad, who had gone upstairs with Troy, came running into the living room. He saw Cleo staring at them with her fists clenched, her face tight with fury.
“I didn’t hurt him,” Cleo said. “I don’t hurt kids!”
He looked helplessly between them, then came over to the sofa and took Aaron into his arms. “It’s okay,” he said, rubbing Aaron’s back as the boy clung to his neck. Troy stood at the foot of the stairs, eyes wide with fear.
“Cleo, maybe you should take another look around outside,” Dad said. Genie thought he sounded a little desperate.
“I’ll decide when I should do that, Roy, not you. Besides, I checked not twenty minutes ago.” She made a sound of exasperation as Aaron continued to cry. “Come upstairs when you’ve shut that brat’s yap. And it had better be soon.”
CLEO had been like this ever since she watched TV. She had taken Dad into the mirrored bedroom and yelled at him about Carrie and Irene Kelly, and Uncle Giles and Uncle Nelson. Dad made her lower her voice, but she stayed mad. Most people cooled off over time, but Genie thought Cleo was getting angrier by the hour.
Even going outside didn’t help Cleo to calm down. She made everyone stay inside, and the boys didn’t understand why she could go out and they couldn’t. There weren’t enough toys or games or books here to keep the boys occupied for long.
As soon as Cleo had gone upstairs, Genie said, “She picked him up and threw him!”
Dad looked miserable, but he kept speaking softly to Aaron.
“I want Mommy!” Aaron cried.
Genie felt her own eyes fill with tears. She had cried a lot for Mom last night, but her fear of Cleo and her attempts to keep the boys happy and busy forced her to hide her feelings during the day.
“Mommy can’t be here right now,” Dad said. “She’s on a vacation.”
Genie looked sharply at him, but he avoided eye contact with her.
“Why did she take Carrie and not us?” Aaron asked between sobs.
“She didn’t take Carrie,” Dad said quickly. “You’ll see Carrie soon. Carrie’s waiting for you at Grandfather’s. Won’t that be nice? Now, try to calm down, pumpkin. It’s going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay.”
After a moment, Aaron calmed. Dad said, “Troy, take Aaron into the kitchen and get him a drink of water, please. Go on with Troy, Aaron. I need to talk to Genie. Everything is going to be okay.”
Reluctantly, the boys obeyed.
He patted the sofa next to him, and Genie sat down by him, although she was angry.
“You keep telling them it’s okay,” she said in a fierce whisper, “but it’s not! Cleo hates us. She keeps hurting the boys.”
Dad pulled her closer and said in a low voice, “I’m so sorry, Genie. I didn’t think — I didn’t know she’d be like this. She was excited about having the three of you with her at first, I think, but she hasn’t ever been around small children.”
“We’ve got to get away from here.”
“I’ve been thinking about that, honey.” He paused, then said, “Can you find your way to the road?”
She nodded.
“When I go upstairs, I want you to take the boys outside and go down the driveway and out to the road. Then turn left and follow the road downhill toward the lake. No matter what sounds you hear coming from the cabin, just keep going. Next you’ll come to a big road — be very careful. Don’t get into a car with anyone — just ask anyone you meet to call the police. Don’t even get into the car with Uncle Nelson or Uncle Dexter — especially not with either of them. Promise me that you will stay out of reach and make them call the police.”
“I promise. What about you?”
He swallowed hard. “I’ll be fine. Just tell the police that I’m here and that Cleo probably has guns, and maybe explosive devices. Okay? You have such a good memory, you can remember that, right?”
“Yes, but — why don’t you just come with us?”
“I’ll be fine. But you and I need to do this to help the boys get away from her safely. I’m depending on you, Genie. Now, give me a hug, and when I go upstairs, wait about five minutes, then leave.”
She hugged him hard, and he hugged back and kissed the top of her head. “You’re such a good girl.”
He stood up quickly and called to the boys. He hugged and kissed Aaron and Troy, and told them he loved them, and that Genie was the boss while he was upstairs, and they should obey her. “Promise you’ll do exactly what she tells you to.”
They promised.
She watched him walk up the stairs. He looked back at her and smiled, giving her a thumbs-up sign.
Aaron and Troy looked at her expectantly.
“We’re going to play a game,” she whispered. “It’s a long game, and it’s — it’s not easy, but I think you can do it.”
“Of course we can,” said Aaron, confident without even knowing what he was so sure of.
She went to the coat closet and carefully opened the door. She took out their winter wear. She bent to whisper to them again. “The first part of the game is called ‘Secret Agents Get Ready to Go on a Mission.’”
“Like Mission San Juan Capistrano?” Aaron asked. Mom and Dad had recently taken them there on a study trip.
“No — keep your voice down. A mission is an assignment that spies and secret agents have. You have to be sneaky. We pretend we are staying inside, talking quietly, but the whole time you have to get dressed to go outside. But no one can know you are getting ready. Understand?”
They nodded.
Above them, they could hear Cleo pacing, speaking angrily, although they couldn’t make out what she was saying.
“So no talking about going outside,” Genie went on. “No clomping boots. Remember — be sneaky. Troy, you tell Aaron about dinosaurs while you’re getting your jackets, hats, boots, and mittens on, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Don’t shout, just talk in quiet voices. I’m going upstairs, and I’ll be right back down.”
She quickly made her way to her bedroom, grabbed paper, a pen, and the flashlight.
In the hallway, she paused briefly to listen. Cleo was now talking to Dad in a low voice, so Genie still couldn’t hear what was being said. Below, Troy was telling Aaron that pterosaurs were not true dinosaurs. Troy could talk about dinosaurs for hours, with Aaron a rapt audience for every minute of it.
She hurried quickly and quietly downstairs, saw that Aaron was too rapt an audience — Troy was pulling on his boots while Aaron sat staring at him.
She made a little growl of exasperation and helped Aaron dress, then put on her own warm clothing, all except the mittens. Troy nobly kept talking about dinosaurs, even starting to look a little happier as he lectured. Now he was on to one of his favorite arguments, saying that dinosaurs were not extinct because birds were dinosaurs. “Technically,” he kept adding.
They followed her into the kitchen, where she gave each of
them a small bottle of water to place in their jacket pockets.
She wrote out a note. She couldn’t keep her handwriting from being shaky, but it was readable. She asked whoever was reading the note to call the police and to contact Irene Kelly of the Las Piernas News Express, who knew where the boys’ sister Carrie was. She quickly wrote about who was here, about the booby trap and how to disarm it, about Cleo being dangerous. She carefully checked the part about the booby trap to make sure it was right.
Once in a while as she wrote, she entered the conversation with Troy and Aaron, so that if Cleo was listening, the big bully would hear her voice. Genie wondered how she was going to give the boys instructions, then it occurred to her that she could sign to them. They weren’t as quick at reading sign language as Carrie was, so she didn’t sign with them as often, but they understood finger spelling and the basics. It was easy to tell them that she was going to open the door and let them outside. Harder to say aloud something other than what she was signing, or to keep herself from signing what she was saying — it took more concentration than she thought it would.
While she signed the instructions, aloud she said, “I could understand it if you said that lizards were dinosaurs. That’s what I always think.” Then she changed the subject when she saw that Troy was ready to argue with her about dinosaurs rather than paying attention to the signs.
Run as fast as you can up the driveway, to the first set of big rocks.
“I suppose I should figure out what to make for dinner. We could have spaghetti….”
Wait there for me. If I don’t come outside in five minutes, keep going down the drive to the road, turn left… She gave them the instructions Dad had given her. Troy’s face lost the happy look.
She handed the note to Troy. If I’m not with you, give this piece of paper to the police. Or to — She pointed to Irene Kelly’s name in the note.
Troy started to read it aloud, but she stopped him. So he signed, Who is Irene Kelly?
Conscious of the amount of time that was passing, she simply signed, Friend of Carrie’s. Now let’s go.
They looked so scared, she almost changed her mind about her own plans.
She heard water running upstairs. The shower in the master bedroom. Dad or Cleo?
She let them out, hurried into the kitchen, and looked through the knives in the wooden block on the kitchen counter. They were all very sharp. She thought about taking the longest one, but was afraid she wouldn’t be able to carry it hidden without cutting herself. She considered a boning knife, but worried it would be too short. She chose a filleting knife instead.
Time was passing. Any minute now Cleo might come downstairs. The boys were scared, and she could not rely on them to follow instructions and set out on their own. She quickly moved over to the desk and took out an entire roll of stamps and a Priority Mail envelope.
One of the green perimeter lights began to flash red. The boys were obeying her after all. But would Cleo notice the light, too? She prayed Cleo was the one in the shower.
She hurriedly left the cabin, saw the boys up just ahead. She didn’t miss their look of relief. She ran with them toward the road, carefully holding the knife in her jacket pocket so that it wouldn’t stab her if she fell.
When they reached the end of the long drive, she paused to catch her breath, then said, “Now we have to play the next part of the game. This part is called ‘Secret Message.’” She quickly took a photo of the mailbox with Carrie’s camera, with the boys in front of it. She stuffed the camera into the Priority Mail Flat-Rate envelope, sealed it, and gave the roll of stamps to the boys. “Put about twenty stamps on it while I write the address.”
She addressed it to Irene Kelly. This was her Plan B, as Grandfather would call it. The boys watched and asked questions about Ms. Kelly while Genie wrote. “She’s our friend. Carrie is with her,” she said. “She’ll help you. You can give her the note.” She put the envelope into the mailbox.
“You need to put up the flag,” Troy said.
“How do you know?” she asked.
He frowned. “I think we used to have a mailbox like this, and Dad let me put the flag up when I was little.”
She didn’t tell him that he was still little. They let Aaron put it up — Genie had to lift him so that he could do it.
Remembering the telescope on the deck, she said, “See that curve? When you get to it, sneak down this road — walk down to the side of it and hide behind trees until the road straightens out again. Then just keep walking toward the lake. If you see a car, you know what to do — but not if it’s Uncle Dex or Uncle Nelson. They’re friends of Cleo.”
“Aren’t you coming with us?” Troy asked.
“Are you scared?”
Troy shook his head no, Aaron nodded yes.
“If you get too scared, just hide until I come down the road. But you can help me and Dad the most if you get someone to call the police.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to try to help Dad get away. This is another very important thing: Stay together. Okay?”
They nodded.
“If I can’t help Dad, I’ll catch up to you.” She hugged them and gave them kisses, which they wiped off their cheeks. She felt her resolve waver — the boys needed her. Dad needed her.
“Be brave,” she said, as much to them as to herself, and ran back toward the cabin.
CHAPTER 55
Wednesday, May 3
3:10 P.M.
SAN BERNARDINO MOUNTAINS
BETWEEN his forensic anthropology work and the number of searches he had worked on in the mountains, Ben and his dogs were known to most of the deputies at the Big Bear Station. The station’s personnel was stretched thin — deputies had their hands full with their usual work and the searches going on in the other areas of the mountains, but they thanked us for stopping by to let them know we were in the area and didn’t see any problem in our looking around. They were clearly unconvinced that we’d find anything, but we assured them we’d call if we came across any sign of the Fletchers.
We drove to the place where Mason’s car had been found. I soon realized my search for the place where he might have been held — a nearby hideaway — wasn’t going to be as easy to carry out as I had hoped. But we used a map and gut feeling and spent the first hour in Big Bear driving up roads, looking for relatively isolated cabins with garages (which eliminated a good number of homes), and windows or decks facing toward the place where Tadeo Garcia had found Mason.
We let the dogs out every so often, just to see if they reacted to anything. Ben had been teaching Caleb to work with Bool, so Ben alternated between Bingle and Altair while Caleb teamed with Bool. Bingle and Altair could work off lead; Bool worked in a harness and on a lead. Each dog had his idiosyncrasies, his way of doing the job, signaling his handler, being rewarded. Not for the first time, I marveled at Ben’s ability to keep it all straight.
Caleb had one of his sister’s shoes. A tiny girl’s shoe — a doll’s shoe, it seemed to me. He wore gloves as he handled it and made sure Bool could get the scent of the interior. So far, Bool hadn’t hit on anything like it, although Ben was concerned that the scent might have degraded over time, or that it had been contaminated by others who might have handled the shoe less carefully. He groused about this and about the problems of having a family member working the dog, until I asked Caleb if he was okay, given all that he was having to cope with today. Ben can be a prickly son of a bitch, but he’s not stupid or uncaring, so he stopped making complaints after that.
We had the windows down as I slowly drove the Jeep up Cold Creek Road, looking for driveways or private roads. Suddenly, Bingle and Altair came to their feet. A moment later they started going nuts.
“Stop the car!” Ben yelled.
I did, and he let them out. They bounded toward a clump of boulders, barked sharply, then came back to Ben. He told them how good they were as they led him toward the boulders, both of the big shephe
rds doggie-grinning and cavorting as if there could be no happier creatures on earth.
“Jenny!” Caleb called as he got out of the Jeep, then, remembering, said, “Genie? Aaron? Troy?”
Two small heads peered from one side of the boulders.
“Do those dogs bite?”
“No, they don’t bite,” Ben said. “They barked to tell me how happy they are to have found you.” He signaled to the dogs and sent them running after the floppy Frisbees he had brought as their play reward.
Apparently it wasn’t the dogs that scared the boys, though. They eyed us warily. Caleb was anxiously looking around for some sign of his sister, but to his credit, did his best to stay calm otherwise.
“You’re Troy, aren’t you?” I said to the boy who had spoken.
He nodded. “And this is my brother, Aaron. Would you please call the police? We aren’t allowed to let you take us with you. We have to tell you we need the police.”
Caleb pulled his cell phone out. “That’s smart. We don’t want to scare you. I’m Caleb, and I’m calling the police right now. That’s Ben. And this is Irene.”
“Irene?” they said in unison, staring at me.
“What’s your last name?” Troy asked.
“Kelly.”
“Do you live at the Las Piernas News Express at Six Hundred Broadway in Las Piernas, California?”
I couldn’t hide my surprise. “Yes, I work there.”
“Genie said you’re our friend,” Aaron said. They came out from behind the rocks. “What are the dogs’ names?”
Caleb introduced them, then said, “Ben, is your phone working up here? I’m not getting a signal.”
Ben came back with the dogs and took his phone out. “Not much of one, and I don’t have much battery left.”
I checked mine — like Caleb, I didn’t have a signal.
Ben made the call. They answered. He said, “This is Ben Sheridan — ,” moved slightly, and the phone made a beeping sound as it disconnected.