Unknown Caller.
“Hello?” Rachel says.
“Rachel, I’ve got some very good news for you,” the woman holding Kylie says.
“Yes?”
“Kylie will be released within the hour. She will be given a burner phone and she’ll call you.”
Rachel bursts into tears. “Oh God! Are you serious?”
“Yes. And she’s fine. She’s completely unharmed. But you have to remember that you and she are both still in grave danger. You have to keep your victim until you get the OK from The Chain. If you attempt to defect, they will kill you. Remember the Williams family. They might order me to kill you and Kylie, and I’ll do it to protect my boy. If I don’t do it, they’ll get the people above me on The Chain to kill me and you and our kids. They mean it. They’re truly evil.”
“I know,” Rachel replies.
“It was so tempting for me to let Kylie go when I got my boy home safe. I just wanted to be done with the whole business, but I knew if I did that, she and you and me and my son would all be in jeopardy.”
“I promise you, I won’t endanger us. Where’s my Kylie?”
“We’re going to blindfold her and drive her around for forty-five minutes and then drop her off near a rest stop. We’ll give her a phone and she’ll tell you where she is.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you, Rachel, for not screwing up. We were very unlucky, but it’s all over now. Please let it be over, please let the people you’re managing not screw up. Goodbye, Rachel.”
She hangs up.
Rachel calls Pete at the Appenzellers’ and tells him the news. Pete is ecstatic. “I can’t believe it. I hope it’s true.”
“I hope so too,” Rachel says. “I’m praying.”
“Me too.”
“How’s Amelia?”
“She’s sleeping in the princess tent.”
“I better get off the line.”
“Let me know what’s happening.”
An hour goes by.
An hour and fifteen minutes.
An hour and twenty.
One hour and twenty-five minutes.
“I wonder if something has—”
Rachel’s iPhone begins ringing. Unknown Caller.
“Hello?”
“Mommy!” Kylie says.
“Kylie, where are you?”
“I don’t know. They told me to wait one minute to take the blindfold off. They’re gone now and I’m just on a road in the middle of nowhere. It’s dark.”
“Can you see anything?”
“There seems to be a bigger road down the way.”
“Walk toward it. Oh, Kylie, are you really out?”
“Mommy, I’m out. Come and get me!”
“Where are you, darling? As soon as I know where you are, I will come for you.”
“I think I can see a Dunkin’ Donuts sign. Yeah, there’s a Dunkin’ Donuts. It’s a gas station rest stop. I can see it!”
“Is it open?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Go there and ask them where you are. Don’t hang up, be careful crossing the road, and just stay on the line.”
“No, I gotta hang up, they didn’t charge this phone all the way, there’s only one rectangle left in the battery. I’ll call you from the garage.”
“No! Kylie! Don’t hang up! Please!”
The line goes dead.
“No!”
A tense five minutes of silence before it rings again.
“OK, Mom, I’m on Route 101 in the Dunkin’ Donuts bit of a Sunoco station.”
“What town?”
“I don’t know, Mom, I don’t want to ask again. It seems weird showing up at this time of the night and not knowing where you are.”
“Jesus, Kylie, just ask them.”
“Mom, listen, Google it, I’m in New Hampshire on 101 just off I-95.”
Rachel Googles it. “Is it the Sunoco near Exeter?”
“Yes. There’s a sign that says Exeter.”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes! Can you wait twenty minutes?”
“OK, Mom.”
“Get a drink of water if you don’t have money to buy food.”
“No, they gave me money. I’ll get a doughnut and a Coke. I asked them for my phone and they said they didn’t have it.”
“We found your phone,” Rachel says, running out to the car.
“Can you bring it?”
“Later. I’m in the car now.”
“What did you tell Stuart?” Kylie asks.
“I told Stuart you were sick and I told your father you had gone to New York. Oh my God, Kylie, is it really you? Did you really come back to me?”
“It’s really me, Mom. I’m hungry. I’m going to get a doughnut. Maybe a couple of them. I’m hanging up to get a doughnut, Mom,” Kylie says.
“Don’t hang up! I’ll be there in a minute,” Rachel says but Kylie is gone again.
I-95 is only a few minutes away and Rachel tears up it at eighty miles an hour, pretty much the Volvo’s maximum velocity.
Google Maps takes her to the 101 turnoff and there right in front of her is the Sunoco station.
Kylie is sitting in the window seat of the Dunkin’ Donuts by herself. Her brown hair, her freckly face, the little silver headband. It’s really her!
She looks so small and frail under the harsh lights.
“Kylie!” Rachel screams. She slides the Volvo into a parking spot, opens the door, and runs in.
They hug each other and burst into tears.
Kylie is crying. Rachel is crying.
It’s real.
It’s actually real.
Her little girl back again. The I Ching promised a yellow arrow when it would all be over.
There’s no yellow arrow anywhere, but Kylie is back with her in the world.
Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you.
“Oh, Mommy, I thought I was never going to see you again,” Kylie says.
Rachel can’t believe it. She isn’t sure the world is big enough to contain the relief and gladness she feels. “I knew I’d see you again! I knew I’d get you back,” Rachel replies and holds her close. So close. Her little girl smells like her little girl. She’s trembling and cold. She must be hungry and so, so scared.
The tears flow.
Rivers of relief and happiness.
A weird, unbalanced, off-kilter kind of joy.
“Are you hungry?” Rachel asks.
“No. I ate a doughnut and the people fed me while I was there.”
“What did they feed you?”
“Normal stuff. Cereal. Graham crackers.”
“Come on, let’s get out of here. I’ll take you home. Uncle Pete’s here.”
“Uncle Pete?”
“Yeah, he’s been helping me out.”
“You didn’t tell Dad?”
“No.”
“’Cause of Tammy?”
Rachel nods.
“They told me that if I said anything, we could all be in danger,” Kylie says.
“That’s what they told me. Come on, let me take you home.”
“I need to go to the bathroom,” Kylie says.
“I’ll go with you.”
“No, Mom, no. I’ll be OK.”
“I’m not going to let you out of my sight.”
“Mom, I’m not having you go into the bathroom with me. I’ll be one minute.”
Rachel walks her to the Dunkin’ Donuts bathroom and stands outside the door. It’s one of those unisex, single-person toilets so there’s no way there’s someone in there who’s going to drag Kylie out a window or anything, but still, Rachel hates to lose visual contact with her for even a few seconds.
The middle-aged cashier catches her eye.
“Is she yours?” the woman asks.
“Yes.”
“I was just gonna call the cops. I thought she was a runaway.”
Rachel smiles and texts Pete that Kylie is safe.
“You gotta keep an eye on them when they start hitting their teens,” the cashier says. “It’s a difficult age. I should know. Four daughters.”
“This one is my whole world,” Rachel replies.
The woman nods. “You can’t let them out of your sight.”
“You can say that again.”
Kylie comes out of the bathroom and Rachel hugs her. They leave the gas station hand in hand.
“I want to have a long, hot shower when I get home,” Kylie says as they get in the car.
“Of course. Anything you want.”
“I feel dirty.”
“Are you OK? Did they touch you? Hurt you?”
“No…yes. The man yesterday. What day is it?”
“Sunday morning, I think.”
“I tried to escape and he slapped me,” Kylie says matter-of-factly.
“Oh my God. He hit you?” Rachel asks.
“Yes. And the funny thing was, he wasn’t the bad one. She was the bad one. She was so scary,” Kylie says and starts crying again.
Rachel hugs her tightly.
“Come on, let’s go, I want to go home. I want to see my cat and Uncle Pete,” Kylie says.
Rachel starts the car and turns on the lights and drives south.
“There’s something else, Mom,” Kylie says.
“What?” Rachel asks, expecting the worst.
“I’m not really sure but I think maybe they shot a cop. We were pulled over by a state trooper and I think they shot him.”
Rachel nods. “I think there were reports of a New Hampshire state trooper being shot on Thursday morning.”
Kylie gasps. “Did he die?”
“I’m not sure,” Rachel lies.
“We have to go to the police,” Kylie says.
“No! It’s too dangerous. They’ll kill us all. They’ll hunt us down and get us. You, me, Pete, your father, all of us. We can’t say or do anything, Kylie.”
“So what do we do?”
“We don’t do anything. We keep quiet and try to put this behind us.”
“No!”
“We have to, Kylie. I’m sorry, but it’s the only way.”
When they arrive back on Plum Island ten minutes later, Pete is waiting for them. He hugs Kylie when she gets out of the car and then lifts her up and spins her around.
“Honey, you’re safe!” he says and helps her inside.
Eli jumps up onto the sofa next to Kylie and she picks him up and kisses him.
“How’s…” Rachel whispers to Pete.
“Sleeping. I’ll go back there in five. I just wanted to see you guys,” Pete replies.
“Uncle Pete,” Kylie says and puts her arms out for another hug.
Rachel sits on one side of her and Pete sits on the other. Eli nestles in her lap. It’s a miracle, that’s what it is, Rachel thinks. Sometimes kids do come back, but often they do not, especially girls.
“Do you know everything that’s happened?” Kylie asks Pete.
“Yeah, I’ve been helping your mom.”
“Group hug,” Kylie says, crying again.
Pete puts his arms around both of them.
“I can’t believe it,” Kylie says. “I thought I was going to be down there for a million years.”
They all sit there for a few minutes before Kylie looks up and grins at the two of them. “I’m hungry,” she says.
“Anything you like,” Rachel tells her.
“Pizza.”
“I’ll microwave one right now.”
She tries to get up and go to the kitchen, but Kylie won’t release her.
“Are you OK, Kylie?” Pete asks. “Did they hurt you?”
“The man hit me after I hit him and tried to escape. It really hurt,” Kylie says.
“Shit,” Pete says, his fists clenching by his sides.
“You must have been terrified,” Rachel says.
Kylie speaks and Pete and Rachel listen.
She tells them everything.
They let her words spill out. If she wants to talk about it, they’ll let her talk. Kylie isn’t one who clams up, and for this Rachel is grateful. She strokes her daughter’s hair and smiles at her bravery.
She heats the pizza while Pete goes back to the Appenzellers’ to check on Amelia.
Kylie goes up to her bedroom to see all her stuff.
“Mom, can I text with Stuart and all my friends now? Would that be OK?” Kylie asks.
“Yes, but you have to tell him that you had a stomach bug, OK?”
“OK, I guess. And what do I tell Dad?”
“Oh, crap, that’s a whole thing. You have to tell your father that you went to New York,” Rachel says, and she explains the situation with her father and Tammy and her grandmother.
“I need my phone!”
Rachel gets the phone. “I couldn’t fake-text for you because I didn’t know your passcode.”
“It’s so obvious: two-one-nine-four.”
“What’s that?”
“Harry Styles’s birthday! Oh my God, I have a million messages.”
“You have to tell people you were sick.”
“I will. But I want to go to school Monday. What day is it tomorrow?”
“Monday.”
“I wanna go to school.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I want you to get checked out by a doctor.”
“I’m fine. I want to go to school! I want to see everybody.”
“Are you sure?”
“I don’t want to be cooped up in a house again.”
“Well, no school bus, not anymore. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Hey, where’s my stuffed bunny? Where’s Marshmallow?” Kylie asks.
“I’ll get Marshmallow back for you tonight.”
“He’s not lost?”
“No.”
Kylie sends texts to her friends, who are probably all sleeping. She and Rachel lie in bed and watch her favorite YouTube clips: A-Ha’s “Take On Me” video, the Monty Python fish-slapping dance, half a dozen videos from the rap group Brockhampton, the bit in Duck Soup where Groucho is suspicious of his own reflection.
Kylie showers and asks for some alone time, and when Rachel goes to check on her half an hour later, she is fast asleep. Rachel collapses on the couch and weeps.
Pete comes back at six in the morning and puts a couple of logs on the fire. “Everything OK over there?” Rachel asks.
“Amelia is still asleep.”
Pete makes a pot of coffee and they sit by the fire.
Everything seems back to the way it was before. Fishing boats heading out into the Merrimack. Bernstein on WCRB. The Globe arriving in its plastic wrap in front of the house.
“I can’t believe she’s home,” Rachel says. “There were times when I thought I’d lost her forever.”
They watch the logs whiten and slowly turn to ash. Rachel’s phone rings. Unknown Caller. She answers it on speaker.
It’s the distorted voice. It is The Chain speaking directly to her: “I know what you’re thinking. It’s what everyone thinks when they get their loved ones back. You think you can release your hostage and end this. But the thing is, you can’t fight tradition. Do you know what a tradition is, Rachel?”
“What do you mean?”
“A tradition is a living argument. A living argument for a practice that began a long time ago. And it works for our particular tradition. If you mess with The Chain, it will be sure to get you and your family. Leave the country, go to Saudi Arabia or Japan or wherever. Change your name, change your identity. We’ll always find you.”
“I get it.”
“Do you get it? I hope so. Because it’s not over. It won’t be over until the people you’ve recruited do what they’re supposed to do without screwing up and the ones they’ve recruited do their job without screwing up. We haven’t had a defection in The Chain for a few years now, but they happen. People think they can beat the system. They can’t. No one can, and you’re not going to
.”
“The Williams family.”
“There are others who have tried. No one has ever succeeded.”
“I’m going to keep my word.”
“Be sure that you do. We put ten thousand dollars in your bank account this morning—that’s ten percent of the money the Dunleavys paid. We took it out of the same Bitcoin account they put their money into. I don’t know how you would ever explain that to the federal authorities. Even if you somehow escaped our assassins, which no one ever has, we’d release all this information and you’d go to prison. The evidence is all there to reveal you as the genius behind a sophisticated kidnapping ring. You’re smart. You can see the big picture, can’t you?”
“Yes, I can.”
“Good,” the voice says. “We probably won’t speak again. Goodbye, Rachel, it’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”
“I can’t say the same.”
“It could have been worse. It could have been a lot worse.”
When the call ends, Rachel shudders and Pete puts his arms around her. She’s so pale and thin and fragile, and her heart is beating so fast. Like a wounded bird that you put in a shoe box and nurse back to life, hoping that one day it will be able to fly again.
36
Sunday, 4:00 p.m.
Kylie finally comes down the stairs. She’s got her iPad in one hand, her phone in the other, and Eli over her shoulder.
“I had over a hundred and fifty Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter notifications,” Kylie says, trying to sound upbeat.
Rachel smiles. So much for her idea of going full tinfoil hat and killing social media. Kylie returns her mother’s smile. Both of us faking it for each other, Rachel thinks. “You’re a popular girl,” she says.
“I talked to Stuart. Everybody seems to have bought the whole sickness story. And I texted Grandma too. She’s fine. I even e-mailed Dad.”
“I’m sorry I made you do that.”
Kylie nods and doesn’t say It’s OK because it’s not OK to make your daughter lie to her friends and family.
“You were careful what you said?”
“I was.”
“If you say one thing on social media, the whole world sees.”
“I know, Mom. I can’t ever tell anyone, can I?”
“No…are you OK, my darling?” Rachel asks, stroking Kylie’s face.
“Not really,” Kylie says. “I was so scared down there. There were times when I thought I was going to—I don’t know—disappear? You know that thing where some people think that if other people leave the room, they just don’t exist anymore.”
The Chain Page 15