DON'T LIE TO ME: Eva Rae Thomas Mystery #1

by Rose, Willow

  "Well, that's because you're never home; you're always out on that golf course." She looked at me, shaking her head. "Nevertheless, there was this guy, this reporter, from Florida Today who wanted to do a story about Elijah," she continued. "Because he was such a great baseball talent. He followed him for a couple of days around for practice and so on. Come to think of it, I never read the story in the paper…"

  "Okay," I said and wrote it down on my notepad. "This is very good. So, there was a reporter there; Daniel, you say his name was?"

  The woman nodded. "Yes."

  "Do you know his last name?"

  She shook her head. "I’m afraid not."

  "Do you remember anything else about him? What did he look like?" I asked.

  "Well, he was tall. Taller than Fred," she said and glanced at her husband. "And he's six foot two, so I'll say about six foot four or so."

  I wrote it down. "Okay, good, anything else? Color of hair and eyes? Any special birthmarks or facial hair?"

  "Brown hair, brown eyes, and a mustache. Kind of reminded me of Burt Reynolds. I used to love that guy. Too bad he passed. The mustache wasn't as thick as Burt's, though."

  "Did he drive a car?"

  "Oh, yes, a blue BMW convertible. Flashy little thing." She paused pensively. "Are you trying to locate him? I’m sure if you call the newspaper, they'll help you find him."

  Fred sighed and rolled his eyes. "Don't you understand? He was never from the newspaper. That's why the article was never printed."

  His wife looked at him, annoyed. "I know that."

  "Well, we don't know about that yet, but thank you so much for your help. I'll probably be back for more information later. Did he say anything about where he lived?"

  "I never really spoke to him myself," she said. "It was mostly what Lisa told me."

  "Okay. Was there anything else, anything that stood out to you about him?"

  The small woman sighed, then shook her head. "He seemed like such a nice guy."

  I nodded. "They all do, ma'am."

  Chapter 67

  I stayed at the crime scene all night while the techs searched Lisa's house. We had explained the situation to them and asked them to secure anything that might give us a clue as to where her son might be.

  At five o'clock, we drove back toward Cocoa Beach. I had kids I needed to wake up and get ready for school. I told Matt he could come back to my house and crash on my couch for a little while. I figured it was a bad idea for him to be alone right now.

  "You need the rest. If you want to find your son, you need to sleep first," I said when he started to argue.

  My kids were exhausted and, somehow, they all three managed to get themselves in a fight during breakfast. But, for once, I managed to get Alex to the bus on time, and both girls rode their bikes to school. It was a small victory, but at this point, I took what I could get. I made some coffee then went to the living room where I thought Matt was sleeping. But, of course, he wasn't. How could he? I knew I wouldn't be able to. Instead, he was sitting with his laptop on his knees, watching the video over and over again.

  I handed him a cup of coffee, and he took it.

  "Do you think he's still alive?" he asked, staring at the screen, where he had stopped the video of Elijah curled up inside of the box, not moving.

  I fought my desire to cry when thinking of that poor boy trapped inside that awful box, then sat down with my coffee between my hands. Images of Lisa's decomposed body rushed across my mind as I briefly closed my eyes.

  "All we can do is hope," I said.

  "It seems like such a fragile thing to cling to, doesn’t it?" Matt said. "Hope. If this guy wants him dead, then he's probably dead, right?"

  "We don't know that."

  "I spoke to IT," he said, sipping his coffee. "They're trying to trace it. Both emails were sent from a newly created account using Proton Mail, a secure email based in Switzerland. The named used is fake and so is all the other information."

  "And the IP address?" I asked.

  "Led us to a Starbucks on 520. According to our IT guys, it is most likely that our guy bought a cheap tablet with cash, took that tablet to the local Starbucks, then logged onto their free Wi-Fi, uploaded the video to YouTube, sent the email, then destroyed the tablet afterward."

  "And the tablet couldn't somehow be traced?" I asked.

  "Some models do send model numbers or even serial numbers, but even if they were able to identify where it was bought, this guy probably bought it with cash, and that means there's no tracing him. At least that's what they told me last time."

  I growled and clenched my fist in anger. This guy was just always one step ahead of us. It annoyed me immensely. It was almost as if he knew as much about how the police worked as we did.

  "Could he be an inside guy?" I asked cautiously. This type of accusation wasn't something you'd just throw around lightly in the force.

  Matt bit his lip and our eyes locked for a few seconds. I shook my head. "Nah, you can probably find all this information online. There are DIY tutorials for everything these days. I saw one recently for how to break into a hotel room. Nice."

  I took another sip of my coffee while staring at Matt's screen. Matt placed a finger on Elijah's face. It was torture to watch. I finished my cup, then put it down. I looked at Matt again.

  "Say, aren't we missing something?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "The killer put the others, Sophie, Scott, and Nathaniel, on display for us to find, right? Why haven't we found Elijah yet? Nathaniel Pullman was also in a video, and we were supposed to find him. The killer knew we would, that's why he chose the place that he did."

  "So…you're saying we should be looking for a clue of where to find him?"

  I nodded. "Let's watch the video again."

  Matt played it again. About halfway through, something happened. There was a brief clip in the footage, and I asked Matt to pause it.

  "Look."

  "What am I looking at?"

  "Can you go like one frame back?"

  "I can try," he said, then pulled the cursor backward just enough for a picture to show up.

  "The video was fast-forwarded to show us the time Elijah spent in there. In the middle, he inserted a picture that we wouldn't see if we didn't slow it down. See?"

  Matt looked at me, then nodded. "But what is it?"

  "It's a picture of a sign," I said.

  "I can see that, but what does it mean?"

  "It's from the port."

  "But…but the port is a pretty big place?" he said.

  I nodded, then rose to my feet. "Call Chief Annie on our way there. We might need a couple of your colleagues to help us."

  Chapter 68

  It was still dark out when Maddie opened her eyes. With the little light that was left in the room, she could see that the box was still gone.

  She was alone.

  Maddie sighed and kicked her legs to be able to turn herself around and look out underneath the blindfold. As she stared in the direction of where the box had been, she spotted something on the floor. Not knowing what it was, she wormed herself closer, then looked at it up close.

  A nail.

  A nail that had to have fallen out of the box when it was moved. Maddie couldn't believe it. She stared at the small thing, excitement—mixed with a load of fear—emerging in her stomach. Was this her break? Was this her chance?

  She used her legs to turn her back to the nail, then moved her fingers to see if she could grab it. Her wrists throbbed painfully from behind the zip tie strips, but still, she managed to get the nail up between her fingers. Happily, she grunted in excitement, but then dropped the nail again. Maddie cursed herself for being clumsy, then felt her way to it again, found it, and once again picked it up between her thumb and pointer finger. Straining in concentration, she now fiddled with it till she got the pointy end placed at the lock of the strip. Using her pointer finger, she pushed it hard against the lock, but it slipped and poke
d her wrist instead. Sobbing in pain, she dropped the nail again.

  Come on, Maddie. Stop being so freakin clumsy! This is your only chance.

  Maddie took in another deep breath, then felt her way to the nail once more, grabbed it, and placed it back against the lock, pushed it down, forcefully, and felt how it pierced the plastic. The nail was now stuck in the lock and, with much force, Maddie wiggled it around, and suddenly the strip snapped.

  Maddie laughed, a little startled, then pulled her hands up in front of her face and pulled off the blindfold completely. She grabbed the nail, then poked it through the plastic strip tying her feet together. Seconds later, she could move her legs again. Exhausted from the lack of food and drink, she now regained much of her strength just at the mere prospect of getting free and maybe escaping.

  Mom, I am coming home.

  Maddie rose to her feet, got dizzy from standing up too fast, and had to lean against the wall so she wouldn't fall. Her legs were wobbly, but she walked the few steps toward the window, where she peeked out through the crack in the shutters. Then she gasped. She was higher up than she had expected. She looked at the door, then ran to it and pulled the handle, but as she had expected, it was locked. Maddie returned to the window again. She grabbed the small tab poking out on top and unlocked it, then pulled it open. She couldn't believe the relief she felt when breathing in the fresh air once again. She put her nose close to the screen to take it all in.

  She looked down through the cracks. Below her was a yard and a screened pool area. She was in someone's house.

  Thinking she heard a sound coming from outside the door, she gasped once again and turned to look. There was a rustling behind it.

  Her perpetrator was coming back, and there was no one else in the room other than her. Her captor had to be coming to kill her.

  As the door was unlocked, Maddie stared through the crack at what was down below her. The yard ended in a seawall and the canal where all the boats passed by. Those had to be the engines Maddie had heard from time to time.

  More rustling behind the door and now the handle was turning.

  You've got to do something, Maddie. Now!

  As the door opened and Maddie once again locked eyes with her captor, she did something she would never have thought possible.

  She kicked her foot through the screen, then kicked the hurricane shutters as hard as she could, again and again, till they got loose and fell out, then pushed her body out the window, through the hole in the screen, and slid down the side of the roof till she reached the end of it and managed to stop when grabbing on to a tile on the roof. Then, as her captor yelled behind her and came to the window, she didn't even look back.

  She stood up, ran as fast as she could toward the edge of the roof, closed her eyes, and jumped.

  Chapter 69

  THEN

  She came to them one day as they were walking home from the school bus. She was waiting in the car at the bus stop and, as they began to walk, she drove after them, then rolled down the window.

  "Hi there, sweetie."

  The boy refused to look at her, but his sister couldn't hide her enthusiasm. The boy knew it was harder for her to understand how wicked their mother really was and how important it was for them to stay as far away from her as possible. But he did. The boy knew more than her, and it was his job to protect her. He understood what his dad told them and had taken it all to heart. He knew that it didn't matter how sweet she talked or how much she pleaded. It was important to keep her away and not give in to the emotions they might feel. 'Cause that was her trick. That was the way she would try and manipulate them. The boy wasn't quite sure he understood what exactly manipulate meant, but he knew it was bad.

  "Hi, Momma!"

  The boy shushed his sister, then pulled her arm forcefully to get her to walk a little faster. They weren't that far from their house, and in there, they would be safe. There was no telling what their mother might be on right now.

  "Come on," he hissed at her, but his sister didn't want to walk anymore. She stopped and looked at her mommy in the car. She pulled her arm out of his grip, then walked to the open window and peeked inside.

  "Hi there, baby. How was school?" their mother said.

  "Great," the girl said. "I made a turkey."

  His baby sister lifted the turkey that she had made by tracing her hands and feet. The boy rolled his eyes, then rushed to her and pulled her shoulder.

  "We have to go. Now."

  "No," his sister said.

  And that was when the boy accidentally lifted his eyes and looked into those of his mother. And that was when he was betrayed. His emotions did it to him; they overwhelmed him and brought tears to his eyes.

  "Hi, baby. How are you?" his mommy said.

  The boy stared at her, then swallowed.

  "We have to go; come on," he said addressed to his sister.

  "I don't want to," his sister said angrily.

  "Mom and Dad would be so angry if they knew what we were doing," he said.

  "Mom, huh?" his mommy said. "You call her that?"

  "She's our new mom," he answered.

  The hurt in his mother's eyes was painful to watch, and he looked away. She exhaled.

  "How about I take you two out for some ice cream, huh? What do you say?"

  "Yay!" his baby sister exclaimed.

  The boy shook his head. "We can't. We have to go home, come."

  But his sister wouldn't hear of it. She grabbed the door handle, pulled the door open, and jumped inside the car before the boy could stop her. She giggled and strapped herself down, then yelled at him to come too.

  "Just for half an hour," his mommy said and held out her hand toward him. "They'll never know. Come."

  "Yes, come on!" his baby sister squealed from the back seat. "Don't be a party pooper."

  The boy threw a brief glance down the road toward their house, then grabbed his mother's hand and jumped inside too.

  Chapter 70

  "How do you know where to go?"

  We had parked the car at the port, and I was rushing off, Matt running after me. Tall cruise ships towered in front of us, along with several enormous cargo ships.

  "I had a good friend in elementary school. Her dad worked at the docks," I said and ran down a dock where a big cargo ship was being loaded.

  "And?" Matt asked as I slowed down, searching for what I remembered. "We used to come down here and play. I remember how there used to be…over there," I said and pointed. We ran the last part under a big crane.

  "What's his statement?" I asked. "What's he trying to say?"

  "Loneliness?" Matt said. "That kids in a divorce are often lonely?

  "Yes, but more than that. It's also that Elijah is one in a crowd, only one out of many."

  "Yes…and?"

  I stopped and looked in front of me. Matt did too. In front of us was what looked like several hundreds of wooden boxes exactly like the one we had seen in the video. Some of them were being loaded onto the ship in front of us.

  "Oh, dear God," Matt said, panting. "How? How are we supposed to find him?"

  "We're looking for one with the word ALONE painted on the side of it," I said and looked around anxiously for someone to ask. There was a guy in a forklift, transporting three boxes of the same type as ours onto the ship, then returning. I ran to him, then waved my hands.

  "Hey!"

  He stopped and looked out. "What?"

  "Police," I said. "We’re looking for a wooden box."

  The man grinned a toothless grin. "I got plenty of those."

  "It's got something written on the side. A word. ALONE. Have you seen it?" I asked, yelling through the noise from a huge cargo ship sailing past us, tooting their horn as they passed.

  "Sure," he said. "I remember seeing it."

  My eyes grew wide. "Great! Where?"

  He nodded in the direction of the ship passing us. "I loaded it onto that one there. Earlier this morning."

  M
y heart dropped as I saw the end of the big ship with the words SANTA MONICA on its back sail out of the canal.

  Chapter 71

  Water splashed in my face as we raced across the waves. Matt had gotten ahold of the coast guard, and they had taken us on board. The cargo ship had left the harbor completely and was far in the horizon as we rushed toward it, bumping along. Meanwhile, Matt was on the radio, trying to get ahold of the ship's captain to get them to slow down and let them know we were coming on board.

  While we shot through the big ocean, my phone rang. It was from Alex's school. I picked it up, barely able to hear the person on the other end.

  "Hello, Ms. Thomas? Melanie Lawson here."

  Miss Melanie? Alex's teacher? Oh, no, the meeting! I had completely forgotten about the meeting I was called into. I looked at my watch. It was almost eleven thirty.

  "I am so sorry, Mrs. Lawson, something came up."

  "I figured as much," she said, sounding like she was personally offended that I hadn't shown up. I looked at Matt's concerned face as I spoke, reminding myself that right now this was more important. I couldn't allow myself to feel guilty over this. A boy's life was on the line.

  "Could I come in later, maybe?" I asked.

  I heard her sigh on the other end. "How about three o'clock?" she asked.

  "Three o'clock sounds fantastic," I said, then hung up, secretly hoping I would be able to come in at three. There was no telling how long it would take to find that box.

  We climbed onboard the ship, and they began opening the containers one after another. Three of Matt's colleagues were with us, among them Chris Cooper. I could tell Matt was out of it as I watched him frantically stare into one container after another. As I looked at how many containers there were on the ship, I realized this might take more than a few hours. This could take days.

  "I found something!"

  It was Chris. He called from the other end of the mountain range of containers. We rushed to him. He stood in front of an open container filled to the brim with wooden boxes.