by Alex Grecian
“You tell me where my daughter is, you son of a bitch.”
“I don’t know. I never even saw her, I swear to you.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.” Christian had begun to cry, and Skottie let go of him. She had enough experience with missing person cases to know that she had a limited amount of time before it would be too late and her daughter would be far out of her reach. But somebody had Maddy, or at least knew where she was.
“Goodman did this, right? The sheriff ordered this?”
“No,” Christian said. His voice was a blubbering wheeze, and she had to lean in close to understand him. “He doesn’t . . . He doesn’t know about any of this. Oh, shit, I am so screwed.”
“Boy, that’s the first true thing I’ve heard you say,” Skottie said.
9
Bear padded along next to Maddy. The breeze had now changed direction and was coming from the west, and the dog blocked most of it with his bulk. Still, Maddy was shivering, hugging herself against the cold, dressed in nothing but her T-shirt and leggings. She thought of her phone, cracked and broken in the middle of the street behind her, and wondered if the 911 operator had taken her off hold already. Would they still be able to trace the call? Maddy knew she couldn’t count on it. There was only one other place she could think to go for help, one other person she knew she could trust.
“It’s this way,” she said to Bear. But she wasn’t at all certain that they were going in the right direction. She had lived in her grandmother’s house all summer, but she had spent most of her time outside looking down at her phone. She scanned the street for familiar landmarks, things she had seen during their walk to the grocery store, but she could see only a few feet ahead.
“Bear, do you know the way? The grocery store? Do you remember?” Her teeth were chattering, and she didn’t know the word for groceries in Esperanto, and she didn’t want to go to the store anyway, but she knew her father’s hotel was somewhere between her house and the IGA. “Steak, Bear,” she said. “Steak?” She had spent an hour before dinner with Bear, looking up words online to test him, and now she struggled to remember some of her new vocabulary. Grocery store and steak were too specific, but maybe something simpler. What was the word for food? “Um . . . Manga Joe, Bear?” That wasn’t right, but it was close. She stopped walking and closed her eyes, put her hands and face in Bear’s warm fur and concentrated. “Manĝaĵo! That’s it!”
Bear snorted and flicked his left ear at her, then nudged her into motion. He crossed the street and waited for her, then led the way in a direction Maddy was sure was wrong.
“No, Bear, the grocery store. Food. Manĝaĵo.”
Bear kept moving and Maddy had no choice but to follow along, picking her way carefully across the crust of snow and swiveling her toes a little with each step, digging in the way her father had taught her during their harsh Chicago winters together.
And two blocks later she saw the looming outline of the hotel. Bear had understood and had led her back along the route they’d taken in daylight, reversing the walk from the grocery store.
“This is it, boy. You did it! My dad’s here, and he’ll help us.”
Bear stopped and looked back at her, his fur blowing gently in the wind.
She knew he didn’t understand and she felt a pang of regret for tricking him. He probably expected more steak, and he wasn’t likely to get it tonight.
“Tomorrow,” she said. “I bet my grandma can make something special for you for Thanksgiving, okay? I’ll tell her.”
She grabbed Bear’s mane and he allowed her to pull him down the sidewalk and around the side of the building to the front. Orange light spilled out through the glass doors and was whisked away by the mist.
“Stay here, Bear. Restu, okay? I’ll be right back.”
She left Bear sitting next to a concrete fountain that had been drained for the winter and she scooted through a revolving door. The rush of warm air made her cheeks flush, and her nose started running. She wiped it on the back of her hand and walked as calmly as she could to the registration counter. No one was in sight, but there was a bell and she rang it. A minute later a skinny guy came out of a back room. He had thick black-rimmed glasses and a neatly trimmed beard and was chewing something. When he saw her, he swallowed whatever was in his mouth and came around the counter toward her.
“Hey, you okay?” He bent at the waist, and she was afraid he was going to kneel down in front of her. She wondered how bad her hair looked and wished she had a jacket to cover herself with. Her pajamas were thin and inadequate, and looking down at the little flowers all over her leggings, Maddy felt more like a little kid than she wanted to.
“Where are your parents?” He looked up at the revolving door and the big window next to it as if he might be able to see the parking lot through the blanket of white fog.
“I need to talk to my dad,” Maddy said. “He’s a guest here.”
“Your dad’s here in the hotel?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know what room.”
“What’s his name?” The guy seemed relieved to have something he could do. He went back around the end of the counter and tapped on a keyboard.
“Brandon Foster,” Maddy said. “He’s a policeman.”
The guy nodded and tapped some more keys, peered at a monitor. “Yeah, he’s in 514. I can ring him, but it’s pretty late.” He looked up at her and shook his head. “Never mind. Lemme call him for you.”
She spotted the elevator in the far corner of the lobby. “It’s okay, I can find it.”
“Well, I really need an adult to vouch for you. It’s the middle of the night.” He pointed to a couch next to the counter. “Tell you what, wait here, okay? Lemme find your dad for you.”
Maddy nodded and went to the couch, which was decorated with the same sort of flowers as her pajamas, but bigger. She fell backward into the cushions and watched the guy pick up a phone with a long cord. He punched four buttons and waited. Maddy could hear a phone ringing at the other end and then a muffled voice.
“Mr. Foster,” the desk guy said, “I have a girl here who says she’s your daughter?”
The muffled voice said something in response. It sounded like a question.
The guy looked over at Maddy. “What’s your name?”
“Maddy. Tell him Mom’s in trouble.”
“Sir, her name’s Maddy. She came in here pretty cold and wet, and she says her mother’s in some kind of trouble.”
The muffled voice, her father sounding much less sleepy than when he’d answered the phone, said something sharp and short and the desk guy hung up the phone.
“He’s on his way down. Lemme get you a blanket. Laundry just came out of the dryer, so it’ll be nice and warm.” He smiled and she smiled back at him.
The guy returned to his back room, and Maddy watched the elevator. The lobby felt empty and sterile, and now that she knew her dad was coming to help she realized she was shivering. She wiped her nose again and glanced over the counter to make sure the guy wasn’t coming before she rubbed the back of her hand on the arm of the couch. Her eye was drawn to movement outside and, as she watched, a man appeared on the other side of the big window. He put his face against the glass, shielding it with his hands and looking around at the lobby. Then he saw her and pulled back, but not before she recognized him.
He was one of the men who had broken into her house, the one who had grabbed her and smashed her phone.
“Bear!”
The dog was alone out there. Without thinking, Maddy jumped off the couch and ran across the lobby. There was an emergency exit next to the revolving door, and she slammed into the push bar and through. She vaguely heard her name being called, but the door shut behind her and she pressed on into the foggy night.
“Bear! Venu, Bear! Venu!” She remembered how to tell him to
come to her, but she couldn’t remember the word for danger, even though she was sure she’d studied that one.
Something moved, almost within arm’s reach, and then she saw him. Bear materialized in front of her, fog rippling around his imposing frame. At the same time she felt warm air behind her, heard the door snick open, and a yellow wedge of light spilled out over the sidewalk at her feet.
“Maddy, get down!”
She started to turn toward the sound of her father’s voice, but there was a bright flash of light and the deafening roar of a gunshot next to her ear. She staggered sideways and fell, but her father caught her and scooped her up before she hit the ground.
“Bear,” she said.
“Oh, honey,” her father said. “Was that the dog?”
10
Before she did anything else, Skottie fetched her handcuffs and secured Christian. Then she put Emmaline in charge of watching him, pulled on a pair of boots, and left the house.
She dialed 911 as she walked along the street, scanning every shadow, every hedge and tree and patch of black ice, looking for some sign of Maddy. The emergency dispatcher put her on hold before Skottie could say anything, so she hung up and called Lieutenant Johnson on his cell.
He picked up after two rings. “Skottie? You know what time it is?” He didn’t sound like he’d been asleep.
“Yes, sir,” Skottie said. She was slightly out of breath, jogging fast, keeping her eyes peeled. “I’ve got trouble here.”
“Yeah, listen, can we talk about this Monday?”
“No, sir. Three men, at least three, just broke into my house.”
“Oh, damn.” She could hear him sit up straighter, his voice suddenly alert. “I thought you were talking about the other thing again.”
“No, sir, that can wait.” Skottie reached the end of her block and turned the corner. Something glinted in the middle of the next street, and Skottie hurried across, squatted down to see it more closely.
“Skottie? You there?”
“Just a minute,” she said.
The shiny thing in the street was a phone, crushed and deformed into a rough parallelogram. The screen was cracked, but when Skottie pushed the home button it displayed a faint green bar indicating that a call was in progress. She touched it but it didn’t respond. She picked it up and turned it over, recognized Maddy’s Adventure Time phone case.
“Skottie?” The lieutenant’s distant voice reminded her that she was still on a call of her own. She stood up and stuck Maddy’s phone in her jacket pocket, then started walking again and put her own phone back up to her ear.
“Sir, my daughter’s missing right now.”
“Skottie, you need to hang up and call 911.”
“I did. They put me on hold. I was hoping you could—”
“Right. Hold tight and let me make a couple of calls, okay?”
Skottie turned the corner again. Her vague plan was to search the block around Emmaline’s house, then expand out another block, keep spiraling outward.
“One of the men was Sheriff Goodman’s deputy,” she said.
“The black kid? Quincy?”
“No, sir, one of the other ones.”
“Skottie, don’t do anything until I call you back.”
“I’m looking for Maddy right now. I’m gonna keep doing that.”
“Of course.”
She hung up without saying good-bye and dialed Brandon’s number. She had deleted it from her speed dial weeks before and was surprised to find that she still remembered it. He picked up right away, sounding like he hadn’t been sleeping, either.
“What’s going on over there?” he said.
“Maddy’s missing. How fast can you—”
“I’ve got her, Skottie. She’s here.”
Skottie stopped walking. She went over to the curb and sat on it, took a deep breath. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” Brandon said. “Just cold. I was about to call you. Skottie, what’s she doing out in the middle of the night? For God’s sake, she doesn’t have any shoes. Her feet are practically frozen.”
“You think I let her wander the streets?”
“No, I don’t . . . Hey, I think I’ve got a legitimate right to be concerned here.”
Of course he did. Skottie realized her relief had somehow turned immediately to irritation at the sound of her husband’s voice. “Sorry,” she said.
“Maddy won’t talk to me, just keeps crying about that dog.”
“Dog?”
“I didn’t realize it was the same one. It startled me, is all.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I shot at it. That dog you brought home was following her. I mean, it came out of the fog like some kind of . . . I don’t know if I hit it. It didn’t make any noise.”
“He wouldn’t. He’s mute.”
“Huh.”
“You really shot Bear?”
“I don’t know. You can’t see anything out there, so much fog.”
“Jesus, Brandon.”
“What happened over there?”
“We had a break-in. Maddy must’ve made a run for it.”
“A break-in? You okay?”
“I’m fine. Mom’s fine.”
“Skottie, you need to come home where I can—”
“Not the time. I’m just glad Maddy’s all right.”
“Yeah, she’ll be good. They’re putting a rollaway in my room.”
“You’re keeping her?”
“I thought . . .”
Skottie nodded to herself. It wasn’t a bad idea to let him hold on to her for the night. She had crossed her legs under her, and there was a pebble digging into her ankle. She stood back up and stepped over to the sidewalk. The adrenaline was leaving her system, and her muscles felt like jelly.
“You’re right,” she said. “Keep her there, let her sleep. Things might be hectic around here for a while.”
“You want me to come over there?”
“No, I got it under control.” She waited for him to scoff or contradict her. She was grateful when he didn’t.
“Sure,” he said, and he sounded like he meant it. “But if you need anything, you know—”
“Yeah, thanks. And you need to find that dog. His name’s Bear. You can’t leave him out there tonight. Maddy knows how to talk to him when you track him down.”
“I’ll do my best,” Brandon said. “And if, you know, if you wanna come over here, there’s room.”
She almost smiled. “Thanks, I’m okay.”
She ended the call and let her arm drop to her side. Her fingers were tingling. She walked through the fog to the corner and turned onto her own street, completing the square block. A light came on over the porch next to where Skottie was standing, and a woman opened the screen door. She was white, wearing a pink terry-cloth bathrobe and her orange hair in a net. She was holding a flip phone.
“Is that you, Officer Foster?”
Skottie stopped, one eye on the car idling halfway down the street. “Yes, ma’am. It’s me.”
“Did you hear a commotion earlier?”
“Commotion?”
“I told Henry to get up and go look, but he went back to sleep. Anyway, I was thinking I should call the police.” She held the phone up as if to show her intentions. “But I saw you patrolling out here and I just want you to know that it makes us all feel safe having a police officer right here on the block.”
“Who’s ‘us all’?”
The woman shrugged. “Everybody here. Thank you.”
Skottie felt herself softening. She was tired and worried and nearly certain that this same woman had snubbed her just days before at Dollar General, but it was good to feel needed. “I think it was just some rowdy kids,” she said. “But I checked it out just in case
.”
The woman nodded and clutched her phone between her hands. She turned and went inside without another word and turned off her porch light, leaving Skottie in the dark.
11
“We have to check on him!”
“Maddy, honey, calm down.” Brandon was standing with one foot on the rollaway bed, pushing against the upright half, trying to open it up.
“If he’s hurt . . .” Maddy was wearing the oversize slippers and robe from the closet. She looked ridiculous and charming, a tiny head sitting atop a shapeless mass of fluff.
“If he’s hurt, he might be dangerous.” The rollaway tipped over and Brandon caught his balance before he fell. He took a step away from the bed and glared at it. “Anyway,” he said, “I don’t know if I hit him or not, but either way I’m not gonna be able to find him in the fog. We’ll get some sleep and I promise we’ll look for him in the morning.”
“You told Mom you were gonna look for him right now.”
“I never said that. I told her I’d look for him, and I will. It just makes more sense to wait till morning.”
“No.”
“What?”
“No. If you won’t look for him now, I’ll do it by myself.”
Brandon gave Maddy a look she’d seen a million times before. He was trying not to lose his patience and she knew it, but she also knew that Bear might be long gone by morning. Or he might need a veterinarian right away. Brandon shook his head and attacked the bed again and finally opened it up, but it was too close to the wall and there was a loud thump as the corner of the frame punched a triangular hole through the drywall. He hopped back and looked at Maddy, his eyes wide. There was an answering thump from the other side of the wall, someone pounding at them to be quiet. She almost laughed, would have if she weren’t so worried about Bear.
“Fine,” Brandon said. “I’ll look.”