“Great. I want to go home.”
“Melindi, listen to me. Roric poisoned you for a reason. His business is human trafficking. He was after your kids.”
“What?”
“He intended for you to die so that he could take Ben and Lilly.”
Melindi stared at him, face blank—uncomprehending. He could have been speaking Martian. Or ancient Swahili. As the words filtered through, sank in, and took hold, quiet fury blazed in her eyes. Her face contorted in desperation, disbelief. She got off the bed, trying to get past Bel and Liam, hospital gown or not. “Where are they? I want my kids. I want to go home. Now.”
Liam caught her. “He’s got them, but we are tracking him. We need your help.”
“You let him take my kids!” She turned on Isobel, her eyes wild, accusing. “I trusted you! What kind of person are you?”
Liam tightened his grip. “This is not Isobel’s fault.”
Isobel stopped him with a hand on his arm. “It’s fine. Mel, I haven’t been completely honest with you. Mia is not my friend’s child. I never knew her mom. Mia was the next in line to be kidnapped. We suspect Roric had something to do with her mom’s disappearance. Liam brought Mia to me to keep her safe.” Her voice caught in her throat, guilt thick and raw. “But I couldn’t do that right either. He took her.”
Melindi stared at her, mouth open.
“I found Mia abandoned on the beach. It seems he poisoned her mom just like you—but we suspect not with drugs in her body, but lies in her mind. They prey on single moms. Mess with their minds, convince them to commit suicide. If that doesn’t work, they simply”—her tongue tripped over the words— “commit suicide for them.”
“I don’t believe you. What are you saying? You’ve been lying to me all along?”
“I didn’t believe it at first either, but the fact is—Roric nearly succeeded with both of us. I never wanted to lie to you, Melindi. I just didn’t know what else to do.”
The silence hung between them like a vast ocean.
Melindi struggled to breathe, clawing her way to the surface through swimming doubts and aching fears.
Liam reached out and took her hand. “We need your help to figure out a clue that Ben left. We can’t waste any time.”
Melindi blinked, felt for the bed behind her, and sat. “I’m so sorry. I—”
Bel stepped closer. “I know what you’re feeling.”
Liam held out his phone with the picture. “Does this mean anything?”
“Did Ben write that? He can’t get his s’s right.” Melindi clung to the phone as if it were Ben himself.
“Either he was hungry, or he might have left this as a clue. Any ideas?” Liam gently pried the phone out of her hands.
“There’s a little shopping centre further down the coast. We drive out there sometimes to buy fish and chips. It’s a treat. We used to do it when my husb…err, the kids’ dad was still around. We haven’t gone for ages. Ben loved it. “
Isobel frowned. “Fish and chips. Odd. Is there anything else there?”
“Oh, yes. It’s a travel stop. From there you can get on the national bus route or take trains to anywhere in the country.” She grimaced as she realized what she was saying.
Liam paled. “He’s getting ready to move them. Bel, we need to get to that centre. Melindi, you can’t come with us.”
“You can’t stop me. I’ll tail you in a cab if I have to.” She pulled her clothes out of the metal nightstand, reached down to get her pants over her feet.
Liam shut his eyes. “Listen, you shouldn’t…” He sighed in resignation. “All right, fine. I’ll sign you out. But you go to the police and open a case of kidnapping. If Isobel and I did it, it would take too much time. With every train and bus waiting—we have to get where he’s going.”
Melindi was torn. Stuck between her instincts and logic—what a miserable place to be. “My stubbornness is costing precious time. Go. I’ll do as you ask.” She pressed scrawled directions into Isobel’s hand. “Don’t let Roric get away with this.” A sob caught in her throat. “How could I have been so stupid?”
“Don’t go there. I fell for him, too, remember?”
Liam shook his head. “I want to introduce his face to my fist.” He signed at the bottom of the clipboard, tore a thin strip of paper off the edge of her sign-out form, and scrawled a name and number.
“You are free to leave, ma’am. Find Detective Nass. Speak to him only. Don’t go to anyone else. Bel, give Melindi the recording from Ben.”
“I gave it to Officer Ritchie. Nass can get it from him.”
“You did what?”
“Officer Ritchie has it. Is that a problem?”
Liam breathed deep, shook his head. If sick were a colour, he’d be cycling rainbows.
“I thought they’d caught the traitor.” Realization dawned on Bel. “You lied?”
“All I wanted was you and Mia as far away from all this as possible.”
“So I probably just threw away our only evidence.”
Liam knuckled his temples, eyes squeezed shut. “We need to find those kids. Melindi, tell Nass to pay careful attention to Officer Ritchie. And while you’re at it? Get to praying.”
26
The drive to Ben’s fish and chips would have been a delight under any other circumstances. The road meandered lazily along the coast, a single lane that dipped and curved, sea on the left and graceful trees sharing their shade on the right.
“Question for you?” Bel shot a sideways glance toward the passenger seat. The telltale signs of sleeplessness had etched themselves into the creases of Liam’s smile lines and the dark shadows under his eyes. He fidgeted nonstop, apparently not comfortable being driven.
He lifted his arm to test it, and flinched from pain. “Shoot.” He checked the rear view as she overtook a slow-moving truck.
“Why? Why are you championing our cause? And please don’t brush me off with lame excuses. Gut-level truth. Nothing less.”
He shrugged as if it didn’t really matter to him either way. “Your cause is my cause.”
“No, that’s not it.”
“It is, actually.” He shot her a glance that dared her to argue. “One of the babies stolen was mine.” The way he said it was so matter-of-fact.
“That’s not funny, Liam.”
He kept staring straight ahead, focussed on the truck in front of them. Something in the set of his jaw said he was not joking.
“You’re serious. I’m so sorry, Liam. How—”
“Courtney was my girlfriend for a few months. It just wasn’t working. I broke it off, not knowing that she was expecting my baby. When she came to me with this tiny boy in her arms, it was a complete shock. I didn’t have the luxury of nine months to get used to the idea. I decided it couldn’t possibly be mine. I wasn’t ready to take in some other man’s baby with a woman that I couldn’t live with.” He turned the air conditioner on.
The sun had climbed the sky and was blazing down, heat rose in waves from the road ahead.
“But I decided to have the DNA test done, just to settle the issue. The day the results came back was the day I found her dead in her home. The baby was gone.” Liam rubbed his tired eyes. “He’d be walking by now.”
Bel had no words. Cold reality wrapped around her. “This is not right.”
He reached over and she knew what was coming. Leaning across, he planted a kiss on her temple.
Finding fish and chips was a simple matter of hopscotching from neon sign to neon sign. A growing sense of dread had been building in Isobel with each passing minute. There was no more denying the facts.
Roric was a killer and he had Mia.
The last sign straddled the road, highlighting a turnoff to a parking lot buzzing with cars and people. The bus depot was off to the left behind a row of glass and metal booking offices. Each bus company had their own office, their signs competing for the business of the travelers.
Bel pulled into one of the few o
pen spaces.
“Did he ever phone you?”
“Who, Roric? He did. Why?”
“Just wondering. Have you got your mobile on you?”
She checked her bag, a black miniature leather backpack. It was only just big enough for her phone, keys, wallet and a few tissues. “Right here.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
Isobel got out of the car, and the heat washed over her like dragon’s breath.
The place was a sprawling hive of buildings and people, covering many miles of ground. Finding Roric here would be impossible.
God, please.
Liam stretched out and took her hand. “Come. Let’s start by finding that fish and chip shop.”
“I don’t know, Liam. Surely he won’t take them out in public?”
“We have to start somewhere.”
They inched their way through the thick press of people.
She clung to his fingers like a lifeline.
He pulled her close to him and tucked her in under his good arm as they walked. Leaning close, he whispered in her ear, “We can’t let the girls see us yet. I don’t know what Roric would do if they started making a scene. I don’t trust him.”
Bel froze, staring at a sign hanging overhead. “That makes perfect sense.”
“Of course it does.” He stopped too, frowning at the wonder on her face. “Wait…what are you talking about?”
She pointed, “Look! A roadhouse. Of course!”
“Good thinking, girl. He can get food without being in amongst people.”
They ran through the narrow alley between shops. Vendors had set up makeshift stalls along the entire length of the walkway.
Bel dodged a kid on a rusty bike.
As they reached the other end, Liam pulled her flat against the wall.
The cars lined up in rows in front of them, waiters crisscrossing the hot tar, some carrying food, others taking orders to the kitchen.
Isobel spotted Roric’s car. It was second from the front in the queue closest to them but at a wrong angle for her to see if the kids were with him.
“Bel, give me your phone.”
She turned for Liam to dig it out of her backpack. Opening the logs folder, he found Roric’s number and dialled. They watched his car as he leaned forward and picked up his phone.
“Who is this?” Roric asked.
Liam arm tightened around Bel’s shoulders.
A pick-up truck pulled up to the drive-by, music pumping through the open windows.
Roric glanced at the truck, then at the phone in his hand.
Liam punched the end call button.
If Roric heard the music, he’d know they were close. Roric’s car started and began pulling out of the parking.
A waiter with a tray full of food came out of the kitchen, saw him taking off, and jogged after him awkwardly, shouting.
Liam and Bel ran to keep up.
He drove across the complex towards the train station on the right.
Bel and Liam dodged cars, weaving through the gaps. He was getting away.
Liam pulled Bel’s hand. “Shortcut.”
Taking the narrow path between the men’s and ladies’ ablution blocks, they cut diagonally across the centre, avoiding cars but not the people. They squeezed between the press of bodies, most of whom seemed to be going in the other direction.
They burst out of the tunnel to see Roric boarding a train. He had Lilly on his back in a baby carrier, a firm hand around the back of Ben’s neck. Mia was clinging to Ben, who was carrying her clutched tight to his chest, her face buried in his neck.
Elastic shock shot through Isobel at the sight of her baby.
Ben stepped onto the train without seeing them, but Roric turned towards them. His face blanched at the sight of Isobel, shock replaced by quick fury. He drew back the jacket he was wearing. He gestured to the gun tucked into a holster around his body, likely the same gun that had ripped Liam’s arm. He smiled at them, shaking his head as if to say, don’t follow me.
My Mia! Every instinct drove Isobel forward, but Liam grabbed her round the waist and pulled her back.
“Wait, love, stay here.”
Isobel fought his grip, turning to punch him.
He winced, face contorting in pain.
“Your arm! Oh grief, Liam. I’m so sorry. I can’t take this.”
He gasped through the pain. “We’re getting on that train.” He grabbed her hand with his good arm and they ran flat out across the hot tar.
They leapt into the last car, and the doors snapped shut behind them.
“Let Melindi know where we are.” He sank onto an open seat clutching his damaged arm, breathing heavily.
“Where is this train headed?”
“No idea.” A wrinkled man dressed in an olive sweater sat in the next booth, squinting at a crossword puzzle. Liam leaned over and tapped him on the shoulder, “Excuse me, sir, where is this train going?”
The man let his pencil hover over his puzzle as he squinted up at Liam as if his head were vacant. “Up towards Johannesburg.”
Isobel messaged Melindi and then sat next to Liam. “What now?”
“Should we go see if we can find them?”
“And then?”
“Stay one carriage back. Lie low. Keep an eye until they get off. We have to stay close.” Liam eased himself upright and together they crossed the carriage, staggering a little with the jerky pull of the train. They didn’t pay too much attention to the one they were in, moving through to the next.
Nothing.
With each added carriage that came up empty, the tension grew.
“Has to be this one, surely?” Isobel couldn’t take much more of this. She searched Liam’s eyes for reassurance. What she got was a kiss on the forehead. She swatted him away, feigning irritation. The truth was, his stolen kiss tickled something deep inside of her. There was no logic in why that should make her feel better, but it did.
The next carriage was not the one either. They kept going and each time came up empty handed. By the time they reached the first carriage—the one directly linked to the engine—they knew Roric had tricked them. They were on a train following him to Jo’burg, except that he was no longer on the train. He’d probably boarded the train, walked through to the other side, and climbed straight off.
Roric was gone. And he’d taken Ben, Lilly, and Mia with him.
27
Isobel curled herself into the corner of the swing on her patio. She’d been there since before the birds stretched, yawned, and warmed up their vocal cords to herald the appearance of the sun. She stared out over the storm-tossed waves, not absorbing what she was seeing. Maybe if she could make herself small enough, she would simply cease to exist. She’d come into this town broken and bereft, and she would be leaving it in the same way. Dead or alive. It made no difference. Her heart broke with worry over Mia, Lilly, and Ben.
No hope. No hope. No hope. The mantra played through her mind on a continuous loop.
Melindi was home. But she kept her distance, probably grieving in her own private hell. There was nothing to say to her. Words of consolation fell far short of any real comfort.
It had been a week since they lost contact with Roric. Lost their only lead. Her mind kept returning to that day, gnawing on it like a famished hound. They’d left the train and headed back at the first station they’d stopped at, but it cost them an hour. In that hour, Roric had disappeared. No leads, no trail to follow. Maybe if they had done something different, the three would be home now.
Liam made food that Isobel didn’t eat. He brought her blankets when the wind grew chill, only to leave them at her feet.
She slept in fits and start, never in her bed, just passing out on the couch or on the swing.
It was nearly midnight on Friday and she hadn’t gone in yet.
Liam joined her on the swing.
All her silent musing distilled into one question. A question she’d been too scared to think, too afrai
d to ask. All the fragile threads that held life sacred seemed caught up in the answer…yet she was in the dark once again, considering the hand life had dealt her. There was no getting away from it any longer. “Where is God in all this?”
Liam pushed off and got the swing moving. “What do you think?”
“He is punishing me.”
“For what?”
“More than I can count, I guess.”
“Pick one.”
“Having an affair. That was pretty stupid. Stupid and wrong.”
“He’s not punishing you.”
She curled her legs closer to her body, vacant eyes taking in nothing.
“Oh, Bel, think of it this way. What is the worst thing Mia could do? Even if she did that very thing, would you ever put her through heartache like this? To teach her a lesson. Would you?”
She squeezed her eyes tight against the tears.
“It isn’t His heart.”
“Then what? It makes no sense. All I’ve ever known is betrayal. Loss. Any brief happiness turned out to be a setup for more hurt.”
He moved closer, trying to pull her into his arms.
She stiffened and pulled away.
“Isobel, I don’t have the answers to your questions. The only thing I have left is to trust what I hope is true. Somehow, in all this mess, He is good. We can’t see it now, but it’s a fact that cannot change.” He fell silent. When he spoke, it was in a harsh whisper. “If I stop believing that, I have nothing.”
He reached out for her, and she let him. He took her hand. He walked her upstairs and tucked her in bed, complete with the kiss on her forehead. By the time his lips left her skin, she was asleep.
****
Liam was up before the sun. His body had still not adapted to Isobel’s couch. Stretching to ease the stiffness from his spine, he put the kettle on for coffee. He didn’t want coffee, but sticking to his habits brought some sense of normal. Who am I kidding?
The shower went on upstairs, and ten minutes later he heard the click of the lock in the door at the top of the stairs. Isobel came down. Her damp hair was brushed and shiny. Her clothes hung on her—not eating will do that to one—but they were clean and ironed. She came straight over and wrapped him in a hug. “I’m sorry, Liam. I’ve been so consumed in my own grief, I forgot that you’ve been doing this for months already. What you said about Mia, about me punishing her—”
Finding Mia Page 16