“Why does she stop?”
“It’s kind of a weird compulsion with her. She’ll stop at rest stops and fast-food places and go inside to touch up her makeup and check her hair, and then while she’s there she’ll corner some poor person. She can’t stand her own company, always has to be interacting with other people. She likes to make small talk with strangers. Asking for directions, or about the weather or road conditions. The topic isn’t important. What’s important is having people look at her. She likes to wave her hands around, and a lot of times they comment on her nails or her jewelry. She has a lot of rings, and usually people notice and compliment her.”
“Really?” Niki asked in amazement.
“Oh yeah, I told you she’s crazy,” Jacob said. “And we can probably catch up because she gets lost a lot, sometimes even with the GPS, because she doesn’t always believe the directions and thinks she knows better.”
“She doesn’t believe the directions?”
“Just thinks they’re wrong. You wouldn’t believe the level of craziness we’re talking about. And now she’s trying to find a place from memory from three years ago, and that time we were totally lost. Not only that, but that house might not even be there anymore. It was barely standing when I saw it.”
“So you’re pretty sure she’s going back to the place you found Mia?” In her peripheral vision, she saw him vigorously nod his head.
“Sure, that’s how her mind works.”
“You sound pretty certain.”
“I’ve lived with her long enough to know. If something doesn’t work out, she just tries to undo it. She’s cycled through more friends than most people ever have in a lifetime. Everyone loves her at first, and some of them still love her after she’s dropped them. They can never figure out what they did wrong. My mom can take offense at anything. Someone just looks at her the wrong way or doesn’t laugh at her jokes the way she wants them to, and she’s so done with them. Sometimes these women call and apologize over and over again, or send notes or gifts. She totally loves it, but none of it makes a difference. Once she makes up her mind that someone is out, they’re out of her life for good. There’s no going back. I told you, she’s insane.”
“So what did Mia do wrong?”
“Mia? She couldn’t do anything wrong if she tried. She’s such a good little thing, not a mean bone in her body.”
“No, I mean, why would your mom want to take her back?”
“Oh, that.” Jacob sighed. “It’s because this woman from the county stopped in and was asking questions, and then some neighbor lady was snooping around. I’m thinking it freaked her out and she wants Mia out of our house so she doesn’t get into trouble. If Mia’s not there, it’s like it never happened.”
A woman from the county. A neighbor lady was snooping around. Niki’s mind spun with the realization that she and Sharon had been the ones responsible for this little girl’s fate. They may well have started something terrible. But it wasn’t our fault, she thought defensively. Neither she nor Sharon would ever harm a child. They’d been trying to save the little girl. They couldn’t help it that Suzette Fleming was deranged. Only a very sick person would snatch a child and keep her as a servant in her home for three years. Poor little thing. With a renewed sense of urgency, Niki veered out of her lane, passing a Buick going less than the speed limit. Suddenly, finding Mia as quickly as possible was more important than her qualms about expressway driving.
“That’s more like it,” Jacob said in approval. “Keep going like that and we’ll be caught up in no time.”
Jacob couldn’t believe how freeing it was to confess to Niki. In one day, Mia had gone from being a family secret to becoming someone he could talk about, and that made Mia seem like a full-fledged person. Niki had so many questions. “I know you said your mom blackmailed your dad into keeping Mia a secret, but why did you not tell anyone? You seem like you care about Mia, and you knew it was wrong . . .” She gave him a side-eye before returning her gaze to the road. The day was gray, but traffic was light, so at least that was in their favor.
“I thought about turning my mom in, maybe making an anonymous tip, or dropping Mia off at a police station, but she’s so little and she would have been afraid.”
“You don’t think she was afraid sleeping downstairs in the basement by herself?” For the first time, Niki’s voice sounded judgmental.
“You don’t understand,” he said. “This is my family we’re talking about. I know the whole thing is weird, but when you’re right in the middle of it, it seems normal. Mia was always happy. I mean, it would be different if she’d been crying or miserable, but she always has a smile on her face.”
“Maybe because she doesn’t know any better?”
“Maybe,” Jacob admitted. “But honestly, it wasn’t up to me. I was a kid too.”
“Yeah. But you knew it wasn’t right.”
“Yeah, I did know it wasn’t right, but I kept waiting for one of them to do something. And you know what? We checked the missing children websites, and no one was looking for her. The house she came from was horrible. I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to have to live there.” This was only partly true. Jacob’s worst enemy was a kid named Liam Johnson. Liam had the locker adjacent to his and would randomly slam Jacob’s locker door against him when he went to switch out his books. One time he pushed it so hard Jacob thought he might have broken his arm. The impact left a huge bruise that lasted for weeks, a reminder of Liam’s cruelty. From then on, Jacob just carried all his books in his backpack and didn’t use his locker at all. And he avoided Liam Johnson as much as possible.
Thinking back on Liam Johnson made him sure that some people were just terrible human beings, without redemption. Such random meanness, and for what? Jacob had never done anything to him. Liam Johnson deserved to live in that awful shack, but he couldn’t think of anyone else who did.
“You’re making excuses.”
“Maybe,” he said, “but in a way, we saved Mia from a horrible life. And think about this—if my parents went to jail, I’d have no one, and I’d wind up in foster care or get shipped off to live with relatives I barely know. And there was a chance I would be charged as well. So all of us would be screwed. My mother got us into an impossible situation.”
“Foster care isn’t the end of the world,” Niki said. “And you know what? It’s not always about you, Jacob. There’s a little girl involved. I don’t care if she was in a horrible situation. You had other options, then and later. You could have called the police.” They drove without speaking for fifteen minutes or so, the only noise occurring when Niki tried to find good music on the radio. She went from static to country music to talk radio and back again before finally giving up.
Chapter Forty-Four
Suzette sighed heavily. Driving had never been her strong suit, and it was definitely not how she wanted to spend her time. In an ideal world, she would have been wealthy enough to have a full-time driver at the ready, but that was never going to happen as long as she was married to Matt. So, here she was, wasting a good chunk of the morning driving across Wisconsin. The problem was that being at the wheel for more than a few minutes made her tired and antsy. And then there were the navigational challenges. Back in the days of road maps, she’d found them to be as comprehensible as hieroglyphics. Even with GPS there were difficulties. Road construction, unclear directions, turnoffs that weren’t labeled—all of which made her doubt she was going the right way.
The only thing she remembered about the location where they’d found Mia was that it was somewhere just north of Harlow, Wisconsin. She and Jacob had been driving home from her mother’s house, and she’d gotten off the expressway in search of a place to eat. A billboard had claimed a family restaurant was just five miles off the interstate, so she’d exited and followed the signs, but they’d never found it. She drove and drove, thinking it would be around the next curve. Instead, they’d become hopelessly lost, driving for miles over bumpy country roads
, past farm fields and meadows, not another car in sight. Basically a nightmare.
Even though three years had passed, she was fairly certain she’d know it on sight. The trick was finding it. If she couldn’t find it, she could go straight to her alternate plan and leave Mia at a police station in the vicinity. She had the girl wrapped in a cozy blanket already. Sleeping like a princess under a spell. Suzette could imagine carrying her up to a doorway and leaving her outside. It wasn’t that cold out. Someone would find her soon enough, and even if it took a while, Mia was tough. She’d be fine. So it was a good plan. Unless . . . And here she paused to think about what could possibly go wrong. Unless they had cameras outside and she could be spotted. Somehow she doubted that a police station in the boonies would be so sophisticated as to have security cameras outside, but it was possible, and she didn’t want to take any chances. She had to find the house. That’s all there was to it.
Suzette had been driving about an hour and a half when her stomach rumbled with hunger, and she realized that all she’d had that morning was a piece of toast. Damn. She didn’t function well on an empty stomach, and today, of all days, she had to be on top of her game. There was no getting around it—she’d have to make a quick stop.
She thought back to how she’d dosed Mia’s oatmeal with crushed sleeping pills. Her math had been spot-on—she’d calculated the amount she needed for herself and adjusted for the weight difference. Whenever Suzette took the full amount, she’d fall into a sleep coma that lasted anywhere from four hours to a whole night. Sometimes she woke up confused that it was morning. Based on this, she thought that Mia wasn’t likely to stir until they arrived at their destination, and maybe not even then. Suzette had been lucky, too, that the weather had cooperated for this trip. It was warm for this time of year. Well, maybe not warm, but above freezing anyway, and the sun was melting the snowbanks. And as long as she didn’t make any sudden turns, there shouldn’t be any problems with Mia shifting from her spot.
She drove for a while, scanning the roadside, dismayed at not seeing an exit sign for miles. Finally, a billboard promised that the next exit would have a gas station and a family diner. She’d really been hoping for a fast-food drive-through so she wouldn’t have to leave the car unattended, but she was out of options. Hopefully, she could pick up something quick to go.
When she drove off the interstate, she veered onto the ramp, happy she could see the diner ahead. The parking lot was crushed gravel, while the building, rounded steel with large windows, sat on a concrete pad. An actual diner, she mused, like something out of a 1950s movie. She got out of the car, her handbag handle looped over her bent arm, and walked toward the door, only pausing to press the key fob to lock the car door. Once inside, she swiftly took it all in: a revolving pie case by the front register, a long curved counter with one customer, and a row of booths along the outside windows. All but one booth was vacant, and that one was occupied by two old women sipping coffee. A hanging arrow pointed to the restrooms, something that sounded good at the moment. She bypassed a waitress carrying a tray of food and made a quick stop in the ladies’ room. After she washed her hands, she checked her hair and face to confirm her appearance was public-ready.
Back in the diner, she went up to the register, waiting to be acknowledged. The waitress she’d seen only minutes earlier was nowhere in sight. She tapped her toe impatiently. Behind her a man’s voice said, “You don’t have to wait. Just take a seat.”
Suzette turned to see who had spoken. It was the guy at the counter, a burly man in his fifties wearing a tan workman’s jacket and a worn denim baseball hat.
He did a double take. “Well aren’t you a breath of fresh air.” His voice was admiring. “Not from around here, are you?”
“No,” she said, pulling her handbag close. “Just passing through.”
“Take a seat,” he said, indicating the stool next to him. “Liz will be right out. She’s brewing some more coffee.” He jerked his chin toward a swinging aluminum door.
“No, thank you,” she said primly. “I just need something to go.”
“Suit yourself.”
She recognized the hurt in his voice and knew it was from being rebuffed. Right around the time she graduated from college she’d noticed that she had this sort of indefinable effect on people. A magnetic appeal. Charisma. People were drawn to her and wanted to be her friend. At first she’d allowed it and had a big group of hangers-on following her every move. Soon enough, though, she’d learned to be discriminating. It was exhausting keeping that many admirers in line. But now she found she missed those days. Jacob and Matt’s attentions fell way short of the desired amount, and her friends from her charitable boards weren’t able to keep up.
Suzette slid onto the stool next to the working man. “Hi, I’m Suzette.” She watched as he perked up, lifting his coffee cup as if toasting her.
“Hi, Suzette. Nice to meet you. I’m Craig.”
He held out his hand, and she shook it with a smile. His hand was big and warm. “Nice to meet you, Craig. Maybe you can help me get some food and a coffee to go? Something quick, maybe a Danish or some toast?”
A slow smile crossed his face. Men always liked to help. “Sure thing.” He cupped his hands around his mouth. “Liz! Hungry lady out here needs you ASAP.” He turned to Suzette. “She’ll be out in a sec,” he said confidently.
A few moments later, a woman pushed through the door, a pot of coffee in one hand. “Cripes, Craig. Do you have to yell?”
He jabbed a thumb in Suzette’s direction. “It’s an emergency. This pretty lady needs something quick to go.”
Liz turned and set the coffeepot on the burner. “What can I get for you?”
“A coffee with cream, and something easy to eat as I drive. Do you have a Danish or maybe some toast?”
Before she could answer, Craig jumped in. “Why don’t you have the cook make her a breakfast sandwich, Liz?”
Suzette frowned. “Oh, that’s not really necessary . . .”
Craig sat up straight. “Well, they don’t have Danish here, and toast just doesn’t seem like enough. A lady like you deserves something a little more special. He can do it quick, can’t he, Liz?”
Liz nodded. “Just a few minutes. Probably not much longer than it takes to make toast.”
“Well, okay then.” Suzette was about to ask what was in the sandwich, but Liz had already left to put the order in, so instead she made small talk with Craig, pretending to be interested in his job in construction. When he finished his tiresome droning about work sites and finally asked about her line of work, she said, “I used to be a model in my younger days, but now I run a charity for children with disabilities.”
“A model, huh? I’m not surprised,” Craig said. “I’d a pegged you for a model when you walked in the door. Something about you.” He shook his head. “A real elegance.”
“Oh, that’s so kind of you to say.” She rested her hand on his elbow, but only briefly so it was something special, like experiencing the brush of a butterfly’s wings as it flew past. “But that was so long ago.” She put a hand to her chest.
“It couldn’t be that long ago,” he said. “You don’t have a line on your face.”
As she did with every interaction with a man, she imagined what it would be like to be Craig’s girlfriend or wife. After a minute she decided that while the initial adulation might be nice, the tedium of the conversation would quickly wear thin. And as vile as Matt had treated her lately, at least his educational level and professional standing gave her the right kind of status in the community. What must it be like to attend social functions with construction workers and their spouses? Inwardly, she shuddered at the thought. No, she decided, Craig qualified as more of a counter dalliance—a few minutes of conversation that would leave him wanting more. Years from now he’d still be thinking of the redhead named Suzette, the former model, who’d smiled at him one morning at the diner. He’d remember the brief touch of her fingers on hi
s arm and be wondering, What if? “Oh bless you,” she said. “What a nice compliment.”
“And now you run a charity for kids?” He took a sip of his coffee, his eyes never leaving her face. “You’re practically a damn saint.”
“I believe in giving back.” Suzette looked at the aluminum door and wished it would swing her way. What could be taking so long? “When I leave this world, I like to think it will be a better place for my having been in it.”
“Oh, that’s nice.” He nodded in approval and began talking about his sister, a certified nursing assistant who worked at a nursing home. Ugh. As if that were in the same league as running a charity for disabled children. Suzette feigned interest but was relieved when Liz finally returned with a carryout cup and a white paper bag, folded and stapled at the top.
Liz set everything down on the counter in front of Suzette, along with a bill. Craig snatched up the piece of paper and said, “This is on me.”
“Well, aren’t you nice.” Suzette stood up, taking the bag and cup. “Thank you. Have a good day.” She left the diner without looking back. Once in the car, she set the coffee in her cup holder and opened the bag, glad to see it contained napkins along with the sandwich. Picking the pieces of bacon off the top, she took a bite and sighed with approval. A fried egg and cheddar cheese on a flaky biscuit. Craig had been right. This was far better than toast. She ate half of it before starting up the car. She could nibble on the rest while she drove.
Chapter Forty-Five
Jacob noticed how intensely Niki concentrated—her hands only leaving the wheel to briefly play around with the radio, which she did for a minute or so before giving up. Otherwise, she kept her eyes on the road, not saying a word. Every now and then she frowned. He said, “Are you mad at me?”
The Moonlight Child Page 25