The Girl Who Was Taken

by Charlie Donlea

  Livia stared at Terry McDonald, unsure how to respond. Livia knew things about his daughter that he did not. But Megan had been unavailable for days and had returned none of Livia’s calls. Indeed, regression was possible but Livia wondered what suddenly brought it on.

  “I’m sorry,” Livia said, “if I’ve caused any problems. That was not my intent.”

  “Of course not. I’m simply making you aware of the situation. It’s not healthy for Megan to pursue this. I will help you, like I said. In any way I can. As long as you keep Megan out of it. Can we agree on that?”

  Livia slowly nodded. “Yes.”

  “All right,” Sheriff McDonald said, shifting his focus and pulling open his bottom drawer to reveal a file folder. “I made some calls. Talked with detectives in Virginia and Georgia, as well as the guys here who ran Megan’s and Nicole’s cases. Brought them up to speed on your findings and suspicions. They’re going to take a step back and look at it all. Don’t expect immediate results, that’s not how these guys work. But they were interested. Very interested.” Terry nodded his head. “Despite my reservations about your judgment involving Megan, this is really good work, Dr. Cutty.”

  “I’ve got more,” Livia said. Over the last few nights, she had documented and expanded on everything she learned from Nate Theros about the potential traits of the man responsible for Nancy Dee’s and Paula D’Amato’s deaths, as well Megan’s kidnapping and the botched transfer the night she escaped from the bunker. Nate’s theories, organized by Livia’s meticulous scientific mind, filled three pages. She pushed her work across the desk until it rested in front of the sheriff.

  Terry McDonald took several minutes to read the report. “These are your conclusions?”

  “No, sir,” Livia said. “I had some help.”

  “From a criminologist?”

  Livia shook her head. “Not exactly, but someone with an . . . odd hobby. He prefers to remain anonymous.”

  “Can I keep this?” Terry asked.

  “Of course.”

  “I’ll show it to our guys. Compare it against what they came up with.” Terry placed the profile into his folder and returned it to the bottom drawer.

  “So things are rolling now,” he said. “I’ve made the calls, and we’ll see what comes next. It will take these detectives time to clear their dockets in order to justify putting hours into a cold case. I’m going to do what I can on my own while we’re waiting, and I’ll keep you posted on any news.”

  “Is there a way for me to reach Megan? She hasn’t been returning my calls.”

  “With respect, Dr. Cutty, I’d prefer you leave Megan alone for the time being.”

  Livia nodded. “Fair enough. Will you tell her I’m thinking about her?”

  “I’ll let her know.”

  Livia stood. “Thanks again for what you’re doing. I know it’s hard on you and your family.”

  “As well as yours, Dr. Cutty. I’ll be in touch.”

  CHAPTER 44

  August 2016

  The Night of the Abduction

  Nicole Cutty pulled her car into the parking lot of Emerald Cove, where the beach party was happening, an end-of-summer tradition for Emerson Bay kids. It was seven p. m. and the sun was at a steep slant across the water as Nicole and her friends primped in the parking lot, Jessica and Rachel fighting over the passenger-side visor mirror while Nicole smacked her lips in the rearview after applying a final coat of lipstick.

  They stashed their makeup into small purses.

  “No drama tonight,” Jessica said.

  “You sound like my sister,” Nicole said. She had made a call to Livia after the incident on Matt’s boat. Wanting to disappear, she’d asked Livia if she could come to Miami for a week. Of course, Livia was too busy with residency to consider it. Nicole had wanted to run to Livia and tell her about all the things that were swirling in her brain. She wanted, for just one week, to be a little sister and garner the attention she once had from Livia.

  “Just stay away from him,” Rachel said. “He’s an ass anyway.”

  Nicole didn’t answer. She’d been withdrawn, Jessica and Rachel noticed, since the incident between her and Matt the other day. Nicole refused to tell them what had transpired on Matt’s boat, but it was assumed that he had broken things off for good now that he was with Megan. Jessica and Rachel knew their role tonight would be as peacekeepers. They’d work hard to keep Nicole away from both Megan and Matt.

  The three walked through the parking lot and onto the beach, where a large bonfire was fighting off the first advances of dusk. Fifty other kids gathered in packs around the fire. A volleyball game was in full swing and a few boys threw a football down by the water. They waited for the sun to set and for darkness to cover the beach before they snuck beer and liquor from their hiding spots.

  Jessica and Rachel merged with a group of girls by the fire. Nicole broke away and wandered down by the water. She pulled her phone from the back pocket of her jeans and checked again. Casey hadn’t returned her text.

  There was a loud holler from a group of boys by the fire and Nicole looked back. In the glow of the flames she saw that Matt had arrived, greeted by his friends. Holding his hand was Megan.

  Nicole looked back at her phone and sent Casey another text.

  CHAPTER 45

  November 2017

  Fourteen Months Since Megan’s Escape

  After handing Nate’s profile off to Sheriff McDonald, Livia busied herself with work, escaping the anxiety of waiting for answers by delving into the bodies that came to her morgue. She no longer, as she admitted she had once done, looked at those bodies as a way to advance her career or as an opportunity to showcase her skills and outperform her colleagues. The last three months had taught her that each life deserved the proper respect of discovering the answers it left behind. For Dr. Livia Cutty, the only way she could find those answers was by examining the bodies that came to her. Respectfully and honorably, without ulterior motives of career advancement or personal gain but, instead, with a singular goal of providing information to the family about the cause of their loved one’s demise. If she did that honestly, and to the best of her ability, the collateral rewards would come.

  It took the last several weeks to plant the seed of this epiphany. And the last few days, after she handed over all her hard work and research to the authorities and entrusted them to find the answers she had come so close to discovering on her own, had reminded her that others were waiting just like she. Others were hoping for answers, and they had placed their trust in young Livia Cutty to provide closure. Livia would do her best to serve those people, and not herself. Perhaps it was a metamorphosis all medical examiners experience. Or maybe this insight was the elusive thing Dr. Colt hinted would come sometime during her training. Whatever it was, Livia was a different person today than she had been when she arrived at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner back in July.

  She prepared to bury herself in the riddles that rested on her autopsy table for as long as it took the authorities to examine her preliminary findings and turn them into something more substantial. This long haul was what she readied for. But as she paged through a textbook at ten p.m., a phone call changed her plans. She was surprised to hear Megan’s voice.

  “I need to see you,” Megan said.

  “Are you okay?”

  “No.”

  “Sorry I haven’t called. Your dad said I should give you some space.”

  “I don’t care about any of that. I need to see you tonight.”

  “Tonight? What’s wrong?”

  “I know,” Megan said. “I finally know.”

  * * *

  Megan forced herself to lie still under the covers after she ended her call with Livia. Her mother was back on the prowl of late, since the nightmares started again, and had reacquired the annoying habit of peeking her head into Megan’s bedroom to check on her. Stirring in bed would draw her mother’s attention. Something tonight, more than any other,
Megan needed to avoid. It would take two hours for Livia to make the drive from Raleigh, but Megan knew she couldn’t stay still for long. It would be impossible to tolerate the throbbing in her carotid artery for much longer.

  It had come to her. She had solved the last year of her life. The tumultuous fourteen months that had unfolded since the moment she saw Mr. Steinman’s headlights on Highway 57 and sat in his car. More than a year of mystery had stretched along the road of her life since then, and now she finally had things straight. With her revelation, though, came an irrational fear that the secrets she had discovered buried in her mind would be broadcast to the world. That if she spent one more day attempting to tie up the details, her discovery would spill for the world to see and it would be too late. She thought of the girls Livia had discovered—Nancy and Paula—and the others who might still be out there. A nauseous ache turned her stomach. She couldn’t risk waiting. It had to be tonight.

  Forty-five minutes passed before the pulsing in her neck grew too great to bear. She considered briefly that her catharsis might be causing a panic attack. But Megan knew the throbbing vessels and beading perspiration were her sympathetic nervous system telling her to move. Her mind was preparing her body for fight or flight, and there was no one in her house to fight. So she ran.

  Megan stuck three pillows under her covers for anyone who might check on her tonight, snaked into a pair of jeans, and dropped her phone into her pocket. She was careful when she slipped out the back door, took the stairs with silent steps, glided across the back lawn and into the night. Solving the mystery of her life had not answered all her questions. Why this had happened to her she couldn’t quite figure. But her dream the other night, when she saw Livia in the window of the commuter train as it blurred past the cellar window, told her that no one else could help tonight. She needed Livia.

  Megan made it to the intersection with more than forty minutes to spare before Livia would arrive. She stood in the shadows and tried to breathe. Tried to push from her mind the thought that with each minute that passed, the monster would learn of her discovery.

  CHAPTER 46

  August 2016

  The Night of the Abduction

  She endured three hours of tedium while she waited. She talked with people she had no interest in, and laughed at stupid high school humor she’d long grown bored of. She watched Matt deliberately ignore her, and listened to Megan giggle in her fake voice whenever Matt uttered a word. On a normal night, it would have been too much to handle. But tonight was anything but normal. Tonight was special. Epic, even.

  She stood with Rachel and Jessica around the bonfire and pretended to drink beer. Pretended to be interested in them. Pretended to care which college everyone was off to in the fall. Her phone vibrated in her pocket and she quickly grabbed it.

  Finally, Casey was ready.

  CHAPTER 47

  November 2017

  Fourteen Months Since Megan’s Escape

  It was approaching midnight when Livia pulled to the intersection and saw Megan standing in the shadows of a building. The streetlight painted her face when she walked from the alcove, and even from such a distance Livia recognized the difference. When Megan climbed into the passenger seat, the dim glow of the car’s dome light confirmed the startling transformation. More than two weeks had passed since they were last together, when Megan had squeezed Livia’s hand in her father’s office after he agreed to help them. Back then, Megan’s eyes were filled with hope and elation. Now, Livia noticed vacant and wandering eyes, heavy with burden.

  “What’s wrong?” Livia asked.

  Megan shook her head. “I know where he kept me. I figured it out.”

  Livia took a moment to decipher Megan’s words. “The bunker?”

  “Before that. I know where he kept me during those two weeks. The cellar. I need to go there, Livia. I need you to take me.”

  Parked on the side of a deserted road, dark and quiet in the middle of the night, Livia understood something cathartic was happening. She realized suddenly this girl’s frailty, and she felt the heavy responsibility of Megan’s well-being on her shoulders.

  “Maybe we should talk to your dad, Megan. He told me you were having trouble with all this.”

  “No. Only you.”

  From her short stint through psych rotations during her internship year, Livia was familiar with different states of psychosis. She was certain Megan was in one now. “Maybe we should call Dr. Mattingly. Let him know about this.”

  Megan shook her head in the darkened car, then turned and looked at Livia. “Please, Livia. Take me there. Help me.”

  Livia stared at Megan, and in that moment another metamorphosis took place. Megan was no longer the girl who went to school with Nicole. She was no longer the other girl who had been taken that night. Megan was, in that moment, a friend who needed help. “Okay.” Livia put the car into gear. “Where are we going?”

  “West Bay.” Megan shook her head in disbelief. “It’s not far. Not far at all.”

  CHAPTER 48

  August 2016

  The Night of the Abduction

  Casey drove a rusted-out Buick Regal he kept covered and stowed in a storage unit in West Bay. He drove this car when he took the girls. The last time he put miles on it was when he journeyed to Virginia the previous year to steal Nancy Dee. Now tonight, nearly a year later, it came from storage once again. His insides exploded with fear and excitement.

  Tonight was as exposed as he’d ever been, planning a take in Emerson Bay. But he was sure, with the ease of the others as reference, that he could pull it off. It was the perfect way to lure Nicole into his world. The perfect way to introduce her to the thrill. Their pasts were too similar for her to be without the same needs as he. So when Nicole came up with the idea to scare one of her classmates by enlisting Casey to take her and dump her in the shed behind Coleman’s, he immediately understood the opportunity. He scratched his original plan to take the girl who worked at the high school three times a week—the girl named Stacey Morgan—who so perfectly fit the description of the latest request. He abandoned that original plan because even more perfect was the opportunity to bring Nicole to his dark and wondrous world. It was a world in which she would thrive, and he needed her there. He had unexpectedly fallen under her spell this summer. She was his perfect match, his exquisite accomplice.

  He’d take Nicole’s classmate where he’d taken the others. Deliver her to the cellar under heavy sedation, the same way he’d delivered the others. He’d show Nicole his methods tonight. He’d show her his work and watch the reaction in her face and in her eyes and in the black pond that also made up her soul, so similar to his. Watch her transformation. And then, sometime in the future, when another request came, he would not be alone in his dark world but accompanied by the only person who understood him.

  He pulled now into the parking lot. He wore the clothes Nicole had purchased from the Goodwill store, receipt-less clothing and shoes that would leave untraceable fibers and prints. He heard music coming from the beach, and voices from the group of people gathered around the bonfire. He parked across from the Jeep Wrangler, his headlights bright against the spare tire on the back. He turned off the lights and waited. His heart was going at a good clip and he found he was more excited than normal. It took fifteen minutes before Nicole’s text came. Casey pulled the burlap sack from the seat next to him, and grabbed the plastic zip ties. He scanned the parking lot to make sure he was alone. There was a pair of Porta-Potties off to the corner, which had been vacant for the past five minutes after three girls left them.

  From the beach entrance, Casey watched the girl walk into the parking lot. She headed to the Jeep Wrangler and opened the driver’s-side door. With the burlap sack and zip ties in hand, Casey started the engine, his headlights washing Megan McDonald and her Jeep in a blinding white glow. She shielded her eyes from the high beams and never saw him coming until the headlights disappeared as the burlap covered her head.

>   CHAPTER 49

  November 2017

  Fourteen Months Since Megan’s Escape

  It took half an hour to drive into West Bay. Megan gave directions from memory and Livia got the impression that while she busied herself this past week in the morgue, Megan, too, had been hard at work. The last few days had yielded a great discovery, and Megan was willing to share it with no one but Livia.

  “Here,” Megan said, leaning forward in her seat to gauge her location. “Pull over here.”

  Livia did so, pulling to the shoulder outside an undeveloped subdivision. Two red-brick posts stood next to each other, a long slab of pine hanging between them. Engraved in the wood and brightened by the lone remaining spotlight from three originals was the name of the subdivision: STELLAR HEIGHTS.

  Livia pulled to the shoulder in the same spot Megan had skidded her car to a stop the other day when she fled Dr. Mattingly’s office. She listened to Megan tell the history of this abandoned development.

  “Erected during the housing bubble,” Megan said, “Stellar Heights was meant to be the western expansion of East Bay. Big homes, wraparound porches, long half-circle driveways. So in came the bulldozers and pavers and back fillers. Up went this giant berm.”