“Back up. What did Ben say?”
“He said I had to find you. That you’re in danger and to stay away from a man named Duke.”
“Let me see your phone,” Julia said.
“I’d show you, but it wouldn’t make a difference. The number Ben called me from, it came up as ‘unknown.’ I called AT&T to try and get an actual name or number, but they said they couldn’t give it to me.”
“Your story is bogus. If my brother were still alive, he would’ve contacted me directly, and he would’ve done it years ago.”
“He told me you’d think that. But Ben said he could never reach out to you, no matter how much he wanted to, because it would’ve gotten you killed. I have a message I’m supposed to give you from Ben. He said to stay away from Duke, no matter what, that Duke is dangerous and was behind his abduction. Who is this ‘Duke’ person?”
“It doesn’t matter. Why would Ben contact you?”
“I’m not sure. But I think he might not have had anyone else from his past that he could reach out to here, and I owed him for what happened at the house.”
“What house?” Julia asked.
“The house in the woods. We were both abducted and held there.”
“Give me proof.”
“I did. I gave you the bracelet. Ben gave it to you on your seventh birthday. Come on. Stop treating me like I’m a liar.”
A pounding sounded from the other side of the men’s-room door.
“It’s occupied, and I’m going to be here for a while,” Julia said, and then turned back to Phoenix, who was shifting nervously on his feet, back and forth, next to the hand dryer mounted on the wall. “Where was this place you’re claiming my brother was?”
“I don’t know. I was just a kid. But I heard some of the other people who were trapped there talking, and they said it was like a halfway house before we got moved. I wound up there because I made a big mistake. I was a foster kid. I was eight and had this crazy idea that I was going to find my birth mom. The system took me from her because she was on drugs. There was a park up from the apartment where I was living. My foster parents didn’t care what I did, so I went there alone one day. I remember sitting on this swing, trying to figure out how I could get across town to where my mom lived. This man came up to me and asked if I wanted a ride. I thought it was my lucky day.”
“I don’t need to hear your personal story. When did you meet my brother?” Julia asked. She knew all too well that her brother was taken on Labor Day thirty years earlier, a date that was emblazoned in her mind, and expected to catch Phoenix in a lie.
“I can’t remember exactly. It was late summer and school was about to start. Maybe late August. I was at the house in the woods for about a week before Ben got there. I don’t know where the house was, but there was like thirty of us crammed in there on the first level of the place, and it was roasting hot. All the windows were boarded up. Some days, I felt like I was going to suffocate. They barely fed us. Ben, though, he told me we’d be okay. He was going to get us out of there. He was only a year older than me, but it was almost like he was an adult.”
“What did my brother look like?”
“He had dark hair like you, but his eyes were brown, not blue. His eyes kind of turned up on the ends.”
“You could’ve gotten all that from his missing person’s flyer. It ran in the news. How did my brother get away?”
“I don’t know. But I know he tried at least once. Ben promised me we would get out, but I couldn’t see how. Everything was locked, the doors, the windows, the whole place was like living in a tight tin can. And there was always at least one guard watching us. Ben and I were the youngest and the only kids. It was mostly women there. They seemed a lot older, but the females were probably just teenagers or early twenties, tops. I knew the stories of most everyone there a little bit. The majority of the girls were runaways. The only other people there were a group of illegals, Mexicans, and a family from Vietnam.”
“Good story, but I still don’t believe it.”
“Hold on. Ben talked about you all the time. He told me he had to find a way out so he could get back home to you. That’s all he cared about. He was just this little kid in a shitty place, and he probably knew something worse was about to happen, but all he could do was focus on you. God, this shit still haunts my dreams. There was this weird man who would come by every morning, an old guy with a bent cane, and when he showed up, we were all terrified, because he’d point the end of the cane at the people he picked who were going to be moved out next.”
“Was his name Max Mueller?”
“I don’t know,” Phoenix answered. “It could have been.”
“You mentioned the guards. Was one of them a big man who looked like he was Native American?” Julia asked.
“I’m not sure. There were about six guards who watched us. They all seemed huge to me. One day, though, Ben had a plan. There was one big guy who was mostly in charge of watching us in the morning. He’d wait until the old guy with the cane picked his latest round, and the guard would take them out of the house through a garage. It was always locked. I can still hear the people crying when they got picked. When the morning guard would come back, he’d tell one of the girls he had his eye on, that he’d make sure she wasn’t sold if she’d do him a favor. Then he’d go into another room with his latest girl and would come back, like, fifteen minutes later.”
“So if your story is true, Ben saw an opening?” Julia asked.
“That’s right. He was a wicked smart kid. There was a pretty good-sized laundry chute that went downstairs. The door to the downstairs was always locked, but Ben thought he could fit down the chute. I was smaller than him, so he wanted me to go first, but I was too scared. I helped him, though. I gave Ben a hand up and he was able to lift himself into the hole. He got stuck at one point, and I was really scared, but he made it through, all the way to the bottom. I listened to him the whole way. All I could hear was him breathing at first, but then I heard Ben land, real soft, down on the other side. A couple of minutes later, the guard came back in with the girl, and it didn’t take him long to figure out one of us was missing. He threw me against the wall and started hitting me. He knew Ben and I talked, and he started beating me.”
Phoenix looked away from Julia and cast his eyes down to the floor.
“You told the guard my brother escaped,” Julia said.
“You have to understand. I was just a kid, and I didn’t have a choice. I prayed so hard that Ben would make it out, because I knew he’d bring help. But then, about twenty minutes later, the guard hauled Ben back inside. Your brother was kicking and screaming like a wild animal. Ben got locked in a room until the guy with the cane came back, and the guard asked him what he wanted to do with Ben. The guy with the cane, the one who was calling the shots, said to give him to the head of his security, that he didn’t want to deal with Ben anymore and his supplier wouldn’t want a kid that was going to be that much trouble. I never saw Ben again after that. I’ll be honest with you. I thought they’d killed him. I couldn’t believe it when Ben called me.”
“Why do you believe the person who called you was my brother?”
“Don’t make me for stupid. I’ve served some time and you have to know when people are lying. Otherwise you won’t survive in there. I didn’t believe the caller at first, but then Ben started talking about the house and the laundry chute. He knew too many details to be conning me.”
“So you’re such a Good Samaritan, you found me out of the kindness of your heart. I’m not stupid either,” Julia said.
“I’m not going to bullshit you. I did owe Ben for turning him in to the guard, but Ben offered to pay me ten grand to find you and to give you the message.”
“If Ben had a computer, it would be pretty much impossible for him not to find me himself. You do a Google search of my name, you’ll find my byline.”
“That’s how I found you. I was following you for Ben, to be sure you weren�
�t with Duke. I sent Ben some pictures.”
“I saw the photos on your camera.”
“Look, ten grand is a lot of money for me, but I didn’t want to get killed for it. Ben said there were bad people who were going to come after you, now that this guy Duke was coming back to Detroit. I tracked you until I felt it was safe to contact you, but then I got made at the crime scene.”
“Nice story you came up with there,” Julia said.
“I scrambled for that. I had a camera in my hand, so it seemed logical.”
“You’re a hell of an actor,” Julia said.
A series of hard, persistent knocks pounded on the other side of the bathroom door again.
“Hurry up, I’ve really got to go,” the male voice from earlier called out.
“I’m not done yet,” Julia called out. “Come back later or use the ladies’ room.”
“This is bullshit. I’m finding the owner,” the man said.
“Knock yourself out,” Julia said. She looked back at Phoenix, who had his eyes glued on the lock of the bathroom door. “How did you get the bracelet?” Julia asked.
“Ben told me he grabbed it when he was taken from your house. He knew something bad was going down, and he hid you in the closet so you’d be safe. Ben said you were asleep and that the bracelet had fallen off your wrist while he was moving you in there. He still had it in his hand when he got abducted, so he held on to it. Right after he called me, Ben left the bracelet in my mailbox. I still couldn’t believe it was him when he called, so Ben said he’d give me proof.”
“Your story is thin, brother,” Julia said, but inside, she couldn’t explain away how Phoenix would have the bracelet. Julia felt a rush of excitement begin to move through her as she started to allow herself to believe the impossible: Ben was still alive. But she also knew she couldn’t be conned by someone playing on her greatest vulnerability.
“What happened to you? If your story is true, were you sold?” Julia asked.
“I was real close. I got picked one day with about eight others. They got us all together and shoved us in a van. I heard the guards saying something about St. Louis. Something was going down between the two guards who were going to take us there. They started to get into it, yelling about one of the girls, and one of the guards threw a punch at the other guy. I was the last person in and was right by the door, and it was open, just a little bit. I was small. I slipped through and ran as fast as I could into the woods. I found a road and flagged down a truck. I told the guy who picked me up that I had run away, but wanted to go home now. He drove me back to Detroit.”
“And you didn’t go to the cops?”
“No way. I was too scared. I made it back to my foster family, but I didn’t tell them what happened because I was terrified the people who took me would come back. When Ben called me, I didn’t want to get involved in this shit again, but I needed the money. Look, I’ve done my part. I gave you the warning. But now I’m out of here.”
Phoenix started to move toward the bathroom door, but Julia blocked his path.
“You need to come with me to the police. If the person who called you really is my brother, I’m going to find him, and you’re going to help me.”
“No cops. They find out who I am, I’ll go back to jail. I can’t do that,” Phoenix said as he reached into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small folding knife.
“Take it easy,” Julia said. “Put the knife down. You’re not going to get in trouble. You help me, it’s going to look good to the cops. I can tell you want to do the right thing. I’m just going to reach in my bag and call someone I trust. He’ll meet us here.”
“Don’t make me do this,” Phoenix said. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Julia dove her hand into her purse for her phone just as Phoenix charged her. She tried to pivot her body away from the knife, but Phoenix let it slide from his hand as he drove his shoulder into her rib cage.
Julia gasped as she fell to the floor and watched helplessly as Phoenix scooped up his knife and ran the length of the room to the door.
She scrambled to her feet as Phoenix hit the light switch, causing the room to go black. Julia pounded forward in the darkness and in the direction she was sure the door was located, but realized she had miscalculated when a dim sliver of blue light appeared to her far left as Phoenix Pontiac made his escape.
A piercing sound blasted through the club as a shrill whoop-whoop-whoop of a fire alarm rang out in a repeated loop overhead.
“Fire alarm, everybody get the hell out,” Julia heard the female bouncer, Rita, bark.
Julia ran out of the bathroom and searched wildly in both directions for Phoenix as the crowd of bar patrons swept her up in the wave of movement toward the front door.
Julia shoved her way forward until she reached the bouncer.
“Phoenix Pontiac, where is he?” Julia asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve got bigger problems right now. We’re over capacity by about sixty downstairs and the fire department is going to be rolling in any second. Look, I can’t be sure, but I don’t think I saw him go out front yet. Check the other exit. End of the bar, in the back. If your asshole pulled the fire alarm, tell him I’m going to hunt him down,” Rita said, and then turned back to face the bar crowd. “Let’s go, people. This is not a drill. Single file, or you’ll get your butt kicked.”
Julia looked to the rear of the bar and the red glow of the EXIT sign as she saw the back door open. She tried to push against the steady tide of patrons all moving in the opposite direction, and finally lifted herself up onto the bar to lose the crowd. Julia ran the length of the bar, dodging glasses and beer bottles, until she reached the end, where she jumped off and raced through the exit and out into the still-warm night. She heard a car door slam and sprinted as fast as she could, until she made it to the end of the alleyway to the street, where she caught a glimpse of Phoenix Pontiac’s Subaru shooting up the road doing at least ninety, and then taking a fast corner before it disappeared from her sight.
CHAPTER 16
The man had been driving the desolate, dark back roads for what seemed like forever since he had exited the highway. It was just past midnight, about the same time he had almost hit the boy who had run out in the middle of the road, the child had been waving his hands wildly and blinking against the oncoming headlights thirty years earlier.
The driver slowed down when he thought he’d reached the spot where he had picked up the boy. He had heard the child fighting hard to catch his breath after he had opened the window to see if the boy was all right. The sight of the child, alone in the middle of the night, so small and terrified, had stunned him. But there had been a determination that seemed to emanate from the child that made him appear far older than his scant years.
The boy was dirty and barefoot and practically dove into the passenger seat after the man had opened the door for him.
(“Go! Please, mister! Drive away, now!”)
The man’s car eased past the spot where the road forked. If he had gone to the left that night, instead of taking a right, which, after all, would have been the practical thing to do, since it would have cut his ride short by ten minutes, he would have never seen the child.
The man pulled the car over to the side of the road and got out, listening to the magnetic hum of hidden insects that sought refuge in the thickets of the deep woods that stretched for a good twenty miles in the rural area of Macomb County, an hour north of Detroit.
It had been a fluke that he had come across the boy. But he knew destiny sometimes had a much different calling card than the one you thought you picked for yourself.
“My God, are you okay, son?” he asked the child, who was trembling and had hunched down as low as he could in the seat.
The boy’s face was filthy, caked with dirt and with smears that ran down the length of his cheeks that the man realized must have come from the child’s tears.
“I’m okay now. Please. I need to get hom
e to my sister. She’s in danger. Can you help me?”
“You’re safe. I promise. What’s your name?”
“Ben. Ben Gooden.”
The man looked up at the brilliant canvas of the country sky and the stars that shone like a million desperately hoped-for wishes and knew that real good men always did the right thing, no matter the personal cost.
CHAPTER 17
The red numbers of the digital clock shone harsh and glaring against Julia’s still-dark bedroom like watchful eyes, reminding Julia she would never fall asleep. Six AM and there was no point trying to sleep anymore, especially since Julia had spent the majority of the previous late night into the wee hours of the fresh morning staring at her ceiling, trying to make sense of everything.
A pair of little boy’s feet jammed against Julia’s back and she looked over at Will, who was sprawled lengthwise across the bed and was snoring softly. Logan was manning the bottom of the bed, curled up in a ball, but with one arm dangled over the side. He was positioned even in sleep near his Little League baseball bat, which he had insisted on keeping near him despite Julia’s promises that he and the rest of their family were safe. Julia closed her eyes as the feeling of overwhelming frustration engulfed her. She had been so close to something the night before, closer than she’d ever been, but she had ultimately failed in the worst possible way, by letting Phoenix Pontiac get away from her again.
Having nowhere else to go, she had returned home, where she’d found both little boys in her bed. Will was sleeping and Logan was standing guard by his brother. During the night, Julia’s eyes had drifted down to her oldest son to see him returning her gaze, both mother and son consumed by worries that would not allow sleep to come for either of them.
Julia crept out of bed and made her way into the bathroom. She splashed cold water on her face and pulled on a pair of running shorts and a tank top. She tried to be quiet as she moved past Helen’s bedroom and stopped when she reached the living room, expecting to see Navarro asleep on the couch, but he was in the kitchen already with a fresh pot of coffee.
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