by Barb Shuler
“Dani Lynn?” I paused again trying to catch my breath, my heart thrumming so hard my chest hurt. “Baby, is that you?”
“If I had known I was going to get that kind of a greeting I would have called you sooner,” the voice sang out across the line.
“Who is this?” There was a cackle in my ear. “Nicole?!” I hissed before continuing, “What have you done with her?” I could feel my hands shaking as the anger I had been holding inside for the last week started to bubble up. My voice was laced with hatred for this so called sister of mine. “Answer me, dammit. Where is she?”
“Now, now, there is no need to get testy. I just thought you should know we ran away together. Your precious, sweet innocent Dani Lynn isn’t so innocent. Well, not anymore that is...”
“Nicole, so help me God… I will rip your heart out with my bare hands!”
Manic laughter filled my ear as I pulled away from Jackson. He was not taking this phone from me. “Oh, that sounds fun...maybe not as much fun as Dani Lynn and I had last night, though. Nope, she was screaming... for me… all night long.”
I could hear people talking around me but nothing registered. I had to find them. Now! I turned to see Gabe rushing towards me. He took the phone from me as Jackson tugged at my arm again. He was talking but I couldn’t hear him. My heart was pounding out a beat that my breaths tried to keep up with. My ears were full of it. Thump, thump, thump. How could it keep beating without her? My fist flew out at the window of the patrol car I was passing and nothing... I felt nothing. I hit it again and again before the crash. The glass shattered into the driver’s side of the car before I was tackled to the ground. Jackson was yelling at me, but I heard nothing.
I don’t know how long I laid there before I blinked and pushed Jackson off of me. All eyes were on me and I moved back towards the car door. I was done playing games. Someone was going to track down that damn phone signal if I had to beat them until they did it. Jackson grabbed my arm and my reflexes kicked in. I swung. My fist connected with his jaw before I could stop it. He didn’t say anything he just looked at me, and then pulled me to him. His arms held me like I was a child.
“We’ll find her. I promise you. We will find her.”
I could hear the sadness in his voice through the anger that shone in his eyes. He was my twin, he felt what I felt. It’s why I couldn’t keep my life with Dani Lynn a secret. After a few minutes Gabe came over and checked on me, handing me back my phone.
“She may call back; make sure... to keep that phone on.”
His eyes moved to my hand and I shook it off. Blood was running down my fingers, and the pain was slowly starting to move up them and into my hand. I was moved to sit at a table we had set up and let the EMT’s that were dispatched out check my hand. I would have to go to the hospital and have a few stitches, but it could wait. Or so I thought. I was escorted to the ER. Seen, stitched up, wrapped up and released. I was told to go back home, but yeah, that wasn’t happening.
I went back to the command center, but not the one out at the main hall where we had been set up. I walked into the police station and moved to my desk. There was a kid we had ‘arrested’ a few months back that may be able to help me. He was released and only fined for breaking into the school's computer system and changing his friend’s grades. He was a real nerd with a computer, but he may be the only way to find Dani Lynn. It was worth a shot at least. Right?
Pulling up the computer I typed in “hackers” in the folder search bar and pulled up the profiles in that were in our system. As the next screen pulled up I spotted him. Derek Morris. Morris… old lady Morris’s grandson. Now I remembered. He’d been busted for changing a few classmates’ grades as payback for them being asshats to him. He was who I needed to help me find Dani Lynn. I hurried out to my Jeep and hopped in. My hand was throbbing, but the pain for now would have to wait. I had to focus. In order to do that it meant no pain meds. I didn’t deserve them anyhow. I only had myself to blame for letting Nicole get to me like she had.
When I pulled up at the Morris house I took a deep breath. It was like going back to a murder scene. Dani Lynn’s house sat across the street. Staring at me. Taunting me. I slipped out of my Jeep and made my way up the sidewalk and to the door. I knocked and waited. When Derek opened the door and saw me he took off running through the house. Bastard kids. I jumped off the porch and ran around to the back of the house. When he jumped off the porch I tackled him and moved to straddle him, pinning him down so he would stop fighting me. I grunted as the pain in my hand raged like a fucking inferno from the extra movements.
“Derek! Stop fighting me, you idiot!”
“I didn’t do it. Get off of me!” his voice was panicked.
“Then why did you run?”
“I don’t know.”
I stood up and pulled him up by his shirt and glared at him. “Why are you running from me?”
“I-I don’t know.”
“Dumb ass kid,” I muttered as I shoved him - not so gently - onto the stairs that he had just jumped off of. I’d feel bad about that later. “You, my friend, are a liar, but I don’t care what you did, this time. I need your help.” He tilted his head and glared at me. His bony arms crossed and I folded mine over my chest. His stubbornness seemed to fade until he finally unfolded his arms and said, “Fine.”
“Come with me.” It wasn’t really a question, so I didn’t wait for an answer before I started walking off. It wasn’t as if he could hide from me. If he ran I would chase him down and make him bleed. It was as simple as that.
“Where to?” He shifted on his feet. “You didn’t have to be so rough, ya know. I’m an easy guy to get along with.”
“You ran. A cop’s first instinct is to chase…” I said as I shrugged a shoulder.
“Like a dog chases a bone?”
I turned around, stopping just past my Jeep. He stepped back, his eyes wide, the shit eating grin falling from his face. His back hit the Jeep as I spoke through gritted teeth. “Careful, kid… I can break you in one move.”
I stared at him for a few minutes and then stalked off back toward Dani Lynn’s house. Maybe there were more clues in there we missed before. He better be glad he was just a fucking kid. I was in no mood to be pleasant to anyone, let alone some smart ass, pimpled face geek. As I approached her walkway I looked back over my shoulder and yelled.
“You coming, or do ya need to clean out ya drawers?” I smirked as I moved up the walkway to Dani Lynn’s front door.
HIM
Seems my work is never done. From my hiding spot I watch them scurry around like rats in a maze. Looking, searching but coming up empty on every avenue. Smirking to myself I lean back, enjoying the many faces of Drew. Angry. Hurt. Scared. Scared he was. Yes. I could see the panic as he and that child searched through the library and now through Dani Lynn’s bedroom. He would only find what I planted in there after she was gone. Nothing to point at me, but plenty to point at the ‘crazy’ girl.
Nicole was an easy scapegoat. So eager to get her paws on Dani Lynn. She could have her, but only once I’ve had my time with her. I knew how Gabriel and Drew worked. They’d be so distraught over their precious girl being mishandled by Nicole that they would take care of that loose end for me. All of the years I put into her have paid off, finally. I didn’t need her anymore. She could be disposed of, just as Abbie was when she refused to do what I asked her to do. This is all her fault. If she had given in, her daughter wouldn’t be in my clutches. She wouldn’t be suffering.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Fear Takes Over
Drew
I HAD SPENT most of the night going through the notebooks, books, and bookcases, searching for anything that would give me any clue as to where Dani Lynn was. Nicole had to have had a reason to take her. It wasn’t a ‘moment of insanity’. No, not with that one. I turned around and moved down the hall when Derek called my name.
“Look, Ms. Dani Lynn has another lapto
p under her bed. That’s kinda strange, don’t ya think? It was in this box....” He gestured to the box on the bed and I looked at him as his fingers went to typing.
I could see the concentration in his eyes as I moved to sit on the bed and started looking through the box on the bed. It looked like letters from fans to the publishing company and to Dani Lynn herself. I ran my thumb over her writing on the outside of the envelopes where it said ‘Returned correspondence’ with the date she sent it back. That’s my girl. Always so polite to write a thank you back to anyone that sent her anything. Digging down to the bottom of the box I found a brown bag. It was heavy, so I pulled out. Opening it up I found a stack of notes, or letters - I wasn't sure yet as they were banded together. There was no writing on them besides Dani Lynn’s name and address at the publishing company.
I looked through the rest of the box and I didn’t really see anything odd except the stack of cards and letters I laid on the bed by my leg. With a heavy sigh I started to look through them, untying the string that held them together. I pulled out a blue envelope. Like the others, nothing was written on it besides Dani Lynn’s address. I opened the card and closed it immediately. I had to take a deep breath as I read over what it said.
Dani -Lynn,
You are meant to be with someone who can caress the worry from your body each night. Why won’t you let that be me? I am your biggest fan. You have no need to worry. I will be watching you. If you fall, I will carry you home with me.
xoxoxoxo
I crumpled the note card in my hand and got up from the bed. That serial killer handwriting belonged to Nicole. Why didn’t she tell me about these? Did Katie know? If she did she would have told me, right? I let out a puff of air and when I turned Derek was staring at me, the look on his face made me stop dead still. It was as if the color had been drained out of it.
“What?” I asked as he sat still and stared at me, silently. “Derek, what is it?”
I moved to the bed and when he looked up at me and then down at the laptop I pulled it from his lap. It was Dani Lynn’s email. It was full, but there were a few deleted messages that made the skin on the back of my neck stand up. I flopped down on the bed and scanned the messages. They were more than love letters, they were... beyond disturbing. If I hadn’t known better… or hoped I knew better, I would think that they looked like some romantic kinky word porn. But with a sadistic side. One passage caught my attention, my heart thumping harder as I read it.
“Your body will feel my caresses; your moist mouth will feel the heat of mine before your body gets to reap the rewards of my sweet kisses moving down your body. Just the way I watched Drew do to you. You will feel my mouth move to your sweet wet….”
“I’m gonna rip her fucking heart out” I slammed the laptop shut and threw it back on the bed. My entire body was shaking. How would anyone see what I had done? Or what I hadn’t done for that matter? We were always discreet. Our meeting places were private. Hell, even Dani Lynn’s bedroom was on the second floor. How? I scanned the room, looking at everything very close.
“What ya looking for?”
“Nothing, just looking around. Come on, we need to take this stuff to the station. Move it.”
I walked out of the bedroom and down the hall to the stairs. Jogging down them quickly I moved through the house to the front door with the box of letters in hand. I pulled the door open to let Derek out and locked it behind me. I stayed silent until we were in my Jeep. The look on Derek’s face was confused, but I could see he was scared as well.
“Relax, kid. There is a camera or a bug in there. Someone was... or is watching her house. You think you can figure out where they were watching? Or where they are watching from?”
“Sure… may take some time.. but I can do it,” he said determined.
“Deal. Now, go tell your grandma and your mom that you are going with me and it maybe late before we get back. If they ask you what’s going on, tell them it’s official police business and I will explain it to them later.”
About a half hour later we were back at the station house, as was everyone else. Gabe wasn’t too happy that I enlisted a kid in my searching, but this kid could hack circles around the ass-hats the FBI sent over. And I’m sorry, but when it came to Dani Lynn, nothing was going to keep me from finding her.
“Alright kid. Here’s your burger, fries and vanilla shake, as promised. You find anything yet?”
As soon as I sat the bag down the kid dug into it like he hadn’t eaten in a week. I shook my head and let him get a few bites in, sitting on the corner of the desk as he pointed at the screen. I nodded, seeing the map he had up. It kept getting lines going all sorts of directions on it. Nothing solid or straight forward you could follow from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’. I scrubbed my hands over my face and sighed.
“Does that mean what I think it does?”
“If...” he swallowed again and I shook my head. “If you think it means that signals bouncing all over the place, then yes.”
He took a few more bites and stared at the screen. Kid was too into being a nerd... or geek, whatever the appropriate word was, but it was times like this when I felt helpless that I was glad people like him were around. I moved to sit in the chair on the opposite wall and kicked my feet up on the top of the table. My head leaned back against it and I closed my eyes, letting my last image of Dani Lynn fill my eyes. Her eyes. Her perfume. Her hair curling down around her face even when she pulled it back. I shifted in the chair, getting comfortable again. I had to relax. If I didn’t get a few minutes of sleep while the kid was searching for her, she’d kick my ass when we found her. I could hear her fussing at me now about not getting enough sleep. With a small smile I drifted off to dream of my girl.
My nap was cut short when I heard yelling. My eyes opened when someone burst through the office door yelling for me. The plastic blinds on the glass slapped against the door and I glared at Jackson. “Shut up and listen,” he said cutting me off before I got started. As he took a deep breath I sat up and scrubbed my hands over my face. “Mama called. That Gentry fella that works at the station in Grove; he called Mama to see why we let Nicole travel alone. It may mean Nicole is at the homestead there.”
“Charlie!” I jumped up and grabbed my gun belt from where it laid on the desk and slipped it on. When Charlie came in I looked over at Derek. I had to stop myself for a minute and think of what was best here. “Take the kid home. Tell his grandma and mom that he was helping us with a police matter for me.”
“I’m not done; you need me to finish this!” He was determined and I nodded.
“Fine, but you finish from here. Charlie will keep an eye on ya.” I looked at Charlie. “Take him home and get him back here in the morning. Let him stay in here. When he finds where that video is going, go find it in that house and get it out of there. Call me with details. Jackson and I are headed to Grove, Oklahoma. Where is Gabe?”
I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked at Jackson. He was giving me the ‘shut up, you’re babbling’ look. I stopped and took a deep breath. Turning back to the door Gabe walked in, his hat on, shotgun slung over his shoulder and a cigarette hanging from his mouth.
“Shift your asses. The Oklahoma boys will meet us there. The chopper’s ready.”
Jackson and I walked to the gun cabinet in my office and pulled out a duffle bag, tossing in a few shotguns, ammo, flashlights and a few flares. Grove was close to the river. There were a few old farms and a lot of wilderness out there. If they were not at the homestead… there was so many places she could have taken her. Hell, for all we knew she was only passing through Grove. That thought made my heart stop and I had to take a deep breath. I followed Jackson out to the helicopter, holding my hat on my head as I got in. A few hours and hopefully I would be holding my girl in my arms. Let’s hope it was only a few hours.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Hell Has Nothing on Here
Dani Lynn
6/13/11
Day 4
DEAR DIARY,
That sounds like such an odd thing to say when you could be writing your last moments of life, but I have to get this all out. I only wish I had thought of this sooner. I’m not sure what day is going to be my last. Nicole is stalking around like a crazy person. One moment she is mean, then nice, and then she goes psycho stalker on me. I can’t take it. She is slowly sucking the life out of me. My clothes, they all sag. What little clothes I’m allowed to wear at least.
Today has been no different than any of the ones before it. I’m still here in this place, though today I am not tied to the bed; that was yesterday. I’m trying to be a ‘good girl’ today. I wish I could scrub my body with an S.O.S. pad or bathe in bleach. I want to get the feel of her against my skin off. I don’t know why things have gone so wrong.
The food I am getting is laced with something. I am not sure of what, though. It tastes no different, but after I eat I either pass out or get sick. The days or nights that I pass out I wake to find myself tied to the bed, gagged and naked. The feel of her on my skin, the way she touches me is… I don’t really think I can put it into words. It feels like there is acid on my skin, eating away at me painfully. Yet if I show emotion, other than gratitude, I am hit. Or worse yet, she will slap my bare back with a belt. I want to go home; though I see no way out of here.
I need to be wrapped up in Drew’s arms, to be held, to know that I am safe and not that I am being tortured. I have to find a way out of this house. If I stay here no one will be safe, myself included. Just one swipe of something sharp… that will end it all. But then.. I can’t do that to Drew. It’s the coward’s way out and I am far from a coward. Planning is everything. I will just have to make a plan. And a damn good one to be able to get away from her and not get caught like the first day I was here.