by Lynn Bohart
“Damn! What the hell?” Monty yelled. He backed up so fast he fell on his butt.
“It’s got to be some kind of trick,” Roy said, also backing up, but staring wild-eyed at the apparition.
Elizabeth continued to glisten in the darkness, her white night dress flowing around her in unearthly splendor. And then she even surprised me; she suddenly threw her arms out to the side and emitted a bone-chilling cry that turned my body cold.
“Shit!” Monty yelled, backing up again.
“Shit!” I murmured.
Monty began firing at Elizabeth. Instinctively, I ducked, but the bullets went wide, clipping off pieces of the barn. When the gun’s magazine was spent, he threw the weapon at her, but of course, it passed right through her.
He watched it happen and scrambled to his feet.
“Let’s get outta’ here,” Roy yelled.
The two men turned and ran back up the gulley and disappeared.
I slid to the floor, tears of relief springing to my eyes. When I looked up, Blair was leaning against the barn door, her body slack with exhaustion.
Before we could speak, Elizabeth appeared at the barn door again, her image flickering in the shadows. She glanced at me, and then darted back to Amy. She reached down to brush her ghostly fingers across the girl’s forehead, then leaned in to give her a kiss before her gossamer image faded and was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Once the excitement was over, my cell phone jingled Rock Around the Clock. I answered and immediately put my mom on speaker.
“Thank you, Mom,” I said, choking up. “What would I do without you?”
“A question I ask myself often. But it feels like the danger is gone. Are you okay?”
“We’re fine. I assume you were responsible for the fireworks display.”
“Yes. But you really need to stop doing this, Julia.”
“What do you mean?”
“Getting involved with bad people. What happened to the nice, quiet girl who liked baking and arts and crafts projects?”
I chuckled, which sent a sharp pain through my ribcage. With a wince, I said, “I don’t know. She’s all grown up now and dating a cop.”
“Sounds like I’ll have to have a talk with him.”
“No!” I blurted. “No talking to David. It’s not his fault. In fact, he’d like me to live a safe and orderly life. I just keep running into these things.”
“All right, Button. I’ve gotta go. Stay safe.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
I hung up the phone and struggled to move over to where Amy was still slumped against a hay bale. I dropped down next to her.
“So what do we do now?” I called over to Blair.
Blair came over and sat on the hay bale next to Amy. “I say we stay here tonight.”
“Don’t you think they’ll be back?”
“Would you?”
I chuckled. “I guess not. Good, because I’m exhausted. And my ribs are killing me.”
“Sorry, I didn’t even ask. What happened?”
“I hit a rock when we rolled down the hill. I think I cracked a rib.”
“Oh, jeez. A cracked tooth and now a rib. I’m sorry, Julia.”
“Well, what about you? How’s your wrist?”
She lifted her right arm with the blood-streaked tank top wrapped around it. “I think it’s okay. It might need some stitches, though.” She dropped her hand again. “Why don’t you sleep first? I’ll keep watch.”
“No, I can stay awake.” I was completely lying.
Blair smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine for a while. I can keep an eye on Amy. Hand me your phone, and I’ll wake you in a couple of hours. Just don’t snore. If they come back, we don’t want them to hear us.”
“Very funny. Thank God for Elizabeth, though. I sure like having my own Seal Team 6.”
“No kidding,” Blair agreed.
I handed over my phone. “You know, I include you in that metaphor. You really do rock, Blair.”
She smiled. “Thanks. Now get some sleep.”
I curled up on the ground between two bales of hay, confident that Elizabeth and my mother would watch over us. I was asleep within minutes.
÷
Blair woke me several hours later. I had to pry my eyes open, but willingly took my turn holding vigil.
It was chilly in the barn that early in the morning. The humidity had lifted, and I had to wrap my arms around myself to keep warm. I glanced over at Amy, glad I had grabbed Eva’s hoodie and put her into it.
As the night turned into early morning, rodents and small animals rustled in the walls of the barn or in the bushes outside. Every time I heard a noise, I flinched, visualizing a pack of wolves circling the barn, or Monty and Roy returning to finish the job. The aroma of the decaying hay was oddly relaxing though, and I kept nodding off. I had to pinch myself every so often to keep awake.
I decided to use the time to think about Rudy and the others. What were they doing? Were they okay and looking for us?
Finally, David’s image floated into my mind, and I felt wrapped in his loving embrace. The mere thought of him warmed my insides. I only hoped I’d make it out of this alive so I could finally express my own affection for him, as he had for me. Yes, I would take that chance. After all, Jake was eye candy, but David was French chocolate, and everyone knows how much I love chocolate.
Eventually, the sun sent rays of light through the windows to reveal discarded farm equipment, rat-infested grain sacks, and horse tack scattered around the barn. Outside, a pair of crows began an argument, breaking the early morning silence. When Amy stirred and opened her eyes, I sat up.
“Amy, are you okay?”
She turned bleary eyes my way, and her face contorted with confusion and fear. “Where am I?”
“We rescued you,” I said, nodding toward Blair.
Blair woke when she heard voices and sat up. She shook her head and rubbed her temples.
“Morning,” she mumbled.
“Who are you?” Amy asked, glancing back and forth between us.
Amy’s face was pale, and there were scratches and bruises across both cheeks and down her legs. The dark eyes that would normally look at life with the optimism of a teenager were dull and lifeless.
“My name is Julia. This is Blair. I saw you in the window back at that campground, and we’ve been following the people who abducted you ever since.”
She shook her head as if to clear it and placed her hands on her forehead with a look of pain on her face. “My head’s so fuzzy. They kept drugging me.”
“We know. It should wear off quickly now,” I said. “You are Amy Owens aren’t you?” When she nodded, I asked, “Do you know who they are, the people who took you?”
“No,” she said. “One of them grabbed me from behind when I got out of my car and threatened to shoot me if I tried to run. I never got a good look at him. They stuck a needle in my arm almost immediately.”
Tears began to roll down her cheeks at the memory. I threw my arm around her shoulders. “It’s okay. We’ve got you now.”
“But we need to get out of here and back to our friends,” Blair said. She took a deep breath and rose, dusting off her jeans. I noticed her teeter slightly.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” she replied. She took the blood-stained tank top off from around her arm and dropped it onto a hay bale.
“How does it feel?” I asked her.
She studied the long, ugly incision on her forearm. “I don’t think it’s that deep. At least it stopped bleeding.”
I climbed to my feet, holding my ribs. “Okay. I’ve got to pee. I’ll be right back.”
I grabbed the pack of Kleenex out of my coat pocket and found a broken-down farm wagon a few feet away. When I came back, I offered the Kleenex to the others. They each took their turn, and then we left the safety of the barn and went to the stream to wash our hands.
There was a low-lying fog in the glen, but
the sun was already beginning to break through. We took drinks of the fresh creek water and then Blair splashed water on her arm to wash off the blood. She dried it gently against her jeans.
Again, I watched her take a deep, cleansing breath. Her face was drawn and pale and most of her makeup was gone. Though still pretty, she looked profoundly tired.
“You don’t look so good, Blair. You need something to eat.”
“I’ll be okay,” she said. “You don’t still have the knife Amelia gave you, do you?”
“Yes,” I said. I reached into my jacket and pulled it out. “How will that help us?”
She took it from me. “The compass. Remember that map we looked at? There was a town called Gateway just north of the lake.”
While Blair held the small knife with the tiny embedded compass, I tried my phone again. Still no bars. Blair rotated her body until she was facing north.
“That way,” she said pointing forward.
A dirt road wrapped around the run-down cabin and extended away from us. She started forward, faltered and almost fell. I reached out and grabbed her.
“Blair! Sit down a minute.”
I helped her lower herself onto a log.
She gave me a less-than-reassuring look. “I’m okay. We’ve got to go.”
“Wait,” I said, reaching into my other jacket pocket. I’d remembered the Snickers bar I’d bought at the gas station so many hours before. “It won’t fill you up, but it will help.”
I handed it to Blair, who ripped it open and bit off a third of it. When she swallowed, a sense of relief played across her face. She tried to hand it back.
“No. You finish it.” I turned to Amy. “You okay with that? She’s a diabetic. She needs to eat.”
Amy was staring longingly at the candy bar in Blair’s hand, but she glanced at me. “Of course. I’ll be fine.”
I turned back to Blair. “Eat.”
She gave me a grateful look and finished the candy bar. As the color returned to her face, she got unsteadily to her feet.
“C’mon. Let’s get out of here.”
We avoided the road, just in case Monty and Roy decided to come back. Instead, we followed another deer path up the valley. It was much easier traveling without having to drag Amy, although she, too, wasn’t too steady on her feet. Once she even had to stop because she felt like she was going to throw up. I assume it was the drugs. Blair took the opportunity to rest with her.
“How are you feeling?” I asked her.
A brief smile flickered across her face. “Much better. But I’ll have to eat some real food soon.”
“Then let’s keep going.”
Overnight, the pain in my ribs had spread to my back, which made each step difficult. Still, we made good time.
We followed the deer path through the glen and then back into a forest of pine trees and undergrowth. Rabbits scuttled across the path as we trudged along, and birds twittered in the trees above us. Despite the fear and anxiety from the night before, the morning felt invigorating.
An hour into our trek, we approached a steep hill. I stood back, looking up at it. “God, I hope we don’t have to climb that.”
Blair checked the compass. “Yeah, I think we do. Hopefully, it’s the last leg of our trip, though.”
I took the deepest sigh I could without generating pain, and said, “Okay, let’s get it over with.”
We began the climb, doing switchbacks as we went. My labored breathing made me stop twice, and a couple of times I had to use low branches from small trees to pull myself up. A couple of times my foot slipped, giving me a start. But I retained my footing, leaned forward and kept going.
Two-thirds of the way to the top, my foot skidded out from under me, and I nearly tumbled backwards. Amy grabbed my hand and stopped me from falling. As a cloud of dust rose around me, she pulled me forward, supporting me the last fifty yards.
By the time we’d made it to the top, I was done. I’d never thought I was out of shape, but this experience had me pledging to start an exercise program as soon as I got back home.
Blair also looked more weathered than I’d ever seen her. Her face was pink from exertion and glistened with sweat.
“You two rest. Let me do some checking around,” she said, taking deep breaths. “I’ll be right back.” She disappeared down another small trail.
“She’s pretty amazing,” Amy said, watching Blair’s disappearing figure.
“You have no idea.”
I found a fallen log and sat down, deciding to use the time to learn a little more about the girl we’d risked our lives to save.
“They didn’t hurt you, did they?” I asked carefully.
“You mean sexually?” she asked in alarm. “No. At least, I don’t think so.” She sat next to me, reflecting a moment on her imprisonment. “No. I don’t remember anything like that. I remember a woman, though. She would move me around, feed me and take me to the bathroom.” Her pale face twisted in disgust. “She treated me almost like a baby.” She smelled her armpits through the hoodie. “Ugh. I need a bath.”
I smiled. “She was a nurse. I think that’s why they recruited her. They promised her she’d make a lot of money.”
She nodded. “That sounds right. She’s the one who kept giving me the shots.” Amy automatically reached over to rub the inside of her left elbow. “I still feel kind of…I don’t know, disembodied. Do you know why they took me?”
I shook my head. “No. It has something to do with your father, though. We overheard them say he was being uncooperative. Do you know what that would mean?”
She flinched as if she’d been slapped. “Uncooperative?”
“Yes. That’s what one of them said.”
Her eyes blinked away tears. “No,” she said. “I don’t know what that would mean, other than he’s pretty powerful in the Senate. Maybe they want something from him politically.”
Her initial reaction made me wonder what her relationship was like with her father. From what I knew of him, he didn’t seem like a warm and cuddly guy.
“The police thought maybe your boyfriend, Dylan, had something to do with it.”
Her eyes got as big as saucers. “Dylan? No way. We broke up that night, and he was pretty upset. But he’s basically a good guy. And he’s a pacifist.”
“I’m sure they found that out,” I said. “You have no idea who might be connected to this? How about your stepfather?”
“My stepfather?” she said, obviously offended. “Why do you ask that?”
I realized I had to tread lightly. “Only that one of the men who took you looks just like him. Does your stepfather have a brother?”
“Um…yeah. Martin. But…he’d never do anything like this.”
“Are you sure? Are either one of them in any financial trouble?”
She thought a moment. “I don’t think so. Martin lives in Los Angeles. He owns a bar down there. And my stepfather has a construction company.”
The sound of a footfall made us both look up. Blair appeared on the trail. A smile lit up her tired and worn face.
“I see buildings at the bottom of the hill. I’m pretty sure it’s the town of Gateway. Julia, check to see if your phone works now.”
I pulled my phone out and swiped it on. “Hallelujah!” I exclaimed. I dialed Doe’s number and was ecstatic when she answered.
“Julia? Where are you? We’ve been worried sick.”
“We’re okay!”
“Oh, my God. They’re okay,” she cried out to the others. “Where are you?”
“Wait. Here’s Blair.”
I handed the phone to Blair.
“Get the atlas out,” she said. “Look just north of the lake. There’s a small town called Gateway. We’re on a hill just above it. We’ll call back when we get to the bottom. Meet us there.”
Blair hung up the phone and handed it back to me. “C’mon. I need a cup of coffee and a very large omelet.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I
t took us ten minutes to travel across the top of the hill and another ten to safely descend it. It was steep and slippery in places. As is often the case, going down felt harder than climbing up. My calves burned and each step put pressure on my sore ribs.
Once again, Amy came to my rescue when I slipped and almost fell, swirling up a cloud of dust. She grabbed my arm to steady me and then held onto me the rest of the way down. Once we’d made it to the bottom, she had to pause.
“You okay?” I asked her.
Her face seemed even paler than before.
“Yes,” she said with a deep breath. “I just don’t feel so good.”
“C’mon. You’ll feel better when we can get you something to eat.”
It took another few minutes to wade through scrub brush and dry grass to reach the first outlying metal building.
We came up along the side of it and emerged into a space at the back of a boat shop. The three of us crossed through an alley littered with old boat wheels, a few empty steel barrels, and some rusting outboard motor parts, before we made it onto the main street of the small town of Gateway.
Our small band of travelers stood there for a moment, soaking it in.
We were safe.
“There,” I said, pointing across the street.
A small café with red-checkered curtains in the windows sat next to a gas station. We hurried across the nearly empty street and entered the restaurant.
Several sets of eyes glanced our way when we came through the door. We must have looked like something out of a Tolkien novel. After all, we were covered in dirt, scratches and bruises.
The clock on the far wall said 7:15. We took a large table in the back and gratefully sat down, ignoring a few brief sneers at our appearance. I pulled out my phone and called Doe again, telling her where we were.
“Be sure to bring my purse. Because we’re ordering breakfast.”
“Okay,” she said. “Rudy thinks it will be a half hour or so before we get there.”
I tried straightening my hair and found a piece of straw buried near the crown of my head. I pulled it out and threw it on the floor just as a young waitress arrived. She glanced at it and then said, “What would you like?”