Captain Scowcroft frowned as he read what was in it.
“Anything we should know about, Ed?” Addison asked.
Her superior handed her the paper. “The DNA results just came through. The body you found in that house wasn’t Samantha DeVoe.”
Nine
When she awoke in the darkness, it felt like a totally different place. The cushion that she was lying in was softer, and she could sense that the room seemed bigger than before. There was a hollow echo when she cried out, which only meant that she had been moved somewhere else the moment she fell asleep. What made it even worse was when she felt there was somebody else in the dark with her. A slow steady intake of breath, so faint that only her attuned senses were able to pick it up in the lightless depths. With no other recourse, she started screaming.
In between her cries, another voice whispered in the blackness. It was calm, with a trace of weariness. “It’s no use, I tried that.”
Her lips trembled and she started to cry. She thought the endless night was her friend. But now someone else was with her. The one thing that she could count on had betrayed her at last. She pulled her knees up to her chin and hugged them. That was when she realized that she was truly alone.
“It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you,” the voice said. It sounded similar to hers, but somewhat older. “I’m just like you.”
She looked up in surprise, tears streaming down her swollen cheeks. “Wh-who … are you?”
“Does it matter?”
She bit her lip. The other girl was right. “No … I guess not.”
“He brought you over here. He told me to stay in the corner or he would hurt me again, so there was nothing I could do. I’m sorry.”
“How long have you been here?”
“About four years now, I think.”
“How … do you know?”
“He tells me. When he’s in a good mood, he's gentle.”
The very mention of the man made her angry. “I hate him.”
“Don’t let him hear you say that.”
“I know,” she said. “The first time, he really beat me.”
“Same thing happened to me.”
“Oh.”
“The best thing to do is just give in to him. Don’t fight him.”
She sighed. “Yeah, I kinda figured that too.”
“He’s got everything planned. I’ve known him for years now.”
“How old are you?”
“Now? I’m eighteen. You?”
Her birthday was less than a month ago. He even gave her a cupcake. “Thirteen.”
“Okay.”
“How old where you when he took you?”
“Fourteen. I was hitching a ride to get away from my family. You?”
She still felt ashamed about the whole thing, so she figured it was best to keep the one little secret hidden for now. She needed to make sure she could trust this other girl. “Yeah, same. I was going on twelve. I had a fight with my mom and she slapped me. I was just walking by myself beside the road, and he stopped the car and told me to get in.”
“Okay.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Did you ever try to get away?”
“There’s nowhere to go.”
“I mean, when he’s doing you, he takes … his clothes off, right? Did you try to get the keys from his pants or something?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“I know he can see in the dark.”
“Huh?”
“He can see in the dark.”
She started getting nervous. “How?”
“He sometimes wears these big long metal goggles over his eyes.”
She suddenly remembered the time he wore those things she described, when he locked her in the dark for the first time. “What? What’s that?”
“My dad showed it to me once. He’s a marine. I think they called it night vision,” the other voice said.
“Oh my god.”
“Yeah,” the other girl said. “When he was on top of me once, I just reached out to touch his face and I felt it.”
She was breathing heavily now. So that was how those things worked. The revelation that he could see in the darkness was terrifying. Tears began to flow down her cheeks once more. “Oh my god.”
There was a shuffling noise. The other girl was moving towards her. “It’s okay, be calm.”
She immediately began to move away from the voice. “Stay away from me!”
“It’s okay, I just wanted to give you something to wipe your tears with.”
“Just stay away from me, please.”
There was a sigh. “Okay, fine.”
After a short while she started to calm down. “I’m okay.”
“That’s good.”
If she wanted to escape, she needed to think clearly. She had to hide her feelings and be strong. This other girl could help. She needed a friend, someone she could trust. “I know you say our names don’t matter, but I’m going to tell you mine, it’s Sam.”
“Nice to meet you, Sam. I’m Zoe. Not that it makes any difference.”
Samantha nodded, even though she knew the other girl couldn’t see her. “Can we shake on it?”
“Okay,” Zoe said. Samantha could hear her shuffling slowly over towards her. The ceiling was low, and they both figured out that the best way to move around in the dark was to stay low, and waddle around like a duck. There were buckets lying around with their feces and urine, and she remembered the first time she had moved around in the blackness, she'd collided with the pails, knocking their stink-filled contents onto the floor. The next few days after that was awful, and when he came down he ordered her to clean it all up. From then on, Samantha always crawled or shuffled around slowly, hands out like feelers in order to make sure she didn’t knock over anything.
When she sensed she was close, Samantha held out her hand, and ended up touching the other girl’s outstretched fingers. For a long moment they clasped each other’s extremities and held it tightly.
Now Samantha had two friends. One was Zoe. The other was darkness.
Ten
When his son entered the interrogation room, Floyd Winston’s heart jumped. Keyshon was slightly taller than him, but his son’s build was somewhat thinner compared to Floyd in his younger days. Keyshon also wore thin, wire-rimmed glasses, giving him a scholarly look, at least that’s what Floyd thought anyway whenever he saw somebody like that.
The older man looked up at his son. “How did you know I was here?”
Keyshon sat down beside him. He was wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. His son’s voice was cultured, calm, and well-mannered. Keyshon’s mother raised him proper before she died of a heart attack more than two years ago. “The apartment manager called me. He wanted me to pay for the door.”
Floyd cursed. “It was those damned cops that busted the door down, they ought to pay for it.”
Keyshon shook his head. “They won’t, but it’s okay. I’ll pay for it, Daddy.”
Floyd’s lips began trembling. His son had that effect on him. “Whatever they told you, I didn’t do it, son.”
“I believe you.”
Floyd grimaced. “Then get me outta here.”
Keyshon adjusted his glasses. “I’ve called up a friend. He’s a lawyer who works for my company. He says they can hold you for up to seventy hours before they charge you.”
“They got nothing on me!”
“I’m trying to put some money together to get a good lawyer,” Keyshon said softly. “But it’s not good. You got a prior record for underage sex, and you were the last one who was in that place.”
“You know I wouldn’t have done that, Son.”
“I know that, Daddy. But you know the reason why I stopped paying for the rent back then,” Keyshon said, his voice rising. “You and your friends started making crystal meth in there.”
“How’d you know that?”
�
�I heard about it,” Keyshon said. “I didn’t tell you then, but I’m telling you now.”
Floyd put his head down. “I didn’t wanna do it, but they forced me to.”
“Who did?”
“My friends.”
“Then tell the police that!”
Floyd shook his head. “I ain’t no rat. I was many things, but never a rat.”
“Daddy, please! They gonna put you in for the rest of your life for this. You can’t give it up for those friends of yours. What did they ever do for you?”
“You just wouldn’t understand, Son,” Floyd said softly. “I know you wanted me to find a job when I got out, but nobody wanted to hire someone who spent all those years in the joint.”
“Why didn’t you say something to me? I could have helped you out.”
“You helped me out enough already,” Floyd said. “I knew I had to stand on my own two feet. I just wanted you to see that.”
“These people? Who are they?”
“Some guys I worked with at the construction company,” Floyd said softly.
“Then you gotta give their names to the cops, so you can get outta here,” Keyshon said.
“Like I told you, I can’t rat anyone out,” Floyd said.
“But if you don’t tell them, you’re the one who’s gonna be going down.”
“Is there anything you can do for me?”
Keyshon stood up. “I dunno. I’ll try. You never took that girl, right?”
“No I didn’t, son. You know I wouldn’t do that.”
Keyshon looked away. “They feeding you yet?”
“They gave me some coffee,” Floyd said calmly. “That’s it.”
Keyshon turned and made his way towards the door. “I’ll see if I can buy you something.” He turned to look at the old man while placing his hand on the doorknob. “I love you, Daddy.”
“I love you too, Son.”
Keyshon stood out in the corridor as he closed the door behind him. Standing a few feet away were the two detectives. He turned to look at them. “My daddy didn’t do it.”
Mike Arnold crossed his arms. “If he doesn’t give us a name, we'll charge him.”
Addison Draper pursed her lips. “You visited him a few times in that house, didn’t you?”
Keyshon nodded. “Yeah, I did. I never went down to the basement though.”
“Who else was there with him?”
“There was another man with him when I visited once,” Keyshon said. “A white dude. That’s all I remember.”
Mike nodded. “You remember his name?”
Keyshon tried to recall. “I … I think it was Caleb, or something like that, I think.”
“Anything else you can tell us about him?”
Keyshon shrugged. “Not much. I wasn’t there for very long. When I asked my daddy about him, he said he was staying over for a few weeks because his wife got a restraining order against him, I think.”
Addison nodded. He was talking about Caleb Vize, a construction foreman who used to work for Jeff DeVoe’s company. One of the old mailing correspondences being sent to the house at the same time Floyd lived there had his name on it. They were actively looking for him, but his current whereabouts were unknown. Caleb was an Iraqi war veteran whose wife filed a restraining order against him a few years back, and he'd also served time for drug possession. Floyd happened to be his former cellmate. “Okay, thanks.”
“Can you let my daddy go, please?”
Mike shook his head slowly. “It’s not up to us. If he cooperates and helps us find who really kidnapped the girl, then we could help.”
Keyshon bit his lip. His dad was stubborn, and would never snitch on anyone, even if it meant that he would be punished for something he didn’t commit. He started walking away. “I’m going to get my daddy some food.”
“No need,” Addison said. “Your dad will be brought to a holding cell, and he’ll get some dinner in a bit.”
Keyshon gave them a dirty look before disappearing round the bend of the corridor.
Mike shook his head slowly. “Maybe you’re right, maybe this guy didn’t do it. But circumstantial evidence points to him.”
“We need to find this Caleb Vize right away,” Addison said.
“What did Jeff DeVoe tell you?”
“Caleb stopped working for him awhile back when he found out his foreman was a drug addict,” Addison said. “Jeff doesn’t know where he is, neither does Caleb’s ex-wife.”
“We put out an APB then?”
“Not yet,” Addison said. “We just want to talk to him right now.”
“Right,” Mike said as he started walking away. “I need to check our missing persons file on the body. The captain wants a status report by tomorrow morning early sharp. You want to go with me for a bite to eat before we go through the files?”
Addison started moving in the opposite direction. “I can’t. I have to go talk to Brenda DeVoe.”
“Why? The body isn’t her daughter’s.”
“That’s why. I promised her she would be the first to know once the results were in.”
Mike gave her a passing wave. “Okay, see you later then.”
Eleven
By the time Addison Draper had arrived at the hospital, Brenda DeVoe was in the process of being released. She was sitting on the side of her bed fully dressed, while Jeff was bringing her shoes over from the dresser. Brenda gave Addison a faint smile as the detective walked into the room.
Addison smiled back. “Hi Brenda, Jeff.”
Jeff acknowledged her with a polite nod. “Detective Draper. Brenda here has been released. I’m going to drive her home.”
“That’s good,” Addison said. “I have some news about the DNA analysis. My superior called in a lot of favors so we could get the results in as quickly as possible.”
Right after she said those words, Brenda stiffened. Jeff looked back at her, a white canvas shoe dangling in his hand. Both had their mouths open, but they didn’t speak a word.
“It’s not Samantha,” Addison said softly. “It’s someone else.”
Brenda realized she had been holding her breath. She exhaled loudly. “Oh my god. Then where is my Sam?”
Jeff walked over to his ex-wife. He placed his hand over hers. “It’s okay, Brenda. This means there’s still hope.” He turned to look at Addison. “Who was it then?”
“We’re still trying to identify who it is,” Addison said.
Brenda blinked rapidly several times. She remembered the jewelry piece. “But … you said … you said there was the cat earring in her hand.”
“Yes I did,” Addison said. “We’re still trying to figure out the meaning of it.”
“If … if the earring was there, then maybe Sam gave it to her,” Brenda said.
“We only found the remains of one person in that room,” Addison said. “We’re combing the grounds and tearing through what’s left of the house inside and out.”
Jeff had a blank look on his face. “What … what else did you find?”
“Nothing else so far,” Addison said, making eye contact with him. “I wanted to ask you about Caleb Vize, one of your workers. You let him go because he was into drugs, you said?”
Jeff nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I told you over the phone.”
“Did you know he was living in that house for awhile?”
Jeff shook his head. “No, no I didn’t.”
“This hasn’t been reported in the news yet,” Addison said. “But we did find drug manufacturing equipment in the house. Did you know what kind of drugs Caleb was using?”
“Not really, but I could tell he was high,” Jeff said. “His eyes were dilated and he was unstable in the final few months of his employment. I had to let him go. I figured it had something to do with his wife. I knew they were having problems and I tried to keep him, but he kept getting into fights with the other workers, so I told him to just go.”
“Prior to his addiction, did any other aspect of hi
s behavior strike you as odd?”
“Caleb was a good man until his wife got rid of him. I know he was diagnosed with PTSD from his years in the service, and he was taking medication for it. He was a hard worker and great at constructing basements and foundations,” Jeff said. “I told him that if he could get sober, I would gladly take him back. That was over two years ago.”
Addison nodded. “Okay.”
Brenda couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Caleb had been over to their house a few times when Jeff would invite the guys over for get-togethers years before. He usually kept to himself, but was courteous whenever she tried to strike up a conversation with him. She looked at her ex-husband with concern. “Jeff, what’s this about? Are you two saying that Caleb might have something to do with that girl in the basement? With Sam disappearing?”
“Right now, I just want to talk to him,” Addison said.
Jeff looked away. “Caleb? No, I can’t imagine he would do something like this. No way, not him.”
“Did Caleb ever talk to you about Floyd Winston at all?” Addison asked him.
“No,” Jeff said. “Caleb told me he was living with a roommate after the flare-up with his wife, but I never knew he lived in that burned house until you told me.”
“Was he the one you assigned to fix up that house before the mortgage company rented it out to Floyd Winston?”
“Yes,” Jeff said. “Caleb and four of my other guys worked on it. He was my foreman for that job.”
“So he could have known Floyd Winston through the house, right?”
“I think so,” Jeff said. “The mortgage company called us a few times after the house was refurbished for some more repairs. I guess Caleb could have met that black guy then because he was assigned for any additional work that needed to be done.”
“Well, it’s important that I find him,” Addison said. “I talked to his ex-wife, and she had no idea where he is. Do you have anything that you could tell me as to where you think he might be at?”
Jeff thought about it for a minute before he answered. “I remember he had a female acquaintance he was telling me about. Her name was Irene something. She lived near Quantico I think. That’s all I remember right now.”
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