Saving Grace (27 page)

Grace watched her sister’s mind at work, and quickly deduced what she was after.  She was familiar with this boat.  She and Burke had spent a few afternoons in this park, sitting on top of it as sun went down. 

She knew it to be firmly placed in the sand.  She wasn’t sure of how much cover it would provide, but she made a split decision to find out.

“Follow me,” Grace said, taking the lead and splashing through the water across the ravine.             

Anne grabbed the lip of the boat and joined her sister in trying to lift it up.  After a couple tries, they finally succeeded in lifting it enough for someone to slip inside.

“Get inside,” Anne ordered.

“What about you?  We have to stay together!” She shook her head.

“We’ve done a good job of running, but we can’t outrun him – he’s not stopping.”  Anne overheard Zach, who was yelling something inaudible, in the distance. 

“He’s still coming,” Anne said, trying to reason with her sister.  She laid her hands on her arms, out of comfort, and continued.  “And now that we’ve crossed the ravine, our footprints made a definite mark in the sand.  They’ll lead him straight to us!  Get underneath! I have to cover our tracks. “

Anne looked to Grace, who shook her head, and pressed the issue further.

“Go.  I should have protected you better when you were young…let me do this now.  I’ll be right behind you.”

Again, Grace shook her head.  “No, I should have believed in you more.  I’ll help.  We’ll do this together … we stick together. Okay?”

Anne’s short nod was answer enough.  Grace grabbed some palm leaves and handed a few to her sister.

After a few minutes of teamwork they’d carefully wiped away their tracks, and then ran through the sand in another direction, giving the illusion that they’d run into the park.

“Make sure you wipe your tracks away with your palm leaves on your way back to the boat,” Grace panted.

The two made their way back without leaving a trace, and tried once more to lift the side of the boat. 

Grace felt a surge of adrenaline and where the boat was firmly place in the sand before, it was now almost effortless.  She and Anne lifted it high enough this time so that both could easily slip underneath and lodge it back over them.

Grace was never so thankful to be crowded in a dark, damp place.  She just hoped their trickery worked and led Zach away from where they hid.

“Shh.  Try to breathe in slow and don’t move,” Anne whispered to Grace, grabbing her hand. 

She closed her eyes and listened to the pounding shore outside, and prayed it would be enough noise to keep Zach from hearing them inside.

“What if he finds us?”  Grace’s broken whisper tore at Anne’s heart.

“Hold my hand, close your eyes, and pray.  Just pray,” she whispered lightly.

Grace felt her sister’s firm grasp and wished she didn’t have to put Anne through this.  She squeezed her eyes tight and prayed wholeheartedly for the first time in months.

God, Thank you for saving me from Zach the first time.  Please help me again.  Please don’t let him hurt my sister or me.  I can’t lose her.  And please forgive me for not praying to you more often. Please let Burke find us before Zach does.

Grace finished and just hoped God had heard her.

Burke pulled into the drive in a rush, as it took twice as long at the store then it should have.  Although he found what he needed almost immediately, the lines at the store were unreal.  He figured everyone in the surrounding areas had the same idea he did, and almost laughed as he came through the front door.  He couldn’t wait to tell Grace how long it took just to buy two Pyrex pans.

The laugh that was getting ready to erupt from his throat died the second he stepped into his home.  He could smell the burnt enchiladas wafting through the air, and the silence that enveloped him.  Something was wrong. 

“Grace?  Anne?”  He yelled, dropping his pans at the entryway table and rushing in.  There was no answer.

              He rushed through his home, looking in closets and bedrooms, hoping to find them in hiding, but they were nowhere to be found. 

“Grace?”  He called one more time, hoping to get a response.

Burke rounded the corner, to head to the lanai.  It was then that he saw the frying pan on the ground, with bloodstains next to it on his carpet, and his lamp shattered to pieces on the ground.

The back lanai door was wide open, with traces of blood smeared on the doorframe.  It was almost as if someone fell into it trying to leave, and he prayed that the blood did not belong to Grace or her sister.

Instantly, flashes of the odd occurrences that had barraged he and Grace came flooding back to him … the stolen towels, the missing tiki torches and paint cans, the stranger that provoked them from his beach. 

Deep in his gut, he knew who was behind this and it killed him that he was to blame for not paying more attention.  He should have known Zach would have come back for Grace.

Burke spun around as he heard sounds from the front living area.  He ran to the room, in hopes he’d find her safe, but all he found was Chad, who had been knocking on the front door.

Chad knocked a few times, wondering if anyone was home.  He turned and nervously smiled to the camera crew, which was trailing him up to the porch.  He had a few more episodes to shoot for Broadcast Affair, and so they were prepping to shoot the reunion between he and Anne.

When no one answered the door, he quickly reached for his cell to call her. When he saw Burke flying into the room, like he was on the attack, he immediately knew something was wrong.

“Hey, is Anne here?” Chad asked, as his heart lodged in his throat.  What if she had changed her mind about seeing him?

Burke’s eyes were frantic, and Chad knew that whatever was going on was bigger than his love life.

“They’re gone.”  He said, in a grave tone.  “They …” Burke pointed to the camera and crew, and finished, “… stay outside.” 

He peered past Chad and stared down the crew that followed him.

Chad nodded and turned to Janie.

“Stay here, okay?”  He whispered.

“You’ve got a microphone on, so we’ll film from outside.  We can pick up audio.”  Janie nodded, watching as Chad cautiously open the door.  She quickly added, “Do you want me to call the police?”

Chad swallowed hard, hoping they wouldn’t need the police but nodded, meeting Janie’s grave eyes.

He turned back to the door, and as he stepped through, his nose instantly picked up the smell of burnt food that had made its way through the home. Warning bells were ringing inside Chad’s head.  Anne would never go off and leave good food to burn.  Something had to be wrong.

“Burke, what happened?  Where are they?” Chad asked, his voice barely a whisper.              

“I left to go to the store and came home to find all of this.  Look.”  He motioned for him to follow him to the back room.

“W-what happened?”  Chad kneeled down by the broken lamp. “How long have you been gone?”

“Only about twenty minutes, man.” He ran his hands through his hair and surveyed the room.  It didn’t feel like any of this was real.

Chad stood trying to wrap his mind around what was happening, but couldn’t.  That’s when he saw traces of blood smeared on the doorframe of Burke’s back door.

“There’s blood!”  He yelled.  “Please tell me this isn’t Anne’s.  It leads outside. Do you think they’re still out there?”

“I don’t know.”  His voice dropped.

  Burke had seen a lot in his life.  He’d toured in Afghanistan and Iraq, and knew he could handle most things he encountered.   He’d thought losing his wife was hard, but couldn’t imagine the thought of Grace out there in the hands of a madman.  Losing Grace wasn’t something he was prepared to do.

Janie rounded the corner of the backyard, with her cameraman in tow, as both Chad and Burke were bounding out toward the back yard. 

Both bolted down to the beach, stopping only to look up each coast, trying to decipher where they might have run.

“Grace!”  Burke wildly yelled, with all his might. 

“Anne!”  Chad cupped his hands, and yelled into the wind.  “Are you out there? If so, answer me.”

Both waited but there was no reply.

“They couldn’t have gotten far.”  Burke’s words tumbled out.  

“You go that way…” Chad pointed toward the north.  “And, I’ll go this way.”

Burke looked to the shoreline and shook his head, reminiscent of the first time he ran down the beach for her… when he saved her purse.  He gritted his teeth now knowing he had a much bigger task, and hoped he could save her now.

As Burke took off down the beach, Chad started in the other direction as the camera crew caught up to him. 

Chad looked to Janie, panicked, and desperately asked, “Did you call 9-1-1?”

  “Yes.  They’re on their way.  It’s really dark out here.  Do you think we can find them?”  Janie squinted through the night, down the beach.

Chad’s heart was in his throat.  “I don’t know.  Call Anne’s cell, and call me if you hear anything.”

“Hurry.”  Burke hollered over his shoulder, as he was already running in the opposite direction.

Janie instructed her cameramen to shoot in both directions, as both men ran off to find the girls.  She said a silent prayer, hoping they found them in time.

Once Zach willed himself to forget about his injury, he made better time, and made it to the park faster than he thought.  He shined his light on the picnic area, looking for any shelter that the girls might seek.

As he crossed the ravine, he saw two sets of fresh footprints leaving the water and rising up to meet the grass.

“I see you.”  He giggled, now aware that he was hot on their trail.

From under the boat, both girls clamped their hands tightly together.  They heard how close he was.

“Someone wants to play hide and seek,” Zach hollered, and followed the footprints up the grass. “Only now I have to find you.”

He looked toward the public bathrooms, which were only yards away.  He doubted they’d hide there, but started toward them anyway. 

Once inside, he shined his light in all the stalls.  The only sound was a leaky faucet, which echoed throughout the open brick room.  It smelled of mold and urine.  No, there was no way she’d hide in here … not his little princess. 

As he stepped back outside, clouds simultaneously rolled away, allowing moonlight to brightly shine down on him, giving him more access to his hunt.

Quickly he scanned the area, as if it were for the first time, not knowing how long the light would be in his favor.  His eyes landed on a few banyan trees, which had large roots that could provide adequate shelter.  He ran to them, and hollered inside the overgrown trunks.

“Grace!  Where are you and your friend?”

He guided his flashlight inside the interwoven network of large roots, making sure he wasn’t missing her.  He wasn’t … there was nothing to find.

With every empty second that passed, he grew more anxious.  Even though his gut screamed that she was nearby, she wasn’t anywhere to be found.  And, with two huddled together, he thought they’d be easier to catch. After all, where would two frightened women hide but together? 

Zach backtracked toward the ravine, hoping to find more footprints.  As he took a step down onto the steep sand dune, a gust of wind whirled around him, causing him to lose his footing.  He tripped over some branches and rolled down the hill, bumping up against an old overturned boat.

To Grace, it sounded like he slammed against their boat on purpose, like he was announcing himself with the fact that he’d found them.  As the loud thud crashed around them, she let out a soft whimper.  Anne quickly placed her hand over Grace’s mouth, and stroked the side of her head.

Anne wanted to tell her that everything would be okay, but any words right now could give them away.  She didn’t know what was going on outside their hiding spot, but she did know that this could be it, and was prepared to go down fighting. 

Anne firmly dug her toes into the sand, crouched and ready to attack if Zach were to lift any portion of the boat from them. She searched for her sister’s eyes, but it was too dark to see even a hint of what she was feeling.  So she did the best thing she could … she held Grace’s hand and lifted it to her lips for a kiss. 

Grace held Anne’s hand with one, while digging for her phone for the other.  Although scared out of her mind, she needed to reach Burke.  From her hunched position, she angled sideways, hoping to give her enough room to dig her phone from her pocket.

Grace felt her sister adjusting the sand and knew it was now or never.  It was almost as if Anne was prepared to pounce.

She quickly pulled away from Anne, and reached for her phone.  Grace’s hands were shaky, but she managed to pull up Burke’s contact and send a quick text. 

Hiding under boat, at picnic area.  He’s here.  Help.

Grace hit send, and looked up to see Anne’s face, which was illuminated from the soft glow from her phone.