Splintered (10 page)

After Lily stopped speaking to Emma, the relationship with Maddy became harder to manage, but Emma never let go of that long-ago memory of the baby in her arms. She vowed to always be there for Maddy, no matter what. So Emma knew she couldn’t close the door on the Eastins even if it meant keeping her distance with Lily while she maintained her relationship with Maddy.

Emma finished changing and then crouched to the floor to grab the phone clipped to the work pants she’d just shed. She dialed Maddy’s cell number.

A short voice mail message played: “This is me. So talk.” A long beep followed.

Emma hadn’t heard this new recording. She was surprised at the lifeless tone in Maddy’s voice.

“Hi, Maddy.” Emma kept her voice light in the message, hoping to draw the girl in. “I want to apologize for being the
worst
godmother in the world. It’s totally my fault that we haven’t talked in almost a month. Why don’t we have a girl’s day out? Just you and me. Pick the place—whatever you want. Your mom told me what happened on Monday. I wish you would’ve called me. It sounds like you could use someone to talk to. I can only imagine how scared you must have been. Call me back. I miss you and love you whole big bunches. Bye.”

Emma knew work would be crazy for the next few days, but she made a mental note to call Maddy back if she didn’t hear from the girl. If she had to, she’d even go over to their house and get her.

Maddy looked out the car window and watched the city rush by. She and her mom were headed to City Hall to meet with the detective working her case. She couldn’t understand why all the hurry. She doubted he had solved the case already.

After school, Maddy had spent the rest of the afternoon hanging with Sabrina and her girls. It was like the good old days, moving from store to store a part of the pack. Maddy looked down at her new shirt, smiling. At the mall, she’d held it up to her image in the mirror and loved how the golden-yellow color made her eyes shimmer in the store lights.

Sabrina had walked up behind Maddy and put her arm around her. “That’s the perfect color for you. Why don’t you get it?”

“You think?” Maddy’s smile faltered. She’d already looked at the price tag and knew she couldn’t afford it. “I didn’t bring any cash. Didn’t think I’d be hitting the mall this afternoon.”

Maddy had stalked off to return the shirt to the clothes rack. Sabrina followed her. Maddy replaced the hanger while Sabrina looked over her shoulder at the saleslady helping Julianna at the register. Sabrina grabbed the shirt off the hanger and stuffed it inside her backpack.

“Wait!” Maddy said. “You can’t do that.”

“Shush! Don’t be such a nerd, Eastin.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. I just don’t want you getting into trouble on my account.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s Julianna’s turn.”

“What are you talking about?” Maddy asked as she followed Sabrina toward the front of the store. As they left, Maddy cringed, waiting for alarm bells to go off. She ran different scenarios through her mind, deciding which excuse would best explain how the shirt ended up in Sabrina’s backpack. When no alarms sounded, she let out a long breath and dropped down on a bench, next to Sabrina.

With a devious smirk, Sabrina said, “After we find a place with some hot clothes, each girl takes a turn buying an item. It’s Julianna’s turn this week. If all of us walk in and just look around, the saleslady hits us with her evil eye, but if one of us makes a purchase, it distracts her while the rest of us load up.”

Through the store window, Maddy watched one of the girls stick her tongue out at them. Sabrina laughed and made a face back. The girl stuffed a pair of shorts into her bag. After everyone left, they all headed to the bathroom to change into their new clothes. Lily had texted while Maddy was in the stall, saying “Detective Idiot” needed to see them. Maddy thought it sucked that her fun had to end, but she refused to let anything ruin her good mood.

Lily let out a heavy sigh, which pulled Maddy back to the present. Although her mom’s eyes were focused on the traffic, she appeared deep in thought. Maddy stared at her mom, really looking at her for the first time in months. The half of her face in view revealed dark circles under her eyes, emerging from underneath makeup that had rubbed off after a long day at work. Maddy wondered when she’d gotten so many wrinkles. There had always been worry lines etched into her forehead, most likely from the scrunched-up face she wore when lecturing Maddy, but now she noticed new lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth.

Her mom absently turned the radio on without taking her eyes off the road. Maddy noticed the shaking in her hands. She seemed extra jittery. A strum of guilt vibrated through Maddy as she thought about what her mom had been going through since her dad had left: a new full-time job, a crappy house that didn’t even have enough bedrooms, and a self-absorbed teenager thrown in for good measure. Maybe her mom didn’t show her love in the way Maddy wanted, but at least she was still there. Her dad had bailed, but her mom kept getting up and punching the time clock every day.

If Maddy couldn’t find the emotional support she needed at home, she knew she’d just have to look elsewhere.

All my friends were amazing at school today. Maybe I should cut Mom some slack and lean on them more.

Maddy made herself a promise that, after the meeting with the cop, she would apologize to her mom for her behavior and see if they could make a fresh start.

Maddy looked out the car window. Large pine trees leaned in the wind. She’d always thought they looked so sad—they seemed to sag underneath the weight of the Spanish moss hanging from their limbs. Yet today, they looked different to her. Like the pine trees were survivors. The weight of the moss tried to hold the trees down, but they refused to let anything make them break. Instead they stood fierce, swaying back and forth to a windy song.

After parking the car in the back lot of City Hall, they both walked to the door in silence. Her mom pulled on the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. Then she yanked a couple more times, but it just rattled in its frame.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she grumbled.

“It’s after five o’clock, Mom. We have to ring the buzzer.” Maddy pointed to a nearby sign.

Lily sighed, impatience written all over her face.

They were finally admitted into the building, and then Maddy’s phone rang just as they were getting on the elevator. She pulled it out of her back pocket right before it went silent.

“No signal,” Lily said.

Maddy stared at her phone, waiting for the elevator doors to open on the third floor. She hurried out and saw a message notification. She thought maybe one of her friends had called.

While her mom rang a bell at the deserted receptionist area, Maddy pushed her phone’s touch screen and saw Aunt Emma had left a message. Maddy smiled, excited to tell her all about her day. Then Maddy realized she hadn’t even told Aunt Emma about the attempted abduction. She started dialing back when her mom smacked her hands.

“Hey!”

“Put that away.” Lily practically hissed the words. “This isn’t the time or place.”

“It’s only—”

A door opened. “Ladies, thanks for coming in,” said Detective Wallace as he held the door open and waved them inside.

“Detective Wallace,” Lily said, a false brightness to her voice, “You have news on Maddy’s case?”

“Yes, in fact. What I’d call a major break.” He led them to a conference table. Next to it sat a television set and a DVD player on a media cart, like the ones they had at Maddy’s school.

“Did you catch the guys?” Lily asked once they were all seated.

“No, but we got some good evidence. A neighbor caught the entire event on video.”

Maddy felt the muscles in her face freeze.

“You’re right, that’s quite a break.” Lily said. “Were you able to see who they were? Get a description of their van?”

Detective Wallace ignored Lily’s questions, but turned his full attention to Maddy. “You described your would-be abductor as having a scraggly beard and bad teeth. Is there anything else you want to tell me before we watch the tape?”

Maddy couldn’t find her voice. Although she didn’t know what she’d say even if she could speak. She shook her head and closed her eyes, hoping for a miracle along the lines of the TV breaking or a scratched DVD.

Lily grabbed Maddy’s hand, startling her. Maddy opened her eyes, unable to look away from Detective Wallace as he pushed the remote’s “Play” button.

“Won’t it be too dark to see anything?” Lily asked. “The sun wasn’t even up.”

“Lucky for us, your neighbor invested in a high-quality night vision camera that records even in pitch blackness. That’s why the picture has this green tint.”

On the television screen, a picture of a front yard showed up in various shades of green. Maddy recognized the sagging chain-linked fence as belonging to the house at her corner bus stop. The camera footage captured a wide shot of a yard, the sidewalk, and part of her street. A date stamp partially obscured the picture. The time counter recorded the approach of every new second. It felt like a countdown to an explosion that would blow up Maddy’s life. She’d already lived out this scene once, but now it was like she was watching an actor play her part in a horror movie.

At precisely 6:32:05, the girl enters the frame. She moves her backpack around, wrestling with the books jabbing her in the ribs. At 6:32:36, the girl kneels on the ground to rearrange the heavy load. At 6:33:14, cue the garage door down the street. The girl looks over her shoulder, then turns her concentration to her backpack once more. At 6:33:49, the girl stands up, then remains there, unmoving until 6:34:27, when she raises her hands to her face and her shoulders begin to shake violently.

Maddy’s soul aches for the actress on the screen, watching her body racked with uncontrollable sobs. So much sadness, so much pain. Standing alone on the street corner, the girl could finally let it all out.

But the tears weren’t enough. No, this was the morning she put her plan into action. The bus stop was empty, there were no witnesses. It was her chance.

At 6:36:09, the girl lifts her head away from her hands. Cue the bus turning into the neighborhood. At 6:37:21, the girl begins to wildly wave her hands back and forth. She runs into the street, continuing her manic arm gestures until she moves out of view of the camera.

“I don’t understand.” Lily blinked like she was waking from a dream. “Where is the man? The van? Why didn’t the camera capture him in the shot?”

“Because, Mrs. Eastin, there was no man. No van. Your daughter lied about the attempted abduction.”

Sitting there listening to the two of them, Maddy felt like she was in a bad Dr. Seuss nightmare. All these ridiculous rhyming words: “I do not see a man, I do not see a van. Where is the man in the van, Sam I am?”

A bubble of nervous laughter welled up inside Maddy. She clamped a free hand over her mouth before it could escape. Her mom and the cop wouldn’t understand. They’d think she was making one big joke out of the situation.

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.

Maddy watched her mom look down at her empty hand lying in her lap, then at the hand still holding one of Maddy’s. It seemed like the movements played out in slow motion. Finally Lily looked up at Maddy’s face.

Maybe Mom’s stuck in a nightmare she can’t wake up from either.

“When the neighbor and I watched the recording,” Detective Wallace told Lily, “he mentioned that a broken-down van had been sitting at the street corner for over a week before it was finally towed. A white clunker.”

Wallace turned to Maddy. “Is that where you got the idea?”

When Maddy’s mute spell continued, Lily yelled, “Answer him, young lady!” A hysterical tone had entered her mom’s voice. She ripped her shaking hand away from Maddy’s. Not seeming to know what to do with it, she stuffed both hands under her bouncing legs.

Detective Wallace sighed. “You know, Maddy, I could charge you with filing a false police report. Do you have any idea how many wasted man hours were spent on this case? And what would’ve happened if we’d brought in a suspect? Would you have sent an innocent man to prison just to keep up this charade?”

“I . . . I . . . ” Maddy found her voice, but her vocal cords felt rusty, like they hadn’t been used in years.

“Maybe you
should
arrest her, detective,” Lily said.

“What?” Maddy and Wallace choked out the word at the same time.

Lily nodded her head. “Maybe if she learned that actions have consequences, she’d finally understand lying only ends in trouble. Lord knows I’ve tried to protect her, but maybe that’s the problem. I’ve insulated her to the point that she thinks she’s untouchable.”

“You’re correct in saying actions have their consequences, Mrs. Eastin, but we’ll have to wait and see if the department pursues charges. For now, I think it’s best to arrange some professional help for Maddy.”

The two adults continued to talk about Maddy as if she weren’t even there.

What does it matter anyway? There’s nothing I could add to the conversation that would be of any value.
I might as well have disappeared. Invisible. That’s how I feel. Dad shut me out of his life, and Mom is always gone, if not physically at least emotionally. Even Aunt Emma has been absent when I needed her most.

Maddy remembered Emma’s voice mail. She vowed to delete it the first chance she got. She couldn’t face admitting the truth to her and hearing disappointment in the voice of one more person she loved.

Hank Fry woke with a start. He gathered the sheet around him and used it to wipe away the sheen of sweat covering his face. Metallica was singing an old nineties tune on his radio alarm clock. He realized the music had been playing for eight minutes while he slept through it. He found the radio a more preferable way to wake up than the sound of some obnoxious foghorn. Usually, the station’s signal came in strong, but Hank figured this morning the bad weather must be keeping it from coming in full strength.