Splintered (26 page)

She looked down at the tan lines where her watch should have been. She’d lost it somewhere. It made her think of her dad. She pictured him knocking on her mom’s door, coming to pick her up for dinner. She could see the tears rolling down his face as he got the news she was missing. He would realize how wrong he’d been to squander the last five months.

Oh, Daddy, please come rescue me.

Maddy’s breaths sped up. It felt like she couldn’t catch the next one. As they became shallower, her lips tingled and the room spun. She closed her eyes and concentrated on slowing her speeding heart rate down, but nothing worked.

Calm down. You’ll get through this.

Finally, she was able to draw a few deep breaths into her lungs. The anxiety seemed to pass, but when she put her hand over her heart, she could feel that it continued beating faster than she could count.

Could this be the tachycardia again?

There had been plenty of bouts of racing heartbeats since she’d been thrown in the van, but somehow the rhythm had always corrected itself. Her parents had told her the stories of when she was a baby. How she’d been hospitalized for three weeks before doctors finally got the combination of medicines right to keep her heart rate in check. As a kid, she couldn’t really remember being sick, but twice a year, as regular as daylight savings, her mom would discuss what to do if she ever felt her heart racing too fast.

Maddy didn’t have the luxury of telling a grown-up that her heart rate wasn’t slowing on its own, and she didn’t think Hank would take her to a hospital. She tried to remember the trick for getting it to skip back into a normal rhythm.

Balloons. Right.

Maddy brought her thumb up to her mouth like she was a toddler sucking on it. She created a tight seal with her lips and blew. Her cheeks expanded while she held her breath, making sure none of it escaped past the sealed thumb or through her nose. She imagined her fingers were a balloon that she was inflating with one long breath. When she couldn’t hold it any longer, she opened her mouth and let out a puff of air, then greedily sucked in more oxygen. It made her feel light-headed, but when she put a hand over her chest, she found that her heart had returned to its regular beat. She wiped her wet thumb on her bare leg.

Maddy wondered if the tachycardia would return again—and if, next time, it would be as easy to fix. She knew if it was left untreated, she could be dead in a few days, but given the option of what was happening to her now, that didn’t seem like such a bad thing.

Hank hadn’t given her so much as a blanket, not even a sheet to hide her nakedness. There was only the thin and now-bloodied mattress pad underneath her. At the thought of her bare body, goose bumps broke out on her arms.

“Hello?” said a quiet voice. A hand shot through the rectangular cut-out at the bottom of the door. The hand waved and then retreated. “Hello?” the voice said again.

Maddy tried to move closer to the door. The chain clanked and thudded against the floor. The pain shooting through her lower body halted her movement.

The voice didn’t sound like Hank’s, but Maddy was still too scared to respond.

What if it’s a trick? What if Hank’s setting a trap for me? But on the other hand, what if it’s the younger guy and he’s willing to help me?

Maddy remembered the look of concern in his eyes and knew she had to take the chance. It might be her only way out. “Hello . . .” she whispered back.

“Hi, it’s me Daniel.”

“Can you let me out?”

“No, that would make Hank very angry. I just want to talk to you.”

Maddy looked at the dark hole, but she couldn’t see him from where she was. “Where is Hank now?”

“Sleeping. My brother told me to leave you alone, but I didn’t see nothing wrong with saying hi.”

“You’re Daniel, right?”

“Yep, that’s me. I’m super glad you came to stay with us.”

“Can you go tell someone I’m here? I don’t want to be here. I want to be home with my dad.”

“Hank said you ain’t got no dad. That your mama is mean and you wanted to come live with us.”

“He’s lying.” Maddy’s voice cracked.

“No! Hank doesn’t lie. You’re the liar.”

“Shush, please. Don’t wake him. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. Can you please get me some water?”

“Hank told me not to give you any food or water. Said you had to be trained right.”

“What about some ice? I’m in a lot of pain.”

“The noise would wake him up.”

She heard a shuffling sound. “No, don’t go. Please don’t leave me.” Maddy started crying.

When she heard a shuffling sound near the door cutout again, she wiped her eyes, trying to clear her vision. A hand slowly moved through the hole. It dropped a white washrag on the floor.

“Hank never said nothing about a cold cloth. Will that do?”

Maddy laboriously moved her body forward, trying to keep all her weight on her arms. The pad on the floor scooted with her, moving along the hardwood floor. She picked up the soaking wet rag and brought it up to her mouth. She wrung out all the moisture, then placed it in between her legs. “Thank you, Daniel. What’s your last name?”

“Fry. What’s yours?”

“Eastin. Maddy Eastin.”

“No. It’s Maddy Fry. You’re going to be my wife. Right after you’ve been properly trained. Nighty-night. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.”

Emma started a pot of coffee so it could brew while she took a walk in Maddy’s shoes—in a manner of speaking. It was nearing 6:30 a.m., the time Maddy usually left the house to walk to her bus stop. Emma wanted to see what the neighborhood was like at that time of the morning. She’d hoped to get a cup of coffee down before it was time to leave the house, but she didn’t wake up early enough.

She’d only managed to get a little sleep, mostly during the last couple hours before she got up. Once Lily had finally let go, still clinging to Maddy’s sweatshirt, Emma had retired to the couch.

Spanish inquisitors would have loved that thing. It could have doubled for a fifteenth-century torture device.

Emma walked out the front door, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She stood on the top step and looked up and down Maddy’s street. A light fog added an eerie quality to the quiet street. The first day of October had ushered in cooler weather. A slight breeze blew past. She inhaled greedily, enjoying the crispness and the feel of the microscopic water droplets against her skin as she walked through the mist.

In the distance, a garage door lumbered up. A car engine fired, and she watched brake lights tap on and off as a driver backed into the street. Emma headed toward the bus stop, slowing as she got closer to Paul Gleason’s house. She could just make out a security camera hanging off the corner roof of his house.

At the sound of a heavy diesel engine, she turned. A yellow bus barreled toward her. She nodded at the bus driver when he stopped at the corner. He gave her a probing look, then turned his attention back to the empty road. He turned right and disappeared behind a line of oak trees.

Emma walked back to Lily’s house, continuing to study the neighborhood.

Has someone on this street taken Maddy? Could she be gagged and bound less than fifty feet away? Or did she finally reach her breaking point, opting to try life on the streets rather than deal with the pressures of her home life?

Emma initially wondered if Maddy might have hooked up with an online suitor, but last night she’d checked the girl’s computer for evidence of such a relationship and didn’t find anything in e-mail or her online accounts.

Movement out of the corner of her eye caught Emma’s attention. When she turned her head, she noticed a woman standing in front of a large picture window, staring at her. When she saw Emma looking at her, she let the drapes fall back into place. Emma made a mental note to check back with that neighbor at a more suitable hour.

“Thanks for meeting me, Rocky.” Emma Parker slid into a booth across from Detective Terrance Wallace at a diner not too far from the Eastins’ house. He’d already ordered a cup of coffee and was adding a heaping spoonful of sugar.

Wallace smiled at the sight of Emma. “Hey, stranger. How’s it going?”

She shrugged, unable to paste on a fake smile.

“You want a coffee?” He looked around for the waitress.

“No, I’ve had enough caffeine.” A cup of coffee and two Red Bulls were plenty.

Except for the addition of a few extra pounds, Wallace looked the same as he had in their academy days. Emma remembered how, on his first day of training, a fellow cadet—one of the smallest in the group—came up to him and called him Rocky. Not because Wallace resembled the boxer in the movie, though he did have a large, imposing stature. No, the nickname was because of his large cheeks. Like a squirrel hiding away nuts, he reminded the cadet of Rocky from
Rocky and Bullwinkle
. Everyone had quieted down, waiting to see if Wallace would explode all over the guy, but his hearty laughter cut the tension. Emma knew at that moment he was a kind soul tucked inside a hard exterior.

“I was surprised to hear from you,” Wallace said. “What’s it been, two years?”

Emma nodded. “Something like that.”

Wallace raised an eyebrow. “So what’s up?”

“I appreciate you meeting me on such short notice. I know with our crazy schedules, it’s sometimes hard to pull away.”

“No problem. I was on my way out to conduct a few interviews on a new case I caught yesterday. Figured I had enough time for a coffee with an old friend.”

“You were the detective assigned to the Maddy Eastin attempted abduction case, right?”

Wallace’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, you mean the
false
accusation reported by Maddy Eastin. What of it?”

“Are you aware that she went missing yesterday morning? That she’s been gone for twenty-seven hours?”

He nodded. “Officer Cameron left me a note and a copy of the report he took from Lily Eastin last night. What’s it have to do with you?”

“Are you going to work it like a missing persons case?”

Wallace exhaled, kneading the skin on his forehead. “To be honest, my sergeant has had enough of this girl. He thinks we’ve wasted enough man hours on her, and until additional information comes to light that indicates foul play, we’re labeling Maddy Eastin a runaway.”

Emma looked down at her hands, folded in front of her on the table. She was trying to figure out the best way to play this.

“You never answered my question, Emma. How are you involved?”

Best to be honest with him. If he smells even a hint of insincerity, he’ll shut me out.

“Maddy Eastin is my goddaughter.”

Wallace stopped drinking midsip. “What?”

“Lily Eastin and I have been friends since elementary school. We grew up on the same street. When she gave birth to Maddy, she named me godmother. But a few years ago, Lily and I had a falling out. I’ve stayed in touch with the girl, though obviously not often enough, what with the stunt she pulled making up that story about the two abductors. I’m sorry you had to deal with that, Rocky. I take partial responsibility. But now Maddy’s disappeared. I don’t know whether someone really has snatched her this time, or if she actually ran away. Either way, she’s missing and I have to find her.”

Wallace stroked the skin under his chin.

“What do you say, for old time’s sake, you lend me your files on Maddy?” Emma gnawed on her bottom lip while she waited for his response.

“You know you’d have to work this off the books. Your CO finds out about this, and you could be kicked off the force. There’s a reason we’re not allowed to work cases involving family members.”

“Right—but technically, she’s not a family member.”

Wallace gave her a long look.

Emma knew it was only semantics. She had a relationship with the family, thus she wasn’t allowed within ten feet of the investigation.

“I know, I know. It’s against the rules. I’ve already taken a leave of absence from the sheriff’s office. Called my sergeant this morning, told him I had some family issues to take care of. I can do most of the legwork on this thing myself, but I might need your help here and there.”

“Like how?” He sounded like he was afraid to hear her answer.

“I need you to check Maddy’s cell phone.” Emma pushed a piece of paper across the table with the girl’s number written on it. “Check to see if there have been any incoming or outgoing calls since six thirty a.m. Tuesday morning. If there were, find out which tower the phone pinged off. And check for texts. Can you do that?”

Wallace nodded.

“After this, I’m going check with the school bus driver, see if he even picked her up yesterday. Then I’m going to Maddy’s school. I also want to talk to the neighbors, especially the one with surveillance cameras. What’s his name?”

“Paul Gleason.”

“Right. See if he caught anything on video.”

“He’s a bit paranoid of cops. I’ll give him a call to pave the way. Tell him you’ll be stopping by.”

“Thanks, Rocky. I really appreciate your help. I’ve already notified the hospitals to contact me if someone matching Maddy’s description is brought in.”

“If you uncover anything, hand it off to me. I’ll get an investigation started.”

Meaning don’t go off half-cocked on my own.
“I will.”

“I’ll call my department’s receptionist and tell her to make a copy of Maddy’s file. You can pick it up in about an hour.”

“Thanks again. You have no idea what this means to me. Maddy’s had a tough time since her dad walked out and, as you know, she hasn’t been dealing with it well. I just hope she hasn’t fallen in with a bad crowd. If she did run away, she couldn’t have had much cash with her. She won’t last long on the streets. And there are far too many guys out there willing to pimp girls like her out.”

“I said no, Daniel, and that’s final.”

“But
you
called in sick. Why can’t I?” Daniel stood behind the open refrigerator door.

Hank was stooped over, grabbing pancake syrup off the bottom shelf. He was ravenous this morning. “These first few days with Maddy are important.” He tapped the fridge door closed with his foot. “I have to see to her training. Go ahead and take the van into work. I’m going to be busy here all day.”