It wasn’t that he was afraid of getting hurt. It was more that he had felt the breath of the devil on his cheek and knowing he had put Jason in danger. There was also a terrible fear building in him that he wouldn’t be able to get help up there in time.
Oh yes, he was sure the woman was there, and most likely, she wasn’t there voluntarily.
“Dad,” Jason’s voice jolted him back to the here and now. “I know that kid. He was driving the 240, the one Mark and I saw at the hotel.” Jason was clearly agitated and Ben tried to keep his voice calm.
“Are you sure about that, Jason, how do you know it was him?”
“It was dark but he drove right by me. I’m sure it was the same guy. And did you see the truck?”
“Yeah I did, it was white.”
“I saw a guy helping her into a white truck, remember? I think that might be the same one.” This was the second time today that Jason had phrased it that way and Ben was starting to think that it might be important.
“What do you mean when you say ‘helping her,’ Jason? Describe it to me just the way you saw it.”
“Well, you know, like she was having trouble getting in the truck and he had to boost her up. Like that.”
Try as he might, Ben couldn’t reconcile his scant memory of the seemingly healthy young woman with the idea that she wouldn’t be able to get into the vehicle on her own. And maybe it was none of his business, but he just couldn’t imagine the attractive young woman he’d seen in the pictures going anywhere with the strange man he’d just spoken to.
Ben had also seen the rifle the kid was trying to hide behind the door. It was the rifle that had prompted him to walk away and get his son out of there.
“I know she’s there, Dad,” Jason urged. “We can’t just not do anything!”
There was a small town coming up in another mile and Ben planned to stop there. There was no cell reception up here, but hopefully he would be able to borrow a phone to call detective Worth and explain the situation, then get Jason back to the hotel where he would be safe.
Ben drove into the little mountain community and pulled over at a roadside restaurant with a giant wagon wheel out in front. The dirt and gravel parking lot was empty except for a few dusty trucks parked in the back. He jumped out and ran inside, scanning the front entry for a pay phone.
A tall, buxom woman came from around the hostess counter and gave him a toothy smile while she patted her blonde bouffant with one hand and smoothed her old fashioned pink uniform with the other.
“What can ah do for ya handsome?” she asked with a lift of her thinly tweezed brows. Ben ignored the flirtation and the exaggerated drawl.
“I need a phone, ma’am, it’s important.”
“Well come on over here,” she invited as she reached behind the counter to pull out an old rotary phone.
I must be somewhere in the twilight zone, thought Ben as he reached for his wallet and pulled out the card detective Worth had given him that morning.
The receptionist in the detectives division informed him that Worth was out and she wasn’t sure what time he’d be back. He told her the situation was urgent and he really needed to speak with someone about the missing woman’s case.
“I’ll track someone down right away,” she said with a sense of urgency that assured him she was taking his call seriously. “Give me your number and stay by the phone. I’ll have them call you back.”
Ben looked at the hostess, who had not made the slightest attempt to hide the fact that she was listening in to his side of the conversation, and asked her for the number of the restaurant. She pulled a pen from behind her ear and scratched out a number on an order pad she kept in her pocket.
Ben read the number off and then hung up the phone, handing it back over the counter. He thanked the hostess for the use of the phone and headed back outside before she had a chance to start asking questions. Gossip traveled fast in a small town and Ben didn’t want to have to explain his call in case the big man at the cabin was local and got word of his suspicions.
Ben sat behind the wheel of the Jeep drumming his fingers and thinking.
“Well?” Jason asked. “Are they coming or what?”
“I had to leave a message with someone in the office. The detective is supposed to call me back here as soon as she finds him.” He was torn between hanging around and heading back to town, thinking that by the time they found Worth, he could already be there and Jason could be back at the hotel.
There really wasn’t much to think about. Jason always had to be his first priority and it wasn’t like he could go back over to the cabin and accuse its occupants of nefarious acts, so he put the Jeep in gear and took off.
“Where are we going?” Jason was afraid he already knew the answer.
“You’re going back to the hotel and I’m going to meet with the detective we talked to this morning.”
“Wait, why am I going back to the hotel? We can’t just leave without knowing they’re okay!”
“What do you want to do Jason, go up there and demand to know if those two are holding a woman and her children captive? First they’d tell us to come on in and then they’d shoot us and bury us in the woods. Besides, we don’t know that there’s anything going on. They’re probably just a normal father and son, like you and me, who don’t have anything to do with any kidnapping.”
Jason sat stone faced, staring out the window with his chin in his hand. He was pissed. Ben had known he would be but he didn’t really need to worry about that right now.
“Look, I’m going to explain the situation to Worth and he’ll get a group of police to come up and check it out.”
Jason didn’t respond at all and Ben gave up the argument, turning his attention to the winding road.
*****
Chapter 17
Torei clapped her hands and rubbed them briskly together, then held them solemnly to her face as if in prayer.
“What are you doing?” Claire asked.
“I’m not sure, but I saw it on the karate kid. I thought it might help.”
“You are such a big dork.”
Faye giggled and gave Claire a look that said ‘you got that right.’
“Fine, I might be a dork but I don’t see you two doing anything special here.”
The girls all jumped and turned toward the stairs as they heard the door closing quietly. Joe stood just inside the entry looking sternly at Faye.
“Hi, Joe,” she greeted with an attempt at an innocent smile.
“Dad doesn’t know I’m down here,” he began. “And I don’t think you should be here either, Faye.” He turned and gave Torei a searching look.
“We’re just talking.”
“I know what you’re doing. You’re using her to make you well and I don’t like it,” he stated flatly.
They all stared at each other silently, not knowing what to say. Torei finally stood up and walked over to Joe, taking him by the hand and leading him over to sit on the edge of the bed. She looked into his swollen eyes and saw the sadness there, and she felt the exhaustion and pain that was coursing through his fragile body. Her heart went out to him and she knew that he was only trying to help, to do the right thing for her. She was touched and for a moment she just sat looking at him. “How did you know?” She finally asked.
“I just do. Faye spends a lot of time down here and when I see her again she’s always better. I could tell you were different when we brought you here, that you were both different,” he finished, turning his serious gaze to look at Claire.
“Why don’t you let me help you, too?” Torei offered in sympathy.
“It’s not right. Please, Faye, don’t do this to her anymore.”
“She’s not doing anything to me Joe, and if I can make her feel better, anyone feel better, then I think that I should.”
“If dad found out it would be really bad. I don’t think he really believes your mom can give Dr. Makula the power to make us better. But if he knew th
at you could do it, I don’t know what he would do.”
“Wouldn’t he be glad? He would just let Torei heal you and then we could go home.” Claire had finally accepted that Torei had the incredible power to make Faye feel better and had decided that her sister was right, she had to help.
“You don’t understand. You’re good. My dad and Carl, they aren’t. If he lets you go he’s going to be in a lot of trouble for kidnapping you in the first place. Dad doesn’t care one way or the other if we get better, it’s just that my mother left us some money in a trust and we have to be taken care of for him to keep getting the money.”
“That’s right,” it was Faye’s turn to explain.“There’s always been something wrong with Carl. He’s like Dad. He’s mean and he hurts people if he can. Dad made us help him bring you here and now I’m afraid he’s not going to let you leave.” She had tears in her eyes and was clearly sincere in her concern for the two sisters who had become so important to her.
“I’ve been trying to think of a way to get you out of here,” Joe said. “But one of them is on guard all the time, and even if we let you go they’d just catch you and bring you back.”
“Or worse,” Faye said ominously.
“No one’s going to hurt us.” Claire sounded completely confident, as if she already knew exactly how things would turn out.
*****
“Glenn, so far, Joseph thinks that we’re manifesting the power to heal Faye, so that’s good.”
“Maeve, none of this is making any sense to me. How does he think this is happening? By magic?”
“For some reason Joseph thinks I have the power to manifest reality. I decided to play along and asked for the candles and the bamboo to make him believe I was performing a ritual. Now, maybe Faye believes that we’re going to succeed and so she has convinced herself that her condition is improving. It doesn’t really matter.
What matters is we’ve got to find a way to get out of here. Something is telling me that we’re not really here for the sole purpose of healing the kids. I think it’s some sort of game and I don’t want to think about what’s going to happen if we lose.”
“We can’t escape without taking Faye and Joe with us,” Glenn said and Maeve noticed again the genuine compassion that the man showed toward his young patients. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.
“I’m sure you’ve noticed that we’re almost never all together at the same time. It’s as if he knows that none of us would try to escape and leave the others behind. Maybe we should try it the next time they take us all in for lunch.”
“It’s going to be pretty hard if we’re in handcuffs and the three of them have guns,” Maeve pointed out. “It’s close quarters and someone might end up getting shot.”
“Now who’s being negative?” Glenn looked rather pleased with himself for the timely comment, which irritated Maeve, but she did recognize the truth in what he said.
“What if we could get them to move us, say to someplace where we could all spread out? There are only two of them, and with the kids, there are six of us. Will Faye and Joe help us?” Maeve didn’t have any idea what the two were like or which side they would be on if it came down to it.
“Faye and Joe are two of the sweetest kids you could ever want to meet. And make no mistake, they are afraid of their father. Carl even more so. If they have the chance, they’ll do everything they can to get away from him.”
Maeve had been thinking about what Glenn said and an idea began to form, very faint and indistinct at first but then a vision began to clarify in her mind of open space and freedom.
“We need to perform a ritual,” she said as if in a dream.
“Would you please stop doing that?” Makula complained, but his voice had lost the sharp edge she had come to expect.
“You said we need space to spread out, and Joseph thinks there’s something magical about all of this,” she pointed out as she swept her arm around the room. “So we tell him we need a special place to hold the final ritual of healing.”
“We tell him it has to be a place of significance and it has to be outside.” Glenn added the detail, picking up on her idea and expanding on the lie they would tell Joseph.
Maeve sat down in the center of the bamboo circle and began creating a mental image. It would work, she thought, if they could pull it off and distract Joseph and Carl long enough to get their guns. A memory kept coming to her of a lake and trees, and then a young man stepped out of the woods and she realized it wasn’t a memory at all.
Glenn sat down next to her in the circle, bringing her back to reality, urging her to help him lay out the specifics of their plan.
“Someone was here.” Maeve stated with an edge of excitement in her voice.
“What?”
“Just now. I think someone was just here looking for us.”
“How can you know that?” Glenn asked, the question came out on a short bark of a laugh that clearly told Maeve he thought she had gone off the deep end.
“I didn’t hear anything, not that we would up here. You must have been dreaming for a minute.”
“Maybe, but I don’t think so. We have to get out of this cabin where we have a chance of finding help.” She ended the discussion with a note of finality, keeping the knowledge close that she didn’t believe they would be alone when they made their desperate bid for freedom.
They schemed and planned, eventually settling on the details that they hoped would lead to their escape.
“I’ll explain to the girls tonight and maybe somehow we can get a message to Faye and Joe. If we can’t then we’ll just have to trust that when the time comes, they’ll do the right thing.” Maeve hoped.
“I know they will, I have a lot of faith in them and they deserve a better life than the one they have.”
Glenn’s passionate response was exactly what Maeve needed to hear and it gave her faith that things would all work out.
“There’s one more thing we need to do,” she said as she reached for his hand. And then Maeve proceeded to teach Glenn Makula what little she knew about the workings of the universe.
*****
It was evening when Carl entered the enclosed loft and observed the woman and the doctor sitting inside the circle. He guessed they were meditating, but he didn’t mind interrupting them since he didn’t believe in all that crap anyway.
“Time to go back to your quarters,” he said roughly as he grabbed Maeve by the arm and lifted her to her feet.
Carl marched her out the door, locking Glenn in alone for the short time it would take to move Maeve to the basement.
Glenn stood quietly in the center of the circle. He felt strangely calm and wondered at the gift this young woman had offered him. Life had been so busy for him over the last thirty years that he hadn’t given much thought to the man he had become. Maybe he was at this point in his life because of his growing disregard for the spiritual aspects of his existence. He didn’t really think he believed in manifestation, not the way Maeve had described it. But he did know there was a force out there somewhere that was directing his path, or was he directing it?
He was surprised to discover that he was smiling. He was questioning the workings of the universe for the first time in years, uncovering feelings and thoughts that had been buried long ago. What if she was right? What if they could combine the energy from their thoughts and create their future?
A vision of Lillian sprung to mind and his spirits were lifted by her smiling face and gentle eyes. “Why have I never married her after all this time?” He wondered aloud and made the decision then and there to remedy the situation as soon as he made it back home.
Just then Carl stepped back into the room, jerking his head in a commanding gesture for Glenn to follow him.
Glenn decided he didn’t have anything better to do, so tonight, while he was alone in the dark, he would continue to visualize carrying out the plan and just for good measure, he would pray.
*****
“Tell your father I need to talk with him please,” Maeve ordered as politely as she could.
“Sure,” Carl leered at her slyly, “as soon as I’m finished talking to you.” Carl made it perfectly clear that he had no interest in talking by rubbing his crotch against her hip and running his tongue along her shoulder.
She was unbelievably repulsed by his touch, and shocked at the depth of her hatred for this boy.
A vision of him lying dead and broken on the ground flashed into her mind and she felt a thrill at the thought of pulverizing the little shit into lifelessness. Just as quickly as the image had come it was gone and she was disgusted with herself for her violent fantasy.
Carl seemed to sense something that frightened him just a little and he took a step back just as the sound of footsteps approached from down the hall.
“In due time, son,” said Joseph as he reached them and then, “Go take Dr. Makula back to the cellar.”
Carl gave her a look that made her stomach turn over before he turned and headed back to the loft. She pushed her discomfort to the back of her mind and took the opportunity to set her plan in motion.
“Joseph, I need to talk with you about the healing ritual. I’ve been meditating most of the afternoon and I’ve realized something that I hadn’t considered before.”
Joseph turned and stared at her with his lifeless eyes, causing a small shiver to travel down her back.
I’d better make this good, Maeve thought, plunging on into the speech she had concocted.
“If I’m not mistaken, there will be a full moon soon, and I believe we, all of us, may be able to use the power of that moon to complete the manifestation. We will need to form a circle under the open sky and channel our combined energies to bring your desires to reality.”
Oh brother, had she really just sounded like some mystical soothsayer preparing for a séance? For a brief moment she was afraid she had overplayed her role and blown their only chance at getting out of this deplorable situation. Joseph just stood and stared at her as if he could intuit her very thoughts, and then he nodded in agreement and asked, “Are you in need of a specific location?”
“It must be a place of some significance, with a clearing if possible but surrounded by tall trees. Torches will have to take the place of candles and the bamboo circle duplicated. Is all of this possible?”