The Chain(48)

She’s at home, curled up on the couch, drifting in and out of sleep. She’s a mess. She’s stopped eating, stopped showering. She can’t sleep for more than a few minutes.

Her head throbs constantly. Her left breast hurts.

The I Ching is open next to her at the hexagram hsieh—deliverance. Her fingers linger by the line You kill three foxes in the field and receive a yellow arrow. Will the yellow arrow be a sign that her daughter is safe?

The phone call startles her out of her torpor and she grabs the phone like it’s a life vest.

Unknown Caller.

“Hello?” Rachel says.

“Rachel, I’ve got some very good news for you,” the woman holding Kylie says.

“Yes?”

“Kylie will be released within the hour. She will be given a burner phone and she’ll call you.”

Rachel bursts into tears. “Oh God! Are you serious?”

“Yes. And she’s fine. She’s completely unharmed. But you have to remember that you and she are both still in grave danger. You have to keep your victim until you get the OK from The Chain. If you attempt to defect, they will kill you. Remember the Williams family. They might order me to kill you and Kylie, and I’ll do it to protect my boy. If I don’t do it, they’ll get the people above me on The Chain to kill me and you and our kids. They mean it. They’re truly evil.”

“I know,” Rachel replies.

“It was so tempting for me to let Kylie go when I got my boy home safe. I just wanted to be done with the whole business, but I knew if I did that, she and you and me and my son would all be in jeopardy.”

“I promise you, I won’t endanger us. Where’s my Kylie?”

“We’re going to blindfold her and drive her around for forty-five minutes and then drop her off near a rest stop. We’ll give her a phone and she’ll tell you where she is.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you, Rachel, for not screwing up. We were very unlucky, but it’s all over now. Please let it be over, please let the people you’re managing not screw up. Goodbye, Rachel.”

She hangs up.

Rachel calls Pete at the Appenzellers’ and tells him the news. Pete is ecstatic. “I can’t believe it. I hope it’s true.”

“I hope so too,” Rachel says. “I’m praying.”

“Me too.”

“How’s Amelia?”

“She’s sleeping in the princess tent.”

“I better get off the line.”

“Let me know what’s happening.”

An hour goes by.

An hour and fifteen minutes.

An hour and twenty.

One hour and twenty-five minutes.

“I wonder if something has—”

Rachel’s iPhone begins ringing. Unknown Caller.

“Hello?”

“Mommy!” Kylie says.

“Kylie, where are you?”

“I don’t know. They told me to wait one minute to take the blindfold off. They’re gone now and I’m just on a road in the middle of nowhere. It’s dark.”

“Can you see anything?”

“There seems to be a bigger road down the way.”

“Walk toward it. Oh, Kylie, are you really out?”

“Mommy, I’m out. Come and get me!”

“Where are you, darling? As soon as I know where you are, I will come for you.”

“I think I can see a Dunkin’ Donuts sign. Yeah, there’s a Dunkin’ Donuts. It’s a gas station rest stop. I can see it!”

“Is it open?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Go there and ask them where you are. Don’t hang up, be careful crossing the road, and just stay on the line.”

“No, I gotta hang up, they didn’t charge this phone all the way, there’s only one rectangle left in the battery. I’ll call you from the garage.”

“No! Kylie! Don’t hang up! Please!”

The line goes dead.

“No!”

A tense five minutes of silence before it rings again.

“OK, Mom, I’m on Route 101 in the Dunkin’ Donuts bit of a Sunoco station.”

“What town?”

“I don’t know, Mom, I don’t want to ask again. It seems weird showing up at this time of the night and not knowing where you are.”

“Jesus, Kylie, just ask them.”

“Mom, listen, Google it, I’m in New Hampshire on 101 just off I-95.”

Rachel Googles it. “Is it the Sunoco near Exeter?”

“Yes. There’s a sign that says Exeter.”

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes! Can you wait twenty minutes?”

“OK, Mom.”

“Get a drink of water if you don’t have money to buy food.”

“No, they gave me money. I’ll get a doughnut and a Coke. I asked them for my phone and they said they didn’t have it.”

“We found your phone,” Rachel says, running out to the car.

“Can you bring it?”

“Later. I’m in the car now.”

“What did you tell Stuart?” Kylie asks.

“I told Stuart you were sick and I told your father you had gone to New York. Oh my God, Kylie, is it really you? Did you really come back to me?”