The Chain(51)

“What do you mean?”

“A tradition is a living argument. A living argument for a practice that began a long time ago. And it works for our particular tradition. If you mess with The Chain, it will be sure to get you and your family. Leave the country, go to Saudi Arabia or Japan or wherever. Change your name, change your identity. We’ll always find you.”

“I get it.”

“Do you get it? I hope so. Because it’s not over. It won’t be over until the people you’ve recruited do what they’re supposed to do without screwing up and the ones they’ve recruited do their job without screwing up. We haven’t had a defection in The Chain for a few years now, but they happen. People think they can beat the system. They can’t. No one can, and you’re not going to.”

“The Williams family.”

“There are others who have tried. No one has ever succeeded.”

“I’m going to keep my word.”

“Be sure that you do. We put ten thousand dollars in your bank account this morning—that’s ten percent of the money the Dunleavys paid. We took it out of the same Bitcoin account they put their money into. I don’t know how you would ever explain that to the federal authorities. Even if you somehow escaped our assassins, which no one ever has, we’d release all this information and you’d go to prison. The evidence is all there to reveal you as the genius behind a sophisticated kidnapping ring. You’re smart. You can see the big picture, can’t you?”

“Yes, I can.”

“Good,” the voice says. “We probably won’t speak again. Goodbye, Rachel, it’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”

“I can’t say the same.”

“It could have been worse. It could have been a lot worse.”

When the call ends, Rachel shudders and Pete puts his arms around her. She’s so pale and thin and fragile, and her heart is beating so fast. Like a wounded bird that you put in a shoe box and nurse back to life, hoping that one day it will be able to fly again.





36

Sunday, 4:00 p.m.



Kylie finally comes down the stairs. She’s got her iPad in one hand, her phone in the other, and Eli over her shoulder.

“I had over a hundred and fifty Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter notifications,” Kylie says, trying to sound upbeat.

Rachel smiles. So much for her idea of going full tinfoil hat and killing social media. Kylie returns her mother’s smile. Both of us faking it for each other, Rachel thinks. “You’re a popular girl,” she says.

“I talked to Stuart. Everybody seems to have bought the whole sickness story. And I texted Grandma too. She’s fine. I even e-mailed Dad.”

“I’m sorry I made you do that.”

Kylie nods and doesn’t say It’s OK because it’s not OK to make your daughter lie to her friends and family.

“You were careful what you said?”

“I was.”

“If you say one thing on social media, the whole world sees.”

“I know, Mom. I can’t ever tell anyone, can I?”

“No…are you OK, my darling?” Rachel asks, stroking Kylie’s face.

“Not really,” Kylie says. “I was so scared down there. There were times when I thought I was going to—I don’t know—disappear? You know that thing where some people think that if other people leave the room, they just don’t exist anymore.”

“Solipsism?”

“That’s what I thought was happening to me down there in the basement. I thought that I was starting not to exist because no one was thinking about me.”

Rachel hugs her tight. “All I did was think about you! Every minute of every second of every day.”

“And then there were times when I thought that maybe those two would just leave me there. Maybe if they thought they’d been discovered, they’d go, and the food would run out and the water would run out and I would just die.”

“I wouldn’t have let that happen,” Rachel says. “I wouldn’t. I would have found you no matter what.”

Kylie nods but Rachel sees that she doesn’t believe it. How would she have found her? She wouldn’t have found her. Her daughter would have been trapped down there forever.

Kylie walks to the screen door and looks out at the basin.

“Your flip-flops are onomatopoeia-ing,” Rachel says, trying to shift the mood.

Kylie turns to face her. “Mom?”

“Yeah?”

“They explained to me that they couldn’t release me until you continued The Chain.”

Rachel looks at the floor.

“Mom?”

Rachel swallows hard. She can’t lie about this—it would make everything worse. “That’s right,” she says.

“So, wait, did you…have you…” Kylie asks, horrified.

“I’m sorry. I, I, I had to.”

“You kidnapped someone?”

“I had to.”

“You still have them?”

“Yes. I can’t release them until The Chain continues.”

“Oh my God!” Kylie says, her eyes wide. “Where?”

“We found a…I found an empty house on the other side of the basin. A house with a basement.”