Daylight (Atlee Pine #3)(119)

Pine finally reached over, turned off the VCR, ejected the tape, and picked it up.

Blum looked at her, lips trembling. “At least . . . at least she escaped.”

Pine wouldn’t look at any of them. She said, “Yeah.” And then walked out.

As she headed back to their car, Pine slowed so Blum could catch up to her. Roberts was on the front stoop thanking the Simmonses for all their help.

“That must have been terrible for you to see, Agent Pine.”

“I’ve been waiting almost my whole life to see Mercy. And she’s alive—at least she was in 2002.”

“Yes, absolutely. That is a huge positive.”

Pine stopped walking. “Roberts said that people reported hearing screams and he found Desiree branding a dog.”

“Right,” said Blum.

“But dogs don’t scream, Carol.”

“You . . . you mean . . . ?”

“That’s what Joe meant when he threatened Mercy—Desiree would make ‘marks’ on her hide again. They used the dog to cover that up when Roberts got there.”

“Those evil, evil people.”

“And Joe Atkins was murdered and Desiree Atkins vanished.”

Blum stopped walking. “Wait a minute, what are you saying?”

“Seeing her in the photo and now in the video, Mercy is taller than me and weighed maybe a hundred and sixty pounds and none of it was fat. She looked lean and rock hard. The Atkinses were small. She was bigger than both of them.”

“Agent Pine, you can’t mean—”

“I mean, Carol, that it’s possible that my sister escaped, they tried to stop her—we all heard the screams and gunshots—and . . . she killed them.”

“But where is Desiree’s body if she was killed?”

“Who knows? If she buried her, it could be anywhere. After all these years, there wouldn’t be much left.”

“But why bury Desiree and not Joe?”

“She might not have had the opportunity.”

“That is all speculation.”

“I agree. But if it’s not that, then it’s something equally improbable.”

They started walking again.

Blum said, “Well, if she did kill them, she had every right. I mean, that was her home? A cave, for all those years? The abuse. The horror. I can’t even imagine. I can’t even contemplate—”

“Ariel Castro in Cleveland? Jaycee Dugard? Elizabeth Smart out in Utah? There have been lots of others. I just never thought my sister would be one of them.”

“But why would they do that? They were given a child because they couldn’t have one of their own. Why turn her into . . . into a prisoner?”

“Mercy was old enough to know who she was and where she belonged. She might have resisted. Tried to run away. They got scared that if she told the cops they could get in trouble. And Desiree ‘Voodoo’ Atkins, who brands helpless dogs, doesn’t sound like your normal nurturing type. As the years went by and Mercy became an adult, they had to take more drastic measures, like that jail cell back there. And they knew if she ever got away, they were going to prison for a very long time.”

“Do you think Leonard Atkins knew?”

“They were in a photo with her. They could see how she looked, the wounds on her, the fact that she wouldn’t even look at the camera. Yeah, they knew, and they didn’t do a damn thing about it. And when their son was killed and Desiree went missing? They probably thought Desiree killed Joe and vanished with Mercy. Or else, Mercy had killed them both and made a run for it. Either way, they wanted nothing to do with that. They ran away instead.”

“Disgusting,” said Blum. “Just disgusting. After what they did, they don’t deserve to be called human beings.”

They drove Roberts back to his house.

“I’ll call the sheriff and tell him,” said Roberts. “And I’ll let him know you’ll be by for the file.”

“Thanks, Mr. Roberts.”

“Agent Pine?”

“Yes?”

“This isn’t just a cold case for you, is it?”

“Why do you say that?”

“I was a cop a long time. Still got the nose for it. I saw how you were looking at that doll, for one thing. Like you’d seen it before. And then with the video, well, it just seemed personal to you.”

Pine sighed. “She’s my sister, Mr. Roberts. She was kidnapped from her bed when we were little, and she’s been missing for over thirty years now.”

He nodded, his expression one of sorrow. “I thought I recognized your name. I remember the case ’cause we got a BOLO on her. Mercy Pine, right?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thank you.”

“But it seems like you’ve learned a lot here.”

“I have. Now I just have to find her.”

“You know she might be—”

“I do, Mr. Roberts, maybe better than anyone. But I can’t let it go. I have to know either way.”

“I wish you luck then. I really do. Nobody deserves what we just saw, especially not a little girl.”

“No,” said Pine. “They don’t.”