Don't Look for Me(83)

He called out again.

“Stop!”

And then—

“I have your mother!”

I have your mother.

Her feet kept moving. But not her will.

I have your mother.

Nic could smell the wood burning from the fireplace at the inn. She was almost there. But then what?

Reyes wanted her.

She wanted her mother.

She wanted her mother to be alive. She wanted her to be freed, finally, of the pain she’d suffered. She wanted Annie back. She wanted to feel her hands grabbing hold of those little arms before she reached the end of the driveway. She wanted the past five years to be over.

Her feet stopped moving then. She was too tired. It was time to stop running.





51


Day seventeen





I pull Alice back into the room where she can’t see. I go to the window and look out the hole. I see the other cop on the ground. Lying still. Blood pooling around his torso. And Mick running into the woods. Running with his gun drawn, calling out to someone. Was there another cop? A partner?

“Come with me!” I say to Alice. I grab her arm and pull her out of the room and down the hall and through the open front door. She stops at the threshold.

“My mask!” she says. “I need my mask!”

I take hold of her arms and look her in the eye.

“Do you trust me?” I ask her.

She doesn’t know. I can see the doubt and the debilitating apprehension it brings.

“You don’t need the mask.”

I do not give her time to think. I pick her up in my arms and bury her face in my chest as I run down the stairs and over the body of the man. I set her down, facing away from the house. Away from the violence.

“You need to run now, Alice. You need to run down that driveway until you reach the road. The gate must be open because that policeman came through it. You need to turn to the right and follow the fence on the other side—do you understand? Stay in the woods. Do not go onto the street. The fence will lead to another house. You need to look for it carefully. If you smell a fire, or food or gasoline—go toward it. Okay?”

Alice cries. “What about the bears? What about the wolves?”

I shake my head. “No—the bears are sleeping during the day. You will be fine.”

She won’t leave and my heart is going to burst. I must get to the dying man. I must use his radio to call for help. But Alice must leave. Mick could come back at any moment.

“My first mommy died in the woods,” she says now. “I don’t want to die!”

I pull her close to me again and squeeze her so hard as if I can squeeze the doubt right out of her.

“Alice—that was a lie. Your first mommy didn’t die in the woods. I don’t know what happened to her. But it wasn’t the woods that took her from you.”

I look at her now and I can see that she believes me. She believes me because it is the truth.

“Now go! Run!”

She nods, turns, and her feet begin to move, to fly, kicking up dust from the driveway.

I can’t remember feeling as happy as I do right now, watching this child go free.

I turn back to the man on the ground. I feel for a pulse. He is still alive. I go to his car and find the radio. I push a button.

“Help! I need help! There’s an officer shot!”

A woman’s voice answers. “Who is this?”

“It’s Molly Clarke.”

Silence now as the woman recognizes my name.

“This is the chief’s radio. Has the chief been shot?”

“Yes!” I say, frantic now for help. “I don’t know where we are. I’ve been held here for two weeks!”

“I have your location,” the woman says. I hear her voice tremble.

“I see keys in the car. I might be able to get him inside…”

“No—stay where you are. He could bleed out. Seconds matter now—are you able to provide assistance to the officer?”

No! I think. I see keys in this car. I need to leave this place! I look back at the man, bleeding on the ground. All I want to do is run like Alice, away from this house. But I can’t let him die.

She tells me what to do and I do what she says. I leave the radio and the keys and look for a first-aid box in the trunk. I leave the car, my means of escape, and I go to the dying man. I do what I can to stop the bleeding.

It’s now that I hear the shot in the woods.

And the scream. The unmistakable scream of my daughter.





52


Day seventeen





Reyes walked closer. Close enough not to miss again if he pulled the trigger. Still his face was soft with a warm smile.

“Mom!” Nic screamed, her voice filled with rage, rising up through the trees. Then to Reyes, “Where is my mother!”

Reyes spoke calmly as he took a few more steps.

“Right inside that house. She’s been waiting for you all this time. Waiting for you to find her. She’s perfectly safe.”

Nic knew that was a lie. Her mother would never have willingly stayed with this man.

“I know about Edith Moore.”

“I just wanted to see you again,” he said.