Authors: Leigh Bale
“What if the burglar returns? The
cops said they can’t spare a squad car to stay here, but they’ll drive by a few
times throughout the night to check things out. Little good that will do us.”
Resentment edged her tone and she snorted with disgust.
“I doubt the burglar will return.
I’m afraid we’ll have to play a waiting game, now.” Mac picked up a broom
resting beside the wall and began to sweep up the broken glass in the main
entranceway.
Toni gathered up sheaths of paper
and books, righting furniture, clearing a pathway for them to walk through the
debris. Mac picked up the three broken pieces of the green vase he’d selected
for Eric in Baghdad. As he cradled the glass in his hands, he searched the
kitchen pantry for a paper sack to put them in. Then, he carried the bag out to
his truck. He knew of someone who might be able to repair the damage and make
the vase look good as new.
It was the least he could do. If
only he could repair their broken lives as easily.
“Let me out of here!” Cara Hamilton
banged on the iron bars for the hundredth time.
The musty scent of damp earth stung
her nose as she peered through the shadows of her cramped cell. At least, she
thought it was a cell.
She stumbled in the dark, reaching
for the far wall. Vague light gleamed from a single dingy light bulb above a
wooden door at the top of the stairs.
Not a cell, a basement. She felt
the rasp of cold stone beneath her fingers.
Cement.
Iron bars extended across the room
and she tested their strength with her hands. They didn’t budge.
On the other side of her cell, she
could make out the shadows of large cardboard boxes stacked in a haphazard pile
along with rickety shelves lined with Christmas decorations and old junk.
Definitely a basement.
A small window sat high in the wall
on the other side of the cell. Cara searched the entire length of the bars,
tugging to test their strength. If she could break through, she might be able
to stand on the boxes and reach the window.
Where was she and how had she
gotten here?
Toni had warned her not to go home,
but she hadn’t listened. Her sister always over-dramatized everything. Cara
could hardly believe someone would try to kill Toni. She’d gone home, planning
to stay just long enough to pick up some clean clothes and to drop off her
school books.
Cara remembered walking through the
kitchen, opening the refrigerator door, searching for something to eat. She
reached for a bowl, but strong hands closed over her arms and a cloth with a
horrid smell pressed across her mouth and nose. She struggled, kicking,
scratching, trying to pull the rag away so she could breathe fresh air.
So she could scream.
Her head had spun dizzily. Her eyes
dropped closed, refusing to open. Something drugged her. That horrible smell.
She fought off the darkness, but
her movements dragged and everything went black. She’d awoke to find herself on
the floor of this damp prison, shaking and frightened.
“Please,” she whimpered. “Let me
out. I want to go home. Grams! Toni! Where are you?”
She slumped on the floor weeping,
barely able to see the hand in front of her face. Wishing she could curl into
her mother’s arms and tell her she loved her. That she was sorry for being such
a brat and causing so much trouble for Toni.
Wishing she were anywhere but here.
Fear and loneliness made her
shiver. She wished she hadn’t fought with Toni. She knew her clothes were
immodest, yet she continued to wear them, daring Toni to stop her. And yet, she
knew her parents wouldn’t approve either. But they were gone. So, who cared?
No, that wasn’t fair. Toni still
found time to help with her Algebra homework and Grams fixed meals and did the
laundry. Mac and Eric had both been kind, too. Even Aunt Holly and Aunt Chris
took her shopping or gave her rides to the mall. Her family had tried so hard.
All of them. And how did she thank them? By ditching her chores and
disappearing on weekends without telling them where she was going.
It suddenly struck her how selfish
she’d been. She’d made Toni’s life miserable with needless fights even when she
was grieving over Eric. Pushing Toni’s buttons just to get a reaction.
“Please, God, if you’ll help me get
out of here, I’ll change. I’m so sorry for everything. I promise…”
A sound came from above and the
door at the top of the stairs opened. She sat up straight, blinking as a blaze
of light shot down the steps.
She shielded her eyes as a man’s
pair of legs appeared, then his torso. He wore a ski mask over his head and
held a blanket in one hand, a dinner tray in the other. A tall, thin man
dressed in jeans and a black sweater.
“Don’t cry,” his voice rasped.
“We’re not going to hurt you.”
She came to her feet and backed
away. “What do you want?”
“We don’t want anything from you,”
he soothed. “As soon as your sister gives us your brother’s files, we’ll let
you go. That’s why I’ve made sure you don’t see my face. So you can’t recognize
me when we let you go. As long as you do what I say, you won’t be harmed.”
“We? You’re working with someone
else?”
He didn’t respond.
“Eric didn’t have any files. Toni
can’t help you,” she said.
“Don’t worry, she’ll find it for
us. And then you can go.”
He slid the tray beneath the bottom
railing of the iron bars. In the vague light, she saw a plate of spaghetti with
canned sauce, two slices of buttered French bread and a glass of milk. Nothing
like the homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs Grams always made.
“You must be hungry. Eat and you’ll
feel better.” He handed her the blanket through the bars. “If you lie down on
the mattress over there, you’ll be warm. It’s clean. I even gave you a new
pillow.”
He pointed at a slim pallet laid on
the floor on the other side of the cell with a pillow resting on top. A porta-potty
sat in one corner of the room. Without light, she hadn’t noticed them before.
He turned to go.
“Wait! How long will you keep me
here?”
“Not much longer, now. You’ll be
free soon.”
As he started up the stairs, she
realized he would leave her in the dark again.
“Please, can’t you turn on more
lights?”
He paused and turned, studying her
as if with indecision. Then, he returned and passed her the flashlight. “There
aren’t any more lights down here, but I can let you have this.”
She clasped it to her chest like a
lifeline.
“I suggest you conserve the
batteries,” he warned.
He left her then, closing the top
door to the stairway with a hollow thud. She sprayed the beam of the flashlight
around her prison. The window had been covered with a heavy piece of cardboard.
It must be night outside, but she figured she’d been unconscious for awhile.
What time was it? How many days had she been down here? Or had it merely been a
few hours?
Wrapping the blanket around her
shoulders, she picked up the tray of food and took it over to sit on the
mattress. Not knowing when he might feed her again, she ate her fill, then
curled up in a tight ball, her body trembling with fear.
What would Toni do if she were
here? Calm, strong-willed, always-in-control Toni.
She would pray, that’s what she’d
do. And conserve the battery of her flashlight. Then, she’d calmly find a way
out of here. Cara realized now how much she’d relied on Toni. How badly she’d
treated her older sister. No matter how mean Cara acted, Toni was always there for
her. Sure, they had fights like any other sisters, but deep inside, Cara knew
Toni loved her and would do anything for her.
She sure wished Toni was here, now.
In spite of her captor’s promise,
Cara wondered if she’d ever see her family again. She only hoped Toni found
Eric’s missing file and handed it over so she could go free.
“Please, God. Help me,” Cara
prayed. She asked for mercy and guidance, vowing to change if only the Lord
gave her another chance.
Vowing to make things right with
Toni.
Her body felt weak with fatigue and
she realized her captor must have drugged her food. Logic told her the man
wouldn’t poison her, but a sedative would keep her under control. Until he got
what he wanted.
As she lay on the mattress, she
continued her prayer. Thinking about the Lord calmed her enough to click off
the flashlight before her eyelids dropped closed.
If only she could see Toni again.
If only she had one more chance to make things right with her family. She’d
change. She promised.
Mac drove Toni to her Aunt Holly’s
house in Summerlin. In the quiet of night, Toni fell asleep, laying her head
back against the seat. For several minutes, Mac sat in the truck after he’d
killed the engine and watched her sleep. A strange emptiness settled in the pit
of his stomach. He longed to protect her and her family. In spite of all his
training, he felt so inept and helpless.
He reached out and nudged her
shoulder. “Wake up, sleepy head. We’re here.”
She blinked and sat up straight. “I
must have dozed off.”
He got out and limped around to
open the door for her, then walked her to the front step.
“I’ll pick you up around eight in
the morning so we can go visit Colonel Wilkinson. We’ll figure things out. Get
a good night’s rest,” he told her.
“Thanks, Mac. Good night.” She gave
him a faint smile.
Mac waited outside until her Uncle
Glade answered the door and she was safely inside, the dead bolt thrown into
place. When he steered his truck away from the house, Mac saw her standing at
the open window of the living room, watching him.
As he skirted the evening traffic,
he felt tempted to ask his Heavenly Father for help, but hesitated.
What if God let him down again?
Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Maybe he should try prayer again.
Just one more time.
* * *
The following morning, Mac picked
up Toni. Taking the freeway, he headed south, skirting through traffic with
ease. She sat quiet in her seat, frustrated that she hadn’t heard from Cara.
Mac knew Toni hadn’t slept much the night before. Neither had he.
Toni’s cell phone rang and she dug
into her purse, finding the phone before flipping it open. “Hello, Cara?”
She froze, staring at Mac with wide
eyes. Scenery flashed by as the color drained from her face. From her
expression, the news couldn’t be good.
“Who is this?” She spoke into the
receiver, her voice trembling. “But I don’t know where it is. I’ve only
received a letter and some pictures. Can’t you at least tell me what I should
be looking for?”
A horrible, swelling silence
followed. Mac gripped the steering wheel with whitened knuckles, listening
intently, focused on her stricken face.
Toni tightened her grip on the
phone. “Yes, I understand. Now, let me talk to Cara. I need to know she’s all
right.”
Mac hesitated, dreading this phone
call. Knowing what it meant.
“Cara? Are you okay, honey? No,
please, let me talk to her again. She’s just a kid. Please don’t hurt her.”
Another pause, then Toni hung up
the phone, dropping it into her lap. She buried her face in her hands and gave
a low sob.
“What did they say?” Mac reached
across the seat and squeezed her arm, feeling the tremors shaking her body.
She looked at him, her eyes
sparkling with tears. “They’ve taken Cara. They’ve given me twenty-four hours
to find Eric’s missing file or he said they’d kill her.”
“They?”
She nodded and wiped her eyes.
“Yes, he said ‘we’ want the file Eric sent you. I think it was a man, but he
sounded strange. Like he was using one of those sound synthesizers to disguise
his voice. But I think he must have a partner he’s working with. How did he get
my cell phone number?”
“Probably from Cara. Does your
caller ID show a phone number?”
She checked. “It says payphone.”
“Did they let you talk to Cara?”
“Yes, they let me hear her voice,
but only for a couple of seconds.”
“Proof of life is a good sign.”
“She sounded so frightened, Mac.
She thinks I’m her enemy. I may never get the chance to tell her how sorry I am
and how much I really love her. I don’t think I can live with myself if
something happens to her.”
Mac understood perfectly. He still
hadn’t been able to forgive himself for what happened in Afghanistan. But this
situation was different. It wasn’t Toni’s fault her sister had been taken, but
it was Mac’s fault Eric had died.
“What now?” Her voice sounded
hoarse.
“Now? We visit the Colonel. You’ve
had a demand for ransom and he’ll call in the FBI.”
“But the kidnapper said they’d kill
Cara if we call anyone.”
“I understand, but we need their
help. This is a military issue. The NCIS and FBI are good at their jobs.”
“Mac, something’s bothering me,”
she confessed.
“What’s that?”
“Your savings account. I
accidentally saw the balance when we were back at your cabin. Where did you get
so much money?”
He hardened his jaw. “It’s not a
payoff, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m not a traitor or a spy.”
“No, of course not. But it did
occur to me that someone might try to bribe you.”
He snorted. “Would you believe my
parents sold our mountain meadow to the Natural Resources Conservation Service?
The ambush in Afghanistan scared ten years off their lives. They gifted me with
the money so I can go to medical school when my commission with the military
expires in a few months. They want me home where they think I’ll be safe.”