Authors: Kristin Hannah
The girl grunted and opened the book, smacking the page.
It was where they’d left off. The exact page.
Amazing.
Julia didn’t know if the reaction had been to the name or the reading, but it didn’t matter. For whatever reason, the little girl had finally stepped into this world. Julia almost laughed out loud; that was how good she felt right now.
The girl hit the book again.
“Okay, I’ll keep reading, but from now on you’re Alice. So, Alice, get in bed. When you’re under the covers again, I’ll read you a story.”
Exactly one hour later the girl was asleep and Julia closed the book.
She leaned over and kissed the tiny, sweet-scented pink cheek. “Good night, little Alice. Sleep well in Wonderland.”
ELEVEN
Ellie was alone in the police station, going through her notes from this afternoon. All those grieving parents and their missing children were counting on her.
She was terrified she’d disappoint them. It was the fear that drove her, kept her butt in this seat and her tired eyes focused on the pile of reports on her desk.
But she’d been at it too long. She couldn’t be objective anymore, couldn’t make any more notes about blood types and dental records and abduction dates. All she saw when she closed her eyes were broken families; people who still put up Christmas stockings every year for their missing children.
“I could hear you crying outside.”
She looked up sharply, sniffing hard. “I wasn’t crying. I poked myself in the eye. What are you doing here anyway?”
Cal stood there, smiling gently, his hands shoved deeply in his pockets. In a black Dark Knight tee shirt and faded jeans, he looked more like a high school kid than a married, fully grown father of three.
He pulled up a chair and sat down beside her. “You okay?”
She wiped her eyes. The smile she gave him was pure fiction; both of them knew it. “I’m out of my league, Cal.”
He shook his head. A comma of jet black hair fell across his eyes.
Without even thinking, she pushed it away. “What do I do?”
He jerked back at her touch, then laughed awkwardly. “You’ll do what you always do, El.”
“What’s that?”
“Whatever it takes. You’ll find the girl’s family.”
“No wonder I keep you around.” This time her smile was almost the real thing.
He stood up. “Come on. I’ll buy you a beer.”
“What about Lisa and the girls?”
“Tara’s babysitting.” He reached for his rain slicker, put it on.
“I don’t need a beer, Cal. Really. Besides, I should get home. You don’t need to—”
“No one watches out for you anymore, El.”
“I know, but—”
“Let me.”
The simple way he said it plucked at her heart. He was right. It had been a long time since someone had taken care of her. “Come on.” She grabbed her black leather jacket and followed him out of the station.
The streets were empty again, quiet.
A full moon hung in the night sky, illuminating streets still damp from a late night rain. It gave off an eerie radiance that stained the trees and silvered the road.
Ellie tried not to think about the case as she drove. Instead she focused on the darkness of the road and the comforting light from the headlights behind her. Truthfully, it felt good to have someone following her home.
She pulled into her yard and parked. Before she could turn off the ignition, a song came on the radio.
“
Leaving on a Jet Plane
.”
She was plunged into a memory. Mom and Dad playing this song on the piano and fiddle, asking their girls to sing along.
My El,
Dad would say,
has an angel’s voice.
She saw her pint-sized self running for the makeshift stage, sidling up beside her dad. Later, when Sammy Barton played that song for her, she’d tumbled into love. It had been like drowning, that love; she’d barely made it out of the water alive.
“You used to love this song,” Cal said, standing by her door, looking down at her through the open window.
“Used to,” Ellie said, pushing the memories aside. “Now it makes me think of husband number two. Only he left on a Greyhound bus. You’ve got to want to get away from someone pretty damn bad to ride a bus.” She got out of the car.
“He was a fool.”
“I guess you’re talking about every man I’ve ever loved. And there are a truckload of them.”
“But never the right one,” he said quietly, studying her.
“Thanks for that insight, Sherlock. I hadn’t noticed.”
“Someone is feeling sorry for herself tonight.”
Ellie had to smile at that. “I won’t let it last long. Thanks for letting me vent.”
He slung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “Come on, Chief. Buy me a beer.”
They walked across the springy lawn and climbed the porch steps. Inside, Ellie was surprised to find her sister up and working.
Julia sat at the kitchen table, with papers strewn all around her. “Hey,” she said, looking up.
“Julia?” Cal said. His face lit up in a smile.
Julia stood up slowly, staring at him. “Cal? Cal Wallace? Is that really you?”
He opened his arms. “It’s me.”
Julia ran for him, let him hold her. They were both smiling brightly. When Cal finally drew back, he stared down at her. “I told you you’d be beautiful.”
“And you still give the best hugs of any man I’ve ever met,” Julia said, laughing.
Ellie frowned. Were they
flirting
with each other? All at once she thought about those old-time parties again. While Ellie had been center stage, singing her heart out, Julia had been on the stairs, sitting by Cal, listening from the shadows.
Julia drew back and looked at him. “You look like a rock star.”
“Heroin chic. That’s what they call skinny guys like me.” He pushed the hair from his eyes. “It’s good to see you again, Jules. Sorry it has to be under such crappy circumstances. By the way, your sister is about ready to have a meltdown.”
“That’ll be the day,” Ellie said, opening her can of beer. She unhooked her gun belt and radio and set them on the counter. “Want one?”
“No, thanks.” Julia went to the table and fished through the mess of papers. When she found what she was looking for, she offered them to Ellie. “Here, El. I have these for you.”
Ellie put her beer down. “Wow. That’s her?”
“It is.” Julia smiled like a proud parent. “I’m calling her Alice, by the way. From Wonderland. She responded to the story.”
Ellie stared at the photograph in her hand. It was of a stunningly beautiful black-haired girl in a white eyelet dress. “How’d you do this?”
“Getting her to stand still was the hard part.” Julia’s smile expanded. “We had a good day. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow. Now, I need to run. Will you keep an eye on her?”
“Babysit? Me?”
Cal rolled his eyes. “It’s babysitting, El. Not brain surgery.”
“I’d rather crack your skull open and sew it shut than watch wolf girl. I’m not kidding.” She looked at her sister. “Where are you going?”
“Back to the library. I need to find out about her diet.”
“Go see Max,” Cal said. “The guy keeps meticulous notes. He’ll be able to answer your questions.”
Julia laughed. “Dr. Casanova on a Friday night? I don’t think so.”
“Don’t worry about it, Jules,” Ellie said. “You’re hardly his type.”
Julia’s smiled faded. “That’s not what I meant, but thanks for the tip.” She reached for her purse and headed for the door. “And thanks for babysitting, El. Good to see you again, Cal.”
“Are you a moron?” Cal said to Ellie the minute Julia left.
“I believe there’s some kind of law against calling your police chief a moron.”
“No. There’s a law against my police chief
being
a moron. Did you see the look on your sister’s face when you said she wasn’t Max’s type? You hurt her feelings.”
“Come on, Cal. I saw a picture of her last boyfriend. Mr. World Famous scientist did
not
look like Max.”
Cal sighed and stood up. “You’ll never get it.”
“Get what?”
He looked down at her a long time, long enough that she started to wonder what he saw. Finally, he shook his head. “I’m outta here. See you at work tomorrow.”
“Don’t leave mad.”
He paused at the door and turned to her. “Mad?” His voice dropped. “I’m hardly mad, Ellie. But how would you know that? The only emotions you really understand are your own.”
And then he was gone.
Ellie finished her beer and opened a second. By the time she emptied that can, she’d forgotten all about Cal’s dramatics. They’d had plenty of fights and arguments in their time. What mattered was that tomorrow they’d be fine. Cal would smile at her as if it had never happened. It had always been that way between them.
Finally, she went upstairs. At her old room, she stopped. Turning the knob, she went inside.
The girl was sleeping peacefully, and though she looked like any other kid now, she was still curled up tightly, as if to protect herself from a cruel world.
“Who are you, little one?” Ellie whispered, feeling that weight of responsibility again. “I’ll find your family. I swear I will.”
Forty years ago, when the Rose Theater was built, it had been on the far edge of town. Old-timers still called the neighborhood Back East; it had been given that nickname when Azalea Street seemed miles away. Now, of course, it was practically in town. All around it there were small two-story homes, built in the timber rich years to house mill workers. Across the street was the library, and just down the road a block or two was the new hardware store. Sealth Park, where the girl had first shown up, was kitty-corner to it.
Max came to the movies every Friday night, alone. At first there had been talk about the weirdness of his habit, and women had shown up “accidentally” to sit with him, but in time it had settled into a routine, and there was nothing the people of Rain Valley liked better than routine.
He waved to the theater’s owner, who stood at the tiny concession counter, carefully rearranging the boxes of candy. He didn’t stop to chat, knowing that any conversation would inevitably circle back to the man’s bursitis.
“Hey, Doc, how’d yah like the movie?”
Max turned to his left and found Earl and his wife, Myra, beside him. They, too, were at the movies every Friday night, cuddling in their seats like teenagers. “Hey, Earl. Myra. It’s good to see you.”
“That was some great movie,” Earl said.
“You love every movie,” Myra said to her husband. “Especially the romances.”
They fell into step. “How’s the search going?” Max asked Earl.
“It ain’t no picnic, that’s for sure. The phone is ringin’ off the hook and the leads are pourin’ in like the Hoh River in spring. There are so many lost girls out there. It breaks your danged heart. But we’ll find out who she is. Chief is determined.”
“That Ellen Barton is quite a woman,” Myra said to Max.
He couldn’t help smiling. Myra never missed an opportunity to mention Ellie. It seemed that the whole town had expected them to fall in love. For the short time they’d been an item, the gossip alert had been Defcon 4. A few die-hard romantics like Myra thought for sure there would be a sequel. “Yes, she is, Myra.”
They were outside now, standing on the wide concrete path that connected the entrance of the theater to the sidewalk. On this unexpectedly dry night the other moviegoers drifted toward their cars, talking among themselves.
The crowd dissipated slowly. For a few moments people gathered in small groups along the sidewalk and in the street. Neighbors talking to one another on this beautiful night. The sound of their voices carried on the still, clean air. Earl and Myra were among the first to leave.
One by one the cars drove away, until the street was empty except for an old white Suburban and his pickup truck.
Max was halfway to his truck when a movement across the street caught his eye: a woman was leaving the library, her arms full of books. Light from a streetlamp fell down on her, made her look too alive somehow, an angel against the dark night.
Julia.
Across the street, she opened the passenger door of the Suburban and tossed her books onto the seat. She was almost to the driver’s side when he said her name.
She paused and looked up.
“Hey, Julia,” he said, coming up to her. “You’re working late.”
She laughed. It sounded nervous. “Obsessive is a word that’s often been used about me.”
“How’s your patient?”
“Actually, I’d like to talk to you about her. Later. At the hospital.”
“How about right now? We could go to my house.”
Julia looked confused. “Oh. I don’t think—”
“This is as good a time as any.”
“I
do
have a babysitter right now.”
“Then it’s settled. Follow me.” Before she could say no, he walked over to his truck and climbed into the driver’s seat. As he started the engine, he watched her in the rearview mirror.
She stared at his truck, biting her lip, then finally got into her own car.
On either side of the road a thicket of black trees stood watch, their tops pressed into the starry underbelly of the night sky. Moonlight turned the ordinary asphalt into a ribbon of tarnished silver that snaked between the twin curtains of trees. At the turnoff, an old brown and yellow Forest Service wooden sign pointed the way to Spirit Lake.
Julia hadn’t been out this way in years. Even now, with all the growth that had taken place on the peninsula in the two decades since high school, this was still the boonies. The locals called it the End; not only because of its location, but because of its isolation.
It was a stunningly beautiful, majestic corner of the rain forest, but she couldn’t quite match it to Dr. Casanova. He definitely struck her as a big city guy. What was he doing out here in the middle of all this green darkness?
As she turned onto the gravel road, the landscape changed. The trees blocked out the pearly moonlight. No lights cut through the inky night. The ever present fog off the lake gave the forest a brooding, otherworldly feel.
It occurred to her suddenly that she was following a man she barely knew into the deep woods. And that no one knew where she was.
You’re being an idiot.
He’s a doctor.
Ted Bundy was a law student.
She reached into her purse and pulled out her cell phone. Amazingly, she got service. She punched in Ellie’s phone number and got voice mail. “Hey, El. I’m at Dr. Cerrasin’s house, talking about the girl.” She glanced at her watch. “I’ll be home by midnight.”
She clicked the End button. “At least they’ll know where to start looking for my body.”
That actually wasn’t funny.
In truth, she wasn’t entirely sure why she was following him, anyway. She wasn’t really ready for a consult, and what she did have to present as a theory would make her look like a nutcase.