Finding Hannah (14 page)

* * *

The obnoxious ring from the satellite phone woke us early the next morning.

“Ahhhhh,” I said, digging in my bag for the phone, my eyes half open. It was still dark and raining. I finally found it with the help of my flashlight. “Ah, hello.”

“Good morning,” Mom said. “How are you doing?”

“I’m not awake. What time is it?”

“It’s 6:30.”

“Are you serious?”

“Oh, did I wake you up? Sorry about that.”

I looked over at Molly, who propped herself up on her arms and looked at me with eyes barely cracked open. She moaned and let her head fall back onto her pillow and covered her head with her arms.

“I thought you’d be up by now with all this rain we’re getting,” Mom said. She was right. The rain was still coming down at a steady pace. “The weather guy says it’ll be raining all day. It’s not going to stop until late tonight.”

“Well, that’s just great,” I said.

“Should be clear tomorrow,” she said. “How’s Molly doing?”

“She’s doing well.”

“Do you have enough food?”

“We’re good today. We’ll be home tomorrow.”

“And you’re staying dry?”

“Yes.” I yawned. I just wanted to go back to sleep. I thought about telling Mom to please hang up, but then I wondered about Tony and the possibility of him posting bail. “Is there any news?”

“Nope. Your dad is at work, and Amy and I are going to the grocery store soon. I’ll pick you up some dried food.”

“Thanks.” I was trying to think of how to ask about Tony without bringing up his name. “Anything Molly needs to know?”

“No, nothing new.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, nothing yet.”

“Okay, Mom, I should go. I’m going to shut the phone down until after dark since we need to save the battery and I can’t charge it if we’re not going to have any sun today.”

“I’ll let your dad know.”

“See you tomorrow.”

She said goodbye and we hung up.

I plopped down on my pillow and fell right back to sleep. Molly woke me up awhile later by propping herself up with her arms on my chest.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Good morning.”

“I’ve got good news. I woke up this morning and wasn’t sore.”

“That is excellent news. Your eye looks better, too.”

Molly smiled. “It’s still raining. Should we eat and then go?”

I nodded.

We ate a breakfast of beef and rice MREs, threw on our rain gear, and headed into the forest. We were forced to walk slowly up and down hills because of the mud. In spite of being careful, Molly and I each slipped several times, and our legs were covered in mud. We took many detours to avoid swollen streams. By noon, we’d only traveled a quarter of what we’d planned. We huddled under a rock outcropping and snacked on a soggy mix of granola and nuts while looking at our map.

“We’re right about here,” I said, pointing to where the GPS coordinates told me we were.

“We need to pick up the pace, don’t we?” Molly asked.

“I don’t know how in this mess.”

“We can do it!” Molly stuffed the last of her granola bar in her mouth. “Come on.” Molly smiled at me and skipped away, not caring about the splashing mud.

The rain seemed to make Molly even more positive. I’d never met anyone like her, and it made me smile.

We pushed on, dodging trees and trudging through muddy streams. We looked in every direction for any sign of Hannah, but the forest was empty. There wasn’t one house or even a sign of anything that didn’t belong.

By late afternoon, we’d made up a lot of ground, but the temperature had dropped. Despite our rain gear, we were soaked. We were still several hours away from our campsite when the wind picked up, chilling both of us.

Daylight was disappearing fast. The last hour of our hike was in silence, and we could see our breath in the light of our flashlights.

When we reached the tent I had to help Molly out of her rain gear and wet sweatshirt because she was shivering so much. I untied the rope holding up our food bag and lowered it to retrieve some soup packets while Molly changed. I wanted to warm them up with a fire, but it was too wet to get one started.

Molly had stuffed herself deep in her sleeping bag by the time I got in and changed out of my wet clothes

“Do you want to eat something?” I asked.

“I’m too cold to be hungry,” she said, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.

I used my flashlight and took a close look at the zippers on her sleeping bag and mine. “I have an idea.”

I got out of my sleeping bag and unzipped it all the way. I pulled Molly, still in her sleeping bag, to the middle of the air mattress and unzipped her sleeping bag all the way.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Trust me.”

Molly was wearing three pairs of socks, her sweatpants, and a sweatshirt. I flattened her sleeping bag out on the air mattress and quickly covered her with mine.

“Oh, I get it,” Molly said.

I zipped up one half and then the other, mating the two sleeping bags into one big sleeping bag.

I shut off the flashlight and climbed in. Molly curled into a ball, facing me, folding her arms against my stomach. Her head rested against my chest, and I put my arms around her shoulders. The heat was being sucked out of me, but as long as it was going to Molly, I didn’t care.

“You’re nice and warm,” she said.

“And you’re cold.”

She laughed. “Sorry.”

I closed my eyes and held her. She shivered so much the air mattress shook. Within a few minutes her tremors lessened and then finally stopped.

I thought Molly had drifted off to sleep, but then she said, “Someday, this is what I want.”

I waited for her to say more, but she didn’t. “What do you mean?”

“Someday, I want someone who treats me the way you do. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Molly hugged me and then rolled onto her stomach. I rolled on my back so our sides touched. Molly’s hand was on my chest as she fell asleep. Her faint breathing sounded like waves washing up on a shoreline. The sound helped me do the same.

Chapter 11

We broke camp the next morning under a cloudless sky and hiked for a few hours before finding the trail. Our cold, soaked hiking boots squished as we made our way down the trail, but the warm air made it easy to manage.

“I’m going to try to talk to my mom when I get home,” Molly said. “If I want my old mom back, I’m going to have to fight for her. I remember how happy she’d get when my dad would come home from work. She used to be so beautiful. She loved him so much. I want her to be happy again.”

“If your drive to get your mom back is anything like your drive to help find Hannah, I know you’ll get her back,” I said.

We hiked for another hour before coming to the highway near my house, this time approaching from the other direction.

Molly asked if she could leave her gear at my house. We entered through the sliding-glass door and brought our stuff inside. No one else seemed to be home. I loaned Molly a small backpack for her clothes and then we went into my room to pick out our next search area.

“I’ll call you after my doctor appointment,” Molly said.

“How are you getting there?” I asked.

“Either my mom will take me or I can bike. It’s not that far. Do you want to leave tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah. I’ll see if my dad is up for giving us a ride.”

Molly smiled. “Okay.”

I walked her to the door.

Molly held out a folded-up piece of paper. “This is for you.”

I took it and saw my name written on it.

“Read it just before you go to bed tonight,” Molly said. “You have to promise me you’ll wait until then.”

“Okay, I’ll wait.”

Molly hugged me and held my shoulders as she leaned in and kissed me. “See you tomorrow.”

“See you.”

I felt an overwhelming desire to not let her go as she walked away.

“Hey,” I said, and she turned around. “You know how those people were having that dinner party at the house we were watching?”

“Yeah.”

“After we find Hannah, let’s do that. I want to take you to a restaurant. We can dress up. I’ll wear a suit and tie and you can wear whatever you want.”

“That’s a great idea.” Molly’s face slowly morphed into a grin. “Dylan, did you just ask me out on a date?”

I smiled back. “I did.”

“I can’t wait.” She blushed as she backed away looking at me with a smile, and then turned to leave.

I went inside, started a load of laundry, and unloaded my muddy backpack in the garage. I hung up the tent and both sleeping bags to dry. I took a long hot shower, which felt great.

Thanks to Molly, the invisible metal band around my head was losing its effect. My thoughts spun and tangled. I was confused by the attachment I was forming with her and the growing emptiness inside me because Hannah was still missing.

I threw my clothes in the dryer and considered reading Molly’s note. I thought about calling Wiz to see if he was having any luck with Molly’s computer, but then I decided to take a nap first.

* * *

“Dylan!”

I woke as Dad shouted my name from the stairwell.

“What?” I shouted back.

He came down the steps in his police uniform and stood in my doorway. It was 2:00 p.m., and I’d been asleep for two hours.

“Why is your phone off?” he demanded.

“I shut it off. It’s charging.”

I saw Dad’s face was not happy. “Where is Molly?” he asked.

“She went home. She has a doctor appointment. Why?”

“Tony posted bail four hours ago.”

I quickly sat up. “What?”

“I just found out.”

A voice came from his radio. “Dispatch to 5280.”

Dad grabbed his microphone. “This is 5280.”

“We have a possible house fire,” the dispatcher said, “about a mile west of your location.”

Dad turned and walked to the sliding-glass door.

I jumped out of bed and joined him at the window. A plume of thick black smoke stretched high into the air in the direction of Molly’s house. “Oh, no!”

“Copy that. I’m on my way.” Dad let go of the microphone. “Get dressed. Let’s go.”

I grabbed a shirt and put my shoes on in the squad car. He ran the lights and the siren as we raced toward the rising plume of smoke. We said nothing to each other as he sped down the gravel road toward Molly’s house.

“Oh, God,” I said as we turned into Tony’s empty driveway. Black smoke poured out from under the eaves and flames shot out of every window.

Dad came to a stop far from the house and got on the radio. I quickly got out of the patrol car.

“Dylan!” Dad shouted as he followed me.

I ran toward the house. “MOLLY!” The roof was sagging worse than it had before, and flames were pouring out of Molly’s bedroom window. “MOLLY!”

“Dylan, stop!” Dad shouted as he ran after me.

A sudden roar made me stop. I heard what sounded like a hissing rocket engine coming from the huge propane tank next to Molly’s room. A red-tipped flame shot up twenty feet like an oil rig fire, and black smoke billowed out of it, stretching into the sky.

Dad grabbed me and shouted, “Get down!” He dragged me to the back of the squad car and pulled me to the ground.

The roar continued for a few more seconds and then the propane tank exploded with a massive boom. The bright flash was followed by a wave of heat. My ears were ringing as bits of the roof rained down around us. I stood up and gazed at the huge black mushroom cloud stretching into the sky. The smell of burning rubber attacked my nose. Through the smoke, I could see the side of the house, the side with Molly’s room, had collapsed. I felt like my insides had just been ripped out.

“MOLLY!” I shouted. Dad restrained me as I attempted to pull away. “MOLLY!”

“Dylan, stop. Stop!”

“Tell me she’s not in there!” I shouted. “They were watching the house, right? Tell me she wasn’t in there.”

“I don’t know. Calm down.”

I couldn’t calm down. I frantically looked around, trying to find her. I could hear approaching sirens and then a fire truck rolled in. Soon firemen were pulling out hoses.

I was having trouble breathing and felt myself shutting down as I watched the house burn. It was the same suffocating feeling I experienced the night Hannah was taken.

I barely noticed as officers and firemen arrived and moved me farther from the house. Half of the propane tank sat in the middle of the house. The other half had disappeared into the woods.

I froze as I spotted Molly’s bike lying on the ground near where the propane tank had been. The twisted frame looked like a pretzel and both tires were on fire. I thought about Molly telling me she’d bike to her doctor appointment.

I stood, watching in agony. The heat was so intense, I knew if Molly was inside, she was dead. I had to know she wasn’t in there. I had to know she was okay. “Dylan,” Dad walked to me, looking around to making sure no one else could hear him. He put his arm around me. “We don’t know if Molly was in there or not. They weren’t watching the house. They found out Tony had been released the same time I did. I’m taking you home. It’ll be awhile before they know if anyone was in the house. I’ll let you know as soon as I get any word.”

I wanted to scream. I wanted to run into the burning debris and search for her myself. The invisible metal band tightened around my skull and I was nauseous.

Flames continued burning on the half of the house still standing. The rest was steaming.

Dad escorted me to his squad car. We said nothing as we drove back to our house.

“I’ll call you as soon as I know,” he said, dropping me off.

The next few hours were the longest of my life. I lay on my bed feeling sick. Images of Molly swirled in my brain. I wanted her to call me and tell me she was just leaving the doctor’s office and that she was fine.

Dad returned home from work and I met him at the front door. “Molly wasn’t in the house. The inspectors say there was no sign of any remains. No one was home.”

A wave of relief poured over me. “Where is she?”

“We don’t know. Tony’s car is gone. They think it was arson, and he’s a suspect. If he’s got Molly with him, he’ll be in violation of the restraining order, and they’ll issue a warrant for his arrest. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”