Snatched (17 page)

Brian noticed a third person in the police cruiser—a thin, clean-shaven man with a crewcut.

Mrs. Thorn pointed a red-nailed finger at the man holding Alicia.

“That’s my ex-husband, Bill Camden,” said Mrs. Thorn. “He kidnapped my daughter. Arrest him!”

 

It was like a really bad movie, only it was happening all around her, and she was in it. Alicia squeezed her eyes closed, but she couldn’t close her ears.

“Arrest me for what?” her father asked.

“For kidnapping my daughter,” her mother shouted.

“She’s my daughter, too,” her dad said.

She was just a thing for them to fight over. A daughter thing. She opened her eyes and saw Arnold hovering in the background with that big white bandage on his head.

The policewoman stepped in and raised her voice. “Now, people, I want everybody to CALM DOWN!”

For a few seconds, nobody said a word.

“Thank you,” said the policewoman. “Now, Mr. Camden, would you please step away from Alicia?”

Camden released Alicia and took a step to the side. “I didn’t kidnap anybody,” he said. “She called and asked me to come and get her. Ask her if you don’t believe me.”

Alicia hugged herself. Even after the divorce they were still fighting. She was nothing more than a game piece.

“Is that true, Alicia?” asked the policewoman.

Alicia thought furiously. She looked at her father, then she looked past her father and saw Maurice Wellington. They were all here now, everyone who had ever pretended to love her.

“He wasn’t kidnapping me,” she said. “I wanted to go with him.” She looked at her mother. “I wanted to get away from her.”

Roni could hardly believe what happened next. The moment Alicia said she wanted to get away from her, Mrs. Thorn took two steps toward her daughter and hit her in the face so hard that Alicia fell to the ground.

Bill Camden launched himself toward his ex-wife, but Officer Spall grabbed him and slammed him back against the pickup truck.

Arnold Thorn stepped toward his wife, saying, “Now dear . . .”

Mrs. Thorn was bent over Alicia, her face contorted with fury, saying, “You worthless little tramp! You don’t think of anybody but yourself! Do you ever think about me? No! All you want is to make out with your low-class boyfriend and make me look bad in front of my friends.”

“You don’t
have
any friends,” Alicia muttered, looking up at her mother.

Mrs. Thorn drew back her hand to hit Alicia again, but Detective Bain—Brian’s mother—grabbed her arms and twisted them behind her back.

Mr. Thorn helped Alicia to her feet. She was bleeding where her mother’s red fingernails had raked across her cheek.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, shaking off his hand. “No thanks to you.”

“I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t know she was going to do that.”

“You never know anything!”

“You know what Alice is like,” said Bill Camden to Arnold Thorn. “You should have protected Alicia. I always did.”

“I didn’t want to get between mother and daughter,” Thorn said.

“You’re worthless,” Camden snorted.

Mrs. Bain kept an arm on Alice Thorn and gave Arnold Thorn a careful look. “Are you saying that this has happened before?”

Arnold Thorn shook his head helplessly.

“It sure has,” said Maurice, stepping forward. “Her mom was always smacking her around.”

“That’s a lie!” said Mrs. Thorn.

“Why didn’t you say anything about this before?” Mrs. Bain asked.

“Alicia made me promise not to,” Maurice said. “She said it would be too embarrassing for her family.”

Mrs. Bain turned to Alicia. “Is that true, Alicia?”

Alicia shrugged.

“Last Friday, when you said you were attacked by a stranger, was it really your mother who hurt you?”

Alicia looked at her mother, who was glaring at her with eyes squeezed down to tiny slits.

“Alicia?” said Mrs. Bain. “Is that what happened?”

“Ask
him.
” Alicia looked at her stepfather.

Arnold Thorn looked at his wife, then looked away, his face reddening.

“Yes,” he said. “It’s true.”

Mrs. Bain frowned. “You knew this all along?”

“I knew that they had . . . had a fight. Maurice had stopped by to visit Alicia. Alice had made it clear to Alicia that Maurice was not welcome in our home. They had words.”

“It was more than words,” Maurice said.

Thorn nodded. “Yes. Alicia was hurt. I tried to help her, but she ran off. The next thing we knew she had told the police she had been attacked by a stranger.” He spread his hands helplessly. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want our family name to be dragged through the mud. We hoped it would all blow over.”

“You are worse than worthless,” said Bill Camden.

“And I suppose Alicia wasn’t really abducted, either,” said Mrs. Bain.

“No, that was real,” said Arnold Thorn. “I’m certain Alice had nothing to do with that.”

Roni couldn’t hold herself back any longer. “We found the boat,” she said.

Everyone turned and looked at her.

“Who is ‘we’?” asked Detective Bain. She looked from Roni to Brian, who had been trying very hard to make himself invisible. “And what boat?”

“The boat Alicia was locked up on,” Roni said. “The
Cap’n Arnold.
”

“Alicia was on
your
boat?” Mrs. Bain said to Arnold Thorn.

“Actually, Mr. Thorn sold the boat to Maurice,” Roni said.

Mrs. Bain turned her attention to Maurice.

“Is that true?”

Maurice shrugged.

Detective Bain looked at Officer Spall. “Maybe we should throw them
all
in jail.”

“Look here,” said Bill Camden, “I don’t know anything about any boat. All I know is that Alicia isn’t safe here in Bloodwater. Not with her around.” He pointed with his chin at Mrs. Thorn.

“She’s
my
daughter,” shouted Mrs. Thorn.

Mrs. Bain turned to Alicia, who was sitting slumped over, looking as pale as a ghost. “Alicia, it’s time to tell us what happened.”

Alicia shook her head and moved closer to her father. Bill Camden put his arm around her. Roni was surprised by how small Alicia looked, as if she’d shrunk two sizes in one week.

“Alicia?” said Mrs. Bain.

Alicia shook her head.

“Tell them, Alicia,” said Brian, stepping up next to Roni.

Alicia licked her lips, saying nothing.

“Talk to us, dear,” said Mrs. Bain.

Alicia shook her head. “It was a stranger. I never saw him before. He locked me in the boat.”

“Your dad’s old boat? Your boyfriend’s boat? Why didn’t you tell the police whose boat it was?” Roni asked.

“I didn’t . . . it was
dark!
I didn’t know!”

“You had to know. The roses that Maurice gave you were in there,” Roni pointed out.

Roni glanced at Maurice. His mouth was hanging open again. Not a good look. But not the look of a kidnapper about to be exposed, either. In fact, nobody looked particularly guilty. Even Mr. Thorn, peeking out from beneath his bandaged forehead, seemed more curious than worried.

“Tell them, Alicia,” Brian said again. “Tell them what
really
happened.”

What’s Brian getting at? Roni wondered. What does he know? And why don’t I know it, too?

Alicia lifted her head, giving Brian a pleading, I-can’t-bring-myself-to-say-it look.

“We’ve seen the boat,” Brian said. “The door was kicked in.”

“I had to escape!” Alicia said, her voice small.

“But the door was kicked
in,
” Brian said. “You had to kick the door in from the outside. You broke the lock to get
into
the cabin. There was no way to lock you in!”

Alicia looked at her feet, saying nothing.

“Is that true, Alicia?” asked Detective Bain.

For several seconds, nobody said a word. Then Alicia looked up. She looked at her mother, and then at Maurice, and finally at her father.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess I snatched myself.”

Everyone was looking at Alicia.

Alicia shrugged. “I didn’t plan it. I just wanted to get away. The only place I could think to go was the boat. I wasn’t going to stay away for long.” She looked at Maurice. “I thought maybe Maurice would come. I thought he might look for me.”

Maurice stared back at her with a confused expression on his face.

Alicia continued. “But he never came. I fell asleep. Then the storm came and the boat broke loose and I got thrown into the river and had to swim in the storm and I passed out and the next thing I knew it was the next day. I got lost trying to get home, and when I found out everybody thought I’d been abducted . . . I just thought maybe if I let them think that, then people would be nicer to me.”

Alicia looked at her mother and touched a hand to the scratches on her cheek. Then she looked back at Maurice. “I didn’t want to get anybody in trouble.”

Everyone started talking at once. Brian couldn’t take it all in, but it was exciting. Roni was giving him a weird look, but he was getting used to that.

Mrs. Thorn began shouting again. “How could you do this to me? All you’ve ever wanted to do is make me look bad.”

“That’s not true!” said Alicia, her eyes overflowing with tears. “All I ever wanted was for you to stop hurting me and start loving me.”

Mrs. Thorn dropped her eyes.

Mrs. Bain went back to the squad car and opened the back door. The thin man with the crewcut got out. He was wearing handcuffs. Mrs. Bain unlocked the cuffs and led him over to Alicia.

“I think you owe this man an apology,” she said.

There was dead silence for a few moments, while everybody tried to puzzle out who this stranger could be and why Alicia should apologize to him.

“Who are you?” Alicia finally asked.

The man smiled. “My name is Douglas Unger,” he said.

Roni and Brian both gasped. Driftwood Doug looked at them and winked.

 

 

It took Brian’s mother another ten minutes to get everybody calmed down and off the street. Garth Spall seemed to think they should arrest somebody—but who? Eventually they decided to take Mrs. Thorn downtown. Roni overheard Mrs. Bain say to Spall, “Give her time to calm down and maybe talk to a family counselor.”

Bill Camden wanted to take Alicia back to Mankato with him, but Mrs. Bain wouldn’t allow it.

“My daughter will be safe with me,” Camden said.

“We’ll see that she’s safe, but right now the Thorns have custody,” said Mrs. Bain. “You will have to go through the courts to change that.”

“Believe me, I will!” Bill Camden left in his pickup truck, which was seriously dented but still driveable.

Roni and Brian went over to Driftwood Doug, who was watching the drama with a little smile on his face. Without his hair and beard he looked more like an accountant than a wild woodsman.

“What happened to all your hair?” Brian asked.

“I thought nobody would recognize me without my hair and beard. But your mother spotted me walking down the street. She knew me from back when I lived in that cursed mansion.” He smiled at Brian. “I guess being observant runs in the family.”

“Roni and I never thought you were guilty,” Brian said.

“I have to ask you one more thing,” Roni said.

“Ask away,” said Doug.

“Why did you run away from the police?”

Doug blushed. “I guess that wasn’t very smart,” he said. “It was the ginseng, you see.”

“The ginseng made you run?”

“In a sense. You see, I’d been picking wild ginseng out of season and, well, I was afraid they’d come to arrest me for poaching.”

“You mean we were drinking poached ginseng tea?”

“I’m afraid so.” He looked over at Mrs. Bain, who was ordering Mr. Thorn and Alicia to return to Bloodwater House. “You know, I think I’ll head on back to my boat before your mother changes her mind about letting me go.” He shook hands with Roni and Brian and said, “Thanks for believing in me. Stop by for a cup of tea next time you’re in my neighborhood!” With that, he turned and walked away.

Mrs. Bain, watching Douglas Unger’s long strides carry him quickly out of sight, said, “And to think I nearly put that poor man in jail!”

“That’s what happens when you jump to conclusions,” Brian said.

Mrs. Bain said, “Excuse me? Did I hear a voice?”

“I—”

“No,” said Mrs. Bain. “I could not possibly have heard my son’s voice, because
my
son is
grounded
!”

“But I—”

“In fact”—she rattled the handcuffs she had removed from Driftwood Doug’s wrists—“if I were to get home and find that boy anywhere other than in his room studying, I might just cuff him to his bed rail for the rest of his sorry life.” Mrs. Bain turned to Maurice. “If you happen to see my son, would you do me a favor and give him a ride home?”

“Uh . . . sure, I guess,” said Maurice.

“And no detours!”

On the way home, Roni said, “I wonder who called the cops.”

“That would be me,” said Maurice. “When you took off in my truck I called 911 on my cell phone.” He scowled at Roni. “You know who’s going to pay for a new front bumper, right?”

“It was for a good cause,” Roni said. “By the way, I have a question for you, Mr. Car-keyer. Are you the one who vandalized the
Cap’n Arnold
?”

Maurice shook his head. “That was Mrs. Thorn,” he said. “She was jealous because Arnold was spending too much time on his boat. When she gets mad, she can go ballistic. I mean, you saw her. She got so mad she went down to Arnold’s boat one day and just started busting stuff.” He laughed. “It turned out to be a great deal for me—I got a good boat cheap.”