Stolen Lives: A Detective Mystery Series SuperBoxset (31 page)

Miriam couldn’t believe it. She would have to thank the family later. That was, if things turned out in her favor. And thanks would never be enough. “Where are the police?”

“They were at the house. They’re looking everywhere for you. They wanted me to stay with Grandma and Grandpa, but I can’t leave. Not with you gone.”

“I’ll see you soon, I promise,” Miriam said. She tugged at her chain again, wanting to believe her own promise more than anything.

“One minute!” Phillip shouted, reminding her.

More static came through as Ana’s voice faded in and out, demanding to know where her mother was.

“I’m being held somewhere. On a secret mission. I’m so sorry for not telling you.”

“What?”
Ana shouted, incredulous.

“But I’ll be home soon. I just don’t want you to worry anymore.”

“No!”
Ana cried.
“I want you to come home now! Why are you doing this to me?”
Her sobs became uncontrollable.

Miriam rubbed her eyes as tears streamed down her cheeks. “I’m sorry. Everything will be okay. I promise.”

“Why do you keep saying that?”
Ana shouted.

“I love you,” Miriam said.

“Thirty seconds left!” Phillip yelled, approaching her.

Miriam hurried to the corner in a panic. “Tell them I’m with the man who has Sarah. Tell them to look underground. We’re underground—”

Phillip’s arm came out of nowhere and grabbed the phone from Miriam’s hand. He yanked it away and then struck Miriam with all the force he could muster with a backhand, sending her spiraling against the wall as her chain rattled and clicked.

“What the
fuck
were you saying to her?” he asked, staring down at her, wild-eyed.

Miriam fell to her knees, covering her face with her hands as every bone in her head throbbed in pain.

“Don’t screw with me now, Miriam. You’re not going to like it.”

His decimated nostrils flared with anger as his eyes narrowed with all the evil and malice she knew him to be capable of. She backed against the wall, holding her knees and preparing for another blow.

He walked closer to her, phone in hand, and leaned down as his robe folded itself in layers. “For any of this to work, I have to be able to trust you.” He held two gloved fingers an inch apart. “Even if just this much. You try something like that again, I’ll keep you down here another a couple of weeks. Maybe a few months. Hell, we could try for a year.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping a thin trail of blood from her nose.

Phillip shook his head. “I don’t know if you’re ready yet. I can’t have the old Miriam coming back now. That’s just not going to work.”

She closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. “I’ll be good. I promise. Now release Sarah.”

Phillip remained kneeling down, eyeing Miriam, not saying anything and filling her with fear. He then rose, knees cracking, and began walking away. Halfway across the room, he suddenly stopped and turned around, facing Miriam.

“I’ll bring her in here. You say goodbye. The girl leaves. I come back with the money, then you come with me wherever I go. Got it?”

Miriam nodded.

“Because if you do one thing to piss me off…” He stopped and shook his head, smiling. “You’ll never see the light of day again. And as you rot down here, I’ll find your daughter and add her to my collection. Then I’ll bring her little head down here in a bucket, just for you to see.”

The very thought twisted Miriam’s stomach into knots. She leaned over, gagging, and started to dry heave. Phillip recoiled in disgust and then nudged the waste bucket toward her with his foot.

“Don’t go dirtying up the floor.”

Miriam fell back against the wall, exhausted and out of breath. By the time she opened her eyes, Phillip was gone again.

She immediately rose from the ground as though nothing was wrong with her and went right to the bed, lifting up the mattress, where the food from days ago still lay in a mushy, spoiled pile.

Next to the mess lay the chipped kitchen knife. Phillip, in all his carefulness, had never noticed its absence. She grabbed the knife and went to work on the chain plate, pressing against it and pushing the long screws farther out nudge by tiny nudge. She only had so much time. If Phillip got the ransom pickup, he would be back later that evening, ready to go. She didn’t know what lay in store for her after that. The best thing she could do was to play the part.

In the midst of her rushed chiseling, she heard the door bolt unlock. And by then, she knew the drill. She rushed to the mattress, hid the knife, and fell back to the floor, holding her knees against her chest in submissive desperation. The door opened like a rusty iron drawbridge, revealing Phillip leading a young girl inside with a burlap sack tied over her head.

“Right this way, Sarah,” he said with a friendly tone. “I want you to meet someone.”

Miriam’s heart skipped a beat. Sarah was alive. Her clothes were torn and dirty, and she walked with a noticeable limp as Phillip carefully led her along, but she was alive.

Miriam stayed on the floor, fighting her instincts to try to rush Phillip, strangle him and somehow storm out of the room with the girl in her arms. But that was impossible. They got within ten feet before Phillip jerked Sarah’s arm, pulling her back. Then he lifted the bag off her head, and for a moment, all that Miriam could see was a mess of long, stringy hair.

When she lifted her head, her face looked bruised. She was pale and dirty. Her round blue eyes had deep shadows underneath. She stared ahead, quiet and dazed like a zombie. Miriam felt an instant connection with Sarah but wasn’t sure what horrors had been inflicted upon her during her own captivity.

Phillip touched the Sarah’s shoulder and pointed to Miriam. “Her name is Miriam, and she agreed to take your place. Can you say,
thank you, Miriam
?”

Sarah slowly nodded as Miriam gave her a reassuring smile.

“It’s okay, Sarah,” Miriam said, trying to smile naturally. “You just get home and be happy.”

The girl mouthed the words,
thank you
, but nothing came out. In an instant, Phillip brought the bag over her head again, pulled it down, and tightened the laces at her neck. Sarah’s cries were muffled and soft.

He then glared at Miriam, daring her to say something. Submission was the key. Phillip was testing every instinct she had. When he seemed satisfied, he turned and pushed Sarah toward the door. From the door, he stopped to offer Miriam some food for thought.

“That’s what I like to see. You play along, everything is going to be just fine. No more playing hero or super mom. You’re all mine now. And when I return in an hour with the money, we’re going to start a new life together, free of all this noise.”

She stared ahead, unresponsive. Catatonic was the best state to be in around him.

“Understand?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said softly and appeared as defeated as possible.

He left the room with Sarah, and before he closed the door, she noticed the bottom of a staircase, confirming that she was being held in some underground cellar. He slammed the door and locked it. She waited for a moment, relieved that Sarah was being released. But if Phillip thought that Miriam was simply going to play along with his plans, he had another think coming.

***

The instructions were clear. The money, one million dollars in cash, was supposed to be dropped at a location disclosed by a series of notes, like a scavenger hunt, or in this case, Phillip’s treasure hunt. Congressman Bynes was directed to pick up the notes, leading him from one part of town to the next.

Phillip sat in his car in a largely barren field near a recently vacated golf and country club whose owners could not keep up with the expenses of maintenance and keeping the greens watered, especially during the last county water shortage and the corresponding rise in prices.

He expected to see the congressman alone and waving a white shirt from his car within the hour. He was not to be followed. He was not to tell anyone where he was going. He was not to have a phone on him. Those were the conditions if he ever expected to find his daughter alive.

Phillip felt confident as he waited with Sarah, bound at the wrists in the backseat. The hood was no longer necessary, he thought. The girl was confused enough. Half the time she saw him, he wore the wig and mask she had become accustomed to.

Besides, Phillip Anderson was presumed dead. And by the time the authorities put anything together, he would be long gone with Miriam at his side. He couldn’t understand his feelings for her. It was strange. Perhaps the suffering they had both endured throughout their lives brought them closer to each other. That’s what he thought, but maybe he was just insane. He smiled. Either way, he was determined to make it happen.

A silver, four-door Lincoln Town and Country minivan approached from a distance, driving down the dirt road with its headlights flickering in the night air. Phillip had his pistol at his side. Politicians were a dishonest bunch, and he believed Bynes to be no different from the others. Money and power were all they cared about. Phillip could relate, and he often wondered why he’d never thought to pursue a career in politics. The minivan approached slowly.

Phillip brought his binoculars to his eyes and noticed a white T-shirt flapping in the air from the driver’s side. He then turned around to place the bag over Sarah’s head. She made little movement, as if she were conditioned to the routine.

The van slowed about fifty feet away as Phillip flashed his headlights, a signal to stop. He opened his door and stepped out into the dust as the driver of the van did the same.

“Place the money ten feet from my car and go back to your van,” Phillip said loudly, his voice muffled by the latex mask.

The congressman, disheveled and exhausted with his sleeves rolled up and red tie flapping in the wind, leaned against his door and cupped his mouth. “Where’s my daughter?”

“Just do what I say!” Phillip said. “She’s right here. I’ve got no use for her once I get the money.”

Bynes looked around nervously. “I-I want to see her first.”

Phillip shifted in the sand, growing frustrated. His blond wig blew off in the desert breeze. “You have thirty seconds to drop the money, or the deal’s off!”

Bynes nodded and opened the passenger side door, pulling out a large black duffel, hoisting it over his shoulder with a grunt.

“That’s the ticket,” Phillip said.

A few steps closer to the car, Bynes tossed the bag on the ground. Phillip immediately came from behind his door with his pistol aimed, startling the congressman. “Good. Now go back to your car while I check this out.”

Bynes stared at Phillip’s strange appearance. “It’s all there. You can trust me,” he said.

“Get the fuck back to your car!” Phillip shouted under his mask.

Bynes jumped back and scurried to his car, leaning against the hood with his arms crossed.

Phillip unzipped the bag, revealing stacks of cash wrapped in bundles. There was no feasible way to count it, but he was satisfied enough. It looked to be a million dollars, of that much he was pretty certain. He zipped the bag, picked it up, and pointed to Bynes. “One penny short, and I’ll come back to collect. Do you see my face?”

Bynes stared back from afar, not sure what to say.

“Well? Do you?” Phillip asked.

“No?” Bynes answered, confused.

“Exactly,” Phillip said. He walked back to his El Camino with the bag over his shoulder and tossed it into the trunk. He then went to Sarah’s door, opened it and carefully guided her out of the car.

“All right, Sarah,” he said and pulled the bag from her head. “Our time here is done. Go back to your family. And remember to tell them about the nice lady who replaced you.”

Sarah nodded in a daze as Phillip nudged her toward her father, her hands still tied at the wrists with duct tape. The moment her father saw her he sprinted over, shouting her name.

Phillip got in his car and started it just in time to see Bynes pick up his daughter and pull her to him, squeezing her and crying with relief. It was as sentimental a scene as Phillip could stomach. He backed out and gunned it forward, past the reunited father and daughter, leaving them in the rear-view mirror with a cloud of dust raining over them.

***

Phillip entered the darkened cellar to find Miriam lying on her side on the mattress, apparently sleeping. It was an unusual sight. He had expected to see her trying to do anything to escape. The sight amused him more than anything. He proudly waltzed in with the duffel bag still over his shoulder and flopped it down in the middle of the floor, waking Miriam. She sat up to see him proudly standing over the bag, dressed in a black jacket, minus the wig and mask. This time his face was fully exposed, his scalp hairless and burnt.

“It worked. I got the money,” he said. “Now we can go.”

Miriam tugged on her chain, with a helpless, vulnerable expression. Lifting her arms she asked, “What about this?”

Phillip smiled, looking at her as though she were a child. “Obviously you won’t have to wear that chain.” He stopped and sighed. “But I’m afraid I don’t trust you completely just yet. He pulled out two pairs of handcuffs and tossed them on the mattress. “There. One’s for your wrists. The other’s for your ankles. Matching!” He laughed. “Put those on and I’ll take the chain off.”

Miriam looked at the clamp around her wrist, where heavy bruises and cuts were visible. “How will I walk?” she asked, dumbfounded.

“Very carefully,” he responded. “Now hurry up. We haven’t got all night. Johnny Law will be searching the area soon enough.”

The thought of it brought a moment’s relief to Miriam. But she also knew the chances of finding her in time were slim at best. Phillip approached with the familiar fiendish look flashing in his eyes. He was waiting for her to put the cuffs on and wasn’t going to leave until she did it.

“How about we take a moment to celebrate?” she asked, taking him by surprise.

He narrowed his eyes, not completely buying it. “What are you talking about?”