Jan Burke - Kidnapped

“So no talking about going outside,” Genie went on. “No clomping boots. Remember-be sneaky. Troy, you tell Aaron about dinosaurs while you’re getting your jackets, hats, boots, and mittens on, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Don’t shout, just talk in quiet voices. I’m going upstairs, and I’ll be right back down.”

She quickly made her way to her bedroom, grabbed paper, a pen, and the flashlight.

In the hallway, she paused briefly to listen. Cleo was now talking to Dad in a low voice, so Genie still couldn’t hear what was being said. Below, Troy was telling Aaron that pterosaurs were not true dinosaurs. Troy could talk about dinosaurs for hours, with Aaron a rapt audience for every minute of it.

She hurried quickly and quietly downstairs, saw that Aaron was too rapt an audience-Troy was pulling on his boots while Aaron sat staring at him.

She made a little growl of exasperation and helped Aaron dress, then put on her own warm clothing, all except the mittens. Troy nobly kept talking about dinosaurs, even starting to look a little happier as he lectured. Now he was on to one of his favorite arguments, saying that dinosaurs were not extinct because birds were dinosaurs. “Technically,” he kept adding.

They followed her into the kitchen, where she gave each of them a small bottle of water to place in their jacket pockets.

She wrote out a note. She couldn’t keep her handwriting from being shaky, but it was readable. She asked whoever was reading the note to call the police and to contact Irene Kelly of the Las Piernas News Express, who knew where the boys’ sister Carrie was. She quickly wrote about who was here, about the booby trap and how to disarm it, about Cleo being dangerous. She carefully checked the part about the booby trap to make sure it was right.

Once in a while as she wrote, she entered the conversation with Troy and Aaron, so that if Cleo was listening, the big bully would hear her voice. Genie wondered how she was going to give the boys instructions, then it occurred to her that she could sign to them. They weren’t as quick at reading sign language as Carrie was, so she didn’t sign with them as often, but they understood finger spelling and the basics. It was easy to tell them that she was going to open the door and let them outside. Harder to say aloud something other than what she was signing, or to keep herself from signing what she was saying-it took more concentration than she thought it would.

While she signed the instructions, aloud she said, “I could understand it if you said that lizards were dinosaurs. That’s what I always think.” Then she changed the subject when she saw that Troy was ready to argue with her about dinosaurs rather than paying attention to the signs.

Run as fast as you can up the driveway, to the first set of big rocks.

“I suppose I should figure out what to make for dinner. We could have spaghetti…”

Wait there for me. If I don’t come outside in five minutes, keep going down the drive to the road, turn left… She gave them the instructions Dad had given her. Troy’s face lost the happy look.

She handed the note to Troy. If I’m not with you, give this piece of paper to the police. Or to- She pointed to Irene Kelly’s name in the note.

Troy started to read it aloud, but she stopped him. So he signed, Who is Irene Kelly?

Conscious of the amount of time that was passing, she simply signed, Friend of Carrie’s. Now let’s go.

They looked so scared, she almost changed her mind about her own plans.

She heard water running upstairs. The shower in the master bedroom. Dad or Cleo?

She let them out, hurried into the kitchen, and looked through the knives in the wooden block on the kitchen counter. They were all very sharp. She thought about taking the longest one, but was afraid she wouldn’t be able to carry it hidden without cutting herself. She considered a boning knife, but worried it would be too short. She chose a filleting knife instead.

Time was passing. Any minute now Cleo might come downstairs. The boys were scared, and she could not rely on them to follow instructions and set out on their own. She quickly moved over to the desk and took out an entire roll of stamps and a Priority Mail envelope.

One of the green perimeter lights began to flash red. The boys were obeying her after all. But would Cleo notice the light, too? She prayed Cleo was the one in the shower.

She hurriedly left the cabin, saw the boys up just ahead. She didn’t miss their look of relief. She ran with them toward the road, carefully holding the knife in her jacket pocket so that it wouldn’t stab her if she fell.

When they reached the end of the long drive, she paused to catch her breath, then said, “Now we have to play the next part of the game. This part is called ‘Secret Message.’” She quickly took a photo of the mailbox with Carrie’s camera, with the boys in front of it. She stuffed the camera into the Priority Mail Flat-Rate envelope, sealed it, and gave the roll of stamps to the boys. “Put about twenty stamps on it while I write the address.”

She addressed it to Irene Kelly. This was her Plan B, as Grandfather would call it. The boys watched and asked questions about Ms. Kelly while Genie wrote. “She’s our friend. Carrie is with her,” she said. “She’ll help you. You can give her the note.” She put the envelope into the mailbox.

“You need to put up the flag,” Troy said.

“How do you know?” she asked.

He frowned. “I think we used to have a mailbox like this, and Dad let me put the flag up when I was little.”

She didn’t tell him that he was still little. They let Aaron put it up-Genie had to lift him so that he could do it.

Remembering the telescope on the deck, she said, “See that curve? When you get to it, sneak down this road-walk down to the side of it and hide behind trees until the road straightens out again. Then just keep walking toward the lake. If you see a car, you know what to do-but not if it’s Uncle Dex or Uncle Nelson. They’re friends of Cleo.”

“Aren’t you coming with us?” Troy asked.

“Are you scared?”

Troy shook his head no, Aaron nodded yes.

“If you get too scared, just hide until I come down the road. But you can help me and Dad the most if you get someone to call the police.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to try to help Dad get away. This is another very important thing: Stay together. Okay?”

They nodded.

“If I can’t help Dad, I’ll catch up to you.” She hugged them and gave them kisses, which they wiped off their cheeks. She felt her resolve waver-the boys needed her. Dad needed her.

“Be brave,” she said, as much to them as to herself, and ran back toward the cabin.

Wednesday, May 3

3:10 P.M.

SAN BERNARDINO MOUNTAINS

BETWEEN his forensic anthropology work and the number of searches he had worked on in the mountains, Ben and his dogs were known to most of the deputies at the Big Bear Station. The station’s personnel was stretched thin-deputies had their hands full with their usual work and the searches going on in the other areas of the mountains, but they thanked us for stopping by to let them know we were in the area and didn’t see any problem in our looking around. They were clearly unconvinced that we’d find anything, but we assured them we’d call if we came across any sign of the Fletchers.

We drove to the place where Mason’s car had been found. I soon realized my search for the place where he might have been held-a nearby hideaway-wasn’t going to be as easy to carry out as I had hoped. But we used a map and gut feeling and spent the first hour in Big Bear driving up roads, looking for relatively isolated cabins with garages (which eliminated a good number of homes), and windows or decks facing toward the place where Tadeo Garcia had found Mason.