Ten Little Girls (Rebekka Franck Book 9) Read online

  "Furthermore, she refused to participate in drug treatment despite admitting that she smoked marijuana—and I quote, your honor— "whenever I get the urge," and she has missed two child-safety conferences provided to her by the shelter, and therefore I believe she poses an imminent risk to the children's lives and health."

  I was talking about when I was younger. Not now. I don't smoke anything now. She's twisting my words. Why is she allowed just to stand there and speak about me like that and I can't do anything about it?

  Jane felt like screaming and yelling it out, but Iris from the shelter had told her to keep her temper down. Any outburst on her part would be considered hostile and would be used against her. So, she bit her lip and kept quiet while Colleen continued.

  "One of the children suffers from eczema, another is underweight, and Anna, whom we mentioned earlier, the one who was beaten by her father, is getting more and more closed off every time I see her. I fear for her emotional state, and I fear that Jane Wilson simply is failing to provide proper care for them. She's not a bad mother; it's just too much for her. I recommend that the children be placed with their aunt and uncle until their mother has found a suitable place to live, found a job to provide for them, agreed to take parenting classes, and submits herself to inspections by our caseworkers and works with us willingly."

  "You're kidding me, right?" Jane said out loud, rising to her feet in anger. "You can't do that. You can't take my kids!"

  But she could. And she did. The judge agreed with Colleen and, on that same day, Bob's brother Jim and his wife Melissa walked away with all five of Jane's children.

  47

  May 2018

  There were footsteps above their heads. Julie and Alicia looked at one another, then back up at the hatch. The kidnappers usually didn't come at this time of day. They came at night when it was dark out.

  "Someone's here," Julie said.

  "Is it Alondra coming back?" Tonya asked hopefully.

  "Or Emmy?" Haley asked.

  Julie didn't know if she actually hoped it was them. She wanted them to be back at home instead, so probably not. But she would still love to see them alive, to know that they hadn't been harmed.

  "Let's just wait and see," Julie said.

  The footsteps above them paused, and for a while, it was very quiet.

  "What if it isn't them?" Haley asked.

  "What do you mean?" Julie said wiping sweat from her face with her arm. She couldn't remember how long it had been since she last showered. It felt like even the dirt on her body had dirt on it. She had kept track of the days by ripping a part of a cereal box off but, even so, she was slowly beginning to lose track of how long they had been underground. They all were. It was easy since there was no sunlight. The few of them that wore watches had them taken away along with their phones. It was probably because the kidnappers were scared someone would be wearing an Apple watch and would use it to call for help, or maybe it could be traced, Julie figured.

  "What if it isn't the kidnappers? What if it’s someone else?" Haley continued, a sudden ray of hope in her voice.

  "Yeah, what if it’s the police?" Tonya said. "What if they’ve come to look for us?"

  The girls glanced at one another, hope springing to their eyes.

  "We have to tell them where we are," Haley said.

  "We should yell," Tonya said, then rose to her feet. She walked to the area beneath the hatch, then yelled.

  "HELP!"

  Haley soon joined Tonya, then Alicia did the same, and, seconds later, Trudy and Britney woke up and started to yell too.

  "HEEELP! WE'RE DOWN HERE!"

  Thinking it could do them no harm, it wasn't like their situation could get any worse, Julie soon chimed in. She screamed at the top of her lungs, then turned to glance at the other girls, who, for the first time in days, seemed hopeful. They screamed and yelled and banged on the sides of the box truck, trying to make a noise. Then they heard something. The sound of a voice yelling from above them. The sound was subdued and felt very far away; still, they had no doubt they heard it.

  "HELLO?"

  The sound made all the girls go silent for a second before they burst into laughter and even louder screams.

  "We're down here, help us, please!"

  48

  May 2018

  I had to check. I knew Jack had already been there with all his officers and searched it, but I had to see for myself. So, after Jack had left, I waited for a little while till Sune came back from his training. The woman, the physical therapist, who was working with him, picked him up and brought him back every day now, so he didn't really need my help anymore. I then drove to White Rock Quarry. I parked the car in the gravel and got out. The place seemed very empty. There were two cranes and what looked like bulldozers and crawler tractors. In the distance, there were several wheel loaders used to transport the rocks. But that was pretty much it. Except for a small shack I spotted now when looking to my right. It looked like it would blow away at any time a hurricane dropped by. It was a mystery how it was still standing.

  I decided to walk to it and knock on the door. No one opened the door, and so I knocked again, but still, nothing happened. I looked in the window and saw what looked like a small office and a lunchroom, probably for the workers. But no one seemed to be working at the quarry, and I wondered if it had been empty for a long time.

  I decided to take a little walk around the site. My toes in my flip-flops soon turned white from the dust. I was beginning to sweat heavily in the burning sun and drank some water from the bottle I had brought. I stopped and looked around. As I drank my water, I was certain I heard something, but I wasn't sure. The sand beneath my feet looked different than everywhere else, almost like someone had dug there recently. I touched it with my foot but only found more sand beneath.

  "Hello?" I said, then yelled till I heard the echo bounce off the walls surrounding me.

  "HELLO?"

  All I could hear was my own voice repeating the word. I then continued walking forward. My foot kicked something, and I looked down at a strange sight.

  That's odd? An empty cereal box? Guess you can find trash anywhere these days.

  I bent down and picked it up, then looked around for a trash can but couldn't find any. It wasn't a place that was meant for people to be taking a stroll, so I decided to go back to the car instead before I got myself in trouble.

  I threw the empty cereal box in the back, then took one more glance around the quarry. There really wasn't anywhere you could hide ten girls, I concluded, then got back inside the car and took off.

  49

  May 2018

  "Hello? We're down here!"

  Julie yelled as loud as she could. The girls continued banging on the sides till their hands burned. They were yelling and screaming, but still, nothing happened.

  There was movement again on top of them. More footsteps. But they suddenly sounded like they were going away.

  NO!

  "Don't leave! Come back! We're down here! We're right down here! Help us; please, help us. Hello? HELLO?"

  Julie yelled at the top of her lungs, then hammered her hands on the sides again and again as hard as she could, while yelling and screaming. Her hands were red and throbbing in pain.

  Still, nothing happened.

  "Whoever it was, they're gone," Haley said. She turned away from Julie and walked to a mattress, where she sat down with a deep exhale. Tonya joined her shortly after.

  "No!" Julie yelled, refusing to give up. "It can't be. It can't. The world is not that cruel. Come back! COME BACK!"

  Julie wasn't going to stop. Someone was up there; someone had found the place and that someone was looking for them. She just knew they were. They had to be. They simply had to be. And if only they made enough noise, that someone would come back, they would hear them and come back.

  Forcedly denying the harsh reality that was slowly creeping up on her, Julie continued banging and yelling even long after th
e other girls had stopped. Then, when she finally ran out of breath and strength, she fell to her knees, hiding her face between her hands. With every tear she cried in the minutes after that, the hope that she had clung to so tightly slowly faded out and left.

  50

  May 2018

  I rolled the window down as I drove back toward the barrier islands and Cocoa Beach. I wanted to feel the wind on my face, but it was so warm, I soon had enough and rolled the window back up and cranked up the AC. I wondered if Julie was somewhere she could feel that warm wind too. That was her favorite part about Florida. That she was never cold. Even on cloudy or rainy days. Back in Denmark, she always wore extra clothes, like stockings beneath her jeans in order to keep warm enough, and yet she would still freeze. I wondered if she was keeping warm where she was. Was she getting enough to eat and drink? Were they beating her?

  I shook the thought. I couldn't let myself think about it. I couldn't go down that path. I admitted I hadn't expected to find much at the quarry, but there was a small part of me that had allowed myself to hope, just a little bit, that I would find my daughter there. But I knew it was a long shot since Jack and his colleagues had already been there and checked it out when they received the tip.

  Probably just a drug deal.

  I drove past the bridges and back onto the island, then passed our house and went to Juice N' Java. There, I met a group of other parents sitting outside. This was what I needed right now. Usually, I would love to hang out with Sune and talk to him about what I was going through, but somehow, I got the feeling that he didn't really understand. Besides, he had so much else to deal with right now. I wanted him to focus on getting better and doing his training, and he was always so exhausted when he came home from his therapy, I figured the last thing he wanted was to listen to me and all my fears and anxieties.

  No, I needed to talk to people who understood me and who were going through the same thing I was, so I parked the car and walked to the group, grabbed a chair, and sat down. Emmy's dad, John, handed me a cup of coffee and I took it with a smile.

  "Just what I needed."

  Mary and Sue were there too, and a couple, Jennifer and Toby that I had gotten to know as Nikki's parents. Nikki was the youngest of the children that had been kidnapped.

  There was a silence between us all, but that didn't matter. It felt good—or at least less painful—to sit there with people who were going through the same thing as I was. I didn't have to hold back; I didn't have to explain anything. I could just be.

  "Anyone talked to Nancy and Kyle today?" John asked.

  They all shook their heads and looked down at their feet or at the coffee cups in their hands. I spotted the owner of Juice N' Java as she was putting out more sandwiches. The search teams weren't as big as they used to be, but there were still some brave men and women out there looking for our children in every dune of the beach, knocking on doors of houses, and checking every creek and canal or even people's backyards. There were people in boats sailing around the canals looking for them, and that made me feel good. Only I wasn't so sure our kids were in Cocoa Beach anymore. I knew the police had search teams out in the area where the bus was found too, but it was such a vast area that there really wasn't much to search except the swamps and they were doing that too, but who would hide children in a swamp?

  None of us dared to speak about Nancy and Kyle or what happened to them. It was still too painful to think about. Up until we found Alondra, I guess we had all still hoped we would get our kids home alive. Now the hope was dwindling fast.

  "They're still in the hospital last I heard," I said and sipped my coffee.

  "Will they be okay?" Mary asked with a slight sniffle.

  I cleared my throat. "As far as I heard, yes. They suffered a poisoning but made it out in time."

  "I couldn't…I mean, I can't even imagine…" Mary said.

  "I don't want to imagine," John said. "I don't even want to think about it. Any part of it."

  "Such a tragedy," Sue said, her voice shivering.

  And then we all went quiet again, looking down and not at one another. I sipped my coffee. John looked up at the sky.

  "They say it might rain later."

  For some reason, that made the rest of us look up at the sky too, and when our eyes met across the table, something had changed. Here was something normal we could talk about and I guess it was all we longed for at this point. Normalcy.

  "Really?" Mary said. "It doesn't look much like rain to me."

  "You know how it is at this time of year," Sue said. "It pops up out of nowhere. Gotta watch out for those pop-up storms."

  "True. Gotta love Florida, right? And they say we don't have seasons. The way I see it, there are four seasons. Love-bug-season, Hurricane-season, tourist-season, and summer."

  And just like that, the mood was heightened in the group. It felt so relieving to talk about something ordinary.

  John rose to his feet. "Anyone want more coffee? I noticed they just brought out a new pot."

  We all nodded, and he took our cups one by one and filled them. I asked for a little milk in mine. Mary sent me half a smile.

  "You know what Julie said to my daughter the other day?"

  "No?"

  "She told her she was pretty. It meant so much to her, she came home and told me. You know how insecure they are at this age."

  "Wow," I said, sending her my own version of half a smile. "I’m glad to hear that. Really glad."

  "I thought you might be happy to hear it. You have a great daughter. Very compassionate toward others. My daughter says that if you ever need a shoulder to cry on, you can be sure to find one on Julie."

  "Thank you for telling me that," I said as John handed me back my cup with a gentle hand on my shoulder. I thanked him as he took Sue's cup. On his way back to the coffee pot to re-fill it, he stopped when his phone vibrated in his pants. He put down the cup and pulled it out. I knew something was terribly wrong when I noticed that his hand holding the phone began to shake violently.

  51

  May 2018

  "What's wrong? John?"

  I rushed to my feet so fast that I knocked over my coffee and it spilled everywhere.

  "John?"

  He barely moved except for the shaking, while he stared at the display on his phone.

  "John?"

  He looked up, and his glare met mine. The look in his eyes made my heart beat faster. He turned the phone, so I could see what he was looking at. It was a text from an unknown number.

  "What's going on?" Mary said with a light shriek to her voice. "What's happening?"

  "It's a text," I said and faced them. "A text with the next verse."

  "The next verse? I don't under…what does it say?" Sue asked, rising to her feet.

  "Nine little Injuns swingin' on a gate," I read out loud.

  "W-what…what does that mean?" Mary asked.

  "Yeah, what does it mean?" Toby said.

  "The other one, the letter that Nancy and Kyle received…that was the same, right? That was the first verse, right?" his wife Jennifer asked.

  "Yes," I said.

  "And that was a riddle, right?" Mary said.

  I nodded.

  "So, this must be another riddle, right?" Mary asked.

  "I…I suppose so," I answered.

  "So, we just need to figure out what it means, right?" Jennifer took over. "We need to solve it."

  "We need to involve the police, is what we need to do," Sue said.

  "Of course," I said.

  John grabbed the phone in my hand, then started tapping on it.

  "What are you doing, John?" Mary asked.

  "I’m finding the rest of the verses," he said without looking up from the phone. "I can't afford to wait for no darn police." He paused, then looked up.

  "Well, what does it say?" Jennifer asked.

  He looked at me while he spoke. I don't know why.

  "One tumbled off and then there were eight.”r />
  "One tumbled off?" Mary repeated. "What does that mean?"

  Now they were all looking at me for answers. I shrugged, feeling a huge amount of pressure on me.

  "I…I don't know."

  "But you've got to. We have to find out before it’s too late," John said. “You've got to help us out."

  "It was a little easier the first time," I said. "When the word home was actually mentioned…you know to find her at her…home…"

  "It must mean she has fallen off of something, right?" Jennifer tried.

  "Well, that's obvious, geez," Sue said. "No, there was a part at the beginning of the verse too. The part about the gate."

  "Nine little Injuns swingin' on a gate?" I repeated.

  "Yes," Sue said. "Does that ring a bell for anyone?"

  "Do you have a gate at home?" I asked John.

  He shook his head. "We have a wooden fence around our backyard, but that's all. No gates."

  I paused, then looked up. "There's a fence at the school. In the back by the playground facing the big trees. It has a gate."

  52

  May 2018

  Never had two cars driven so fast down Minutemen Causeway and through the school zone, but that's what we did. Sue kept telling us to call the police, but I wasn't sure there was any time. I told her to do it on the way. The school was less than a minute down the road. We could make it there faster, and right now we had no time to waste.

  As we reached the school, I parked the car in the grass, and we ran as fast as we could to the back side of the school, around the building till we spotted the fence and the gate in the back. We didn't have to look twice before we spotted her. On the fence, dressed in her hoodie that had the string tied in a bow at the neck, Emmy was dangling.