It's Not Over Read online

  But none came. Not a single gunshot was fired.

  The SWAT team leader came back out and ran toward Sheriff Blair and me.

  “It’s clear, sir.”

  “And Roy Hudson?” I asked.

  “No sign of him anywhere, I am afraid.”

  My heart dropped. How was this possible?

  “And the boy?”

  He shook his head. “Not of him, either.”

  “You’re kidding me?”

  I walked up to the garage door and stepped inside. The car was there, left with the door and the trunk open. I placed a hand inside the trunk and touched the interior. It was wet. Could it be from Cole’s body? Why was he wet? Had he tried to drown him? Or had he already succeeded, and now was he only trying to get rid of the dead body? No. That couldn’t be it. The area felt warm too. Cole was still alive. He had to be.

  “You might want to see this, ma’am,” the team leader said, coming up behind me. I followed him down a few stairs until we reached a strange area, closed off by a small door. He walked inside and let me in as well.

  “Looks like he could have escaped through this,” he said and pointed at the entrance of a tunnel. “Through this drainage tunnel.”

  “Where does this lead?” I asked.

  “Probably into a canal somewhere or a creek,” the leader said.

  “Find out where it goes and search the area of the exit,” I said with a deep exhale. I rubbed my bangs that had gotten greasy and heavy. “Search everything. Meanwhile, I’ll go back to the resort and tell the poor parents that we lost him. Again!”

  Chapter 64

  I called Brad on my way back, but it still went straight to voicemail. Sydney called me once again, but I didn’t pick up. I didn’t have time to chat now, and frankly, I wasn’t in the mood either. I could see that Matt had called too, and I played his message. I needed a little cheering up. He told me he missed me like crazy and asked if I was coming back soon. I was overwhelmed with a desire to go home when I heard his voice. I wanted to hug my children and kiss my boyfriend. I had this deep desire to enjoy what I still had, what was still mine. But it also filled me with a deep sensation of guilt. When all was said and done, I still had everything. I could just go home to be with my children, but I had failed to help Mary and Peter.

  Again.

  I shook my head and turned up the street where the resort was located. When I had taken this assignment and agreed to help them out, I had hoped this would be me making up for not being able to save the children the last time. I had hoped to make amends. It had tortured me for so many years that I wasn’t able to find the twins alive. This was my one chance to make up for that.

  I drove up to the guard in front of the resort and showed him my badge. The barricades were still on the ground, broken, after their meeting with Roy Hudson’s car.

  I walked inside the hotel and was immediately surrounded by reporters in the lobby, yelling their questions at me.

  “Did the kidnapper get away?”

  “Are you any closer to finding out who he is?”

  “Have you found Cole yet?”

  “Will you arrest the mom soon?”

  I just answered by shaking my head, then elbowed my way through the crowd, helped by one of the deputies, who also guided me to the stairs so I could run back up. I walked down the hallway, my heart throbbing in my chest.

  It felt like the walk of shame.

  Mary rose to her feet as soon as I entered the suite through the heavy door. It slammed shut behind me, and her hope-filled eyes landed on me. It just about broke my heart.

  “Cole?”

  I shook my head, almost in tears.

  “I’m sorry.”

  She closed her eyes briefly to gather herself. I felt so awful, I could scream. It was apparent there was barely any strength left in her. The hope seeped out of her, and it was like she deflated as she sat down, hands in her lap, fiddling nervously with the edge of her shirt.

  I sat down next to her. “We almost had him. I’m sure we’ll find him again.”

  She shook her head, tears spilling onto her pants. “I can’t take this anymore. I simply can’t…”

  A deputy came to me and informed me that, as they had walked into the garage downstairs earlier and had seen Roy Hudson take off, right before he burst through the barricades outside, they had also found the dead body of a reporter he had shot right before he left. They heard the shot as they were out in the hallway, then ran into the parking garage where they found her. She was lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood.

  “Her name was Shirley Murphey. We have contacted her family, and the techs are securing the area as we speak.”

  We were interrupted when my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out. It was Sydney again. I decided to take it.

  “Excuse me a second,” I said and got up. I walked to a secluded area with the phone pressed against my ear. “Syd, I am sorry, but I really don’t have the time right now for…”

  “No, you listen to me, Eva Rae Thomas,” Sydney said, using that sister voice that told me I better do as she said. “I have a girl here who you need to talk to.”

  “Not now, Sydney. You know I usually will do anything for the shelter and the girls, but today…”

  “No, Eva Rae, listen to me. You’re not listening.”

  That made me pause.

  “Okay?”

  “You want to meet this one. Trust me.”

  Chapter 65

  As Sydney hung up, she said, “All right. I am taking you to her now.”

  Jessica looked up at Sydney, surprised. Was it really that easy?

  “The woman from your photo,” Sydney continued. “She’s still at the resort, and she wants to see you. You tell her what you told me, and that will be a great help to her, you hear me?”

  Jessica nodded. They had taken her x-rays and found nothing broken, and the doctor had said she seemed to have lucked out. The police had said they’d need her to come down later and give her statement for the case against the men in the apartment who had held her and the others against their will. But for now, she was free to go.

  Sydney reached out her hand, and Jessica took it in hers. “Are you ready for this? It might be hard, but I am here.”

  Jessica swallowed, grabbed her backpack, and walked out with her, holding Sydney’s hand in hers. As the moist Florida air enveloped her like a blanket and they walked across the parking lot toward Sydney’s car, she felt her knees go soft beneath her.

  Sydney seemed to notice and sent her a smile. “You’re gonna do fine. Don’t you worry now.”

  But she did. Jessica felt more worried than ever as they drove from the hospital toward the resort. How were they going to react to what she told them? What if they didn’t believe her? What if they got mad at her for not saying anything earlier?

  Jessica started hyperventilating in the car, the closer they got to the resort. When they drove up, there was a guard who asked them to identify themselves and state their business there. While Sydney spoke to him, Jessica felt how the sounds around her were drowned out by the noise from her blood pulsating in her ears. It was all she could hear—the rushing of the blood through her veins. She didn’t hear a word Sydney spoke to the guard and didn’t hear him tell her just to go ahead, but the car suddenly moved, and Sydney parked in front of the building. She stopped the engine, then turned to look at Jessica. She said something, but Jessica couldn’t hear what it was. Sydney looked concerned, then placed a hand on top of hers. Jessica finally managed to hear what she was saying.

  “Are you okay?”

  Jessica shook her head. Suddenly, she just wanted to go home. Even if it was back to Dad and his drinking, it was better than this.

  “I…I’m not sure I can do this.”

  Sydney smiled gently. Jessica felt like crying, or screaming. Or both at the same time.

  “I know it’s a lot right now,” she said calmly. “But it’s important that you do it. For all of you.
”

  “But…I can’t…they’ll hate me.”

  “Oh, sweet child,” Sydney said. “No one is going to hate you. I promise you. Come. Let’s get this over with.”

  Jessica looked at her, then nodded. “O-Okay.”

  Sydney opened the door and got out. Jessica hesitated for a few seconds, calming her shaking hands, taking a few deep breaths, then did the same.

  Here goes nothing.

  Chapter 66

  Sydney walked into the hotel room, escorted by a deputy from downstairs. Behind her followed a young girl about the same age as my Olivia. The girl stopped at the doorway and stood there like she wasn’t sure she was allowed inside.

  “Come,” Sydney said and urged her to approach me. “This is my sister; this is FBI Agent Eva Rae Thomas.”

  The girl looked like she had seen a ghost. Her eyes were terrified and puzzled at the very same time. But as I approached her, I realized she wasn’t looking at me. I wasn’t the ghost she had seen.

  It was someone else.

  It was Mary.

  She had risen from the couch as soon as she laid eyes on the girl and was barely breathing. She spoke between gasps, and it took me a few seconds till I realized what she was actually saying. To be honest, I didn’t believe my own ears and thought I had heard her wrong at first.

  “M-M-Maggie?”

  I stared at the girl. My heart skipped a beat as I tried to make sense of all this. Mary shrieked and approached the girl very slowly, like she was afraid it was a vision that would go away if she got too close, like an illusion, a mirage in the desert. It was the same sound, the same name that kept emerging from between her lips.

  “M-Maggie? How is this…how is this possible?”

  My eyes met Sydney’s as I searched for an explanation. Had Mary lost it? Had she somehow made herself believe that this was her lost daughter? It wouldn’t be strange with all she had been through the past twenty-four hours. What was strange was the fact that the girl didn’t seem to deny it. Tears ran down her cheeks, and she nodded while biting her lip. Sydney did the same.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “It’s Maggie,” Mary said through a curtain of tears. “It’s my Maggie. I would know my daughter anywhere. I can’t believe it.”

  She gasped and struggled to contain herself, then walked up to the girl and touched her cheek gently. She held her face between her hands and looked into her eyes. The girl didn’t seem to mind. She, too, was struggling to keep afloat, to breathe properly through the heavy crying.

  “It’s true,” Sydney said to me and placed a hand on my arm. “It’s her.”

  “Oh, I know it’s her,” Mary said. “I know those eyes…how I have dreamt of seeing them again. How I have dreamt of holding you again. Can I? Can I hold you?”

  The girl nodded while biting her lip. Mary breathed a deep sigh of relief, then pulled the girl into a deep hug. She held her close, shaking, crying, and laughing at the same time.

  “My dear sweet Maggie. I knew I’d see you again someday. I just knew it. And here you are. So tall and…so…so beautiful.” She stroked her face, careful not to touch the bruises on it. Her eyes narrowed in bewilderment. “Who hurt you?”

  I glared at the girl, then at Sydney again. “She’s been alive all this time? How?” I then turned back to Maggie for answers.

  “It’s been ten years. Where were you? Why didn’t you come forward?”

  And that was when the pieces suddenly fell into place. I spun around on my heel and looked toward the yellow couch. It was empty.

  “Peter? Where is Peter?”

  Chapter 67

  “He went out about an hour ago,” Mary said sniffling. “Brittney and James went back home, and he walked out with them. They’ll come back tomorrow, they said, and Peter had some phone calls to make, something important at work, why?”

  I turned to face Maggie. “That’s why you didn’t say anything, am I right?”

  She nodded. “I was terrified they’d send me back.”

  “Because it was your father who took you back then. It was your own father who kidnapped you from the hotel room in Key West, and you were too scared to go back.”

  “He tried to kill me,” she said, sitting down on a chair, folding her hands in her lap. Her eyes avoided looking into those of her mother.

  Mary glared down at her, eyes petrified.

  “What is she saying? What are you saying, Maggie?”

  “He took us, Mom,” Maggie said. “Dad took us that night. He said we were going on an adventure together. That it was supposed to be a surprise for you, then he sedated us and took us to his car. When I woke up, we were by a lake, where he told us it was time to go swimming. But then he…he…put his hands around my neck and pushed me under the water. I passed out, and later when I woke up, I was in the water still, darkness all around me. I couldn’t find Blake or Dad or anyone. I swam to the shore and got out of the water. I stayed in that wilderness for a very long time. I didn’t dare to show up and risk being sent back to my father. So, I ran. I ran as far away as I could. I found food in trash cans by restaurants and just kept walking until I reached a town. There, I snuck on a train and let it take me to the end of the line until it stopped going. That was in Tampa. I walked out and was later picked up by a police car. When they took me to the station, I refused to speak. I didn’t say a word for years. I couldn’t because then they’d have me tell them who I was, where I came from, and I’d be sent back to him. I remember seeing the red-haired FBI lady—you—on TV. I went to a foster family where I was supposed to spend the night until they figured out what to do with me since they had nowhere to send me back to, and I saw her there on TV. She told people I had died—that Blake and I were both drowned. That’s when I knew I could start over. No one would be looking for me anymore. No one would figure out who I really was and send me back. The social workers gave me a name when they couldn’t get me to talk or figure out who I was, and then they sent me to a family. When I saw the red-haired woman again ten years later on the TV in my home, the foster home I have lived in for the past ten years, what had become my home, I almost lost it. It had tormented me all my life that I hadn’t told who hurt us, who took my brother and me from our hotel room. But it hurt most of all when I realized it had happened again. That’s when I knew I had to come forward. It turned out to be harder to get here than expected. But now I am.”

  “She was one of the girls from the raid on the apartment earlier,” Sydney said. “Here in Orlando. She saw you there.”

  My eyes grew wide. “You were there?”

  She nodded. “I tried to call for you, but they rushed me to the hospital so fast…it doesn’t matter. I’m here now. Thanks to your sister.”

  “I can’t believe it,” I said, stifling the tears welling up in my eyes. “I can’t believe you are here. I can’t believe you survived. We only found Blake’s body back then but just assumed…because of all the gators, that you had suffered the same destiny. We just never found the body, but that’s not strange in those parts with all the wildlife. We found your hairclip on the beach. The one with the butterfly.”

  “But…” Mary said, looking as terrified as ever before. Her voice trembled as she spoke. She was staring into empty air, shaking her head in despair. “I don’t understand this. Why would Peter steal my children away from me? Why would he do such an awful thing? I don’t understand.”

  I grabbed her by her fragile shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Mary. I need you to stay calm for this, do you hear me? Try to think. I am going to ask you something that is going to hurt. Can you handle it?”

  “Y-yes.”

  “Could Peter and Roy be the same person?” I asked.

  She looked at me, dumbfounded. “Excuse me? What are you saying?”

  “When did you two meet?”

  She shook her head. “Sixteen years ago…I stayed in Lexington after my mom and step-dad died in the fire. I worked at the local paper. He seemed familiar
back then; his eyes did…that’s what I liked about him…but…”

  “So, six years had passed since he killed your mom and his dad. That gave him time to create a new identity, go to dental school, and come back to open a clinic. You were just a toddler when he drove his car into the water,” I said. “You barely knew him. You thought he was brain-injured, living in a long-term care facility. You couldn’t possibly know he had run away. He could easily have tricked you. And I believe that’s what he did—to hurt you. Over and over again.”

  She clasped her mouth, her face strained in despair. “Oh, dear Lord, I think you’re right. Those eyes, I remember them now. He said he loved me; he gave me a family…I thought it was love…he gave me everything.”

  “Till he took it all away,” I said. “And now he’s done it again.”

  Chapter 68

  “Where is he now? And how do we find him?”

  Mary’s eyes landed on me. A look of pain flickered over her face. And then something else. An expression of surprise as though she was still puzzled about what had happened like she hadn’t entirely accepted it or understood it. None of us had at this point. But it was beginning to make sense.

  “He has my boy; he has Cole…Maggie’s brother.” She turned her head to look at her daughter sitting on the chair. She held her hand in hers and put it against her chest. “We need to find them…before it’s too late.”

  “I’ll call the sheriff,” I said and pulled out my phone. “I’ll ask him if they found out where he went after he got through the tunnel.”

  I spoke with Blair for a few seconds, then hung up. Mary’s eyes lingered hopefully on me.

  “The tunnel ended in a creek south of the auto shop,” I said. “They’re searching the area around it, but he might have had a boat lying there to get away in or a car waiting for him up on the road nearby, they say.”