Page 99 of Nash Falls

“Did you eat?” he asked.

“I had something,” she replied abruptly. “Where is your Range Rover? It’s not in the garage.”

“I… I took it in for service.”

She said incredulously, “Your daughter has been kidnapped and you took your Range Rover in for service?”

“Judith, I need to tell you something.”

“What?”

“It might be the reason Maggie’s gone.”

She sat up and said stiffly, “What are you talking about?”

Nash was about to tell her everything when her phone buzzed. For a moment he thought it might be Rhett calling.

Judith looked down. “It’s Linda Marshall, Debbie’s mom. Deb’s one of Maggie’s closest friends. Do you think she knows something and told her mother? It must be important if she’s calling at this hour.”

She answered. “Hello, Linda, what’s wrong?” She listened for a few moments. “What? I don’t under… Online? Maggie? My God. What are…? Okay, yes, okay.”

She clicked off, jumped up, and grabbed her laptop from the nightstand. She sat back down on the sofa and started clicking keys.

Nash sat next to her. “What is it? What did she say?”

Judith didn’t answer right away as she focused on what she was doing. “She said Maggie posted something online.”

“Maggie! When?”

“Just now, apparently. Deb was online and saw it and told her mom.”

“Did she say what it was?”

Judith gave her husband a strange look. “Some of it, yes.”

“What? What did she say?” barked Nash.

Judith didn’t answer. She turned back to the screen as an image came on.

It was Maggie looking distraught with tears running down her face.

“Oh my God,” said Nash. “The kidnappers are having her communicate online.”

“Shut up so we can hear her,” snapped Judith.

Maggie was looking directly into the camera. She was wearing the same rose-colored velour warmup suit that Nash had previously seen her in.

She said in a halting tone, “My name is Maggie Nash. I… I faked being kidnapped.”

“What!” exclaimed Nash.

“Shut up!” shouted Judith.

Maggie continued, “I had to get away from him. He… was horrible to me.”

Nash said, “Who is she talking about? I thought you said she wasn’t seeing anyone.”

Judith gave him a cold stare, a look that made a deeply puzzled Nash fall silent. What he heard next froze every liter of blood in his body.