Page 25 of The Chain

If there is a next time,she thinks with a rush of terror.

She breathes deep and closes her eyes.

She likes magic also.

The Egyptians lived in a god-and-demon-infested world.

There are demons here too, but they are human beings.

She wonders if her mom is doing the things the kidnappers want her to do. She wonders if the kidnappers have mistaken her mom for someone else. Someone with access to a bank vault or government secrets…

She takes a big breath, lets it out slowly, does it again.

She’s calmer now. Not calm, but calmer.

She listens to the nothing.

No, not nothing. There’s always something. Crickets. A jet. A very distant river. Seconds tick past, then minutes. She wants the river to take her away from this place, these people, away from all of it. It doesn’t matter where. She wants to lie back and let the current float her down through the marshes to the Atlantic.

No. That’s fake. A dream.Thisis real. This basement. These cuffs.Be in the now,the school counselor had said in that mindfulness class they had all mocked.Be present and seeeverythingthere is to see in the now.

She opens her eyes.

She looks,reallylooks.

She sees everything there is to see.

18

Thursday, 3:31 p.m.

Wendy Patterson picks up Denny from Rowley Elementary School, takes him to soccer practice at Rowley High School, then drives into Ipswich and gets herself a soy chai latte from the Starbucks. She Instagrams a picture of the latte and a Thanksgiving cookie that she got for Denny.

Denny has changed into his soccer clothes and is doing dribbling drills with the team. Rachel watches him from her Volvo 240 parked across the street while using her phone to monitor Wendy’s tweets, Facebook updates, and Instagrams. She watches him and feels sick with doubt. How can she do this? It’s the most evil thing you could ever do to a mom, to a family. But then she thinks about Kylie locked in some crazy woman’s basement. It’s the most evil thing you can do but it has to be done.

She watches Denny play, and when the practice is over she sees that, yup, Wendy is still in Ipswich at the Starbucks. The drizzle has stopped now and it looks like Denny is going to be walking home. Wendy doesn’t indicate on her Facebook feed that she is coming to pick him up.

Could Rachel grab him now?

She had thought that this would be a scouting trip, not a snatch-and-grab mission. She hasn’t prepared the Appenzeller house yet. The board isn’t over the basement window; she doesn’t have a mattress down there. But if the opportunity presents itself?

She follows the little boy in her car as he walks home with a friend. Obviously, she can’t grab two kids, so she’ll have to wait until they part.

She knows she must look very suspicious, creeping along at five miles per hour following two little boys.

She hasn’t thought this through properly. She has no idea where in Rowley Denny’s house is. Is he on the main road? Down a cul-de-sac? She curses herself for not figuring out the route from the high school to his house on Google Maps.

The friend hangs with Denny for a few blocks but then waves and leaves, and Denny is by himself.

Little Denny all alone.

Rachel’s pulse quickens. She looks at the front passenger seat. Gun, ski mask, handcuffs, blindfold.

She rolls the window down and checks her mirrors.

There are witnesses. An old man with a dog. A high-school girl jogging. Rowley is a sleepy little community but not quite sleepy enough today. And then, just like that, Denny walks up a driveway, takes a key out of his pocket, and goes into his house.

Rachel parks the Volvo on the other side of the street and checks Wendy’s Facebook feed. Now sheiscoming home, it says.