Page 33

CHAPTER 33

I pulled over to the side of the road, my movements robotic.

“Maddie!” I shouted into the phone. “Maddie, answer me right now!”

All I could hear was a car door opening, shuffling of … feet? I could hear her screams, but they were farther away now. She must have left her phone behind while she …

Did what?

Things were getting out of hand, and I was helpless to stop any of it.

“Maddie!”

She was still screaming, short bursts …

Wait, that’s strange.

On second thought, they didn’t sound like screams of pain or horror.

More like a squeal, the sound she made when she was excited about something.

More car doors opened and closed.

I heard Maddie’s rapid breaths, then she giggled.

“Maddie? Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Holy crap, Sloane,” she said, huffing and puffing. “I-I found Andi.”

“What? Where is she? Is she okay?”

“She’s right here. She looks good to me. You good, Andi?”

I heard Andi say, “Sure am!”

“Where was she? How did you find her?”

“She ran right in front of me. I was stopped at a corner, about to turn, and then there she was there, bam , bam , bam , pounding on the hood.”

“You need to get out of there.”

“Already headed back to her house.”

I texted Mike a message that we had Andi and were heading his way

He texted me a thumb emoji, then a bunch of hearts, and a happy face, and a dancing man, then a single word: Hurry.

While we drove our respective vehicles, Andi filled us in on the highlights of her brief abduction and film-worthy escape. I worried she might need some time to decompress, but she was having none of that nonsense. She confirmed she had been kidnapped right when she’d hit the sidewalk to go from her friend’s house to her own. Grabbed from behind, thrown into the back of a car, her hands cuffed behind her.

“The dude had, like, pantyhose on his head,” Andi said. “Do those even still exist? Anyway, I couldn’t see his face, but he for sure reminded me of the guy in the coffee shop.”

He’d given no indication what he’d intended to do with her, Andi said, and I wondered … Had he been planning to keep her? Or worse, kill her?”

“I assume you were holding your phone, and he grabbed it out of your hand,” I said. “Then he threw it out the window as you passed your house? Did I guess it right?”

“Yep, 100 percent.”

He’d done it for dramatic effect, as I’d suspected, offering up yet another in a series of breadcrumbs.

Keep it up, your good times are about to end, familiar stranger, whoever you are.

“After you were abducted, where did he take you?” Maddie asked.

“Uh, well, we just kind of drove around.”

“Did he say anything?”

“He kept talking about the beach on Tide Island.”

There were a lot of beaches around Savannah. We were on the coast, after all, But I’d never heard of Tide Island. Could it be …

“Could he have meant Tybee Island?” I asked. “That was my guess. He must not be from around here.”

“What did he say about it?” Maybe the beach was where he was hiding out when he wasn’t attacking people and writing threatening notes.

“Mmm, it was kinda scattered. I’m sorry. I didn’t hear much other than the name of the beach. And I thought that’s where we might be going, but he just kept to all these, like, neighborhood roads. Anyway, then I remembered the Bird in my pocket.”

“You know what a Birdie is, right, Sloane?” Maddie asked.

“Of course,” I said, like I hadn’t been clueless about the safety device just a few minutes ago. “Andi, how did you escape?”

“So, he grabs me, and maybe I was having flashbacks or something because I just froze. Embarrassing, but true. And when my face hit the backseat, he managed to grab my hands and cuff me with real handcuffs.”

“And then?”

“I came back to life, saw him fling my phone out the window, and I was, like, kicking the seat and screaming. But there’s not much activity out here in the middle of the morning on a weeknight. I knew I couldn’t wait to arrive at the final destination, whatever that was going to be—I needed to escape sooner than later. I stopped kicking and took some deep breaths to clear my mind. That’s when I remembered the Bird, but it was in my front pocket, and my hands were cuffed behind my back, right? I tried to slip my hands through the cuffs, and voila , it worked.”

“Awwwesome,” Maddie sang.

“I know! I couldn’t freaking believe it. When he slowed the car, I pulled the pin on the Bird and held it right near his ear. Blew his ear off. While he’s going nutso from the pain, I dropped the Bird in his lap to keep it going, then reached around and unlocked the back doors. Got the hell out of there. No way he was going to catch me at that point.”

“That’s amazing, Andi,” I said. “ You are amazing.”

“And you ran right into me,” Maddie said to her.

“Yup. First car I found, and it just happens to be my dad’s, oh my gosh. It’s all so crazy.”

She laughed, and it sounded a little hysterical, the adrenaline still pumping through her.

Through all of us.

When we arrived at the house—me just a second behind Maddie—Andi bolted from the car.

Mike was at the door.

“Dad!”

And she ran to him, collapsing in his arms. He carried her inside, leaving the door open for us to follow.

We stayed for a few minutes. Andi downed a glass of water and started to come back to life. She retold the story we’d just heard to her dad, arms flailing—just like her dad when he spoke with passion—her face contorting into all kinds of positions as she relived the gamut of emotions. After she’d gotten it all out, and her energy waned, she plopped next to her dad and tucked into him.

He leaned over, planted a kiss on top of her head.

Looking at us, his expression full of mixed emotions, he said, “Thanks, ladies. Again.”

“I’m so relieved it turned out okay,” I said, rising from my chair.

“Hold each other tight,” Maddie said, and we walked to the door together.

“But … but you were going to tell me about your visit with Dr. Beetle,” Andi whined.

“Give it a rest for tonight, kid,” her dad said, and he pulled her even closer.