“Alice—that was a lie. Your first mommy didn’t die in the woods. I don’t know what happened to her. But it wasn’t the woods that took her from you.”

I look at her now and I can see that she believes me. She believes me because it is the truth.

“Now go! Run!”

She nods, turns, and her feet begin to move, to fly, kicking up dust from the driveway.

I can’t remember feeling as happy as I do right now, watching this child go free.

I turn back to the man on the ground. I feel for a pulse. He is still alive. I go to his car and find the radio. I push a button.

“Help! I need help! There’s an officer shot!”

A woman’s voice answers. “Who is this?”

“It’s Molly Clarke.”

Silence now as the woman recognizes my name.

“This is the chief’s radio. Has the chief been shot?”

“Yes!” I say, frantic now for help. “I don’t know where we are. I’ve been held here for two weeks!”

“I have your location,” the woman says. I hear her voice tremble.

“I see keys in the car. I might be able to get him inside . . .”

“No—stay where you are. He could bleed out. Seconds matter now—are you able to provide assistance to the officer?”

No! I think. I see keys in this car. I need to leave this place! I look back at the man, bleeding on the ground. All I want to do is run like Alice, away from this house. But I can’t let him die.

She tells me what to do and I do what she says. I leave the radio and the keys and

look for a first aid box in the trunk. I leave the car, my means of escape, and I go to the dying man. I do what I can to stop the bleeding.

It’s now that I hear the shot in the woods.

And the scream. The unmistakable scream of my daughter.

Chapter Fifty-two

Day eighteen

Reyes walked closer. Close enough not to miss again if he pulled the trigger. Still his face was soft with a warm smile.

“Mom!” Nic screamed, her voice filled with rage, rising up through the trees. Then to Reyes, “Where is my mother!”

Reyes spoke calmly as he took a few more steps.

“Right inside that house. She’s been waiting for you all this time. Waiting for you to find her. She’s perfectly safe.”

Nic knew that was a lie. Her mother would never have willingly stayed with this man.

“I know about Edith Moore.”

“I just wanted to see you again,” he said.

“What happened that night? The night of the storm?” Nic didn’t want to hear about anything else. She wanted to know what happened to her mother.

Reyes kept walking, the rustling beneath his feet breaking the silence.