Princess, Without Cover (16 page)

“It matters to me.  Do you have a name?”

“Of course I do.  It’s Deidre.”

“I like your name, Deidre.  Why are you here?  Do you know?”

“Of course I know.  I know his secret.”

Whose secret?  Detective Daniels?”  Sydney’s head snapped up in interest. 

“Heaven help me… yes.  Harrison’s secret.”  The girl started sobbing again, pitifully mewling. 

“Deidre… get a hold on yourself.  What is his secret? And how do you know it?”

The sobbing melted into sniffling. 

“I dated Harrison a couple of years ago.  He got drunk one night and told me things- things that he didn’t really want to share.  The next morning, when he sobered up, he completely changed.  He was like another person.  He told me that he didn’t want to have to do it, but that I was forcing him to because I tricked him into telling me things. And then he brought me here.” 

The crying started again.  “But I didn’t trick him. I didn’t ask him to tell me anything!” 

Sydney let her cry for a few minutes longer before she interrupted her again.

“So, he’s held you here for the past couple of
years
? Hasn’t anyone filed a missing persons report?”

“I don’t have any family.  I was an only child and my parents are dead.” 

The perfect scenario for a crooked cop wanting to hold her captive.  Sydney shuddered and chills ran down her spine.

“I’m so sorry, Deidre.  But I do have family.  And they’re going to know that I’m gone and they’ll try to find me.” 

She hoped.  She knew Stephen would, but she couldn’t speak for her parents.  Not after that video tape was released to news stations as per Harrison Daniels’ plan. They would think it was her just desserts. 

“Deidre, what is Harrison’s secret?” 

“His step-dad molested him for years. Ever since his mom married the guy- back when he was six.”  Horror slammed into Sydney’s chest like a cement truck. 

“And his mom never did anything to stop it even though she knew.  She just looked the other way.  He’s so fucked up now that he doesn’t know if he is coming or going.  But he hides it really well.  I never even knew it until that one night. He said it makes him do bad things.  And he does.  He does really bad things.”

Deidre’s voice wavered and then she collapsed into sobbing again.  This time, Sydney let her be.  She didn’t try to get any more information from her. The girl had clearly been through enough.

No wonder the detective hated women.  His own mother had knowingly left him at the mercy of a pedophile.  And his step-father had preyed upon an innocent, vulnerable boy to get his rocks off.  Her skin crawled at the thought and she felt like she was going to throw up.  And she had thought that
her
life had been bad.  This made her life look like the Andy Griffith show. 

She felt a piercing sadness for the child that Harrison Daniels’ had been.  At some point, he had been a vulnerable little boy just like Danny.  And years of being exposed to a monster had turned him into one.  She tried to force all traces of pity from her heart because it wasn’t going to help her.  She couldn’t change his past but she could try and change her own future. 

She got to her feet again and started kicking at the door with all of the strength in her slight body.  The door jarred with each blow as her foot connected with the old, dry wood, but it held firm. She doggedly continued kicking it with her aching feet.  She grew increasingly frustrated until she slid down the wall and slumped to the floor.  Who was she kidding?  Had she really thought she could kick down a padlocked door? 

As she sat with her elbows on her knees, staring dejectedly at the floor between her legs, a montage of images flooded her mind.  Stephen’s face as he kissed her for the first time, Stephen’s eyes as they crinkled while he laughed.  Stephen holding her hand for days at a time in the hospital. 

His image morphed into the cruel form of Harrison Daniels.  The detective smirked at her, taunted her, mocked her… until she felt a sudden rage fill her up and overtake her completely. She was not going to let that monster kill her.  It wasn’t going to happen. He had no right. 

       She wiped the frustrated wetness from her eyes and jumped up with renewed energy. The door took the brunt of her agitation as she leveled her best rendition of a round house kick at it.  

It felt so good that she did it again.  And again.  The only other time she had used kicks like this was with her personal trainer, but they felt much more effective now as the sole of her foot connected solidly with the door. 

When her thigh got tired, she switched to her other leg and then to front kicks… beating the crap out of the door tirelessly as her rage consumed her and fueled her with adrenaline. 

To her surprise, the hinge gave a little as though one of the screws had come out.  The door opened by a half inch.  It only increased her aggression and she kicked all the harder, giving it everything she had left- every possible ounce of strength. 

With every kick, the metal hinge creaked and rattled, giving her hope and pushing her on. With her final kick, the door gave way with a groan.  It flew open and she heard the metal hinge drop to the ground. 

She stared at it in shock for a second and then realized that Danny was staring at her with an expression of awe.  She was sure that she must look unbelievable- as small as she was, kicking down a locked door barefoot.

She guessed what she had always heard was true.  A person really could pick up a car if they were scared or desperate enough.  She had just kicked down a door.  That was pretty bad ass stuff.  She hoped that she lived to brag about it.

“Come on, Danny!”

She grabbed him by the arm and dragged him with her as she rushed through the door.  She stopped at the room next to theirs and examined the padlock.  There was no way that she could kick it down from this side. 

“Deidre?  This is Sydney.  I’m out here… I kicked down our door.   You can do the same thing!”

“I can’t, Sydney!  I’m not strong enough!”  Deidre started beating on the door with her fists, but the door didn’t budge. 

“Deidre, use your feet.  Kick it!”

Sydney pushed Danny behind her as Diedre began kicking at the door.  The door thudded with each impact, but stayed intact. 

“I don’t have any shoes.  I can’t kick hard enough!  I haven’t eaten in weeks.  Go without me and bring back help.  He could come back any minute- go!!” 

“Deidre, I really don’t want to leave here without you.  With us gone, he could move you…”

Deidre interrupted her.  “Just go! There’s nothing else to do.  But please, please Sydney.  Please, bring back help! You don’t know the things he does to me…” 

Her voice trailed off, but the desperation it contained broke Sydney’s heart and it was all she could do to turn away. 

“I promise you, Deidre.  I’ll bring back help.” 

Sydney didn’t waste even another minute as she tugged Danny along with her and she found the back door.  As they stepped out into the light, the warmth from the sun washed over them and she felt free with a magnitude that she had never felt before. Absolute liberation.

She looked around.  There was nothing around them but cloudless sky for what appeared to be miles. Fields, crops and an empty road.  They were definitely in the country.  They were standing on the gravel driveway a few feet away from a faded white propane tank. 

So, they were far enough from town that the gas company didn’t pipe natural gas out here.  From the position of the sun, she guessed that it was late afternoon, so it was important to get moving.  She didn’t want to be stuck in the country at night. 

She stopped for just a second to kneel on the sharp rocks beside Danny, her heart still thudding in her chest.  

“Danny, we’re going to have to walk a lot today.  But we’ve got to get as far from here as we can.  We’ve got to find some help for Deidre before he comes back.  Okay?” 

He nodded and put his hand in hers, tugging her to get started. She let him pull her down the sharp gravel of the driveway and she only looked back once.  The tiny house seemed so sad, standing there alone, that she shuddered. 

The fact that she was leaving Deidre in there, completely vulnerable, made her nauseous.  But there was no help for it.  She gripped Danny’s hand and continued walking briskly in a direction that she hoped would lead to help. 

CHAPTER TEN

He couldn’t take it anymore.  Sydney had been gone for two weeks.  The walls of his house were closing in on him and he had to get out for awhile, just for a little while.  He didn’t want to leave for long, because if Syd were to come home, he wanted to be there. 

Stephen paced the worn hardwood floors of his living room like a caged lion. His patience was frazzled to the point that it was no longer existent. Although the detectives had been kind to him, they still hadn’t found Sydney. And it had been
two weeks.
 

So much could happen in two weeks time. So many things that it terrified him just to think about them. His cell phone rang in his hands and he answered it on the first ring.

“Hello?” He answered hopefully.

“It’s Daniels.  We’ve got something interesting here.  Someone mailed a videotape taken of Sydney...”

“Is she alright?”  Stephen asked anxiously. 

“She appeared to be.  But her message was interesting.  She wants the world to know that her father is gay.  She looked strong and healthy and it almost appeared as if she was videotaping herself.   Do you think it is possible that Sydney ran away on her own accord so that she could get this tape out before her father could get to her?  Maybe she was trying to protect you, for instance.” 

“No.”  Stephen’s answer was immediate. 

“She wouldn’t do that.  She trusts me and she would’ve just told me.  She wouldn’t leave in the middle of the night and make it look like an abduction.  She wouldn’t do that to me.”  He felt confident of that fact. 

“Maybe she thought you wouldn’t let her go any other way.  Maybe she was trying to keep you safe…”

Stephen protested again.  He knew she wouldn’t have done that.  She would want to keep him safe, yes… but she would know that his worry would be unbearable.

“It was just a thought,” Harrison added.  “I’m following up on the videotape to see if the post office it was mailed from has surveillance footage.  We’ll find out soon enough if it was Sydney herself or we’ll get a description of whoever is holding her.”

Stephen felt himself bristling.  Clearly, Detective Daniels believed that Sydney was safe and sound somewhere, intent on ruining her father’s life.  Stephen knew her better than that, but how could he prove it?

“What are you going to do with the video?”

“We’re holding onto it for a couple of days.  Chances are, if it was sent to us, it was also sent to a news station.  We’ll see if it emerges anywhere else in the next couple of days and in the meantime, if there is surveillance tape at the post office, I will review it.”

 The detective had lost his air of urgency, Stephen could feel it.  It filled his heart with dread.  If the detective wasn’t going to put all of his energy into finding Sydney, how in the world was Stephen going to find her?

*  *  *

After trudging a couple of miles, Sydney and Danny noticed a grain silo rising out of the horizon and they automatically began walking faster to reach it, even though Sydney was limping painfully.

  Danny hadn’t complained a single time even though he was only wearing rubber flip-flops.  Sydney knew that he must have blisters.  When they saw the silo, he took them off and began walking barefoot. 

As soon as a cozy little farm house situated next to the grain silo came into view, they picked up the pace even more. Just having it in their sights lifted their spirits and made it easier to trudge down the empty road, hopefully to someone who could help them.

Ten minutes later, they cautiously approached the driveway.  They crept silently up to it, attempting to observe any signs of life before approaching the house.  Sydney was slightly nervous that whoever lived here might be on Harrison’s payroll.  It looked like a regular farmhouse but she couldn’t be too careful. 

Harrison was smart.  And he had money.  It would make sense to hire someone to live in the nearest house to his little hide-out.  That way, if anyone did escape, they would run directly to someone on his payroll. Sydney shuddered thinking about it and concentrated on the farmhouse in front of her. 

A barn was directly behind it right next to a pasture full of cattle.  There was a grain silo bursting with corn and barn cats running rampantly around the property.  If this wasn’t a working farm, then they had done a really good job of imitating one.   Sydney decided to chance it.  She didn’t know what other option they had.  She couldn’t see the next nearest house.

They rushed up the driveway just in time to meet a ruddy-faced farmer emerging from the barn.  He was wearing overalls and a greasy cap and stared at them in surprise.  Sydney couldn’t quite blame him.  She was wearing a nightgown and barefoot, while Danny looked terrified.  They probably looked like refugees.

“Excuse me, sir?” She stepped closer, pulling Danny with her.  “We have an emergency. Could you help us?”

She quickly filled the farmer in on their situation, including the fact that they had left a girl behind.  The farmer’s face grew more alarmed with every word she spoke. 

“Miss, we need to call the police!”  He wheeled around toward the house, but she grabbed his arm. 

“Please, don’t.  He
is
the police.”   The farmer stared at her in horror.

“Miss, you’ve been through a lot. I think we should sit you down and I’ll call the police for you.  There is no one else to call.”

Panic flooded her.  She had not just escaped from a monster just to have this old farmer call him and lead him right back to her.

“Sir, please.  I have been through a lot, but I am perfectly clear on this point.  A detective has done this to us.  If you call him, he will come right back out here and take us again.  Please.  Don’t call the police.”

The farmer studied her for a moment and finally nodded.  He seemed to believe her.