Hand Me Down Evil (Hand Me Down Trilogy) (13 page)

“Wow, that’s some photograph,” I said. “Looks like a police mug shot, doesn’t it?”

“Sure does,” Mark said.

Edgar’s photo vanished, and a live shot of my house was flashed across the screen.

The reporter, a thin, blond woman in her late twenties, was walking toward the rear of my house. “With Catherine gone and no other information available to the investigative authorities, police are asking anyone with information to come forward. Amber’s abduction has taken the small town of Grayling by surprise as it is rare here that such crimes are committed,” the reporter said.

Then the television camera focused on my house. “Just last night at about this time, Amber was with her family here in this house,” the reporter continued. “She has been missing since yesterday evening.”

“Mark!” I screamed.

“What?”

“Look,” I said, pointing to the image on the television screen. “That’s Tally’s bedroom. Her window is open.”

“So?”

“So she never opens her window. Something’s wrong. She can’t open the window herself. It’s too heavy,” I said.

“Do you think Eleanor opened it?” Mark asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t have a good feeling about this,” I replied.

Mark grabbed my hand, and we ran past the information desk, out the front door, and to the pickup.

As Mark drove out of the parking lot, I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. Surely, I should have known that Tally would be in some type of danger in light of what had happened to Mom and Amber. It was careless of me to leave Tally home with Eleanor. Although Eleanor was nice and considerate, she could not appreciate the danger that haunted our family. I should have taken Tally out of that house, away from Grayling altogether. What would I do if I got home and she was not there? I could never forgive myself. My heart raced as Mark turned the corner and sped down the dirt road.

With Mom gone and Aunt Phyllis in the hospital, it was my responsibility to take care of my sisters, to make sure that they were fed, clothed, and safe. For at least the last year, I had dropped them both off every weekday at school in the morning before heading to my own class. Then Phyllis had picked them up after school. This had gone on ever since Mom left. And now Amber was missing, Tally’s window was opened, and I felt a pang of panic jolt my insides.

Something had been tugging at my subconscious when I saw the first news briefing on the overhead television in the bar near the beach house. It was as if a tiny window opened in my mind, and I recalled that newscast, focusing specifically on the shot of the rear of my house that the camera had taken. The window to Tally’s bedroom was half open even at that time. But I had been so busy focusing on the announcements about Catherine that my mind had skipped over that important image. That was hours ago, I thought. A lot could have happened in those precious few hours.

W
hen we reached my house, Mark quickly parked the pickup near the front entrance. I bolted out of the vehicle and ran up the porch with Mark trailing close behind. With a sinking feeling gnawing at my stomach, I pounded on the door. No one answered.

I snatched the key out of my jean pocket, stuck it in the door, and turned the knob.

Just as we were half way through the entrance, Eleanor appeared in the hallway.

“Oh, hi, Honey. I was in the kitchen and did not quite hear you knocking,” Eleanor said, apologetically.

“Where’s Tally?” I asked. My voice was abrupt, curt.

“Why she’s in her room taking a nap,” Eleanor explained. “I made her a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch and gave her a glass of milk and some yogurt and raspberries, and then she sat around watching cartoons on television. When she got bored, she went to her room to play with her dollhouse. I checked on her shortly after that and she was sound asleep.” Eleanor’s voice trailed off.

“How long has she been there?” Mark asked.

“In her room?” Eleanor asked.

“Yes.”

“Oh, at least a couple of hours, Sweetheart. I was about to go and fetch her and offer her a snack. I just cut up some watermelon and kiwi. Would you like to sit down and have a bite? You two have been gone for some time,” Eleanor said. She sounded polite.

Without answering, Mark and I sprinted toward the bedroom that Tally shared with Amber. It was on the first floor because Mom had liked the girls to be near her room, which was just down the hall. Mom had said that if she ever needed to reach the girls in a hurry, she would be close by.

I flung open the door. Tally was not in her room. The window was wide open, with the wind whipping at the pink sheer curtains. I scanned the room. The white comforter on one of the beds was neat and unruffled. That was Amber’s bed. The comforter on Tally’s bed was disheveled, with half of it draped over the edge. A lamp sat on top of the nightstand between the twin beds. Directly in front of the beds was a sturdy dresser made of dark cherry wood. The doll house occupied most of the corner on the opposite side, and there were various toys around the room. Nothing looked out of the ordinary with the exception of the open window.

“Where did Tally go?” I shrieked.

“I’m sure she’s around somewhere,” Eleanor said, feigning a smile.

I pointed to the window. “Did you open that window, Eleanor?” I asked.

“No,” Eleanor said, shaking her head from side to side.

“Then who did?”

Eleanor said nothing. She was standing near the door.

“Tally can’t lift this window open,” I said. “It’s too heavy.”

Eleanor’s expression changed, became concerned.

Mark and I ran through the house calling out Tally’s name. I searched in my bedroom upstairs while Mark went down to the basement. There was no sign of Tally.

Eleanor was still in Tally’s room. “It’s my fault,” she said. “It’s my fault. I should have kept a closer eye on her.” She moved toward the open window in the room and peered outside. I joined her.

Mark was in the kitchen calling the police on the telephone.

“Tally’s missing. She’s gone.” My crackling voice became hoarse and shrill.

As the idea of Tally being missing began to sink into my mind, I felt that I needed to be out there searching. I could not count on the police to find her. How could the police determine what happened to Tally when they have not even found anything concrete about Amber’s or Mom’s whereabouts? The authorities could not be trusted to do any job competently. All they knew how to do was to hold news conferences. But where would I search for Tally?

A ripple of thunder rocked the house.

As alarm started to blast through every vein in my body, I stood frozen with fear. What if I never found my sisters or Mom? Phyllis was in the hospital. My life was a complete mess.

As I ran past Eleanor and made it into the living room, I tripped over one of Tally’s toys and knocked my head against the small, round curio cabinet, its glass shattering into a million pieces. I sensed myself falling, slowly, unsteadily, and I tried to grab hold of the door. A jolt of pain shot through my body when I hit my head on something hard as I sank downward. I felt the wooden floor beneath me, cold and hard and indifferent.

A voice was calling my name from far away, telling me to open my eyes. It was Mark. He was bending over me, lifting my head up, wiping my brow with his hand.

“Hurry, get some ice,” Mark’s voice was saying, and then I heard the sound of scurrying footsteps running toward the kitchen and back again. Mark was putting ice on my forehead. I wanted to tell him that I was fine, that we needed to go find Tally and Amber and Mom. Hurry, I thought. Time is running out. But my lips could not form words, could not move. When I opened my mouth, a thin, babbling sound forced its way out of my throat.

A massive headache gripped me and a few seconds later, I felt a tingling sensation in my toes and fingers. My whole body was numb, and I began drifting away, sinking into darkness.

“Call an ambulance!” Mark was yelling. There was a sound of desperation in his voice.

No, no, no. I don’t need an ambulance
, I thought.
We need to look for Tally right now. We must go find Edgar and follow him around. Remember what you said in the hospice about locating Edgar and spying on him to see where he goes, what he does? Well, the time has come for us to do that. We don’t have a minute to lose. Please don’t call an ambulance. We will waste precious time if they take me to the hospital. I can’t afford to be tucked away somewhere in an emergency room while Tally and Amber are waiting for me, hoping that I am searching for them. I mustn’t fail my sisters. They are waiting for me. Do you hear that? My sisters are waiting for me!

Mark was sitting on the floor next to me, rubbing an ice pack on my forehead. Surely, he must have known that I was fine, that I would wake up at any moment, and that I would be ready to go looking for Amber and Tally.

I was able to open my eyes slightly. At the periphery of my vision, I saw Mark moving his mouth. He was talking to me, but I could not understand him. The immense pain in my head prevented me from comprehending his words.

Then other sounds filled the room, sounds of paramedics rushing around, noises of them communicating with the hospital, with Mark, with Eleanor. The paramedics’ voices were thin and distant. I had to tell them that I did not want to be taken to the hospital.

I felt myself being lifted onto a stretcher and the stretcher being rolled outside into the chilly breeze. The wind whispered mournfully through the trees. The alternating blue and red flashing lights of the ambulance lit up the dim evening sky.

The paramedics lifted me up and slid the stretcher into the ambulance. Where is Mark? I thought. Surely, he must know how important it is for me not to be taken away. He must realize that precious time is wasting. How could he not know?

A paramedic was closing the door to the ambulance. I heard the metallic click of the latch. The siren wailed, and the ambulance began to move.

Mark, get me out of here! I am fine
, I thought.
Got to find Amber, Tally, Mom. Need to look for Edgar, follow him around, track down his other personality, Shelly. Didn’t the police say her name was Shelly? Surely, the paramedics must know about Amber, must realize that I have to find her before it is too late. Valuable time is ticking away… and I am wasting time. Tally must still be close by. Amber might be somewhere in the woods. I’ve got to find my sisters. They are waiting…

I tried to utter a sound, any sound, but the words would not come. The aching in my head escalated into an awful pounding, and I felt that I was weightless, falling into a black void.

In my mind’s eye, I saw images of Tally and Amber, and then I saw the contours of the kidnapper’s face, his eyes peering out at me through a vast, endless field of darkness. Before I could make sense of my thoughts, everything became a blur, and I sank into a deep sleep.

O
ne solitary drop of rain fell on my cheek. My eyes popped open. Two paramedics were lifting the stretcher out of the ambulance and carefully placing it in the parking lot.

“Where am I?” I asked.

A paramedic with a medium build, short brown hair, and gray eyes smiled. “You’re at Grayling General Hospital. We’re about to take you inside for observation. You took a nasty spill there, and that’s some bump you’ve got on your head,” he said.

The other paramedic walked to the front of the ambulance and began talking on the telephone, but I could not hear what he was saying.

“I feel fine. Really, I do,” I said, attempting to lift myself up. “Please let me go back home. I have got a lot to do,” I pleaded.

I tried to sit up but realized that I had been tied down to the stretcher. The harness that was strapped against my stomach prevented me from moving.

“I’m sure you feel fine?” the paramedic replied. “But we can’t take the chance that you’ve suffered some kind of concussion. If the doctors feel that you are in good shape after taking an MRI, then they will discharge you. I don’t have authority to let you go at this point.”

I sank back down in disappointment and began going over the day’s events in my head, trying to determine what nagging feeling was toying with my subconscious. I sensed that I was missing something, some important piece of information that would help me determine what had happened to Amber and Tally.

“Where’s Mark?” I asked.

“You mean that guy who was in the house with you?” the paramedic asked.

”Yes.”

“I’m not sure. He did not ride in the ambulance with us. I saw him leaving in the pickup truck right when we took off. He looked like he was in quite a hurry.”

I could not believe that Mark would actually go somewhere after all that had happened. Perhaps he went to look for Tally. Maybe he thought of something. That had to be the case. He would never leave me at a time like this. I was sure about that.

The dry, metallic clunk of a car door interrupted my thoughts. I lifted my head up as best as I could and peered out at the parking lot just in time to see a disheveled old man exit a tattered Chevy. He had brown unkempt hair, bushy brown eyebrows, and hollow eyes. As he closed the door and started glancing around suspiciously, I recognized who he was even though he did not sport a mustache or beard. It was Edgar Humphries.

“I
t will just be a minute, and we will wheel you into the hospital,” said the paramedic before moving toward the front of the ambulance to grab his notepad.

Stunned and dazed, I stared intensely at Edgar, who went toward the edge of the parking lot and appeared to be scanning his surroundings. He wiped his hand on his faded jeans and brown and black lumberjack shirt. Then he ran his fingers through his scruffy brown and gray hair.

The sun was just beginning to set, casting a golden orange hue over the sugar maple trees that stood in dense clumps at the edge of the lot.

The parking lot was bordered on three sides by thick woods. The narrow entrance to the hospital lead to a pathetic five story, red brick building that resembled a rectangular box with predictable windows that lined the entire length of the structure. A car passed occasionally with its headlights beaming along the lonely dirt road directly to the front of the hospital.