Pamela leaned on his shoulder with a soft sigh, and Roy wanted to throw up. He ate his burger while staring at them, and not once did either of them look at him. Instead, they stared at the little girl, who was feeding bread to the birds by throwing it at them, giggling cheerfully, and dancing with joy.
What does she have to be so happy about? He asked himself while sipping his Coke through the straw.
“Look at her spin,” his dad cheered and clasped his hands together. “Just look at her; I can’t believe how cute she is. She is the most adorable thing I have ever seen. Isn’t that right, Roy? Roy?”
Roy glared up from his fries when his dad finally looked at him. The look in his eyes was of disgust, and Roy’s shoulders sunk.
“What?” Roy asked.
His dad scoffed, then turned to look at the girl again. The sight of her spinning around and then falling on her behind made him laugh out loud. The girl laughed too, and Roy decided to go to the bathroom. He got up and walked to the back of the building. Just as he turned the corner, he looked back at the three of them and realized they hadn’t even seen him walk away.
When he returned, the three of them were taking a picture together; his dad had asked a passerby to take it for them.
“Say cheese.”
The girl said something that barely sounded like a word, and both of them clasped their hands and got all excited about it. Roy went back to his seat and sat down heavily.
“How long are we going to stay here?” he asked. “Can we go home soon? I’m kind of bored.”
Pamela’s smile froze as she looked at him and nodded. “Sure. We can go now. I have to put her down for a nap anyway.”
On their way to the car, Roy’s dad pulled him aside.
“You’re not even trying, son. The least you can do is try to be with the rest of us.”
“Why?” he asked.
His dad’s expression went sour. “Well, since you’re asking, I might as well tell you right away. I was going to wait for a better time, but I might as well say it now.”
“Say what?”
“Pamela and I are getting married. I proposed to her, and she said yes. They’ll come live with us after the wedding. That’s why I want you to try a little harder. We’re going to be a family, and you better start behaving if you want to be a part of it. I will not have you ruin my happiness. Do you hear me?”
With that, he walked past Roy toward their car, dangling the keys in his hand. Roy stood behind, staring at his father’s back, then shook his head.
“Whatever,” he said, then put his headphones back on and pressed play on his Walkman, turning up the sound so loud he knew his dad could hear it while they drove home, knowing perfectly well it drove him nuts.
Chapter 17
She had arrived. The agent from ten years ago, Eva Rae Thomas, was with them now in the room, helping on the case. It was all going the way it was supposed to so far.
Everything was falling into its rightful and beautiful place.
He looked at her old picture from the articles that were written back then about the case. She had gained maybe ten-fifteen pounds, probably from the children he had read she had given birth to when stalking her on Facebook. She had gotten bangs, that was new, but the rest of her red hair was pulled back in a ponytail, just like it had been back then, and she had gotten a few lines around the corners of her eyes. They looked good on her, though. It matched her eyes that were older and seemed heavier. He guessed it was because of all she had been through. Getting a divorce and having to quit your job had to be tough. Especially since her husband had cheated on her with another woman, and she hadn’t even seen it coming.
It was a lot to deal with.
His heart had almost skipped a beat when he saw her. The boy was still passed out from the sedative he had given him earlier and was sleeping quietly. He had placed him in a cabinet in the room, then left to take part in the fun activities downstairs. Just in case anyone entered his room, they wouldn’t find him. He had him wrapped in a blanket, so he wouldn’t even be seen if anyone opened the closet.
They had already searched the rooms before he brought the boy in, but they might come back. He didn’t take any chances.
The boy hadn’t been much trouble to take. He spotted him by the pool while going down the lazy river, then waved happily. As he came by the second time, they waved to one another again and the third time too. The fourth time, he had signaled for the boy to come to the edge, and he had done so, smiling. He had then handed him a lollipop, dipped in the sedative. As the boy sat with him by the poolside for a few minutes and ate it, he soon dozed off. He could carry him away, making it look like a father carrying away his son that had dozed off after hours of playing in the sun and heat. It wasn’t unusual in people’s eyes.
People were so gullible.
He had taken him to his car in the parking garage underneath the resort, where he had injected another portion of the sedative into him to make sure he stayed out for longer and didn’t realize what was going on around him. Then he had left him in the car for a few hours while he joined the search teams until they were done searching the hotel and the rooms. By then, he was able to easily walk down into the parking garage and grab the kid, then carry him inside the elevator and take him directly to his floor and his room. He hadn’t met anyone on his way, and he knew they had no security cameras in the elevators, hallways, or the parking garage underneath the building. People wrongfully assumed that hotels and resorts had cameras everywhere monitoring their guests’ every move, but the fact was, most didn’t. Usually, they only had cameras where money was exchanged. But even that wasn’t usually covered well either. It amazed him that they didn’t take better care of their guests. But it was all to his advantage.
It’s a terrible world we live in—so much evil.
He laughed to himself while he walked down the hallway, yet keeping a serious face as he nodded at the deputy from the local sheriff’s office walking out of the Marshalls’ hotel room.
The deputy shot him a friendly smile and greeted him back.
Chapter 18
Being out in the middle of the night proved to be a lot scarier than Jessica had thought it would be. She walked down her street, through her neighborhood, heart pounding in her chest, worried that this was a mistake, that it was doomed to be a failure from the get-go.
She took the bus from her neighborhood to downtown Tampa, and as she got out, she looked at her watch that could light up in the darkness and realized it was one in the morning. There were still many hours till daylight, and the bus she needed to take to Orlando wouldn’t leave until four a.m.
She walked past a bar, where some people standing outside whistled and yelled after her as she passed them. It made her feel very uncomfortable, and she began to run. She continued down the street till she thought she was far enough, then slowed to a stop. She rested while panting, leaning on her thighs.
Everything looked different in the darkness, and even the tall buildings that she used to love so much were creepy—all those dark windows glaring down at her. She stared up at them and remembered a story she had read recently about a girl who was walking out at night alone when she was attacked and murdered.