“They took blood,” Angela tells me. “The hospital is running a full lab to figure out what happened.”
I slowly nod. “I woke up once, when I heard the voices talking. Matt… he wanted to take me to the hospital. Someone else didn’t.”
Detective Masters leans forward. “I need specifics here, Margo. Tell me about that other voice.”
“They…” Searing pain flashes through my head. I cover my face with my hands and groan.
My heart monitor shrieks.
A nurse rushes in, followed by the doctor who helped me.
“Out,” he orders the detective. He puts the bed back flat, his hand on my shoulder. “Margo, it’s okay.” He guides my hand away, showing me a clear mask. “Oxygen. Okay?”
He lowers it over my nose and mouth.
I’m so sorry—
It’s too similar to what just happened to me. My head is searing. A ringing noise fills my ears. It takes a second to realize I’m the one screaming, pushing at the mask.
A sob breaks through me like a crashing wave.
Is it too much to ask for a little peace?
“I’m giving you something to help you sleep,” the doctor says.
Ice rushes into my vein through the IV. It spreads, rushing through my body, weighing it down.
Panic still crushes my chest, though. Just because I’m about to be dragged under, doesn’t mean all my fear goes away. No, it’s being pulled down with me… right into my own personal nightmare.
My memories.
6
Caleb
Mr. Black meets me outside the county jail, and I can’t say I’ve ever felt like more of a miscreant. I’m just glad it isn’t my uncle waiting for me.
After our ‘interview’, the detective said he had enough cause to hold me without pressing charges. So there I sat, while Margo was in the hospital without me.
“I found her,” I say once we’re in the car. “And they just—”
“He already suspected you. When you showed up with her at the hospital, her arms still fucking bound…”
Eli’s dad isn’t a swearer. He drinks expensive whiskey when the occasion calls for it—after a big day at work, maybe—but otherwise, he doesn’t like alcohol. For years, I’ve been trying to find his vice. Smoking, gambling, women.
There had to be something.
Instead, I found a good man. He went to church with his wife on Sundays and tried not to disappear into his office on the weekends. He was present. At the games, cheering us on. When we were younger, he’d pick us up from school and we’d grab ice cream.
Eli’s family was more like mine for a long time.
He hands me my phone. “Your uncle called.”
I grimace. “I was hoping to avoid telling him I’m out.”
“Did two nights in jail make you delusional?”
“Maybe.” I fiddle with it. “How is she?”
It’s been just under seventy-two hours. Almost three days exactly since I saw her. And every moment of it has been hell.
“She told the detective it wasn’t you.”
I didn’t expect anything different. It wasn’t me.
“Is she still in the hospital?”
His grip flexes on the steering wheel. “I think they were discharging her this morning.”
“Now?”
“She could be home already.”
I scroll through the missed calls and texts. Falling off the radar doesn’t go unnoticed in Rose Hill. But I’m only scanning for one name in particular.
Riley: It’s Margo. I’m home.
An invitation if I’ve ever heard one.
“Robert is still in the hospital,” Eli’s dad offers unexpectedly. “They moved him out of ICU, but I hear Lenora is trying to be in two places at once.”
I glance over at him. “Margo shouldn’t be alone. Not with a kidnapper on the loose.”
And Unknown still harassing us.
They knew I was going to get arrested. Knew I’d find the barn… but how?
He nods. “I figured you would say that. I checked with her case worker and made some calls. Riley and her mother are going to stay with Margo while Lenora stays at the hospital.”
Not good enough, I almost say.
I swallow. “Is the detective going to come after me again?”
“Apparently…” He shakes his head. “I shouldn’t even be telling you this. Margo told the detective she saw who took her.”
Something funny happens in my body. Every muscle gets tight. Alarmed. A lump forms in my throat, and it’s hard to breathe.
“Even more reason to stay with her,” I manage. “Who—”
“They were being tight-lipped about it. And,” he glances pointedly at me, “the charges were dropped, but Detective Masters is still considering you a person of interest.”
Mr. Black is a badass defense lawyer. He has sway in the prosecutor’s office and all over the county. Hell, half of New York City knows of Josh Black. I don’t think the district attorney has ever had a worse record in court against one lawyer.
And right now, I’m grateful for it.
I barely slept while in holding. They kept me separated, but it was county jail. All sorts of crazies were brought in. Mr. Black said my uncle called—well, he called the jail, too. Reamed me out and said I was an embarrassment on the family name.
I know it isn’t the charge that rankles—it’s that I got charged at all.
He thinks I did it, but he’s disappointed I got caught.
I don’t respond to Margo, or my uncle, or any of the other messages. I need to see her with my own eyes.
“I should’ve taken off the duct tape.” I don’t realize I’ve said it out loud until Mr. Black has slowed the car and twisted toward me.
“Caleb.” His voice is stern. “You cannot say things like that, especially around the detective. You understand?”
“I found her on the floor.” I meet his gaze. “She was unconscious. I was more worried about getting her to the hospital.”
“All they’ll see is someone who wanted to keep her in check. Under their thumb.”
I bristle. “That’s not it.”
“I know that’s not it. I know you. But that’s what they’ll say, and that argument is what they’ll build a case on, if Detective Masters decides to charge you.”
“She said it wasn’t me.”
Eli’s dad tsks. “She was drugged. She could’ve been confused.”
“I found her!”
“How? How did you know exactly where to go? Why didn’t you call the police?”
“Fuck!” I’m tempted to jump out of the car.
“Son, I’m just trying to get you to see how the prosecutor would—”
“Yeah, I get it. Can we just…” I wave toward the road. We’re close to Margo’s house. I take a minute to be thankful that I didn’t even have to ask.
He steps on the gas, silent for a moment. Then he says, “I suppose it’s a good thing we’re going to see her now. Saves you a midnight trip.”