Page 107 of Statler

Statler!

She needed to call him right away. He’d be in the middle of planning his raid, but hopefully he wouldn’t have gone phone-silent yet.

She checked the time and let out a grunt of relief. It wasn’t nearly late enough for that, even though darkness had fallen.

Once again, Eliza punched a number, this time with conviction.

“Eliza.” Statler’s rich voice greeted her after the first ring. “How far have you made it?”

There was no time for small talk.

“Listen, Statler. William just called. He knows I’ve left town.”

Statler hissed, then became all business. “I’m putting you on speaker phone. Tell me exactly what he said.”

The shakes took over again as Eliza relayed the information. “He… He wanted to know what I’d found out, and how I knew to leave,” she began. “I told him that I had come across some anomalies, and that I knew about the deaths of those men.”

Statler grunted and didn’t add anything, but Eliza could hear the concern in that truncated syllable.

She continued. “I also let him believe that I saw Jeremy breaking into my house, and that’s what made me take off without all my stuff.”

“That’s good. Fast thinking.”

Statler sounded less tense after that disclosure, but his satisfied mood wouldn’t last long. She was about to put him back on high alert.

“Now…” Her voice broke. “Now, he says Jeremy has Granny, holding her hostage. And if I don’t come back, he’ll…have her killed.”

“Hang on, Eliza,” Statler attempted to calm her down. “That may not be true. Blue and someone from SWAT left a few minutes ago to pick Granny up. I’m going to have Tonka call them and see what they found.”

Eliza was panicking now, big-time. “I called her house. She’s not answering the phone. William told me she wouldn’t, and he was right. Jeremy has her, Statler. And now I have to call William back and agree to his demands. He’s waiting.”

Statler was decisive. “Call him, Eliza, but don’t make him any promises. I’ll call Blue to see what she’s found, and as soon as you’re finished with William, you call me and tell me what he said.”

“But… I have to go back,” she cried.

“No. You don’t. We can take care of everything from here.”

Eliza wished that were the case, but there was no way she could be sure.

The only way for her to be certain of Granny’s safety, was to return to Liminal, herself. But she wasn’t going to argue with Statler now. Let him find out what Blue had uncovered, then she’d deliver the news he didn’t want to hear.

“Okay. I’ll call you back soon,” Eliza said, and hung up, pushing the button for William before she lost her nerve.

“Just like I said, right?” the evil man gloated. “No answer. Now turn your pitiful ass around and get back here,” he snapped.

“I’m two hours away,” she responded. “Don’t you dare let anything happen to her in the time it takes me to get there.”

“You have no say in anything, bitch.”

He’d completely taken the gloves off, now. To him, she was no longer his daughter; just a worthless waste of space.

A bitch.

Which was just fine with Eliza.

“Where do you want me to go?” she asked sharply.

“Meet Jeremy at the old fishing shack where you used to go with Holden. I think it’s fitting that things should end there.”