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“Are you friends with your brother?” Fletcher blurts out when I walk over to them.
“No, I’m not. He wants to kill me, but I’m going to kill him first. And I brought you here so you can help me find him. Then you’ll be free.”
Long ago, I told Dr. Barnard that if he let my brother escape, I’d kill his family. He’d nodded and smiled and cashed my checks. I meant it then. But Tamara has worked her magic on me, and now I couldn’t do it. I won’t hurt these boys. They’ve already had enough of a rotten hand dealt to them, with a father like Dr. Barnard. He didn’t even say a word about his sons when I left him.
Paul glances at Fletcher for reassurance. Fletcher pats his brother on the shoulder. I’m strangely fascinated. My brothers and I never dared to offer each other comfort; our father would have seen it as a sign of weakness and punished us both until we bled.
“He has our mother and our sisters,” Fletcher says, clenching his fists. “Can you find them?”
“Yes, but only with your help. I need you to tell me everything you can. Think about places he kept you. Did you go by car or in a plane? And was it always the same place?”
“It was always the same place,” Fletcher says. “He put us in the back of a van, and he tried to trick us by driving around and taking different routes. But I paid attention while we were driving, and I counted in my head to keep track of time. The shortest time it ever took was three hours, and the longest it took was five. But his house isn’t three hours from ours. Even the time he drove for three hours, he was driving back and forth for a while to make it seem like it was farther away than it really was.”
I nod approvingly. “Excellent! You guys are geniuses.” The words feel strange on my tongue. Kindness. Reassurance.I’m a new man, Tamara. Please survive so I can show you.
Fletcher smiles just a little, then the smile vanishes. “Sometimes we smelled this really foul manure smell, like from some kind of farm, and that was about half an hour before we got there. We didn’t smell it every time, though.”
Hope floods through me. “This is fantastic. You’re helping me narrow it down. Anything else you can tell me will be helpful. Did you get any sense of how big the house was inside? I can start searching property records.”
Fletcher frowns in concentration. “Not really. We’d drive into a garage, and the door would close behind us, and we’d have to wear hoods on our heads until we got to the part of the house where he kept us. We never saw the outside of the house, and the windows were all blocked off.”
“Oh! The bird.” Paul speaks up suddenly. He looks at his older brother, who shrugs, looking skeptical. “I heard it one time when we were pulling into the garage. It was a double ring-necked warbler that’s mostly found in Tehama County.” At Fletcher’s skeptical look, he tells him, “I know what I heard.”
Tehama County would make sense. It’s within the driving range we’re talking about, and it’s remote and rural. A perfect place for Micah’s needs.
“But that was one time. And different birds can sound like each other. If you’re wrong, if you send him to the wrong place…” Fletcher protests.
“I know what I heard. I know birds.” Paul looks at me. “I’m going to be a wildlife biologist,” he says with pride. Then his face falls. “If you don’t murder us.”
Something twists inside me. I remember waking up every morning as a child, wondering if this would be the day my father would kill me. I grew numb to it in the end.
“I am nothing like my brother. That’s why he’s my enemy. Nobody is going to kill you, because I will keep you safe,” I say fiercely. “I’m going to find your mother and your sisters, and it’s going to be because of what you just told me, and I’m going to make sure you stay safe and protected. I swear to you. Your days of living in fear are over.”
Who is saying these words?
The craziest part,I actually mean them.
I wish Tamara could see me now.
I see both boys visibly relax, and Fletcher puts his arm around his brother’s shoulder. They exchange glances, and I see the hope in their eyes.
“He’s telling the truth,” Fletcher says to Paul. “He’s not like his brother.”
“You’ve given me some good tips,” I say. “Let me get to work.”
Now that I’ve taken them, the clock is ticking down. I’ve got to make my move. I call Carter and tell him what I’ve just learned. Then I return to my computer to search property records again with a renewed sense of hope.
CHAPTERSEVEN
TAMARA
When Micah walks through the door right around lunchtime, my muscles lock up in fear. I see the look on his face. It’s that look he gets when he’s about to hurt me. Manic glee lights up his eyes, and there’s a bounce to his step.
He skipped the last three days of torture sessions. He hasn’t made any videos in the last three days either.
He’s dragging this out, letting me heal before he starts in on me again. And for Joshua, not getting those videos will be a nightmare. He’ll be thinking the worst, picturing me dead.
If he’s still looking for me.
