‘You… She wasn’t with you?’
From the looks on their faces, Abilene knew the answer.
‘You’d better drink some water,’ Cora said. ‘You’re probably dehydrated.’
‘You gave us an awful scare,’ Vivian said. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘I… thought she was with you.’
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Cora helped her sit up. Vivian uncapped the water bottle and handed it to her, but Abilene only rested it on her lap, still too breathless to drink.
Looking concerned, Vivian asked Cora, ‘Do you think it might be heat stroke or something?’
‘I doubt it. Like I said, probably just dehydration. And tension.’
‘What’s to be tense about?’ Finley muttered.
‘Her eyes are all bloodshot. What’s that a symptom of?’
‘I’ve… been crying.’
‘Oh,’ Vivian said. Suddenly her chin began to shake. The corners of her mouth turned down and tears shimmered in her green eyes.
Looking embarrassed, Finley patted her on the back and murmured, ‘Hey hey hey. Come on.’ To Abilene, she said, ‘Now look what you’ve started.’
‘Drink some of that water,’ Cora said.
Abilene took a deep breath, then lifted the bottle and filled her mouth with warm water.
‘We oughta get you into the shade. Let you rest a while.’
After swallowing, she said, ‘We’ve gotta find Helen.’
‘We will. We will.’
‘We already checked in the lodge,’ Finley said.
‘Not much of a search,’ Cora added, ‘but at least we went in for a quick look around and called her name a few times. She might be in there, but…’
‘We can take a better look later,’ Finley said.
‘Come on, let’s get you to your feet.’
Finley took the water bottle, capped it, and picked up the two flashlights. Cora shook open her tank top and pulled it down over her head. Then she and Vivian clutched Abilene by the arms and helped her up. She felt light-headed. Her heart was pounding rapidly. She was weak and shaky all over. But the girls held onto her, guiding her toward the lodge.
They lowered her onto the steps of the porch. Cora picked up her tire iron, which she’d left on the top step. Then they all sat down in the shade.
‘How you doing?’ Finley asked.
‘I’ll be fine if Helen shows up.’ Leaning forward, she braced her elbows on her knees and rubbed her face. ‘You didn’t find… anything… inside?’
‘Some wet places. You know, in the hall and lobby. Just places where we dripped last night bringing the stuff up from the pool.’
‘I took a quick look around upstairs.’ Cora shook her head. ‘I don’t think she’s in the lodge.’
‘If she is,’ Finley added, ‘she couldn’t answer when we called.’
Couldn’t answer. Because she wasn’t there? Or because she was unconscious or dead?
Not dead. No. Jesus!
‘Maybe… she’s being held captive. In one of the rooms. Maybe she’s gagged, or something.’
‘It’s possible,’ Cora said. ‘But what we think is that she was taken into the woods. Probably out behind the lodge, somewhere. We were just talking about it when you came along and… passed out.’
‘It’s only a theory,’ Vivian muttered.
‘We know she didn’t go off on her own,’ Finley said. ‘Not without her shoes. So somebody had to take her. It was probably that kid. Maybe with some friends. But whoever it was, he had to know about the rest of us. And he’d know that the lodge is the first place we’d come looking for her. So if he didn’t want to deal with the rest of us, he’d hurry and get her away from here.’
‘Into the woods,’ Cora said.
‘She might’ve… just gone along with him,’ Vivian suggested. ‘You know? There’s no reason, really, to think that he forced her. Or hurt her. Maybe she went willingly. Maybe he’s a nice kid and they got talking, and she just… went with him somewhere.’
‘She would’ve put on her shoes,’ Finley said.
‘Not necessarily. I mean, if it wasn’t something like that, then…’ Vivian hesitated. Voice trembling, she went on. ‘Then she isn’t going to be all right. She’s probably… she’s probably already been raped. She might even be…’
‘Cut it out,’ Cora broke in. ‘Let’s not go off the deep end. We don’t know what happened. Maybe nothing, and she’ll just turn up.’
‘Here’s the thing,’ Finley said, a sudden eagerness in her voice. ‘Look, we’re assuming she was attacked. That’s really the most logical explanation. Nothing else makes much sense. Somebody got to her while she was down in the pool. And I know how bad all this looks. But if the guy’d only wanted to rape her or kill her, he could’ve done that right at the pool. And left her there. But he didn’t. He took her away instead. Would’ve been a lot easier just to leave her, even if there was a whole bunch of guys. So what I think is that he — they — plan to hang onto her.’
‘Keep her prisoner,’ Abilene said, now understanding why Finley sounded excited about the idea.
‘Which means she’s probably alive,’ Cora said.
‘You got it.’
‘God, I hope you’re right,’ Vivian said.
‘It makes sense, doesn’t it?’
‘All we’ve gotta do is find her. And nail the bastard that grabbed her.’
‘Bastards,’ Finley corrected her. ‘I think it’s gotta be more than one.’
Cora put a hand on Abilene’s back. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘A lot better. Let’s get going.’
They left the flashlights on the porch stairs and headed for the corner of the lodge. Finley carried the water bottle. Cora carried the tire iron.
Stopping on the slope beside the Wagoneer, Cora suggested they find something to eat. Abilene climbed in. Reaching over the seatback, she opened the cooler. She grabbed a pack of hot dogs and crawled out. Finley had already taken a bag of potato chips from the box that Helen had left on the driveway. The bag was clamped between her knees as she lifted the box onto the roof of the car.
‘Anybody wanta change before we take off?’ Cora asked.
Abilene considered it. A change into dry clothes would feel good. Sneakers would be much better than moccasins for hiking through the woods. They were probably still wet though.
‘Let’s just go,’ Finley said. ‘Whatever we put on is gonna be soaking before long anyway.’
Vivian nodded.
They hurried down the steep driveway. At the rear corner of the lodge, they followed Cora to the small, outside pool.
Helen’s sneakers and the bag of chips were still there. Abilene noticed that the granite, where she and Cora had climbed out dripping, was completely dry.
‘Okay,’ Cora said. ‘We figure they started here. Why don’t we spread out and head across the field?’
‘Just a second,’ Abilene said. ‘There might be some kind of signs.’ The others waited while she walked along the stone slabs, studying the ground cover beyond the edge, looking for trampled weeds, mashed grass. ‘I don’t see anything,’ she said as she came back. ‘But maybe they stayed on the cobblestones.’
‘Well, let’s keep our eyes open. At least we saw where the kid went yesterday.’
They each took a drink from Finley’s bottle. Then they fanned out, stepped off the granite and made their way slowly across the field. Cora, at the right end of the line, circled around the far side of the brick fireplace. Abilene, in the middle, strode along one of the cobblestone walkways.
The sun, high above the trees ahead, glared in her eyes. She wished she had a hat or sunglasses, but she rarely wore them and they were back in the car. So she squinted and kept a hand at her brow to shield her eyes.
Near the far end of the grounds, they converged on the old swimming pool. Its bottom was swampy with stagnant rain water that looked like brown muck, thick with decayed leaves and branches. It smelled rank. It buzzed with mosquitos and flies.
Helen wasn’t down there.
But something was.
Directly beneath the high dive, four small furry legs protruded from the soupy water. The instant Abilene realized what she was seeing, she averted her eyes. She didn’t want a good look at it.