Chapter III: "I have him. . ."
Therese stretched as the morning sun began to stream through the balcony windows. She checked her clock and decided she might as well get up now, which was shortly after the buttcrack of dawn. The other three girls of the house would be after her soon anyhow. She was already surprised that one of them, Ruby, wasn't already nuzzling her feet with that cold, wet nose to be let outside. Rolling over to give Kevin his customary peck on the cheek in the morning, she found the bed empty. He hardly rose before nine or ten o'clock when he could help it. Usually, someone decided Daddy needed to be up with her to watch cartoons when he was home and he usually obliged but often fell back asleep on the couch with his daughter tucked in his arms.
Yet, this was too early for even Dinah to be dragging her father into the living room to watch television. The child was perpetually hungry, a trait that Lily was voraciously developing as well, and knew Momma would fix her breakfast at the slightest insistence. She would have come to Therese first before even bothering to wake Kevin.
Chiding herself for worrying too much, Therese checked the bathroom first. Her husband was on the cusp of fifty but looked damn good for a man about to receive his AARP membership next month. Women still fell at his feet, especially the one married to him. Heading down the hall and past the cracked doors of her daughters' rooms, she peered into an empty living room and then softly called his name as she checked their work-out room and then the kitchen. The door to the backyard patio was open but he wasn't outside either.
After pushing the door closed, the woman turned around and it was then she saw the smear of blood on the tile floor and a note on the counter. With trembling hands, she picked it up to read the unsigned letter. "I have him and, if you're in the least interested in getting him back alive, you will wait for me to contact you and you will say nothing to the police. If you haven't received a phone call yet, you will any second." The shrill ring of the phone startled her so much, she cried out. Caring less about answering it, she raced down the hall to the first bedroom she came to. Flinging it open, she found Lily still asleep in her crib. From experience, never would she wake a sleeping infant. This was different. Pulling the baby into arms, she hurried into Dinah's room.
"Momma, are you gonna get the phone?" the little brunette asked, yawning and sliding out the bed. "Oh, it quit," she added when they both realized the ringing had stopped.
"Come with me, baby," Therese softly said and took the four-year-old's hand to lead her down the hall.
Halfway there, the blonde could hear a voice screaming on the answer. "Therese! Pick up! Please, pick up! They took him! They took him! PLEASE!" Stephanie's voice wailed. This was the phone call the note must have been referring to. She quickly jerked up the cordless phone and began attempting to soothe Stephanie without frightening her daughter.
"Momma, what's goin' on?" Dinah nervously asked, pulling her mother's hand.
"Steph, hold on," she ordered the hysterical woman. Having no free hand, Stephanie was privy to the conversation as the phone remained cradled between Therese's ear and shoulder.
"Sweetie, you remember when you got lost in the woods not long ago?" When the little girl nodded, she continued, "It seems Daddy and Uncle Shawn got lost together."
"They're together?" she asked, putting a finger in her mouth.
"Yes, baby."
"Then they're okay," she said, letting go of her mother's hand and starting off toward the living room.
"Dinah, come back," Therese commanded in her best 'mother' voice.
"I'm just going to watch…"
"You can in a minute. Just stay with me, okay?" The little brunette pouted but grabbed a handful of her mother's pajama pants. "Steph, I'm back."
"Kevin's gone too!"
"Yes," Therese answered, dragging her children with her to the front door to check the lock. The keypad on the wall beside the front door indicated that the security system had been disabled, not breached. Stephanie's voice was rising again in shrillness and volume but Therese blocked it out as she tried to reset the system in vain.
"Therese! Are you there?"
"Yes, dammit, I'm here! Just shut up and listen to me. Is your security system down?"
"I don't know," the other woman mumbled, taken aback by her friend's tone of voice and baffled by the question.
"Go check it," Therese ordered and went to find her cellphone, Dinah bumping along beside her. Stephanie babbled incessantly as she hurried to find the closest keypad. Just as the brunette answered in the affirmative, Therese was punching in a code to signal her work about her own system.
"Okay, call that number I gave you. It better still be on your refrigerator. It'll get one of Pendleton's subsidiaries out there immediately. Just tell them that your security system went down and that I said someone needs to get out there now. Mine's out too. I've gotta go because I've got to secure my place. Don't give me any lip!" Therese angrily replied to Stephanie's protest of hanging up. "I've got Dinah and Lily to worry about. I'll call you back soon." The blonde cut the phone off in the middle of Stephanie protesting again and tossed it aside with a sound of disgust.
She methodically checked each room, along with the locks on the doors and windows. Dinah was beginning to ask questions, such as why they were locking Daddy out. Therese had no answer and ignored the girl's questions, patting her on the head where she hung on her pajamas. Lily was waking up and demanding food.
"Dinah, you wanna watch TV in Momma and Daddy's bed?"
"Can I really?"
"Sure, baby," she answered and switched the television on, reluctant to leave her daughter alone but knowing she had to because she was about to take her into the kitchen where the note and the blood smear waited. By now, Lily was bawling and her formula hadn't even been warmed yet. After securing the patio door, she rooted around in the refrigerator until she found cold cereal for the baby. Between raising Evan as a young woman and now Dinah, she had found the ability to feed an infant with one arm, a skill most mothers eventually pick up. Tucking Lily in one arm, she prepared breakfast for the other one and delivered it only to return and rifle through the contents of her filing cabinet until she found the papers she needed.
Heading back to the bedroom to make important calls and keep an eye on both her daughters, she realized that the blood stain was still on the kitchen floor. When she dropped the last of the papertowels into the trash can, her emotions began to overwhelm her. Her house had been broken into and her husband taken. Her children could have easily been abducted as well. She cradled Lily to her chest and slid down the kitchen island to the floor and began to sob.
The knock at the door brought her out of her squalling. Nervously peeking out the window, she recognized Jamie Levenson, the head of Pendleton's Atlanta facility. Undoing the three locks, Therese jerked open the door. "I am so glad to see you."
"What's going on?" he asked, glancing around.
"Just a second…Dinah?" the blonde yelled.
"What, Momma?"
"Just checking," she hollered and then turned back to Jamie. "Someone broke into the house and took Kevin. I don't know how they did it because we all slept through it," she explained and led him into the kitchen to give him the note. "I found that this morning."
"Why haven't you called the police?" he asked, not even looking at the paper.
"Read the letter," she answered and shifted Lily to burp her.
"And what's the plan?"
"Right now, you get my security system up and running. I will kill anyone who touches my girls," she said, protectively cradling the infant to her. "Find out why the system wasn't set off if you can."
"Let me make some calls."
Therese nodded and left him in the kitchen. She needed to change into something more appropriate for the workers who would be milling about resetting the system. The woman rearranged some pillows on the bed beside Dinah and nestled Lily in them with a request for her older sister to watch her for a moment.
The little brunette wrinkled her nose and whined, "She stinks!"
With a quick peek in her diaper, Therese found the source of the smell. She was tired of changing diapers but it was all her today. Carrying the child into her nursery, she set to cleaning her baby. The purple room sported multiple Eeyore's in rare moments of happiness. Therese wanted to throw the dirty diaper at Eeyore and demand he go back to his pessimistic self to make her feel better. As she secured the last tab, Jamie came into the room holding his cellphone and a notepad.
"I think I know—"
"Momma! Momma!" Dinah yelled, running into the room and shoving her way past Levenson. "Something's wrong with Ruby!"
Ruby! She hadn't thought about the beagle since she rose that morning. "What's wrong with her?"
"I don't know," the little girl cried. "She won't wake up!"
"Here," Therese stated and handed Lily to Jamie, who held the poor child by her armpits away from his body. Dinah dragged her mother down the hallway and through Therese's bedroom and pointed out the window.
"I banged on the window but she won't move."
"Stay here," Therese ordered and unlocked the bedroom door that led out on a small porch. She dashed down the steps to the limp dog and dropped down beside her. Ruby's leg was at an unnatural angle and her chest was smeared with blood but she was still breathing. "Oh, baby," Therese muttered and ran a hand over the animal's head. The beagle opened her eyes and emitted a soft high-pitched whine.
The blonde rushed back inside where two faces gazed out the window at her. She pushed past them shouting out orders. "Dinah, pack a bag for staying at Aunt Sharon's for the day." She whipped an old blanket out of the closet and rushed back out the door. Dinah jerked it back open for her as she gently cradled the dog against her. "Dinah, I said 'Go pack'." The girl stuck her finger in her mouth and stumbled off. "Jamie, call the number on the refrigerator for Sharon Johnson. She's Kevin's aunt."
"What do you want me to tell her?" he asked, shifting Lily in his arms.
"Tell her that Kevin left early this morning…" She stopped to pull open the door of the SUV and situate Ruby in the floorboard, rubbing her furry head to soothe her. "…and, after he left, somebody hit my dog. She needs to come get the kids for the day 'cause I don't want Dinah to be home if I have to bring Ruby back today."
As she climbed into the vehicle and slammed the door shut, Jamie knocked on the window and she rolled it down. "What about me?" he asked, having awkwardly situated the baby into the crook of his arm.
"I don't know. Make up something," she said, waving him off and edging out of the driveway and through the gate before peeling off down the street.
TBC…