Mind Games

Hers.

Shiloh.

“She wants to improve her time on the 1600 meter. She has the endurance, the strategy, just wants to cut a little off her time. She got nipped in the last race by less than two seconds. Need to cut three off. Wants the track record, wants it bad. Three seconds will do it.

“She feels so strong when she runs! So strong, so free, so full. She wishes Jack would ask her out. She flirts with him, trying not to be too obvious. He flirts back, but when is he going to ask her out?

“God, if she flunked that Spanish test, her parents will kill her. But Jesus please us, it’s not like she didn’t study her brains out!

“She wants to … Oh, oh!”

When she went pale as glass, Howard leaned toward her. “Thea.”

“Be quiet! She’s so afraid, and cold. It’s so cold. It’s hard to breathe with the tape over her mouth. It hurts, everything hurts. The zip ties hurt her wrists, her ankles. She wants her mom. She wants her mom. She’s naked, and she’s cold. He’ll rape her again when he comes back. He’ll come down the stairs. He’ll hold the knife to her throat, let it cut just a little.

“‘Make a peep, girlie, and I’ll slice straight through.’

“He makes her drink something, fake chocolate?”

Because she could taste it, Thea rubbed her hand at her throat. “For nutrition. Then he puts the tape on again, and he rapes her.”

As Thea’s eyes filled, she hugged herself, rocked.

“He takes her to the shower, nasty, it has mold.

“It smells bad. She smells bad. He runs the water cold, and she cries. He hits her when she cries, but he likes it. He likes when she cries, she can tell. He has brown eyes and brown hair. She studies him when she can make herself. If she gets away, she can tell what he looks like.

“She’s afraid she won’t get away.

“He makes her use the toilet while he stands and watches. Then he ties her back on the bed. In a basement, with pipes on the ceiling and one of those windows that’s just aboveground. It’s filthy, inside and out. She can’t see anything, and no one would see her even if they looked. Wooden steps go up.

“Wait.”

Thea shifted, did what she could to dull the girl’s fear that lived in her now, too.

“He showed her a badge, right outside the school. But she knows now he’s not the police. There was never a missing little boy, never a picture he wanted to show her. At the car, he hit her, hit her hard, but she saw the car. Green, four-door. Not new. She doesn’t know cars, neither do I, but dark green, four doors.

“Wait,” Thea said again, and pulled the girl back.

“His mother’s house. He tells her something … dead mother, likes her better that way. He grew up in that house. She got it in the divorce. Let me see,” she murmured, “let me see.

“A garage. Attached garage. That’s how he takes them in so the neighbors don’t see. He keeps the lawn mowed, keeps to himself. Two-story, brick, old. Inside, it’s falling apart, but he keeps the outside looking good. The house is like him. There’s a red maple in the front yard, and pink azaleas for foundation plants.

“The house number is 1331. It’s not far from the school. She’s in the basement.”

Thea pushed the earrings at Howard. “Please, take them. I can’t do any more.”

“Let me get you some water.”

“I left a Coke in the refrigerator, for the drive home.”

As he got up, Musk moved away, talked low into his phone. She heard him describe the house, the car, then snap at someone to find both.

“Here you go.” Howard handed her the Coke, the bottle blissfully cold when she rubbed it over her forehead. “I don’t want to leave until you feel steadier.”

“I’ll be fine. I’m going home.”

“How about you drink that first, then Phil and I will carry the rest of your things down for you.”