The Missing

Chapter 70

According to the GPS unit, the abandoned farmhouse was twenty-six miles away from Boyle's house. Darby called Mathew Banville and told him what happened and what she had found.

The four ambulances arrived first. While Carol was being examined, Darby told the EMTs what was waiting for them in the basement maze. She showed them which key opened the padlocks and which one opened the locked doors. She sat in the back of the ambulance with Carol until the sedative kicked in. Darby allowed the EMT to look her over but refused a sedative herself.

The EMT was stitching up her face when Banville arrived with the local police. He stayed with Darby while Holloway and his men headed inside the farmhouse.

'Did you bring Boyle's keys?' Darby asked.

'Holloway has them.'

'There's a locked filing cabinet in the room with the pictures. I'd like to see if there's anything on Melanie Cruz in there.'

'The state's forensic crew should be here any moment,' Banville said. 'It's their case now. We'll let them process the crime scene. How are you holding up?'

Darby didn't have an answer. She gave him Evan's camera. 'There are some pictures on there showing what he did to the women.'

'Holloway said you could give your statement tomorrow, after you've had some sleep. One of his officers is going to drive you home.'

'I already called Coop. He's on his way.'

Darby told Banville about Melanie Cruz and the other missing women. When she finished, she wrote a phone number on the back of his business card.

'That's my mother's home number. If you find out anything about Melanie, I don't care what time it is, give me a call.'

Banville slipped the card in his back pocket. 'I called Dianne Cranmore right after I hung up with you,' he said. 'I told her that if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have found her daughter. I wanted her to know that.'

'We found her together.'

'What you did… ' Banville looked at Evan's car and stared at it for what seemed like a long time. 'If you hadn't pushed me, if I had turned my back on you, this would have turned out differently.'

'But it didn't. Thank you.'

Banville nodded. He didn't seem to know what to do with his hands.

Darby put out her hand. Banville shook it.

By the time Coop pulled up in his Mustang, the road in front of the farmhouse was crowded with police cars and forensic vehicles. The local media was here, too. Darby spotted a couple of TV cameras set up behind the barricades. A photographer was trying to take her picture.

Coop took off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. He hugged her tight against him for a long time.

'Where can I take you?'

'Home,' Darby said.

Coop drove down the dark, bumpy roads in silence. Her clothes smelled of blood and gunpowder. She rolled down the window, closed her eyes and let the wind blow across her face.

When the car pulled over, she opened her eyes and saw that they were parked in a breakdown lane on a highway. Coop reached into the backseat and came back with a small cooler. Inside, packed on top of ice, were two glasses and a bottle of Bushmills Irish whiskey.

'I thought you could use it,' Coop said.

Darby filled the glasses with ice and poured the whiskey. She had nearly drained her second drink by the time they reached the state border.

'Much better,' Darby said.

'I was tempted to call Leland, but I thought you might want to tell him yourself, in person.'

'You would be correct.'

'I'd like to tag along with my camera. I want to capture the moment on film.'

'There's something I want to tell you,' Darby said, and told Coop about Melanie and Stacey. It was the second time she told the story. This time, she wanted to tell it slowly. She wanted to tell Coop all the things she had felt.

'I told Mel I didn't want to be friends with Stacey, and Mel just couldn't let it go,' Darby said. 'She had to keep pushing. She wanted everything to go back to the way it was. She had to be the peacemaker. When I saw her downstairs, I wanted -' Darby caught herself.

Coop didn't push. Darby felt the sting of tears and tried to breathe it back.

Then it welled up inside her, ugly and razor sharp, the truth she had been dragging around all these years. When the tears came, Darby didn't fight it, was tired of fighting.

'Mel was screaming. Grady had a knife, and he was using it on Mel and she was screaming for him to stop. She begged me to come back down and help her. I didn't… I didn't ask Mel to come over or to bring Stacey – Mel made that decision. She was the one who made the decision to come over, not me, and a part of me… Every time I saw Mel's mother, the way she looked at me as though I was the one who made Mel disappear, I wanted to tell her the truth. I wanted to scream it at her until I knocked that goddamn look out of her eyes.'

'Why didn't you tell her?'

Darby didn't have an answer. How could she explain how a part of her hated Mel for coming over that night – and for bringing Stacey? How could she explain the guilt she felt for not only what had happened but for how she felt afterward, forced to carry not only the guilt but the anger?

She closed her eyes, wanting to go back in time to that moment at the school lockers when Mel asked if they could go back to being friends. Darbywondered what would have happened if she had said yes. Would she still be alive? Or would she be buried out in the woods where no one would ever find her?

Coop wrapped his big arm around her shoulder. Darby leaned against him.

'Darby?'

'Yeah?'

'Leaving Melanie… It was the right thing to do.'

Darby didn't speak again until they were on Route 1. She could see the tall buildings in Boston lit up in the distance.

'I keep thinking about that day Evan came to the beach and told me about Victor Grady and Melanie Cruz. That was over twenty years ago. Twenty years. It hasn't fully sunk in yet.'

'But at some point it will.'

'Oh yes.'

'Whenever you need to talk about it, I'm here,' Coop said. 'You know that, right?'

'I do.'

'Good.' Coop kissed the top of her head. He didn't let go. She didn't want him to let go.

Dawn was breaking by the time they arrived in Belham. Darby showed Coop to the guest bedroom and then headed to the shower.

Dressed in a clean pair of clothes and fresh bandages, she went to check on her mother. Sheila was fast asleep.

Tell me where you buried Melanie.

Ask… your… mother.

Darby crawled into bed and pressed herself up against her mother's back, hugging her close. She had a memory of her parents sitting in the front seat of the old Buick station wagon with the wood paneling, Big Red tapping his thumbs against the steering wheel to a Frank Sinatra song and Sheila sitting next to him, smiling, the two of them still young, strong and healthy. Darby listened to her mother's soft breathing rise and fall, rise and fall, wanting it to last forever. III Little Girl Found