Mollie
It was near midnight, and Mollie was still wide awake. Not only had she been through hell the past couple of days, but her journal was missing.
Mollie didn’t want to be alone. She knew her mother probably wanted to spend some time with her, but as much as she loved Kitty, Mollie knew she would smother her. She just needed some companionship, not overzealous mothering, so she called Laurel, who promised to be there in less than half an hour. As she waited for her best friend to show up, Mollie lay across her bed staring at the tiny glow-in-the-dark stars she’d stuck to her ceiling when she was eight. They seemed juvenile now, but in a strange way, they brought her comfort and reminded her that she was safe.
“Mollie?” Laurel’s voice came floating across the room.
Mollie sat up and saw her childhood friend rounding the steps and walking toward her with her arms extended, ready to hug her. Without hesitation, Mollie flung herself from her bed, across the room, and into Laurel’s warm embrace. The two friends stayed in each other’s arms for what seemed like an eternity before Laurel finally held Mollie at arms’ length and looked into her eyes.
“You’re alive,” Laurel exalted. “Thank God, you’re alive.”
“I’m fine,” Mollie said, brushing her hair behind her ear.
Laurel mimicked Mollie’s movement and held a strand of her hair between her fingers. “Your hair…”
“I know. It’s ugly.”
“No, it’s not. It’s actually pretty. I like it. Did he…”
“Yeah,” Mollie said, pulling away from Laurel and walking over to her bed. “He cut it. He sent my hair to Pops to threaten him or something. I don’t know.”
“We don’t have to talk about it.” Laurel sat next to Mollie on the bed. “I’m just so glad you’re alive and unhurt. Except for that.” Laurel pointed to the angry-looking gash on Mollie’s forehead.
“It’s nothing.”
“How did it happen?”
Mollie sighed. She wasn’t sure she was ready to relive any of those hours with that crazy man, but Laurel was her best friend. Hell, she was the only friend Mollie had these days. Plus, she knew she had to talk about it at some point.
“We stopped at some old rundown grocery story after he grabbed me from the parking lot. He had to use the bathroom. I guess he forgot to take my cell phone, so when I saw the chance, I got out of the car and ran. I was going to call 911, but just before I could click send, he came up behind me, dragged me into the store, and hit me on the head with my phone. He threw it down and stomped on it and told me that if I tried anything like that again, he would—”
“I know,” Laurel said, placing her hand on top of Mollie’s. “You don’t have to say it.”
Mollie changed the subject. “So, what happened while I was gone?”
“Not much,” Laurel said. “The police came to my apartment yesterday afternoon. They were asking all kinds of questions about you. Trying to find you. One was old and looked a little like your grandpa, but the other one…he looked just like Shemar Moore. You know, Agent Morgan from Criminal Minds. I think he used to be on a soap opera a long time ago or something.”
Despite her somber mood, Mollie couldn’t help but smile. Criminal Minds was one of her favorite shows, and Agent Morgan had always tickled her fancy.
“Oh,” Laurel said “and I heard something else weird.”
“What?”
“You know that creepy kid at the mall who was, like, stalking you?”
“Conner?”
“Yeah, that’s him. Well, apparently your grandfather found him at the mall the morning after you…left. He and his bodyguards chased him through the mall and cornered him near the bathrooms. Scared the crap out of the kid.”
“Are you kidding me?” Mollie had been irritated by Conner, but she knew he didn’t mean her any harm. Somehow, she wasn’t surprised by Pops’s actions. Not now. “What happened? Did he hurt him?”
“No, just scared him. I guess he thought maybe Conner might have been the one who took you. But Conner told him about some man who’d been, like, really stalking you.”
So, Conner had seen the crazy man watching her. It wasn’t a big shock to hear this, especially considering the man himself had confessed he had been watching her for a while. Mollie also knew the man had taken her to get back at Pops, but she couldn’t tell Laurel that. As mad as she was at her grandfather, she didn’t want anyone knowing why she was taken. She wasn’t sure why, but she had a gut instinct that she should keep it to herself.
“What happened to Conner?” Mollie asked, trying to change the subject.
“Oh, no one knows. He quit the next day. Jenna said she saw him earlier today driving on Main Street, so I guess he’s fine. Whatever. He’s a creep.”
“Yeah.” Mollie nodded.
There was a brief lull in the conversation where Mollie didn’t know exactly what to say. She didn’t want to talk about her time in The Vault, but everything else seemed so trivial. She wondered why she called Laurel over in the first place. All she knew was, for the first time in a long time, she didn’t want to be alone.
The doorbell rang, and Mollie nearly jumped out of her skin.
“It’s after midnight,” Laurel said. “Who the hell could that be?”
Mollie shrugged and walked over to the window that overlooked the front porch. There, standing at the door, was an older white man in a tan suit and a very handsome black man in a gray suit. Shemar Moore. She realized instantly these were the detectives who had worked her case.
“It’s the police,” Mollie said over her shoulder.
“No way.” She joined Mollie by the window. “See,” she said. “I told you. He looks just like Agent Morgan.”
Mollie nodded as the front door opened and the men stepped inside. Just great. The last thing she wanted to do after all she’d been through was talk to the police. But she knew they probably had to verify that she was alive and unhurt. They couldn’t close the investigation without talking to the victim one last time.
“Mollie!” Kitty’s voice rang through the house. “Come down here, please.”
“I’ll go with you.” Laurel grabbed Mollie’s hand and squeezed it tightly. Mollie bristled at her touch. She wasn’t really ready to touch anyone, but she didn’t want to hurt Laurel’s feelings. She waited a split second, squeezed back, and then let her hand drop.
“Okay, thank you.”
When they made it down the stairs and rounded the corner, Mollie saw the two detectives standing in the kitchen with her mother, who was pouring them cups of coffee and beaming with joy.
“There she is,” Kitty said as she handed the men their drinks. “You see? She’s safe and sound.”
“Mollie,” the good-looking, younger detective said with a nod. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine. A little sore and very tired, but I’m fine.”
“I know you’re exhausted,” the other, older detective said. “But would you mind if we talked for just a few minutes? After that, we’ll leave you alone. I promise.”
“Sure,” she said.
“Alone,” he said.
There was an awkward moment of silence as everyone looked to Kitty for her reaction.
“Why don’t you guys go sit in the living room,” Kitty suggested with her arm extended. “Laurel, you can sit with me here at the kitchen table and let them talk.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Shemar Moore said.
The detectives sat on the couch, and Mollie took the arm chair next to the fireplace. She really didn’t want to be doing this, but she knew she had no choice in the matter, so she smiled politely, even though she really wanted to throw them out on their ears.
“I’m Detective Jamison, and this is my partner Detective Howard.” The detective pointed his thumb at his partner. “We won’t keep you long. Just a few quick questions and we’ll leave you to get some rest.”
Mollie nodded.
“Good. Now, the main thing I want to know is…how did you wind up getting away from Collin McAllister?”
So, Collin was his name. This was the first time Mollie had thought of him as anything other than “the crazy man,” and it unsettled her. Somehow hearing his name made him sound like an actual human being, not the monster she knew him to be. But once she got over that, she thought about the detective’s question. He wanted to know how she escaped. Didn’t he know already? Why would he be asking her this? There had to be a reason. Perhaps Pops had told him something different. She remembered hearing her grandfather instructing Bruno to take Collin to Trifecta. Apparently, Pops was planning on punishing this Collin in his own way. Mad as she was at her grandfather, she wasn’t about to help the cops catch him. But what if she said the wrong thing?
“I don’t know,” she finally said. “It’s all a big blur.”
Detective Jamison looked at his partner with raised eyebrows, then back at Mollie. “It’s all a blur?”
Mollie shrugged. Of course, they didn’t believe her, but perhaps if she played up her trauma and feigned amnesia, at least they wouldn’t be able to force her to say anything else. Not even the hardest-boiled detective would interrogate a traumatized nineteen-year-old girl who had been kidnapped and held hostage for nearly two days.
“You can’t tell us how you got from the bunker to your house?”
She shook her head and kept her eyes on her twitching feet.
Detective Jamison sighed. “Look, Mollie. I know you love your grandpa. But protecting him means you’re allowing him to work outside the law. I know you want this guy brought to justice as much as we do. Maybe even more. But we can’t do that if you won’t tell us what you know.”
“Like I said,” Mollie lifted her eyes and stared at the older detective, “I don’t remember anything.”
“It’s pointless,” Howard said. “She’s going to protect her grandfather. She’s not going to tell us anything. Let’s just go. We’ll find him.”
Detective Jamison nodded and glared at Mollie. “He’s right, you know. We will find him. Both Collin and your grandfather. And if your grandfather has done anything to harm that man, evil as he is, I will have no choice but to arrest him. Do you want me to arrest your grandfather?”
Mollie didn’t answer. Just then, Kitty appeared around the corner.
“Detective Jamison, I think you should leave.”
The detectives looked at each other again, and Mollie felt a twinge of pride at her mother’s loyalty and protectiveness. She stifled a smile.
They stood and headed toward the front door. But as Howard reached for the doorknob, Jamison turned around and looked at Kitty, who was now standing behind Mollie’s chair with her hands on her daughter’s shoulders.
“I’m not stupid, Kitty. I’ve known what your father is about for almost forty years now.”
“You two used to be best friends,” Kitty said.
“Yeah. That was before he…never mind. Just know this. If I find out you helped him get away with this in any way, I will slap the cuffs on you and haul you down to the station myself. Are we clear?”
“As a bell, Detective.”
Mollie could see the detective’s veins throbbing at his temples. He looked like he was about to say something else, but then quietly turned, exited the house, and slammed the door behind him.
Kitty looked down at Mollie after a few seconds of silence. “Do you know what Pops is up to?”
“No,” Mollie said. “But whatever it is, more power to him.”