Page 5 of Forgotten Girls

Stepping inside the home, Beth took in the polished floors, kids toys everywhere, and the face of a young boy peeking out from behind a door. “Is that your son? How old is he?”

“Yeah. He’s four.” Rene waved a hand at the boy. “Go upstairs and play in your room while I’m talking to these folk.” She waited for the boy to slowly climb the steps and then led the way into a warm kitchen. She sat down at the table. “Take a seat and tell me what this is all about.”

Inside the bright kitchen, Beth got a good look at Rene Shoebridge. She appeared to be the right age and had the same coloring as Styles, light brown wavy hair, and cornflower-blue eyes. She sat at the table, leaving Styles in the doorway. She looked at the woman. “It’s a delicate subject. We’ve been hunting down missing persons using facial recognition and you came up as a match for a girl who went missing over twenty years ago by the name of Ginny Styles.” Beth noticed a flicker of recognition in the woman’s eyes and placed a photo of Ginny and Dax on the table and pushed it toward her. “Ginny was out fishing with her brother, Dax, when she went missing. We assume she was abducted by a person or persons unknown.” She met the woman’s startled expression and pushed on. “Ginny’s family and her brother have been searching for her since she went missing. We need to put their minds at rest one way or another. Are you Ginny Styles?” Seeing her resistance to talk, she leaned forward. “You’ve seen our credentials. You can trust us. Nothing bad will happen. We just need to know what happened to Ginny.”

Beth watched as indecision crossed the woman’s face. She was fighting an internal battle. Beth tried another angle to break through the resistance. “I can tell you about Dax. I just happen to know him very well.” Her gaze moved over the woman’s face. “You’re safe. We already got the bad men. Now it’s time to set Ginny free. Are you Ginny Styles?”

“Okay, yes, my name was Ginny Styles, but I didn’t go missing.” Ginny took the picture in her trembling hands and stared at it. “A cop in the forest told me he’d come to get me because my parents were dead. He told me his partner had got Dax.” A confused expression crossed her face. “How could my parents look for me? They were all dead. All my family, every last one murdered.”

Beth nodded. “I understand there was some confusion at the time. So why did you change your name?”

“The cop told me bad men wanted us dead and they’d already killed Dax.” Ginny frowned. “The cop took me a long way away and cared for me. He has ever since. If you tell anyone my name, more bad men will come and kill me and my son.”

Surprised by her naivety Beth tread carefully. “Nothing can happen to you. We’ll protect you and your son. You have my word.” She took a chance and smiled at Ginny. “There’s someone here I’d like you to meet.”

Behind her Styles walked into the kitchen and removed his sunglasses and hat. Beth inhaled, smelling furniture polish and cleaner. Apprehension gripped her stomach as she waited for him to speak.

“Ginny?” Styles looked at her. “It’s me, Dax.”

“Dax?” Rene stared at him, and her mouth hung open in disbelief. “It is you. You haven’t changed a bit. I thought I’d never see you again. What happened to you?” Her gaze moved over him. “I can’t believe it’s you.” She burst into tears.

“It’s me.” Styles sat down and took both her hands and stared into her eyes. “What we want to know is what happened to you. I went home, and Mom and Dad had search parties out for a week looking for you. I’ve been searching for you for years, and Beth found you this morning.”

“Mom and Dad are alive?” Ginny dropped his hand to pull tissues from her pocket and wiped her nose.

“Dad died a year or so after you went missing, but Mom is still alive and living in the same place.” Styles frowned. “Can you recall exactly what happened in the forest that day?”

“It was like I told Agent Katz. I searched for you and then I saw a cop.” Ginny’s mouth turned down. “He told me Mom and Dad had died and he would look after me. He said his partner had you safe, so I went with him. He wasn’t a cop. Ethan is a security guard.”

“Why didn’t you run away and tell the cops what was happening to you?” Styles’ gaze was intent on her face, but he still held her hand.

“I couldn’t.” Ginny dropped her eyes to the table. “Ethan kept me locked up for years because the bad men were after me too. He told me if they found us, they’d kill us both. He told me they’d killed you too.”

“You went to school. We’ve seen the yearbook. That’s how we found you.” Styles examined her face frowning. “Why didn’t you tell someone then what Ethan was doing to you?”

“Why? Everyone in my family was dead. I had nowhere else to go, and Ethan told me he loved me. He didn’t beat me. I don’t understand what he did wrong. He was protecting me from the bad men.” Ginny looked confused. “When I went to school, he told me we don’t discuss our private lives with anyone, and if the cops found me, they’d take me to jail. He said the cops blamed me for Mom and Dad’s deaths.”

“So why marry the guy?” Styles wiped a hand down his face. “He took you to his bed, Ginny. That’s not acceptable behavior and it’s against the law. Can’t you understand he’s been abusing you for years.”

“No, he protected me and cared for me. You’re wrong about him. He loves me.” Ginny met his gaze. “I love him, Dax. He’d never hurt me.”

Beth gave Styles a side-eye to pull back with the interrogation. She smiled at Ginny. “He seems to be a caring man. So what happened after the forest? Did you move around or were you here the entire time?”

“We moved around all the time, but when I left high school he told me I would be safe if I agreed to move here and tell everyone we were married. We didn’t have a wedding, but I didn’t mind because that was when I had Billy.” She mopped at her eyes. “When he came along, Ethan said we were a real family now. Billy was a sign we were meant to be together. You see, he wasn’t my first baby.”

Beth stood and went to the sink and filled a glass with water and handed it to Ginny. “How many babies did you have?”

“Five.” Ginny’s face paled. “They died but it wasn’t my fault.”

“No, it wasn’t. You were very young. Did Ethan tell you what happened to the babies?” Styles gripped her hand. “You can tell me, Sis.”

“Okay. When the pains started, a doctor came to the cabin where we lived.” Tears streamed down Ginny’s cheeks. “He took my babies away and told me they’d died, but I heard them crying.” She sobbed into her tissue. “Ethan said I was too young to keep a baby. He said we could move to another town and I could go to school, but I got pregnant again. We left that town and moved back to the cabin and the same thing happened.”

This was Stockholm syndrome, and Beth glanced at Styles’ sheet-white face. His hands trembled with anger. She looked at Ginny. “Then what happened? Did you come back here after the baby was born?”

“Not here. The doctor said I needed a break from having babies and gave me pills. I finished high school, but Ethan didn’t want me to get a job. He told me we could move here if I agreed to say we were married. That’s when I became Rene Shoebridge. The doctor told Ethan we needed to look like a family to keep the bad men away. Ethan told me to stop taking the pills and we had Billy. This time the doctor told me Billy was healthy. Ethan was happy, and the doctor sent a woman to show me how to care for Billy. Her name was Rose and I didn’t like her.” Rene rubbed at her puffy red eyes. “She only came by the one time and then I didn’t see her again.”

Beth nodded. “So Rose was only there to give you advice on caring for Billy?”

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