Page 90 of Did You See Evie

“All I could think about was how much trouble I’d be in for breaking the rules. There was no way inside the building without waking you or Coach Joanna. I didn’t even have my phone with me to call for help. Then, I started to get scared. I thought the guy they’d been talking to might show up. He would see me and think I was really there to meet him.”

I imagine how scary that must have been, all the thoughts that must have been whirling through her mind.

“A car pulled up to the back of the building, and I really started to freak out. I thought, this is it. Some creep has come to the school and there’s no telling what he might do to me,” she says. “But when they got out of the car, it wasn’t the guy from the internet. It was Ms. Terry.”

“I don’t understand,” I say. “What was she doing at the school?”

“I have no idea. I still don’t know,” she says. “In the moment, I was just so relieved to see a familiar face. Before she even had the chance to ask me what I was doing, I started crying and telling her everything. About how Amber and the others had been chatting with a stranger online and locked me outside. I thought she might help me.”

Evie pauses, looking down at her outstretched fingers. Her shoulders hunch forward, as though she wishes she could forget what happens next.

“Ms. Terry got so angry. I guess maybe it’s because her own daughter was involved, sure. But I thought she might care, at least a little. Instead, she just started shouting orders at me. Telling me I better not tell anyone what happened or say anything about Amber and her friends. Next thing I know, she pushed me. I ended up hitting my head on the ground, and I don’t remember much after that.”

“She pushed you?” Try as I might, I can’t imagine Melinda doing that. No matter how angry she was, surely she could control her temper. She could look through the disappointment and shame she felt over her own daughter to see Evie was just a child.

My father’s face flashes through my mind. He was once kind and loving. I can still remember his smile when we’d play one-on-one at the outdoor basketball courts. But something changed. He changed. Soon, he didn’t care about pushing or hitting. As much as I don’t want to think that type of behavior is possible, I know that it is. I lived it. Anger can do horrible things to a person.

“What happened next?” I ask her.

“I ended up in the basement,” she says, looking around the room. “Ms. Terry was down here when I woke up, just watching me. I asked her when I could go home, but she said that wasn’t possible right away. She explained I’d hurt my head, and she was making sure I was okay. Her story never made sense. If she thought I was hurt, why wouldn’t she take me to a hospital? And why would she do this?”

Evie lifts her leg, exposing the rope again. She’s tethered to that metal beam like some animal in a backyard.

“I think she’s just scared,” Evie continues. “She’s afraid that she lost her temper, and I might tell someone, even though I promised I wouldn’t.”

Finally, the mystery surrounding Evie’s disappearance is explained. She followed the girls outside and was left stranded. When she encountered Melinda, a fight ensued, and Melinda lost her temper. For almost an entire week, Melinda has been struggling over what to do. She can’t very well turn Evie over to the police without incriminating herself, and with all the time that’s passed, she could face some heavy charges.

That puts Evie in a more dangerous position than she realizes.

“No one else has been down here?” I ask her again.

Evie shakes her head. “Ms. Terry said that the house is for sale. She’s the only one still checking on it. I didn’t hear another person the whole time, until you came by this afternoon. That’s why I started banging on the pole.”

“I’m happy you did,” I reassure her. “At least now I know where you are.”

But I’m not confident I’m in a better position to help her. I’m tied up alongside her, another prisoner of Melinda Terry and her guilty conscience. There’s even more at risk now that a second person has figured out the truth.

And yet, parts of the story still don’t make sense. What was Melinda doing outside the school in the first place? Why did she have so much pent-up anger toward Evie? Even after she pushed her, if she’d alerted me and brought Evie back inside, so much heartache could have been avoided. There must be something else I’m missing.

“I can’t believe I’ve been down here a whole week,” Evie says. “Ms. Terry has been feeding me, and I’m able to use the bathroom. She keeps saying she’s going to let me go home. I don’t know if I believe her. Before you showed up, I was trying to think of a way to escape.”

“What were you planning on doing?”

Evie stands and walks over to the closet, bringing back a small cardboard box. Inside are various personal mementoes. Photographs and banquet pamphlets and hand-drawn pictures that look like something Amber would have made in kindergarten.

“I was so bored down here. I started going through these boxes trying to find something to do. It’s just boring pictures and keepsakes, but it keeps me from feeling so lonely. And then I found this.” She pulls out a rock. It’s painted purple and speckled with small colorful fingerprints. It looks like a paperweight a child would make for a birthday or Mother’s Day gift. “I don’t think Ms. Terry knows it’s in here.”

Evie’s plan begins to form in my mind. If she could get close enough to Melinda, she could hit her on the head with the rock, but then what? No one knows Melinda or Evie are here, and until I showed up, she was all alone.

“Maybe we could work together,” I say. “When she comes back, I can try distracting her.”

“But then what?” Evie asks hopelessly. “We’re both tied up. The rock could hurt her, but it won’t help us escape.”

“She might have her phone on her. We could call for help,” I say. “Maybe it would just give us some more time to try and break free. It’d be two versus one.”

Evie looks at the rock in her hand; it represents something much heavier in her mind. “I’m scared.”

I reach out and squeeze her hand. “I know.”

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