Page 23 of The Madman's Nightmare
“Greene you said?” James questioned.
“Yes, Mandy and Richard Greene. They were lovely people and it’s a shame what happened to them.” Eleanor lowered hervoice, like she was telling a secret. “About twenty years ago, the exact year eludes me right this minute, but about twenty years ago, they went on vacation and the whole family died in a freak accident. Apparently, the cabin they were staying at had a carbon monoxide leak and they weren’t discovered for a few days.”
“You said they had two children. Were they both killed in the accident?” James asked her.
“The younger one was found with them, but the oldest wasn’t found. The police believe she was kidnapped but can’t prove it. She just disappeared,” Eleanor explained.
“Do you remember where this happened?” I asked her, feeling a sliver of hope building in my chest,
“Let me think,” she responded, and we heard shuffling through the phone. “I think it was in upstate New York somewhere. I don’t remember exactly where,” she explained.
“Do you remember the children’s names?” James asked.
“The younger one was named Leonard and the oldest was something strange,” she remarked.
“Was it Kendra?” I inquired.
“No, that’s not it.” She paused and remarked, “It sound like a flower, but wasn’t a flower. I remember that.”
I wanted to yell at her to think harder, but Ms. Eleanor was close to ninety and didn’t deserve my wrath.
“I appreciate you speaking with us, Eleanor,” James remarked. “I’ll have Amaya stop by this week to drop of some of the pumpkins we ordered for Halloween.”
“Thank you, James. You’re such a sweet boy,” she replied.
James rolled his eyes and a few chuckles were stifled around the table as he said his goodbyes to his grandmother-in-law. He looked at me and asked, “Is that enough to go check it out?”
I shook my head, “As good as her information was, I don’t want to bust into the house if its vacant or f someone’s moved in.”
“What kind of a name sound like a flower but isn’t a flower?” I inquired as I sat back in my chair.
A minute later, Rhys began to speak. “Mandy and Richard Greene died in a freak accident over the weekend in a rented cabin in Webb, New York. The couple, along with their two children, were vacationing in one of the areas isolated rental cabins and when they failed to pick up their scheduled grocery order, a wellness check was conducted. Upon forcing entry into the cabin, the New York state police discovered the bodies of Many, Richard, and their youngest son, Leonard. The eldest child, eighteen-year-old Deliliah, wasn’t at the residence, and it appeared she was removed from the residency by force. A search was conducted, spreading out over the four-hundred-mile county, only to come up empty handed.” He lifted his eyes to mine before looking back at the computer. “State police believe she may have been the target of a calculated attack, but without proof, have ruled the deaths an accident.”
“Is there a picture of Deliliah?” I questioned him and he spun the computer to face me.
Staring back at me was the happy, smiling face of a young Deliliah Greene, dated a year before the accident. The same face I knew as Kendra Mills.
Turning to face James, I stated, “That’s her.”
He nodded in agreement, and for the first time, we knew who Kendra really was.
The bigger question was, who was Bradon, and where were they now? And the biggest question was, did they have Elise?
Chapter 12
Elise
Bradon did as he said and returned with a cold bag of ice for my face and two pills. I took them, not caring at the minute if they were what he said they were or not. The pain in my side stung every time I breathed in, the throbbing in my cheek and eye was matching my heartbeat, and thankfully, the bleeding in my nose finally stopped.
I feared what I looked like, and I worried my injuries would make escaping harder. I didn’t know if I could run if needed, and being truly trapped here scared me to my core.
The pain meds kicked in and I fell asleep with the ice pack rested over my nose and eyes. I woke up sometime later in the day and struggled to press myself up from the bed. The basement was silent as I attempted to get out of bed, only to feel the burning in my side. I pressed my hand to my ribs and winced as the pain took my breath away. It took a moment for the discomfort to subside and only then did I get up and start shuffling to the door to the bedroom.
My right eye wasn’t as swollen as my left, and I could see for the most part as I stepped into the basement. Looking around, I saw that I was alone, and tears flooded my eyes, causing them to sting as I shuffled back to the bedroom and closed the door.
Depression and the reality that I might not survive this began to press down on me, and I let the tears flow, allowing the self-pity to overtake me. I sat on the bed, crying against my raised knees for a few minutes, before I heard Chuck’s voice in my head.
‘You aren’t allowed to wallow for more than a minute. Then you need to find a way past the pain and free yourself.’
