Chapter 34
The leafy tops of the trees shaded Torie and Hailey from the intense summer sun as they headed to the tree house. The hum of tourists walking and talking along the road blended with the birdsong in the trees all along the beach. They skirted a few bikers and plunged deeper into the trees.
Torie reached the spot first and looked up into the tree. The thick foliage hid the tree house from view, but she couldn’t wait to share a few minutes with Hailey there. She hadn’t been here in the daylight since she’d arrived, and it would be a different view from what she’d shared with her dad during the fireworks.
“Can I go up first?” Hailey asked.
Torie stepped away from the tree ladder. “Sure.”
Hailey clambered up the rungs nailed into the old tree and disappeared from view amid the rustling of leaves and the indignant squawk of a bird the girl’s presence had chased away.
Torie secured her crossbody bag around herself, then put her foot on the first rung. It gave way a bit. She retracted her foot and jerked on the rungs she could reach. Only the first one felt a little loose, so she scrambled up the tree trunk. Her head poked above the first layer of leaves and she spotted Hailey still a few feet up.
The little girl was sitting where Torie used to perch, staring out over the treetops to the water. She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of the idyllic scene. If only she had a few pictures of herself at this age in the very same pose. It was the iconic scene of her childhood and would have meant so much to her.
She slipped her phone back into her bag, then climbed up the rest of the way. When she put her foot on the surface of the platform, it felt off somehow—spongy. And that couldn’t be with the new boards Joe had installed. She clutched a close branch with her left hand and studied the boards at her feet. There were holes where new nails used to be.
The hair on the back of her neck rose. “Hailey, you need to move slowly toward me. Test the boards before you put your full weight on them. Someone has been up here messing around.”
She stretched out her hand as far as she could reach as Hailey, her eyes wide, sidled toward her. “Keep one hand on a branch, honey. Get as close to the tree trunk as you can.”
Catching her breath felt like trying to suck air through an empty oxygen tank, and her heart struggled to keep beating. A fall from this height could kill the little girl if she tumbled down the wrong way. Torie couldn’t let that happen.
Hailey froze. “I-I’m scared.” Her face had lost all color, and her lids fluttered as if she wanted to close them so she didn’t have to see what was happening.
Torie inched a few more feet onto the platform. She didn’t dare move too fast in case her weight made the whole thing plummet to the ground, but she had to reach Hailey. “I’ve got you, honey. Reach for my hand. You can do it.”
The little girl flung both arms around the tree trunk. “I don’t want to fall like Mommy did! I want my daddy!”
Torie could hear the wail building in the little girl’s throat. Any minute now and she would be sobbing and hysterical. “Hailey, look at me. We’re both going to be okay, but you have to be brave, okay? You’ve got your daddy’s bravery in your genes. He’d expect you to listen and do what I tell you, wouldn’t he?”
Hailey’s nod was almost imperceptible. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, then opened them and reached one hand toward Torie. “I can’t reach you.”
Torie glanced at the tree branch she’d been gripping. The rough sensation of the bark against her fingers was her lifeline, but she had to let go of it to grab Hailey’s hand. She released her grip on the tree, but it took several long moments to peel each finger away from the safety of the branch.
Without that steadying grip, she inched her way along the floorboards, waiting for one to let go and throw her into the air. It seemed forever before her fingertips grazed Hailey’s and she was able to walk the little girl toward her.
“Come on, honey, just a little farther.” Inch by inch Hailey moved toward her until she was finally in Torie’s arms. “Scoot around me and start climbing down the ladder. I’ll hang on to you until you’re secure on the ladder.”
Tears hung on Hailey’s lashes, and she nodded. “Don’t let me fall.” She swung one leg over the edge of the tree house, then slid down onto the first rung.
Torie held her gaze. “I’ve got you.” She sank to her knees to be able to hang on to Hailey until the little girl pulled her hand away to grip the rung and climb on down.
She closed her eyes briefly. “Thank you, God.”
Now to get down herself. Still on her knees, she eased her left leg over the side and felt for the top rung. There it was. As she started to swing her right leg over the edge, she felt the big tree house shift and tilt to her right.
“No!” She flung out her hand to grab for the branch that had been her lifeline moments ago, but her fingers barely grazed the rough bark before it slammed onto a board. The movement tilted the floorboards even more, and she felt a dizzying sensation as the tree house lost its grip on the perch that had sustained it for twenty years.
A scream ripped from her throat, and she plummeted as the ground rose to meet her.
* * *
Joe turned back to keep his vigil by the propulsion device and heard something on the wind. It reminded him of the shriek of a crow—until it came again. It was a woman’s cry. Torie!
He ran for the path from the beach and headed for the tree house. “Torie! Hailey!”
Tourists were already gathering over by the tree house area, and dread coated his tongue and accelerated his heart rate. He pushed his way through the small group of people and saw the shattered remains of the tree house. Every stick, every board had tumbled to the ground and lay in a twisted mass.
He spotted Torie’s purse and picked it up. Her phone was smashed inside, but the other belongings seemed intact.
Where was his daughter and Torie? He called for them again before he turned to the closest spectators. “Did you see a tall woman with dark-brown hair and a little girl with red hair?”
“They went off with that guy.” A woman pointed toward the road. “That way. He got them in his four-wheeler to take them to urgent care.”
A guy. A helpful tourist or someone more sinister? Hailey knew better than to go off with a stranger, but she might have followed Torie’s lead.
“Were they conscious?” The woman hesitated, and he quickly added, “The little girl is my daughter, and the woman is a good friend.”
“The woman was unconscious, and the little girl kept saying she had to get her daddy, but the guy told her they had to go or the woman would die. So she went with him.”
“You didn’t object or try to intervene? Some stranger just took my daughter!”
“The woman’s head was bloody. She needed medical attention right away.”
Pain pulsed behind his eyes, and he turned to run for his truck.
Chapter 35
Joe found it hard to plan with fear paralyzing his thoughts while Anton organized searchers.
Hailey was out there somewhere with a stranger. And was Torie even alive? After seeing the wreckage of the tree house, he couldn’t be sure of it. She’d been unconscious when the guy took her, maybe worse. Anton had called all the hospitals around, and none of them had Hailey or Torie.