Chapter 5 - the girl everyone was searching for)
By Thursday morning, Maya Collins's face was everywhere.
Flyers hung from telephone poles.
Her school photo appeared on local television.
Neighbors organized search groups.
A volunteer team searched the creek.
Police dogs walked the wooded path behind the subdivision.
Catherine Collins had not slept.
Tyler saw her standing in her driveway speaking to reporters, wearing the same blue jacket she had worn the night Maya vanished.
"We just need her home," she said.
Tyler watched from across the street.
The phone in his pocket felt like a brick.
He had evidence.
Maybe enough evidence to change everything.
Yet he still had one problem.
The video did not show Maya being taken.
It showed Rick moving an unknown person.
For all Tyler knew, there might be a reasonable explanation.
There probably wasn't.
But Tyler needed certainty.
He found it that afternoon.
Rick left for work at noon.
Laura took Jack to an urgent-care clinic because the bandage around his knee had become wet in the shower and the cut underneath looked inflamed.
Tyler stayed home.
Alone.
He waited until Rick's truck had been gone twenty minutes.
Then he went to the garage.
The normal side door was locked.
He tried an old key from the kitchen drawer.
Nothing.
He checked the back window.
Painted shut.
The roll-up garage door had not yet been padlocked from the outside, but the internal latch was secured.
Tyler walked around the structure.
He had spent years playing around this yard.
Now he studied it as if he had never seen it before.
The garage was deeper than it looked.
Rick had renovated it the previous winter, claiming he needed a workshop.
He built a wall separating the front parking area from the rear storage section.
At the time, nobody cared.
Tyler walked along the foundation.
Near the back corner, he found an air vent.
New metal.
Four screws.
He returned to the house and grabbed a screwdriver.
Five minutes later, the vent cover came free.
Darkness beyond.
Tyler turned on his phone flashlight.
The beam revealed insulation and another piece of plywood.
He almost gave up.
Then he heard something.
Three taps.
Tyler stopped breathing.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
He leaned closer.
"Maya?"
Nothing.
He looked around the yard.
No neighbors visible.
"Maya, if that's you, tap again."
Three taps.
Tyler's knees weakened.
He crouched beside the vent.
"Maya?"
A faint sound came through the wall.
He could not understand the words.
"I'm Tyler. Jack's brother."
A pause.
Then a whisper.
"Jack?"
"He's okay."
Another pause.
"Rick?"
"He's gone."
The voice began crying.
Tyler pressed one hand against the wall.
"I'm getting you out."
"No."
"What?"
"Don't."
"Why?"
"He'll know."
"I don't care."
"No. There are two doors."
Tyler frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"The room I'm in. Another door."
"Locked?"
"Yes."
"Can you see anything?"
"Not much."
"Are you hurt?"
"My ankle."
"Can you move?"
"A little."
Tyler swallowed.
"Who else is in there?"
Silence.
"Maya?"
Her answer came so softly he almost missed it.
"Nobody now."
Tyler looked toward the driveway.
"What does that mean?"
"He moved him."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"The person in the video?"
A sharp intake of breath came through the vent.
"You saw my phone?"
"Yes."
"I recorded him."
"I know."
"I thought he was dead."
Tyler felt his skin prickle.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"Was it a man?"
"Yes."
"Did Rick hurt him?"
"I think so."
Tyler heard a car on the street.
He looked over the fence.
Not Rick.
He lowered his voice.
"Maya, I'm calling the police."
"No!"
"We have to."
"Not Gary."
Tyler froze.
"Gary Mallory?"
"Rick's brother."
"Why?"
"Rick talks about him."
"What does he say?"
"That Gary fixes things."
Tyler remembered seeing them near the sheriff's station.
"What things?"
"I don't know."
Maya started breathing faster.
"Tyler, Rick came in yesterday. He said they're moving me Saturday night."
Saturday.
The barbecue.
"When?"
"After everyone leaves."
"Why would he have a party?"
"He said nobody notices a truck leaving after a party."
Tyler's stomach twisted.
Rick had organized Saturday's backyard birthday barbecue for Laura.
He had invited relatives, neighbors, coworkers.
A perfect cover for traffic.
"Maya, listen to me. I'm getting help."
"Tyler."
"What?"
"There's something under the workbench."
"What?"
"I heard Rick talking to Gary. They said if anyone finds it, everything is over."
"What is it?"
"I don't know."
A garage door slammed somewhere nearby.
Tyler jumped.
Maya gasped.
"He's here."
"No, that's next door."
"You have to go."
"I'll come back."
"No."
"I promise."
"Tyler."
"What?"
"Don't tell Jack you heard me."
"Why?"
Maya was quiet.
Then she said, "Because Rick makes Jack bring me food."
Tyler stopped breathing.
"What?"
"He makes him come in at night."
"No."
"Jack cries every time."
Tyler closed his eyes.
Suddenly he understood the exhaustion.
The silence.
The bandaged knee.
Rick had not simply threatened Jack into keeping a secret.
He had made Jack participate in it.
"Tyler," Maya whispered.
"Yeah?"
"Jack thinks this is his fault."
"It isn't."
"You need to tell him."
"I will."
"Not yet."
"Why?"
"Because Rick told him something else."
"What?"
Maya did not answer.
Instead she whispered, "Go."
This time Tyler obeyed.
He replaced the vent and hurried inside.
Twenty minutes later, Laura's car returned.
Jack limped through the front door with a fresh bandage.
Tyler pulled him upstairs.
He closed the door.
Jack saw his face.
"What happened?"
Tyler said, "I found Maya."
Jack's eyes widened.
Then his expression collapsed.
Not relief.
Terror.
"You went near the garage?"
"She's alive."
Jack backed away.
"You shouldn't have done that."
"Jack, she told me Rick makes you bring her food."
Jack covered his face.
Tyler stepped closer.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Jack whispered through his hands.
"Because Maya isn't the reason Rick is scared."
Tyler stared.
"What is?"
May you like
Jack lowered his hands.
"He thinks I saw what was under the workbench."
