She engulfed him on the step, nearly knocking him backward. She held him tight as she sobbed. Gannon felt something in his throat rising, his eyes stinging, for he never believed he would ever see her again.
They went to her kitchen and in the brief awkward quiet punctuated by Cora’s tears, they studied each other. As her red-rimmed eyes took stock, Gannon felt as if he was twelve again, holding the attention of his hero.
“I knew you would grow up to be a tall, handsome man.”
She had become a fine-looking woman, a mother, he thought.
“Help me find Tilly.”
“I’ll do what I can,” he said, absorbing all the changes in her as each of them grappled with the time that had blurred their memories over two decades.
Cora offered a weak smile, worry lines cutting deep around her mouth, replacing the gleam that had always lifted him before the day she walked out on everything back in Buffalo. A tsunami of remembrance, outrage and regret rolled over him, and Cora saw his mood dim.
“I’ve been a terrible sister.”
“You should have come home.”
“I wanted to. So many times, but I couldn’t face you, Mom and Dad.”
“They died not knowing about your life, your daughter, their granddaughter.”
She turned away.
“I know. I saw it in the
“Then why didn’t you come to the funeral?”
“I wanted to, but I couldn’t.”
“Why? If only you had come home before they were killed. You could have worked things out with them. They searched everywhere for you.”
“I just couldn’t.”
“Why? That’s what I don’t understand.”
“It’s too hard to explain. Please don’t judge me.”
“Judge you? Cora, I don’t even know you.”
She turned to the counter for a tissue box.
“I go by Cora Martin.”
“Martin? Did you get married?”
“No, I changed it because of, well, because of mistakes.”
“Is that why you didn’t want us to find you?” He shook his head in disappointment.
“Jack, it’s not easy to explain. You have every right to resent me,” she said. “I’m not seeking forgiveness, but resentment can be a poison. I mourn the time we’ve lost. I regret choices I’ve made. Don’t take your anger out on me now, Jack. I need your help. I have to get Tilly home safe.”
“Tell me what happened.”
Gannon took a long, deep breath and Cora related every detail from the night before. He listened, saying little until she’d finished.
“I don’t know why this is happening to us,” she said. “I don’t know who to turn to, Jack. I thought you would have sources, people who know about this stuff and that you would know what to do. Help me find out who took her. Help me get her back.”
“Call the police, Cora.”
“No. They said they would kill her if I went to the police.”
“Are you involved with drugs in any way, Cora?”
“No.”
“But you were?”
“Yes. I used drugs, yes, but that’s all in the past. I’ve changed my life.”
“No one from your past would do this?”
“Cora, does this have anything to do with your past life?”
“No, I’ve been living a clean life, a good life, for years.”
“What about Lyle? You say you’re dating. What do you know about him? Is he involved in drugs?”
“If he is, he’s hidden it all from me.”
“Can you find him?”
“I’ve been trying and trying. He’s disappeared.”
“Who else knows about this?”
“Only you-and I called Tilly’s school.”
“You told her school she was kidnapped?”
“God, no, I said she wouldn’t be in today. Only you know what’s happened, Jack.”
“From what I know about these things, they usually involve a drug debt. The cartels will kidnap someone close to get their money. That looks like the case here.”
“Maybe it’s all a mistake?”
“Call the police, Cora.”
“But they said-”
“You have to call them, or it looks like you’re involved.”
Cora put her hands to her mouth, nodded, then reached for her cordless phone. Her fingers trembled as she pressed 911.
“I need the police. My daughter’s been kidnapped…”
As she stayed on the line confirming her name and address, Gannon walked through the house, finding Tilly’s room. Police would soon process the room but he wanted to see it, to get a sense of his niece.
Her white-and-pink bed was unmade, left the way it was when the invaders abducted her from it. On the wall nearby there was a cork bulletin board plastered with birthday cards, a drawing of two people holding hands called
She sure resembled Cora.
Under the board was Tilly’s desk. Math, history and science textbooks were stacked neatly on it to one side. Also on the desk he saw Tilly’s homework: a handwritten essay. He began reading it:
The Swiss Family Robinson
Book Report
by Tilly Martin
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss is an exciting story about a family who is shipwrecked on a deserted island and how they must work together to do all they can to survive…
The significance of her words jolted Gannon. He studied Tilly’s neat cursive style, the forward slant, the generous looping of the
A family trait.
It hit him full force that Tilly was his blood and that he was her uncle. That’s when he heard something for the first time since entering the bedroom.
Ticking.
It was coming from the metal clock with a clown’s face on her dresser. It grew louder, with the exaggerated smile of the clown screaming to him that time was ticking down on his niece’s life.
6
