is amazing, Roseanne. Thank you so much. I know it can’t be easy to realize that Daniel might be involved in all of this.”
“Okay, there’s one more thing I need to tell you. If you’re thinking about calling the local police there in Delaware? Don’t do that.”
Marcy’s brow knitted, wondering why Roseanne would advise her against calling the police. “Luckily, my husband’s family has close contacts with law enforcement. I’m sure they’ll be able to get cooperation.”
Roseanne sighed on the other end of the line. “Danny’s older brother, Charlie, is the chief of the Rehoboth police. He’s in total denial about Danny’s condition, and abused his power trying to keep me from getting the court orders I needed to protect me and Bella. If it weren’t for him, Danny would have ended up in prison for breaking into my home and attacking me with a knife in front of my child. I’m so sorry, Mrs. Buckley, but I just have to warn you: if you call Charlie, he’s going to tell Danny that cops are looking for him, and if he feels cornered, I’m terrified of what Danny might do to your boy.”
Chapter 56
A half mile outside Cape Henlopen State Park, a hundred and twenty miles from his family’s home, Johnny Buckley sat at the foot of the bed inside his assigned room.
He unfolded the piece of paper that the man had given him the previous night. He read it for what must have been the twentieth time. He didn’t even need to sound out the syllables anymore. A detective named Jennifer Langland confirmed that “police are operating on the assumption that Johnny Buckley was abducted by a stranger.” But there was one sentence he could not forget: According to a law enforcement source, the missing boy was adopted by the Buckleys as a newborn.
The top of the page said it was from something called New York Crime Beat, but Johnny decided that the whole thing was a lie. This wasn’t a real newspaper or anything, just a sheet of paper from the man’s printer. Anyone who knew how to use a computer could write whatever they wanted and claim they found it on the internet. Obviously, the man had made up this fake article to be mean to Johnny.
Because that’s what the man was: mean. A mean bully who said things and did things just to hurt people.
My name is Johnny, Jonathan Alexander Buckley, he whispered to himself quietly. My parents—my real parents—are Andrew and Marcy Buckley. My name is definitely not Danny!
He fell silent as the sound of footsteps echoed down the stairs. The man’s voice. “I think I am going to tell him the truth tomorrow about who I actually am.”
It was followed by the woman’s voice. “What about me? How should I introduce myself?” This was the first time that Johnny had ever heard the woman come downstairs. He had started to wonder if perhaps she was a prisoner, like him, being kept in a separate room upstairs.
“As my wife, of course. My beautiful, loving, and loyal wife. He’s a wonderful boy, Roseanne. You’ll come to love him just as much as we love Bella.”
“I’m sorry again that I took Bella away from you.” To Johnny, there was something funny about the lady’s voice. She sounded sort of like a cartoon character. Ever since he first heard her voice, he had thought of her as the one person who might be willing to save him. Now that he could hear her more clearly, he thought she sounded nice. She definitely didn’t seem as scary as the man.
“But then you came back,” the man said. “And we’re a family again. And now we have Danny Jr., too.”
If the woman had left this awful house once before, maybe she wanted to leave now, just like him. Maybe she, too, had been pretending to like the man, because The more I know I can trust you, the more privileges I can give you. Maybe they could team up together and help each other escape.
But to do that, he needed to see her.
Johnny folded up the sheet of paper, stashed it beneath his mattress, and stepped quietly to the bedroom door. His hand shook as he reached for the knob. He would take one quick peek at the woman and see if she looked like someone he could trust.
If the man spotted him, Johnny would say he needed to go to the bathroom. The man would believe him, Johnny assured