Chapter 12 - The Thursday Bus
Thursday afternoon arrived under a heavy, overcast sky that promised another round of winter snow.
At 4:45 PM, ten-year-old Lily Carter packed her colorful notebook and brand-new colored pencils into her pink backpack inside the quiet study room at the Silverwood Public Library.
Under the foundation's new program, Lily had been assigned a private mathematics tutor to help her catch up on her schoolwork. For the first time in her life, Lily had scored an A-plus on her fractions quiz. Her tutor had given her a gold star sticker, which Lily had proudly plastered right to the center of her forehead.
"Are you sure you don't want me to wait for your brother?" her tutor, Mrs. Gable, asked kindly as they walked to the library entrance. "He said he would send a car."
"Ethan is busy setting up the big community dinner at the café," Lily beamed, adjusting her winter knit cap over her ears. "The bus stop is right across the street, and my mom is waiting at the Oakwood station. I'm a big girl now!"
"Be careful, sweetie," Mrs. Gable smiled, waving as Lily skipped down the stone steps.
Lily stood beneath the glass transit shelter on Elm Street, humming a cheerful tune as the cold wind swirled dead leaves around her boots.
At 4:58 PM, a dark gray commercial utility van with tinted windows and fake plumbing logos pulled up slowly to the curb, stopping directly in front of the shelter instead of the public transit bus.
The sliding side door opened.
A man stepped out wearing a high-collared black winter coat and a navy baseball cap pulled low over his eyes.
"Lily?" the man said in a soft, urgent voice.
Lily stepped back, clutching her backpack straps tightly. "Who are you? I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."
The man pulled down his scarf slightly, revealing Ronald Blake's gaunt, smiling face. "Don't you remember me, Lily? I worked with your brother Ethan at the café. Mr. Blake."
Lily relaxed slightly, remembering seeing him behind the register during her visits to the café months ago. "Mr. Blake? What are you doing here?"
"Ethan sent me to pick you up," Blake lied smoothly, his eyes darting frantically up and down the empty sidewalk. "There's a huge surprise for you at the café for the opening party. He said you're going to cut the red ribbon with a giant pair of golden scissors! But we have to hurry before the reporters get there."
Lily's eyes lit up with pure, innocent joy. "A red ribbon? Really?"
"Really," Blake smiled, extending his hand. "Come on, hop in the front seat. It's warm inside."
Lily stepped toward the van.
Just as her foot touched the metal step, she caught a glimpse of Blake's wrist. Tucked beneath his coat sleeve was a heavy roll of industrial duct tape and a pair of black zip ties.
Lily's instincts screamed. She froze and tried to pull her hand back. "No! I want to take the bus! Ethan said he would never send anyone without calling Mom first!"
"Get in, you little brat!" Blake snarled, dropping all pretense of kindness.
He grabbed Lily by her coat collar, hoisted her off the pavement, and threw her into the back of the van. Lily screamed at the top of her lungs, kicking wildly with her boots, but Blake slammed the heavy sliding door shut with a deafening bang.
Inside the van, a second man in a black ski mask pinned Lily down and clamped a chloroform-soaked rag over her mouth and nose. Lily fought with everything she had, her small hands clawing at the man's leather jacket, but within ten seconds, the darkness swallowed her whole.
Her pink backpack tumbled out onto the wet asphalt as the van accelerated away, tires screeching into the evening traffic.
Five minutes later, Ethan pulled up to the library curb in Marianne's SUV, having left the café early to surprise his sister.
He stepped out of the car with a smile on his face, holding a chocolate cupcake in a small bakery box.
"Lily!" Ethan called out.
The sidewalk was completely deserted.
Then, Ethan's eyes caught a flash of bright pink lying in the gutter beside the bus stop.
Ethan's heart stopped. He dropped the bakery box and sprinted across the street.
He knelt in the freezing slush and picked up Lily's backpack. The zipper was torn, and lying beside it in the dirty snow was her math quiz—the golden star sticker smeared with road salt and a single, muddy tire tread mark stamped across the paper.
Ethan's world went completely black with terror.
His phone rang.
Ethan answered it with trembling hands, his voice choking with panic. "Lily?!"
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*"If you ever want to see your sister alive again, Carter,"* Ronald Blake's raspy, psychotic voice whispered through the speaker, *"you're going to do exactly what I say."*
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