Page 86 of The Girl Who Was Taken

It took half an hour to drive into West Bay. Megan gave directions from memory and Livia got the impression that while she busied herself this past week in the morgue, Megan, too, had been hard at work. The last few days had yielded a great discovery, and Megan was willing to share it with no one but Livia.

“Here,” Megan said, leaning forward in her seat to gauge her location. “Pull over here.”

Livia did so, pulling to the shoulder outside an undeveloped subdivision. Two red-brick posts stood next to each other, a long slab of pine hanging between them. Engraved in the wood and brightened by the lone remaining spotlight from three originals was the name of the subdivision:STELLAR HEIGHTS.

Livia pulled to the shoulder in the same spot Megan had skidded her car to a stop the other day when she fled Dr. Mattingly’s office. She listened to Megan tell the history of this abandoned development.

“Erected during the housing bubble,” Megan said, “Stellar Heights was meant to be the western expansion of East Bay. Big homes, wraparound porches, long half-circle driveways. So in came the bulldozers and pavers and back fillers. Up went this giant berm.”

Livia squinted through the windshield at the tall berm, covered by neglected trees and bearded with heavy weed growth that ran as far as her eyesight allowed. It encircled the Stellar Heights neighborhood.

“Up went the gates,” Megan continued. “Tall, black, cast-iron gates that would keep out the unwanted West Bay residents until they moved along, pushed out by wealthy expansion. In came the winding road meant to meander through the beautiful neighborhood. Seventy-nine custom homes were meant to fill this subdivision. Seventy-nine magnificent structures, each five thousand square feet. The builder managed to erect six before the housing bubble burst. No one was buying giant homes anymore. The credit crunch pinched all the people buying homes with the bank’s money. And when the banks stopped lending, the builder ran out of capital. So Stellar Heights, hidden from the world by the giant berm, was forgotten by all and sat abandoned for the last several years. Until a county ordinance a few months ago came through demanding the destruction of the six abandoned homes and the ghost town they sat in.”

Livia watched as Megan opened the passenger-side door and walked past the Stellar Heights sign and to the tall, black gate. Highlighted by the car’s headlights, Megan looked like a ghost floating toward the haunted town. She pushed the gates, which yawned open from the middle. The effect was dramatic and eerie, as ifsomething sinister had just been released from within. Beyond the gates, through the mouth of the berm, blackness waited.

Megan sat back in the passenger seat and closed the door. “Let’s go,” she said. “I need to know for sure.”

“Megan,” Livia said. “Maybe we should call someone. Your dad, or someone to meet us here. If you think this is the place you were kept.”

“I don’tthink. I know.”

Megan pointed forward, into the darkness of the abandoned subdivision. Livia thought of calling Kent Chapple to meet them out here. She knew he’d come in an instant if Livia asked. She thought of calling 911, but her mind stalled on what, exactly, she’d say was the emergency.

After a moment, she released the break and they slowly drifted past the gates and into Stellar Heights.

CHAPTER 50

August 2016

The Night of the Abduction

Nicole followed Casey as he drove from the beach parking lot. An odd thrill filled her chest from what she’d just witnessed. She knew Megan McDonald, at this moment, was terrified. And it served her right. Everything in her life had been handed to her. There had never been anything to challenge her or derail the perfect cadence of her life from grade-school star to high school princess and soon to college genius and medical-school scholar and eventually a physician who saved the world. No one should get everything they want in life.

So badly Nicole longed to be in Casey’s car, listening to Megan cry and plead. But they both agreed it was too risky. Surely, Megan would identify Nicole, even with the burlap over her head. Should Nicole talk or laugh, as she was certain to do, the ruse would be over. It was a better option to follow Casey to the old brewhouse where the club’s meetings had taken place.There, Nicole could watch from afar and muffle her laughs as Casey dumped her in the shed and slid the heavy latch down across the door. The same shed the club had used for Nicole’s initiation weeks before.

When they finally let Megan go, it would take the princess an hour to find her way out of the Cove, and though Nicole would never have the satisfaction of telling Megan she had been the one who organized the prank, she would certainly enjoy the aftermath. Matt could comfort her all the way to Duke.

“Where the hell are you going?” Nicole said to herself when Casey turned left at Junction Avenue and headed to the other end of West Bay. The old Coleman’s Brewery building was in the other direction.

She picked up her phone and called him. He didn’t answer.

CHAPTER 51

November 2017

Fourteen Months Since Megan’s Escape

Away from the streetlights of the surrounding road, the interior of Stellar Heights was an inky dark barely penetrated by the car’s headlights. As Livia slowly drove the long, winding road that meandered into the heart of the abandoned subdivision, the vehicle’s lights illuminated empty construction sites on either side of the smooth pavement. Gravel and boulders and large excavated holes meant to be the foundation for never-constructed homes came and went under the glow of Livia’s high beams. With each passing minute she drove into darkness, Livia felt the outside world beyond the berm drift farther and farther away.

She was ready to abandon the journey, to drive Megan home and present this lost girl to her parents and ask for help. Even admit her mistake for bringing such a fragile girl into this search for answers. But as Livia lifted her foot to apply the break, the far anterior reach of the headlights fell upon a home—a singlehome at the end of the tortuous road they had followed for the past few minutes. And then, under the scant moonlight, five other structures came to life. Each building sitting on two acres of undeveloped land, this string of six homes and twelve acres made up the whole of Stellar Heights.

Livia stopped the car and surveyed the house captured in the glow of her headlights. It could have been, Livia surmised, a magnificent home had construction continued. Red, vibrant brick made up the exterior of the two-story building. Above the beautifully trellised entryway was the framed glass that overlooked the foyer, reflecting back the lights of Livia’s car. She could imagine the warm light of a chandelier glowing from within. Across the entryway where a beautifully stained pine door should stand was, instead, heavy construction plastic, gray and dusty and frayed at the edges.

Megan stepped out of the car and pulled a flashlight from her bag. Livia followed Megan to the front of the car and watched as she played the industrial-style flashlight over the big house, then turned and pointed the light at the neighboring home and ran its powerful beam over the brick. Megan turned in a circle, head tilted back, and looked up into the night sky. Livia knew enough not to interfere. Megan was on her own journey, and Livia was along only for support.

It was a few minutes before Megan spoke.

“There!” she said, pointing to the sky.

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