She goes into the kitchen and asks Mom if she can take me for a walk. Mom sounds pleased, and a minute later she comes in with my coat.
“Don’t be out too long. It still gets dark so early. Oh, and if you pass the grocery store, would you mind picking up a few onions for me?” Mom asks her. “Here, I’ll give you the money.”
“Sure,” says Jodi. “I’ve never pushed a wheelchair before,” she adds, suddenly sounding nervous. I hope she’s not going to change her mind.
“Jemma’s well strapped in,” Mom tells her. “Going up and down curbs is the only tricky thing. Come outside, and I’ll give you a demo.”
Soon we are off! I am out with my sister. I jerk the first couple of times we go down a curb, but then Jodi gets the hang of it. She seems to be enjoying it. She starts to run, pushing me fast so the wind zooms past my face. This is great!
I direct her to the grocery store so we can get Mom’s onions there and investigate. Left, then second right. Then all the way to the other end of the block and left. She stops at each junction, and I tell her which way to go. It’s not complicated, but I hope I’m doing it right. I’ve only been there a couple of times—and I’ve never given directions before.
To my relief, the store comes into view. This part of town is kind of run-down and dingy. There are some row houses, but it’s mostly apartment buildings, warehouses, and office complexes. Some of the buildings look derelict and have boarded-up windows. Others have scaffolding around them. There are very few people around. I start to feel nervous. The tablet attached to my wheelchair might look very tempting to a thief. And I got so carried away with the idea of coming here that I didn’t actually think about what we’d do when we got here.
Jodi stops outside the store. “What now, Jemma?” I don’t know what to say. Jodi turns me right and left so I can see in both directions. It doesn’t help much. Jodi stops, and I stare at the door, thinking. Then I remember what Dan said. “BEHIND,” I sniff.
“Okay, here we go,” she says.
Around the back, there are dumpsters. Lots of dumpsters. Some of them are overflowing.
“Hmmm,” says Jodi. She turns me slowly so I can see all the way around.
There is the delivery entrance, a few spaces for cars to park. Not much else that could hold a clue.
“Should we go?” Jodi asks me.
I am about to sniff “YES.” This was a stupid idea, and I wish we’d never come. What Dan said to Billy was the only thing I could remember, and I thought it might mean something. That was ridiculous, wasn’t it? But I am reluctant to leave.
“TURN,” I say.
“Okay.”
Again Jodi turns me. There’s a passageway between two tall buildings. It looks dark and uninviting, but I think we should investigate. It’s hard for me to get Jodi to stop in the right place so she’ll see where I mean.
“Well?” she asks.
“TURN,” I repeat.
She turns me twice more, and I am starting to feel dizzy before we are finally pointing in the right direction.
“THAT WAY,” I sniff.
“Okay,” she says. “We’ll have a look, and then we’ll go.” The buildings tower above us as Jodi pushes me along the alley between them, their flat roofs merging with the gray-black of the late-afternoon sky. I feel very small. There is no sidewalk, so I hope no cars choose this moment to enter. We come out into a narrow yard with a row of run-down garages. A few have closed doors, but some doors are hanging off and some garages have no doors at all. The nearest open one has stacks of bricks inside, and another has a pile of wooden planks.
Jodi pushes me nearer. There is a smell like dirty toilets. It’s getting darker too.
“I don’t like it here,” says Jodi. “Can we go now?”
I don’t like it here either, but I’m reluctant to leave. I can’t exactly ask Jodi to look in those creepy garages. “YES,” I tell her. “SORRY.”
“It’s okay,” she says. “It was worth a look, if you thought it might be important. I’m not sure what we were looking for, though.”
She is pushing me back toward the passage when I hear a sound behind us—a clang of metal. Jodi doesn’t seem to hear, and I can’t turn to look. We’re moving so I can’t tell her to stop. It was probably nothing.
We’re nearly at the gap between the buildings when I hear voices—men’s voices. They’re coming from the alley we are heading to—and they are getting closer. Jodi instinctively pulls me back and around the side of the garages so they won’t see us. I suddenly feel very vulnerable. What if they find us?
I want to know what’s happening, but Jodi doesn’t dare risk putting her head out in case she is seen. I hope I can keep quiet. I can’t help making sounds sometimes. The more I think about trying to keep quiet, the more I worry that a sound will come out. I try not to think about it, to focus on listening as the voices come nearer.
“I don’t like it,” says one man. “It’s gone on too long.” The voice sounds familiar. It could be Billy. It sounds like him, though the tone is anxious, not relaxed like when I met him. It could easily be a stranger.
“Quit whining,” says another voice.
That’s Dan. Now I’m sure it’s Billy too. I can barely breathe.
“You’ve gotta let her go, man!” says Billy, pleadingly. “We can’t just keep her…”
“I told you to shut up! I’ll figure it out, okay?” says Dan.
“What do you mean?” says Billy.
“Don’t know why you’re scared after what you…” I don’t catch the end of the sentence. They’re moving away from us now. I hear the clink of keys.
Then the sound of one of the garage doors lifting and going down again.
I’ve got to get Jodi to call the police. She’s got to do it quickly. But my breathing’s gone all weird, and I can’t sniff. I get a surge of panic.
Jodi whispers to me. “Is that them? Were they talking about Sarah?”
“YES.” The word appears on the screen, but I am careful not to select the speaker button. It’s hard to sniff accurately. I have to slow down, even though I want to get the words out fast. “POLICE.”
I can see Jodi hesitating. Maybe she’s wondering if it’s safe to call from here, or if it is even more dangerous to move in case they come out and spot us.
Jodi takes out her cell phone. “Police,” she says quietly when the call connects. There’s another pause. “We think someone’s being held prisoner. Behind the grocery store on Redding Road, in one of the derelict garages. We’re too scared to move. Two of us. My sister’s in a wheelchair.” She listens, then hangs up.
“They’re coming,” she whispers.
I’m starting to feel shivery. What if Dan heard?
What if he finds us here?
We wait. The buildings around us seem to creak and groan. Apart from that, it is quiet. Did the police believe Jodi? Did they realize the urgency?
At last! There is the crunch of tires and the sound of an engine. The police car pauses at our end of the gap, headlights lighting the gray alley. Jodi runs out. I can’t see what’s happening. I hear the car doors opening, footsteps.
There’s a muffled scream—a woman’s scream. Then I hear the voice.
“Police!”
I hear shouting, banging. I’m terrified. I can’t see Jodi. I can’t see anything. The police car is in the way.
It feels like forever, and my heart is thudding like a drum. What’s happening? What?
Then I hear the voice again. “Ambulance needed, garages on Redding Road, behind the grocery store.”
A gurgling noise comes from my throat. No! Then I hear, “Woman in her twenties, conscious but injured.”
She’s alive! Sarah’s alive!
Jodi is back. She pushes me out into the open, which is now action-packed, like something from a movie. There are more flashing lights. A police van is here now too. A man is in handcuffs, being put in the back. I can’t see well, but I think it’s Billy.
“Move back,” a policeman tells us. Then suddenly Dan is in front of me. He’s handcuffed too. His eyes meet mine. His mouth drops open in astonishment.
I feel hot and cold all at once. I got you, Dan. I got you!
And then I realize I can say something. At last, I can say something to Dan. I start to sniff.
“FREAK.”
Dan’s shoulders jolt in surprise, and his eyes are wide. He turns away, and the policeman blocks my view as Dan’s put into the van. An ambulance arrives, and there is hardly space for it to park. The paramedics jump out, and I wait. I desperately want to see Sarah. But she doesn’t appear. They’re taking forever. How badly hurt is she? The police are saying we should go home. A policeman offers to come with us, but Jodi says no, it’s not far to walk. They say they’ll take statements from us later. They are talking to Jodi as if I am not there.
“We came because of Jemma,” Jodi says. “Something she overheard. She thought it might be important and wanted to check it out.”
“Well, it was a really risky thing to do,” says the police officer, “but you did well, both of you.”
When we reach home, Jodi rings the bell and Mom opens the door, smiling. “You were gone a while. Everything okay?”
Jodi doesn’t speak. I think the shock of everything has suddenly hit her.
“Did you manage to get the onions?” asks Mom.