Chapter 2

Screams from the main room could be heard. The power was out, and because the restaurant was built into the riverbank, there were no windows. The whole place was in darkness. Cell phones became flashlights.

“It’s caving in! Run! We’re going to be trapped!” someone shouted.

Everyone in the restaurant dashed to the exit. Owen shouted for Maddy as the crowd of people pushed him toward the door. Owen scooped up a thin, elderly man who had tripped in all the panic. People were stepping on each other. Owen rescued others who had fallen in the frenzy to the exit, one person after another. The restaurant was almost empty. Still no Maddy. Outside Owen looked through the crowd, thinking she must have made it out already. But she was nowhere to be found. He tried to go back in, but people stopped him. It was too dangerous, they said.

“But Madison Connelly is in there. My Maddy is in there!” he shouted desperately.

He ran over to the side door used by employees only. Once inside, he turned on his cell phone light. In the blue beam he could see Maddy on her hands and knees drenched in sweat and dirt. She was scraping at a pile of rubble. He tried not to look at her fingers. They were bloody and sliced up from the digging.

“Maddy! We have to get out of here,” Owen said. “This whole place could collapse any second.”

“I can’t! She was right here, sitting. She told me about a massacre and Pike. I have to find her. I won’t leave her behind.”

“We have to go, Maddy.” Owen pulled Maddy up by her waist.

“She was sitting right there!” Maddy pointed to the pile that was as high as the ceiling. “She’s under here.”

Owen knew how determined Maddy could be, so he bent low to her ear. “Maddy, you’re not strong enough, babe. There are rescue people coming who know how to find people. We’ll make sure they search here first. They have the strength and equipment to get her out safely. Now, please, Maddy, trust me.”

Maddy knew he was right, but he still had to drag her away.

The wait felt like hours. Finally firefighters arrived and Maddy told them about the woman. They searched for her amid the rubble, and then spoke again with Maddy.

“We didn’t find anyone. We lifted the rubble, even dug up the pile of sandstone. Nothing. She may have been there right before the collapse, but she was not there during the collapse.”

Maddy couldn’t believe it. “You’re wrong! She was sitting there on the bench.”

“We found the bench. Nothing else.”

“I watched the ceiling fall on top of her,” pleaded Maddy.

“Unless she disappeared into thin air, there is no way a woman was sitting where you say.”

Maddy tried to run toward the restaurant. A firefighter restrained her, wrapped his arms around her. “Listen! Our minds can play tricks on us, especially when something bad happens.”

“But I—” Maddy started to cry.

“I know you think you saw someone, but we can’t always trust what we see,” the firefighter said.

A familiar voice shouted from a squad car, “Come on, Maddy! I’ll give you a ride home!” It was Sergeant Riley, one of her mom’s coworkers. The firefighter and Owen walked Maddy to the police car.

Owen leaned in and gave her a kiss goodbye. Maddy could still see the woman’s icy blue eyes. She remembered the woman’s last words: “It is Pike.” The very name, Pike, felt wrong, like a curse.

The squad car slowly pulled away. “You okay, kiddo?” Sergeant Riley had known Maddy since she was eight.

“Yeah, I’m thinking about what happened,” replied Maddy.

“In all my years on the force, I’ve come to realize there are some things we just can’t explain. Take the latest case your mom is trying to solve. A couple, man and woman, missing. Their car must have broken down during that severe thunderstorm last week. We found their hiking gear. We even found their shoes, but no couple. The only clue is the word ‘Pike’ etched into the rearview mirror.”

Goosebumps raced up Maddy’s back. “Who is Pike?” she asked.

“Or what is pike? I have no idea. That’s why your mom gets paid the big bucks. She’s the best.” Sergeant Riley went on, “And to think, when I first met her, you guys were living in a shelter, hiding from some jerk.”

“Pretty crazy,” Maddy agreed. They pulled up in front of a small green house with white shutters.

Sergeant Riley slowly pulled over. “Say hi to your mom for me.”

Maddy waved as she walked up to the door. In the light from her house, Maddy could see marks on her forearm from the woman in the restaurant. She was real.