Stolen Lives: A Detective Mystery Series SuperBoxset by Roger Hayden, James Hunt Page A

she answered, nodding.
    “Did you see a girl named Ana? Wherever you were being held. Did you see her?”
    “Yeah,” the girl said.
    A rush of relief came over Miriam.
    “Okay. I need to know everything about the place you were taken. Any details.”
    “I want my mommy,” the girl replied.
    “I know, honey. And we’ll take you right to her. In the meantime, you have to tell me everything you know.”
    Allison said nothing in return. Miriam understood that it would be difficult to probe her in such a way, but there was no other choice. The key to finding Ana was there, somewhere in Allison’s recollections. And Miriam wasn’t prepared to rest until she got the answers. She was a mom and she would figure out how to do it, and hopefully, without causing Allison any more pain.
     

Teamwork
     
    Trapped in the basement, Ana wasn’t alone for very long before another girl, close to her in age, was brought in to keep her company. Her name was Allison and she was from Miami. She had been abducted while playing in her front yard. The bad man hadn’t done it. He never left the house. He had someone else do it. Allison was nine and in the fourth grade. She was terrified, but relieved to find another girl just like her was also being held and seemed to be mostly okay.
    “What do they want with us?” she asked Ana.
    “I don’t know,” Ana said. Her face was bruised and she hesitated telling the girl how she got them. Allison looked scared enough.
    “How many people did you see?” Ana asked. It had been hours since her capture, and she had yet to see anything beyond the basement. It was all too clear why there was an empty bucket in the room. Whoever was holding her had no intention of letting them see beyond the walls.
    Allison, however, was privy to more information. Her abductor—a bearded man who smelled funny—hadn’t used any chemicals to knock her out. He simply grabbed her, threw her in a van, and tied her up.
    “The man blindfolded me,” she replied. “I couldn’t see anything.
    Ana placed a comforting hand on Allison’s. “Allison, listen to me. We have to get out of here. I don’t know who these people are or what they want, but we need to find a way out.” She stopped talking, silenced by footsteps above.
    With the dilapidated state of the basement they were being held in, and the moldering smell of earth and leaves, Ana guessed they were in some kind of cabin, likely some place in the deep woods. She could hear muffled voices talking now above them. And the footsteps were coming from multiple places, telling her that there were more people than she initially believed.
    “How did they get you?” Allison asked.
    Ana wasn’t sure where to begin. She rubbed her forehead; she felt sore all over. Her ribs throbbed with pain from the fall down the stairs. She was lucky to be alive, she assumed. It hurt to think. It hurt to breathe.
    “It’s hard to remember. I… I think this guy just came in my house and had some kind of rag that he put over my face.”
    Ana stopped and looked up at the ceiling as the footsteps continued. “Allison, have you ever heard of the Snatcher?”
    Allison gave her a funny look and shrugged. “No. Who’s that?”
    “He’s a bad man who kidnaps kids. There were like five girls he kidnapped. I think that’s who took us.”
    Allison covered her mouth in fear. “Oh no. What are we going to do?” She began to cry.
    Ana took her hand and squeezed. “We stick together, no matter what.”
    The muffled conversation got louder upstairs. Someone was angry. They froze and listened. A loud crash was followed by glass shattering.
    “What do you mean Greg’s dead?” a man’s voice shouted. “How the fuck did that happen?”
    “Mr. Anderson, please,” another voice said.
    “Where the hell are my parents?” the man asked.
    “I think they’re in protective custody right now.”
    “And my other brothers?”
    “Jake and Walter were taken back to the station.”
    Another