Keeley woke up with a wicked headache and a parched throat. The light was so bright that she had to blink several times before squinting enough to look around the room.
An IV pole was on her right, attached to a drip on her hand. Her father snoozed in a chair to the left of the bed looking exceptionally exhausted.
What on earth happened? She was going home from school…and had a vague recollection about clowns and outer s.p.a.ce.
"Dad?" she croaked.
She mustered enough strength to reach out and shake his knee while continuing to call his name.
Robert opened his eyes sleepily, regaining alertness the second he saw his daughter.
"Keeley! Thank goodness you"re awake. You"ve been out for two days."
Two whole days?! Did she get hit by a train or something? She was vaguely achey all over but it would probably hurt a lot worse if she were seriously injured.
"What happened to me?"
"Honeybun…you got abducted on your way home from school on Friday. You were missing for eight hours before someone called me on your phone to let me know they found you," he said gently, worried how she would take it.
Abducted? She could only think of one person who would do such a thing, unless a random pervert on the street took an interest in her.
Keeley started to panic. "Was I…a.s.saulted?"
Alarm showed on his face.
"No, no! The doctors checked; nothing like that happened. They found an uncommon hallucinogen in your system. The police are still trying to figure out who did this and why. They told me to call them when you woke up so they"ll probably stop by later to ask you some questions. Do you remember anything?"
Did she? Nothing concrete. A few fragments of hazy nightmare came through but that was it. There was a clown in it and someone was with him…
Since she wasn"t a.s.saulted, the chances of it being a random attack were almost nothing.
This had to be Lacy"s handiwork. But why? She and Aaron hadn"t spoken in a month before her birthday; she wasn"t a threat anymore.
Lacy never pulled anything this severe in high school before…More to the point, what was the purpose of drugging her if Lacy didn"t want someone to defile her?
What was her goal? Ruining Keeley"s birthday? Did she even know it was her birthday?
Keeley"s head hurt trying to make sense of it all.
"I dreamed about a clown…some vines…the solar system…I don"t know what was real," she admitted.
Her father rubbed her arm soothingly. "It"s okay, don"t strain yourself. I need to go make some calls, I"ll be back."
Keeley nodded before sinking back onto the pillows. She shouldn"t be this tired after sleeping for two days.
It wasn"t that she was sleepy per se but she felt sluggish and weary. Trying to think things through took far too much effort.
She glanced at the small bedside table next to the chair her father vacated and noticed her backpack, reaching out for it to check that all of her things were still inside.
Cellphone…school uniform…shoes…wallet…jewelry box. A quick peek under the lid showed that her birthday present from Aaron was intact. They didn"t steal anything.
A couple of nurses walked by the ajar door whispering about a girl who was brought in unconscious by a very handsome young man on Friday, looking like they both came from a prom.
Her muddled consciousness registered that they might be talking about her but she didn"t go to the prom so why would she be wearing a prom dress? Who exactly found her and where?
She might be able to make sense of what Lacy"s plan was if she had that information.
The police might be able to fill in some of the blanks. She closed her eyes and waited for them to come.
"Miss Hall?" an unfamiliar voice asked, waking her.
As her eyes focused, she realized that a couple of men in police uniforms were standing in front of her bed.
"Yes?"
"I"m Officer Raine and this is my partner, Officer Gonzales. We would like to ask you a few questions about what happened on Friday night."
"Ask away," she said tiredly.
They spent the next twenty minutes going back and forth about the basics. What she was doing before she was abducted, what the last thing she remembered was, and whether or not she knew anything about her captors.
Keeley described the clown and how she had a feeling one of her abductors had something to do with it; she remembered two people talking to each other but couldn"t remember what they were saying or any other identifying details.
Chances are though, it was Lacy and Max. Unfortunately she couldn"t accuse them without proof.
"Can you tell me what you know about my situation?" she asked once she told them everything she could remember.
The officers exchanged a glance before Officer Gonzalez, a middle aged Hispanic man, spoke up.
"You were found in a prom dress inside room 522 of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. One of your cla.s.smates attending the dance downstairs found you."
Something about that struck her as suspicious. "How did they know where I was?"
"Someone sent a text message and picture of you using a burner phone. We"re still trying to trace where it came from," Officer Raine explained.
"Who was it?"
"We can"t tell you; it may influence your perception of the event and affect your testimony."
Keeley frowned. The way they phrased it made her think her rescuer was involved somehow. It made her wonder if Max might have been the one to find her in an attempt to influence the cops. Or maybe Lacy had multiple accomplices.
It didn"t really matter though. What mattered was what she did while Keeley was out of it.
"If you remember anything else, please give us a call. Your father has our contact information. We"ll be in touch."
She nodded at them as they left and closed her eyes again tiredly. That mystery drug took a lot out of her.
What a terrible birthday. At least the ice cream cake ought to still be untouched in the freezer.