In the Darkness

By Tracy Frank

It takes a community to raise a child, but what happens to that community when a child is lost?

The disappearance of Cadence Carter, a loving and ambitious girl just days from her high school graduation, rocks the small heartland town of Leviton, North Dakota. Strangers come together to do what they can to help authorities find the girl, even as her parents' relationship is falling apart.

“In the Darkness,” by award-winning journalist Tracy Frank, is a novel about finding hope in despair and a light in the darkness. Readers are calling the book about family, relationships, and the connections that tie a community together “heart-wrenching” and a “compelling read.”

The story is told, not only through the eyes of the girl and her parents, but also from the perspectives of police investigators, reporters, friends, neighbors, even the abductor and his girlfriend. Those who may have only known the Carters in passing, if at all, become inextricably entwined in the family’s ordeal despite, in some cases, attempts to remain professionally detached.

In an attempt to, in some small way, help the parents who have lost a child and the children who have been abducted, Tracy pledges to donate ten percent of her proceeds from the sale of “In the Darkness” to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tracy Frank
• Release date: May 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301976546

Tracy Frank

Tracy Frank is a journalist in Fargo, North Dakota. She writes about parenting, health, and the lives of the extraordinary people in her community. Stories have always been a huge part of her life. Some of her favorite things to do as a child were to have stories read to her and to make up adventures with her brother and cousin. Reading is still one of her favorite past-times. She also performs stories by acting, singing and dancing in musicals through the Rural Cass Community Theatre. Tracy was inspired to write “In the Darkness” after covering the end of a four-and-a-half-year investigation in the murder and disappearance of a teen girl from Hallock, Minnesota in 2003. On the ride home, she couldn’t stop imagining the horror the girl’s parents must have been going through, wondering what had happened to their child. Nearly a year later, when Tracy was pregnant with her first child, she reported on the disappearance of a 22-year-old woman from a mall parking lot in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The woman’s abduction and murder devastated the community and entire region. Strangers came together to search through snow and bone-chilling cold for anything that could help find her. The tragedy and Tracy’s pregnancy renewed her drive to continue her novel. In an attempt to, in some small way, help the parents who have lost a child and the children who have been stolen, Tracy pledges to donate ten percent of her proceeds from the sale of “In the Darkness” to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Tracy lives in North Dakota with her husband and two children. She is working on writing her next novel.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1 – Friday May 16, 2:58 p.m.

Cadence slowly eased the heavy, red velvet curtain away from the brick wall and peered out. A swarm of butterflies ricocheted off the walls of her stomach as she gazed at the hundreds of bored…excited…distracted faces pouring into the gymnasium. She inhaled, exhaled and let the curtain drop back into place. This would be her last performance, and Cadence could not help feeling a pang of nostalgia for the four-year cheerleading stint that was about to end.

She turned around and locked eyes with Emma Thompson, whom she had first met in eighth-grade Spanish class and who had become one of her best friends over the past five years. In her friend’s blue-green eyes, Cadence saw all the excitement, anxiety and longing she felt in her own heart. Cadence flashed her friend a shaky smile and turned to peer once more out from behind the thick curtain. No matter how many pep rallies she had cheered in and later organized, she could never calm the swell of nervousness that always overtook her right before the trumpets blasted the first few notes of the school song. The gym was filling fast. The band was tuning up. It was almost time to go. She turned back to face her squad.

Okay, girls, huddle up, she called, walking to center stage. This is it, the end for some of us, she locked tear-filled eyes with Emma, and the beginning for others, she said smiling at the newbie cheerleaders. So, forget about landing the perfect jump and ignore the judging eyes. Let’s just go out there and have a great time.

As Cadence wrapped up her brief speech, the band started to blare Notre Dame Victory March into the gymnasium without regard for pitch or tone. Cadence cued one of the junior cheerleaders to pull the curtain open. The girls ran to the end of the stage, launching into hurkeys, toe-touches, double-nines and spread-eagle jumps. Once they hit the gym floor, they filed into place and twelve pairs of arms and legs started bending, swirling, kicking and jerking in near-perfect unison. Adrenaline pulsed through Cadence’s veins as two fellow cheerleaders hurled her to the top of the formation.

The band sounded its last note and the girls immediately shouted, Who is number one?

To which the crowd screamed back, LHS is number one!

The cheerleaders continued their responsive chant while breaking formation and spreading out across the gym floor.

Who is number one?

LHS is number one!

Cadence strained her vocal chords, demanding more volume than they were capable of producing, until her throat ached with the effort. Excitement over the end of school and the beginning of summer elicited from the student body an enthusiasm usually reserved for championship games.

Cadence was floating on a cloud of elation. Her senior year was ending, but she’d had quite a ride. She had wonderful friends, a great boyfriend and she was looking forward to her summer of freedom before college.

But the cloud that carried her into the heights of happiness quickly dissipated when she saw her other best friend perched in her boyfriend’s lap. Cecelia’s arm was flung around Justin’s neck and her short, pleated skirt was inching its way up her thighs as she kicked her long legs in fake protest while Justin tickled her stomach. Justin’s arms encircled Cecelia’s waist and she playfully beat her fists on his chest while tossing her long, shiny black hair from side to side.

The squad had moved on to its next cheer, but Cadence just stood there, staring at the betrayal that unfolded before her.

Cadence, Emma whispered and jerked her head.

Even as Cadence ripped her eyes away from the two people she thought she could trust without question, her mind struggled to process what she had seen. She went through the motions of her squad’s routines. She could do them in her sleep and may as well have. While her body was in the high-school gym, her mind raced through all the times she had been blinded by ignorance and love. The flirting, the looks that lingered just a little too long, Labor Day weekend at the lake cabin when Cecelia and Justin went out for pizza...

They said they missed the turn coming back in the dark. When they had returned, Cadence had been preoccupied debating the merits of a state-wide smoking ban with Justin’s brainless friends. She had known they were just trying to rile her, but she had fought them just the same. She hadn’t realized how much time had gone by so she didn’t give Justin’s lame excuse a second thought.

How could he get lost?

His family had been going to that lake cabin almost every weekend from Memorial Day through Labor Day since Justin was two years old.

He didn’t get lost. She was sure of that now.

A bell shrieked, fracturing her thoughts and officially ending the pep rally and her senior year. Cadence ran to the locker room, grabbed her bag and headed for the door. She reached for it to find it was already open. Emma stood there, a shocked expression plastered on her face.

Cadence, what’s wrong? she asked.

Not now, Emma, I have to go, Cadence barked.

Wait, Emma shouted, grabbing her friend’s forearms. What’s wrong with you?

Cadence glared into her friend’s hurt eyes.

Did you see Justin and Cece? They were all over each other – in the middle of the pep rally, in the middle of the gym, in front of everyone.

A knowing look crossed Emma’s face and she looked down, too late, to hide it.

How long has this been going on? Cadence demanded, tears burning her eyes and blurring her vision.

I don’t know that anything is going on, Emma stammered.

You do, I can see it in your face.

No, I, I don’t it’s just...it’s just speculation.

Cadence glared at her friend and advanced a few steps toward her.

Remember when we went to the lake at the end of last summer? They went for pizza and came back acting strange. They were flustered and weird. They wouldn’t look at each other. Do you know what happened, Emma?

Cadence, I think maybe you should talk to Cece.

Cadence saw pity and sadness in her friend’s eyes and knew she had guessed correctly.

I have to get out of here, Cadence said, turning to leave.

Wait, I’ll go with you, we can talk it over and...

Later, I just want to be alone now. I’ll call you later.

Cadence fumed as she stormed down the sidewalk, her nearly empty book bag bouncing off her back with each angry step. Hot tears threatened to spill down her cheeks, but she refused to let them fall.

How long had this been going on? How many clues, how many warnings had she already missed?

A car of screaming soon-to-be seniors sped past her, music blaring, horn honking.

Hey, Cadence, party at Mike’s tonight, someone shouted.

Cadence kept walking, kept thinking, kept wondering. She veered off the sidewalk to avoid a quartet of 8-year-old hopscotchers and stepped on a piece of white chalk.

Hey, a little brunette with braided pigtails shouted.

Sorry, I didn’t see it, Cadence muttered.

That’s okay, Cadence, another girl said. We have more.

Oh, Jamie, I didn’t even recognize you, you’re getting so big, Cadence said, coming out of her fog and staring at the child she had baby-sat three days a week last summer.

Are you going to take me to the pool again and do summersaults under water? I’m really good at the front ones now and can almost do the back ones. Will you help me?

Jamie, I’m not baby-sitting you this summer, Cadence said.

Oh.

The little girl’s chalk-streaked face fell, ripping through the remaining weak threads that were holding Cadence’s heart together.

I’ll tell you what, Cadence said, squatting to Jamie’s eye level. Even though I won’t be your baby-sitter, how about I take you to the pool once in a while anyway so we can work on that backwards summersault?

Okay, Jamie shouted, flinging her arms around Cadence’s neck. Do you want to play hopscotch with us?

Not now, Jamie. I’ve got to get home.

Okay, wait, Jamie said, running into her yard. She bent over, pulled something out of the grass and sprinted back.

Here, Cadence, Jamie said, handing her a bright, yellow dandelion.

Thank you, Jamie. It’s so beautiful. I’ll take it home and put it in water right away.

Welcome, bye.

See you.

Cadence walked down the street and this time, could not dam the flow of tears. Twirling the dandelion between her forefinger and thumb, she recalled the time shortly after she and Justin started dating when they had gotten into a dandelion fight. They were at the basketball courts and she had pulled a big one out of the ground and flicked its yellow head off its stem with her thumb. It hit Justin right between the eyes, leaving a yellow dot on his forehead. The shocked expression on his face sent her into a fit of laughter, but it didn’t take him long to recover. He grabbed a fistful of the yellow weeds and chased Cadence around the basketball court. When he finally caught her, he smeared them all over her face. She was laughing uncontrollably, sitting between his legs in the middle of a field of yellow-headed flowers with his arms wrapped around her waist. He lowered his head and kissed her for the first time.

Cadence stopped short and looked around. She had been walking straight west since she left the school and was nearly to the edge of town. She had overshot her turn by about four blocks but she didn’t feel like backtracking. She just wanted to be home already. So she walked across backyards, through allies and past the grove of trees that harbored the family of stray cats she often visited.

A fuzzy black and white kitten pounced on her shoe as she passed. She nudged him away, a twinge of guilt creeping into her heart. Cadence knew he would be a big, wary tomcat in no time and she would never be able to pick him up and let him fall asleep in her lap again, but she did not feel like letting go of her anger just yet.

She quickened her pace and ducked under the low-hanging branch of a crabapple tree. A lilac bush stretched its spiny branch and scratched a jagged lightning bolt over her bare arm as she passed.

Damn it, she yelled, brushing at the stinging scratch.

As she turned to glare at her attacker, she saw, sitting under the bush, the little black and white kitten. Tears filled her eyes.

Go on now, she scolded.

Cadence did not know how far he would follow her and she did not want to find out. She dug through her book bag, pulled out a fluffy, red hair band and dangled it in front of the kitten’s face. He timidly pawed at it, and then lunged for it, both paws flailing. Just before his claws could sink into the fabric, Cadence yanked it up and the kitten toppled over backwards. A smile twitched at the corners of her mouth. She hooked the band around her index finger, pulled it tight with her other hand and shot it into the middle of the grove of trees. The kitten bounded after it, squatted about a foot from where it had landed, wiggled his behind a few times and pounced. Cadence couldn’t help laughing when she saw the kitten on his back, grasping the band with his front paws and kicking it with his back paws, like it was some sort of prey he had just ambushed.

She turned to head for home, mad at herself for letting the little fuzzball break through her defenses. Then she felt her stinging shoulder, remembered Cecelia’s broad smile as she jumped into Justin’s lap and the way his finger lightly brushed her knee as she landed. By the time Cadence reached her front door, her foul mood had returned.

The door was unlocked, but her mother was gone. Cadence went into the kitchen to look for a note. On a magnetic dry-erase board on the refrigerator door, her mother’s lilting script scrawled: Be back soon. Went to store. Love, Mom.

Cadence opened the fridge and stood in the wafting cool for a few minutes before shutting it. She looked around the kitchen and sighed. Restlessness overwhelmed her.

She stomped into the living room, grabbed the remote, flopped onto the couch and turned on the television. Oprah, click, Six Second Abs, click, baseball, click, Seinfeld reruns, click. Cadence clicked the television off and dropped the remote onto the coffee table before walking back into the kitchen. She pulled the cookie jar forward and removed the glossy salmon-colored ceramic pig head from its porky base, the action eliciting a remonstrative snort. Peering at the neglected crumbs gathering at the bottom, she wondered what had possessed her to make this monstrosity for her mother and what possessed her mother to keep it the past five years.

The phone rang. Cadence looked at it before putting the cookie jar back. The phone rang again. She twisted the head so it lined up perfectly with its body. The phone rang a third time. She really did not feel like talking to anyone, but thought it could be her mother, so she grabbed the phone on its forth ring, her hello lost as the answering machine clicked on.

Hold on, she shouted, jamming her finger into the stop button.

Hello, she repeated to the person waiting on the other end of the line.

Cadence, it’s Cecelia. You left school so fast we didn’t get a chance to make plans for tonight. First night of freedom. You wanna see what the guys are up to?

Cadence seethed as the syrupy voice of her so-called best friend oozed through the phone line.

Is she that completely clueless, Cadence thought.

She knew Cecelia was prone to an occasional fit of flightiness, but she could not fathom that her friend was this oblivious.

Cadence, are you there?

Cece, I don’t really feel like going out, tonight, she said, punctuating each word with enough venom, she hoped, to convince her friend to leave her alone. But Cecelia persisted.

Oh, come on, I think there’s a party …

I have to go, Cadence cut in and hung up the phone.

It rang again a few minutes later but she ignored it. Cadence stormed into her room, threw her book bag on the floor and went into the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator and closed it. She yanked the door open again, grabbed a plastic water bottle from the shelf, shut the door and took a marker from the dry erase board.

Mom, went blading, she scrawled. Back by dinner. Love, C.

A few minutes later she was rolling down the street. The exertion and the cool, spring breeze raised her pulse and her spirits. As she reached the edge of town, breeze blowing through her loose, long blond hair, a sense of liberation filled her. Cadence made her way to Prairie Rose Park and skated on the path that encircled the large pond.

By the third lap, her liberation was gone. Cadence burned from the pit of her stomach to the roots of her hair.

How many times had I daydreamed of marrying that asshole, she thought.

She screamed and screamed until her throat ached and she ran out of breath, trying, without avail, to release the frustration that was building inside her. She had nearly slept with him. He had been pushing for about a month and she had nearly given in. The only reason she was still a virgin was that it had hurt too much and they had to stop. She actually thought he loved her.

No one understands me like you do. I feel like I can truly be myself around you, he had said.

Oh, yeah, who is that, Justin, a lying, cheating creep?

Cadence veered off the path, rolled through a cluster of trees and sat down on a bare patch of ground. She hugged her knees to her chest, buried her head in her folded arms and sobbed, letting the hot tears trace crooked trails down her face until the stream slowed to a trickle and her outburst ended in a fit of sniffles and uneven hiccups.

She pushed herself up and brushed the dead leaves, dirt and broken twigs from her shorts. Her roller blade-clod foot slipped out from under her, but she caught herself on a nearby tree limb. A wave of exhaustion crashed over her. She felt like gravity had doubled its efforts to keep her grounded. She considered removing her roller blades, but decided against it -- not only to avoid the five blocks of rocks she would undoubtedly have to sidestep, but also to avoid carrying the clumsy things.

Cadence opted for the long way home. She was tired, but she didn’t want to pass by Justin’s house. She decided to end it with him, but not now. She did not want to face him until she had regained her composure.

CHAPTER 2 – Friday May 16, 4:12 p.m.

Tom Marshall cracked open a Coors and sat down on the sofa to wait.

He put his feet up on the coffee table, knocked over an empty beer can and watched it roll onto the floor. He thought about picking it up. He knew Tonya would be pissed to come home and find that he’d made another mess in her clean trailer. She was always getting on him to pick up after himself and help out around the house. He couldn’t see why a few beer cans and a little dust were such a big deal.

Her house was a hell of a lot cleaner than his old apartment. He couldn’t believe the leasing company actually tried to charge him for the mud-stained carpet and smoke-stained walls. They kept his security deposit. He was sure that would more than pay for a steam cleaner and some paint.

He lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. He was a little worried about telling Tonya he had lost his job. She only agreed to let him move in because she thought he would help her with the bills and she was already constantly on his case about pulling his own weight.

He blew a cloud of smoke toward the ceiling and closed his eyes.

Tom, it looks like we’re going to have to let you go, his skinny, balding, spineless boss had told him not more than an hour ago. We just can’t risk a lawsuit.

The boss’ bitch secretary had gotten herself all hot and bothered over some joke Tom told her. Apparently she thought it was sexist. Or maybe she just didn’t get the punch line.

That’s probably it, Tom said to his girlfriend’s cat as he downed his fifth beer. Air-headed ditz didn’t get it, so she had to go crying to the boss-man. She probably sucked his marble-sized balls while she was at it.

Tom stood, wobbled and caught his balance.

Oh Mr. Peterson, Tom whined in a high-pitched imitation of a woman’s voice. Tom told a dirty joke and it hurt my feelings.

Tom sauntered into the kitchen to dig another beer out of the fridge, laughing at his own joke.

Stupid bitch, he muttered, popping open the can and guzzling the beer.

Tom glanced at the glowing green clock on the microwave. It was 4:15 in the afternoon. He wondered where Tonya was. She usually didn’t have to start work until 7 p.m.

Maybe she picked up a day shift, he thought.

Damn, he breathed. He needed a good lay and a long nap.

Tom headed for the couch, beer in hand, picturing Tonya’s long, thin legs, large breasts and perfectly tanned skin.

She could be a pain in the ass, but she certainly was easy on the eyes, he thought.

He sat down and was about to reach for the remote when he heard voices approaching the house. He couldn’t quite make out what the man and woman were saying, but he could hear the woman laughing, no, giggling at something the man had said. There was a loud bang on the front door and some shuffling. Then a key clicked in the lock and the door opened.

As Tom watched, Tonya tumbled into the room, entangled in another man’s arms. Her white, linen shirt was unbuttoned revealing a lacy black bra. While he kissed her, the man’s hands traveled up her tight leather skirt. Tonya gasped when she looked over to the couch and realized they had an audience.

Tom, what are you doing here, she demanded, freeing herself from her lover’s wandering hands and clutching her shirt closed. Her face was red, but it seemed more from anger than embarrassment. Shouldn’t you be at work?

What the hell is going on? Tom shouted. Who the hell is he?

He is none of your business, she said, brown eyes flashing as she tossed her long, bleached-blond hair over her shoulder and buttoned her shirt.

None of my business? You bring another man into my house and tell me he’s none of my business?

It’s not your house. It’s mine. You don’t even pull your own weight around here. When’s the last time you paid a bill? It’s over, Tom. I want you to leave.

You stupid bitch, Tom screamed, lunging at Tonya, arms raised, body shaking.

But before he could grab her, choke her and shake the life out of her, her new love-interest landed a hard blow to Tom’s left temple. Tom staggered backwards, tripped over the coffee table and fell on the floor, toppling empty beer cans and the overflowing ash tray as he went.

Get out of here, the man said, pointing a perfectly manicured finger in Tom’s face. "She doesn’t want to see you