The Post Sunday Experiment | COMPLETED 2020

Chapter 23

Picking up the cell phone in her hand, Mae struggled to keep from quivering. She looked at the plain, black case and opened up the phone with Ody's password. She stared at the backdrop of him and Devlin in front of the sunset over the hills of Cazenovia years ago.

Mae scrolled through his most recent apps. She was surprised how much battery life the thing had left on it. Ody usually lived on the remaining ten percent.

She opened the messages app, frowning at the conversations. There was his chat with Mae, Devlin, a study group that hadn't been active since his freshman year, and then his Chemistry tutor. That was all. The woman shook her head. She didn't understand the boy and never had.

Ody was always in his head and on his own schedule. He did what he had to and kept everything else to himself. When she was his age, she had a group of girlfriends she went out with every weekend. That group would drive her poor mother mad but, on the hand, her son was... well, different from the way she had been.

He had always been independent. She was fine with that, though that didn't stop her from worrying about him. He struggled to express any emotion beyond irritation and anger. Mae had brought him in for therapy once. Yet when she did, the boy had been so offended and humiliated that he did not open his mouth for the entire hour session.

The boy was smart in the books and could pull off an A in any class with no sweat—even the sciences—yet when it came to his social life, he was lost. Ody was clueless as to where he could even start.

The driver stepped on the brakes and Mae heard the engine turn off. Taking in a deep breath, she could see the light fill the back seat of the van. One of the two men opened the door and helped her out.

Slipping the cell phone into her jean pocket without the men noticing, Mae followed them. They led her through rigorous security in search of weapons. Eventually, they handed her off to another man who led her to a room where she could sit down by herself hundreds of feet beneath the earth.

It wasn't long after that another man with dark sunglasses and a turtleneck suit with a raven lapel pin walked in, seating himself across from her.

"Sir, you must have the wrong Mae Winter. I have not done anything to deserve this in my life. I- I- I-"

"Ma'am?" Mr. Aldrich interrupted.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Mae replied. "Yes sir?"

"Please. Calm yourself. You have done nothing wrong. I would like to ask you a few questions about your ex-husband Devlin Jax Winter. Is that alright?"

"Well, you could have told me that before your men dragged me out of my house and threatened to shoot me when I told them to go to hell!"

"Ma'am."

"Sorry, please continue." Mae scoffed as she crossed her legs and pursed her lips with a look of utter approval on her face.

"Ms. Winter, it has come to my knowledge that you left Mr. Winter on a personal matter concerning his job, would you mind sharing?"

"This is what you wanted to know? We could not have done this over a phone call?"

"Mama?"

"Yeah, sorry." She took a deep breath to think the question over and then looked about the room and asked, "Is what I say being recorded and listened to in some room somewhere else?"

"Yes, for documentary matters. Why? Does your response vary depending on whether or not you are being recorded?"

"No, but the way I phrase it does."

"Please, there's no judgement here, ma'am."

"Fine," sighed Mae. "I left him because he was never home. He would disappear every Sunday night and would not tell me why. He was always stressed out and would take it out on his children."

"Is that all?"

"I believe so. Why does that not seem like enough reason for me to leave him to you, sir?"

"Please, call me Mr. Aldrich." The man smiled. Mae had to withhold a snort at the way he presumed a more intimate relationship than they actually shared.

"Alright, Mr. Aldrich. Is there anything else you need from me or shall I be on my way on the six hour drive back to Cazenovia?"

"One more thing then you're free to leave: his eyes."

"What about them?"

"You tell me."

"Uh, well, there were dark brown like Penny's and Ody's..." That is when the memory of the cell phone in her pocket hit her. "You know where they are right now, don't you?" Mae spoke with such intensity that Mr. Aldrich was stunned.

"Ody and Penny? Of course, I don't!" the man laughed. "Now please, can we stay on topic?"

"Yes, you do." Mae tilted her head to look at him with a vacant expression. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of reacting to his laughter.

"What makes you think I have your children?"

Pulling Ody's cell phone out of her pocket, she looked the man dead in the eyes. "I found this in the back seat of your car." Mae placed the phone on the table between them where he could see it. "This is my son's phone. He's been missing for two days. I found it in the back of your van. Mr. Aldrich, how can you explain that?"

There was a pause in the room where no one spoke a word. In that pause, another man came into the room. Mr. Aldrich nodded to him and the man walked over to Mae.

Mae had suspected that something might happen. She just had the time to hit send on Ody's phone. In the time she'd spoken with Mr. Aldrich, he hadn't noticed her typing out a message beneath the wood of the table.

She had a man's number memorized. She'd never admit why she'd memorized that particular man's number, but as soon as the message was delivered, she knew help would be on the way.

A text message to Eric Bhurr read: 'We're are at the Pentagon and being held here. Please.'