Self Destruct (23 page)

Aiden

Life was unbelievably perfect for about five minutes.  My mother had stopped interfering.  I hadn’t heard a word from Vanessa since I told her I knew who the real father of “our son” was.  The Pueblo County prosecutor hadn’t called with any news.  I chose to believe no news was good news.  At least she wasn’t calling to ask Becca to testify.  Perhaps they would work out a plea deal.  Not that I wanted that sick bastard to get a break, but I thought Becca and his latest victim had suffered enough.

“Crazy” Carrie Costello was the only downside to my happiness.  After the day in the SUB she stared at me, and didn’t try and hide it.  She started making comments about our “relationship”, and I was quite sure she was loosing her grip on reality.  She signed us up to partner on an extra-credit assignment. Thankfully, I had spoken to the professor and told him she was making me uncomfortable.

I started getting hang-up phone calls from a blocked number.  I thought I saw her a few times parked down the street from our house in a dark sedan.  I was probably getting paranoid from all of the different sources of stress, but something about her felt off. The phone calls could have come from any number of people, but I thought I heard her whisper to me once.

I also thought I saw suits one and two hanging around town again. They didn’t seem to be approaching anyone this time, but they were watching.  I wasn’t sure what they were trying to figure out, the way they were studying us
was more frightening than them trying to harass us. 

I
told Reed about my suspicions, and he took it seriously.  He promised to add extra patrols and ask other officers to look out for anyone suspicious in our neighborhood. I was a little on edge.  Mostly life was great, but there was a foreboding in the back of my mind that wouldn’t let me get too comfortable.

I decided to go to the first baseball team meeting
to humor Becca.  I was leaning toward quitting the team, but I didn’t want Becca to blame herself if I missed it. I wanted her to understand it was my choice.  As I was getting ready to go I had this tight and itchy feeling crawl across my skin.  It felt like my bones were going to break through my flesh, I was so uncomfortable.  It seemed like a pretty good sign I was done playing baseball, if it was this hard to leave before Becca got home from the library.  The meeting started at five at a popular hot wings joint.

I was
only gone for about an hour and a half when that nagging discomfort turned into an irresistible urge to go home.  I made some lame excuse, and ran out to my car.  I pulled onto our street and saw police cruisers parked in front of my house, two of them, with their lights on.  Uniformed officers walked around my yard searching with their flashlights.  I raced past them and found Jeremy standing in a daze talking to Reed. 

“Where is she?  Where is Becca?” I yelled.  Jeremy shook his head, and his eyes filled with tears.  “No, she’s fine.  Where is she?
Did she collapse again?  Take me to her,” I demanded. 

“Aiden, calm down,”
Reed instructed.  It was his professional voice.  The one I’m sure he used to deliver bad news.  Fuck this.  “She’s not dead,” I insisted.  “She can’t be,” my voice cracked.

“Aiden, we don’t know anything.  She is missing.  We are doing everything we can
, and we won't stop.  But we need to prepare ourselves.  Aiden, she didn’t leave you, someone took her.  Do you understand what I am saying?  This could end very badly,” Reed cautioned. 

“No.  She’ll be fine.  She has to be.  I can’t live without her,” I said desperately.  If I said it with enough conviction it would be true. 

Reed flipped opened a small notebook.  “Listen, I have officers talking to Carrie Costello right now.  I checked with the Colorado State Patrol.  The two lawyers from Pueblo County aren’t back in Colorado.  We ran a quick check on cell phone and credit card records and discovered they were still in Washington this morning.  Their names are Brad and Stanley Jackson.  Is there anyone else we should question?”

I
didn't want to believe the words I was about to say, but this was to save Becca.  “Yeah, maybe you should question my ex, Vanessa Preston, and my…my mother.  They were both pretty upset I was with Becca and refused to reconcile with Vanessa.  I was coming into my trust fund, and they both saw dollar signs.  My mom wanted the social connections that came with my marrying into Vanessa’s family.  You saw what she did at my wedding.”

I wanted to grab my keys and go and find her, but I had no idea where she could be, or who took her.  “When I find out who did this I’m gonna kill them,” I swore to Jeremy.  “I’ll help,” he promised. 

The police cleared out, and I continued to sit on the couch staring at the wall.  I didn’t want to go into our room and sleep without her.  I didn’t want to close my eyes in case they found her.  So I sat staring.  My black and white abstract of a baseball kept going in and out of focus I stared at it so hard.

After an extremely long silence, I needed to hear what Jeremy knew. 
“What happened Jer?” He exhaled, as if he was still seeing something disturbing.  “I came home at 5:30.  I was only planning to change clothes and race to the baseball meeting.  My last class ran over, and I had spilled…never mind that doesn’t matter. 

Anyway, I walked up to the back door and found Becca’s purse lying abandoned on the back porch.  All of the contents were scattered everywhere like she had tried to use it as a weapon.  Her keys were in the door, and there was a little blood on the rail.  I knew something was wrong, so I called 911 and ran down the street to see if
Reed was home.  He was just getting in his car to leave for work.  He came straight over, and well you saw the rest.

I started to shake.
  I was in shock.  I was so cold.  “Aiden, god.  I want to comfort you, but there doesn’t seem to be a fucking thing to say.  I’m scared too,” Jeremy admitted. 

“She’s my everything.  My entire world.  What am I going to do?”
Jeremy patted my shoulder.  “I don’t know.  I love her too.  We have to stay strong though, and we have to believe they will find her.”

Rebecca

My head ached.  The smell of rubber, exhaust, and gym clothes
assaulted my nose and turned my stomach. I kept getting bumped around, and I was starting to get a cramp in my back from the tight position I was forced in.

I was in a trunk.  I had to be.  There was a whirring sound that could only be tires on asphalt.  Not that I spent an inordinate amount of time listening to tires rotating, but my brain refused to come up with alternative scenarios. 

I reached above me, which was a chore since I could barely move, and felt cold metal above my head. I couldn’t believe this was really happening.  This couldn’t be happening.  I mentally slapped myself. I needed to think, and fast.  My attackers, I’m sure there were two men, were taking me away from my house.  I doubt they wanted to throw me a party.

Today had been
an ordinary, average, normal, taken for granted day. I had a lot of work to catch up on from staying at home the first month of class, and I had spent most of the afternoon in the library.  I had just missed Aiden leaving for his baseball meeting, and I planned a nap before he got home.  I was so tired, and thoughts of my big soft bed looped through my head.  Nothing special.

I parked my car in our driveway,
I usually parked on the street, but this was closer.  I wasn't paying attention when I walked up the back porch.  I stuck my key in the lock. Before I registered the sound of heavy steps coming up behind me, I was hit on the head. 

I tried to fight back, but I was
very dizzy from the first blow to my head, and I could barely see whom I was swinging at.  I swung my purse wildly.  I was somewhat aware that everything inside it was flying everywhere.  My efforts only earned me a second blow to the head.

I didn’t
feel the pain at first.  Everything slowed down.  I was distantly aware my body was slumping toward the floor, but I was powerless to stop it.  I wanted to tell my legs to run, my arms to hit, anything, but nothing worked.  I was dizzy, nauseous, and black spots danced in front of my eyes.

I chanted, “Fight, fight!” inside my head.  Just like my ability to move, the ability to fight was cut off.  I panic
ked as my eyelids slipped shut, but ultimately I gave in.

That’s h
ow I woke up in a trunk, headed god knew where driven by unknown psychos.  Shit, this was sooo bad.  I couldn’t move much, but I had to do something.  I remembered a talk show my mom used to watch had an episode featuring a similar scenario.  I recalled the advice they gave and decided I didn't have anything to lose.  This was obviously fight or die.

I kicked at a taillight as hard as I could in the small space.  I kicked several more times until the light went out and dislodged a little bit.  I reached around and found
the crow bar that had slid into me when they turned a corner.  I held it in case I got a chance to fight back. 

Then I waited, and prayed a cop would pull us over.
My luck was not that good.  They pulled over to the side of the road, and I heard male voices around the back of the car.  “This is why people keep flashing their lights at us,” one of the voices said.  “Stupid bitch kicked out one of the taillights,” the other said.  I heard the lock mechanism release, and I got ready.

“I think we are gonna have to duck tape your hands and feet,” one of them sneered.  “I don’t think so,” I responded, and I swung as if my life depended on it. 
Because, let’s face it, it did. 

I swung with strength I didn’t even realize I possessed.  I heard a sickening thump, and I jumped out of the trunk.  The other came after me, and I managed to connect my foot with his family jewels.  He went down to the ground. 

I hated how in movies girls took a swing and then started running, only to have the temporarily incapacitated sociopath recover and chase her down.  Not me, not when my baby was at risk, no fucking way. 

While psycho number two was crouched down holding his balls, I hit him in the head.  I felt metal hit bone, and I wanted to vomit, but I took off running.  That was when I realized that they had driven me out of town and were heading out toward the hills.  I repressed a shiver thinking of the likely reasons they were heading so far away from people.

I didn’t have anything on me.  My cell phone was in my purse, which was abandoned on my back porch.  My jacket was sitting in the passenger seat of my car.  The air had a sharp winter bite, and my nervous breath hung in a fog around my face.  The moon was full and the light sparkled off of the frost-covered road.  I slipped as I ran, not sure if the two men I hit would wake up or not.  I realized I didn’t care if they died. 

There was a deep slope on the other side of the road.   I ran straight for it, because I couldn’t see anything on the other side.  Ordinarily I would have avoided this direction, but if I couldn’t see down it, I could hide there.

I made it to the bottom, struggling to breathe, and nearly ran into a barb wire fence.  The wire was old and rusted, but still sharp.  It was in the perfect condition to cut me and give me tetanus.  I didn’t see any other options, so I lay as flat on the ground as my slightly rounded tummy would allow, and shimmied underneath.  Down a gravel drive was a two-story log cabin, and a barn.  The house had a “for sale” sign in the front yard, and was obviously unoccupied.  I knew it was locked, but I hoped the barn was open. 

I ran across the open pasture and found the door was unlocked.  I slipped inside and found a large storage closet to hide in.  I curled up, tired, cold, and hungry, but I was safe for the moment.  I was pretty sure I had a concussion.  I tried to stay awake, but with the adrenaline diminishing I couldn’t fight the creeping blackness.  My last thought was of how worried Aiden must be, before the darkness descended.

Aiden

The morning light crept through the living room blinds.  I must have passed out around four in the morning.  One peek at the clock told me it was
now six.  I had two hours of oblivion, and now I had to face reality again.  Becca was missing, abducted.  It had been thirteen hours.  Every hour that passed by made it less likely I would ever see her again.  That thought made my heart pound erratically in my chest.

“Any word?” Jeremy asked hopefully.  I shook my head.  If I opened my mouth I was going to scream.  It was so hard being strong when I wanted to curl into a ball and start rocking.  A few moments later my cell rang.  I looked at the caller ID, took a deep breath, and tried not to panic. “Hey
Reed, any news?” 

“Not much yet.
Aiden, Carrie Costello has an alibi for last night.  We searched her place, and it was disturbing, but her focus was on hurting you not Becca.  She is being sent to a psychiatric hospital because we think she is a threat to you, but she doesn’t have her.”

“So you called to tell me where she isn’t?  I can give you another place
where she isn’t, here at home with me,” I yelled.  “I didn’t say we had nothing.  I said we didn’t have much.  Last night some people called the non-emergency line to report a dark sedan with a tail light out.  The dispatchers didn’t think much of it when the calls came in, but one of the more intuitive dispatchers forwarded the messages on to me at five this morning.  We have officers scouring the area the calls came from.  I’ll call you later if there is news,” he informed, and hung up.

I paced the living room for the better part of the next two hours.  I needed to act, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do.  At eight I started calling our families.  I tried to console her mother, but I was just as big of a mess.  Thankfully,
Rick came on the phone and told me he would take care of her. 

I wanted to beat the shit out of someone, but I didn’t have a face to go with the sucking loss her abduction left.  I called the Pueblo County prosecutor, Ms. Mathews, and asked if Vincent James could be responsible for this. 

“I don’t know Aiden.  Honestly his latest victim has been considering dropping her case.  She’s only fourteen and I thought maybe it was too much for her after everything she’s gone through.  I’ll call CSP and have them ask some questions.  We’ll bring him in and throw the entire library at him,” she promised.

I paced again.  By nine I had another call from
Reed.  “Did you find her?” I asked hopefully.  “No, at least not yet.  Aiden we found two men near a dark sedan with a tail light out.  It appears to have been kicked out from the inside.  One man is dead, and the other is unconscious.  He might not make it, but I don’t really give a shit.  I can’t promise you they had her, but we found some dark red hair in the trunk.”

My breathing became ragged.  My angel had been shoved in a trunk.  God, what if they killed her?  “Where is she?” I asked quietly.  “I don’t know yet Aiden.  I don’t want to get your hopes up yet, but we haven’t found evidence of any other vehicles or of a third perpetrator.  Which makes me think it was Becca that laid these two out.  If she did that there is a good chance she is alive and hiding some where around here.  We won’t stop looking,” he promised.

A small smile, well almost a smile, snuck across my face.  My Red was a fighter.  She wouldn’t give in, and I wouldn’t count her out.  I’d get her back.  I had to, there was no other option.