Broken Road (34 page)

“See you in the morning then,” said Angel.

A half hour later, Angel returned to the room feeling emotionally stronger and more refreshed. She let the tears flow while she showered, and the effect of the hot water on her tense muscles seemed to revitalize her. As she entered the room quietly, she noted Ava was sound asleep. The television was still on, so Angel walked over to turn it off. That’s when she noticed Jarrod had left his cell phone. Picking it up, she quickly skimmed through his contact list and speed dialed the number for his roommate Dave. He picked up and said, “Hello?”

“Hi, Dave! It’s Angel.”

“Hey, gorgeous! What’s up?”

“Not much. Jarrod left his cell phone here in my room. Is he there yet?”

“Nope, not yet,” said Dave.

“When he gets there, will you ask him to come get it? I won’t be around this weekend, and I know he’ll need it. I’ll wait for him outside my building.”

“Will do.”

“Thanks,” she said.

“No problem. By the way…how’s that beautiful friend of yours, Ileana?”

It was no secret Dave was crushing big-time on her best friend. Everyone knew it, including Ileana. Angel and Jarrod both thought they would make a great couple, but Ileana didn’t seem at all interested. She was searching for the perfect man and because of that, all the “almost perfects” were passing her by.

“She’s fine. Busy with schoolwork,” said Angel.

“Could you tell her I said hi?” he asked dispiritedly.

“I definitely will. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Angel changed from her pajamas into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, grabbed Jarrod’s phone, and went to wait for him outside.

She should have brought a jacket. It was chilly, and her hair was still damp from the shower. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stay warm. It was so dark and no one was around. The silence was oppressive, causing her to feel tense and uneasy. The only discernable sounds were those of the rustling palm tree leaves as they swayed against each other and of the passing cars as they drove by along University Road.

She cast a nervous glance about and quickly realized Security was nowhere in the vicinity.
The guards must be walking around the other side of the building
, she thought. Usually at night there were three of four of them securing the perimeter of the building. She had been waiting approximately ten minutes when suddenly she heard footsteps behind her. She turned to see if it was Jarrod, but could only make out a dark figure walking her way.
Must be security
, she thought as she squinted to try to see whom it was.

The figure was too short to be Jarrod. She turned away and heard the footsteps getting closer. Damn it, why didn’t she listen to Jarrod? He had told her never to go anywhere alone, especially at night. Boy, he was going to pitch a fit when he found her outside. Alone. In the dark. She couldn’t even call him to let him know she had changed her mind and would leave the phone with Ava. And to boot, she had been in such a rush that she had left her can of pepper spray in her handbag. She pulled her arms tighter around herself, not only in hopes of keeping warmer, but also to stop the incessant shivering her nerves were causing.

“Angelise?” a strange, unrecognizable voice said.

She immediately turned toward the voice and suddenly felt a dreadful shock flow throughout her body. It was quick, yet far from painless. She felt as if her insides had been turned inside out and dropped to the ground, losing her grip on Jarrod’s phone, which now lay beside her motionless body.

Chapter Thirty-Four

“A
ngel? Angel?” Jarrod whispered loudly. Where the hell was she? “Angel?” He whispered more loudly as he paced in front of the entrance to her building. He would give her five more minutes, and if she didn’t show up, he would go to her room. He was trying to avoid that because he didn’t want to risk getting Angel in trouble by being seen in the building after curfew.

“Can I help you?” asked the security guard who approached him from behind. Jarrod turned, startled by the voice as the overweight officer with the too-tight uniform pointed a flashlight in Jarrod’s face, causing him to squint.

“I’m looking for my girlfriend. She was supposed to meet me here to give me my cell phone that I’d left in her room.” Jarrod was becoming increasingly nervous with every second that passed.

“Is this your phone?” asked the guard as he pulled a cell phone from his pocket and showed it to him.

“Yeah. That’s it,” he said as he took the phone from the guard. “Did she ask you to give to me?”

“No. I found it lying there on the ground.” He pointed to a spot near the steps. Jarrod stared at the spot and knew immediately something was wrong. Very, very wrong. Angel would never just leave the phone there. If she had gotten tired of waiting, she would have taken it upstairs with her.

Jarrod began to run up the steps of the building, yelling to the guard, “Come with me!” as he ran through the front door. He continued running until he reached Angel’s room and pounded on the door. The security guard eventually caught up to him, completely short-winded, swearing under his breath that he would most definitely begin his diet tomorrow.

“Angel! Open up,” Jarrod yelled as he continued pounding on the door.

“Hold on!” screamed Ava from behind the door as she was opening it. “What’s going on? Jarrod, why are you freaking out?” She tried to wipe the sleep from her eyes. After placing her glasses on, her eyes fixed on the wheezing security guard. “What’s going on?”

“Where’s Angel?” he asked, worry strengthening his voice.

“I don’t know. I…I was sleeping. She said she was going to take a shower. That’s the last time I saw her.” She quickly looked at the clock on the wall and realized Angel should have been back from her shower awhile ago. “Jarrod, what’s happened?”

“She was supposed to meet me outside the building to give me my cell phone. They found the phone on the ground, but she wasn’t there.”

“Is this the same girl who recently filed a report concerning a stalker situation?” the officer asked warily.

“Yes,” said Jarrod.

The guard immediately picked up his transmitter and called in the information. Within minutes two more police officers were in the room taking down information, while others were immediately dispatched to search the entire vicinity, inside and out. The Gainesville Police Department was also called and notified of the situation.

An hour later Angel could not be found. Ava was crying, and Jarrod sat like a zombie staring into space while sitting on Angel’s bed. He was holding her pajama top in his hands. In the hallway a ruckus had developed. All the girls were standing outside her door and down the hallway, trying to find out what had happened.

Jarrod looked at Ava and said, “Call Ileana.” She wiped her nose and nodded as she picked up her cell and called her. Jarrod heard the words, but wasn’t able to focus on what was being said. He only knew Ava was sobbing and telling Ileana to come right away.

Two officers from the Gainesville Police Department arrived shortly after a detective from the UFPD had shown up. They sat down with Jarrod and Ava and asked numerous questions. Many of them were answered by Detective Anderson of the UFPD, who had grabbed Angel’s file and reviewed it before heading over. Suddenly Ileana rushed through the door, pushing aside an officer who was trying, but failing miserably, to keep her out.

“Let her in,” said Jarrod. “She can help.”

Ileana rushed to his side and said, “Jarrod, talk to me. Where’s Angel?”

Jarrod told her what had happened as she began to cry. When she calmed down, introductions were made and immediately she was bombarded with questions. She told them everything she knew, holding absolutely nothing back. They were informed about the flowers, the pictures, and Benjamin Smith, as well as the phone calls, including the call where she spoke to the person in Spanish and heard a woman responding.

Suddenly, like light on glass, it dawned on him. Morgan.
Why didn’t I think of her before
?, he thought. Angel had informed him of that call recently, yet the thought of Morgan somehow being involved had not entered his mind. Until now. He turned toward the officers and spoke loudly, instantly bringing silence to the room. “Morgan Billings.”

“Morgan?” asked Ileana in a questioning, high-pitched tone. As she considered the idea, she turned away in a thoughtful manner. Slowly she raised her head, her tear-streaked eyes meeting with Jarrod’s sad gaze, and let out a small whoosh of air she had not realized she had been holding.

“Morgan,” she said bitterly.

“Who is Morgan Billings?” asked Detective Anderson as he wrote the name down on a notepad. He was an older man, probably close to approaching retirement, with a no-nonsense approach to his work. He appeared to be in his late fifties, had a belly indicating one too many beers in his lifetime and yellowish teeth denoting a bad smoking habit. He looked first at Ileana and then Jarrod, repeating his question once again. “Morgan Billings? Who is she?”

In a quavering voice, Ileana responded, “Angel’s cousin.”

They both went on to tell the detective of their individual personal histories and knowledge of Morgan. The officers who were present wrote everything down as well, while the detective asked interminable questions for the next three hours.

Ava went to get coffee. When she returned, she said softly, “Someone has to call her parents.” They faced each other in dejection, neither one wanting to take on that task.

Chapter Thirty-Five

A
ngel opened her eyes to face more darkness. At least she thought her eyes were open, because she felt her eyelashes brush up against a smooth material every time she blinked. Why was she blindfolded? She wanted to ask someone, but something was covering her mouth and she couldn’t move her lips. When she tried speaking, she was only able to formulate guttural sounds stemming from deep within her throat. She wanted to remove whatever was on her mouth, but her hands were tied behind her back. What was going on? Where was she? Who did this to her?

In her nervous agitation, she began to move back and forth in the chair she was obviously sitting in, but she was tied to that as well. Every time she moved, the chair went with her. She started to cry and scream, but she wasn’t able to release anything more than loud, inarticulate grunts and sounds.

“Calm down.” Angel turned her head abruptly in the direction from which that voice came. Who had said that? She made more indistinct grunting noises and frantically began to twist and turn, trying to loosen the ties around her body as panic set in.

“I said calm down,” the voice commanded. She was crying and trying to shake the blindfold off, but it was on so tight, it wouldn’t budge.

“You’re only making it worse for yourself. You need to calm down. I’m here to help you.” The voice spoke to her again and this time it sounded somewhat familiar. She grunted again.

“Listen to me. He won’t hurt you anymore. I won’t let him. That’s why I took you. I’ll never let him touch you again.”