I'll Take a Chance (11 page)

Willow gasps and looks to Asher.

“There has to be a reasonable explanation for all this,” Asher says.

“Have you tried calling her?” Willow asks.

“No. I was so worried I came straight here.” I fumble in my pants pocket for my cell phone.

Asher picks up the phone on his desk and dials
Amelia’s number. There must be no answer because he puts the phone back down.

“When was the last time you saw her?” Asher asks me.

“Last night, she dropped me off at my house after dinner with your parents.”

I can hear Willow take in a sharp breath and her hand flies to her mouth.

“What?” We both look at her and ask in unison.

“Amelia. She was acting strange the other day when we went out to dinner
, she told me she felt like someone was watching her,” Willow says.

“
Now that I think about it when she came to our house she was looking over her shoulder. She said she thought a silver car had followed her to our house,” Asher says.

“She said the same thing to me. She said she thought a silver car had been following her
, but she said she was just being paranoid,” I tell them. “And the note,” I say.

“What note?” Willow asks.

“When you dropped Lucy off the other night you left a note on the table, she thought that it was strange.”

“I didn’t leave a note. What did it say?” Willow replies.

“I don’t remember exactly, something about mistakes and leading to misfortune or something like that. She thought it was a strange thing for you to say, she thought it was some lame attempt at a riddle about Roger.”

“Roger. You don’t think he has anything to do with this do you?”
Asher asks.

“
Oh God, the flowers. This is all making sense,” I say.

“What flowers
? Someone better start explaining to me what the hell is going on here,” Asher yells.

Abbey starts to cry and Willow hugs her close.

“I received some flowers last week at work, they were destroyed. I thought it was a sick joke or something. Oh my God, the note, now I remember exactly what it said. It said, ‘Mistakes are often stepping stones to others misfortune.’ I don’t know why I didn’t ever think about this before. But, now I think it all makes sense. The flowers, they were orange roses. Those are Amelia’s favorite flower I don’t think Roger has anything to do with this at all. I think this has to do with my sister. I think they were a warning to stay away from Amelia.”

“Your sister?
I’m not following,” Asher says.

“My sister has been missing for the past two years. We lost a patient and her baby shortly after we graduated from medical school. My sister disappeared shortly after that. The poli
ce said it was on her own doing. I never believed that. She and I are twins, and I have always felt that she was kidnapped. I remember now, the man who lost his wife and baby, he said that we would pay for our mistake. It wasn’t a mistake of course, and I never took it as a serious threat. I chalked it up to the man grieving the loss of his wife and baby. The flowers, the note, and Amelia being followed all make perfect sense now. I think who ever took Chloe has now taken Amelia, to punish me. I can’t believe I never thought about that when Chloe first went missing. I’m so stupid, this has to all be connected to him,” I say and start to pace the office as panic sets in.

“This can’t be happening again
,” I say and sink into a chair. I put my head in my hands on my knees.

Asher picks up the phone again and barks at the person on the other end.

“Get in my office now. We have a problem,” he shouts.

In less than five minutes Aiden barges in Asher’s office.

“What’s with the attitude? What’s going on?” Aiden demands.

Asher tells Aiden everything that he knows
, and I can tell by the look on his face that he is just as worried as the rest of us.

“We need to get Slick to look into all
this, now.” Asher tells Aiden.

“Who’s Slick?” Willow asks.

“Someone you don’t want to know, sweetheart. It’s someone I would trust with all of our lives. He is an old friend and someone I know can help us. I don’t want to get the police involved just yet. We need to get moving quickly. No one else is to know just yet what we think.” Asher tells everyone in the room.

Aiden leaves the office and Willow sits down next to me and places her hand on my shoulder.

“Asher, is it such a good idea to handle this on our own? I’m not so sure not getting the police involved is a good idea,” Willow says.

“Sweetheart, you need to trust me on this. I can get moving on this faster than the police can,” Asher tells her.

“I trust you, Asher. Kyle we’ll find her. I know we will. You need to stay strong right now,” she says.

“I will spare no expense and do w
hatever it takes to get her back,” Asher says.

The door opens
again as Aiden rushes back into the room and closes the door.

“Slick will be here in ten.
He’s going to want to talk to you, Kyle, and he’s going to want to go back to Amelia’s apartment. Any information you have on your sister that you have collected over the past two years, you need to go get and meet us at Amelia’s,” Aiden tells me.

I stand on shaking knees and rush home to get everything I have. It isn’t much since the police don’t think anything
actually happened to Chloe.

I speed back to Amelia’s and rush in the front door, a man that looks like he should be in some
back alley reaches around his back to his waist line. I freeze.

“Slick
, it’s OK. This is Kyle, Amelia’s boyfriend,” Asher tells him, placing his hand on his arm.

“Man
, never rush into a fucking room like that, I almost shot you,” he says.

I don’t know how my brain is even functioning
, but it didn’t escape me that Asher just said I was Amelia’s boyfriend. Willow is sitting on the couch silently crying while rocking Abbey. Aiden, Asher, and Slick are in the kitchen talking in hushed whispers. I join them and hand Asher the file I have on Chloe. He looks at it briefly and then hands it over to Slick.

“There’s not much here to go on,
” Slick says in a stern voice.

“I know. I’m sorry. The police believe she left because she was upset and wanted a change in her life. They said it’s not all that uncommon for that sort of thing to happen.
There’s no way she could ever do that to me.”

Asher looks around the kitchen and wipes his hand across his forehead. He looks out into the family room and sees how distraught Willow is.

“Sweetheart, why don’t you take Abbey home…?”

“I am not going anywhere until Amelia is back safe in this apartment.
Do you hear me? I’m not leaving,” she says adamantly.

Asher sighs
, and I can tell he would do anything Willow ever asked of him. He doesn’t like it, but he’s not going to argue with her either.

“There’s a lot of blood here on the counter, she
put up a fight that’s for sure,” Slick says.

“I am going to put a few feelers out and see if anyone has heard anything about this. You guys stay c
lose, I’ll be in touch,” he says again.

With that he starts to leave. How am I supposed to just sit back again and do nothing?
There is no way in hell I am going to just sit around.

“I am not just going to take a ba
ck seat here again. I’m coming with you. If this is the same sick son of a bitch who took my sister, I want to help,” I tell him adamantly.

“Look Slick
, none of us are just going to sit here and twiddle our thumbs. We’re all coming with you,” Asher tells him.

“Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. The people I hang with are not good people. I love you like a brother
, Asher, but I’m not responsible for anyone’s safety. Do you get me?”

Willow stands and I can tell she is torn between fear for Asher going
out there and fear of not knowing what has happened to Amelia. Asher walks up to Willow and Abbey and wraps them both in a tight hug. He whispers in Willow’s ear and kisses Abbey on the head. She breaks down and starts to sob. She shakes her head and sits back down on the couch.

“Sweetheart
, I promise we’ll get Amelia back. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything. I promise you.” He kisses her on the head and motions for the rest of us to leave.

Amelia

I am cold, and it’
s dark. My head is pounding, and I feel like I need to throw up. I don’t even realize that I’m moaning. A soothing voice is whispering in my head. I can’t make out what they are saying. I feel like my body is miles off the ground floating in an abyss.

“Shh
, it’s OK. You’re safe now,” the voice says to me.

Then
, my last memories flood my brain, and I remember a man attacking me in my kitchen and sticking me with a needle. I start to panic, but my body doesn’t respond. I can’t move.

“Shh
, you need to be quiet. You’re safe for now,” the soothing voice says again.

Who is talking to me? Why can’t I move?
Oh God, someone help me please.

Slowly my body starts to feel tingly all over
, and I can now open my eyes. I see a woman sitting next to me, and I am lying in a bed. I don’t know where I am. I have never seen this place before, or this woman. She looks vaguely familiar though, but I just can’t place her. She has long, dark brown hair and brown eyes. She looks very thin, but I can’t tell all that well, it’s so dark in here.

“You’
re alright now. You need to be quiet though. We don’t want him to come back down here. The less he comes down here, the better for us,” she says.

God, I’m so confused. What is happening?

“Where am I?” I manage to ask.

“I don’t know where we are, I’m sorry. I d
o know that there is no way out,” she says.

“
There’s no way out? What are you talking about, what’s going on?” I whisper.

Then those eyes hit me. I have seen those eyes
before, I could pick those milk chocolate eyes out of the biggest crowd. Around her neck she has a chain with the exact same charm that Kyle has. Oh my God. It can’t be.

“You’re Chloe,
” I tell her.

She looks startled and her eyes go large
and instantly fill with tears.

“How did you
know that?” she asks.

“I’ve seen your picture in Kyle’s house.”

“Kyle?” she says in a hoarse voice and a single tear spills down her cheek.

I start to feel less tingly and I try to sit up. She helps me sit up and hands me a glass of water. I greedily take it and drink the whole glass.

“How do you know Kyle? Is he OK? What about my parents?” She grabs my arms and asks with a shaky voice.

“So you are Chloe?”
I ask this time.

“Yes, but I don’t understand.
How do you know Kyle?”

“I’m Kyle’s girlfriend
, Amelia. He told me all about you. I almost didn’t recognize you, but you two have the exact same eyes. I don’t understand what’s going on here,” I tell Chloe.

“The man that
attacked you and brought you down here, he is the father of a patient that Kyle and I had. It was just after medical school, he lost his wife and baby during a delivery Kyle and I did.

“
He attacked me a few nights later in my apartment, and I have been in this basement ever since. He told me he kidnapped me and left Kyle out there to suffer with not knowing where or what happened to me, as our punishment for killing his wife and baby.

“
I knew something had changed in the last few weeks though. He started to grow more agitated. He kept mumbling to himself that he couldn’t let him be happy again. I guess now he was talking about Kyle. I guess that’s why you’re here. He’s kidnapped you to continue to punish Kyle.”

“H
ave you been in this basement for two years?” I ask her.

“Has it been only that long? It feels like it has been an eternity.”

“Chloe, has he ever, you know been violent with you?” I ask her cautiously.

“No, nothing like that.
He injected me with something when he took me. I suspect he did the same to you? He has hit me a few times when I tried to escape. It’s no use though, I have tried everything. He pushes a tray of food through the slit in the bottom of the basement door. Every once in a while he opens the door and throws supplies down the stairs. Other than that I usually don’t see him. I have tried screaming at the top of my lungs, it’s no use, no one can hear us. There are no windows down here. I have no idea where we are.”

“How have you managed to stay sane down here all this time?”

“In the supplies he throws down the stairs, sometimes he puts books in there. Mostly I think about my childhood and Kyle. I imagine stories in my head and play out different scenarios of escape.”

I feel like the weight of the world is bearing down on me.  I’m just so tired. How can this be happening to me? I look at Chloe
, and I can’t believe she’s here. She’s alive. Kyle was right. He never gave up hope and here she is. But now I’m with her and now he has to deal with the both of us gone. I start to cry just thinking about what this will do to Kyle.

“Shh
, don’t cry. I think you need to rest a little more. You are safe here. I won’t let anything happen to you. You just sleep. OK?”

I lay back down and Chloe strokes my hair to comfort me
, just like Kyle does.

“I’m just going to go get a towel to clean that cut o
n your head. I’ll be right back,” she starts to get up and I immediately start to panic.

“NO, please don’t leave me,
” I plead.

“OK, I won’t go anywhere. It’
s not that deep, it can wait until later,” she says and sits back next to me on the bed.

With relief I close my eyes and drift off to sleep. In my dreams
, I play out the horrible event in my kitchen. The look in that man’s face will never leave me for the rest of my life. It is indelibly marked forever on my soul. There was a look of devastation and anger that bore deep in his eyes. I don’t know how long I slept, but I wake up screaming.

“Shh Amelia, you’re OK,” s
he whispers.

My heart is pounding in my ears and I am breathing heavy. I look at Chloe and remember again what has been
happening.

“I’
m sorry, I didn’t mean to scream,” I tell her as my whole body starts to shake.

Just then the door up the stairs opens and a bag is tossed down and something is scrapping on the top step. We both cling to each other and then the door closes and locks. It wasn’t just o
ne lock either. It was several.

Chloe gets up and walks to the top step. She comes down
with a tray of food and a bag.

“What’s in the bag?” I ask her.

“Let’s find out,” she replies.

Chloe opens the brown paper bag and inside is some bandages and clothing. She sets it out on the bed and puts the tray of food between the two of us.

“I don’t think he’s really a bad man by nature. I know that sounds crazy, but I think his grief has caused him to do things he normally wouldn’t do. I think the loss of his wife and baby was just too much for him to cope with. He leaves me alone for the most part. He doesn’t neglect my needs. He’s just keeping me imprisoned to punish me and Kyle. I keep hoping that one day he would just let me go.”

“I don’t know how you can say nice things about him after
everything you have been through,” I look at her in disbelief. How can she make an excuse for this horrible man?

“I was angry and depressed in the beginning. But I quickly learned if I had any chance to survive this
, I had to stop being the victim and get outside of my own brain to keep myself safe.

“We should eat
, and then I’ll clean you up. You have several cuts that need to be cleaned before they get infected.”

We eat everything on the
tray. There were two sandwiches, two apples, and some cookies. How can a man who kidnapped me so violently turn around and give me a cookie?

There is a sink and a toilet
and a shower in the adjoining bathroom where Chloe fills two plastic cups with water from the sink. When we are done eating she walks the tray back up to the top step and pushes it through the narrow slit at the bottom of the door.

She comes back down and opens the bandages and ointment. She cleans several cuts on my hands and arms and one larger one on my head. They must have all happened when I struggled with him in my kitchen. Chloe hands me the clothes
and it’s then that I see my shirt is torn.

“You can change in the bathroom if you like
,” she points toward the bathroom and holds out the clothes to me.

I’m still so unsure of my surroundings
, and I’m still trying to process everything. I must look like a deer caught in the headlights. I look to the door up the stairs.

“It’s OK. He normally doesn’t come dow
n here. You are safe. If he does come down here, which is very rarely, I usually go in the bathroom and close the door. He has a few rules that I’ve learned quickly. Every few months he brings a box down here with supplies in it. There is usually cleaning supplies and toiletries in it. I have learned what to do and what not to do. But you are safe here,” she says reassuringly.

I take the clothes and go into the bathroom and close the door. I lean on the door
, and I can’t even begin to imagine what she has been going through all this time. I change into the clothes and open the door. I look around the room and for the first time I take it all in. There is a full size bed with relatively nice sheets and a comforter on it. There is a small wooden table with two chairs, a book shelf completely lined with books and on one shelf there are artfully constructed origami figures. I walk over to them and pick up one that looks like a unicorn. It is beautiful. It’s made with purple and yellow paper and had to have taken a long time to make.

“That is one of my newer ones. One of the books he sent down was how to make origami. I find that it helps pass the time. This one here took me a few days to put together.”
She points to the unicorn in my hand.

I place it back on the shelf and sit at the table.
I look at my hands and the cuts on them and then notice all the bruises up and down my arms. My hands start to shake and I start to cry.

Chloe kneels on the floor in front of me and takes my hands in hers.

“It’s OK, let it all out,” she says to me.

Kyle

We are in Slick’s blacked out black
Explorer in a neighborhood known for its violence and crime. He pulls up an alley and parks.

“I’ll only be a
minute, everyone stays here,” he orders.

He
steps out, shoves his gun in the back of his jeans and closes the door. He bangs on the building door three times and a man big enough to be a bouncer at the worst bar in America opens the door, jerks his chin then lets him in. The three of us don’t say a word to each other and within five minutes Slick gets back into the Explorer.

“What did you find out?” Asher asks.

“They haven’t heard anything about today, but they know of a man who may be connected to Chloe. Just outside of town in a secluded area there is a man who is rumored to have abducted a woman a few years back. My guy said one night a man came into a bar and got drunk and claimed to have kidnapped a woman and gotten away with it. I have the address, but this is a long shot. Rumors about a drunken man are not a good lead to go on,” he says, turning back around facing the front of the vehicle.

“We have to try. S
omething is better than nothing,” Aiden says.

“I agree
, this is more than I have ever gotten in two years of looking for Chloe. I’ll take a chance, and try anything,” I tell them. Asher has a strange look on his face and looks at me with a blank stare.

“What are you thinking about Asher?” I ask puzzled
. Why is he is just staring at me?

“You said you’ll take a chanc
e,” he replies.

“Yeah, so?
I think we should look into any lead we have,” I tell him confused.

“
Yes, you’re right. It’s just those words. Take a chance. They have a special meaning to me. Never mind, just forget I said anything.” he says shaking his head.

“
If you two fairies are done, I think this is a really bad idea. I am only one man with a gun. You guys don’t look like you can handle yourself if it comes down to a fight,” Slick tells us.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say we can handle ourselves. This guy has our family and
we intend on getting them back,” Asher says.

The drive takes less than thirty minutes and we
end up driving down a dirt road. A house comes into view, and we park behind some trees well out of sight of the house.

“OK this is how this is going to g
o down,” Slick says as he turns around in his seat to look at us.

“
You will all stay behind me and do exactly as I say. Do I make myself clear? We are not going in until dark. We will sit here and stakeout the joint first,” Slick tells us.