The crowd at the reception followed Kristen and Steel out as they ran towards their waiting limousine. As usual, well wishes were being yelled out and rice was thrown from every direction.
“Man, who decided throwing rice at a bride and groom was a good idea?” Kristen asked once she was safely inside the limo. “I almost lost an eye.” Kristen had never been on the receiving end of the rice throw. It was definitely a different experience.
Steel chuckled and checked out his wife’s eye. It finally hit him, Kristen was now his wife. It felt good to realize that his dreams had finally come true. “Well, it’s worth possibly losing an eye to get to spend the rest of your life with your soul-mate,” he said before planting a kiss on his wife’s lips.
The limo drove Kristen and Steel directly to the airport where they would head out for their honeymoon. Even without their tuxedo and wedding gown, the crowds at the airport still stared as Kristen and Steel exited the limo.
“I kind-of feel like a movie star,” Kristen joked. She half expected paparazzi to pop up and start shooting photos of her and Steel.
At the check-in counter, Steel let it slip that they were travelling for their honeymoon and the airline employee bumped them up to first class for free.
“That is so sweet of you,” Kristen told the lady before thanking her profusely. Kristen had never flown first class, and was really looking forward to it. She had heard stories of seats that lay fully back into beds and steaks and ice cream being served, in addition to champagne. Most of those stories came from overseas flights, but she and Steel were going to Hawaii, so she figured there might be some similar perks. At the very least, the seats would be bigger and roomier.
At the security gate, both Kristen and Steel made it through without incident. But, as Kristen was putting her jacket and shoes back on, she somehow managed to forget her carry-on bag.
“Where’s your bag?” Steel asked as they were half-way down the escalator.
“Oh my God! I left it upstairs at security!” Kristen gasped. She hoped that the airport wouldn’t see it as some sort of security threat and make her go through some advanced screening or even delay her flight.
As soon as she and Steel made it down the escalator, a security guard showed Kristen where the elevator was so she could return to the security check in area. The lady at the screening line was very friendly and told Kristen that people forget their bags all the time.
Within minutes, Steel and Kristen were back on track and headed towards their gate. They still had two hours to spare, but neither minded the wait. Even if they weren’t on some tropical island, they were together as husband and wife.
“I can’t believe we’re married and finally going on our honeymoon,” Kristen told Steel as they waited at the gate.
“Any regrets?” he asked. He had none. He was with the woman of his dreams and couldn’t be happier. He had heard about guys that freaked out after getting married because it finally hit them that they were tied down and no longer free, but Steel didn’t feel any of that. He felt more shackled down as a single man. Now that he had found Kristen, he considered himself free.
“Not a single one,” Kristen answered and kissed Steel. The people at their gate were probably getting sick of their kissing and lovey-dovey attitudes, but they had just gotten married. Screw anyone that had a problem with it.
Just before boarding, Kristen remembered that she needed to send a text to Julie before she would have to turn off her phone. “She did so much to help with the wedding, and I want to say thank you. I didn’t get to see her as we left,” Kristen explained as she typed.
“We will now begin boarding for flight twelve twenty-five,” the flight attendant announced from their podium over the loud speaker. “We will begin with first class and then proceed with those needing additional help with boarding…”
“That’s us…are you ready?” Steel asked Kristen as he held his hand out for her. When they made it onto the plane, he loaded their bags into the overhead bin before taking their seats. He let Kristen the aisle seat because she was a little afraid of heights. He didn’t mind, he liked looking out the window during a flight anyway.
It took about twenty more minutes for everyone else to board the plane. As the flight attendants began their safety announcements and instructions, Kristen checked her phone for a reply from Julie. There still had been no reply, so Kristen powered down her phone.
“Are you alright?” Steel whispered to Kristen. She looked disappointed.
“I’m fine. I was just hoping to hear from Julie before turning my phone off. I think it’s just been a long day already, too,” she laughed as she yawned.
“Julie and Kawoski are probably off together somewhere, celebrating,” Steel replied before suggesting Kristen take a little nap. “That way, you’ll be nice and refreshed when we get to the hotel.”
Once Kristen was asleep, Steel took his own advice and took a short nap as well. Even he had to admit, it had been an exhausting day. He planned on having a great first night in Hawaii with his bride, and didn’t want to fall asleep as soon as they got there.
Chapter 7
Back at the wedding venue, the room where Kristen and Steel had held their reception had cleared out. All of the guests had gone home, except for the few that volunteered to help clean up. Kawoski was one of those people, and he scanned the room looking for Julie. She was also supposed to stay and help, but there was no sign of her. In fact, he hadn’t seen her in some time.
“Hey, have you guys seen Julie?” he asked two of the bridesmaids that were stacking up the chairs in a corner.
“No, we haven’t seen her all night,” the twin sister bridesmaids answered in unison.
Kawoski was starting to get concerned. Julie had been a big part of the wedding and had been present for every part. He hadn’t seen her since the first dance between Kristen and Steel. Where could she have gone, and why? He knew he was probably over-reacting, but it was the cop in him to always question everything. He quickly pulled out his phone and dialed Julie’s number.
RING, RING, RING…
There was no answer. Kawoski decided to ask everyone else still at the venue if they had seen her. Though most of the guests for Kristen and Steel’s wedding had gone home, there were other functions still being held.
As he asked person after person, no one remembered seeing anyone resembling Julie. Half of the people he talked to were so drunk they wouldn’t have even remembered seeing themselves in a mirror. He needed to think, so he sat down on a bench in the hallway. It was very unlikely that anything was wrong, but Kawoski just couldn’t get the sinking feeling he had in the pit of his stomach to go away. He made up his mind that he would go to Julie’s to see if she was home. Maybe she had just gotten sick and left early.
As he headed out to the parking lot after apologizing for not staying and helping clean up the reception room, Kawoski saw two police cruisers parked beside the building. The officers were talking to an elderly lady. He was tempted to just continue to his car. He didn’t want to waste any time getting to Julie’s but he wondered if the police being there were somehow related.
As he approached the police, he noticed the officers were from his own precinct. “What are you doing here, Sarg?” one of the officers asked when he looked up and noticed Kawoski approaching. The other told Kawoski that he was looking sharp.
Kawoski wasn’t in the mood for small talk. He was worried about Julie and that concern was giving him a migraine. “Steel’s wedding,” he answered gruffly. “What’s this about?”
“I saw a man pull a woman out the door and take her to a van,” the elderly woman, who must’ve been about seventy at least answered.
“We’re sure it’s nothing,” one of the officers taking the old lady’s statement told Kawoski.
Kawoski wasn’t so sure. He had learned over the years to trust his gut, and his gut was telling him that something was seriously wrong. “What did this woman look like?” he asked the lady. A
s he suspected, her description matched that of Julie.
“Can you describe the man, the vehicle he drove off in, anything?” he asked.
He was in luck, the woman was quite observant. She not only could describe the man, and the van he shoved Julie into, but she also had his tag number. “I remember because it was one of those, what do you call them? The tags that say things?” the woman explained.
“Vanity plates?” one of the officers suggested.
“Yes, vanity plates,” the lady continued. “It read SPIDER, but it wasn’t a Colorado tag.”
Kawoski thanked the woman for the information and ordered the two officers to put out a BOLO on an older van with the SPIDER license plate.
I’m so sorry I didn’t say anything sooner. I thought maybe the man was just getting the girl to take her home…that maybe she drank to much or something. The more I thought about it, though, the stranger it seemed. He was holding her around the mouth,” the woman told Steel. He didn’t like hearing the details about what had happened to Julie, but he needed to know everything if he was going to save her.
Kawoski toyed with the idea of calling Steel and Kristen and letting them know what was going on, but he didn’t want to mess up their honeymoon. They were likely on the plane with their phones turned off anyways. Besides that, what could they really do? No, he would just tell them when they got home, and hopefully by then Julie would be back home, safe and sound.
Without even taking the time to go home and change, Kawoski headed to the police station. He wanted to see what could be done about checking security cameras as well as searching the databases for the license plate the lady had claimed to see. It would be a long night, but the station was always equipped with plenty of strong, hot, black coffee.
By the time Kawoski arrived at the station, there was already a little progress on the case. The wedding venue didn’t have security cameras that covered their parking lot, but the bank next door did. The video of Julie’s kidnapping didn’t really provide much extra help, but it did corroborate what the elderly lady said she saw. It also confirmed for Kawoski that the kidnapped woman was definitely Julie. Even far away and fuzzy, he recognized her instantly.
After another hour, they had narrowed the van search to just three vans that had matching license plates and descriptions. Kawoski pulled the vehicle registration records for each and had the names ran through the system. One came back with a hit. Derek Moore.
Derek Moore was thirty-eight and had just been released from prison in Nevada. Before that, he had a long list of priors including both misdemeanors and felonies. As Kawoski read through the list of priors, he was glad to see that none involved hurting anyone. It was a small consolation, but it was something at least. For the time being, he needed any amount of hope he could muster.
Chapter 8
As Julie’s eyes flittered open, she felt disoriented. She was in a haze and wasn’t sure what was going on. What she was sure of, though, is that she had one of the worst headaches she had ever experienced. As she tried to raise her hand to her forehead to massage the pain away, panic struck her. Her hand wouldn’t move. It was tied down to something.
Her eyes began to focus but she was still unsure of where she was or even if she was really awake at all. She looked around the room, which was dark and smelled of mildew. Wherever she was, it seemed like it had long been abandoned. With the bit of moonlight that came through the window, she could see the lighting fixtures were covered in cobwebs. Everything else in the room seemed to be covered in a thick layer of dust.
Julie struggled to get her hands and legs free and remembered that she had been grabbed from behind after answering the call at the wedding reception. Everything was becoming a little clearer. She was sure it wasn’t a dream. She was really tied up in some abandoned building. As the realization hit her, her first instinct was to scream and yell. Maybe there would be someone nearby that would hear her cries and either rescue her or call for help.
Just as she was about to scream, Julie heard a voice. It was faint, but as she struggled to hear what the voice was saying, it gradually got louder. It was a man’s voice. She couldn’t him, but his voice was deep, with what sounded like a southern accent. She was able to make out a few words. The man was asking someone how far away they were.
Julie’s mind raced. If someone else was coming, she didn’t have much time to try to get free. It would be hard enough with just one person guarding her, but with two, it would be almost impossible. It also occurred to her that whatever they wanted with her would happen whenever the second person arrived. Until then, at least, she would likely remain unharmed.
A shadow crossed the doorway of the office where Julie was being held, so she closed her eyes and did her best to go limp. At least for the time being, she wanted to appear to still be unconscious.
Derek was getting frustrated. He had already been waiting for quite some time for his boss only to find out he was going to have to wait longer. As each minute passed, he grew more and more nervous. Nervous about getting caught, or double-crossed, or any number of other things that could go wrong. He expected it to a simple job. He was supposed to grab the woman and hand her over. He assumed he’d already be back home and in his own bed…only richer, but that wasn’t the case. Besides the waiting around, the warehouse was beginning to creep him out. He kept hearing strange sounds. They were probably just the sounds of mice or rats crawling around in search of food, but they still freaked him out. For all he knew, the sounds were made from a S.W.A.T. team surrounding the warehouse. Any minute, he could have his body riddled with flying bullets.
As Derek paced back and forth, he glanced over at the woman. She was still out. That was good. He didn’t need any other complications. She was pretty. He knew many other men from his time in prison that would probably try to take advantage of the situation. It wasn’t everyday he had a pretty, young woman tied up and unconscious. That wasn’t Derek’s style, though. He may have compromised his morals some because of his need to eat and provide a roof over his head, but that was out of necessity. He wouldn’t ever hurt a woman, for money or otherwise.
“What did I get myself into?” Derek asked himself as he paced back and forth in the small office. Occasionally he would accidentally kick some of the trash remnants on the floor which would make Julie jump slightly. She hoped the man that had grabbed her didn’t notice. As he continued talking to himself, she listened and tried to form a plan. The man’s voice was gruff, but she got the idea that he had a conscience. It was a long shot, but she thought it might be possible to convince him to let her go. Even if he didn’t, she may be able to get some information out of him.
Winging her plan, Julie pretended to slowly wake up. “Where am I?” she asked in a horse, half-whisper.
Derek’s head jerked back to look at the woman when he heard her speak. She was awake. He hadn’t thought of what he would do if she woke up because he expected to be long gone by then. Since he didn’t know what to say, he decided instead to just keep pacing back and forth and completely ignore her.
Julie knew the man had heard her. She saw him look directly at her as she spoke. She asked the same question again, only louder, but again the man refused to answer her or even look at her a second time. If she couldn’t get him to say anything, maybe she could play on his sympathies. It wasn’t something she expected a kidnapper to be susceptible to, but it was worth a try.
She struggled in the chair, only half pretending to freak out at the realization that she was tied up and helpless in a strange place. “Why am I tied up?” she yelled as she buckled back and forth. “Help me! These ropes hurt!” It took a while, but the man did begin to pay attention to her.
“Calm down!” Derek yelled as he turned around to restrain the woman. He tried not to show it, but he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t really worry about anyone hearing her yell, since they were nowhere near civilization. What worried him was that the woman sounded as though she was genuinely in pain.
He wasn’t sure he could handle it much longer.
“Why am I here?!” Julie demanded to know as she stared directly into the kidnapper’s eyes. They weren’t the eyes of a killer. They were softer, somehow. They looked scared.
Derek wondered if he should answer, but he already determined that ignoring the woman had only made things worse. So, he answered…determined to keep his answers short and vague. “I don’t know?” he answered. It was the truth. He didn’t have any idea what his boss wanted with her, only that she wasn’t supposed to be hurt.
Feeling bolder, Julie kept questioning the man. Maybe if she bombarded him with questions, he would break and let something important slip. “So, you just kidnap anyone without even knowing why? What kind of a man are you?” As she kept firing one question after another at the kidnapper, she could tell he was getting close to breaking.
“I was hired to grab you and hand you over to my boss. He promised me you won’t be hurt so just calm down! This will all be over soon!” Derek yelled back, hoping all he said was the truth. All he wanted was to get paid and wash his hands of the woman and the entire ordeal. The money he would be getting paid would keep him set for almost a year if he spent it wisely. He kept reminding himself that it was just one night of his life to get him through the next twelve months. That thought comforted him…a little.
As Derek told Julie that it would all be over soon, she was worried that’s exactly what would happen. Just as she was about to fire another round of questions at him, the kidnapper’s phone rang.
“Be quiet, if you know what’s good for you!” he forcefully told Julie before answering the call. She complied only because she wanted to listen into the call.
The unmistakable sound of a car driving over gravel could be heard just before a light travelled across the walls of the office. It quickly became apparent that the call the kidnapper received was to let him know his boss was pulling up outside. Julie panicked. She wondered if she should have just continued to pretend she was still knocked out. It was too late for that though. She would just have to deal with whatever was about to come her way, whatever that might be.
Identity Crisis (Rocky Mountain Novella Series) Page 3
