The Abducted: Odessa

by Roger Hayden

  He looked over to Natalie and could see that she was still breathing. She’d live. He stumbled to the bed and yanked her white sheets off the bed, while tearing one sheet in half.

  Warm blood flowed from the wound, soaking his hand in blood. He bent over to apply pressure and quickly got to work, folding the sheet around his waist in layers. The white of the sheet covering his wound turned to red faster than he could have imagined.

  He limped over to Natalie where she lay on her side, holding her chest. “Get up.”

  But he could hear nothing above a whimper. The thought of carrying her back to the bed made his side hurt even more. He nudged her back with the tip of his shoe, but she wouldn’t move.“I’ve got to go to work. I’m willing to overlook this for now if you get back into bed.” She still didn’t respond. He sensed that there was no reaching her. As he stood over her, pondering his next move, she said something low and faint.“What was that?” he asked, kneeling with a grunt. She whispered again, and he leaned closer, inches from her face.“Let me go,” she whispered.

  Walter smiled and shook his head. He quickly grabbed her by the neck and yanked her upward, causing her to cry out. She tilted her head up, sobbing with eyes closed and her hair matted and wet.“How did you do it?” he shouted. “Tell me!”“I used a fork,” she cried out. “The one from dinner.” Her trembling arm rose as she pointed to the bed. “It’s under the mattress.”

  Gripping her neck, Walter stared at the bed in wonder. “Really?” Without warning, he rose and pulled her up with him. He gripped her shoulder with one hand and the back of her neck with the other and pushed her along as she cried. With every ounce of adrenaline left, he picked her up and tossed her onto the bed with one quick heave.

  Natalie lay there defeated as his wild hands searched under the mattress, pulling out the familiar fork. He stared down at her in a moment of bewilderment then grabbed her arm and handcuffed it back to the railing. He pulled at the cuffs a few times for good measure and then stuck the fork in his pocket.“I don’t know what you were planning to do next, but don’t do it. Don’t even think about it.”

  Natalie turned away from him, crying into her pillow. It was hard for him to feel bad given the injury in his side, but he tried to sound less angry than before.“I’ve got a very busy day, and I just want you to promise me no more shenanigans, okay?”

  She said nothing beyond her cries.“Okay?” he asked again with anger rising in his tone.“Yes,” she said softly, through heavy sobs.“Good then,” he said. “That’s good to hear.” He walked away without another word and left Natalie lying there, face buried in her tear-soaked pillow. Stomping up the stairs, he swung open the door and slammed it shut, too angry to clean up the mess in the room.

  Walter walked into the kitchen, knowing that he had to clean the wound and would most definitely be late for work. He had never been late before, but that morning had been full of firsts, having a shard of glass thrust into his side being one of them.

  He went to the counter and stared out the window into his backyard as the pain rushed back. His head hung low as he gritted his teeth in the sunlight. He lifted his head, opening his eyes to a clear new revelation. “Natalie’s not the right one,” he said under his breath. “This isn’t going to work. She’s too wild.” He sighed and then looked at his pale and sweaty reflection in the window. “I’m going to have to find someone else.”

  As was his habit, Walter turned on a small radio sitting on the kitchen counter. With the pain throbbing in his side, he felt vulnerable, frightened even. He had some disinfectant in his medicine cabinet along with gauze and cotton balls. That’d do the trick. But first, his instincts told him to check the local news for updates. He was well aware that police were in pursuit of a blue van—an issue he had remedied the day before.

  They were no doubt pursuing Natalie on all fronts, and Walter couldn’t decide on whether he even wanted her anymore. But he couldn’t just let her go. She’d seen his face and heard his voice. His blood was on her face from the hand he’d smacked her with. What was he to do?“Damn it, Walter,” he said to himself, leaning against the counter in pain. “You’ve really done it this time.”

  He stopped thinking as the announcer’s voice on the radio suddenly gained his attention. They were talking about Natalie, and it was exactly what he wanted to hear.“Ector County Police Department are in possession of two letters purportedly written by the kidnapper of April Johnson, who disappeared last week, and Natalie Forester, who vanished from a Food Mart parking lot two days ago. One letter was delivered directly to Natalie Forester’s parents, taunting police and making demands for the local police to enlist the aid of Lieutenant Miriam Sandoval, the detective famous for solving the Snatcher case in South Florida one year ago.”

  Walter lunged forward and turned the volume louder as sweat beads ran down his forehead.“Local officials have stated that investigators are in hot pursuit of whomever wrote the letters, which were reportedly constructed from letters clipped from magazine to avoid leaving evidence of handwriting. These ransom-like letters, police claim, are not a hoax but messages from the person they believe is responsible for the kidnappings. More details at the top of the hour in this small-town hunt for a dangerous predator.”

  Walter turned down the radio, stunned and baffled. He had been busy throughout the night and early morning and had heard nothing of the supposed letters before. The news made no sense.“Letters?” he asked aloud. “What letters?”

  ***

  Miriam walked with the detectives toward the police station with no clear understanding of Shelton’s plan. A uniformed officer exited the building upon their approach and looked up, surprised. He was young and athletic looking, in his early thirties, with dark, slicked-back hair and a clean-shaven face.“Detective Hayes. Detective Shelton. Good morning. I didn’t expect you here so early,” he said.“We wanted to get an early crack at everything right away,” Hayes said.“Is Sergeant Bennett here?” Shelton asked.

  The two detectives then turned to Miriam almost apologetically.“Oh, I’m sorry, Lieutenant Sandoval. This is Corporal Taylor,” Hayes said. He then turned to the corporal and introduced him to Miriam.“Nice to meet you,” Taylor said with a smile and a handshake. For a moment, it looked as though he couldn’t take his eyes off of her.“Thank you, Corporal,” Miriam said. “It’s a pleasure.”“I swear I know you from somewhere,” he said with certainty.

  Miriam shrugged without response, only to have Hayes cut in and eloquently blow her cover.“You might know the lieutenant from the Snatcher case.”

  Astonished, Taylor’s eyes widened. “It is you!”

  Hayes put a hand up, stifling the corporal’s enthusiasm. “Of course, we need to keep it on the down low. Lieutenant Sandoval is here as an advisor, given her experience, but we need her involvement kept out of the public eye, if you know what I mean.”

  Taylor nodded. “I understand, but didn’t this Chancellor of Doom nut case mention your name in his last letter?”

  Miriam wanted to ask the corporal why they weren’t patrolling the streets for the very same man he had mentioned. There was a level of complacency at the station that troubled her. She kept such thoughts to herself for the moment, trusting that the detectives knew what they were doing.“Were you headed somewhere?” Shelton asked Taylor.

  Taylor shifted around on the concrete entrance slab, looking toward his patrol car. “Well, I was going to run to the Food Mart and get some coffee. The sergeant’s in a tizzy without it.”“How about we just have a look at the board first?” Hayes asked.“The board?” Miriam added. “Can someone please tell me what’s going on here?”“Yes, Lieutenant,” Hayes said. “I apologize. We’re getting right to it.”“I just don’t want to waste any critical time when we should be out there looking for those girls,” she said, impassioned.“It’s okay,” Shelton said, placing a hand on her shoulder with a sympathetic look. “We’re still on track. A good plan takes time, though. You know that.”

&n
bsp; Miriam nodded, giving them the benefit of the doubt.

  A car suddenly pulled into the parking lot, gaining everyone’s attention. The car, a red four-door Kia Spectra, parked and idled for a moment, its driver concealed behind tinted windows.“I think that’s her,” Corporal Taylor said.

  Detective Shelton pulled out his cell and scrolled through the screen. “Yep. She just sent me a text a couple of minutes back.”

  As the engine shut off, the driver’s side door opened, revealing a girl who didn’t look a day over thirteen. She was small and skinny, with long brown hair and jean shorts and a halter top. Things were finally beginning to make sense to Miriam.“Who is she?” she asked Shelton directly.

  Shelton smiled, clearly proud of himself. “That is Wendy. She’s nineteen. Can you believe it?”

  The girl waved and approached the group with a smile, her lips bearing the brightest red lipstick Miriam had seen in some time. Her cherub face was enhanced by finely applied makeup from eye shadow to rosy cheeks and mascara that made her look older and more mature, which Shelton explained as being precisely the point.“Our profile of this creep indicates a taste for mature children who act older than their age. Both April Johnson and Natalie Forester were smart kids, honor roll students, and quite mature for their age as described by their friends and family.”“Wait a minute,” Miriam said quietly as Wendy approached. “You’re not going to use that girl as bait, are you?”

  Shelton laughed, waving Miriam off. “It’s fine. Trust me.”“Yes,” Hayes added. “We have some locations narrowed down. You should really see the board first.”“I can’t wait,” Miriam said with a tinge of sarcasm.“Everyone, this is Wendy Dawson,” Shelton said.

  Miriam and Corporal Taylor introduced themselves with smiles and handshakes. “Wendy’s a local from town,” he continued. “The police sergeant’s neighbor, actually.”

  Wendy smiled and spoke with a childlike voice that nearly matched her appearance. “I just want to do what I can to help,” she said. “Parents are terrified around here now. Lots of them don’t even want their kids going outside.”“We can’t thank you enough, Wendy,” Shelton said.

  Hayes turned to the closed double doors at the front of the station and held his arm out. “Shall we go inside?”

  The corporal glanced at his patrol car, longingly it seemed, to the notice of Detective Hayes.“Give us a few minutes before you make your coffee run, please.”

  Taylor nodded and pushed ahead, opening the doors for the group as they walked into the small-town police station that looked practically empty. The lobby was surrounded by tall counters that sectioned the area off into a square. An empty desk lay beyond the front counter, and Miriam could see another police officer pacing back-and-forth beyond the glass partition. They followed Taylor as he pushed past a swinging wooden divider between the lobby and the office area.“Sergeant Bennett is on the phone right now. He’s been tied up the past few days, as you can imagine,” he said.“How many officers work here?” Miriam asked, stunned to see so many empty desks sitting on the green vinyl flooring.“There’s three others. Two of ’em work the night shift. The other one’s out on patrol,” he answered.

  They walked past several vacant desks and into a back room as sunlight beamed in through the slits of closed blinds along the way. As Miriam entered, it became obvious to her that the detectives had been busy. The room held a large whiteboard with a map of the city, a television showing static on the screen, and a table with stacks of files and paperwork.

  The map was marked to designate the areas of the kidnappings and the nearest—and ultimately sparse—security cameras in the town. They had their own operation going, and things began to make more sense to her.“What’s my role in all this?” she asked as they gathered around the table, with Wendy pacing the room and looking at a nearby bulletin board of crime scene photos.“By now, he has to know that you’ve joined the case,” Hayes began. “We’re expecting another note very soon. And we’re also expecting him to strike again.”

  Shelton pressed a button on a mixer board next to the television, which then began displaying black-and-white security footage playing at three times the regular speed. “Here we have six hours of footage from the two traffic light cameras in town. During the time both girls were abducted, there is no image of a blue van anywhere.” He stopped the video and continued speaking.“However, some three hours before the first and second kidnappings, we have this…” He sped the footage along as the time code at the bottom of the screen went backward. The image then paused at a blurry image of a blue van crossing the intersection.“There,” he said, pointing at the screen. “We’ve got that van marked three times within the hour before Natalie’s abduction.”

  Miriam approached the screen in disbelief. They couldn’t see the driver or the license plate of the van, as the image had been shot from the front, but she was certain, nonetheless, that it was the van they were looking for. She turned to the two detectives, impressed with what they had captured. “You guys have been busy, haven’t you?”“Don’t thank us,” Hayes said, slapping Corporal Taylor on the back. “The corporal here has been on this for the past day or two.”“Do you have any footage from the area where April was abducted?” Miriam asked.

  Taylor looked down in disappointment. “Unfortunately not. The surveillance company wipes their servers every week.”

  Miriam scoffed in disbelief. “Why would they do that?”

  Taylor shook his head with a sheepish grin. “We don’t normally have cases of this, um… magnitude here in Odessa.”

  Detective Shelton moved away from the screen and approached the big board, where the map was displayed. There, areas of the two abductions, across town from each other, were circled and dotted lines showed the assumed route of their suspect throughout town, with greater focus on the main business sector and through the town hall and parks. The working surveillance spots were pinpointed with thin thumbtacks approximately three blocks apart. They had highlighted a route through the downtown area and the nearest residential neighborhood, where April had disappeared, ending at the Food Mart parking lot.

  A large circle had been drawn on the map, past elementary schools, public parks, and the Odessa Plaza, where young people often hung out. There was no doubt that their suspect had scoped these places out—that he had probably been scoping them out for a while. The only question was, why hadn’t he struck sooner?“He’s been biding his time,” Miriam said, observing the map carefully. The pattern before her was as clear as the highlighted circle that encompassed the territory of their suspect. “And now his game has started.”“That’s why we’re going to put an end to this thing and save those girls before it’s too late,” Hayes said.

  Shelton stepped away from the board and picked up some glossy photos from the table, grainy black-and-white images of the van. “We’ve distributed these photos throughout the county and even sent some to the local news stations. So far, we’ve got nothing.”“He’s ditched the van by now,” Miriam said. “We need to find out where.”“In time,” Hayes added. “The important thing is that he knows that you’re on the case, or at least we think he knows that you’re on the case. We want him to think that everything is going just as planned.”

  Miriam looked at Wendy sympathetically as the young-looking nineteen-year-old sat across from her at the cluttered table, quiet and attentive. “I’m sorry, but I do have reservations about this.”“What do you mean?” Hayes asked.“Do your parents know?” she asked the girl.

  Wendy nodded enthusiastically. “Sure they do. And besides, I’m nineteen.”“It’s risky,” Miriam said. “We don’t know who we’re dealing with here.”

  Hayes and Shelton exchanged glances as Corporal Taylor stood to the side, staying out of it. Hayes then leaned on the table next to Miriam and spoke with his most reassuring tone. “County investigators will be on site in unmarked cars. There will be at least another dozen police officers surrounding the area and ready to strike.”“I want to do this,
Ms. Sandoval,” Wendy said, speaking out. “This is important for me. I’m planning on going to the police academy and working in law enforcement. It’s the best starting point I could ask for.”“I don’t know,” Miriam said, rubbing her head. “Do you really think this could work?”

  Shelton cleared his throat. “You haven’t seen the final components to the plan.”

  He then walked to the corner of the room and grabbed a large black plastic case by the handle and hauled it near the table. He pulled open the latches and opened the container, revealing an expensive-looking miniature drone helicopter, wrapped in protective padding, and complete with a control panel and several monitor screens.

  Shelton continued. “As you’ve probably assumed, Lieutenant, this is a covert operation. We don’t want our suspect to know he’s being followed.”

  He paused and then walked to the map, pointing at the corner of Main Street and Albany. “The drone will track his movements from the initial pick-up spot, here, all the way across town, probably along this route and hopefully right to his home,” he said, dragging his finger across the map.“At that point, we step in,” Hayes added.

  Miriam leaned against the table, thinking. Shelton’s approach could take days depending on the assumption that he would strike again, on the assumption that he would go after their decoy, and the assumption that he was even still in town. She gathered her thoughts the best she could, took a step away from the table, and then offered her assessment.“I applaud the work you’ve done here so far, and Wendy, I admire your bravery and generosity.” She took a step back and examined the map on the wall. “I just need to think about this and assess ways in which it could be improved. Give me a minute.”

  The detectives seemed satisfied enough, everyone nodding as Corporal Taylor leaned against the wall with his hands in his pockets, looking a bit tired. Miriam couldn’t imagine the hours he had spent viewing security footage the past day.“It’s a good plan,” Hayes said. “The best thing we have going for us now.”