by Mike Faricy
Chapter Three
It was well after midnight. There was a uniformed female officer named Patty Ryan assigned to spend the night at Isabella’s. Two other guys were hanging in the kitchen. Just now Officer Patty was making a fresh pot of coffee and both of us were working to keep Isabella away from the coffee. The paramedics had left some sleep aids and Isabella had taken one maybe a half hour ago. She’d been fighting sleep ever since. The sleep aid could kick in anytime now and it would be just fine with me.
“God, if I’d known he was out there I never would have left the girls,” Isabella said, not for the first time. She had pretty much cried herself out over the past few hours, but that didn’t stop her from repeating the same mantra over and over again.
“When you told me your ex-boyfriend was in Pleasant Lake I thought you meant a house, you know actually on the lake. It never dawned on me he was in rehab.”
“Hardly a boyfriend, more like a bad encounter that kept coming back to haunt the three of us. It was one of the terms of his going back into rehab again, they were supposed to inform me of his leaving at least a week in advance of the date.”
“Well, I guess with your change of address and new phone number it looks like it sort of fell through the cracks.”
“The information the police had is he just walked away. He’s done it before.”
“Walked out of a rehab facility?”
“Yeah, at least twice that I know of and now this, God. I suppose that means there’s a fourth trip to rehab somewhere in his future.”
“I think under the circumstances the state might just have a little different plan. I’m sure the girls are all right, he’ll come to his senses and bring them home anytime now.”
“You really think so?” she said, sounding like she was grasping at the only straw out there in a very large cesspool of sludge.
“Yeah, we’ll have a big party for them, with two cakes,” I said waiting for her to smile. Instead her lower lip began to tremble and suddenly there was another flood of tears. Who could blame her?
The pounding in my head had gone from being constant to more of a lightening strike mode. Things seemed to be settling down for a moment or two and then suddenly this searing pain would race back up my neck and blast across my skull exploding on the right side of my brain. I made my way over to the refrigerator and exchanged the room temperature gel-pak I’d been holding for a cold one on the freezer shelf.
When I closed the freezer door Officer Patty shot me a look, then quietly said, “You both should try and get some rest. You’re going to have a busy day tomorrow.”
“Do you think he’ll call?” Isabella asked again.
Officer Patty shook her head and said, “I don’t know. I do know that whether or not he calls we’re going to need you, both of you, to be at your very best. Now, you need to get some rest. We’re here if your phone rings or someone’s at the door, so why don’t you try and close your eyes for a bit.”
“I don’t think I can,” Isabella said.
“You need to try, Is,” I said. “I’ll flake out on the couch, if anything happens one of us will get you. But, she’s right, you’ve got to be sharp tomorrow, we both do. Come on, try and close your eyes.”
“I won’t be able to sleep.”
“Then just rest, but you have to give it a try. You’ll be no good tomorrow if you don’t try. Come on,” I said and then put my arm around her shoulder and guided her down the hallway to her bedroom.
“Okay, okay, I’ll try. I’m really sorry he did that to you, Dev,” she said and indicated my swollen face with a nod of her head.
“Don’t worry about it, looks worse than it really is, you’ve got more than enough on your plate right now.”
“Do you think they’ll be alright, the girls?”
“They’ll be okay. I’m sure Emma is giving him directions right now.”
“Oh, God, one time he yelled and called her a bossy little bitch,” she said and a tear ran down her cheek.
“Don’t you worry about that, Is. They’ll be fine and probably home sooner than you think.”
“I just don’t know.”
“I do, and like Officer Patty said, you need to get some rest. I’m just out there on the couch. I’ll come get you if anything happens, okay?”
“Sorry about your face, it really looks like shit.”
“You just get some rest.”
I closed the door to her room and went back out to the living room. I stretched out on the couch and pulled a leopard skin fleece blanket up over me. I turned onto my left side and closed my eyes hoping that a little rest might alleviate some of the pounding in my head.
According to the digital clock on the stove it was just a little after five when I got up. Officer Patty was on an iPad and looked like she was in the process of sending an email.
“Anything shaking?” I half whispered.
She shook her head. “No, at least not so far. Don’t worry, we’ll get those girls back safe and sound.”
“What an absolute asshole,” I half said to myself.
“Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. How’s the head?”
“Actually, better, at least the pounding seems to have stopped for the moment. That was about the worst I’ve ever had.”
“He really nailed you, you’re lucky there wasn’t more damage, you don’t mind me saying, it looks like shit.”
“I can’t wait to discuss that with him.”
“You just let us deal with this butthead, he’s not about to see the light of day once we get hold of him. And, we will get him. You should maybe try and get some more rest, it can only help and we’re going to need you sharp as well as Isabella.”
“Hear anything from her room?”
Officer Patty shook her head. “They take an hour or so to kick in, but once those pills from the paramedics start working, she could be out for a few more hours. You wouldn’t want to make them a steady diet, but for tonight, it’s just what she needed.”
Chapter Four
Just as Officer Patty opened the front door I came awake on the living room couch. I kept my eyes closed for a moment and listened. I recognized Aaron LaZelle’s familiar voice as he stepped into the living room, talking softly trying not to wake me. We’d known one another since we were kids playing hockey. I opened my eyes just as another uniform stepped into the living room right behind Aaron. A big guy, whose jacket covered up the name stitched on his uniform shirt.
“No need to pretend you’re nice,” I said and slowly sat up.
“Man, you look like shit. How you feeling?” Aaron asked.
“I’ll make it. You got any news for us?”
He shook his head slightly. “Nothing yet, we got everyone looking for your vehicle. We’re doing rousts on all known contacts of your pal Carlos, something’ll click sooner or later and things will take off. We just need a little break is all.”
I’d heard him give a version of that speech a few times in the past. Based on my experience, in reality what he was saying was, “We are royally fucked for the moment.”
“Known associates, bar flies, idiots?”
“We’re checking everyone and everything, believe me, Dev. I’ve had teams out rousting folks all night long and they’re not about to stop. Something’s bound to turn up and we’ll have those two little girls back just as soon as possible.”
“What about the feds?”
“At this stage, I’d prefer not to go there, but we’re keeping an eye on that option. The moment it looks like we’re losing control they’ll get the call to come in. I don’t have any problem with that.”
“Do you even have control, now? Have you, have we, even for a moment been in control?”
“Believe me, I understand what you’re saying and, I share your frustration. But this isn’t you’re standard snatch and grab. We haven’t heard anything from this fuck head, no contact, nothing like a ransom demand, no taunting phone calls, zip.”
“What does that
tell you?”
“It strongly suggests an impulse reaction. I think if he looks back with some honest, soul searching reflection he’ll start to see the mistakes he’s made and find a way to get the girls back to their mother. Then, he’ll probably try and hightail it out of town. At which point, we’ll grab his ass and lock him up for the rest of his remaining days.”
“Honest, soul searching reflection? You got a hell of a lot more faith than I do.”
“Faith? No, just good hard work that will let us catch a break. That’s all we need, one brake, Dev. Just one.”
I stupidly shook my head and the pounding suddenly started up again.
“There’s going to be another problem, as well,” Aaron said.
“What’s that?”
“Words out, so the news media is going to be camping on the doorstep here.”
“That won’t help, she doesn’t need all that going on right now.”
“We can post someone out front, at least keep them somewhat at bay, if not away. But forewarned is forearmed.”
“Maybe we should get Isabella out of here before they show up?”
“No,” Aaron said. “First of all if he plans to phone or somehow make contact, this is the place to be. Secondly, she needs to be here, in surroundings that are familiar to her. And, well there’s still the hope that he might just bring the girls back here. I’m guessing she’s probably had just a couple hours of sleep, fitful at best. How are you doing, by the way?”
“Me? I look worse than I feel at this stage. Sacking out for a bit seemed to help. Another twenty-four hours and I should be back to normal.”
“Whatever that is.”
I ignored that last bit. “Now, what can I be doing to help?”
Aaron looked at me and shook his head. “Nothing. Please. In fact, the less you do the better. Well, unless you remember something that slipped your mind last night when Ditter interviewed you.”
“Ditter, that was the guy’s name? I mean he told me, probably more than once, but I was having trouble focusing to tell you the truth.”
“Yeah, Jack Ditter, he’s good, Dev. So, have you been checked out?”
“Me? The paramedics were here, they gave me something for the headache, Twenty-four hours will probably be the best thing for me, that and getting those little girls back home safe and sound.”
“You should see a doctor, Dev.”
“Once those girls are back, I will, I promise.”
“I mean this as a friend, but I don’t want you involved. This is delicate, we’re working it the best we can. No one can do a better job, Dev we’ve got the resources. So please, do not get involved. Got it?”
“Yeah, not to worry. I understand, I’ll stay cool.”
“Please, see that you do.”
“I said I would, I promise.”
“I’m holding you to that, Dev.”
Aaron was still there when Isabella came out of her bedroom. She looked and sounded groggy almost like she’d been drugged which, upon reflection, I guess was pretty much the case. Officer Patty said her good-byes, told us to hang in there and was replaced by another female uniform, Officer Vang.
“Let’s keep it simple, just call me Tai,” she said. Then she made a fresh pot of coffee and opened up a box filled with croissants and placed it on the dining room table.
“I thought you cops just ate doughnuts.”
She shot a smile at me that was meant to be anything but.
Aaron reached in and grabbed a croissant, then took a sip of hot coffee. It dawned on me that he’d been working through the night and was as exhausted as Isabella looked and at least as tired as I felt, he’d had absolutely no sleep.
The uniform with Aaron removed his jacket, nodded at Isabella and said, “I’m Gary Johnson, I’ve got a list of people we’ve been talking to. I’d like you to take a look and see if there might be anyone we’ve missed, maybe a name that might pop up who we hadn’t considered or should reconsider.”
Aaron sat down at the dining room table and rubbed his face as Johnson handed a two page list across the table. He looked as tired as Aaron and I guessed he’d probably been rousting folks out of bed for the past ten hours, not exactly the best way to win a popularity contest.
Isabella quickly ran down the list then turned to the second page and said, “To tell you the truth, I only recognize one or two of these names. I think this Luci O’Kelly is his mother, isn’t she? And this other guy, Arthur Goodwin, isn’t that his lawyer?”
Johnson nodded. “Mrs. O’Kelly is in an assisted living facility, Alzheimer’s, she was unable to be much help. Mr. Goodwin is with the public defenders office and was the court appointed attorney in an aggravated assault case. We’ll be talking to him first thing this morning.”
I glanced over at the clock on the stove, it was only twenty minutes before seven. If Goodwin had any sense he was still home in bed.
“Let me give you an update on what we have so far, which isn’t much, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad,” Aaron said
A cloud seemed to cross over Isabella’s face.
“Based on what we’ve learned up to this point, it would appear the girls abduction was a spur of the moment incident. It may have been triggered by Mr. Haskell’s appearance at the front door or perhaps you’re not being home. We don’t know. The positive side of this is that it means this was not a planned undertaking. What that suggests is there is an increased possibility that the girls will be released, possibly sooner rather than later. We are continuing our search and in fact redoubling our efforts. We have a statewide BOLO out for Carlos O’Kelly as well as the girls and just to be on the safe side we’re extending that across a five state region. I know it’s difficult if not near impossible, but the best thing you can do for both you and especially for the girls, is to remain calm and stay positive until we get them back, and we will get them back.”
Chapter Five
Aaron and Officer Johnson remained at Isabella’s for a while longer. By the time they were ready to go there were easily a half dozen officers in the place monitoring the equipment set up to triangulate cell phone towers, tape calls and God knows what else. Different from what we used to see in the movies, Isabella was like the majority of the under fifty US population and didn’t have a land line.
In fact, she’d gotten a completely different cell number because she had received some harassing phone calls from Carlos prior to his entering rehab. The police were thinking her new phone number might have been the event that precipitated his visit last night.
Aaron pulled me aside and said, “I’m about to take off. I could drop you down at Regions Hospital and let you get checked out. I’ll have someone standing by to give you a lift home once you get the okay.”
“Thanks, but I’m okay, really.”
“I think you should get checked out, Dev, just as a precaution if nothing else.”
I shook my head and made a mental note that I didn’t feel like I was going to throw up when I did it and took that as a sign of improvement. “Thanks, but could you just drop me home? I’d really appreciate it. I need to get cleaned up, change clothes, plus I need to figure out what the hell I’m going to do for transportation.”
“I can do that on one condition.”
“Relax, I already promised I wouldn’t get involved. How the hell would I even do that, Aaron? Right now, I’m on foot for Christ’s sake. And just for the record, I feel like I’m running at about fifty percent.”
“As long as we understand one another.”
“I got it, honest. You guys just get those two little girls back home safe and sound.”
I had my head titled back and my eyes closed for most of the ride home. I focused on keeping my stomach down every time Aaron rounded a curve or slowed to a stop. Neither one of us had spoken until we were turning onto Selby next to the Cathedral.
“We get anything breaking on this, Dev I’ll let you know. Just remember your promise.”
“How the hell can I forget? You’re reminding me every other time you say something.”
“I’d still like to get you down to the ER.”
“Yeah, and I’d like to get a back rub from Officer Patty, but that ain’t gonna happen either.”
“Only ‘cause there’s a couple hundred guys in line ahead of you. If that’s the way you’re thinking you’re starting to come back around.”
“Like I said, twenty-four hours will do a lot for my recovery.”
“Anything comes to mind or happens on your end, you give me a call. I’ll answer right away, I promise,” he said then pulled to a stop in front of my place.
“Thanks, but the first, in fact the only priority is getting those two little girls back to Isabella.”
“Then get the hell out of my car and let me get back to work,” he smiled.
“Now it’s my turn to say you look like shit and could use some rest.”
“In time, Dev, all in good time.”
Chapter Six
I had a key to my front door hidden behind the drain pipe on the garage. Mercifully I’d returned the thing to the hiding place the last time I used it. I stepped in through my front door thinking it felt awfully good to be home. That feeling lasted just about a nanosecond as I rehashed all that had gone on over the last sixteen to twenty hours.
I needed a long hot shower and then some serious sack time if I was going to be of any help to anyone.
I’d been standing in the shower for quite some time, just letting the water run over me. It was hot, steaming and it felt good to at least figuratively wash away recent events. But, my head still hurt and I couldn’t get those two little girls out of my mind. God help Carlos if anything happened to those little angels, I’d hunt him to the ends of the earth.
I actually felt a slight chill, even standing under the hot shower and thought that probably signaled it was time to just hit the sack. I turned the water off, stood there dripping for a brief moment then pulled the shower curtain back.
