Blue Justice (6 page)

She tried many times screaming for help and even asking the guy why was she abducted but there was no response.  Finally on the second time he came with food, she asked again, “Why am I here?”  This time the man mumbled, “Bait for your boyfriend.” 

“Jared?” she muffled.  Though she was shocked by his comment, still she was weak.  She had to eat.  She couldn’t remember when she ate last—or if she had at all since she’d been brought here.  And each time she ate, she didn’t remember anything until she woke up again. 

She looked around the small room.  There was nothing but a chair, the bed she was lying on, and a door with a small window in it.  There were no windows.  She was wearing a blue medical gown like the ones patients wear when they are seeing their doctors.  Paint was peeling from the walls. The place looked like a building that had been condemned. 

She walked to the door and peered through its window.  She could see light and that the room was big.  But she could not make anything out. 

“Help!” she screamed.  But only the walls were listening.

“Help, somebody help!” she yelled again beating the door with the bottom of her fist.

She soon tired herself and slumped to the floor. She might have lost consciousness; even her waking moments seemed like a dream, and a bad one.

She heard a car door slam.  She backed away from the door and onto the other side of the bed.  She assumed it was only one person because she only heard one door slam.  She looked around for something to use as a weapon.  Her vision was still fuzzy and the room was dim in what must have been late afternoon light.  She looked around on the floor only to see the urinal pan under the bed.

It was too late.  Whoever it was that slammed that car door was coming inside.  She got up and lay down in the bed and pretended to be sleep.     She peered out the corner of her eye and saw that the man was peeking through the window in the door.  He unlocked the door.  She heard a sliding click sound.  A deadbolt, she thought. 

The door opened and the man wearing the bandana appeared.  He walked over to her and shined a flash light over her.  She kept her eyes closed.  She calmed her breathing.  He then placed a bag on the chair and walked out.  She heard the sliding lock again and keys jingling.  She rolled over to see what was in the bag.  It was a Jack’s Hamburger, plain, with small fries and a can of Sprite.

Her stomach growled.  She hesitated for a moment, thinking that it might be poison, but soon her growling stomach prevailed.  As she ate, she began to piece things together in her mind.  Her food was still warm, which meant she was still either in the city or close to it.  The slammed car door, so close, meant she was on a ground level floor.
 

She hurried up and ate.  She knew the man would come back to check on her again and take out the trash. 

She started feeling light headed.  She held the burger up to the dim light and saw a residue of white powder.  Probably sleeping pills, she thought. She knew there was a reason she was sleeping so much.

She wrapped the rest of the burger up and placed it in the bag.  She ate the fries because she was going to need her strength.  After she finished everything, she bent the can in the middle and tore it in half.  She then reached under the bed for the urinal pan and filled it as much as she could.

She thought to herself, “It’s now or never.”  She sat on the bed and slumped against the headboard.  She needed him to think she was drugged again and out cold, so she kept her mouth open and slowed her breathing. 

The keys jingled again.  Out the corner of her eye she saw the man looking through the window.  The dead bolt clicked.  The man stepped inside.  He shined his flashlight over Charlotte again.  Then he turned to walk out the door.  Charlotte jumped up and splashed him in his face with the urine and then used the half of the can of sprite she tore to rip into the man’s neck. He screamed in agony as the blood flowed down and around his neck. 

He cursed. He called her every name she had ever heard and then added a few she hadn’t. She hadn’t killed him but she had hurt him pretty bad.  It gave her a chance to get outside into the big room.  She darted out the door and quickly looked around for a weapon.  She saw a heavy-handle straw broom.  She hit the broom against a chair and broke the straw head off.  By that time her kidnapper had clear his eyes with the bandana and saw her with the broom handle in her hand.  He walked toward her.  She had seen his face before, but where? She wondered.  She backed herself to the door that led to the outside.

He reached out to grab her.  She shifted her body to one side and kicked him in the groin.  He belted out in pain.  Charlotte wasted no time.  She beat him in the head with the broom handle until he was out cold.  She then reached in his pockets and found the car keys.  She ran out the door and got in the black van that was parked outside.  She fidgeted for the right key.  She got the van started and sped away.  She looked back to see that the building they held her in was an old day care center that was on the outskirts of the city.  Nobody had been there in years and the county never got around to tearing it down. 

Chapter 8

I got the call from Capt. Davis.  Charlotte was safe!  Some Alabama troopers that were posted up on Hwy 69 noticed a black van fitting the description of the BOLO and executed a traffic stop.  They said Charlotte got out of the van and ran back to the troopers’ cars yelling she was Charlotte Reed and she had just escaped her kidnapper.  Troopers put it out over the radio and gave details of the location that Charlotte gave them.  I put the announcement on speaker phone for her parents to hear. 

“SWAT is probably there now as we speak.  But she is safe and sound.” Capt. Davis said with happiness in his voice.

“Where is Charlotte?” 

“We are waiting for you at DCH Regional.  She is getting checked out.  By the time you get here she will be ready to go. 

“It’s just a formality.  She’s fine.”  I said looking at her mother.

“Tell her I’m on my way.”

Her mom went through the house praising Jesus’ mighty name.  I even whispered a praise myself.  Her dad sat down in his chair in the living room and lit his pipe and wiped his eyes.  With tears in her eyes, Ruthie reached her hand out to me as if she was pushing me to go and get her baby. 

“Go on son,” Jimmie Earl said.  He laid his double barrel shot gun on his lap.  “We ok.” 

I smiled and raced out the door. 

It took fifteen minutes to get from her parents’ house to the hospital. Under normal circumstances it can take up to 25.   I parked my Crown Vic in the parking lot where the ambulances drop off patients.  I flashed my badge at the security officer sitting at the desk. 

“Charlotte Reed.”

“Yes sir, she is in Triage Five. Turn right at the corner then left up the hall and on the left.”

“Thanks.”

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Capt. Davis and Chad Caddis standing outside her door. 

“Jared, she is inside waiting for you.”

I looked at them both.  “Thank you both.”

“You can thank me by marrying that woman in there.  You are all she been asking for since she got here.”  He smiled and opened the door for me. 

She looked up from the nurse that was talking to her and smiled as I walked in. 

“Jared, baby.”  She was still crying when I put my arms around her.

We kissed. 

“I thank God you are all right.  I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

“You mean without…us?” she said. She had an odd smile on her face. I looked at the nurse. She had the same look.  

She grabbed my hand and placed it on her belly.  “I’m pregnant.”

*   *   *

Burncutt interviewed Tabitha at the Texaco she worked at by the lake. 

“So what do you remember about him that day?”  He pointed to the picture of Carl Minton.

“Well he came in wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans. He carried a fishing pole. He made a phone call at that payphone and then a cab picked him up.”

“Anything else?”

“No-- else unusual.  He paid for his food and two packs of Marlboro cigarettes and told me to keep the change.”

Burncutt thought for a minute.  “Damn! The lake.”

“Come on, we have to go check out something.” Burncutt took his assistant Glass with him to their unmarked Crown Vic and raced out of the parking lot. 

The lake was just a ¼ mile ahead.  Burncutt turned left on the dirt road leading to the lake.  He stopped the car and put it in park. 

“Glass, be careful not to disturb these tire tracks.  It looks like a truck has been through here but never came out.”

They both pulled their weapons and walked alongside the dirt road until they got to the embankment.  The high noon sun was glaring down upon them and also it reflected off something in the lake. 

A small area of a truck bumper was barely below the water level. 

Burncutt called it in.  Within minutes, police, media, and onlookers were all over that place.  A heavy wrecker pulled the truck from the lake.  CSU guys took photos as the truck was pulled ashore.  Inside the truck, they found a switchblade and a pair of uniforms, one with blood on it.  They also found a wet pack of Marlboros with maybe a couple of cigarettes left.  Capt. Davis walked over to Burncutt.

“This is the truck,” said Burncutt, pointing to the Billy’s Pest Control sign on the driver door.

“We found a knife and some other stuff.  CSU is tagging and bagging everything now.”

“Good work Detective, anything else?”

“Yes sir,” we talked with the clerk and she gave us the info that led me here, plus she stated that she saw him get in a cab.”

“Ok Burncutt, follow up on it and I’ll let Detective Jackson know what’s going on.  And, oh yeah--the next time you decide to go to the chief without going through your chain of command, I will have your badge.  Do you understand?”

Burncutt looked crushed. The high horse he was on reared up and dumped him off.  “Yes sir.”

“Come on Glass; let’s go follow up on this lead.”

Chapter Nine

I had never been so happy in my whole life.  We had a nice drive from the hospital to her parents’ house.  Her mom came to the door teary eyed.  Her dad walked slowly behind her still carrying his shotgun.  Chad pulled his patrol car behind mine.  I was glad he was here.  I needed to go back to my place for a shower and a change of clothes.

I had never seen so much hugging and kissing.  I walked her inside and made her comfortable.  It didn’t last long because once she told her mom that she was pregnant, her mom started praising Jesus again.  She reached out to Charlotte and hugged her and for a moment it seemed like they were communicating telepathically.  They both smiled.

“Ahem.” I cleared my throat for attention.  “And I would like to say something please.”

All eyes were on me.

“Charlotte, have a seat, Baby.”  I reached in my pocket for the One Carat Marquis shaped diamond ring I had been keeping in the console for about a month.  I knelt down and held her left hand.  I looked at her parents.  Her dad was sitting in his favorite chair with her mom standing next to him and holding hands.

“Mr. and Mrs. Reed, I love your daughter and I want you to know that I plan to love her forever and a day.  I looked at Charlotte who was now breathing fast.

“Charlotte?  Will you marry me?”

“YES! YES! YES!”

I slipped the ring on her finger.  We kissed as if nobody was in the room but us. 

“Ahem.” Her dad cleared his throat.  He mother snapped at him.

“Oh Jimmy Earl, leave them kids alone.  They are grown and they are getting married and they are having us a grandbaby.”  

Jimmy Earl smiled and got up and hugged his wife of 40 years and kissed her like nobody else was in the room.  Ruthie had a puzzled look on her face.

“What?” asked Jimmy Earl  “I still got it.”

“Yes you do baby,” said a smiling Ruthie.

Charlotte rubbed her right index finger on the back of her left index finger.  “Shame.”

Her mother snapped.  “What, that’s how you got here.”

Everybody in the house was laughing including Chad.

“Congratulations Detective.”

“Thanks Chad.”  We shook hands.

“Chad, I need you to stay here until I get back.  I have to run to my place in town and take care of some things and I will be back within an hour.”

“No problem, take your time.  Oh and hey, on your way back, get me a taco or something.  I haven’t eaten all day.”

I looked at Ruthie.  She loved hearing words like that.

“Well Chad, you are in for a treat.  How about some Salisbury steak, sweet peas, mash potatoes with cut up bacon in it and some of my homemade biscuits.”

Chad looked at me.  “Take your time, I ain’t going anywhere.

Charlotte walked me out to the porch.  I really didn’t want to leave but I couldn’t hide the fact that I needed a shower much longer.

“Hurry back ok?”