Porter (5 page)

             
The doorbell rang and Sarah Dans
nearly dropped her coffee. Her
heart thumped
in her chest
. Since Albert had gone missing she feared every ring for the potential bad news it might bring. She took a deep breath and went to the door.
Will it be the police?
No, it’s a young woman. Oh no, probably selling something.
For a moment she thought
of pretending she wasn’t home
, but the
n the
young woman
just
opened the door
and stepped inside
!

Allie! Sarah threw her arms around the daughter she hadn’t seen for a year and a half, sobbing uncontrollably. “You got my messages!”

             
Allie hugged her mom, reluctant to say that she wouldn’t have listened to the
m
essages
if it hadn’t been for Stephen. On the other hand she wondered why not? What had
this
pleasant, plump, woman
ever done to deserve the disdain Allie had held her in for the past
eight
or so years? She held her mom tighter
, suddenly crying herself
.
“Have you heard anything?”

             
Her mom leaned back, looking into her eyes and shaking her head no.
Allie found her heart sinking. All the way home she’d been thinking that she’d get
home,
and her dad would have showed up
,
and she’d be pissed. Now confronted with the reality that he was
still
gone she found her
self
thinking
wistfully
of the good times they’d had together
as a family. The things that had irritated her
so
–
seemed
so
trivial now
.

             
Allie and her mom
went in and sat at the breakfast table. Sarah jumped back up, “Let me get you something to eat!”

             
“No! I’m fine. Sit, tell me what happened.”

             
Instead,
Sarah went to the stairs and yelled up, “Steve,
Allie
’
s come home!
Come on down!
” She returned to the table and sat. “
Dad
just didn’t come home Friday. Nobody at the University saw him after lunchtime. He left
his office
at the U
and never showed up for
an
appointment at Forst
Enterprises
.
The police wouldn’t really start looking until 24 hours had passed. I’m not sure they’re very serious about it yet. They keep asking if he might have had a girlfriend!”
             

             
“Forst Enterprises?”

             
“Randall Forst was one of your dad’s grad students years ago. He’s started a very successful company making physics equipment and your dad has been working with him on some new idea of his.”

             
Stephen
stumbled sleepily down the stairs in a t-shirt and ragged shorts
. He’d gotten tall! He sat across from Allie. Then he rocked back a stunned look on his face. “You’re Eva!”
Goosebumps stood up on his arms.

             
“No Steve, this is your sister Allie! Don’t you
even
recognize her?”

             
“Your band is Eve of Destruction?”

             
Allie bit her lip and nodded. She hadn’t considered the possibility
that she might have
a fan at home.

             
Sarah Dans looked back and forth between her two children. “Eve of Destruction?”

             
Allie nodded.

             
“Eva?”

             
“My stage name.”

             
Stephen threw his head back and stared up at the ceiling. “Oh. My. GOD!” He looked back at Allie. I’ve seen your picture a million times! The black hair fooled me!”

             
Sarah looked in wonderment at her daughter. “
Even
I’ve heard of Eve of Destruction! Why didn’t you tell us you were doing well? All those calls I made offering to send you money!” She shook her head
ruefully
. “You
really
are doing OK?”

             
Allie grinned
sheepishly
and
then
nodded
minutely
.

             
“I guess you won’t be throwing it in and coming home with your tail between your legs, to beg to go to college
after all
?”

             
Allie shrugged and shook her head.

             
To Allie’s surprise
Sarah leaned over, threw her arms around her
daughter
and sobbed again. “I’m so happy for you!” she choked out.
             

             
Stephen threw his head back, thrust his arms in the air and shouted, “
You’re shittin’ me! My sister is ‘Eva?’ T
his is
awesome!
W
ait ‘til I tell Ben.”

             
“Stephen Dans! Watch your language!”

             
Allie caught her brother’s eye when he looked back at
her, goofy grin on his face. “Stephen, p
lease don’t tell anybody? I’d like to have a place of peace and quiet for as long as I can. Fans are important to us, but they can be pretty intrusive too.”

             
Stephen stared, “You have
got
to be
shittin’
me! The coolest thing that’s
ever
happened to me and I can’t tell anyone
?
!”

             
“Stephen!”

             
Allie made calming motions with her hands. “Let’s worry about that later. First we need to figure out what to do about Dad.”

             
A pall dropped
back
over the table. “But what could
we
do?
The poli
ce say we shouldn’t do anything…
just wait by the phone.
”

             
“I don’t know. You’ve been through his desk here at home for clues?”

             
“Yes, and his e
-
mails
and his hard drive
. Everything
in the desk and on his computer seems to be
about his
research on
port
s
.
” Sarah’s eyes cast toward Stephen and she shook her head minutely. Apparently they still hadn’t told Stephen that Allie had been the source of the ports. “There’s nothing on there about any ‘other interests’ either.” Apparently
Sarah
hadn’t told Stephen about the police’s “girlfriend” theory either.

             
“What about his work computer?”

             
“I’m pretty sure they won’t let us look at it. Besides we wouldn’t have the password.”

             
“Well, let’s go try. Dad could never remember passwords. It’s probably written down in his desk somewhere.”

             
The doorbell rang again. Sarah clapped a hand to her heart, a stricken look on her face. “Oh! I hope it isn’t bad news.”

             
Allie got up. “I’ll get it.” A grim feeling settled over her.

S
he
strode
down the
hall to the entry
and
opened the door
. Hot
muggy air flowed in
,
followed by a
scruffy,
skinny
young man
in a white shirt and
black
tie.
Mormons?
she wondered, but Mormons are polite – they wouldn’t shove in
to the house like this
. Then a large, wide-bodied
,
bald man
, also in white shirt and tie
came
through
the door
as well
!
His dense goatee looked wrong for a Mormon.
“Hey!” she
exclaimed
,
as they
forced
her
back
out of the entry and
into
the
hallway
. More words froze in her throat as she looked down at the gun in the first man’s hand.
Rape
?
!
She
wondered
.

Dean
looked at the
gorgeous,
slender
chick
with the spiky
blond
hair
.
These college
girls
are hot
, he thought to himself. He waved his gun
at her, “You Allie?”

“Huh?” Allie said
.

“We’re gonna go visit your daddy and see if y
ou can talk some sense into him
.
”

“
Put down that
damned
phone!
”
the man with the goatee
roared over
Allie’s
shoulder.

Allie looked back over her shoulder. Her mother and brother stood at the other end of the hall
to the kitchen
. Stephen had dropped his
cell
phone and it looked like it had broken.

G
oatee chortled, “This is the mom and
both
kids alright.” He was looking at
a paper he’d unfolded. “Jackpot!
Let’s go.”
He motioned back towards the door with his gun.

             
Allie
thought dazedly
that she’d been advised to never go anywhere with someone who meant her harm, “stay away from environments that your abductor controlled.” But “go visit your daddy” made it sound like
not
going was a poor choice too.
They needed to know where
Dad
was.

A
couple of
minutes later
they all
stood trembling at
the front door, Allie
thought
about running as soon as they were out in public, she’d read somewhere that that was a good strategy.
Grabbing her hand
,
G
oatee said, “Let’s hold hands so you don’t get any ideas
.” Then he squeezed painfully until
Allie
dropped
to
her knees.
He said in an ominous tone,
“We really only need one of you
three
to convince your old man to talk.
So if one of you kids runs,
or gives us any other trouble,
we’ll kill the old lady.
Think about
that long and hard before you take off.”

Allie
looked up into
Goatee’s
pale blue eyes and saw that he enjoy
ed hurting her. Tears welled up and she looked back down
and shook her head
.
Should she make a port in his
neck like that guy at the bar? It d
idn’t seem like a good idea to make him cough while she was looking down the barrel of his gun.

Dean
grinned
at the way Roger
hurt
the chica.
He and Roger had that in common;
they both liked to hurt people
. They couldn’t afford to have her run
which provided a convenient
excuse
. He opened the
front
door and,
putting away his gun,
started down the walk,
opening the door to
the back
of the van
for
their guests
and then locking them in
to the windowless, dim interior with Roger
.
Roger got out blindfolds.
Dean
went around front, got in, started the van and
eased
it
into the street
. He
took a random course
across town
with a couple of loop backs looking for tails
. About an hour later they
pulled u
p at the little
farm
house where the boss
was holding
daddy
Dans
.
Since
they
had the
blindfolds
on,
Roger took
Allie’s
arm and led her up the walk. Dean
got the other two out of the back but watched the girl’s
cute butt
go up the steps before he started them up the walk too
.