She Left Me Breathless (31 page)

“Ms. Welsh, if you want to see your employee alive again, you better make it happen.”

“I want to speak to my daughter. Is she okay? Please tell me,” Rachel yelled at the phone.

“I will call back in one hour. Keep your phone with you and no police,” the voice said and then the phone line went dead.

Rachel dropped down on the couch next to Sydney. With shaky hands, she ran her fingers through her hair. She leaned against Sydney as gut wrenching sobs wracked her body. “I can’t lose Caitlyn, I just can’t,” she cried as Sydney wrapped her arm around her shoulders. With her free hand, Sydney picked up her cell and hit the speed dial. She frowned when it went straight to voice-mail.

“Jackie, it’s Sydney. I have an emergency and I need your help now. Meet me at Welsh just as soon as you get this message.” She hung up the phone and got to her feet, pulling Rachel up along with her.

Caitlyn’s eyes slowly fluttered open. It took several seconds for her vision to come into focus and when it did, she realized that she was flat on her back, looking up at a dingy grey ceiling. Her heart begun to race as images from her office flashed through her mind. She felt something cold against her skin and raised her head slightly to look at her legs. Wrapped around her ankle was a metal cuff with a chain attached to it. The other end of the chain was affixed to a large screw protruding from the wall.

She groggily sat up and then swung her legs over the side of the green-colored cot that she was sitting on. As her feet hit the floor she grabbed both sides of her head to try and stop the throbbing sensation behind her eyes. The pain was so intense, she felt like she might puke.

She looked around the room to try and get her bearings. It was small, and measured approximately ten feet on all four sides with only one way in and out. The walls were made of large cinder blocks and were covered with chipped lime green paint. There were no windows and she assumed that she must be locked in a basement somewhere. She looked at her only route of escape. A door, with a small caged window, was centered directly in the middle of the wall opposite her. 

A movement out of the corner of her eye caused her to jerk her head around. She quickly covered her mouth with her hand to keep from screaming. Two feet away, standing next to the wall, was a rat the size of a house cat. As she glanced around the floor, she felt her stomach heave as she watched several more rats scurrying in different directions.

This time, she was unable to stop the scream that came from her mouth as the rat near the wall ran beneath the cot she was sitting on. She jerked her legs up off the floor and wrapped her arms around her knees. She rocked back and forth, sobbing as tears streamed down her face.

“Oh God, please help me,” she begged.

“For heaven sakes, shut the hell up,” Maureen yelled as she looked at Caitlyn through the wire window in the door.

Caitlyn looked up at Maureen. “Sydney would have given you anything you asked for. Why are you doing this? I don’t understand.”

Maureen snorted. “No, I guess you wouldn’t. You being little miss perfect and all,” she said and then walked away.

Caitlyn frowned as she looked at the door. Although it was muffled, it sounded like Maureen was talking to someone. “She’s not alone,” Caitlyn whispered. Who else is in on this? she wondered.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Caitlyn heard the second person yell in a mechanically altered voice.

They’re using a voice-changer
, Caitlyn thought as she listened to their conversation.

“Are you kidding me? You’re the one who told me to go get it and if you hadn’t left the damn cd there, we wouldn’t be in this position,” Maureen yelled back.

“She was never part of our plan. She saw your face. She knows who you are and now we have to kill her,” the voice said.

Forgetting about the rats, Caitlyn jumped up off of the cot. “Shit, shit, shit. I’ve got to get out of here,” she whispered. But how? How do I get out when there’s only one door and I’m chained to the freaking wall. Think, think, she told herself.

“We should have asked for more money,” Maureen said.

“Just how damn much more do you think we need? In case you didn’t hear me the first time, she was not part of our plan and now we have a mess to clean up. Murder was never part of the fucking deal,” the voice replied.

Caitlyn could hear the agitation in the person’s voice who was using the voice-changer and the sound of something being slung against the wall told her that this person was not happy one bit. 

“We don’t have to kill anyone. Don’t you see? In two days this building will be demolished for Sydney’s precious little project. Our little problem is going to have a very unfortunate accident, so technically it’s not murder,” Maureen said in a soothing voice, trying to reason with the person she was talking to.

“Call it what you want but I still don’t like it. Do you think you can handle things until I get back?”

“How long are you going to be gone?” Maureen asked.

“Couple hours at the most.”

“I can handle it but try to hurry, okay?”

“I can’t believe all of this has been going on for months and not once did you think to call the police. Were you out of your freaking mind?” Rachel yelled.

“Yelling at me isn’t going to help and I know you’re right. If I could do it all over again I would,” Sydney said as the tires on her truck squealed.

 “Would you please slow down before you kill us both?” Rachel shrieked as she reached out to grab the handle at the top of the door to keep from sliding across the seat.

“I know what I did was stupid, Rache, and I will do everything I can to get Caitlyn back,” Sydney said as she ran through the third red light in a row.

“I swear to God, Sydney, if anything happens to Caitlyn, I’ll never forgive you.”

Sydney pulled into the Welsh parking lot and brought the truck to a tire sliding halt right in front of the main entrance. Without a word, she and Rachel jumped out of the truck and ran inside. They took the elevator up to the executive floor.

“Oh dear God,” Rachel cried out when they entered Caitlyn’s office. The room was trashed. “Oh no, no, no,” Rachel kept repeating when she saw the blood smears on the side of Caitlyn’s desk. “She’s dead,” Rachel said when she noticed the small puddle of blood on the floor that had turned the light blue carpet purple.

“Listen to me,” Sydney said, grabbing Rachel by the shoulders. “Listen to me,” she repeated. She gently shook Rachel in order to get her to look at her. “She’s not dead and we are going to find her but you have to help me here. Please, I know this is hard but I need your help.”

“I know,” Rachel said, laying her head against Sydney’s chest. “I can’t lose her.”

“I promise, we won’t,” Sydney said and placed a light kiss on the top of Rachel’s head.

The sound of Sydney’s cell phone ringing caused them to pull apart. She snatched it off her waistband. She looked at the caller ID. She didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello,” she said after pressing the speaker phone button.

Maureen held the voice-changer to her mouth. “Have you arranged to get my money yet?” she said into the cell phone.

“I need more time,” Sydney replied.

“Bullshit! Do you really think I would believe that the great and powerful Sydney Welsh can’t get her hands on a measly two-million dollars within twenty-four hours?” Maureen asked.

“I want to talk to Caitlyn,” Sydney demanded.

Maureen laughed. “And people in hell want ice water and from where I’m standing, you’re in no position to demand anything.”

“Please let me talk to Caitlyn. I just want to know that she’s okay,” Sydney asked in a calm voice.

“With God as my witness, Ms. Welsh, if you’ve called the police, make no mistake about it, I will kill her,” Maureen said, her voice rising several octaves.

“I swear. I haven’t called the police. You have my word on that,” Sydney said in an attempt to reassure Caitlyn’s kidnapper. 

“I’m watching you and Ms. Ashburn and if you do, I will know it,” Maureen said in a matter of fact voice.

“What do you mean you’re watching us?” Sydney asked.

Maureen laughed “Let’s see, right now, you are wearing a black turtle neck sweater and jeans and Ms. Ashburn looks ravishing in that cream colored blouse. It really accentuates the curve of her breasts, don’t you think?”

Rachel and Sydney looked at each other with shocked expressions on their face. Sydney looked around the room. Her eyes stopped at the small camera on Caitlyn’s desk. She casually moved in front of it and turned to face Rachel, her back blocking the camera lens. She placed her finger to her mouth for Rachel to be quiet and not say anything.

“Okay. I got the message. I promise, we won’t call the police and I will have your money first thing in the morning,” Sydney said to the caller on the other end.

“Please ... please let me speak to Caitlyn,” Rachel begged.

She and Sydney exchanged glances at the sound of keys jingling. They heard a door creak open.

Maureen held up the taser gun and pointed it directly at Caitlyn’s face. With the voice-changer still in her hand, Maureen spoke into her cell phone.

“I’m warning you. If either of you say one wrong word, I will kill her right where she sits.”

Maureen placed the phone on speaker. “Say hi to Mommy, honey.”

“Mom, are you there?” Caitlyn asked.

“Oh, baby. Are you okay?” Rachel asked, her voice coming out crystal clear through the speaker.

Before Caitlyn had a chance to reply, Maureen took the phone off speaker.

“Have my money tomorrow or she dies,” Maureen said into the phone. Just as Maureen was about to disconnect the line, Caitlyn yelled out, “Two Demo Boro.”

Maureen looked at Caitlyn as if she had committed a cardinal sin. “You bitch,” she spat, backhanding Caitlyn across the face and splitting her lip in the process, causing her to cry out in pain.

“Caitlyn,” Rachel’s voice screamed through the phone just as Maureen snapped it shut.