Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Here is the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it...

Don't forget to stop by the Mine today...
 
 
 
As always, some of God's beauty to get the day started!!
 
 
 










~ Chapter Eighteen ~



Justin put both hands above his head.

The Swat leader commanded, “Down on your knees.”

Justin dropped to his knees. “Sir, we’re the victims here.”

“Quiet!”

Several booted officers swarmed past Justin and entered the room where Chance was.

One of the cops came back. “Sir, there’s a baby in there.”

The officer’s eyes met Justin’s. “Okay, follow protocol.” As soon as the other cop left, the leader addressed Justin. “Okay, start talking.”

“A little over a week ago I was jogging down at the park. I tripped over some…”

“Dude, I don’t have all day. Make it quick. Just skip to the part where you tell me why you’re here.” His eyes took in the girl. “And explain who this is and why she’s here.”

Justin glanced at Amy. “This is Amy. The man on the floor kidnapped her and brought her here. I came to rescue the baby, Chance. He belongs to my wife, who was also kept as prisoner by that monster.”

The leader held up his hands, stopping Justin’s explanation. “Hold up, hold up. You lost me. Start over.”

Irritation shot through him, but he squelched it. “That’s why I was trying to tell you from the beginning. It may take longer, but it’ll explain better what’s going on here.”

The leader shook his head. “Okay, get on with it then.”

“Okay.” Justin took a deep breath. They could’ve been done with all this explaining by now if the guy had let him tell the story from the beginning to start with. “As I was saying, I was jogging the other day. I tripped over something in my path, and it turned out to be the baby’s mommy. She’d been held for years by that monster. Feeling despondent because her captor decided to get a new girl,” He paused and gestured with a slight nod of his head at Amy, and continued, “She stole a knife and tried to slit her own throat, thinking he was going to kill her anyway. But by some twist of fate, it turns out the creep has some kind of feelings for her because he placed her on the path, apparently hoping someone would find her and get her to the hospital before she bled to death.”

The cop looked at Justin as if his story was too fantastic to believe. “Go on…”

“After I tripped over her, I of course called 911. To make a long story short, the man found out which hospital she was in and tried to come steal her back. Being a good Christian man, I felt I needed to protect her so I married her and put her in hiding. After I got her settled, I came back to look for the baby because we didn’t feel the police were doing all they could to find him. This is obviously true because I found him pretty quick once I actually started looking.”

The cop snorted in derision. “It was a dangerous thing you did, coming her alone like that. What if the guy killed you?”

Justin nodded in agreement. “I know. I thought about that as I hid in his closet.”

The cop’s eyes widened. “You hid in his closet?”

Justin nodded again. “Yeah. He came back while I was in the room talking to Amy.”

“The cop wrote something down in the little notebook he held. “And do you know this young lady?”

Justin shook his head. “Not until today. She actually saved my life.”

The cops eyes widened again. “You don’t say.”

“Yep. After the shower came on in the man’s room I figured it was safe to come out, so I did. Only I realized too late in my haste to hide when I heard him come home I forgot to lock the door back. I didn’t think about it until I was standing in front of it, looking at the lock. That’s when I heard the floor creak behind me. I turned around, and he was holding a bat over his head, getting ready to hit me.”

The cop looked incredulous. “Wow. And then what happened?”

“This young lady came down the hallway wielding a chair like a sword, that’s what. She rushed the guy and crashed it over his head. That’s why he was passed-out.”

The cop looked down and wrote something else in his little book. “And how did the girl manage to escape the room, assuming she was in there to begin with?”

Amy stepped up and spoke this time. “I found a window in the room disguised as part of the wall and I climbed out and down the side of the house.”

The cop snorted in disbelief. “Right.”

“No seriously, I did. My family works in the circus. It was like rappelling without the ropes, is all.”

The cop wrote something down and switched from one foot to the other. “Okay, where is the mother? We’ll have to do DNA swabs to make sure it’s her baby.”

“She’s at my mom’s lake house. It’s a couple hours from here.”

The cop nodded. “Okay. I suggest you fill out your statement then go get her and bring her back here.”

“Will do. What about Amy?”

“You don’t worry about her. We’ll call her parents and they can take care of what needs to be taken care of.”

Justin shook his head. “Yes sir. Thank you, sir.”

Justin turned and raced down the steps, anxious to fill out his statement and be on his way. Arianna was going to be so happy he’d found the baby…

“Justin, wait.”

Amy’s voice stopped him before he hit the second step. “What’s your phone number?”

She gestured to the pen the cop held, and he handed it to her.

Justin gave her the number and she wrote it on her hand and gave the pen back to the cop. “Just in case.” She gave Justin a wink and turned away.

Uneasiness filled him. What’s she up to? He shrugged. There wasn’t time to examine it right now. He had to get back to Arianna.