Chapter 1: Gone Girl
"She's gone, Lizzie."
"Gone where?" This wasn't abnormal. Lydia got tired of her life every few months and pulled some sort of runaway scheme or unplanned vacation until she got enough energy out of her system to come home.
"No, Lizzie- she's gone. Her room, it's- it's trashed. All of her clothes are still here and I her phone is still plugged in. She left her window- oh my God" Jane let out a strangled gasp "Lizzie, there's blood on the windowsill! Oh my God Lizzie…"
There was only sobbing on the other end of the line. Lizzie's heart fell into her gut.
Her baby sister wasn't just gone- she was taken.
And Elizabeth Bennet knew exactly what she had to do.
It was an average Thursday morning for William Darcy. He'd said goodbye to his sister, grabbed whatever fruit was closest to his reach (this morning it had been a banana), and headed into the garage to pick out a car to drive (today it was the black Mercedes).
Yes, a perfectly normal Thursday morning. Until the phone rang.
It wasn't just any phone; it was the phone. The sleek, black, silent phone that sat in the secret pocket in his jacket day after day. The phone that only had one number programmed into it- and it was ringing.
At that moment, every thought in the world flashed through his mind. Scenarios played out a million times over, tormenting him. One mantra repeated over and over in his head, drilling itself into his skull-
Lizzie Bennet was calling.
Bing Lee did not know where he stood.
Caroline told him to stay out of it, that anything he could do would only complicate the situation. He was compromised, she told him.
He knew he was compromised. He just wasn't sure if he cared.
For now, he held his ground, remained a good little soldier, pacing aimlessly in his kitchen. But he could not help but think of Jane, and the frantic phone call he had received moments ago, begging him to go to her. Her sister was gone, she was kidnapped, and there was blood. Lydia Bennet had vanished in the night. She needed him there, to hold her hand while the police searched the house for clues.
He had been halfway out the door when Caroline stopped him.
"You are in deep cover." She said, "It's bad enough you had to go and fall in love with some strawberry that lives down the road, but this is too far. You walk out of here now and I have to call you in. And you're done."
Caroline may have been posing as his sister, but she was all business as an agent. If she called him in, Bing could kiss ten years in the agency goodbye. All that training… the interning…
It would mean deskwork for the rest of his life.
Yes, Bing Lee did not know where he stood.
It was a dark room.
Lydia Bennet couldn't see that
yet.