A sinister man is driving down the streets in the nation's capital with some devious plans in mind. Even though he is driving in the late hours, the street is luminous with the street lights and outdoor lights in the gorgeous Glover Park neighborhood. The Autumn leaves are still visible and rustling in the midst of the swift breeze as the night fell into darkness. The man's dead glare is filling the street with a sense of dread and terror. The beaming lights of his van lit up the row house on the end of the street. His patience is strong which is good because his target will not be available until morning. He is parked a distance from the driveway so he is not directly in the family's line of sight, but where he is parked the man's piercing blue eyes have perfect visuals on the house. He slips on a black ski mask and slumps down in the leather seat in order not to be noticed by passing cars, especially the cops. He watches the clock in his car change from 12:42 to 2:59 to 5:01 to finally 7:58. He has observed long enough to know that the person he is gunning for is alone for at least thirty minutes. He jerks up and pulls his mask off when a woman comes out of the home just as his eyes were about to lose the battle to sleep. The woman is clearly already stressed out.
"Joshua, I said you can't bring your frog with you to school."
"But momma Miss Julie said we can bring whatever we wanna to show and tell!" the little boy said protesting. She sighed heavily.
"Okay okay you win, but you have to bring it in its tank."
"Yay!" Joshua exclaimed excitedly as he ran into the house.
"Kelsey, don't forget to leave the door unlocked for the cable guy today."
"Mom, you've already said that like thirty times!" An irritated voice yelled from inside. The woman rolled her eyes at her daughter's remark.
"Bubba's ready momma!" the little boy said as he lugged his frog's tank out to the car.
"Good luck on your math test today Kelsey! Do yourself a favor and study before you go." the woman said as she shut the door.
Inside the house Kelsey stared at the door as her mom and little brother leave. Kelsey decided to ignore her mother and keep texting her best friend. Just as she sat back down on the sofa, there was a knock on the door. She looks through the peephole and sees a guy who she is assuming is the guy coming to fix their cable, so she opens the door.
"Hi I'm Joe."
"Are you here to fix the cable?"
"Is it giving you trouble?"
"Yeah, but my mom said you wouldn't be here until ten." Kelsey said. She could sense that something was off about Joe.
"I decided to start work early. Hey listen, do you think you could help me get some heavy stuff out of my van?"
"Uh… I'm sorry I have a math test to study for. Please come back at ten."
"Oh come on it'll just take a few minutes."
"No I'm sorry." Kelsey said as she started to shut the door. Joe forcibly jammed his foot in the door stop and pulled a gun out from the small of his back.
"You've chosen the hard way." he said harshly. Kelsey's face froze along with her body as her heart beat increases. Her dark brown eyes dart up to him as her expression changes to absolutely terrified. "Scream and I'll kill you, try to run and I'll kill your little brother."
All she could do was stand there.
"Come on!" he said. She whimpered as he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the house. He held his gun under her jacket pressed against her back. The man was so careful at observing Kelsey's home, he did not think to survey the surrounding homes, turning out to be a big mistake on his part. The man next door came outside as the man was about to shove Kelsey into his van. The neighbor grabbed the paper on his driveway and looked up when he felt someone staring at him.
"Can I help you sir?" he asked suspiciously. The devious man shoved Kelsey into the van and pulled his gun on the neighbor and fired twice then sped off in his van to a shady gas station. Kelsey ran to the back corner crying and cowering just as he slammed on the breaks.
"Come on, let's just talk here." Joe said.
"Go to hell!" she yelled angrily.
"Come on!" he said more aggressively. When he got closer, Kelsey kicked him in the groin.
"Oh!" He grunted and fell to his knees clutching his groin. She got really scared when he grabbed her by the arm and threw her onto the ground of the van. He tied her arms together with duct tape as she cried wishing she had gone with her mom. An hour passed before her mother came back home from dropping her son off at school and noticed her gone.
As it usually goes, it is a normal day at the Major Crimes Unit in the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Station. Sergeant Eric Silas is not being as productive as Detective Chase Archer. Silas is waiting under Chase's desk in the squad room wearing a hockey mask in order to scare him just for fun. Detective Cassie Leland and her partner Detective Danny Mota are also in the squad room working on some DD5s at their desk watching Eric and Chase out of the corner of their eye. Chase came out of the bathroom and walked to his desk to finish his reports. He was half way in his chair when Eric popped up from under his desk.
"Ah!" Eric yelled as he jumped up leaning into Chase's face.
"Ahh!" Chase yelled as his pupils dilated quickly and he fell on his back. Danny and Eric laughed at him as Cassie got up to help Chase up from the floor.
"Silas, are you ever going to grow up?" she asked as she grabbed Chase's hand.
"He's almost forty, he's grown just not mature."
"Hey I am not "almost" forty! Thirty-nine is almost forty."
"Then what do you call thirty-five?" Cassie asked.
"Thirty-five years young."
"Thirteen is too young." their Captain said as he walked in holding a clipboard.
"What do you mean Captain?" Danny asked. Captain Jeff Dalton tacked a picture of a cute young teenage girl up on their whiteboard.
"Kelsey Strayer, aged thirteen. Her mom called and said that she's missing and likely abducted."
"Is this another parental abduction? We've been getting a lot of those lately." Cassie said.
"I wish, but the mom isn't divorced. She lost her husband last year in Afghanistan."
"So this is a stranger abduction?" Chase asked.
"It looks like it." Dalton said unfortunately.
"That means we have twenty-four hours to find this girl alive." Silas said.
"Yes it does Detective Silas." Chief Unit Bellamy said as he walked in the room. "Y'all will get overtime for this I promise. No one is going home until we find the bastard that took this girl." Bellamy said.
"This guy is serious about taking the girl. He shot a neighbor who was out getting the paper." Dalton said.
"Is he okay?" Cassie asked.
"He's in surgery, his name is Anthony Redding." Dalton said.
"We'll go talk to him after he's out." Cassie said.
"Great, for the time being this is what's going to happen; Eric, you and I will go talk to the mother, Chase I want you to track everyone of Kelsey's movements for the past week, Danny and Cassie, you two go canvass the neighborhood." Dalton said.
"Let's get this girl back to her family." Bellamy said. Everyone went to their designated posts to find Kelsey Strayer. Dalton pulled up to the Strayer home with Eric alongside him.
"This never gets easy." Eric said.
"Tell me about it." Dalton said as he unbuckled his seat belt. The two cops walked uncomfortably up to the door. This was the worst part of their job. Talking to a mother on the worst day of her life is not a task for the light hearted, but with over twenty years of experience on the police force, Captain Jeffrey Dalton was an expert on talking to distraught parents. Detective Eric Silas is not a fan of talking to victims and their families solely because he does not like to see people in pain. He is very good at making someone feel better though since he grew up on the streets and saw a lot of people in pain. Mrs. Strayer opened the door to let them inside. Her tears on her face had dried and new ones formed when she saw the police.
"Have you heard anything about Kelsey?" she asked frantically.
"No ma'am not yet. I'm Captain Jeff Dalton, this is Sergeant Eric Silas we're from the Major Crimes Unit and we'd like to talk to you."
"Shouldn't you be out there looking for my daughter instead of talking to me?" She snapped.
"Mrs. Strayer, we have every cop in the city, including Agents from the FBI looking for your daughter. We need to talk to you in order to organize our efforts efficiently in order to find your child." Eric said.
"You're right, I'm sorry." she said sounding like she was about to collapse under stress.
"There's no need to apologize. We know what you're going through must be unbearable." Eric said. She nodded sadly and said,
"Please come in." She closed the door and went back to pacing.
"Mrs. Strayer,…"
"Please call me Jessa." she said.
"Okay, Jessa, have you noticed anyone paying particular attention to Kelsey or your family?" Dalton asked.
"I…I don't think so."
"Have you seen anyone or anything in the neighborhood that seems out of place?" Eric asked. Jessa nodded her head side to side then stopped and thought hard for a minute. "What is it?"
"Our cable stopped working last week and before I called the repairman, a cable car was sitting in the street near our house." she said. Eric and Dalton looked at each other worried.
"What?" she asked nervously.
"It sounds like Kelsey may have been targeted. Does she have any friends or boyfriends that may want to hurt her?"
"No I don't think so. She's a great kid, everyone loves her."
"What about you? Do you have any enemies?" Dalton asked.
"Not really. I mean I work at a dentist office. Unless someone's unhappy with my service." Jessa said.
"Okay. Where's your son?"
"I thought it would just upset Josh if I took him out of school, so he's still there. He's too young to deal with this." Jessa said.
"One more thing, who's Kelsey's best friend?" Dalton asked.
"Jenna Kerris, why?"
"She might know something. Thank you for your time." Eric said.
"Sergeant, please I'm begging you, find my daughter alive. I can't lose her too." Jessa pleaded as her eyes welled up again.
"Jessa," Eric put his hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. "We're not going to stop until we do."
"Thank you." she said. After she let them out, she shut the door. She bent down to her knees sobbing and eventually curled up against the wall. All she wanted was her little girl in her arms.