Duncan roars away from the airport in California on his motorcycle. He gets on the highway and rides towards the city of Las Angeles. When skyscrapers start to appear, Duncan starts searching for a hotel to stay at. He exit's the highway and drives up to the Crown Plaza Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Duncan grabs his duffel bag from the back of his motorcycle and walks through the gold-trimmed revolving doors. As he stepped into the lobby, he felt the stares of a million people settle upon him. Duncan turns to face a teen girl with sunglasses perched on her head and a small dog in her arms. She sniffs at him. "Do you know where the check-in desk is?" he asks her with a smirk on his face. Instead of talking to him, she just thrusts her nose higher into the air and points to a desk.
"Thanks, babe." Duncan chuckled and walked away from her. He could feel her glaring at his back as he steps up to the counter. "One room for two," Duncan says to the man behind the counter.
"Cash or credit?" he asks. Duncan pulls the money out of his back pocket.
"Cash," he answers, "And I'd like a room on one of the top floors." The man rolls his eyes at Duncan and punches things into his computer.
"That'd be $500 for three nights," the concierge says. Duncan lets out a low whistle as he places the money on the counter.
"Good thing I emptied out my bank account before I came here, huh?" Duncan says, attempting a joke, even though it was true what he did. The man ignores Duncan and rings a bell, handing Duncan the room key.
"Floor 15, room 843," the man over the counter says. A bellhop rushes up and takes Duncan's duffel bag, but Duncan snatches it back.
"I'm not a wuss; I can carry my own bag," Duncan replies with a smirk and heads to the elevator.
In the room, he just tosses the bag on his bed. "Whew, fan-cy!" Duncan exclaims. Then he opens up the phone book by the phone and starts looking under S for 'Summers'. Duncan takes a pen from the bedside table and jots down Courtney's address on a slip of paper.
Courtney's front yard was a maze of crime scene tape, policemen, cop cars, drug-sniffing dogs, and people helping to looks for the missing girl. Duncan walks up the driveway, weaving between cops, up to the front door. It was open, so Duncan walked right in. He heard voices coming from the kitchen, so he followed the noise. It had been a while since Duncan has been here.
Courtney's dad was talking to a police officer when Duncan walked in. Mr. Summers' gaze switched to Duncan, mid-sentence. "What are you doing here?" he demands. Courtney's dad hated Duncan -- but Duncan already knew that.
"I saw Courtney's Amber Alert on the news at my home in Illinois and I wanted to help," Duncan answers. Courtney's dad just glares at him.
"With my luck, you'd find Courtney, and if she was still alive, you'd finish what the kidnappers left off!" Mr. Summers accuses. Duncan curls up his fists. "Courtney was my girlfriend. We only broke up because we lived too far away from each other. I would never--"
But Mr. Summers interrupts Duncan with a flick of his wrist and says, "Mr. Johnston, take him away." The chief of police follows Mr. Summers' orders and leads Duncan out of the house.
On the front porch, the cop faces Duncan. "We need all the help we can get finding this girl, and I can tell you're serious that you want to help. I don't know why Mr. Summers is being so pushy, but I'll tell you all we know. She was kidnapped two days ago at 6:44a.m. on her way to school. Courtney was kidnapped in the alleyway in between the grocery store and the pet shop on St. Marcum's Street. There was a bit of blood at the crime scene, so she must be injured, but there wasn't a lot of blood, so she must not be injured severely. Good luck, and be sure to come to me with any evidence," the policeman says. Duncan grabs the officer's hand and pumps it up and down.
"Thanks. Thank you so much." And with that, Duncan jumps on his motorcycle and roars away for St. Marcum's Street.
Duncan parks the motorcycle in front of the Paws and Claws Pet Shop. Duncan rolls his eyes at the prissy name and heads for the alley. He steps over some crime scene tape and walks until he sees a stain of blood on the concrete ground. His head starts spinning, and he feels queasy. Why? he asks himself, I haven't seen Courtney in a year. And now this small splotch of blood makes me start acting like… this.
A few feet away was a sprinkle of more blood. Duncan follows the sad excuse of a trail to a fire escape; those ladders up and down apartment buildings for in case of a fire. There was blood on the step, so Duncan starts climbing.
In five minutes or so, he reaches the rooftop. Duncan doesn't know whether it was his criminal eye or whether the white was just so prominent against the red brick, but he found a piece of paper wedged between two loose bricks on the chimney standing on the rooftop. Duncan carefully wedges it out from between the bricks as not to rip it. He unfolds the note and reads it out loud. "Duncan-- If you're reading this right now, good. We thought you might come. Actually, we didn't think you'd come, Courtney kept on mumbling something about you. Heck, I don't even know who you are. But Courtney does. Unfortunately, she's passed out right now from blood loss so I guess I won't know until later who you really are. Anyway, I bet you're here to save her. Ha! Good luck. You'll need it. We have over thirty alliances helping us with this kidnapping. We have multiple weapons, some of which are outlawed in the US. But, by now, if you're not completely scared shitless, meet by the Rosefield docks for a boat called 'Marylou' at 9:00p.m. two days after Courtney's kidnapping. We'll be waiting. -- Anonymous," Duncan murmur-quotes.
He looks up at the setting sun. It was about 7:30 already. Duncan pockets the note and runs down the fire escape. He jumps on his motorcycle and heads for the Rosefield docks.
Duncan leans against his parked motorcycle as he waits for the boat. Finally, he sees a couple lights floating for the dock. Duncan walks towards the ocean, and a boat pulls up to the dock. "You're Duncan?" a voice asks from the boat. But it was dark, and he couldn't see anything -- just a silhouette.
"Uh, yeah," Duncan answers.
"You're coming for Courtney?"
"Yep." And before he knew it, Duncan was knocked unconscious.