-Chapter 4-
"Fuck…fuck…fuckity fuck…" Ryder shouted aloud to herself as she stood in the elevator alone. The Suits had gotten to their business with no trouble. Why the hell couldn't she do that? Why the hell couldn't she just walk out of the damn elevator?
Ryder cursed again and took a few deep breaths. She pressed the button and waited. For a second time the elevator travelled to level three. Only this time, Ryder stepped onto the cold and bland tile floor. And again, her palms began to sweat and her legs locked into their positions. The elevator went back downstairs and Ryder just looked like a duck standing in the middle of a pond. She looked around as pregnant women waddled around with their bellies hanging over their feet and their husbands and partners helping them along. Ryder ignored the stares of judgment as she haphazardly made her way to the nurses' station to ask for Belinda Lentz.
…
-Hospital Basement-
"There were really no marks at all on the victims?" Dean questioned the coroner. He covered the body back up with the white sheet and pushed the metal drawer back into its slot.
"There was not one trace of evidence. Usually there's plenty of it, but on that body, or any of the bodies for that matter, there's no defensive wounds." The coroner stated. "You'd think that if someone were choking someone, they'd try to fight back."
"But if there are no marks on their necks, can you really be sure they were choked?" Sam questioned him further.
"Their tracheas were broken." The coroner continued. "Their lungs were so shriveled up and decreased in size from their lack of air, that there's no questioning that they were choked." He concluded. Dean and Sam shook the coroner's hand and walked back to the elevator.
"Well whatever we're looking for, is pretty pissed off…" Dean reasoned.
"There's no doubt about that, but question is why. These guys must have some connection to each other." Sam said racking his brain.
"Then you can do your FBI hacking thing, and I'll ask around town. A small town like this has to have a lot of gossip floating around." Dean finished. Sam nodded in agreement as the elevator arrived at their floor and they went to work.
…
-Back in Missouri-
"Where could she be, Cassie?" Audrey yelled. She was pacing around the house back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room.
"She'll come back, mom… She always comes back." Cassie assured her ushering her to the couch. Somewhere deep inside, she knew she was trying to convince herself too. Audrey shook her head in disbelief.
"How can you be so calm? Your daughter, my granddaughter, has been missing for a week, and you haven't even reported it yet!" She exclaimed angrily. Her heart was pounding and her blood pressure rising. "You're the head of the damn newspaper! Do something, for god sakes!"
"I know where she is, mom, and I promise you that she'll come back home soon." Cassie guaranteed her. Audrey ignored her optimism and continued to badger her.
"Then why haven't you gone to get her? She's your daughter! You're supposed to be looking out for her!" Audrey roared. She sat down in the chair across from Cassie and broke down.
"She's in Dallas, mom…" Cassie said reaching out to comfort her mom, but she shifted away out of her reach. Audrey looked up from the palm of her hands a shocked expression glued to her face.
"Oh my God, she's looking for him isn't she? She's looking for her father." The older woman questioned.
"That's what she said in the note she left me…" Cassie remembered.
"My god, Cassie, I told you this would happen! I told you to just tell her the entire truth, not just the pieces you though she would like to hear!" She exclaimed. "Did you even tell her father?" Cassie shook her head in shame. "Well, why the hell not?" Audrey yelled angrily. She paced around the room angrily as she pinched the bridge of her nose in obvious frustration. "You don't think now would be a good time to tell him he's got a daughter?"
"She's never going to meet him, mom, so please, please, just let this go." Cassie whispered. Her mother wasn't helping her hope Ryder would just give up and come home. Ryder was way too determined to just let something like this go.
"Fine, but she better come home in one piece, and that includes her heart." Audrey demanded before slamming the front door shut behind her.
Cassie dropped her body onto the couch. She buried her face in her hands. Her back arched as she tried to hold back the screams and the sobs burning holes inside her chest. Each breath burned her lungs. Every part of her body was aching to reach out for the phone and dial Dean's number. She still knew it by heart and that scorned her to her very core, but she couldn't call him. What Dean didn't know wouldn't hurt him and if Ryder didn't find what she was looking for, she'd come right home and let it go once and for all. But what would happen if she did find out? She'd never find him. "He moves around too much…" Cassie whispered, trying to reassure herself. "She'll never find him…She'll never find him…" Cassie repeated slowly to herself. She grabbed a pillow and tugged it towards her chest and squeezed it until there were crescent marks left in the cloth. She stared into space repeating the same phrase to herself over and over again until she fell into the couch and fell asleep.
