Chap 8
August-07-12
7:25 PM
MARCH CONT'D
Instantly I'm scared for Peeta and I feel guilty. It's all my fault for putting Peeta in danger and now he's missing.
I know exactly what to do. I call the Peacekeepers.
"Emergency dispatch unit, what's your case?" a lady says on the line with a Capitol accent.
"I'd like to report a missing person," I reply, my voice shaking.
"I'd like your location please so I can send a Peacekeeper dispatch unit out to you," the lady replies.
"O-okay, um, I'm at the Art Store just down the street from the Cardew and Heavensbee firm," I state, looking around at my surroundings.
"Alright, someone will be at your location in a matter of minutes ma'am. Good day," the dispatch lady says.
I feel tears well up in my eyes at the thought of Peeta and I quickly dry them as a Peacekeeper car drives up beside Peeta's Thunderbird.
"Did you just phone regarding a missing person?" a peacekeeper with the name tag Darius says to me.
I nod. "Yes, he's been kidnapped," I reply.
"Now who is it you're speaking about? I need a name, age, height, physical features, description, your relationship with him, I need hid contact information so I can phone his family as well as I need your view on this incident. As well, have you tried contacting him since he's been missing? And how log ago did you discover him gone?" Peacekeeper Darius asks.
"His name is Peeta Mellark, he is seventeen years old, um, five seven. He's blond, has somewhat short hair, he's got muscles, on his arms and hands are oven burns from the bakery where he works at, as well as a few scars on his cheeks. I'm his best friend, and hold on, I have his home phone number in my cell, here it is," I say, holding my phone in front of his face.
He nods and writes in his notebook that he has. "Continue," he says.
"Okay, well, he was going to drop me off at home after my therapy session at the hospital when he asked if we could stop off here, at the art store to pick up a few things since he is a painter and baker. So we went our separate ways for about twenty minutes or so that he asked for, and when those minutes were up, I went to go find him. But I couldn't find him anywhere. I texted him, but received no answer. So I called his cell phone, and he picked up, but he said nothing. All I heard was a van's tires squealing and the phone call being disconnected. I then found this note on the windshield of Peeta's car," I say handing him the note. "This was all about half an hour ago now."
"Mind if I do a quick scan of your phone?" Peacekeeper Darius says and takes it into his car once I hand it over.
I see others come over to me and immediately recognize them. It's the crew from Fulvia's office.
Darius comes out and hands me back my cell phone.
"Unfortunately, his calling location was unregistered and could not be discovered. What we're going to do is watch the phone and I want you to contact him once a day. What I have done is hooked up a connection from your phone to our recording systems at the station so when you contact him or he contacts you, then we'll be able to see that. Cressida, how can I help you?" he says.
"Another case with Katniss?" Cressida asks.
"What? You've dealt with her before?" Darius questions.
"We're still doing an investigation, but it sounds like this can go into the case we started on. Are you ready to spill the beans?" Cressida says.
I nod and she leads me to Fulvia's office after Darius says," I am going to do a look around the store, and anything more will be done through Cressida. Go ahead now. I'll do everything else now. We'll let you know if there's a problem. Thank you miss?"
"Everdeen; Katniss Everdeen," I reply and turn my wheelchair around to follow Cressida to Cardew and Heavensbee.
When we enter, she leads me straight to the room that we had our investigation questionnaire in. I see that the whole crew is sitting there, as if they were waiting for me.
Immediately I feel the same wariness I had at our last meeting again, but I have to tell them the entire truth. This is for Peeta. I have to get him back.
"So you ready to finish the story, Katniss?" Fulvia asks as I roll into my spot at the front of the room.
"Yes, plus there's another element to the case," I reply.
"Okay, but why don't we continue off from where we left―I believe you were explaining who had killed your grandmother and how you know? Pollux, can you hook Katniss up with a mic, and we can start rolling, alright?" Castor says pointing over to Pollux who quickly grabs a mic from a dock and runs over to me, clipping it on my coat collar and flipping on a switch.
After another moment, Pollux gives me the thumbs up to start.
"Well, um, the person that killed my grandmother is actually unclear, because I never saw who it was, however , on a note that I found on her night side table when I found her the morning after her passing. I don't really remember the entire note, but I do remember the haunting feeling I felt," I say.
"Give us a gist of it. Is this the note that started everything for you?" Cressida asks.
"Yes, it was the starting note. It said something along the lines of: I told your grandma not to pass it on to you, and this is her punishment. No word of this shall be breathed to anyone or else your family and anyone you love shall be sacrificed for your stupidity. Yes, something like that. Oh, and the letter, it was handwritten and signed by someone with the initials C.S. That's not the only letter I've received from him. Though, I shouldn't really call them letters when they're more like ransom, threat and blackmail notes," I say.
Cressida, Castor and Fulvia nod intently, writing down notes.
"Now, when was the next time you received a note?" Cressida asks.
I think quickly. "I believe it was around the time of the accident. It was presumably by the same person with those initials, and it was like a warning, saying that they knew that tI was thinking and trying to tell someone about my grandmother's death. And it was true, I tried telling my younger sister Prim about that Grandmother passed away, since Prim was quite young at that time," I reply.
They nod and continue jotting occasionally in their notebooks.
"Okay, why don't we now move onto the crash, and then we can carry on to wherever that path takes up to now. Alright? So, why don't you explain what happened and what you saw," Castor says, looking at me above his spectacles.
I nod and close my eyes to bring myself to that dark part of my mind that I don't like. But I have to enter this thought because it's not for me. No, it's for Peeta, because I need to get him back.
"We were on our way back from school, first day, this past September and my mom was driving us home. She looked just an inch away but she was still focused on the road. I looked out the window and saw a truck on the opposite side of the road. I noticed that it suddenly started revving up and purposely turning into our lane and slamming into us. After we stopped moving, I saw the truck driver walk out unharmed and I almost saw guilt in his eyes which were coal black and malicious. That's all I saw of him as he disappeared before anyone could see him. Those eyes are permanently burned into my brain now," I say.
I open my eyes. The three are feverishly writing facts down.
Messalla shuts his phone that I didn't know he had.
"If you'll all excuse me, I have just received a phone call from Peacekeeper Darius regarding the security tape at the Art Store. This will be used for Investigation, so I'll be going now," Messalla says as he excuses himself from the room after Fulvia nods.
"This is good, we'll be able to get a visual of this C.S. Do continue on the next time you've seen C.S. or heard from him," Fulvia says.
My heart starts to speed at the thought of finding out how Peeta was kidnapped and being closer to finding him.
I snap back into reality, trying to calm down my racing heart and think back to that rainy February day in Peeta's car.
"Okay, so um, Peeta had given me a ride home during a rain storm. We were passing by some stores when I suddenly saw the same eyes on a man with a strange looking trimmed dark brown beard. He had spotted me in the passenger seat and I tried looking away so that he wouldn't think it was actually me. However, he did know, so he pulled out a revolver and aimed it at Peeta. I warned him and he swerved just as the man shot the revolver. Luckily he missed us and we drove off, just driving around aimlessly to make sure he wasn't following us," I say.
"Why didn't you call the Peacekeepers, or us? Or did you and we weren't informed?" Castor questions.
"Peeta told me to tell someone since I couldn't tell him, but I didn't. I was afraid of what would happen if I told him or you guys about what happened. But that didn't matter since he was kidnapped just an hour ago. And like I said to Peacekeeper Darius; I went into the store with Peeta, we went our separate ways for twenty minutes and after than I went to go look for him, but he was missing. I also found a note on Peeta's car windshield which mostly said that Peeta was my consequences and punishment for telling you guys about my grandmother back in February. I tried texting him with no response, but when I phoned him, like I said to the Peacekeeper, all I heard was van speeding away," I finish.
They all nod and suddenly the door burst open. In walks Messalla with a video tape in his hand.
"Let's see what this criminal left us, eh?" Messalla says and pops in the tape in a video cassette recorder.
In seconds a black projector screen that's been handing on a side wall flicks on and a coloured security tape appears on screen.
It shows Peeta in the painting aisle looking at different brushes. He is alone until a man that looks exactly like the attempted shooter walks up behind him, not alerting Peeta of his presence. The man with the beard pulls out a similar revolver to the one he had back in February and places it gently on Peeta's temple.
On the screen, Peeta immediately tenses as the man throws his arm around the front of Peeta's throat and somewhat chokes him.
My heart instantly breaks at the sight of Peeta trying to breathe and fight to get away and back to me. Unfortunately that doesn't happen.
The bearded man leads Peeta towards a back exit, staying within the hidden aisles from view of other customers until he pushes him through a door which is labelled 'Authorized Personnel ONLY'. And that's the last I see of Peeta.
Suddenly the tape starts to show snow, and then a new security camera location appears.
It's the man and Peeta heading to a van that's parked behind the store. The man shoves Peeta inside, gags him and ties his arms and ankles together in pairs and locks the trunk door on him. The driver runs to the driver's seat and speeds away towards an unknown toad and destination, though most likely, the highway.
Finally the tape is over and we are all in shock.
"I know who that was!" Cressida states after a moment. "His name is Seneca Crane. Though, that doesn't match the initials on the ransom notes. Katniss, is that the man you remember seeing every time?"
"Yes, it's the same guy whom I saw around my grandmother's house, the same guy who crashed into us, and the same guy who tried shooting at Peeta. Oh, it's all my fault now because I never told anyone!" I say, upset.
"Calm down, we now have a lot of information of who this kidnapper is, and we are going to get Peeta back. You better get on home now, it's getting late," Fulvia says. "We'll get back to you when we find out more."
I nod and say 'thank you', then head to the reception area, dialing my phone number to call home.
After a few rings, I get momma who comes to the office within ten minutes.
On our way home, I tell momma about what happened to Peeta and also about what I explained to Fulvia and her crew.
Momma's shocked that I never told her about any of this, and she seems upset. Especially at the fact that I never said anything about almost getting shot at with Peeta back last month.
But she's forgiving me and I'm glad, because I don't know if Peeta will ever forgive me for the trouble I've given him if we get him back. Worst of all, I don't know if I can forgive myself.
A/N: Well, what do you think? I know this was mostly just a mention of everything that happened already, but I think it was much needed. Not sure how many more chapters left, just saying.
More reviews about the story or comments or feedback/questions are much appreciated!
Thanks!
