Chapter 9
Abbey tried to keep her mind focused on where she was. 'I have to remember sounds and smells. I have to know where they're taking me.'
The drive seemed to go on forever. Bumps and turns slid her across the vacant back of the van. But bruises were a minor inconvenience as long as nothing worse happened.
Eventually, she felt the van come to a stop. Bracing herself for the rough handling, she waited for someone to open the back doors. She had heard the doors slam as the driver and passenger got out, but then there was no sound. 'Surely they wouldn't leave me in here. As they said, I'm their insurance policy. They need me healthy.'
Abbey waited.
Jed waited.
Waited to know what had happened to his wife. What did the kidnappers want? There had been no news for hours. Ron had kept him informed of every finding, but there was so little new information.
"Leo, I should not have agreed to let her go. Ron had his doubts and I should have insisted that she stay here."
"Sir, could you have really stopped her? I mean it is her family."
Jed grinned at Leo as he replied sarcastically, "Sure. I can stop my wife from doing anything."
"Yeah, right."
"You know the same woman, don't you Leo?"
"Yes, sir. And the only way to have stopped her from going would have been to tie her to the bed."
"Well, that would have been more fun."
Leo knew he had no response for that statement.
After a short pause, Jed got serious again. "What do they want with her? I mean her sister is missing, her brother is dead. What the hell is going on?"
Leo could see the fear increase in Jed's face as each minute ticked by. Wrinkles became more pronounced. His whole demeanor had changed from one of confidence to one of uncertainty. Without knowing about Abbey, he was off-balance.
"I don't know, Jed. The Times article is apparently the link to all this. You say that her brother had, in the past, expressed appreciation for all that you had done for him, but then this article was published with the opposite feelings. So somehow, the article holds the key."
"Yeah. There has to be something we're missing. The article holds the secret."
