It's time for some more insight into Joey's abduction... I'm not sure if 'enjoy' is the right word but I hope you like the chapter anyway. Love, IJKS xxx
Chapter Twenty Five
January 2000
Sydney, Australia
Joey struggled against the blindfold wrapped too tightly around her head and all the hands that seemed to be grabbing her as she was dragged back out of the car and into what she presumed was a house. There were hushed voices around her but she couldn't make out anything familiar. Fear coursed through her veins and her heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest. She was grateful for the hands holding onto her only when she stumbled down several stairs and they prevented her from falling completely. She was pushed onto something soft and low to the ground and her blindfold was removed. It didn't help though. The two men in the room with her had their faces hidden and she was largely shrouded in darkness. Without a word, they left the room, climbing back up the stairs and locking her in. Frantically, Joey leapt to her feet, refusing to cry as she rushed at the door, begging to be let out.
Climbing back down the steps, she screamed as her heel broke and she fell down them, landing in a heap on the cold, concrete floor. She cursed herself for getting kidnapped on a night when she was wearing posh and impractical shoes. Looking around and letting her eyes adjust to the dark, Joey could just about make out that she was in some kind of basement. There was nothing in the room but the mattress she had first landed on when they'd dumped her there.
She wandered, barefoot, around the perimeter of the room, hoping for some hope of escape. She couldn't even begin to comprehend what had happened to her. How had she ended up here? She thought about Maria, picturing her face as she wondered if she had been in on it all along. Had she just pretended to like her? Had nothing been real? Finding nothing resembling an escape and becoming increasingly frightened, Joey hurried back up the steps, ready to keep banging on the door as making as much of a nuisance of herself as she could in a desperate bid to get whoever had taken her, to let her go.
Upstairs, Hugo pulled his mask off and headed out into the back garden to get some air. Taking Joey Collins had been awful. He hadn't been prepared for the look of fright on her face as he dragged her into the car. He hadn't expected to care. Sure, she seemed like a nice enough girl but the last thing he had expected was to feel compassion for her. She was a means to an end – or, specifically, the means to a lot of money. She was going to earn him and his team a small fortune. He'd convinced himself that she was just necessary goods but he'd seen her eyes tonight and realised that she was a person.
Inside the house, Robbo looked out of the window and studied Hugo trying to get his breath. A smile twitched the corners of his mouth, satisfied that Hugo had not been the man for the job. He wouldn't have cared. He wouldn't have been shaken up by abducting a girl from the street in order to get a ransom for her life. More than that, he would have enjoyed it. And he was annoyed to have been robbed of such a moment.
"Get him in here," Richard ordered.
Robbo headed out to collect Hugo impolitely from the garden and the group settled down to discuss what to do next.
Joey continued to bang on the door. Pain shot through her hands and she could feel blood begin to seep. She was doing her best not to cry and told herself repeatedly not to be weak. But the fight was draining out of her as she sat, trapped in the dark, all alone, with no idea where she was or who had dragged her there. She continued to pound the door.
It was much later that night when Nicholas and Roz began to worry. Joey hadn't exactly given them a time when she might be home but she knew her curfew was eleven o'clock and nobody had heard from her. They'd phoned the family driver but he'd told them that the last time he'd seen their daughter was when he'd collected her from school. Nicholas had then called a meeting with their eldest boy, Brett and all the staff in a bid to find out if they knew anything but nobody did. Then he'd called the police.
Ross Buckton had been just about to leave the station and go home, typically late, to his family, when they'd received a call to say that the notorious Collins family had reported their youngest child missing. Phoning his wife, he apologised and said he probably wouldn't be home until the early hours. He could hear the disappointment in her voice but this would be a high profile case that needed to be quickly resolved. He couldn't let them down. Taking a team of officers with him, he headed out to the house.
Joey had no idea how much time had passed. Nobody had been in to see her and she had no more clue over what was going on. Creeping back down the stairs, she lay on the mattress and closed her eyes. Tears flowed as hopeless despair took over.
Next time... back in present day, Ruby begins to suspect that Charlie feels more for Joey than friendship, Hugo works out the same thing about Joey and Angelo receives an indecent proposal...