10:00 AM

Sunday, December 24, 2006

"August 17, 1999," Gina kept the phrase circulating through her brain. "Why does that date stick out so much?"

"What do you care?" Chris sighed, resting his head on the floor of Rachel's room. "It's not like it's going to save our sister."

"That's the last thing she said to me before we lost the connection," Gina snapped, throwing her pen to the floor. "It must have meant something. It's obviously code, it had to have been. If she were safe, if somebody wasn't watching her, she would have just flat-out said where she was."

"Or maybe she was just losing it." Gina stared in disgust at her brother and crossed her legs, looking around her little sister's room.

"August 17, 1999. So Rachel was…"

"Nine."

"Right. Wow, long time ago. And I was…"

"Fourteen, and I was four. Happy now?"

She glared at him. "What was so memorable from that time?"

"Uncle Ed died."

Gina bit her lip and shook her head. "That doesn't make sense. Rachel wouldn't remember the death of an uncle she barely knew. What else?"

"Well…" Chris thought. "It was my first trip to Walt Disney World. But that doesn't really have anything to do with Rachel."

Rachel loved Walt Disney World. "Oh my God!" Gina screeched, jumping off the bed. Her foot landed on Chris's hand and he howled, leaping from the floor. "Sorry. But that's it!"

"So…Rachel's in Disney World?" Chris frowned. "Nice kidnapper."

"No, idiot, she's in Orlando! Or maybe Kissimmee? Somewhere around there! I'm almost positive!"

"Aren't you glad I'm so inquisitive?" Chris proudly questioned. Gina just stared at him.

"I have to go tell the detective."

"Wait!"

Gina turned in the doorway. "What?"

"Remember the bits of evidence that pointed to the Keefe assassination?"

Gina nodded. "Yeah. What about it?"

"That was in Florida, too."

She nodded worriedly and darted off to the kitchen.

Xx

"This is insane!" Joe yelled as Vrampton cuffed him behind his back. "I had absolutely nothing to do with this, and neither did Lisa!"

"Resisting arrest," Vrampton sighed, "will do nothing to help your mounting case."

"What case?" he snapped. "What possible evidence do you have against us?"

Vrampton flashed a few photographs in Joe's face.

The first was of Lisa's kidnapper, the alleged Jackson Rippner, with a pen sticking out of his neck. Joe liked that picture, even though it pained him to know who had put it there. His daughter.

The next was of a sports utility vehicle sticking out of Joe's living room, with a chalk outline of a body in front of it. Oh, yeah. Because Lisa hit that guy.

He turned to Vrampton. "So, Lisa doesn't have much going for her. But what about me? What does any of this have to do with me?"

Vrampton narrowed his eyes and nodded his head to the doorway. "We have a witness, came in yesterday. She claims that she was on board the red-eye flight your daughter was supposedly 'harassed' on. Had some very enlightening information for us. Doesn't look good for you, pal. Your daughter is the prime suspect, and guess what?"

"You rank as her accomplice."