Chapter 33 – Jason
Four days later
It had been a long week since Lucy had been taken from hospital, but it had also been an unproductive week. Searched had been carried out, arrests made but there was no sign of all the victims. There had been twenty four individuals that have been classified as missing and had been linked to this case. Lucy, Ella, Crystal, Sky, and Lucy's two roommates were on the list. We knew that Maui were doing all they could for the girls, plus the other individuals on the list, but it wasn't quick enough. We knew that the girl's kidnappings would coincide with the case we found a week and a bit ago, they only had fourteen days until they were all found dead. Half way there, I thought. But we had no leads, nothing.
'How's Lily doing?' Michael asked from the other side of the room to Joe. In the nicest way possible, I had never seen my best friend look so shit than I did at this moment; the last week had taken a toll on him. It had taken a toll on all of us, but it hit Joe badly. He didn't want to leave Lily even with family, so was constantly stuck with a three year old who wasn't settling down, wasn't sleeping and Joe had a struggle every meal time to get her to eat. Not only that, he had to deal with the secret knowledge that his fiancée was pregnant, too. I looked at Joe for a second where he was sitting on one of the window seats in the North office, which overlooked the day care centre where Lily was playing. Joe had his legs up but not once did he ever take his eyes off his daughter. We had been in the room for just over three hours now and he had not shifted, or said a single word.
He was blaming himself for Ella's disappearance in the exact same was I was blaming myself for Lucy. We had become inseparable again; with us two sleeping around Joe's house, or staying on base in hope something would come through. I knew that if I didn't leave Lucy alone, I would have at least been able to get her out of hospital before whoever took her did. Joe is blaming himself because Ella had gone outside to take a phone call, like she normally does so Lily doesn't overhear anything, but he didn't keep an eye on her like he normally does. We watched the CCTV from outside their house, and you can see Ella wandering backwards and forwards out of shot on the pathway outside their house. In shot, then back out, back in and then out but then she disappeared completely.
'Not good,' Joe said in a forced whisper. 'She's barely sleeping, and when she does she just has nightmares,'
'What does she say?' I asked him. I had seen Lily when she's been having these nightmares and it nearly killed me off; I couldn't watch her that upset. Joe had gotten into a habit that when he head Lily start stirring in her sleep, he would go sit by her bed and try and calm her down before she woke up.
'She keeps saying that the bad men had got Ella, the bad army men.' Joe said shaking his head. 'I've already looked at the suspect list – there's no one with any form of military background on there,'
'She is only three, though,' Michael said, 'She might not mean army in the same way that we all mean army. She could just mean security,'
'Perhaps, but that's still not a lead. You can't hold twenty four people who you've just kidnapped without security,' I quipped back and he nodded.
'Of course, but we don't know what Lily can do Savant wise yet, so perhaps we can get her to talk,' Michael said.
'No.' Joe said straight away. 'You are not going to make her talk like that,'
'It might be beneficial for the girls, for everyone,' Michael said back.
'Bugger off – you are not going to manipulate my three year old daughters mind in order to make her speak about things she is having bad dreams about,' Joe argued back.
'Daddy?' We heard a small whisper in the corridor. This meeting room was meant for those who had families, and it had an open staircase that led straight up, so whilst it was respectively private, you could still easy get to your children if you needed them or they needed you. We looked over, and saw Lily standing on the top of the stair case, hugging her dinosaur teddy tight to her chest. Joe immediately got up, shooting Michael a dirty look as he went over to Lily, picking her up to sit on his hip. 'Do the bad men still have Mummy?'
'Yeah,' He whispered in a strained voice and Lily looked at him like he just told her Santa doesn't exist.
'The army men have Mummy, though,' Lily whispered, leaning her head against Joe's shoulder as he gently kissed the top of her head. 'I told you, why haven't you got her?' Lily whispered.
'Lily, what are the army men wearing?' I asked her and both Michael and Joe looked at me confused.
'All of them are wearing black but the big army man is in a suit – like Daddy and you wear,' Lily said and I frowned. No military service wears black, supporting the theory that they're not army but rather security. 'But they are cold – it's very cold where they are.'
'Lily, can you show us where you think they are on this map?' Michael said, crouching down to appear less intimidating for the toddler. Joe put her down and she ran over to Michael, hugging her Uncle slightly as he crouched down and he picked her up. Lily hesitated, reading all the names of the countries that were in the northern hemisphere, before pointing to Norway.
'How do you know she's there, Lils,' Michael asked her, tiggling her tummy slightly as she hit his hand away.
'I saw Mummy say it in a dream. Trump storm,' She whispered, looking at over Joe and held her arms out. Joe immediately got up and went over to the toddler, taking her out of Michael's grasp. Michael let him, immediately pulling out his phone.
'Lily, do you mean Tromso?' Joe asked Lily, hugging her tight and Lily nodded.
'Ya,'
'Is that enough to narrow it down?' Joe asked Michael and he nodded.
'Yeah, Tromso is a big town, don't get me wrong, but we should be able to pin point roughly where the girls are being held and find a way to get them out safely,' Michael said, walking out of the room on his phone. He held his hand up as a goodbye to the three of us as Lily hugged Joe back, giving him a sloppy kiss on the cheek as Joe grinned at her, even the slightest hope of getting Ella back making him happy. I was relieved more than anything, but I still was scared. How, and why, did they get up to Tromso?