Part 4

"I'll be fine! Stop worrying, Nan. Joshua and you are both my friends. This is the least I can do." Sarah protested from her seat in front of the mirror.

Nancy took one last hard look at her. Sarah was almost the same height as Nancy. Now with her wearing Nancy's clothes, her short hair covered by a red blond wig and her green eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses, they looked like twins.

Which had been the plan when Nancy had called her friend for help. Sarah had instantly agreed. They were lucky that they didn't even have to shopping for wigs. She already owned one from theatre and all they'd had to do was straighten out the curls to match Nancy's hair texture.

"I'm not worrying. But promise me you'll call the police if you feel even the slightest bit threatened." She said, hugging her roommate.

"I promise. And I'm also going to call the police if you're not back in two hours." Sarah replied with a look that said she meant it.

They wished each other good luck and then the other girl left. Nancy took another look in the mirror. In a nondescript dark sweatshirt and jeans, her hair pulled up into her cap that she'd drawn low over her face, she was sure she wouldn't draw any attention.

Here was the plan. Sarah was going to take Nancy's car and meet up with Joshua. Then pretending to be Nancy, they were going to drive around and visit some of the places Ned had last been seen in such as the lake and the gym. Giving Nancy enough time to check out Alex's house.

She was counting on three things for her plan to work. One. Alex was still following her. Two. He was working alone. Three. He wouldn't come close enough to figure out it was Sarah in her place. The last one she was certain of. She couldn't recall seeing him around and with Joshua there, he wouldn't dare.

She waited fifteen minutes before making her way to Sarah's car. Then taking a deep breath, she drove away.

It took her almost thirty minutes to reach Alex's apartment. She'd learned that although his father lived on campus, he had moved off campus at the beginning of his senior year. But she'd never expected it to be this far away from college.

New text message from Ned.

Look in the lake, detective. Maybe your boyfriend's there.

Nancy grinned. Her plan was working.

She parked in an alley a block away and quickly made her way up the stairs of the three storey building. The place itself looked shady with the paint peeling and 'To-Let' signs covering most of the windows. Why would Alex choose to live here when he had a perfectly nice place with his father? Unless he had something to hide?

Not letting her nerves take over, Nancy put her ear against the door and listened for a minute. Not hearing anything, she quickly took out her lock picking tool and jimmied the lock.

The house was completely dark. Using a flashlight to guide herself she took a quick stock of the house. She didn't find anything suspicious in the living room or the kitchen. Which left only the two bedrooms to be checked out.

The first one had an unmade bed, probably the one Alex slept in. The door of the other room was shut.

Her pulse racing, Nancy opened it and walked inside. Only to trip over something on the floor.

Stopping herself from screaming she shined her flashlight on the floor and her heart stopped. Ned was lying prone on the floor, his hands and feet tied. A red stain covered one side of his t-shirt.

Shaking with fear, Nancy dropped to her knees and put her ear against his chest. Thank God, he was still breathing. His pulse was weak but steady.

But that wound...

Gingerly, she lifted his shirt. An ugly gash about an inch and a half wide covered his left side. Most of it had scabbed over but there was a tiny trickle of blood still flowing.

Anger bubbled in her. It looked like a stab wound but she couldn't be sure. What had Alex done to him?

Not wanting to risk infecting it, she took out a clean handkerchief and dressed it as well as she could to stem the flow.

But no matter what she did, Ned wouldn't wake up, his head rolling lifelessly onto his side.

She had hoped they would be able to escape first and then go to the police. But there was no way she would be able to get him to the car in this state. She had to call them now.

Nancy knew she had spent too much time debating when the sound of the front door opening interrupted the dead quiet.

The room was bare with only a single bed in one corner of the room. Not waiting to think, she dived under it and pressed herself against the wall.

She realised a second too late what she had done wrong. She'd forgotten to close the door. And she had lost her phone somewhere on the floor.

The only thing she could do now was pray that Alex would not notice.

But of course he did. She heard footsteps coming closer and then suddenly stopping. A light switched on and Nancy had to press deeper into the shadow. She could hear shuffling but the angle of her position was such that she couldn't see what was going on without risking discovery.

A deep throaty laughter broke the silence, sending a chill down her spine. It didn't sound like it belonged to a sane person.

Before she could quite recover from the fear, the footsteps came closer at alarming speed. All she could see was a pair of white sneakers before a hand reached in and grabbed her.

As she was being dragged out, Nancy caught a glimpse of angry blue eyes and dark hair. The smiling poster boy from the Emerson flyers was nowhere in sight.

She jammed her elbow into his stomach with all her might and Alex grunted, just slightly loosening his hold on her.

She had a swiss knife in her pocket. If only she could get her hand loose... Twisting around, she tried to wrench herself free but he was too strong.

She tried a backward kick but he didn't let go of her as they stumbled against the wall. He had one hand around her collar now.

No matter what she tried, she couldn't unfree herself as he turned her and pushed her towards the wall.

His rage filled eyes was the last thing Nancy saw before he slammed her head against the wall and the world went dark.