Why?

"Ok, that's been twenty-four hours." Punk nodded, standing in the police station with Thea and Cassie, "You gotta do something." He said.

"I have." Cassie assured him, "I got a team looking for her car. It's the best evidence in where to find her or where she's headed." She nodded, "I also had the CCTV footage at her office being looked into but… turns out there's none for her floor. Don't worry, it's nothing suspicious, they've actually just never had CCTV footage there." Cassie nodded.

"And the parking lot?" Thea asked.

"None there either." Cassie shook her head.

"Of course." Thea shook her head, "Ok, so wait a second… are we anticipating that she left her office… unwillingly?" She looked at her sister and then to her father who she could see was getting further stressed by the hour.

"I just know she'd never do something like this." Punk said, "You know your mom. She'd ever want us to worry about her. Unless she's in the middle of a mental breakdown, then… I don't think she left the office with intentions to go have some time to herself." He shook his head. He wasn't going to baby the girls and keep them from hearing potentially disturbing things.

"Ok then why? God forbid someone… got to her, someone approached her… who and why?" Thea questioned, "Everyone you guys pissed off in your lives are literally all dead. So what the hell is left?"

"Ok, I don't think we should jump to conclusions." Cassie shook her head, her stomach turning at the thought of someone harming her mother, "There is a chance, a big one, that she might have just drove off herself. She might have been stressed like the note said. I mean, it is her handwriting." Cassie nodded, "I know it's out of character and that's alarming but… let's not go jumping to scenarios yet." She shook her head, trying to stay calm for her own sanity, and for her father's, which she could see was slipping.

"Search Joey's house." Thea turned to Cassie who looked at her.

"I can't just… search someone's house, Thea." Cassie said.

"Sure you can." Thea nodded.

"No, I can't." Cassie said, "Someone would have to bring me evidence pointing at Joey for me to then go and get a warrant to then search his house." She nodded.

"This is our mom we're talking about here." Thea looked at Cassie angrily.

"I know that but I can't just do things because I'm a cop." Cassie said.

"Arguing isn't going to help." Punk warned them, "Why the hunch on Joey?" He looked at Thea.

"Well why not?" Thea shrugged, "He's clearly got a hard on for her and has done for the past few months."

"Well we saw him today." Punk shook his head.

"He's still shady." Thea said, "I mean… didn't this Mark guy tell you guys that Joey would tell him how in love he still was with mom for years? Am I the only one that finds it kinda weird?"

"Yes, it's weird but… your mom had been fine with him at work." Punk said, "She was getting used to it and he wasn't bothering her as much." He said.

"Given the fact he is at work right now whilst she's gone doesn't seem to me like he's taken her anywhere." Cassie shook her head.

"Well then what the hell?" Thea shook her head, "She's gotta be somewhere. She's not even got clothes with her." She sighed.

The worst was on all of their minds, but naturally they were trying not to think or talk about it. It would make it seem too real that this was actually happening, and that someone they loved so much was potentially in danger. It was difficult to process.

"Well we're taking all the right steps." Cassie assured them.

"What did you tell Jude?" Thea asked Punk.

"Nothing yet." Punk sighed to himself, "I was hoping I didn't have to tell her anything. I thought… I thought she'd be home by now." He shook his head. The more time passed, the more it seemed less likely that AJ had taken off willingly, and that made him feel sick to his stomach.

"You gotta call her tonight. Let her know what's going on." Thea advised as Punk nodded.

"Hey." Theo approached them quickly as they turned around, "They found your mom's car."

"Has the seat been moved back?" Cassie asked, putting gloves on as she approached her mother's car which had been parked on a side road in an empty landfill, "My mom is short so the seat is always as far forward as it can go." She said.

"Yeah it's as far forward as it can go." Another cop nodded to her as Cassie took a look at the drivers seat.

"Any damage? Sign of a crash?" Cassie asked, crouching down and looking at the gas pedal area.

"No, ma'am." He shook his head as Cassie nodded.

"Everything looks normal, annoyingly." Theo walked around the car to meet Cassie who stood up straight and nodded.

"Yeah, looks like it." Cassie sighed, rubbing her forehead stressfully.

"You don't have to be doing this, you know. You should be with your dad and sister." Theo placed his hand on her arm.

"This is my mom." Cassie shook her head, "I can… I can be of use here."

"Yeah, exactly. It's your mom. You're emotional." Theo nodded.

"I can still help." Cassie said, "I mean clearly she did not drive this car here and park it." She shook her head, "There's nothing even around here." She shook her head, looking back onto the very quiet road.

They weren't surrounded by anything, and the nearest surrounding area was being thoroughly checked.

"Yeah I don't think she drove this car here." Theo nodded. He could only be honest, and it didn't look good from where they were standing.

"Ok so what then? Someone took her? Who? Who would do that?" Cassie shook her head, "The last place she was seen was at work by her assistant."

"Yeah and I got the rest of her colleagues on that floor being questioned right now." Theo said.

"So whoever this is, drove this here to… to what? Distract us?" Cassie questioned.

"Buy time." Theo nodded as Cassie sighed with worry, "Your mom has been sort of quiet recently. I spoke to you about this-"

"My mom's always quiet." Cassie shook her head.

"You know what I mean." Theo said, pulling her to the side whilst more cops looked at the car, "Was something going on?"

"No, because my dad has no idea what's going on. If she was dealing with something, he would know." Cassie nodded, "I'm sure of it."

"Ok, I need you not to tell your dad about this." Theo said quietly as Cassie looked at him.

"About what?" Cassie looked at him funnily.

"I want his house checked." Thea shook her head as Punk turned to her, waiting outside the police station anxiously.

"Well you heard Cassie, they can't." Punk said.

"Well I don't need the cops to do it." Thea said, "Dan knows where he lives."

"Why does he know?" Punk asked her.

"Because he saw him one night and followed him. Cassie told me." Thea said, "I mean… we know he's divorced, so he lives alone, we know he's at work right now…" She stared at him.

"You're insane." Punk shook his head.

"Look, I don't know about you but I'm not just waiting around when mom is out there… and we don't know where she is or what's going on. He's weird and it's obvious he's got a hard on for her, right? So that's where I'd look first. Screw the damn warrant." She shook her head as Punk looked at her. She was such his daughter. It scared him sometimes.

"Fine. Get in the car." Punk shook his head, heading for the car as Thea headed over and got in.

"I know you got your suspicions about him too." Thea said as Punk drove off once Thea gave him the address.

"Yeah, I do but your mom was over it. She was… she was starting to feel better about him being around. And that was all I was interested in. I wanted her to feel safe and she told me she did." Punk said as Thea nodded, "I should have just beat his ass." Punk shook his head as Thea nodded.

"You should have." Thea mumbled, "He was weird when he dated her and he's still weird."

"Ok so maybe he's got a crush on her but he didn't seem like a bad guy." Punk shook his head. His mind just couldn't let itself speculate. He couldn't imagine someone hurting his wife. It was too painful. So thinking of Joey being that someone was hard.

"You don't really know a person." Thea said, "If we know anything about mom is that she… she fights. If she is any danger." She nodded, doing her best to reassure her father.

"Well I think they're questioning the people she works with right now, to see if anyone saw her leave the office. Joey said he saw her leave in a hurry at the end of the day." Punk shrugged.

"We'll find her." Thea nodded with a deep sigh. She couldn't think of life without her mother in it. The only time she'd felt like she was potentially losing her mother was when she was in the car accident. But this was different. This felt personal.

"Why are you keeping me here?" AJ spat, standing in a bedroom in a house which Joey had taken her to last night after forcing her into the car with him. She'd essentially been locked in the room all night and day, with only him coming into give her something to eat, which she could barely even look at.

She was terrified. She still had no idea what he wanted from her.

"I'll tell you soon." Joey nodded, "Here's some clean clothes." He threw them on the bed as AJ looked at them.

"I need my purse." AJ said as Joey just shook his head, "Please, my inhaler is in my purse." She looked at him seriously.

"You have asthma?" Joey questioned.

"Yes." AJ said, "One of my old person problems I've developed." She nodded.

"Ok well I'll have it brought up to you." Joey nodded to her.

"Can you please just tell me where I am?" She questioned.

"You're at my house." Joey nodded, "Nice, isn't it?"

"Oh, yeah. Gorgeous." AJ shook her head, looking across at him, "Why are you doing this?" She asked exhaustedly, "How can you be… so nice to me, so friendly and kind… and then do something like this?" She questioned.

"It's just… something I gotta do." Joey shrugged as she looked at him.

"I know you're friends with that cop who was arrested and had connections to a drug gang." AJ nodded, "And he said that you always asked about me, always said you were…. still in love with me." She said, "So why all of this?"

"Like I said… just something I gotta do." Joey nodded, "I need you to shower. We have company tonight."

"What?" AJ shook her head, "No."

"Yeah. Get in the shower." He pointed to the bathroom as she rolled her eyes.

"This is ridiculous." AJ shook her head, grabbing the clothes from the bed and heading to the bathroom, hearing him walking behind her, "I don't think I need supervision."

"Get in the shower." He said, standing at the bathroom door as AJ looked at him, "Get out of your clothes." He nodded, reaching into the shower and turning it on as AJ gulped.

"Please don't." AJ begged, shaking her head.

"Either take your clothes off, or I'll take them off." Joey nodded as AJ gulped.

She took her cardigan off and unzipped her dress, closing her eyes and wishing desperately to wake up from the nightmare she was in.

She pushed her dress off, down past her legs as Joey stared at her.

"Please just leave me alone." AJ begged.

"Keep going." Joey said, leaning against the door as he watched her, "Don't waste all that hot water running."

AJ had no idea what he was going to do, if he was going to do something. She'd been humiliated in her life, on many occasions, sexually assaulted too, but she still didn't have the stability to handle such a situation like this. No one did.

"My husband is gonna kill you." AJ nodded calmly as Joey chuckled a little.

"Your husband is a lucky guy." Joey nodded, watching her unclip her bra, quickly pushing her panties down and jumping into the shower, shutting the shower door over quick as he laughed a little.

"There. Now piss off." AJ said from inside the shower as Joey chuckled, walking over and opening the shower door as she covered herself with her arm and turned around.

"I think I'll stay here." Joey nodded, "Get washed." He leered at her, sitting down on the closed toilet, "And keep the door opened." He smiled as AJ gulped.

She felt like she was going to throw up right there and then. She felt violated in every sense of the word. She wasn't sure if this was the reason he'd brought her here. To expose his perverted personality. Or if there was something else. Either way, it was terrifying.