Carson left the surgery in a hurry; he was late and couldn't wait to see Faith. He had thought of calling her to let her know earlier that he was working late but he'd decided against it choosing instead to call her when he had reached the apartment building. It was later than they usually met, and she'd probably eaten by now but they could still take a walk or better yet spend some lazy time on the sofa.
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"Rosemary, hi," Elizabeth answered her phone, "I thought you had special plans with Lee tonight."
"I did," Rosemary admitted.
"What's wrong?" Elizabeth asked concerned. Rosemary wasn't sounding like her usual cheery self.
"It's probably silly," Rosemary replied, "and we'll laugh about it tomorrow but… you don't happen to be with Faith right now, do you? Hanging out, girl time, something like that."
"No," Elizabeth replied looking over at Nathan who had just helped her clean the kitchen after their dinner together. "She had plans with Carson."
"Did she?" Rosemary tried and failed to sound bright, "did she happen to mention where they were going to spend the evening?"
"No she didn't," Elizabeth told her. "She just told me that he had a surprise and after taking her to Henry's garden the other time I'm pretty sure it is something extra special."
"Right."
"Rosemary," Elizabeth said, "tell me what's wrong right now or I'll coming over to your house right now."
The Coulters and Elizabeth lived in the same neighbourhood. Elizabeth's apartment was ten minutes away from the Coulter's house.
"It's Faith," Rosemary said at last, "I think something's happened to her."
"What do you mean?" Nathan asked. He and Elizabeth were at the Coulters house. They had brought Jack along with them; it was past his bedtime but the boy had refused to go to sleep although it seemed like he was now going to doze off at any minute.
"Well," Rosemary explained, "you remember my friend Sofia Connelly, don't you?"
"I do," Elizabeth replied.
"She's here visiting us," Rosemary said, "and she's maybe…too interested in Carson."
"That's putting it mildly," Lee snorted, "that women is obsessed with Carson and she said she had come back for him."
"I saw her when she visited the other year," Nathan said, "she seems like a nice person."
"She's nice."
"She may be nice," Lee took Rosemary's hand in his, "but Rosie, you have to agree that her interest in Carson isn't healthy."
"And you think she did something to Faith?" Nathan asked.
"We can't be sure," Rosemary told them, "but she's been talking a lot about Carson and Faith and how Faith was the right woman for him. When I told her that Carson and Faith were dating she dismissed Faith saying Carson wouldn't be interested in a silly little girl like Faith when a woman like her was around. I thought she was just joking but this evening she told us that she had life changing plans with Carson."
"So we called Carson," Lee added, "just to check and he said that he didn't have any plans with Sofia, okay he didn't say that exactly but he talked about working late and meeting up with Faith later."
"Faith received a message from Carson earlier today talking about plans for this evening," Elizabeth told them, "She told me about it. She was pretty excited about the surprise that he said he had for her."
"Do you think Sofia sent Faith that message?" Nathan asked. He was thinking about how long it would take for him to get permission to track Faith's phone especially at this time of the night.
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Sofia followed Carson from the surgery to Faith's apartment building. Faith's phone which was on the seat next to Sofia begin to ring, she looked at the ringing phone as Carson's picture filled the screen. She let it ring off the hook twice and then listened to his voice message.
Faith pick up the phone. I hope you're not watching Death in Paradise without me.
There a click signaling the end of his message and Sofia shook her head; Carson had really relaxed his standards if he did enjoy spending an evening watching TV.
Faith's phone rang again. Sofia saw Elizabeth's face dancing on the screen as the phone rang. She wondered again, as she'd done when Rosemary had mentioned that Elizabeth and Faith were friends; she would have never thought that that was possible. It probably because they worked together at CarDon; Rosemary had mentioned that as well. Apparently Faith was also Rosemary and Lee's friend as well which just proved to Sofia that there was something really not right in Hope Valley.
Carson exited the building, on his phone and hurried to his car. The call was short but whatever he'd heard hadn't pleased him, as she watched he tried Faith's phone again and then drove off in a hurry. She followed him to the Coulter home and after he hurried inside she picked Faith's phone and called him.
"Faith, thank God," Carson said, as soon he answered the call.
Rosemary, Lee, Elizabeth and Nathan were standing nearby looking at him with relief on all their faces.
"Where are you?" Carson asked. "Are you alright?"
"Of course, I'm alright," Faith replied.
"Where are you?" Carson asked again.
"I decided to take a walk," Faith said. "You know, just clear my head."
"Really?" Carson was surprised. "Elizabeth told me that you told her that we had plans."
Faith laughed. "I thought we did, you did send me those messages, but in the end I just decided to take a walk, to clear my head."
"So where are you?" he asked her.
"Out," Faith replied, "I'll call you, alright?"
The call ended and Carson stared at his phone in some shock. "She sounded find, right?"
"Well," Nathan spoke up, "I can't claim to know Faith as well as you do but I think there was something off about that call."
"It was Faith's voice," Carson insisted, and Elizabeth nodded in agreement.
"I'm not saying that it wasn't her voice," Nathan said, "but did you notice she kept using the same words?"
"I did," Rosemary said, "she said walk more than once."
"And clear my head," Lee added.
"Sofia's an IT engineer, isn't she?" Nathan reminded them, "I don't think it would be that hard for her to fake a call."
"She's has all the expertise, sure," Rosemary said, "but would she really do this? Would she harm Faith?"
"I believe she would," Nathan told her. "I have run into more than my fair share of obsessed people and I think, from what you've told us, that Sofia is ah…quite attached to Carson and would think nothing of getting Faith out of the picture."
999
Faith banged on the door to no avail. She had realised almost as soon as Sofia had left that she didn't have her phone and she was sure that she'd put it in her bag. Sofia must have taken it out of her bag when Faith had been distracted in the car on the ride over.
Why? Faith asked herself for the umpteenth time. Why would Sofia lock up in a cabin in the woods?
She looked around the room again and realised for the first time that the room had no windows. Frustrated, she felt tears threatening to fall but she held them back, tears would not help her get out of a locked room. She looked at the table set for two and lifted the cover off one plate and found that it was empty, as was the second one. So much for not going hungry. She took the wine bottle out of the bucket and found that it was just a prop and not a real bottle.
Faith looked around the room again and forced herself to think clearly. She remembered as they'd approached the cabin that it had looked quite big with at least four rooms and she could have sworn that she'd seen a window at the front yet there was no window in the room in which she was; the room was empty apart from the table and the two chairs.
She moved the chairs and table and looked under them hoping to find different paneling but the floor was the same. Next, she decided to check all the walls pushing at every jutting piece of wood and finally after what seemed like hours although it had barely been twenty minutes she heard a soft click and the wall moved inwards making the room larger; the room now had a huge window, a sofa set with a coffee table and best of all another door.
Faith barely saw anything in the room but she hurried to the door praying all the while that it was open – and it was. Pretty soon, Faith emerged out of the back door of the cabin and found herself in the woods.
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"I don't think this is a good idea," Carson protested.
"It is," Nathan insisted.
"I don't see how spending time with Sofia will save Faith," Carson said. After the phone call, Nathan had called the station and requested for back-up. Two plain cars had been dispatched to the Coulter home and they were keeping an eye on Sofia whose rental car had been spotted in the neighbourhood.
"Just get her talking," Nathan told Carson, "she'll tell you everything."
Elizabeth, Rosemary, Lee and Carson didn't see how Sofia could just incriminate herself like that but Nathan assured them that she would and that that was their best chance of finding Faith.
"Sofia, Hi," Carson greeted her when she picked her phone a few minutes later. "I hope I'm not calling too late."
"No," Sofia smiled happily, "you're right on time." She had wondered if he would call her.
"I know that I told you earlier that I had plans," Carson said, "but as it turns out I was mistaken."
"I knew it," Sofia replied, "I knew that Faith wouldn't be able to meet with you. A girl can always tell such things, you know."
"Really?" Carson asked, "Anyway, luckily I hadn't made any plans with her but we could go for a late dinner or something."
"I'd like that," Sofia replied.
"I'm actually at the Coulter's right now," Carson said, "I thought that you would be here."
"No," Sofia told him, "I mean, ordinarily I would have been there, but I had some business to take care of."
"Oh?"
"Yes," Sofia said, "I had thought that we would have dinner at our special place tonight, but I guess not."
"Where are you?" Carson asked. "I'll come over and pick you up."
"No," Sofia refused, "why don't we meet at Tacos and Mo, I'm in the mood for some Mexican."
"Okay," Carson agreed.
"What's your special place?" Nathan asked Carson as soon as he hang up.
"We don't have a special place."
"Okay," Nathan changed tacks, "is there any place that the two of you went together that Sofia might consider your special place?"
"No," Carson said immediately. He couldn't remember a special place that he and Sofia had gone to in the brief time that they had dated. He wouldn't even call what they had done dating, sure they had gone out a few times but they certainly hadn't been dates. Not to him.
"What about the Randall cabin in the woods?" Rosemary asked him.
"The Randall cabin?" Carson was confused.
"You went there, remember?" Rosemary reminded him, "You had a picnic by the lake. Sofia talked about it for days."
"That's actually not too far from town," Nathan said.
"Now that you mention it," Carson told them, "she did tell me that it was an ideal place."
"It must be the place," Nathan said. "I'll take some men and we'll go check it out."
"Do I really have to go and meet with Sofia?"
"Yes," he was assured, "just in case we're wrong."
999
Nathan and the other policemen found Faith on the road walking back to town, luckily it was a warm night and she had dressed appropriately. She told them how Sofia had picked her up and taken her to the cabin and locked her in the room; she also told them how she'd been able to escape.
"Sofia, where's Faith?" Carson had waited until their food had been placed in front of them. During the wait Sofia had told him stories about her work, which ordinarily would have been thoroughly entertaining but Carson had barely listened to her.
"She's fine," Sofia pouted, "why do you have to bring her up?"
"Where is she?" Carson asked again.
"If I'd known you were going to be like this," Sofia complained, "I would never have agreed to come out with you tonight."
"Sofia," he told her softly, "I know you lied to Faith and somehow got her to believe that I was taking her somewhere special tonight."
"I did take her somewhere special," Sofia told him, "I took her to our cabin."
"Is she alright?"
"Yes, I did leave her food and wine," Sofia laughed, "okay, alright, I didn't actually, but she wouldn't starve. After dinner, I'll go and get her."
"Why don't we go now?" he asked her.
"I told you, she'll be fine," Sofia said, "let's just enjoy our dinner together."
Carson's phone rang at that moment and Nathan told him that they had found Faith and that she was fine.
999
Carson run towards Faith who was also running towards him and they hugged.
"It's not as if you haven't seen him for ages," Sofia said as she looked at them, "talk about being overly dramatic."
Nathan had driven Faith to the restaurant; the police were going to arrest Sofia there and she was going to be charged with kidnapping among other things. Carson told them that she needed some psychiatric help because he didn't think that she was in her right mind, and Nathan promised to ensure she got all the help that she needed although some jail time would probably be included.
"I can't believe I thought you were the one sending the messages," Faith said, "I should have called you and confirmed."
"You had no reason to doubt," Carson assured her. "And none of us knew that Sofia was a bit crazy."
"Crazy about you," Faith teased him.
"I don't know about that," Carson smiled at him, "but there is one thing that I'm sure of."
"What's that?"
"That I don't know what I would do if something happened to you," he said. He had been going to tell her that he loved her that he never wanted to be away from her but he didn't think that this was the right time.
"Oh."
"I was really scared tonight," he told her, "that Sofia would harm you in some way but Nathan kept assuring me that he'd dealt with cases like this before; and that Sofia wouldn't harm you as long as she thought she had me."
"She didn't," Faith assured him again, "In fact she helped to find a secret door in that cabin, so all in all it was just an adventure."
Only Faith would think that being locked up in a cabin in the woods by a slightly deranged woman was an adventure. He really loved her. "Let's get you home," he told her instead.
"Please," Faith yawned, "I am rather tired."
He would tell her how he felt in the morning, after she'd had a good night's rest.
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