December 21, 2004

None of the Girardis got any sleep the previous night. They all waited for some news about Joan that unfortunately never came. Will came home for awhile before heading back to the station, needing to do something to find his daughter. Helen called her and Luke off school, and Kevin stayed home from the paper as well. A tense silence settled over the house. No one knew what to do or say. The doorbell rang about noon and made all of them jump. Helen looked at the door with a fear-filled look on her face. If the police were at the door, she didn't think she could handle that. Kevin noticed her look and went to the door himself, hoping it might bring some news about his sister. He opened to door and was both relieved and disappointed to find Grace and Adam standing on the porch. He motioned for them to come in, where they saw Luke and Helen sitting silently in the living room.

"So, what's up?" Grace asked. "We get this phone call last night wondering where Joan is, and then today school was noticeably Girardi-free. Did she run away and join the circus or something?"

No one answered her, and Helen just looked away.

"Did something happen to Jane," Adam asked tentatively.

"She's gone", Kevin finally answered. "We think someone took her to get even with dad for something. They found her car and her purse by the bookstore. The cops are all looking for her."

The living room now had two more stunned and silent occupants.

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Joan awoke to a pounding headache and a cottony feeling in her mouth. She was cold, too. Maybe she could stay home from school today, she thought. After all there were only two days left until Christmas break and nothing useful ever got accomplished right before a school break anyway. She tried to sit up and found she couldn't. She tried to move her arms, and found she couldn't do that either. She opened her eyes, and realized she was not in her bedroom at home. She was in a dark room, which looked more like a closet since there were no windows. As she started to panic, she also noticed the reason for her immobility – her wrists were in handcuffs which had been strung through a chain that was connected to the wall. She tried to move so she could sit up, but the movement caused a wave of nausea to sweep over her and forced her back down. She tried again, but the effort, combined with the blow to her head the night before and the sedative in her system, was too much and she blacked out.

It was much later when Joan came to again, but she felt much the same way as she had the last time. Her body ached all over, and she groaned as she tried to move.

"Nice of you to join me, Sleeping Beauty", she heard a voice say.

She looked over toward where the voice came from and tried to focus on a figure by the door. She felt a chill pass over her as the figure approached.

"Who – who are you? Where am I?" she choked out.

"I'm an old friend of your father's. I just need to collect on a debt. It's been five years, so I thought I'd charge interest too."

Joan looked at him in confusion. What was he talking about?

Graves noticed her confusion and laughed a little. "Perhaps I should clarify. Because of your father, I spent the last 5 years locked up in a rathole of a prison. I had to suffer, so now I will make him suffer. Now, I could just kill him, but where's the fun in that? Not nearly enough pain involved. That's where you come in. There's nothing worse for a parent than to have something happen to one of their kids."

Joan was terrified, and tried to back as far away from Graves as possible. He laughed again and moved toward her. She was now pressed up against the wall, and he crouched down in front of her. He ran his hand through her hair, over her cheek, and down her neck where he grasped her throat. "You look scared, princess. You should be. But I'm not going to kill you yet. Let's see if Daddy can find you. In the meantime, we could have a little fun. Who knew that ugly s.o.b. would have such a pretty daughter?"

He ran his other hand down her body, and Joan tried to push him away and attempted to kick him. "Don't touch me!"

A knife she hadn't noticed before was quickly pressed up against her throat, silencing her and stilling her attempts to fight back.

"I'll do what I want with you, princess. But not yet. You'll be my Christmas present. I'll wait to open you up 'til then."

As Graves stepped away, Joan did the only thing she could think of. "Please, God", she prayed. "Help me."

Graves came toward her again with a syringe in his hand. "I need to go out for awhile and don't want you causing any problems while I'm gone."

Joan began to struggle as he grasped her arm, and she suddenly saw stars as he backhanded her hard across the face. She was too stunned to resist when he injected her with another dose of the sedative.

"God, please help me", she again pleaded as the darkness overtook her.

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The rest of the day had passed slowly at the Girardi house. Helen, Kevin, Luke, Grace, and Adam all anxiously awaited good news that never came. The police officer in the house in charge of the wiretap on the phone served as a constant reminder that something was very wrong.

Around dinnertime, Grace couldn't take the sitting around anymore. She had to do something or she'd be the next one to go to crazy camp. Figuring Helen wasn't going to be up to making dinner, and knowing everyone needed to eat something, Grace started rummaging around the kitchen looking for something to make. She couldn't cook much, but it was really hard to mess up pasta. She found spaghetti, sauce, and stuff to make a salad. She went back into the living room and saw that Luke and Adam were sitting silently in chairs. Helen was on the couch staring vacantly at a spot on the opposite wall, and Kevin was next to her, holding her hand and saying something to her quietly. Grace walked over to Luke and Adam. "C'mon, Geek. You're helping me in the kitchen. You too, Rove." They just looked at her, so she grabbed both their arms and dragged them into the kitchen.

Will came home shortly after dinner, having been sent home after he ripped into Sammy, who had been brought in for routine questioning, for leaving Joan alone the night before and not walking her to her car. Will had been livid, and needing someone to blame, went for Sammy. His colleagues encouraged him to go home and see to his family. They would take care of everything at the station and keep him updated.

The evening passed as slowly as the rest of the day had. Adam and Grace had reluctantly gone home around 9pm, and Kevin had driven them at Will's insistence. "We don't need to have anyone else missing", he'd said.

At around 10:00, the phone rang. Will answered it cautiously.

"Hello?"

"Hello again, Giradi. Missing someone?"

"Where is she?"

"She's around. She's also very pretty. Merry Christmas to me, huh?"

"You sick…" Will stopped short as an officer manning the wiretap motioned him to calm down a bit, but continued on anyway. "If you touch her, I will kill you." Laughter was the only response he received. "Put her on. I want to talk to her", Will demanded.

"Sorry. Maybe later I'll let you listen in."

"What are you after? Why are you doing this?"

"I already told you, Girardi. Payback."

"We've got an address on that phone call, Will. We're sending squad cars there now", said the officer after the call disconnected.

Will insisted on riding along. When they got to the location, they found that the call had come from another payphone not far from the one near the bookstore. Unfortunately, the area was deserted with no sign of anyone having been there. Will pounded on the roof of the car in frustration, and he dreaded having to go home and tell Helen it was just a dead end.

Helen, Kevin, and Luke were in the living room when Will came in the front door. The hopeful look on Helen's face disappeared as soon as she saw the look on Will's. "Nothing?" she asked. "Nothing", he responded. "The call was made from a payphone, like the last one. No witnesses, no nothing." Helen sank back onto the sofa and started to cry.