"Okay, is that the last of the files?" A.J. pulled out a check list, then ticked off box after box as the movers carried them past.
"Should be, A.J.. I'm glad we only had the last two years here, hate to see what this would've been like otherwise!" Rick stood watching as slowly their office space emptied.
This was it, he and A.J. were closing their Phoenix office once and for all. Almost 24 years ago they had rented a one room office, now their two room plus kitchenette space was being stripped of all their stuff.
Unconsciously he sighed. Yes, he and A.J. were going to still do a few "special assignments" out of the tiny office at A.J.'s condo. Ron and Abby Johnson had also offered use of a small suite in the building where Abby had her business.
But it wasn't the same. Maybe he should have listened to Laurie when she tried to dissuade the brothers from letting their office go, but, nah, this was the right thing to do.
Just then the sound of footsteps sounded in the hallway, and the same movers who had just carried the contents of their business downstairs brought it all back up again.
"Wait a minute, what's going on here, this is supposed to all be in the moving van!" A.J. barked, the strain of moving starting to get to him.
"These guys said we had to bring it all back." The foreman told him, then Ron Johnson and Sheriff Gamez came into the room.
"Hey, guys, what's going on?" Rick said, puzzled, then Ron jerked his head and he quickly paid off the men, then shut the door.
"Sorry we couldn't call first, Rick, but there wasn't time." He quietly replied. A.J. looked at his brother, then at their friends. "What happened, Ron. Are the girls all right?" he questioned.
"Yeah, both Laurie and Linda are safe, but we have to hit your files for some answers, James Archer has escaped from the State Hospital." The chief of police answered, then Rick's face turned red. "What? He's supposed to be in prison for 20 years, how did he get moved to the psych ward?"
Rob spoke up. "He went there for an evaluation and managed to con his way onto an out-patient treatment program. He went for an appointment yesterday and never showed up. They can't tell us which doctor let him get away with an unsupervised appointment, but he's nowhere to be found."
A.J. sat heavily in his chair. "This is a nightmare. That mad man's bound to come after Laurie, what are the prison officials going to do about this!"
"They've issued an APB out on him, and they've given us some updated pictures of him from last week. Apparently he's tried to change his appearance by dying his hair brown and growing a mustache. We're trying to see who visited him in the last year." Rick shook his head as Ron added," I want you and A.J. to go through your files, Rick, see if you can get a few of the addresses he might hide out in."
"What about Laurie and the kids….oh God, where are they?" Rick blanched, then was visibly relieved as his brother reminded him "They're all over at the photographers, Rick. Calm down!"
"The one in Chandler, oh, okay. That's right." Rick sighed as he remembered Laurie had picked up Robbie as his car was in the shop. Rick was meeting them at the studio then going to their son's house afterwards.
"Rick, why don't you call the studio and tell Robbie to take everyone back to A.J.'s, you can meet them there." Rob suggested. Rick nodded.
"That's a good idea, let me find the number." He rifled through his wallet, then came up with the card for the portrait artist who had done work for them before.
As he dialed up the studio, Rob and A.J. went to the box containing the files on Archer and started looking for clues to the former businessman's whereabouts.
After several rings, a female voice answered. "Studio Arts"
"This is Rick Simon, is my family there?" he responded, then smiled as the girl started to giggle.
"Yes Mr. Simon, we have quite a houseful right now, your son and daughter, their children, and your mother and wife. Did you need to speak to one of them?"
Rick smiled in spite of himself. "Yes, if you could ask my son to come to the phone, it's important."
Waiting, he glanced over at his brother, and was rewarded with a reassuring look. Just then Robbie came on the phone. "Pop, hi! What's up, are you on your way?"
"No, not yet, son. Listen, as soon as the photographer's done, if I'm not there, can you get everyone to your Uncle's house, we have a problem." Rick explained, then told him about James Archer's escape.
"Pop, I don't believe it." Rick's anger grew as he heard a weary disbelief in Robbie's voice, his son was too young to get used to beaurecratic screwups.
"It'll be okay, Robbie, we at least have a warning and your mother isn't by herself." He reassured him.
"I know, Pop. And I'll keep an eye out on things here, we have two more pictures then we'll can just come back for the big group shot Saturday." His son answered.
"I can depend on you, son. Now you go ahead, if I don't make it, I'll see you at A.J.'s." Rick reminded him, then said good bye and hung up.
Abruptly A.J. held up a thick file. "Rick, here's the Archer file, he had three known residences at the time of trial, I'm thinking he might be at the one outside of Glendale."
"Let's go there first, I want to head him off before he even thinks about hurting my girl." Rick vowed, only for Ron to snatch the file from his hand.
"Oh no you don't, Rick. Your duty is to Laurie and your family, you too, A.J.. I'm going to have each and everyone of these addresses checked out. If .." Ron pointed his finger at his mutinous friend, "we run into any roadblocks, then you guys can help, understand?"
Rick started to protest, then his brother stopped him, a chagrined look on his face.
"He's right, you know. Laurie is in better hands with one of us then if we're out looking for that creep." He reminded him.
Rick swallowed his pride. "Ah, hell, all right. But if your department doesn't find him, I'll hunt him down myself."
"Deal." Ron shook his hand, then the four men split up.
As Rick left his brother with plans to meet later, he decided to swing by the portrait studio first. Parking behind the business, he strode whistling to the front entrance.
"Hi, I'm Rick Simon, is my family still here?" he said, not recognizing the woman at the receptionist's desk.
"No, Mr. Simon, you just missed them, I believe they were on their way to your home." She said politely. A funny smile was on her face, and Rick could have sworn he'd seen someplace else….Her eyes were so familiar.
"Oh, well, thank you for your time." He said, then turned and walked out the door.
As he climbed into his truck, he decided to head to A.J.'s, then take Laurie home. As he pulled out of the parking lot, he didn't notice a dark van leaving from the other side. Rick was looking for cross traffic as he happened to glance over and see a familiar jeep on the far end of the parking lot.
Laurie's jeep. Why was it there instead of bearing his wife to …..
"No!" Rick yelled aloud, furious at himself. That woman, she'd lied, saying his family was heading to his home.
Wheeling his truck around, he screeched back into the parking lot, then vaulted out and rushed to the back door, hoping it was unlocked. As he ran in, he nearly stumbled over a tied up woman, her eyes fearful.
"Miss, what happened?" he asked, freeing her from her bonds.
"Mr. Simon, a man and… a woman, she's upfront, said she'd kill me if I made a sound." She whispered.
"Run out that door and call the police, tell them to send Chief Johnson, hurry!" he ordered, then watched the receptionist run out the back.
Fearful at what he would find, Rick opened the door to the main studio, then heard a thumping noise.
"Robbie!" he called, then heard his son and mother's voices. "Pop! Hurry!" "Rick?"
"Where are you?" Rick pulled his gun, then realized his son's voice was coming from a room down the hall way. He saw a chair stuck under the doorknob and quickly went to pull it away. Instantly the door flew open, revealing his son and mother inside, struggling against the ropes holding them together.
"Thank God you heard us, Rick." Cecilia gasped, as Rick untied them and helped them out of the storage room.
"Are you all right, Mom, Robbie?" Rick asked, trying to stay calm.
"Yes, Pop, I'm sorry, that woman and Archer took Mom." His son rubbed his wrists as Rick frowned.
"Woman, what did she look like?"
"Mousy brown hair, glasses… but it's a disguise, I think it's Cheryl Minor. She's Archer's accomplice." Robbie answered, then saw the shock on his father's face.
"She's supposed to be in prison…..damn!" Rick raged, then Cecilia put a trembling hand on his.
"Rick, we've got to find her, he's insane. He was waiting for me when I came out of the rest room, he put a gun to my head and made Laurie go with him. He drugged her with something, then that woman was the one who made us get in here and tied us up."
"We'll find her, Mom. Wait a minute…." His ears pricked up as he heard a series of sirens, then A.J. and Ron Johnson's voices calling their names.
Minutes later the scene was secured and the woman Rick had rescued gave a description of Laurie's kidnappers so an updated APB could be released.
"Son, take your grandmother home, I want you to make sure everyone's accounted for and stays put until we find your mother." Rick told him, then saw the anguish in Robbie's eyes.
"Pop, it's my fault. I should have remembered that Cheryl, I didn't like her as a kid, always belittling Mom and all. When Mom and I came in to see where Grandma was, that's when I saw Archer had Grandma at gun point. Mom hit him and kicked the gun away, but that Cheryl knocked me down and threatened to shoot me so Mom would surrender. Archer drugged her and carried her away while that woman locked us in the closet."
"Robbie, no." Rick hugged him, knowing how upset his boy was. "She fooled me too. I came in to see if you guys were done and I didn't recognize her. She told me you had already left, but if she hadn't slipped and said you were all headed to my home, I would have driven to the condo instead of coming back here."
"Rick come here, quick!" A.J. came to the back door of the studio. Rick followed him to Ron's cruiser.
As he came to the driver's side door, Rick saw the police monitor. It displayed a van on the side of the highway, door ajar, then a woman tumbling to the ground.
"Ron, we have to get there, she must know where Laurie's been taken!" Rick told him anxiously, then breathed a sigh of relief as the chief nodded.
As Rick herded his son and mother toward their car, he saw a rolled up bag on the ground near Laurie's Jeep. When he bent down to look at it, he found a note that turned him cold.
She's mine now, she has no need of these. Inside was his wife's anniversary ring and the "renewal rings" they had both exchanged. And her watch.
Rick felt like he'd been kicked in the stomach, and he fell to his knees in despair. His Laurie, in the hands of that monster who frightened and hurt her. And he couldn't protect her.