The Douglas Farm

Oliver woke up the next day to the sun streaming in through the window and birds gently singing in the trees outside. For a brief moment, he forgot his troubles and everything seemed beautiful, but then he looked over to his wife's side of the bed and found it untouched and empty. The sadness and anxiety of the last couple of days came flooding back to him, and he was once again depressed and alone.

Oliver grudgingly got out of bed and looked at himself in the mirror. He had never seen himself look worse in his life. His hair was tousled and unkempt and he had a deep five o'clock shadow because of going days without shaving. There were heavy bags under his eyes from insufficient amount of sleep and he seemed paler than he was before. Although he couldn't care less what he looked like, he knew he had to look decent if he wanted to go out and search for more clues that would lead him to Lisa, so he quickly undressed and headed out to the shower.

As he proceeded to shower and later on shave and dress, Oliver couldn't keep from thinking about his failure at being a detective the previous day. He was so sure that if he set his mind to it, he would be able to gather enough evidence to at least find out where they were keeping Lisa, but to his disappointment, it didn't work out that way.

Oliver knew he didn't have time to dwell on that misfortune, though. He had missed his deadline for dropping off the ransom and expected a phone call from the kidnappers any minute now. He knew they were going to be angry, but have no choice but to extend the deadline.

Last night, Oliver had been terrified that as soon as they found out that the money was not to be found, they would do away with Lisa without a second thought. But then he realized something. If they kidnappers were forced to ask for more money, they must really need it for something, otherwise they would have left with the first ransom. If Oliver figured right, the kidnappers must have underestimated how much money they needed to escape and were forced to ask for more. Therefore, they have no choice but to wait until he delivers the money to them, which gives Oliver more time to investigate.

But not much, he thought to himself. They're bound to grow impatient and hurt Lisa because of my sluggishness. No, Oliver would have to work as fast as he could.

Just as soon as he finished dressing, the phone in the kitchen rang. Oliver ran from the bedroom and answered it eagerly.

"Hello," he practically shouted into the telephone.

"Where's our money," the voice on the other end demanded to know angrily.

"I couldn't get it in time. It was too much," Oliver explained.

"Don't give me any of your excuses! Don't you realize your gambling with your wife's life here" the voice exclaimed. Oliver heard the voice draw in a breath as if to calm himself down.

"Look, since I like your wife and I am your friend, I'll give you one more chance to make the deadline. I'll give you until midnight the day after tomorrow. You got that!"

"Yes," Oliver replied, his voice tense and full of anger.

"Good! And remember, this is your last chance. Either the money is here on time or you'll never see your wife again!" Oliver heard a click and then silence.

Well, at least my hunch was right, Oliver thought as he held the phone a moment longer. The kidnappers were obviously desperate and were willing to wait long enough to extend the deadline.

Oliver was about to return the phone to the hook when something hit him. I am your friend, the voice had said. Why did that sound familiar to Oliver? He tried to rack his brain to come up with the answer. All of a sudden, it dawned on him.

Joseph, Oliver's head screamed. Joseph had said those very words to him the night Lisa was kidnapped. And come to think of it, when the voice found out that Oliver didn't get the money in time, he hadn't expressed concern for the money itself, but about the fact that his wife would be hurt if he did! Now, Oliver was sure that it had been Joseph on the other end of the line. But how was Joseph able to make that call without leaving the farm?

The line on the pole, Oliver thought. When the technicians got here, they didn't bother to connect that line to the phone in the kitchen, they installed a new one. That means the phone on top of the pole still works and Joseph used it whenever he wanted to call me, Oliver thought. And whenever he was here with me while I was on the phone, he just got some other guy to do the calling for him!

Oliver was now convinced that he had found out who his wife's kidnappers were, but he needed more to go on before he could confront him about it. He needed to dig deeper. He had to Joseph away from the farm so he could investigate this discovery further, but how?

Suddenly, Oliver got an idea. With sheer excitement, Oliver headed out the back door and called out to Joseph, whom he was sure went out to the fields as soon as he finished the call. Within a few minutes, Joseph was in the kitchen standing by Oliver.

"Yes sir," Joseph asked.

"I just realized that I hadn't picked up the mail from Mr. Drucker's store in days and I'm expected some important letters. Could you please go pick them up for me?"

"Sure thing, Mr. Douglas," Joseph agreed.

"Thank you. Here are the keys to the car. And you needn't hurry. I'm not much in the mood to work today," Oliver said, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"Alright, Mr. Douglas, I'll be back soon," Joseph said. And with that, he turned and headed out the front door.

Just as soon as Oliver was sure that Joseph was gone completely, he ran out the back door and called for Eb eagerly. At the sound of Oliver's urgent voice, Eb came running from the barn.

"What is it, dad," Eb asked in a concerned tone.

"Come on, there's no time to waste," Oliver said excitedly as he headed toward his bedroom. He began rummaging through the small closet that had been cleared out for Eb and Joseph to store their belongings while the barn was being repaired. It took some digging, but Oliver finally managed to pull out the two suitcases that Joseph had brought with him when he came to work here.

"What are we doing," Eb asked confused as Oliver opened the suitcase and began to carefully remove its contents.

"I think I've finally got a lead in our case," Oliver said in a rush. "And I'm determined to follow up on it! Come Eb, we've got digging to do!"