"Dad! Dad! Dad!" Jeff sighed wearily as Alan began to tug on his jumper as well as constantly repeating one word at the top of his lungs
"Not now Alan…" he muttered as he frantically checked off the last point in his shopping list, "…okay, present for Mother, check...John, do you still want to head to the-Gordon, where's John?"
"That's what we were trying to tell you, he's gone!" Jeff spun around, desperately searching for his son, standing on his tip toes in order to see over the crowd. Noticing that Alan and now Gordon, were glancing up at him nervously, he smiled reassuringly,
"Don't worry boys, he's probably with Scott or Virgil. Come on, let's go find him huh?" The trio wandered off towards the music store, keeping a cautious eye out for John along the way
"Virgil!" called out Jeff as he spotted him by the grand piano. Virgil lept up and turned to his family,
"Dad! I swear I wasn't going to ask for this, but I couldn't resist and-"Jeff held up a hand, causing Virgil to pause in his tracks,
"Don't worry about that Virgil…have you seen John?" Virgil frowned,
"He's not with you?" Jeff shook his head,
"He was, I turned my head for one minute and then suddenly he was gone!" Virgil's frown deepened,
"Well…maybe he's with Scott? Come on, he said he was going to the sports store for a bit" As the family headed towards the store in question, there was no sign of John anywhere in the nearby vicinity, no announcement over the tannoy to say that a child needed picking up from the security desk.
"Dad!" Scott came running up to the small group, "Is something wrong, I thought you were going to the bookstore with John?"
"…He's not with you then?" Scott shook his head,
"No…he hates sports, why would he be with me?" Jeff sighed,
"We don't know where he is then…come on, let's go to the security desk, maybe he just wandered off…he's probably hidden in a book aisle reading silently, not even fully aware of the world" Jeff knew that at this point, he was reassuring himself more than anyone else. The security guards sent out the word but there was no reply…nobody had seen anyone matching John's description…he was gone.
….
"Mr Tracy…" Jeff looked up from where he had his head buried in his hands, "…It's been a few hours since you last saw your son right?"
"A little under two…why?"
"We've called the police…It's best we start early, especially in cases like this. They're here now and we shut the entire mall down half an hour ago. Nobody's getting out without our say so…we'll find your son." Jeff nodded, and glanced at the rest of his family. Scott was pacing and Virgil was trying to comfort the younger two, who were beginning to cry.
A few minutes passed, and Jeff kept his head buried in his hands throughout it all. He didn't want to see the pity in their eyes…he couldn't deal with it.
"Mr Tracy…" Jeff rose his head. Standing in front of him was a medium-sized man, short brown hair and grey eyes, "….my name is Detective Hanson, I'm the lead investigator on this case. We would like to speak to all of you individually if that's okay?" Jeff nodded before narrowing his eyes,
"Please don't tell me you suspect my family in all of this?!" Detective Hanson sighed,
"We're just trying to rule out any possibility. At the moment, our main theory is that your son is being held for ransom. Have you had any demands yet?" Jeff shook his head,
"No…I thought that too so I've checked my phone constantly…my e-mails, I've called my housekeeper but there haven't been any messages sent to the house, nor any to Tracy Industries…there's been no word from anyone" The Detective nodded,
"So there's a chance it might be personal to the perpetrator…have you noticed any unusual attention being directed at your family or even just at John himself?" Jeff scoffed,
"You're going to have to be more specific Detective. I'm a billionaire, ex-astronaut who runs a successful business…we're followed by the press a lot"
"No, I mean, has a specific individual been giving your son or family more attention than what was strictly required?" Jeff thought to himself, but then shook his head,
"Nobody that I can think of" Detective Hanson sighed,
"Is there any way I can speak to your wife. I know she wasn't here when the incident started but you'll find that women tend to notice more…" Jeff closed his eyes and sighed,
"She-she died…almost two years ago"
"I-I'm sorry. How may I ask? Is it possible the two incidents are related?"
"No…it was a freak accident. An avalanche whilst we were on a skiing trip…" Detective Hanson nodded,
"Right, as we are interviewing your family our behavioural analysis team will build a profile on the kidnapper. Hopefully we'll find whoever it was and your son…hopefully within twenty four hours."
"W-why within twenty four hours?"
"The more hours a child spends with their kidnapper, the higher the risk of them getting…killed. The first three hours are critical, but finding a child alive after a day….well it's rare to say the least" Jeff's face fell,
"I can't lose him too…I just can't" The Detective nodded,
"I know Mr Tracy…" he glanced at his phone, "…our technical analyst is going through all of your e-mails and phone records in order to see whether you've missed any ransom demands and to keep an eye on them in case any come through." Detective Hanson moved to walk away, however, before he did he faced Jeff again,
"I'm sorry about your wife Mr Tracy…I must have missed it in the papers" Jeff shook his head,
"We kept it out of the papers as much as possible…the boys were too upset to deal with reporters and John-" Jeff took a deep breath, "John was still in a coma…he was in the accident with his mom and…he didn't wake up for weeks afterwards. I couldn't put my family through all that stress!" Jeff's shoulders began to shake and tears fell down his face,
"O god! I can't lose him!" Hanson stepped back as the remaining Tracy sons rushed over to their father in order to try and comfort him as much as possible. He sighed wearily to himself…this was going to be a hard one.
….
"Dad! Dad!" The man scrunched his eyes up as the kid kept shouting,
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" he yelled, startling the boy into silence. He took a deep breath and continued in a calmer voice,
"I'm going to place this…." He held up a tie "…in your mouth. Don't resist please" The boy began to beg and struggle, but it was all for nothing.
"There…" the man murmured as he took a step back, "…that's better. Now I have to be off…it seems Daddy Dearest called the police. Mustn't look suspicious now!" He smirked at the boy before gently brushing the blonde hair away from the tearful eyes,
"Perfect…" He shook his head and strode quickly out of the room, ignoring the muffled sobs of the boy before making sure that everything was secure in and out of the room…now to get rid of those pesky police.