Attn: I don't own John or Natalie or any other OLTL character. I do own everyone else though.
Chapter 2
Llanview Pennsylvania that same night around 11pm
The police commissioner was worried. Afraid even. His office usually cluttered was now in total disarray as he vented his frustration. 20 calls and not once had she picked up. Not once had she called back. His suit was stained from not having changed it when he spilled coffee on it earlier in the day. He hadn't even thought of leaving the station to change it because he was so concerned about Natalie. She was no where to be found, hadn't shown up for work nor had she been home the night before, according to her mother. He grabbed the receiver up and punched in the familiar number and waited for it to ring.
Ring, Ring "Hi, you have reached Natalie Buchanan. Leave a message at the beep"Beeeeep...
Bo cursed under his breath and left a message. "Natty honey... where are you? I have been trying to call you all day. Are you ok? Call me back as soon as you get in. I'm worried about you."
Bo leaned back in his chair and got lost in thought. This wasn't like Natalie. Not at all. After she didn't show up to work this morning he had begun calling everyone he could think of that might know where she was. No one knew anything. The last anyone had seen of her she had been leaving to go home the night before. Not even her adopted brother Rex, with whom she was very close, knew where she was.
Pushing he sleeves up to his elbows Bo leaned forward, the chair back slamming back in place with a loud snap. Resting both elbows on the desktop he cradled his head in his hands and took a deep breath. He was really starting to fear something had happened to his favorite niece. He sat like that for a good 10 minutes while he tried to decide what to do. He had half a mind to contact John McBain.
He was Michael McBain's brother but more importantly he was FBI. If anyone could find Natalie quickly and with out causing a media frenzy it would be him. But he was loath to bother the man because he was on his last case with the FBI before coming here and taking over the Chief of Police position.
Ring, RingBo jumped in his chair the sudden ringing of the telephone. A quick glance at the caller ID had him breathing a sigh of relief. It was Natalie's cell.
"Natalie?! Where have you been? I have been calling you all day!"
John took the purse from the CSI with gloved hands. It was a small leather one with just enough room for a wallet and cell phone. He took out the wallet and looked at the drivers license. The name on it was Natalie Balsom. The address was Llanview Pennsylvania. What were the odds? he thought to himself. Looking at the height and physical description the victim could be this girl. He would need someone to identify the body though. Opening the cell phone he thumbed thru the name.
As he flipped open the sickeningly pink phone and went thru the numbers one made him pause. Uncle Bo... Could that possibly be Bo Buchanan? He lived in Llanview. Was actually going to be John's new boss when this case was over. Come to think of it Asa Buchanan was Bo's father. Maybe the victim was related to the Buchanan's somehow. He looked to the woman now currently being loaded into a waiting ambulance then back to the license. It definitely could be her. He would have to wait till after the autopsy to call the numbers on the phone.
With a sigh he walked over to Craig and told him he was going with the body to the morgue. There would be an autopsy right away. Then he went to the ambulance and got in. When they got to the morgue he introduced himself to the Dr doing the autopsy and said he was there to observe.
Two hours later after the autopsy John was ready for a break. The woman, whom he believed to be Natalie Buchanan, had died from exsanguination, bled out. She had been stabbed 35 times and then the face had been removed, postmortem. From the look of the scene and the pooling of blood on more than one part of the body that the murder took place at a different location and had been moved to the clearing in the woods.
During the autopsy they had found a new tattoo on the body that should make identifying her much easier. (A small butterfly on the ankle) That is if anyone had known she had it. John shook his head, his gut was telling him something was off about this murder. It had the same M.O as the others yet it didn't feel the same to him. Something was different but he just couldn't put his finger on it.
He sighed after a moment of contemplation. Looking around the sitting room he was in, just down the hall from the morgue, he saw a TV mounted on the wall and shook his head wryly. Who comes to the morgue to watch TV.? he wondered to himself before taking the cell phone out and calling the Uncle Bo from the list. Hopefully he was wrong and it wasn't really Bo Buchanan, his soon to be boss. But he wasn't betting on it.
Natalie groaned deeply as she began to wake up. Her eyes flew open as she realized what had happened to her. Kidnapped again! As her eyes slowly adjusted to the lack of light she tried to move only to discover her hands were bound behind her and her feet were also tied together. She struggled for a minute then began to scream in panic as she realized two things, one that she was tightly bound and couldn't get loose, and two she was back in the trunk of the car she had previously escaped from.
She was struggling so hard that the car was rocking and bouncing with her movements. The noise of her screams echoed around the small trunk and hurt her ears but she didn't stop until the trunk was wrenched open and an evil looking man glared down at her.
Natalie was both angry and terrified as she saw the man looking down at her with a murderous look. She didn't know what emotion made her lash out with her bound feet but she did it. Her bloodied feet mad contact with his face and he fell back screaming in pain. As soon as he did Natalie let loose a blood-curdling shriek, trying to get the attention of anyone that might be near by.
The man, now recovered, slammed the trunk back down in fury leaving her in the dark once again. She felt the car start and race off, away from the area. When it screeched to a stop again she was even more terrified of what was going to happen. The asshole that kidnapped her was pissed at her for kicking him as well as escaping the first time. She was positive that she wasn't leaving this trunk alive.
A minute passed, then another as she waited for the trunk to open and her death to begin yet nothing happened. She held her breath listening for some sound. Everything was quiet then there was 2 loud pops followed by another pop. She knew those sounds. She heard them every day at work; they were gunshots. Someone had just been shot.
Hope filled her as she heard those shots. Maybe the killer, for that is what she was sure he was, had been in a short shoot out with the cops.
"Natalie?" someone called. The voice was muffled because of the trunk so she couldn't tell who it was. She began screaming and kicking the trunk to let her rescuer know where she was.
"In here!" She screamed as loud as she could. She stopped screaming when the trunk was opened. She squinted up at her rescuer, unable to make out their face because of the flashlight shining down on her. "Help me," she said to them. She was relieved when he reached down and took her in his arms and carried her from the trunk. Taking a knife he cut the bonds from her wrists and feet quickly. As she was set on her feet she stumbled slightly and her rescuer took hold of her arm firmly to steady her.
Finally getting her bearings she looked around expecting to see the flashing lights of cop cars and was surprised when she saw none. What she did see confused her. They were on a dirt road in the middle of the woods. In front of the car that she had been kidnapped in was a brand new black Lincoln blocking the road. She looked around a bit more and saw the body of her kidnapper lying on the ground in a pool of blood... he looked familiar somehow. She thought to herself.
Still confused and dazed Natalie looked around more and saw movement by the black Lincoln. Someone was getting out of the back seat of the car. Her gut telling her that this was wrong she tried to back up only to find that her rescuer had a firm grip on her arm and wasn't letting go.
"Let me go," Natalie demanded, panicking again.
"Now, now, now, my darling wife. Don't make this anymore difficult then it already is." There was a tsking noise and Natalie felt her blood run cold at the sound of that voice. One she had believed, prayed, that she would never hear again. She started trembling in fear as the owner of the voice came into the light.
To be continued...