Chapter 4! Sorry about the delay, got some more wisdom teeth pulled and they were a pain!

Warning: None

Disclaimer in chapter 1

Enjoy!

Gone Missing

Chapter 4

Christmas Spirit

It was a relishing thought to know that that the people who knew the bitch were suffering. They were scrambling around, looking for any information about her disappearance and clue to find her. They wouldn't find any item that belonged to her, they were meticulous and thorough with their work. Any ID was promptly placed in a chipper, along with credit cards, and any other items that could link back to her. Those plastic chips were then melted down and were probably being used now to make bottles for cleaning products. The bitch's cell phone was taken apart, because they knew that she would be tagged by that fucking mercenary. The trackers were disposed accordingly and the phone placed in the same chipper that had mulched her IDs. Her suitcases of clothes were burned in an industrial incinerator and the ashes were now in some organic fertilizer for crops. They had planned this down to a tee. They had followed her for weeks, without the Mercenary or the bitch finding out and when the bitch hopped on the train bound for New England, they struck like a cobra.

The bitch didn't even see it coming, and that made the whole situation even more delicious.

They had beaten her to vent out the pure rage they had felt and it had been so satisfying to hear bones break and her screams for that fucking son of a bitch. The area they had been in allowed for her screams to be unheard, they had been the only ones around for hundreds of miles. They took their time beating and torturing the bitch, breaking her bones, mentally torturing her before plunging that hunting knife into her gut, cutting through major arteries and veins. She would bleed out before her body made it to the Gulf of Mexico.

The river they had chosen to dump her in was not a major one but a small river that flowed through the entire east coast and parts of the central area of the country. They had mapped out the perfect spots to dump her and estimated how long it would take for her body to make it to the bottom of the gulf. The river was a rapid one, not slowing down until it hit the bottom of the state of North Carolina and then it branched off into another river that would lead down to the Gulf of Mexico. They had it all planned and mapped out for weeks, months even.

They turned to the major news outlet that had the face of one of the bitch's friend on it, with big puppy eyes, her face blotchy and make up running.

"Please, bring Stephanie Plum home, it's been over a month, we just want her home safe and sound, we'll give you anything you want, just bring her back to us."

Oh, this was the most wonderful way to start a day…

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

"Stepping in a puddle of puppy piss is not the way to start the day," Heidi sighed, looking over to Daisy, who whined and hid her face, "That's right, brat, I'm talking about you…"

Heidi took off her striped socks and then went over to the kitchen and took out cleaning supplies to clean up the mess Daisy made. Heidi cleaned the mess up, in silence and then started a pot of coffee and said, "Daisy, we didn't have Diesel install a doggy door for nothing, you're free to come in and out as you please, it's right over there on the back door."

Heidi turned to the door just as the dog door went flying up and Fred came barreling in, howling and yowling and crashing into the back of the couch. Heidi winced and said, "Fred, your landing is horrible…."

Fred sat up and shook his head, before trotting over to Daisy's water and lapping up big mouthfuls of water. Fred was Diesel's 11 month old dog, a dog of mix breed with soft white fur, pointed ears, a curled tail and several black spots on his back. While Daisy was calm and not prone to moments of insanity, Fred was the opposite, loud, crazy and too damn adorable for his own good.

"Alright, your friend is here," Heidi said, placing her hands on her hips and giving the two puppies a look, "Now, go outside and play, and don't get into trouble, stay in the yard."

Fred trotted up to Heidi, rubbed himself on her leg and nuzzled her hand with a soft, "Woof..."

Heidi rubbed the dog's head and then said, "I've missed you too, Fred, now shoo, I have breakfast to eat and a patient to take care of."

The two puppies ran out the doggy door and Heidi went to make her breakfast, which consisted of oatmeal and sugar, lots of it. She cleaned up her breakfast mess and opened the curtains in the house, letting in the wonderful sight of snow falling and all the snow on the ground. It was like a winter wonderland out there, she couldn't wait to go out there and have some fun with the dogs. For now, she had to check up on her guest. Heidi grabbed her sweater and tossed it on, walking down the back hallway of the cabin and into the back guest bedroom, where her guest lay in a hospital bed, with tubs connected to her hands and arms. She was breathing on her own now, and so the oxygen tubes were replaced with one feeding tube.

"Morning sunshine!" Heidi said, walking into the room and opening the curtains and turning on some soft Christmas music, "It's a lovely late fall morning, the puppies are outside, and I stepped in a puddle of puppy pee."

Heidi turned to the still form on the bed and walked over to the woman, pulling out a pen light. She opened one closed blue eye and flashed the light in it. She frowned as the pupil did not react to the light shining in them. Heidi turned the light off and then walked over to the notebook sitting on the dresser and wrote down, 'No reaction to light from pupil, possible temporary or permanent eye damage. Will test again when guest is awake.'

Heidi walked back to the woman in the bed and said, "Breakfast time, let's see, chocolate nutritional mix, I know, doesn't sound good, well it doesn't look good either, Well, tonight I'll see if I can get you something better."

Heidi inserted a plastic syringe, filled with brown goop into the empty catheter of her guest's feeding tube and pumped the meal into it. Heidi gave her a sponge bath, washed and braided her curly brown hair and then tucked her back into the bed with clean sheets. She settled down in the armchair beside the bed and said, in a low voice, "I know this time of year is supposed to be happy and cheerful, but, I find this time of the year to be a bad time…"

Heidi turned to look out the window and sighed, leaning back in her seat. She turned to the woman's still form and said, "I knew someone who claimed to hate Christmas, but secretly loved it. They would make Christmas cookies, in secret and-"

Heidi paused in her story as she felt a tear drop fall down her cheek. She wiped at it and said in a soft voice, "I promised myself….that I would celebrate this holiday the way they wanted to, I'm going to decorate the house, make cookies, take awful Christmas photos, the works. I know they would have loved that."

Heidi wiped more tears from her eyes and then let out a shaky breath and got up. She placed a hand on the woman's shoulder and said, "I hope you wake up soon, maybe we can find out where you're from, once you're awake."

Heidi walked out the room and closed the door. She let out a weak sob and covered her face, sinking to the ground, her shoulders shaking with her sobs. She sat there for a while, until she heard the door open and Diesel's voice rang through the house.

"Heidi! Where are you? We have a gift for you!" Heidi sat up and wiped at her tears and got up from her spot on the floor. She walked out the hallway and into the living area of the cabin, saying, "A gift for me? It's not Christmas yet, I think-that's the biggest tree I've ever seen…"

Diesel was hidden behind a large pine tree, which he held in his hands, with Daisy and Fred by his feet. Heidi crossed her arms and said, "Diesel, what in the hell am I going to do with this tree?"

"Decorate it, I bought some decorations for it too," Diesel said leaning the tree against the wall, "We can set it up and….hey, what's wrong, I can see that you've been crying, what's wrong?"

Heidi shook her head and said, "It's nothing, Diesel, don't worry about me."

"Are you sure?" Diesel asked, setting down the plastic bags he had in his other hand, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No….I'm good," Heidi said, feeling her throat close up, "Uh…let's get this tree in place, yeah?"

"Yeah," Diesel said shooing the dogs away from the tree, "How's your guest?"

"She hasn't moved an inch, but maybe she will soon," Heidi said as she led Diesel over to the middle of the living area, "I've played some music for her, and when I look at her brain monitor, she did seem to have a reaction to it. I am worried about her eyes, she might have some damage to them, and it could affect her eyesight."

Diesel sighed and placed the Christmas tree stand down on the floor. He looked up at Heidi and said, "It's been a month and no one had put up pictures or anything on the news?"

"Maybe they did already," Heidi said, watching Diesel place the tree in the stand, "Maybe they've stopped looking for her, she could be a lost cause now, in the eyes of those looking for her! She might be all alone now!"

"Hey now, don't work yourself into a tizzy," Diesel said, standing up and walking over to Heidi, "Look, you forgot something big, Heidi."

"What?" Heidi asked as Diesel placed his hands on her shoulders, "That her killer might still be out there?"

"Well that but…she's not alone, you're here with her, isn't that what you told me?" Diesel asked, earning a soft nod from Heidi, "She's not alone, she has you, and I'll help out, so she has me too, I won't leave the both of you, okay?"

"Okay," Heidi said, closing her eyes and smiling, "Let's decorate the place, maybe some Christmas cheer will help her wake up."

"That's the spirit! We can decorate the tree and make Christmas cookies," Diesel said, leading Heidi over to the tree, "Maybe she's into Christmas…"

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

"Morelli," Carlos said, nodding to the man in front of him, "You're part of the FBI team, leading Stephanie's case?"

"I am," Joe Morelli said, entering the conference room that resided on the fifth floor of Rangeman, "They think with me knowing her, we'll find out why she went missing."

Carlos nodded his head and led Joe over to the group of Rangeman selected to help with locating Stephanie. Morelli hadn't been seen in several months, not since he was offered a job with the FBI and relocated to northern Virginia indefinitely. The last time Carlos heard about Morelli was that he was out of the country on a long term mission in Europe.

Joe looked at the board that held all the information about Stephanie and said, "Shit, is this all the information about Stephanie you could find?"

"We have the footage of the Amtrak security tapes from when she left," Tank said, walking into the conference room, "We picked up all the tapes from every station that the train went too, as well."

Those were all dead ends, Carlos thought bitterly, as he had spent hours, days watching the footage for something, anything. Nothing had shown up, nothing had jumped out at him. Stephanie's abductor had known where the cameras were placed, or she might have gotten off at a station that had no cameras at all.

"It's been one month since her disappearance," Joe said, turning to Carlos, "The FBI will step in and take over this case now, any clues and evidence needs to be handed over to us and we'll keep you abreast with current events. Also I think we need for one of Stephanie's friend to go on national TV and make a case, to plea for Stephanie's safe return."

"I don't think that's wise," Lester said, turning to Morelli, "If she's being held captive then her captor might…"

Lester faltered at the look Carlos gave him and then turned back to looking through police records. Carlos turned to Joe and asked, "You think that this is a good idea?"

"It would make her face known nationally, and it would hopefully make her abductor sweat a bit," Joe said, crossing his arms, "I want to help you find Steph, Manoso, and that means giving up the reins and handing them over to the FBI, we have the man power and the time, Stephanie could possibly be the victim of a someone who commits kidnappings on a regular bases, we have access to those databases, Rangeman doesn't."

Carlos turned to the white board that had Stephanie's face on it, surrounded by thoughts and clues to her disappearance. It was all a load of bullshit, in the eyes of Carlos. Every clue they found led to nothing and anything Stephanie left behind hadn't helped them out either. She had been gone for a month, and though Tank didn't say anything outright, he warned Carlos that by the time the first rolled around, people who went missing, stayed missing. Not his Babe, not Stephanie, he wouldn't stop fighting to find her, he would find, come hell or high water and if that meant getting help from the FBI, then so be it.

"We'll send you everything we have, Morelli," Carlos said, not adding that fact that Rangeman would also make copies of all the evidence, "It'll be ready for you in the morning."

"Good, we'll do the press conference in the morning as well," Joe said, taking out a pad and pen, "I say either a close family member gives the speech, or a close friend. Mary Lou would be a good choice, she's been Stephanie's friend for years, we'll allow national new channels to broadcast the plea, and then go on from there."

Carlos nodded his head and said, in a soft voice, "We need to find Stephanie and soon, Come on Morelli, let's make the calls."

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

Heidi let out a weak sigh, looking at the potted poinsettia sitting on the store shelf. It looked so pathetic and lonely, with only three withered red leaves and the brightly colored cellophane surrounding it covered in dirt. It fit Heidi's mood to a tee, lonely and a little withered. In two weeks, Christmas would happen, and in two weeks, she would begin to relive memories she didn't want to think about. Maybe she would put this plant somewhere nice, to help with the memories.

Heidi grabbed the potted plant and then pulled it off the shelf, putting it in her basket before walking around the tiny general store. It had been a long time, since she ventured out the cabin, and so she let Diesel watch her charge, shuffled Daisy and Fred into the back of her Range Rover and drove the 40 minutes into town. She could have popped in and out of the town, quickly but Heidi wanted to savior the trip and enjoy the time with the puppies.

Heidi went over to the food area of the store and picked up a few things to make a quick pasta dish for tonight's dinner. Diesel said that he could make anything out of everything so that meant that he would be making dinner tonight, since Heidi didn't want to make anything for dinner.

"You're that woman living up in the cabin beside Diesel," The clerk said, ringing up Heidi's items, "How long you here for?"

"Almost a year, vacation from work," Heidi said, as the woman bagged her things, "I thought I would spend it in the cold instead of the warm tropics."

"If you choose the tropics, you would miss this nice weather!" The woman said, looking up at the TV that was beside the counter, "We're getting another foot of snow tonight, I hope you have lots of food for a bit."

"I do, don't worry," Heidi said with a smile, paying for her things and then heading for the door, "I just hope it starts after I get back to the cabin. Have a good day!"

"You too, sweetums," The woman said, as Heidi walked out the door of the general store.

The woman frowned up at the screen as a breaking news scene came on and the headlines screamed, "STEPHANIE PLUM, MISSING FOR ONE MONTH, HER FAMILY PLEADS FOR HER SAFE RETURN!"

That poor woman," The clerk said, watching the press conference, "Her family must be going through things…"

TBC….

Oh ho, I'm so evil! Please leave a review!