Ryan and Bethany sat huddled together on the sofa. Raymond sat nearby on a recliner, and Gil sat on the floor. Another swarm of police officers and detectives had just left the Sullivan's home, and they were watching television. It was now the evening after RJ's disappearance. Since the night before, they had heard nothing from RJ or his captor, and so gave the media permission to broadcast news of the kidnapping, in hopes that someone out there would see it and do the right thing.

"There are no leads tonight in the armed robbery of a local electronics store. The store was held up at gunpoint on Monday by four men, all wearing black ski masks. The men made off with thousands of dollars worth of electronics and were believed to have escaped in a red van with no license plates.

In breaking news tonight, the fifteen year old son of a local police Chief went missing yesterday afternoon. Ryan Sullivan Junior was reported missing two hours after he was due home from school. His parents and peers reportedly could not get in contact with him, and when officials were dispatched to search for the boy they found what was later confirmed to be one of his shoes in an alleyway. It's been over twenty-four hours since then and there are still no leads."

A picture of RJ flashed on the screen with the word, "MISSING" underneath, along with a phone number.

"If you have any information of Ryan Sullivan's whereabouts, please call officials at the number on your screen."


Also watching the news report was the thin faced man. He watched intently, listening to each word as if they were as precious to him as wedding vows were to a bride. There was a very sinister grin on his face as he sat on an old, dusty couch, rubbing his hands together in a satisfied manner.

"How ironic …" He scoffed.

The man then turned around and looked at his friends who were standing nearby in the kitchen.

"Is the phone ready to be used?" He asked.

"Yes it is. Not even with all of that equipment will they be able to trace any of your calls." One of the other men replied.

"Good."


After seeing the brief news report, Raymond glanced over at Ryan and Bethany.

"Now that it's out there, we'll have to deal with a mess of curious news reporters from all over." He said. "I hope you know that."

Before they could respond, the house phone finally started to ring. The four of them leapt up from their seats and hurried over. Ryan picked up the phone, but didn't answer yet. He waited until both Gil and Raymond had their headsets on and were ready to listen, just in case it was RJ's kidnapper, which they all doubted considering that a news report had aired less than a minute ago.

Gil and Raymond threw on their headsets, and after a moment, gave Ryan a nod of approval.

"Hello?" He answered.

"My oh my, Mr. Sullivan, your son looks just like you."

"Who is this?" Ryan asked in a bitter tone of voice, trying his best not to scream into the phone.

"You'll find that out soon enough. Until then, let me assure you that your son is alive."

"What have you done with . . ."

". . . Don't get too comfortable – I am not a very patient person. With that said, know that I will not be putting up with him for long, just long enough to be repaid for everything I have lost thanks to you."

"What do you want?"

"I want you to pay, Mr. Sullivan. You work for the justice system, so you believe in fair payment, yes? You've cost me a lot of pain, and now I want you to pay it back."

"Name your terms. I'll pay anything."

"There are only two payments that I will accept: Twenty thousand dollars and my record cleared – past and present – or your son's death. I must warn you that I'm leaning towards the second. Money can never amount to the pain you've caused me."

"Release my son, don't hurt him, and I will double that amount. Just bring RJ back to us, please, and you can have anything else you want!"

"You have three days – seventy-two hours to collect the money. I will be calling you again at this time tomorrow night to check in and give you further instructions."

There was a short pause.

"Goodnight."

Ryan grunted, and slammed the phone down onto the table. He was trying to think of who it could be – who he had hurt in the past, but not a soul came to mind. And now, it was his only son who was paying the price. Ryan felt sickened to his stomach just thinking that somewhere, RJ was being held for ransom. He looked up at Gil, who was taking notes, and Raymond, who was listening to the playback.

"Did you get that?" He asked.

"We did, loud and clear." Gil replied.

"But there's absolutely no background noise – nothing at all that could give us any clues of where this man is hiding." Raymond sighed, taking off the headset and setting it down on the table.

"He mentioned that I had hurt him in the past," Ryan began "I'm going down to the police station to review my complete record."

"I'll come with you." Raymond said. "Gil, would you stay here with Bethany, please?"

The two men were throwing on their jackets and heading towards the door, when suddenly the house phone started to ring again. All heads turned to the device on the table. After the third ring, Bethany grabbed it and looked at the caller ID.

"It's RJ!" she exclaimed.

Gil and Raymond rushed over to the table and threw on their headsets again, unsure of how RJ would be calling again after what happened the first time. Was it another taunt? Bethany handed the phone to Ryan, who answered it as soon as Gil and Raymond gave him another nod.

"Hello?"

. . . There was no response . . .

"Hello? RJ?"

. . . Nothing . . .

"Don't hang up!" Raymond shouted, moving over to sit in front of the computer which was hooked up to the phone.

Even though there was no response on the other end, as long as RJ's cell phone had no trap set on it, he would be able to trace the call. Ryan nodded his head and continued to talk into the phone, hoping for a response.

"Hello? RJ, are you there?"

Still, there was no response, In fact, Ryan couldn't hear a thing from the other end, but he stayed on, listening intently and saying a silent prayer for his son. Suddenly, he heard a rustling noise, as if the phone was being picked up.

"RJ? RJ, are you there?" Ryan asked again.

There was no verbal response, but he heard an almost identical sound to what he had heard the night before. A loud crash on the other end before a numbing silence, but this time the call was not disconnected.

"I got a trace!" Raymond shouted as he jumped up from his seat.

Gil jumped over and looked at the screen. RJ's cell phone was traced in a low reception area downtown, near the city limits border. A red dot flashed again and again on the screen with an address written above it.

"We need all available units there, right now!" He said. "Squads, canine units, everyone we can get right now!"