When David Seville did Miss Miller a favor by filing a missing persons report to the LAPD, officers were immediately combing the area, looking for the missing Jeanette. Now, with a new report filed by Dave, telling the officers whoever has Jeanette is wanting a total of ten million dollars in exchange for her return. The police called in an undercover agent as a hostage negociator. But, there was still two problems. The first was that they still had no idea exactly where this criminal was, or where he's keeping Jeanette hostage. The second was that Brittney's cell phone had died when Dave tried to tell the rest of the kids to stay put so he could come and pick them up. Because of this, the kids didn't know about Dave's instructions, and had long resumed their quest to find the missing Jeanette. Dave pulled up to the location of which Simon had told them where they were at, but saw no signs of his sons, nor Brittney, nor Eleanor for that matter.
"Simon?!" Dave hollered. "Simon! Alvin! Theodore! Brittney! Eleanor!"
No sign of the kids, and no answer to their names, Dave was really feeling frustrated.
"Where could those kids be now?" He wondered. "If the boys' cell phones are at home, how did Simon call from here? Unless..."
Dave drove all the way back home again, and stepped next door to Miss Miller's house.
"Miss Miller?" He asked. "Do the girls have their phones with them?"
"Oh, I don't know, David," Miss Miller replied, still very emotionally, and mentally distraught, "I suppose so, why?"
"None of the boys took their phones with them," he told her, "so when Simon called earlier, there was no other way he could've called me, unless he used either Brittney, or Eleanor's phones..."
Jeanette was having trouble keeping her eyes open, she hadn't consumed any sustanance since lunch yesterday afternoon, and was lacking a significant amount of energy. Her captor was going through the contacts list on her phone, until he came across a contact that sounded interesting to him...
"Who's Miss Miller?" He asked. "A teacher of your's?"
Jeanette shook her head, and mumbled through her gag, "mh mhhmhh..."
"Your what?" He asked. "Your mother?"
Jeanette slowly nodded her head, as he began to smirk.
"I'm not getting anything on Brittney's phone," Miss Miller told Dave as she hung up, "I swear, that girl never charges that thing when I ask her to..."
"Well," Dave responded, "let's try Eleanor's phone, and see if she answers..."
But before Miss Miller called Eleanor's number, there was a knock at the door. It was the police.
"Miss Miller?" Asked the captain.
"Yes?" She responded.
"Ma'am, we're here to let you know that we've called in a hostage negociator for the situation regarding your abducted daughter."
"Oh, thank heavens..."
"We need to know one thing, though," a sergeant added, "how do we contact this criminal?"
"You said you made contact." Another sergeant added as well.
"Uh, no, it was my son," Dave told them, "he told me they received a call from the man holding Jeanette hostage..."
"Do we know what number this man is calling from?" Asked the captain, but before Dave, or Miss Miller could respond, the phone rang.
"Who could that be?" Miss Miller asked herself, as she answered the phone. "Hello?"
"Hello." Said a gravely voice, Miss Miller had never heard before.
"Who is this?" Miss Miller asked the mysterious voice on the phone.
"That's not important," he told her, "what is important is your daughter... little Jeanette..."
Miss Miller placed her hand over the mouthpiece, "it's him! It's the man who kidnapped Jeanette!" She cried, as she handed the phone to the police.
The captain pushed the phone back to Miss Miller, "he's calling you, you're the one who has to talk to him!"
"But..." Miss Miller began.
"Just try to get any information from him, see if we can't find out where he is, then tell us what he tells you!"
"Okay..." Miss Miller said sadly, as she continued her conversation with the man over the phone, "is Jeanette alright?"
"Yes, she is," he assured her, "for right now, anyway."
"Where are you keeping her? Please tell me!" Miss Miller pleaded.
"Hold on to your gurtle, grandma..." said the man, as he fiddled with the ax in his hand, "I need you to be aware that I'm not handing over the girl, unless my demands are met..."
"You're asking for ten million dollars?"
"Is that too much to ask of Brittney?"
"Brittney?! You've got Brittney too?!"
"No, I don't, but she's to bring me my ten million dollars, in exchange for her sister."
"But Brittney's just a little girl! There's no way she can get her hands on ten million dollars for you!"
"Well, I'm getting ten million dollars from somebody... how about you?"
"I don't have ten million dollars either..."
The man stood up from his chair, and stepped beside Jeanette. "You don't?"
"No!" Miss Miller cried, "I don't!"
"That's too bad..." the man said, "of course, I am allowing a two day grace period... but, it seems to me that you all don't take this seriously..."
Miss Miller wasn't sure what happened, but she heard in the background a crigeworthy sound, and although Jeanette was gagged, her blood curdling scream was loud and clear over the phone.
"No!" Miss Miller screamed, tears flooding her eyes.
"You going to get me my money?" He asked her.
"We'll get the money! We'll get the money!"
"Good... you remember Jeanette's cell number, right?"
"Of course I do..." Miss Miller said, as her voice began breaking up.
"You now have a day and a half to get me my money... as soon as you get your hands on it, give me a call on this number... I'll give you further details of where you can pick her up..."
He hung up after that, as did Miss Miller.
"What happened?!" Dave asked, very concerned.
"I... I think he hurt Jeanette..." Miss Miller said breathlessly, "I heard this awful noise, followed by her screaming..."
"What did he say?" Asked the police captain.
"He said to call him back as soon as somebody gets their hands of ten million dollars for him, then he'll tell us where Jeanette can be picked up, and the money can be dropped off."
"Did he give you a number?" A sergeant asked.
"He's calling from Jeanette's cell phone number." Miss Miller told them.
"Perhaps we can trace the number, and sniff out this man's location?" The captain questioned out loud.
The rest of the kids, exhausted from their persuit, continued following a trail of cigarette butts further down a long street in another neighborhood.
"Simon?" Theodore asked. "Can't we stop and rest for just a minute?"
Simon turned around and faced his little brother, "Jeanette may not have another minute." He said in a strict tone of voice.
"Simon's right," Brittney added, "every minute we delay could cost Jeanette her life, we need to keep going!"
And so, the quest continued. Another cigarette was lit, as the criminal lit himself another smoke. He turned around and focused his attention on Jeanette, who was crying very hard. He walked over to her, placed his fingers under her chin, and lifted her head up.
"I'm sorry, angel..." he told her, "I didn't mean to hurt you... but it was necessary..."
Jeanette sniffed really loudly. Her kidnapper realized he had to do something for her, so he stepped into his bathroom, grabbed a hand full of gause, and a rolled up ace bandage. With that, he placed the gause over the huge, bloody gash in Jeanette's right thigh, and wrapped it up with the ace bandage. The cringeworthy sound Miss Miller heard over the phone was the sound of the blade of the ax hitting Jeanette's thigh, which is why she let out the blood curdling scream. The pain was beyond imagination for Jeanette. She couldn't take it. She thought she only had a matter of minutes before the pain grew too intense for her to handle, and she eventually expires.
"And daddy kiss it, make it better..." he said in a very sick tone, as he finished wrapping up Jeanette's thigh, and kissed it. Jeanette was disgusted. What kind of a sick man was this? A very sick man, because he didn't stop kissing Jeanette's thigh. As a matter of fact, he began kissing down Jeanette's right leg, before moving over to her left leg, and kissing up it. Once he reached her left thigh, he tried to pull her legs apart, but Jeanette tried very hard to keep him from doing that, by resisting him. It was no use. Jeanette was growing weaker by the moment, and the man succeeded in pulling her legs apart, so he could start kissing her in an inappropriate spot. Jeanette began crying again. She didn't like this. It wasn't a good feeling. She was about to experience another, unpleasant feeling, this man's cigarette was still between his fingers, and as he continued to kiss Jeanette's private area, his hands relaxed, which allowed the cigarette to fall loose from his fingers. It laid on top of Jeanette's left thigh, and began to burn her. Jeanette shrieked, but he didn't let it stop him, thinking she was just doing it to get him to stop, but she started shaking her left leg violently, even hitting him in the side of the head with her knee. He stopped, and realized what has happened, as the cigarette rolled off her thigh, and landed on the floor. He stood up, and put the cigarette out with his boot. Once again, he focused he attention on Jeanette.
"That was an accident," he said softly, "I'm sorry."
Jeanette looked up at him, with her eyes, absolutely red from crying so much. So red were her eyes, they looked nearly bloodshot. He stepped into the bathroom again, grabbed some aloe cream, and rubbed it on Jeanette's burn. He looked into her eyes again, and suddenly, asked a question that she never thought she'd hear him ask.
"Are you alright?" He asked her.
Jeanette shook her head. The man sighed, stood up, and walked out of the room without saying another word. Jeanette was so confused. This man was very strange... one minute, he can be calm and cool, the next he can become loud and violent, then he can be quite perverse and amorous, now, he seems rather sympathetic. Jeanette was beginning to wonder if her captor was a bit on the mentally unstable side. Jeanette stopped wondering. Her lack of energy, and the severe pain she felt was too much for her to bear. She slipped out of consciousness.
