A heartfelt thanks to everybody who's reviewed. You guys have made Shattered Soul the highest reviewed story I've written to date. Thank you.
Title: Shattered Soul
Author: Cindy Ryan
Summary: When Emily becomes the hostage how far will Matt go to bring her home?
Matt called Cheryl and gave her the account number that Ellis had given him.
"They found the truck."Cheryl reported as she walked to her meeting.
Matt's heart skipped. "Where?"
"Vegas. Parking garage of the MGM. Grafton and the other DC agents are on their way to examine it. Bureau's CSI team is enroute now."
Matt swallowed hard before asking one of the hardest questions he'd ever had to ask. "Was it empty?"
Frank paused what he was doing and paid close attention to Matt's conversation.
Holding his breath, waiting.
"The cab of the truck was empty."Cheryl replied as she reached the office where her meeting was. "But there's a lot of junk in the back of the vehicle that they're going to have to sift through. Hopefully there's something there….something that Ellis got careless about, give us a lead."
"Yeah."
"Listen, I have this meeting now that I can't get out of. As soon as I know something I'll keep you posted."
"Thanks Cheryl."Matt replied ending the conversation.
"Matt?"Frank prompted dragging his friend's distracted gaze away from the window.
"They found the stolen truck in the parking garage of the MGM, empty."
"Why?"Frank asked looking back down at his notes.
"Why, what?"
"Why dump the truck in Vegas if he grabbed her here?"
"You think he's got connections in Vegas?"
Frank nodded thoughtfully. "Even for arguments sake that he knew Emily was going to Vegas and that it wasn't just a random grab….why follow her travel plans? Why continue going all the way to Vegas? He could've gone anywhere from here…..he could've held up somewhere here in L.A or closer to the border."
"Good point."Matt replied as he pulled his laptop closer and logged onto the internet. "Let's see if he's got family near by."
Emily was struggling to fight down the panic. She had guestamated that the walls that kept her from freedom were only about forty feet high. But it was forty feet steep and the soil was crumbling not the best to get a hand or foot hold on.
Breathing heavily Emily walked back to the sleeping bag and sat down. She'd been trying to escape for the past several hours. The highest she'd managed to get was four feet before she slid the rest of the way down.
Emily shivered. She drew the thin yellow t-shirt that she'd found at the bottom of the bag of supplies closer around her. The sleeves flapped loosely as she drew the fabric of the front of the shirt to cover her bloodied and scraped knuckles. Emily looked down and saw that her knees were also scraped and covered with dirt.
Exhausted from the exertion of the climb and the thin air, Emily reluctantly crawled back into the sleeping bag. A couple hours rest, Emily reasoned as she welcomed the warmth of the bag, then she'd try again.