***Chapter 2***
***Mexico***
Jonathan was puzzled. He had been in Mexico for 5 hours, and was supposed to have a merger meeting the next day. However, none of the people involved could be reached. His hotel didn't have phone service and nowhere apparently had wifi.
He was heartbroken to not be able to speak to Jennifer, but he knew she would understand as soon as he explained it to her.
He was missing her terribly; he hated being apart from her even when they were in the same city. He simply couldn't wait till he could see her again.
He tried to reach the contact for the other company once more, and was told they had nobody by that name staying at the hotel.
He gave up and went to his room. He was going to read over the paperwork and then try and get some rest.
***Italy***
Jennifer's plane had landed in Italy, and she was exhausted. Carlo hadn't let her sleep much on the plane, he was erratic and kept yelling at her to remind her of the plane or to ask her a question. Plus, who can sleep when they are being held hostage?
"Ok, Mrs. Hart. I am going to undo your hands. Remember, no tricks. You have a car coming for you at the airport, yes?"
She nodded.
"You will have it take us to the gallery. I will give you a list of the pieces and you will ask for those pieces. You will tell them you want to wrap them yourself, and then we will have them transported to the plane."
"How are we going to transport these pieces on here? We don't have enough room for that".
"Yes, we do. I promise, it will be fine".
She checked her email once more, and saw that Jonathan hadn't even read the email she sent him, much less replied to it.
She was hoping that he would see it and that she could keep her wits about her if not.
They exited the plane and got in the car that was waiting for her, and she instructed the driver to take them to the gallery.
Carlo gave her the list, and she put it in her purse.
They arrived at the gallery and went inside.
"Remember, no tricks…"
She nodded.
She walked up to the receptionist and asked to speak to the gallery manager.
"Right away".
The manager, a lady named Annalisa, came up front to speak with Jennifer.
"Hello, may I help you?"
"Hi. My name is Jennifer. Jennifer Hart".
"Yes, Mrs. Hart! How lovely to see you! I just adore that bright blue wrap dress you are wearing. So elegant."
"Thank you!. I need you to give me these pieces, we are removing them from the gallery. We will wrap them ourselves, and transport them, but we need you to give them to us".
"All of these pieces? Mrs. Hart, we won't have anything left if we remove these".
"We will be restocking soon, I promise".
Annalisa was skeptical, but she started to comply.
She showed them to a conference room with a backdoor. Carlo called for the truck to back up to the backdoor.
Once it was in place, they started loading the truck. It was approximately 100 vases, about 75 paintings, and about 25 sculptures.
Jennifer grabbed a piece of paper while Carlo was distracted and wrote out a note for Annalisa and shoved it in her hand.
"Annalisa, this is the address of our gallery in Los Angeles. I sure hope to see you there one day really soon".
The note read:
'Carlo hijacked my plane and is stealing these pieces. If I didn't go along with it, he was going to kill me. Please call the Italian police and have them meet us at the tarmac at the airport".
Jennifer got in the car with Carlo again, and the driver took them back to the airport.
***About an hour later***
The truck with the pieces arrived at the tarmac. The car with Mrs. Hart and Carlo hadn't arrived yet.
A man in a smaller car appeared and got out. He went to the driver of the truck and had him open the back.
He climbed in and started going through the pieces. He pulled bags upon bags upon bags of cocaine out of the vases and sculptures, and hundreds of mini-bags off the backs of the paintings.
Carlo had double crossed him. This wasn't the first time, but he was bound and determined that it would be the last. He went to the car and got out a gift, and took it to the plane.
"I would like to leave this gift for Mrs. Hart. I regret that I am unable to stay and give it to her personally, so please see that she receives it".
"Will do, thank you".
He got in the car and drove away.
As he drove away, he called someone and told them "It's done. You can arrive anytime".
About 20 minutes later, a car carrying Mrs. Hart and Carlo arrived at the tarmac.
One of the airport workers opened the door for them.
"Hello Mrs. Hart. How lovely to see you".
"Thank you".
"What a beautiful red dress you are wearing…."
***Mexico***
Jonathan was thankful that while his hotel didn't have phone service or internet, it had television.
He had finished reading the paperwork for the deal, and was flipping through the channels before he went to bed. If Jennifer was with him, television would be the last thing on either of their minds…
He tried to not think about what they would be doing, but it was hard. There were days when nobody else in his world even existed except for her. No matter how hard things were or what they were dealing with, he always put her first. Nobody else mattered but her. She put him first too, and they both put themselves first above others. They were invited to so many functions and parties, and sometimes all they wanted was to be alone at home with each other and not have any interruptions or distractions. She was the only person that could interrupt him no matter what he was doing, or who he was with. And she was never far from his mind when she was away from him, either. Saying they were in love with each other just didn't seem to cover it.
He fell asleep changing channels and woke up around 2 a.m.
He glanced at the TV and saw that it was on an American channel. He got up and got some water from his room fridge and then went back to the bed.
He was barely listening to the TV until the words started making sense.
"An American plane exploded over the Atlantic ocean a few hours ago, killing everyone on board. There are believed to be no survivors, although that hasn't been confirmed by the FAA. The plane was registered to a Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, an industrialist couple from Los Angeles. Officials aren't sure how the plane ended up over the ocean, as it was originally slated to go from Los Angeles to Boston. It is believed that Mrs. Hart was on board, but Mr. Hart was not. We will keep you updated as we learn more".
Jonathan felt the room spinning, and sank down onto the bed. He was totally and completely numb. He felt like something wasn't right, but what was it that was off?
He knew what was about to happen, and figured no time like the present. He got up, packed his bag, changed his clothes and headed to the front desk.
"I need to check out and I need a car to take me to the airport right away".
"Sir, it's the middle of the night. We don't have any cars right now".
"Well find one! This is an emergency".
"Right away, sir".
They called him a cab, and checked him out of his room, and the cab driver took him to the airport.
He waited on the plane for about 30 minutes until they were ready to take off. Jack was the best pilot he had ever employed, and he knew he would get them home safely.
He just needed to get to Willow Pond, so that he could call the FAA and sort all of this out. He had yet to let the tears fall, because he knew that she would want him to be strong. He hoped that Max was asleep and hadn't heard the news yet. He dreaded telling him, but it was only fair that Max hear it from him, and not the news.
He called Vegas from the plane, and asked for them to get a message to Max to call him right away.
They had been in the air about 45 minutes when he was finally able to get a Wifi signal to work.
First thing he did was check his phone for messages. None from Jennifer. None from Max.
Second thing he did was boot up his laptop. He sent an email to Stanley asking him to contact the people he was supposed to meet with, and explain that the meeting was postponed due to an emergency. He also asked him to take charge for a bit, until he was ready to come back to work, and to not issue any statements to the press about Jennifer.
He checked his email then, and saw one from Jennifer.
He immediately opened it, read it, and then that's when the tears came.
He put his head in his hands for just about the rest of the flight. He kept hearing her laugh, and seeing her smile. He refused to believe that he never would, again.
Flashbacks of some of his favorite moments with her played in his mind. It was a movie that he never wanted to end. He pulled himself together and called the FAA and left a message asking for the director of the investigation to contact him as soon as possible.
He landed at LAX shortly after 6, and drove her Porsche to Willow Pond.
As soon as he got in the Porsche, he could smell her perfume. That beautiful smell….he could barely drive through the tears, but somehow he made it.
He came in the house and went to sit on the couch. He turned on the TV to see what the updates were, and found an interview with Annalisa from his gallery in Italy.
"She came in with a man named Carlo Fiorelli. He is a local art dealer who is a third-party buyer, of sorts. She requested the pieces and stated they would wrap them themselves, and that the gallery would be restocked soon. After they took every piece from the gallery, she and Carlo left. She gave me a note that said that Carlo had hijacked her plane and to call the authorities to meet them at the airport. She seemed totally normal, like nothing was wrong. I almost didn't believe the note at first".
Jonathan was incensed. He started making a list of things he wanted to investigate.
Why Jennifer was in Italy.
Carlo Fiorelli
The gallery.
He decided to wait till he spoke to the FAA, and then more than likely, he was heading to Italy.
He grabbed a photo off the top of the piano. It was the one of the two of them kissing. It was one of their favorite photos.
He held it as he spoke to her. "I promise, I will get to the bottom of this. I will figure it out, darling. I will".
***Italy***
In a tiny room, upstairs tucked away at the end of a hallway, in a tiny little house in Italy, a woman is screaming. She is bound, her feet and hands tied to a chair. She has a gag around her mouth, but she is still screaming. It won't matter though, because nobody is in the house to hear her.
She has a headache too, from where they knocked her out. She and Carlo had left the gallery and headed to the airport. They had stopped by a warehouse for him to pick something up. She had talked him into letting her come inside and go to the bathroom.
She was coming out of the bathroom, when she heard the conversation, in Italian.
"Her husband is Jonathan Hart. I promise you, he will pay big dollars for her to return to him".
"So, what is your plan?"
"Well, we leave her here, stashed somewhere. We take someone to US who looks like her, and then we blackmail him. When we release the imposter to him, we tell him he has to pay double if he wants the real Jennifer Hart back, and he has to give us exclusive rights to the gallery and not ask questions".
"Brilliant Carlo. Brilliant".
"Where is Jonathan Hart right now?"
"In Mexico. He thinks we are meeting about a merger. He should be out of the way for another couple days or so".
"Good".
Jennifer tried to be quiet as she snuck out the door and back to the car. But, she accidentally let a door slip and it banged. She was headed to the car when they knocked her out and she fell to the ground. Next thing she knew, she was in this room.
She started playing back the events. As much as her head hurt, she was trying to focus. She knew deep down that Jonathan would do anything and pay anything to get her back. She just had to be patient.
She focused on getting her hands free. She managed to loosen the rope some, and slowly managed to slip one ring of the rope off her hand. It took her about an hour, but she managed to free her hands. She untied the gag around her mouth, and then started working on her feet.
After she was untied, she crept to the window to look out. Nothing but views of the sea.
She crept to the door, and opened it. She could hear a TV in the distance. She went from room to room, and in about 5 minutes, realized she was the only person in the entire house.
She went to the fridge, and grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it. She found the phone and tried to call the police, but no dial tone.
She went to the door and realized that it was locked, from the outside. She had no way of getting out unless she broke the door or a window.
She picked up a chair and hit the window with it. Nothing.
She remembered that time that she and Jonathan were locked in a glass room in a freak art collector's house. She quickly took off her ring, and drew a large circle in the glass door. After she was done, she grabbed a table leg, and popped out the glass circle. She stepped through and began running down the driveway to the street. She had no idea where she was going, so she hoped that she would eventually either find a policeman or end up in a public place.
She looked ahead and saw a tree that had a heart carved in it, with the letters J+J. She immediately got tears in her eyes thinking of Jonathan, and silently vowed to do whatever she had to in order to get back to him.
***Willow Pond***
Max never received Jonathan's message, because he was doing so poorly in the poker tournament that he decided to just cut his losses and go home. He and Freeway had a great road trip driving home and stopping and doing whatever they wanted to.
He pulled up to Willow Pond, and saw the Porsche was back.
That's odd, he thought. They said they were leaving it till Mr. Hart came home.
He parked and went inside the house and found Jonathan sitting on the couch.
"Mr. Hart, what are you doing home? Thought you were in Mexico till the end of the week".
"Max, have a seat. We need to talk".
Max was worried. Mr. Hart didn't seem like his normal self.
"Jennifer's plane was hijacked. Apparently, she was taken to Italy".
"We gotta get her back, Mr. H. How we gonna do that?"
"Well, I am investigating. I am waiting for the FAA to call me."
He laid out the whole story about how he was cut off from everything in Mexico, and didn't have a way to contact anyone.
"Then, I saw on TV that her plane exploded and she was presumed dead. I still don't know if I believe it or not."
Max's face fell. Losing Mrs. H. was like losing his own daughter…..
"So what are we going to do, Mr. H.?"
"I put a call in to the FAA. I called Stanley, and he is investigating. If a reporter calls here, we aren't giving out any statements. I don't want to keep this in the press, if I can help it".
"Good idea, Mr. H."
"And if I don't like what the FAA tells me, I am going to fly to Italy myself and see what I can find out".
He had put a call into the gallery, and specifically asked for Annalisa to call him back, and left the number.
He owned the gallery, but he let her run it, and only got involved in extreme cases. She kept him updated by email once a month with a detailed report, so he rarely had to get involved.
The phone rang, just as Max took Freeway outside.
It was the FAA.
They spoke for about 45 minutes, and then Jonathan hung up, frustrated.
The FAA refused to believe that Jennifer may not have been on board, even though nobody at the airport had checked her ID or anything. They refused to say whether or not they had recovered the black box or anything from the plane. They basically refused to answer his questions and told him the case was being closed and it wouldn't be opened again.
He called Stanley, and asked for an update.
"Who were you meeting in Mexico, Mr. Hart?"
"Alejandro Martinez".
"I can't find a record of him anywhere. He didn't check into a hotel in Mexico using that name, and the only person I found fitting his description was a man in Europe going by the name Alexi Moretti, who has strong ties to Italy and the art world".
"So, what are you saying Stanley?"
"I'm saying I think you were set up. I think Alejandro Martinez is really Alex Moretti, and he lured you to Mexico under the presumption of a deal so that you would be unreachable while the gallery heist took place".
Stanley's theory made sense.
"Can you see if Alexi Moretti has ties to anyone at the FAA? They gave me the runaround today. More than usual".
"I will get right on it, Mr. Hart".
He got up and got himself a cup of coffee. Jennifer usually made his coffee for him, and try as he might, he just couldn't make his cup taste like what she fixed for him. It was the little things he was going to miss the most.
He flashed back to a conversation they had once, where he was telling her that if she died before him, that would be easier on him than if she left him for someone else, and that it was because he would rather know that she was healthy in Heaven than to know that she was with someone who wasn't loving her the way that she deserved. He realized now that losing her at all was a pain that he wouldn't be able to endure.
Max was trying to cheer him up, but it wasn't helping. Everything reminded him of Jennifer.
"Mr. H., tonight is the monthly poker game. You going?"
"Nah, I think I'll skip this one".
"Mr. H., what am I going to tell the others? You never miss, ever".
"Max, I cannot think about 5 of a kind right now. I just want my one of a kind".
Max gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
At some point, Jonathan was going to have to realize that the possibility that Jennifer was gone was real.
He had been taking phone messages all day from friends and reporters. Jonathan wasn't letting anyone in, or giving any information out. People were asking about funeral arrangements, and he wasn't even willing to think about planning anything like that. Max had called the floral shops in town, and asked them to send cards only and not flowers until further notice, and to please explain to the sender their decision.
He was trying to keep the house running as normal as possible, but he missed her too. She had accepted him from Day 1 of her relationship with Jonathan, and she had always made him feel welcome and treated him with kindness. She was a ray of sunshine no matter what, and she would definitely be missed. He was trying to hold out hope like Jonathan that she was still alive, but as the days passed, he knew that the hope would wane.
***Italy***
Jennifer found a policeman, and ran to him. She had been running and walking for miles it seemed like, and he was the first person she had seen.
"Please help me". He looked at her like she had three heads. So, she switched to Italian".
"Mi aiuti per favore. Il mio nome è Jennifer Hart e mi è stato rapito e tenuto in ostaggio. Ho bisogno di ottenere a un telefono cellulare in modo che io possa chiamare mio marito negli Stati Uniti."
(Can you help me please. My name is Jennifer Hart and I was kidnapped and held hostage. I need to get to a phone so i can call my husband in the United States.")
He looked at her and understood. He unlocked the door and told her that he would take her to the station and help her out.
She sighed. This nightmare was hopefully almost over.
