A new day dawned, but Colleen refused to leave her bed. Chelsea brought her coffee and toast but her mother was interested in neither.
“I’m a horrible mother,” she said as Chelsea sat on the edge of the bed.
“No you aren’t,” Chelsea said firmly. This felt like the hundredth time she and her mother were having this conversation, but nothing Chelsea said seemed to help. “You were lied to by an expert liar. It’s not your fault that he tricked you and it doesn’t make you a bad mother. It makes you just as much a victim as-”
“Don’t say Jamie,” her mother interrupted. “My poor baby. She’s been gone so long and we can’t do anything to help her.”
“It’s okay, Mom,” Chelsea said as she straightened the blankets around her mother’s bed. Then the doorbell rang, “I’ll get it, don’t worry, Mom. Just stay here and get some rest.”
“If it’s Terrance don’t you open that door! Do you understand?” Colleen demanded.
“Yes, I understand,” Chelsea said. She walked to the door and pressed her eye against the peephole. But it wasn’t Terrance; it was Paul and there was a woman with him. “Hi,” Chelsea said opening the door.
“Hi Chelsea,” Paul said, “You remember I mentioned an old friend I went to school with who joined the FBI? Well I called her and she introduced me to Special Agent Morrison with the FBI,” he extended his arm to the tall woman next to him. She had a thick head of curly red hair and a sturdy build.
“Nice to meet you, Chelsea. You can call me Molly,” she said extending her hand. Chelsea reached out and felt Molly’s firm and confident grip as they shook hands over the threshold.
“Please, come in,” Chelsea said as she opened the door wide enough for all of them to pass. “I’m sorry, but my mom isn’t feeling well, so I would appreciate it if we could keep things quiet.”
“Of course,” Paul and Molly agreed at the same time as they sat down next to each other on the couch.
Chelsea took the other chair in the living room and watched as Molly pulled a recording device and a notepad and pen from her bag. “Paul has filled me on what he knows, but I’m hoping you might have some more answers,” Molly said. Her voice was strong and confident and Chelsea couldn’t help but feel a little bit safer with her in the house. It was nice to have someone on her side who could arrest someone and had a gun.
“I don’t know that much, but I do have some evidence,” Chelsea said. “I recorded a conversation on my phone between me and Terrance DeMarco; he talks about the fighting pits and kidnapping my sister.” Chelsea played the recording while Molly recorded it and took notes.
“Have you spoken to your sister during this time?” Molly asked.
“Yes, on the phone. She sounded scared, but all right,” Chelsea answered.
“I don’t like not telling my superiors that a person has been kidnapped, but I agree with Paul that local law enforcement cannot be trusted. I am part of a task force in this area that deals with underground fighting groups. We’ve heard rumors of them in this section of Idaho before, but yours in the first solid lead I’ve come across. I would rather wait until we have the detail of the location to move against Terrance DeMarco.”
“Yes,” Chelsea agreed. “I want to get my sister back before we do anything else. If they find out we’ve contacted the cops they could hurt her.”
“I don’t want to see any harm come to your sister and I promise we will get her out of here. Now Terrance has indicated this most recent fight is a fight to the death, correct?”
“Yeah, and he says a lot of rich out-of-towners want to come and see it, so it’s been pushed back. It’s tomorrow night.”
“Where?” Molly asked leaning forward eagerly.
“I don’t know. He won’t tell me.”
“Do you think you could convince him to tell you?” Molly said.
“What? How?” Chelsea demanded. “Terrance doesn’t like me; he’s not going to do me any favors.”
“Think about it Chelsea,” Paul interjected. “We need to know where the fight is going down if we want to break it up. Out of all of us, you’re closest to the action.”
“Would I just ask him where it is?” Chelsea asked. “Why would he tell me the truth?”
“You would need to convince him,” Molly said. “Think about it, think about what you know about him and how you can use that information to manipulate him. What do you know about him?”
“He’s a no-good, lying, son of a bitch, I know that,” Chelsea spat.
“Good, but more helpful this time,” Paul said.
Chelsea sighed and thought about Terrance. Who was Terrance, what did he want? “He’s a social climber,” Chelsea said, saying the words as they entered her head. “He’s obsessed with status he kept asking me to compare his new mansion with the ones in Beverly Hills and he mentioned that he was very eager to have a pop star as a step daughter,” Chelsea said growing nauseas at the memory.
“He’s status obsessed and you’re the most famous person any in this town has ever seen. I think there’s something there we can use.”
“The thought of it,” Chelsea said shaking her head. The thought of buttering up to Terrance was loathsome and disgusting, but she would do what needed to be done. “What about Blue?” Chelsea asked. “What happens if he fights?”
“If he participates in the fight and kills someone, it’s murder,” Molly said with a shake of her head.
“But he’s been blackmailed into doing it. They have my sister!” Chelsea yelled, struggled to keep her voice down. “How could he be punished for this?”
“People will want to know why he didn’t go to the police. They’ll want to know why he took matters into his own hands. Juries don’t like vigilantes; they like people who follow the laws.”
“I can’t believe, after all of this, Blue could go to jail. He’s innocent.”
“I won’t let that happen, Chelsea. I promise,” Paul said. “We’ll find a way to get him out of there without anyone dying.”
“But first you need to find out where the next fight is going to be,” Molly said. “Without that information we can’t move forward.”
“But if I find out where the fight is, can you break it up before Blue has to fight?” Chelsea asked.
“I’ll do the best I can, but one thing at a time. You need to contact Terrance DeMarco and get him to tell you everything you can about the fight. Does he know you recorded this previous conversation with him?” Molly asked.
“Yeah,” Chelsea answered. “I used it to get my mom out of there.”
“So he probably won’t give you this information over the phone. How comfortable would you be going to his house to ask him? I would put a wire on you so I could hear everything. They’re very small and he’ll have no idea you’re wearing it. Paul and I can wait outside for you. I won’t be far away and if anything goes wrong, I can come in and get you.”
“A wire,” Chelsea whispered. She was a pop star, she knew how to play the guitar and write a good hook. Bringing down criminals was not something she felt ready to handle. But she wasn’t going to back down now. Her sister needed her, Blue needed her, and she could do this. She could charm the information out of Terrance. He was a good liar, but he was also desperate for validation and Chelsea was confident she could work with that. “Yes,” she said. “I’ll do it.”
“Are you sure, Chelsea?” Paul asked. “I want to see Blue saved from this just as much as you do. But I know he would kill me if he found I was sending you to talk with his father. We’d be sending you into the lion’s den alone.”
“I know,” Chelsea said. “But I can handle it. I can do this. I want to do this. Terrance has taken so much from me and this is how I can finally get even and get Blue back.”