Chapter 45 - Izzy

“Wait here,” I tell the cab driver as I open the door.

“Lady! I can’t wait here all day!” He exclaims with his arms sticking out of the window. I spin around and march back towards him.

“Listen buddy, my little sister was kidnapped earlier and I think she’s here. Pretty soon the cops are going to show up and then you can leave. Until then, I’m not going to be stranded here with no way of getting back. Just sit tight. I’ll pay you double whatever the meter says.”

His eyebrows shoot up and he huffs before nodding grumpily. I turn back around and start jogging lightly towards the woods, then pause and turn around again. The cab driver rolls down the window and looks at me, waiting for me to speak.

“I need your phone.”

“Ha! No. I’m not doing you any more favours.”

I put my hands on my hips and stare at him. “Did you not hear anything I just fucking said? My SISTER is in danger. I need your phone so I can give the cops my location. Look, I’ll give you something as collateral.”

I pat my pockets, well, Gene’s pockets, and find them empty. I have eighty-seven dollars and another man’s clothes. I look down at my hand and see the wedding ring that Dave slipped over my finger. It’s shining in the sunlight and I feel my chest tighten. His mother’s ring, and his grandmother’s ring before that. When it slipped onto my finger it made me feel whole. It feels wrong to take it off my finger, but I take a deep breath and do it anyways. I hand it to the cab driver.

“My wedding ring. Keep it until I come back and I can give you your phone back.”

The cab driver inspects the diamond on the ring and sighs. He nods once and hands me his phone. I watch as my ring disappears into his front pocket and I feel like my heart is being wrenched out of my chest.

“The code to unlock the phone is 1-1-2-2,” he says, resigned. I nod and take a step forward, taking his cell phone from him. I put it on silent and slip it into my pocket. I pause and put a hand on his shoulder, looking him straight in the eyes.

“Thank you.”

He nods and waves me away. I turn around and start jogging towards the forest. Memories flood back to me - memories I’d forgotten, of a happy childhood with a real family, before things got bad. I remember these woods - running through these trails with Hannah, finding bugs and climbing trees. My feet pound the hard earth as I jog forward.

My head is splitting. I close my eyes for an instant and suddenly I’m hurling forward through space. I hit the ground with a thud and the pain shoots through my forehead and down my spine. I groan, looking back at my feet to see a tree root in the centre of the path. I grimace and pick myself up slowly. I stand up, gingerly taking a few steps forward. When the dizziness subsides I keep going at a slightly slower pace.

It’s hard to see straight, and it’s hard to walk, but all I can think about is Jess. Jess is here somewhere, I can feel it. I let my feet guide me to the old campsite we used to pitch our tents at. It’s off the beaten path, not monitored by any park rangers. It’s a small clearing right near the ocean. Our two families used to watch the sun rise over the water together.

I stumble through the forest. I don’t really know where the clearing is, I’m drawing on memories that are ten, fifteen, twenty years old. I come to a fork in the path and smile. I remember this. We used to go down the left fork - the one that looks disused and overgrown. I step confidently to the left and keep going.

It’s cool and fresh under the trees, deceptively peaceful. I can hear some birds singing above me and I wonder what they have to sing about. My heart is pounding and all I can think of is Jess.

Suddenly I hear voices. I stop and crane my neck, closing my eyes to focus on the sound. It’s definitely voices. I step forward slowly, hating the way the pine needles crunch underfoot. The voices get louder and I know I need to get off the path. I glance around and choose the thickest part of the underbrush, creeping forward slowly.

I can hear a woman’s voice - is it Vera’s? It has to be. Then a man’s voice. Is that… no. I shake my head. It couldn’t be Dave. I’m imagining things, wishing he was here with me. I take a few steps and listen closely, trying to hear the high-pitched musical lilt of Jess’s voice.

In a few more steps, the trees thin and I can just make out the clearing. The voices are coming from the far side. I can’t get any closer without being spotted, so I make a wide arc around the clearing. The voices are loud now. I crouch behind a thick bush and peer through the branches.

My breath catches in my throat. There she is. Jess is there, she’s alive! I resist the urge to run ahead and grab her, peering through the bushes to see what else is going on. There’s a tent, and Vera. She’s holding something - a gun, I realise with horror. She’s pointing it at someone, it’s not Jess. There’s a thick patch of trees in the way and I can’t see who she’s talking to. I strain my ears to listen.

“You’re going to transfer every single penny that you’ve got over to me. No funny business, no questions. Everything. You understand?” She turns her head and barks. “Mark, are you almost ready over there? What the fuck is taking so long?”

I watch as she makes a disgusting sound and then spits on the ground. I shudder. I pull out the taxi driver’s phone and quickly send my GPS location to Detective Jenkins. Slipping the phone back in my pocket I look back towards the clearling.

I step slowly through the brush, making sure to place my feet over dirt or moss and avoiding the crunchy leaves on the ground, I step around a bush and take cover behind a tree. I peer around the trunk of the tree and feel my eyes widen. My heart rises to my throat and my stomach drops. I feel like the world starts spinning a little bit faster as I watch him staring at my mother with his icy, piercing gaze.

David Langley.

My husband, the only man I’ve ever cared about, the only man I’ve ever loved. He’s got a gun pointed straight at his chest, and the person holding the gun is my mother.

I feel a wave of fury come over me. She took away my best friend, took away my chance at a better life. She caused me unimaginable trauma and suffering for all of my life, inflicting wounds visible and invisible that I’m still recovering from. And now, she’s kidnapped my sister and is pointing a gun at the man I love.