Zack veered backwards, his eyes narrowing as he tried to make out who he saw. The bloody blonde hair and weak-looking eyes came into focus.
“Edmond,” Edmond gazed at him with a flash of respite in his eyes, his leg quivering, barely standing on his feet. With no strength left in him, he gave in to his leg’s command, falling towards Zack. Zack quickly caught him before he could fall to the ground. The stench of blood wafted into his nose, making him grow more anxious about his wife’s safety. Since Edmond was in this particular state, how about his wife-what will happen to her? What are the kidnappers planning to do to her?
“What happened, Edmond? Tell me.” His hoarse voice was filled with concern. He laid him down on the ground and adjusted his head to a comfortable slope. “What happened?” He repeated his question, but Edmond grasped his arm with his shaky hand, wincing in pain. Zack, noticing this, realized he needed immediate treatment, but the problem was his car has run out of gas.
“Edmond, can you tell me where you parked the car? I need to get you to the hospital.”
Edmond shook his head slightly and pulled away from Zack’s grip. “The Madam…” He mumbled, still pulling away. “The Madam… might… be… in… danger,” he managed to say under his breath.
“Were you there when she was kidnapped?” Zack asked. “Do you know where she is?” Edmond’s warnings only intensified his worry. He was too afraid to speculate what might happen if she isn’t rescued in time.
“Some… guy… lured me… all the way to the… alley… I’m sure it… was… their… plan… to… distract me from something… I don’t… know what it is… but things definitely don’t seem right,” he spoke with shattered words, nudging Zack to let go of him.
“She has been kidnapped,” Zack informed him.
A nervous sigh escaped Edmond’s breath, with guilt washing over him. “I’m sorry, Sir, it’s all my fault.” He felt that if he hadn’t intuitively followed that guy, maybe Ivy wouldn’t be in the hands of criminals.
Zack took out his phone to call Bryan. “Bryan, are you anywhere close to an alley?”
“I drove past an alley earlier. What do you want me to do, sir?” Bryan responded.
“I’ve found Edmond. Drive back to the alley and take him to the hospital,” he instructed urgently.
“Okay, Sir. On my way,” Bryan replied affirmably and hung up.
Zack leaned him against the wall in a relaxing position. “Stay here,” he told him and left. The moment he finally departed the alley, his phone vibrated in his pocket.
“Hello, Chief. Any news?” He asked eagerly, expecting good news.
“Sir, the BUD the caller indicated was perhaps Budum street, very close to the hotel she was staying in. We have arrived there now. We will check the footage to see if there are any clues to find her,” Chief Rudolf apprised. “So, where are you now?”
“I just left a dark alley, and my car just ran out of gas. Please send someone to pick me up…”
“Yes, sir,” he replied, and the call ended. It didn’t take up to thirty minutes for a car to arrive at his location.
He was driven to the Chief’s current location. When he got there, the first that caught his eyes was a parked car with flat tyres.
“Mr. Anderson, I’m Detective Finn Cyprus,” a man donned in a smart black suit approached Zack, extending his hand for a shake. He looked to be in his late forties with light brown hair. “We found this car parked around the corner when we got here. Mr. Bryan said the car isn’t your wife’s, but we found her phone at the passenger seat.”
“Have you found her yet? It’s almost 3 am,” Zack snapped, his brow arched, eliciting displeasure.
“We are trying our best, sir,” Finn said politely, unintended to anger him more than he already was. “We’ve sent out a search team to look for her. The problem is that some of the footage was tampered with,” he explained.
Zack heaved a sigh of frustration. It would take a long time to find her since the kidnapping was well planned and executed, leaving no trace for police detection.
“Well, not all the footage was tampered with. There are some we can take reference from.” Finn added.
Zack heaved another sigh, feeling a glimmer of optimism. But he was still impatient. He needed to see his wife again. “Just get to work, Detective. Stop wasting time.”
The detective nodded and did as he was told, while Bryan arrived shortly, informing him he had taken Edmond to the hospital.
A FEW HOURS AGO
A black car halted in front of a vast warehouse, some parts of the roof were tattered, with broken windows strewn all over the ground.
The two men in black hopped from the car, one made his way to the building while the other stood leaning on the back of the vehicle, lighting a cigarette.
The drive to the old church, where they discarded Susan, took them an hour, and another extra hour to get to the warehouse, where they would confine Ivy.
A few seconds later, his burner phone rang in his pocket.
“Hello boss, we’ve arrived at the warehouse.”
“I hope you gave her the right amount of dosage to make her sleep for a long time,” the caller from the other end asked.
“Yes, boss, she won’t wake up anytime soon,” he assured him, taking another puff of his cigarette.
“Good, you know what to do.”
“Yes, boss.” He smirked, striking the trunk of the car. He seemed to be excited for what he was going to do.
The other man, having returned from inside the warehouse, opened the trunk to take out Ivy.
He laid her over his shoulder, carrying her into the warehouse. He then let her lightweight body fall to the dusty ground with a loud thud.
He uncovered her, freeing her from the suffocating body bag. He gripped her arm and dragged her to the side of the wall to bind her with the rope his partner had dropped on the ground.
But as he leaned her against the wall, her eyes groggily opened, causing him to flinch in surprise.
“Fuck, she is awake…”