“Not gonna lie, I gotta piss,” I said. I saw Leah roll her eyes and I couldn’t help but grin. When I got up, I saw Zack smiling as well, and judging from the length, it wasn’t just from Jocelyn.
I looked around until I spotted the blue man symbol behind Zack. I started to speed-walk there. Both because I was holding it in and not wanting to keep Leah waiting.
“I’ll wait for him,” I heard Leah say quietly. “Off the two of you go.” When I had turned, I saw Zack and Jocelyn
I got to the door and pushed it open before rushing to the very first urinal that I saw. I think that it’s best for all of us if I don’t go into detail here, but it was very relieving. I washed my hands thoroughly before exiting.
I was giddy with excitement and anticipation. Who wouldn’t? Even though I didn’t know Leah liked me, I’m not going to argue if love just comes to me.
I felt that every muscle was ready to move even though I was just walking slowly. However, when I looked back to our table, I was a bit disheartened to find it vacant.
‘Where’d she go?’ I thought.
I looked around the nearby area, but I couldn’t find her. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I sent her a quick text message.
Where are you?
It was left on delivered for a minute. Nothing changed. Perhaps she moved to the dance floor? But when I looked over, I didn’t see her. Only Zack dropping Jocelyn.
I wandered around the entire venue looking for her. It wasn’t large, so it took only a few minutes. But she was still nowhere to be found.
I took my phone out once again and called her this time. The phone rang. And rang. And rang.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
The call had ended. My eyes scrunched with concern as my heart began to race.
‘Did something happen?’
Everyone still looked like they were enjoying the dance, so she probably wasn’t injured. I tried to call again, but it had achieved the same result. I called for a third time, but it had just disconnected immediately.
My heart began to beat faster. Okay, something was definitely off.
A dark feeling crept into my stomach as it felt like it was dropping. The flood of worst-case-scenario thoughts wouldn’t stop.
I pulled up Project Archer on my phone. I went to one of the modules listed and entered in Leah’s phone number.
No location results found.
My hands began to shake. Maybe it was just an error. I typed it in again, missing the numbers as the trembles got worse.
No location results found.
My breathing began to become hitched. I looked at the last five minutes of the entrance camera. I turned the speed up to double as the video seemed like a still image.
Until I saw movement.
Walking from the gate was a fair-skinned girl with medium, black hair and a purple dress. Leah. She walked slowly and wobbly, as if in a trance, before getting out of frame. That was four minutes ago.
‘Why isn’t she answering?’
I called her, and it disconnected immediately once again. I sent a text message, but it was still on delivered. So were all the previous messages. There was not a single indication that she had seen them.
‘What’s going on?’
I felt myself enter into a daze. The noises in the venue began to blend together. Everything became unfocused in my eye, as if I saw objects but weren’t processing them. I felt numb to everything. Even the steps I took, I didn’t feel everything.
There’s only been one time I’d ever felt like this.
‘Dad.’
A tear fell down. ‘Why? Hadn’t I been through enough?’
I was vaguely aware of myself wandering around the venue. I felt like I had to go somewhere, like my body was following a map, but I just didn’t know where. My head looked around constantly, searching in vain for Leah.
The muffled sounds got louder and louder. My vision began to get clearer as I found myself on the dance floor facing Zack.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, cutting through the haze. “Shouldn’t you be with madam president?”
“L-Leah’s,” I stammered out. “S-she’s missing.”
I saw Zack’s golden eyes look at me as if it were taking a picture and analyzing it critically. His face softened up, bringing some comfort to me. I felt my breathing become slower and more stable.
“Isn’t she,” Jocelyn began as she scanned the venue.
“Are you okay?” Zack whispered to me. I shook my head. “Do you want to leave?”
“Where is she?” Jocelyn asked.
“I-I don’t know,” I said softly. “When I came back, she was completely gone. She’s not answering any of my messages either.”
“Perhaps we should move to a different place,” Zack suggested. He grabbed my hand and guided us to the entrance of the venue. It was empty and quiet there; everyone else was either at the dance floor or eating.
“Okay, so you went to the bathroom and when you came back she was missing?” Zack asked.
“Yeah.”
“Did you check around?” Jocelyn asked.
“Of course he did,” Zack added immediately. His voice was loud and sounded aggressive. As soon as he said it, he let out a breath as he blinked. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it to sound like that.”
“It’s … fine,” Jocelyn said a bit hesitantly. “I get it.”
Zack gave a small smile at her acceptance.
“Shouldn’t we call the cops?” Jocelyn asked.
“That’s not a good idea,” Zack said immediately. He began to pace around, a sign that he was starting to think deeply. “She hasn't been gone for long, so they won’t do anything. If we say she was taken, we have no proof to substantiate it and get charged.”
“Still, they’ll handle it,” Jocelyn said.
“Not fast enough,” I said. “It’ll take them a few hours to get here, take statements, and days before they could even find any clues.”
“If someone went through the trouble of taking her at a school event, it means that this was personal not random,” Zack said, devoid of any emotion or concern. “Assuming she’s not in the mob or anything, it’s most likely a ransom.”
“You have no way of knowing that that’s the case!” Jocelyn suddenly shouted in outrage at Zack’s callous tone.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“Okay then, let’s hear your analysis,” Zack snapped back. He stopped walking and looked at her with apologetic eyes.
“Twice,” he mumbled out. “I regret that I have to apologize again. I-it’s just that my life is so fucked that I’ve ran out of tears. It’s easier for me to hide than face it, even in situations like,” he gestured around. “this.”
“But you’re the most carefree and happiest person I know,” she replied.
“You don’t think that you can have the biggest smile without practicing?” Zack questioned with a small, lopsided grin.
It seemed like an odd time to interrupt, but we were straying away from the point. “So what are we going to do?”
“Just wait for the kidnapper to call her parents and let the cops handle it from there,” Zack replied. This time, he changed his voice to sound more comforting. “That’s option one, but frankly I don’t know if her parents are going to piss them off. The second option is calling our PI friends to find and then negotiate ourselves.”
I knew that Zack would’ve preferred the first option. The only reason he gave the second one was for me. I smiled out of appreciation.
“I can call my dad,” Jocelyn offered. “He could help us.”
“Thank you for that, but he’s bound to the same restrictions as the local police,” Zack said. “If we find them, then he can do something.”
“What PIs do you even know that are faster than the police?” Jocelyn questioned. “How do you even know PIs?”
“Besides the point,” Zack responded cryptically as he continued to pace. “I’ll assume we’re going with option two, detective.” He looked at Jocelyn with an amused smile. The same one that he always had when he was about to play.
No objections were raised.
“Okay, this is what everyone is going to do. Blake, go outside and look for any signs of the getaway vehicle. Tire tracks or something like that. Call Diego if you need help. I’ll call our friends. In the meantime, Jocelyn, I need you to get a list of everyone who checked in and figure out who's not here.”
We nodded as we got up to do what we were assigned. Before I could walk away, however, Zack approached me. “Project Archer. What happened?”
“She got out of frame of the camera,” I answered. “And the phone locator thingy didn’t work.”
“That’s experimental,” Zack grumbled before nodding. “I’ll look over all the footage. Did you save nearby footage.”
“I did.”
“Good,” Zack said before he touched my shoulder and arms. I raised an eyebrow as he revealed my car keys in his hand.
I shook my head at the ridiculousness of it. He chuckled before running to the car. I presumed he was getting his laptop to check.
I stayed behind and examined the parking lot. I looked up at the nearby camera and matched the picture of the floor to my surroundings. Based on the angle she was walking, I could estimate where Leah was aiming for.
I looked over and saw an empty parking space. It could’ve possibly been the spot of the vehicle, but I wasn’t sure. The only clue was tire marks around the area.
“It drizzled earlier today,” I mumbled as I looked at the other empty parking spaces. No tire marks. In fact, the only places where marks were present were around the spaces that had cars. A slight amount of mud. A car was definitely here.
I walked over to the empty parking space and squatted. I examined the tracks that were left. I took a mental note of each characteristic before taking out my phone and dialing a number.
“Gracias por llamar a Reparación de Autos Diego, ¿en qué puedo ayudarte?” the voice asked.
“¿Eres Diego?” I asked. I wasn't completely sure if I recognized the voice.
“Zack?” he asked.
“Blake,” I responded. “It’s been a while. Two years by my count.”
“Yes mi amigo,” he responded with a slight accent. His voice was energetic and happy. “Two years since you helped me open my shop! Thank you so much for that!”
“Heh, you deserved it,” I replied back. “Sorry to cut to the chase but we need help finding out the make or model of a car.”
“No problem!” he replied. I heard some tools in the background as his footsteps echoed into the phone. “What do you have?”
“Symmetrical tread, about 18 inches in diameter. The tread looks like it has grooves.”
“What do the sipes look like?”
“What are sipes?” I asked back.
“Can you send a picture?” he asked. I moved back and turned the flash on. I took a quick picture and sent it over to him to examine it.
He was silent for a while. I heard keyboard clicking sounds for a minute before he finally spoke. “You’re looking for a Chevy Malibu, probably 2019.”
“Alright,” I said as I released a sigh of relief. At least something was going well. “Thank you so much. We’re in the middle of a crisis, so I’ll catch up later, alright?”
“That’s alright amigo,” he responded. “I wish you luck.”
“Gracias, buenas noches,” I said before ending the call. I looked around to see if there were any more details that I’d missed. I wasn’t as skilled as Zack; he’d probably be able to gain more information.
I looked around until I spotted Zack at our car. The trunk was down and he was standing in place with the light of the laptop illuminating his face. When I walked over, I saw he had an earbud inside.
“You said it pinged off two cell phone repeaters. Send me a list of phones that pinged off only those two as well,” Zack said. His face was tense and frowning. “What? I don’t recall a technicality like the law ever stopping you.”
I tapped him on the shoulder. His head snapped back towards me before his body caught up. He placed his hand over his heart and let out a shaky breath. “Alright, thank you.”
“What do you have?” Zack asked, switching his attention to me.
“Vehicle is a Chevy Malibu 2019,” I answered.
“Are you sure?” Zack asked. “I haven’t seen a Malibu in the area.”
“That’s what Diego said.”
“And how did he figure out the model?”
“The tire track. I sent a picture and he identified it.”
“By the tire?” Zack repeated in disbelief. He went back to his laptop and searched up pictures of the tire. He gestured for me to come and show him the photo.
“Huh, that’s neat,” Zack said. “Remind me to never doubt him again.”
“So can you find the car?” I asked to get us back on track.
“Like I said, there’s no Malibus in the area in the past ten minutes and it’s practically impossible to find all rented Malibus.”
“Well then figure something out!” I shouted. “The longer you-we take, the further Leah gets!”
“I’m a thief, not a detective, so forgive me but I’m trying my best,” he said angrily. His voice, however, never went higher in volume. He paced around at a fast rate.
“You were the one that said you had to outperform a detective, so go AHEAD! Beat them!”
“Not even Sherlock could track an invisible car-” Zack said before suddenly stopping. His face straightened up as he looked into the distance. His expression was neutral, but it was his eyes that spoke volumes.
“An invisible car,” he repeated as his head tilted. His eyes were wide, but held a certain gleam that seemed to scream out eureka. He rushed towards the computer and pulled up all the cameras of nearby roads.
“There were some oddities of cars stopping really far before a red light or weird track marks,” Zack said. “Being invisible isn’t the same as undetectable. They somehow were able to hide from cameras. So we just need to look for its effects.”
He focused on the camera of our school. When he pointed it out, I noticed that the ground gained a weird tire track. It was almost like it materialized out of thin air.
“Pull up a map, around six mile radius. Left on Maple,” he said. I did what he said. When I opened up a map, I began to follow a path as he read out the turns.
“Then?” I asked after a long silence.
“That’s it. That’s all I see,” Zack said. He put my phone screen on the computer to get a better look.
“Factoring in the cell tower range, the location is,” he said as he hit the trunk of the car like it was a drum. “The … woods?” he asked in a high-pitched voice.
“Zack!” Jocelyn’s voice suddenly yelled out. Instinctively, he closed the laptop and looked around. We both saw her running toward us with a piece of paper in her hand.
“Who’s the missing person?” Zack asked.
“I-I think I made a mistake,” Jocelyn began. “but it says …”
“The trombone,” Zack whispered.
“I-it can’t be,” Jocelyn stammered out. “I mean, they’re not capable of doing it.”
“You don’t know what someone is capable of until they do the impossible or unspeakable,” Zack said as he closed the trunk. “Get in.”
“Wait! Your PI found her?”
“Sorry, but you’re not coming along,” Zack said as he stuck his tongue out.
“My dad can help!” Jocelyn retorted.
“Do you know how pissed he’ll be at you if you go?” I asked.
“Not to mention he’ll escalate it from a kidnapping to a hostage situation,” Zack said as he went to the front of the car. “Call your dad and go home.”
“And how come you two can handle it, huh?!” she challenged. “If you don’t accept my dad’s help, you're going to hurt yourselves!”
“This is going to be a negotiation,” Zack said. “If we get into trouble, I’ll call the police.”
“This isn’t a game!” she shouted. “What happens if they start shooting at you?”
“He took her for a reason. There are easier ways of killing someone. He has demands he wants, and I can give it to him so just let me handle this.” Zack adjusted his bowtie before opening the door and entering, not wanting to finish the conversation.
“And you?” Jocelyn asked. When I looked at her closely, I saw tears about to form. Her face was scrunched up, not from the tense situation, but from sadness.
“I’ll send you the location in a few hours after we’ve confirmed it and talked,” I said. “Feel free to call me to check up.”
She put her hands on my arm. “Don’t go.”
“I’m sorry,” I said sincerely. “On behalf of both of us.”
I gently moved her hand off and walked to the driver seat.
“Good luck,” I heard her mumble out. I looked at her and gave a nod before entering.