He’s going to kill us.
He’s going to kill us.
He’s going to kill us!
Chapter 39
Magnus
Twenty.Four. Hours.
It’s been that long since my boyfriend was taken. I found his backpack and phone abandoned on a bench with a note from the stalker. It was completely unhinged, talking about love from afar, keeping the innocent chaste, and not letting interlopers win.
After reading it, I called the detective and the police came to the scene. They’d gotten my statement and sent me back to my dorm with the instructions to wait there in case Trent has gotten lost and returns on his own. That’s more bullshit than I can swallow, but I’m still sitting at my desk in my dorm like an obedient puppet.
I’m probably a person of interest in this case, since I’m the boyfriend. That’s going to be annoying if they don’t find Trent sooner rather than later. It will change what is an assumed abduction into a missing person/possible homicide case, and the first suspects are always the partners. I know that I’ll need to talk to them and get all of their questions answered, but I’m also going to need a lawyer because that’s just the way things are.
Never talk to the police without a lawyer present. Full stop.
Fuck, I just need to find Trent, but I have nothing, and the case file hasn’t been updated since I called them about Trent.
I send out an email, canceling all my classes and letting everyone know that Trent is missing and if anyone has any information, they need to give it to the police. I add the hotline for tips to the email and the tips email address as well.
As soon as it’s out, I slam back into my chair, exhausted, frustrated, and terrified for Trent. Anything could be happening to him, and I’m not there to help him or stop it or anything else that I might add. I genuinely wish the person who took him had also taken me just so I’m not tortured with what-ifs and worst-case-scenarios.
As I devolve into a spiral of angry fear, my email starts filling up with messages, most of the subject lines are justre: classes canceled, but then one pops up that’s different. Video of a suspicious guy.
I open it and a video attachment shows me a hooded guy carrying what looks like a person over his shoulder fireman style. The person isn’t Trent, but I think I know them. Whatshisname. That guy who thinks I’m an asshole…
Luis? Is that his name?
The videographer follows the guy carrying Luis at a distance and the guy ends up in a parking lot where he offloads his burden into the trunk of a gray sedan. The license plate is clearly visible.
I should forward this to the police.
I take down the license plate number and dig into the database of license plates for the out of state tag in the video. It takes me an hour to hack the database, but then it’s only a few minutes to find the registration. At the end of the hour, I find that the license plate belongs to a rental car company, so I spend another two hours gaining access to the rental car company’s files. Oooh yeah, this is super illegal, but I’m not going to leaktheir client information or sell it, and I will take steps to tighten up the security software to prevent people like me from getting in again.
The person the car was rented to comes back as Joseph B. Farnum, who, I find out upon some sleuthing, has recently bought a farm property about an hour outside the city.
I pack up all the information into a neat little zip file for the detective and anonymously send it to her email using the account of one of the board members of the rental car company. This will probably force them to spend some money on their security protocols.
I also forward the original email to the detective and the police tip line, and then I call Detective Schalk and leave a message explaining that I’ve forwarded it to the tip email and cc’d hers.
As soon as I get off the phone with her voicemail, I use a VoIP and call the emergency services, reporting a fire at the address of the farm property. I tell the man who answers the 911 call that I’d seen some teens filling up a couple of gas cans, talking about setting the property’s house on fire. It’s the best way I know to get someone out there in a timely manner and have them looking for suspects if there isn’t a fire when they arrive.
It’s almost midnight when I get in my car, heading to the farm. I don’t know who Joseph Farnum is. Never heard the name, didn’t recognize the face, but I’m going to be there in case Luis isn’t the only person abducted yesterday. It may be a coincidence that Luis was taken the same day Trent was, but even if it is, if the firefighters find Luis, the work will have been worth the time and effort.
I really hope they find Trent, though.
Chapter 40
Trent
“Trent.”
Luis stares at me with wide eyes, breathing hard, but it’s his tone that pulls me out of the panic. He sounds so much calmer than I would expect in this horrible place considering his injury.
My arms hurt, all my muscles have been locked up for fuck knows how long. I hurt. My leg feels like it’s on fire. There’s something in my back. It’s screaming at me.
