Chapter 31

Author's Note: Please feel free to bug me - that's the idea! I need the motiviation - seriously. As for publishing - my first article should be out in the next issue of SUPERTWINS (from MOST or Mothers of SuperTwins). For fiction - I guess we'll see after the conference!


“Lizzie, you are not spending the night at Stephanie’s tonight. It’s a school night. You know the rules.” Beth Andrews sighed as she looked down at her daughter. Why was everything such a fight? She wasn’t even a teenager yet.
“Mom, that’s not fair!” Lizzie said as she slammed the door in her mother’s face.
“Lizzie, you know the rules,” Beth called through the closed door. When all she heard was loud music in return, Beth sighed and walked away. If her father hadn’t run off with some bimbo he’d be here taking care of Lizzie; helping to raise their youngest daughter. Instead he found some younger redhead and left. Their oldest son, now twenty-two, hadn’t taken it well and had been in and out of jail over the past two years. Strangely their second son had begun taking college courses at just sixteen and was now excelling in school. Seems his father’s escapades had scared him straight.
Beth left Lizzie to her music and headed back into the kitchen to finish what few dishes were in the sink. So many years ago she had it all. Three beautiful children running around their huge house on the water. Watching the children splash in the beach. The beach that was right behind their house. How many people had that? Beth had felt so blessed.
And in an instant it was gone.
But Beth knew it was over when she had found sexy underwear in the laundry. Beth had switched to the granny kind years ago. It helped to hide the stretch marks. Even after losing all her pregnancy weight and then some but the stretch marks were always there. And she knew Steve saw them. He mentioned them a number of times of the past five years. So she wasn’t surprised to find those underwear. But still she hated that she did. Before that she could live happily in denial.
She used the word happily loosely enough. It meant that when she met the girls for tea at the country club and anyone asked how she was. She could smile and say they were fine. Because they were. Even if the feeling deep down in her gut told her they weren’t.
Beth picked up Lizzie’s dinner dish that sat beside the sink. At least tonight it was by the sink and not left on the table. But again tonight most of it was still on her plate. What did that girl eat anyway?
Beth scraped off the food into the sink all the while biting back tears. How did it come to this?
The plate slipped out of her hand and landed in the sink. The loud bang made her jump. She threw the sponge down in the sink and let the tears flow while the water ran. An even louder noise out the front door made her stop in her tracks.
“Lizzie? Lizzie is that you?” Beth walked away from the sink. “Lizzie if you are sneaking out of your room you are grounded for a year! Make that two years.” Beth threw open the door to Lizzie’s room and finding her bed empty shouted, “Make that until you’re eighteen!”
“What are you yelling at mom? Good grief. I just went to the bathroom.” Lizzie glared at her mom from underneath her overly long bangs. Beth pushed the hair out of Lizzie’s face and smiled down at her twelve-year-old. She held her close and kissed her forehead. This little girl was all she had left. At least it felt like it.
“Okay, mom, gross.” Lizzie pushed her mom away but not before Beth noticed the small smile on her face and felt Lizzie’s hand on the small of her back. At least she knew her daughter loved her deep down.
Another sound outside made even Lizzie jump. “What was that mom?”
“I don’t know sweetheart. Go sit on your bed and I’ll look outside.” Beth gently let go of Lizzie and walked quietly to the door. The front room seemed strangely dark but Beth remembered turning the light on outside before locking the house up for the night.
She walked across the large living room floor grateful for the plush carpet and peered out the curtains that hung behind her suede sectional couch. Just as she suspected the light outside was dark. Did she risk things and flip it on?
No, she decided against anything including movement. Instead she sat still on the couch and waited. For what she didn’t know. It was probably a stupid cat that ran into her garbage can. After a few minutes of silence she decided that’s what it was and went back to Lizzie’s room to tell her everything was fine.
“Lizzie? I think its okay…” Her words were cut off by a muffled cry.
“Mom! Mom, help me!”
Beth threw open her daughter’s bedroom door for the second time that evening. Two men were standing over her daughter and pulling her out of the bed.
“Get back woman!” One of the men looked up at her, his blue eyes looking more like ice. It was the eyes, it was all she could see over the bandana and under the hat but she didn’t miss them.
“Leave my daughter alone.” Beth lunged forward.
“I said get back!” The same man pulled a gun from his belt and pointed it at Beth. She ignored it and continued to advance towards her daughter. They were taking her daughter only if she were dead.
And when the first bullet hit her abdomen she thought, “I just might be dead.” She stumbled back, her hand on her stomach feeling the warmth of the blood that was surely leaking out. A second bullet hit her chest.
“Mom! Mom!” Lizzie was screaming.
“Get back here, Warren. She’s as good as dead. We have to get this one back to the others.”
Others? What others? Beth lay still, certain that she would be shot again if she so much as moved. How she was still conscious she had no idea. The men stepped around her as though she was not there carrying her daughter. Lizzie’s screams echoed in her ears. She wanted to get up and help her but knew she couldn’t. Knew she couldn’t help Lizzie if she were dead.
The front door slammed and Beth’s heart lurched. She had to get to her daughter. She had to get help. Slowly she moved her body. Every part of her ached. She covered both wounds with her hands and began turning slowly to find a phone. Using the wall as support she pulled herself to a standing position.
“Please God just let me make it to the phone.”
Beth forced herself to stay conscious as she shuffled for the phone in Lizzie’s room. They had fought at length as to whether or not it was needed but right now she was grateful it was there. Using the bed for support, Beth made it to the phone on the nightstand. As she dialed 9-1-1 her thoughts were on the blood that was spilling all over Lizzie’s comforter.
“9-1-1 dispatcher. Please state your emergency,” a dull-sounding woman answered the phone.
“Please help me, I’ve been shot and my daughter’s been taken.”
“Where are you ma’am?” She could hear the woman snapping and tapping, all the dullness gone from her voice.
“I’m at 1874 Broad Street in Spring Hill. Please help her. They’ve taken her. You have to get her back.”
“Who’s taken her ma’am?”
“Two men, some people…” Beth paused as pain shot through her abdomen. She couldn’t cover both wounds and talk on the phone at the same time. She had chosen to cover her abdomen figuring that she would be dead already had the chest wound been in her heart. But with the little medical knowledge she possessed she knew that the wound through her stomach could have struck any number of organs all of which could be failing at any moment.
“Ma’am, stay with me. Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not okay, I’ve been shot!” Frantic thoughts ran through Beth’s head. Her own life, Lizzie’s life, where her stupid almost ex-husband was and whether or not he’d even care. Thoughts of the other missing girls also crossed her mind. Those mothers had been shot. She had just been shot. Most of the girl’s missing were her daughters age.
“Ma’am, are you still there? The police and ambulance are on their way.”
“Send the FBI.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Send the FBI. I think it’s related to all those other girls.”
“Are you in a car, ma’am?” The woman’s voice was unsure of Beth’s accusations.
“Please trust me, send the FBI.” Beth groaned and dropped the phone. She fell sideways onto Lizzie’s bed. Darkness engulfed her.
Beth was as surprised as the paramedics around her when she woke up on the stretcher. She hadn’t even left her house. She couldn’t have been out long. An oxygen mask covered her mouth and nose and she eagerly sucked in the life giving elements.
“FBI?” Both paramedics stopped what they were doing and looked at her. “FBI?” She said again praying they would understand.
“She’s talking,” the male paramedic on her right shouted.
“She’s awake?” another male voice asked.
“Looks that way. If you want to talk to her, do it now and do it fast. She’s lost a lot of blood and we need to get her to the hospital and into surgery.” The paramedic moved away and another man took his place. This man looked extremely serious and tired. His blond hair lay haphazardly across his face. Beth knew he was the agent in charge.
“My name is Special Agent Nate Zimmerman. You can call me Nate. Can you talk?” In sharp contrast to the man who took her daughter, Nate’s blue eyes were soft and caring. She had the feeling that he wasn’t just looking for information but he was truly concerned for all involved.
“Yes.” Beth choked on the word, the oxygen making her throat dry. She carefully lifted her hand to remove the mask from her face. “They took my daughter.”
“Ms. Andrews, I’m sure you’ve heard of the girls who have gone missing. Why do you believe that what happened tonight is related?”
“The man said…” She swallowed hard, squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. Nate was waiting patiently. “The man who took Lizzie said he wanted to get her back with the others.”
“Did he look like this?” Nate held up a head shot of a skinny man with cropped red hair. She looked at his eyes. They were brown. Couldn’t be him.
Beth shook her head. “Said the name Warren.”
“Warren?”
“Yes, one guy called the other Warren.” Beth began to cough. She felt blood in her mouth. How did that get there?
“Finish up Agent. We need to get her to the hospital now.”
“One more question. Ms. Andrews, did you see him? Would you recognize him if you saw him again?” Nate placed his arm on her shoulder.
Beth shook her head. “Only saw his eyes. They were ice blue.” Beth grabbed Nate’s arm and looked at his eyes. “Find my daughter. Find her and save her. That man was evil. You must help her.”