Chapter 3
One Week Later – Number of Days Missing: 9
Los Angeles, California
The Carters, both siblings and parents, were all sitting in Nick’s living room, trying to make heads or tails of what may have happened. Not one of them had slept in days, nor could anyone eat.
“He didn’t do it,” Angel said for, what seemed like, the hundredth time in less than ten minutes. “Someone else must’ve done it to frame him, then kidnapped him or something…I don’t know. All I know is that it wasn’t him,” her confidence in her twin’s innocence was cool and unwavering. The rest of the family wanted desperately to believe her, but with all of the evidence pointing to the latter, that was becoming a task easier said, then done.
“I think we need to try and figure out, who in the world would want to hurt Aaron…” Bob said, going along with Angel, he too had undying faith in Aaron.
“I’ve been racking my brain ever since I got the call, I can’t think of a single person,” Nick replied to his father’s request. “But then again, Aaron goes out and parties a lot on his own…he could’ve gotten into a fight with someone one night and they decided to do something about it.”
Jane, who was red face and teary eyed, said, “I knew we shouldn’t’ve let him come live in L.A. It’s too dangerous for a boy his age.”
“He’s eighteen, Jane,” Bob said in a tone that signified this argument had happened many times before. “Even if I agreed with that, there’s nothing we could’ve done to stop him.”
“Oh, shut up Bob!” she said heatedly as another wave of tears and sobs came over her.
He sighed, aggravated already with his ex-wife. “Guys, when you were all living together doing that reality show thing, was there ever a night when he came home, pissed off or mad at all?”
“No, not that I know of…” BJ said, trying to think back to the short time when they were all under the same roof.
“We all pretty much hung out together that whole time,” Leslie added.
“Well, with everything we’ve discussed and all of the information we gathered…” Nick began. “We’ve gone…absolutely no where.”
He threw down his notepad that he’d been jotting things down in, little memos that he’d think of here and there and anything that someone might say that could help the police find his little brother.
Hardin, Montana
The boy that they brought was cute, not to mention nice, but she still couldn’t completely trust him. He had short blond hair and brown eyes that were gentle and, at the same time, strong. Judging by the circles under his eyes, Chris guessed that he had lost his fair share of sleep even before he’d been brought to join her in this Hell on earth.
The next day Chris was left alone, but Aaron got a round of beatings from Britain and Butt Head (her preferred name for thug #2).
Britain was tall, thin, and built well. The only other thing she knew about him was that he had black hair, which he usually kept slicked back. The men always wore masks, so she could never get a clear view of their faces, which was-without a doubt-the intention of the maneuver. Butt Head was very overweight and quite short, compared to Britain. He tended to be less sexual than Britain always was, but more violent during the beatings. He was balding, but the small amount of hair he had left was gray.
When Aaron’s beating was done, he was thrown back into the hole.
“That was fun,” Butt Head taunted. “Let’s do it again REAL soon.”
Britain and Butt Head laughed as they walked up the stairs and slammed the door.
“I wonder where that third guy is all the time,” Aaron inquired as he slowly crawled over to the wall and sat next to Chris.
“What ‘third guy’?” Chris asked. When they had taken her, there’d only been two of them, she’d never seen a third.
“There’s three of them,” Aaron clarified. “Those two are the ones who broke into my house and…” he stopped. That girl!! He’d completely forgotten about her, with everything that happened. He felt the blood drain from his face, when he realized how it would look when the police found the body. The girl he had picked up at the club was no angel, and you could tell just by her clothes. She was actually, now that he thought of it, pretty damn slutty.
“Aaron?” Chris asked. “Are you okay?”
“What? Oh sorry, I was just thinking about something that happened when they broke in…”
“Oh,” she said, looking down at the ground.
The bastards must’ve done something to her too, she looks so scared. God knows what kind of things they did to her before they brought me…God knows what they have in store for her…or for us…
“What happened?” Aaron pressed. “What’d they do?”
Chris kept her eyes glued to the floor as she shook her head, reluctant to share her story.
“If I tell you what happened to me, then will you tell me?”
“Why do you want to know so badly?” she asked, her cheeks slightly pink.
“Because I want to know if there’s anything I can do to make you a little less scared of me,” his eyes were serious, then again, they never joked around. It was impossible to in a place like the one they were in.
She just looked at the ground. Aaron sighed and began telling her his story. “I was out clubbing, doing the normal routine, go out, get some random chick drunk, sleep with her, wake up alone. Anyway, we were on my couch at like two AM just about to heat things up, when these two guys busted in the front door and-”
“Why are you telling me this?” she asked in a whisper. “It’s not going to make me tell you my sob story.”
“Maybe not,” Aaron said. “But it should make you trust me more. Even if it’s just a tiny bit more.”
Chris looked at the ground and went slightly pink, Aaron continued his story. “So they broke down my front door and charged in, they shot the girl I was with and grabbed me.”
Chris looked at Aaron in horror, “What about the girl…..?” she asked, already knowing what his answer would be.
Aaron stayed silent, he shook his head and began to tremble. “She must be dead…” he said in a solemn whisper. “She was in the middle of a sentence, then there was the bang and a thud…she didn’t even scream.”
Chris looked at Aaron, she could feel all of his pain and so much more. She had lost both parents that night, and her brother was bleeding to death, from a gash on his head, when she saw him last…how he could be alive, she didn’t know. But she prayed that a neighbor heard the commotion they put up and called someone, anyone, so long as help had come for Zach in time. She wanted more than anything to see him again, to see her parents. But she was no naïve little girl, she knew that with each passing day, the odds of her ever seeing anyone she loved again were getting slimmer and slimmer…
Four days later – Number of days missing: 13
Los Angeles, California
Days later, the Carters were, once again, huddled in Nick’s living room, still trying to make sense of all the madness that'd happened, when the phone rang, Nick asked his father to get it, rubbing his head with one hand.
“Yeah?” Bob answered, not in the mood to act polite.
“Hello, is this Mr. Robert Carter?”
“Yeah, who’s this?”
“My name is Lieutenant Henry Connelly of the Los Angeles Police Department,” the man on the other line said. “We have some information regarding a Mr. Aaron Carter and what may have happened on the night he went missing. If you could come down to the station we’d fill you in on the details.”
“Can my kids come?”
“Parents only, please,” he said.
“Okay, we’ll be right there, thanks officer-er…Lieutenant.” Bob hung up the phone and looked from his kids, to his ex-wife. “They have some information about Aaron that they want us to hear at the police station.”
Jane instantly got up, grabbed her purse and rushed out the door. Bob followed and stopped at the door, “We’ll call as soon as we know anything,” he promised and ran out the door.
~At the Police Station~
“Good afternoon,” Officer Connelly greeted Bob and Jane. With one look at them he said, “My apologies, I’m sure the last thing you want to go through is needless formalities. Let’s get to the point then…”
“Our son is innocent Lieutenant!” Jane blurted out. “He’s an eighteen year old pop singer, for Christ’s sake! Why in the world would he murder someone?! What would he gain from something like that?!”
“Mrs. Carter-”
“Miss Spaulding,” she corrected.
“My apologies, Miss Spaulding, we didn’t call you hear to question Aaron’s innocence. However, any accusations we throw in his direction are simply because we cannot say he didn’t do it until we know who did, or until we find an alibi. But that is sort of relevant to the news we have for you,” he shuffled through a few papers on his desk.
“And what’s the news?” Bob asked, getting a bit aggravated.
“We have a connection, to another kidnapping. It happened in Portland, Maine. Approximately three weeks ago. A young girl name Christy Butler was taken from her home on the night of the twenty fifth of July two thousand six. Her parents were murdered along with her younger brother, Zachary. The three bodies were found the next morning by a babysitter.
“The scene is almost identical, as are the murders. With the exception of the boy, he was hit over the head with a blunt object and bled to death. All other victims were shot in the forehead, we found the same type of bullet in the girl as we did in Christy’s parents. We’ve done some research and neither party ever had record of owning a gun, it’s good information to know, but unfortunately we have no where to go on it.”
“Couldn’t the kidnapper demand a ransom soon?” Bob asked. “Can’t you find them when they do?”
“We could…but the chances of them asking for a ransom are slim.”
“Why is that?” Jane asked, eagerly.
“Because there were four other possible hostages that the suspect could have taken, but chose to kill them. That shows that he had a mark on your son, and this Christy Butler.”
“Is that all the information you have?” Bob asked, eyeing his wife, who was on the verge of another break down.
“For now, yes, we’ll inform you as soon as we find out anymore about your son,” Lieutenant Connelly stood from his seat and offered a hand to Bob as he, too, stood up. The men shook hands and Bob and Jane left to tell their kids what they just learned…
Author's Chapter Notes:
Here's chapter three, it's a good size. Be sure to review!!
