The Road

Chapter 7

It has been two days now and no one had seen or heard from Bethany. Mr. Beauvais sent his nephews out to search for her like hounds tracking a fox. Mrs. Beauvais decided to go see Dottie to see if she remembered anything else from the night they went out to the bar.

"Hello Dottie, I know that this is not the right time to talk to you but I am desperate and I need to find my daughter. She has not been home in a couple of days, no one in the neighborhood or family has seen or heard from her. Please, please help me" she said as tears poured from his eyes.

"Mrs. Beauvais, I did not know; I am sorry. Let me see if I can get a few moments alone with you; I know my boss won't mind but I have to ask first."

Dottie grasped at her chest; not wanting Bethany's mother to see her pain, she quickly pulled herself together.

"Mrs. Beauvais, come sit down in this chair and tell me what is going on."

After crying her way through the story informing Dottie that Bethany had not been home in a while; Dottie interrupted her and began to inform her of the other man that Bethany had been seen with. Dottie gave as much information as she could and told Mrs. Beauvais that she would also start looking for Bethany after she got off work.

Dottie decided to start searching for Orlando first; she figured that maybe he may have seen Bethany since the last time they spoke. Dottie drove around looking for Orlando; she assumed that a man of his liking might be at a gym or working out. Sure enough, she spotted Orlando jogging in the park.

"Orlando, Orlando! Hey..."

"Hi Dottie, what are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you; actually I was hoping that you could tell me if you had seen Bethany? Her parents are going crazy and they are looking for her."

"Oh; well I haven't seen her and right now I don't have time to be involved. I have better things to do with my time than to look for a grown woman."

Dottie blew up, yelling and cursing at Orlando.

"How could you say something like that? Bethany is my best friend and I will go to great lengths to see that she is safe. I don't know what is going on with you but you better get your shit together. Stay away from Bethany do you hear me... just stay away?"

Dottie ran back to her vehicle and sped off down the road. Dottie forgot all about meeting up with Maykn at the steak house after work. She had a one-track mind and that was to find her best friend. She made a telephone call to Maykn and apologized but she promised to make it up to him. Speeding down the road Dottie had remembered that Mason was all up in Bethany's face at the bar; so she made a run to the south side of town.

When Dottie pulled up in front of Mason's house she noticed that there was a policeman coming from the house. She decided to hang out in her car until the policeman left; whatever is going on, she did not want to be associated with it.

"Felicia, what was that all about?"

"Oh, the cops were just looking for Mason; he said he wanted to question him about some girl that was missing."

Dottie chose to play dumb and see if Felicia could tell her more than what she probably told the police.

"What did the police say about the missing person?"

"He said he was sure that Mason may have known where the person was and wanted him to come down to the police station."

"Who is missing, did he say?"

"Yeah, he said some girl by the name of Ann something. Look, I really don't care about this. Whatever is going on, it is Mason's problem; not mine. You know what, he had the nerve to have that girl come by here late the other night looking for him. I don't particularly care for people coming around here pretending to be like us; I could have slapped that hoe for knocking on this door. She better watch her step because around here, she is not safe."

Dottie stood frozen in place allowing her mind to wonder; it was racing around as fast as her heart was beating hearing that news.

"Ann? I don't know anyone by the name of ... wait ...Bethany Ann Beauvais, oh my goodness that was Bethany the police was talking about" she said to herself as Felicia spoke.

"Felicia what did the girl look like who came by here?"

"Why? What is it to you?" she said looking her up and down.

"I - I just wanted to know if I have seen her around here."

"She was a caramel color with long hair and if my memory serves me right, I believe she had blood on her."

Dottie shot out of the house so fast, Felicia did not know that she was gone.

"I hope that the police find Mason before Bethany cousins do. Wherever he is, he better stay hidden, they will kill him if they find out that Bethany was hurt in any way" she said panicking.

Dottie thought it was best to keep this information to herself for now. The city of Chicago would be set on fire searching for Mason if Bethany's family knew what Mason did.