Early Bird | ✓

43 | partridge

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           A few days later, JJ was called into the police station. Apparently, the guy who worked at the Thai restaurant had seen another suspicious person in the alley that day, one that he didn't recognize. The person had sauntered into the alley without a care in the world, peered around at the dumpster casually, and exited with his fingers tapping on a cell phone. Video cameras from the pet store and the Thai restaurant proved that the person—the man—had arrived on scene just before Lizzy walked into the alley. The cameras followed the man as he strutted back down the alley, trailing after Lizzy. He emerged from the alley a few moments later with an arm slung around a girl with frizzy hair—Lizzy. Her feet had been dragging on the pavement, her head lolled onto the man's shoulder.

           Unfortunately, the cameras were unable to capture this man's face. When the police questioned the guy from the Thai restaurant about why he didn't report to the police right away, he simply shrugged and told them that he thought it was his girlfriend who decided to snort some coke or something in the alley. To him, the drugs explained the differences in her behavior—from when she walked the alley, alert and alive, to her almost lifeless exit.

           The police were able to roughly sketch what the guy remembered that day and they wanted JJ to examine the sketch to see if he knew the man who had taken Lizzy.

           JJ entered the police station with clammy palms. He had been relieved to hear the progress in Lizzy's case but finding out had also made the situation all that more real. Before, anything could have happened to hear. Maybe she had decided to run away, leaving her family and best friends behind. But now, she had truly been kidnapped. Some sick soul smacked her head and dragged her from the alley and into his car, which, unfortunately, hadn't been on the tape.

           A police officer escorted JJ to one of the investigators who had a copy of the sketch in front of him. JJ sat down in front of his desk, avoiding eye contact with investigator whose gaze seemed to bore into him mercilessly. He was a chubby man with a talent of making even the most innocent people squirm, an ex-cop who found he enjoyed solving mysteries more than arresting criminals.

           "Jordan Hale. I'm Wallace Lincoln, one of the investigators in Elizabeth Conner's case." Wallace held out a hand for JJ to shake and JJ complied. His pudgy hand seemed to squeeze him, threaten him, warn him—if he didn't tell Wallace everything he knew, there was bound to be some sort of punishment. His mind plucked a jail scene from his imagination, dressed in orange, stuck in a cramped cell with other criminals staring at him as though he were a piece of meat they couldn't wait to devour. JJ shook the idea out of his head. He was already going to tell the investigator everything he knew so there was nothing to worry about.

           "Jordan?" Wallace asked, snapping JJ out of his trance. Wallace had clearly asked him a question that JJ hadn't heard.

           "Yes?" His soft voice held a tremor as he stared into the investigator's penetrating gaze.

           "How are you holding up? I heard you were very close to Miss Conner."

           JJ shrugged. "As close as we could be, considering that we'd never met."

           "How did you two know each other again?"

           JJ had already gone over this story and he didn't feel like doing it again. "Do I have to?"

           "I'm just making sure you remembered every single detail. It's important for our files."

           JJ delved into his story with Lizzy again. He was so used to keeping her a secret that every time her name flowed from his lips, a strange, indescribable feeling squeezed his lungs until his voice grew scratchy and his eyes stung with tears.