Rock Radio - By Lisa Wainland Page 0,102

office.”

Jonny never saw Ted move so fast in his life. He opened Dana’s door and they went in.

“I know it’s here somewhere,” Jonny said as he rifled through Dana’s desk.

“What?” Sharon asked, pacing the floor.

“There’s this listener, this crazy listener...I can’t remember his name. He sent Dana some weird stuff...and a picture.” He flipped through her desk drawers, pulling papers out as quickly as he could. Finally, he found where she kept her listener stash of letters.

“Help me,” he said handing a stack to Sharon.

They methodically stared going through the papers. There were so many letters and cards, notes and liner cards. They moved as quickly as they could, tossing the papers aside as they moved from pile to pile.

Soon Jonny found what was he was looking for. He was staring at the card with the picture of a rose on it. He opened it. The picture spilled out. He showed it to Sharon.

“Is this him?”

She looked at the short, thin man with curly hair.

“I...I...don’t know, the guy was wearing a hat.”

“Look harder Sharon.”

She pulled the picture close to her eyes and looked long and hard at it. “It could be him. I think it could.”

Jonny reread the card. It was signed only by Larry, no last name.

Jonny ran to the computer and opened up their listener file. Whenever someone entered a contest, their info was logged into the station database.

Jonny did a search of listeners named Larry. Twenty-five names popped up.

“Dammit!” he said, combing through the names. “How are we supposed to find this guy?”

Sharon continued searching through the papers.

“Jonny,” she said holding up a red envelope. “I think I found him.”

Jonny grabbed the envelope and copied the return address. “Sharon, call the police and give them this information. I’ll call Cody.”

He grabbed his keys and ran toward door.

“Where are you going?” she said.

“To get Dana.”

Chapter 72

Dana regained consciousness, but didn’t open her eyes. She could sense the light through her eyelids. Her head hurt worse than before, only this time she remembered what happened.

The struggle.

The fall.

The blood.

She heard Larry muttering about her being out of it. She knew he didn’t think she was awake...she guessed that’s why he hadn’t put her back in that tiny room. The strong scent of cleaning fluid roused her from her uneasy slumber. She knew Larry was close. Her skin crawled as she felt him brush past her time and time again to get more cleaning supplies. The key now was to figure out how to escape.

She could feel that her hands and legs were still tied. She let her eyes flit open briefly to assess the situation. From the floor she could see she was lying on linoleum, and could make out what looked like the bottom of an appliance. Okay, she was in the kitchen. She thought hard back to when she was first able to look around. The kitchen was in the back of the house near the sliding glass door. It would be hard to get out that way. She needed to hurt him and then run...run free. But how? There were no blunt objects around her and her limbs were bound.

It was hopeless.

Dana wanted to cry. No one would find her. How could they?

Bang. Bang. Bang. There were three loud raps on the door.

Larry ran to look out the peephole. Fuck! He recognized the guy from the radio station.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Could he pretend he wasn’t home? Yes. He’d have to. He fell to the floor and crawled across the room. He didn’t want to risk his shadow being seen as he moved past the front window.

The banging became more insistent.

“Larry, open up!” Jonny yelled. “Open up now!”

“Help! Help!” Dana yelled instinctively.

“You bitch, you’re awake!” Larry whispered loudly.

“Help me! Help me!”

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” His body shook violently with anger. Dana obviously wanted to get away from him, too, just like The Bitch. They were all alike. He grabbed the knife that earlier he had used to free her and pressed the blade against her throat.

Dana stopped yelling. The cold steel was painful and frightening against her skin.

“Please Larry, don’t hurt me.”

“Why not? You hurt me.”

Bang. Bang. Bang. “Open this door now!” Larry heard the doorknob jiggle, then the noise of someone pushing their weight into the door. The loud thwack was rhythmic. He could hear the door start to splinter from the incessant force.

Larry pushed the back of the blade into Dana’s neck. “Do as I say and you won’t get hurt.”

Her eyes welled with hopeless