Wanted (Amanda Lance) - By Amanda Lance Page 0,104
hospital’s staff gave me anymore problems.
“Hi, Dad.”
“Addie! Are you okay? They wouldn’t tell me anything over the phone.”
I sighed. “Yeah, Dad. Just some bumps and bruises, no worse for wear.”
“I’m on a plane right now. I’ll be there in three hours.”
“Dad, you don’t have to do that—”
“I brought you clothes and a new phone.”
“Okay, Dad. I love you.”
He was clearly surprised by my admission of affection. “You too, Addie. I-I’m glad you’re okay.”
So there I sat, every so often icing my face, which I could tell from the brief glance in the mirror, was not going to be pretty by the morning. While I was trying to be nice to all of the doctors and nurses, I was also on the brink of not sleeping for 24 hours and my patience had all but run out. So when two gentlemen and another woman entered the doctor’s office, I had all but had enough of it.
“Hello, Adeline,” said the woman. “My name is Dr. Dayton, and these are agents Brian Norton and Adam Harpsten.” She gestured to the two men. “Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?”
I was almost stupid enough to say to the copper haired man about how I recognized him from television, but I caught myself. Instead, I just said, “Addie, you can just call me Addie.”
She smiled. Her teeth seemed bleached in the bright room. Luckily, the FBI agents were less intimidating than I thought they might be. Agent Harpsten wore a dark blue suit and looked like he did on television and Agent Norton was a shorter man with a bronzed complexion and a gray suit. They both appeared tired and soft around the edges of their eyes. I wondered if they had been up as long as I had.
“You guys should sit down.” I pointed to the worn plastic chairs at the corner of the room kept for the patient’s family. “You look like you could use a break.”
Dr. Dayton made some kind of menacing mark in a notebook while Agents Norton and Harpsten looked at each other questioningly. Though it was encouraging to see Agent Harpsten smile a little when his partner looked away.
“Relax everybody.” I tried to smile. “It isn’t the end of the world.”
Or was it? If they had caught Charlie or if he was injured beyond repair, then it most certainly was the end of the world.
“Addie,” Dr. Dayton began, “can you tell us a little bit about what happened?”
So I told them about the crowded rest stop, the sounds from the parking lot, and how someone had come up from behind me and put me in the back of an SUV. And I told them about the abandoned house, leaving out Charlie and the boys…
“I was blindfolded most of the time after that,” I lied. “I don’t remember a lot…”
Agent Norton removed several items from a large envelope and placed them in front of me. “Do you recognize any of these individuals, Addie?”
It was all I could do not to let my eyes bulge from my head. Of course I recognized almost everyone. There were six photos there, all of them mug shots, but the three that stood out the most was one of Polo and an extremely young photo of Ben.
I made my eyes stay on each photo for exactly four seconds before moving on to the next.
“N-no. I’ve never seen them before.”
I was sure they didn’t believe me, but they moved on anyway. Maybe it wasn’t good etiquette to interrogate kidnapping victims within a few hours of being ‘rescued.’
Norton took out another photo. It was of Charlie that night I had first seen him. It was black and white, grainy with shadows. It must have been a piece of camera footage from the rest stop.
“Do you know who this man is, Addie?”
I pretended to study the face of the stranger, though in reality I already knew every detail, every feature. “No. Am I supposed to?”
Harpsten answered, “His name is Charles Hays, and you spoke with him a few moments before you were abducted…”
I looked at the photo a moment longer. I didn’t want them to put this one away. “Oh yeah, he umm—he asked me for the time.”
“You never saw him again after your abduction?”
I closed my eyes, rubbed my brow. “I don’t think so.”
“After you were assaulted in the house, do you remember?”
The sigh came from deep within me. I closed my eyes again and tried to breathe. This was the part I had