Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Cliff
Detective Hill and I pull up at Charlotte’s house.
Detective Hill opens his car door, and I just sit there a minute.
He looks at me and must have realized that I needed a minute, so he walks to the front door and knocks.
I saw Charles open the door and say something to Detective Hill.
Charles looks over at the car and nods his head up and down at me, then walks back into the house.
As I sit there, I have memory flashes of high school. I remember the first time I noticed Charlotte, the first time I realized I had a crush on her, and the day I knew that I loved her and would never love anyone else.
I was knocked out of my memories by a knock on my window. I focused and looked, and it was Derrick. I opened my car door and said, “Hey, Derrick. I was just thinking. Let’s head inside.”
I didn’t knock or ring the doorbell. I just opened the door and walked in. We went into the den where everyone was. Sue came up to me first, crying, and gave me a hug. Then Charles walked up, and we did a man hug.
“Bullet, you have to find her. Who would do something like this and why?” Charles asked.
“We both know, Charles, that the company her husband built is dangerous,” I replied.
“Yes, but dangerous for the contractors in the Middle East, not her,” Charles said.
“Okay,” Derrick said, “I think we need to start there. Someone fill us in on what this company is and what they do. It may well be the connection to the kidnapping that we need.”
“The name of the company is Fitz Construction & Systems Limited,” Charles replied.
“Oh wait, I have heard of them while we were active duty on assignment in Afghanistan. Wow, I can’t believe she is that Fitz.
That says a lot about what we may be up against,” Derrick said.
“We are going to need to know who is on assignment over there and anyone who came back recently. That will be a good place to start.”
“I will call Jim, her Vice President, and have him come over with that information,” Charles replied.
“Not yet. I want to ask him a few questions before we ask him to help us with information,” I told him. “Just ask him to come over to the house first. Then we can get him to gather all that information once I make sure he is not a part of her kidnapping.”
“Okay. I will call him now,” Charles said as the doorbell rang, and he pulled out his cell phone and walked to the corner of the room and made the call.
Sue went to the door. It was the officers that had been going around talking to neighbors to see if they had seen anything.
“Sir,” Officer Hill said.
“Officer, will you both brief Detective Hill on what you have found in the other room, please?” I told them.
“Yes, Sir,” they said in unison, and Detective Hill led them out of the room.
“Who can we call to get Thomas home?” Sue asked.
“Who’s Thomas?” Derrick asked.
“He is Charlotte’s son. He is in the Marine Corps stationed in Okinawa,” Sue replied.
“I can call Wolf and see who he can contact to try and get Thomas home,” Derrick said, and he walked out the room to make the call and give Captain Shepherd, Charles and Sue some time alone.
Charles looks at Sue and says, “I am going to the kitchen. I will fix us all something to eat.”
I just nod my head.
Charles then looks at me and asks, “Are you okay? I know this is just as hard on you as it is for Sue and me. I know that you love her. It took me a long time to realize that you always loved her. I think you never getting married showed me that. I know that it is that love for her that will push you to find her. I am sorry, old friend, that it took me so long to give you my blessing. She has always loved you, too.”
“You are right. I have never stopped loving her, and I will move heaven and earth to find her, no matter what it takes. But it is too late for her and me. I don’t hold any hostility towards you anymore, you know that.
Right now, I can’t even think about what could have been.
I have to find her, and to do that, I have to have a clear head,” I told him.
Charles nods his head at me and is fixing to say something else when the doorbell rings and Sue brings Jim into the den.
I asked Jim a few questions to see if he knew anything about the kidnapping.
I didn’t have any suspicious feelings about him.
So, I told him what files we needed. He said he could grab them off of his computer and email them to us.
I told him no emails, print out the names and we will go from there.
He said he would bring them back in the morning that it would take a little while to compile both lists.
Detective Hill and Derrick walk back into the Den as Jim is heading home.
Derrick advises that Wolf will make some calls, and if we find out anything about any suspects in the Middle East, to let him know, and he will run it up the chain of command to see if they can go investigate for us.
Detective Hill said that the officers had found two people who said they saw a vehicle that they didn’t recognize in the area a few times this week.
It was a black van, but neither of them got any plates.
Then Detective Hill called the station to get some phone tabs in place for the house phone, Charles and Sue’s cell phones, Jim’s cell, and the office phone, as well as Charlotte’s office phone.
They all decide that the best course of action is to work out of Charlotte’s house.
After Sue makes dinner, what Charlotte was going to make, her and Charles go home and grab some clothes to come back and stay at the house.
They told me that they would stop and grab some clothes for me as well, so I gave them my house key.
They would take one of the spare bedrooms, and I would take the other one.
Derrick and Detective Hill would be staying on the couches.