Save Our Children (1)

A story about a little girl abducted for money, like so many in real life. None of the characters in this story are real.

"Sam are you up yet?"

The thought of opening my eyes was going to hurt. "Yes!" I said half heartedly. I grimmiced as the light from my alarm clock came into focus. 4 am, s**t. Rolling over I realized that I had only been asleep for two hours. This was not going to be a good day.

"Sam, please, we need to get out there before the sun comes up if we are going to get any work done today," Mack said with ire in his voice.

Another day looking for this girl who went missing in the yesterday was putting a strain on my emotions. The call came in to the police at 3pm Tuesday. The dad said the little girl went out to play on her swingset until dinner was done, when he checked on her 10 minutes later, she was gone.

"Mack quit yelling at me and bring me some coffee, you know I don't function without it." As I looked in the mirror and thought what the hell was I going to do with this mess of hair that looked like a rats nest. I started the shower, and crawled in hoping to feel somewhat alive. I heard the door open "Yes your royal princess, but get a move on, I have a new place I want to check out before those idiots for cops crawl all over the scene again."

Ten minutes later I emerged feeling a little better. I put me hair up so it wouldn't get in my eyes today, and decided makeup would wait too. Searching through all those woods was sweaty, and no one would care if I did or not.

"Ok, what do you have for this fine wednesday morning."

"Well I thought we would start at the far end of the property, and work back at an angle toward the highway. I think whoever took her came that way. It is more covered then the other side."

"But the other side is closer to the road, if they were sitting and waiting for her to be alone then the would have been there for a while, and we didn't see any sign they were camped out watching the house."

"Sam, I have a hunch and you know how I am when I get one, nine times out of ten I am right, and you know it."
He had a point, when he took the lead on a case he was sure to get it right even if I thought he was an idiot. I love Mack to death, but he can be strange sometimes. His logic and reasoning could be taken different. As we got in the car I thought to my self why on gods green earth would a parent not keep an eye on there kids better. But I guess if they did that I wouldnt have a job.

 

The house was dark, either they weren't up yet, or they stayed somewhere else last night. I caught a small light in the backyard as we pulled into the drive. "Mack get the gear out, I will be right back."

As I rounded the side of the house, I noticed a small mound of dirt, freshly moved. Strange I don't remember seeing that yesterday. The light was getting further away. Moving closer to the side of the house, I watched the light go back and forth around the swingset. As the morning light was coming up a little more, I could see the figure a little better, They were wearing a blue shirt and tan shorts. Then it hit me Mr. Thompson, the girls dad. What was he doing? Hoping she would return and be sitting on the swing.

"Mr. Thompson, What are you doing here?" As I started forward a weird feeling came over me that I couldnt shake. He turned around as I called his name, pain and anger creased his face,

"I thought I would just look around and see I could figure out where she went."  He took a step forward and stopped. Looking down at his feet he started to cry. "I can't lose another one, she is my wife's world. We lost our first child to a car accident and it took us a long time to have Macy, my wife blamed herself for years."

"You can't blame yourself Mr. Thompson, there are a lot of bad people out there. But if you will go back inside now, we can start our search again. My team is here now and we are prepared to find her as soon as we can."

"OK....thank you...for..everything...I am sorry," he walked away bearly having the energy to breathe.

Looking around I noticed there were a few small toys laying in the grass on the far side of the lawn. Maybe Mack was on to something, I don't remember looking over there yesterday.

 

Back at the car I pulled out Macy's file. Age- 10, height-51 inches, weight-69lbs. Last seen wearing a pink shirt, blue jeans, and a pink baseball cap and sandals. Also missing with child was a pink and purple stuffed elephant.

"Alright Mack, lets get moving. I want to cover some ground today and find this girl. You wanted to head in that direction toward the highway, It could be well over 10 miles, so we had better get going. Shane and Tom you fan out on either side of us, we are going down this strip here." Pointing to a small opening in the backyard. I pulled on by backpack and headed out.

As I entered the woods, I passed those toys I noticed early, How could I have missed that, but like I told Mack early we weren't focused on this area. We went toward the side road leading away from the house.

Two and half hours and my feet were killing me, I wonder how far away we really are from the house. I havent even seen a rabbit let alone a sign that someone was in here with that little girl. Maybe it was just a dream that Mack had that led us here, because we are getting nowhere.

"Sam, come look at this, " He was stopped just to my left, with his head tilted at something hanging on a tree. He steeped back and snapped a shot of it with his camera.

"What you got Mack?"

"Looks like pink stringor fibers not really sure." He snapped another shot and moved up a little in the path. Again he started to snap shots. He was on to something.

"Shane, Tom move in to our location, Mack has something." I really hate it when he is right. I will never hear the end of this.

"Sam we need to keep moving in this direction. Not only do I have these little pink strings, I am seeing the grass stomped down and trigs broke off." Mack was moving faster now, a grin on his face. He loved this part of the job, where i hated it. I would rather be at the command center with my face in the paperwork, but no, I had to be out here.

BOOM! what the hell was that I thought. Looking around I could see smoke off in the distance.

"Mack, Shane, Tom go low, I dont like this. Go to silent. and wait for my orders to proceed." My voice bearly a whisper. Even though this was not my favorite part of the job any more, I know how to do it well. After years in the FBI field you knew when to cover your a*s.

Moving around to the right of the sound, I could pick up voices and what sounded like cars. We must be closer to the highway then I thought. I could smell a fire smoldering. Then came the voices again.

"SHHH, I said not a word. Max what the hell are you doing, trying to bring the law this way."

"F**k you Missy, it was the car backfiring, you said you wanted to get out this morning and we can't do that unless this damn thing starts."

"They are going to hear that sound and come running, this lady paid us alot of money to deliver this brat and I want the rest of it so I can live a good life."

"What ever I still have to start it. Just get her ready to leave and don't leave any evidence of us here or we are dead for sure."

 

Moving back to my team, I looked at Mack and he knew we had them. He grinned and then pulled out his gun. We both knew this was somehow going to get ugly. "Let me go in first and try to talk to them, I didnt see any weapons and they look very unorganized at this point, they can't even get their car started, and they still have a small camp set up, but it wont be long."

"Hell no the last time you went in you ended up sitting at a desk because of that outcome, I am not losing the best tracker I got again." Fire looked like it was going to come out of his nose. Looking at Shane and Tom I knew they felt the same, but if I was going to be back in the field I needed to do this.

"Listen I have to get my field feet back and this is a chance for me to prove I still got it, this is still my team and I am still head of it, even if you are lead on it, I am still your boss. I am going in to talk, I have my vest on, and my gun is right here." Pointing to my side."Let me work Mack, please."

"Fine but I am covering your back and if I have the shot I will take it, period."

"Just don't shoot me." Smiling I moved back down the path to the small clearing just behind the car.

"Missy, get a move on, I think it will start now." Max whispered as he moved away from the car toward the tent.

"F**k, Max I can only move so fast, i'm working on it, I got the brat ready, I am just packing our stuff up, you get this tent." Missy hissed at the girl when she moved toward the car to put in two bags of what looked like clothes and groceries.

I stood up as she came around the car.

"MAX look out they found us!" Missy screamed.

"Wait.. I just want to talk, I am not armed, I just want the little girl back and you can go on your way." glancing around to see where Max was, I saw the little girl crying and sitting in the dirt with her little elephant.

Maybe this wasnt such a good idea.

"F**k you lady, we aren't giving her up to you when we have a lot of money coming to us."
"Who is paying you a lot of money for her?"

MIssy whipped back around to glare at me and screamed "None of your business, this is not your business its ours and we don't got to tell you anything"

"Listen just tell me who is behind this and let the little girl come to me and you can go, I promise."

"PLease help" the girl screamed. Trying to get up she slipped in the mud and went face first in the mud, I lunged toward her and sliped myself, only to regain and come nose to nose with the barrel of a gun. Damn didn't see that coming.

 

"Listen B***h you either walk back the way you came or find your self dead, I made a deal for this little girl and I plan to get my money."

God this man stunk. Macy had regained herself and was sitting on her knees with her elephant. I smiled at her trying to reassure her that I would get her out.

"Sit" Max said as he pushed me toward Macy, I stumbled and then sat next to her. I pulled her into my lap and held her tight.

"Shh, I brought friends with me, you will be home soon, I promise." I whispered in her ear so they wouldnt hear me.

BAM, my hears exploded and pain ripped down the side of my head. I fell to the ground still holding Macy tight, as the butt of his gun hit my head.

"Shut up b***h you ain't going anywhere with her."

"Sam stay down now."

"What the f**k" Max whirled around to find Mack and Shane and Tom all with weapons drawn.

"Drop it a*****e or I will shoot"

Aiming his gun back at Macy and I, Mack flinched. Not again I thought.

 

As they were exchanging words I told macy to move behind me and stay down, I slowly shifted my weight and removed my gun. Now which one to take first him or her. Best guess was him because she wouldn't react fast enough to get any of us.

"Ok man listen, we both know you aren't getting out of here, so you might as well put it down, that little girl belongs with her family not someone who has to pay for a child." This was Macks favorite part, talking them to death. Moving closer to him Mack lowered his gun just a little. "Come on man put it down, you too lady."

"Over my dead body, that b***h promised me there would be no one to come after us all we had to do was lie low the first night and then move the little brat to a safe house and leave her, that the rest of our money would be there when we arrived."
"Who is it and we will find her too."

"NO!" Missy was on the ground and Shane had her pinned.

Max shifted his gun toward Shane, but I raised mine and shot before he could. Down he went with a thump. Macy screamed and covered her face with her elephant.

"Macy its ok, the bad people cant hurt you any more." I scooped her up and she buried her face in my shoulder. "Mack call Command Center, let them know our position and tell them to notify the parents we have the girl.

"My elephant, where is my elly?"

I turned to see it had fallen in the mud behind us when I stood up to shoot. I leaned over and picked it up. "Here you go, cant leave her behind now can we."

"No she needs to have bath, she smells like daddy's shoes." she giggled.

"Well then we had better get her and you back for a bath, or we are all going to smell like your daddy's shoes." She giggled again. that was a good sign.

 

I set her down after we were away from the clearing. As we walked back I couldnt help but think who would try to take this little girl. I had gone over the parents background yesterday when we were setting up to search. I didnt see anything out of the ordinary. I had better let Command Center know that there could still be a threat here.

"Daddy!" Macy let go of my hand and sprinted into the back yard and jumped into Mr. Thompsons arms. Mrs. Thompson came running out of the house and ran to Macy and grabbed her in her arms.

I decided to let them have their time together and headed to the car to change my boots and start on my report for Command Center.

"Sam, I wanted to make sure you were ok."

"Mack, I am fine. other than a headache and a small lump on my head i will survive. but thanks for asking." mustering up emough energy to smile at him was hard though, my f*****g head was killing me.

"I let Command Center take over out there, but they want to see us in the morning for a debriefing. They also said the would post an officer outside the house until we could determine if there is anymore of a threat to the little girl. They are also going to interview the woman to see if they can get more information out of her, but I doubt it she is pretty mum right now."

"Yeah I didn't think we would get anything out of her, she probably didn't know all the details just that they were getting money, he was behind it with this other woman for sure. Ok let Command know I am going home to clean up, write my report and I will see them in the morning."

"How am I suppose to ge home?"

"Beats the hell out of me, but i am sure you can find a ride."

Smiling I slid into the drivers seat and headed down the road, as I passed the house and turned the corner, I couldnt help but look back and think, this is not the last time I will see this place.

 

Author's Note

This is my first story. Please be honest. And ignore the grammer.