Amber Alert (Amber Alert Series Book 1)

by Sara Schoen

  "It's the mark I made to tell Garrett where we had gone," I answered.

  "Do you know if he followed it?"

  "He was supposed to, but I don't know for sure." I stated, taking my hand away from the tree.

  "Then we keep going," he said, walking toward Jessi, who was about twenty yards in front of us.

  I followed absentmindedly, as James caught up to Jessi and led the way through the brush. I checked every tree and the places on the ground I had marked, hoping that Garrett answered at least one of them, but I didn't see one that was answered.

  Why hadn't he answered my marks? Had he done it to avoid detection? Steve would have left after he was done beating Garrett. Garrett should have been the last to leave, unless Steve had waited for Garrett to recover so he could follow Garrett to find me.

  "Wait!" I yelled loudly, causing it to echo as we stepped into a clearing. The trees fought to contain my sudden outburst, as the sound reverberated in the air. James and Jessi stopped in their tracks to stare at me. They were completely unaware of what was around us. "We have to go back!" I said as I took off running back toward the car.

  As I ran as fast as I could, I heard James calling me from behind. I didn't stop, I had to keep running because footsteps were following me as I ran. I heard Steve call my name, his laugh and his footsteps. We were about to walk into a trap. I could only imagine what would happen if we continued.

  The picture of James dead and Jessi screaming for help flashed in my head as Steve's laugh echoed in my ears. I kept running, even though James was begging me to stop, but I was running for my life and theirs. No one else meant anything to Steve, he would kill anyone that stood in his way to me, and that put a lot of people at risk.

  The second my feet hit the pavement I ran around the car to put a barrier between me and whoever was going to come out of the woods behind me. There was nothing around me, the trees blocked my vision. I could hear James coming, Jessi was calling my name, and I could also hear Steve taunting me from wherever he was.

  "That no good son of mine just can't keep his hands to himself, and then he has you believe that you can actually escape from me. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I'm glad I will never have to deal with him again, but I'll find you, Kelly. Don't worry."

  I whipped around expecting to see Steve standing right behind me, but only trees loomed over me. James had caught up by the time I turned back around with his gun drawn and Jessi protectively behind his back. He must have heard Steve because he seemed to relax when he only saw me.

  "What's gotten into you?" James asked in a huff, attempting to regain his breath.

  "We have to go somewhere else!" I yelled as I picked Jessi up and put her into the back of the car. I didn't know where Steve was, but I'm sure one police officer wouldn't stop him from trying to take me again.

  "Why? Where do you want to go?" James asked.

  "To the house! We need to find Garrett! That's the reason he didn't answer my marks. He must still be in the house! Steve said he didn't have to worry about him anymore! He's still there and he could be dying!" I practically shoved him in before I got in the car and locked our doors.

  "Where is the house?" James questioned once we were all in the car.

  "I don't know exactly, but I can lead you most of the way."

  James looked thoughtful for a moment before he nodded his head.

  "Where am I going?"

  "Past this town. We didn't even stop there, we just kept going."

  "Why didn't you stop here?"

  "The police. They were just too close to not be under suspicion," I answered honestly. James simply nodded and drove until I saw something that I recognized. "Stop!" I yelled, causing James to slam on the brakes, swerve the car slightly and jolt the vehicle to a stop almost right into a tree.

  "What?" He screamed back at me in frustration, scaring Jessi and me in the process. When he saw our shocked expressions and huddled posture, he composed himself and tried to relax. "I realize I overreacted. Now, will you please tell me why you ordered me to stop here?" Jessi and I were silent as we gestured for him to follow us. I heard James' door slam shut as he got out to follow us as Jessi looked at the familiar trees.

  We walked along the road while things were familiar, but once it became unfamiliar we went into the woods. Walking through the brush brought back memories—the fear, the worry, the adrenaline, and the freedom. I glanced around and saw a tree that looked similar to the one Jessi was latched onto before I got shoved out of the house. I heard gravel being crunched by tires and held up my hands to stop the others.

  James pulled Jessi back toward him as he waited for me to say it was okay to go. Once I was sure that the sound had disappeared, we continued. My feet hit gravel a few minutes later, and once again I was staring at Steve's house. The huge wooden house was boarded up from top to bottom, covering all the windows and entrances so that it looked condemned. The front door was wide open, beckoning for me to come back in to its halls.

  "Garrett?" I called, as I took a tentative step toward the house.

  "Anna, what are you doing?"

  I led the way into the house while James was tending to Jessi. The cold hands of fear were slowly grabbing onto my body with each step I took. I swiftly traveled through the downstairs. I pried at the boards of the kitchen wall and ran down into the basement, but there was no one there. As I came back to the main floor of the house, there was a thud from upstairs. I paused for a moment, then heard the sound again.

  "I'm officer James Sparks, come out with your hands up and in plain sight," I heard James call up to whoever was up there. I saw Jessi trembling with fear. James pulling his gun probably didn't help, but he was trying to protect her. When no answer came, I ran to the stairs, racing past James as he tried to grab me from going alone.

  "Garrett!" I yelled, as I came to the top of the stairs. The door that had sealed us up there during our stay was wide open and broken at the hinge. From the stairs I could only see that there were a pair of sneaker clad feet sticking out from the corner of the hallway, with blood pooled around them. I felt my breath catch in my throat as I took another step forward, "Garrett?"

  Chapter 21

  I stared at the tennis shoe clad feet, paralyzed by fear. The door frame was blocking me from seeing the rest of the body, but my fear kept me from moving to see the body. If I looked it would be real, I would know it was Garrett, and there would be nothing I could do to help him. I couldn't handle knowing that.

  "Anna, what's up there?" James yelled from downstairs, attempting to yell over Jessi's loud cries. James didn't have any idea what he had stepped into—our greatest nightmare.

  "There's... there's..." I stuttered as I tried to find the words, but I couldn't get a word to come out. My throat tightened in terror, making it difficult to talk.

  "Anna, what's wrong?"

  I tightened my stomach to force the word from my mouth. "Body!" I yelled as tears started to stream down my cheeks.

  "Whose is it? Is it his?" I wasn't sure which he James was talking about; it could have been Garrett or Steve, I didn't know. James approached quickly with Jessi following behind. Her crying got louder, more terrified, the closer she came. She would always remember what happened to her, there would always be reminders. I took Jessi from him as he met me on the landing and let him pass into the room. I could feel Jessi's heart beating rapidly. Fear rippled through us as James turned the corner and let out a long drawn out sad sigh.

  "Who is it?" I asked through tears.

  James didn't answer for a while, he stood there holding his hand over his mouth and trying to fight back emotion. I could see one single tear trail down his cheek before he blinked away the others, not letting them fall. "It's Garrett."

  I couldn’t stop the tears—they fell over my eyelashes within seconds of hearing the news. Jessi couldn't be fooled either, even without the connotation of 'daddy' she knew that Garrett was gone.

  "It's Officer Allen Garrett, Anna. It's not a kid, he's an of
ficer on the force with me," James said as tears started to fall from his eyes. "He was one of the good ones, I know it! Now he's gone and for what?" he yelled as he threw his hands up in anger.

  "If he was so good, then why was he here?" He had told me the one thing he knew would hurt Jessi and me the most and didn't even think before he said it! He had us believe Garrett was dead.

  "You're the one that said there was a house in the woods! He must have found it!" James spat at me. I could tell he was angry because one of his friends had died, but I wasn't going to stop.

  "Then where is his car?" I retorted.

  "Maybe that's the car that drove off before we got here! Did you ever think of that? Maybe your little boyfriend killed him, thinking he was a bad officer, and then jacked a cop car!" James yelled at me, with pure anger filling his words.

  "Garrett wouldn't kill anyone, especially a cop!"

  "How would you know? Isn't he the one that said some of the cops are in on this? Didn't he come up with that theory? If he was so afraid of cops, then he could have done it and you know it!" James yelled so loud that it echoed through the house.

  "Garrett didn't kill him!"

  "Where's the proof, huh?" James asked, stalking off toward the room I had been kept in, leaving Jessi and me with the body. I could hear him moving stuff, and I didn't want to stand by while he searched for something to incriminate Garrett for killing a police officer.

  "Jessi, cover your eyes for me and don't open them again until I tell you to, okay?" I asked her, knowing I had to find out where Garrett was.

  Jessi nodded and covered her eyes as I took her by the shoulders to lead her into the room. I moved her as far away from the body I could as we walked toward Garrett’s room. The body was contorted at an awkward angle, one leg bent wrong, extending away from the body and allowing the bone to protrude slightly from the flesh. The arms were the same, except they had substantial cuts from a blade. His face was beaten so badly; I'm amazed James could tell who it was. If I had to guess, the cheekbones must have been broken because the skin on his face sagged slightly in those areas. Dried blood covered the officer's lips from a broken nose and the cuts to his face. The clothing was bloody with slashes from where the blade sliced through the fabric with ease. That sight would be with me forever.

  I quickly pushed Jessi toward Garrett's room and shut the door behind me, so she could open her eyes. I had never been in Garrett's room before, and if I hadn't known better, I would have guessed no one ever lived in this room. The bed was made, as if it had never been slept in, the walls were bare, and the only furniture was a desk and a bookshelf. There was nothing on or in the desk except a slip of paper with the drawing of a black dog. At least I think it was a dog; it had a circle for a head, long floppy ears, and a stick body.

  "Well, Garrett, I guess you're not an artist," I stated to myself, as I started to look through the bookshelf.

  There were books stuffed into every possible spot that Garrett could have found. Even children's books that we had read to Jessi for the last month were stuffed into a spot. The books progressed as Garrett aged, but suddenly stopped in his early teen years. There was nothing past that to challenge him in reading, something caused him to not get any more books and he was forced to stop.

  "Look, Mommy, a doggie!" Jessi stated with excitement, as she pointed under Garrett's bed.

  I glanced underneath the bed to find a book titled “A dogs' life: The autobiography of a stray.” I had read this when I was in middle school; it's about a dog that had been abandoned by many families over the years and was forced into a stray's life. Eventually, as an old dog, he found an old woman to live with until they both passed away. It was possible that I was thinking too deeply about it, but the drawing of the dog and this book was enough to convince me that it wasn’t just a coincidence...I had hidden many things in my books while growing up and had learned to face the pages toward the ground and flip through them simultaneously. A note fell from between the pages.

  I picked up the piece of paper and tossed the book aside.

  In case you come back here Anna and I'm gone, I hope he didn't catch you first off, but I also want to tell you that I love you. I am going to check Jessi in Charleston as soon as I can, then I will find you over state lines. I know this beating is going to be the worst. So don't expect me for a while, and in case he caught you, just know I love you and I will find Jessi. I'm sorry, I will try to send help, but you know how cops are...

  Good-bye Anna.

  I heard the door open slowly behind me and turned to see James standing there with a videotape in his hand. His mouth hung open slightly and his eyes were wide with shock.

  "What's on the tape?" I asked. His movement was very sudden as he pulled Jessi and me from the room and the tape dropped onto the floor in a clunk. He pulled us so hard I thought my arm was going to pop out of its socket when I bent down to pick up the tape.

  "James!" I yelled in shock, as we almost fell down the hardwood steps.

  "We have to get out of here!" He glanced around as he regained his bearings and remembered where we were.

  "What's going on?" I asked, as he pulled us through the woods toward the direction of the car.

  "We need to go back to the police station, they need to know!" he answered, although I wasn't sure if he was talking to himself or me.

  "What was on that tape?" I yelled, as James came to a screeching halt outside of the police cruiser and started flinging doors open to push Jessi and me in.

  "I'll explain when we get there! Just buckle up!" he said, as he hopped in the car and floored the gas pedal. Dirt flew up from the rapidly spinning tires as the car did a tight U-turn and sped off down the road. James hadn’t answered me about the tape, but now I knew Garrett was out of the house. He had made it out, and he would find us soon, I hope...

  Chapter 22

  I could smell burnt rubber from the speedy take off. The screech of the tires and blaring police siren barely covered Steve's angry scream behind us.

  "What's going on, James? Did you know he was there?" I asked as we sped past the five-mile sign and safely out of Steve's reach for the time being.

  "I didn't know he was there, but I know what he does now. I'm so sorry for what you went through, Anna, and I can't believe there are police officers, ones I work with, allowing that to happen." His voice seemed distant, haunted by whatever he had seen on the tape.

  "What was on the tape?” I asked as I touched the tape in my pocket. I had to make sure it was still there and that I didn't accidentally lose it in the dash back to the car. “What did you see, James?"

  James didn't answer right away, creating tension in the car. Jessi was even starting to pick up on the feeling as we waited for his answer.

  "Everything.”

  "Everything?" I repeated in confusion. What was everything?

  "Everything," he repeated with the same distant voice. He continually glanced back in the rearview mirror to make sure we weren't followed

  We pulled into the police station a few minutes later thanks to James excessive speeding. If James wasn't a cop, we would have gotten pulled over the second we hit city limits. James ran into the station, and we followed close behind as he went to the center of the large room.

  The station had a large center room for all the cops, and then little offices for the higher-ranking officers, but those were the ones that wouldn't believe us. They'd find a way to take me back to Steve, to keep me quiet so their secret didn't get out. So we had to find a way of showing the majority of the officers the video at the same time without the ones working with Steve stopping us.

  James pushed us toward a bench right outside the chief's office and ordered us to stay. I glanced nervously towards the chief's door. James just sighed and repeated the order. He forced himself onto a desk in the center of the large room and spoke to the policemen and women who were present in the room.

  "Can I have your attention please? Everybody, listen up!" James yelled ov
er the bickering crowd.

  It took a few moments, but eventually silence reigned over the room. James waited until there wasn't a sound, even a squeaky chair wheel, before he began to tell them what happened to us. He walked around some of the details and got to the point of his speech as quickly as possible.

  "After Anna went upstairs, I followed her. She claimed there was a body, and there was. It was Officer Allen Garrett, a lifelong friend of mine, and a fellow officer of the law. He had been beaten, cut open and seemed to be shot from all the blood that was around him." I was thankful he skipped over accusing my Garrett of killing the cop.

  "Upon entering one of the rooms I discovered a closet. Inside the closet I found chains and other objects, along with a video camera."

  My eyes widened with fear as I realized Steve had done more than take photographs of us to keep for himself. He had recorded everything he had done to the girls, and he could have recorded what he did to me. I felt my stomach clench as James continued his speech.

  "I'm not asking you all to watch it, because frankly it's not pretty. I am asking you to police that area, close down the house, and find its owner. He is the one we are looking for. He is the one who has taken the girls, and it’s not just Jessi and Anna. It's time we put a stop to this and—”

  "I think it's time we put a stop on you, James." A dark voice stated from behind me.

  The chief stepped forward out of his office, each step made his belly jiggle, as he made his way toward James. The officers that had been listening to James speak, immediately sat down at their desks and pretended to go back to work. The chief stepped forward to the desk James was standing on and ordered him down with a wave of his finger.

  "You preach to these fine people and get them ready to execute a mad man, but you offer no proof. We cannot simply go after a man on circumstantial evidence and you know that, James. They have no need for stories, just the remembrance of how Jessi and Anna looked when they first arrived here is enough to know that the man is wrong in the head. Why make it worse?"