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BRENTON
Ihung up with Helen, hopeful that we might be onto something. I called the cops right away and updated them. I told them that Helen would be to Rita’s very soon, and that they needed to meet her there ASAP. I was fairly certain Helen had been right that Amber wasn’t dangerous enough to hurt her, but I didn’t want to take any chances. They assured me they’d have officers on the scene as quickly as they could.
I gave Samson a rub on the head.
“We’re gonna find her, bud.”
He whimpered beside me. I didn’t want to consider the fact that we could be way off. Amber and Candace could be well past Rita’s by now, and potentially even out of the state. I had tried the phone tracking app several times, but Candace’s phone was still off. Amber must have taken it from her.
No matter how hard I tried to rationalize it from Amber’s perspective, I just couldn’t understand why she’d do this, unless she really had just gone off the deep end. Nothing she gained from this aligned with any of her motivations prior to today. This just wasn’t like her. I called Helen back, now worried that Amber might be way more dangerous than we were anticipating. Her actions just didn’t make sense.
Helen didn’t answer and I checked the time. About twenty minutes had passed since our last call. She might already be at Rita’s, or maybe she was regretting her offer to help me after everything we had said to each other. My heart pounded in my chest and I pushed my foot down harder on the gas pedal.
Forty minutes later, after some heavy speeding, I pulled into the Rita’s parking lot. It was almost dusk, and red and blue lights reflected on the buildings surrounding the lot. There were at least ten squad cars here and the asphalt was flooding with officers.
I parked and got out, leaving Samson in the truck. I ran up to the first officer I could grab.
“What’s going on here?”
“Sir, we need everyone to vacate the premises immediately.”
“What’s going on?”
“This is now considered an open crime scene. That’s all we can say at the moment.”
“A crime scene? What happened?” I began to panic. How could things have escalated so quickly? “I want to speak to whoever is in charge—”
“Sir, I can’t al—”
“I’m Brenton McLean. I think my daughter is in there!”
This stopped the officer in his tracks. He squinted at me and then a sympathetic look crossed his face.
“Come with me,” he said and guided me toward the front line of police vehicles.
We approached an officer who I assumed was in charge based on the way he was shouting orders and commands. The officer turned to us.
“Who’s this?”
“The father of the kidnapped child.”
The commander’s eyes widened.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Sir, we have reason to believe your daughter is in there, along with a couple other patrons.”
“And my ex wife?”
“Yes,” he trailed off, apprehensive.
“What is it?”
“We haven’t been able to make contact yet. When we arrived many patrons were flooding out of the establishment. We intersected a few of them.”
“And?” The officers looked at one another.
“God damn it! What is it?”
“They said there was a woman with a gun inside. She fits the description of your ex wife.”
All blood drained from my face and I thought I was falling backward. I braced myself on the squad car behind me to catch my breath. Is that how she was able to get all that information from Candace? Within seconds, my shock turned to anger.
“Well then why aren’t any of you going inside?”
“Sir—”
“My daughter is in there! We have to get her out! We ha—”
“Sir, if you’d let me finish. This is now a hostage situation.”
