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“You can’t think like that,” Harry said. “You can’t spiral right now, or else you’re not going to be able to do anything for them. You need to try to stay calm and focused, okay?”
I nodded, even though I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do either of those things. Harry pressed the phone to the side of his face and I forced myself to finish the glass of water sitting in front of me. After a while, Harry sighed and hung up the call.
“Didn’t pick up?”“Nah,” he said, shaking his head. “But I’m sure he’s awake. He’s been put on this killer early-morning patrol route, so let me try him again.” He re-dialed and sat down again. We waited. And waited. Then finally, someone answered.
“Yes, hello, Tom?” Harry sat up a little straighter and cleared his throat. “Yeah, hey, it’s Harry. Listen, a buddy of mine needs help, and I didn’t know who else to call. He was held up at gunpoint and his—uh—girlfriend?” He looked at me for verification on this and I nodded frantically. “Yeah, his girlfriend and her kid were taken.”
Harry stopped talking and listened, but I couldn’t hear what the officer was saying. After a few seconds, he handed the phone to me and said, “Tell him what happened.”
With shaky hands, I took the phone and tried my best to fill in the gaps. “Uh—yes, hi,
officer. My name is Zane Grey, and this morning I woke up with a gun in my face and my girlfriend’s ex was there to kidnap her and her kid.” When I said it all out loud like that, I felt like I was in a movie.
Or theTwilight Zone.
“Okay,” Tom said. “Tell me your girlfriend’s name, and anything you know about the ex.”
“Her name is Katya, Katya Belinksy, and her ex is named Aleks..”
“Aleks Petrachovoa?” he asked, his voice suddenly dropping into a deeper, more serious tone. “Are you talking about Aleks Petrachova?”“I… I might be? Look, all I know about him is that he’s an abusive asshole who I’m pretty sure was arrested recently for breaking into his grandmother’s house, but apparently the charges didn’t stick. Or he broke out of jail, but something tells me he’s not that smart.”
“I know exactly who you’re talking about. We’ve been trying to nail that guy for months, but he somehow keeps getting bail and showing up at the last second with air-tight alibis. But if what you’re saying is true, and if you’ll agree to testify, then I think we could actually get him this time.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes,” I said. “But right now, what’s important is that we get them back. I think he’s taking them to his grandmother’s house.”
“That would make sense,” Tom said. “That’s his ‘base camp’ so to speak. I’m going to call this in and get some cops and a SWAT team out there as soon as possible.”
“Great,” I said, standing up out of my seat. “Just send me the address and I’ll meet you there.”
“No,” he said. “We can’t have any civilians there if we’re bringing in a SWAT to do a
raid. It’s way too dangerous. You can wait at the station, and I swear, we will bring your girlfriend and her son straight there after we get them out of the house.”
I scoffed. “You can’t be serious. I’m not just going to sit at the station while you guys go in and get them. I have to be there.”
“I’m sorry sir, but that’s just not an option. Tell Harry to take you to the station, and I’ll meet you guys there as soon as everything is over and everyone is safe.” Then he hung up the call. I gawked as I handed Harry his cell.
“He… he just wants me to wait at the station. I can’t believe this. Harry—I have to be there. I have to be the first person she and Luca see when they get out.”
“Okay,” he said, nodding affirmatively. “Then we’ll go to Aleks’ grandmother’s house.”
“You know where it is?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah… yeah I do. After you told me more about him the other day, I started to look some stuff up. I found the footage of his arrest a couple of weeks ago, and they showed his grandmother’s house in the background. It’s in a neighborhood I used to live in a while back, before I met Sloane. I know exactly which house it is.”
“This is great! Let’s go!”
He got to his feet as well, and picked Kenlee up. “I’ll meet you outside. I have to fill Sloane in and let her know she’s in charge of this little one.” He sighed and shook his head as he started to walk down the hall. “I’ll try to go as quickly as I can, but I don’t think Sloane’s going to be thrilled to let me leave once I tell her where we’re going.”
###
Harry met me in the hallway a few minutes later. His face was set in a determined frown, and we took off running towards the elevators. In the parking lot, we jumped into Harry’s car, and he sped down the freeway towards his old neighborhood.
I was grateful Harry was driving, I was not in the mental state to be behind the wheel. My hands were still shaking and my breathing was back to being shallow and insufficient. Harry got off the freeway and turned into a somewhat older neighborhood. He took a right at the first stop sign, and then crawled to a stop at the end of the street. “Is this the house?” I said, pointing to the small white house directly to our right.
“No,” he said. “It’s a few doors down, but I didn’t want to get too close in case Aleks was watching from the window or something.”
Seconds after Harry put the car in park, a barrage of police cars and SWAT vehicles came rushing passed us. They didn’t have their sirens on, but they did park much closer to the house than we did. Harry and I leaned forward in our seats and watched as a group of armed officers, wearing full SWAT padding and protection, circled the house. They positioned their guns high up onto their shoulders and used hand signals to communicate with one another as they all slowly began to creep closer to the house.
