Kya cupped her hands over her mouth and Cristiano pulled on my shoulders. “What is it? Where is she?” His normally even and calm tone was frantic now.
I hated that I had to let the Marquettes down after everything they’d done for me. “Tatiana.” I dropped my head. “Tatiana has been dating one of the teachers at school for like the past year. She was going to break up with him to be with me and she went this morning alone.”
Kya went rushing into the kitchen and I could hear her throwing up a moment later. Cristiano shook his head. “Why would you let her go?”
“I didn’t know!” Where was my beautiful Tatiana? Was she in danger? “I thought she was with Billy!”
My phone buzzed and an address popped up. I ran around Cristiano into the kitchen and sifted through the drunk drawer for a notepad and pen. I scribbled down the address and forced it against Kya’s chest. “This is where she went to meet him. Call the police.”
I ran back towards the door, but Cristiano grabbed my arm. “You can’t go! She’s already in danger, we can’t risk you too.”
“I have to find her!” Tears started to fall down my cheeks. “I love her. I have to find her.”
“Wait! Colin!”
I didn’t listen. I took off out the front door and in the direction of the address Billy had sent me. As I was running I texted him to meet me at the diner. Tatiana had told me before that he had a car, and we were going to need it.
I was a seasoned runner thanks to my athletic career, but it still felt like it took an hour to reach my destination. I ran into the restaurant first, but there was no sign of Tatiana or Val inside. I questioned several waitresses, but they told me that shift change happened not long ago, any waitress who’d been there that morning had already gone home. I rushed back outside, feeling like it was getting harder and harder to catch my breath. I was trying to focus my brain on a next step, but I was so afraid that I couldn’t think straight. First my parents, then Tatiana. I couldn’t live in a world without them all. I wouldn’t.
“Colin!”
I looked over and Billy was rushing in my direction waving his hand through the air. I zeroed in on what was clasped in his hand and my stomach flipped over.
It was Tatiana’s phone.
“Where did you find that?” I asked.
“It was down the sidewalk a bit.” He handed it over to me and I unlocked it, knowing her passcode was a blend of her parents’ birth months and dates.
All of the calls and texts were still unchecked. “She must have gone missing right after she texted you.”
Billy started to cry. “Where is she?”
I pulled my phone out and called Coach Nash again. “Undinger. Did you find Tatiana?” I was a mess and he could hear it. “Shit. Tell me it’s not…”
“She’s missing,” I sniffled. “I don’t know where she is. She could be in trouble.”
“Well, this is worth getting fired for. I’m sending you Val’s address.”
A small glimmer of hope sparked out. “You have it?!”
“Yeah, but promise me you won’t go yourself. Give this to the police.”
I nodded, frantic. “I promise!”
I hung up with Coach Nash and a few seconds later the address rolled in. I looked at Billy. “Would you do anything for Tatiana?”
He nodded and I could see the resolve in his eyes. “Anything. She’s not just my best friend. She’s the most important person in the world to me.”
It must have been hard for him to sit by while she dated Val. “I know the feeling. Let’s go. I have Val’s address. We have to go and save her.”
26
Colin
I could tell that Billy was hesitant as I shoved my elbow through the window pane on the door to Val’s house. He was going along with everything I said, but he was clearly afraid. I felt bad dragging him with me, but he had a car and I didn’t. I was afraid if I called the police and Val got wind of it, if Tatiana was still alive, she wouldn’t be much longer. The thought made me want to throw up, but I pushed through it the same way I pushed through the shards of glass to reach down and try and unlock Val’s door from the inside.
“Are there people watching?” I asked, as I stretched trying to get to the lock, which was just out of reach. I could feel the glass ripping my skin, but I didn’t care.
“One lady,” Billy replied. “Oh shit. She’s coming over.”
It didn’t change what I was doing. I continued on flicking my fingers at the lock, just grazing over it, but never getting enough of a hold to turn it completely. “Fuck. I can’t reach it.” I was so erratic that, if there was a better way to do that, it wouldn’t have occurred to me. I wanted in. I stood back from the door and started to kick it.
“What are you boys doing?” I heard a woman’s voice call out. “I’ll call the police.”
“Do it!” Billy shouted, even though it was the last thing I wanted. I was already here, and making a fuss, so if he was inside, he knew I was there. I was just praying I could get to Tatiana in time. “The man that lives in this house kidnapped a teenage girl!”
“Oh no,” she responded, but seemed to believe us. “Shorter girl, with wavy brown hair?”
Billy and I both whipped around and looked at her. “Do you know her?” She recoiled from me a bit and I tried to calm down. “Did you see her go in here?”
“Not today.” She wrapped her robe a little lighter around herself, but she wasn’t shielding herself from the cold of the night. “Many times before though.”
I went back to kicking the door until it finally burst open from the force. I raced inside yelling at Billy to “Get as much information as you can from the neighbor.”
Val lived in a townhome that looked like any pedophile’s home. Not in the sense that he had pictures of kids all over the place, but that it looked like it had been selected and decorated to match an ikea catalogue. There was nothing that made it personal, nothing that made it unique. If someone were to try and describe it to someone else, it would sound like they were describing any old home. There were no pictures, no DVDs that might suggest what he was into, not even clothes hanging around. He wanted his place to be bland so that the only thing there was to focus on inside was himself.
I did a sweep of the house. I ran into the kitchen, but it was just as boring in there as it had been in the living room when I first entered, and his bathroom and office had the same mundane qualities. I grabbed his computer, hoping that there might be some evidence inside that a police officer could access, but the thought of waiting for a police officer to find Tatiana made me feel like hope was already lost. I knew how these things went, psychotic people do things all the time simply because they feel like it, just like what had happened with my parents. All it took was a one second snap to ruin people’s lives forever.
But my life had already been ruined enough. I’d already lost my parents, I wouldn’t lose my world as well.
When I got to the upstairs bedroom, I opened the door, and the sight made me so dizzy I thought I was going to pass out. The bed was affixed with ropes to each of the posts, at the ends of which were clasps for the hands and ankles. Duct tape was on the bedside table, along with a digital camera. A suitcase was open on the bed, and some clothes had already been folded up and packed neatly inside. Whatever was supposed to happen with Tatiana was meant to happen in that bedroom, but in some way she’d interfered with his plans. I didn’t know if it was a relief or a nail in the coffin. If they weren’t there when the plan was clearly to end up there, then where the hell were they?