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Steve Fisher was finally home. It had been a long work week, but today had been especially long. Mr. Redmond was worried about Michael and Jill. Neither had been heard from or seen since their disappearance. He was even talking about hiring a private investigator to look into their disappearance. Shit, even Steve was worried. Michael would never walk away from the practice. He was the one that convinced Steve into going to college, to become a lawyer after the military. Not that Steve regretted it. The military gave him some real world experience, but he didn’t want to do manual labor for a living. Although, Steve must admit, practicing law could sometimes be mundane. It seemed as if lately all they did was frivolous lawsuits and wills. It paid the bills, though, and he wasn’t sweating his ass off. Making good money was nice also. Steve grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he wouldn’t see any of his parents’ money until they died. Even that wouldn’t be anytime soon, the old codger was too mean to die. Steve never had a desire to follow in his father’s footsteps
When Steve walked into the house from the garage, he knew something was wrong. The house had a strange odor to it, reminiscent of old sweat, and the back door was ajar. He called for Adele and when she didn’t answer, Steve became concerned. After searching the house for her, he called 911.
The nighttime dispatcher answered the phone. “This is Steve Fisher. I just came home and my back door was jimmied open. I can’t find my wife Adele anywhere.”
The dispatcher asked him to stay on the line while she dispatched a unit out to his house and called Sheriff Ourso.
***
SHERIFF FRANK OURSO knew something was wrong, when dispatch called. “Sheriff speaking .”
“Sir, we just got a call from Steve Fisher. It looks as if someone broke into his house and his wife is missing.”
“I’m on my way over. Please have Detectives Brown and Laughlin meet me there. They are leading the other missing person’s investigations. We need the crime scene techs over there as well. Have them dust for fingerprints and check in with the neighbors to see if they saw anything out of the ordinary. Somebody has to have seen something.”
“Yes, sir, I’ll get right on it.”
It didn’t appear to be a robbery, but the scene was similar to the other missing citizen’s homes. So far, the main things taken from the residences were food, gas, and miscellaneous tools. What was going on around here and where were all these people? No bodies had shown up, but no activity had been detected from the checking accounts or cell phones. Hell, some cell phones had been left in the houses. Michael Redmond’s car was missing from the house, but whoever stole the car knew how to dismantle the Lojack.
***
STEVE DIDN’T BELIEVE that Adele would leave him. They had been planning a big vacation, both wanting to get away for a little bit. Adele had always wanted to see Italy and he finally convinced her to take a cruise around the Mediterranean. The ports of call were all places Adele had wanted to visit, including Spain and Italy.
Too worried to sleep, Steven answered the phone on the first ring, hoping it was Adele. “Do you miss your wife? It’s time you did penance for your sins.”
Steve couldn’t place the voice. “Who is this? Where is Adele? What have you done with her?”
“It’s time for you and your friends to pay.”
“What do you mean pay? Who is this? Do you know where everyone is? What is going on? I’ll pay any ransom amount to have her back. Please!”
“You will soon find out who this is. You haven’t suffered enough yet.”
Shit, the caller hung up, before Steve could get any information out of him. He called Sheriff Ourso right away, “Sheriff, I know it’s late, but I just had a strange phone call. The caller asked if I missed my wife and said that I would pay. Actually, he said me and my friends would pay for our sins.”
“Okay, let me get someone over there right away and put a trace on your phone. If he calls again, we will be ready. I will see if the phone company has a record of the call and can get me the number.”
“Caller ID showed unlisted.”
“We may be able to get more information from the telephone company. I might not be able to get in touch with anyone until morning, though.”
Steve couldn’t help but worry. Pay, pay for what? Who did he piss off, and why were his friends involved? Did this have something to do with the others going missing? No one else had received a phone call that he knew of.
With tears running down his face, he dropped to his knees and prayed that Adele was ok. This had to be a cruel joke. He couldn’t think of anyone who wanted to hurt Adele. Where was she?
***
SHERIFF OURSO DIDN’T like what was going on around this town. This was the first time someone had received any type of communication since a family member or friend had disappeared. What did the person mean by pay for their sins? These were all upstanding citizens of the town. What dirty little secret were they hiding that could cause them to disappear? It was time to interview the families again, and question them a little harder, to see if someone could have a personal vendetta against the missing people. He needed to find out a little more about their lives.