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Escape chapter 2B

Acceptance

By L. Lane BaileyPublished 3 years ago Updated 3 years ago 7 min read
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Escape chapter 2B
Photo by Tommy van Kessel 🤙 on Unsplash

Kelly followed Garrett into his house, through the garage. She had been calm when they had pulled in, but when she was faced with actually meeting his father, she started to freak out a little on the inside. He’d calmed her down. He turned her to face him and told her it would be ok. She didn’t know why she trusted him so much, but she did. Maybe it was his eyes. Every time she looked into his eyes, she gained a little inner peace and calm.

And he trusted his father. His dad would know what to do. If he trusted him, she would, too.

She hobbled up the stairs toward the living room, him helping her along the way.

“Hey, Sparks,” his dad said as Garrett reached the top of the stairway, “I was thinking about us goin’ out and grabbing a bite. You up for it?” He hadn’t looked up from his computer. He was editing a photo shoot from a few days ago.

“Dad, I want you to meet someone,” he responded.

Bill Wilson stood up from the couch and turned toward his son. Bill and his son were like carbon copies, separated by thirty-three years. Garrett was six-one, while his dad was ever so slightly shorter. Both men had light brown hair, although Garrett tended to wear his in a crew cut, while Bill left his a little longer and had just a touch of gray around his temples. Neither was particularly athletic, but Bill had been when he was younger, while Garrett was just a basic active teenager.

He looked over as the bedraggled girl reached the top of the stairs and all but hid behind his son. She was a slight girl, maybe five-four, and she looked tiny in the clothes that were hanging off her. He thought he recognized his son’s flannel shirt. She still had a few leaf fragments in her stringy hair, and smudges of dirt all over her face and hands. And when he saw her wrist, he became very concerned for her. There were scrape marks between the bandages.

“I’m Bill Wilson,” he said, smiling, “Garrett’s Dad.”

The girl shrunk behind his son a little more.

“This is Kelly, Dad,” Garrett said, confidently. He turned to the girl, “If you want to take a shower, you can go back to my room. I’ll try to come up with some clothes for you.”

She nodded and he turned her toward the back of the house, pointing her along the way to his room.

Bill could hear his son talking to her as they entered his room.

“You can lock the door if you want… but I won’t come in. There might be some of my mom’s old clothes here, and I’ll leave whatever I can find just outside the bathroom door, ok? And there should be an extra towel and washcloth in the linen closet. If you need me, just shout, ok?”

A moment later his son walked back out to the living room.

“What’s up, son?” the older man said, raising his eyebrow. He was still standing in the same spot he’d been in when his son and the girl had left down the hall a few moments before.

“I found her out on the trail. I had just turned onto Stage, and she was huddled by the creek. She didn’t have any clothes or anything. She was really cut up… I think someone had kidnapped her. She hasn’t said much, but I have a little of the story.”

“Ok, let me go see what I can dig up for clothing… she is a good bit smaller than your mom was, but there might be some old clothes that fit her. Then we need to talk.”

Ten minutes later Garrett put a set of clothes outside his bathroom door and told Kelly through the door that they were there. He backed out of his room to go talk to his father. He spent the rest of the time the girl was in the shower telling his dad everything Kelly had told him during the ride home.

They heard the hair dryer turn off and stopped talking while they waited for Kelly to come down the hall. A moment later she stepped into the living room. The change was stark. She had long, blonde hair, past her shoulders, and high cheekbones. She didn’t look as gaunt or pale as she had before. The fact that she could be pretty hadn’t even crossed his mind until that moment. She also looked a lot older standing in front of him. Before he had thought she might only be thirteen or fourteen, but seeing her now, she looked even older than sixteen.

She quickly shuffled nervously to the couch and sat down next to Garrett. Bill noticed how she’d turned to him as her protector. She was obviously still scared, though.

“My dad has a friend that is a cop downtown. He thinks we need to talk with him. Are you ok with that?” Garrett asked her. “I’ve known him my whole life. He’s a good guy.”

She nodded almost imperceptibly as she used Garrett like a physical shield, sliding a little more behind him.

His father asker her a few questions and she gave short answers. Bill rose from his chair and pulled out his phone as he dialed up his buddy, “Cop Steve”. They had been neighbors a while back and had kept in touch. Now Steve was a detective with Metro Police. He left the room as he made the call but was back quickly.

“Ok, Steve is dealing with something… how do you feel about going out with us to get some dinner,” Bill asked.

Again, she nodded slightly. Garrett rose and she was right behind him. As Garrett started toward the stairs down to the garage, his dad tossed him his keys.

“Let’s take the Rubicon; you drive. I’ll sit in back,” he said. He was worried that Kelly would be nervous sitting in front with him, or in back without Garrett. Letting the teens sit up front was the easiest solution.

***

The crime scene unit had finished going through the shed and the trailer. It had taken quite a while for them to go through the trailer and they had loaded out several boxes of evidence. He’d tried to sweet talk one of the technicians, Maggie, but she wouldn’t even give him a hint about what had been taken as evidence. In fact, she had given him a very cold look when he walked up to her. Normally she was friendly, even a little flirty when they spoke.

Later, he sat in his police cruiser and noted the crime scene tape on both the shed and the trailer. He’d been warned not to interfere with the investigation, but he needed to know what they knew. It would be the only way for him to push the walls back out.

Deke opened the door to his cruiser. He slowly walked toward the shed. As he rounded the corner to the door, he saw a new padlock had been installed. He turned and walked to the door of the trailer. A similar padlock had been installed there. In all his years in law enforcement, first as a deputy to the prior Sheriff, then, in his decade as Sheriff, he’d never seen the crime scene unit lock down a scene like this… locking out local law enforcement.

Of course, it was also the first time in his experience that the crime was so close to the local Sheriff…

He had a lock pick set in his office, he just needed to go collect that and come back. Deke was confident he could get past the locks and see what they might have taken with them. The only way to defeat evidence is to know what the evidence might be. He also needed to make sure that anything they might have missed would be destroyed. Better to go down for destroying evidence than accessory to murder, rape and the slew of charges related to his brother.

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This is the end of the second chapter of an ebook available on my blog at LaneBailey.info. Subscribers have access to download the full ebook for free.

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About the Creator

L. Lane Bailey

Dad, Husband, Author, Jeeper, former Pro Photographer. I have 15 novels on Amazon. I write action/thrillers with a side of romance. You can also find me on my blog. I offer a free ebook to blog subscribers.

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