Buckingham Nicks-Part II of Fritz Series

Without a Trace

***A/N content warning, implied suicidal ideation. No follow through but if that's a trigger for you, you may want to skip***

I don't know how many episodes of One Adam 12 I've watched, but none of them prepared me for what I'm experiencing right now. I've been questioned and interviewed and questioned by at least five different detectives from two different agencies. Both LA county and the LAPD are hot to take the case, the high profile nature of the disappearance no doubt a prospective feather in their caps. I'm irritated, and anxious, and seriously afraid because I have no idea where either of them could be. My wife and children are gone. Sara and Stevie, and Nova are gone.

I can't tell at first if my story is believed, but enough people inside the ice cream shop were able to verify that Sara and Stevie had been with me moments before they went missing. So I don't think I'm regarded as a suspect. I guess that's a relief...shaking I call Barbra and Jess who are on the first bus to LA. Once I hang up. My mother catches a ride with Jeff and Robin, who don't bother to hide that they were together when she called Robin's house for a ride. Janet, Avery, Bob, Brian and the Mac all offer support and even offer to pony up ransom money if it comes to that. No one's called the house for money, and that scares me even more.

The detective told me bluntly, that if I didn't get a ransom demand within twenty-four hours then they'll be most likely looking for bodies. I throw up for about five minutes after he tells me that, my stomach in so many knots that my mother has to help me back to the living room. Bodies, I can't think about my family as no longer being alive. My father's death was violent, and sudden, and hellish enough on my emotional state. Stevie and Sara being dead will push me over the edge...permanently. That's not conjecture it's a mathematical certainty.

"Should we call the FBI?" Barbra is as frantic as I am leaning on Jess for support for even the most the police have set up a command center in my living room. My phones are tapped unmarked cars are parked outside, the lead detective well for the Sheriff's office anyway, is a short man with gray black hair and a mustache named Lou Barkley sips his coffee. In an attempt to keep her mind of any impending trauma, mom's been making pots of coffee and baking compulsively, I don't stop her. I'm not coping so well myself, I've probably had a pot of coffee and smoked a carton of cigarettes in the last three hours.

I don't even smoke. Not cigarettes anyway.

"I don't think the Feds are gonna do anything more than we can. We'll wait till we get a ransom demand." The lead detective for the LAPD is a no nonsense man with a dark complexion and graying hair his name is Samuel Brothers. He's tighter lipped with his observations, and I'm not completely sure he doesn't still suspect me of doing something to Stevie and Sara.

I sit numbly on the couch as we wait...and wait...and wait...and finally ten hours after I first call the police the phone rings. I jump snatching the receiver as quickly as I can "Yes?". The voice on the other end is unfamiliar and deep, it's a man or at least I think it is. "Is this Lindsey?" the cops start the recording equipment gesturing for me to draw out the conversation "Yes..." the voice goes quiet and I hear heavy frantic breathing "Lindsey!" it's Stevie! "Steph! Baby are you okay?!" her voice disappears and the male comes back.

"What do you want?! I'll give you anything just please, please don't hurt them" I don't' recognize the shrillness in my own tone. I'm scared to death my hands and body shaking "Sara and Stevie are fine, we don't plan to hurt them. We don't want anything we won't call again, just know that they're safe" not call again? My heart starts racing "No no no ! Wait I-who are you? Why are you doing this to me? Please, they're all I have-I...I can't...I can't-". The cops tell signal that they're tracing the call. And I do what I can to prolong the call my voice breaks and I'm on the verge of tears.