Lost and Found

Chapter 9

The lady stood there for a minute before slowly walking into the room.
"Nice to see you two could rejoin us," she said. She walked up to John. "Is your arm hurt?" She seemed sympathetic, but that was only a rouse.
"Yes," John said quietly.
"Let me see," the lady grabbed John's arm and pressed on the break. At first it was a small press, but then she pressed harder. John screamed in pain. Paul turned away from the torture being inflicted on John.
"Please, stop," John gasped. The lady looked him dead in the eyes. Then she let go. John tried to scoot away from her, but his ankle hurt too much and he was in too much pain from his arm. Then she turned to Paul.
"Come here, boy," she said. Paul didn't go to her. He was terrified of her. She saw this and decided to try to gain his trust and then crush it. "I said, come here boy."
"Please don't hurt me," Paul said as he slowly scooted over to her.
"Awe, that's cute. You think I'm going to hurt you. Ha, no. I just want to talk to you two," the lady said.
"Why did you kidnap us?" Joe asked.
"Well, Gustave owes me some money. And as for you, John, so does your father and brother. I gave money to Gustave for his studio. And as for your family, John, David wanted to change some test scores while your father ran for forgein diplomat. I'm the reason David isn't failing out of school, why you only to see your parents once a year, and why Gustave can afford his art studio," the lady said.
"But why would they turn to an American crime lord?" John asked.
"I'm currently the best. No one knows how the crimes happen and I am untouchable. No one will ever find out that you're here."
"What about all those kids in those locations we saw?"
"Some I bought from traffickers. At some point they will be sold. Weather that's back to traffickers or not, I don't care. I did almost sell you two into something like slavery, but you both got away when the house burned down," the lady said. Paul looked at her, not sure if he should say anything or not. The lady looked at both boys.
"Why can't you let us go?" John asked.
"Because the money I am owed hasn't been paid yet," the lady replied.
"That shouldn't matter. We want to go home," Paul said. The lady held her hand sort of close to Paul's face. Then she back handed him. Paul could feel tears well up in his eyes, but he didn't want to get hit again for crying. So he tried to supress his tears and not cry. It was hard. Then the lady got up and walked out of the room. Paul went over to John.
"How bad are you injured," he asked. Worry filled his voice.
"Me arm is killing me. And me ankle just hurts. But I'm okay," John said. He held his arm close to him as if he was a dog with a hurt paw. Paul gave him a look of sympathy.
"Don't worry. I'm sure we'll get out of here soon."
"How can you have blind faith in something that most likely won't happen?" John asked. Paul looked at him. Tears welled up in Paul's eyes. He turnend away from John and buried his face in his knees. "Paul, what if we don't make it out of here?"
"We've got to. Malloy and Reed have to find us. They have before, so now shouldn't be that different," Paul had lifted his head and turned it to sort of face John.
"But what if they don't care about us now?"
"John, have some faith. It won't hurt you."
"Paul, be realistic. If they don't find us soon, we'll never be found again," John said. Paul turned away again.
"They have to. They always do," Paul muttered to himself. Then he started to quietly cry to himself.

Rampart General Hospital

"Are you sure this was the place they were seen?" Officer Malloy asked.
"With certainty, Officer," Dr Brackett replied.
"Do you think it could be the people that kidnapped them before?" Officer Reed whispered to Officer Malloy.
"Yeah, only they would have the nerve to rekidnap them again," Malloy replied.
"How would we find them now?"
"I don't know. We'll have to keep our eyes open on this one," Malloy sighed.
"Is everything okay?" Dr Brackett asked.
"Just fine," Malloy replied.
"It doesn't look like much of a fight happened," Reed observed.
"Would it be a little easier if it looked like there had been?" Dr Brackett asked.
"Not necessarily. See we have no suspect to base any of this off of," Malloy said. An idea struck Reed.
"What if we looked into the families?" Reed suggested.
"Why?" Malloy asked.
"There might be a connection through the family," Reed explained.
"How so? They led very different lives."
"Sometimes people buy their way places. Whether it's into a job or something like that. The two families might have gone to someone."
"Alright. The families should be settled in by now," Malloy said. The two cops left and went to go question the two families.