Unfound

19

I was so excited, I just couldn't believe it! Elizabeth had called me the next day, yelling at me to turn on the channel five news. I popped it up on my laptop and I saw him. Kara's kidnapper's face was on the news. I wasn't even listening to what they were saying, the words meaningless at this point. The inscription underneath read "Suspect in kidnapping and murder cases" which was sure to grab the attention of anyone watching. We were going to find him.

Unfortunately, that was four days ago and still no helpful word from anyone. Someone reported their coworker matching the description on the TV. They were in a little accounting firm in the same town, so it was possible. The name was the same as one on the list, Jack Bower. No residence was listed and no one could tell us anything specific about him. He was a loner who tried his best to avoid his coworkers, but always managed to exceed expectations on his duties. Just enough to slip under the radar.

One woman told the cops that he had made an advance on her once, and seemed more than upset when she told him no. She didn't sleep well that night, seeing shadows of a man outside her window, but the next day at work he avoided her, per usual. I'd assumed he was trying to take her and found another victim instead. She looked somewhat similar to Kara. I guess he had a type.

The next lead O'era found was a black jeep with no license plate that had been sold to a small car dealer. The short and stubby man claimed that he just sold his car and walked away, without purchasing another one or finding a ride home. He just walked. I assumed that meant he couldn't live too far away from the car dealership, but O'era told me he most likely had another car parked around the corner so we wouldn't figure out what kind of car he now drove. The stubby man told us the man who sold the jeep's name was, ironically, Michael Myers. I crossed another one of his fake names off of the list.

I checked with the school board to see if any of the other names matched any previous students, thinking he may have gone to our college once, but graduated years ago. They ended up finding a match. A guy under the name Bradly Davis had come and graduated four years before. No family or residence was listed yet again. I couldn't figure out how he had managed to bypass all of these systems.

I sat on my bed, holding the list of fake names in front of me. We hadn't even eliminated half of the names and our leads were beginning to run dry. Hoping the list would reveal some hidden information, I ran the names that were left though my head: Lincoln Payne, Seth Jones, Logan Miller, Braden Zimmer. Nothing turned up. I let out a sigh.

My phone buzzed next to me, making me jump slightly. It was Detective O'era. I picked up the phone, "What's new?"

"Liam, we got a lead," I sat straight up, "We got an anonymous phone call from a woman telling us that a Seth Jones lives in her neighbor hood and resembles the man in the picture. She told us he used to have a black jeep, but drove away the other night in a red Ford Focus."

"What? He's gone?" I couldn't believe it. I had scared him off. He took Kara with him.

"It's possible, Liam. He could have taken her with him and relocated. She gave us the first few numbers of his license plate so we're running it through the database now. He has a license plate and a flashy car with his picture all over the news. We'll find him this time. He messed up." She sighed heavily, "I think you're going to have to prepare for the worst anyway. When perps move places, it's more than unlikely that we'll recover the victim alive if at all. Call her parents if you haven't already."

I couldn't breath, "I called them last week. But I'll update them."

She said more, trying to console me, but I wasn't listening. My head was racing, trying to wrap it around all of this. There's no way Kara's dead. She had to be okay. I hung up the phone, still in a trance, not looking at anything. What if it was me that scared him away? I wouldn't be able to forgive myself.

I had called her parents after the first week had passed. They were very excited to talk to me, but that all changed in an instant. There were tears and screaming on the other end on the line, I couldn't contain my own emotions either, but I tried to be strong for the both of them. They had lost their daughter, again, and were hundreds of miles away. They didn't have enough money to travel this distance and stay, though they so desperately wanted to help me look for her. I had assured them that I was looking for their daughter and had partnered with police, both of them calming slightly when I mentioned this. They knew I was looking for her. They knew how much I love her. They knew I would never give up, I'd find her or die trying. They thought I was going to save her, but I didn't. I haven't, yet.

I stared at the list of names, one of them the true identity of her kidnapper. I crossed off the name Seth, he wouldn't let anyone know his true identity. A tear dripped onto the paper, smudging the ink of the name Seth before my pencil could.

My eyes burned. I couldn't let her parents down, I couldn't let her down. The last thing we did was argue, the last emotions I felt with her were jealousy. I couldn't have her die thinking of me like that. She had to know how much I loved her and how much I was willing to do for her. I did the last thing I could think of, in one last desperate attempt, I sent the picture Elizabeth had drawn to Kara's parents. It was a long shot, but maybe they recognized him. I was sure they had moved before, maybe they've been enough places to see him, or maybe he was driving to California and they could share his picture there. I hit send on the message to Kara's father. I didn't know how or if they could possibly live without their daughter and I was going to find her.