Chapter 2

Billington Park would have been a beautiful sight on any other ordinary day. Spring was starting to come into full bloom and the temperature was comfortably warm. Sam searched for a bench that was not occupied by a young couple, which was a task that proved to be harder than he had originally thought. Eventually he found one that had a nice enough looking lady who was throwing seeds in a fruitless attempt to entice birds. Sam sat down beside her.

“They make this look easy in the movies.” she said and then smiled at Sam, who was caught off guard by the genuine kindness of her demeanor. He had been focusing so much on the pure evil of the kidnappers that he had forgotten there was actually some kindness left in the world. He blinked for a moment as if he had just stared into the sun after staying in a pitch black room for a few hours, and then he said, “Pardon?”

“Feeding the birds,” the lady said indicating the bag of seeds she was holding, “its harder than the movies make it out to be.”

“Well I never have put much faith into what movies say.” Sam said.

“Me neither,” she said her eyes sparkling, “but I figured I would try anyway.”

“Yeah, never hurts to try.”

They sat in silence for a moment.

“Well, I must be going.” she said looking at her watch, “It has been a pleasure talking with you.”

“Have a nice afternoon.” Sam said, and he watched her as she casually strolled away.

Sam envied her. He envied her carelessness, her happiness, her innocence. It seemed that everything in her world was perfect. She was blind to the fact that the box that was sitting beside the fountain carried the fate of a fourteen year old girl….

Wait…

The box!

It had not been there when Sam had sat down. He had made sure of that. His whole plan was to watch for the box’s deliverer and follow him until an opportunity for a confrontation presented itself. But now there was a box and no deliverer. Now not only did Sam envy the lady, but he also hated her and her kind innocence. She had distracted him when the unknown man delivered his package. Angry, he stood up and started walking toward the box. When he was within five feet of it he froze.

What if someone was watching? If Sam picked up the box instead of Max then Grace would surely be dead, that is if the kidnappers were true to their word. Sam decided it was best not to test their honesty.

Sam pretended to watch a squirrel as it climbed happily up and down trees. Hopefully, if anyone was watching, this would cause them to dispose of any suspicion that he might have brought on himself by the sudden stop. After watching the squirrel, which was now eating the bird seed that the lady had thrown, for what seemed like an hour but was really only five minutes, he pretended to lose interest and walked back to his car, kicking himself the whole way for being so foolish.

He was supposed to call Max and tell him to pick up the box after the delivery guy had been confronted, but now there was no guy to confront. The only thing Sam could think to do was call Max, he would tell him what happened back at the office when they had the box.


* * *

Max had a solemn look when he returned to Sam’s office, box in hand. Sam had already told him about seed lady and the escape of delivery boy. Max took it well…either that or he had already given up hope.

Sam hoped he was just a really patient, good-natured person.

Now Max dropped the box on Sam’s desk and fell into the chair behind him.

“I can’t do it.” he said.

“Do what?” Sam asked.

“Just read the note, it will explain everything.”

Sam looked at the box, hesitant to touch it. It was a brown shoebox, and Sam thought that he might never look at a shoebox the same way again, especially if this ended badly.

Slowly, Sam pulled the box toward him. For some odd reason he was treating it as if it would explode with a sudden movement or the lifting of the lid. This was illogical thinking because Max had obviously already opened the box and read the note.

Still, he looked at Max for support, and received none. Max’s hand was had his interest at the moment, and Sam was left alone with his irrational fears.

Finally, after deciding that he was being foolish, Sam ripped the lid off the box maybe a little too forcefully.

There was no explosion, not timer that started ticking away as the lid came up, no recording of a female voice saying “This package will now self destruct.”

There was only a note. It was typed like the first one.

Sam picked it up and began reading:

We are going to play a little game that I like to call “What will you do to save your daughter?” It is really a fun game and there is only one rule. That rule is: do what we say or the next box will contain something that your girl is more “attached” to than her necklace.
Don’t worry though we will start small and work our way up. Today’s assignment is simple. Rob a convenience store. Put the money in this box and put the box back where you found it. Then you leave, and wait until we contact you again.
You have 24 hours, so have fun!
-Your new best friends

Sam put down the note and scanned the box. The note had mentioned a necklace, yet there was no necklace to be seen. He was about to ask Max if he had seen it when Max placed it on the desk in front of him.

“This was her favorite necklace.” Max said as he slumped in the chair.

Sam studied the necklace. The chain seemed to be sterling silver and on the chain was a blue fish. Sam was not an expert in fish so, therefore, he could not make out exactly what kind of fish was presented by the blue silhouette.

“Is,” Sam said, “This is her favorite necklace.”

“Yeah…right,” Max said in a very unpersuasive tone, “Is, not was…is.”

He mumbled the last is as he retrieved the necklace and slipped it into his shirt pocket.

“So what do we do?” he asked after making sure the necklace was secure in the pocket.

“It looks like we have to rob a convenience store.” Sam said matter-of-factly.

“Do what?!?” Max sprung from his chair.

“Yeah, we need to pick a small one though…less security.”

“You’re insane! If I get caught, not only do I go to jail, but then Grace is dead for sure!”

“We don’t have another choice.” Sam was calm; there was no need to intensify the fire of anger that was already burning within Max. “If we don’t rob the store then Grace is still for sure dead. At least this way she has a chance.”

Max sat down hesitantly. “You’re right….I’ll need a gun.”

“I have one,” Sam opened the top drawer of his desk and withdrew a .38 special revolver. Max took the weapon and checked the ammunition count. He obviously was not a stranger to guns.
“I know a place.” he said after he was satisfied with his observation of the weapon. “It is small and not too far from here.”