Chapter
22
After
about a half an hour with Josh, I came back into the waiting room, my face
stained with tears, emotionally drained.
I slumped down in a seat. Heidi
lay her hand on my shoulder and offered me a sympathetic smile. She said nothing, but she comforted me just
the same.
Suddenly,
a cell phone rang. It was Brian’s
again. He picked it up and turned it
on. “Hello?” he asked.
“Brian?”
asked a voice. It was clearly female.
“Yeah,
who is this?” Brian asked suspiciously.
“That’s
not important. Just know that we have
your daughter, and like, um…” she
trailed off, and Brian could hear muffled voices in the background. Suddenly, one familiar voice rang through
loud and clear.
“Daddy!” It was Hope, screaming in the
background. Brian’s eyes widened in
fear.
“Hope,”
he whispered.
“Daddy!”
she screamed again.
“Shut
da fuck up!” yelled another voice, a male voice. Suddenly, Hope screamed again, and then the
line was silent.
“Hello?!”
Brian asked frantically. “Hello?!?!”
***
“What
da hell you think you’s be doin?” Justin yelled at his female partner. She hung her head.
“Well,
ex-cuse me! I just thought that
maybe Brian would want to know that his kid, is like, okay, you know? Sor-ry!”
“Yo,
I’s don’ give a shit ‘bout Brian!” Justin shouted angrily. “He’s gonna die soon anyways.”
The
girl pouted and turned away from him.
She walked over to where Hope lay, unconscious from the blow to the head
Justin had given her.
“Jeez,
J, you didn’t have to hit her, you know,” she said softly, her eyes wide as she
stared down at the little girl. Hope was
such a cute little girl, with Brian’s wavy hair and blue eyes. Why, she almost felt bad for her.
“Didja
hear her screechin’ like dat?” Justin asked.
“She was annoyin’ da hells outta meh!”
The
girl just rolled her eyes. “Just leave
me alone, Justin,” she muttered and stalked away from him.
“Jesus,
take yo’ Midol, girl,” Justin said under his breath as he watched her flounce
away. He rolled his eyes and sat
down. That girl was impossible.
***
“Hello
there,” said a deep male voice. I looked
up to see Officer Kessler standing in the doorway of the waiting room.
“Hi,”
I greeted, forcing myself to smile.
The
others did the same. Brian introduced
Leighanne to Kessler, and Nick stiffly introduced Sammy. I didn’t know what was up with Nick and
Sammy, but they were obviously pissed at each other.
“I’m
glad you’re here,” Leighanne said.
“Brian got a phone call a little while ago.” Our eyes all fell on Brian, who was slumped
in his seat, looking upset. At least we
knew Hope was alive somewhere, but it was horrible knowing none of us could do
anything to help her.
“A
phone call?” Kessler asked, his eyes widening.
“Yeah,”
Brian said softly. He quickly explained
what had happened.
“So
there was a man and a woman?” he asked.
“Yeah,”
Brian said. “It sounded like there were
just the two of them, from what I could hear in the background.”
“Did
the man sound anything like Justin Timberlake?” Kessler asked.
“Justin? Why, you think he did this?” Brian asked, his
eyes widening.
“How
could he?!” Nick cried. “I thought he
was in some mental place!”
“Well…
he was,” Kessler said, shifting uncomfortably.
“But, he escaped about two months ago.”
“Two
months!” I cried. “And he hasn’t been
found yet?!”
“No,
not yet,” Kessler said. “He’s tricky.”
“Actually,
I think it could be him,” Brian said, thinking back to the phone call. The male voice had been muffled, but he
recalled hearing that accent. The
ebonics accent that Justin used. “Yeah,
he had that accent!”
Kessler
nodded. “Well, he’s our number one
suspect. I only wish Josh or Sonny would
wake up soon. If they have any memory of
what happened and who stabbed them, it would help us a lot.”
I
sighed, praying that Josh would wake up.
But I knew how unsure his future was.
***
“Justin,
she’s waking up.” Justin glanced down at
Hope, who had just stirred in her sleep.
“Aw,
jus’ fo’get ‘er,” Justin said, waving his hand.
“We’s gots ta get plannin’. What
we gonna do wit’ her? And how’s we gonna
git da Backstreet Fags ta c’mere so we’s can kill ‘em?”
The
girl sitting next to him shrugged. “I
dunno,” she replied. “You mean, you
don’t have a plan?”
“Hey
now, da J-Dawg’s always gots a plan!” Justin said defensively. “I just dunno fo’ sure wut it iz yet.”
She
rolled her eyes. “Yeah, whatever,” she
said, tossing her long, bleached blonde hair over her shoulder.
Justin
sat and pondered their situation for a moment.
He should have planned this out more before he had kidnapped the
kid. But the opportunity had been right
there, and he would have been a fool not to take advantage of it. But he wasn’t really after the child. And he didn’t want any ransom money. All he wanted was them dead. The whole group of them. He had already taken care of two of
them. He didn’t know if they were dead
for sure, but he knew he and his companion had hurt them badly, and surely if
they weren’t dead by now, they would be soon.
Now he just had to figure out how to take out the Boys, Julie, Heidi,
and anyone who tried to prevent him from doing that.
***
“Hey
there, sorry to interrupt, but I have some good news,” said Dr. Bradley,
appearing in the doorway of the waiting room.
“What
is it?” Heidi asked eagerly, knowing it was something about Sonny.
“Sonny’s
awake,” Dr. Bradley said, smiling.
Heidi
grinned from ear to ear. “That’s great!”
she exclaimed. “Can I see him again now?”
“Of
course,” the doctor said, nodding.
“Oh,
thank you so much!” Heidi gushed, jumping up from her seat. I watched her rather sadly. I was happy for her and Sonny, but I was
saddened by how critical a condition my own husband was in. I could only pray that he would wake up soon
as well.
I
watched Heidi hurry out of the room, followed by Dr. Bradley, and I slumped
back into my seat with sigh. Suddenly,
my eyes widened as I realized something.
“Oh,
my God!” I whispered.
Sammy
looked at me, alarmed. “What’s wrong?”
she asked.
“I
just realized, Josh’s parents probably don’t know this happened!” I said. “I need to call them right now. They’ll want to be here.”
“Oh,
yeah you better call them,” Sammy said, nodding.
I
pulled my cell phone out of my purse and dialed his parents’ number, which I
had memorized.
I
waited while the phone rang a few times, and finally, someone picked up. “Hello?” a female voice asked.
“Hi,
Terri?” I asked, thinking it was Josh’s mother.
“No,
this is Kris,” she replied.
“Oh,
hi, Krissi!” I said. Kristine Benton was
Josh’s younger sister. She was now
twenty two. I knew she went by ‘Kris’
now, not ‘Krissi’ anymore, but I still called her that, for I had known her
since she was only five.
“Julie?”
she asked.
“Yeah,
it’s me,” I said. “Listen, Krissi, is
your mom or dad home?”
“Yeah,
they are. My mom’s right here,” Kris
said.
“Kay,”
I said, as she gave the phone to her mother.
“Hi,
Julie,” Josh’s mom, Terri, greeted warmly, a moment later.
“Hi,
Terri,” I replied.
“How
are you doing, dear?” she asked.
“Well,”
I started, sighing, “I have some bad news.”
I
heard her suck in a breath. “What’s
wrong?” she asked.
“It’s
Josh. He was… attacked… last night,” I
said slowly.
“Oh,
God!” she cried. “Is he okay?!”
“Well,
he’s in Atlanta General here in Atlanta, and he’s in critical condition right
now,” I said.
“Oh
no,” she moaned, her voice sounding suddenly shaky. “Rich and I will catch the next flight down
there, okay?”
“Yeah,
okay,” I replied. “I’ll see you when you
guys get here then.”
“Okay,
sweetie. Thanks for calling,” Terri said
softly. We hung up then, and tears came
to my eyes. I could only imagine how
horrible it would be for a mother to receive a call like that concerning her
son. I said yet another prayer that Josh
would be okay, not only for the sake of me and my unborn baby, but for Josh’s
family, his parents and younger siblings.
He had to survive, for all of us.
***
