Heads Will Roll – Chapter One

**When I was in high school, I wrote the Kathy Baker series, which was an incredibly under-researched (often times written with no research at all) series. In addition to this, the first book only begins to feature Kathy about halfway through, if not closer to 75% of the way through. Because Rick has already been mentioned at the end of The Surgeon (Jamal refers to them as “that station in Iowa”, I believe), it seemed like a fitting time to finally rewrite the book in Rick’s full perspective. If you’ve read the original book, things will absolutely change. I’m only two chapters in and have already changed quite a bit. But I think it’s necessary to kind of try to get me back into the writing headspace. I’ll give it a real title and such down the road, but my brain doesn’t work that way anymore, where I always have a title first. So… here we go, and I hope you enjoy. ❤

NOT EDITED

Wednesday: January 29, 2014

For a third time in less than half an hour, Tina Young turned her wrist enough to look at her watch. Four PM. Bonnie should’ve been home by now. The high school was little more than two blocks from the house, and Bonnie had been out of class for over half an hour.

“Everything’s fine. You’re being paranoid,” Tina whispered to herself. Ellepath was one of those tiny little towns in the middle of nowhere, Iowa where nothing bad ever happened. On the rare occasion a child went missing, they were found within hours, usually hiding in a bathroom stall or on one of the lowest shelves in the grocery store. But Tina and Bonnie had been forcibly separated before, and him being in prison and them living unharmed in a new town in a new state for over a decade hadn’t taken away the trauma or the paranoia that came with it.

Something could be wrong. Something could be very wrong.

With a heavy sigh, Tina set her book on the end table and pushed herself out of her rocking chair. She hated bothering the office staff at the school, but what other choice did she have?

In the kitchen, she unplugged her cell phone and leaned back against the counter. The high school was on speed dial number one. As the phone autodialed the number, she pressed the device to her ear and waited.

“You’ve reached Ellepath High School. This is Lilly speaking. Is there anyone I can patch you through to?”

“Hi, Lilly. This is Tina Young. Umm, is Bonnie still there at the school?”

“She’s actually leaving right now. Just waved her through the door. She’ll be home in no time, Tina.”

Tina closed her eyes, her shoulders falling with a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Lilly. Bye-bye.”

“Uh-huh, no problem. Bye-bye, now.”

Tina ended the call and put her cell back on the charger. For about the millionth time since they had moved to Ellepath, she had been worried about absolutely nothing. Bonnie hung around the school sometimes to help teachers prepare handouts for the next day. It was totally normal. Everything was fine.

And yet, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something just wasn’t right.

***

“Ma’am—”

“Don’t you ma’am me, Jeff. Bonnie is missing, and I want something done about it. I want to file a report.”

Deputy Jeff Biggs cleared his throat. “Ma’am—Sorry. Habit, I swear. Tina, school ends at, what, three-twenty? It’s been an hour and a half, give or take a few. Don’t you think she’s just… out with her friends? With her boyfriend? She’s still dating Rick’s boy, isn’t she?”

Tina had started shaking her head long before Jeff had finished talking. “She wouldn’t go out without talking to me first. I already called her friends. I already talked to Heidi. She’s not with anyone.”

“Have… you called her phone?”

“Do you think I’m stupid, Jeff? Of course I called her phone.”

“I’m not trying to call you anything, Tina. It’s human nature to forget the seemingly simple things in the midst of an emergency or an anxiety-fueled situation. I just want to make sure it got done, is all.”

“I called her damn phone.”

Jeff blew out a breath. “And?”

“She didn’t answer. Not my calls, not my texts. After the fifteenth or sixteenth call, it sent me straight to voicemail. Her phone’s dead.”

“Or off,” Jeff said. “Bonnie’s top of her class, isn’t she? Set to be valedictorian and everything? Maybe she just needs a break from everything, and this is her way of doing that. You’re getting yourself worked up over nothing, Tina. This is a damn small town. Kids don’t just get abducted in Ellepath, for God’s sake. Especially teenagers.”

Tina leaned forward in her seat, as close as she could get to him with the desk between them. “Something is wrong. Bonnie was leaving the school and on her way home when I called them at four. We live two blocks away. You do the Goddamn math on that one. Something is wrong, and I would like to file a report.”

“Okay,” Jeff said, his voice soft. He pulled open the bottom desk drawer and grabbed a folder and a clipboard. After pulling a form from the folder, he handed it, the clipboard, and a pen over to Tina. “I’ll be back in a moment, okay?”

“Yeah,” Tina whispered.

Jeff rolled his chair back and pushed himself to his feet. He grabbed his empty coffee mug and made his way to the breakroom. His shift was supposed to end at five, but he had a feeling he’d be busy for at least an hour, maybe two, before everything could be filed away for tomorrow. Hopefully Mary was okay with pushing their plans back an hour or two.

***

“Hey.”

Jeff met Deputy Rick Downs’s eyes before going back to putting on his coat. “Hey.”

Rick jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Was that Tina Young in the parking lot?”

“Yeah.”

“Her ex-husband hasn’t made a reappearance, has he?” Jeff only shook his head. “What, then?” Jeff cleared his throat. There was no good way to tell Rick about Tina’s suspicions. He settled for handing him the clipboard. “Jesus Christ. Just since school let out?”

“Little after, but yeah. Not long.”

“I’ll talk to the twins, see if either of them has—”

“I think it’s pretty likely she’ll be back home tonight, Rick.”

Rick stared at him for what felt like an eternity. “You think Bonnie is a runaway?”

“I think ‘runaway’ is a strong word. I think she’s just… a teenager who needs a damn break from everything, even if only for a couple hours. She’s balancing about a million hobbies and afterschool activities, top grades, valedictorian speeches, probably class prez bullshit. I know I’d need a break. Get my mom off my back for a few minutes.”

“Tina isn’t some hounding bitch, Jeff. She’s—”

“I’m not saying she is. I’m saying she’s overprotective. She’s got a reason to be, but that doesn’t make it eat away at a kid any less. Especially the ‘talented and gifted’ type.” Jeff’s offered a smile he hoped was sympathetic. “This isn’t California, Rick. Kids don’t just go missing in Ellepath. They don’t get abducted. They run away, and then they come home.”

Rick set the clipboard on Jeff’s closed laptop before tapping his finger to it. “Ellepath or not, this is a missing child, and she will be treated as such. I will go speak to my kids and see how Bonnie was today. You will find out where Tina’s ex is locked up nowadays, and you’ll make sure it’s nowhere near Ellepath. Understand?”

Jeff blew out a harsh breath. Mary would be pissed, but pissing off his on again, off again girlfriend was a hell of a lot better than pissing off Rick. “You got it, partner.”

***

Bonnie Young struggled against her bindings. They were unreasonably tight on her wrists. When she tried to get her feet beneath herself to stand, they tightened around her ankles. The tug and pull on her skin felt like rope. She wasn’t going anywhere.

It was dark. Her eyelashes rubbed against the fabric of her blindfold. The roughness of it scratched her cheek. Wool?

Jesus. Wool. Who cared. She was tied up. Bound. Blindfolded. She didn’t know what was over her mouth, but something sure was. She couldn’t scream for help. Couldn’t run for help. Couldn’t look for identifying clues in case her captor let her out alive.

Rustling. Paper? Bonnie turned toward the sound, trying to slow her breathing to focus on it better. Paper shuffling. Shuffling was more accurate. And a fan.

“You’re awake.”

Bonnie whipped her head toward the voice. Heart pounding in her chest, she struggled against the ropes, tried to scream behind the gag or tape or whatever the hell it was.

“Hey, hey, Bonnie, hey. You gotta relax, sweetheart. You’re gonna hurt yourself. Hey.”

A man’s voice. Familiar. Clammy hands on her cheeks. She stilled, a stiff chill running down her spine. “If you settle down, I’ll take the blindfold off. Okay?”

Panicked, stilted breaths forced their way out of her nose, but she nodded.

The hands moved to the back of her head, working to untie the knot. The blindfold fell to her lap. The room was lit but not bright. Concrete walls and floor. Wooden stairs. Two small windows near the ceiling. They were… familiar too?

Her brow furrowed as she scanned the room a second time. The school’s basement? What the hell?

Her eyes shot over to the man as he stepped toward her again. A mask. He was wearing a damn mask. The mask covered the lower half of his face, leaving her staring at vaguely familiar eyes beneath the bill of a ball cap, familiar eyes she couldn’t quite place either. “I don’t want to have to hurt you, Bonnie, but I need to move you out of here, away from the school. If I untie you, will you walk with me to my car? Nice and easy?”

Bonnie whimpered behind the duct tape, her lazer focus blurring a unshed tear burned her eyes.

“It’s not a long walk, but it’ll be easier on you if you just work with me on this.

Her words were muffled by the tape, her lips barely able to move against the sticky backing, but she still tried to beg him not to do this, plead with him to let her go.

Though her captor couldn’t understand a single word of it, the crinkling at the corners of his eyes told her he was smiling. Smiling that she couldn’t talk. Or smiling that he knew what she was likely asking for. Either possibility made her stomach twist and flip, made her chest tighter than waking up blinded and bound had.

“I didn’t figure you’d make it easy, but I thought I’d give you the chance.” He wrapped his hands around her bound ankles and yanked her away from the wall. Her head thunked against the floor, but it didn’t stop her from screaming as loud as her lungs would allow. The tape muffled it. There was no way around that. But she knew it was still loud. It had to be. If someone was around, there was no way they wouldn’t notice.

Right?

She managed to pull her ankles from his grasp and drove them into his knee. It buckled, and he went down. His hands wrapped around her throat. Her pulled her up enough to bash her head against the floor. Once. Twice. Thrice. He let go of her throat. Bonnie threw her head back, fighting her body’s natural urge to try and breathe through her mouth. Her nose didn’t give her nearly enough air, but it was all she had now.

“Jesus. Not as meek as you seem, Bon.” He straddled her, hands pressed to the ground above either of her shoulders. “Rick teach you that?” He patted her shoulder before pushing himself to his feet. “Don’t worry, I’ve got something planned for us to teach him too.”

Bonnie blinked, slow and hard. Had she heard him right? Everything felt fuzzy. Sounded fuzzy. Looked fuzzy. She couldn’t have heard him correctly. If he was kidnapping teenage girls, what the hell could he possibly have against Rick Downs? What kind of lesson could he have to teach him? “Now, we’re gonna try this again. And if you fuck around a second time, you’ll have a hell of a lot more problems than a sore throat and a headache.”

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