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Against Her Will

By Deborah Lynne

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Chapter 1


“Sam. I need your help.”
The unexpected fear in Mark’s voice vibrated through the telephone sending a shiver of alarm through Samantha Cain. In the year she had known the homicide detective for the Baton Rouge City Police Department, he had always been in total control. He was a man who could encourage a frightened victim to trust him or convince a violent criminal to back down.
“What’s wrong? What can I do?” she whispered.
A second or two of dead silence packed the airwaves.
Sam recognized his uncharacteristic fear, his confusion, emotions that were unfamiliar to him. She waited patiently.
“I need help from all of you, from the whole team.”
“We’re your friends Mark. You can count on us. What do you need?”
“It’s my niece, Abigail! Abby,” he said softening his tone. “She’s gone missing.” He choked over his words.
“What do you mean ‘gone missing’? She ran away from home? Disappeared from school? What?” A frigid blast of ice shot through her veins. Tightening her grip on the phone she closed her eyes. Another missing child, Lord? I don’t think I can handle that! Could she? The kidnaper of the boy they had searched for during their first investigation had approached her son, threatened him…threatened her; warning her to back off or her son could be next. Did she want to put her son’s life in danger again? No. Of course not! Sure, she wanted to help Mark, but at what cost? She thought she would do anything for him…but could she do this?
Drawing in a deep breath, she focused on the facts of the situation. “Is Abby a young child or a teenager? Where did she go missing? Are you sure she’s not just gone to a friend’s house?” She didn’t mean to sound as if age mattered, but if his niece were a teen, Sam felt certain finding her would be more difficult in this day and time as well as bringing more questions to her mind. Teenagers today believe they are so grown up, ready to jump out into the world and live. According to the news, when teens decide to disappear, they succeed by blending into a crowded city without a problem. So were there problems at home that caused her to leave? Did she run away? Or just go to friend’s to escape the family? Or had someone taken her?
“What difference does age make?” An exasperated rush of air sounded in her ear before he answered her question. “She’s a teenager!” He sounded distraught, all hope lost. Suddenly with renewed vigor and certainty he said firmly, “But she’s no runaway. She’s been kidnapped! It has to be. She disappeared on her senior trip. Abby would never leave on her own.” The certainty of his statement spoke volumes. He believed what he said.
For sure another kidnapping! She clutched her chest as panic stabbed at her heart. That first case as a private investigator, finding a kidnapped child, twisted every motherly nerve in her being. She prayed never to have such a heart-wrenching investigation again. At least knowing Abby had not been taken here in town was a relief. Marty would be safe if they tackled this job, so of course they would help Mark.
Since the case of the missing boy, they have had a few other clients…none so emotional: finding a deadbeat dad and getting him to pay back-child support; finding a missing heirloom; and the latest, following an unfaithful spouse. At least that was what the wife hired them for even though it turned out he was taking dancing lessons to surprise her on their fortieth wedding anniversary.
So far, their PI firm holds a one hundred percent success rating. Now Mark had a new case for them, a personal case. And a young girl’s life depended on them retaining their unblemished record. Unblemished or not, they would want to find Abby and bring her home safely. It was the right thing to do.
“Where was she when she vanished? Where did the seniors go on their trip?”
“Abby and the others were in the Caribbean. The third night into their one-week’s stay she never came back to her room. Today is day four and her roommate, Janet, called my sister Cathy, out of fear for her life-long friend. Janet said Abby was gone, and that she had disappeared during the night. She’d slipped off with a guy she had met earlier, right after arriving at the resort. He enticed her out on his sailboat last night. Abby assured Janet they weren’t going out in the waters, just hanging out on the boat.”
Silence filled the airwaves for several seconds. After the pause, as if he were trying to gather strength he continued telling the story. “Abby never came back to the room that night, and Janet was very worried. She stayed up all night waiting for Abby’s return. Finally, first thing this morning she called my sister. My sister had Janet tell the chaperones and have them notify the authorities immediately. Trust me. Abby’s a good girl. She wouldn’t do something like stay out all night. Something has happened, and I’m…I’m…I’m scared,” he finally admitted. “I have to get down there fast and find her before something terrible happens, and we lose her forever.”
Human trafficking? No. It can’t be. Tears threatened to form in Samantha’s eyes as that thought tried to invade her mind. It’s been all over the news, teens disappearing in other countries and being sold on the market. With her fingertips, Sam twisted the gold chain that hung about her neck.
“What did the police say?” Is that what happened to Abby? The same thoughts of human trafficking must be flooding Mark’s mind as well. That was the worst-case scenario, she realized, so why think that first? It could have been a simple night of passion and then shame delaying her from returning and telling her best friend. A night of indiscretion, unfortunately those things did happen, even to nice girls. In her mind she tried to convince herself that was what happened to his niece.
Probably not the case. Hearing Mark’s thoughts on his niece made Sam believe a night of passion wouldn’t be what happened with Abby. With every minute passing, the harder it would be to find a trail to follow. They needed to move quickly.
When he didn’t answer, she asked again. “Have you had an update since the chaperones called the police? What did they say? Where have they looked for her? Did they have a name of the young man she’d been seen with? What are the police thinking happened to your niece?”
“The local police didn’t seem concerned,” he spat. The anger in his voice shot a burning fire through the phone. “I can’t wait around for them to take her disappearance seriously.”
In a soft voice, hoping to calm Mark somewhat, she said, “I understand and agree.” He was right, though. There was no time to waste. With hands trembling, a row of chill bumps raced across her skin like horses nearing a finish line. Fast and furious. “Of course we’ll help you! Whatever we can do. Tell me.”
“I just booked a flight that leaves out tonight. I’m hoping you and Greg can go with me…Margaret too if she’s able. I mean, if Marty can stay with your parents. I need all you guys. I’ve already booked us a villa in the same resort they were staying. I guess I believed y’all would come but decided to check before booking your plane fare. Thanks.”
“No problem.”
“As nice as that place is, you’d think the kids would be safe!” Frustration screamed in his voice. “It’s such a huge resort. The whole place is surrounded with armed guards day and night, all around the perimeter. The school has used this same resort for the past five years of senior trips. No one has ever vanished before.”
Sam could hear him moving around while he spoke to her on the phone. Probably packing his bags.
“Call back and add three more to that flight, Mark. I’m sure Momma will take care of Marty. School is almost out for the summer, so they’ll probably come stay here. I’ll give them a call as soon as we hang up. Besides, Margaret would want to be with us helping. She can do so much with a computer; find out things we can’t. People don’t realize how much information is at fingertip access to anyone looking.” Social media opened up a lot of doors, like Facebook and Instagram accounts as well as other sites that keep popping up. Teenagers use all those social media sites, and Margaret’s a genius and knows how to use them for our purposes.”
It was a good thing they all had current passports. It was something Greg insisted they do…of course it was because he was planning a wedding in Belize—his and Margaret’s. He planned for all of us to fly with them, including Diane and Richard, Sam’s parents. Since the forming of the PI firm, Greg had gotten close to everyone…not just Margaret. He was family now.
“And Mark, you need not worry so much that you rush and forget something. I’ll catch Greg and Margaret up to speed on your niece. We need to tap into all the connections we have here in the U.S. before we fly out this evening. I know Greg has a few contacts. I’m sure you do too. So stop and think. Use them.” In a softer voice she added, “We’ll find Abby. Don’t you worry.”
“Thank you. You don’t know how much this means to me. We’ll fly out of New Orleans to Miami and from there to the Dominican Republic. We’ll need to get some sleep on the plane because when we land, we need to hit the ground running. She’ll have been gone over twenty-four hours and we both know how important the first forty-eight hours can be.”
A gush of air rushed across the airwaves. Sam saw Mark in her mind, pacing back and forth, but she didn’t stop him from ranting on. He needed to get some of it out, so he could get his head back on straight and focus on their next step.
“I can’t believe the local police don’t seem to think we should be worried. They said kids on holiday slip away from time to time but always come back. They don’t know Abby. We do. She wouldn’t have done that. Besides, she has her cell phone with her everywhere she goes, and she is not responding to texts or calls. According to the phone company when I ran a tracer on it, they said it was either turned off, or it had a dead battery. Either way, they couldn’t trace it. They did, however, give me her last location as well as a list of calls and texts up to the time the phone died or was cut off. Her last call showed to be to her roommate’s cell phone for less than a minute, but Janet claimed never to have received the call. And the location for that call gave us longitude and latitude. When I gave that info to the police, via Janet, they said the location was a spot on the beach. That didn’t tell them anything except the young girl was enjoying the sand and surf.”
“It sounds like you’ve already gotten started. Calm your voice and call your sister. Reassure her you’ll bring her daughter home. We’ll get her, Mark, but we have to be smart and use all of our associations with any government official, like your FBI contacts, all authorized personnel who can help us.”
Mark drew in a sharp breath, and then he slowly released it. “You’re right. Thanks. I’ll give Special Agents Robicheaux and Johnson a call. Maybe they’ll be able to help us. Or at least know someone we can connect with down there…hopefully.”
“Now you’re thinking. Get busy and I will too. We’ll have Abby home before you know it.”

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