Rhapsody, Chapter 7 - Allegro con Furioso

Detective Johnson looked thoughtfully distracted for a moment before finally replying, “We’ll set up a trap for him at your apartment.”

“But how?” I asked, confused by the sudden change in position.

“We’ll post numerous officers around the complex, waiting for him to make his move. He’ll never know what hit him,” he said almost smugly.

At that moment the thought occurred to me to ask, “If we’re going to do something like this, is there any way we can arrange for Ashley to be with me? I’ve grown quite fond of her.”

“I’d have never guessed,” he quipped. “I’m sure we can work something out. She didn’t appear to be too badly injured, so I’d say it’s up to her as much as anything.”

“I know you had her taken to the emergency room to be checked out, but have you heard anything about her condition?”

“Hang on,” he said, picking up his cell phone and calling police headquarters. “Hey, Johnson here…any word on Banks?… Yeah, that’s her. Injured while guarding our witness…Really?…that sounds like good news…Great…Good…Later…” he then closed the phone and slipped it back into his pocket.

“Sounds like she’ll be fine. Nothing more than some scrapes and bruises,” he reported.

“Wonderful!” I enthused, making no effort whatsoever to disguise my rapidly growing emotional attachment to Ashley Banks.

Detective Johnson left the house, I presumed to conduct a recon of the property since we had planned to stay at Tim and Beth’s until everything was ready to set up the trap. Once he was gone Beth wasted no time in pouncing on me with questions.

“How long have you known this Ashley?” she asked.

“Not a real long time. Just a week or so really,” I replied, blushing profusely.

“You like her!” she accused. “A lot, if the heat rising from your cheeks is any indication.”

“Okay fine. Yes, I like her,” I finally admitted. “She had volunteered to stay with me every night this past week. We spent almost the entire time talking about stuff.”

“Stuff?” Beth probed for details.

“Yes, stuff,” I responded. “We talked about everything you could imagine. I’ve probably been more relaxed with her than I think I’ve ever been with anyone…ever!”

“And is it reciprocated?”

I thought for a moment before admitting, “I don’t know for sure, but I think so.”

“Well, I hope so. I think you deserve a little happiness.”

“I’d like to think so too.”

At that moment, Detective Johnson returned from outside, saying, “Looks like the trap will be ready by morning, so if it’s all right with your family I thought we’d stay here overnight.”

I didn’t even have a chance to say anything because Beth jumped in, “Well, yeah! No problem. You need anything, Detective?”

“Thank you no,” he replied.

“Well, let me know if you change your mind,” Beth said, as she got ready to leave the room.

“Don’t go on my account,” said the detective.

“Oh, I’m not,” she responded. “I’ve just got a few things to get done before dinner.”

“Don’t let me keep you then,” he replied before turning his attention back to me. “I’ve arranged for your things to be transported back to your apartment overnight.”

I looked rather concerned as I said, “I do hope they’re careful with my baby.”

“Rest assured that ample care will be taken with everything, including your baby.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Okay then.”

Detective Johnson’s cell phone rang. He pulled it out and flipped it open, saying, “Johnson here…good, I figured as much…just a moment.”

He turned to me and said as he handed me the phone, “Banks wants to talk to you.”

I took it from him and put it to my ear, “Ashley?”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” she quipped.

My heart soared at the sound of her voice, making me think Beth might be right. “It’s just so good to hear your voice.”

“Yours too. Listen,” she said. “I’m not going to make it back tonight.”

“I expected that,” I replied, trying not to let my disappointment show in my voice. “I’ll just have to see you tomorrow.”

“Guaranteed,” she said. “It’s a little weird spending the night apart.”

I felt a flutter in my tummy as I said, “Yeah, I know. You try to get some rest, okay?”

“I will. You get some sleep too, all right?”

“I’ll try,” I replied.

Detective Johnson reached out and took the phone from my ear and said to me, “We’d best cut this short, just in case.”

Into the phone, he said, “Banks, we’ll see ya at her apartment tomorrow…good night.” He then closed the phone and put it back in his pocket.

“So that’s it then?” I asked. “We’re doing it tomorrow?”

“That’s the plan. Nervous?”

I thought for a moment before responding, “Yes and no. I think I’m mostly just looking forward to having this thing over with.”

“Well, don’t worry. It’ll all be over soon,” he said as he placed a hand on my shoulder. I can’t explain it, but at that moment I felt a strange chill run through my body.

Beth came in at that moment and said, “Soup’s on.” She then turned and left without looking to see if we were following. We were.

As we settled in for dinner, the room fell silent for a while as we enjoyed the fruits of Beth’s labors. Once the meal was done, I helped Beth clean up. I was rinsing dishes and loading them into the dishwasher when Beth brought in the next load of dishes.

“I know we covered some of this earlier, but does this Ashley know how you feel?” she asked out of the blue.

Taken aback, I stammered, “Uh, well, ahh…I uh…”

“You need to tell her, you know,” she said as she stepped behind me and gently hugged me.

“But…” I stumbled.

“But nothing,” she countered. “I can see it in your eyes every time her name is mentioned and I’d be willing to bet that not only is the feeling reciprocated, she probably already knows.”

“Well, if that’s the case…” I argued.

“Just say it,” she said with some finality. Giving me a final little squeeze, she then left me to my task and my thoughts…

…Looking into Ashley’s eyes, I asked, “So do you have anyone special?”

“’Fraid not. Not really much time for that kind of thing, ya know?”

“Yeah,” I responded as I reached out and touched her hand, sending a surge of electricity through me. At that moment, I nearly told her I thought I was starting to develop feelings for this marvelous woman. Unfortunately I couldn’t quite bring myself to do so…

…Detective Johnson cleared his throat, bringing me back from my thoughts. He then said, “You were about a million miles away.”

“Sorry,” I replied. “I was just thinking.”

“Yeah, well,” he began. Continuing, he said, “You’d best get some rest. Big day tomorrow.”

As I put the last of the dishes into the machine, I said, “True. Guess I’ll go get some rest.”

“Good night,” he said as I left him standing in the kitchen. I wandered into the guest room and fell onto the bed, losing consciousness before my head hit the pillow…

…I wandered into the living room to find Ashley, obviously hurt, standing there shouting, “Get to the truck! We have to get out of here!”

I turned and ran for the garage, hoping she was right behind me, but by the time I’d gotten to the garage door I knew something was wrong. Slowly turning my head to look behind me I saw a dark figure looming there, about to reach out to grab me.

“No!” I screamed as he took hold of me, grabbing me by both wrists and shaking me. “No!” I screamed again.

At some point I was able to see around my attacker, where I saw Ashley slumped on the floor unmoving. I tried to scream again, but no sound would come out.

This faceless stranger dragged me back into the living room where he threw me down on the floor and growled, “Where’d you think you were going? Thought you could get away from me? Ha!” He began laughing, a dark, twisted chortle containing only anger and hatred.

I looked up at him and his features started to come into focus, but he hit me in the head and I flopped down on the floor crying…

…I sat bolt upright in bed, gasping for breath. Looking around the room I realized I was still at Tim and Beth’s house, as I remembered why I was there. Gradually I began to calm down enough to try going back to sleep, but found that every time I started to drift off the image of that faceless figure returned to my thoughts, jarring me back awake. Tossing and turning until nearly dawn, I finally drifted back off to sleep where thankfully I managed to find a couple of hours of dreamless slumber.

When I finally arose from bed I quickly showered and dressed before joining Beth and Detective Johnson in the kitchen, where they were drinking coffee.

As soon as he noticed that I’d joined them, Detective Johnson asked, “You ready to get this show on the road?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess,” I responded as I poured myself a cup and took a seat at the table with them.

Beth then said, “Ya know, we still haven’t had a chance to go shopping.”

“I’d noticed that. Soon as this mess is over, we’ll have to remedy that situation.”

“Absolutely,” she replied.

The detective interrupted girl talk time saying, “Finish up your java. It’s about time to hit the road.”

I took a deep breath before swallowing the dregs of my cup. After rinsing the cup and placing it into the dishwasher I turned to face him and said, “Guess it’s time to go then.”

Following him to the front door, I was paused by Beth who gripped me in a rather powerful hug as she said, “Be careful.”

“Hey, what could go wrong? I have a personal escort and everything.”

Detective Johnson led me out to an unmarked car and after getting settled we began our journey. I must have allowed my mind to wander, since when I finally noticed where we were it seemed we were heading in the wrong direction.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

He ignored my question and continued driving until I couldn’t stand it anymore and asked more forcefully, “Where are we going?” Again he ignored my question and kept driving silently. At that point I opened my car door, which prompted him to grab hold of my arm quite roughly.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he shouted at me as he yanked my arm back toward him.

“Getting out of here!” I shouted back, full of far more bravery than I actually felt.

“Oh, no you don’t!” he said as he managed to pull me close enough to him that my door was pulled back shut. Then before I had the chance to try to open it again, he hit a button on his door turning off the automatic locks and windows for all the passengers, followed by locking the doors.

“Let me out!” I shouted. He responded by laughing at me, at which point I began to cry, from fear or frustration I know not. As the tears continued to fall I withdrew into myself and began to think about things. How I’d wound up here, what I could’ve done to avoid all this mess…basically, trying to figure out what I’d done wrong and what I could do about it.

Gradually I regained control of my tear ducts and once I felt like I could string together a complete thought I asked, “Why? What’s this all about?”

He let out a little snort and shook his head as his face took on an evil grin, saying, “All in good time.” I got no other response.

Undeterred, I continued peppering him with questions, “I thought you were trying to help me?” I couldn’t help myself as I again dissolved into tears.

A little while later a thought occurred to me, prompting me to resume questioning my abductor, “How did you think you could get away with this?”

For the first time since I realized what was going on, Detective Johnson was a bit more forthcoming, “Easy. You’ll be dead long before you’re missed.”

“But…” I began, searching for the words to complete the thought, “…what about Beth and Tim? They’ll notice right away if I’m gone.”

“You don’t really think I’m going to tell the plan, do you?”

“You’re bound to get caught,” I argued, trying to ruffle his unsettlingly calm demeanor.

“It’s all been planned,” he replied smugly. “Besides, no one will miss a freak like you.”

A part of me wanted to kill him right then and there, but another part just wanted to curl up and disappear. I knew that beyond Tim and Beth there were very few people who would notice if I were gone and most of them not for quite some time. As that thought rattled around inside my head, I drifted off into a sort of half sleep.

I must’ve been sort of out of it for a while, because when I realized we were stopping I looked around and had absolutely no idea where we were. All I could see were trees in every direction, even tightly lining the road making it clear that we were fairly deep in the woods somewhere outside of town.

The detective climbed out of the car, quickly slamming his door shut before I could try to climb out through his side and running around the car to my side. He pushed the lock button on his remote and yanked the door open, grabbing and pulling me out. I tried to look around in an attempt to figure out where we were, but again came up empty. Just then, I saw someone heading toward us.

As Joey walked toward the car, I looked at Detective Johnson hoping that he was going to do something. What happened next was not what I was expecting.

“Dude, you’re late,” Joey grumbled at the detective.

“Yeah well, maybe if you’d done your job right we wouldn’t need to be here dealing with this,” Detective Johnson said as he gave my arm a good yank.

This exchange confused the heck out of me, but before I could ask anything Joey said, “Careful little brother, don’t make me ‘deal’ with you next.”

“You don’t have the guts,” Detective Johnson countered. He then laughed as he said, “I’m not even sure you can knock me out after this like we planned.”

“You may be family, but don’t push your luck,” Joey replied. Then he turned his attention to me and said, “You look confused, girly boy.”

Both of them erupted in laughter, obviously sharing an inside joke. As I stood there staring at them dumbfounded I heard a truck coming. In response to the sound, my captors began trying to drag me away from the road and into the forest.

“Good a time as any,” Joey said as they each took hold of one of my arms and started pulling me toward what I was certain was my imminent death. The roar of the big truck whizzing past made me wonder if that would be the last thing I ever heard, other than my captors killing me.

As we were making our way into the woods where nothing could really be seen from the road, several cars pulled up beside Detective Johnson’s and car doors could be heard opening and closing quickly. In response, Joey and the detective tried to pick up the pace as they dragged me to what they intended would be my death. When we reached a clearing, they threw me down on the ground and both drew their guns preparing for my execution.

I heard a commotion nearby and in an act of self preservation curled up trying to make myself as small a target as possible. Then I simply tried to brace myself for what appeared to be the inevitable.

I heard several shots fire from what sounded like multiple directions and as I began to relax after tensing up from the sound, wondered why I hadn’t felt anything. As I opened my eyes and began to look around, I saw the co-conspirators lying on the ground, still and lifeless followed by the most wonderful sight I had ever seen.

Several police officers were heading my way, led by the lovely and talented Officer Banks. I stood up as Ashley got to me, throwing her arms around me in what I was certain was the fiercest hug in history. At first all I could do was return the hug, but eventually what had just happened started to sink in and I began to cry tears of joy and relief.

As I struggled to gain control of myself I asked, “How?”

She looked into my eyes and replied, “I followed Johnson from a distance, using a tracking signal. Once I knew he’d stopped, I called in for reinforcements and then waited for some commercial truck traffic to cloak our arrival.”

“But…how’d you know?”

“I didn’t for sure. I’d been a little suspicious for the last several days, but…” she stopped short.

I looked into her eyes and said, “I have never been happier to see anyone in my life.” I then resumed the earlier embrace, wishing it would never have to end.

Eventually, she led me back out of the woods to a waiting squad car. She helped me into the back seat before going around and getting in the back with me. Almost as soon as the doors were closed, I began sobbing as she held me gently and made calming sounds, lightly stroking my hair with her hand.

When I was finally able to speak, I told her, “I don’t know if you will want to hear this or not, but when he was driving me out here the thing I kept thinking about was that I wished I’d told you that I’ve been developing feelings for you.”

For what felt like about a month and a half, but was probably more like a few seconds, she held me silently as I stewed about the fact that I’d just revealed what was in my heart to her and yet she didn’t respond at all. With each passing nanosecond I could feel my heart breaking wide open. I began to wish I’d never said anything.

Finally she spoke, “About time!” While I processed what she’d just said, she placed a finger under my chin, raising my face until I was looking directly into hers. She then slowly leaned forward and lightly brushed my lips with hers.

They may have just barely touched, but the electricity that passed between us at that moment caused my heart to skip a beat…a sensation I hoped would repeat often over the next, say sixty years or so. I whispered, “Can we do that again?” as my face broke into a huge grin.

She replied, “You didn’t really think I volunteered for all those night guard shifts out of a sense of duty, did you?” She then once again kissed me…

The End