Chapter 3

Present – Ben – Back at the cabin

Destiny leaves to see if she can help figure out who took Jens and the children and to determine where they took them.

Jim finishes interviewing Glen, comes over to me and says, “Ben, I have the Amber alert out and we will do all we can to find Jennifer and your children.”

I reply, “Thom told me he saw the Amber Alert and thanks for getting online so quickly. I sure as hell hope your next stop is Stacy ‘fucking’ Summers’ place.”

Jim assured me, “Ben we will talk to her, but I’m not sure she did anything this time.”

Jim leaves and Glen wanders over. I notice his head is bleeding like hell so I say, “Glen, we need to get your head taken care of.”

Glen swears, “Ben this is my fucking fault! If I hadn’t grown so old and slow I could have saved them.”

I console him, “Glen, this is more my fault than your fault. I’ve become too complacent and didn’t keep up the security here. Hell Glen, if you had fought back too hard they probably would have killed you. Now let’s go inside and get your head taken care of.”

We get inside and move into the kitchen where the medical shit is. I pull the flashlight out of my pocket, check Glen’s head and remark, “Shit Glen they did a number on your head! What the hell did they hit you with?” There was a huge gash which was wide open.

Glen replies, “The barrel of their fucking gun.”

I gave Glen the bad news, “Well, this is eventually going to need stiches. For now I will cut the hair close to the wound and put some butterflies on it. Once others get here I will take you to one of the local doctors.”

I begin to cut the hair away from the wound and Glen suggests, “Hell Ben, why don’t you clean it up really well and just put some staples in it?”

It’s a great idea but with a huge problem which I explain, “Glen, that’s going to hurt like hell.”

Glen says, “Not if I take a couple of snorts it won’t.”

I laugh and reply, “If Jens was here you sure wouldn’t be talking that way.” That’s right, Jens severely limited the alcohol consumed in this house. It didn’t bother me since I usually didn’t drink anymore but Glen is still fond of too many snorts too often.

Glen replies with one of his oft used threats, “Don’t make me pull rank on you!”

I figured two could play dirty so I trumped his hole card, “Glen, what would Jens say when she finds out about it?”

Glen thinks for a moment and says, “Shit you’re right! She does have all the levels of all the bottles marked.”

I finally offer an alternative, “I can apply some Lidocaine into the wound to deaden it a bit. That should make it easier to put in staples.”

Glen complained, “Well why didn’t you say that in the first place?”

I take the Lidocaine, fill a syringe and begin to drip it onto the wound. Once it’s sufficiently anesthetized I insert the needle into the skin and begin to anesthetize the whole area. I frequently move to new locations until I am sure that Glen isn’t feeling any pain. Then I take out the hibiclens¹, a surgical scrub brush and go to town on cleaning the wound.

¹ Both a skin cleanser and antiseptic, HIBICLENS® kills germs on contact and can continue working for up to 24 hours!

After ten minutes, I’m sure it’s clean so I take out the staple gun, pull the edges of the wound together and put in the staples. When I’m finished I look at my work and I’m damn proud of the job.

I hear a vehicle pull into the driveway and notice it’s a Truth Network van...

Present – Samantha – At the Blaine’s cabin

I assume we would be the first ones here, and since I don’t see anyone around, I honk the horn until Ben opens the door. I roll down the window and yell, “I’m not sure if we will destroy any evidence if we exit the van.”

Ben yells in reply, “Thanks for asking but Jim has already taken some pictures so you should be fine.”

John and I exit the van, I walk over to Ben, give him a big hug and say, “I’m so sorry this happened.”

Ben shakes his head and berates himself, “It’s my fault for becoming complacent and ignoring security.”

I console Ben, “You can’t blame yourself because your life had settled down. Do you have any idea who took them?”

Ben again shakes his head and admits, “Not a single idea - there were four men and they all wore masks.”

I smile at Ben and suggest, “Let’s save everything else for the interview.”

Ben replies, “That’s a great idea, you might want to include Glen on this because he was here when it happened.

John and I move into the house where he sets up the camera and I begin.

“Hello America this is Samantha Stevens reporting for the Truth Network. Unfortunately I have sad news to report today. After six years of living an idyllic life, Jennifer Blaine and her two children, Fiona and James, were abducted this morning.”

I turn to Glen and say, “Glen Donaldson, you were here when this happened, could you tell us about it.”

Glen replies, “Sure. I was playing with the children when the front door exploded and four armed men rushed into the house. They clubbed me on the head with the barrel of their rifle, put black bags over My Jennifer’s, Fiona’s and James’ heads and hauled them out into the waiting van. It all happened so fast that I couldn’t even react.”

I continue with the interview, “Glen, what was the color of the van.”

Glen replies, “It was one of those black, foreign vans.”

I ask an additional question, “Did it have any windows?”

Glen shakes his head and says, “No and the front windshield was black as hell.”

Ben holds up his hand and says, “Samantha, I need to get this information to Jim. Please hold the interview.”

John stops the tape, Ben takes out his phone, calls Jim and relays the additional information. It sounds like Jim is swearing for Glen not telling him this earlier. Ben sits back down and says, “Thank you, now we can continue.”

I look at Ben and ask, “Ben you weren’t here at the time of the abduction, is that correct?”

Ben says, “No, I was out walking with Destiny. Glen practically had a heart attack running to get me after the attack.”

I smile at Ben and ask, “Is there any message that you would like to send the kidnappers?”

Ben glares at the camera and declares, “I would like to tell the SOB’s who took my family that I will chase them round Good Hope, round the Horn, round the Norway Maelstrom, and round Perdition’s flames before I give up². And when I catch them, I will send them into those flames.”

² Quote from Moby Dick.

I close, “There you have it America. This is a sad day but I am sure it will be resolved.”

John begins to pack up the gear, Ben motions me to the side and asks, “Sam, I need to know if this is Stacy’s doing?”

I put my hand on Ben’s arm and reply, “Ben, I called Stacy and she was surprised about this. So I don’t think she had anything to do with it.”

Ben replies, “Samantha, I’m not really convinced she was not involved.”

I hope like hell that Ben doesn’t bother Stacy since that’s the very last thing she needs and could cause her to relapse.

I tell Ben, “I’m leaving to get this report on the air. But please don’t bother Stacy.”

Present – Ben – Back at the cabin

I’m more than a little pissed off at Glen and Jim. Why didn’t Jim question Glen better and get the information about the van out of him? Hell, I had to rely on Samantha to pull that information out of Glen. When I called Jim, he updated the Amber alert information and apologized. But if this cost me Jens or one of my kids, I was going to kill the fucker...

I decide to gear up so I go to my safe pull out my 1911 in 10mm and strap it on. I also grab an M4.

I hear sirens as a Marshalls van pulls in front of the house.

Present – Inga and Gretchen – Arrival at the cabin

I make some more calls on my trip to the cabin and call in some favors. If we are going to setup security again, we will need some warm bodies to man the gate and the perimeter. I meet the Truth Network as it was leaving, pull up beside it and roll down my window to talk to Samantha. I ask, “Did you get a good interview?”

Samantha replies, “Yeah as good as such a sad interview can be. Glen gave me much more information on the van than Jim got out of him.”

I praised her, “Good job. When will this go on the air?”