Chapter 5: The Disappearing Family Farm

The next day it was just like déjà vu all over again. Kim walked into the kitchen dressed in her jeans and cotton shirt with a big smile on her face that lit up the room just like daylight.

I heard the front door open and close as Grace came in similarly dressed. "Art, I don't know what you did with my little girl but when she got home last night she was talking non-stop about your great adventure. She was excited and going off a mile a minute so I decided to come see what was so intriguing to her."

"Grace, you are always welcome to join us. Would you like to go with us today? We're going out to shoot some old abandoned farms for a book I'm doing."

"I would love to. When do we head out?"

"We can leave just as soon as we grab a bite to eat."

Alice did us up some scrambled eggs, bacon and toast as we sipped on some coffee and chatted. Kim was still telling her mother about our adventure the previous day. I took Grace into my studio to show her the picture of the jumping fish that Kim had taken.

"My daughter took that picture?'

"She sure did. Isn't it great?"

"Yes it is. I would like a print of it to hang in my living room."

"When we get back I'll print it out for you. Also I am pretty sure I can sell it for her."

"Wow! That would be fantastic."

About 30 minutes later we were done and loaded up my SUV for the trip. We drove west on the highway until we arrived at one of the abandoned farms I had spotted earlier.

I wanted to get somewhat of an aerial view of the property so I pulled into a field by a hill so we could climb up and get a good view from above the farm. We arrived at the top of the hill and had an excellent vantage point from which we could get shots of the whole farm. Kim and I started clicking off pictures while Grace watched us work. Kim even loaned Grace the camera she had so she could take a few pictures herself. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Grace taking pictures of me while I shot the farm below.

As I was shooting the pictures I noticed a white van coming down the road that pulled into the driveway of the farm. The van pulled up to the barn and the passenger got out so he could open the doors to the barn. The van pulled in and the passenger closed the doors. A short time later the two men came out the side door of the barn and I noticed one of them was carrying what looked like an unconscious young girl about 10 years old. They took the girl into the house and then left about 20 minutes later in the white van. We kept taking pictures of everything that was going on, even zooming in on the license plate of the van.

I had heard on the news about a rash of kidnappings in the surrounding communities and hoped we had stumbled onto the hideout of the kidnappers. I gave them a few minutes to leave and told the girls to wait there for me while I went down to the house.

I covertly made my way to the house and peeked into the windows. The first one I looked in allowed me to see the living room which was sparsely furnished with a couch, large chair, TV and a table. There were newspapers and magazines scattered around the floor and that was about all there was to see. There was no sign of the girl I had seen carried into the house.

I then worked my way around the house looking into each window as I went but still could not see the girl anywhere. When I got around to the back of the house I noticed a back porch with a trellis which allowed me to climb up onto the porch roof where I could look into some of the second story windows.

The first window I looked into was a bedroom with a bed and dresser. It was strange that I could see some ropes attached to the corners of the bed. My mind was going crazy imagining possible scenarios where the ropes would be used. I noticed that there were some blood stains in the center of the bed probably from virgins being deflowered. I shuddered at my own thoughts as I pulled myself away from the window and crawled over to the other window which was boarded up but had a gap in the boards.

When I peered into that window I got the shock of my life. There were several mattresses on the floor and the girl that we saw carried in was then conscious and was sitting on one of the mattresses crying her heart out while two other girls hugged her, obviously trying to comfort her. A few other girls sat on the other mattresses in various states of dress and undress. Some were fully clothed, some in just underwear and a couple totally nude. They varied in age from what I estimated to be 10 to 17 years old. All in all I counted at least eight pretty girls.