The Girl Who Doesn't Speak

Chapter 18

A million things ran through my head the moment I saw the gun pointing straight at my best friend's head. I didn't even know what to do without getting Rhett killed, as well as myself, Devon and Blue. I couldn’t even help wonder what he could possibly want with her. What did she do for this man to be after her?
 
I keep Blue behind me, I step forward, holding up my hands in surrender. “Please, put the gun down.”
 
The man chuckles. “I won’t be putting this down until you hand over the girl.”
 
“What do you want from Blue?”
 
He smirks. “Oh, you wouldn’t believe what I want from her, Riley.”
 
I stare at him with a puzzle look. “How do you know my name?”
 
He chuckles. “How do I know your name? Why, Riley, I would have thought you remember me, but I guess your sister didn’t tell you about me. Wait, no, she couldn’t have told you because she was dead before she could.”
 
I narrow my eyes at him, taking a step towards him and Rhett. “Don’t speak that way about my sister.”
 
“Stay back!” he yells at me. He gestures his eyes down to my best friend. “Are you forgetting where I’m pointing this gun?”
 
I stand still, not wanting Rhett to be hurt. I don’t want to live with the regret if anything happens to him. My eyes stay focus on the gun, trying to figure out how to get Rhett, myself and the others out of this mess without anyone getting killed.
 
“Your sister always spoke about you,” the man continues on. “Honestly, I didn’t care about you. All I wanted was one thing before I murdered her.”
 
My eyes widen when I finally realised who this guy is. He’s the guy Tiffany had been talking to for a couple of weeks online before meeting him. The bastard murdered her! He murdered my sister!
 
I clench my fist, but don’t move in case the guy is serious and really will pull the trigger. Behind me, Blue places a hand on my shoulder as if she was to tell me it was alright. It wasn’t alright. This man murdered Tiffany! What was he thinking when he killed her?
 
“You bastard,” I growl. “Why did you kill Tiffany? She had her whole life ahead of her, and you took that away from her!”
 
“Riley,” the soft unknown voice fills the room.
 
I didn’t know who had spoken at first. Even Devon and Rhett looked surprised through their terrified expressions. Tiffany’s murderer doesn’t look surprise. A cruel smirk is on his lips instead.
 
I turn around, facing Blue. Her green eyes are a mixture of fear and sympathy, like she knew this guy all along and is sorry I have to find out this way.
 
She squeezes my hand. “I want you to know that I didn’t want you to find out like this. I was hoping he will stop looking for me and forget what I had seen.”
 
“What did you see, Blue?”
 
“I told you I had ran away from home. I didn’t know where to go, so I hid out in the bush, camping there. The night your sister was killed, I heard screaming. I went to check it out, and saw Tiffany trying to get away from this man. I went to help her, and we ran into bush to escape. We got separated and he...”
 
“What, Blue? What happened?”
 
I know what happened, but I wanted to hear Blue say it. Like it would finally give me a better understanding with knowing what happened to my sister. At the same time, I didn’t want to know all of the glory details, things that will keep me up at night, wishing I was there to have saved her. I wished that night I could have stopped her from going out on that date.
 
Blue opens and closes her mouth, but couldn’t answer me. It suddenly became clear to me to why Blue was running, how she ended up here in Manly. She was hiding. She didn’t speak because of the trauma, or maybe she was afraid this man will recognise her voice. When I had found her on the beach, she would have recognised me from the news interview my parents did when we had reporter her missing. I stood next to my parents as Mum begged her to come home. Her body was discovered a few days later.
 
I turn back to the man. “So Blue witnessed what you did, and that’s why you want her dead too. If I do give her to you, you won’t only shoot her, but you will have to shoot my friends and me because we now know what you did.”
 
The man chuckle. “Very clever, Riley. But you know, we can forget any of this happen if you just hang over the girl.”
 
I clench my fist together. “You son of a bitch. You will never get away with this.”
 
He narrows his eyes, and clicks the gun. “Hand her over now! I’m not playing games here. I will shoot your friend, and I will shoot you all if you don’t give me what I want. Now hand over the girl.”
 
“Do what he says, Riley,” Rhett begs me.
 
“Yeah, come on, Riley,” Devon adds.
 
I’m about to open my mouth again to protest because this isn’t right. I shouldn’t have to hand over Blue all because she witnessed my sister’s death, and he now wants her dead. But Blue’s hand touches my shoulder.
 
“Don’t fight back, Riley,” she tells me. “You will only anger him more.”
 
I shake my head. “I can’t let him take you.”
 
She steps in front of me, touching my cheek. “I’m going to be okay. I won’t let him get me like he did with Tiffany.”
 
She turns her back to me, and walks towards the man.
 
“You don’t have to do this, Blue,” I tell her.
 
Blue turns back to me. “Yes, I do. If I don’t. You and your friends are going to be killed, and I can’t let that happen.”
 
“Stop your chit-chatting,” the man scolds at us.
 
Blue gives me a sad smile, one I wonder if I am ever going to see again. She stands in front of the man.
 
“Okay, you have got me,” she says. “Now let Rhett go.”
 
The man does what Blue tells him. He releases Rhett, and he runs over to me. The man then aggressively grabs Blue, dragging her out the door. Before he leaves, he turns back to us.
 
“If you call the police, I will come back here and come after you next,” he warns.
 
He pushes Blue out the door and down the stairs.
 
I’m about to follow, but Rhett grabs my arm.
 
“Are you crazy, man?” he asks me. “Don’t go after him! He has a gun!”
 
“He has Blue!” I growl. “He is going to kill her!”
 
Devon closes the door and then steers me to the couch, making me sit down. He makes Rhett sit down as well.
 
“No one is going after that psycho,” he tells us. “What we are going to do is stay here, and call the police.”
 
“Devon, we can’t call the police,” Rhett says. “Didn’t you hear what he will do to us?”
 
“He isn’t coming back for us.”
 
“How do you know? He held a gun to my head, Devon! A gun!”
 
“Trust me, but that guy is going to be long gone once he –”
 
“Don’t finish that sentence,” I say.
 
I get up from the couch and walk away from my friends. I walk over to the sliding door and step out onto the balcony. I lean on the railing, hoping I could catch a glimpse of that jerk on the street, but he is long gone.
 
Memories hit me hard as I remember the police knocking on our door to inform us to what happened to Tiffany. I may not get informed about Blue, but her father will. There’s a pain in my chest from the memory, and before I know it, I’m sobbing hard. I’m crying about my sister and I’m crying for Blue. I wasn’t able to be there when Tiffany died, and I’m not going to be able to save Blue.
 
The door opens, and both Rhett and Devon are at my side.
 
“Riley, it’s going to be okay,” Devon assures me.
 
I shake my head, my tears choking on my words as I speak. “How is it going to be okay? Blue is going to be murdered!”
 
“Here is what we are going to do, Riley. The three of us are going to go back inside. I’m going to call the police.”
 
“We can’t call the police, Devon, “ Rhett says.
 
“We have to, Rhett. Maybe the police will have an opportunity to get to him first before he does anything.”
 
“We don’t even know where he is taking her,” I point out.
 
Devon puts a hand on my shoulder. “Maybe not, but the police could track him down.”
 
I wasn’t a hundred percent sure on what Devon suggested, but perhaps he is right. We need to track down Blue before it’s too late. I may not have been able to save my sister, but I can save Blue.