This takes place long after Eliza's family fell apart. Her children had gone their ways, enjoying their lives.
Grim?
Her memory was a little...faulty over that one.
She had changed her name to August and went back to her old...old ways, not using m...
Makenzie giggled with delight as she swung back and forth on the playground swings. Her big brother Caleb sat nearby, engrossed in his phone. Unfazed by his lack of attention, Makenzie hopped off the swing and dashed towards the colorful slide.
"Watch me, Caleb!" she shouted, her voice filled with excitement. Caleb looked up briefly and gave her a half-hearted nod before returning to his phone.
Makenzie slid down the vibrant slide, her laughter echoing through the park. She darted around the playground, her tiny legs carrying her from one adventure to the next. As she reached the sandbox, she started building castles in the soft sand.
Suddenly, a man approached Makenzie with a friendly smile.
"Hey there, little one! I'm having a party right now, and I thought you might want to come. My children and all the other kids in the neighbourhood will be there. What do you say?"
Makenzie hesitated, glancing around.
Stranger danger.
"Are you a friend of my family?"
The man nodded reassuringly.
"Absolutely! Your parents told me to invite you. It's going to be so much fun!"
Caleb, still absorbed in his phone, put his earphones in. Makenzie - trusting the man's words - eventually agreed to go to the 'party'.
"Great! Hop in, and I'll take you there," the man said, leading her towards a car parked nearby.
Meanwhile, Caleb looked up from his phone and noticed Makenzie was nowhere to be seen. Panic set in as he frantically searched the playground.
"Makenzie?! Where are you?" he called out, scanning the area.
Growing increasingly concerned, Caleb rushed around, checking every corner of the park. Unable to find his little sister, he finally dialed his parents and explained the situation.
"Makenzie's missing- I can't find her at the park!" Caleb's voice trembled as he spoke to his parents.
Within minutes, the police were called, and Caleb continued the desperate search for his sister. The gravity of the situation sank in when the police contacted the FBI, recognizing the potential danger.
As Makenzie sat in the car with the seemingly friendly man, she began to feel uneasy. The surroundings looked unfamiliar, and doubt crept into her mind. Sensing her discomfort, the man tried to reassure her with a forced smile.
Back at the park, Caleb's anxiety turned into sheer panic. The police arrived, and together they initiated a thorough search. The urgency of the situation escalated as the FBI got involved, realizing the severity of a potential abduction.
The man continued driving, oblivious to the unfolding chaos behind them. The once joyful park now transformed into a scene of worry and desperation as authorities raced against time to find Makenzie before it was too late.
____
"Makenzie Dartmouth, 8 years old, was at the park with her brother when she was taken. Usually it would be a 24 hour timer, but for her, it may be less."
* How so?
"She has epilepsy. If she gets too stressed, she'll seize."
Talia handed the other three their file for the case.
"It's an hour plane journey, wings up in 20."
Within half an hour, the four were on the private jet, on their way to the town Makenzie was abducted.
"Before Makenzie, the last two weeks in that town was pretty hectic. Two weeks ago, a girl named Indie was found dead in a river and a week later, a boy called Will was found in a forest on the other side of town." Talya explain, showing picture of the two crime scenes.
* The unsub is alternating between girls and boys. And the murders are being done in weekly increments. Our timer might be extended.
"When we land, Eliza and Jacob, talk to the brother and parents. Talya and I will set up with the police and find out more about the two previous murders."
...
Makenzie awoke on the frigid mattress. The chilling reality sank in - there was no party, just a nightmare of kidnapping. The room, with its dried blood-stained walls, told a tale of previous horrors.
In the dimness, Makenzie sobbed, her cries echoing within the confined space.
"Help!!! Somebody, please help me!"
Upstairs, the man, unaffected by her torment, continued his pretense of normalcy.
As Makenzie's cries intensified, the man stormed down into the room, his rage palpable.
"You need to shut up! No one's coming to save you!"
Meanwhile, in a command center filled with maps and screens, Mason conferred with Talya.
"We need to triangulate the possible locations. Talya, check the recent communications in the area."
She nodded and tapped away at her computer, determination etched on her face.
"I'm on it. We won't let him slip through the cracks."
They needed to find little Kenzie..
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Eliza and Jacob sat down with the family, asking all three of them a series of questions. Jacob took Caleb into a separate room to talk.
"We're going to do a visual activity, it'll help us to zone in on what you picked up without realising it at the time. Is that okay?" Jacob asked.
Caleb nodded.
He closed his eyes and walked through the morning with his sister. They woke up, got ready, had breakfast. He helped her take her eye drops and checked her scars.
"Scars?"
"We were in a car crash 6 months ago..."
"I'm sorry to hear that, what can you tell me about that crash?"
"Um...I broke my arm, my parents were pretty bad for three weeks or so...the car caught on fire, Kenz got burnt pretty bad on the right side of her gave and neck, but she's recovering well. The cat that crashed into us had a man...and he had a child and a wife..they were fine....oh my God-"
"What? Caleb talk to me."
"He..he was there. I think he was- when we were walking to the park I saw him but it was a different car, it was grey. He looked at me but I only smiled back...was that a coincidence?"
"We won't know for sure until we talk to him. Thank you Caleb."
