Geoffrey Collins, the last case. ~

Geoffrey Collins, the last case ~ Chapter 6

                                                                                                         Chapter 6

                                                                                                         29 hours

 When I got back home, I decided that I should probably talk to the parents and inform them that we had a suspect.  I couldn't tell them who the suspect was, but I thought maybe I could give them a spark of hope in this horrible time for them.  I knocked on the door and Samantha's father opened it.  "Oh detective Collins, come in."  He said, trying to hold back his emotions.  "Honey!  Detective Collins is here!"  He yelled to his wife, who seemed to be in the dining room.  "Hello detective."  She said to me with a sniffle.  It was clear by looking at her that she had been crying.  I told them that we had a suspect.  "Who is it? Who took my Sam?  I'm gonna kill him."  Samantha's father said to me while starting to cry himself.  "I'm sorry.  That's exactly why I can't tell you."  I responded.  "Why can't we just pay the ransom and get her back?"  His wife said.  "That's not how it works.  I'm sorry."  I told her.  "Why not!?"  She mournfully and angrily growled.  "How bad can paying the ransom be?  Once they have their money, why would they keep her?" "The problem is that they would have no reason to return her either."  I told the woman.  She once again began to sob.  "But we can just pay!  No one will hurt her if we pay!"  She yelled.  "Why are you so stubborn about not paying the ransom?  Is it protocol?"  She said, angrily and sarcastically.  "Not just that.''  I said.  "Then what!?''  She asked.  "Do you really

 want to know?" I asked her.  She told me that she did.  I told her the story then, and I'll tell you now.

When I was seven years old, my father abandoned us and left my mother without a husband and me without a father.  My uncle Shane became a father figure to me, and since he was a wealthy P.I turned author, he supported us until we got back on our feet.  As I got older he and I got even closer to one another.  One day, when I was twelve years old, my mom received a phone call.  "You will give us fifty-thousand dollars or we will kill this man.  Do not involve the police, or we will kill this man.  If you do not give us the money by tomorrow, we will kill this man.  Leave the money in the lost and found at Jack's Tavern in a red backpack, or we will kill this man. "  "He has a name!"  My mother shouted at the kidnappers.  The phone then hung up.  I asked my mother where we were going to get fifty thousand dollars.  "Your uncle Shane left me the pass code to his bank account.  I will open it up and use his money to get him out of this."  She told me.  I was only twelve, not even a teenager.  I knew that mom was right, I knew that paying the ransom would get Shane out of there.  So mother took fifty thousand dollars out of the bank, and left it where the kidnappers instructed.  The next day, mom went back to see if the money was gone, and it was.  The next day we found uncle Shane - outside of our apartment.    I fell to my knees and sobbed as I saw him lying on the floor dead.  I still feel guilty to this day.   He was shot three times in the back and he lay in a pool of blood.  I could've done so much more than I did.  I could have called the police, I could have told mom that we shouldn't trust the kidnappers, but I didn't.  I was a trusting child, and I'm not going to make that mistake again.  The kidnappers let him walk to the apartment and shot him at the doorstep.  That's what hurts the most; they gave him hope.

                                                                                  29 hours

"That's why I'm so adamant about not paying the ransom.  That's why I'm so 'stubborn', as you put it."  I said angrily.  "I'm sorry.  I didn't know." she said solemnly.  "I understand that once we pay the ransom  they have no reason to keep her alive."  She said as her husband nodded.  "It's just so hard to keep a clear head!  We only have a little over a day.  Please find her."  She said as she sobbed.   "I'm going to find her."  I said.  "And we are going to catch the people who did this to her."  Fueled by anger about what happened to me, and not wanting the same thing to happen to Samantha's parents, I  charged out of the house and into the police station.  "Where is detective Carpik?"  I asked the chief.  "Shouldn't he be back by now?"  "Well" Chief Hendricks said. '' I sent him home because he kept complaining about how sore he was."  I wasn't sure exactly what was happening here.   Why was the chief letting him take so much time off?  He was a penny pinching, short sighted man.  He would never give someone more time off because they were in pain!  "Chief, I want to know what's going on.  Why is he really gone?"  The chief wouldn't respond.  What was the reason.  Finally the chief told me: "I just want to make sure that there are no complications.  If he were to die, I'd lose my job, and the city would be sued."  Still I had so many questions.  Why did they shoot him and leave?  Were they coming after me?  Was it purely to distract us from the case, or was it something else?