She Belongs to Me (Rewritten Version)

Chapter Twenty Six

Vincent

The cold feeling of a gun pressed against my head knocked the wind from my confident sails. I truly thought Emily's parents bought the story I gave them about my sick grandmother, but I was wrong.

"Take it easy, Kenneth," I said, bravely pushing the pistol away from me.  "You're making a mistake."

"The only mistake I made was letting Emily date a creep like you," He pressed the gun against my temple as he heard the  sound of footsteps running on my porch, "Don't make me kill you, son."

"You would really risk going to prison, just because you suspect me of something I didn't do? You need to think about what you're doing here."

His large hand wrapped around my throat, and he shoved me against the door, forcing the barrel of the gun into my mouth. My teeth ached from the impact, and I could taste the cold metal.

"You need to shut the hell up. There's no way you're going to talk your way out of this, so keep your thoughts to yourself and show me around."

The detectives soon banged on the door, demanding that he come out, but it didn't phase him one bit.  He kept his eyes fixed on me.  "Are you going to do as I say, or do I pull the trigger?"

"Alright, alright!" My words were heavily distorted from the gun until he pulled it out. "This is a waste of time, but if it'll make you feel better, let's go."

We barely made it into the bedroom before the front door was kicked down.  Footsteps came charging down the hallway, and he was caught by the detectives, who both looked extremely pissed.

The pretty detective pointed her weapon at both of us, while her partner tried to wrestle the gun out of Kenneth's grip.  "Drop your weapon!"  She said, her voice hard, her blue eyes soft.  "Please, do as I say."

"I'm trying to find my daughter, damn it! Why won't you assholes do your job and search the place!?"

"Listen, Mr. Hayden," Johnson said, keeping his hand wrapped around his arm. "We know you want to find her, but you need to let us do our jobs."

"I was told you morons dropped the search!"

The pretty detective shook her head. "That wasn't our call, sir, which is why we're here."

"You're going to search the house again?"

"Yes."

My throat tightened like there was an invisible hand choking the life out of me.  I thought we had this settled!  "Pardon me for asking," I said, smiling at the pretty detective, "Do you have a warrant?"

I could tell from the look in her eyes that she didn't.

"Well, then, I'm going to have to ask you to leave.  I have cooperated with you since day one, allowing you to search my home and ask me all kinds of demeaning questions, and I'm done being harassed. I trust you know your way out the door, officer."

"Alright, Vincent, we'll go.  But first I want to ask you about your psychologist, Doctor Holt."

Dear God, I did not see that one coming. I folded my arms across my chest, trying to maintain the stoic look on my face. "Yes, what about him?"

"Have you seen him lately?"

"We had a virtual appointment a few weeks ago. I needed to confide in him after Emily disappeared."

"That's the last time you saw him?"

"Yes, why? Is something wrong?"

"He's missing." Johnson grunted, "And according to his secretary, he planned to check on you about a week ago after not hearing from you."