Pat just held me against him for what felt like hours. My arms clung to him like a new born to their mothers. I didn't want to let go. After a while and a gallon of tears Pat finally pulled me off of him.
"Where have you been Ashlyn? Bobby and Eli have been here demanding I tell them where you are along with planning Eds funeral arrangements it has been a stressful couple of days." Pat said and led me over to the couch I have spent countless of nights sleeping on.
"That night I went to dinner with Bobby and Logan was actually a surprise party for me for signing the new contract. I don't know how he did it but my signature was on the final page of the new contract. I couldn't live under his control anymore Pat. I left the party and came home to find you and Ed..." I stopped my sentence there. I didn't want to finish it. I took a few deep breaths and put my head in my hands.
"I walked to the bridge that's over the river and I was going to jump off. Thea, the cop who spoke with you, saved my life. She pulled me back over the rail and has been letting me stay with her while I've been deciding what I'm going to do next." I said.
Pat didn't say anything and just pulled me into him. We didn't say anything for a while. I know my time with him is limited right now and I shouldn't be wasting it but I couldn't help but just wanting to be held by him.
"Did you plan Ed's funeral yet?" I asked after a while.
"Not yet. I've just been calling our family to let them know of his passing. Our son Nicholas is going to be coming up from North Carolina with his wife tomorrow to help me plan everything. I want you to be there Ashlyn. You're like our daughter and I know he would have wanted you to sing at the service." Pat said and moved some of my hair off my face as I sat back against the couch.
"Whatever you need me to do. Do you need help with the expenses? Funerals aren't cheap." I said speaking from experience.
"No dear, we have bought plots a few years ago and money set aside for this for a while now. Ed will just want you to help me get all his pictures together for the boards at the wake." Pat said with a chuckle.
"We'll find the most embarrassing ones of us and have them on display for everyone to see." I said and chuckled with him.
"He would like that a lot. His favorite picture was us at that drag show in New York City when we came down to see your show." Pat said.
"That picture was my lock screen on my phone for the longest time." I said remembering that weekend.
That was one of the best weekends. I had flown Pat and Ed to New York City to watch me play Madison Square Garden and put them up in a 5 star hotel. The tour was in support of my third album and was right before my siblings were killed. That was the first time I played Madison Square Garden as the headliner. I wanted Pat and Ed there to celebrate the big night and I ended up bringing them on stage during the encore along with my siblings.
Bobby gave me the weekend off so Saturday was spent on a shopping spree while Asher decided he would find a bar and watch the Sox game. Sunday I had my assistant find us a drag show to go to. Asher wanted to sit out again but Pat and Ed dragged him along with us. The show was so funny and luckily we were seated in a dark corner of the place. We went along with the show and went hard on the bottomless mimosas when one of the drag queens started to perform to one of my songs.
I pulled our waitress over and took my hat off and she knew who I was right away. The waitress took the microphone from the bartender and cut the music before coming over to me again. The waitress hauled me up to the stage with the drag queen and everyone in the audience yelled out excited shouts. The drag queen was going to sing and perform to my song but we ended up singing it together and dancing around the stage.
After the song was over we went back stage and chatted for a while before I asked if after the show was over if I could get some pictures of us together with my family. She agreed and I went back to my seat for the rest of the show. When the show was over and the place emptied out we took pictures with all of the queens and a lot of them ended up on social media. That was the third time I was legally reprimanded because of the terms of my contract.
A knock on the door interrupted us and I shot to my feet. Pat sensed my anxiety and told me to hide in closet. I grabbed my duffle bag and carefully walked over to the large coat closet before closing myself inside. I heard Pat open the door and I heard him sigh.
"It's you knight in shining armor Ashlyn." Pat said from the front door. Relief flooded me as I pushed the door open and found Thea standing just inside the doorway.
"I'm going on my meal just as my replacement comes in. You need to hop the fence. I can't be seen with you in the patrol car with me. When you see a second police car pull up you can go and I'll meet you around the block, okay." Thea said.
"Sounds like plan." I said. Thea nodded and let herself out.
"She seems nice." Pat said with a knowing smile.
"Don't start, you know I can't be in a relationship." I said and rubbed my head as I came out of closet.
"Even for a fling, if I were you I would go after her." Pat said with a twinkle in his eye.
"Please Pat" I sighed and watched as Thea got back into her patrol car.
"I want to see you get married one of these days Ashlyn. If she is as nice and caring as she seems I wouldn't let her go." Pat said and put his hand on my shoulder.
I didn't answer him. Thea was kind and caring and protected me from myself when I needed to be brought to my senses. Thea was also gorgeous with her blonde hair, bright hazel eyes and athletic body. In any other circumstances I would try and have at least a one night stand with her. Right now with this much uncertainty in my life, I couldn't drag her down with me.
Another few minutes past by before another patrol car pulled up behind Thea's. An officer got out and walked over to the driver's side window to talk with Thea for a moment. After a few minutes the officer walked back to his patrol car and Thea pulled away from the curb.
I pulled the cellphone Thea gave me from my pocket and called Pat's. When he pulled out his phone I hung up and the ringing stopped.
"That was me, it's my temporary number until I get a new phone. If Bobby or Eli comes back around the house can you please let me know? Also call me if you need any help with the funeral." I said and gave him a hug.
"Please be careful Ashlyn. I don't know what Bobby was planning with that new contract but he was on a warpath when he came over here." Pat said and pulled away from me.
"It helps that I'm shacking up with a cop. I love you Pat." I said as opened the back door.
"I love you too kid." He said and smiled as I closed the door behind me.
Unlike me, Pat has a white chain link fence in the backyard that I can easily climb. I threw the duffle over first and then climbed over the fence myself. Thea was waiting for me when I landed on the ground with the trunk of the patrol car open. I quickly threw the duffle bag in the back, slammed the lid and got into the car.
We didn't say anything to each other as she drove us back to her house. The only sound in the car was coming from her radio. It only took a few minutes before we reached her house on the top of the hill. Thea pulled the release on the trunk and turned to me.
"Thank you for letting me get back into my house." I said and gave her a smile.
"You're welcome. I'll be home around midnight. Please stay off the bridge. It's going to snow again tonight." Thea said.
"You got it boss." I said and let myself out of the patrol car.
I watched from inside Thea's house as the patrol car rolled back down the driveway and down the block. Sighing I grabbed the duffle bag and pulled it into the kitchen and then the living room. I kind of went through my room like a mad woman grabbing things so I don't even know what I actually grabbed. So I pushed the coffee table off to the side of the living room and emptied the contents of the duffle bag on the living room floor. Before I settled on the floor to go through it all I grabbed the TV remote and turned on the TV. I left the news playing in the background as I got to work on sorting out my clothes.
It looks like I grabbed a good mix of things and I should be okay for a little bit. I didn't get to grab anything nice so it looks like I'm going to be underdressed for the meeting with Thea's lawyer friend. I made piles on the floor for everything I grabbed and looked at the duffle bag again to make sure I didn't miss anything. Turns out the only two things in the bag is the cash I grabbed from my room and the copy of the contract I was given.
Once everything was sorted out I got off the living room floor and made way to the kitchen to make myself something for dinner. After checking out the fridge I noticed that Thea is going to have to go food shopping because there really isn't much food in the fridge. I checked the freezer and saw her collection of frozen dinners before I sighed and closed the fridge.
Looks like I'm having eggs for dinner. When I was done cooking I took my plate and drink over to the couch and sat down to tune into the news. Just as I started to eat a breaking news story started to flash across the screen and I raised the volume.
"Breaking news coming in right now in the story of missing popstar Ash Monroe. Police claim to have a lead on the stars disappearance. Let's listen into the press conference now." The anchor said and the screen changed to the police chief.
"Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I want to make this brief as to the late hour. We have obtained security cam footage of Ms. Monroe from the night of her disappearance. I will play the videos on screen in a moment. The video is of her around 1am running through Salem town on foot. We do not know if she got into a vehicle after she was seen on these videos and have now focused our search area more towards Essex Bridge and the surrounding neighbors. We have been in contact with the Beverly Police Department for their assistants in this search for the possibility that Ms. Monroe made her way through Beverly towards Beverly Regional Airport. That is all we have right now so I'm going to play the video and will be sending this video out to all news outlets in the region for them to broadcast it to hopefully alert people to what Ms. Monroe was wearing on the night in question to see if this will lead us to any creditable tips on the tip line." The police chief informed us.
He stepped aside and hit a button on a laptop which cued up the video in question. The video started out from the electronic store in town. You can see me speed walk slash run in front of the store front. The next video was from the deli that's next door and I'm more walking now. The video continued for a minute. Just of me speed walking through town from multiple angels. There was one clear shot of me when I was in front of the deli and the video paused to showcase my outfit iI was wearing that night.
"I will only be taking a few questions at this time." The police chief said after everyone got a good look at the picture and he took his place back behind the podium. All the reporters in the room started yelling when the chief selected one.
"Chief Connley do you currently have a search party set up to start searching the area you mentioned?" The reporter asked.
"Not at the moment, we are going to see how the weather is tomorrow and have our officers start canvasing the area to see if we can get the area narrowed down a bit more before we start assembling a search party." The chief answered and picked on another reporter.
"Do you have any reason to believe that Ms. Monroe is deceased?" The reporter asked.
"Not at the moment, we are still working on this case as she is missing. We are still in the very beginning of our investigation." The chief answered and choose another reporter.
"Do you believe that Ms. Monroe doesn't want to be found?" This reporter asked. Whoever they were they were right on the money.
"We do not know why Ms. Monroe has not turned up yet." Chief Connley said a bit stunned by the question.
"There are rumors that Ms. Monroe was at odds with her label before her disappearance, do you suspect foul play is involved regarding her sudden disappearance?" The same reporter asked.
"That will be all the questions for right now, thank you again for coming out." Police Chief Connley said and walked off the stage.
Looks like the police have more investigating to do. It also looks like Bobby was feeding them a bunch of lies when he reported me missing. Hopefully it takes them a bit longer to put the whole picture together. I'm not ready to be found yet.