[flipflop]

Seventy-five miles southwest of Dave's location, Liz's cellphone suddenly rang. As the sound of the ring tone pierced the tense silence of the remote cabin, Liz gasped. Hoping upon hope that it was Dave.

Looking at the phones call screen, Carpenter saw Dave's name appear. He hit the touch screen to connect the call and watched Liz as she realized the call was live.

The second she heard Dave's voice, she burst into tears and started sobbing, hysterically, into the phone.

"Oh my God! Oh my God, Dave! I need you so badly. I'm in sooo much trouble!! I'm so scared!"

The more she talked the more hysterical she got. And the more hysterical she got, the harder it was for Dave to comprehend what she was telling him.

Trying to remain calm, as his wife screamed hysterically into the phone, he listened carefully, waiting to get a clue that would tell him what was happening. Finally, Liz paused and took a deep breath, before she screamed, "Dave! I've been kidnapped!"

As he heard the words from Liz's mouth, his blood suddenly ran cold. Almost instantly, he felt himself breaking into a sweat.

Then, composing himself before he spoke, he tried to sound unrattled as he prepared to ask her questions.

"Can he hear you talking to me?"

"Yes! Th-th-they're right here in the room with me" responded Liz, with a trembling voice.

"They?" thought Dave. "You said they! How many are there, Liz?" pausing to glance around the room, Liz responding "f-f-four! There are four of them". "Four???" thought Dave. "That doesn't sound good", he thought.

"Do they gave any weapons?" Liz's voice trembled slightly as she responded. "He has a b-b-big knife. He keeps waving it in my face.".

"Have they hurt you? Have they touched you?" Dave asked. "If they lay a hand on you, I'll kill everyone of them!"

Liz listened to Dave's swelling anger, and smiled inwardly as he swore to protect her. Of course, for all his chest thumping, neither he nor Liz knew where she was. So at this point, all his bravado was just talk, and was of no value. However, he knew it would help keep Liz's spirits up.

"Can you see out the window?" he asked. "No. The shades are pulled and the curtains are closed."

"Well can you sneak over there and peek out through the curtains?"

"No! Dave, you don't understand. I'm handcuffed to the bed. I can't move!" Suddenly hearing that she was on a bed, in a room with four men, significantly increased Dave's level of concern.

"You're sure they haven't touched you?" Dave asked again. "Yes! I'm positive. He promised he wouldn't hurt me if I did everything he told me to".

Listening in to her conversation, Carpenter smiled. "That's not quite right" he thought to himself. " I said I wouldn't kill her if she did what I told her. I never said I wouldn't hurt her."

Somewhat relieved by that comment, Dave wiped his brow and took a deep breath. "Then you keep doing that. Just keep yourself alive by doing what they tell you. You're doing great so far, kiddo!" Dave told her, as he tried to keep her encouraged. "I love you" he told her. "I love you too," came Liz's reply. "Please help me Dave! PLEASE!" she pleaded.

"I'm trying, honey!" said Dave." I'm really trying!". Then he considered his options. There weren't many. He didn't know, where she was and Liz was in no position to help him narrow it down. She didn't know how long she had been there or how long the drive was to get there. All she could tell him was that she was abducted from the college.

Based on how much time had passed, she could be anywhere within a 100 mile radius, possibly even across the state line in Minnesota.

And being that he had been out of law enforcement for over 10 years, he didn't have the police contacts, or the influence that he once did.

"Can you describe them to me, sweetheart?", Dave asked. Liz started given a description, when suddenly her voice stopped. A second later there was an unfamiliar male voice on the line.

"Okay. We've let you ask enough questions now it's our turn to talk. "Who is this?" Dave demanded to know. "Shut up asshole," came Carpenter 's reply. "Your going to listen for awhile. Unless you want the cops to find your pretty wife, rotting in a dumpster." Dave stopped talking. "That's better", said Carpenter.

"Your wife has followed the rules and that's why she's still alive. If you want to keep her that way, you'll do the same thing. Now listen, asshole! Here is how this is going to go."

"I'm going to put your wife back on the phone and she's going to talk to you. While she's on the phone with you, you are not to disconnect this call for any reason. We will keep the line open and so will you. If your wife calls your name, at any point during this call and you don't respond, we will assume you have disconnected the call, or stepped away from the phone."

If you disconnect the call or step away from the phone so you are unable to respond to, questions, we will kill her. Do you understand?" Dave, responded with a controlled, "yes".

This tactic might work in his favor he thought. "I could mute the call, then activate a second call with the the police and they could try to isolate the signal location from Liz's phone while I'm still connected."

Then almost as if Carpenter was inside his head, he said "oh. And by the way. To make sure you stay on the line and that we continually have your undivided attention, I want you to turn on your radio."

"What?" asked Dave. " I said turn on your car radio." Slowly Dave turned it on and music started playing over the speakers. Carpenter said, "Okay. Now tune it to 107.3 and leave it there and turn up the volume." Dave did as he was instructed.

As he got the radio to the right station, he rolled his eyes. It was some grunge station that played non-mainstream rap and other types of music that most stations would get in trouble with the FCC, for playing on the air.

"Good. Now while you're on the line, I will have your wife's handset set to speaker and she'll be on a headset. As long as this phone connection is live, I'll hear music or commercials from this station streaming across the speaker. If at any time I don't hear this radio station over her phone, I'll know you muted the call. If that happens", Carpenter continued, "this bitch will end up in the morgue! Is that understood?"

Dave hesitated before he answered. "Geez! Who the hell us this guy?" he wondered. He'd considered every possible contingency. If the kidnapping victim had been anybody other than Liz. Dave would have actually been slightly impressed. But now. All he wanted was to have Liz home safe, and this guys face, dead center, in the sights of his Glock.

"Hey asshole!" Carpenter said. "Are you listening? I asked if you understand. Calmly, Dave responded, "yes. I understand". His outward calm was masking the panic that was starting to build under the surface. Dave was not in control of this situation and not being in control meant he had no way to direct the outcome. And the more his brain rehashed what Liz had told him, the more concerned he became that it would not be a positive turn of events.

Good", said Carpenter. "Now here's the next part. And it's just as important. So listen carefully. As of this moment", Carpenter said. " There are only six people on the planet who know about the fact the your wife has been kidnapped. Those people are you, me, your pretty wife and my three friends. If you tell anybody else about this, or call the cops, we'll slit this bitch's throat! Do you understand, fuck head?" Dave responded, "yes".

As Dave listened, he kept waiting for last piece of information...a ransom demand. "That has be coming next" he thought. He and Liz didn't have a ton of money but he could get some from his 401K if it meant saving her life.

"So how much do you want?" asked Dave. "How much is the ransom?" Carpenter responded, I don't want any ransom. This isn't about money, asshole", he said. "No ransom?" thought Dave. "Then what do you want?" he asked. "You'll find that out in a few minutes", came Carpenter's answer.

"Now I'm going to put your wife back on the phone. Remember! No matter what she tells you, do not disconnect this call or turn off that radio! If you do...your wife dies!"


There was a delay of several seconds before Liz was reconnected through the headset. Once she was back on the line, Dave was glad to hear her voice again, even though she was crying and she kept telling him how scared she was. He tried to reassure her that he would keep her safe. Projecting confidence that he would find her, and save her.

His confident demeanor seemed to keep Liz calm and help her to believe that he was actually working on a plan. But he felt guilty for trying to give her false hope. Because in reality he felt as helpless as she did. He had no plan and absolutely no reason to be confident.
And as much as it pained him to acknowledge it, the thing that was keeping him from trying to come up with a rescue plan for Liz was...Liz!

As long as he was on the phone with her, he couldn't make any other calls or try to bring in any kind of help from outside sources. But he couldn't possibly tell her that. And even if he could, he couldn't do anything about it because he couldn't hang up the phone.

He couldn't even drive anywhere, because of the spotty cell phone coverage. If he did, and the call dropped, Liz was as good as dead. He realized now that he had his back against a brick wall with no place to go. He rubbed his temples. He was getting a throbbing headache. Between the God awful music on his radio that was offending his ears, and the dire predicament that Liz was in, he didn't see how things could get much worse.

Then, suddenly...they did!