Even though the abductors had warned me not to call the police, I thought it over and decided to report it anyway. I decided to leave the task to the professionals.
After making the report, I headed to the police station with long, determined strides.
Before I got there, my phone rang with an incoming call. I frowned at the familiar name on the screen before picking up.
“Ugh,” came the exasperated voice of Jimmy Fletcher, Shane’s cousin. As usual, his tone was full of impatience. “I see you’re having fun making false police reports. What did Shane ever do to you? Why are you so pathetic?”
Shane’s family had always looked down on me. The only ones who treated me kindly were his parents, and that was why I had to save them.
Keeping my voice even, I asked, “Jimmy, did Shane tell you I made a false police report?”
The silence on the other end was answer enough. I let out a cold chuckle.
“Jimmy, as a police officer, you’re mocking me instead of responding to my plea for help. If you don’t dispatch help, I’ll lodge a complaint against you.”
Jimmy didn’t even bother to act professionally. His voice roared through the phone. “Marrying Shane doesn’t make you better than anyone else! You’re nothing but a small-town loser. You’re like a curse to our family! If I were you, I’d have offed myself!
“If Hailey hadn’t gone abroad, do you think Shane would’ve ever married you? Don’t kid yourself, you pathetic woman. You don’t even deserve to be Hailey’s replacement!”
I ended the call expressionlessly and filed another police report, this time making sure to include a formal complaint against Jimmy.
…
At the police station, I explained the whole situation to the officers. I told them how Shane’s parents had been abducted and provided them with the recording of the abductor’s call as well as the phone number they had used.
The tech team quickly got to work, but they soon hit a wall.
The recording revealed the abductor had used a voice modulator, and the phone number was unregistered. They couldn’t call back, nor could they track its location.
“I have ten million dollars in my account. That should help us get started,” I said as I reached for my credit card.
However, my face darkened instantly. My credit card had been cut in half, and the funds had been frozen by Shane.