The Next Generation: The Legacy (Book 3)

Chapter 18 - Father's and their daughters.

Chante

Cat stormed into the room. She looked furious and frazzled! She rushed to where my mother had been tied up and quickly undid the rope before taking my mother away. I shouted at her, but she glared at me only once. All I could do was pray that she wouldn’t harm my mom! A couple of minutes later, she reappeared.

“If you so much as scream, your mother will pay the price!” The fury in her eyes told me that she was being dead serious. Something must have happened to change things. I nodded, and she untied the knot behind the chair and I got up with my hands still firmly tied behind my back. She was clever. She used my mom to keep me in check.

I was so relieved when Cat opened the back of the blue van and my mom was seated on the floor. The windows were blacked out, and the van was pretty old. Cat showed me inside, and I lost my balance as she closed the back door behind me. The van didn’t have any seats in the back. It had only two seats in the front from the sound of the engine, it wasn’t going to go very far. My mom and I bounced around the back and I couldn’t see where we were going as Cat drove us somewhere.

“Mom, I’m going to figure out a way to get us out of here. Just hang in there.” I tried to console her, but I could see the fear in her eyes. I couldn’t make her any promises. From the little I knew about Cat, she could be incredibly unpredictable! I couldn’t do anything to put my mother in harms way and Cat knew that!

Freddie

We started a sweep of each building, but I knew that if they were there when we arrived, they weren’t going to be there for long. Cat was too clever to hang around, so we could catch her. We didn’t see anything. Nobody escaped that we could see, but that was probably why she chose this location. While we were chasing our tails carefully searching every single abandoned warehouse, she escaped undetected.

I wasn’t surprised when, hours later, we returned to the task team cars without finding anything. Our forensics teams were still going to do what they did so well, but we didn’t find anything. It was infuriating! I knew she had them somewhere in there! I knew the procedure, but I couldn’t help but feel as if we had wasted time. I knew we hadn’t, but I couldn’t help the way we felt. Christa told me to drive her back to the station and I got into the driver’s seat with her already waiting.

“Freddie, are you sure of what she said?” She raised a brow and I sighed deeply.

“Yeah, she doesn’t care about Simmons, or his wife or daughter. She just wants her money. She is using the rookie and her mother as leverage.” I looked at her for only a moment before focussing on the road ahead.

“I think we should pay our old friend a visit.” She didn’t have to say who. I knew where she wanted me to go and who we were going to see. Half an hour later, we pulled into the parking lot outside the jail. I was ready to kill the man we were going to see, but it would be best if I didn’t. As we were being booked in, I wondered if he would even help us.

The doors sounded awful as they opened and slammed shut. Almost as though they were trying to say there was no way you were getting out. The guard showed us into an interview room where we waited for George Simmons. I couldn’t imagine that anyone told him what happened. He looked a lot older as he shuffled into the room. I could see in his eyes for only a moment that he was surprised to see us. We waited for the guard to leave and Christa sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. I couldn’t sit down. I wanted to strangle him for what he had done!

“Have you been informed about Cat and what she demanded?” Christa got right down to the point and I patiently waited while watching his every move.

“I heard through the prison grapevine about her incredible escape. I take it you haven’t found her yet?” He smiled, but something was wrong with him. It was almost as if his soul was gone! His eyes were dead! Prison had not been good for him. It was never if you used to be on the good side of things.

“George, now is not the time to get arrogant. She has your wife and daughter!” Christa remained calm even though I could hear the fury in her voice. George’s expression changed in an instant as he gaped at us almost as if he didn’t believe a word of what we were saying.

“I won’t testify!” His eyes flared with fury. We knew it would take some convincing. We were both prepared for that.

“You fool! We aren’t asking you to testify, and I’m not kidding! She has your wife and daughter, and she’s going to kill them if you don’t tell us where the fu.cking money is!” I closed the gap between us in the blink of an eye and had George pinned to his chair with my hand mere millimetres from his damn throat. There was no way that Chante was his daughter! She was honourable from what I had seen so far. She could be fooling us the same way he did, but I don’t think so anymore.

I was starting to see the real Chante. I could see why she believed her father was her hero, and why she found it so hard to come here and see him like that. His face was pale all of a sudden as the realization of what I said finally sunk in.