Snatched, page 4
“You know what would be great, Agent, whoever you are, is if you could just find our little Konnor.”
Blayze brushed the comment aside. “So you must be Alex then, which makes you Hartlyn.” His attention moved straight away from him but stayed focused on her. The last thing Blayze wanted was a standoff between the parents and the team. “Parents of Konnor Woods, missing since November twentieth, 2017. Correct?”
“That’s right,” Hartlyn replied while nodding.
“Thank you,” Blayze responded while shifting his focus to the next couple. “And you are?”
“I’m Mackynsie and this is my husband, Jason. Parents of Shawnita——”
“Murray,” Blayze jumped in. “Shawnita Murray, reported missing on November thirteenth, 2019.”
“We are Jaidon’s parents, Dan and Kelly Gaines,” a man blurted out before Blayze had even looked at them. “He’s been missing since December first, 2018. It’s almost two years now and we’ve heard nothing.”
“None of us have,” Alex butted in. “Kept in the dark, probably like our children.”
A sudden slap from Hartlyn came to Alex’s arm. “Just shut up, will you?”
Everyone’s attention was once again directed towards Mr and Mrs Woods. Blayze had already concluded that they were the kind of couple who always had to be noticed wherever they went.
“Are we okay to carry on now?” Blayze asked the Woods sarcastically, just in case they hadn’t finished. There was a second’s silence while Blayze paused and stared at the couple. “Good.” He turned his attention to the single lady sitting next to Jaidon’s parents. “You must be Mrs Dyer, Maddix’s mom.”
“That’s right. Hard not to recognize the only single parent here. Just call me Meadow.”
“Thanks, Meadow.”
“We are Chrisha and Rohan Erickson, parents of Jenessa. She has been missing since November twenty-second, 2017. I will not lie to you, Special Agent Carlson,” Chrisha continued, sitting back in her chair, gesturing to the other parents around the table, “but you bringing us here, three years on, to tell us the same thing, is just cruel. And you,” she said, pointing at Rebecca, “should be ashamed of yourself. Promising us that you will find our kids, giving out false hope year upon year. And yet with every year that goes by, more and more kids go missing, and you are doing what? Absolutely nothing. That’s what you are doing.”
Rebecca suddenly stood up. “Therefore, Chrisha, we have brought in Special Agent Carlson to prove to you that we have not stopped looking and will not stop.”
“I know everyone is upset,” Blayze jumped in, “and I understand. When we can’t see a result, we think nothing is being done, but let me make a promise to you all now. I will not leave Orlando until I have found whoever took your children. Oh, and please, just call me Blayze. Special Agent Carlson is just too formal.”
“Thank you, Blayze,” came suddenly from a voice which was directed at Chrisha.
Blayze looked over and could tell that this lady was not happy with Chrisha’s comments.
“I’m Casie Rojas and this is my husband Alijah.”
“Kaity’s mom and dad.”
“That’s correct, sir.”
Blayze turned to the last couple, sitting near to him, who hadn’t said a word at all. “Which means you must be Mr and Mrs Ford, Analisse’s parents.”
“Yes, sir,” the father replied. “My name is Kaden-Scott, and this is my wife, Laurelynne.”
“Nice to meet you,” said Laurelynne, offering to shake Blayze’s hand.
“You too,” Blayze reciprocated.
Just as Blayze went to talk, his cellphone rang. He glanced down and noticed it was Stone calling. He muted the call. “Sorry about that, everyone,” he began, when Rebecca’s phone went off.
“It’s Stone,” Rebecca said while making her way to the door. “Let me quickly grab this while you carry on.” She wasn’t on the phone for long enough for any conversation to get going. “Blayze, we need to go now.”
Blayze could tell this was an emergency. “I’m really sorry everyone, but we will have to re-arrange this meeting as something has come up.”
“What’s going on?” Alex shouted as he stood up, watching the team in front of him head for the door.
Rebecca knew the parents would find out soon enough and that it would be better coming from her. “I don’t know all the details yet, but what I know is that another young boy is missing.”
Chapter 5
Sirens roared as cars raced down Vineland Road towards Lake Cain. Blayze could see the park getting closer as he held on to the handrail of the car door. Rebecca’s foot was flat down on the accelerator and she was weaving in and out of cars to get there as fast as she could. The sound of car horns blasted as she would cut in close to the passing cars, almost touching them.
“Christ, that was close,” Blayze said as he turned to see the driver of a car who was giving them the middle finger. Albeit, they had flashing lights on and most people moved out of the way. Rebecca was still driving like she was in a Formula 1 race.
They could see the flashing lights of the local police cars, which were already parked outside of the park’s front entrance. They had been told not to let anyone in or out of the park until further notice. A police officer moved a barrier quickly that was placed there to stop anyone getting in or out, as Rebecca sped through the gates and headed straight towards the entrance door.
There they were: Elf City. A young boy called Dion had now been missing almost an hour, Blayze had estimated, due to when they had received the initial call. He could see from the size of the park that it was going to be tough to find him quickly. Both Rebecca and Blayze jumped out of the car at the same time and raced through the main door, followed by an array of FBI agents and local police. An ambulance had also been called, but the crew had been told to wait in the parking lot until further notice.
A slightly stocky man of medium height, wearing black pants and a white shirt which hosted a radio attached to his left chest pocket, hurried to meet them.
“Agents Scott and Carlson, FBI,” Rebecca said as the man approached.
“I’m Ben, head of park security here at Elf City.”
“When and where did the boy get taken?” Blayze asked.
The security guard looked down at his watch, as did Blayze. “It was reported to us at 18:36 exactly. We initially searched the area as best we could and then contacted the police, who told us to close all entrances and exits.”
“It is now 19:20. We need to move.” Blayze ushered them along and started walking. “Show us where this happened.”
Ben led the way with pace and Blayze noticed the worried faces of other families as they rushed past. The park was quiet but felt tense. All the rides had been stopped, and they had made announcements, asking everyone to remain where they were until a member of the staff had seen them. Emotions were running high, not just from parents who were holding onto their kids as tightly as they could, but also from children who were screaming and crying with frustration that they couldn’t go on the rides. It is one thing stopping the rides and causing problems, but Blayze knew that the swarm of FBI agents and police officers would have worried people more. The focus had to be on the missing boy. His safety had to come first.
They reached the area where the security had been told Dion had had gone missing. A police officer was standing with who Blayze assumed were Dion’s parents.
“Excuse me. I’m Special Agent Blayze Carlson, FBI. Are you Dion’s family?”
Before they could answer, Rebecca shouted orders out to the rest of the team. “I want bodies out in every direction. Search for possible exits, and talk to potential witnesses. Someone has to have seen something.”
Blayze, on the other hand, wanted the full picture first. While the team searched, he turned his attention back to the family.
“Yes, I’m Dion’s dad, Elroy, Elroy Burke, and this is my wife, Cloee,” he said as he pulled his wife in even closer to his chest.
Blayze could tell that Elroy was trying to put on a brave face and be strong, as his wife, Cloee, couldn’t say anything. She was in tears, sobbing, as she held on to husband tightly.
“Can you briefly tell me what happened so we know what to look for?”
“I don’t know,” Elroy began. “One minute he was right in front of us, holding a balloon he was given. Suddenly he let go and both of us ran forward to grab it as he was shouting, ‘Mom, Dad, No’. I just about reached the end of the string and as I turned around to give it to him, he wasn’t there.” Elroy lowered his head, shaking it from side to side.
“Whereabouts were you standing exactly?”
“Right there,” Elroy said as he lifted his head and released his arm from around Cloee’s shoulders, pointing towards the middle of the path just yards away from where they were standing.
“Which direction were you walking?” Blayze asked, staring at the spot Elroy was pointing to.
“We were on our way to get some food from the burger van just by Race Rally up there. Dion loves his burgers.” With that last statement, Cloee sobbed even louder. Elroy pulled his wife in tighter, holding her body with one hand and her head with the other as she pressed against his chest. “Please, just find our boy,” Elroy begged.
“We are trying and we will do everything we can. Is there anything else you can tell me about Dion that may help me?”
“He likes being called Dee for short.”
“Great, thanks.” Blayze turned to the officer who was standing with them. “Can you take Mr and Mrs Burke over there and get them a coffee? I need a full statement.” He turned his attention one more time to Dion’s parents. “I know this may be difficult, but I need you to go through with the officer here a step-by-step account of where you have been in the park, from the moment you drove into the parking lot until when Dion went missing. It is vital that you don’t miss anything out. Okay?”
Elroy nodded, and the officer led the couple off. Blayze immediately went and stood on the spot that Dion’s father had pointed at. He faced one way and could see the neon lights of the ride name, Race Rally, and knew he was facing the direction they had been walking in. Turning around, he looked slowly from left to right. The kidnapper had been waiting around here somewhere. Was he hiding? Was he following?
Blayze’s eyes meandered over everything he could see in front of him. Although he was looking for clues, he felt like he was the one being watched. There were eyes looking at him from every part of the park. The families that were standing by, waiting to be questioned, and wanting to leave, were watching his every move. The kidnapper had to have been quick, as he only had a split second to grab and go, Blayze thought.
He turned back to face the way they had been walking again to picture what the kidnapper would have seen and tried to put himself in their shoes. Looking left to right once more, he noticed that on the left was a path leading down to more rides, and on the right was a long fence that protected the large roller coaster on its other side. Blayze stood there and looked at both options a few times. These were the only possible choices. He couldn’t have gone forwards or backwards as the parents would have seen Dion.
Grabbing his walkie-talkie, Blayze radioed for Rebecca. “I’m heading towards——” he looked up at the signpost on the path to his left, “——Dungeon Falls, but I need someone to check the perimeter and the interior of the main roller coaster for possible entrances and exits. It has to be one of these directions.” Rebecca was soon back on the radio giving new orders out to everyone while Blayze headed towards the Falls.
The path was long, with a variety of rides on either side. If they had come this way, Blayze wondered, they would have passed so many people. Yet would those people have even batted an eyelid? They would have been too busy enjoying their day to notice someone holding a young boy. Would Dion have been shouting or crying out? Would he even have been heard? With the rides now shut down, Blayze couldn’t imagine how noisy this path would have been, so it could have been the perfect escape route for them to take.
He continued further on, asking everyone he passed if they had seen anyone with a young boy heading that way. He had gotten a few yesses and many noes, but the yesses could have been anyone walking with a young boy. Was it Dion? He just didn’t know.
Rebecca had split the officers up and, having sent some in Blayze’s direction, had reached the roller coaster with hers. She had split them in two and they were making their way around the edge of the ride, following the fence to meet on the other side, constantly looking for ways to get through. They tested every small gap in the fence, moving it to see if anyone could fit through. The fence was too high for a person to climb, let alone lift a child over as well, so they had already ruled that possibility out.
It didn’t take long for them to meet around the other side of the ride and Rebecca got back on the radio to Blayze. “Nothing over by the roller coaster. No sign of entrances or exits, so they must have gone your way. I will head over now and send the rest of my team to the main gates to get everyone’s names, numbers, and addresses before we can let people go.”
“I’ve just arrived at Dungeon Falls,” Blayze replied. “I’m heading in.”
“On my way.”
Blayze looked around the front entrance to the Falls while waiting for his team to arrive. It was a giant cave with a cascading waterfall running in front of the entrance. The path to get in had a giant rock above it so that the waterfall split in two, enabling people to enter. It was an impressive entrance, he thought.
Once everyone was outside, Blayze gave out his orders. “Okay, everyone. I want two of you to head around the Falls that way,” he said, pointing to the right side, “and two to head that way.” He pointed to his left. “The rest of you are with me. We are going in. If you spot any sign of an exit, I need to know straight away, got it?”
“Yes, sir,” came the reply from his entire team.
The four officers made their way around the side of the Falls, while Blayze led his team across the path under the waterfall. As they headed past the water, they came to a vast, open cave, which took them by surprise. They couldn’t tell how big the cave was as it was dimly lit and so the darkness above them made them feel deep underground. The path led around to the left and Blayze saw another path coming back from the right. The direction everyone had to follow was a circular route through the cave. They continued looking around with their torches out to help them see better.
Inside the cave were small separate dungeons, each with their own characters in. Blayze presumed that when this cave was working, the object was to scare people. When the park was told to shut down, it had suspended all the manikins inside each dungeon mid-action. They passed one which had a man scratching his name into the wall and looking directly at them, and another was a woman who was mid-dive off her bed, heading for the bars of her cell, aimed to scare every passerby. Quite a scary place for a theme park, Blayze thought, but it was just a version of a haunted house, yet on a very large scale.
They hadn’t got halfway round when Rebecca arrived. “Found any yet?” she asked.
“Nothing yet,” Blayze replied, when his radio went off.
“There’s a door at the back here, around the right side of the falls. Looks like a maintenance door.”
“Is it open?” Blayze responded.
“Yes, it’s unlocked. We are going in now.”
Blayze and Rebecca led the team further around and, after passing more cells with bodies suspended, trying to scare them, reached the two officers who had appeared out of the side of the cave. The door was hidden from view and not lit up, so no one would have known it was there unless they knew the Falls inside out. Blayze instructed the rest of the team to carry on around the inside, just in case they found anyone, while the two officers led him and Rebecca back through the door they had just appeared from.
As soon as they had exited the maintenance door, Blayze spotted an emergency exit gate to the back of the park. He ran straight for it and it was ajar.
“Shit!” he shouted, banging his fist on the gate. He turned around to Rebecca. “He’s gone.”
IT HADN’T TAKEN LONG for the media to find out that something was going on at Elf City. Within minutes of FBI’s arrival, the parking lot was full with vans from all the area’s news stations. The police had kept them outside the park but there was no denying it, they wanted their story. Like vultures swooping in on their prey, reporters had talked to some families that had exited the park. Even though the police had asked the families who had been allowed to leave not to talk to anyone as it may harm the investigation, headlines were already going live of a young boy being snatched from the theme park.
Blayze and Rebecca had already pre warned Elroy and Cloee that they were here and knew the only way around this and to be one step ahead of the press, would be for Dion’s parents to give a statement straight away. After leaving Dungeon Falls, they went and met with the parents who were sitting in a coffee shop close to where Dion was taken, called ‘Ice It’, which, going along with the park’s theme, sold ice teas and coffees, along with other drinks.
As soon as they arrived, Cloee stood up, shoving her phone screen at them. “How can they know already?” she demanded.
Blayze put both hands up in front of him, trying to calm her down. “Listen, people talk, and there is no way of controlling that. But we need to get out in front of this before they make up things, which might affect us finding Dion safely.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Elroy asked. He also stood and walked towards Cloee.
“Can we all just take a seat for a moment?” Rebecca pulled up a chair and sat down before carrying on. “Please.” The others sat as she started. “Last year, when little Analisse Ford went missing, the media somehow found out that we had been talking to a member of staff from the park. Although he had nothing to do with her disappearance and had actually been the last person to see her, they targeted and accused him. They ran their own version of the events and his picture was all over the papers and television.”
