Page 24 of SEAL's Spitfire
“It wasn’t.”
“How can you be sure? We get shit like that all the time.”
“That’s crap. We don’t get reports of false kidnappings in the middle east.”
“Listen, Miss Society Page, how would you know?”
“Because I follow the news, I don’t want to be the society page forever.”
“Why are you bugging me about this?”
“Because my brother is in that missionary group.” For a moment there was silence.
“Fuck. Are you sure?”
“Yes. Totally.”
“No, I meant are you sure they’ve been kidnapped. If they were really missing it would be all over the news. AP would have filed a follow-up story.”
It was exactly what Meghan had been thinking. It should have been. So why wasn’t it?
“I’ve got to get this filed.” Before she could answer he’d hung up. Asshat. But she got the information or more like non-information that she needed.
Not sure what to do next, she stared at the laptop screen with the one and only story about the kidnapping. As she read through it for the tenth time there was a knock on her door.
“Meghan? Are you awake?”
“Yeah, come on in.”
Lizzie opened the door while she balanced a tray with cookies and milk. She was turning into their mom, but it was kind of nice.
“Cookies?”
“Thanks,” Meghan answered as she grabbed a warm chocolate chip cookie and took a bite.
“Did you find out anything yet? Did you talk to the guy from the state department?
“No and no.”
“Nothing?”
“Not really. I’ve searched every place I can find on the internet and there is nothing other than the original story from yesterday. Then I called the paper. They haven’t gotten anything either.”
“How is that possible? There are ten people missing,” Lizzie said, her voice wobbly from holding back tears.
“I know, Lizzie.” Meghan reached out and squeezed her sister’s hand. “Let’s call that guy now. Maybe he can tell us what’s going on.”
“Okay.”
Dialing the number from the paper Lizzie had given her downstairs, she listened to the phone ring. After the fifth ring, it went to voicemail.
“You’ve reached the desk of Ted Clement. I can’t take your call right now. If you leave your name and number and what this is in reference to, I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.” Son of a bitch.
“This is Meghan Henley. You spoke to my sister yesterday. Our brother is part of the missionary group that was kidnapped. Please call us back. We need to know what’s going on, and what you’re doing to get him back.”
“He didn’t answer?”
“Nope, it went straight to voicemail.”
