“I’ve… probably been on the news a lot.”
“You’re Melissa Jones, right? Girlfriend of…” Tim trailed off. He didn’t want to upset her more.
She nodded, struggling to bring her breathing under control.
“My name is Tim Barns. I’m a Virginia State Senator. I think I know why you were kidnapped, and I can guess why they were planning to leave you in my basement for me to find later this evening.”
He sat down beside her and put an arm around her. She sobbed into his shoulder. He could hardly blame her after the couple of days she’d just lived through.
Tim’s mind raced. If Granger was behind this, and it seemed likely, then he really wasn’t fucking about. He must know Tim planned to cut him off. Was this a warning shot or a plan to discredit him completely? Who had sent the warning?
The front door upstairs burst open followed by stomping boots and shouting.
“Police!” yelled someone. Tim stood up, motioning for Melissa to stay seated.
He walked to the foot of the stairs and called up, “Down here!” Then he walked back to Melissa, sat down beside her and put his arm around her again.
Officers swarmed into the basement, all wearing SWAT gear and carrying guns. Tim stood up and raised his hands. They milled about in confusion for a moment, checking for the presence of anyone else down there. This was probably not the scene they had expected. Tim shielded Melissa with his body. He doubted a room full of armed police would do much to comfort her given what she’d been through.
One of the officers approached Tim.
“We got a report of a kidnapping,” he said.
“I’m sure you did. The kidnapping is over. I disturbed the man who kidnapped Melissa and was attempting to leave her restrained in my basement.”
“Is this true, ma’am?” the officer asked Melissa.
To Tim’s surprise, Melissa stood and placed herself between the guns and Tim, reversing the position he had taken to protect her.
“Yes,” she said, in a clear voice everyone in the basement could hear. “Senator Barns chased off my kidnappers and rescued me.”
“So that we’re clear,” said the officer, “Senator Barns did not kidnap you and restrain you in his basement?”
“That’s correct,” she said. Tim was impressed. A moment ago she was sobbing onto his shoulder. He had expected to have to defend himself without her backing up his story. Here she was proclaiming his innocence, despite the trauma she had been through. Tim doubted he could be this strong if someone inflicted a similar ordeal on him.
“You’ll both have to come to the station with us to make statements.”
Tim stepped forward, putting his arm around Melissa’s shoulder. “Of course, I’d be happy to speak with your chief and make a statement. Please, Miss Jones has been through a lot. Do you have a trauma counsellor present?”
“We’ll take her to one right away.”
“Thank you. Shall we go?”
Tim and Melissa were led up the steps, through the hallway and out into the cool evening air. A crowd of reporters and photographers surged forward, but the police held them back. Tim waved to them to demonstrate that he was not in handcuffs. Melissa stayed close to him, but when they reached the street they were separated and placed in different squad cars.
He sat in the back and the cops closed the door. Once out of sight of the press, he put his head in his hands and breathed deeply. If it hadn’t been for that tipoff, he might have arrived home to find the police waiting for him. They would have led him out in handcuffs for all the press to see. Then he’d be fighting to clear his name. It seemed he had sprung the trap much earlier than planned and the result was no credible case against him. He hoped there wouldn’t be a second trap waiting for him in case the first failed.
For the second time in as many days, Melissa was in the police station. Given her history with the place and the people in it, she did not feel comfortable. At least this time they weren’t keeping her locked in a cell or beating her up on the floor.
Also she had her phone back, and they allowed her to use it. The police had pulled it from a shelf in Tim Barns’s basement. Presumably her kidnapper intended to plant the phone and other items of hers around the house to further implicate the Senator. She guessed someone would tell the police where she was and they’d come and rescue her from Tim’s basement long after she’d been left alone there. Tim would come home into the middle of a crime scene and they’d arrest him immediately. Since she would never have met or spoken to him, she would have no way of knowing whether or not he was involved in her kidnapping. The poor guy could have ended up in jail.
Melissa resented being a pawn in someone else’s game to discredit a state senator. She had no clue who was behind it, nor what Barns had done to piss them off. She did know that using her as the victim sent her a clear message: get out of the country now. She wanted to comply. The irony was that if they hadn’t kidnapped her, she’d be back in Toronto by now. She responded to Jasmine’s deluge of messages by explaining what had happened and that she was safe, relatively speaking. Her agent offered to rebook her flight for the next day. Melissa told her to hold off for now.
Okay, you let me know when you’re ready to go home. I’ve booked the same hotel for tonight.
Melissa texted back her thanks. Next she texted a bunch of assurances to her frantic mother, telling her to please not worry and concentrate on getting herself better.
Shania was next, her best friend keen to know she was okay but far more practical than her mother. Shania was usually the voice of reason in Melissa’s life.
Next she checked a local news site and was unsurprised to see Barns’s face next to hers all over the main pages. All called the incident bizarre, and the tone ranged from assuming Barns was having an affair with her to asking why she was found in the senator’s basement and did she know some dark secret of his. If his dark secret was that he had a messy basement then Melissa was happy to reveal it.
Only one paper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, carried a picture of Tim being led from his home with his cuff-free hands in the air, and bothered to follow up with the police to discover they had pressed no charges and that her kidnappers were still at large.
The numbers of tweets, comments and messages on her various accounts were now off the scale. She’d never had so much publicity. Normally she would love the attention, but right now she’d trade it all for one more day with Howie.
She scanned a selection of public opinion.
Jones will do anything for publicity #attentionwhore So will Barns. Bet they cooked up the whole thing.
#blacklivesmatter is all talk and marching with no real action. Why can’t they keep @MelissasMoment safe?
Oh sure, @MelissasMoment just HAPPENED to wind up tied up in @StateSenTimBarns basement. What’s wrong with this picture?
Now we know why Barns wife left him
*HUGS* to @MelissasMoment. After what she went through her head is still held high.
Damn girl! That’s a rough couple of days you’ve gotten there.
Tonight we march on Richmond again. Spineless @MelissasMoment would rather hide away and cry. #marchwithus #blacklivesmatter #justiceforhowie
That last Tweet really bothered Melissa. She was used to wild conspiracy theories and personal attacks. She could dismiss