Never Is A Long Time

Chapter 15

ONE KEY FOR EVERYTHING

Even after they go to the police last night, there's still nothing coming out. Police is still looking for her and if there's one thing that annoyed Josh so much is the fact that they can't do anything to find her quicker. "There's too little detail and clue. It's gonna be hard." Flea says to Josh quietly, so Clara will not wake up. "I know. We need to do something."
"Like what?"
"I don't..."
"Dad?" Clara just wakes up after fell asleep on Flea's lap last night. "Yes, yes sweetheart?"
"Are they already find her?" She's slowly getting up. Trying to get back to her mind. "No, they're still looking for her...  We need more clue, it's hard for the police to find her because we got less information and...,"
"Dad!" Clara suddenly remember something and cut her dad. "Yeah?"
"I think I know how to get more clues!" She rushes out, to her room. Looking for something. Then she's coming out with her laptop. "Last night.... I mean, the night before, she borrowed my laptop. Maybe she left something. Like notes or anything..." She turns it on and wait.

°°°°°°

The last time she ate something was the half meal Flea served her the day before. "Hey..." He kneel down and touch her hair, caring her like he really worries about her. "You need to eat something." He says, he also put his hand on her cheeks, feeling a cold skin from her. "Please say something." He keeps his eyes on her but she just laying there, looks at him and then looks away. Seeing her nearly fainted, he knows she shouldn't be there, on the floor. So he open the rope from her right hand, put both of her hands together and tie them with the rope. Then he put her on his arms and bring her to his bedroom. "It's warm in here." He says, putting a blanket on her. "But still you need to eat something."
"Why did you do this to me. From all of them, why me?" She ask, with a cold tone on her voice.

He take a deep breath and keep silence for a minute then he start to talk. "Because I like you. I want you to marry me."
"There's no way I will marry you. I guarantee that. I will do or try everything to run away from you." She looks at him, somehow feels like he's basically a good man. "You seems like a good man. Why you did such a crime like this? If you don't let me go, you will ended up in jail. You know?"
"No if I take you to Italy. They will not find us." He step back and take a seat beside the bed. "But why me? I didn't do anything wrong to you!"
"I know, you did nothing wrong. It's just..."
"It's just what?"

°°°°°°

"Nothing here. I got nothing on my laptop. What should I do?" 2 hours of searching on her laptop leads to nothing. There's no trace of clues. "Does she have a journal or something?" Flea suddenly thinking about a possibility if she had a journal to write down her schedule. "No dad, she write down everything through her phone."
"What about email? Did she talk to someone from email?" Something just reminded Josh that he sometimes talking about appointment on his email. "Did she use your laptop to access her email?"
"Wait, yes! She did. I hope this laptop remembered her account." She quickly open it and hoping she wasn't logging it out. "Crap!"
"What?"
"She logged out. I need.. password." She's thinking some words that might be her password ad then type it out. "What did you type?" Josh ask her. "Umm... Your name...Josh."
"You gotta be kidding me."
"I'm tryinggg. I have no idea, but we have to try."
"Right. How about Zach's name?" Josh take her laptop and type it out. "Shit, it doesn't work." Suddenly Flea stop both Josh and Clara from typing."Wait there, Josh, Clara. What if we ask Zach? He might know her password."

"It makes sense. They're pretty close." Josh says.

°°°°°°

From a drawer at the corner, he pulls out a frame with the picture of the boy that she saw lately. "You saw this picture right? You said you like this little boy."
"Yeah, so?"
"From a lot of models, you're the only one who doesn't laugh at him." He almost drop a tear while talking about it. "That's why you kidnapped me? Oh great!" She can't believe what she just heard. Thinking that someone kidnapped her just because she said something nice. "Do you know who's this boy? Yeah, that's me." Then everything start to makes sense for her. "Wait, so you like me because I like your childhood picture?"
"Yes. You see me now, I'm nothing like this boy anymore. But everytime they laugh on this picture, it breaks my heart. And now that I already good-looking, I think I can bring a beautiful bride for my mom. That's you."
"No I'm not. I won't do that...." He cut her words, "Why? Because you know I was ugly?" He's shouting at her and somehow it shut her up. "Both my mom... And my dad... Were models. They were married after they did a shoot together. Then I came to their lives, knowing that I was ugly and nothing looked like my dad... He thought that my mom had an affair, and they divorced." He starts to break and shaking. "Then my mom got into a deep depression, blaming me as a disaster. She always told me that my ugliness ruined her life. Maybe it sounds ridiculous for you, but my mom... She said that in front of my face almost every night since that day. So I promised her, I will change my appearance, find a pretty wife and come back home."

"If you really wants a pretty girl, why me?" He talks softly so she can reaches him, personally. "Because even I want to bring a beautiful bride, I still have feelings too. I believe in a true love, unlike those girls that like the new me but laugh at my past."
"Hey...I know your feelings....." She tries to tell him but he cut her, angrily, "No you don't. You don't know how people bullied me because of this face. You don't....."
"Listen! I fucking understand. Okay?" She's shouting back but then she calm down a little bit. She won't messed up this time. "Honestly, I will never laugh at someone's appearance. No matter how they looked like... I told you, I can't marry you, I really can't. But it has nothing to do with your past. I... I once had a bad-look too."
"No, no way..."
"I did. Can you.... Take my purse in my bag?" She points outher bag on the floor. He takes it and find a purse. "So?"
"Open it, you'll know." He did what she said and find an old photograph in it. A boy and a girl. "You see that ugly little bitch? Yup that's me."
"That's you? And who's this boy?"

She smiles, "That's Zach."

HELP FROM THE OLD FRIEND

"Zach? Zach! This is Clara."
"Yes Clara. What's up?" It's so crowded across he line, she barely can hear. "Wait, I will find a room to talk. It's crowded here. I'll call you back."

Josh looks at her, waiting. "How's that?"
"He will call me back...wait a minute." Her phone is ringing. "That's him." She pick up the phone and set the call on speaker. "Zach?"
"Yeah Clara. It's more quiet here. What happened?" From his voice, they know he's extremely happy now and it makes them feel guilty to tell him such a bad news. "I'm sorry to tell this Zach. But Deenah is probably in a problem."
"What? What kind of problem??" Now his voice turns from happy to instantly panic. "Long story, but I need your help. Do you know password of her email?"
"Umm, wait... I don't know if she already changed that or not but... Try 'meatballthebull' without spaces and all low caps."
"meatballthebull? Okay. Got it. Thanks Zach." Clara read that loud and Josh type it down. "Please, call me as soon as possible okay? Tell me everything that happened to her."
"Don't worry, I'll call you later." She hang up the phone and get back to her laptop. Right after she enter the password, they can access her mail. Josh looking through all those mails and have no idea which one he should open. "Clara. You see a suspicious mail? I can't believe how much mails for this week." He ask Clara and she tries to read the subjects, hoping she finds something. "Got it! I thinks this one." She click the mail and see the appointment, with yesterday's date. "I'm pretty sure this one. Look at the date and time."
"Where's that place?"
"I'm not sure, but we should come with police."

°°°°°°

"Is Zach your boyfriend?" She can feel he start to be more gentle and calm. "Haha. He's not.. I mean he was. But not anymore."
"Why? You said he was the one who stand with you through your hard times?" Now he is saying that, the guilt comes to her mind again. "Why?"
"It's so funny because the reason why I left him is the same reason why I can't be with you."
"What's that?"
"I believe in true love too. Just like you. It's just... back then I thought he was the one for me. He was caring, and always there for me. The difference between me and you is.... I realized that I love him as my brother and I misunderstood about it as a romantic stuff. Someone just opened my eyes in a way I never expect." From all those familiar faces, this one spesific person comes to her mind. "Who's that guy? The one who opened your eyes?"
"His name is Josh. And I just knew him for months. But, he changed my life as he walked in."
"If this Josh really changed your life, where's he? Why he's not on your side?" Then all of sudden he throws her to the lowest part of her emotion. She knows how ironic it was to remember Josh opened his arms for her but when she's realized it, it's too late. "I....I turned my heart away from him at first. And then....when I realized everything, he's already with someone else." His questions stop coming out, he can feel the pain from her answer. "For that reason, I can't be with you. Even with Zach. I'm sorry."
"But still I can't let you go. Even if I do, you still can't be happy anyway. I can do that for you." She sighed, knowing it doesn't work. Nothing will change his mind.

"Listen, whatever your plan is, it's not gonna work. I'm not gonna eat or drink anything unless you let me go. I'm gonna die in how long? 3? 5 days maybe. You're wasting your time." He grabs her hands and looks right to her eyes, "No, no, don't do that. I promise you, we can make it together..."

"Police! Open the door!" Suddenly they hear a loud voice from outside the house. From that voices, he becomes more and more anxious, quickly bring her on his arms and go to thrid floor. "You hear them Ronald. Let me go." He won't listen and keep walking until they see a room with a dim light inside. She can smell some old papers and woods. He put her down, cover her mouth with a piece of cloth and then break the lamp with a piece of wood. After he can't see her anymore, he locked the door and going downstairs. People outside keeps banging on the door, waiting for someone to open the door. He quickly go to his intercom and says, "Police? What's it all about?"
"We got a report of a possibility of kidnapping." Then he open the door, let all those people to get in. "I'm sorry, but we need to know if there's someone with you in this house?" An officer ask him politely. "No. I'm alone here. Why?"
"Don't lie to me. She must be here." Josh, behind the police shout out to him but then another officer stop him, blocked him so he will not reaching Ronald. "Do you know Deenah Clark? She was missing yesterday."
"Yeah, she worked for me. But she left this place last night." There's something suspicious on his face and Josh clearly can't ignore it. "Do you mind if I go in and find her? If you really said the truth."
"Well, you can't just break into someone's house whenever you want. You have a warrant? Because if you don't have one, you can't enter my house." And then suddenly Clara see something and gasp. "Sir... That's her coat and shoes." She pointed to the room behind him, right at the corner they can see a coat and woman's shoes. "Are you sure?" The police ask her back. "Positive."

Without any warning, all the police go inside the house and start looking for her. "I told you. She's not here."
"I'll find her. You hear me?" Josh says to him, almost burst his anger. Then he go to the second floor, into his office. There, he saw a broken phone, smashed into pieces. "God, what the hell happened...."
"Josh!" He hear Flea calling him from the back of his shoulder. Flea leads him to the backyard of the house. He's running and go to see something that probably scared him. "It's her clothes, she wear it yesterday, and it's ripped off like this. Josh, something happened and I don't like it." Flea says to him. Josh pick upthe clothes, gives that evidence to the police and then turn back to Flea, "I will make that bastard speak." After trying so hard not to explode his anger, nothing can make Josh more angry than seeing this. He runs to right where Ronald stand on, punch him in the face and lift him up like he's never beat anyone this bad. "Tell me! I warned you right now. Where is she!!?" He won't stop to beat him up that blood almost fulfill his mouth. "Tell me!!!"
"Josh! Stop!" What he did was never seen both by Clara or Flea, they never expected that Josh will actually beat someone like that. He won't stop until an officer comes in between them and stop him. With a mouth full of blood, Ronald managed to talk even with a weak voice. He clearly smiles, "So you're the guy."
"What? What are you talking about?!" Josh stops his attempt to beat him again and tries to listen. "You're that Josh. Josh that she was always talking about." He cough and let out some blood from his mouth. Josh, hearing things from him somehow drives him mad. "I swear if something happened to her, I will...." Suddenly he cut Josh's sentence.

"She's upstairs. Third floor, on the left."