Starting Over

Chapter 5

I was trying to figure out what had just happened, suddenly Mo took off running after the SUV. The jolt knocked me out of my trance, and I realized I needed to do something fast. I used Sam’s phone and snapped a picture of the car as it sped away. The friends that I had been talking to came running over.

They asked, “Gabe, what happened?”

I spit out, “I think Sam was just kidnapped.”

A few other people joined us, one of them was already on the phone with the police. Within seconds two cops were at the scene. They were at the farmer’s market, it was standard procedure to watch for shop lifters. I gave the best description of the vehicle that I could, and they immediately called it in so that other cops could start searching for it.

They started to question me, “are you sure that he was forced into the vehicle, could he have known these guys and went with them voluntarily?”

I was suddenly struck with the thought that maybe he left me just like Nick did, but I quickly pushed those thoughts away. I shook my head, “no, I don’t think so, things were going great with us, and I can’t see him leaving without his dog.”

They continued to ask all these questions about our relationship, our friends, our jobs, our families and all those personal things. They seemed to be saying that Sam just took off on his own.

I said, “I know he wouldn’t just leave me like that, and you need to go look for Sam and quit wasting time asking me all these questions.”

The officer said, “we have cars out looking for the vehicle already, I know these seem like silly questions, but they will help us in our investigation.”

The police questioned many of the others at the market and discovered that there was a surveillance camera in the parking lot, and they downloaded the footage and took it back to the police station to review.

The officer that asked me all the questions said, “I think I have all the information I need for now, please be available if we need anything else, and if anyone contacts you, please call me right away.” He handed me a card with his number on it.

I called our friends and told them what had happened, within an hour they met me at our house, and we all went and drove around town looking for the SUV. I sent them the picture that I had taken with Sam’s phone. I am sure one of us was on every street in town by the end of the afternoon.

I had Mo with me as I drove around, he was looking out the window just as hard as I was. As I was driving, I started to think about all the time that Sam and I had spent together. The smile he gave me that first day in the bank when I ran into him, that night we worked out at the gym, the first night we slept together. God, it had only been a couple hours since I had seen him, and it already felt like forever. I remembered all the times that he got upset when I would bring up his past, what the hell happened five years ago. Wait, what about that guy who he was talking to on the day he moved in, they looked like they were arguing, did he have something to do with this? I had gotten a good enough look at him to know he wasn’t one of the guys that took Sam, but I hadn’t told the cops about him either. I knew I would need to do that. My phone rang, it was Officer James, the one that I had given my statement to earlier.

He said, “Gabe we have the footage from the camera loaded, we would like for you to come down and view with us to properly identify Sam.”

“I am about 5 minutes from the police station, I will be right there.”

I was led to a conference room with a tv monitor and the video started. I found myself and Sam talking with my friends and Sam leaving to take the boxes to his truck. We saw the SUV pull up next to Sam, and from the view we had, we saw that the two guys did have a gun and forced him into the car. Finally, they had to believe me that Sam didn’t just leave me on his own.

My gut flipped, shit, what if they already killed Sam? Officer James saw my reaction and turned the video off. He said, “we still have everyone out looking for the vehicle Gabe.”

I said, “but what if they have already done something to him? Why did they take him in the first place?”

He shook his head, “we don’t know, we need to find Sam first. Have you thought of anything else that might help us figure this out?”

I remembered the moving day visitor, I said, “yes, I saw a guy talking to Sam, the day he moved in.”

I gave them a description of the man and the car that he was driving. Officer James wrote it all down and gave the information to another officer and they quickly went to check on the new information. We talked for a few more minutes and I headed back to my house.

I called the friends that were still out looking for Sam and we all met back at the house. A few had stayed back at the house and fixed the food that we were going to have for the party.

I wasn’t in the mood to eat, but was told I needed to, it wasn’t a party atmosphere, but it helped me to have my friends around me. They cleaned up and we made plans to pick up our search tomorrow morning.

Once the house was empty and Mo and I were alone, I fell onto the couch, Mo jumped up next to me and laid his head on my lap. I looked down at his sad eyes looking back at me, “I know buddy, I miss him too.” Mo whimpered as I pet him.

I felt like I needed to do something but had no idea what that was. I pulled Sam’s phone from my pocket and started to scroll through it. I thought I should try to find some of his family to let them know what had happened. As I scrolled through the contacts, I didn’t see a mom or dad in any of the names, I knew most of his friends and knew that they all already were aware of what happened. I also saw a lot of the names of his coworkers, but no other names that I had never heard before. As I got to the end of Sam’s contacts, I saw the name Zach. That was Sam’s old boyfriend that he moved here with but had left to go back to the east coast. I knew Zach had moved on, but I thought he might want to know what was going on.

I called Zach, he answered, “hey, it’s about time, I was starting to worry, what’s going on Sam?”

I paused, “um, it’s not Sam, is this Zach?”

He said, “yes, who is this?”

“I’m sorry Zach, this is Gabe Nelson, I am dating Sam.” I told him.

After a brief pause, he said, “ok?”

I continued, “well, he told me that you guys dated a few years back. I thought I should call you and tell you that Sam was kidnapped today.”

Zach said, “what? What happened?”

I told him, “We were at a farmer’s market and as he took some boxes to his truck and was forced into another vehicle, and they sped off.”

He asked, “so, where is he, have the police found him?”

I said, “no, not yet me and our friends have spent all day driving around trying to find the SUV that they were driving.”

He sighed, “damn it, I should have… Um, so what do the police say?”

I said, “they are looking for him and trying to figure out why he was taken.”

He was quiet for a minute, then said, “thanks for calling Gabe.”

I was surprised by Zach’s reaction, I said, “sure.” I heard him end the call.

What the hell, I guess I don’t know what I was expecting, but he didn’t even ask me to call him back if I heard anything. I know Zach had moved on, but I still thought he would have acted a little bit more concerned. What did he mean when he said, I should have? What should he have done?

I pulled Officer James' card out and called him, I said, “this is Gabe Nelson, I just talked to an old boyfriend of Sam’s.”

Officer James asked, “ok, what did he say?”

I answered, “he just asked if you had found anything yet.”

He asked, “did you call him, or did he call you?”

I said, “I called him, just to let him know what was going on.”

“Do you think he might be involved in this?” He asked.

I thought a moment, “I don’t know, I have never met him in person, Sam just told me that he moved back to Philadelphia five years ago.”

He asked, “that is where Sam is originally from, right?”

I said, “yes, he liked it here and when Zach left, he stayed.”

Officer James said, “ok, thanks Gabe, do you have Zach’s number? I think I want to give him a call.”

I gave him the phone number and ended the call. I was numb, I just sat on the couch with Mo, staring straight ahead. It was now about 12 hours since Sam disappeared, my mind was still racing, trying to figure out why this happened. What was Sam hiding from me?

My mind wandered back the first time Sam and I made love, I loved the taste of his cock. His sexy fur covered chest, damn, I loved the way it felt against my own chest as we kissed. The first time his dick touched my ass brought a slight smile to my face. God, I hope he was alright, I never felt like this about anyone before. I never had the same feelings for Nick, nor do I think Nick had these feelings for me, if we had, I think we would still be together.

I let out a deep breath and lay back on the couch, I tried to sleep. Every time I thought I had slept, I checked the time, it was only ten or fifteen minutes later. I tossed and turned for the next three or four hours, I got up and got a drink of water and then took a piss. I sat back on the couch. I looked at the clock, it was about ten minutes past 3 am. I leaned my head back, once again trying to sleep.

My phone went off.

I saw the number of Officer James, I answered, “hello.”

He said, “Gabe, I’m sorry to wake you, but I would like you to come down the police station.”

I said, “sure, I wasn’t sleeping anyway, what’s going on?”

He said, “I think it would be best to talk face to face, if you would like I can send a car for you.”

“No, I can be there shortly.”

I put Mo’s leash on and headed to the police station, Officer James met me at the door and took me back to his office.

He started, “Gabe, please let me finish telling you this before you get worked up.”

I panicked, “what’s going on?”

He said, “the fire department was called to a vehicle fire about 5 miles north of town. By the time they arrived, the car was fully engulfed.”

I asked, “was it the car that took Sam?”

He nodded, “it does match the description.”

My heart raced, “was Sam there?”

He slid a clear plastic bag toward me, “we found this next to the car, do you recognize it?”

I looked in the bag, it was the gold chain and gold pendant, I said, “yes, that is Sam’s, he never took it off. He told me that it belonged to his cousin, who was killed in a car accident. Where did you get it?”

He said, “it was found in the grass next to the burned car.” I could see that the chain was broken, like it had been pulled off Sam’s neck.

I asked, “you didn’t find Sam though?”

He ran his hands through his hair, “Gabe, there was body in the burned car.”