Detective Lonnie Jones and his new partner, Detective Sonny Carter, from Austin, Texas, travel to Huntsville, Texas to investigate the disappearance of college students exotic dancer Ava, tall, handsome Nathan, and the next top models Amber, Mandy, and Christie. They had been hospitalized at the Texas Medical Center thanks to mentally unbalanced Madison. Madison kidnapped all of the students and placed them in her dorm room closet that she shared with roommate Samantha Taylor.

Chapter 1

 

I woke up to someone knocking on my door. I looked at the time on my cell phone. Jeez, it was already 1:46 pm. It seemed as if I had just laid down. I jumped out of bed and went to the door. Once I opened it, I was surprised. It was Detective Jones.

 

“Good afternoon, Samantha! I hope I am not interrupting you in any way,” Detective Jones said.

 

“No, you are not,” I answered. “Actually, I am happy you came by because if you hadn’t, I would probably still be asleep.”

 

“May we come in?” Detective Jones asked. “Well, my new partner, Sonny Carter, and me.”

 

“Oh, yes, you may,” I said, letting them into the room. “I am sorry, I don’t know where my manners are today.” Detective Sonny Carter stood there, tall with broad shoulders, light brown eyes and jet black hair. He was wearing a white-collared polo shirt with dark blue jeans and black boots.

 

“You have been through a lot these past couple of days, Samantha. Nobody expects you to bounce back right away. It will probably take some time for you to get back into your normal everyday routine,” Detective Jones said. “By the way, Samantha, Detective Carter has been out in the field for only a week now. He is familiar with the case and will be helping me talk to all of your friends. We just stopped by to let you know that we are in town and will be here until the case is closed. You can call me anytime if you have questions or just need to talk. That is, if you still have my number.”

 

“Well, Detective Jones, that is good to know, and yes, I have your number saved in my cell phone,” I said. I would like to go with you to see what my friends have to say about this whole thing. I am still shocked that Madison sedated all of them, kidnapped them, and placed them one by one in our closet without any help. That has been so heavy on my mind since that day. I thought things like that only happens in the movies. I guess I was wrong. If anyone else had told me it happened to them, I wouldn’t have believed them.”

 

“Samantha, if I may,” Detective Carter said. “It will take some time to move forward with your life. But nobody expects you to be in a hurry. If you need some time off from school, it could be arranged without any penalties.”

 

“Thank you for your advice, Detective Carter, but I don’t need to take time off from school. Besides, if I go home, all I am going to do is think about everything that happened. It’s just, I am not only worried about Nathan, Ava, Amber, Mandy and Christie, I am also worried about Madison. She is really not all that bad when you get to know her. Besides, she couldn’t help that she went off into la-la land because she stopped taking her medications, stopped seeing her psychiatrist and psychotherapist. She does have a condition that has to be monitored and which requires treatment with the correct medication and lots of therapy. I really don’t fault her for everything that happened. I just hope all of my friends will be understanding like I am and not hate me.”

 

“Samantha, you do have a kind heart,” Detective Carter said. “But you do have to also understand how all of them feel about everything that happened to them. If they don’t agree with you, you do have to remember that Madison kidnapped all of them and there was no telling what her motives were or what she was planning to do with all of them.”

 

“Yes, I know and I understand, Detective Carter. I am going to go freshen up so we can be on our way.”

I went into the bathroom, brushed my teeth, washed my face, brushed my curly hair and headed back into the room where Detective Jones and Detective Carter were standing. I grabbed my purse, my cell phone and my keys. “Okay,” I said. “I am all ready to go.”

 

As we were walking out of the room, Detective Carter said, “It must be nice to be the only one on campus to have their own private bathroom.”

 

I nodded. “I am still amazed at how Madison was able to get anything she wanted. Her parents had to have paid a fortune to have that full-size bathroom added to this room.”

 

“That’s the reason why Madison is the way she is,” responded Detective Jones. “Listen, Samantha. Instead of making sure she kept her doctor’s appointments and took her medications, her parents would spend unnecessary money on her. Don’t get me wrong about her parents spending money on her, but they should have made sure her health was one hundred percent first. They always went overboard when it came to her.”

 

“Yes, I do agree with you, Detective Jones. How is it they can spend all of that money on her to stop her from throwing a tantrum with them, but they couldn’t do the same with her doctors? There should be something legally they can do to make sure she is on her medications. If she is incompetent, her parents should have the last say so in anything she does when it is pertaining to life choices.”

 

I locked the room door and we were on our way to Texas Medical Center to see all of my friends.

 

On our way to the hospital, I rode in the back seat of the black Charger Detective Jones was driving. I pulled out my cell phone and texted my mother to let her know I was riding with him and his new partner, Detective Carter, to the hospital to check on my friends. I always texted or called her to let her know where I was going or where I was at, just in case something happened to me. Once I finished texting her, I put my phone back in my purse.

 

“Samantha, have you gone by the hospital to check on your friends?” Detective Carter asked. “The reason I’m asking is to see if there were any changes in their status since the last time I was here.”

 

I thought for a moment. “The last time I visited them was yesterday morning before I went to work. As I was entering the room, the nurse was putting medications in their IV to help them sleep. I didn’t visit long because all of them were knocked out. The nurse told me all of their parents were in town.”

 

“That’s good to know, Samantha,” Detective Jones replied. “I was wondering if any of them had showed up. I need to talk to all of them as well.”

 

“Why do you need to talk to them, Detective Jones? They had nothing to do with them being kidnapped. It was their children who were the victims,” I retorted while rolling my eyes.....