He reached into his trouser pocket and gripped his wallet tightly. A piece of folded cut-out newspaper brushed against his hand. Damp sweat stained the back of his shirt.
Girl, 16, missing from home
Felicia Tan, a 16 year old student, was found missing yesterday. She told her parents that she had gone for band practice at a schoolmate’s home after school but failed to return home. It is feared that she had been abducted by some unidentified man as she was spotted leaving the school compound with a tall dark-skinned male. Anyone who has any information on her whereabouts can contact the police at….
It had been a whole two days. He was at work when he received the news.
“Honey, our daughter hasn’t come home yet. Did she tell you where she might be?”
He was busy closing a business deal via e-mail. It was almost ten p.m. and he had not taken any dinner yet. He rubbed his tired eyes.
“Didn’t she say that she would be going to Mei San’s house after school? Some band practice or something?”
He could feel his wife tense up over the phone. There was a moment of silence.
“It is now ten o’clock at night. I called Mei San. She never went to her friend’s house. You know very well it isn’t safe out there in KL these days. I don’t want anything to happen to her.”
“Perhaps you are over-reacting, dear. She might have gone to the mamak with friends again.”
“I don’t care. You better come home and help out with this,” his wife muttered angrily.
He hastily typed out a quick reply to the client, gulped down the remains of his cold coffee and grabbed his bag. Switched off the office lights before heading to his BMW.
Eleven o’clock. Twelve midnight. One a.m. Two a.m. Three and then four a.m. They heard a cock crow.
The couple sat in silence on the sofa. Numerous phone calls to Felicia had gone unanswered at first, then finally going to voice mail. Out in the hallway, the clock ticked frantically.
“I’m going to the police station,” he said tersely.
“I’ll come with you,” she said.
The police station was thirty minutes away. Despite his rising apprehension, he could not help but stifle a yawn as he strained to keep his eyes on the road. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel with his sweaty hands. Beside him, his wife stared out at the deserted roads stonily.
“It’s your fault. You spend all your time on your work, on your clients, on your projects. You hardly even see your own daughter,” her voice broke.
“Look, I need to work to provide for the family. How about yourself? Do you even know who her friends are?” he snapped.
Her tears stained the car seat cushion as she looked away. They both felt a pang of guilt. Felicia had been slowly becoming more distant. But as her grades remained satisfactory, neither of her parents had expected much trouble. Henry could remember when they had first brought her home from the hospital, a wee little lady bundled up in layers of cloth. He would often go to her crib at night and watch her sleep. Trace a callused finger along the curve of her soft baby cheek. Inhale her sweet baby scent. He had watched as she toddled unsteadily on her chubby feet, pedalled her first bicycle, danced her first ballet performance. She had grown up quickly, their girl. Far too quickly.
Their life over the next few days quickly descended into an endless round of press interviews, checking e-mails and answering phone calls, even making YouTube videos pleading with her to return home. There was nothing. He had taken to wandering the shopping malls and back lanes around town, looking out for signs of his daughter.
He kicked at a pebble in frustration, sending it bouncing against a grimy brick wall. Suddenly he saw a shadow slip out from beneath a doorway. The way the person moved and walked seemed rather familiar. Henry held his breath and ducked behind a pillar as yellow light pooled onto the person’s profile from a streetlamp overhead. He recognized the face. But from where?
Then it hit him. He had seen the same young man when he last dropped Felicia at the mall to hang out with her friends. He had then caught a quick glimpse of a few of her friends as he drove off. Among them was a tall young man with brown highlights in his hair and a scar on one cheek.
The shadow moved away. Henry followed, taking care to keep in the shadows. Across the road, down a path littered with broken stones and glass shards. Past a clump of bushes and a hedge of tall prickly lalang. The young man fished out a key from his pocket and opened the door to a small wooden hut shaded by a cherry tree. Henry hid behind some bushes. He heard some muffled sounds, a shriek and a loud thud.
“Shut up!” a male voice shouted.
“Let me go! Please,” he heard Felicia’s plaintive plea, interspersed with sobs.
Henry darted out into the entrance of the wooden hut. He saw his daughter cowering in a corner on a torn, dirty mattress. Her hands and feet were bound with strips of cloth. There was a purple stain on her left cheek and crusted dried blood on her lower lip. There were two other girls crouched beside her. The young man stood before them. The only other furniture in the hut was a table littered with peanut shells and cans of Carlsberg. The musty smell of stale urine permeated the humid air.
“Let her go,” Henry said.
The young man turned to look at him. His thin lips twisted into a scowl.
“Who are you?”
“Daddy!” she uttered a cry of surprise.
“What have you done with her?” Henry asked angrily.
“Ah, her good ol’ daddy eh? What you going to do, uncle?” the other man taunted.
“Let her go,” Henry repeated himself. “How much do you want?”
“Ah Chong, please,” Felicia looked at the tall young man who merely chuckled and took a swig of warm beer from a half-opened can.
“Eh uncle, please lah, your daughter followed me here willingly. She’s a fool and so are you.”
“How much? I am not leaving without her today. She might have followed you here willingly but now she wishes to leave,” Henry was firm.
Chong retrieved a small pistol from his pocket and held the cold gunmetal to his lips. He walked up to Henry menacingly.
Henry’s mouth went dry and his heart thumped loudly against his ribcage. A rivulet of sweat ran down his brow.
“Don’t threaten me, old man. You know how much she is worth?” Chong taunted.
“Don’t waste your words. Name your price,” Henry took out his brown leather wallet.
The young man trained his gun on the elder man and stepped forward, snatching the wallet.
“Ah, you’re a rich man I see. Walking around with seven thousand ringgit in your pocket,” Chong laughed and whistled. He deftly removed the notes and credit cards from the wallet and tucked them into his jeans. He then threw the wallet onto the dusty floor. Henry picked it up.
“Now you can let her go,” Henry could feel his hands trembling.
Chong walked over to the three girls and kicked Felicia with his boot. She whimpered.
“Your daddy says you can leave. Ha, now get lost!”
She crawled towards the door. Henry swooped forward, loosened her restraints and helped her up, carrying her to the door.
Her arms circled him in an embrace.
“Did he hurt you much?”
She held him tightly as they stumbled down the path. Her hot tears seeped through the thin cotton material of his shirt.
“I’m sorry, Daddy. I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
“It’s OK. Let’s go home now.”
1 comment:
Wow, this is good stuff! I like how you started in medias res and proceeded to tie everything in the end. Add oil & keep it up, Z!
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