Kidnap, Part 4

Kidnap
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Part 4

A month had past since Linda's disappearance.  The press considered her
plight stale and her face slowly faded from TV news broadcasts.  The public
may have lost interest but Peter Torrance still spent his weekends nailing
his wife's picture to telephone poles.  

He wasn't a rich man but he could have paid some kind of ransom but none was
ever asked.  Sometimes he drank too much and his mind wandered.  Maybe she
had left him for another man.  Maybe she had just grown tired of her family
and wanted to start a new life.

The days turned into weeks and the weeks became another month.

Linda believed Dr. Blacklung when he told her he would let her go once she
became a 10 pack a day smoker.  He hadn't lied to her.  He just wouldn't give
her more than 5 packs a day.  She had been stuck on five packs a day for two
weeks.  She begged the doctor to at least give her a sixth pack, not because
she needed it but because she knew she could do it.  

Dr. Blacklung knew she could do it too, which was precisely why he chose to
string her along.  But tomorrow he had promised to give her six packs.  He
was a man of his word and he would follow through.

Christmas came and went with little fanfare.  It included the mandatory trip
to the mall for Tammy to see Santa.  Tammy didn't waste Santa's time by
reciting a long list of toy commercials she had seen.  She went straight for
the knockout and asked Santa to bring her mother back home.  Peter didn't
hear what the old man in the faded red suit told her.  But he watched her
climb off the old man's lap with a renewed sense of energy and faith.  Peter
wished he had a Santa Clause to tell him every thing would be fine and he'd
get what ever he wanted, but he only had Detective Ferguson.

Unlike Santa, Detective Ferguson worked 12 months a year.  He had been
working on the Linda Torrance case for over seven months.  The best he could
offer was a possible spot for Linda on TV's "America's Most Wanted".  He told
Peter to keep his chin up.  He promised him that every one was still working
on Linda's case.  Don't give up hope he said.

Peter's father in-law saw it differently.  He cornered Peter in his kitchen
one day.  Jack Hardy was rugged looking man in his early 60's with a firm
grip.  Peter stopped cold when he felt the big hand on his shoulder.

"I want to talk to you about Linda", he said.

Peter turned and looked him in the eye.

"She's my daughter and I love her.  I know you love her too.  But you can't
go on like this.  As much as I hate to say it or think it, I know in my heart
she's dead.  I'm just saying you have to get on with your life Pete- for
Tammy's sake and your own."

Peter hugged his father in-law.  "I know Jack.  I hear what you're saying and
I know its true but I can't let go yet."

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