Let Me Help

Chapter Seven

Bob walked up to the front door. He was slightly uneasy by the sight of the house. It looked empty. No lights were on anywhere. His discomfort grew more as he got closer to the door and saw something white sticking it to it. When he finally reached the door, he grew white as he read the note.

Bob -

You can't take Katia away right now. She's not ready to go back out, she's still scared. I need more time with her and I�m not going to let her go right away just because you want me to work with somebody else. I'm sorry, but I took her away. We're going someplace else to work until you let her stay for awhile or until I'm done working with her. You have my cell phone number, call if you reconsider.

Alex

Bob swore under his breath as he yanked the note down from the door. "I can't believe him!"

He stuffed the crumpled note in his jeans pocket as he angrily stormed to his car. He grabbed his cell phone from the bag he had behind the driver's seat and opened it, dialing Alex's number. It rang twice before someone answered.

"Hello?" a girl asked.

"Is this Katia?" he yelled.

"Yes," she said timidly.

"This is Bob. Give the phone to Alex now, please." Bob yelled through the phone. A moment later Alex came on.

"Don't yell at her Bob." Alex warned him.

"I wasn't yelling at her!" Bob yelled.

"I heard you Bob! Loud and clear! I couldn't have heard you better if you were using a microphone!" Alex yelled at him.

Bob quieted his tone saying, "I don't want to have a yelling match Alex. I'm just upset that you take Katia without letting me know."

"I did. I left you a note." Alex said simply.

"Alex! I can't believe you didn't even consult me!" Bob exclaimed.

"I tried to get you to let her stay at my house! You said no! Do you really think you would've let me take her away even if I had asked?" Alex asked him.

"Well, no. But - " Bob started to reply before Alex cut him off.

"Bob, we're coming up to a restaurant and Katia and I haven't eaten for awhile. I'm gonna stop quickly. Bye." Alex said before hanging up.

Bob yelled and hit the steering wheel hard, blasting the horn. Picking up the phone he quickly called the police department.

~*~*~*~*~

Alex pulled into the fast food restaurant and ordered for them both. He paid with cash and then zipped back onto the freeway. "We'll eat on the way."

Katia quickly pulled out his fries and sandwich and set them up so that they would be easy for Alex to eat and then began eating her lunch. "Where are we going to stay?"

"In a hotel."

"Bob and the others will be able to find us. You'll have to use your driver's license to get in." Katia pointed out.

"We'll find a nice one. They won't tell." Alex told her.

"Okay." Katia sighed and looked out the window.

~*~*~*~*~

Bob stormed into the diner he knew Alex visited quite frequently.

"Hello!" the man at behind the counter greeted him.

"Hi. You know Alexsander Nemof, right?" Bob asked.

"Yes." The man replied startled.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Eddie. Eddie Greenworth," he answered.

"Are you a good friend of Alex's?" Bob asked.

"Yes."

"I'm with the police department and the organization that Alex is involved with to help out teenagers. My name is Bob. I have some questions for you." Bob explained.

"All right. I'll answer as best as I can." Eddie told him.

"Good." Bob said and thought a minute. "Do you know if Alex has any cabins anywhere?"

"Yes he does. I don't remember where though, hold on." Eddie turned around and shouted through a window, "Maria! Come here a minute!"

Soon a woman appeared. "Bob, this is my wife Maria." Eddie introduced before turning to her and asking, "Maria, do you know where Alex's cabin is?"

The woman squinted at Bob and then asked, "Why do you want to know?"

Bob sighed. "My name is Bob. I work with the police department and with the organization that brings the teenagers to Alex. He's taken Katia and ran off because I was planning on taking her today and he wanted to work with her some more. I'm trying to find him."

Maria continued to stare at him awhile before asking, "Why did Alex object to your taking Katia today?"

"Something about her still being afraid of men and he doesn't want her going to a strange home with strange people just yet." Bob told her.

Maria sighed and said, "I know where Alex's cabin is, but he's not dumb enough to go there when he knows you'd be after him." Looking at Eddie she hesitated before saying, "We need to talk."

~*~*~*~*~

It was later that night when Alex and Katia were settled in a fancy hotel. They had two separate hotel rooms that joined by a door. The hospital staff had agreed to keep it a secret that they were staying there and room service was not allowed to go in or out.

Alex decided to stay there for awhile. Their car was in a storage shed in back of the hotel so there was nothing linking them to the hotel. Their whereabouts could be kept a secret for awhile. He had gotten plenty of cash from an ATM machine two hours back and was paying for the rooms that way.

He decided to let Katia spend some time alone before he started some therapy. He was writing in the file he had brought along when his cell phone rang.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Hi Alex. It's Bob." Came the reply.

Alex sighed, "I'm not going to talk to you if you're going to yell at me."

"I'm not going to yell at you. We've worked out a living situation for Katia that I think you'll agree too." Bob told him.

"No. She's not ready." Alex said.

"But -" Bob started to go on.

"No!" Alex exclaimed and then hung up. He turned off the cell phone and shoved it in the drawer of the night table.

He closed the file and got up. Walking over to the door he knocked softly. In a little while Katia answered and let him inside. The TV was on to a local station.
"Do you want to watch some TV?" she asked.

"Sure." Alex said sitting down on a chair that was facing the television.

~*~*~*~*~

Bob looked at a record of Alex's account that the police department had gotten for him. Alex had pulled out a large sum of money a couple hours ago. Bob quickly got in his car and began driving in the direction, two hours away from the town where Alex lived.

He stopped at a coffee shop a long the way and ordered a large glass of coffee with caffeine. He then set out on the road.

Two hours later when he pulled into the driveway of the gas station he walked inside.

"How long have you been working?" he asked one of the cashiers.

"All day. I get off soon." The cashier replied.

Bob looked at the man's nametag. "Well, Jim. I have a question for you. Do you remember a man coming in and using the ATM to draw out a large amount of money? He drove a green jeep and had a teenage girl in the car with him."

Jim smiled and said, "Yeah, I remember. That girl was really pretty. Did he kidnap her or something? She was conscious and she didn't appear to strapped in there against her will."

Bob shook his head. "No, he didn�t kidnap her. She is in his care at the moment. But they did leave town rather abruptly and we need to find them. It's important. Do you remember which way they traveled?"

Jim thought about it and said, "South."

Bob smiled. "Thank you."

"No problem." Jim shouted after Bob as he left the gas station and sat down in his car.

Turning on the engine he grabbed his cell phone and dialed the number of the police station.

When someone answered he said, "This is Bob. I'm at the gas station that Alex stopped at to get some money. They went south. I'm going to go find a hotel and stay there for the night. I'll start looking for them tomorrow morning."

"Okay." Justine, the women who had picked up replied. "Keep us updated."

"I will. Hourly updates was the agreement for your involvement." Bob said.

"Yep." Justine said.

"I'll call you before I leave tomorrow. Good night Justine." Bob said.
"Night Bob."