Chapter 4

Won’t you come over to my house, a melodic voice sang in the background. Won’t you come over and play…

Conri Jᴔnsa sat somberly at the dining room table in Alessandra’s house.  He had come to check on her father, who had just returned from the hospital.  To his great displeasure, Caonri hadn’t been able to visit Aaron Yᴔsin earlier. And then when Master Yᴔsin was in the hospital, visitation had been limited due to a strange relapse.  So now Conri waited as Aaron hobbled from the kitchen with hot tea.  Conri had protested profusely but Aaron refused to stay seated. 

“I’ve never been very good at making tea, so please excuse it if it’s not very good,” Aaron grinned in a forced manner.

He hobbled in with two cups of steaming tea. 

“Aless always made it for me when I was sick, and her mother did before her.  Sydnee used to say I could burn water.”

Chuckling softly, Aaron set the cups down in front of Conri and the empty chair reserved for himself.  Groaning, Aaron lowered himself into the chair.  With a small whoompf, he collapsed the last few inches into the seat.  Closing his eyes, he sighed in relief and small bits of pain.  Conri was taken by how such a strong man could appear so weak. 

“Death makes fools of us all,” Conri’s father had always said. 

“It’s fine, don’t worry, Master Yᴔsin,” Conri nodded politely.

Letting the tea cool for a moment and delaying tasting it, Conri observed that its color was odd and uneven. 

“Aaron.  Call me Aaron.”

“If that is what you wish, sir.”

“It is.  Officer Minerva said that you have been a big part of the pushing drive behind the continual search for my daughter.”

“I’m doing what I can, sir.”

“I know.  That’s why I called you.  I needed to talk to you.”

Leaning forward, Conri knitted his eyebrows together interested.  Had Aaron heard something?  Did he have a clue to where Alessandra was?

“What is it, Aaron?”

“It’s going to sound silly….”

“Nothing is silly when it comes to information about your missing daughter.  Did you remember something?  See something?  Did someone contact you?”

“No…no…nothing like that.  It’s just when I was in the hospital something happened.”

Raising an eyebrow, Conri leaned forward a bit more and he had to admit he was intrigued.  What could have happened to make Aaron contact him?

“I didn’t have relapse.”

“Uh…”

“I’m serious.  I was dying, Officer Jᴔnsa.  Or at least I felt like it.”

“That is a relapse, sir.”

“No…I felt like I was, but it wasn’t me.”

“You’ve lost me, Aaron.”

“It was Aless.”

“Excuse me?”

“I know this sounds crazy but what I was feeling, I know in my gut, was happening to Alessandra.  I could see her.  I could feel her…”

Aaron looked down at his hands and the tea’s steam fogged up the glasses he had been wearing since he returned from the hospital.  His vanity didn’t seem to matter as much.  It hurt his chest to even recall the vision he had of Alessandra suffocating; someone’s hand squeezing tight around her neck…the pressure and fear…

“Aaron?  Master Yᴔsin?” Conri repeated after a few moments of silence.

Aaron had gone extremely pale.  Worried, Conri touched Aaron’s arm, jolting him out of a trance.

“I’m sorry.  That seems to happen when I remember it.  It was awful, Officer Jᴔnsa.  I could feel her being strangled.  I could see her and yet I couldn’t do anything…someone was trying to kill her.”

Conri felt his own chest constrict in silent panic as he fought to keep his face impassive.  The idea gave him a rock in his stomach that made him feel sick.  For a long time, Conri had a feeling that Aless was in danger, which had made him angry and frustrated. His tabs on Danny and all of his little piss-on friends were turning up nothing.  He wanted to go and search for Alessandra himself, but his orders were to stay in town.  It made him feel completely useless. 

“Aaron, I understand that you are concerned about Alessandra, but you were on heavy medication while in the hospital,” Conri started, trying to appear like the reasonable officer.

Aaron shook his head vigorously, his eyes watering in bitter dissatisfaction.  He wasn’t crazy.  He hadn’t imagined it!  He had seen his daughter…his baby girl.

“No…no…I’m telling you I didn’t dream it.  It happened.  I could feel it and I know my little girl.  I’m telling you someone was hurting her.  They almost killed her.  I don’t know who but it was some big shadow man.”

“Sir, this is all your opinion.  I want to help you, but I can’t really do anything with this information.”

In a brief second, Aaron Yᴔsin’s face went from resembling a weak old man to a pouting child.  Conri couldn’t imagine what the pain of losing a child must feel like.  Aaron didn’t look up for a while.  The music played in the background. 

Won’t you come over and play.  I’ll give you some candy. A dollie or two… the music crooned. 

“Sydnee used to sing that song to Aless when she was a baby,” Aaron finally said, almost defeated sounding.

“It’s a beautiful song.”

“It always helped her sleep no matter what.  Sydnee had a beautiful voice.”

“If she looked anything like Alessandra, she was a gorgeous woman.”

“People say she looks like me, but I’ve always seen her mother in her, personally.”

Glancing at an old photo of Sydnee holding a five-year-old Aless, Aaron took a deep breath to steady his aching heart and chase off the tears in his eyes.  Conri, too, looked at the image.  He missed Aless so badly.  It was crazy how much he missed a girl he barely knew. 

“You loved my daughter, didn’t you?” Aaron spoke softly, causing Conri to start.

Conri had been in such deep thought about Aless that he hadn’t noticed Aaron studying him.  Aaron’s eyes held a shred of his old sharpness mixed into the hazy grief that filled them. 

“Sir? I didn’t know…”

“I know you were the delivery guy.”

“Delivery guy?”

“I know I wasn’t the greatest dad.  I was never home and I put my business first, but my daughter was always protected.  I have cameras all over the outside of this place.”

“You have cameras?  I didn’t know that…”

“I showed the officers and they have a copy, but whoever took her knew about them and knocked them out, except one.”

“Can you see anything in that camera?”

“Yes, but nothing the officers could use.”

“May I see it?”

“Yes…”

Struggling to stand, Aaron took a deep breath, preparing himself for what he was about to see yet again.  He had viewed the tape a hundred times.  It never made him feel better.  It never illuminated who took his baby girl.  Leading the way, Aaron took Conri into the living room where he had the tape already in the TV.  Conri studied the familiar room, remembering the last time he had been there with Aless disguised as Bal.  How she had been so lonely and helpless.  How he had kissed her and promised he would never leave her. 

“You may want to sit down,” Aaron warned.

Turning on the TV, Aaron waited a moment then pressed play.  There was the small whirring of the tape player before a second of static then pitch blackness.  Aaron looked away from the TV, his eyes shut in silent pain.  Conri searched the screen for anything that could help him.  It was silent then there was a distant pounding.  A small popping sound echoed then a gasping sound.  Something shook the ground and faintly, Conri heard something dropped to the ground. It was a dark form, only a little lighter than its surroundings. Standing, Conri moved close to the screen and squinted.  Slowly it dawned on him that he was seeing the unconscious form of Kayla. 

The camera, which appeared to be at ground level, shook again as the heavy footsteps came again.  There was another echoing pop and something thudded to the driveway.  Though it was hard to tell against the pitch darkness, it appeared as if there was material a few feet in front of the camera.  Then white was visible, a bright white tattoo.  There was a panting noise and something purple was running down the white tattoo.  The figure collapsed and Conri sucked in air as he saw the face of Alessandra just feet from the camera.  Her face was ashen; her hair was disheveled and her eyes large and glassy.  The lips on her face were cracked, swollen, and bleeding slightly as if she had been struck recently. 

“No…” she whispered.

Her voice was barely audible above the background noise of the night.

“Daddy…help me…”

Her right hand reached toward the camera, feeling the area in front of her as if she couldn’t see.  She was searching the darkness blindly, confused, scared, and alone. Tears pooled in her eyes as she searched for what seemed to be an eternity.  

“Daddy…” she whispered one more time before the camera went black and all was lost.

Aaron wiped his eyes while Conri was preoccupied with the image on the TV.  His little girl had needed him, and he hadn’t been there.  Conri was wrestling with similar emotions as he realized that, according to the time dial on the recording, this video had been taken only two hours after he had left her house. 

“You loved her,” Aaron repeated.

“I wouldn’t say that, but I cared about her.  She was a remarkable young woman,” Conri replied.

Conri was unable to take his eyes off the now dark TV screen.

“She was and is, Officer Jᴔnsa.  I know she is alive.  I know that she is.  I can feel it.  Please help me find her.”

Conri Jᴔnsa turned his head to look at Aaron Yᴔsin.  Aaron held the photo of his wife and daughter, unable to fight back the tears anymore.  They slipped down his face like rain on a windowpane. 

“Please help me find her,” he repeated.

Placing his face in his right hand, Aaron wept as his left-hand shook, the photo of his family held tight.

I live in the house across the way.  Won’t you come to my house and play like you’re my little girl…