Chapter 15
Erika and Derrek were asleep on her couch when they were awoken by a police siren driving down the road. "What time is it?" Erika asks Derrek who is lazily searching for his phone. "Holy crap, it's 9:07 pm!" Derek announces rubbing his eyes. "Anything from Jessica?" Erika asks concerned. Derrek checks his messages and his calls, "Nothing." He says disappointed. "Okay, I have an idea," Erika says, she turns on her laptop and sits down at her desk. She starts typing into the web browser and selects the auto-complete option for 'Find my Phone' and then selects the Google Webpage named 'Find my Device'. Derrick watches her from over her shoulder curiously. Erika sneaks a quick kiss before explaining.
"I used to lose my phone a lot. So after buying an android I linked it to all of my information and have been able to track where I last left it." She waits for the page to load. "Sometimes it gets tricky when I leave it in the Café because the location shows my home above the café and doesn't pinpoint it exactly. But I can call it, locate it, and wipe information from it. It's a great service." The page loads up with the phone's location on a map. "Where is that?" Erika asks scratching her head, she zooms out until she can see the route from their location. "Should we call her?" Derrick asks. "I think she might be in trouble," Erika says, dodging his question. "Are you serious?" He says concerned, getting anxious. "It looks like a property, it's totally gated and humongous. It looks like an island. I'm scared that if she is in trouble, and we text or call her, we might give away the phone."
Erika makes a good point, but Derrick isn’t sitting right with the circumstances. "So, now that you are my girlfriend, are you going to be mad at me for taking a picture of this map and then taking a drive over to save my sister?" Derrick asks her, she could see the rage growing inside him but all she could focus on was how cute he was for calling her his girlfriend. "No." She said as she hit the 'print screen' button on her laptop. "Because, as your girlfriend, I'm coming with you." She tells him as she holds up the printed map. Derrick smiled in relief, not only for her support but because she acknowledged herself as his girlfriend. "Let's head down through the Café and I'll make coffee so we don't fall asleep on the road. Can you grab my car charger? See if it fits your phone?" Erika gets up from the desk and grabs her Jean jacket and shoes. Derrick looks through the basket she pointed at and pulls out a car charger that fits the lighter socket in his car. He checks the cord and it’s a match.
Erika picks up his sweater from the couch and passes it to him, "Let's go downstairs." She says as they leave her apartment. It's dark outside, the streets glow and form an eerie sphere around the bulbs. The air is moist and foggy and it's hard to see clearly down the road. Erika leads Derrick down the stairs and into the café. The lights are on and some of the machines are still lit up. Erika throws Derrick the keys and he goes to the front door to lock the keyed deadbolt above the daily locks she had locked earlier. Erika fills her new machine with beans and then hits a series of buttons, then she goes and turns off all the other machines. She then takes two paper cups and fills them with coffee. She puts on the plastic lids and calls for Derrick to follow her out the back door.
He does so, taking his coffee from her and she hits the master light switch. All the lights in the café go off and she closes the door. Locking it in 2 places, she turns to Derrick and they walk around the building to his car. The narrow alleyway is dark and smelly from the community dumpster and bags piled outside of it. There is a blanket, some crumpled napkins, and a garbage bag that looks like a bean bag. The napkins appear to have sketches on them. Derrick kneels down and opens up one of the napkins. "Hey, is this your napkins?" Derrick asks, holding up one with a drawing of Jessica on it." Erika is shocked but inspects the pattern along the edges. "Yeah, that’s one of mine. That looks a lot like" "Jessica," Derrick says cutting her off. Both of them stare at each other, confirming Erika's earlier assumption.
Erika inspects the area a little closer, she goes to move the black bag where more napkins are buried but it is ridiculously heavy. She rips open the bag and reveals torn, ripped, and dirty clothing. "This looks like what the homeless man wore when he used to visit the café." Erika digs through the clothing a little more, she pulls out a blood-stained sweater, the one the homeless man wore almost every day. She exchanges looks with Derrick. "You don't think?" She asks Derrick, but he already knows what she's thinking. "We have to leave, now!" The two run to the car and Derrick fires it up. They take off down the road following the map to where the device was located.
"It's not fancy," Derrick said, disappointed while taking sips of his coffee. "Well, I didn’t have time to make it fancy," Erika told him, plugging his phone into her charger. "Have you ever been out of the city?" Derrick asked her, trying to make conversation. "No. Have you?" She asked, checking on the map to make sure they were following the right way. "Only once." He said. "There was a house party after graduation, everyone was getting drunk at one of the houses in the next town." Erika listened to his story. They indulged in anything that could keep their mind off of the worst possible scenario, Jessica ending up like Shawn.
They leave town and drive carefully over the bridge. The fog gets thicker as they cross over the water, leaving the area looking like a spooky movie set. Jessica reaches for Derrick's hand, and he grabs hers tightly. The remainder of the car ride is silent as they drive through the towns, hoping they will find Jessica. Please be all right. Erika repeats in her mind, sending protection and love to Jessica, wherever she is.