Part One|Part Two|Part Three|Part Four|Part Five|

Eva awoke to the aroma of hot coffee lingering through the house. She scurried out of bed and slipped on her robe before walking to the kitchen to pour herself a cup. Ford was sitting on the couch, watching the morning news.

“Good morning.” He said, cheerfully, smiling as Eva sat down next to him.

“Morning.” She responded, not yet ready for conversation.

She sat down beside him, and he wrapped his arm around her, rubbing her shoulder. She sipped at her coffee and thought about what tasks she had to perform at work for the day. Once the news finished playing, she began to get ready; Ford still close by.

“You riding with me to work today, sweetie?” he asked her.

“I was thinking of taking my own car today. I have some errands I want to run after work. I have to get more stuff for my office, and then I want to talk to one of the detectives from the police station and see if they’ve found anything out about Dave.” Eva said, now applying her makeup.

“Okay, well I am going to head out then, and I will see you at work.” Ford snuck a quick kiss on Eva’s head before leaving.

When she arrived at work, things were already hectic, but she was ready to face the busy day ahead. She grabbed the paperwork she needed from her boss and began looking over accounts and putting their information into the books. Everything was kept on file for fifteen years. After that, it was moved to another building where it would be shredded and thrown away. She grabbed the next file from the pile and looked it over, and fear spread through her body when she read the name at the top: David Reddington. Eva knew David’s last name was Redd. Was it a coincidence, or did she have reason to believe this was his file? She tried to relax as she looked it over further, not finding much that stood out to her except a house number—Ford’s house number. She was terrified now, as she thought about David hurting Ford, and knowing his address would surely lead him to her. Eva ran out of her office, file in hand, to her car and sped off to the police station.

The grumpy woman at the desk was there again. Eva headed up to her and quickly explained that she needed to see a detective about an open case. After getting Eva’s information, the woman gestured for her to sit at the uncomfortable plastic chairs in the hallway and wait to be called. Eva jumped out of her seat when she saw the familiar face of detective Henry Peterson.

“Hello again, ma’am,” he said as he pulled out a chair for her to sit on in his office.

She wasn’t in that weird room that she had assumed was for interrogations, which put her mind at ease a little bit.

“Detective, I have some information I found at work, and I want you to look over it. I am an accountant, and this came across my desk. At first, the name stood out to me, but the address is what I am concerned about. That’s my boyfriend, Ford’s address.”

Henry looked over the file, highlighting the name and address before looking up at Eva with concern. “Wow, this is something—I’d say you have a stalker on your hands. But being that you’ve already been kidnapped, this isn’t news to you. We’ve been looking up information on this Dave guy, and let me tell you, he is sick. We think he has been using fake identities to get close to his victims before he murders them. We have linked his DNA to murders by using DNA found at the site of your kidnapping. The problem is, he moves around so much we don’t know how to track him. He may have other people working for him. Can you give me more information about your boyfriend?”

Eva gave all the information she knew about Ford before heading back to Ford’s apartment. Detective Peterson had assured her he’d have patrols checking on her throughout the next few days. Ford wasn’t home yet, so Eva took the opportunity to look around. She searched Ford’s closet and the pockets of his clothes, trying to find proof that Dave had been inside the apartment. Then something hit her, hard. What if Ford was working with Dave? The panic caused her to become shaky and clumsy. She ran to the bathroom to splash water on her face and looked under the sink cabinet to find a washcloth to dry off with, but couldn’t find one. She knew this is where Ford kept the extra towels. She moved some stuff around, hoping that all the washcloths weren’t dirty, and saw something unusual. Toward the back of the cabinet, there was a cut out in the wall with hinges and a handle. She’d never noticed it before, though she’d never really had an issue with finding what she needed before either. She pulled at the handle and discovered bags and a cell phone. She pulled them all out and looked inside the bags, finding makeup and latex. The cell phone looked familiar too, and then she realized, the cell phone was Dave’s. She’d seen it before when she was kidnapped.

She had formed this relationship with Dave, building on his trust so he would let her free. When she behaved, he didn’t torture her as much, and he gave her more freedom. He’d let her into the main part of the building after ensuring there was no way for her to exit because the building had no doors or windows. All the furniture inside was old and worn, but it had become her home. One day when she was reading an outdated version of a vogue magazine while Dave stood watching nearby, his phone rang. He pulled it out and quickly answered, telling whoever it was that he couldn’t talk but would call later. It was a flip phone, and the screen that told the time on the front was cracked. This one was the same.

Eva called the detective and told him to get his crews there as fast he could, and she grabbed a knife from the kitchen and locked herself in the bathroom. If Ford came home and tried to get to her, she would stab him. There was no way he just conveniently had this stuff in his house without knowing. He was now just as much of a danger to her as Dave was. She shut off the bathroom light and waited. All she could do was wait and hope the police got there before Ford did, or worse, Dave.