Searching For Jenna novel Chapter 2

Jenna paced her room for a good fifteen minutes before deciding to call the FBI. They were a federal agency and as far as Jenna knew her father didn't have any friends in the FBI. She had to take the chance. Someone had to care that a police officer had a dead body in his freezer.

Going back to her desk, Jenna opened the browser on her laptop and looked up the FBI's phone number in Indianapolis and called it. The first person Jenna talked to took her information and put Jenna on hold while she located her supervisor.

A man came on the line and asked her to explain what was happening. Jenna told him about finding the body and who her father was. The man listened and then asked for a confirmation. "Who did you say your father was?"

"Michael Matthews. He works for the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Department. I'm not positive what he does, but it has something to do with patrolling areas where there are a lot of drug crimes," Jenna explained.

Jenna could hear the man saying something to someone in the background. "Jenna, where are you now?" the man who had identified himself as Special Agent Robert Fletcher asked.

"I'm at home," Jenna said.

"Good," Agent Fletcher said. "I have some people in the area. An agent by the name of William Defoe is going to come to your house. Do not leave and do not tell anyone else about what you found. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Jenna said, truly becoming afraid. "How long until they get here?"

"They will be there in the next hour. They are in Owensboro right now," Agent Fletcher said. "I want you to stay in your bedroom. Pretend like nothing out of the ordinary is going on. Okay?"

"Okay," Jenna said nervously.

Agent Fletcher gave her a number that would go directly to him. "Call me if your father shows up before my team gets there."

"I will," Jenna promised.

Jenna was now hyper-aware of every sound. She tried to go back to working on her homework but couldn't concentrate. The sound of the garage door opening again made Jenna jump. She looked out her window and saw her mom's car back into the garage. Jenna looked at her watch. It was a little after five-thirty. Sometimes her mom came home on her lunch break, but that wasn't usually until six, and her mom never parked in the garage. Something was up. Even though the FBI agent told her to stay in her room, she wanted to see her mom. Jenna wanted to tell her about the body.

Racing down the stairs, Jenna's heart was pounding. Her mother was going to flip out when Jenna told her what was happening. She opened the garage door and stopped dead in her tracks. Her father was shutting the trunk of her mother's car. Before it closed, Jenna noted that the body bag was in the trunk.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" Michael Matthews snapped.

"I...I thought Mom was home," Jenna stammered.

"Well, she's not. Get your ass out of this garage," he barked.

"Yes, sir," Jenna said, spun on her heel and ran back upstairs.

In her room, she started pacing. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," she whispered. She'd screwed up by going in there. Jenna didn't think he'd seen her look at the body bag, but she would definitely be getting an ass chewing for going out there when he got home tonight. And then she realized the FBI was going to get there and think she was playing a prank on them because the body was gone.

She tried calling the number Agent Fletcher gave her, but it went straight to voicemail. Jenna paced faster. What was she going to do? God, she was so screwed!

Matthews was a powerful man. When he backhanded Cara, it sent her flying across the room and into the bedroom door. This time she did get up and ran.

Jenna's father started punching her in the face and yelling, "You should have kept your ass out of the fucking garage."

At five foot seven, Jenna was not that much shorter than her six-foot-tall father. She was big boned and not a small woman. But in his rage, Michael Matthews seemed taller and bigger than normal. None of her attempts to defend herself against him worked. He was hitting her so hard Jenna could feel the bones in her face breaking.

Finally, he hit her hard enough to send her crumbling to the floor. The blows continued until the last thing she remembered was seeing a chair rising above her father's head as he delivered the blow that knocked her unconscious.

Special Agent William Defoe knew he'd arrived too late when he heard Michael Matthews screaming at Jenna. Pulling out his latex gloves and slipping them on, he grabbed the knob of the back door, which was unlocked. Opening the door, he raced up the back stairs and into Jenna Matthews' bedroom where her father was savagely beating her. Defoe grabbed the chair from Jenna's desk and smashed it over Michael Matthews' head, knocking him out. He may have just compromised his mission, but he had to save Jenna.

Straddling Matthews' prone form, Defoe leaned over and picked up Jenna's limp body. Being careful not to leave more evidence than he already had, Defoe put Jenna over his shoulder, turned, and hurried down the back stairs, through the kitchen, and out the back door, exactly the way he came in.

When he was in the grass, he pulled Jenna from his shoulder and cradled her in his arms so the blood coming from her nose and mouth would not drip on the ground and leave a trail for the dogs that would be brought out to find her. He headed to the small patch of woods at the far end of the yard.

Defoe hurried along a path that went into the woods and then circled back to the Matthews' house. At its farthest distance from the house, the path took him within a few feet of where the woods ran along a ravine that separated it from Veterans Memorial Parkway. He slowed and stepped off the trail as gingerly as he could while carrying Jenna. The eighteen-year-old was tall for a girl, making his task a little more challenging than he needed it to be. Defoe moved carefully through the last few feet of trees and tried not to break any branches or disturb the low bushes as best he could with his awkward package.

Stopping at the edge of the woods where the grassy slope started, Defoe was met by the two agents who were working with him. One took Jenna and raced across the ravine and drainage ditch to the SUV waiting at the side of the parkway. Defoe took off the LawPro boots he was wearing and slipped into no track tactical boots, similar to what the other two agents were wearing. Hopefully, the police investigating Jenna's disappearance would see the tracks he made through the woods and would match them to Matthew's boots, which were the same model Defoe had taken off. The tactical boots he replaced them with would not leave any trace of their exit with Jenna. He picked up the Lawpro boots and quickly followed the second agent across the grass to the rock drainage ravine.