ME AND MY BROKEN HEART
“Since the closing of the investigation in 2012 many assumptions were made about the location of the abductor and the little girl. Finally a solid lead was given to the police by a family outside Houston. This is the man that they saw. If you have any information, please contact Houston Police Department.” Picture appeared in the right corner of the screen. Whit started walking toward Ash with a warning look. “Ash, don’t!”
They both recognized him. Both of them saw him that day. He walked past them and placed his towel near the place where the kids were playing which wasn’t suspicious then since the beach was crowded.
“No. No, no, no. This is not happening. Not now!” Ash shook her head and picked her phone up.
“Who are you calling?” Whit grabbed her hand so that she can’t dial.
“I’m calling the police! Give me that!” She grabbed the phone back and ran downstairs.
When Ali got back, they were all sitting on the couch looking at each other. She thought that it was some kind of trick since Whit and Ash weren’t with them anymore.
“Okay guys, quit playin. Where are Whit and Ash?” Ali laughed like she knew what was going on. Tobin pointed at the TV in front of them and Ali’s heart stopped. “Wh-Are you serious?” She couldn’t believe that someone actually saw her.
“Well it’s on the news so yeah..” Syd got up and turned to Ali.”We should probably go. I will talk to you tomorrow and I hope you will have some kind of answer by then.” She hugged her and the rest of the girls followed. Ali made sure to see them out before putting on her shoes and heading out.
Ali dialed Whit’s number and she immediately picked up. “Engen, where are you?”
“We are heading to the police station in Houston. They said they can’t discuss it over the phone so we had to go. Do you want us to pick you up?” Whit was searching for something in her bag.
“No, it’s fine. I will catch up to you.” Ali sat in her car and drove away.
After some time, she saw Ash’s car in front so she signaled them that she was right behind. They arrived at Houston just before the sunrise.
The sound of people talking and running around the place was the only thing you could hear in this police station. That brought back so much bad memories for Ash, she went back to that day..
“Ash? You okay?” Whit shook her shoulder and she jumped.
“Yeah. Yeah, let’s go.” They stopped the first person who passed by them and it was Sergeant William Peters. “Excuse me! Sir! We are here; we talked over the phone about Madison Harris.” Whit was the one doing the talking since Ash couldn’t.
“Right this way, please!” He guided them to interrogation room. Ashlyn was impatient.
“Where is she?!” She looked all over the room. “Where is the girl?”
“We don’t have the girl. She was reported seen outside Houston by a German family that moved there a couple of years ago. They said that she had long blonde hair, blue eyes and was about 11 years old.” Sergeant stated.
“What do you mean?! We came all this way and you have nothing?!” Ash was losing her patience, if she even had any left.
Ali told Whit to get Ash out so she could talk with sergeant on her own.
“Sergeant, could you maybe give us the address of that German family? We just want to talk to them.” Ali was given a note with the address. “You didn’t get this from me. Their last name is Heinrich.” He walked away and Ali quickly ran to find Ash and Whit.
“I got it! I have the address!” Ali pulled them out of the police station and jumped into Ash’s car. They drove to this small house near the lake and Ash quickly ran to the door which made Ali and Whit run after her. She knocked on the door until this younger women opened.
“Hey! I mean hello! We just came from the police station and they’ve told us that you have some information about a little girl that you saw here with this man.” Ash showed her the picture that she saved on her phone.
The woman looked terrified. “Ich verstehe dich nicht.”
“What?” Ash turned to Ali since she was the only one here who knew German.
“She said that she doesn’t understand you.” Ali took Ash’s phone.”Let me.” She approached the woman and showed her the picture once again. “Hast du diesen Mann gesehen?“
The woman nodded. She gestured them to come inside and Ali thanked her.
“What did she say? She recognized him?” Ash pulled Ali back and Ali nodded.
The woman started to explain to Ali what she saw and her husband joined them after a while.
“She said that he approached them and asked if they had any gas to spare. He was hiding that little girl behind his back but she was peeking the whole time. She says that she had bright blue eyes but that is all she could see because the man yelled at her. Something in German. And after that, she looked at the ground the whole time. They gave them enough gas to get to the San Antonio and he headed in that direction.” Ali explained to Whit and Ash.
“San Antonio?! He is going to Mexico..” Ash immediately thought about the worst possible outcome.”Ask her if the girl said anything.”
“Hat sie etwas gesagt?” Ali asked them and this time the husband spoke up.
He knew a little bit of English so he decided to explain this one.
“Since she was hidden from us it was a bit hard to hear what she said, but I recognized it because I was singing that to my kids when they would go to sleep.”
“Twinkle twinkle little star?” Ash covered her mouth on the verge of crying.
He nodded and continued. “I don’t know if this is relevant or not, but she was holding a broken bracelet.”
“Was it purple?” Ash grabbed Ali’s hand and squeezed it.
“Yes. It had a little shark on it.”
Ash felt tears rolling down her face. It was her sister after all. “My baby girl..” She got up and left the house. The sky was filled with shiny and bright start and she just sat in the middle of nowhere.
I will find you baby. I always do..
Ali and Whit thanked the family and left the house only to see Ash on the ground, looking at the sky and holding her golden necklace.
Ali went to get her in the car but Whit stopped her. “Don’t.. She will join us when she’s done.”
Whit knew about that ritual Ash had. She does it on every anniversary of Maddie’s death.
They sat in the car and waited. After 10 minutes Ash sat in the back and didn’t say a word throughout the whole ride home. They stopped at the police station and Ali decided that it would be the best if Whit took her car so that Ali would be the one to drive Ash home. Whit agreed because she knew how much Ash needs Ali right now.
Ali waved Whit goodbye and they drove away. Ash fell asleep in the middle of the ride and Ali slowed down. She didn’t want to wake her up and put her through more of this nightmare.