Hey, you

Chapter 14 - No trace

Another knock on the door. The sound could be heard echoing throughout the apartment. The door remained closed as Robert waited patiently. 'LAPD, open up!' he shouted, continuing to knock, now with the side of his fist. It was useless, no one was going to answer. Robert made his way back to his car, which was parked out front. He pulled out his phone and held it to his ear. 'Hi Mr. Greene, we've been to the apartment again, but there is still no one home...'

Arthur was anxiously pacing up and down Ellie's trailer. He hadn't heard from his daughter in nearly a week.

'Look pal, this is kidnapping. My daughter is sixteen-years-old,' he blasted. 'You should be out there searching for her!'

'I can assure you, there is no evidence of a child abduction Mr. Greene, however, if you're telling me that you didn't give consent for your child to be traveling alone, then we will have to file Ellie as a missing person...' Robert explained as he began to drive down the highway back towards the police station.

'No, I didn't give her permission. That son of a bitch Will, or whatever his name is, has taken her. You should be searching for him and throwing him in jail!' Arthur was raging, a mix of anger and worry flowing throughout him. 'Get your guys out there, and FIND MY DAUGHTER!' he threw his phone onto the sofa before sitting down and taking deep breaths, his hands placed upon his head. He just wanted the best for his daughter - but Ellie was out of control. She'd been different before meeting Will. She'd always been committed to her work and inspiring people. Now it seemed that her priorities had been completely changed. Arthur feared for her safety, he didn't know anything about this Will, he didn't know what his intentions were - and he certainly didn't trust him.

There was a knock on the trailer door. Arthur quickly got back to his feet and opened it to find Doug standing on the top step.

'Any news?' he asked as Arthur invited him into the trailer.

'None, not a trace of her... of either of them,' he replied sounding frustrated.

'And you're sure she's with this Will guy?'

'I'm certain. That sick son of a bitch has my daughter and when I find him... well, let's just say it will be me the cops will be throwing into a jail cell...'

'Shit,' Doug sighed with his hands on his hips. 'And you've checked with the other studios? That was my first thought after I rejected their script. I figured they'd try to get it passed by another production team.'

'I've checked them all. No sign,' Arthur sighed as he poured some more whiskey for himself, offering Doug a glass in the process. He declined, waving his hand towards the bottle before heading back over towards the trailer door.

'I hate to make this worse for you, Arthur... but production can't wait for Ellie much longer. If she isn't back here very soon, we're going to have to seriously consider writing her out of the show...' Doug turned to exit the trailer.

Arthur couldn't speak. Did Ellie really realise what she was sacrificing, just for some boy? He took off his red lensed sunglasses and placed them on the table before downing the whiskey and pouring some more.

The door flew open again. Tom quickly entered the trailer bearing down at his phone, 'We've got a lead!' he gasped handing his phone over to Arthur. His Twitter feed was open with a photo of Ellie walking out of a store, wearing sunglasses, and what looked like a male's denim jacket. The caption read, '#EllieGreene is so pretty, OMG!!' There seemed to be about fifteen love heart emojis that followed.

'Message them, ask them where they took this,' said Arthur desperately, passing the phone back to Tom as he quickly started to type a message to the user.

'Phoenix!' he shouted as the reply came through. Arthur quickly grabbed his phone and called Robert.

'She's in Phoenix,' he gasped down the phone. 'Get your guys over there now and get that son of a bitch!'

'You're sure?' asked Robert as he walked through the corridor of the police station and back to his car. 'If you know where she is, then she isn't missing. Is he in the photo?'

'No, it's just her. But she's in Phoenix, surely you can get over there and arrest his ass?' Arthur sounded excited, like the feeling of relief that he knew his daughter was okay.

'Well as Ellie is sixteen, she doesn't have the right to move away from home without a parent's consent. But, I'm sorry Arthur, we have no authority in Arizona to go and get her,' Robert explained.

'So you're just gonna leave her out there?' fumed Arthur.

'Let me talk to some of my colleagues in Arizona. But until we have evidence that Ellie is in any kind of danger, or if there are any signs that she is with Will, I can't promise anything. I'm sorry Arthur, that's just the way it is...'

The call had disconnected before Arthur could respond. That was it, he was on his own, 'Fine, I'll go myself!' Arthur grabbed his jacket from the side and headed for the door.

'Wait,' said Tom, 'that photo was taken six days ago. It would be useless going there now, they'll be long gone...'

'I can't just sit here and do nothing?' Arthur blasted, grabbing his glass of whiskey once more.

'Let me try calling her again,' said Tom trying to reassure his Dad as he began to call Ellie. The phone began to ring until it was rejected. Ellie clearly didn't want to be contacted. Instead, all Tom could do was continue searching on social media for any sightings of her.

'I swear to God when I find that Will, he'll be heading straight for the cemetery.' Arthur sounded serious. It wasn't an overreaction and Tom could tell. He knew that Ellie was his Dad's pride and joy. He would do anything to protect her, and go to any lengths...