Chapter Thirty-Nine

I continue walking around Brooke's apartment, I couldn't really do much as I wasn't an officer like Jacob, but I still wanted to look around in case I found anything that didn't fit. Jacob was in the kitchen seeing if he could find any fingerprints, while I slowly make my way around the living room taking in all the insignificant details. I didn't come in Brooke's house too often, but the handful of times that I have been over, you can see that her mother likes to keep everything looking the same. My eyes soon move to the mantel piece just above the old fire, which is where I see the photo of me a Brooke sitting there. I walk over with a smile recalling the memory, it was actually the first photo we ever took as friends about a month after she started working. The whole restaurant had to be evacuated due to some fire drill, but it was freezing cold, so Brooke pulls her phone out saying let's take one more photo before we all freeze to death! I let out a little laugh before turning away from that photo to the one hanging on the wall, it was of Brooke and her parents a few years before her father died. I knew if anything has happened to Brooke, the type of pain her mother will be forced to go through once again. Brooke was the only thing that kept her mother going after her father, I don't want to imagine how she would be if what we're all feeling has happened. With a sigh I move away from the wall where the kitchen window comes into view, this is when I spot Markus and another man jumping out of a car in the car park. He can't find us here! I run from the living room into the kitchen where Jacob was. 'Markus and another man are coming up the stairs" I say which makes instant shock and worry fill Jacob's face, he springs to his feet picking anything up that will show Markus that someone had came into the house after he did. Jacob takes me by the arm and drags me into the living room, the only problem we had was there was only one way in and one way out of this place. If we try to leave the normal way, we will bump into Markus who would be angry to see us. Jacob looks around in a little panic for a few seconds before he runs us over to the living room window opening it up. 'Climb out" he tells me looking back towards the front door, where Markus will be walking through that in any second! I walk towards the window and stare out, this is when I spot a little ledge that ran just under the window, but I also spot the 30ft drop! I didn't want to waste time by arguing, so I put my first foot out to stand on the ledge before pulling myself out. Jacob was soon following my lead and also climbed out, he tells me to move along the ledge to stand on the section that a wall covers us. I once again do as I'm told and sidestep over to the wall, Jacob closed the window behind us before he too moves across, so he was hidden behind the wall beside me. Almost immediately, after we hid the front door opens and he begin to hear talking. I take a look to Jacob who sent me a smile, lets hope we're not stuck out on this ledge for too long! 'We need to find that bitch's phone!" Markus's voice shouts which echoed through the house, we already knew Markus was involved in Brooke disappearing, him showing up at her house only confirms it. 'The sooner we can dump her phone somewhere, the quicker my name will be wiped clean from any involvement with her" he says sounding as though he was moving through the house, if I'm remembering correctly, all of Brooke's things were in the kitchen somewhere. 'Why are you going through all this trouble to keep one girl away from what you really do, how many girls do you have on tap and she's with some other guy right?" Another man's voice asks, this was a voice of someone I didn't know but I can take a guess and say he's one of Markus's many workers. 'That one girl is called Payton and that guy she's dating is a far better worker than you, so I'd watch your mouth, her and Austin are a chance for the biggest opportunity for me" Markus replies which instantly, makes my heart sink, what does Markus want with me and Austin? 'What kind of opportunity?" The man asks which is something I also wanted to know, I knew I couldn't warn Austin, but at least I would have a heads up! 'That's need to know and quite frankly, you don't need to know now hurry up and find me that bitch's phone!" Markus shouts sounding as though he has had enough of question time, but I wanted nothing more than these questions to continue. There wasn't a reply from the man which tells me, he's got the message and will just continue to do what Markus says. I turn my head to look at Jacob, we have both just heard what Markus was planning while also, not having a single clue on what he was planning which is backwards! Jacob looks to me sending me a reassuring smile, but he couldn't speak as we heard footsteps walking closer to the window which makes my eyes go wide. 'This town isn't gonna know what hit it" Markus says to himself which didn't make me feel better about the situation, what in the heck is this man planning which involves me?! 'I found the phone, it was in the kitchen buried in a heap of junk!" The man from before shouts, it's lucky Markus didn't look, or he might have seen a few things out of place from when he did whatever he did to Brooke. 'Isn't that Payton girl you we're talking about the one in that photo?" He asks his voice sounding closer, I knew from where he was standing the man was talking about the photo of Brooke and I which sat on the mantle piece. 'Shit you're right, we need to round up all the photos or anything that links Payton with this girl" Markus tells him which at first didn't make any sense to me, everyone that knows Brooke, knows that me and her are close friends, when the man asks why Markus got annoyed all over again. 'We need to make sure that little Payton is kept out of this, the old bill will see her photo and will want to ask her some questions. What we don't need is Payton starting to use her head and start putting two and two together, the less she knows about what I do the better" Markus says where I couldn't help the smirk that filled my lips, he's trying this hard when really I know everything there is to know about what he enjoys to spend his time doing! From outside, we could hear the two men running around the house looking for different things. I hope they don't fully destroy everything, there is a lot of things that Brooke kept remembering different trips that me, Roman, her and her old boyfriend took a few years ago, things I would want to see again. My hand began to hurt due to having to hold onto dear life to an old strip of wood, if I pulled too hard it would just break in my hand. 'I think we found them all, let's get out of here before people get suspicious, we'll dump these on the way" Markus says like he read my mind, the walking appears again before the front door opens and quickly closes again. 'We'll wait a few minutes, we don't want them walking back in and seeing us" Jacob whispers over to me before we go silent again, I guess it's good he's here because I would have just climbed back in the window. After a few more minutes and the sound of a car driving away, Jacob moves to the side moving his head to look into the house. Once he saw that it was clear, he opens up the window and climbs back in, whilst holding his hand out to help me climb in. I take his hand and thankfully went through the window to safety; my hands were a little red with tiny cuts but that was the worst of it. I take a look around the house again and see it was even worse, they had pulled everything out to look for any traces of me. When Brooke's mother gets home, what is she going to think? But then the question of if they have told her mother about her disappearance fills my head. 'We don't have time to sit around" Jacobs says before I could speak, he takes my hand and pulls me towards the front door before Markus could return. He opens up the door looking both ways to make sure no one was there, before he runs out of the door holding my hand, so I was dragged along with him. He didn't even wait for the door to close behind us, people are gonna walk in and see that something bad had happened! Before I knew it, we were sat in Jacob's car speeding out of the carpark and down the street. 'What do you think he wants with me and Austin?" I ask looking over at him, whilst he was checking out of all the mirrors to make sure we weren't being followed by Markus or anyone associated with him. 'I don't know, but whatever it is, he doesn't want you finding out what he's really like" he tells me whilst turning the car down a sharp corner, I had to hold onto the side of the car as we were going so quickly, but his comment alone making me worry." Now you're working with me and my team, nothing bad will happen to you or your two admirers for that matter" he said talking about Roman and Austin, this does make me to look at him with a smile. But I couldn't help but worry.