I made us all pancakes for breakfast, at both of their requests. Noah helped me as much as he could with one arm. He liked to make monster shapes and snakes. Savanna got out the cool whip and made him a six inch high stack of sweetness. Noah ate every single bite and sat back rubbing his belly. “Mmmmmm, thank you, Daddy.”
“Did ya like em?” I asked, even though I already knew he did.
“Yup. What’s for lunch?” Our son, the bottomless pit.
After helping my little buddy get dressed, we all climbed in the truck and headed to the grocery store. Savanna hated it when Noah and I went along, because we ended up buying all sorts of junk to eat. Noah and I together were her worst nightmare. We knew how to work as a team to get her to cave and buy what we wanted. He found it to be very fun, in a sneaky kind of way.
We’d been in the store for a good twenty minutes. Noah was riding on the back of the cart while I steered from the front. Savanna was behind us with her coupon contraption. She was totally involved in those damn things to notice where she was going. As we passed a couple in the center of the aisle, I turned around to make sure she was paying attention to where she was walking.
Before I could open my mouth to warn her, she collided with the female and her hand basket of groceries. Coupons went flying into the air, as did the woman’s groceries. They both crouched down and began picking up their things. At first Savanna was only worried about picking up the mess and apologizing, but as I bent down to help my wife, I watched her get a good look at the lady.
They were both apologizing one minute and then in a frozen stare the next. We all stood up at the same time, in which Savanna grabbed our cart and headed out of the aisle one way, while the other couple went the opposite direction.
When I reached her, she was breathing heavy and basically hiding out in the corner of the store. I finally made it to her side and pulled her into my arms. “Darlin’, what is goin’ on? Did you know them?”
She looked up at me and had tears in her eyes. “Call the police Colt. Call them right now.”
I had no idea what was going on, but as I pulled out my phone, I watched my wife hauling ass up one of the aisles. The nine-one-one operator came on the line asking what my emergency was, but I had no idea what to say.
After deciding to just have them send a cop to the grocery store, Noah and I went running after Savanna. She was standing by the window, in between two giant sales ads. With her coupon book in one hand and a pen in the other, she started jotting down something. I got closer and saw it was a tag number and the make and model of a car. “Savanna? Tell me what this is about.”
Both Noah and I were standing there waiting for her to explain. She was trying to talk, but hyperventilating instead. A cashier came running over, handing her a brown bag to breathe into. She grabbed Savanna by the arm and sat her down on a nearby bench. I stood over her waiting to find out what the hell was going on. Savanna was holding onto her belly, but not acting like she was in any pain.
After a few minutes and the sound of police sirens in the distance, she looked up at me. “They were the ones with Tucker, the ones the police never caught. They were the ones that helped him take me. They took our baby from us Colt.”
I crouched down to my knees and pulled her into my arms. “Jesus, Darlin’ I had no idea.”
She shook her head against my shoulder. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know.” She began crying heavily and I couldn’t make out her words. Noah sat down beside his mother and held her hand. He surely had no idea about what was going on, but he sure as shit did a good job supporting her. Through her tears she leaned down and kissed his head.
“It will be okay, Mommy.”
“Thank you, Baby.” She looked up at me and finally started to calm down.
The police came in shortly and were directed toward us. Of course, they wanted her whole statement, which required us to go to the station. After paying for our groceries, we stopped by the station and Savanna talked to the original officer on the case. He was very kind to her and she finally calmed down after time.
The police put out a bulletin about the vehicle and the two passengers. Savanna never had a name for them and with Tucker dead, she never seemed to care about what happened to the other two people. It was later that afternoon that she explained she had received a letter stating they were closing the case about a month before. At the time, she was so focused on Tucker being dead and what she had to go through, that she didn’t seem too concerned about the other people involved. Tucker’s mother was never charged on account of lack of evidence. Her attorneys played some bullshit scenario that Savanna couldn’t have been in her right mind after being kidnapped. They claimed that her overhearing a telephone call did not prove his mother was on the other end of that call.