A Summer to Remember

“Dude! This is great!” Nathan yelled as he punched my arm. He pulled out his phone, and called Cameron. I sat there in disbelief. My mind couldn’t comprehend what he had said.

“You gotta come to the police station,” Nathan yelled into the phone. “Yes, right now! Don’t ask, just come!”

Nathan hung up the phone, and started shouting with joy. Suddenly, my mind clicked. It was real. We were really going to find her.

“Look, we are issuing a warrant for this guy. We are going to find him, and Sarah,” Officer McGinnis assured us. Excitement pulsed through my veins. I couldn’t wait to see Sarah again. “Look, we need you two to go back to your hotel, and stay there. We don’t want anything to happen to you guys. We will call you if we find anything.”

I nodded, and stood up from my chair. I walked over to the officer, and reached out my hand. “Thank you, sir.” I said as I shook his hand. “I believe in you.” Officer McGinnis smiled at me, and nodded once. Nathan and I walked out to our van, and got in.

Nathan pulled out of the parking lot, and drove down the highway to our hotel. We were greeted in the lobby by Cameron and Michael. They desperately wanted to hear about where we were, but we wouldn’t tell them until we got up to our room. As soon as we closed the door, Nathan started telling the story starting at the very beginning, with our fight.

After Nathan finished, Michael and Cameron started screaming. “That’s awesome!!” they shouted in unison. They were just as excited as I was.

We stayed in our hotel for hours. There wasn’t much to do, and we got bored quickly. We went swimming, worked out, ate food; anything we could think of. We ordered so much room service, that we couldn’t eat anymore if we tried.

I was creeping on Twitter, when my phone started ringing. The loud room quickly silenced, as everyone anxiously waited for me to answer. I took a deep breath, and answered the phone.

“Hello?” I asked into the phone.

“Zach, this is Officer McGinnis. We found our suspect, and we are bringing him in for questioning.” All of the air I had been holding in quickly escaped my lungs in a sigh of relief.

“That’s great news!” I exclaimed. “Can I come in?” I started shaking my leg from nervousness.
There were a few moments of silence before he replied. “Yes, I suppose,” he said uneasily. I said my goodbyes to Officer McGinnis, before hanging up. I looked up, to find Cameron, Mikey, and Nathan staring at me.

“They found Oliver. I’m going to the police station.” I announced as I stood up. I changed my clothes, and pulled on my tennis shoes. I went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth. I walked back into the room, and saw that the three boys had changed their clothes, and were pulling on their shoes.

“You didn’t think that you would leave us here, would you?” Cameron asked as he tied his laces into a perfect bow. I shook my head, and waited for them to finish getting ready.

After a few minutes, we were off. We all jumped into our van, and Nathan drove. Within minutes, we were at the police station. We got out, and we walked in.

In the lobby, was the familiar police officer sitting at the desk. Hearing the door shut, he looked up from his work, and smiled at us.

“Hello, Zach. We’ve been expecting you.” He said as he stood up. We followed him back into the depths of the police station. It seemed even more crowded then usual.

“Officer McGinnis is in one of the questioning rooms with Oliver. You can either go into a room where you can watch him, or you can wait in a different questioning room. It’s your decision,” he explained to us, motioning to the doors behind us.

The guys and I exchanged looks, communicating with our eyes. I spoke up first. “If you don’t mind sir, I would like to watch them question Oliver.” Nathan said that he would keep me company, while Cameron and Michael decided they would rather wait in a different room.

The officer nodded, and showed us to the different rooms. When the officer brought us into the room where we could watch them question Oliver, he explained to us what we were seeing. “There is a pane of glass separating the rooms, acting like a wall. We can see him, but he can’t see us. They’ve been at it for a while; I don’t know how much more this guy can take.”

We watched Officer McGinnis question Oliver for at least three hours, but he would refuse to say anything. After a while, someone brought us some chairs so we could sit down.

I could hear Nathan’s stomach grumbling, filling the silence that occupied the room. I was hungry too, but neither of us wanted to get up, in fear of missing something important.

There came a point when I couldn’t stand it any longer. I couldn’t stand the room. I couldn’t stand watching Oliver and his smug smile he kept on his face. I couldn’t stand knowing that Sarah was out there, suffering. I couldn’t stand listening to Nathan and I’s stomachs having a conversation.

“I’m going to get a snack,” I grumbled as I stood up. Nathan nodded, but didn’t join me. I walked out of the room, and made my way through the dozens of white desks into the plain lobby. There was a vending machine in there. I fumbled in my pocket, and pulled out my wallet. I bought four bags of Cheetos and two bottles of water. When I got back to the room, the atmosphere changed. Everyone was dead silent, not daring to make a noise. Nathan was sitting on the edge of his seat. I obviously had missed something.

“What happened?” I whispered to Nathan as I sat down. I through two bags of Cheetos at Nathan, and he started explaining to me what I had missed.

“He started talking! He did! He admitted to kidnapping Sarah!” Nathan said quickly, the words all mixing together. I started to say something, but I was quickly quieted by the men in the room.

The room was silent, as we listened to Officer McGinnis interrogate Oliver Stallmer.

“Why did you kidnap her?” Officer McGinnis demanded a third time.

Oliver rolled his eyes, took a deep breath before answering. “If I tell you, you’ll help me. Right?” he asked, shifting in his chair.

“If you help us, we can help decrease your jail time. You still broke the law,” Officer McGinnis explained, writing something on his pad of paper.

“I was paid to kidnap her.” Oliver stated, shrugging his shoulders. “I could care less about the girl.”

My heart tightened when I heard what Oliver said. I realized that unless Oliver told us who paid him, we would be no closer in finding Sarah.

“Paid by whom?” Officer McGinnis questioned; his voice full of authority. Minutes passed, as we awaited his answer. Nathan and I were sitting on the edges of our seats, not daring to move a muscle.

“His name is…” Oliver’s voice trailed off.