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Chapter 21

“Cody?” Granger frowned as the Cody entered the room and closed the door behind him.
“Orlov isn’t the only one who knows where she is.” He continued and sat down next to Granger. “Tara knows too.”
“I knew it!” Nick slammed his fist on the table and stood up, pulling his hair in frustration. “I knew she was lying!” He was pacing back and forth now, swearing to himself.
“Nick, sit down.” Granger ordered and turned to Cody again. “What do you mean, Tara knows? And aren’t you supposed to be in the village with her right now? Where is Tara anyways?”
Cody sighed. “I don’t know…”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“She’s left…”
“What?”
Granger cast a glance at Nick across the table. He had closed his eyes, as if he was waiting for bad news and just wanted to get it over with.
“I was in the village together with Tara, and we decided to split up and walk a bit to ourselves. So I walked away, leaving her by the car. I’d been walking around for maybe fifteen minutes when I decided to go back and get a scarf cause it was pretty cold out there. So I walked back, and just before I was about to turn the corner, I overheard her talking on the phone.” He paused for a few moments.
“What did she say?” Nick asked anxiously.
“She basically said that she knew where Ali was, but that she wasn’t going to tell anyone, cause she wanted you to herself.”
Nick looked down, shaking his head slightly and running his hand across his face.

God….

“She went on for a few more minutes, talking about how sick and tired she was of hearing about Ali, and then she hung up. I decided to walk away and pretend that I didn’t hear anything. I didn’t think she had seen me or heard me, but when I returned, she wasn’t there. I’ve been trying to call her, and I spent two hours looking for her, but she’s nowhere to be found.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” Granger asked, slightly irritated.
“I tried, but your phone’s been off for the past few hours.”
Granger sighed, realizing that he had switched off his phone when he was inside questioning Orlov. He also looked rather embarrassed, as he had to admit that he had been wrong about Tara. They would now not only have to work on finding Ali, but Tara too.

Nick was trying to hide his anger, as the two officers started discussing Tara. Just hearing her name made him want to scream. He knew that he should have trusted his instinct when he first met her. He didn’t trust her, and every time he had spoken to her, she seemed more and more interested in his relationship with Ali. It made him feel uncomfortable, and all he wanted to do was walk away.

“Can we please just get out of here and start looking for her?” Nick burst out, once again standing up.
“Who? Ali or Tara?” Granger asked,
“I don’t know… both!” Nick placed his hands on the table and leaned forward, looking at Granger and Cody. “I just want to get out of this room and do something. I’m sick of hearing you guys sit around and talk about everything that’s happening without doing anything about it. Sitting here, discussing what Tara did or didn’t do won’t help us find Ali. We need to go out there and look for her, for both of them. If Tara knows where Ali is, we need to find her. She’s the only one who can help us right now.” Nick knew that he sounded desperate, but he was.
There was silence in the room for a few seconds. Finally, Granger nodded his head slowly.
“I’m sorry Nick… You’re right.” He sighed. “Cody, I want you to go to the airport, and make sure that everybody there knows that Tara is not, under any circumstances, to leave this country. Bring two or three officers with you to translate, and explain the situation. I’ll make sure that all the roads out of the town are blocked. I’ll take a few officers with me down to the village. I assume you guys want to come too?” He said, looking from Nick to AJ, who both nodded.
“Thank you.” Nick said, relieved that something was finally being done.

~*~

They spent the rest of that day doing everything they could to find Tara, while at the same time, keeping their eyes open for any sign of Ali. The airport had been informed, the roads were blocked and several officers were patrolling the area in, and around the village. Nick was beyond the stage of being tired. Something was keeping him going, keeping him from giving up. But as midnight came and went, he had to admit that the thought of lying down for a few hours, was tempting. Yet, he kept going. AJ had gone back to the hotel after getting his bandage changed at the medical centre, but Granger was still left, trying to get an overview of the whole situation.

Nick was walking around Tura on his own, as Granger was busy making phone calls, and the other officers had moved the search to the forest around the village. He was looking around, trying to spot something unusual or suspicious. He didn’t know what exactly that could be, but he kept looking anyway.

The streets of Tura seemed awfully quiet, even more than usual. There were no sounds coming from the forest surrounding the village, no wind making the trees whistle.

Nothing.

Nick sat down on a broken bench next to a barn where he had been only days before, looking for Ali. It seemed even more worn down than before and as he sat there, he realized that this was the first time in weeks that he was completely alone. Besides being asleep, he was always around someone, trying to convince everybody that he was strong and that he believed that they would find Ali if they just kept looking. Inside, he wasn’t so sure anymore. Seeing how the investigation formed, hearing Orlov’s words, realizing that Tara had betrayed them all… he was starting to lose hope.

No… don’t give up! She’s still out there.

He was trying hard to convince himself, but between everything that had happened that day, and being in a state of not having slept in nearly 24 hours, and little before that, he had come to a point where he couldn’t even think straight anymore.

Goddamn it Ali! Why are you doing this to me?

He let his head rest against the wooden wall behind him, feeling the cold surface through the hood on the jacket he was wearing. He wanted more than anything to get rid of the aggression he was feeling at that moment. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes, letting his thoughts wander back to a time when Ali was still with him, always making an impact on his life with her strong opinions.

~*~

October 2000

“Nick, when are you ever going to learn how to clean up after yourself?” Ali was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, looking at Nick who was sprawled out on the couch in front of the TV, surrounded by empty cans of coke, a half eaten burger, chips and empty plates.
Nick shrugged. “I have people to do that for me.” He said, his eyes not leaving the TV set.
“I know YOU have, but I don’t. Nick, this is MY house, or at least my parents house, and they’ll be home from work in exactly one hour. You better clean this mess up!”
He shrugged again, taking a sip of his drink.
Ali sighed heavily and walked over to the TV, positioning herself right in front of it.
“Heeeey. Move!” Nick whined, throwing a pillow at her.
“Nick, I am not kidding here. This is NOT funny. You are such a spoiled brat. I know you’ve been touring for a while and that you are tired, but that does not mean that you can come here every day and make yourself at home like this.”
“I am not a spoiled brat!”
“Yes you are!”
“Am not!”
“Then would you PLEASE act your age and clean up this mess?”
“I still have one hour. I am watching this show. Could you move?”
Ali took a step closer to Nick, hands on her hips. “I can not FUCKING believe you! You either clean up this mess, or you leave right now!”
“Urgh! You can not tell me what to do!”
“Oh yes I can. I am SO SICK of you acting like you own everybody. You are not that cool mister – I – can – have – everything – my – way!”
Nick sat up a little. “I can’t believe you just said that!”
“Well, believe it.”
“I’m leaving now.” He stood up and cast an angry glance at Ali, who was looking like she wanted to punch him.
“I HATE you!” She spit out.
“Well, I’m not that found of you right now either!”
“GET OUT!” She raised her hand and pointed towards the front door.
“I know very well where the door is, thank you very much.” He said sarcastically, making his way across the room.
“I fucking HATE YOU right now.” She didn’t know if she had heard her, because seconds later he was gone.

They hadn’t spoken for over a week. Not until Nick had showed up at her doorstep, begging her to forgive him. He knew that she was waiting for him to apologize and he hated to be the one giving in. But he knew it was his call, and that their friendship was worth more than that.

~*~

Nick sighed as he remembered the fight. He would have given everything to be there right now, instead of the cold streets of Tura. Everything was better than being where he was at that moment. He could spend the rest of his life arguing with Ali instead of not having her in his life at all.

“Hello Nick.”
He jerked out of his thoughts as someone spoke to him. He raised his head slowly and had to blink twice before he realized who was standing next to him.
“Tara!”