“Its now or never,” her inner strength said, goading Amy on. “Show that Bruce you are not just some plaything in a G-string!”

Amy forced herself to stand and while pushing through the pain in her arm, walked up the stairs, and pounded the bulkhead door. “Help,” she yelled. “I am in here.”

 Howard ran to her voice, and pulled the tarpaulin back, and looked down in between the doors. Amy looked back at him, now crying in relief.

He called for back-up. Within minutes the place was swarming with police, FBI, as well as a task force that specializes in affairs that deal with cases of human trafficking.

Bruce tried to deny it, but once they found her DNA in his tow truck, he took a plea deal. On that day, Bruce kept saying he couldn’t understand how she got her phone back from him, as it was in his pocket.

Amy, wrapped up in a blanket, on a gurney, heard this.

“Cassandra, did you have a hand in on getting my phone back,”

“Oh, I will never tell,” Cassandra answered rather playfully. “Now that you are going to be okay, you no longer need me here. Its time for me to go.”

Amy cried as she now felt despondent again. “I need you.”

“You will be fine. Am I right? Can I get a vote on this?”

“Damn straight,” the aggressive voice commanded.” “We got this!”

“Yes, rest assured me will be fine,” her passive voice added.

“Yes, I suppose we can manage,” sarcasm answered.

“That makes it unanimous, “her inner core strength said confidently.

Amy let herself drift off to sleep as they loaded her into the ambulance. The EMT found a wallet sized photo that fell out of Amy’s pocket and handed it to Howard.

Howard took off his sunglasses and just stared at the picture until someone noticed how still he had been for so long.

“Sorry, I hadn’t seen this picture since I cant even remember. It’s a girl from a case that still haunts me. Cassandra Hirth. A child abduction. We never found her or her remains. A cold case now. She would have been Amy’s age.

Howard saved the picture to take to the hospital to get it to Amy