But Ess knew she didn't mention it yet. Besides, she went by Ess not Esther, and that was how she typically introduced herself. "That's funny, I really don't remember doing it." She tried to cover up her startled reaction, but her stomach squeezed and turned in her gut, and her nerves began tingling like static electricity.

Chad just shrugged his shoulders, and looked at her like she was being silly and overly suspicious. Something didn't seem right, and she just wanted him out of her apartment at that point. She was feeling increasingly uncomfortable, and wondered how she could be naïve enough to open her door to a stranger.

"You better get going," Ess prompted, "I have some things I need to do . . . and you need to finish making your dinner."

She moved forward to press him out the door, but he stepped further inside and grabbed the door to shut it behind him. Ess gasped and began to panic, but her mind raced and she hadn't quite grasped what she needed to do in this situation. She couldn't even prompt herself to let out a scream.

Just before the door slammed shut, it burst open again. The ensuing actions happened too quickly, but Ess heard a metallic clang and a wooden thud. Looking down, she saw Chad on the floor.

Where Chad stood half a moment before, another man now loomed, tire iron grasped in his hands as though he had just swung it like a baseball bat. The man looked down at the crumpled mass on the floor, and then flashed his eyes up to Ess.

Finally, Ess had enough control over herself to let out a scream. Her timing was imperfect, however, because the man with the tire iron flung his weapon away, so that he could clasp one hand over her mouth and the other behind her head.

Ess stopped screaming in her new shock. This gave the man enough time to let go of her and kick "Chad's" body out of the radius of the door, which he swung shut with his foot. With the second intruder, seemingly even more dangerous than the first, Ess found her adrenaline heating and her senses geared up for a second wind. She sucked in air so that she could begin a fresh new scream, all the while turning from the scene to run anywhere she could. Anywhere had to be safer than her living room just then.

Her reaction was cut short as the man grabbed her again from behind. This time he held her to him, arms trapped at her sides, a hand placed once again over her mouth. His hand felt hot, and she could smell remnants of the metal iron he had just been wielding. The invasion on her senses made her stomach turn.

He let her go for a moment, but she was abruptly grabbed again before she could react. Suddenly her energy diminished, and she felt herself become unwillingly limp. After that, the world disappeared.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Roden walked through the doors of Benlevi's and immediately began perusing the faces of the crowd. He still didn't know exactly what he was going to do. Maybe, just maybe, Esther frequented the restaurant and would be here tonight. He could warn her, or follow her, he didn't know. He just knew from the phone message that, wherever she was, Max was probably not far off. This was a long shot, and he didn't deny it, but if he had even the slightest chance of getting to Max, he wanted to be sure he took it.

As he made his way through the dining room to the bar, his eyes darted quickly from face to face. The time when he had made her acquaintance was brief, but she had looked so identical to Max's artworks that he felt sure he could spot her if she were present.

At this particular time of the evening, the place lacked that overzealous crowd he had witnessed a few Friday's ago, and so he found an open stool at the bar upon which he sat. Several minutes of searching the restaurant's patrons didn't come up with any results. Finally, he started to realize how ridiculous his hopes of finding her were. Obviously, she wasn't present. He even watched the women exiting the lady's room longer than necessary before he could convince himself that she wasn't about to appear from behind the restroom's frosted glass door.

His heart twisted with the reality, and his lungs stiffened. Roden knew he needed to go to the police. It was his only available option now. He'd already attempted to locate Max. The young man wasn't at home. He didn't find him in his studio or at the pub that he occasionally went to. His choices were slim, and basically gone.

Roden reluctantly rose to make his way out the door, skimming the faces just one more time in the hopes that he had just missed her. No such luck. With his shoulders slumped forward and his head hung low in defeat Roden headed for the exit.

That's when he heard a voice. The resonance vaguely familiar, and the tone slightly annoying, could not be easily forgotten. Roden turned his head in the direction from which the voice had come. Sure enough, there she sat at a table for two by the window. It was Esther's snotty friend.

This was going to be embarrassing, and Roden didn't quite know how he was going to put it, but he didn't have time to waste on those petty matters. He took a deep steadying breath, and strode up to the table where the woman sat across from a gentleman.

Roden cleared his throat and proceeded to get her attention, "Your Esther's friend. Am I right?"

She looked up at him, slightly stunned, and then raised an incredulous eyebrow. "Excuse me?" A slight sneer appeared at her lips at the evident displeasure of the intrusion.

"I beg your pardon," Roden felt the embarrassment of the situation just like he knew he would. "Truly, I don't mean to interrupt. But you are a friend of Esther's, right?"

"Ess? Yes," she replied haughtily. "And you are the guy that caused her grief by letting her know that some freaky artist created statues and put them on display for everyone to see."

Roden cleared his throat again, "Ah, yes . . . about that - "

"Maybe it wouldn't have traumatized her so much, if you had let her know ahead of time that one of the sculptures on display was naked!"

Well, that shocked Roden. He didn't really think about the effect that would have on the poor young woman. Not a smooth move for a psychiatrist. Add that to the list of screw ups that their coincidental meeting had started.

She continued, "And now you are interrupting my date in the hopes that you can cause my poor friend more misery? Is that right?"

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. If she responded this way to seeing him because his kindly intended information led Ess to distress (why did he only now realize in hindsight that Esther would likely react that way?), how livid would this woman be when he told her that the artist meant to kidnap her friend, or may have already?

"I'm sorry I bothered you," Roden replied, but he just stood there, unsure what to do next. He hated the thought of facing this woman with the news he had to reveal, but she was also his only hope in righting the current catastrophe.

"Well?" Esther's friend gasped. Roden thought he saw a flash of curiosity cross her face before she gave him an imprudent glare.

Maybe her cocky attitude was just for show. She simply covered up her insecurities by being a bitch . . . He had to tell her, to get to the next step in saving his friend and hers from a bad situation. "Can I speak with you alone?" he asked.

She rewarded his question with an exaggerated look of haughtiness. Yup, Roden thought, he was right. She was compensating. "No, you can have nothing to say that my date here can't hear."

Oh, yes, she enjoyed this attention. It added a little flare to her date, so she played up on the dramatics. Roden glanced at her date and back to the overreacting woman. Then he glanced back.