Stubbles returned much later, after midnight.
Sandy and Ditz had passed the time sitting on the sofa watching an old television while Messy kept guard at the door.
"You find out?" Messy asked as soon as Stubbles had entered.
"Yeah," Stubbles said, "We're supposed to kill her."
"Okay," Messy agreed. However, he did not move.
"I mean you kill her," Stubbles clarified.
"What, me?" Messy exclaimed, "You do it!"
Stubbles poked a finger at Messy. "No, you should do it!"
Any fear Sandy had for her life promptly disappeared. It was obvious that neither of the men wished to murder a teenage girl. They were just too soft.
Ditz yawned. "I'm sleepy. We should go home. This isn't fun anymore."
"How?" Sandy asked. Then she watched in disbelief as Ditz just walked around the arguing men to the front door. The younger girl opened the door and went out.
"Hey!" Stubbles suddenly noticed that Ditz had left. He rushed after her.
The man exited through the front door just as sirens sounded outside. There was a male voice on a loudspeaker calling, "Police! Freeze!"
After a moment of stunned silence, Messy lunged at Sandy, who dodged out of reach onto the floor. She then crawled to her feet and ran round the sofa. Messy chased after her.
Round and round they went, stumbling around the sofa in a comical chase. It would have been hilarious but the policemen who barged in through the front door were not laughing. They quickly moved to stop Messy.
Messy made a last-ditch attempt to secure his hostage by jumping over the sofa, straight at Sandy. They both crashed into the television and the table it had been sitting on.
That did not stop the police from arresting Messy, though.
***
The police took the girls to the hospital for a checkup. Or rather, they took Sandy there for a checkup. Ditz just came along for the ride.
Sandy had hit her head against the table when Messy had crashed into her. It had resulted in a painful cut on her forehead, which had already been cleaned and bandaged by a nurse.
She had been fortunate. Messy's head had gone into the television.
(Oh, it had not been as bad as it sounded. The glass of the television was quite tough and it had held. The television's frame had broken but the electronics inside were intact. With a little patching up of the frame and a generous amount of duct tape, the television could work again.)
Sandy was sitting on a bench in the hospital's main hallway, near the entrance. Ditz was asleep on the same bench, with her head on Sandy's lap. A short distance away, the two policemen who had brought them there were talking with each other. There was a receptionist on duty at the counter and occasionally, a nurse would pass by.
The older teenager gently brushed Ditz's black hair. With nothing else to do or watch, she listened in on the policemen.
"A lot of missing girls tonight," the larger policeman commented.
"I'm just glad they found that other girl," the thin policeman said. Their radios mumbled some report that Sandy missed.
Outside, an ambulance pulled up silently at the main entrance.
"Hang on," the thin policeman said, "Is that her?"
Paramedics from the ambulance pulled out someone on a stretcher and wheeled the person into the hospital. As they passed, Sandy saw that the patient was a small girl with long black hair, covered up to the neck with a blanket.
Annie? Was it really her? Did Connie have anything to do with it?
Then the paramedics and the girl were gone.
Shortly after, Detective Brunel entered the hospital. He waved his badge to the officers then went over to Sandy and Ditz.
"You shouldn't make it a habit of getting kidnapped," the detective quipped.
"Can we go home soon?" Sandy asked.
"Sure. Your caretaker's on her way here," Detective Brunel told her, "While waiting, I'd like to ask you a few questions about tonight."
***
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