"Pop
Life"
Chapter 90
"Ashleigh?" I stand in the room with my hands on my hips as I look around. "If you are hiding from me, I don't have time for this, girl."
I start to walk around the room, looking under a few tables and chairs.
"This is strange."
I walk to the door and open it.
"Andre?" I ask, looking down the hall. He's a couple of doors down, talking on his cell phone.
"I'll call you back," he says into it, hangs it up and walks towards me. "What's up?"
"Did you see Ashleigh leave the room?"
He shook his head. "No. I've been standing here and I haven't heard the door open."
"You didn't? Not even when the flowers were delivered?"
I don't like the look that crosses his face. He walks past me into the room.
"How did these get in here?" he asks.
"I don't know. I was in the other part of the room, getting dressed and I heard Ashleigh say something about pretty flowers and when I came in here she was gone."
He gets on his radio. "Vern, come in."
"This is Vern," a voice from the radio says.
"Have you seen Ashleigh Timberlake around?"
"No, I thought she was in the dressing room with Ana."
Andre's eyes dart around and I sit down because suddenly my knees are week.
"I'm going to call mama and daddy. Maybe they snuck in and took her somewhere," I say more to myself than to Andre
I don't know why I would think that would even happen but I need to find out.
I dial the cell number, not sure which one.
"Hello?"
"Mama?"
"Hey sweetie."
"Do you have Ash with you?"
"No honey...she's not at the venue with you?"
Now she was starting to sound panicked.
"Yes. She was here with me but she left the room so I was hoping maybe you snuck her out to surprise me at my sound check or something."
"I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere and don't open this door, you understand?" Andre asks me.
I nod.
Before the door closes, Tony starts to walk in. I overhear Andre briefly telling him what's going on.
"No. Have you tried to look for her yet?" mama asks.
"Andre's looking right now. I'm sure she's just wandering around the halls or something," I say trying to reassure myself more than her.
Tony sits down across from me. He looks at the flowers. I don't see the card anymore so Andre must have taken that with him.
"Mama, how far away are you from here?"
"We're in the car right now. I don't think we're that far."
"Okay. Hurry."
"We will. I'm sure she'll be safe and sound by your side by the time we get there."
"Okay. Love you."
"Love you too."
I hang up the phone and look at Tony.
"She's around here somewhere, right?"
He tries to give me a reassuring smile and nods. "Yeah, I'm sure they'll find her talking to someone...just hanging around."
"Yeah."
I start to bite my nails.
In a couple of minutes Andre sticks his head inside the door.
"Did you find her?" I ask.
He shakes his head.
"Tony, can I talk to you for a second?"
I jump up. "Wait a minute. Don't leave me in here again. This is my sister. Talk to me."
Tony puts his hands on my shoulders and looks me in the eyes.
"We'll talk to you when you're parents arrive, okay? Let me go see what he needs."
I bite my lower lip and nod.
As soon as the door shuts I sit back down and rub my forehead. "Oh God."
The next people to open my door is my family. I slowly look up when I hear the door. Mama sits down next to me, wraps her arms around me and I loose it.
"Mama, I don't know where she is..." I cry.
"Shhhh," she says as she rocks me.
Cody sits down on the other side of me and watches us.
"It's my fault."
"How is it your fault? We still don't know, she could be hiding in the equipment or something." Her voice is starting to shake.
I look up at her with watery eyes. "Mama, she knows not to do that. She'd be back by now."
Daddy, Andre and Tony all enter the room now. I stand up and walk over to daddy. He opens his arms and holds me.
"I'm sorry, daddy."
"There's nothing to be sorry about," he says.
"Since you're all here now, I'll fill you in on what we know so far," Andre says.
Daddy leads me to sit down in between mama and Cody as he sits on the arm of the couch, next to mama. He wraps his arm around her shoulder as mama takes my hand.
"You know that Ana was getting a lot of letters and gifts from the person who only called himself "M"."
We all nod.
"We beefed up security and filter anything that you get now," he says to me. "But his...or her...letters have still been coming, we've just been intercepting them first."
"Oh," is all I can manage to say.
"The letters," he sighs, "have been becoming more and more urgent in his need to meet you. He...we'll just assume it's a he...says that all he wants to do is meet you, just once. All of the security staff is aware of this and has made sure that anyone around you is checked and verified. Even the crew and staff members of the venues."
I squeeze mama's hand. "I didn't realize all this was going on."
Mama lets go of my hand and rubs my back.
"Do you think this has something to do with Ashleigh's disappearance?" daddy asks.
I glance over at the flowers sitting on the table across from us.
"The flowers. What did the card from the flowers say?" I ask.
"Actually this card was different, but we still want to check it out."
"So if you didn't hear anyone coming or going from this room, then how?" I ask.
Andre scratches his chin. "We're getting with the security for the venue on that. We think there's another way in or out that we weren't aware of."
I look around the room and don't see anything. I'm sure they've already checked too.
"What are you doing right now?" daddy asks.
I can hear the desperation starting to show in his voice. I know what I'm going through and feeling, I can only imagine what they are.
"Security is searching every nook and cranny of the venue. The hotel security is now aware of the situation and the surveillance cameras will be monitored and they'll go over the tapes."
I lean into mama's side. She rests her cheek on the top of my head.
"My show?" I suddenly realize I should be doing sound check right now.
Tony looks at his watch. "We can either postpone it or cancel it."
"I don't want to have to cancel a show." I lift my head and look at my parents.
Mama's crying and daddy's looking stressed.
"It's up to you, baby. The longer you wait to decide, the angrier the fans will get," daddy says.
"What do we tell them?" I ask.
"We'll come up with something. I'll go release a press statement now," he says, pulling his phone out of his pocket and walking to the other room.
"I'll leave you for now. As soon as I find out anything, I'll let you know."
"Thanks Andre," daddy says.
He nods and walks out into the hallway, shutting the door behind him.
We sit there in silence. The only sound is coming from Tony in the other part of the room as he talks to someone about canceling my show.
"I can't believe this happened and I couldn't hear it. She didn't make a noise or anything," I say, shaking my head. "She just said how pretty the flowers were."
Mama starts to cry.
"My baby," she says as she wraps her arms around her waist and starts rocking back and forth as she cries.
Daddy stands up and then kneels down in front of her.
"Brit...you have to stay calm, okay? The doctor said you can't be under any stress."
He rests his forehead against hers and places a hand behind her head. She starts to take deep breaths and calms down. Cody stands up and walks around the room.
Suddenly my cell phone rings. I glance at the display.
Marcus Tyler.
I stand up and walk over to the corner of the room and push the send button.
"Hello?" I say in my sweetest voice.
"Oh good, you haven't changed your cell phone number."
"Marcus. What are doing calling me?" I ask, not changing my tone.
"I just wanted to remind you that I'm coming to the show tonight. Look for me in the VIP area."
"There won't be a show tonight."
"What? Are you okay?"
"Oh yeah, I'm just fine." Now I'm getting sarcastic.
I see out of the corner of my eye that Cody is standing next to me.
"Well...I don't understand. Are there equipment problems?"
"You don't get it? You have no idea?" My voice is starting to raise a little.
"No. Not unless you tell me."
"Where is she, Marcus?"
Daddy's now standing next to me, holding out his hand for me to give him the phone.
"Give that to me," he says.
"Where's who?"
"Ashleigh, dammit!"
Daddy's trying to pry the phone from my hand but I still hold on.
"Who's Ashleigh?"
"My fucking sister, that's who. Where did you take her?"
Daddy successfully grabs the phone away from me and he holds my arms down by wrapping his arm around me.
"Marcus? This is Justin Timberlake," he says into the phone.
"Uh, hi sir. Is Ana okay?"
"She'll be fine. I'm sorry about that. We're all under a little stress right now."
"That's okay, but what was she talking about?"
"Don't pay attention to it. The show has been cancelled tonight and there will be an official press release soon. I'm sorry you have to miss the show."
"Well, I just hope everything's okay."
"It will be. Good talking to you. Bye."
He hangs up the phone and tosses it over on the counter and wraps both arms around me while I cry into his chest.
"You can't handle this on your own," he says.
"But I'm the one who lost her," I say as I sob.
The door opens up and Andre stands in the doorway.
"He's contacted us."