[B.S. #3] Claiming Laura (22 page)

“Sorry to break in on your chick chat, but I need you to blow up this picture for me. And I mean right now.”

James got up from the couch. “God, you’re a bastard sometimes. Grant and I were just discussing and going over everything about Laura’s case.”

“Well, I think I found something.” Clay handed over the picture to Grant.

“This is the one. Blow it up, I think there is something written on the van. Hurry, man.”

Grant looked at the picture, then turned to his computer and brought up the same picture on the computer screen. “I don’t see anything, Clay.”

Clay leaned over his desk and pointed at the side of the van. “Blow it up. I know something is there, for God’s sake.”

Grant looked at James questioningly.

“Grant, blow it up. He won’t let it go until we do. Even though we went over those pictures and didn’t find anything,” James told him.

Grant turned back to his computer and struck a few keys. The picture started getting bigger and bigger on the screen and with another click of the mouse, Grant centered it on the side of the van just left of Laura’s shoulder. It was faded but they could all see some letters.

“Let me clear it up a bit.” Grant brought the image clearer on the screen and now they could all see the following letters on the black van. “It looks like
OWERS
.”

Clay turned to James. “I knew it, we have a clue.”

“Pull up the information on the guy again. Maybe he used the van for a second job, or rented it out to someone,” James added.

Grant hurriedly pulled up the guy’s records. He finally found one that documented all the guy’s assets when he disappeared. The van was listed on it and his wife had signed as taking possession of it at the time.

“I didn’t know he was married. It’s not in the report that you gave me.”

“I didn’t put it in. At the time he disappeared they were separated and didn’t live together. I didn’t think it was important.”

“Well, it just might be,” Clay told him “Look her up, maybe we can catch a break.”

Grant started pounding on the keys of his computer again and shortly a document on the wife was brought up. Pushing his glasses up, he looked at the document on the screen.

“Well, what does it say?” Clay asked impatiently.

“Let him read it first, Clay,” James spoke up “He can’t tell us until he reads it himself.”

“Well, just hurry. Grant, you should have looked into this earlier that’s sloppy work.”

James grabbed Clay by the neck of his T-shirt. “Shitting on Grant or any of us is not going to help. Get it together, man. If you would have let us in and told us Laura meant more to you than you were letting on, she would have been under personal surveillance all the time. You know us, we would have had more than just a few cameras to spot the General, if we thought he was in the country and still a threat. She wouldn’t have never been out of our sight. If anyone is to blame it’s you for putting on the charade that led us to believe you were over her.”

Clay grabbed hold of James’s fist.
“Sorry, James. I guess it is my fault as much as yours. But we have to find her. I can’t bear not knowing where she is or if she’s even alive.”

“I don’t think they would knock her off. They must want her for something. Until they get that, she might not be too comfortable, but I think we have time to find her before they would even think of that.”

James let go of Clay’s shirt and turned to Grant. “Well.”

Grant pushed back from his computer. “From what I could find out about the wife, she owned a small flower shop around here.”

“That’s it!” Clay yelled and pointed. “That’s the word ‘
FLOWERS
.’ Now we just have to find her and find out where the van is.”

Clay grabbed the picture off of Grant’s desk and was swiftly out the door and down the hall on his way to the front of the office and the elevators.

James grabbed him and made him stop just as they reached Grace’s former desk. Avery was sitting there reading a newspaper.

“Clay, you can’t go off half-cocked. Do you expect the woman to tell you anything in the frame of mind you are in now?”

“What’s happening?” Avery asked as she put down the paper.

“Clay found a clue on the van that snatched Laura. We found it was used by the wife and she owns a flower shop, just around here. Clay is on his way to question the woman about the van. But I don’t think it’s a good idea. She’s not going to talk to Clay the way he looks with that scowl on his face and showing his frustrations. He’ll probably scare the woman.”

“I agree with James. Clay, this has to be approached carefully,” Avery told Clay as she got up from her chair. “I have an idea. Why don’t James and I go visit the flower shop? We can question her about the van and buy some flowers at the same time.”

“This is not a joke, Avery. We don’t have time to play around.”

“I’m not playing, Clay. I just think that if only James and I go, we can ask about the flowers and the van without her getting suspicious. After all, we don’t know if she is involved in taking Laura. She could be, and if you go in there demanding answers you might just tip our hand.”

Clay stepped back and looked at both James and Avery. He had to start thinking straight and Laura’s wellbeing was the most important thing right now. He knew he would lose it on the lady. God, he was losing it just taking to his friends.

Swiping a hand over his face, he conceded. “OK, but I’m going with you.”

When Avery started to protest, he added, “But I’ll stay outside, and just you and James will go in. OK?”

“OK,” Avery said, and walked around the desk and took James’s arm. “Well, let’s go. This is important.”

James just smiled and let her lead him, with Clay following out the office door. They took the elevator down and walked out onto the main street.

Walking behind James and Avery, Clay gritted his teeth. Why couldn’t they walk faster? He had almost run into their backs when they came to a street light and had to wait for it to change so that they could continue to the flower shop.

Finally, Clay saw a small flower shop ahead, two stores down.

James spotted it also. Turning to Clay, he told him to stay back. “We don’t want you standing outside the window peering in.”

At Clay’s disgruntled look, James said, “You know I’m right, Clay, stay here. We will get the information for you.”

Clay nodded and stepped back into the doorway of a smoke shop. He watched James give Avery a squeeze as they continued walking down the street and into the flower shop.

As soon as James closed the door of the flower shop and he and Avery were out of Clay’s earshot, Avery broke out laughing.

“Now that’s not nice, Avery. Don’t you feel any pity for, Clay?” James asked as he smiled down at her.

“Hell no. He’s getting the kick in the butt he deserves,” Avery told him as she walked to the shop’s counter.

“You might also get your ass reddened talking about my friend like that.”

“Oh come on, James, you’re enjoying this as much as I am.”

“Well, you could be right.” James smiled indulgently at her. “Now what kind of flowers do you want? We have to spend a few minutes in here.”

“Oh, some roses would be nice. I could put them in the entrance hall.”

* * * *

A distraught Clay paced back and forth as he waited two doors down from the shop.
What is taking them so long?
All they had to do was ask the woman about a van she owned. That should take five minutes, tops.

Just as he was about to ignore James’s warning and go and find out what was the hold up, James and Avery stepped out onto the sidewalk. Avery was carrying a large bouquet of roses. Rushing to their side, he asked them what they had found out.

James just held onto Avery’s elbow and walked past Clay. “Wait until we get to the office. You never know who might be listening. There’s too many people milling around the streets right now.”

Clay muttered under his breath, but followed James and Avery back to the office. He even managed to keep his impatience under wraps while going up in the elevator. He didn’t know why Avery kept looking at him.

James and Clay got off at the fifth floor, but Avery stayed to go up to their penthouse apartment to put her roses in water.

As soon as the elevator doors closed, Clay turned on James. “What the fuck, James? There weren’t that many people on the sidewalk. You could have told me and not made me wait until we got up here.”

James walked around Clay, who had stopped in front of him. “I don’t want Avery too involved. I know Laura needs our help, but Avery’s safety to me is my first importance. I don’t want her to be in any situation that could possibly put her in danger. And if she knows everything she could become a target for whoever has Laura.”

Clay knew James was right. Avery was his first concern, just like Laura was his. “Sorry, I didn’t think,” he told James as he dogged his footsteps all the way into the office and the conference room.

James walked to his chair and went to grab the carafe of coffee. It was empty so he put it back down. Sitting down, he said, “God, Grace is going to be missed. She knew how I liked my coffee and always had it on tap.”

“Well, when we have time we can hire someone else and tell them how you like your coffee. God, James, stop stalling and tell me what happened. You can make your own goddamn coffee after.” Clay plopped down in the chair next to him.

James sat up and put his hand together on the table and looked intently at Clay. “The woman told us that they used to deliver flowers with the van, but sold it to the guy who did the deliveries for her. I guess he didn’t change the paperwork. Anyway, with a bit of prodding, she finally told us that the guy used to borrow the van every now and then to do some contract work for a man in the industrial area. She really didn’t know the name of the guy he worked for, but thought it was down on Howard Street at one of the warehouses.”

Clay jumped to his feet. “Well, let’s go check it out.”

“Wait a minute, Clay,” James said, also standing. “Let’s take a minute and have Grant do a rundown of that area. We don’t want to take any unnecessary risk and run into something or someone we’re not expecting.”

“OK, but I’m not waiting long. If Grant doesn’t come up with anything, I’m going to check it out myself. I don’t give a damn what I might run into. Laura is more important.”

Both men hurried down the hall to Grant’s office. He turned from his computer when they arrived.

Clay turned to James impatiently, “Tell him, James. Laura might be in graver danger than we think. We all know she has been gone too long already, hurry up.”

James relayed what he had found out from the woman in the flower shop to Grant. Grant turned back to his computer. For ten minutes the only sound in the office was Grant pounding the keys on the computer keyboard and Clay pacing back and forth on the carpet in front of his desk. Grant finally pushed back from the computer and turned to them.

“I went into the pay records of the flower shop and found that the guy’s name is Jonathan Smithly. Government records show that he doesn’t have any vehicle registered to him at this time. But he did have some income from a Drasckson importer down on Howard Street. That’s the last address it shows for work. I also did a Google search of the area. It looks like the site is deserted, but you never know. Give me a minute and I will connect to one of the security cameras in the area and see if I can see a van or movement in that area.”

“I don’t have time for this,” Clay said as he hurried to get out of the office.

“Wait!” Grant spoke up. Clay stopped at Grant’s office door and looked back at him.

“Here’s the feed from the next building. It looks like there is a van parked outside. I can’t tell if it’s black or blue and the plates can’t be seen from this angle.”

“I’m off,” Clay said as he almost ran down the hall and out of their office. James hurried to keep up with him.

“Let me call Brad and Angel and I’ll get them to meet us.”

“You do that, James, but don’t slow me down.” Clay pounded on the elevator button and cursed at its slowness.

Now that he knew where Laura was, he didn’t have a second to spare.

Chapter Twenty-One

James barely made it into the passenger seat of Clay’s truck when he spun out of the parking lot heading to Howard Street.

“Slow down, Clay. If we don’t make it in one piece we can’t help Laura.” Putting his seatbelt on, James fished his new cell phone out of his pocket and called Angel, then Brad.

Closing the phone and holding on to the dash of the truck, he told Clay that the guys would meet them there.

Clay heard everything James was telling him, but his gut was telling him that time was of the essence. He barreled through most intersections with no regard for traffic and just sped up faster and maneuvered around any cars in his way.

Finally he spotted Howard Street and made a sharp right turn. James was glad he had his seat belt on. Otherwise he would have been sitting in Clay’s lap.

Pulling up outside the warehouse, Clay jumped out of his truck and noticed that Brad’s truck was already there, but there was no sign of the black panel van.

Throwing open the door, he entered a large dark room. Even with the light from the open door, all he could see was dust rising from the floor. Stopping for a minute for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, he noticed that James was now beside him. Although he still wasn’t happy with how he had handled this investigation, he was glad that James was by his side now when it counted.

As his vision cleared, he could see a large industrial warehouse room, nothing special. In the middle was a single chair. Looking closer, Clay could see that the person on the chair was Laura.

With his heart in his throat, Clay ran to her side. He dropped to his knees and hugged her, chair and all. He was so glad she was alive. His overactive imagination had turned up every gruesome scenario that he had ever experienced before.

“Clay, you came for me,” Laura spoke in a hoarse voice. “Can you give me a hug later and maybe untie me from this damn chair?”