Innocent Hostage (25 page)
Breck shook his head. “We’ve been looking for her but never expected to find her in this state. It’s possible her sister did this to her.”
The woman looked shaken. “Her
sister
? Hell. Well, I’m not sure how physically strong she is, but her recovery will be very slow.” She glanced at her watch, her shrewd grey eyes flicking to his face and away again. “There’s no point in waiting around here. If you leave a contact cell phone number, that would be best. It will be hours till we know the results of the exploratory operation.”
“Oh.” There went his chances of finding out where Kit and Ingrid had been taken.
“Thank you, doctor.” He shook her hand. Her face looked pale and tired, as if she spent too much time indoors. Her weary expression hinted that she’d seen almost everything that human beings could do to themselves and others.
As he left the hospital to search for a cab, his phone rang. “Any news?”
“You’re not gonna believe this, but whoever is dropping breadcrumbs, and it must be Ingrid or Kit since the twin you’re with has been bashed up by the bad twin, then they’ve done an excellent job. Breck, wherever they went, they went on foot!”
“What?” Breck thought quickly. “That’s to our advantage. Dogs?”
“Soon. Doing fine with the paper trail so far. Got the dogs on standby. Marchant, one of them is dragging their feet. Can’t tell who it is, but it looks as if it might be Ingrid. Prints are too big for young Kit. Presume she’s trying to slow them down. Or she’s injured.”
“Doesn’t make any sense though for them to go on foot. Although…” He remembered the getaway car on the night he’d searched the Kerr house. “Angela’s a lousy driver. Can’t be Tania because she’s a good driver. Well, whoever I was married to was a good driver,” he added. Who the hell
had
he been married to? Tania or Angela? And if he thought
he
was puzzled, what about poor Ingrid and Kit? Especially Kit.
“It’s to our advantage, so don’t knock it,” Hull said. “Wonder where they’re headed? So far we’ve reached Alberton Road. Does Tania have any contacts in the Mt. Albert area?”
“Hell, I don’t know. Let me think. Umm…hold on. My parents live in Mt. Albert. Could she be heading there to ask for help?”
“Surely not. Why would she do that?” Hull sighed. “Weirder and weirder. Okay. Give me your parents’ address and phone number.”
Breck knew both, but he rarely had cause to contact his parents, unless you counted a five second phone call at Christmas time. Naturally they never phoned him. “Shouldn’t Raker be brought up to speed?” he suggested. “He might have something we don’t.”
“Already done. He was driving out of town for the weekend when I told him that Ingrid Rowland and your son had been kidnapped, presumably by Tania. Judging by the screech of tires, I guess he’s on his way back here.”
They had barely arrived at his parents’ house when Raker drove up, accompanied by a constable. “Helluva twist,” he said to Breck by way of a greeting. “Guess you didn’t know your wife had a sister?”
“Tania told me she died in a car crash along with her parents.”
“We checked. The parents are dead, certainly, but no mention was made of anyone else in the car.”
“Just another lie.”
“Yep.”
“Marchant, stay here. Raker, with me.” Hull was all business suddenly. Breck was startled to see Hull check his Glock and slide it into a shoulder holster. What the hell was he expecting?
Breck slid down low in the back seat of the Camry so he could angle his head to get a good view of the front door area of the house. Behind the Toyota, Raker had parked his vehicle leaving enough space for a speedy getaway. And behind that was a patrol car, all its lights turned off.
He closed his eyes.
Please
let Ingrid and Kit be all right. That mad bitch who’d attacked her own sister might well be hurting them, hurting them badly. He envisaged the pulverized face of the sister he’d found and shuddered.
And what of his parents? Where did they fit into all this? Had Tania run to them for help? Did they know that Tania had a twin sister?
It was a long shot anyway, wondering if Tania had come here. She’d used them as a mouthpiece before, but that might be the extent of her relationship with them. Worst of all, if Ingrid and Kit weren’t here,
where the hell were they
?
He heard the front door open. Easing quietly up in the seat, he peered out the side rear window. A pool of light showed Hull and a constable standing on his parents’ doorstep, but he couldn’t see if they were talking to anyone. Raker and the other two constables must have gone around the back of the house. He hoped Hull realized that the grounds were extensive. The house was set on an acre, and if Tania/Angela was hiding out with her captives in the grove of trees at the rear of the property, they’d be hard to find. It would make for an easy getaway through a neighbor’s property, provided her captives were mobile. God knows what state they were in. And God knows what mental state their captor was in.
The front door clicked shut. Breck stuck his head up again but Hull was nowhere to be seen. He and the constable must have been admitted to the house.
Breck stayed where he was. That was all he had to do.
Not
help. Harder, far harder than anything he’d ever done. He rubbed a hand over his face, listening to the whiskers scratching. Inside the car it sounded loud.
Suddenly the car door exploded open. A bloody hand reached out for him but he was already on the move. Scrambling backwards, he burst out of the other door and ran like hell.
****
His lungs heaving as if he’d run a marathon, he hurtled towards the rear of the property where Raker was. He couldn’t see a damn thing. It was full dark now and there was heavy cloud obscuring the moon. Whoever had tried to get into the car was no longer chasing him.
Unable to find Raker, Breck doubled back and crouched down behind the garden shed. He could hear nothing, which was odd. Where the hell was Raker?
A slight breeze kicked up and stirred the leaves on the trees, and from a long way away Breck heard a sobbing cry. “Please!”
He half rose to his feet then sat back again. Where had the cry come from? Who was it? It was a woman’s voice but it hadn’t sounded like Ingrid. However if she was badly injured…
His mind raced around in circles. Was it a trap?
Easing past the shed, he rushed towards a clump of bushes and hunkered down again.
Nothing.
What had happened to Raker and the two constables with him? It wasn’t as if they were facing a gunman. If Tania/Angela was here, she could hardly take on Hull, Raker, three constables and Breck. So why weren’t Hull and Raker doing something?
Were his parents home? He looked up towards their bedroom window at the top of the house. There were no lights on. There seemed to be a dim light downstairs in the dining-room, but it wasn’t an ordinary light. More like a flashlight. There was definitely someone in the room, because every now and again, an elongated shadow passed in front of the light.
He eased closer, knowing he could tuck in next to the passion fruit vine climbing over the loggia to hide.
Now, just one last sprint—
“Marchant. Stop.”
Breck rocked back on his heels. “What?” he hissed. “Where the hell are you?”
Out of the darkness, Hull and a constable appeared at his elbow. “Right here. We went in the front because the door was slightly ajar. Just got in and heard a disturbance upstairs so we raced up there only to hear someone lock the door behind us. Thought Chambers was going to have a heart attack.”
The constable, Chambers, smiled wanly.
Breck tried to grin but he was just too damned tense and anxious.
“Any hiding places in your parents’ house, Marchant? Because I tell you; we looked up and downstairs and even outside, and there’s nobody to be seen. Yet someone tried to lock us in. And rather than escape out the back door, they went to ground. Raker was keeping watch at the rear of the property and they didn’t go out that way. There are too many of them to have slipped past us.”
“Uh, let me think. Where’s Raker now?”
“Just sent him to stake out the front, since we’ve got the back covered.”
Thank God. Breck had wondered if Raker was another casualty of the Tania/Angela team.
Then he stomped down on the dark fear that only reared up when he was confined in small, dark places. “Hull, there is a place where someone can hide, but it’s too small for four adults and a kid.”
“Maybe it’s no longer four adults and a kid.”
Breck’s heart lurched at Hull’s words. “Let’s work on the assumption that it’s four adults and a child, shall we? My child and girlfriend are in there somewhere.”
“Sorry. And your parents.”
“Yes, and my parents.” But they weren’t Breck’s priority.
“So where’s this hidey-hole?”
“Under the stairs there’s a cupboard. But at the back of that cupboard there’s a crawl space. I guess maybe two adults could fit in there.”
“Great place for kids to play,” Hull commented absentmindedly.
Yeah, fantastic place. He’d been sent there often until his parents realized that shutting him in the dark alone still didn’t improve either his learning skills or his ‘truculent manner.’
“Okay, let’s just you and me get in there, being as quiet as we can, and we’ll take a look under the stairs.” Hull made it sound like a Boys Own Annual adventure.
“I wonder what Angela is armed with,” Breck murmured.
“You reckon it’s Angela?”
“Yeah. Just remembering some things. Trying to put them together. Tell you later.”
“I see. Don’t suppose your parents own a gun of any sort?”
Breck snorted. “Hardly. My father always planned on talking criminals to death.”
“Oh. One of those. My uncle’s like that. So who do they call when they’re in trouble? Cops. Anyway, at least that takes the heat off. If Angela or whoever got her hands on a firearm, we’d have a massacre on our hands. Wish I knew what made her tick.”
“You and me both.”
Both men fell silent for a moment, and then Hull said, “Okay. Let’s go. Here, take this. Just in case.”
“This” was Hull’s back-up weapon, a little snub-nosed .38 special.
Breck blinked. “Oh, okay.”
Hull turned and set out towards the back door of the house, Breck following closely behind.
A rustle from the undergrowth had them both freezing. “Help. Please help.”
Hull grabbed Breck’s arm. “
Don’t
.”
Christ, didn’t Hull have any faith in him? This was probably a trap.
“Come out where we can see you.” Hull called out.
“Sssh-hh. C-can’t move.”
“That’s Ingrid,” Breck hissed at Hull.
“You’d better be right, boyo.” Hull led the way with his Glock and flashlight.
Big lavender bushes grew beside the path and it was here they found her. “Oh, God.” Breck crouched down and peered at the mess of blood and skin that was Ingrid. His stomach heaved.
“Bw…” Her voice faded away.
“Beaten the same way as the other one,” Hull opined. He doused the flashlight.
Breck was too busy dialing 111 to answer.
Hull crushed his hand over Breck’s stumbling fingers. “We still have people to save, Breck. We have to flush out Angela. If the ambulance comes roaring in here, that could spell the end for young Kit and your parents.”
“But Ingrid—” Breck bit off the rest of his words. How could he choose between Kit and Ingrid? Fuck his parents and Angela. But Kit? He slid the cell phone back into his pocket and knelt down beside Ingrid again. Oh, God. Flicking on his penlight he tried to assess her injuries, but all he could see in the narrow beam was a blood-spattered arm, crooked protectively over her head. “Give me the fucking flashlight.” He snatched it from Hull and then wished he hadn’t. When he saw the full extent of Ingrid’s injuries his heart wept. “I’m here, sweetheart. We’ll get help for you.” He turned the beam off.
The arm over her head trembled but he didn’t dare touch her. How badly was she hurt? Then he remembered that blood-covered arm reaching into the car only a half-hour ago and groaned.
“What?” Hull whispered.
“She’s been wandering around injured for a while. She tried to get into the car and I thought it was Angela. I bolted. She wanted my help and I failed her. Now I
still
can’t get help for her because of the others. Shit, shit, shit.” He punched the air uselessly.
“K-k…”
“Kit? Where’s Kit, Ingrid?”
She moved a little and he took the risk of clasping her fingers.
“Come
on
, Marchant. We need to go
now
. We can’t afford to delay any further. Leave her. She’ll be safe here.”
“Fuck you. Call one of the others to look after her. I’m not moving till you do.”
Hull sighed and murmured into his cell phone.
A minute later Chambers moved quietly into place beside Ingrid. “Ms. Rowland, I’m Constable Chambers and I’m going to take care of you till Mr. Marchant gets back.”
The woman looked shaken. “Her
sister
? Hell. Well, I’m not sure how physically strong she is, but her recovery will be very slow.” She glanced at her watch, her shrewd grey eyes flicking to his face and away again. “There’s no point in waiting around here. If you leave a contact cell phone number, that would be best. It will be hours till we know the results of the exploratory operation.”
“Oh.” There went his chances of finding out where Kit and Ingrid had been taken.
“Thank you, doctor.” He shook her hand. Her face looked pale and tired, as if she spent too much time indoors. Her weary expression hinted that she’d seen almost everything that human beings could do to themselves and others.
As he left the hospital to search for a cab, his phone rang. “Any news?”
“You’re not gonna believe this, but whoever is dropping breadcrumbs, and it must be Ingrid or Kit since the twin you’re with has been bashed up by the bad twin, then they’ve done an excellent job. Breck, wherever they went, they went on foot!”
“What?” Breck thought quickly. “That’s to our advantage. Dogs?”
“Soon. Doing fine with the paper trail so far. Got the dogs on standby. Marchant, one of them is dragging their feet. Can’t tell who it is, but it looks as if it might be Ingrid. Prints are too big for young Kit. Presume she’s trying to slow them down. Or she’s injured.”
“Doesn’t make any sense though for them to go on foot. Although…” He remembered the getaway car on the night he’d searched the Kerr house. “Angela’s a lousy driver. Can’t be Tania because she’s a good driver. Well, whoever I was married to was a good driver,” he added. Who the hell
had
he been married to? Tania or Angela? And if he thought
he
was puzzled, what about poor Ingrid and Kit? Especially Kit.
“It’s to our advantage, so don’t knock it,” Hull said. “Wonder where they’re headed? So far we’ve reached Alberton Road. Does Tania have any contacts in the Mt. Albert area?”
“Hell, I don’t know. Let me think. Umm…hold on. My parents live in Mt. Albert. Could she be heading there to ask for help?”
“Surely not. Why would she do that?” Hull sighed. “Weirder and weirder. Okay. Give me your parents’ address and phone number.”
Breck knew both, but he rarely had cause to contact his parents, unless you counted a five second phone call at Christmas time. Naturally they never phoned him. “Shouldn’t Raker be brought up to speed?” he suggested. “He might have something we don’t.”
“Already done. He was driving out of town for the weekend when I told him that Ingrid Rowland and your son had been kidnapped, presumably by Tania. Judging by the screech of tires, I guess he’s on his way back here.”
They had barely arrived at his parents’ house when Raker drove up, accompanied by a constable. “Helluva twist,” he said to Breck by way of a greeting. “Guess you didn’t know your wife had a sister?”
“Tania told me she died in a car crash along with her parents.”
“We checked. The parents are dead, certainly, but no mention was made of anyone else in the car.”
“Just another lie.”
“Yep.”
“Marchant, stay here. Raker, with me.” Hull was all business suddenly. Breck was startled to see Hull check his Glock and slide it into a shoulder holster. What the hell was he expecting?
Breck slid down low in the back seat of the Camry so he could angle his head to get a good view of the front door area of the house. Behind the Toyota, Raker had parked his vehicle leaving enough space for a speedy getaway. And behind that was a patrol car, all its lights turned off.
He closed his eyes.
Please
let Ingrid and Kit be all right. That mad bitch who’d attacked her own sister might well be hurting them, hurting them badly. He envisaged the pulverized face of the sister he’d found and shuddered.
And what of his parents? Where did they fit into all this? Had Tania run to them for help? Did they know that Tania had a twin sister?
It was a long shot anyway, wondering if Tania had come here. She’d used them as a mouthpiece before, but that might be the extent of her relationship with them. Worst of all, if Ingrid and Kit weren’t here,
where the hell were they
?
He heard the front door open. Easing quietly up in the seat, he peered out the side rear window. A pool of light showed Hull and a constable standing on his parents’ doorstep, but he couldn’t see if they were talking to anyone. Raker and the other two constables must have gone around the back of the house. He hoped Hull realized that the grounds were extensive. The house was set on an acre, and if Tania/Angela was hiding out with her captives in the grove of trees at the rear of the property, they’d be hard to find. It would make for an easy getaway through a neighbor’s property, provided her captives were mobile. God knows what state they were in. And God knows what mental state their captor was in.
The front door clicked shut. Breck stuck his head up again but Hull was nowhere to be seen. He and the constable must have been admitted to the house.
Breck stayed where he was. That was all he had to do.
Not
help. Harder, far harder than anything he’d ever done. He rubbed a hand over his face, listening to the whiskers scratching. Inside the car it sounded loud.
Suddenly the car door exploded open. A bloody hand reached out for him but he was already on the move. Scrambling backwards, he burst out of the other door and ran like hell.
****
His lungs heaving as if he’d run a marathon, he hurtled towards the rear of the property where Raker was. He couldn’t see a damn thing. It was full dark now and there was heavy cloud obscuring the moon. Whoever had tried to get into the car was no longer chasing him.
Unable to find Raker, Breck doubled back and crouched down behind the garden shed. He could hear nothing, which was odd. Where the hell was Raker?
A slight breeze kicked up and stirred the leaves on the trees, and from a long way away Breck heard a sobbing cry. “Please!”
He half rose to his feet then sat back again. Where had the cry come from? Who was it? It was a woman’s voice but it hadn’t sounded like Ingrid. However if she was badly injured…
His mind raced around in circles. Was it a trap?
Easing past the shed, he rushed towards a clump of bushes and hunkered down again.
Nothing.
What had happened to Raker and the two constables with him? It wasn’t as if they were facing a gunman. If Tania/Angela was here, she could hardly take on Hull, Raker, three constables and Breck. So why weren’t Hull and Raker doing something?
Were his parents home? He looked up towards their bedroom window at the top of the house. There were no lights on. There seemed to be a dim light downstairs in the dining-room, but it wasn’t an ordinary light. More like a flashlight. There was definitely someone in the room, because every now and again, an elongated shadow passed in front of the light.
He eased closer, knowing he could tuck in next to the passion fruit vine climbing over the loggia to hide.
Now, just one last sprint—
“Marchant. Stop.”
Breck rocked back on his heels. “What?” he hissed. “Where the hell are you?”
Out of the darkness, Hull and a constable appeared at his elbow. “Right here. We went in the front because the door was slightly ajar. Just got in and heard a disturbance upstairs so we raced up there only to hear someone lock the door behind us. Thought Chambers was going to have a heart attack.”
The constable, Chambers, smiled wanly.
Breck tried to grin but he was just too damned tense and anxious.
“Any hiding places in your parents’ house, Marchant? Because I tell you; we looked up and downstairs and even outside, and there’s nobody to be seen. Yet someone tried to lock us in. And rather than escape out the back door, they went to ground. Raker was keeping watch at the rear of the property and they didn’t go out that way. There are too many of them to have slipped past us.”
“Uh, let me think. Where’s Raker now?”
“Just sent him to stake out the front, since we’ve got the back covered.”
Thank God. Breck had wondered if Raker was another casualty of the Tania/Angela team.
Then he stomped down on the dark fear that only reared up when he was confined in small, dark places. “Hull, there is a place where someone can hide, but it’s too small for four adults and a kid.”
“Maybe it’s no longer four adults and a kid.”
Breck’s heart lurched at Hull’s words. “Let’s work on the assumption that it’s four adults and a child, shall we? My child and girlfriend are in there somewhere.”
“Sorry. And your parents.”
“Yes, and my parents.” But they weren’t Breck’s priority.
“So where’s this hidey-hole?”
“Under the stairs there’s a cupboard. But at the back of that cupboard there’s a crawl space. I guess maybe two adults could fit in there.”
“Great place for kids to play,” Hull commented absentmindedly.
Yeah, fantastic place. He’d been sent there often until his parents realized that shutting him in the dark alone still didn’t improve either his learning skills or his ‘truculent manner.’
“Okay, let’s just you and me get in there, being as quiet as we can, and we’ll take a look under the stairs.” Hull made it sound like a Boys Own Annual adventure.
“I wonder what Angela is armed with,” Breck murmured.
“You reckon it’s Angela?”
“Yeah. Just remembering some things. Trying to put them together. Tell you later.”
“I see. Don’t suppose your parents own a gun of any sort?”
Breck snorted. “Hardly. My father always planned on talking criminals to death.”
“Oh. One of those. My uncle’s like that. So who do they call when they’re in trouble? Cops. Anyway, at least that takes the heat off. If Angela or whoever got her hands on a firearm, we’d have a massacre on our hands. Wish I knew what made her tick.”
“You and me both.”
Both men fell silent for a moment, and then Hull said, “Okay. Let’s go. Here, take this. Just in case.”
“This” was Hull’s back-up weapon, a little snub-nosed .38 special.
Breck blinked. “Oh, okay.”
Hull turned and set out towards the back door of the house, Breck following closely behind.
A rustle from the undergrowth had them both freezing. “Help. Please help.”
Hull grabbed Breck’s arm. “
Don’t
.”
Christ, didn’t Hull have any faith in him? This was probably a trap.
“Come out where we can see you.” Hull called out.
“Sssh-hh. C-can’t move.”
“That’s Ingrid,” Breck hissed at Hull.
“You’d better be right, boyo.” Hull led the way with his Glock and flashlight.
Big lavender bushes grew beside the path and it was here they found her. “Oh, God.” Breck crouched down and peered at the mess of blood and skin that was Ingrid. His stomach heaved.
“Bw…” Her voice faded away.
“Beaten the same way as the other one,” Hull opined. He doused the flashlight.
Breck was too busy dialing 111 to answer.
Hull crushed his hand over Breck’s stumbling fingers. “We still have people to save, Breck. We have to flush out Angela. If the ambulance comes roaring in here, that could spell the end for young Kit and your parents.”
“But Ingrid—” Breck bit off the rest of his words. How could he choose between Kit and Ingrid? Fuck his parents and Angela. But Kit? He slid the cell phone back into his pocket and knelt down beside Ingrid again. Oh, God. Flicking on his penlight he tried to assess her injuries, but all he could see in the narrow beam was a blood-spattered arm, crooked protectively over her head. “Give me the fucking flashlight.” He snatched it from Hull and then wished he hadn’t. When he saw the full extent of Ingrid’s injuries his heart wept. “I’m here, sweetheart. We’ll get help for you.” He turned the beam off.
The arm over her head trembled but he didn’t dare touch her. How badly was she hurt? Then he remembered that blood-covered arm reaching into the car only a half-hour ago and groaned.
“What?” Hull whispered.
“She’s been wandering around injured for a while. She tried to get into the car and I thought it was Angela. I bolted. She wanted my help and I failed her. Now I
still
can’t get help for her because of the others. Shit, shit, shit.” He punched the air uselessly.
“K-k…”
“Kit? Where’s Kit, Ingrid?”
She moved a little and he took the risk of clasping her fingers.
“Come
on
, Marchant. We need to go
now
. We can’t afford to delay any further. Leave her. She’ll be safe here.”
“Fuck you. Call one of the others to look after her. I’m not moving till you do.”
Hull sighed and murmured into his cell phone.
A minute later Chambers moved quietly into place beside Ingrid. “Ms. Rowland, I’m Constable Chambers and I’m going to take care of you till Mr. Marchant gets back.”
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