Jamie Hill Triple Threat (27 page)

“Tomorrow night,” came the reply. Then the line went dead.

“I’ll kill you with my bare hands, you son-of-a-bitch!” Jack slammed down the phone and pounded his fist against the wall. He took a moment to compose himself, and then dialed a number. “This is Dunlevy. Were you able to complete a trace on that call?”

“I’m sorry, detective. He was calling from an untraceable line.”

Jack chuckled grimly. “Of course, he was. Tell me, Rodriguez, why is it that our technology is always one step behind that of the bad guys?”

“I’m no expert, sir, but I’d say it's money. They have so much more to blow than we do.”

“It always comes back to money, doesn’t it, Rod?”

“Yeah, I think it does. Rough day, detective.” It had been a rough day for everyone who knew the two dead cops, as well.

“Very rough,” Jack agreed. “I’m squeezing this phone receiver so hard, it’s probably going to break in another couple of minutes if I don’t cool off. Maybe if we just chat a bit, I can calm down before I explode.”

“You should try to get some sleep, sir.”

“Did you hear what he told me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you really think I can sleep after that?”

“No, sir.”

“So I was thinking, Rod, that I should have been a cowboy. Some asshole commits a crime, I catch him and shoot the fucker. Doesn’t that sound satisfying?”

“Actually, sir, it does. But there is that pesky matter of ‘catching’ the asshole.”

“Oh yeah, that. Well, Rod, it’s always something. Hey, I guess I’ll talk to you again tomorrow night, when my new friend calls to see if he can squeeze blood out of a turnip.”

“Get some rest, detective.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Jack hung up the phone and buried his face in his hands.

Chapter Twelve

In the basement of a house not so very far from where Jack sat,
Crystal
cried. She tried to stop the tears, but they just kept flowing. Her eyes were burning. She'd slept in her contacts one night already and now it appeared she would be sleeping in them another night…or two. She didn’t let herself think beyond that point.

Their captors had treated them decently so far. She had only seen the two men, which she'd begun mentally referring to as Tattoo guy and Angry guy. When they first got to this residence, Tattoo guy had untied her feet and then
Devon
’s. He'd proceeded to take them down to separate rooms in the basement. He left
Crystal
’s hands tied behind her and her mouth covered with duct tape. He shoved her onto a mattress on the cement floor, and retied her ankles with the tape.

She tried pleading with him before he left, but it was impossible with her mouth covered. She wanted
Devon
with her, and was sick with worry for the few hours she spent alone. Tattoo guy returned with a greasy brown paper bag that apparently held some type of fast food, and tossed it on the mattress to her. She looked at him pointedly, and finally he laughed and cut her hands free.

She peeled the tape from her mouth gingerly and asked, “Where’s
Devon
?”

“He’s eating. He’s fine.”

She glared. “He can’t be fine! He’s a six-year-old being held prisoner. Please let him stay here with me. He’s got to be so frightened.”

“Those are not my instructions.”

“So you can’t make any decisions on your own, you have to wait for someone to give you instructions?”

“Don’t mess with me,” he told her.

“You people are the ones messing with
us
. We’re innocent bystanders in this nightmare! All I’m asking is that you show one shred of humanity, one miniscule bit of decency, and let me be with my child. I promise we won’t cause you any trouble if you do this small thing for us.”

He held a hunting knife with a thick serrated blade to her throat and smiled. “I don’t expect you to cause me any trouble, anyway.”

Crystal
glared at him again and he backed down. He walked out and returned a moment later dragging
Devon
, who was still tied at the ankles. He tossed the child and the second bag of food on the mattress.

“
Crystal
!”
Devon
flew into her arms.

“Oh baby, thank God. Are you okay?” She kissed all over his face and head.

He nodded, trying to wipe his tears away. He whispered to her, “I wet my pants.”

She cradled his face in her hands. “It’s okay. I probably would have, too, if I was your age.” She gave Tattoo guy another dirty look and asserted, “He needs clean clothes. Surely you thought of that in this grand master plan of yours.”

The man waved his knife at her and replied, “There might be something upstairs. Eat, and use the john. When I come back, you’re getting tied up again.” He looked at her fiercely. “And if I find any surprises when I get back, indicating that you aren’t behaving yourselves, I’m going to separate you again—permanently, this time.”

She held
Devon
protectively and replied, “No surprises. Thank you.”

They watched him leave, and heard the door lock behind him.

“Oh
Crystal
!”
Devon
cried, clinging to her. “What are we going to do?”

She wiped his tears away. “Did they hurt you? Tell me the truth, has anyone touched you?”

“No.” He shook his head and glanced around. “I’ve been by myself on a mattress like this, in a room that looks just like this.”

“Thank God.” She hugged him again. “Okay, I think right now we’re just going to do what they say. They haven’t bothered me, either, so maybe this isn’t going to be so bad. We have to give Jack some time to get the money and work out a trade with them.” She thought about that. It sounded so simple, when it really wasn’t going to be simple at all. She didn’t even know if Jack was going to do it. But she knew he'd do something. “Jack will come for us.” She hugged
Devon
and kissed the side of his head. “Jack loves us.”

He nodded and held her tightly. “Do you think Mark is with Jack?”

“I’ve been thinking about that. He has to be. I don’t know where he hid, or where he went, but I feel it in my heart that he’s with Jack now. Jack will take care of him.”

“Jack will come for us,”
Devon
repeated.

“You bet he will,”
Crystal
reassured him and herself. “Jack loves us.”

Devon
looked at the paper bags. “I’m kind of hungry.”

She opened one bag and pulled out a hamburger and fries. She handed them to him and pulled the second set out for herself. She hoped they hadn’t done anything to the food, because she was hungry too. She took a nibble, then a bite. It tasted normal, not that she’d know what drugged food tasted like. She shrugged and they both ate.

There was a toilet and a sink in the corner, and they both gulped water from the faucet and used the bathroom before anyone returned. Hearing the lock rattle,
Crystal
held
Devon
close and watched the door.

Tattoo guy returned with a dingy gray sweat suit, with even dingier white socks and underwear for
Devon
. It looked a little too big, but it seemed clean and dry. “Thank you,” she told him, and helped the boy change quickly and as discreetly as she could. “Better?” she asked, and he nodded as he gave her a small smile.

“On the mattress,” Tattoo guy told them, and ripped off a long strip of duct tape from the ever-present roll.

They sat complacently. He brushed their food trash onto the floor, then proceeded to tape their ankles and bound their hands behind them.

Before he could move to her face,
Crystal
begged, “Please, we won’t yell or make noise. Don’t cover our mouths.”

He thought about it for a moment. She repeated, “
Please
. I promise we’ll be quiet.”

He nodded, and turned to walk off. “If you break your promise…” He waved his knife. “If I hear even the tiniest noise…” He waved the weapon again.

She got his message. “No noise. Thank you.”

He left, the lock clicking behind him again.

She leaned up on her side, and
Devon
rolled on his side to face her. “At least we can whisper.” She smiled. “I felt like I couldn’t breathe with my mouth taped like that.”

“Me too.”
Devon
nodded. “I’m sure glad you’re here with me, Crystal.”

“I’m glad I’m here with you, too, honey,” she told him. She knew what he meant, even though she was anything but glad to be there. She alternated between being angry and terrified that the child was there at all. She didn’t know how Jack was going to manage it, but he had to find them. He had to rescue them.
One more time, baby
, she told him in her mind.
I need you to be my hero just one more time
.

Crystal
hadn’t thought she could sleep in the uncomfortable position she'd been tied up in. Apparently, however, she was mistaken and must have dozed off, because she was rudely awakened in the night by the angry guy.

“Talk to the cop.” He thrust a cell phone in her face.

Crystal
tried to clear her head. It must be… “Jack?”

She heard him answer, “Crys! Are you all right? Crys!”

The phone was pulled away and she was pushed back onto the bed. The angry guy left and locked the door behind him.

Devon
peered up at her in the darkness. “Did you talk to Jack?”

“I heard him say my name, anyway. He asked if we were okay.”

“How did he sound?”
Devon
asked softly.

“He sounded worried,”
Crystal
decided. “Sad, and worried.” Maybe she was projecting, but she knew that’s how he must feel.

“I’m kind of sad and worried myself,”
Devon
commented.

Crystal
snuggled her head next to his so she could kiss his forehead. “Jack knows we’re alive. He’s going to come for us.”

Devon
nodded and fell back to sleep.

Crystal
had to shift position so her tears didn’t fall on the boy. Her damned contacts were burning, she told herself.
Yeah, right
.

* * * *

Jack got a couple uneasy hours of sleep before finally, at five-thirty a.m., he got up and made coffee. He sat in the kitchen and chain-smoked one right after another. He needed to empty the bowl
Crystal
had been using as an ashtray, but he liked seeing her cigarette butts in there next to his. He tried to figure out what in the hell he was going to do, and decided he needed to talk with Brady Marshall about it.

He woke Mark at seven and fed him cereal. They changed and left the house. “We’re going to make a couple stops before we go to the department,” Jack said as he pulled up at a discount store.

He led Mark back to the electronics area, where a smiling clerk showed them the different hand-held video game systems he had for sale. “What do you think?” Jack asked Mark. “You’re going to be spending another long day at the department. I thought you might like something to do.”

Mark looked excited at first, and then worried. “I would,” he admitted. “But it doesn’t seem fair that I get one and
Devon
doesn’t.”

Jack smiled down at the boy and told the clerk, “We’ll take two systems, two games for each and a pack of extra batteries.” He looked at Mark. “It’ll be a surprise for Dev when he gets home.”

Mark grinned and picked the games he himself wanted as well as two he thought his brother would like. Jack paid the clerk and Mark clutched the bag eagerly as they headed out. As they walked through the women’s department to get to the front door, Jack stopped. The red-haired mannequin in front of him wore the prettiest midnight blue coat he'd ever seen. It was soft, like velvet, with a fur collar. It looked stunning against the fake red hair. He knew how beautiful it would look against the real thing.

“That’s pretty,” Mark commented. “It looks warm, too.”

“Yes, it does,” Jack agreed, and thumbed through the rack for the right size. He pulled out the hanger and smiled at Mark. “Crys needs a surprise when she gets home, too.”

Mark grinned, and they bought the coat.

Their next stop was the veterinary clinic. The technician on duty allowed them to see Zeus for just a few minutes because he was still sedated. They petted him and spoke to him, unsure if he could hear them but hoping maybe he'd know they were there.

At the police department, Mark settled into the chair beside Jack’s desk and started playing his video game. Jack sat in the conference room that had been turned into the headquarters for this case and spoke with Brady.