Power (30 page)

He made the call to dispatch that no cop ever wanted to make. “Officer down. First Avenue and Nineteenth.”

Dan stood in the middle of the street and turned all the way around. He spotted the nearest security camera. The mayor’d had surveillance cameras installed around the downtown area four years ago. As if some techie had picked up on his thoughts, his cell vibrated with an incoming call from ION, the security company responsible for the city’s surveillance system.

Sixty seconds later the video of Jess being abducted by two thugs in masks and driving a generic white Dodge van streamed to his cell phone. Sirens filled the night air, providing an eerie score to the images filling the screen as officers all over the city responded to the call.

Dan’s chest seized as he watched Jess’s futile but courageous fight to prevent those bastards from dragging her into that van.

Gina, still standing at his side and seeing the terrifying moments captured digitally, grabbed the sleeve of his jacket. “Oh my God,” she murmured.

Dan stared at the screen as the scene played again and again. He forced himself to focus on the details of the vehicle and the assailants. The two men were just a little taller than Jess’s five four. No way to tell their age with the masks in place. They wore black T-shirts with no discernible symbols or images and jeans and sneakers. He touched the screen and zoomed in to get a closer look at the forearm wrapped around Jess’s waist. He could just make out the tattoo.

XIII

His heart squeezed with the reality of what he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge. These were Lopez’s goons. Ruthless killers.
If the boy is still alive… it’s because they have a plan for him
. Jess had said that about DeShawn Simmons.

Dan prayed they had a plan for Jess beyond executing her.

Gina’s voice dragged his attention from the screen. She stood in a pool of light, speaking in her reporter voice to the camera.

“If anyone has seen Deputy Chief Jess Harris, please call the number you see on your screen. Chief Harris is missing and believed to be in extreme danger. She was taken by two males driving a white Dodge van with no markings. Chief Harris risks her life each day to protect our community and now she needs our help.”

He felt helpless even as police cruisers and unmarked cars jammed into the street from both directions.

When detectives and uniforms had surrounded him, the fear disappeared. He was the chief of police. He couldn’t afford to be afraid. These men and women were waiting for his direction.

Deputy Chiefs Black and Hogan were at his side and within twenty minutes search teams had been organized and grid patterns established. Crime scene techs were going over Jess’s car and personal belongings. Dan stepped aside and put in a call to Ted Allen.

“I want a meeting with Salvadore Lopez now.”

Allen hedged. “I’m not sure I can make that happen, Chief. We’re only just—”

“Make it happen,” Dan ordered before stabbing the end call button.

“Chief!” Harper cut through the crowd.

Dan followed Harper farther away from the temporary command post that had been established on the street. Traffic in all directions around Linn Park had been diverted.

“The word on the street is”—Harper looked around to ensure no one was paying them any mind—“that Salvadore Lopez ordered this strike. Apparently he believes we have his sister, Nina. His second in command, Jose Munoz, says they will trade Chief Harris for Nina. We have until sunrise or she dies.”

Dan struggled to contain the fury. “Do we have a fucking clue where this sister is?”

Harper moved his head side to side. “But we do have one thing.”

“What the hell is that, Sergeant?”

A smile quirked one corner of the detective’s mouth. “Salvadore Lopez.”

9:30 p.m.

Jess held very still and listened.

She considered the time she had been in the vehicle: thirty minutes at the most. Music had blared from the radio the whole time. But not a radio station. A CD, she supposed. Her wrists and ankles had been secured with wide tape.

The two men had spoken in Spanish during the ride but they kept their voices too low for her to comprehend their conversation over the music. Her Spanish was pretty rusty but she would likely have picked up a word here and there if she had been able to hear.

Once they arrived at their destination they’d brought her into a building or house and shoved her into a corner. Wherever they were holding her it wasn’t far from downtown.

Puffing out a breath, she wished they had removed the damned bag. She hated not being able to see. She thought of those moments before the first bastard had grabbed her. Why hadn’t she been paying better attention? How had she allowed someone to sneak up on her like that? News vans had been parked all around Linn Park. Maybe that was the reason she’d ignored the one parked near her car. It damned sure hadn’t driven up while she was talking to Wesley. Her abductors had been lying in wait.

The floor under her felt like wood. No carpet. Not smooth enough to be vinyl or cool enough to be tile. The place smelled of stale tobacco and tequila. She would recognize that smell anywhere. She’d had too many margaritas once. Back in her college days. Way, way too many. She’d puked for two days.

Whoever was holding her had gathered in another room. The low rumble of voices was distinguishable but, once again, not the words.

Judging how long she had been here was a bit more difficult. Fifteen or twenty minutes maybe. Dan would have found her car by now. And her weapon. God, and her bag and phone. Her phone was probably dead. It had hit the pavement hard.

There went two hundred bucks and that was if she was due an upgrade.

She tried to recall if she had gotten the insurance plan and whether it covered thug damage.

Hopefully Wesley hadn’t thought she’d hung up on him. It was a shame he hadn’t gotten to finish telling her about what he’d found on Nina Lopez.

If she didn’t get out of here, the next life celebration she attended might be her own.

Working her hands and twisting her wrists as best she could, she hoped to loosen the tape. With her back to the wall and her hands behind her, maybe anyone watching her wouldn’t notice. She couldn’t discern any other presence in the room, but the bag over her head dulled her senses to a degree so she couldn’t be sure.

Footsteps warned that someone was entering the room. She listened to the steps, estimated there were at least three persons approaching her position. She braced.

“So this is the famous Deputy Chief Jess Harris. Woo hoo.”

The voice was female. Slight Hispanic accent.

“You have to stop this. This is crazy. This lady ain’t done nothing but try to help us.”

Male. Southern for sure.

“DeShawn?” Jess asked. “Is that you? Your grandparents have been worried sick.”

“See there?” the man she suspected was DeShawn said. “We can’t do this, Nina.”

Nina Lopez. Well, well. “You should listen to him, Nina. Your brother is not happy either.” Jess wished again that she knew what Wesley had been calling about. She could have used that right now.

“My brother is dead to me,” Nina snarled.

Young people. They made Jess want to scream. “Well, he may be dead to you but he’s very much alive and looking for you.”

The bag was snatched off her head. Jess drew in a grateful breath.

“He’s going to die at sunrise,
jefa
. And you’re going to help us make that happen.”

Jess looked from Nina to DeShawn and back. Both appeared to be unharmed. Nina looked ready for war. DeShawn, on the other hand, looked terrified.

“I already said what I had to say to your brother. I don’t think he and I have anything left to talk about.”

Nina flaunted a big smile. “You won’t need to do no talking. You’ll be too busy dying.”

She turned and strutted away. Poor DeShawn. He hadn’t had a chance against a sexy, streetwise girl like Nina. Her gangbanger friend followed her out of the room. DeShawn lingered near Jess.

“Are my grandparents okay?”

Jess nodded. “I sent them to stay with friends so Lopez couldn’t get to them.”

He swiped his hands over his face and shook his head. “I don’t know what’s happening. Everything is out of control.”

Jess had a pretty good idea. “It’s a power play. Nina wants what her brother has. It’s a battle as old as time. Sibling rivalry.”

DeShawn shook his head. “But she doesn’t want any part of the gang life. That’s why she left LA. She thought it would be different here.”

“Sometimes people show us what they want us to see.” Jess had a sneaking suspicion that DeShawn was beginning to understand that he was nothing more than a pawn in Nina’s plans. He was the bait to lure the police into her game. He was the perfect ploy. A good, upstanding young man who would have the community in an uproar to ensure he received the same attention as the white girls had a couple weeks ago.

Worked like a charm.

He squatted down and searched Jess’s face. “I don’t know what to do. She’s got five guys in there planning and plotting with her. There’s three or four more outside. I don’t have a weapon or a cell phone.”

Jess managed a faint smile for the kid. “Listen to me, DeShawn. I’m a deputy chief with the Birmingham PD. My job is pretty important, so you have to believe me when I say that I know the business of police work, right?”

He hesitated a moment but then he nodded his agreement.

“That’s right. I have my own unit with several detectives who do exactly what I tell them to do every day.” Most of the time anyway.

He wrapped his arms around his knees and waited for whatever she had to say next.

“So when I tell you what you need to do, you can feel confident that I know what I’m talking about, right?”

He nodded again.

“Good.” She leaned forward to put her face closer to his. “You don’t worry about Nina or her friends or me. The first opportunity you get, you run.”

His eyes widened in disbelief.

“Your grandparents are counting on you, DeShawn. You run as fast as you can, and don’t you dare look back.”

216 Aquarius Drive, 10:20 p.m.

Harper wound through the parking area until they reached the back of the meatpacking plant. He guided his SUV to the east perimeter of the property and shut off the engine. The lampposts were few and far between this far from the plant but Dan suspected the meager lighting and the seclusion were the reasons they’d been instructed to wait here.

This was the sort of business best conducted where no one would see.

“You’re telling me,” Dan asked, needing clarification now that he’d had time to get a grip on his composure if not his trepidation, “that Salvadore Lopez is going to show up here to
talk
? We have nothing to offer him,” he reminded Harper. “We don’t know where his sister is, but he wants to talk anyway?”

Dan just didn’t see that happening. This could be a major waste of time they didn’t have.

“That’s what I’m telling you,” Harper confirmed. “The two members of his clique I was interviewing when you called about Chief Harris conveyed a personal message from Lopez. He wants to work out this situation privately with
you
.”

“Are these the same people who told you Lopez had taken her and we had until sunup to produce his sister?”

“That was the word from the folks blowing up their phones during the interview.”

Dan surveyed the deserted lot a third time, or maybe it was the fourth. “Pardon the hell out of me if I opt not to trust Lopez’s friends. Did he confirm Chief Harris is safe? Did he provide proof of life?” Damn it, they were wasting time here. Jess was counting on him and he was sitting in this damned SUV waiting for Lopez and some member of his posse to show up and, as likely as not, start a shoot-out. “The whole thing could have been staged.”

What were the chances that they could have this tête-à-tête without weapons being drawn?

“Lopez is supposed to explain everything when he arrives. It’s not an optimal situation, sir, but I didn’t see that we had any other choice.”

“And where exactly is our backup, Sergeant?” Dan felt ready to explode. He needed to do more than talk.

Tension thickened in the air for a beat. He was angry and sick with worry and damned terrified—all this he was taking out on Harper.

“We don’t have any, sir. That was the deal breaker for this meet.”

Dan laughed. He didn’t mean to, but this was just too much and, frankly, if he hadn’t laughed he might have just lost it. He railed at Jess all the time for taking risks like this and here he was following that same pattern. He had known damn well they didn’t have any backup before he asked. “I think Harris has rubbed off on you, Harper.”

“That could be the case, sir, but I have reason to believe this lead is on the level.”

Dan checked his weapon, then reholstered it. “You did the right thing. If Lopez had contacted me, I would have come alone if necessary.”
Whatever it takes to get her back
.

Harper glanced at Dan. “The man, Hector, who set this up is related to Jorge Debarros.”

“Christina’s father?” The thirteen-year-old had been missing for six years and Jess had waltzed into town and four days later solved the case. The remains discovered in the basement of the home of the couple who’d abducted Andrea a little over two weeks ago were those of Debarros’s daughter, Christina. He and his family had suffered all those years, wondering and worrying. Jess’s relentlessness had allowed them to finally give their little girl a proper burial.

“When Jorge saw the first newscast about Chief Harris’s disappearance,” Harper went on, “he called his brother Hector, who’s tight with Lopez. Hector and another of his clique were meeting with me at the time. They both appeared a little edgy when they got the news. Hector called his boss and Lopez asked for this meet.”

Dan checked the time. Jess had been missing for approximately two hours. A volatile combination of fear and fury churned in his gut. “Are we early or are they running behind?” If Lopez wanted this meet so badly, where the hell was he?