by Linda Ladd
“They slid open the side door and pulled you into the van?”
She nodded and looked at him. “How did you know?”
“A lot of abductions at malls happen that way. The panel van hides their car and puts the driver’s seat right beside the van’s side door. It’s easy to grab somebody who’s that close.”
She nodded. “The door slammed back and they jumped out and grabbed me and slapped tape over my mouth and pulled a black hood down over my head. Then one of them got me around the neck and choked me until I blacked out. The next thing I remember I was inside the van. It was driving fast and somebody was taping my hands behind my back. They took off my shoes and taped my ankles together. When they took the tape off my mouth, they forced me to take those white pills. They held my nose until I swallowed them. I don’t remember much after that until I woke up. I guess it was the next morning.”
“Did you know the men? Had you ever seen them before? Can you describe them or did you hear their names?”
“I saw a few of them when they took off the hood. That was after we were on the highway and driving fast. It was like they didn’t care if I saw their faces.”
They were definitely going to kill her after the baby was born, reward money or not, Novak thought. “Can you describe them?”
“Yeah, they looked like Hells Angels kind of guys. The ones I saw had beards and tattoos. I heard one of them call the driver Pete.”
“Were there other victims in the van?”
She shook her head. “No, just the driver and one guy in back with me.”
“Did they hurt you?”
“No, I was too drugged up. The one in back was okay most of the time and kept telling me not to be afraid, that they weren’t going to hurt me if I did what they said. He’s the one who brought me food and water.”
“Did you stop anywhere? Could you or anyone else you saw along the way testify that these guys were in that van with you?”
“They stopped for gas sometimes, but they never let me get out. They used those rest stops along the highway when I needed to go to the bathroom or walk around. If anybody else was parked there, they took one look at those guys and got back in their cars and left in a hurry.”
“How many of them were with you on the trip down here?”
“There were always two in the van, and then two others rode in front of us and two behind us. I guess they switched off riding the bikes. I don’t know. They took turns watching me.”
“So you can definitely identify them?”
“I’ll never forget their faces. Why’s it taking so long for him to get here? They’re going to find out where we are, if we just sit out here like this.”
“No, they won’t.” Novak wasn’t at all sure of that, but she needed to hear it. If Kellen’s men were looking for the orange Jeep, they could show up anytime. “Did you get the impression they’d abducted other women?”
“They talked about it sometimes. I heard one say they had to get down to Tampa and pick up another girl. I was just so groggy. I slept a lot, and I wanted to be unconscious. I took so many pills. Do you think that will hurt the baby?”
“They don’t want to hurt the babies. They want them healthy for illegal adoptions. Has the baby moved lately?”
“He’s kicking right now.”
“That means he’s alive and well. Would you recognize those guys if I showed you pictures?”
“I’ll never forget them.”
“Then you’ll testify if we get them?”
“I want them put away. I don’t want them to hurt anybody else.” Novak saw a sudden realization dawn inside her dark eyes. “They want to kill me because I can identify them, don’t they?”
“That’s not going to happen because they aren’t going to find you. We’ll get you out of here soon and under protection in Fort Myers. I know a family there who’ll take you in and protect you. If you’re too scared to go home, I know a place out of state where you can hole up. That doctor who’s coming? The one whose wife they took? He’s got a house on a lake in Missouri that’s out in the middle of nowhere and completely secure.” Novak kept trying to think ahead. “He’s also got a private jet so he can fly you back home when you’re ready. We can arrange witness protection for your family at the lake house until it’s all over.”
Novak pulled up Max Kellen’s photograph on his phone and held it out for her to see. “Have you ever seen this guy?”
She shook her head. “No, who’s that?”
“We think he’s the one behind everything.”
She shivered and scanned the parking lot. Her nerves were shot to hell.
“We’ll get them, Allison. I swear to God that we’ll get them and make them pay for what they’ve done to you. You’ve got to believe me.”
The conversation was helping Allison cope. She was talking more. “A couple of days after they got me, they stopped at this house and took me inside and made me let a woman doctor in there examine me. There were lots of babies there, too. You know, little ones, newborns, I think, in cribs. I saw a toddler too, maybe fourteen or fifteen months old. It’s still kind of foggy, like remembering a nightmare.”
“You think they’ll take Claire in for some kind of examination, too?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. There was another pregnant girl at that house. She was lying on a gurney. She was blindfolded. They took my hood off while they examined me, but I saw her. Those little babies were crying, and it sounded like there were nurses taking care of them.”
As Allison told him more about what she’d seen inside that house, Novak sat and cringed inside at all the horrific things she’d been forced to endure. He realized that Max Kellen had a big, highly organized operation. If they had baby houses or nurseries full of children and doctors examining expectant moms, this thing was huge. Allison was describing the place where they took newborn babies after they murdered their mothers. This thing was despicable. It was hard to comprehend that kind of cruelty.
“Can you tell me how to get to this baby house?”
She shook her head.
Novak had so little to go on, and Claire was getting farther away every moment they waited. “Please, think hard. Did you see anything in that house? Hear anything that can tell us where you were? Please, try to remember.”
Allison looked as if she were about to crash. “I remember it was hot and humid outside when we got out of the van. And I heard lots of night sounds, you know, like crickets and tree frogs. A loud buzz, kind of, was going on all around us and never stopped, like we were out in the middle of a jungle. And it smelled like fish and stagnant water.”
Novak lived in the middle of the bayou, and that was a damn good description of any swamp. “Sounds like you were in the Everglades or close to it. Did you go in by boat?”
“No, I’d remember that. We were still in that van but the roads got worse, you know, unpaved, and I could hear the tires going over rocks or gravel or something. I was afraid all that jouncing and bouncing would hurt my baby. Please, just let me call my husband!”
That’s when Novak heard the distant thut-thut of rotors as Black’s helicopter swept toward them. He handed Allison his phone. “Okay, that’s him. Go ahead, call your husband and tell him you’re all right. Tell him that we’ll keep you safe until you get home, okay? Tell him we’ll fly you up to Pensacola, if he wants, and tell him you’ll call him later about when and where.”
She grabbed the phone, and Novak got out and stood beside the car, watching the helicopter sweep in across the highway and hover right over the middle of the parking lot. Moments later, the chopper sat down on the ground, light as a feather. Black jumped out, bent low under the rotor wash, and ran toward him.
“What did the girl tell you? Does she know where they’re taking Claire?”
“No, but she told me there’s a house where they examine th
e women they take. Sounds like it was located somewhere in or around the Everglades. If they park that Lincoln at that house, my GPS will pinpoint it for us.”
“What if they ditched the Lincoln?”
“Then we’ll keep looking. I think we ought to take the helicopter and follow the signal and hope for the best. It’s the fastest way to get out there and the best chance we’ve got right now.”
“Oh, my God, if they hurt her, if they touch her, I’m going to—”
Novak grabbed Black’s arm. “Claire will know we’re coming after her, you know that. She’ll make sure she stays alive until we do. And we will, Black, but we need to go right now. Can we send this girl back home on your plane?”
“Of course, it’s still sitting outside an airport hangar in Fort Myers. My pilot can take the Jeep and drive her back there.”
“Okay, let’s get her out of here. Let me tell Allison what’s going down.”
Black took off running back to the helicopter. Novak watched the pilot climb out, and Black got in the pilot’s seat and took the controls. Novak opened the car door and quickly explained the situation to Allison. A few minutes later, Black’s pilot had driven out of the parking lot and headed back to Fort Myers with the woman. Novak and Black lifted off and were skimming over residential areas, headed south to the Everglades. Novak put on his headphones and brought Black up to speed.
“I think they’re gonna offer your baby up for adoption. It looks like they’re taking pregnant women here in the US, too. They’ve got a baby factory somewhere around here where they wait for these women to give birth.”
Although Black looked calm, Novak knew he wasn’t at all. Black said, “And then they kill the mothers and dispose of their bodies in the Everglades.”
Novak didn’t need to respond and didn’t want to. He hoped Black could keep it together, and he probably would. He could be a formidable enemy. He would not go easy on anybody who threatened harm to his wife and child. That was fine with Novak. This time he’d help him cut them down with no quarter given. He just hoped Claire could keep herself alive until they found her.
Chapter 8
Claire curled up in a fetal position in the back seat of the Lincoln. She was calm and biding her time. She had been taken by four Skulls. She had not been roughed up yet, which was a good thing but didn’t mean it wasn’t going to happen. These guys were absolute scum. They would enjoy hurting her if she stepped out of line. She already knew Novak was blaming himself, and Black was going out of his mind, but this was her own fault. It had happened so fast, but she’d been concentrating on watching for Novak to come out of the house. She hadn’t seen them or heard them coming, had not expected to be attacked out there away from the house. She’d let her guard down and was suffering the consequences.
They were pretty damn good at kidnapping, too, probably because they’d had plenty of practice. One thing for sure, they hadn’t come there on motorcycles or she would have heard the racket. She hadn’t heard a car approaching, either. So they had approached stealthily from a distance and from behind the car. How had they even known she was out there? It had to be one of two things. She and Novak had been spotted tailing Kellen, or he had ordered them followed as potential clients, fearing a police sting? Her captors were all business and had on their tacky leather vests. All four of them were big, muscular, stupid types.
Claire had been sitting in the driver’s seat of the Lincoln, wishing Novak would hurry the hell up when she’d seen a figure loom up out of the shadows around the cabana. She saw the intruder about the time Novak stepped out of the sliding patio door. She had no time to warn him because her door jerked open and they pulled her out. A black hood came down over her face, and a hand pressed hard over her mouth. Somebody pulled her Glock off the back of her waistband. She put up a pretty good fight and landed a couple of punches before an arm snaked around her throat and tightened so hard that she couldn’t breathe. She fought his grip but didn’t last long. After ten seconds, her mind began to slip.
Vaguely, she remembered being picked up bodily and placed in the back seat of the Lincoln. She remembered being hastily searched, but they stopped at her jacket when they found her phone. Two guys squeezed in the back seat on both sides. The other two got in front, and the car’s motor had fired smoothly. They had backed up and gone out along the backyards. She heard one guy call and taunt Novak. How did he know who Novak was? They must have found out his name somehow or recognized him from the picture she had assigned to his number in her phone. The whole abduction took a matter of minutes.
Right now, her baby was kicking the heck out of her, no doubt still affected by mama’s hammering pulse and spiking adrenaline surge. She was pressing her hands and feet hard against her abdomen and moving all around. Claire kept very still and tried to keep her heartbeat steady. She didn’t fight these guys, because that could cause her to miscarry.
Keeping her breathing nice and even, in and out, using her yoga training, she tried not to move. Her mind was racing as she evaluated her chances of getting away without getting hurt. Escape did not look good. In fact, she couldn’t do it, no way, not in a speeding car with four bullies. She had an ace in the hole, though, a very substantial one. Her sweet little .38 snub nose was still strapped securely to her right ankle under her jeans. They had been distracted by her phone and hadn’t looked for a second gun. Lucky for her, because that was the only way she had a chance against that many men. They hadn’t made it far from Kellen’s house before she heard her phone vibrate.
“Oh, look, sweetie,” one of them had said. “Your big friend is panicking that you’re gone.” He didn’t answer Novak’s call. She heard him disable the phone, slide down the back window, and toss it out into the street. One good thing that Claire tried to hold on to was that these thugs did not know what Novak was capable of. They didn’t know her husband, either, who was going to be so royally pissed off that he just might alert his old Mafia friends in south Florida, including one godfather type with a veritable army to do his blood-spilling. These guys would definitely not want to meet up with Jose Rango, much less antagonize him. Jose and his minions would come to rescue Claire full force, and that was her only hope of survival. Eventually, they would track her down, she had no doubt of that, and they would take these guys down. Claire just hoped she was alive to see it.
She tried to convince herself to relax, just to go with whatever happened, and not upset her baby. She’d been through things like this before, and she’d survived. She needed to reserve her strength and be smart and do what was necessary. Let events unfold until she had an opportunity to get her hands on that .38. It was only a matter of time. Truth be told, these guys were unlikely to hurt her or her baby, because they were baby peddlers, after all. Maybe she was expendable, probably was, but not her baby.
So she clung to that hope, but she had trouble staying that calm. She was angry, and her doubts grew worse with each mile the Lincoln ate up. She felt frightened in a way she’d never felt before, almost at panic levels. She kept getting upset and then calming herself by force of will. Her baby’s life depended on her. She also knew that she was not their typical victim. She was a problem they had been sent to take care of. She was investigating them, threatening Kellen’s operation, and if they knew that, they would want her put down. They probably had orders to kill her and Novak both. She was pretty sure they were taking her somewhere to dispose of her. She didn’t want to think like that, but Claire had always looked at things with clear eyes. She had to die, because Kellen had no choice once he found out she was investigating him.
She remained docile, but her body was getting cramped. She needed to stretch, get out of the car and walk around. The baby was more active than usual, as anxious as she was. The guys were sitting close to her, their shoulders touching her. She couldn’t see them because of the hood. It was made of rough material that made it hard to breathe. Both men in back with her smelled o
f beer and cigarettes, and the odor turned her stomach. Slowly, she shifted her position until she could see their feet on the floorboard. They both wore black leather boots and dirty denim jeans. When she tried to push herself a bit farther around where she might be able to reach the ankle holster, the barrel of a gun immediately pressed down hard against the top of her belly. “You move again, bitch, and you won’t have a baby inside you anymore.”
After that, Claire did not move. The driver smelled bad. He was smoking a cigar, and the stench of burning nicotine made her sick to her stomach. She strained to hear everything they said and tried to pinpoint where they were taking her, but they didn’t say much. She had read about them during her computer search. One police report said an informant told them the Skulls were abducting pregnant women, waiting until the baby was born, and then murdering them. Law enforcement didn’t have enough to go on to arrest them and couldn’t prove anything. Those women had ended up dead, but they hadn’t been investigating these guys. Chances were the Skulls would not let her live long enough to give birth but would kill her now. Traffic passed them on her left, and they were moving at high rates of speed, so they were on a four-lane highway. Eventually, fewer vehicles passed by. The Lincoln picked up more speed.
Claire had to find a way to get to the gun, but that wouldn’t happen until they stopped somewhere and forced her out of the car. Maybe if she feigned a need to go to the bathroom, they’d stop at a quick stop or gas station. She immediately nixed that idea. They’d have to be morons to do that. Then again, they weren’t Einsteins, so maybe they would. She could hope, anyway. She had a feeling they’d just pull over and let her find a bush while one of them watched. Anything she could do to get away or delay the inevitable would help Novak and Black reach her in time. Maybe she could talk herself out of trouble. She’d done it before. She wondered if Novak was already on the road behind them, hot on their trail. He was good at finding people, but this time it would have to be fast. She was more concerned about Black. He had probably already lost his mind.