by Mike Ryan
“My entire hand? Seriously?”
“Of course, it could all be avoided if you just tell us what we want to know first,” Nicole said.
“What if I tell you everything and you do it anyway?”
“Listen, going through all that takes time and effort,” Bridge answered. “And we really don’t have enough of either at the moment. Once you tell us what we need to know, we’ll be on our way.”
“And you’ll be here with all your body parts still attached,” Nicole added.
“So what’ll it be?”
Berkampf looked at the two of them. They looked crazy enough to do all of it. “Oh, screw it, they ain’t paying me enough for torture.”
“Who’s they?”
“Diego.”
“Diego Andujar?”
Berkampf, with a scowl on his face, nodded. “Yeah.”
“Who’s the other one?”
“What?”
“You said they. Let’s not play games and make me rip off a finger!”
Berkampf sighed. “Fine. Derek.”
“Hatch?”
“Yeah.”
“Both in on it?”
“Yeah. The DD boys. Derek and Diego.”
“How do you fit in?” Bridge asked.
“I don’t, man. They just hired me to play a part. Whatever’s going on is their thing.”
“What part?”
“They hired me to go down to Florida and follow this guy.”
“Dermott?”
“Yeah. They said just follow him, make sure he’s alone, and stick with him after he landed here. So that’s what I did.”
“It’s not that simple. Andujar was also on that plane with you. I’ve also got witnesses that saw the three of you getting into a car after leaving the airport.”
Berkampf shrugged. “I don’t know about what happened after that.”
Bridge sighed. “Get the pliers.”
“No, really. I didn’t. All I was supposed to do after landing was escort him to the car with Diego. Then they dropped me off here at the hotel while they kept going. That’s it, I swear.”
Nicole folded her arms, looking extremely unhappy. “I’m not buying it. You have his credit card. You know, I’m done with this idiot. Let’s just kill him instead.”
“No, no, wait.” Berkampf was getting nervous and starting to sweat profusely. He knew he had to talk fast to prevent anything else from happening to him. “So what happened was, they dropped me off here and said to stay here for a few days. But I said I didn’t have the money to stay. So Diego took Dermott’s wallet and gave it to me. There was a few hundred in cash plus his credit cards. It’s over in the drawer over there. You can go check.”
Bridge went over to the desk along the wall and pulled out the top drawer. There was the wallet. He opened it up, seeing Dermott’s identification. Bridge turned back around to further question their prisoner.
“Still doesn’t prove anything. We already knew you had his wallet.”
“And who was driving that car?” Nicole asked. “Was it Derek?”
“No, no,” Berkampf replied. “It was some other guy.”
“What other guy?”
“I don’t know his name. I never saw him before. Diego seemed to know him, but I didn’t. I swear.”
Bridge still felt like they were getting the runaround. Berkampf knew more than he was saying. He was sure of it. He was tired of playing games, and they were wasting a lot of time they didn’t have to lose. He reached inside his jacket and removed his gun, holding it in front of him to make sure that Berkampf saw it.
Berkampf’s eyes almost jumped out of his head as he saw the pistol. “What’s that for?”
“It’s for you, stupid,” Bridge answered. “You’re not being honest with us and to be honest with you, I’ve already had enough. We’re just cutting our losses and moving on.”
“Oh god, OK, OK, no, please, I… I… I can tell you more.”
Bridge pointed the pistol at the man’s head, hoping to scare him into talking. “Well, you better make it good, and you better make it fast. ‘Cause my trigger finger is itching.”
“OK, OK, I know where they might have been taking Dermott.”
“Keep going.”
“Put the gun down? Please?”
Bridge looked at Nicole and rolled his eyes. He then holstered his gun again. “Start talking.”
“OK, so they were taking him to this place, I think it was a house, or maybe an apartment, I’m not sure. Anyway, they said they were taking him there to do the exchange.”
“What’s the address?”
“Uh, I… don’t remember.” Bridge started to take his gun out again, but was interrupted by Berkampf’s quick talking. “It’s written down in the drawer there. Just take a look. It’s on a yellow piece of paper folded in half.”
Bridge took his hand off his gun and walked back to the desk, opening the drawer again. He saw the yellow piece of paper on the left side of the drawer. He picked it up, unfolded it to read it, then folded it again as he put it in his pocket. He walked back over to Berkampf again.
“This better be legit. If we wind up going over to some chicken farm, I’m gonna come back here and put a bullet in your head. And that’s after I take off all your fingers and toes first.”
“I promise, I promise. That’s where they were going.”
“Whose idea was all this?” Nicole asked.
“I don’t know. Derek’s the one who recruited me.”
“And what do you get out of it?”
“A couple thousand.”
“What about Ava?” Bridge asked. “Is she still alive?”
“Of course, man. None of us are killers. They just wanted some money.”
“Uh-huh. I want you to stay here for twenty-four hours.”
“What?”
“We’ve got someone watching out front. If you attempt to leave, he will stop you. And he’ll do it by breaking both of your legs. He’s a former MMA fighter, so you wouldn’t have a chance against him.”
“I have to stay here? Why?”
“‘Cause we need to make sure you’re telling us the straight story. If not, we’ll be back.”
“It’s true. I swear.”
“OK. If it is, you can leave tomorrow night with no problems.”
“What am I supposed to do until then?”
Bridge looked around the room. “You got a TV. Use it.”
“Fine.”
“The alternative is getting your legs broken.”
“Yeah, yeah, fine, I’ll stay here.”
“You need to change this address?”
“No, that’s where they were going.”
“It better be. For your sake.”
Bridge and Nicole left the hotel and went back to their car, plugging the address into their phone.
“Looks like it’s twenty-five minutes from here,” Nicole said.
“Single-family house on the outskirts of the city. Looks like a good spot to hold someone hostage.”
“Let’s hope they’re still there.”
“Let’s hope we’re not too late.”
11
After arriving at the address of the house that Berkampf gave them, Bridge and Nicole sat in their car for a little bit, sizing up the situation.
“How long are we gonna sit here?” Nicole asked.
“Why do we always have this conversation when we do a stakeout?”
“Because you always move slowly!”
“And you wanna rush right in and get your head blown off because you haven’t intelligently assessed the situation beforehand!”
“I know, I get it. I’m impatient, but seriously, how long are we gonna sit here for?”
“Until we have some idea what we’re going up against,” Bridge replied.
“That could take forever.”
“Nic, we’ve only been here five minutes. We can give it a little more time.”
“But do the Dermotts have it?”
>
“I hate to talk like this, but if they’re dead already, us rushing in there now isn’t going to change that.”
Nicole looked down. “I know. But if they’re not…”
“Then we need to know how many people we’re dealing with. What if they have someone watching through a window? What if they have six other men in there? What if that front porch is booby trapped? What if they start shooting at us before we even get halfway there?”
“What if that building collapses? Looks kind of old and neglected.”
“Looks like a place pulled right out of the kidnapping handbook on where to place your victims.”
“I hope you’re not suggesting we sit here for like six hours.”
“Can we just give it thirty minutes? Can we?”
Nicole sighed. “Fine. Thirty minutes. But not a minute later.”
“Oh, I know. At thirty-one minutes, you’re charging in there like Theodore Roosevelt and San Juan Hill.”
Nicole looked at him and shrugged, while flashing a fake smile. They sat there for the next thirty minutes, not seeing a single sign of movement. Nobody came near the house. They didn’t see any curtains moving or people in the window, not even a shadow. The place looked deserted.
“You don’t think that little weasel gave us a fake address, do you?”
Bridge thought about it. “I don’t think so. First, he didn’t pull it up out of the air. He had it written down for a reason, so this place must have some significance to either him or the group. And I really doubt he’d be coming here for personal enjoyment.”
Nicole looked at the time. “Thirty minutes is up.”
Bridge looked all around to make sure there was no one else in the area. “All right, let’s hit it.”
“You hit the back. I’ll go in through the front.”
“Why do I hit the back?”
“Because if someone’s watching the front, I look less threatening.”
Bridge laughed. “You really think so? You? Miss Bazooka looks less threatening than me?”
“I’m a woman. All women look less threatening than men.”
“Yeah, and I got a bridge I’d like to sell you. You seen some of the mug shots of women locked up in prison? The camera would like to differ.”
“Just go with me, OK?”
Bridge sighed. “Fine, have it your way. Just give me a few minutes to get around there. If you hear shooting then…”
“If you hear shooting, then it’s probably me.”
Nicole waited for a minute to get out of the car, giving Bridge enough time to make his way around to the back of the house. The residence was located in a not-too-busy area, with only a few other houses within sight, and none nearby. Nicole started walking toward the house, keeping both her hands by her side. She didn’t want to keep one hand in back of her and on her gun, feeling like that would give away who she was or what she was doing there. She figured if someone had her marked, it wouldn’t much matter if her hand was on the gun or not anyway.
Once she got to the porch, the old rusted boards started creaking. She knocked on the door and tried to look as unassuming as possible. After a few seconds, she knocked on the door again. Then she heard a noise coming from the back of the house. She assumed that was Bridge breaking in. She sized up the door, then took a few steps back, then kicked at the handle. It looked to be old, so it didn’t take much effort to kick it open. It probably would have flown open if the wind blew.
As the door flew open, Nicole withdrew her weapon and stepped inside. It looked deserted. There was an old chair and a table that looked like it was about to crumble any second. There was a lot of dust and cobwebs. She started searching through the rooms.
“Nic,” Bridge said, coming from the kitchen area. “It’s me.”
“I’m in here.”
A second later, they were within view of each other. “Nobody back that way.”
“Looks like there are a couple bedrooms that way.”
Holding their guns in front of them, they walked down a short hallway until they reached the two bedrooms and bathroom. All the doors were closed. Bridge pushed the first door open, standing in the frame of the bedroom door as he looked around. It was empty. No furniture other than a white sheet lying on the floor. They went on to the next door. Nicole opened it, rushing inside. It was a small bathroom that had a rather strong, musty smell. There were stains on the wall and floor, probably due to a water leak at one time.
They then proceeded to the next door. Bridge pushed it open, his eyes drawn to the body lying on the floor along the far wall. It was the body of a man lying face down. They both went inside. There was nothing in there other than a small wooden chair next to the body. As Bridge went over to the body, he recognized who it was before even seeing the face. He sighed and looked at Nicole, shaking his head. He then knelt beside the body and turned him over. It was Bodie Dermott. He had two bullet holes in the chest.
“Why?” Nicole asked. “Why? He was doing what they wanted. He’d done everything they asked. He gave them money, kept the police out, followed their instructions, everything. Why kill him?”
Bridge rubbed the sides of his mouth. “I don’t know. Unless Ava’s dead and there was nothing to exchange for the money, so they just took it.”
“Berkampf said she was still alive. He also said they weren’t killers.”
“Yeah, well, I’d say one of his friends has taken it up a notch.”
“We don’t know it was them.”
“It was them. It had to be.” Bridge looked around. “The money’s not here. Whoever killed him took it.” Bridge felt Dermott’s neck. “He’s been dead a while. Probably since last night.”
“Probably should call the police.”
“No.”
“Luke, we can’t just leave him here without notifying anyone.”
“You’re right. But not until after we leave.”
“Why?”
“One, you know I don’t trust the police here. Two, if we wait for them, we’ll have to answer a lot of questions, plus, it’ll take a while. And three, we still have to find Ava, and that takes priority right now. There’s nothing else we can do for Bodie right now except to find his daughter as soon as possible.”
Nicole nodded. He was right. Finding Ava was the priority, but they’d probably find her father’s killers at the same time. They took a closer look around the house, searching through every room, hoping to pick up some shred of a clue. Something that would indicate where Ava was, or where Hatch or Andujar were. Once they could find the scent of one, they were confident the others would be in the same place.
After exhaustively looking through the house, they met back up in the empty bedroom. Neither had found anything.
“Only thing in this place is a lot of dust,” Nicole said.
Bridge sighed and shook his head. “There’s nothing here. Except the body.”
“Out of leads.”
Bridge squinted and thought about it. “No, we’re not. We still have one.”
Nicole looked around at the dust and cobwebs. “Oh yeah? I’m not seeing it. Unless you think one of these spiders is gonna tell us they witnessed something.”
“We still got Berkampf.”
“He doesn’t know anything.”
“You think not? I bet he does.”
“He might not still be there.”
“I’m betting he is,” Bridge said. “The guy’s scared. He’s nervous. Probably why they left him behind. They were worried he would screw something up.”
“If that address is all he knows…”
“He should still know how to contact them.”
“And do what? Set up his friends?”
“Either set up his friends or go to jail.”
“He won’t do it.”
Bridge grinned. “He’ll do it. He’ll have to. I won’t take no for an answer.”
“Even if he is able to contact these people, they’re gonna be very wary of hearing from him. They�
��re going to assume something’s not right.”
“Possibly. It’ll be up to us to make him sound convincing.”
“What are we gonna say to make them want to meet?”
“I don’t know. But we got thirty minutes to get back there and think of something. Let’s make the most of it.”
“I dunno, Luke. I have a feeling this guy’s not gonna be there.”
“He’ll be there,” Bridge said confidently. “He’ll be there. He doesn’t want to meet our angry ex-MMA fighter.” Bridge smiled, thinking about it. “He’ll be there.”
Once they got back to the hotel, they immediately went up to room 514 again. Bridge knocked hard on the door. There was no answer. He glanced at Charlotte, who he could tell was staring at him.
“What?”
“Still here, huh?”
“He’s here,” Bridge said. “Probably just in the bathroom or something.”
“Uh-huh. There’s a pleasant thought.”
Bridge knocked even harder. “Berkampf, I know you’re in there. Open up.”
They heard someone moving around inside. They came closer to the door. Then it slowly opened.
“Oh, it’s you guys,” Berkampf said.
“Who else would it be?” Bridge replied.
“I don’t know. Thought maybe it was that MMA guy you got parked outside. You know, I looked out the window, and I thought I might have seen him down there.”
Bridge and Nicole looked at each other. She then went over to the window and looked out.
“You don’t even have a view of the front from here,” Nicole said.
“Thought maybe he was moving around to look at me.”
Nicole rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Idiots,” she whispered.
“Take a seat,” Bridge said.
“What now?” Berkampf asked. “Don’t tell me you had a problem at that place, man, ‘cause I gave it to you straight. That’s where they were.”
“We know. We were there.”
“So what are you back here for, then? Does that mean I can go?”
“No. You know what we found when we got there?”
Berkampf shrugged. “I dunno. Nothing?”
“Oh, we found something.”