by Mike Ryan
“I’ll kill her,” Andujar said.
Bridge quickly scanned the room, not seeing any sign of Hatch. “Where’s your partner?”
“Didn’t you kill him already?”
“I mean your other partner. Derek Hatch.”
“Don’t know him.”
“Let her go. Now.”
“Can’t. If I let her go, you’ll kill me.”
“I give you my word I won’t.”
“Then what? Prison? Nah, not gonna happen.”
“Diego, we can’t just let this go on indefinitely.”
“Yeah, I know. So why don’t you guys get out of here and give me enough space to leave?”
“Told you, we’re not leaving without Ava.”
“Let me go and I’ll release her.”
Bridge briefly glanced at Nicole. It was against his better judgment to make deals, but he was willing to do just about anything to make sure Ava was unharmed. The most important thing for them, especially after her father had been killed, was making sure she was safe. Though he wanted her kidnappers to pay, bringing them to justice wasn’t necessarily his objective. Getting her back was. Even though her father was gone, he still felt obligated to bring the mission to a close.
“Fine, we’ll do it this way. We’ll let you go if you release her.”
“What assurances do I have?”
“My word,” Bridge replied.
Andujar laughed. “No offense, but I don’t really trust you.”
“No offense, but I don’t really trust you either.”
“I’ll give you enough space to get to the front door. Once you get there, you let Ava go and I’ll let you get to your car. I won’t come after you.”
“No, you let me get to my car. I don’t really trust that I won’t get a bullet in my back once I get out of here. And put your weapons down.”
“Our weapons aren’t going anywhere.”
“Fine. You just let me get to my car and I’ll release her.”
Bridge glanced at Nicole again, who nodded. “All right. You got a deal.”
“Back up.”
Bridge and Nicole slowly moved down the hallway, each going separate ways. Nicole went to the back door, while Bridge moved to the front. A few seconds later, Andujar appeared, still clutching Ava tightly. He saw Nicole standing to his left, and started moving in the other direction, being careful to not give up too much of his back to give her a good target. As they went into the living room, he saw Bridge standing there, still pointing his gun at him. As Andujar got to the front door, Nicole went out the back door and came around to the side.
Once Andujar backed his way out the front door, Bridge followed him. Andujar continued backing his way to the maroon car. As Bridge continued following him there, he was starting to worry about Hatch being around. It was strange that he wasn’t there. At least, not that they could see. Maybe he was in the trees somewhere, though, waiting to pick them off.
“Nic, look around for Hatch.”
“You see him?”
“No, but I just wanna make sure they don’t have this planned, and he’s out there somewhere waiting for us.”
Nicole started looking around to see if she could spot someone waiting and hiding amongst the trees. After several anxious and tense moments, Andujar finally reached the hood of his car.
“If you try to take her with you, I will open fire,” Bridge said. Andujar moved around the hood to the driver's side. Bridge smiled, knowing that he had a problem. “Looks like your hands are full. How are you getting in?”
Andujar almost started to panic, knowing he was either going to have to take his hand off his gun, which could be suicidal, or release Ava sooner than he wanted to. Then he whispered in Ava’s ear. “Open the car door for me.”
Ava did as he asked and opened it.
“I’m warning you,” Bridge said.
Andujar still wasn’t sure what he was going to do. But if he shoved Ava inside, there were going to be a few split seconds where he was exposed. He needed a diversion to give himself the time he needed to get in. He quickly took his arm off of Ava and pushed her down to the ground. As Bridge’s eyes went to her, it gave Andujar enough time to get in his car. Bridge kept his weapon pointed at the car as it started. Andujar put the car in reverse and floored it, wanting to get out of there as fast as possible. Within a few seconds, the car was nowhere in sight.
Bridge went over to Ava to make sure she was OK. It looked like she had only a few small bruises on her arm. Lucky considering everything she’d been through. Bridge helped her back to her feet.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“No problem,” Bridge replied. He then looked at Nicole, who was walking around the cabin. “Anything?”
“I don’t see any signs of anyone else,” Nicole answered.
Bridge put his arm around Ava’s shoulders. “C’mon, let’s get you out of here.”
Before they left, Nicole put her hand on Bridge’s arm to stop him. “There was a shot before we went in.”
Bridge had almost forgotten about it. “I didn’t see anything.”
“Maybe we should take another look inside. I don’t see Berkampf anywhere, do you?”
Bridge had definitely forgotten about him. He nodded and brought Ava over by the steps to the porch and sat her down. “Just sit tight here for a second, OK? Why don’t you stay with her and I’ll check inside again? Just in case we have a friend wandering around out here.”
Nicole nodded and stood next to Ava, still looking around for signs of trouble. Bridge went inside the cabin and looked around. There was nothing in the living room other than the body of the big guy he took out when he first got there. He checked through the kitchen again. With that being empty, he knew the bathroom and one bedroom were clear, since he and Nicole had checked them out already. But he hadn’t gotten a good look at that second bedroom since Andujar and Ava were already in it. He only saw that there wasn’t another person standing there with a gun.
Bridge went into the bedroom, his eyes immediately drawn to the floor. There was nothing there that looked out of the ordinary. He pushed the door open all the way and walked into the middle of the room. He turned to his right, seeing the bed pushed up against the wall. There appeared to be a big lump on it, with sheets, pillows, and blankets all piled up in the center of it. Bridge walked over to the bed and started pulling some of the bedding off. Almost immediately, as he pulled off a few pillows, a leg draped over the edge of the bed. The pants looked like the same ones that Berkampf had on earlier. Bridge continued taking off all the items, already knowing what he was going to find when it was all off. After a few more seconds, there was nothing left to pull off. Berkampf’s body was lying there in plain sight, with a bullet hole in his chest. Looked like it was fired at point blank range. Bridge checked his pulse just to be sure, but it was of no matter. He was gone.
Bridge took a deep breath, then left the room. While he wasn’t especially sad at Berkampf’s death, he did try to help them after all. Bridge was never happy about someone being killed. He knew that Berkampf had gotten himself into that predicament by throwing in with the people he did to begin with. He walked outside and looked at Nicole, and shook his head.
“What’s that mean? Not here or not living?”
“Dead,” Bridge answered.
“What now?”
“Now we get out of here before someone else finds us.”
15
As Bridge and Nicole travelled back to their hotel, they tried to say as little as possible with Ava in the car. They definitely weren’t going to tell her yet that her father was dead. After what she’d just been through, they didn’t want to spring too much on her at once. They wanted her to catch her breath for a little while first. Plus, they were still on guard, keeping their eyes peeled in case they saw a maroon car in the rearview mirror. While they assumed that they’d seen the last of Andujar and Hatch, they couldn’t be positive of it. But they were fairly certain the
pair were probably on the run.
Once they were back in the hotel room, Nicole had Ava go into the bathroom so she could clean up a little and take a shower. While she was in there, Bridge and Nicole debated their strategy for when she came out.
“We gotta tell her,” Nicole said.
Bridge knew she was right, but always hated being the one to deliver news like this. “I know.”
After twenty minutes, Ava came out of the bathroom.
“Feel better?” Nicole asked.
Ava nodded and forced a smile. “Yeah, a little. Thanks.”
“Ava, why don’t you take a seat?” Bridge said. Ava sat on the edge of the bed. “So, I’m afraid we have some bad news for you.” Ava looked at the two of them, confused, unsure of what she was about to hear. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but your father is dead.”
Ava continued looking at them. It looked like what she’d just heard hadn’t sunk in yet. “What?”
“Your father was killed.”
“What? When? How?”
“Well, we don’t know for sure, but he was carrying money to exchange for you, and we’re assuming the kidnappers took the money and killed him.”
“What? No. No.”
Nicole sat down next to her and put her arm around her. “It’s important to know that this isn’t your fault.”
“They wouldn’t do that.”
“Who wouldn’t?”
“They said nobody was going to get hurt.”
“We’re not sure of the circumstances,” Bridge said. “Somebody must’ve said, did something, something to… make what happened happen.”
Ava put her hands over her face, looking like she was trying to hold back the tears. Eventually, she couldn’t hold them back any longer, and they started flowing. Nicole put her arms around the young woman and hugged her. Bridge went into the kitchen to get a drink. After ten minutes, Ava was starting to get herself back together. Bridge laid out the plans for them.
“If you’re tired, you know, you can lie down, get some rest, we’ll wake you up when it’s time to go.”
“Where are we going?” Ava asked.
“Back home. We’ll start looking up flight information in a few minutes.”
“Oh. OK.”
“Ava, what happened with Berkampf?”
“Who?”
“The dead guy in the room where we found you. He was on the bed.”
“Oh, him. I… I really don’t know. I wasn’t in the room when it happened.”
“Hear any shouting, talking, anything?”
“No, not really. They really didn’t say much in front of me.”
“These past couple of weeks that you’ve been with them, have they done anything to you? Anything… inappropriate?”
Ava shook her head. “No. They never laid a hand on me.”
“Never? Not once?”
“No. Not at all. They treated me fine. I mean, other than keeping me locked up and all.”
“How’d you wind up with them to begin with?” Nicole asked.
“Uh, I, uh, met Derek in Miami, and he seemed like a nice guy. We started hanging out. Then, I dunno, one thing led to another, and… I’m not really sure how it got to this point. I… I’m sorry, everything’s just kind of a blur right now. It’s all… really… I don’t know. I’m sorry.”
“It’s OK. It’s been a trying time for you. Just sit back and relax. It’s over now. We’ll get you home.” Nicole then got up. “I’ll check on those flight times.”
Ava sat back on the bed and started watching TV. With Nicole in the kitchen on her computer, Bridge followed her in there. He sat down next to her and started talking in a low voice so Ava couldn’t hear him.
“Something about this seem strange to you?”
Nicole also kept her voice low. “Like what?”
“Like the fact that a bunch of kidnappers are keeping a pretty girl for weeks and they don’t do a thing to her?”
“She’s probably just too embarrassed to talk about it right now. That’s… not something that’s easy to talk about for most people.”
“Maybe.”
“Looks like we can get a flight in three hours.”
“Sounds good to me,” Bridge said. “The sooner the better.” He got up and went into the other room to tell Ava. He then went over to the window and looked outside, having a partial view of the parking lot. There was nothing that looked interesting or out of the ordinary.
Over the next hour, Bridge and Nicole tried to pull a few more things out of Ava while trying not to be too invasive and give her space. They really didn’t learn much.
“Is there anything you can tell us about the people who took you?” Bridge asked.
“I don’t really know too much. Just that it was Derek, then Diego, Anson, then a couple other guys that I didn’t know who they were.”
“And did they tell you anything about their plans?”
“No, sorry, like I said, they didn’t talk too much in front of me.”
“Where did they have you?”
“Usually in a bedroom. We moved around a couple of times so I don’t really know the area too well or anything.”
They tried prying more out of her, but without having much luck, Bridge and Nicole went into the kitchen again. It was just before they had to leave for the airport.
“Something’s funny about this,” Bridge said.
“Oh, stop.”
“No, I’m serious.”
“Luke, you need to stop overanalyzing everything.”
“Doesn’t strike you as strange that she referred to each of the kidnappers by their first names. Like they were friends.”
“Maybe she didn’t know their last names.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Stop. What are you even suggesting? That she what?”
“I don’t know. Just seems like she’s not as broken up about anything as she should be.”
“She cried over losing her father. What else do you want her to do?”
“Cry longer.”
Nicole scoffed. “Luke. They weren’t even that close.”
Bridge shrugged. “I don’t care how close you are, someone tells me I just lost my remaining parent, I’m gonna be shook up about it for a while. A lot longer than five minutes, that’s for sure.”
“Everybody grieves in their own way.”
“And if someone kidnaps me, I’m sure not gonna call them by their first names and talk about them like we’re friends.”
“She probably wants to put it all behind her. She’s been through an ordeal. Show some compassion for her.”
Bridge still wasn’t sure about everything, but he wasn’t going to keep nagging about it. He just nodded as Nicole went back into the other room. He still had a feeling down deep in his stomach that not everything met the eye here.
Once the time came to leave, they all gathered their belongings, not that Ava had much, and they checked out of the hotel room. Nicole and Ava stood near the front door as Bridge got the car and drove it up. Ava got in the back seat as the others put their gear into the trunk. As they were doing so, Nicole’s eyes glanced elsewhere for a second. Something caught her attention. She stared at it for a few seconds before nudging her partner.
She went back to their bags, pretending she was fixing their placement in the trunk. “Don’t look now, but we’ve got company.”
Bridge also pretended to be doing something with the bags. “What you got?”
“I’ve got a familiar car in sight.”
“Seriously?”
“It’s parked in a spot.”
“Same one?”
“Looks like it to me.”
“What are they doing here?”
“Give you one guess.”
“Well, I know that, but how did they find us?”
“Search me.”
“Why would they still want her?” Bridge asked. “If her father’s gone, they’re not getting any more money. What would they still want with her?
”
“What if they don’t know her father’s gone?”
“What?”
“No, what if they really aren’t the ones who killed him?”
“Seems pretty far-fetched to me.”
“What other reason could there be?”
Bridge glanced at the back of Ava’s head. “Unless her relationship with them isn’t as… casual as it seems.”
“Oh, don’t start that again.”
They finished pretending to fix the bags in the trunk and finally closed it. Bridge got in the driver’s seat while Nicole got in the back seat next to Ava. Bridge turned around to hopefully get a few more answers from their new passenger.
“OK, we need the truth from you and we need it now,” Bridge said.
“With what?” Ava asked.
“We’ve spotted that maroon car that Andujar got in earlier. Why would he be here?”
“How would I know?”
“I can’t think of any reason why he would be here, can you?”
“No.”
“With your father gone, they can’t hope to get any more money, so there’s no other reason they would still need you for anything.”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you sure you didn’t have more of a relationship with one of them than you’re saying?”
“What?! No, of course not! They must’ve followed us here.”
“But why? What do they still need you for?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t know. I told you, they never talked in front of me about anything.”
Bridge stared at her for a few seconds. He still wasn’t sure he was getting the right answers. It still felt like she was holding something back. He just didn’t know what. He looked at Nicole, who gave him a non-committal face. She was more trusting of Ava than her partner was.
“OK, if they’re following us, there’s a good bet that they’ll try something before we get to the airport,” Bridge said.
“Why?” Ava asked.
“Airport is too busy. Too many people. Too many witnesses. If they’re after something, they’ll make their move before that. So get ready.”