by J. D. German
Chapter 27 – Kidnapped
Dave was going over the list of new clients they had taken on and wondering how he was going to stretch his limited staff to cover them all. I guess I’ll need to hire some more investigators. I never thought CSIC would grow this big this fast. It was so much easier to manage back when I started the company with my wife and two buddies from the FBI. His intercom buzzed. He was annoyed at the interruption, but Donna knew better than to disturb him unless it was urgent, so he pick up the phone.
“Dave we apparently have a situation with the de Luca job. I got a call from Antonio saying that his daughter and Lynn hadn’t returned from a shopping trip. His security chief called the body guard who was driving them to Philly and got no answer. The GPS locator on the guard’s phone puts him just off Highway 291 along the river, halfway between here and Wilmington. He’s sending two of his men to that location. What do you want to do from our end?”
“Get a couple of our guys armed and ready to travel. And let me know as soon as de Luca’s men report back.”
“Do you have anyone in mind?”
“Yes. Let’s use Tom Gutierrez and whoever else is available. Lynn and Tom go back a while so he might give us some insight into her thinking.”
“I’ll take care of it, sir”
Lynn’s head was spinning from the impact with the back of the driver’s seat. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t even remember what happened. She felt something wet on her upper lip and reached up to wipe it away, but the wetness kept coming back. Her mind was starting to form thoughts, but they didn’t make sense. Why is my nose running? Do I have a cold? And why do I have a headache? She sat up and looked at the young girl laying across her lap. Where did she come from? Her vision was starting to clear so she swiveled her head to see what was around her. A broken window to her left, a smashed windshield up front, and the driver draped over the steering wheel. Did he fall asleep . . . or is he dead? No, he just moved his hand, so he’s alive. Then he sat up and reached inside his coat . . . Why is he getting his gun out?
In that second it all came back together for Lynn. The driver was taking her and Gabbi on a shopping trip when another car ran them off the road. They collided with a big tree and she was recovering from the impact. She looked at her hand and saw the blood she had wiped from her nose. That put her mind into full alert mode as she quickly assessed the damage to her body. She could move all her limbs and she didn’t feel the dampness of blood on her clothes, so it must just be the nose bleed . . . and the headache. Her next move was to sit the girl upright and check for injuries. She was unconscious but had no apparent injuries. Lynn then turned her attention back to the driver – the chauffer/bodyguard. He aimed this gun out the window and pulled the trigger. A second shot echoed right after the first, but it came from outside and hit the driver in the forehead. As he slumped forward Lynn was reaching for her own gun when her door was jerked open.
A man in a ski mask pointed his gun at her and snarled, “Don’t do it lady. Put both hands slowly in front of you where I can see them. That’s right . . . now get out of the car. When Lynn hesitated, trying to think how to handle this, the man jerked her out of the car and smashed the butt of his gun on her head. Lynn felt the lights go out just before she collapsed to the ground. The man looked up at Gabbi. “You aren’t going to cause me any trouble, are you?”
“N … N … No, sir.”
“Good then slide over here and get out of the car.”
Gabbi did as she was told, being careful not to step on Lynn as she got out. The man quickly pulled her arms behind her and snapped handcuffs on her wrists. Then he bent over and did the same to Lynn’s unconscious body and took her gun. Two other masked men came down from the road and the three of them dragged Lynn and Gabbi up to the road, blindfolded them, then pushed them into the side door of a van. The three men climbed in behind them and the driver sped off down the road.
A few minutes later Lynn regained consciousness and went through her mental checklist again. The nosebleed had stopped, but she couldn’t breathe through it and it hurt big time. Her headache was worse, and she was in handcuffs in the back of a fast moving van. No traffic noise, so they must be on a rural road. She decided to pretend she was still unconscious. Then she heard a woman in the driver’s seat ask one of the men how the capture went. He answered, “I had to kill the driver, but other than that it went down good.”
“You killed the driver!! Why?”
“He shot at me; I didn’t have a choice.”
“Now we’re really in trouble. We have to move up the timetable – get our five million and disappear before too many cops get involved. Your stupidity is going to make our escape a lot tougher, Carlos.”
When Lynn heard the woman’s voice she had a brief thought that it was the woman in black from her dreams and Jack’s cabin, but Zarah wouldn’t wait until Lynn happened to be guarding a rich man’s daughter to grab her; she would kill Lynn on sight. It must be Gabbi they’re after, either for ransom or to pressure her father into doing something. They killed the bodyguard so they are capable of killing Gabbi and me, and anyone else who gets in their way.
De Luca’s men were driving slowly along Highway 291 looking for the limousine. One of them was on the phone with Dave Cramer. “We’re right where the GPS says they should be but I don’t see them pulled off the road. There aren’t any side roads they could take. Where is it.?”
Dave thought for a minute. “The GPS locator only shows us where the phone is. If someone hijacked the car they might have thrown the driver’s phone out the window. Walk along that stretch of road while you dial his number – maybe you’ll hear it ringing.”
They pulled off the road and started walking along the shoulder, listening for the cell phone’s ring. “I doubt it will be loud enough to hear, but let’s double back one more time. . . . Wait! I see some tire skid marks.” At the edge of the road where the skid marks ended they saw that the tall grass was flattened and followed it to an embankment. “There it is. We found it Mr. Cramer. It left the road and hit a tree. We’re going down to it now. . . . “Oh no! Leo is behind the wheel with a bullet in his forehead! And the women are gone.”
“Sit tight. My men are on the way”
Gutierrez and Weaver arrived ten minutes later and joined de Luca’s men at the wreck. They introduced themselves and asked for a rundown on the situation.
“We followed those skid marks and found the car smashed into the tree. The left front fender has damage that looks like they were run off the road by another vehicle. He had some injuries from the collision, but the shot to his head is what killed him. So this definitely wasn’t an accident.”
Tom leaned in the window to look at the back seat. “There’s some blood back here that must have come from Gabbi or Lynn. There’s not a lot of it, and there’s some on the back of the driver’s seat, so I’m guessing it was an injury from the accident. I don’t see any blood on the other side, so apparently one of them wasn’t injured badly. Based on everything we see here it’s obviously a kidnapping. I’ll report back to Dave and see how he wants to handle it.”
Dave answered on the first ring and listened to Tom’s report, which ended with a question. “Should we call the cops on this?”
“Not yet. De Luca wants to keep it quiet until we know more. Have Weaver and one of de Luca’s men stay at the scene; you come on back here and we’ll put a kidnap team together to look at our options. Hopefully de Luca will be contacted about a ransom before then.”
After half an hour or so the van slowed down and made a left turn. Lynn heard a garage door rolling up, then the car pulled forward and stopped. I guess it’s time for me to wake up. Lynn groaned and shook her head as if to clear her thoughts.
“It sounds like sleeping beauty is awake,” the woman driver said. “Did you have a nice nap?”
Gabbi turned and said “Thank God you’re awake. Are you alright?
“I hurt pretty bad, but other than th
at I’m alright. How about you?”
“I’m alright. They didn’t rough me up like they did you.”
“That’s because you are the prize they’re after. Their ticket to a big ransom payday.”
Lynn made sure those up front heard her. Their response might tell her something about their motive for the kidnapping.
“It’s more than the ransom, lady. . . . What’s your name?”
Lynn didn’t see any advantage to lying about that so she told them.
“I thought you were Gabriella’s nanny until I saw the gun Carlos took from you. So you’re what – her personal bodyguard? You don’t look like one.”
“What do you mean more than ransom?” Lynn asked.
“My husband died two years ago. He was 34 years old. When his mother died he went into a mild depression, so his doctor prescribed a new antidepressant made by de Luca Farmaceutico. Two weeks later he put a bullet in his brain.
“I hired a good drug liability lawyer, who found that the company did a study that showed the drug causes suicidal thoughts at a much higher rate than other antidepressants. They also kept the increasing number of reported suicides from the public. So we sued the company for five million dollars. But they brought in their own team of slick lawyers and had the case thrown out for some legal mumbo jumbo reason. I’m going to get that five million back from the de Luca girl’s father as ransom for you and the girl.”
“How do they know they’ll get their daughter back alive if they pay the ransom?”
“They don’t. But they will pay and hope they get her back.”
The woman turned to one of the men. “Carlos, put your mask back on and lock them up in the basement. You can take their blindfolds off there.”
Carlos led them down several steps and into a windowless room. After he snapped a pair of leg irons on each of them he removed their hand cuffs. Lynn tried to take a step toward him, but the short chain of the leg irons stopped her. There was no way she could try any of her hand-to-hand combat moves on the guy with these on.
“You two enjoy yourselves; you could be here awhile. There’s a bathroom through that door and the refrigerator has food and water for a week.” He pointed to the heavy steel door. That’s the only way out of here, and it has a heavy padlock on the outside, so there’s no use trying to escape.” With that, he strode out the door and slammed it behind him. Lynn heard the padlock snap shut and then the sound of his boots climbing the wooden stairs.
Gabbi immediately sat down and started crying. “They are going to get the ransom, then kill us, aren’t they.”
Lynn sat down and put her arm round Gabbi. “I won’t let that happen. I’ll find some way to get us out of here.”
“You heard what he said. There is no way out of here.”
Lynn stood up and walked the perimeter of the room, studying the door, the walls, and the ceiling for weaknesses. The walls were cement block, so there was nothing she could do there. But the ceiling was wood. If I could get up there, like climb up on the refrigerator, maybe I can pry some boards loose. But not with these leg irons. I need to solve that problem first. As she continued her circuit of the room she saw a glint up in one corner of the ceiling, but glanced away immediately – it was a video camera and she didn’t want them to know she had seen it. Maybe she could use it to her benefit later.
Lynn was sitting next to Gabbi when she felt three tingling shocks in the middle of her back. What the . . . Dave’s secret cell phone! I forgot about it. He just signaled me to pick up, but if I take it out and answer, they’ll see me on their video monitor. She thought for a minute, then reached around to scratch her back. As she slid the phone out of the bra strap she let the it slide to the floor between her back and the wall.
She said loudly, “Damn bra strap makes me itch.” just in case there was a hidden microphone built in to the video camera. Okay, I have the phone behind me, and I can contact Dave if I remember which button to press. She called up a detailed image of the device from her memory and read the labels on the buttons. There, that’s the one. She reached around to scratch again and paused long enough to make the connection. She heard someone’s voice from the phone but she cut them off with a loud comment. “Gabbi, did you know they have a camera watching us from up in that corner? And they’re probably listening to us, too.”
“Why would they do that?”
“To make sure we’re not up to something, I guess.”
“That’s creepy. I don’t want those men watching me.”
Dave understood Lynn’s warning and realized it was going to be a one way conversation, but at least he knew they both were alright. He immediately called de Luca. “Antonio, I’ve made contact with Lynn. They’re both alive and talking.”
“I know. I just got an email demanding five million dollars to get them back. It had a link to a live video camera – I can see them both now.”
“Forward me a copy of the email. Does it say how long you have to get the money together?”
“Until tomorrow morning. They say they will start cutting off fingers after that – with us watching!”
“If they will do that, then they would have no problem killing them after they get the ransom. Can you get the money together by that time?”
“Yes, I already have my bank working on it. But the kidnappers haven’t said where to take the money. . . . There, I just forwarded the email to you.”
“Yep. Here it is.” Dave opened the email and clicked on the video link. “Lynn has some blood on her face, but it’s no longer bleeding.” Then he heard Lynn on the phone again.
“I wish I knew where we were, but with the blindfolds I couldn’t see how they got us here.”
Dave was so excited at hearing from Lynn he hadn’t had time to check the GPS location from her phone. He turned to Donna. “Get the tech boys to ping her phone for the GPS location. Then get me some maps and photos from Google Earth.”
As he waited he watched the live video. Lynn and Gabbi talked quietly to each other until the door opened a man in a ski mask came in. He pulled out a knife, walked over to Lynn, and ordered her to stand up. When she didn’t respond immediately he grabbed her by the hair and jerked her up next to him. Then he faced the video camera and held the knife to her throat. As Dave and de Luca watched he drew it quickly across her throat – then the video feed went black.
“Oh my God! He killed her! Dave shouted into the phone “Lynn! Lynn! Talk to me.”
Instead of Lynn’s voice he heard a man speak. “What the hell? That bitch had a phone! How do I turn it off? It’s not an ordinary cell phone. . . .”
Dave watched as the man threw the phone on the floor and ground it up with his boot heel. “De Luca, did you see that? They slit Lynn’s throat! The killer picked up her phone, then destroyed it. That shut down the GPS. We have the current GPS reading, but if they move the women we can’t track them. We need to get to that place before they leave!”
Just then Donna brought in the printouts from Google, along with a large map of eastern Pennsylvania. Dave continued talking to de Luca on the phone “It looks like they were taken from the wreck north along Highway 322 to a location east of West Chester. The Google Earth photo shows that it’s a house outside of town – the address is 4321 East Strassburg Road. I can have my people there in 15 minutes. We’re closer so my men will get there first, but send everyone you have.”
“We’re on our way. Dave.”
Donna handed Dave his coat. “I have two cars and six men ready to go, sir. They’re waiting for you. Should I call West Chester police chief?”
“No, this is no job for small town amateurs. We’ll call them in later.” Dave grabbed his coat and headed for the elevator. As the doors opened he shouted back to Donna, “Have an ambulance from West Chester standing by for our call.”
As the CSIC cars approached the address on Strassburg Road Dave told the Tom Gutierrez, “Pull off the road into that clear spot. We’ll approach the house through the woods.
” Then he called the other car on his walkie talkie. “Drive past the house to get a visual, then park and approach it from the rear – we’ll go in the front door. Tom, did you bring the 12 gauge?”
“It’s in the trunk, along with the other weapons – assault rifles, tear gas, tasers, and plenty of spare ammo clips in case this thing turns into a battle.”
“There won’t be a battle. This is a surgical strike – we go in, kill anyone who gets in our way, find the girls, and get out quick. De Luca doesn’t want to be connected with this and neither do I. After we’re on the way back to the office I’ll have Donna arrange for an anonymous call to the police.”
Dave keyed his microphone: “Unit one here. Is everybody in position?” When he got an affirmative from the rear-entry team he gave the order. “Move, move, move!”
Tom led the charge against the front door with a shotgun blast that blew out the lock. The rest of the team followed him through the door and fanned out quickly into the other parts of the house. Dave and Tom ran to the kitchen and down to the basement. Tom was ready to blow the lock off the metal door until he noticed it was open slightly. He pushed the door open and held it as Dave charged into the room. “Damn it! They’re gone. Both of them!”
“That could be good news, Dave. If Lynn was dead they aren’t likely to drag her with them. Is there any blood?”
“Yeah . . . here on the floor. But that’s old blood so it’s probably from Lynn’s earlier injuries. . . . Wait a minute! Here’s some fresh blood, where she was standing when the guy held a knife to her.”
“There’s not a lot of it. Not nearly enough for a deeply slit throat. Hell, maybe Lynn got some licks in and it’s his blood."
They went back upstairs, hoping the others found something, but the house and the garage were empty. Dave sat down and put his head in his hands. “Idiot, idiot, idiot! I knew I shouldn’t have sent Lynn out on this job. Now she might be dead and it’s all my fault.”
“Don’t beat yourself up.” Tom said. “She was the best person for the job and you had no way of knowing it would turn out this way.”
“But now we’ve got nothing. No GPS and no idea which way they went. I’ll call de Luca and have him pull his men back. We’ll meet him and his security chief back at CSIC to discuss our options . . . options? We have no options. Our only hope is that the kidnappers will call back and we can take them out at the money drop.”