by Dale Mayer
He handed it to Miles, who immediately connected the phone to the laptop via a cable and said, “I’ll run a diagnostic and strip it. I’ll move your contact list into my laptop, but everything else goes. I hope you’re okay with that?”
He looked over at her, and she nodded. “I thought the phone itself was gone, so whatever. As long as I get a phone, I can put everybody back in my contacts again.”
“Good,” he said, and he transferred everything off the phone. He quickly ran the four numbers through a check and said, “Two of the unknown calls are from your dentist. One is from a magazine company, and the other appears to be from your insurance company.”
She grinned and said, “And I really don’t want to talk to any of those people.”
“Give me a bit longer, and I’ll scan this phone for bugs and, if there are none, I’ll reload your contacts, and you can have your phone back.”
“Oh, perfect,” she cried out in relief.
“Are you planning on staying here?” Nico asked Miles, while the sisters talked among themselves.
Miles shot a sideways glance toward Vanessa and nodded, then filled in Nico about the rejected lease agreements as a way for Ambrose to find an empty rental for free and to not be on the grid. “The Mavericks team is on that, but it’s beyond a long shot and covers all seventeen women’s locales, and his real name probably wasn’t used. So it’s just a matter if someone remembers his face from the last couple decades. Realtors probably see new faces all day long. It’s a long shot with horrible odds. A really massive long shot.”
“Yeah,” Nico agreed, “but what a great lead.” He slapped Miles on the shoulder.
“We have to work any other leads as we find them and hope something pans out and fast. Plus there is an active threat against her by her captor,” he said cautiously. “I would like to go to her apartment to take a look and just to see what has been going on.”
“I know,” Nico said. “I’ve been there, and I’ve looked at both places, but there’s nothing quite like getting that info firsthand yourself.”
He stood and looked at Vanessa, then said, “I’ll switch places with Nico right now.”
Instantly fear whispered across her face.
Miles reached for her hand, and she eagerly reached back. “I know you’re worried,” he said gently. “But Nico works with me. He’ll stand guard here with you, and the guard outside is still there also.”
“And I’ll stay for a while too,” Ruby said. Both women turned to look at Miles.
Vanessa asked, “Where are you going?”
“I’ll be in your home, and I’ll go to the site where you were imprisoned. I need to see both places, get a good visual in my mind about what options the kidnapper was interested in and why that place was chosen and where he could have gone from there.”
She hesitated.
“Yes, I can look on the satellite,” he said. “And I have many times. And images are a large part of the equation, but it’s not the same as getting that same feel from being in the physical location.”
Her shoulders slumped, and she nodded. “No, you’re right,” she said. “And one day, a little bit down the road, I wouldn’t mind going back through it myself. Just so I can place it in the right part of my memory, so that I have some closure there.”
“When you’re back on your feet, we can do that,” he said.
She glanced at him, and her lips firmed up. “Any chance I can go home and rest there?”
“Not tonight,” he said. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow. But only if you have protection.”
“Because you really don’t think he knows where I live, right?”
“Are you having any doubts about that?” he asked in surprise.
She thought about it and then shook her head. “No, I still don’t remember anything after going down the steps and around the corner. But, if where he held me is literally around the corner, then that makes sense that he knows exactly where I live.” She grabbed her sister’s hand at that. “And I don’t want you going home tonight.”
“I wasn’t planning on it,” Ruby said. “Well, that’s a lie. I was planning on it. But now I’m not.”
“And, by the way, you guys have a cousin who you see on occasion, right?”
The two women looked at each other and frowned. “Well, we have a couple cousins, but only one lives around here,” Vanessa offered. “Yet we don’t see him regularly. Why?”
Miles glanced at Nico. Both of them immediately brought up images on their phones and held them out. “He’s been standing watch outside your apartment.”
Vanessa looked at it, and her eyebrows shot up. “Well, that’s definitely Tristan. I don’t remember seeing him anytime recently. When was that taken?”
“We’ve tracked him twice to your place over the last year,” Miles said. “So maybe they were just impromptu visits, and you were never home?”
“I saw him once,” Ruby said.
“You didn’t tell me,” Vanessa said, rounding on her sister.
“There was no need. I saw him outside and talked to him for a few minutes, then asked if he wanted to come in. He shrugged and said, Nah, he just found himself in the area, and realized that we lived here. But you weren’t home, and he didn’t seem to want to come in if it was just me.”
“I wonder what he wanted?” she asked thoughtfully.
“The same as everybody else likely,” Ruby said with a smile. “Either money or connections.”
“Meaning?” Nico asked.
“It’s because of the business I’m in,” Vanessa said. “Often people are hoping I’ll introduce them to somebody in the business, or they all think that I’m making big money and can share my bounty. But, of course, it’s a case of I’ll take the money and run thing.”
“Has your cousin ever asked you about that before?”
She nodded. “Once. He mentioned it in an email.”
“So that falls in line with maybe what he was doing at your place?”
“It’s possible.”
Miles glanced at Nico and said, “I’ll look him up and talk to him firsthand.”
“Don’t scare him though,” Vanessa said.
“Do I look like I scare everybody?” Miles asked.
She nodded. “I think, if you wanted to, you’d be very good at scaring anybody.”
He chuckled at that. “That sounds like a gift that I could really utilize.”
“No need to scare anybody,” she snapped. Some of her feistiness was returning.
He grinned at her. “Hold that thought and definitely keep that temper. It’ll help you to avoid sliding into a victim mentality.”
Almost immediately her shoulders slumped. “Right. It’s hard to forget that this happened.”
“When you’re terrified, and you’re held prisoner, there’s not a whole lot of ways to stay strong. Other than your mind-set. Stay strong.” On that note, he slipped from the room and spoke with the guard for a few minutes, telling him where he was going and who was left inside and that nobody else was to join them. Then Miles finished with, “And I mean nobody.”
He left the guard his phone number just in case of trouble. Then he exited the hospital and headed back to the apartments. First, he went into the apartment where she’d been imprisoned. He’d already been cleared to get in, and still police and forensics were around.
He carefully walked through, avoiding conversing with anybody, taking his own photos, studying the layout and worrying about some of it because the apartment was a little too clean—as if somebody had already had a chance to clean it or as if they didn’t actually live here. What if another apartment was here where they lived but kept her in a separate one? He really liked the idea.
He pulled out his phone and quickly texted Ryker. I need the occupants in this building where Vanessa was held. I’m looking for a second apartment that Ambrose may have used. Forensics says fingerprints were here on the walls, the little bit of furniture left behind, the bed frame, but
nothing else was really left here. It was clean-clean. In other words, it’s too clean, and Ambrose didn’t live here.
Ryker’s response was the standard On it, and then Miles pocketed his phone and went to the four neighboring apartments on this floor, knocking on doors. Three people answered. He spoke to them about the situation and quickly discarded all these occupants.
One was an older couple, avidly watching the police activity going on. Another was a single older man, smoking recreational drugs in a heavy way, the smoke filtering outside from under his door. And the third one was a middle-aged woman, who appeared to be more of a keep to yourself and don’t talk to strangers type person. She couldn’t help at all. She said she hadn’t heard any noises coming out of any of the apartments.
Then, when nobody was watching, Miles quickly pulled out his pick and opened the door to the silent apartment across the hall from where Vanessa had been held.
As soon as he stepped in, he knew he’d been right. He closed the door silently and took photos and texted Ryker and Nico about where he was, feeling good about his choice. Ryker immediately sent a warning to be careful. And, of course, that was the trick. Just because the other apartment was empty didn’t mean this one was. Miles moved through it quietly, searching to see if he was alone. He had a weapon in his side holster that he quickly unhooked and held out in front of him as he did a full sweep.
The place was empty.
He pulled out a pair of gloves that he had been offered from the forensic people and quickly put them on. If he had some proof that Ambrose may have been here, then he would get the cops over here too. But he had to have proof in order to justify a warrant. Still, this was an illegal search. Good thing he wasn’t held to those standards.
However, by the time he got to the bedroom, he had more than enough proof. Pictures of Vanessa were all over the table in the sitting area here. In various positions too: tied up while lying on the bed on her back, lying on the bed on her side. Pictures were taken when she wasn’t even aware of it. As he shifted them gently around on the table, he found more photos of her outside her apartment, walking the street. He quickly stepped from the apartment and crossed the hallway, then called Ryker.
“Yes,” he said. “I’ve just sent you and Nico a bunch of photos. We need a warrant to get into this second apartment, and we need it now.”
“Hold on,” Ryker said. “Do you want to do a full sweep on the place first?”
“Yes, but the forensic team is here across the hall. I just don’t want them to leave.”
“I’ll get somebody to call you.”
“Fine. I’m going back in then.” He headed back in and did as careful of a sweep as he could, checking drawers and cupboards and looking for anything to help confirm this asshole’s identity and hopefully his current location. He took pictures every step of the way. With the bed’s rumpled sheets and blankets, it was obvious somebody was currently living here. Clothing was in the closet and in the drawers, and it wasn’t hard to immediately picture somebody around five foot ten or eleven inches with a size thirty-four waist and a large shirt collar.
With that physical image in mind, Miles worked his way around the bedroom, searching the night tables. Anything to give him that extra hint. When his phone rang, he quickly answered it to find somebody official on the other end, saying the warrant was coming through and to stay out of the apartment.
“Will do,” he said cheerfully. He put away his phone, left the bedroom and took one last look through the living room, then stepped out into the hallway again. While waiting for the forensics crew to arrive, he went through the photos that he’d taken.
Then he texted Nico. The asshole’s been using the apartment across from where he held her. That’s why forensics wasn’t finding anything in the first apartment. There’s nothing to find. He only went into the room where she was kept and then left.
Nico called him just a few moments later. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah, then I found the only other apartment that was vacant in the building was just across the hallway, so … I checked it out.”
“Shit,” Nico said. “I didn’t even think of that.”
“No, because everybody was so focused on what we’d found that they didn’t think about what we didn’t find. And what we didn’t find was any trace of Ambrose. If there’s no trace of him, he wasn’t there. Or at least barely was there.”
“Makes sense,” Nico said. “I’ll pull a history on the ownership of that second apartment.”
“Yeah. And find out what’s the holdup on the name on that rejected lease from three years ago on the apartment where Ambrose held Vanessa. They’re a damn corporation. They’ve got to have organized records on this shit.”
“I’m on that too.”
“I’m waiting for the warrant to come, and then forensics hopefully will go from that apartment to this one.”
“And somebody has been living there?”
“Yeah. You’ll see when the photos come through. Half a dozen pictures are of Vanessa tied up on the bed in the other apartment across the hall and some of her walking outside her own apartment in the street.”
“Bastard,” Nico said.
“Exactly,” he said. “What we don’t know is who owns this apartment. If you can run that down right now, that would be perfect. And then get me a visual on the owner and see where this little bugger is.”
“Well, I have a name, but I’m not sure it’ll be of any value,” Nico said with a hard sigh. “John Smith.”
“Wow. That’s so original,” Miles said. “But please tell me we have visuals on him?”
“I’m looking. It’s a rental, so he should have provided some picture ID.” Then, after a while, he said, “Got it. I’m sending it now.”
“Is it our guy?”
“It’s close enough that it could be,” Nico said. “We already know this guy’s got a lot of disguises.”
And, sure enough, as the phone call ended, and the photo arrived, Miles could see that it was the same guy with a beard and sunglasses but no hat. “Show it to Vanessa,” he said as soon as he called back again. “See if she recognizes him.”
“I already did,” Nico said, “and that’s an affirmative.”
“Okay, so we’ve got where the guy’s been staying. At least temporarily, and we have yet another version of a facial recognition on him. Can you contact Ryker via the chat window and get him to circulate that third image around, to the local authorities but also Interpol, MI5, MI6, whatever. And don’t forget the Realtors. The alias will be of absolutely no help.”
“Got it. Typing up something now. If we could at least get a fingerprint from one of Ambrose’s two apartments, then we might get some confirming ID.”
Just then a series of officers ran up the stairs with somebody in a suit in the front. “Gotta go,” he said to Nico. He looked at them with interest. The gentleman in the suit stopped and looked at him. “Are you the one who reported this?”
He crossed his arms across his chest and said, “Reported what?”
The man frowned.
Miles just raised an eyebrow.
“Are you the special operative who reported this?”
“Yes. Did you get a warrant?”
He nodded. “Yes. Anybody in there?”
He shook his head. “But I don’t want everybody going in there and corrupting the scene. We need forensics over here now.”
“They’re coming,” he said, “but I want to go in and take a look first.”
“That’s fine, but you’re not taking everybody in here.”
“They do know how to do their jobs,” he snapped.
“Good,” Miles said. “Then they won’t even ask to go in, will they?” He kept his voice cheerful and light but his gaze was hard as stone. “We can’t take any chances with this guy.”
The man nodded stiffly and stepped around him, then turned the doorknob and shot him a look.
Miles shrugged and said, “Amazing. It was
unlocked.”
But the new arrival shook his head and stepped in. Immediately Miles followed. The detective looked at him and frowned.
“You didn’t identify yourself, and I didn’t see the warrant,” Miles said coolly. “For all I know, you’re an associate of this kidnapper.”
Instantly he brought out his ID and held it up, but, instead of just flashing it at him, Miles snatched it from his hand and studied it, then took a photo of it and handed it back.
“Are you always this careful?”
“Always,” Miles said.
Chapter 8
“He was renting two apartments?” Vanessa asked.
“It looks like it,” Nico said. “One to keep you in and one that he lived in across the hall.”
“Well, maybe if he’s been living there, they can find something,” she said. “This is good news, right?”
“It’s very good news,” he said. “When we consider all that could have been missed because of this, it’s very good news, indeed.”
“The kidnapper’s good at what he does, isn’t he?” She searched Nico’s devilishly attractive smiling face. There was something about Nico that was just as attractive as Miles, and yet she thought Miles was so much more handsome. Miles had a soothing natural grace and was unaware of his good looks. She wanted to distrust it, but she instinctively trusted him. Maybe because he’d been here with her and for her ever since her rescue.
She didn’t even understand how she had managed her escape. And she really couldn’t call it a rescue; it was an escape. She got herself out of that mess. What she had to do now was make sure she stayed out of it. “I didn’t even see the apartment I was in,” she muttered. “I was so focused on getting out that window.”
“And that’s a good thing you did,” Nico said gently. His phone buzzed then. He looked down and said, “It’s Miles.” He lifted it to his ear and answered it while she watched. She only heard half the conversation, but, even then, he turned, and he walked farther away and lowered his voice.
She waited, chewing on her bottom lip and wondering what was going on. Her sister had taken off to get them fancy coffees, thinking that it might be just the pick-me-up that Vanessa needed. She had to admit she was a pretty big fan of lattes and cappuccinos and various other coffee drinks. It was her one indulgence. Being a model, she couldn’t do very much in the way of treats for herself, but coffee was one that she did allow. She was already starting to flag again energy-wise.