by Dale Mayer
She swung her legs around again and forced herself to sit up, wincing at the pain in her ribs. But he was right. It would be much easier on her body if she sat in the bathtub. The shower would be faster and maybe less vulnerable to stand there. But the bath would feel much better.
When he returned a moment later, he nodded and said, “They’re almost done. Give them five.”
She smiled. “In that case, I’ll lie here and rest until they’re gone. Come back and tell me when they are, please.”
“Will do,” he said cheerfully, and he walked back out again, closing the door behind him again. She eased back down on the bed and groaned. She was just tired enough now that she was here and home that maybe she would sleep. If she went into a hot, soaking bath, she would probably be so tired from the heat and the comfort that, when she came out, she’d probably nap again. And maybe that was okay too. She closed her eyes and rested. But it wasn’t even ten minutes later when he rapped on the door and stepped inside.
“Okay, they’re gone.”
She smiled. “So, it’s just the three of us here?”
“Two of us,” he said. “Nico has gone out to do some more reconnaissance work.”
“There’s nothing to be done,” she said, “until somebody spots that asshole.”
“Not true,” he said. “This guy’s got money. He’s rented or bought several apartments, and we’re tracking down other names to see if he might have other money and other apartments elsewhere.”
“I guess you have to give an ID to buy or rent a place, don’t you?”
He nodded. “And IDs aren’t terribly cheap. He may have one or two, or possibly three or four, but that doesn’t mean he has more than that.”
“Plus you have to keep track of them and carry all that information with you,” she said. “So I would say two or three would make sense. But didn’t you say he was also wanted in Europe? What IDs did he use there?”
“They have his legal name and four aliases all on file. Which would be triggered here if he used any of them. He’s also known to have a maritime ship’s wheel tattoo.”
“Good. That’s the guy that kidnapped me. And it would only be triggered if it was something that would alert the authorities,” she said. “To rent an apartment, not so much. Especially if he was paying cash. He wouldn’t need much in a way of a name at all.”
“Right. However, now is a good time for a bath. Do you want me to run the water for you?”
“You can start it,” she said as she slowly sat up again. “I almost fell asleep on the bed.”
He looked back at her as he stepped into the bathroom. “Do you want a nap first?”
“No,” she said. “I figured, when I come back out, I’d have a nap then. Warm baths tend to make me sleepy.”
“And, if you can soak some of those sore muscles, you might feel better faster,” he said. “Do you have any bath salts?”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “I’ll be fine without.” She got up and hobbled her way to the bathroom, then pointed out a bottle of bubble bath and asked, “Can you add some of that please?”
And he poured in a good measure, and the two of them watched as the bubbles popped up immediately.
She sighed. “You know something? This was a really good idea.”
“Good,” he said. “Now, are you okay to get undressed and stripped down by yourself?”
She nodded. “Yes, I can do that. I got dressed on my own this morning.”
“Good,” he said. “It did cross my mind if you got Nico to help you.”
She chuckled. “Not that it would bother you or anything.”
“Well, it is one of the reasons why I was thinking maybe I should have been there. I did try to be there. But I’m glad you got dressed on your own.”
She smiled at him. “Not to worry,” she said. “I definitely don’t have the same reaction to him as I do to you.”
“Good,” he said with a self-satisfied smile. “I’m glad to hear that.”
“Well, that’s nice,” she said. “It’s nice to know I made an impression anyway, even if it isn’t the kind I wanted.”
“You made the only kind that counts,” he said quietly as he backed out of the small bathroom, his chest brushing ever-so-lightly against hers. “The kind that hit me in the heart.” His words were meltingly soft and heartwarmingly honest.
“I’m glad. I was afraid that whatever was going on between us was just on my side.”
“And I was afraid,” he said, reaching up and tapping her lightly on the nose, “that whatever was going on was because you were grateful and needed to feel safe.”
“I’ve been worried about that too,” she said. “Except for the fact that, every time I get an option, I turned to you and nobody else.”
“Could be the same thing,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
She smiled, turned away and said, “You’ll see. I don’t know why, and I don’t know how. I’m not sure that we’ll even do anything about it, but definitely something is between us.”
“Agreed,” he said. “Have a bath. I’ll go set up and do some work.” As he went to step out and close the door, he said, “Don’t fall asleep, please.”
“In the bath, you mean?”
He nodded.
“Why not?” she asked, puzzled. “There’s not really any reason not to, is there?”
“Well, I’ll have to check on you a couple times, and I really don’t want to interrupt you if you’re sleeping, but I wouldn’t want you to sleep in here either. Because you can’t answer me when I call out to you.”
“Well, I’ll do my best not to fall asleep,” she said. “How’s that?”
“Good enough,” he said. “And if you need help getting out because of that ankle, let me know.”
“That would be dangerous,” she muttered under her breath.
But he heard her and chuckled. “But I live a dangerous life, remember?”
He headed back out to the living room and sat down with his laptop. All the lights were off, and the curtains were closed, as if to make it seem like nobody was home. He didn’t know if their kidnapper Ambrose/Stahl would put in a listening device himself or if he figured now that they had Ross picked up that the local cops would check for things like that. Still, Miles wanted to be ready.
This guy was very good at what he did, but this was a new game for him now that the police had his name and several aliases, three of his apartments and Ross. So whether Ambrose liked the game or was irritated by it or was unnerved by the changes, Miles didn’t know. He hoped for the latter because unnerved would mean that Ambrose could make mistakes. And this guy needed to make a mistake because, unfortunately so far, nobody had found out enough about him.
With his laptop, Miles worked on all the information they had so far. Scotland Yard and MI6 and Interpol and also his Mavericks team had searches going on for every name they’d had on Ambrose to date. Miles set up a new search for leaseholds and vehicles and another for phone companies and internet service.
Ambrose had to have cell phones of some kind. It’s possible he used burner phones and threw them away every time, but it’s also possible that one of his aliases had a dedicated phone. With all of that running in the background, he got up and poured himself the first cup of coffee out of the pot. Then, realizing she hadn’t even gotten one, he wondered if he should take her one. But she was in the bath. Knowing it was a little more dangerous, but still the right thing to do, he walked into the bedroom and called out through the bathroom door. “You didn’t get coffee,” he said.
“Damn,” she muttered. “I didn’t, did I?”
“Are you decently covered in bubbles?” he asked. “I’ll go pour you a cup.”
“Actually,” she said, “I am.”
“Okay, back in a minute.” He went to the kitchen and poured her a cup. Then he frowned as he hadn’t asked if she took anything in it, but he cast his mind back to the hospital and realized she hadn’t complained either way. With t
he cup in his hand, he walked back to the bathroom and gently undid the door so that he didn’t spill anything. Then he stepped in, keeping his eyes on the cup.
He set the cup on the side of the bathtub, and she whispered, “Won’t you even look at me?”
He shook his head. “May be better if I didn’t,” he said, taking several steps backward. And then he grinned and said, “But, hey, who could resist?” And he took one long look at the absolutely beautiful woman, her feet tucked atop the tub at the end, ankles crossed, with her bruised one on top. And he could see brightly painted toenails that he had somehow missed up till now. There were little chipped signs of her rough few days, and the rest of her was covered in light and fluffy bubbles right up to her chin. He grinned. “Gorgeous. But, yeah, you didn’t need me to tell you that.”
“No, but it’s nice to hear anyway,” she said. “And, while you’re here, can you pass me the shampoo?” And she pointed to the top of the counter.
He reached for the bottle she requested and brought it over, then set it down on the side and said, “Call out if you need me. And watch out for that shampoo with your stitches.”
Then he disappeared. Back in the bedroom, he grinned like a fool. It was foolish to get involved with anybody in the case like this, but it was pretty damn hard not to, considering who she was and who he was. He wasn’t known for playing around and certainly not when on a mission. But everything seemed different this time around, or maybe it was just because he wanted it to be different because he wanted to have a reason to spend time with her.
When his phone rang, it was Nico.
“Is she doing okay now?
“She’s soaking in a bath,” he said, his tone neutral. “She wanted to get the feel of that man off her.”
“But she wasn’t raped?” Nico asked.
“Not as far as I know,” Miles said.
“Good,” Nico said. “After everything she’s been through, that’s almost a given. But, if he was saving her for somebody else, then that’s understandable.”
“Yes. Have you gotten anywhere?”
“No, I’ve been flashing his face and the sketch all over the car rental companies, leasing companies, anything to do with telecommunications. Even the electronics companies. But so far, nobody’s seen anything. Very convenient, right?”
“I know,” Miles said. “The trouble is, Ambrose could have used a proxy to check out these rentals, before he showed up to do the actual paperwork. Plus a ton of people live here, just in these first couple blocks. I wonder if we can access more people via email.”
“Well, if you want to start contacting some of the bigger cell phone providers or leasing agents,” he said, “we could potentially send them the sketch or the Interpol photo. Maybe both and see if anybody recognizes him.”
“I’ll do that now,” he said. “When you come back, do you want to bring some food?”
“Will do,” Nico said, and he hung up.
Miles grabbed his phone and contacted several of the bigger stores around town that had branches all over the city and farther out. Once he got through to the managers and explained who he was and what he was doing, he got permission to email the photos and asked them to speak to their employees. He knew it was fishing with a wide net and potentially nothing would be gained, but they had to do something.
Otherwise this guy was living as a ghost completely off the grid. The car rental places were a good place to check and so were gas stations. But, if he himself wasn’t driving, which was quite possible after seeing him at Ross’s capture, then Ross was still their best lead.
At that, he froze and quickly called Nico back. “Are you coming home now?”
“I’ll be there in about ten. I just stopped and picked up food. Why?”
“I want to see Ross’s apartment. I can’t believe we didn’t even think of that.”
“Didn’t the cops?”
“I don’t think so. We had a mess with the other forensics at the third apartment, with all its booby traps.”
“I’ll be there soon. Hang on,” Nico said.
Miles got up and refilled his coffee, then realized this pot was pretty much gone so tossed back the last little bit of it and shut off the coffeemaker. Nico came in a few minutes later. Miles walked back into the bedroom and said, “Hey, Nico just came with food. Do you want anything?”
“What, will you deliver food to the bathtub too?” she said with a laugh.
“I could if you want me to.” He turned to see Nico with his head poked into the bedroom and watching as Miles talked through the bathroom door. “But, if you think you’ll be out soon, we’ll wait for you.”
“I’m done in here,” she said. “I just rinsed off.”
“Good,” he said. “Then we’ll set it up and wait for you.”
“Give me ten.”
He headed back to the kitchen, closing the master bedroom door as he went.
“Did I just hear your sweetie?” Nico asked with a straight face.
Miles shrugged. He wouldn’t get into a discussion about Vanessa and him if he could avoid it. The trouble was, Nico knew him from the old days and avoiding talk about Vanessa would be almost impossible.
“I guess it’s really different now, isn’t it?” Nico asked in a contemplative voice, surprising Miles.
“What’s different?”
“How different the missions are, and, although relationships happen, you were always one to hold back.”
“I know,” he said. “I’ve been contemplating that now too.”
“Nothing is stopping you,” he said. “She’s not involved. She’s been a victim. That’s the only thing though. Just make sure there’s no odd imbalance of emotions here.”
“I’ve already thought of that,” he said. He smiled at his friend, recognizing the concern in his voice. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it.”
“You might be fine,” Nico said, “but I’ll worry no matter what.” He grinned. “That’s what friends are for.”
“Good enough,” Miles said in a mild tone. “But you’ve been warned.”
Nico chuckled. They quickly brought out the food that he had picked up, which appeared to be a selection of beef pies and fries and just more carbs.
“You know she’s a model and probably won’t eat most of this, right?”
“Didn’t you say she ate two beef pies yesterday at the hospital?”
“I did,” Miles nodded, understanding where Nico got that concept from. “But, at the same time, I’m pretty sure she’s more into greens.”
“Well, I have a Greek salad in the other bag,” he said. “And a big one because I really wanted a salad too.”
All of the food was now out on the table, and the two men sat down and discussed the search results to date.
“That’s the problem,” Nico said when Miles asked him. “So far, everything’s turning up blank.”
“And facial recognition hasn’t come back yet either,” Miles said. “But I would have presumed that, if they’d found something, they’d get a hold of us.”
Just then his phone rang. He pulled it out to see one of the big electronics companies. “Hello. Miles here.”
“One of our staff thinks she may have seen this man,” said the manager on the other end.
“Do we know when?”
“She thought it was two days ago. I’m bringing up the video feed at the store,” he said.
“Perfect,” Miles said. “If you can capture him on the feed, that would be huge. At least we could track his movements in your store at a specific time.”
“Ah, there he is,” the man said. “I presume you’ll need to collect this?”
“Yes. I’ll send somebody around for it. Do you have a list of what he’s buying?”
“Several phones,” he said. “And it looks like a set of rabbit ears for internet use while driving in a vehicle. Or at least that’s how most of the people I know use them.”
“Ah,” Miles said. “Now that would make sense
. Okay. We’ll send somebody from the local police department around to collect that if you could have it ready, please.”
“No problem,” he said and hung up.
Miles sat back and explained to Nico what the guy had found.
Nico laughed. “That’s old school, but it works if people haven’t secured their networks.”
“But a lot of networks are wide open,” Miles said, “so he could sit in his vehicle and have internet access from anybody close by. He doesn’t need his own provider.”
“True, but I wonder how long before that gets to be enough.”
“But we’re back to having a home base somewhere.”
“Did we ever check the Interpol information for girlfriends or a girlfriend’s siblings?”
“No, that’s an interesting idea,” Miles said as he got up. He snagged his laptop and brought up the information. He quickly went through it. “There was a girlfriend, but that was a lot of years ago.”
“How many years?”
He frowned and nodded. “Seventeen.”
“Interesting.” Nico got up and came around to look at the name. “Let’s add that name to all the searches. It’s genderless enough that it could be male or female.”
But, as soon as he typed it in, up came an obituary. “She’s dead,” he said. He searched further and found a police file. “It’s so weird when we have access to all the databases, and the Mavericks search function just seems to run through them all.”
“But I like it,” Nico said. “At least we’re getting information firsthand instead of waiting and waiting.”
“Like we are for the facial recognition from the Realtors?”
“That’s more or less because we can’t do it all ourselves. Oh, but I did find the guy’s name on that lease that got rejected on the apartment where Ambrose held Vanessa.”
“And?” Miles prodded.
“John Lennon.”
Miles shook his head. “Not surprising. Confirmed my earlier theory.”
Nico found a photo for the girlfriend, looked at the woman’s face and said, “Interesting. Look at this.”