by K Elliott
Gerald said, “He said something about six-thirty in the morning.”
“What you want me to do, cal the police?”
“No. This house can’t stand cops running through it. Get Darrius on the phone and tell him to bring some keys for handcuffs.”
Echo kept watching her. He saw her glancing at him occasionally, but she was more focused on what her brother was talking about.
Adesia said, “I thought you didn’t want niggas like Darrius to know you had a place on this part of town.”
Echo calmly drew an arm behind his back and then quickly hurled his cell phone at Adesia’s head.
Adesia caught movement from Echo out of the corner of her eye.
Brian was in Marissa’s hotel room, which was a few doors from his own. He was sitting at a table studying lots of documents in the Davenport case file while Marissa was lying on top of the bed covers watching the news.
Brian said, “When I personally interviewed the mom and dad, I felt like the police came to the right conclusion. So why do you think I shouldn’t have ruled them out? Be specific.”
“I didn’t say that. I said their friends and associates may need to be looked at more closely, and that doesn’t imply that the parents have to know anything.” “Okay, look. I already know for a fact that the Cocodrilos is involved because Julio and his girl put me on the right track to reach Gerald. Right?”
“Right,” she said.
“And we know now that Gerald is the one who was paid to attack the mom and take the child.”
Marissa said, “Two critical questions: Who hired the Cocodrilos in the first place, and who did Gerald take the child to? But the answers to those questions only bring more questions since this wasn’t a traditional ransom case.”
“You just made my point. With no ransom, there’s nothing in it for friends and associates of the parents.”
She said, “There are other reasons for kidnapping. Could be jealousy or revenge or just to make a point.”
“A point?”
“Sure. The Davenports are rich, but someone could have been showing them that some things are more important than money.” “That’s possible but I doubt it.”
She sat up on the bed now. “Exactly which part are you doubting?”
“That someone would do that to a child just to make a point with the parents.”
“Well I agree but there are some very sick people out there and some of them don’t even know they’re sick. Obviously, whoever knowingly tries to raise a kidnapped child is very sick.”
Brian pushed away from the table. “Put this stuff up for me.” He looked at his watch—12:08a.m. “Get some sleep and get back home in the morning. I’m going to check on Echo. He should have recorded the confession, out of Gerald, by now.”
Chapter Fourteen
Adesia turned her head toward Echo, just in time, for the cell phone to smash against her forehead and eye. She fell backward on her ass while reaching for her lacerated forehead, with the same hand that held the gun. In the second it took for her to gather herself, she found herself pinned to the bathroom floor.
Echo was fast—strong and fast. He sat on top of Adesia and wrestled her gun hand toward the door. The gun went off once, causing damage to a wall in the hallway. He pried the gun from her hand relatively easy. He was now sitting on her chest, pinning both of her arms down with the shins of his legs.
Gerald was helpless and knew it was all over now. He would die right here with his sister.
Adesia squirmed and cried, “I can’t see! I can’t see! Let me up!” She was almost hysterical. She could see, but only out of one eye. The cell phone had knocked her left eye clean out of her head, and her forehead was still bleeding.
Echo said, “Shut the fuck up!” Then, he added, “Bitch!”
Adesia calmed herself, quickly realizing that her cries meant nothing to a man she had once held at gunpoint.
Echo’s crotch area was just below her chin. “This is how it should have been in the first place. We could have sixty-nined for twenty minutes, you could’ve gotten your back knocked out for forty, and you woulda been on your damn way with five hundred extra dollars. But look at you now.”
Gerald said, “Say, man. Let me and my sister live and I’ll tell you everything you want to know about the little girl. She’s in Wisconsin with another biracial couple who lost their child.”
Adesia said, “Gerald, why are you telling him about that -”
“Oh!” Echo said. “You got something to do with it too? Get your ass up. You’re coming with me.” He got up off of her and waited for her to stand. Adesia slowly got up. She used her left hand to cover her left eye socket. “Please let me find my eye. My head hurts.”
“Shut up. I left you with a spare. Bitch. Now turn around and walk to that second bedroom on the right. When she turned around he said, “Stop.” He studied her ass for a few seconds then walked al the way up to her, his crotch pressed against the top of her back pockets. “Damn girl. You fucked up a good plan.” Then, he backed off and used one hand to pull the back waistline of her jeans. He saw the top of her thongs then pushed her forward. His erection jumped. “To the bedroom.”
When they reached the bedroom, the one where he’d been intrigued by porn videos, he grabbed his coat and slipped it on. He pulled out some keys, one of which would unlock handcuffs; a digital recorder and his clear latex gloves. He looked at Adesia and said, “Oh, you thought we was fuckin? I don’t take pussy. I know I gave you five hundred for it, but you giving that back.” He stepped to her and dug the money out of the front pocket of her tight jeans.
Adesia said, “Please don’t kill us.” She was worried when she saw him put on the latex gloves. “Back to the bathroom. You and your brother have a lot to talk about.”
Chapter Fifteen
Brian cruised past the house in the SUV. His heart was thumping faster as he wondered why the VW Passatt was parked in Gerald’s drive way. As he drove
farther down the street, he used his cell phone and dialed Echo’s cell number. After four rings he ended the call and tried again. This time he let it ring until it went to voicemail. He ended the call then stopped at a stop sign. Thinking, dammit, man. He figured the visitor must be somebody close to Gerald with a door key.
Brian called Teresa Groove, an FBI source he’d added to his payroll thanks to another reliable third-party source. When Teresa answered she said, “You must be trying to get more than your money’s worth. It’s almost one-thirty.” “It’s only twelve-thirty where I’m at. I need some info on the fly.”
She sighed. “What is it, Brian?”
“I got a VW in Gerald’s driveway, Missouri plates, K3T 771. I need to know who’s the owner.”
“This is ridiculous. It’s probably his sister’s car. He drives it sometimes. You would have known that if you’d come by to pick up the files you asked for on Gerald.” “You didn’t want to email it as an attachment.”
“Listen, you know my rules. I don’t send info over the computers.”
Brian was making a U-turn now.
“And there is but so much I’ll give you over the phone. If you don’t or can’t deal with my rules, you can always fire me.” “I can’t do that. I think you’re likable. I just haven’t had the time to come to West Virginia and pick the papers up.”
She said, “It’s Sunday morning now.”
He said, “So? What does that mean?”
“I told you I could travel to you on the weekends. You can pay for my flight and al my expenses, can’t you?” “I just didn’t think I would need the documents so fast.”
“And don’t forget about my bonus.”
“Bonus? You mean sex?”
“I certainly do.”
He laughed. “I believe I need to hem you up for real. If I get your strung then you’ll relax some rules for me.” “Honey, I’m forty-seven. You can’t do anything to me that will blow my mind that much.”
He whipped the SUV up in Gera
rd’s driveway and parked beside the VW. “We’ll see, Teresa. Real soon. I gotta go. Thanks for the info.” He terminated the cal and tossed the phone to the passenger’s seat. He slipped on his clear latex gloves, grabbed his handgun, and walked toward the house.
The front door was open. Echo stuck his head out then waved Brian inside.
Brian entered the house and closed the door. “What the fuck happened?”
“The boy’s damn sister came over. She had her own key. She surprised the shit out of me with a gun. Mine was in another room.” Brian frowned. “Where is she now?” Why didn’t you hear her when she pulled up?”
“I was taking a shit in another room. She’s in the bathroom, handcuffed with Gerald. I got good confessions; and guess what, she helped Gerald with the kidnapping scheme.”
“Why you ain’t answering your cell?”
“The girl had me at gunpoint until I snuck her with my phone. Tore that shit up. It even knocked one of her eyes out. She’s still a fine muthafucka, though.”
Chapter Sixteen
Brian was sitting in a chair that he had placed in the doorway of the main bathroom. He was watching Gerald and Adesia while Echo was cleaning the house for prints and other evidence of his presence.
Brian said to Adesia, “So, when Gerald gave you the child, you already knew who to take the baby to?”
She was still covering the injured side of her face, but her forehead was no longer bleeding. “A white woman named Leah. She paid the Cocodrilos to find her a baby between age two and four, but the baby had to be from a black and white parent. I don’t know how much she paid them.”
“Why a biracial baby?”
“I didn’t know why at first but I found out why later. Her boyfriend is black and they wanted a child because she miscarried and couldn’t have kids after that. Julio paid my brother fifty thousand dollars to take the Davenport baby from the Laura Ederman Day Care Center in Springfield.”
“Okay. I don’t know if my partner explained this to y’all correctly, but here’s the deal: You two need to be off the streets, fuckin with kids and doing all kinds of other shit for a Mexican gang. I got the Davenport file and can see that you’re probably telling the truth, mostly, because you know shit about the case that you shouldn’t. I’mma have to shoot you and your brother if I can’t get the girl back in two days. If I get the girl by then, I’ll just give your confessions to the feds and let them deal with yawl for about twenty-five years.”
Gerald said, “So we got to stay cuffed like this for two days?” He was sitting on the floor, his sister beside him, his right ankle cuffed to her left ankle, his left hand cuffed to her right hand. Still, though, he was more comfortable than he’d been when cuffed alone.
Brian said, “Yep. Two days. If that’s how long it takes. But my partner will be here with you. So the minute I find that I’m goose chasing, I’ll call and tell him to shoot y’all and leave the house. Now, is there anything either one of you want to add or change about your stories? If I don’t find that girl, you’re dead.”
Adesia said, “We told you the truth. When you find the girl, please don’t cal and tell him to kill us anyway.”
Brian smiled. “That fool is coming with me. You and your brother will be free in another thirty minutes. The feds will be looking for your asses soon, though.” He looked at Gerald and said, “How the fuck could you attack a woman and take her 3-year-old baby? When your tough ass is knocking down those twenty-five federal years, maybe you’ll realize how important your own daughter is to you.”
Echo appeared over Brian’s back and said to Gerald, “What’s the combination to that big ass safe, boy?”
There was nothing else worth fighting for. Gerald knew the men would leave with al the stolen jewelry and his $102,000 one way or another. “Um, 35-34-4.”
Chapter Seventeen
When they were in Brian’s hotel room, at nearly four in the morning, Echo finished counting the money while Brian was on the phone with Teresa. When Brian ended the call Echo said, “$102, 380. What’s half of that?”
“I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll show you where Julio’s woman stays, and I need for you to get to him. Force him to somehow lure Chico Gonzalez to you, and hold them two still until I get back. Do that and you can keep all the jewelry and money.”
“Is that al?” Echo said. “Where you going?”
“I’m going to pick up Rochelle. But, look, I already caught Julio slipping one time. He might be ready the next time.” “He won’t be ready for me. I thought you said he had his own apartment.”
“Yeah, but he’ll be too paranoid to get caught slipping there again.” Brian got up from the foot of the bed. “Get your shit together. Me, you and Marissa are leaving in thirty minutes.
Four days later, after some much-needed rest and some additional investigation, Brian was in Madison, Wisconsin. It was rush hour and he was deep in traffic driving the Durango and wearing a black suit with thin pinstripes that could only be seen in light that isn’t too dim or too bright.
He was four cars behind a Lexus SUV, but he knew where the driver was going. After ten minutes of slow rolling and stopping, the traffic was becoming less congested. Brian edged and weaved past a few cars, including the Lexus, then caught an exit off the interstate.
Seven minutes later Brian was parked in the lot of a dentist office. He got out and met the white woman who was waiting outside the glass door. “Excuse me, Dr. Moore? Dr. Leah Moore?”
“Yes. How can I help you?” She assumed the man was trying to make an appointment. She saw her husband arrive in the Lexus.
Brian said, “You once had a child named Daniele Moore. Something happened to that child sometime after birth, but you would have certain people believe you had an abortion.”
She said, “I don’t know what this is about, but I really must be leaving.”
He cut her path off and said, “And then there are others you would fool into thinking that Rochelle Davenport is Daniele.” A black man stepped out of the Lexus and said, “Leah, is there a problem?”
Brian said, “Of course there’s a problem. The child in your vehicle is leaving with me, and I dare you to cal the cops.” Leah said, “Wes, take Danielle and leave!”
Brian began approaching Wesley. “You get back in that truck and you leave me no choice but to gun you down in this parking lot.” Leah rushed past Brian and headed for the passenger’s side of the Lexus.
“I want to be civil about this,” Brian said, “but I’ll do anything at this point to get the child back to her rightful, biological parents. I have no problem with my blood splattering technique.” He opened his jacket and displayed the butt of a firearm. “But I’m leaving with that child.”
Leah got inside the truck and checked on the sleeping child in the backseat.
Wes said, “You’re mistaken, mister. We’re the parents of Daniele and have papers to prove it.”
Brian stopped five feet in front of the man. “My proof is better than yours.”
Chapter Eighteen
Brian pushed Wes aside, reached inside the Lexus, and removed the keys from the ignition, turning the engine off. He walked to the Durango, retrieved the iPad,
and returned to the passenger side of the Lexus. He softly opened the rear door and got a good look at the sleeping child. She was not much different than the photos he’d studied.
Wes and Leah watched without comment. Leah had tears running down her cheeks but she didn’t wipe them away.
Brian turned on the iPad, ran through a couple of menus, then accessed a biometric scanning app. He gently grabbed the child’s right hand and pressed it against the iPad screen. He pressed a touchscreen button then removed her hand. Then he pressed more onscreen buttons and entered an email address.
After sending the scanned image of the child’s right hand, he turned the iPhone off then pulled out his cell phone. He said to Wes and Leah, “I have a federal agent on standby, waiting to feed that print into their M
issing Persons database. That should take no more than five minutes. If I have to make this next cal, you’re going to jail today. If I leave with the child right now, you won’t go to jail until the Feds find you.”
Wes didn’t even have to think about it. “Take her and just leave us alone.”
Leah said, “No! Please. Please don’t.”
The child stirred, then awakened.
Brian unfastened the child’s seatbelt. “Hey, beautiful.”
Leah cried and whined as Wes restrained her.
The baby started crying, too, but Brian picked her up anyway and left with her in one hand and the iPad in his other. Leah continued crying and said to her husband, “How could you?”
He looked her directly in the eyes and said, “How could we?”
Brian was thirty minutes down the road when his cell phone rang. He saw the red-eyed baby in his rearview mirror, staring at him. She was tired of crying now. She wiped her eyes and looked out the window at the moving sky.
Brian answered is phone, “Teresa, what’s up?”
“The prints are a perfect match with Rochelle Davenport’s prints.”
“I know. I got her, and I’m taking her to her parents.”
“You got her? I thought you needed to wait on my results. You have me doing extra work for nothing?”
He laughed. “No. The husband gave me the child, so I knew for a fact they weren’t the parents. He got scared.” “That’s good. I’m proud of you. You obviously do excellent work.”
He said, “And you’re a big help. I would still be at square one if it wasn’t for you. You’re worth more than I’ve paid you.” His eyes were watery now, and he felt good about himself.
“You’ll get around to giving me that bedroom bonus one day. How is the girl?”
“She cried for a while. She thinks her name is Danielle.” He saw her looking at him again.