The Girl They Couldn’t See (Blind Spot #1) (Blind Spot Series)

by Laurence Dahners

  Hax said, “We’re getting you out of here sir.”

  “Really?!” Thompson said.

  “Uh-huh,” was Hax’s only response.

  Roni’s eyes went to the girl chained to the bed in the corner. She walked that way, trying to calm her own shaking. The girl had moved as close to the wall as her chains would let her but had turned her head outward as if she also was trying to figure out what was going on. She looked pretty despite a large welt on her cheek. Roni leaned down and touched her. The girl flinched violently in response. Roni quietly said, “You okay?”

  “Hell no!” the girl snarled, then suddenly stopped, a frown evident despite the blindfold. Roni thought she was probably surprised to hear a girl’s voice. After a moment, the girl said, “Who’re you?”

  “Sorry, I don’t want to say. But we’re going to get you out of here. What’s your name?”

  In a voice that was almost a sob, the girl asked, “Sylvie. Who got shot?”

  “The men who’ve been holding you here,” Roni said, wondering what else had been happening to the girl. “Um, how’d you wind up in here?”

  “I ran away from home, but then… I needed money. I met Nick Castano and…” She ran down and pursed her lips as if she didn’t want to explain further.

  Roni didn’t think she needed any further explanation. “We’ll unlock you here in a minute. Then we’ll be calling 911. Do you want the police to take care of you? Or would you rather we called your parents? Or someone else?”

  “My mom,” she said with a sob. Then, plaintively, “Can you take off this damned blindfold?”

  “I’m sorry,” Roni said through a suddenly raspy throat. “We don’t want you to know who we are. The less you know, the less people can hassle you trying to find out what happened here.” She looked over her shoulder and saw that Hax had finished unlocking Thompson’s cuffs. Turning back to the girl, Roni said, “Just a minute and we’ll get you unlocked.”

  The girl gave a jerky little nod and Roni got up and walked over to Hax. He didn’t see her coming and she had to purposefully let her invisibility go. She guessed Sylvie’d been able to hear her because she’d purposefully spoken to her, thus allowing Sylvie to notice her voice. Roni found it a little difficult to let go of her invisibility. She thought it was probably because of all the adrenaline pumping through her system. When Hax saw her, she said, “Can I get the key to the cuffs?” He nodded and held out the key ring. He pointed out the appropriate key, then turned his attention back to Thompson.

  Roni picked it up and went back over to the girl. As she started unlocking the handcuffs, she said, “Do you know your mom’s phone number so we can call her?”

  The girl jerked another little nod.

  Dismayed, Roni realized she didn’t really want the call to go out on her cell phone. She unlocked the handcuffs, “Can you stand up?”

  The girl nodded, then wrinkled her nose. “What’s that smell?”

  “You don’t want to know,” Roni said uncomfortably, lifting the girl’s arm to help her to her feet. The girl reached up with her other hand to lift the blindfold, but when Roni said, “Please leave the blindfold alone,” the girl merely tugged it back into place.

  Roni walked the girl over to where Hax was trying to help Thompson stand. He turned to her and said, “What’s the plan? Call 911?”

  Roni nodded, “But not on our cell phones.”

  Hax looked around at the dead guys, “We can use one of theirs.”

  Roni looked around the room, “The less we touch in here, the better.” She pointed, “That’s your gun over there on the floor. The one in your pocket’s one of theirs. You should get yours. I’m gonna go to the next room and use their landline to call 911.”

  Hax glanced around, “Don’t you think we ought to be getting out of here? What if someone else’s calling 911 because of all the noise?”

  Roni waved around, “Look at the walls. I’m pretty sure this room is nearly soundproof. They don’t want people outside to hear whatever kind of awful things they do.”

  “Guns are louder than screaming,” Hax said grimly.

  “Yeah, but the night watchman probably knows better than to notice anything that happens in this room.” Roni turned to the big man beside Hax. “Mr. Thompson, do you want to wait for the police and the ambulances to arrive when we call 911? Or would you rather we gave you a ride to the ER?”

  “The ER,” he rumbled.

  Roni and Hax looked at each other. Roni shrugged. Looking at Hax, she said, “Can you take him to the car and wait for a little bit?”

  Hax looked at Thompson for a second, then said, “We don’t want him sitting in our car in that bloody shirt.” He turned to Roni, “Besides, it’s cold out there.”

  Thompson said, “They put my coat in a cabinet in the corner of the room.” He sighed, “But if your car isn’t really close I’ll have a hard time getting to it. I’m pretty sure they broke my ankle.”

  “Maybe you should wait for an ambulance?”

  Thompson shook his head, “I really don’t want to reach official notice in this town. Especially notice of anything to do with the Castanos. I’ll crawl on my hands and knees if I have to.”

  Roni said, “I’ll pull the car around when we go.” She looked at Hax, “Can you get his coat and help him into it? That’ll keep our car seat clean too. Maybe Sylvie’s clothes are in the same cabinet. If not, maybe you can at least find her a coat,” Roni pointed meaningfully at the smallest of the men lying on the floor.

  Hax grimaced but nodded. He gave Sylvie a concerned look and reached toward her blindfold.

  Roni stopped him with a hand, “Sylvie’s promised to keep her blindfold on so she won’t know what we look like. I’m going to take her to the next room to call her mom. I’ll wait to call 911 until right before we leave.”

  Hax nodded again. Roni took Sylvie by the arm to lead her to the next room. As she was about to leave the room, she remembered the guard. Speaking loudly enough that Hax would hear her too, she said, “Sylvie, I’ve got to go unlock the next room and make sure the warehouse guard isn’t around. Then I’ll be back for you, okay?”

  Sylvie nodded.

  Reaching for the switch, Roni said, “I’m turning off the light before I open the door.” She sent out a thought that people shouldn’t notice her coming out the door, then exited.

  Roni had to go through all five keys before she managed to get Castano’s office open. I should have kept better track of which key was which! She went back to the other room, looked around for the guard, and knocked gently. Hax opened the door, gun in hand, though it was pointed at the floor. Apparently realizing it had to be Roni since he couldn’t see anyone, he waggled the gun, “Wanted to be ready in case it was the guard, not you.”

  Roni said only, “Yeah.” Sylvie had on high-heeled shoes, a miniskirt, and a cute coat, presumably her own clothes from the cabinet. Roni took Sylvie by the arm and tugged her out of the room, carefully staying as much as possible between the girl and the rest of the warehouse as she walked her to Castano’s office. She hoped that if her invisibility was really a kind of hypnotism that kept people from seeing Roni, that she should be able to use her body to hide someone else. At least somewhat. Just one more thing she should have checked so she’d know for sure.

  In Castano’s office, Roni picked up the desk phone and put the handset in Sylvie’s hand. She was about to ask Sylvie for the numbers so she could dial when she realized she had another solution. She’d been wearing the scarf just below her eyes because of the dim light in the warehouse and outside, now she pulled it up to cover her entire face. She pulled up her hoodie, gave up her invisibility, and said, “I’ve covered my face, you can take off your blindfold.”

  “Oh. Thanks!” Sylvie said, reaching up and pulling off the blindfold. She glanced at Roni momentarily, but didn’t stare, evidently not wanting it to look like she was trying to figure out who Roni was through the scarf.

  Roni pointed to the phone
’s keypad, “You can call your folks. I’m going to try to do something with this computer.” She sat down at the desk while Sylvie crouched over the phone and pushed buttons.

  The computer was already powered up and open. Roni thought, He probably thinks no one has the courage to come in here and try to get on his computer. She opened the browser and typed in the URL she’d memorized for anonymous reports to the FBI. She jacked in her USB stick that held the videos and other information she’d saved about the Castanos and started uploading it to the site. She thought about trying to transfer the videos she’d just made of the two rooms here in the warehouse, but wasn’t confident she could strip them of identifiers related to her phone without taking a lot more time than she might have. Besides, she figured she was giving them plenty of information with all the files that were already on the stick.

  Roni could hear the phone ringing in Sylvie’s ear. There was a faint click and someone said something. Sylvie sank to one knee beside the desk and weakly said, “Mom? It’s Sylvie. Can I… can I come home?”

  Even from where she was sitting, Roni could hear the delighted shriek from the other end of the phone. Roni pretended not to be listening as Sylvie and her mother spoke back and forth, Sylvie saying a few things about being rescued.

  Sylvie looked up at Roni, “Where are we?”

  Roni shook her head, “Better if you guys don’t know. We can drop you off somewhere.”

  Sylvie said, “It’ll take about an hour for her to get to the city.”

  Roni said, “She’ll be coming on the freeway?”

  Sylvie nodded.

  “From the north or the south?”

  “From the south.”

  “Tell her we’ll meet her in the parking lot of the FastFare just off the first exit. You’ll know her car?”

  Sylvie nodded and took her hand off the mouthpiece to talk with her mother. Roni looked down and saw that the USB stick had finished transferring the files. She pulled it out just as Sylvie finished hanging up the phone. “You ready to go?”

  Sylvie nodded and stood.

  Roni picked up the phone and dialed 911. Once it connected, she pitched her voice low and said only, “Shooting at Castano and Sons’ warehouse.” She laid the handset down next to the phone without hanging it up. She could hear the 911 operator talking, presumably asking for details, but didn’t want them to record any more of her voice. Roni picked up the blindfold from where Sophie’d put it on the desk and walked to the door of the room. Sophie followed her meekly to the door where she held out the blindfold.

  Sophie said, “I need to wear it again?”

  Roni nodded, “Sorry, but I can’t really explain why.” Once Sophie had it on, she flipped off the lights, made herself invisible, pulled the scarf down and opened the door to peer out. No guard.

  She led Sophie back to the other room where she knocked. Hax and Thompson came out, the big man leaning heavily on Hax. They all headed slowly for the exit door with Roni trying to interpose herself between them and the rest of the warehouse. She didn’t think she did a very good job, but no guards came running out of the darkness to accost them.

  Outside the warehouse, Roni pulled up the scarf and made herself visible again. She told Sylvie she could take off the blindfold. Not wanting to say Hax’s name, she tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Keep them moving the right direction. I’ll go get the car.”

  First, she trotted across the street and pulled her two messenger bags out from under the truck. When she was catching up to the other three again, both Sylvie and Hax gave her puzzled looks. Thompson, of course, had no idea where she was or what she was carrying. As she trotted by, she said, “I stole some of Castano’s files.” Which, she reflected, was true. Even if they were pictures that were on her phone and not in the bags she’d implied contained them.

  Sylvie and Hax nodded. Thompson kept slowly limping along leaning heavily on Hax.

  When Roni got back with the car, there was some difficulty because Thompson was too big to fit in the back seat. Hax had gotten big enough that he had a hard time getting in the back of their little car as well, but Roni had to drive. Once she’d gotten the car moving, Roni avoided using Thompson’s name by saying, “Sir, do you care which ER we take you to?”

  “I’ve been thinking about it. I’d rather you took me home. I’ll go to the ER in a couple of days.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. You might have some kind of brain injury from a beating like that.”

  “I think it might be a worse idea to arrive in the ER in this kind of shape the night something bad went down at the Castanos’ place.” He sighed, “I’d really appreciate it if you took me home.”

  Roni decided she couldn’t disagree. “I know where your store is, but not where you live.”

  He said, “Take me there. It’s only a few blocks away and I can give you directions once you’re at the store.”

  Roni turned a corner toward his store. After a moment, she said, “Sylvie, can you put your blindfold on? I think it’d be better if you didn’t know where we’re dropping off our other passenger.”

  Sylvie said, “Okay.” A moment later Hax told her that she had it on.

  When they arrived at Thompson’s home, Hax got out and helped Thompson make his way into the house. Roni and Sylvie sat waiting in the car, Roni hoping she wouldn’t fall asleep. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, she felt exhausted.

  Hax came trotting back out of the house. Roni felt alarmed that something bad had happened. Hax opened the door and leaned in, “Mr.…” he paused, apparently realizing he shouldn’t say Thompson’s name. “His wife’s out of town. She fled because… you know. I’m gonna stay here and help him until she gets back. If that’s okay? He wants to have her take him to the ER in the town where she’s staying.”

  Roni was suddenly overcome with a fear that some of Castano’s men would find out what’d happened, know Thompson had been in that room and would come to his house after him. She didn’t want her brother caught in some kind of crossfire. “Go get him.” She explained her concern, “We’ll take him to a motel.”

  Hax said, “He doesn’t have any money. The Castanos took it all.”

  Grimly, Roni said, “I took some of the Castanos’ money. We’ve got plenty.”

  Hax rebutted, “They won’t let us rent a hotel room; we’re too young. And he sure can’t get a room looking the way he looks.”

  Roni closed her eyes, trying to think of a solution, but Sylvie leaned forward and said, somewhat sadly, “I know a motel where they don’t ask any questions.”

  Of course you do, Roni thought sadly. Out loud, she said, “Thanks, that’ll work.” To Hax she said, “Go get him.”

  Once they were out of Thompson’s neighborhood, Sylvie took off her blindfold and gave Roni directions to the motel. Roni had pictured a seedy, cockroach-infested place, but it actually looked pretty nice. Roni reached in to her interior pocket and pulled out a couple of hundreds. She held them out to Sylvie, “This enough?”

  Sylvie nodded, “Plenty.” She took the money and headed into the building. She returned a few minutes later with a key for a room on the first floor.

  Hax helped Thompson into the room, then came back out. “He’s still going to need a lot of help. I’ve got to help him call his wife and find the bathroom and… stuff. And, he says his wife isn’t big enough to help him out to the car when she gets there. I’m going to stay here and help him.”

  Roni gave him a tired nod. “Will his wife pick him up soon enough that we can get home before Mom and Dad get up?” she asked, then bit her tongue as she realized that Sylvie’d now have a good idea just how young they were.

  “Yeah,” Hax said. “His wife’s only about forty-five minutes away.”

  Roni looked at the time on her phone, surprised to see it wasn’t even 3 in the morning. “That’ll work. I’ll come back for you as soon as I’ve gotten Sylvie to her mom.”

  As she and Sylvie sat in the parking lot
of the FastFare, waiting for Sylvie’s mom, Roni thought about what the girl had been through. She said, “Do you think you’ll need some counseling after this?”

  Sylvie sighed, “I’d like that, but my mom wouldn’t be able to afford it. She waitresses two jobs and barely makes ends meet. My dad doesn’t pay his alimony very often.” Sylvie shrugged, “I’ve got a little brother she has to support too.”

  Roni thought, And I felt like my family had it tough. She reached into her coat and pulled out one of the bundles of hundreds. “I took this from the Castanos. They probably owe you at least this much.” She held it out.

  Sylvie sat up excitedly, “There’s my mom!” Her eyes dropped to what Roni had in her hand. In an awed tone, she said, “Oh my God. How much is that?”

  “Should be $10,000,” Roni responded.

  Sylvie still hadn’t taken it. She shook her head a little and said, “I might… I might do something stupid with that kind of money if I had it. Can you give it to my mom?”

  Roni thought, why can’t you give it to your mom? But decided that if Sylvie didn’t trust herself, Roni shouldn’t pressure her. “Sure. Let’s go say hello.”

  Sylvie’s mom met them halfway between the two cars and hugged her daughter in nearly hysterical joy. Then her eyes turned apprehensively to Roni. Roni realized she must look ominous, hidden behind her scarf with her hoodie up, “Yes?” The mother said.

  Roni held out the stack of hundred dollar bills. She said, “I think Sylvie wants to turn her life around, but she doesn’t trust herself with this much money. She asked me to give it to you. You could get her some counseling.”

  Sylvie’s mother stared at the money for a moment, then gingerly took it. “Who are you?” she breathed.

  Roni shook her head.

  Sylvie said, “She wants to keep her identity a secret Mom.”

  Sylvie’s mother said, “But…”

  Sylvie put an arm around her mother’s shoulders and turned her away from Roni, “Mom, she saved my life tonight. If she doesn’t want to tell us who she is, we shouldn’t hassle her.” With only a brief glance back over her shoulder, Sylvie’s mother let herself be led away.