The Last Bodyguard

by Sean Black

  “If he has the girl, he’s hardly likely to be calling the cops, is he now?” said Ty, securing one wrist.

  “Fair point,” conceded Hanger. “But even if you get over the walls you still have to get inside the house and that ain’t happening.”

  “Oh yeah?” said Ty.

  “Oh yeah,” said Hanger. “He has that place locked up like Fort Knox and he doesn’t just open the door to anyone, especially two dudes he doesn’t know from Adam.”

  Ty grabbed his wrists and spun him round on the seat so that Hanger was facing him. Lock wandered over to see why it was taking so long.

  “What do you suggest, smart guy?” said Ty.

  “He knows me. I’m the one who brought her here,” said Hanger, looking from Ty to Lock and back again.

  “Like we could trust you?” said Ty.

  “You don’t have to trust me. Think about it, you get the girl back and we’re even. Unless you’re going to rat on our deal. I help you get inside, you collect her, and I go free. No trust necessary. If you think about it, I’m the one who has to trust you, not the other way round.”

  He shrugged his shoulders, showing his hands cuffed behind his back. “You’re going to have to take these off. Think the dude might figure something’s up if he sees me cuffed up like this. Or he’ll get turned on. Either way.”

  They put Hanger in the back seat and walked away from the car, far enough that he wouldn’t be able to overhear the conversation.

  “What do you think?” said Ty.

  “I don’t trust him, but he has a point,” said Lock, glancing back over to the car where Hanger was sitting quietly, head bowed.

  “Yeah, he does,” said Ty. “We can climb walls and try to break in, but if we can get this dude to open the front door for us, then it’s pretty much job done. Search his crib, see if she’s there and if she is, get her out.”

  “Or we could split the difference?”

  “What do you mean?” said Ty.

  “Hanger gets him to open the gates. We drive in, park at the side, but only one of us goes to the door with him. Looks less suspicious that way too.”

  “And one stays outside, or comes in after?”

  “Yeah, maybe. What do you say? I’m not in the best of shape to be scaling a wall right now anyway,” said Lock.

  They walked back over to the car. Lock opened the rear door and leaned in.

  “He’ll open the gate for you?”

  “I don’t know,” said Hanger. “But it’s worth a shot.”

  Lock slammed the door closed again and turned to Ty. “If he doesn’t go for it then we’ve lost the element of surprise.”

  “Then we call the cops. Lie and say we’ve seen her inside. That gives them probable cause to roll in there.”

  Lock knew that you could spend hours debating different approaches to a problem, but at some stage you had to pick a plan of attack and commit to it. In any case, whatever route they went down would change in the process. It was that old military saw about no plan surviving first contact with the enemy.

  He opened Hanger’s door again. “Ty’ll take the cuffs off you and you can ride up front. But I’ll be back there, right behind you, and if you try anything it won’t be your foot I’ll be aiming at. You hear me?”

  “Loud and clear,” said Hanger.

  77

  They rolled up to the gate, Ty driving, Hanger riding up alongside him, and Lock directly behind him, gun drawn but held low in the footwell so it wouldn’t be visible.

  Ty lowered the window, leaned out and pressed the button on the gate panel. There was a wait and then a man’s voice on the intercom.

  “May I help you?”

  Hanger leaned over Ty so he could be heard and presumably seen. Ty’s hand came down to his holster, making sure that Hanger couldn’t reach for it.

  “Hey, man, it’s Hanger, I need to speak with you.”

  “Sorry, who did you say it was?”

  Lock wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting from a man who bought teenage girls from a pimp, but it hadn’t been this. He sounded old and frail. If the man matched the voice, this would be a piece of cake.

  “It’s Hanger,” he repeated, sounding irritated.

  “Sorry, I don’t think I know anyone by that name.”

  Hanger sighed. “I know you’re looking right at us,” he said, thumbing at Ty in the driver’s seat as he leaned a little further across. “This here’s my buddy. He has a girl he wants to move on, but it’s a limited time deal.”

  The Freak didn’t respond, but a second later the motor controlling the gates whirred into life and the gates began to open. Ty drive through.

  Lock studied the place as they drove through up to the house. Behind the wall was a line of trees. Then there were more shrubs. The wall itself folded around the entire property. It was even higher at the rear, maybe fourteen or fifteen feet rather than the twelve feet at the front.

  This was clearly a man who either valued his privacy highly, had something to hide, or likely both. Not that walls mattered all that much these days, not when drones were so readily available.

  They reached the house. Ty turned the car around so that it’s nose was facing down the driveway, ready for a fast exit if it was needed. Lock made a note to locate the control panel for the gates once they were inside the house. They’d need the gates open on the way out.

  All three of them got out of the car. Ty walked side by side with Hanger. Lock hung back a little.

  At the door was a video doorbell of the type that was now so common. Before they could press the button, the voice was back.

  “Who’s he?” said The Freak, referring to Lock.

  “Just a buddy,” said Hanger.

  “He stays outside.”

  Ty glanced back at Lock. Lock nodded and stepped off back to the car. Once they were inside and The Freak was occupied, he would take a little tour of the outside and see if he could find another entry point.

  There was a click. The front door swung open. Ty walked in behind Hanger. The door closed on them, leaving Lock alone. He walked back to the car, figuring he’d stay there while he was likely being watched. Once some time had passed, he’d begin to circle the house and seek out an entry point.

  78

  Ty followed Hanger into a space that was more casino foyer than entrance hall. There was no sign of The Freak. There was no sound of him either. It was quiet, eerily so. Like the front gates, the front door was obviously remotely operated.

  Figuring that no one would walk in behind them with Lock standing guard outside, Ty kept his back to the front door as he scoped out the foyer. Ty picked out what he presumed was the home’s owner from several large, framed posters for magic shows featuring a name that rang a very distant bell, Dirk Van Amstel. They showed an athletic-looking man with a mane of thick blonde hair carrying a whip in one hand, a revolver in the other. He was flanked by a fully grown Bengal tiger that was looming over an apparently terrified young showgirl.

  A voice called to them from further inside the house.

  “Gentlemen, come on in.”

  Hanger gave Ty an apologetic shrug. “He’s a little eccentric.”

  Ty followed Hanger through the foyer, through a set of double doors and into the living room. There was no sign of The Freak here either. Ty was starting to get the feeling they were being played, and he didn’t like it.

  He closed up on Hanger so Hanger could hear him without anyone else picking up on what he was about to say.

  “Where do you think he has her stashed?” said Ty.

  “I don’t know, man, it’s a big place, and he’s never given the grand tour. Any time I’ve been here, I’m in and out.”

  “I’m kind of tight on time,” Ty called out. “If you’re interested in this girl I got, then let’s discuss terms.”

  The voice came again, but this time Ty couldn’t tell where it was coming from. It seemed to bounce from one part of the house to another and back again, as if it w
as rolling out from speakers in different rooms.

  “I’m very sorry. I’ll be with you momentarily, gentlemen. I do apologize for keeping you waiting, but your visit was somewhat unexpected so you may have to bear with me.”

  Screw this, thought Ty. He was here to find the girl, not play nice with some weirdo child molester.

  “This place have a basement?” he asked Hanger.

  “No idea. Like I said, he never gave me the tour.”

  “Let’s find out, shall we?”

  Ty motioned for Hanger to walk back out into the entrance foyer. There was a staircase, but it only led up. Ty started opening doors. The first one led into a powder room, all marble and gold taps. He closed it again and walked down to the next door.

  Behind that door was a billiards room with a full size table. There was a card table and a couple of old school arcade video games. One was Ms. Pacman, and the other was something to do with a haunted house. Knowing whose house this was, the sight of gave him the creeps. He stepped back out and headed back in the direction of the living room.

  There was still no sign of the homeowner. Or Kristin, for that matter. Leaving Hanger where he was, Ty walked to the end of the room where a pair of glass sliding doors led out to a deck. Beyond that was a large yard with a swimming pool.

  Ty stopped at the door and turned around so that back to the doors. Reaching back, he found the key sitting in the lock and turned it. He grabbed the handle and, still with his hand behind his back, pushed the door open a tiny fraction, just enough to be sure that he had unlocked the door.

  He dug his cell phone out and started to tap out a quick text to Lock, letting him know that the rear deck door was open. Just as he was about to hit send, Hanger, who’d picked up a book from the coffee table and had been flicking through the pages, suddenly took off, hobbling as fast as he could towards a door off to one side of the fireplace.

  Ty sprinted off after him. As he ran, he tripped, banging his knee hard into the corner of a mahogany coffee table. Shrugging off the pain, Ty kept moving.

  Hanger reached the door, opened it, stumbled through and slammed it closed. Ty arrived a split-second late. He grabbed the door handle, turned it and yanked it open. It didn’t budge. He guessed it was another guest bathroom and Hanger had locked it.

  He could force the door, even shoot through it, but Hanger’s purpose had been getting them in here. He’d done that. What mattered was finding the girl, assuming she was here, and this wasn’t all a snow job on Hanger’s part.

  Ty decided to circle back round for Hanger and keep searching the house. He tapped send on the text to Lock, moved to the other side of the room, opened another door and stepped into the kitchen.

  At one end of the kitchen was a small dining area. Beyond that, another set of doors led out onto the same deck. Ty crossed to them and unlocked those doors too.

  Walking back into the kitchen area, he passed the range and island and opened another door. This one had a set of stairs that led down.

  “Bingo,” said Ty, drawing his gun as he started down them.

  79

  Hanger sat with his back to the bathroom door and listened. He was pretty sure that Ty would have kicked the door in now. He’d obviously gone looking for the girl, which was fine by Hanger.

  He took out the cell phone that they returned to him so he could call The Freak and forgotten to take back, and called him again, moving away from the door and running water into the sink so no one outside the door would be able to hear him.

  “These guys aren’t with me. They want the girl,” he said, the words rushing out as he braced for a boot or gunshots to come tearing through the door at any second. “I would have given you a heads up, but they had a gun on me the whole time.”

  “Where are you now?” The Freak asked.

  Hanger told him.

  “Okay, well you stay there until I tell you to come out.”

  “Okay, but be careful. These guys are crazy, man. I think they’re like ex-military or something.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” said The Freak. “I have home court advantage.”

  80

  Ty stood quietly at the top of the stairs leading down to the basement. He pulled the door closed behind him and took a moment to listen. Bar the background of air conditioning, the only thing he could hear was the rush of blood in his ears. It felt like old times, checking out locations for insurgents back when he was still in the Corp.

  He drew his weapon and started slowly down the stairs. Every few steps he would stop and listen before taking the next few.

  Something, some inner sixth sense, told him that she was down there. Maybe alive, maybe dead, but down there nonetheless.

  At the bottom of the stairs there was an open hallway. Off to his left he could see the shimmer of a spa area, complete with hot tub and pool off to one side. There were fake rocks and a waterfall. It gave off a Playboy mansion vibe that made him feel a little queasy.

  To Ty’s right was a door. It was slightly ajar. He pushed it open with his foot and stepped into a maintenance room. He stepped back out and walked forward to a large mahogany door.

  Taking a breath, he grabbed the door handle and pushed it down. It opened into a room that was pitch black bar a slice of light from the hallway.

  Ty scanned it quickly, his eyes taking the space in with a single sweep. It looked like some kind of screening room slash home movie theater, only instead of regular movie seating there were three beds that faced the screen.

  A metal trolley sat at the bottom of the middle bed. On the bed a young girl, naked, her hands and feet shackled. His hand went to the wall. He found a lighting panel and slid up a couple of dimmer switches.

  It was Kristin Miller.

  Gun in hand, and one holstered on his hip, The Freak walked quickly over to the doors that led out onto the deck and turned the key, securing them from the inside. Next, he walked through into the kitchen and locked those doors.

  No one would be walking in here from the outside.

  Next, his attention turned to the guest bathroom where Hanger was holed up. He had a decision to make. Hanger had brought these men here, but from what he’d seen so far, it hadn’t been Hanger’s decision.

  Kill him or let him live?

  Decisions, decisions.

  As she lay motionless on the bed, suddenly Kristin’s head twisted to look at Ty. In that moment he knew that the look on her face would never leave him. She was alive. Her movement told him that, but her eyes were dead. Like the heart-pounding journey down the steps, the look on her face also brought him back to a war zone. He’d seen the same expression haunting the faces of terrorized civilians in Iraq.

  Reaching back, he pulled the door closed and holstered his weapon. He held his hands up.

  “Kristin, it’s okay, I’m here to get you out of here okay. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to get you some help so you can go home.”

  Slowly, so as not to scare even more than she had been, he crossed to the bed.

  “I’m going to take these bindings off you,” he said, his eyes staying firmly on her face.

  Her eyes seemed to find some kind of focus.

  “You’re safe now, you understand me?” he said.

  She didn’t seem to react.

  “Here,” he said, backing up and grabbing a sheet from one of the other beds and draping it over her naked body.

  “You’re safe now,” he told her. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  Kristin gave the slightest of nods, tears forming in her eyes.

  Lock stood on the deck and pulled at the door. It didn’t budge. He was sure this was the door that Ty had messaged him about. He tried again. It didn’t move this time either. His hand felt for a catch or some other release. There wasn’t any.

  He moved down the deck, staring through the glass for any sign of movement from inside. There was another set of doors that led into a kitchen area. He tried these doors. They wouldn’t open either.
<
br />   This wasn’t good. If Ty had opened them, then someone else had come along after and locked them again, someone inside the house that Ty wasn’t aware of.

  Lock stepped back, searching for another way to gain entry.

  Ty stared at his cell phone screen. No signal, not even so much as a single flickering bar.

  That figured, thought Ty. The room was likely sound proofed, which would damp down any kind of cell signal.

  Glancing down at the metal trolley, something caught his eye. He tapped it with his finger, sliding the tiny key to the edge and sweeping it into his palm.

  If he was unable to get hold of Lock, then his next best move was to get Kristin out of here, even if he had to carry her back up the stairs.

  He sat down on the bed next to Kristin. He held up the key so she could see it.

  “I’m going to have to touch you to free your hands, okay?” he explained.

  “Okay,” she said, her voice hoarse from screaming.

  A few seconds later, she sat up, rubbing her wrists. She stopped to pull the sheet up to her shoulders before setting to work, freeing her ankles.

  “Don’t stand up too fast, okay?” said Ty. “Just take your time.”

  “I can’t get it,” she said, holding up the key as she struggled to free her left ankle.

  “Here,” said Ty, let me help you.

  He waited for her to show she was okay with it. He guessed she’d had a lot of men putting their hands on her without her consent. Even with good intentions, he didn’t want to be another one.

  He bent over. Working the key in was fiddly, and it almost slipped from his hands. “It’s tricky.”

  “Let me try again,” she said.

  He palmed her the key. She took it. This time it worked. She freed one ankle and then the other. The tiny accomplishment seemed to bring something human back in to her face.