by Sharp, Tracy
The music was so loud I wanted to cover my ears. I came up beside Jack and looked into the room. At first, what I saw didn’t quite register.
Finn was standing over one of the women with his pants down. His hands covered his crotch, his fingers covered in blood. I looked at the woman. The only blood on her, stained her mouth and chin.
When I finally understood, I laughed out loud, the sound foreign and hysterical to my own ears.
“Didn’t you hear the racket we were making?” Jack yelled at Finn above the blaring music. “Doors being kicked in? Gunshots?” He walked over to the stereo and shut it off. Two huge speakers stood on either side of the stereo.
Finn shook his head.
“Well no wonder you’re fucking deaf, idiot,” I told him. “Been to a lot of rock concerts in your youth?”
He ignored me. I turned to Patrick. “Would you check the other room?” I didn’t have to tell him why. Jesse was nowhere else in the place. If he were in here anywhere, it would be in that room. I didn’t want to see it yet.
He nodded and walked through the kitchen to the other room. I tried to swallow the large lump in my throat. I watched the doorway, holding my breath until he reappeared shaking his head. “He’s not in there. He’s not in this house.”
“Thank God,” I said. “Thank God.”
“Where’s Jesse?” I was standing over Finn while Jack tied his hands behind his back. I was about an inch from his face. He spat at me. I calmly wiped my face with the back of my hand, then stood back and kicked him square in the forehead. His head snapped back. When he faced forward again, his eyes were wide.
“I said, where is Jesse?”
“You’re real tough when I’m tied up, aren’t ya, bitch?”
“I don’t need you tied up to kick the piss out of you, moron, believe me, but I want you to feel just as helpless as those women you snuffed out while they were tied up. Now tell me where my brother is because I’m just getting warmed up here.”
“You’d better tell her, asshole. She’s not fucking around.” Jack walked to Finn’s feet. He squatted down and began tying them tightly together.
“Fuck you!” Finn screamed, spittle flying from his mouth.
Jack winced at him and slowly shook his head. “That’s gonna cost you.”
I punched him hard on the side of the nose. The crunching sound was loud in the room. He screamed, ducking his head as blood poured from his nostrils. “You fucking bitch.” His voice sounded wet and nasal. “I’ll kill you.”
“Oh, you won’t be killing anybody else, Finn. That shit’s over.” Jack stood up straight, looking satisfied with his work.
Finn looked up at Jack with pleading eyes. “She’s crazy!”
“Yeah, I’m crazy, motherfucker.” I was an inch away from his face. “And I’ll pull every tooth out of your head if I have to. You will tell me where my brother is because you’d better believe that I’m enjoying the hell out of this.”
He stared at me with a seething hatred I recognized within myself when I stared back at him. “He’s obviously with Woodard,” I said. “So why don’t we start there. Where’s Woodard?”
Patrick stood in the doorway. “All the women are untied and sharing blankets from upstairs. We need to find them some clothes. Those blankets are rank. We can’t fit them all in the Jeep and Sharon’s car. What are we gonna do?”
Jack thought for a moment. “I know of a shelter that will send somebody to come and get them, no questions asked. They’ll bring clothes and take care of them.” He looked down at Finn as if he were looking at a pile of cow shit. “I’ll call them when we’re finished here. It won’t take long.”
And it didn’t.
It took fourteen minutes for him to tell us where Woodard and Jesse were. You can do a lot of damage in fourteen minutes.
We took care of Finn so that he’d never hurt another living soul. We took care of him so that he wouldn’t be going to prison, eating three square meals a day, having access to a weight room and most of the luxuries, if not more, than a person not living in prison would have.
We took care of him.
Afterward, Jack called his contact at the shelter and told her a fast version of what had happened to the Chinese women. Then we sat on the grass and waited for Jack’s friend from the shelter to come to pick up the Chinese women.
Jack had known Meagan for a long time. It turned out that he does a lot of work for the shelter. Then I always knew that Jack had a good heart. Its just not a fact he wants spread around.
Meagan hugged him when the women were safely in the van. “Thanks for calling us, Jack. At least we can start some kind of process to get them to Immigration. If they were just handed over to the police, they’d probably be going back to China. All of this would’ve been for nothing.”
“Couldn’t let that happen,” Jack said.
“We’ve had trouble with Finn many times before,” Meagan said. “You’ll take care of him, won’t you? Set things right?” There was a gleam in her eye.
“Already taken care of,” Jack said.
Meagan nodded, silent for a moment. “Good,” she finally said. “One down.”
After Finn had begun his begging, he told us that Jesse was being held at one of Woodard’s buildings. It was an old warehouse on Cherry Street. I’d seen the place before. It was usually occupied by squatters and homeless drug addicts. Finn had said that Woodard allowed them to stay as long as they didn’t tell anyone about what went on in there sometimes.
Will left with Sharon. He’d had enough for the evening. Jack asked him to stay with her at the shop. Even though Will was obviously not the bravest and most ferocious man on the planet, Jack didn’t want her being alone. I was certain Jack was aware of how tough Sharon actually was. He’d probably taught her to fight, just as he had me. And he’d most likely been the one to teach her about firearms. She could definitely take care of herself. When you love someone, you always worry.
I let them take Buddy, just as an extra precaution.
“At the very least, I’m sure Will could out-scream Sharon if it came right down to it. That’s liable to get someone to call 911.”
“He’s a good guy, he’s just not cut out for this,” Cal said. “I don’t know if anyone really is.”
“Oh yeah, Finn was. Woodard is,” Jack said.
“Yeah, but they shouldn’t be.”
Despite my jangling nerves, I had to smile at Callahan’s innocence. He really believed that everyone was born innately good. I didn’t know if this was true or not. All I knew at the moment was that there were a lot of bad people out there. Too many. You almost can’t throw a rock without hitting one, it seems. I didn’t know what made bad people do what they do. I didn’t know what turned the man who took my sister into the kind of man who would snatch a small child off the streets and drive away with her. Stealing her away from her family and snuffing her life out like a match in the wind.
I shuddered. I didn’t want to think of that. I didn’t want to think of it. No. Not at all. I shook my head to clear it and focused on the road as I drove the Jeep toward Cherry Street.
Nobody spoke. We were all so tired but still on edge about finding Jesse. I prayed that he was okay. But I was aware of how Woodard liked to play his little games. He’d left Amanda on Cherry Street for any and all predators in the area to prey on. I had no doubt in my mind that he’d left Jesse in the warehouse for any of it’s occupants to have fun with. I pushed my foot harder on the gas and hoped that we got there before anything happened to him.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Cherry Street was as it had been earlier in the night. Now the first purple light of dawn was rising and the same druggies and prostitutes were wandering the street the same way they had been before. Like zombies caught in this world, unable to pass on to the next. I kept my foot on the gas. I wasn’t slowing down for anything. Again, I had the creepy sensation of being watched. Hair was prickling on the back of my neck and on my arms. If th
e Jeep died for any weird reason, we were in deep shit. I looked at the gas gauge. There was quarter of a tank left. We’d be fine if we didn’t have to engage in any long, high-speed chases on this night.
All at once, my nose was assaulted by the smell of smoke. “What is that? Do you smell that?”
“Hell, yeah.” Jack peered through the windshield. “Something’s burning. Oh shit.”
“What?” I looked ahead of me, scanning the street. Then I saw it. The warehouse wasn’t within sight yet, but there were thick mushrooms of smoke pluming into the sky above it. Suddenly, the sound of sirens screaming out their warning became louder as the fire trucks and police cars shot by us.
“Holy shit,” Patrick said from the backseat.
“Oh, no,” Callahan breathed. “Leah, I don’t think you should go there.”
“It’s my brother, Cal!” I knew that was exactly why he thought I shouldn’t go there.
“No!” I screamed, hitting the steering wheel over and over. “NO!” I jammed my foot on the gas and the Jeep shot forward, speeding us toward the warehouse.
I couldn’t get past the police barricade. I jumped out of the Jeep and went running to the first cop I saw.
“My brother’s in there!” I yelled at him. “My brother’s in there!”
He held his hands out in front of him. “The firemen are getting everyone out of there now, miss. Just stand back.”
I looked at the warehouse. Windows had blown out and flames shot from them, licking up the sides of the building. The sound of the fire was deafening. It was a dull roar. The fire was completely out of control. Firemen were coming out with people who’d been in the building when it had caught fire. I looked toward the ambulance. It seemed as though a couple of people hadn’t made it. Two bodies were being covered and taken away by attendants wearing grim expressions.
Not Jesse!
I ran to the ambulance, started to climb into it, but was grabbed back by two strong arms.
“Jesse!” I screamed. “Jesse!”
Then my eyes fell upon a pair of high-top sneakers that only Jesse would wear. I looked up at the loose-fitting jeans and jean jacket. I ripped free of the arms that held me and ran toward Jesse.
It wasn’t Jesse. It was a horribly thin man with vacant eyes and a face covered in crack sores.
I grabbed him by the shoulders and screamed into his face. “Where did you get these clothes? Where is my brother?”
He shook his head, and when he opened his mouth to speak, I could see he had no teeth.
“Gone,” he said.
“Where?”
“Gone.”
“You mean he’s dead? Did he die in the fire?”
He shook his head slowly from side to side. “No, lady. The man took him away.”
“What man? He’s alive?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t tell.”
“You mean you won’t tell.”
“No, I don’t tell a lot of things. I couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive. I hadn’t seen him moving for awhile.”
“Oh, God,” I moaned, bending at the knees and trying to ride out a wave of nausea. “Oh, God.”
I felt a hand on my back. Even before I looked up, I knew it was Callahan. “You okay?”
“Woodard took Jesse somewhere.”
“Then he didn’t die in the fire.” His voice was hopeful.
“But we don’t know if he’s alive. This guy said he wasn’t moving.” I breathed deeply, trying to regain some sort of control.
“Hey, buddy,” Callahan said to the man. “You hungry?”
The man shook his head. “No. Not really. But I could always use some cash.”
Cal nodded once, understanding the man’s meaning. He needed the money for drugs. “Right. Okay. First we talk. Okay? I know you’ve got an agreement with Woodard about not telling what goes on here. It looks like he reneged when he torched your, uh, place of residence.”
The man grinned and shrugged. “Fine by me. Far as I’m concerned, the agreement is null and void. Always willing to start a new agreement with someone else. Gotta keep the options open, you know?”
“Right,” Cal said. “That’s what I figured.”
“So how did you end up with Jesse’s clothes?” I asked. We stood in front of the Jeep while Callahan pulled a couple of twenties out of his wallet and handed them to the man. Jack and Patrick leaned against the Jeep with their arms crossed, watching the man and waiting for an answer.
The man shrugged. “Lady, it’s a dog eat dog world out here. I saw him lyin’ over there out cold. I needed shoes. Somebody stole mine. So I took his shoes. I liked his jeans and jacket. I can always use a jacket.” He tilted his head toward the burning warehouse. “Gets cold at night in there. No heat, you understand.”
“Was he hurt? Bleeding?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. He just seemed really out of it. I think the man’s been keeping him pretty drugged up. I’ve seen him do that before. Likes to keep them quiet so there’s no trouble.”
I was way past impatient and having trouble holding myself back from breaking his face. “Who is them?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t ask. Others. Usually they don’t come back.”
I bit my lip. Panic was having its way with me and I felt like I was skating right on the razor edge of lucidity. It wouldn’t take much for me to run screaming into the night, pulling my hair out. I could just feel it. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Look, chum. If you know anything about where he took my brother, please tell me. Please. What will it take? More money?”
“Don’t give him any more money. He hasn’t told you shit as it is,” Patrick said.
The man shook his head slowly, almost sadly. “You wanna give me more money, I’ll take it. No amount of money in the world is gonna help you there, lady. Because I’m telling you, I just don’t know.”
* * *
We’d come to a dead end. Morning light beamed over the Jeep as I drove to Jack’s shop, but I felt like I was dying. I felt sure that if Jesse wasn’t dead already, he soon would be. My breath hitched twice in my throat as I choked back tears.
Jack put his hand on my arm. “Leah, he’s not dead. Not yet.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Jesse’s his last playing chip.” Callahan sat forward, and I could see his face almost next to mine out of the corner of my eye. I couldn’t look at either of them at that moment. Anything could make me cry, and if I started, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop. I needed to stay somewhat composed. For Jesse’s sake.
“Right.” Patrick gave a firm nod. “We took away Finn and the Asian women. All he has left is Jesse. He’s not gonna kill him yet. He’s going to make you sweat.”
“Oh, he’s doing a fine job of doing that.” My voice was thick with trapped tears.
I pulled into the driveway of Jack’s shop and parked the Jeep. I sat looking at the building, feeling utterly and completely lost.
“We’ll get him back, Leah. I promise you,” Jack said.
I’d heard that so many times already and I was desperately trying to hold on to any shred of hope. It wasn’t looking good. I nodded, unable to talk without sobbing.
“You wanna come in? Get some sleep?” Jack asked me.
I shook my head. I needed to go home. I needed to be close to Jesse. Close to his things.
“I’ll get Buddy for you.” He reached for the door handle.
I managed a quivering smile and watched him get out of the Jeep and go into the shop. Patrick patted me on the arm before climbing out of the backseat and following Jack. Callahan climbed out after him and stood by the open passenger door for Jack to reappear with Buddy before taking Jack’s place in the passenger seat.
The metaphor hit me all at once. Callahan didn’t seem to mind that he took a backseat to Jack, both figuratively and literally. I felt a twinge of guilt mixed with gratitude for this man, who had to be one
of the sweetest, most understanding men I’d ever met.
Jack came walking out of the shop with Buddy, who seemed to smile the minute he saw me. His smiling face calmed me immediately and I smiled back at him. Cal stepped aside while Buddy jumped into the Jeep, kissing my face and letting me hug him fiercely. “Oh, I love you too, baby,” I cooed in his ear. “That’s my good boy. Okay, love, into the backseat.” I snapped the fingers of my right hand over the backseat. Buddy hopped back there and sat up straight, happy to be going for a ride with me.
“You want me to drive?” Cal asked me.
“No. I’m fine.” Then I sighed. I wasn’t fine and I knew it. I was wrecked. I shouldn’t be driving in the state I was in. “Yeah. Okay.”
We both got out of the Jeep and switched places. Even though it was smart to let Cal drive, the act of giving up control to him, even with something as simple as driving my Jeep, left me feeling even more helpless.
It must’ve shown on my face because Callahan placed a hand on my thigh and squeezed lightly. “It’s just this once, Leah. You need to regroup so you’ll be able to more effectively kick ass later.”
I couldn’t help grinning at that. Instead of drawing attention to the fact that I’m an utter control freak, Callahan managed to somehow bring out the bright side of my maniacal behavior. Bless his heart.
We didn’t speak during the drive to my house. Maybe Cal thought that if he was quiet, I’d drift off to sleep. More likely, he was thinking the same thing that I was. Trying to figure out where Woodard had taken Jesse. I was so tired. I could barely string two thoughts together. And I was furious with myself for not being able to be more on the ball when Jesse needed me the most. I was furious with my body for betraying me when my brother’s life hung in the balance. The precious minutes that passed while I was unable to think clearly could make all the difference in whether Jesse lived or died. I just couldn’t think without sleep and there was nothing I could do about it.