Freeze Frame

by Judith Rochelle

  “Unfortunately, yes.” She cleared her throat, then said again, louder, “Yes. I know him.”

  “Is he the guy leaving you all those messages that upset you so much? The ones you didn’t want to tell me about?”

  “Of course she didn’t tell you,” Fontaine croaked.

  Without taking his eyes off Fontaine, Mike said, “Call Mark and get him down here right now. Take my phone and press three. That connects directly to him.”

  Her hands were shaking so badly it took her two tries to get the phone out and press the button. Then all she could say was, “Mark? We’re in Room Four on the business floor. Come quickly.”

  Fontaine was still struggling against Mike’s hold. ”She certainly ran fast enough from my bed to yours, the slut,” he rasped. “Whoever the hell you are, you got yourself a bad bargain.”

  Mike shifted his arm so his forearm lay firmly across the man’s throat, the thumb and forefinger of the other hand pinching hard on a pressure point where the shoulder and neck joined. “Did I tell you to shut up?”

  Fontaine’s face twisted in pain and rage. As he tried to croak out a response a knock sounded on the door.

  “Me,” Mark called from the hall.

  Kat hurried to let him in.

  Mark entered, gun in hand, Faith right behind him. His eyes quickly assessing the situation, Mark positioned himself on the other side of Fontaine while Faith put her arm around Kat and drew her away from the men.

  “This jackass giving you a problem?” Mark asked his partner in a deceptively low voice.

  “Not me. Kat.”

  “His name is Brent Fontaine,” Kat finally got the words out, both terrified and humiliated by the whole situation. She’d hoped to be able to tell this to Mike in the privacy of their room, not blurt it out this way in front of Mark and Faith. “I-I…dated him for a while.”

  She saw Brent open his mouth to try to comment but Mike pressed more firmly against the man’s windpipe. She was grateful for Faith’s arm around her and the woman’s obvious support.

  “Can you tell us about it?” she asked Kat in a soft voice.

  Kat swallowed hard, tightening her fists in her pockets even more. God, how did she get herself into things like this?

  “Mike, I…”

  “It’s okay, Kat.” Mike’s voice was quiet, in contrast to the obvious anger tightening his body. “It’s my fault too. Just get it out so we can decide what to do with this sack of shit.”

  “I met him at a party in Tampa after Mike and I…after we…that is… He was very charming and persistent. I…went out with him for a while, trying to forget…” She stopped.

  “Don’t worry about me, kitten,” Mike said. “I know right where you were at. Go on.”

  “But after a while I felt suffocated. He insisted I stop seeing my friends, spend all my free time with him. We went places he chose, did things he wanted to do.” She dropped her head. “Yes, I slept with him and I’m not very proud of it. I was just, you know, vulnerable.”

  Faith gave her an encouraging squeeze.

  “Then I woke up one morning and discovered I was letting him destroy me. I wrote a note telling him not to call me anymore, left his condo, went home and took a shower that lasted until the hot water ran out.” She sighed. “I was supposed to meet him, and leaving him with his bare face hanging out in front of his friends ignited his short fuse. I guess he just doesn’t want to take no for an answer. Mike, I’m so sorry. So, so sorry.”

  “Nothing to be sorry about,” he told her. “The whole thing was my mess, not yours.”

  “Nobody walks out on me,” Fontaine croaked. “I swore I’d make her pay and I intend to. You people don’t know what you’re involved with here.”

  Mike pressed harder on Fontaine’s windpipe. “What part of shut up don’t you understand? Mark, why don’t you call our friend Detective Wagner and tell him we have some trash for him to take out.”

  “Just a minute here,” Fontaine gargled. “Do you know who you’re dealing with?”

  “Yeah,” Mike snarled. “A very undesirable person.”

  Katherine was forcing herself to take deep breaths to steady herself but she couldn’t seem to stop her body from trembling. “Brent, I have to know. Did you follow me here?”

  “Follow you?” He was having a hard time getting the words out with Mike’s arm still threatening to crush his windpipe. “Don’t flatter yourself. But Fate delivered you to me just as it was meant to be. You should have answered my phone calls.”

  “That’s it.” Mike pressed his arm harder and Fontaine’s face turned purple.

  “Mike.” Kat broke away from Faith and tugged at Mike’s arm. “Stop. He’s not worth it.”

  “Wagner’s on the way,” Mark said, snapping his phone shut. “He’s coming himself. He asked me if we thought this asshole is involved in our other situation.”

  Kat watched Brent’s face fade from purple to pasty white at the announcement that the police were coming.

  “Wait a minute. Just wait a minute.” As Mike loosened his arm slightly, Fontaine dragged air into his lungs. He was still pinned to the wall but he was able to breathe better. “When the police get here, you’ll be sorry you called them. This is between Katherine and me. Who the hell are you people, anyway? I’ll sue you for every dime you’ve got.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” Mark drawled. “Who we are is people you don’t want to tangle with.” He grabbed a sheet of plain paper from one of the printers and wrote in big letters Out of Order. Tearing a strip off the scotch tape holder on the counter, he opened the door and taped the sign to the outside. “Okay, Mike. Sit him down in that chair over there. And you, Fontaine, don’t move if you want to live another minute.”

  Brent was deposited it in the chair still babbling and pushed into a corner, Mark standing next to him. Mike grabbed Kat and pulled her close to him, wrapping his arms tightly around her. His lips brushed her hair and he made soothing noises to her.

  “It’s all right, kitten. It’s all taken care of.”

  She still couldn’t stop trembling. “Mike, I’m so ashamed and embarrassed…”

  “Hey, hey, hey.” He pulled his head back and brushed his lips against her. “If I hadn’t taken off the way I did none of this would have happened. Blame me but not yourself. Okay?”

  “Do you really think he has anything to do with…what’s happening?”

  “I don’t know who you men think you are,” Fontaine croaked from the corner, “but you’re going to be sorry you ever met me.”

  Kat turned from the cradle of Mike’s arms and looked at him. “No sorrier than I am at having met you,” she told him.

  “I think we already told you to shut up,” Mark said in a deceptively casual voice. “You should take that advice. Now sit there and don’t move.”

  Kat was glad that Mike had subdued Brent to the point where he could do little else. Otherwise he would have been charging them like a raging bull. This was not a man who took anything like this lightly. His pride and his ego were more important to him than anything. She’d discovered that much too late.

  The knock on the door startled all of them. Mark pulled his gun from the small of his back and held it at his side as he called, “Who’s there?”

  “Detective Wagner. Someone in there call for trash pickup?”

  Brent Fontaine’s eyes had bugged out at the sight of the gun. As soon as Wagner was inside the room, he said, “Are you from the police? Arrest these men. They attacked me.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don’t worry. We’ll sort it out.” He looked at Mark. “So what’s the deal here?”

  “I think I can help you there.” As concisely as possible, Mike explained the situation, never taking his arms from around Kat.

  “A stalker, huh?” Wagner gave Fontaine a nasty look. “My wife had a stalker once. I have a very special place in hell for men like that.” He looked at Mark again. “You think he has anything to do with the kidnapping?”


  “Kidnapping!” Fontaine tried to push himself up from the chair. Katherine saw his face turn pale. “Now just a damn minute here. I don’t know anything about a kidnapping. I just wanted to teach this bitch a lesson.”

  “He could have done something like this as payback,” Mike suggested. “I’m willing to bet he has the resources to do it.”

  Fontaine made another effort to rise but Mark pushed him back in the chair. “I might agree with you on that.”

  “I don’t know anything about a damn kidnapping,” Fontaine squeaked. “I want my rights here.” He glared at Wagner. “I could have your badge for this.”

  Wagner stared at him a moment, then pulled open the door and waved in a uniformed cop who’d been waiting. He pointed to Fontaine. “Cuff that man and take him out to the car. If he gives you any lip, stuff your handkerchief in his mouth. Take him down the back way to where the car’s parked.”

  After a few frantic minutes a cursing Brent Fontaine was shackled and removed, his threats still echoing in the hallway as the two men moved toward the rear elevator.

  “Now.” Wagner looked at each of them in turn. “Let’s figure out if this guy’s vindictiveness is strong enough for him to pull off the kidnapping for revenge.”

  “I don’t think he’d do that,” Kat said hurriedly. “Brent would be more about one-on-one revenge.” She rubbed her head where he’d grabbed her hair. “He likes to inflict pain very personally.”

  She avoided the questioning look in Mike’s eyes, knowing he’d want every detail from her later. A conversation she wasn’t looking forward to. But it was finally out in the open, a burden that had lifted considerably.

  “It won’t hurt to see what we can get out of him, anyway.” Wagner opened the door. “I’ll call you later and give you an update. Miss Culhane, do you want to file a complaint against him?”

  “Yes, she does,” Mike answered for her.

  “Mike and I will discuss it, Detective.”

  “Okay. I can hold him for forty-eight hours, anyway. Make him uncomfortable enough so he’ll think twice about pulling the same stunt again.”

  “Now,” Mike said, when Wagner was gone, “let’s get that picture printed out. Kat, you think you can be calm enough to do this?”

  “I have to try. With Brent out of the way I won’t have the worry about him interfering with my thoughts.”

  “Okay, then. Let’s do it.”

  Chapter Nine

  The three men were having another conference call and it was a toss-up which of them was suffering the most anxiety. With the FBI now watching all of them, they’d each retreated to their respective rest rooms, returning the first call and waiting until they were all connected. It had been hell constantly switching telephones, using throwaways and having to send the numbers encrypted to each other. But with the FBI monitoring everything they couldn’t afford to take chances.

  “I don’t know what you two are bitching about,” Pelley said. “I’m the one who’s in the middle of all this.”

  “Yeah?” Ryan Post’s voice was scratchy from lack of sleep. “Well I got a call not half an hour ago that some agent would be at my doorstep any minute to ask me what I knew about my sister’s whereabouts. Now I’ve got not just him but someone hooking up tracers to all my communications equipment. Personal and business. I thought these guys were supposed to be discreet? Not make themselves so visible?”

  “Ryan, for god’s sake.” Pelley was exasperated. “They’re going to talk to anyone they can to see what information they can come up with. Anyway, it’s not as if they’re taking out a full page ad in the newspaper.”

  “I got a call, too,” Rand Prescott chimed in. “They tracked me down through my secretary and now they’re all over me. Listen, the best thing we can do is just cooperate and tell them we know nothing. That way our hands are clean.”

  “I’m just glad I’m not the one whose office they’re sitting in,” Post whined. “We still don’t tell them we each got the email, right?”

  “Right. We all agreed you’d be the front man, Ron and the logical point of contact. That way you can keep us informed of everything that’s going on. So why did you get us involved?”

  “Because if they found out on their own, we’d be in bigger trouble. And we’d all look bad. We talked about this, remember?”

  “I just wish to hell they’d tell us how to handle the ransom and this whole thing would be over with,” Post complained.

  “And your sister back safely,” Pelley added.

  “Yeah, yeah. Of course.”

  “Well, we have one more little problem to deal with.”

  “What?” Prescott was startled. “What the hell else could possibly happen?”

  “The people from the Phoenix Agency are sticking their noses into this thing because of Mari Culhane. Her sister’s having a fit.”

  “Phoenix? Who the hell are they?” Post asked, a bewildered tone in his voice.

  “Some people you don’t want to meet on a dark night,” Pelley told him. “The closest thing to a mercenary agency you’ll find. Except they also do black ops jobs for Uncle Sam. And they’re called in when the government has a situation it can’t handle. They’re all ex-military.”

  “Hell.” Ryan spit out the expletive. “We can’t let them start poking their noses into everything. All three of us have things we’d rather they not bring to light. Right?”

  The others agreed with him.

  “The FBI will take care of them.” Prescott’s voice was confident. “They’re very territorial and they don’t like freelancers invading their area.”

  “I don’t know. These guys are…different.”

  “Quit worrying,” Prescott snapped, “and get the money together. If you need help with that, let me know. Just be ready for the next email.”

  When they disconnected the call, two men sat back in their chairs, trying to ignore the anxiety gripping them. The third smiled at the ease with which the others were being played, yet at the same time had his own worries to deal with. If Nando took it in his crazy head to kill the hostages, they were all screwed.

  * * * * *

  Kat was still trembling when they all walked back into the suite she and Mike were sharing.

  “Kitten, you have to eat something,” Mike insisted. “You’ll never be able to get through a remote viewing session if you’re not at full strength.”

  “At least Brent Fontaine won’t be bothering you anymore,” Faith pointed out. “Thank god for that.”

  Kat blew out a breath. “That’s the truth.” She looked at Mike. “I know I should have told you about him before but we had just connected again after all this time and I wasn’t sure—”

  “Hush.” He smiled at her. “We can talk about it later. And let’s see what Wagner finds out about him too. Meanwhile let me order you a sandwich, take a minute to relax and then we’ll lay out the pictures and see what happens.”

  “Message from Andy,” Mark told them. He’d been checking his cell while they talked. “What’s up?” he asked into the phone. “Uh-huh. Yeah. Holy shit. Okay. Send them to Mike’s laptop. It’s already set up. Do it now.”

  Three sets of eyes turned to him.

  “Give,” Mike said.

  “Andy cracked the code on the emails sent to the three men. He said…” He stopped and looked at Kat.

  “Tell me,” she demanded. “I don’t care how bad it is. It’s worse than not knowing anything.”

  Mike put an arm around her and pulled her tight against his body.

  “Okay, here it is. There was video with each email showing the Wrights and Mari. They were holding a newspaper so the date was visible. The first message told them the hostages were unharmed and to watch for the next email.”

  “They’re alive.” Kat couldn’t hide her relief. “Thank god for that.” But then she saw the tight look on Mark’s face. “That’s not all, is it? There’s more. You can tell me, Mark.”

  “The second video showed them but th
is time…” He stopped, then started again. “This time Sydney Wright had a long cut on her face and Mari sported a wide bruise on her temple.”

  Kat leaned into Mark, determined not to show any weakness. Whatever it was, Mari was strong and would hang on until Phoenix could rescue them.

  “What did the second message say?” Mike asked.

  “They want ten million cash. Watch for the next email with instructions.”

  “You can bet they won’t ask to have it dropped off in a large suitcase. They’ll want a wire transfer and that may be what leads us to them.”

  Mark dropped his phone on the small table. “Possible, if Andy is ready to track it. He tried tracing the email back by hitting Reply and trying to send them a message but it just bounced back. I think they’re shutting it down on the other end once the email gets through. But I say we need to find them before the ransom drop. We have no assurances that…” Again he paused.

  “That they won’t kill the hostages,” Kat finished for him. “I’m well aware of that, Mark. And I’m going to do what I can to help you pinpoint their location.” She turned to Mike. “Order me my usual sandwich and a thick chocolate shake. I need sugar. I’m going to take a shower.”

  She turned on her heel and headed to the bedroom.

  “Well, she’s no shrinking violet,” Mark commented with a hint of a grin.

  “You can count on that,” his partner said.

  “I’d say she’s got strength she hasn’t even tapped yet,” Faith commented. “Mike, how on earth did you ever let her get away before?”

  Mike dropped into one of the big armchairs. “Because I was stupid. Idiotic. Out of my mind.”

  “And too wrapped up in your playboy image, right?” Mark accused, softening the words with a smile.

  “You got it. I’d been running so fast I didn’t realize I’d already gotten to where I was heading.”

  “You are so lucky she’s giving you another chance,” Faith pointed out.

  “Yeah but this little episode we’re involved in helped it along. I took her to dinner last night and I don’t know when I would have heard from her again if this hadn’t happened.”