Phelps used a pair of surgical scissors and carefully cut a straight line up the center of the bag to gain access to the body. Whilst he conducted his preliminary visual examination Finch paced up and down the alley trying to make sense of it all.
‘Why were the first two girls found alive Tariq and this poor girl’s been found dead?’
Tariq stood still and Finch was passing him every few seconds, he thought about the question and as he passed again by he said, ‘I don't think their prime objective was murder. We’re not dealing with a pedophile here, or a psychopath, it’s more organized and more complicated than that.’
Finch passed by, stopped, and turned to walk back to him again, ‘What is it then? It’s got me beat.’ He was looking at the ground and going away again, it gave Tariq time to put his theory together. He was back again in ten seconds.
‘Dr. Harper’s preliminary report on Tameka Achebe and Sofia Perez cited rape, sexual assault, call it what you will, as the only physical abuse sustained. They were not beaten, burned or cut in any way, ruling out any sadism or attempts to take their lives.’ Finch was gone again and back without saying a word. ‘I think Phelps will find evidence of the same kind of assault and the use of drugs to paralyze Jessica as apparent with the other girls.’
Finch stopped right in front of Tariq, ‘So why is she dead and not the others?’
‘Because it went wrong,’ Tariq said. ‘She may have been overdosed or something, and when he found she’d died on him, he panicked and dumped her body.’
Phelps strode across to where they were standing and removed his face mask, ‘Looks like an overdose Finch,’ Jones nodded in agreement.
‘Was she raped?’ asked Finch.
‘Oh yes. I’m afraid so.’
‘Any other injuries?’
‘No. Only a few cuts and bruises sustained when she was dumped here in the alley,’ said Jones.
Finch shook his head and pursed his lips, he was dreading telling Stone that it was the third girl, Jessica Wong, that was dead, it had to be done though and someone had to tell Jessica’s parents before the media got hold of it.
‘Thanks guys,’ said Finch. ‘I’ll break the news to her parents. And guys, make arrangements to have Jessica taken to our place, if Dr. Harper wishes to examine her, she’ll have to make a visit.
Mac passed through the entrance to the wharf side land that once upon a time used to thrive with goods being imported from around the world across the seven seas. These days most goods were transported by container ships but the principle was the same. The scale and distribution had grown logarithmically. He slowed down and turned off his headlights and checked the street names of every side road until he found East India Wharf. In between two lines of warehouses there were waterways and docks, the majority of them lay abandoned and empty.
Along one or two quaysides there were some medium sized ships with functioning loading derricks above them, probably for specialized goods, Mac thought. On his second pass on the other side of the spine road he found the road he was looking for. He parked up where he hoped he could look around without being easily spotted. There were five large old warehouse units on each side of the road that he had parked on, most of them were in darkness.
Some buildings still had lights on on the top floors, there was no number for the unit on the papers he copied from the house, so he figured he’d wait and watch for signs of activity or the vehicle he had seen back at the house. He wondered which unit Maloof was in
He dismissed the idea of walking around in the dark searching down alleys for nameplates or the SUV. Someone as devious and dangerous as Maloof would surely keep everything hidden away from prying eyes.
He had told Ramirez that he would wait for him and kept his cell phone on his lap in case he called. Mac was getting tired, it had been a long day and as he sat staring through the darkness his eyes were starting to close. He tried to fight it. Just a few winks, he thought. A few became too many.
Mac fell fast asleep.
Maloof was in one of the buildings across the road from where Mac thought he was safe, fast asleep in his car. He was in his top floor office and had summoned Abdul and Khaled to give him a report. He asked about Jamil Bashir and Abdul (Scarface) told him that everything had gone according to plan. He and Fazeel had disposed of the body as agreed, reduced it to a pile of ashes in the furnace down in the basement. Maloof acknowledged by saying ‘Good’ and could always rely on his two closest men, they had never let him down, not once in all the years they had worked together. However, Maloof was a stickler for detail and never left anything to chance, he wanted reassurance that they had made no traceable errors that might ruin the whole arms operation. On a table at the side of his desk were five small monitors linked to security cameras covering the entire circumference of the building.
‘You are sure you were not seen? Or followed? And left no trail behind, not even in the house?’ Maloof stood up and walked over to the window facing the roadside.
‘No. Absolutely not,’ said Abdul.
‘No.’ Khaled said also.
‘Then why has there been a vehicle parked across the road for the last twenty minutes? Why have you done nothing about it? Sort it out. Now,’ he barked.
Chapter 61
As Finch reached the car he got a call from the precinct, the caller had asked for Senior Detective Ramirez but the duty sergeant hadn’t been able to reach him, he patched the call into Finch’s cell phone as he was opening up the car door. He stood leaning against the car with his arms resting on the roof.
‘Dr. Harper? This is Detective Finch, Ramirez’s partner, can I help you?’ Finch had lowered his head to look at Stone through the open window so that he could hear who he was talking to. Stone got out of the car and rested his arms on the roof also to listen in.
Finch said ‘Hello doctor’, and said ‘Uhuh’ twice and ‘I see’ once, ‘Well, can we come right now? We’ve just finished up assessing where the third girl, Jessica Wong’s body was found and according to Phelps, he’s CSI by the way, it looks like an overdose, she’s been sexually assaulted but there’s no signs of other serious physical trauma.’
‘ It’s Jessica Wong?’ Stone whispered loudly to Finch as he was still talking to Dr. Harper. Finch couldn’t break away from the call so he nodded back to Stone. Stone took it bad, he stormed off away from the car, Tariq followed to try and console him.
Finch continued, ‘Yes, yes Dr. you can see her, she’ll be in our ME facility at the precinct. Yes. So, the first two girls are out of danger and able to talk, good. We’ll be right over, thank you doctor.’ He closed his phone as Stone and Tariq arrived back at the car. No one spoke; Stone got back into the passenger seat doing his best to hide the inner turmoil that was boiling away inside him.
‘Tariq, the girls are well enough to be interviewed, we’ll have to get over there...’
‘I’ll do it, don’t worry, I’ll go see Jessica’s family.’
‘Thanks buddy. Stay in touch, we’ll be back soon as, okay?’
‘No sweat.’
Tariq sped off to Jessica’s home address and Finch headed over to the hospital.
Mac awoke roughly to feel two strong hands dragging him by his lapels out of the car, he’d forgotten to lock the door and in the struggle his cell phone fell into the foot well. Abdul had underestimated how big Mac was, the cold air filled Mac’s nostrils and after his first full breath he was wide awake and he responded by grabbing the guy’s throat until he was struggling for breath. Although at full height, Mac was now inches from the scarred cheek of Abdul the bomber and Mac shouted ‘Hey, you’re the bastard I’m looking for you tried to...’ Those were the last words he got out. Khaled slugged him from behind with his gun and Mac dropped raggedly to the ground.
‘Get him inside, down to the basement,’ Abdul ordered.
They each took arms and legs but he was far heavier than they expected. There was a change of plan.
‘Drag him.’
When they reached the building Abdul propped Mac’s back up against the wall. One of them opened the doors and they were having some kind of an argument in Arabic, Mac was a little too hazy to take it in.
His thoughts were about survival.
Whilst they were busy talking he slipped his hand into his coat pocket and with something that he always carried around through force of habit, he put his hand behind his back and scratched something on the wall. They noticed he was moving around, Khaled bent down slightly and pistol whipped his chin.
Mac was out cold once more.
It could have been ten minutes later, or it could have been ten hours, Mac had no idea. His head was slumped forward, his chin against his chest. He was vaguely aware of voices in the distance that faded completely after he heard the sound a steel door creaking and clunking shut.
When he could summon up enough energy to open his eyes, he saw his feet, they were tied to a chair with wide leather straps, fastened with buckles. He was then aware that his hands were tied in the same way down to each chair arm. He couldn't move an inch because the rest of his body was strapped inside a large vest-like belt which was also buckled securely to the chair. It was no ordinary chair, he thought, and then he noticed the patches of dried blood all around the chair on the ground.
It was obviously a torture chair.
His head throbbed and he could feel that the blood from the first wound had dripped onto his neck. He felt around his mouth with his tongue, counting his teeth and tasting blood from the second lash from the handle of Khaled’s pistol.
The room was dimly lit and cold, he could smell fumes or smoke and raised his head a little and realized where he was.
It was a basement. He could see a furnace to his left and turning his head to the right he saw a workbench with a vice and tools hanging on the wall. Water dripped from the vaulted-brick ceilings into puddles on the stone floor. The water mixed with patches of oil making rainbow colors. He tried as hard as his body would allow but he couldn't move. His feet and hands were bound too tight. Any movement, however small, intensified the pain pulsing through his head and jaw.
Mac hadn’t seen his search for Maloof ending up with him as a prisoner, chair bound and helpless. He thought about Ramirez, who was on his way, walking into the same treatment, but had no way of warning him.
His last hope, before losing consciousness again, was that the ominous looking tools on the bench and hanging on the wall were just for maintenance.
In the elevator on the way up to the tenth floor of Queens Hospital Center Finch reminded Stone that it was a very sensitive situation, he acknowledged that he is a father of one of the girls missing, but the two girls that they were going to talk to had been through a harrowing experience and he told Stone to leave most of the talking to him. Stone understood.
Dr. Harper was waiting for them as they arrived in her trauma suite and updated them on the girl’s progress and state of mind.
‘Detective Finch, the girls are in a very vulnerable condition right now. Since recovering from the effects of the barbiturates we have not told them yet fully what happened to them whilst they were ‘asleep’,’ she said. ‘They’re young and although they have been seriously sexually assaulted, to the extent that their whole outlook on sex and men will be affected, they will not yet fully comprehend it all. That will dawn on them in the next few years and they will need a lot of therapy and counseling. Please restrict your questions to those that will help you with your investigation and don’t...don’t whatever you do, talk about abuse or the perpetrators, do you understand?’
‘Yes Doctor, fully. I’d like it if you accompanied us to explain to them why we’re here and that we are trying to find the other girls.’
‘Certainly Detective.’
Tameka and Sofia were in adjoining beds in the same room and were sitting up talking to their parents. Dr. Harper made the introductions and Finch sat on a chair in between the beds so that he could talk to both of the girls at the same time. Stone stood a little way back and rested his elbow on a cabinet at the back of the room.
The room looked more like a child’s bedroom than a hospital ward, the families had decorated the walls with their favorite pop stars and movie heartthrobs and they had games and laptops lying on the side tables for when they were able to relax, to take their minds off of the situation. Flowers adorned the nightstands beside their beds and noticeably, the TV sets that usually sat on shelves near the ceiling, had been removed.
The girls appeared remarkably well considering their ordeal and as Dr. Harper had said, the full severity of the abuse will not kick in for some time. Tameka was laughing and joking with her little sister and Sofia was reading a magazine article about fashion to her mother.
‘Girls, I’m so pleased to see you’re both looking so well, do you think you could answer one or two questions for me?’
Tameka’s smiling face quickly became more subdued and she threw a furtive glance to her mother. Sofia appeared to take the question more in her stride and said, ‘I guess.’
‘Good, good,’ said Finch. ‘We’re trying to find out where you were taken to. Both of you, can you remember anything about the car or the journey or...’ Finch hesitated a little and looked at Dr. Harper as he asked, ‘The people who you went with?’ Dr. Harper nodded to allow the seriousness of the question.
Tamika fiddled with her hair that she had tied back in a pony tail and then looked across at Sofia.
‘The lady was so nice...I don’t remember about the vehicle, it was big...and black, you know, just a car. But when the lady was talking to me, she had something in her hand and...I fell asleep.’
‘That’s great Sofia, you’re doing brilliantly,’ said Dr. Harper. They all looked at Tamika. She shuffled around in her bed.
‘I, I can’t remember anything at all...’ she started to cry. He mother gave her a tissue and hugged her around the shoulders.
‘That’s okay, really, we’ve got plenty of time Tamika, just relax, okay? It’s over.’ Dr. Harper was trying to relieve Tamika of the obvious terror she was feeling trying to recall the horrific details.
She recovered a little and said, ‘Like Sofia said, I do remember the lady and the car. She didn’t say her name. After that, nothing. Nothing at all. I’m sorry.’
Finch thought it was a blessing that they couldn’t remember anything after that moment.
‘Good. Thank you girls. You’ve been very helpful. I think that’s all for now.’
Finch walked over to Dr. Harper and they huddled out of earshot of the girls to talk. They agreed that to press the girls anymore would be traumatic and it was clear that whoever had drugged them made absolutely sure that they would recall nothing of their whereabouts. They’d been deviously clever to ensure the location was impossible to find.
Dr. Harper told the girls to relax and Stone and Finch said goodbye and turned to leave the room. A helicopter passed overhead, the rotors made a thudding noise as they chopped the air. As it grew nearer the waves of sound could be felt inside the room. Tameka shrieked and put her hands over her ears, Sofia shouted out, ‘What it is, it’s happening again, stop it, stop the noise.’
Finch stopped in the doorway and looked at Dr, Harper, he returned to the girl’s bedside.
‘What is it Sofia, have you heard that noise before?’
‘Yes, yes.’
‘Where Sofia, where have you heard it?’ Finch turned to Dr. Harper and told her he had to find out, it might be something, there’s still two more girls whose lives are at stake, he said. She nodded reluctantly.
‘I don’t know, make it stop.’
Dr. Harper pulled Finch to one side, Stone listened in, she said that it must be related to their abuse, even if they were drugged and semi-conscious, their brain would associate the noise with the experience, she said.
‘Tameka, do you remember it too?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘And the ground was shaking.’
‘At the same time as the helicopter noise?’
‘No. At other times,’ Tameka said.
‘Girls you’re being so brave, this is very helpful to us. Is there anything else, anything you remember hearing?’
The girls were sobbing but seemed to be over the worst, they were sniffling and trying to think, Sofia said, ‘Bells. Just for a minute. But lots of times.’
‘Tameka?’
‘Yes. I remember them too.’
‘Church bells, doorbells, what kind of bells?’
‘Like the ones on the train crossings,’ said Sofia.
‘Yes, that’s it. That’s what it sounded like,’ added Tameka.
Finch and Stone thanked the girls again and left the room with Dr. Harper. She closed the door behind her and said it was quite usual for victims of serious trauma like rape to have recall of something in the background, like a train or a helicopter, and then associate it with the event, she was sure that the noises were closely related to the location where they had been held.
‘We’ve got something here, let’s get back to see Tariq and figure this out,’ said Finch.
They thanked Dr. Harper and left the hospital buoyed by the information thrown up from the girl’s painful recollections. Finch called ahead to give Tariq something to think about until they arrived back at the precinct.
Stone tried to call Mac several times, but each time got no answer.
Chapter 62
Scarface and Khaled reported back to Maloof and told him that they had the driver of the suspect car down in the basement and asked Maloof what they should do with him.
DEAD MAN'S JUSTICE - A Place of Evil (Stone & McLeish Thriller Series of Stories Book 2) Page 26