by Jessie Cooke
“Hi,” Ava said softly. He didn’t say anything; he just continued to stare at her. He had light brown freckles across the bridge of his nose…just like her. It was surreal to look at a genetic copy of herself when she had learned not to consider herself a mother so many years ago. Brian nudged him again and said:
“Say hello to your mother.” The hurt that flashed in his eyes…no doubt memories of the woman who truly was his mother…pierced Ava’s heart like a knife.
“Hi,” he finally managed. Her heartache was like hot coals inside her chest. It glowed and burned from the inside out…all at once. This was her child—she made him and she would not forsake him again.
When Noah got back to the office, he fired up the computer and started his search for murders in Half Moon Bay the week before. It was a nice place. There was only one, and it was a double murder and kidnapping. The people who were killed were Scott and Amanda Quinn. Their son, Aiden, was nine years old. The couple were shot in their bed and discovered by the housekeeper the next morning. The boy was unaccounted for and never showed up for school. He was described as having dark red hair, green eyes, and freckles. He was four feet nine according to school records and weighed about eighty pounds. He would have been easy to abduct. Noah clicked on the S.F.P.D. link for his picture, and although he had expected it, he still felt the lump in his throat when it loaded. He was a tiny replica of Ava. He actually looked just like Daniel. Fuck!
Noah picked up the phone and pressed in a number. A few rings and “This is Meg.” He hadn’t spoken to Meg since the night they’d spent naked on the beach, so he wasn’t sure if she’d help him, but it was worth a shot.
“Hi, Meg, it’s Noah.”
“Oh, you are alive.”
“Um, yeah. I guess I owe you an apology.”
“For what? Getting me to have sex on a public beach…something no other man would ever be able to talk me into…and then never calling me again? Don’t be silly.”
“I’m sorry, Meg…I really am…”
“Are you in the program and making amends or what?”
“No. A good friend of mine is missing. She was taken by a very dangerous man and the longer she’s gone, the less chance there is that the police will find her…”
“You need my computer skills.”
“Yes.”
“Tell me why I should help you.”
“Because you’re a better person than me.”
“Damn! That was a good answer. Shit! What do you need?”
“I need a list of properties owned by Triton Enterprises or any of their subsidiaries in California, and Arizona.”
He heard a heavy sigh and she said, “When?”
“Right now.”
“You’re something,” she said. “Give me ten minutes. I’ll email it to you.”
“Thank you, Meg.”
“You’re still an ass and you’re not forgiven, Noah. It’s just that you’re right. I am a better person than you.” She hung up and he waited. He researched Triton while he did. There didn’t seem to be anything sinister about the company or the family. The daughter, Patty, just had bad taste in men. Maybe he should tell Meg that it could be worse. The email alert on his computer went off and he opened the email from Meg. There was a list of about five hundred properties in front of him. He was trying hard not to be discouraged, but the sick feeling in his stomach was getting worse instead of better. Trying to focus, he began weeding out the companies, restaurants, hotels, and bars that Triton had invested in or rented out. He cut and pasted until he had only residential properties in front of him. There were twenty of them in Phoenix, six in L.A., two in San Francisco, including the one the police had already been to, and another dozen or so around Fresno. Noah pulled up Google Maps on the computer and separated the properties in Phoenix, mapping out a route from his location to each one of them with the shortest distance in between. It was a long shot, and it would take him two days at least…but he had to do something. He would lose his mind just sitting there. He printed out the list of addresses and had a thought before he headed out. He called Jace.
“Hey, Jace, it’s Noah. I don’t know if we’re good enough friends yet for me to be asking favors, but I can pay you…”
“What do you need?” Jace asked. Noah quickly laid out what was going on and then said:
“I have twenty possible locations in front of me and it would take me at least two days to check them all out. About half of them are located up near the reservation…”
“Send me the list. We’re on it.”
“Thanks, Jace. Like I said, I can pay…”
“You get the friends and family discount,” Jace said. “Send me the list.”
Noah ended the call, text the list to Jace as quickly as he could, and then headed out. The first house on his list was in a poor neighborhood and he had to wonder why a company worth billions would invest in becoming slumlords. The house was at the end of a cul-de-sac and there was a small, dirty, blonde-haired girl playing in the front yard. She couldn’t have been over three years old, but her parents weren’t around anywhere. Noah walked up to the gate and she ran inside. A few seconds later a girl who couldn’t have been over seventeen peeked out the front door, holding a baby on her hip. The little girl was wrapped around her leg. He went in through the fence and approached the door, hoping she wasn’t carrying a gun in the tiny jean shorts she was wearing.
“Who you looking for?” she said.
“Brian Zane,” he told her.
“Brian ain’t been by here today.”
Excited, Noah asked, “You know who he is?”
“Yeah, he’s my landlord. He ain’t been by here, though, since the first, to collect the rent.” So Brian was the slumlord. It made sense.
“Do you have a number to reach him…you know, like in an emergency?”
“I got his cell number,” she said.
“Can you give it to me? I live in one of his houses and my bathroom sink is leaking and flooding the floor. I need to get a hold of him right away, but he’s not answering the number I have.”
She looked Noah over and said, “You rent from him?” suspiciously.
“Yeah…why do you seem surprised?”
“Brian Zane has a reputation around here. He only rents to women…young women, if you know what I mean.” Noah was afraid that he did, and it made him sick to think about it.
“Okay, fine. I don’t rent from him. I’m looking for my sister. She’s been on the streets, but I heard she got a place and Brian’s name came up as her landlord.”
“How old is your sister?” This girl wasn’t going to make this easy.
“She’s twenty-two.”
“She a tweaker?”
“Maybe, why?”
The girl shrugged and said, “Another type Brian goes for. Just a sec.” She closed the door and Noah waited. A few seconds later she came out with a card. Brian’s name wasn’t on it; it said: Manny Diaz. “He does the repairs for Brian,” she said, and then she laughed. “Mostly with duct tape and baling wire, as you can see. He’s a decent guy, though. He might know how to find Brian.”
“Thank you.” She looked Noah up and down again and said:
“I could use more than words.” Noah took out his wallet and handed her a twenty. “Thank you,” she said as she closed the door.
When he got back in the car he called Manny Diaz. “Hello?”
“Hi, Mr. Diaz, my name is Noah Campbell. I was trying to reach Mr. Zane.”
“What for?” he asked.
“I have a sister who may have rented a house from him. It’s really her I’m looking for.”
“Well, I don’t know the names of his renters…but I hope your sister isn’t one of them.”
“Why’s that?”
“Let’s just say Brian is not going to win any landlord of the year awards.”
“Do you know how I can get a hold of him?”
There was a long pause and then he said, “Did you try his cell
?” Searching his memory desperately, Noah pictured the paper in Hayden’s office that had Brian’s number on it. All he could remember were the first three numbers. “The 707 number, right?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“I have tried that, several times. He doesn’t answer and now today it’s off. What about his tenants, what if there is an emergency?”
“They call me,” he said.
“And what if you need to get a hold of him?”
“I call his backup number, which I am not allowed to give out.”
“Mr. Diaz, I can pay you for that number. Please, I need to find my sister and bring her home. She came here naïve and impressionable and last time I heard, she was turning tricks down by the train station.” Noah just described his own sister almost to a “T”.
“Send it to my bank?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
He tried to remember how much he had in his checking account. It wasn’t a lot…but he could dip into his savings if he had to. “Five hundred dollars?”
“The account is at B of A and the account number is: 7713445G.” Noah wrote that down and then Manny gave him the routing number and said, “I’ll call you back at this number after the money makes it to my account.” He hung up. Damn it! Noah started the car and headed to his next destination. When he got there he found another ramshackle house, so close to a train track it would have to sway on its foundation when a train went by. Before he got out of the car, he pulled up his banking app and transferred the money. Then he tucked the phone in his pocket and went up to the house. This one was obviously not being lived in. There was a “condemned” sign on the door from the city. Noah was going to go in anyway and look around when a text came through on his phone. It wasn’t a phone number. Instead it said: “He’s at this address now. It’s the best I can do.” Noah looked at the address and compared it to his list. It was number eight. He didn’t text Manny back; he could assume that Noah was happy with his work.
14
Ava’s son’s name was Aiden and he was in the fourth grade. It took her almost half an hour to get him to tell her that much. Brian left them alone, saying he had to take care of some things, and she was almost as terrified of being alone with Aiden as she had been with Brian. It was for different reasons, obviously. She felt like he deserved to hate her…but if she heard him say it, she was afraid her heart would break.
As soon as she heard the deadbolt turn and Brian’s footsteps retreat, she looked at Aiden and said, “I need your help.”
“For what?” he asked, suspiciously.
“That man…Brian, …he’s very sick. We need to get out of here.”
Aiden looked frightened and said, “He said if I tried to leave he’d kill me.”
“Aiden, he is definitely a dangerous man. I understand why that would frighten you. But I’m afraid we’d be in greater danger staying here than if we find a way out. At least out there we can find help. In here, we’re at his mercy.”
“What do you want me to do?” he asked.
“I’m going to put you out the window. Then, I want you to slide down off the roof and start running. Run as far and as fast as you can and find someone with a phone. Tell them to call the police and tell them where you are. Can you do that for me, Aiden?”
“Yeah…I guess. Where will you be?”
“I’m going to try to follow you. But if Brian follows us, I’m going to distract him so you can get away, okay?”
He nodded. Ava went over to the window and slid it up as quietly as she could, wondering why Brian wasn’t worried about them going out that way. She knew when she got a good look outside. The flat part of the roof that she could see was about five feet below the steep slope from the window. Ava wasn’t even sure that she could make it down without a broken bone or two. Aiden would probably break his little neck.
“Maybe not such a good idea,” she said. Aiden was standing next to her. He looked out and then down at the slope.
“I could do that,” he said.
“No, it’s too steep. I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you.”
“Are you really my mother?” he said suddenly.
“Yes. I really am. I’m so sorry…for everything.”
“It seems more like it’s his fault,” he said jerking his head towards the door. “He’s not a nice man. I don’t believe he’s my father. He’s nothing at all like my real father.” The little boy got tears in his eyes. Her heart hurt so badly for him.
“He’s not a nice man. I’m so sorry.”
“Is that why you gave me away?”
The tears were burning my own eyes as she said, “I was scared. I was afraid that I didn’t know how to take care of you. I hoped that I’d be giving you a better life if I let someone adopt you.”
One of the tears in his little eyes escaped and rolled slowly down his cheek. “I loved my mom and dad. They were a good mom and dad and I miss them so much.” The poor boy dissolved into hiccupping sobs. Ava nervously put her arms around him and when he stepped in and put his little head against her chest she felt her heart swell ten sizes. She held him and petted his hair and told him it would be okay until he was finally able to stop crying. When he stood up straight, he swiped at his face and said, “You think he’s going to hurt us, right?”
“I’m afraid of what he might do, yes.” Ava wasn’t sure if she should be sharing that with a nine-year-old, but he seemed too perceptive to lie to.
“Then I should risk the jump.”
Noah sent Jace a text, just so they wouldn’t waste their time. He put the address of the house he was going to in the text, just in case, and then he drove seventy miles an hour through the residential streets of the east side of Phoenix until he found the street he was looking for. He made the turn the GPS told him to take and the second house on his right was his destination. He drove past it and parked around the corner. As he was walking back, he saw the most incredible thing. A little red-haired boy was stepping out of the upstairs window. He was holding onto a pair of arms, but Noah couldn’t see who they were attached to.
Noah looked at the roof and the drop he was going to have to make and said a little prayer that the kid’s bones were as flexible as he’d heard they were. Noah was too far to yell at him to stop, or to get there before he fell. But the little booger tucked and rolled and almost ended up falling another ten feet off that part of the roof to the ground, but he grabbed onto a stove pipe and was now dangling from it, half on and half off the roof. Noah glanced back up at the window and had to smile…Ava was leaning out, trying to see the boy. Noah was already jogging, partly because he knew as soon as Ava saw the boy dangling, she’d be out the window too. He got to the spot right underneath where the boy was and in a loud whisper he said:
“Aiden?” He realized almost right away that he should have put more thought into it. He startled the boy so badly that he let go. Noah heard Ava scream out Aiden’s name just as Noah caught him and they both hit the ground. The boy scrambled up quickly and tried to take off but Noah caught him and held on. “Aiden, shh! Listen to me. I’m a friend of Ava’s. I’m here to help.” He stopped struggling and Noah let go of him. He heard another yelp from above them and Aiden was off like a shot down the street. Noah heard the smack of a fist against flesh and a sound that he thought came from Ava. It made his stomach lurch. Aiden would be okay for now; Ava wasn’t.
Noah pulled out his gun and went around to the front door. A girl was on the porch in the swing. She was probably twenty or twenty-one and she looked like a meth addict with her stringy hair and sores all over her face and arms. She was asleep. Noah tried the front door but it was locked. He shot off the lock and went inside. As he ran up the stairs, he realized that everything had gone silent.
He passed two rooms with open doors. The last door on the left was closed and faced the right direction for the window that he’d seen Ava in. Knowing she was alive was fueling his adrenaline. Hearing the sound of that
animal putting his hands on her fueled his homicidal side. The door was locked but Noah shot that lock off too. Hopefully one of the neighbors had called the cops by now…but in this neighborhood, it was doubtful. Kicking the door open he saw Brian clutching an unconscious Ava in front of his chest like a shield with his right arm. His left arm was aiming a nine-millimeter at Noah’s head.
“Noah Campbell, I presume?”
“You are one ball-less son of a bitch, aren’t you? First, you kill a girl to get me to leave Ava alone because you’re not man enough to come at her with me around…and now you’re trying to use her as a shield. Why didn’t you shoot me when I came in the door, Brian? Is there something wrong with your gun?” Brian pulled the trigger. It missed Noah’s head by less than an inch. Brian had intended to just miss; he smiled and said:
“I want her to be awake when I kill you, so she can watch.”
Noah let his eyes flicker over Ava. Her face was already beginning to swell. The bastard had knocked her unconscious and he was still trying to think of ways to torture her. Noah was going to kill him…slowly.
“All this for a woman who doesn’t want you, and a little boy who will always despise you for what you did to his parents?”
“They weren’t his parents! I’m his father and Ava is his mother.”
“He was adopted, though, all legal and everything. Last I heard that made them his parents.” Ava was beginning to move. This was either Noah’s death, or his opportunity. He was pretty sure that he could shoot Brian in the head from where he stood…but that would be such a quick death that he was hesitant. Ava moved again and as Brian tried to hold her up with the one arm, he let the other one drop, just slightly, and Noah pulled the trigger. The bullet hit Brian in the top of his shoulder, and forced him to drop the gun, and Ava.