Scottsdale Squeeze: a romantic light-hearted murder mystery (Laura Black Mysteries Book 2)

by B A Trimmer

  “The truck’s early,” I said. “I heard it wasn’t supposed to get here until one o’clock. It can’t even be noon yet.”

  “After they unload the truck, I wonder what they’ll do with us,” she said, still with the dreamy sound to her voice.

  “They’ll probably take us back to the house where they had you. I can’t see why they’d want to hurt us.”

  I was trying to be brave for both of us but I was actually starting to get a terrible feeling about all of this. Carlos now had the document and Jackie was already listed as missing. He could simply kill us and still have everything he was after.

  THIRTEEN

  We sat in the dark storage room for another fifteen minutes. Carlos had left the office when the truck arrived but now he’d come back. We heard his voice on the phone as he talked to someone in rapid-fire Spanish and then as he yelled at one of his men about something. Finally, the noise in the outer office dwindled down to background talking and all we could do was sit there and wait.

  Five minutes later, we heard a frantic commotion coming from somewhere beyond the loading dock. We heard men yelling from far away but it quickly got louder and closer. I made out the words fuego and incendio. I looked over at Jackie with a questioning look.

  “Something’s on fire,” she calmly said. “I wonder what it could be.” I could see that all of the emotions had been drained out of her and she had mentally gone into a quiet and private place. I sometimes envy people who can do that.

  The yelling had caused everyone in the room outside to become silent for several seconds as they listened. Then everyone started talking and yelling at once. We heard the sound of chairs scraping against the floor as everyone in the room seemed to scramble and go into action at the same time.

  In the distance, probably even outside the building, we heard the sound of gunshots. I heard Carlos yelling loudly in Spanish, fury in his voice. The voices then receded into the warehouse.

  Within a few seconds the shipping office seemed to empty out and everything was silent. I heard some shouting in the distance and there may have been a few more gunshots.

  I started to get a bad feeling. Carlos had said if there was even the hint of police involvement, he would kill Jackie and me first, and ask questions later. I had believed him when he had told me this on the phone. Now that we were here, handcuffed in a dark storage room in a dingy warehouse, his words were really starting to form a cold chill in my heart. My pulse was racing and my breathing was fast. When I looked over at Jackie, I could see her eyes were wide and she was also panting with fear.

  The room outside had been quiet for almost two minutes when we heard footsteps in the outer office. I quickly realized they were heading for the storage room and we were helpless.

  I got to my feet and frantically looked around for some kind of weapon. There were boxes and papers everywhere, but nothing I could use to defend myself, even if my hands weren’t cuffed behind my back.

  Shit.

  From outside, footsteps came to the door, and then stopped. I knew if Carlos was standing there when the door opened, we would probably be killed.

  I positioned myself in front of Jackie. If Carlos was about to kill us, I’d at least get one good charge at him first. I took a deep breath and held it.

  Shit.

  The handle of the door wiggled back and forth but it was still locked and it would not turn or open. There was another pause and then a loud crash as the door was kicked in.

  Shit.

  I looked in the doorway and saw Max casually walk into the storage room, a pistol in his hand. He was dressed in a loose black turtleneck and black slacks. Behind him in the outer office, I saw Gabriella. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was dressed in a skin tight, black leather jumpsuit with blood red trim. Her Uzi was in her hands and her face had a light pink glow. She was smiling with a weird look of erotic anticipation.

  What is up with that?

  “Let’s get you both out of here,” Max said. His voice was deep and steady, but there was a definite urgency about it. “It looks like about half of the police in Scottsdale will be here soon. Tony was worried Carlos might want to take that fact out on you two.”

  Max helped Jackie up and walked us back into the shipping office. It was probably a good thing my hands were still cuffed behind my back. With the way I was feeling, I probably would have wrapped my arms around Max and not have let go. True, I was scared half to death and Max had just saved us but it was more than that. Even though we were handcuffed and trying to escape from some seriously bad guys, I couldn’t help but notice how good Max looked and even how great his cologne smelled. It seemed to awaken an urge in me having nothing to do with romance. It was more about animal passion.

  Jeez, what’s wrong with me?

  Max had led us to the door leading out of the shipping office when I had a sudden thought.

  “Wait, there is a paper in that blue folder on that desk,” I said, using my elbows to point to the desk Carlos had been using. “I need it.”

  With a look of exasperation on Max’s face, he hurried over to the desk and opened the blue folder. I was relieved when I saw the document was still in it. Carlos must not have had enough time to do anything with it.

  Max quickly folded the document in half, then in half again. He shoved it in the back pocket of my pants and then he hustled us out of the office. I heard the shouting of men in the distance and could smell something burning. It was giving off a terrible plastic and gasoline odor.

  Max took the lead with Gabriella guarding our rear. She had a big smile and the pink glow on her face had turned into more of an erotic red blush. I could see her breathing was becoming faster as she scanned the area, looking for men to shoot.

  Max cautiously led us out through the empty warehouse and into a front office area. There didn’t seem to be any power in this part of the building and the only light was coming from a couple of dirty skylights. There were about a dozen cubicles and several nice offices. The offices all had doors with big glass windows so you could easily see into each one. Max tried two of the offices and found they were both locked. On the third office, the door was unlocked. Max opened the door and led us in.

  “OK, stay in here,” he said. “You should be out of harm’s way and this’ll be a good place for the police to find you. There’s no reason any of the bad guys should come up here but lock the door and stay hidden behind the desk anyway, to be safe. Sorry about the handcuffs, but it will add credibility to your story.”

  “You’re taking off?” I yelled, panic rising in my voice.

  “Sorry gorgeous, it can’t be helped.”

  And then he bent down and kissed me. As soon as his lips touched mine, all thoughts of bad men, and guns, and death faded into the distance. All I could think about was Max and how wonderful his kisses made me feel.

  And then Max was gone and we were alone again.

  “Who was that?” Jackie asked.

  Shit. What do I tell her?

  “Umm, I’m guessing one of Carlo’s men must have a change of heart and wanted to help us get away.”

  “Well, he was cute, whoever he was. And why didn’t he kiss me too? Although, the woman with the machine gun and S&M outfit was a little terrifying. I don’t understand what’s going on but she looked like she was enjoying herself.”

  You don’t know the half of it.

  We managed to lock the door then went around to the far side of the desk. We sat on the floor to be less obvious to anyone who was walking through the outside room. There was a battery-powered clock on the wall and we watched as it slowly went to one o’clock, then to one-oh-five, then to one-ten.

  At one-fifteen, a series of loud noises came from the direction of the warehouse. We heard several loud thuds, bangs, and crashing sounds, as if metal doors were being ripped off of their hinges. Men were yelling and several shots were fired. Next, there was a loud explosion, causing the building to shake. We heard faint voices over wa
lkie-talkie radios and heard a bullhorn in the distance. This went on for several minutes, but fortunately, none of it came near us.

  Even though we were both still in handcuffs, I had pulled the phone off the desk and was working with Jackie to call 911. We needed to tell the police where we were before Carlos came looking for us. Unfortunately, it was dark behind the desk and it was a complicated office phone with several buttons. With our hands behind our backs, Jackie was whispering to me what buttons to push and I was trying to push the correct ones. It wasn’t working very well and it felt like we were Lucy and Ethel doing a bad comedy act.

  After five minutes of pushing buttons with no results, I decided either the phone wasn’t connected or we needed power in the office to make it work. Either way, we couldn’t call the police.

  After two or three minutes more had passed, we heard the sound of men yelling in the outer offices. It soon became clear their voices were coming closer. As they got nearer, I realized they were shouting in Spanish and they sounded very upset.

  Jackie and I had smashed ourselves against the side of the desk away from the outer room. We each tried to make ourselves as small as possible. I looked and made sure nothing was poking out where someone looking into the office window could see. After a minute, I heard the men in the cubicles outside the office door.

  Again, I looked around the office for something to help defend ourselves. Again, there wasn’t a thing I could use, even if my hands were free.

  I looked over at Jackie and saw she was again panting and shaking with fear. Her eyes were open so wide it would have been funny if we weren’t about to be gunned down.

  From outside the office door, we heard more shouting. It sounded like there were at least three of them and they didn’t sound happy. One man in particular seemed to be barking orders in Spanish to the others.

  Suddenly, the walls of our office shook as one of the office doors next to us was kicked in. We heard them rush in the office and quickly toss it, no doubt looking for us. They went back in the hallway and we heard them extremely close.

  The walls shook again as they kicked in the door of the office next to us. The men quickly ransacked the office, seeming to throw around anything they could find. Then they were outside of our door and I knew we were next.

  I tensed and waited for the door to be kicked in. I knew they would have guns and Carlos had probably given them orders to find us and kill us. I looked over at Jackie. Her eyes were still open wide, her body was visibly shaking, and I’ve never seen anyone so afraid.

  A wave of intense emotions suddenly washed over me. I went from being frightened to being incredibly sad and frustrated. After everything, I wasn’t able to save Jackie. I felt totally responsible. I was about to cause her death and the feeling was heartbreaking. I’d never failed anyone like this before and I was overcome with guilt and shame.

  I looked into her eyes and spoke as quietly as I could. My lips barely moving.

  “Oh, Jackie. I’m so sorry.”

  I held my breath, closed my eyes, and waited for death to crash through the door.

  And I waited.

  And I waited.

  Hurry up and get it over with, you jerks. I don’t have all day.

  In the distance, I heard more men shouting, but there was still no crash from the office door. I heard movement and low talking from Carlo’s men, just outside of our door, but for some reason, it stayed shut and locked.

  I took another breath and held it.

  As the new men got closer and the yelling got louder, I finally heard what they were shouting: “Scottsdale Police.”

  I didn’t hear when Carlos’s men took off, but they must have done so pretty quickly. It became deathly quiet outside of the office door.

  When it sounded like the police had made it into the cubicle area, we both started yelling that we were in the office. I thought Jackie sounded a little hysterical, but after everything that had happened, I probably did too. We then both slowly stood up from behind the desk.

  Two men in full SWAT combat gear easily kicked in the door and rushed into the office. Two more SWAT team members checked the rest of the cubicle and office area. When they had given the all clear, they helped us out of the building.

  ~~~~

  We were searched for weapons and then taken to a mobile command center van, which was the size of a city bus. An officer had our handcuffs removed and we were helped into two office swivel chairs.

  We started explaining to the officers who we were and what had happened, when Reno burst into the van. He had on his blue windbreaker with the bright yellow ‘SCOTTSDALE POLICE’ lettering stenciled on the back.

  He saw Jackie sitting in her chair and he smiled. It was a look of triumph I’d never seen on him before. I immediately got another strong flash of lust and desire. This one was even worse than the one I’d just had with Max.

  Damn, that man is beautiful.

  Reno looked over and realized I was also there. His face twisted into a look of shock.

  “You!”

  Oops.

  His face flashed to anger, and then slowly into resignation.

  “Why is it always you?” he sadly asked. “Why are you always in the middle of everything we do?”

  “Hey, I just came here to find Jackie. I found her, but then they captured me. It’s not my fault.”

  He hung his head down and I heard him sigh a deep sigh. He walked over to where I was sitting. He bent down and his voice became quiet and serious.

  “Are you OK?”

  “Yeah, I’m OK. I’ve been so worried about Jackie it made me forget about what kind of danger we were both really in.”

  He paused for a moment. He dropped his voice further and he leaned close to me.

  “Half of the Scottsdale PD is about to come into this van. Before they do, is there anything else I should know about this?”

  Why does he always do this?

  “Umm, nope, nothing else you should know about.”

  Reno looked at me for a moment. I could see my answer didn’t make him happy and he also wanted to keep asking questions. Instead, he stood up and started talking again in a normal voice.

  “I’m glad you both are alright.” He looked at Jackie. “A lot of officers and detectives have been looking for you over the past few days. There’ll be a lot of smiling and happy people as soon as we make some phone calls.”

  Reno took off to make his calls, leaving Jackie and me by ourselves. I suddenly felt a wave of relief and happiness. I realized Jackie was free and we weren’t going to be killed. I looked over at her and I saw she must have felt the same thing. She had a big smile and she was crying. I realized I was crying too and we gave each other a long hug.

  “Thank you,” she said. “They would have killed me if you hadn’t been there.”

  I wanted to tell her I was sorry I had messed up everything so badly. I wanted to say it was my fault she had been kidnapped and it was my fault she had almost gotten killed.

  Instead, I said, “Sure, glad I could help.”

  ~~~~

  Jackie and I were checked out by a couple of EMT’s , then transported under police escort to Scottsdale Memorial for a further check. I know a medical check is standard police procedure for something like this but it is still a pain in the ass.

  On the way over to the hospital, I called Sophie and let her know the basics of what had happened. I knew both Gina and Sophie would want the complete story but she could hear how beat I was and she didn’t press too much. I then asked her to tell Lenny. She wasn’t thrilled but she said she would do it. I know I should have called him directly, but I was mentally drained and I didn’t want to deal with his questions and cross-examination.

  I called Pam, told her the news, and that we were going to be down at the hospital for a while. She said she’d let everyone know, then she’d come by the hospital to pick up Jackie. Since Jackie’s house was still a crime scene, Pam said she was going to have Jackie stay at her hou
se for the next few days.

  While we were waiting in the emergency room for the third doctor to examine us, the lead detective in the Roger Wade murder investigation came in. When Jackie saw him, I saw her body tense. Apparently, she had forgotten about the murder and she’d been the lead suspect. But as the detective started talking, I could tell from his body language and the way he spoke to her, he now had doubts she committed the murder. Of course, I could also tell he was too much a professional to let that interfere with his job.

  He said he was glad Jackie had been released from her ordeal but he still had a couple of things he wanted to get cleared up about the murder. He said he didn’t want to rush her but if it was alright with her, he had arranged with Lenny for an interview the next morning at ten o’clock.

  Ten minutes later, Sophie and Pam came in together. There was talking and hugging all around for the next few minutes. They both wanted to know what had happened and I tried to tell the basics of it without going into too many details. Every time I thought about what had happened, I got a hard knot in my stomach.

  ~~~~

  We said our good-bye’s then Jackie left with Pam. It was still going to be another week or two until the police released Jackie’s house and allowed her to return. I was glad Jackie would have someone to be with until things calmed down.

  Sophie drove me back to the warehouse to get my car. As we drove up to the building, we saw there were still a dozen police cars surrounding the scene along with three news vans.

  The reporters and cameramen from the news vans were milling around and chatting with each other. I guessed they were in-between news broadcasts. I could envision all of them standing in a line, everybody giving a similar report, at the same time, to the three local TV stations.

  Seeing the warehouse and remembering what had happened in there gave my stomach another hard twist. After explaining to the officer at the perimeter who we were, we were allowed into the scene. Fortunately, the incident commander from earlier was still there and he did not consider my car to be part of the crime scene.