Finally, he couldn’t take another moment. He dropped off the completed files with the right people and joined Anderson, who was speaking with Crawford and some of the feds.
“What happened last night?” Alex asked.
Crawford cocked a brow. “Didn’t realize you’re on the case, Mercer.”
“I was before you sent me chasing after wild animals.”
Two of the feds exchanged a glance.
“Someone needs to handle the other cases.” Crawford cleared his throat.
“A detective? One who has been on more kidnapping cases than almost anyone else here? Someone who has been running a successful blog for missing people for years?”
Agent Hanks turned to Alex. “You run a blog for missing persons?”
“Yes. I’ve helped find literally hundreds of people. People contact me from around the world, begging for me to write a post for their loved ones.”
“Wait. You’re that Alex Mercer?”
Alex tilted his head and threw the chief a glance. “You’ve heard of me?”
“We keep an eye on sites like yours.” Hanks stood taller. “In fact, we’ve contacted you several times.”
“Not mentioning that you’re FBI?”
“Correct.”
“I didn’t realize that.”
Crawford stood closer to Alex. “We’re all proud of our detective. His fine work is what caught the attention of Captain Fleshman and also partly why I insisted he move up to detective so quickly.”
Alex studied the chief, trying to figure out how much of what he said was hot air.
Hanks turned to Crawford. “Why is the detective off the case? Chasing wildlife, you said?”
The chief squirmed. “To get fresh eyes on the case.”
“Why would you want less experienced officers on this when you have someone so accomplished?” Hanks asked. “I saw him with the family of missing girl number one. He’s great with them.”
Crawford caved. “He’s more than welcome to rejoin the case.”
Alex turned to him. “I’m so glad to hear it. Now what are we going to do to get ahold of the abductors about what happened last night? There has to be a reason why they didn’t show.”
Chapter 18
“They’re calling again.” Owen paced, looking at the burner phone.
“I don’t care. Don’t answer.” Sam scowled at him.
He really needed to find new friends.
“Maybe we should hear them out. You know, find out what went wrong.”
“What went wrong?” Sam threw his cola bottle against the wall, shattering it. “It isn’t like they were late or went to the wrong location. They sent cops!”
“To be fair, I wasn’t a hundred percent sure. They looked like cops. I had to make a split-second decision.”
“If they looked like cops, they were cops.” Sam took a joint and lit it.
“But I’ve been thinking about it. Why would they send cops in full uniform? What if it was a coincidence?”
“Nope.” Sam took a long drag.
“It was dark. The dudes could’ve been wearing anything, you know. Some other uniform.”
“Like what?”
Owen shrugged. “Something else. Like a movie theater uniform?”
“Are you an idiot? There’s no such thing as that.”
“Yes, there is! Haven’t you noticed the employees always wear the same thing? That’s called a uniform.”
“You are stupid. Stop talking.”
Anger burned inside. “No. You don’t get to order me around!”
“Don’t I?” Sam’s brows drew together. “Seems that’s what’s been going on this whole time.”
“Yeah, and I’m sick of it. We’re in this together.”
“Great. You can take the next kid all by your lonesome.”
He clenched his fists. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
Sam took another drag. “What then?”
“We should call that girl’s parents.”
“Nope. They had their chance. Next time, they’re going to get us arrested. I’m not going to jail because you’re stupid.”
“I’m not stupid!”
“Look. That first girl is toast. You’re just going to have to accept the fact. Her parents involved the cops. We’re done with them. We move on. Time to start planning number four while we wait to hear from number three’s parents. Look at the rest of the girls we picked out and see who’ll be the easiest to get. I have to take a piss.”
Owen wanted to throw something at Sam, but remained silent. Sam wasn’t king. This was a democracy.
He could do what he wanted, what he thought was best.
But he had to act quickly.
Flush!
Super fast.
Owen grabbed the notebook and burner phone, raced outside. Closed the door behind him as quietly as possible. Looked around to make sure nobody was watching him.
He bolted across the street to a gas station parking lot then ducked behind a rusty car that had been there all week.
Heart racing, he called the parents of the first girl. Josie. He clung to her name. Calling her number one made her sound more like a robot than a human. And he couldn’t lose that. More importantly, he couldn’t lose his own humanity.
Each ring seemed to last an eternity.
Owen fully expected Sam to show up, furious that he’d left to make the call.
But he was alone.
“Hello?”
He nearly dropped the phone at the sound of Josie’s dad’s voice.
“Hello?”
Swallowing, he readied himself to speak in an accent. “Is this Josie’s dad?”
Owen cringed. The accent was a bad idea. It sounded like a mix of Irish and German with a hint of Spanish. Obviously fake.
“Yes, this is Louis! Do you have my daughter?”
At least he was talking.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you pick up the money last night?” Louis yelled. “We did everything you asked!”
“Everything?” He snapped, forgetting to use the accent. He took a moment to focus and disguise his voice. “You sent cops!”
“We didn’t!”
“Then why did I see two just before the drop-off time? Huh?”
“Wait, what?” Louis sounded genuinely confused.
“You heard me! Two uniforms. You didn’t follow our rules!”
Muffled conversation sounded on the other end before Louis spoke again. “I swear to God and on my mother’s grave, we did no such thing.”
“Then why were there two officers?”
“Right before the agreed upon time?” Louis asked.
“Yes!” His hand shook and he looked around the car to make sure Sam wasn’t heading over.
He wasn’t.
“I was late,” Louis said. “Ran into some traffic because of an accident. Whatever police you saw had nothing to do with this. I swear! Please let us try again. All we want is our daughter. Do you want more money?”
Owen took a deep breath, his mind racing. Sam had said not to go off the script, but he was already so far off. “Yes. Double it, and meet us again tonight. This is your last chance.”
“Double?” Louis exclaimed.
“You heard me.”
Louis muttered something unintelligible.
“You’re the one who asked if we wanted more money.”
“Fine. Same time and place?”
Owen’s heart raced. Would it be smarter to meet somewhere else? Or pick the same spot?
“Hello? Are you still there?”
“Yes. Same time and place. This time, don’t be late.”
Chapter 19
Alex looked around the table, disbelief taking over for a moment. Everyone was looking to him. Not only was he back on the case, but the other officers and the agents were waiting on him to hear what he thought.
It was tempting to shoot a glare at the chief, but in the long run that wouldn’t get hi
m anywhere.
Alex glanced down at his notes to gather his thoughts before looking up. “We need to figure out why the abductors got spooked. They—”
His phone buzzed in his pocket. He’d given his card to the parents. What if it was them?
“Yes?” Hanks asked.
“Hold on.” Alex pulled out his phone and checked the screen.
It was a text from the dad.
Louis: Talked to the kidnappers!
Alex returned the call, ignoring the strange looks the others around the table gave him.
“Hello?” Louis answered. “Detective Mercer?”
“Yes,” Alex replied. “I have you on speaker with my team. You spoke with the abductors?”
“One of them. They want double the money. Tonight.”
Alex exchanged glances around the table. “Same place? Same time?”
“Exactly. Twice the cash. Is that doable?”
Alex glanced at Hanks.
She nodded and leaned toward the phone. “This is Agent Hanks. We can come up with the funds. What else can you tell us about the call?”
“The guy had a ridiculous accent. He was obviously trying to disguise his voice.”
“Were you able to record it?”
“No. He called my cell and not the landline. Probably figured there would be a trace on it.”
“Did you give that number to him?”
“No,” Louis said. “I don’t know how he got it.”
“They did their homework,” Alex said. “We believe this wasn’t random.”
“It was personal? Against Josie? Why?”
“We’ll get to the bottom of that later. What’s important now is finding your daughter. Did the man say anything else?”
A beat of silence passed before Louis responded. “He said they didn’t show because they saw two cops.”
Conversation whipped around the table.
“Two cops?” Alex exclaimed.
“Yeah. You guys didn’t do a good job of being subtle.”
“That wasn’t us,” Crawford interjected. “And we contacted the local precinct, and they knew not to have any of their officers in the area at that time.”
“What happened then?” Louis asked.
“We’ll find out,” Hanks said. “In the meantime, we need to focus on tonight. Everything has to go off without anything going wrong.”
“You’ve got that right,” Louis snapped.
“We’ll be in touch.” Hanks pushed the phone toward Alex.
He ended the call. “What cops would’ve been at the park?”
Hanks rose. “We’ll need your team to find that out. I have to call in to my office and get twenty grand.”
Alex’s mind spun. If the police at the park hadn’t been local, who were they? What had they been doing there?
The agents left the room and the officers discussed who would do what to find out about who had been at the park to spook the abductors.
They needed to make sure it didn’t happen again.
Alex and Anderson went to the Roghan’s house to talk with them, and when they returned to the station, nobody had found out who the cops were that had been at the park the night before. The other precinct hadn’t had anyone patrolling the area—in fact, all of their team knew to stay away unless called in for back-up.
Alex turned to his partner. “Who could they have been?”
“Could’ve been two random guys. If the kidnappers aren’t professionals, they could’ve gotten jumpy and thought they saw police. Maybe they thought whoever they saw was working undercover. We need to focus on tonight’s sting. The important thing is making sure nobody messes this up tonight.”
Alex nodded. If the guys got spooked again, it would be over for Josie.
Everything needed to go perfectly.
Anderson headed to his desk, and Alex went down the hall to where the agents had gone to discuss the case. The door was cracked open, so he peeked in.
Hanks got up and met him in the hall, closing the door behind her.
“How’s it going in there?” Alex asked.
“We’re just waiting for the money to arrive.”
“So, you got it?”
She nods. “That was never in doubt.”
“What now?”
Her expression tensed. “We need to make sure nothing goes wrong tonight.”
“What can we do?”
“Have you spoken to the parents?”
“Yes. Anderson and I just got back from their house.”
Hanks nodded. “My suggestion is to take a long lunch and have a nap. It’s going to be a long night, and we need as many hands on deck as possible.”
“Does Crawford know about this? He’s going to be upset if half the force doesn’t return after lunch.”
“I’ll worry about him.” She gave him a reassuring smile. “Get some rest.”
“You, too.”
Hanks nodded. “I’ll see you tonight.”
Alex spun around and marched to Nick’s office.
His friend was busy typing, but stopped when Alex sat. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. The feds want those of us on the case to take a long lunch so we can be rested for tonight.”
Nick beamed. “You’re back on the case.”
“You’d better believe it.”
“Glad to hear it. You better head home. Sounds like tonight could be a late one.”
Alex yawned. “And I’m already tired.”
“All the more reason to get home.”
“Are you going tonight?”
He shook his head. “I’ll be around for all the paperwork and to take any calls if I’m needed.”
“Boring,” Alex teased.
Nick laughed. “You forget how many years I spent as a detective. I’m perfectly happy in this position now.”
“If you say so.” Alex headed for his desk, texting Zoey the change of plans.
His mind was racing, trying to work out all the details of the evening’s sting operation.
Hopefully, he could calm his thoughts enough to get a nap. He needed to be on the top of his game for this.
Chapter 20
Ariana looked out into the hallway.
Damon was nowhere in sight.
Her stomach knotted. She was going to have to start the study group on her own.
Something big must have come up. He wouldn’t have left her to deal with these kids on her own without a really good reason.
At least she didn’t have to worry about him being kidnapped. All the kids going missing were girls. But she couldn’t help fretting a little. He’d already been abducted and held hostage once—and she didn’t want to live through that again.
She took one more quick peek into the hall before striding to the front of the room with her head held high. If she pretended she didn’t care what the kids thought, maybe they would go easier on her.
Once in front of the white board, she cleared her throat and waited for everyone to turn their attention to her. “How did your quiz today go?”
Most of the kids grumbled, not saying anything intelligible.
“That good, huh?” She smiled, hoping it would lighten the mood.
It didn’t.
“Maybe we should start there,” she said. “Does anyone have any questions about it?”
“When are we ever going to use this in real life?” asked a girl wearing all black.
Ari started to answer, but Chris, one of the football players, interrupted her.
“I have an even more important question. Why are you with Damon?”
Her hands shook. She put them on her hips to hide the shaking. “I said, questions about the quiz.”
Laughter sounded around the room. Someone gave Chris a high-five.
Ariana stood taller. “If there aren’t any questions about the quiz, let’s move on. The next chapter is even trickier.”
“Seriously.” Chris rested his chin on his palm. “You’re hot. Why Damon?”
Heat flooded her cheeks. “We’re not here to talk about anything other than your class.”
“He’s a dork. Always has been.”
Chuckles sounded around the room.
“Total nerd,” added someone else.
“Loser.”
Other kids chimed in with equally irreverent names.
Chris grinned like he was king of the world.
“Stop!” Ariana marched directly to his desk and stared him down. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. He comes to school every day despite what you and your friends dish out. He was kidnapped by dangerous criminals and not only survived, but escaped unharmed! He’s been through things you have no idea about. Things that are none of your business. And you know what?”
“What?” His smirk was slowly fading but hadn’t totally disappeared.
“He’s stronger than you’ll ever be. Any of you.” She looked around the room. “Now, are you ready to start going over your homework?”
Nobody responded.
Angry tears threatened, so she spun around quickly not wanting anyone to see her eyes shining. Not wanting them to know they’d gotten to her so easily.
Before she reached the white board, the door squeaked open. She turned to see Damon. He had a shiner on his right eye and a bloody lip.
Her mouth fell open. “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
Ari turned back to the class. “Turn to page thirty-seven and read the first paragraph. We’ll be right back.”
Damon protested, but she grabbed his arm and dragged him into the hall.
Ari stepped closer and studied his wounds. “What happened? Who did this?”
His brows drew together. “I broke up a fight, took a few punches in the process. Like I said, it’s nothing.”
“Are you okay? Maybe you should have your eye looked at. It’s really bloodshot.”
Damon shook his head. “It’ll return to normal after I ice it.”
She grabbed his hand. “Let’s get you to the nurse’s office.”
“It can wait.”
“But you’re bleeding.” She wiped the corner of his mouth, smearing red on her finger.
Careless Whisper Page 8