“Yes?” Hutch replied.
“Can I have your number please?”
Hutch gave the man his number.
“Is this a number that you can be reached at shortly?”
“Yes, I’ll be here for a while,” Hutch replied.
“Okay, I’ll pass this information on to the police commissioner.”
Hutch returned the phone to its cradle.
“Well, now what?” Abby asked.
“I guess now we wait.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
“Whatcha doing?” Melody asked, as she walked into the salon.
Maguire looked up from the paper in front of him. “I’m reviewing transfer requests.”
“Sounds absolutely titillating,” she said, taking a seat next to him on the couch.
“How was D.C.?”
“Incredibly boring,” she replied. “There was a time I liked the game of politics, but now I am just weary of it all.”
“I take it things didn’t go well with the Armed Services Committee?”
“Oh no, that actually went fine,” she replied. “The committee is extremely happy with the progress that is being made on Dragon’s Breath. It was meeting with the individual committee members that was utterly draining.”
“Trust me, I empathize with you,” Maguire said. “I like McMasters, but the City Council is filled with mindless idiots. How they ever managed to get elected confounds me.”
“It does make you wonder, doesn’t it?” Melody asked. “I mean were they really the best candidate or does party politics trump everything?”
“Do you really need to ask that question?”
“No, I already know the answer,” she said.
“Well, at least it’s over with,” Maguire replied.
“For now.”
“What’s that supposed to mean.”
“Well,” Melody said. “I ran into Peter Constantine at the Hay-Adams,”
“Eliza Cook’s campaign manager?”
“Yep,” she replied. “I was having a drink with Senator Mays and his chief of staff. He acted like it was a coincidence, but I get the feeling that it was sort of a set-up.”
“You know all too well that nothing happens by accident in D.C.,” Maguire replied. “What did he want?”
“After the usual pleasantries he mentioned that Eliza was coming up for a fundraiser at the end of May and wanted to know if I was free to meet with her.”
“I told you,” Maguire said smugly.
“I don’t think I can do it,” Melody said.
“Well, you’re the only one that can make that decision, angel, but you probably should at least hear her out before you do.”
“I don’t even like politics.”
“Which probably makes you a very attractive choice,” he said. “Either way, it doesn’t hurt to at least listen to the spiel.”
“I guess,” she replied.
“In the meantime, do you want to review transfer requests?”
“You’re on your own with that, cowboy,” Melody laughed, as she got up from the couch and headed to the elevator. “These old bones are aching for some me time in the hot tub.”
“That’s evil,” he replied.
Melody paused at the elevator and looked back at him.
“You do realize that this is your last night of quiet, don’t you?” she asked.
“Oh crap that’s right,” he replied. “Have they been gone a week already?”
“Yep, Gen and her boys come back tomorrow so why don’t you come join me in the hot tub and see just how wonderfully evil I can be.”
Just then his phone began to buzz on the coffee table. He peered down at the number.
“It’s the office,” he replied glumly.
“Aw, duty calls, cowboy,” he heard her say, as the elevator doors closed.
“Maguire,” he said with slight annoyance, as he answered the call.
“Commissioner, this is Sergeant Eberhard. I really hate to bother you at home, but I think you might want to hear this.”
Notifications generally came through the Operations Unit, so this call was more than a bit unusual.
“What’s the problem, Sarge?”
“Do you know an Alex Taylor?”
Hearing the words, Maguire felt like he had just been sucker-punched.
“Yes,” he replied, “She’s my old partner, what’s wrong?”
“Well, we just got a call from a cop up in Penobscot, New Hampshire, he said she’s gone missing, sir.”
“Missing?” Maguire said. “When? How?”
“I don’t know the particulars, sir,” the man replied, “but I have the name and number for the acting chief up there if you’re ready to copy.”
Maguire reached over and grabbed a pen and pad from the end table. “Yeah, go ahead.”
A moment later he ended the call and immediately dialed the number he had been given.
The phone rang twice and then he heard it connect.
“Hello?”
“Yes, this is Commissioner Maguire. Who am I speaking to?”
“Sir, my name is Chris Hutchinson; I’m the acting chief of police in Penobscot.”
“What happened to Alex?” Maguire asked brusquely.
“Well, sir, that’s why I reached out to you,” Hutch replied. “I have reason to believe that she has gone missing.”
“What? How?” Maguire replied. “Wait, just start from the beginning and tell me what you know.”
Hutch spent the next thirty minutes explaining everything that had transpired since the last time that Alex had been seen, including their observations at the house and the fact that she had been cleared of the shooting.
“I’d like to say that it is entirely unusual, but Alex has been known to do so unusual things from time to time,” Maguire replied.
“Yes, I’ve noticed that as well,” Hutch replied.
“Did anyone check her cell phone?”
“Yes, sir, I had the state police check it. The last ping was at approximately four thirty this morning and then nothing since.”
“You have a location?”
“Yeah it was off of a cell tower that is located about thirty minutes outside of town.”
“And she left a note that said she was going hiking?”
“Yes.”
“I understand your concerns,” Maguire replied, “but knowing that it is Alex, is it possible that she actually could have gone hiking?”
“Possible? Yes,” Hutch said. “Probable? I really don’t think so.”
Maguire didn’t believe it either.
“Have you done a missing persons report? Are the state police doing anything?”
“Well, sir, that’s where we get into a bit of sticky issue,” Hutch replied. “We’ve notified Captain Blackshear from the state police’s major crimes unit. They’ve taken it as an informational for the moment, but have asked us to do everything we can to determine if this really is a real missing person’s case before they take it further.”
“Why is that?” Maguire asked.
“Well, with Alex’s penchant for not backing down and sometimes doing unusual things, she hasn’t exactly garnered a whole lot of support from the folks at city hall. In fact, we’re a bit concerned that, between this and the shooting, they might try to use any excuse to justify keeping her out of the chief’s chair permanently.”
Maguire rubbed at his face, as he processed the information.
He knew all too well Alex’s proclivity for pissing off folks in authority. What usually irked them more than anything else was not that she had pissed them off, but that she was usually right and left them no other recourse but to grudgingly acquiesce to her.
Having your chief of police going off for moonlight strolls through the New Hampshire countryside, legal as it might be, was just the excuse some might use to make the argument that she was emotionally unfit for duty.
“What are you guys planning on doing now?” Maguire asked.
&n
bsp; “Well, sir, to be honest, that’s the reason I called you,” Hutch explained. “To be quite frank, I’m a bit out of my element here. I’ve never had a missing person that I’ve had to deal with in such a sensitive manner. We’re a small town force. Ninety-nine percent of the people in the department love the chief, but it only takes that one percent who are looking to score some brownie points with the board to screw things up. Up to this point, this information has been limited to just three people and now you make four.
“Alright, if you don’t mind I am going to send you up one of my top detectives to give you some discrete help.”
“Thank you,” Hutch replied. “I was hoping you might be able to provide us some help, sir.”
“Just do your best to keep things under wraps till he can get up there and assess the situation.”
“Will do.”
“I’ll call you back and let you know when to expect him.”
“Thank you again, sir,” Hutch said.
Maguire ended the call. Then he quickly scrolled through his contact list and selected a number. He listened to it ring several times before he heard it connect.
“I take it this isn’t a social call is it, Commissioner?” Detective Angelo Antonucci said.
“No, Ang, it isn’t,” Maguire replied. “Please tell me I’m not going to ruin your weekend.”
“No, sir, the Met’s are going to be fully responsible for that,” the man answered. “What do you need?”
“Have you ever been to New Hampshire?”
“No, I can’t say as I have,” Antonucci replied. “I’m not really the whole Mother Nature kind of person.”
“Well, I’m about to expand your horizons,” Maguire said. “I have a missing persons case I need you to take a first-hand look at.”
“With all due respect, isn’t this something Missing Persons should be able to handle?”
“The missing person is a former member of the service,” Maguire replied, “and she’s my old partner. She’s also the chief of police in Penobscot, New Hampshire. The acting chief up there has asked for our help and this all needs to be done under the radar for the time being.”
“Say no more,” Antonucci replied. “When do you need me to go?”
“We probably have a very short shelf life on this one. How much time do you need to get ready?”
“An hour,” he replied.
“Okay, I’ll make arrangements to have a helicopter pick you up over at Nassau County Aviation in two hours.”
“Okay, I’ll be waiting.”
“Thanks, Ang,” Maguire replied.
He ended the call and then called Melody.
“OMG, how lazy can you get?” Melody said, when she answered the call. “Are we just going to have phone sex now?”
“Listen, I just spoke to a cop from the Penobscot police,” he replied somberly. “Alex has gone missing.”
Melody sat up in tub, all levity gone from her voice. “What? When?”
“They think sometime last night,” he replied.
“Oh my God, what are they doing? Are they looking for her? What’s going to happen?”
“They are reaching out for help,” he explained.
“What do they want you to do?”
“I’m sending Angelo up,” he replied, “but since this is an off the books kind of job, I really don’t want to send him up in one of the NYPD’s birds. I can just imagine the scene that would create and potentially the front cover news it might generate.”
“You want me to call Bob Miller and ask him to fire up the helicopter?”
“If you wouldn’t mind,” Maguire said.
“Of course not,” she said. “Are you going too?”
“I hadn’t thought that far in advance.”
“You’d better go, James,” Melody replied. “God forbid anything has happened to her; you’ll never forgive yourself for not being there.”
“What about you?” he said.
“What about me?”
“I hate leaving you home alone,” he said.
“Good Lord, I’m not a fragile little china doll,” she said with a laugh. “I can handle being alone. Hell, I might even be able to get some actual work done.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive,” she replied. “Go do what you do best and I will be praying for her.”
“I’ll be up in a few minutes to get ready,” he replied.
“I’ll call, Bob,” Melody replied. “When do you want him to pick you up?”
“As soon as possible,” he said. “I told Ang that I’d have him picked up in about two hours.”
“Okay, I’ll have him get everything ready for you.”
“Thank you, angel.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Alex heard the door unlock and the sound of footsteps padding lightly across the floor.
Here we go with round two.
A moment later she felt the hood being pulled from her head. She’d expected to see Tatiana, but instead she stared up at the face of a young girl.
What the fuck? she thought, her mind racing as she tried to process this latest twist.
The girl stared down at Alex for a moment, an impassive look on her face, before pulling up the chair and sitting down.
Who the hell are you?
The girl didn’t say a word, she just stared, and Alex got the feeling that she was waging an internal battle inside her head. She decided not to make it any easier; so she held the woman’s gaze with the same unflinching eyes.
Seconds slipped by and then minutes, as the two women sized each other up. In the end it was Susan who finally gave in. She broke eye contact, as she reached down and removed the gag.
Alex stretched her lower jaw, feeling the ache radiating thought her jaw.
“Thanks,” she said once she was able to talk.
“You’re welcome,” Susan replied.
“So who the hell are you?” Alex asked.
“I’m the one that you let get away, Chief Taylor,” she replied coolly.
Now it was Alex’s turn to have the battle in her head, as she fought to figure out who this woman was. Obviously the woman knew who she was. There was something vaguely familiar about her, but, try as she might, Alex just couldn’t place the face.
“Not that it means anything,” the woman continued. “In fact, all that really matters is that I didn’t let you get away.”
Alex continued to stare at her, her mind struggling to put the pieces together. She was young, maybe in her late teens and quite pretty. Her light blonde hair was worn in a short bob cut that framed the sides of her face and she had piercing blue eyes. In a way, she reminded Alex of her younger self.
Much younger self, she conceded.
The woman smiled, clearly taking enjoyment out of Alex’s inability to figure out who she was.
“Drawing a blank, huh?’ she said with a slight giggle. “You know, I’d probably start to question your cop abilities, but the truth is that I’ve changed my appearance a bit.”
“Well then, why don’t you help me out a bit?” Alex asked.
“Mmmmmm, you need my help, huh?”
“It’s your game, baby,” Alex said. “If you want to play your gonna have to give me something more to work with.”
“Well, let’s just say that we were like two ships in the night,” Susan replied. “Back then I was filled with the whole angst-ridden, daddy didn’t love me bullshit, but I’ve moved on.”
“I hate to say it, but considering your age group, that isn’t the most uncommon of traits.”
“True,” Susan replied. “These years can be particularly brutally for some of us, especially when you squirrel yourself away in your closet, reading some really profound, but incredibly dark shit some teacher told you about. Part of me thinks they do it just to see how many of us they can fuck up in the head before they try and fuck us in bed.”
No, it can’t be, she thought.
But the more she stared at her the more she r
ealized exactly who she was talking to. The brown hair and eyes were gone, as was the happy smile that had been captured in the school photo; which was completely understandable, considering all that she had gone through.
“Susan?”
“Ding, Ding, Ding,” she said with a laugh. “It looks like the chief isn’t a complete idiot after all. Thank you for restoring my faith in law enforcement.”
“Glad I could help,” Alex replied.
“I have to admit, you’re much better looking up close,” Susan said. “Most of my observations of you have always been at a distance, at least until the shooting, but as you can imagine, things were a bit chaotic that day and I didn’t feel like whispering sweet nothings in your ear while the lead was flying.”
That’s why she looked so damn familiar!
In a moment of clarity Alex recalled seeing the girl, the flash of blonde hair, as she turned around at the end of the aisle, just before her world went to shit.
“That was you at the back of the store,” Alex said. “You walked around the corner as I started down the aisle.”
“Right again,” Susan replied. “Damn, you are good. Yep, that was little old me playing hide and seek.”
“Oh, lucky me, do I win a prize?” Alex asked with a tinge of sarcasm.
“Oh you want a prize, huh?”
“Yeah, how about you untie me and we go our separate ways?”
“Let me think about that, Nooooo………..” Susan said with a pouty face. “But you do get extra points for a nice try.”
“Oh come on, you said it yourself, you think I’m good looking, untie me and we can have some fun. I certainly know you’re not opposed to that sort of thing.”
“True,” Susan said. “I can’t say the thought isn’t appealing to me, but I also have no illusions that the minute I untied you my dreams of pleasure would turn into a reality of pain. I’m reasonably certain that you’d kick my ass long before I could even begin to enjoy it.”
“You know what they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Alex replied.
“Hmmm, let me sleep on that and I’ll get back to you,” Susan said. “I must say that you were fucking incredible the other day. The way you lit that prick up gave me such a rush. I’d have stopped to give you a pat on the back, but I was too focused on getting the hell out of there. Cops and I don’t mix, for obvious reasons.”
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