Dangerous Memories

by Intrigue Romance

  Her shoulders were already aching from their awkward position. There were no seats, no windows, no access to the driver. She’d definitely seen too many movies and murders on television. Vans were never a good sign.

  LuLu had been right when she’d told her she didn’t understand these people. She’d called her naïve. Her plan—or lack of a real plan—was going to get her killed. The cuffs were cutting into her wrists.

  If they’d just get to where they were going then she’d be able to activate the GPS. She’d imagined they’d search her for electronics and hadn’t wanted to take a chance turning it on until the last minute.

  Find the phone, Levi. Please find me.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Okay, glad this is voicemail. I know you’re angry and probably getting angrier. But I need you to know that I thought this through. Just find me and it’ll be over. Then a normal life. Right? Before this thing cuts me off, I bought a GPS car locator. The information is in a note on my phone. I cut a hole in my shoe big enough to hold it. Hopefully they won’t find it before you find me.” A pause. “I know you’ll find me.”

  Jo’s voice did nothing to help him breathe easier.

  The tech returned his phone and asked him to go through the messages, verifying he knew all the senders. Levi had plugged through them all anxious to hear Jo’s voice and explanation. He’d listened several times trying to decipher a hidden meaning. There wasn’t any.

  No desperation. Maybe a spasm of jitters. Unfounded confidence in his abilities. He didn’t have the expertise or equipment necessary to track Jo. If Lanning hadn’t been involved before, Levi would have asked now. His new “best friend” joined him in the hall, looking at his notes, a bit of surprise on his face that Levi still stood in the same spot.

  “LeeAnn Wright, also known as LuAnn Harper or Lisa Tucker. Jo’s LuLu is a frequent flier with the law. Just skirts the dark side far enough not to get any hard time. A long list of known associates.” Lanning shook his head and answered his phone.

  Levi knew what that look meant. He’d used it enough in his line of work. “A list long enough that it’s useless. We don’t have time or the manpower to go through it.”

  Lanning dropped his phone back in his pocket. “Worse. Wright was just found shot to death.”

  “What are we waiting on?”

  “A phone call telling you where to go. There’s nothing we can do at the crime scene except get sidetracked.”

  “We’re doing nothing here. They might miss clues Jo has left. I can’t just sit here like a useless—” Levi crunched an empty water bottle and caught himself before slamming it down the hall. He’d been purposefully calm for half an hour. The officer had relaxed. One sliver of information and he could search for Jo himself.

  “We still have twenty-three minutes before he’s supposed to call.” Lanning turned to the men inside the room. “What have you got on the names and dates? Anything you’ve found, I need it now.”

  Levi followed Lanning to the doorway, entering the room slowly, not wanting anyone to realize he shouldn’t be there.

  “I can’t find any connection,” someone sitting in front of a screen said.

  “What happened in February 1988 with the savings and loan crisis in Texas?” Levi asked. “Frasier’s main clients were S and L trustees or owners. Concentrate on Texas.”

  “New regs, a bailout, fifty percent office vacancy and real estate prices collapse,” the tech said.

  “Money,” Levi and Lanning said together.

  Lanning lifted a hand to stop the agent who made a move to escort Levi back to the hall.

  “What does this have to do with now?” Levi asked.

  “I can cross-reference...”

  “It happened again. We’re calling it the housing crisis, but it’s basically the same. Someone wants to make certain their part of it stays hidden.” Barlow moved closer to the group. “Frasier hid the evidence.”

  Levi sided up to Jo’s phone, activated the screen and in between the heated discussion on possible theories, he managed to get the GPS code from the note section.

  “No one with these names was involved publicly with that crisis. There’s nothing I can locate in the database.”

  “Miller February 1988 and Phillips March 1988,” Levi repeated. “What are we not seeing? What did Frasier stumble across?” He returned to lean on the doorframe, keeping an eye on the cop who was supposed to be keeping an eye on him.

  “If you go back to the file, notes from the original investigation said Frasier’s records were boxed,” Barlow said.

  “Yes, but they’ve all been microfilmed by the DoJ.”

  “Don’t you see? Her office was switching to digital in the nineties,” Barlow interrupted. “Where could she have hidden paper files?”

  “Wendell Miller and Frank Phillips died eight days apart, sir. Miller was a vice president at a failed S and L and Phillips was an appraiser. I haven’t found a connection to the Frasier family.”

  “With the exception that they died less than a week later,” Levi pointed out.

  “That’s too close to be coincidental. A banker, an appraiser and an attorney who specialized in realty,” Lanning said. “Find the common denominator and make it fast.”

  Levi had what he needed. Names. A hint of what might have happened. Something to mislead the kidnappers for an exchange.

  While everyone in the room was excitedly throwing out theories, he glanced over his shoulder and the cop was talking at the end of the hall. Levi stepped the opposite direction, easing himself around another corner to an emergency exit.

  A flight of stairs and a side door. Lanning’s truck.

  They could follow, but he had his head start.

  His phone rang.

  “Cooper.”

  An address and time were given by the distorted voice. The meeting place wouldn’t matter if Jo activated the GPS. When she did, he could take them by surprise by intercepting her. “Come on, Jo. Turn on your rescue.”

  * * *

  TEXT MESSAGE: Send Anonymously 9:14 P.M.

  I have the girl, but there is a problem. At arranged meeting place.

  TEXT MESSAGE: Blocked Sender 9:17 P.M.

  I’ll be downstairs momentarily.

  * * *

  THEY’D REMOVED JOLENE’S coat and already taken her dad’s carving. The frightening men had placed headphones over her ears. The thundering music had given her an obnoxious headache. She didn’t know how long she’d been in the smelly van. A bit of fresh air entered occasionally when the driver took a look inside.

  Since her hands were handcuffed to a metal slot behind her, it had taken the entire time to get to the bottom of her foot. Maneuvering under constant watch had made it even more difficult than she’d originally hoped.

  Cold and shaking, she pulled off her shoe. Yanking at the lump in her sock, working it until she could feel the little switch to turn the locater on. Then she relaxed. It was done. If anyone was watching for her GPS they could find her now.

  Wherever that might be.

  “Come on, Levi.” She desperately prayed her plan would work. It should work. It has to work.

  Rolling her shoulders, she tried to work through the pain and stiffness. The windowless van grew darker and smaller with each beat of her heart. A horrible closed-in feeling took control. She couldn’t move. The thundering in her ears faded to a thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump.

  No longer in the van, she saw the white inside boards of the toy box her father had built. She could see her name—EMALINE—in thick crayon, a child’s first writing attempt. Somehow the toys stayed on the floor, and her blanket and pillow were inside with her. They always were.

  I’m not really here. I’m not really here. She could tell herself over and over again, but she couldn’t force her eyes open to see anything else and the feeling trapped her in the past.

  Real memory? Imagined because of what Levi had told her?

  Rainbows. Lots of rainbows. Her
mother smiled—just a blurred image of dark hair and happiness. She didn’t want to leave the rainbows. Her mother laughed and said she’d bring them in her pocket. Grownups laughed with her saying it was fine.

  Pop. Then another. The men fell. Her mother screamed. “Mama!” she heard a young, small voice—shrill and hysterical. Pinned. Held. Watching. Her mother screamed to shut her eyes. The door opened. She broke free, went to her mother. Heard her father yell, “Run!”

  The crayon EMALINE was covered in dripping red. She’d been in the toy box, after she’d been in the kitchen. The lid was closed. Her cheeks were wet. She swiped her tiny fingers at the wood over and over. She’d been in the kitchen. She’d run upstairs to her room.

  A voice called to her. Coaxing her to come out. What were they saying? Why couldn’t she understand?

  The memory shattered and stopped. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the dark inside of the van again and she could hear voices. Real voices, not those from her childhood.

  “Don’t argue—If you’d killed her—wouldn’t be in—situation.”

  Jo could hear words during the lull of the screaming music. A woman—just out of Jo’s view—raised her voice. The man arguing with her was the one who had shot LuLu. She hadn’t seen the driver’s face or heard him speak. He stood with his back next to the van, in front of the cracked side door, continuing his silence.

  “We—found Elaine’s—”

  Using her shoulder, Jo shoved at the headphones, moving one off her ear.

  “Both. Do you understand?” the woman commanded.

  “She was five,” said the driver.

  “That’s no longer the case.” The woman added a distinguishing snort of disgust. “Why did you need to see me before finishing this project?”

  “The marshal demanded to meet with you. That wasn’t in the plan. He says he has evidence to exchange.”

  “If the FBI had anything, they would have already contacted my office searching for me. You’re an idiot and I don’t know why I’ve continued to do business with you.”

  “My brother and I have your secrets stored in a safe place.”

  His attitude sent shivers down Jo’s spine. The shooter had looked so evil, but now sounded even more so.

  “Question her and the marshal and then make their bodies disappear. We need to be extremely careful over the next few months. No contact.”

  “Right.”

  “I’m returning to the dinner and don’t want to be disturbed again. Take care of this problem and earn your share. We’ve been successful for longer than that stupid girl’s been alive and will continue to be once she’s dead.”

  The sound of the woman’s heels echoing through the empty space sent more shivers through her body than when LuLu had been shot. Kill us and make us disappear. How many people had died at this man’s hands? Because of this woman?

  “We go to the meet...No, we shouldn’t risk disposing of the bodies in the same spot.” He paused as if he was having a conversation with the driver still at the door of the van. “Maybe a trip to Louisiana, bodies don’t resurface from those swamps. I’ve got your back. You can trust your big brother.”

  She had to get out of there. Her plan had been the most stupid plan on earth.

  “Right, I knew you’d like that idea. We’ll divide and conquer when we meet up with her boyfriend. I’m taking a leak, then we’re moving out. Is the bat in front or back?”

  She flexed and pointed her toes, fighting the effects from being motionless. Shaking would alert her captors and she didn’t want them to know she was ready to escape. She also worked the headphone back onto her ear. There’d be aspirin for the headache when she escaped. It was better if they didn’t know she’d overheard them. The evil-grinned man opened the side door wider and removed the baseball bat. His leer made her stomach turn and she looked past him to see a parking garage sign and pillar.

  Jo thought she’d have a stronger emotional reaction to them. Hate the murderers clearly responsible for the deaths of her parents. Be scared they planned to kill Levi. But she didn’t panic. Didn’t head to a dark, horrible memory.

  Instead she went to those moments in the motor home bedroom, glad to remember anything good. And the time she’d had with Levi was wonderful, gave her strength. He’d find her. These men underestimated not only her determination, but everything about the man she loved.

  The door was shut. Locked. In order to save her sanity she worked the headphones off her head. Despite her chill, enough moisture had accumulated on her lip to help her loosen the tape. She pulled and stretched her mouth, slowly working her way free to warn Levi before he found them.

  Her plan had definitely put Levi in danger...but she couldn’t stand the thought he’d be ambushed and beaten.

  He’d come.

  Levi would keep his promise.

  * * *

  LEVI EXITED INTERSTATE 30 and was caught at a light behind another car. He enlarged the map on his phone and verified that the location of the GPS was directly in front of him, about five miles north of where he was supposed to meet the kidnappers.

  The Dallas Convention Center loomed against the backdrop of city lights with cars lining the street for a function. He spotted the words Academy and Fine Arts but headed straight on the frontage road until he came to a security booth.

  “Excuse me.” He waited on the older man sitting inside to step outside into the cold. “Have any trouble with extra vehicles hanging around or anything out of place tonight?”

  “Just as borin’ as always.”

  “What’s going on back there?” He tilted his head toward the Academy.

  “Political fundraiser. Lots of big wigs. Lots of extra security.”

  Levi flipped his marshal ID open for the man to look over. “Mind if I take a look around?”

  “Go right ahead. Makes me no never mind.” The disinterested guard stepped back into the booth and shut the door.

  Levi drove the truck just inside the entrance and parked, dialing Lanning.

  “About time you checked in.”

  “I assume you know I’m following the signal to the Convention Center?” Levi had already seen Lanning’s supplies in the locked toolbox. He used the key and pulled out an FBI issued vest.

  “We’re ten minutes out. Wait for backup.”

  “Can’t. They’ll pull out for the exchange soon. No police. I need the edge.” He finished the pulls.

  “Cooper—”

  “No cops, Lanning. You know they’ll kill her.”

  No more wasted time on conversation. Using his phone to guide him closer to the GPS gadget, he ran through the parking garage keeping his weapon drawn. There was no way to tell what level the GPS was on, he could only hope the people holding her captive had stuck to the fastest exit. The lowest floor.

  * * *

  “YOU STUPID idiot. Cooper’s at the exit. Get her out of the van.”

  Jolene prepared for the hurt the next moves were going to cost her. She’d twisted low enough on the floor of the van to pull her knees to her chest. Her shoulders throbbed, but if she could catch one of them off guard...

  The door opened. Thank God LuLu’s murderer was looking away from Jo toward the man talking to him. He reached inside and she kicked him full force in the face, screaming, “It’s a trap!”

  The man fell backward. She heard the metal bat hit the concrete floor. The men scrambled.

  With her heart racing, wondering if they’d think a bullet to her head was their fastest escape route, she tugged again and again at the cuffs. There was no way to pull free. She was a sitting duck, but hopefully Levi had been warned. The men ran from the van—maybe for cover she couldn’t see.

  Gunfire.

  Lots of gunfire.

  Then nothing.

  What had happened? She was afraid to call out and remind her captors she was there.

  “Jo?” Levi’s voice was the sweetest sound to her pounding ears.

  “I’m in here.”

  “
You okay?” His voice sounded closer.

  “Handcuffed, but okay.”

  The van shook a bit as he opened the front door. “No ignition keys, but these look like they’re to cuffs.”

  Then his anxious face appeared at the side door. One last look behind him and he was inside the van. Jo had already turned—facing away—so he’d have faster access to her wrists. “I knocked one of those guys unconscious. Not sure where the other one is. Can you walk?”

  “Just get me out of this van.” She shook her hands and legs, waking them up completely. Fighting the sensation of pinpricks was much preferred to remaining a prisoner.

  “Yeah, well that may be more of a problem than I originally thought.” Levi pointed to one of her kidnappers shaking LuLu’s murderer awake and disappearing behind a pillar. Her rescuer changed the clip in his gun and reloaded the one he’d removed.

  “The stairs are behind us and to the left.” He pointed in the direction so she’d know exactly where he meant. “I’ll lay down cover and you run.”

  “But—”

  “No buts, Jo. This is me taking over.”

  “Yes, sir. Absolutely.” She meant it. He was in charge. She pulled the tracker out of her sock, shoved it in her jeans pockets and pulled her shoe back on. “Where to after that? I don’t know where I’m at.”

  “Up. We’ll deal with the rest once we make it across the garage.” Levi cracked open the rear door.

  They were both poised, prepared to leap after he threw it open. Levi’s gun was up.

  “You ready?” he asked. “Wait. Put this on.”

  Before she could argue or tell him it was more important for him not to get shot, he had the FBI bulletproof vest over her head and was pulling the straps tight.

  “I knew you’d find me.”

  “For the record I’m furious, but if we didn’t need to escape yet another death trap—as you call them, I’d be kissing you ’til tomorrow.”

  She was speechless. Plain and simple, she hadn’t expected those words. By the astonished look rippling across his face, maybe he hadn’t expected to say them. He quickly turned, took a look out the door, pushed it open and began shooting.