by D J Small
“Officers,” Eliza called out as she got closer to them, “Detective Miller.” She showed them her badge as she came to a stop. “The security guard told me you had a key. Can you let me in?”
“Yes, ma’am,” one of the officers said with a slight dip of his head. He took the key out of his pocket and unlocked the door, opening it for Eliza once he had.
“Thank you,” Eliza said as she entered. “Make sure I’m not disturbed.”
“Certainly, ma’am,” the officer replied, then he closed the door.
An eerie silence surrounded Eliza as she stood in the foyer behind the wall that blocked it off from the rest of Dax’s apartment. She felt weird being there without an official reason. She still couldn’t explain why she was there, but the hurricane of emotions that were currently churning through her led her to believe that this was where she needed to be.
Her boots echoed loudly as she walked over the hardwood floor, and Eliza briefly wondered if the officers in the hall could hear them, but the thought vanished when she reached the end of the partition and came to a stop. The city was captivating from up here, and the fact that one side of the apartment provided almost a panoramic view made it even more breathtaking.
A passing thought of how romantic the view was crossed Eliza’s mind, and the tenacious feelings she had been fighting over the last few days created a bittersweet image in her mind. The mental image of her and Dax cuddled on the couch, watching the twinkling lights of the city as they chatted about nonsensical things, caused an ache that was foreign to Eliza, and it blossomed in her chest. The sensation it made her breathing falter and brought tears to her eyes.
She tore her eyes from the view and took in the various items decorating Dax’s apartment. It wasn’t until she was moving toward the paintings hanging on the wall behind the TV that Eliza realized she had moved. The paintings were completely Dax. One had varying colors in differentiating hues that created a sensual piece of abstract art, but at the same time, there was an untamed nature to it, daring the viewer to try and make some sense out of it while laughing at them for trying.
The second piece was more methodical, darker, but there was also something mysterious about it. Studying it, Eliza could see why Dax would be drawn to it. Though he was a charming and friendly person, Dax had secrets, and Eliza wanted to know them all.
For a long moment, she stared at the pieces, then she made her way to the piano that sat in front of the windows. The instrument was in pristine condition, and Eliza wondered how much it had cost. It was sleek and elegant, but it also screamed expensive. As her fingers brushed over the keys, Eliza imagined Dax sitting on the bench and playing it, his fingers gracefully hitting the keys as he did.
Flashes of the previous night overtook Eliza’s mind, and her skin began to tingle as her mind recalled the way Dax’s slender, nimble fingers had caressed her. She remembered how those same fingers had grown determined in their effort to bring her to the precipice of pleasure, and then pushing her into an unfettered bliss that Dax had guided her through it. He had slowly continued his ministrations, building her up to the same pleasurable rise and fall—an occurrence that had repeated itself several times throughout their encounter.
Eliza squeezed her eyes shut and drew in several deep breaths to shake off the threads of arousal that wanted to wrap around her. Though it felt like the encounter with Dax had happened a lifetime ago, it was still fresh in Eliza’s mind; although the memories were now tainted by her own stupidity. She slowly exhaled a long breath, then continued her deliberate tour of Dax’s apartment, taking in the overt features of it while also noticing the smallest of details. Longing and fear resided inside of her the entire time. Dax needed to be found.
Eliza eventually wandered into the kitchen, and as she trailed her fingers over the marble top of the island, a picture on refrigerator grabbed her attention. She moved closer to it. A smiling Dax, who had his arm wrapped around Angelique’s waist, filled the print. They were in a club or bar, and they both appeared to be very drunk, considering the way they hung off of each other. The top two buttons of Dax’s black dress shirt were unbuttoned, exposing the sturdy chest beneath it. He and Angelique looked carefree and happy.
The image made Eliza’s heart hurt. One of them was missing, and the other had been strangled in her own home. Knowing someone was out there taking such light out of the world felt like an injustice.
Pressing her fingers to the picture, Eliza stared at Dax’s bright face. She missed him and wanted him back so they could talk, and she could apologize. What he did for a living no longer mattered. The bigger picture couldn’t have been clearer now, and she refused to let fate—or who-the-hell-ever was doing this—take away something she hadn’t even known she needed.
Determination taking over, Eliza whispered, “I’m going to find you, Dax. I promise.”
The sound of her phone going off pierced the thick silence that had been keeping her company inside the apartment. Without looking at her phone, Eliza answered the call. “Miller.”
“Eliza, we got something,” Billy announced.
Her heart began to beat faster as adrenaline flooded her system. “What is it?”
“An employee at the gym let in someone that looked like they were part of the janitorial staff. They went into the locker room, and came out twenty minutes later, carrying Dax. He looked unconscious. They made a quick exit, but the security camera outside the back entrance shows the person putting Dax in a white-paneled van. It took the tech guys a while, but they were able to get us a clear image of the plate.”
The news had Eliza on edge, and she couldn’t wait for Billy to get to the point. “Who does it belong to, and what’s the address?”
She wasn’t going to sit back and let others save Dax. Not only did she want to be involved in his rescue, but he would be insufferable if she wasn’t.
Billy sighed. “That’s where things get a little dicey. The van was a rental.”
“Dammit!” Eliza chewed the inside of her lip, then said, “Get me the address for the rental place.”
“Miller...”
“Get me the fucking address, Billy. Now,” Eliza demanded. She knew he was going to remind her that the Captain had told her to take a timeout, but her timeout was over. Dax needed her.
Billy gave her the address, and when he was done, he quickly added, “I’ll meet you there. Don’t do anything stupid, Eliza.”
Eliza grunted to herself. She couldn’t make any promises on that. “If you’re not there, I’m going to talk to the manager without you. See you, Billy.”
As soon as the call ended, Eliza rushed to leave Dax’s apartment. Before she walked behind the foyer wall, she stopped and looked around. There was no room for helplessness and doubt now. She needed to focus. Drawing in a deep breath, Eliza pushed her feelings for Dax aside and exited the apartment. Every bit of her concentration needed to be on saving him. The rest could wait until later.
12
Every taut muscle in Eliza’s body vibrated with anxiety as she drove to the car rental place, but her mind was a blank slate. She needed it to be. Thinking about anything else besides where she was going would cause her to work herself into a frenzy, and she would end up doing something that she would later regret. Trying to keep her brain devoid of thoughts was hard, and made it seem like the twenty-minute drive was taking forever.
At long last, Eliza found the rental place, and as she parked, she spotted an unmarked police car parked in front of a fire hydrant. Brows creasing, Eliza got out of her car and made her way to the building. Through the glass door of the main entrance, she saw that Billy was already there, talking to a young woman who looked like she was fresh out of college. Opening the door, Eliza caught the tail end of their conversation.
“...The thing about fast cars is that you have to know how to handle them. Sort of like pretty girls who think they own the world,” Billy teased.
The obvious flirt almost made Eliza gag. “Detective Chil
owski,” she called out, approaching the counter that Billy leaned on. “Please tell me you have some information for me. Or, at least I hope you do. I would hate to have to write you up.”
She glanced at the young woman, doing a quick visual sweep of her before narrowing her eyes at Billy. “I don’t want to arrest you for soliciting a minor either.”
“I’m twenty-three,” the young woman sniped with so much attitude that Eliza almost laughed.
Eliza gave her a tight, condescending smile. “I’m sure you are, sweetie.” She pinned Billy down with an impatient stare. “Well?”
He stood up straight and cleared his throat. “Kelly here has been a big help. She got me a name, but the name and credit card that were used were stolen.”
Another fucking ghost.
Despair immediately began to suffocate Eliza, and she rushed out of the building, inhaling quick, deep breaths of the cold winter air. The one thought that she had been fighting against finally took root in her mind, and the paralyzing hopelessness that came with it rendered her helpless.
Dax is going to die.
The weight of it made her knees buckle, but before she could hit the ground, Billy caught her.
“Whoa, Eliza, you okay?”
Eyes filled with tears, Eliza turned her head to look at him. “He’s going to die, Billy, and it’s going to be my fault.”
A sob broke off the end of her sentence, and Billy wrapped his arms around her. Giving in to her tears, Eliza let the fear and despair that she had been fighting against the last few hours overwhelm her.
When her sobs had subsided to soft sniffles, Billy rubbed her back and said, “We’ll get him back, Eliza. I know we will.” He sighed. “Are you gonna tell me what all this is about? What’s going on with you and Dax?”
He paused for a moment, but continued when Eliza remained quiet. “When he came to the station this afternoon, it seemed like there was more going on between you two than you being your overbearing self and pissing him off, but I disregarded it because you’re as by the book as they come, and would never cross a line like that. Now...I don’t know.”
Eliza lifted her head off his shoulder and wiped away the tears that had dampened her face. Billy had definitely earned an invitation to Sunday dinner with the Miller clan since he had comforted her through her emotional breakdown, but what he hadn’t earned were the details of her and Dax’s complicated situation.
Taking another moment to gather herself, Eliza tried to figure out what to say, but eventually her sense of honor won out. She and Billy had been partners for the last year, and it wouldn’t last if they kept secrets from one another.
She drew in a deep breath, and forcefully expelled it from her lungs as she plunged into the truth. “I slept with Dax.”
“Whoa,” Billy said, his eyes widening as he drew back his head. “You slept with the prostitute?” He chuckled. “Did he charge you?”
Eliza punched him in the arm and glared at him. “You are the biggest asshole I know.”
Billy rubbed his arm. “Ow! That’s going to leave a bruise. I feel my question is valid, since, y’know, he is a prostitute.”
“Sex worker,” Eliza corrected through gritted teeth. “He didn’t charge me, you ass.” Talking about her night with Dax made her irritation disappear, and Eliza felt the pain she had given into earlier once more. She sighed. “What happened was an accident, but he was upset about Andre, and—”
“And you decided opening your legs was the best way to help him through it?”
Eliza pointed at him. “I’m done. Fuck you for being a jerk about this.” She started to walk to her car, but came to a sudden stop when her phone started to go off.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket and answered it brusquely. “Hello?”
“Oh, Detective, you disappoint me. I guess you truly don’t care about the whores you protect.” A distorted, contemplative hum followed. “It’s for the best anyway. Why taint your soul for those that only see you as a means to an end?”
“If you harm him,” Eliza warned, “I will make sure you spend the rest of your miserable life in solitary confinement at the shittiest prison the state has to offer.”
The person on the other end of the line clicked their tongue. “Aw, it’s cute that you think you’ll catch me, Detective Miller, but you won’t. As soon as I take care of your whore, I’ll be like the other ghosts you’ve been chasing. It’s a shame we’ll never meet face to face.”
“Perhaps it’s a good thing that we won’t. I don’t like cowards, and who knows what I would do to you,” Eliza said, hoping they would take the bait.
A low, dark chuckle came through the phone. “Would you like to say goodbye to your whore?”
Eliza’s hope flared to life. Before she had a chance to respond, Dax was on the line. “Detective Legs, I hope you’re planning to get me out of here. I don’t know how much more psycho rambling I can take.”
The sound of him being struck filled her ear. The proceeding groan made her concern worsen, but it also pissed her off.
The distorted voice got back on the phone. “It’s a shame the filthy whore couldn’t mind himself, but no matter. Soon he will be of no one’s concern; a concept that isn’t foreign to him. Goodbye, Detective.”
The call ended, and Eliza’s skin buzzed as adrenaline coursed through her veins, making her heart race. The fast beat of it was the only thing she could hear.
Billy moved to stand in front of her, and Eliza saw his lips moving, but she couldn’t hear what he said to her over the deafening sound of her heartbeat. One sole thought went through her mind.
Dax is still alive.
Billy grabbed her by the shoulders. The action cleared her head and brought her back to the present. “Eliza, did you even hear me?”
She shook her head dumbly.
“The tech guys weren’t able to trace the call, but they triangulated the signal and pinpointed it to a tower near the warehouses down by the river. I got the coordinates.”
The news jarred Eliza out of the stupor she had fallen into when she heard Dax’s voice. “Let’s go.”
Billy gave her a nod, and the two of them got into the unmarked car he was driving. As he drove them to the warehouses, he gave her some ground rules. “When we get there, we’ll try and locate Dax, and if we find him and that psycho, we’ll let dispatch know and tell them to send backup.”
He glanced quickly at Eliza before looking back at the street. “Under no circumstances, Miller, are we going in there before they arrive.”
Everything he said went through one ear and out the other. Dax was Eliza’s priority, and getting him out of harm’s way was her only concern. The rest of it didn’t matter.
They got to the warehouses by the harbor in record time. The area was compromised of a mixture of buildings that were used for different purposes. Some of the old turn-of-the-century warehouses had been converted into chic apartments, others were used by actual businesses, and the rest were abandoned. Eliza believed those had been left standing to be tourist attractions.
Billy killed the car’s headlights when they reached the abandoned ones, and slowly navigated the vehicle between the wide buildings while he and Eliza searched for any sign that would tell them where Dax and the killer were.
Ten minutes later, the sign came in the form of a white-paneled van parked in front of an abandoned warehouse close to the water. The remote area was notorious for drug deals and other criminal activity, and Eliza hoped she and Billy didn’t get any unexpected visitors.
Billy parked behind the van. “That’s the van that took Dax. The plate number is the same as the one the tech guys pulled from the video.”
Needing no further confirmation, Eliza undid her seat belt and moved to get out of the car, but Billy stopped her.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m going to go save Dax,” she said as she opened the car door and got out.
“Eliza!” Billy hissed in a low voice.
She ignored him as she walked away from the car, leaving the door open.
Entering through the metal doors the van was parked in front of was not a viable option, since Eliza was by herself. She began to make a circuit around the building, searching for another entrance. Rounding the corner, she found a rear entrance and moved closer to examine it. The rusted door looked like it hadn’t been used in ages, but Eliza tried to open it anyway, using every bit of strength she possessed. She made several attempts at trying to pull the door open, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Fuck,” she swore quietly after her fifth and final attempt. Fear and worry began to claw at her throat, and it tightened in response. Eliza swallowed several times to rid herself of the emotions as she stared at the back of the warehouse.
The wind had begun to pick up, but the biting cold became a welcome distraction, helping Eliza to focus.
In the dim light coming from a lamppost further down the waterfront, she noticed a rectangular piece of plywood attached to the far-right side of the building.
Eliza took out her keys, detaching the mini-Maglite that was on them. Once it was separated, she turned it on and walked to the other side of the warehouse, thinking that the piece of wood probably covered an entrance. It was a long shot, but Eliza needed to know for sure.
When she was close enough, she saw that the piece of plywood took up a large segment of the rear wall of the warehouse. The decaying piece of wood wasn’t in the best of conditions, but it was still firmly secured to the building. Eliza pushed on the board. It gave way a bit, but she would still need something to pry it off and see where it led. Moving her light over the board, she examined it, looking for a possible loose section.
Her hope surged when the lower left corner of the plywood pulled back as she yanked on it. She bent down and shone her light into the small crack, finding an opening that led right into the warehouse.