by Camy Tang
“I’ve known women like Faye.” Elisabeth opened the glass door to the shop, peered inside, then gave Liam a triumphant smile.
The shop was very narrow, and Faye sat at a station near the back. Her shoulders drooped, and she looked worn and tired. Solidad was massaging Faye’s hands and nodding as Faye seemed to be unburdening herself.
Liam gave Elisabeth a rueful look. “I stand corrected.”
“I’m just glad she’s still all right.” Elisabeth entered the shop and went straight to Faye.
Joslyn’s cousin stopped midsentence to gape up at Elisabeth. But rather than curiosity or surprise, there was fear in her brown eyes.
“It’s all right,” Elisabeth said quickly. “Your mother sent me to help you.”
Faye’s lower lip trembled, and then she burst into tears.
“Now see what you’ve done?” Solidad glared at Elisabeth and Liam even as she grabbed handfuls of tissues from a box on the table next to her and thrust them at Faye. “Sweetheart, you need to stop crying. You don’t want your nose to turn red.”
Faye’s sobs calmed into hiccups within a few minutes. “Who are you? What do you want?” she asked.
“I’m Elisabeth Aday, a private investigator, and this is Liam O’Neill, a skip tracer. I helped your cousin Joslyn when she came to a women’s shelter where I volunteer in Sonoma.”
“Is she all right?” Faye’s earnest tone and wide eyes made it obvious how much her cousin meant to her.
Elisabeth didn’t want to lie to her, but she didn’t want to worry her more. “I think so, but I also need your help to make sure she stays that way.”
Faye’s eyes darted around the tiny shop, and she licked her lips. “They’re after me,” she whispered.
“We can protect you,” Liam said, and the solid confidence in his tone seemed to instill some courage in Faye.
Faye turned to Solidad. “Can we use your office?”
“Yes, yes.” Solidad gestured impatiently to a small door at the back of the shop. “You don’t even need to ask.”
Solidad’s office was barely a closet, but Elisabeth and Faye managed to squeeze inside, with Faye sitting in the chair behind the desk and Elisabeth in a metal folding chair she found propped against the wall. Liam stood inside the doorway with the door ajar, watching the shop and the street outside the front windows.
“You spoke to my mother?” Faye’s fingers massaged her knuckles.
It occurred to Elisabeth that she ought to reassure her that they had indeed met Mrs. Torres, so she reached into her laptop case and pulled out the small plastic container of paciencia cookies that Faye’s mom had given to her.
Faye’s eyes lit up, then filled with tears as she saw the cookies. “I was supposed to come help her make cookies this weekend.”
“We went to see her because she helped Joslyn on her way north to Sonoma,” Elisabeth said.
“Did Joslyn make it to Wings?”
“Yes. That’s where I met her. But she was so afraid of Tomas that she took off in the middle of the night.”
“You saw her? He really hurt her.”
Elisabeth nodded. “Tomas came to Sonoma looking for her. He found out I helped her and now he’s after me.”
Faye grew white. “Oh, no.”
“Faye,” Elisabeth said gently, “we’re looking for evidence that can put Tomas away for your uncle’s murder. Then Joslyn will be safe.”
Faye began to tremble violently. “You don’t understand. It’s not just the murder. It involves the Tumibays, too.”
“How does it involve them? Why are they after you?”
The girl took a deep breath and she began to cry again. “My boyfriend—Daniel—said he’d help Joslyn. He knew her boyfriend was a Bagsic captain because I told him when I found out a month or two ago.” She squeezed her eyes shut, and the tears trickled down her cheeks. “I thought Daniel would offer Joslyn protection from Tomas because she’d obviously broken any Bagsic ties.”
“So you took Joslyn to Daniel?” Liam’s voice was gentle, nonjudgmental.
Faye let out a sob. “They tied her up in the back room of their club—it’s just a warehouse where they hold raves—and they threatened to kill her if she didn’t give them some useful information about the Bagsics. It’s my fault.” The sobs were coming hard now, and Faye had difficulty speaking. “I begged her to give them something. I was so afraid they’d kill her.”
Elisabeth reached out to clasp Faye’s hand.
“So...she told them about the Bagsics’ next ephedrine shipment from the Philippines. Joslyn had overheard Tomas talking about it with one of the other captains because he was in charge of the shipment. Then I heard Daniel planning with the other Tumibays to steal it.” Faye looked at Elisabeth and Liam with wide eyes. “I knew Tomas would kill Joslyn for telling the Tumibays. I also started to suspect that Daniel might use Joslyn as leverage and offer her to Tomas in trade for something. So I helped her escape. There was a rave at the warehouse that night, so it was easy to sneak her out. She looked like any of the other girls there.”
“That was pretty brave of you,” Liam said.
“Not really. I thought no one knew about it. But then about a week ago, one of the girls who was at the rave that night mentioned to Daniel that she’d seen me with Joslyn. Daniel came after me. I was at a coffee shop and he tried to grab me, but I got away from him. I went home to pack a bag, I got my paycheck at work, and I’ve been hiding out, staying at hotels.” Her shoulders heaved. “I knew I couldn’t live like that forever, but I didn’t know what to do.”
“We’ll take you somewhere safe, where the Tumibays can’t get to you.”
Faye gulped in a breath. “Really? Oh, thank you.” The relief seemed to pour off her in waves.
“Faye.” Liam went and crouched down beside her chair. “What do you remember about that shipping container?”
“Um...it was off the Pansit. It was due to arrive the day after they captured Joslyn, so that’s two days after her dad was killed. She told them the number of the container, but I don’t remember it. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Is there anything else you can tell us about it, or what the Tumibays did?”
“They made some sort of plan to transport it by truck up from the Port of Los Angeles to the Bay Area. About a week after they’d taken the shipping container, I overheard Daniel saying it was safe to keep it at ‘Norris’ indefinitely because no one knew the company was connected to the Tumibays. I think he was talking about IRF Norris, a pharmaceutical company. If what he said is true, then the container is still there.”
Elisabeth’s breath hitched. She met Liam’s gaze and knew they were both thinking the same thing.
She turned to Faye. “We’re going to take you somewhere safe. The Tumibays are still looking for you.”
“Let me say goodbye to Solidad. She’s been so helpful to me.”
While Faye was with her friend, Liam and Elisabeth talked in low voices several feet away.
“So Tomas lost a shipment of ephedrine from the Philippines,” Elisabeth said. “I should have guessed this all had something to do with the Bagsics’ meth dealing.”
“And the Tumibays stole it after they forced Joslyn to tell them about it.” Liam blew out a long breath. “No wonder Tomas wants Joslyn so badly. He can’t let her get away with spilling Bagsic secrets. Tomas’s bosses must be livid.”
“And like Faye said, the Tumibays probably want Joslyn as leverage against the Bagsics.”
“But this simplifies things,” Liam said. “If we find that Bagsic shipping container on the property of a Tumibay-owned company, we can give that information to the FBI. They can eliminate the Bagsics’ ephedrine supplier in the Philippines—just like they did to the Tumibays a few months ago—and put some heat on the Tumibays for possessing the container.”
“If Tomas hadn’t murdered Felix Dimalanta, none of this would have happened.” Elisabeth watched Faye hugging Solidad.
“Sha
ll we take her to Wings shelter?” Liam said.
“That’s what I was thinking.”
Liam captured her with his dark blue eyes, brilliant like sapphires, intense with a fire of determination. “And then we pay a visit to IRF Norris.”
* * *
Liam and Elisabeth crouched in the bushes bordering the edge of the business complex in Marin. With the darkness of night, the temperature had dropped dramatically, and even with gloves on, his hands were cold. They had to be careful, or else the condensation from their breath would give them away.
IRF Norris. Liam had done the internet research and discovered it was a Nevada-based pharmaceutical company, but with a laboratory here in Marin, just across the bridge from San Francisco.
They’d taken Faye to Wings shelter in Sonoma, with its newly repaired front door and new security guard to replace Bill while he recovered from his injuries. They’d also informed Wings and Detective Carter about the threat to Faye’s life, and Faye had been reassured that the Tumibays would not be able to get to her even if they found her.
But to eliminate the threat to her, and to Joslyn and Elisabeth, and Liam’s family, they needed to find the shipping container here, tonight. Everything hinged on what they’d find.
They’d arrived about twenty minutes ago, and the building was quiet. Almost...deserted. It was the only building on this corner of the business complex, surrounded on three sides by grassy lawn, cement walkways and lots of lampposts.
They’d already scoped out the layout and knew that the only way to get to the shipping-and-receiving bay was to cross open lawn and then move around the corner of the building. In full view of anyone watching.
“So do we run for it, or walk and pretend like we’re supposed to be here?” Elisabeth asked.
“I haven’t seen any campus security guards, but I’ve seen one or two cameras,” Liam said.
“They could be only for show. I think that camera there has its cable cut—you can just see it under the lens. And the building is looking rather shabby. Maybe they can’t afford closed-circuit video.”
“Then let’s go for it—as fast as we can. The less time we’re out in the open, the better.”
They took off at a full sprint down the gently rolling lawn, across a cement walkway and turning down another. Then Elisabeth slowed. “Liam, wait.”
“What?” The lampposts left them completely exposed.
“Look.” She had paused next to an office window.
Most of the windows had closed blinds but this one had a crack through the strips. And inside there was a large area, which would be used for cubicles, except it was entirely empty with only bits of trash on the scuffed carpet.
“This is supposed to be a lab,” he said. “So where’s the lab?”
“Back there, I looked through another window and the room inside was empty, too.”
“Maybe the labs are on the other floors. Come on, let’s go.”
They turned the corner and came to the shipping-and-receiving bay. It had its own driveway to separate it from the building’s parking lot, but there were no light posts or floodlights. The entire bay was in darkness.
Liam switched on the flashlight he’d brought with him and immediately saw the dark blue shipping container. It was still on the wheeled trailer from the truck that had transported it. “Let’s get the number down and get out—”
Car headlights flashed, illuminating the back wall of the receiving bay.
“Over here!” Elisabeth darted under the shipping container trailer and crouched behind one of the large wheels.
Liam followed not a moment too soon. A car coasted up the driveway to the receiving bay, parking only a few feet away from where they were hidden. Liam pressed his back to the cement of the docking bay wall, his heart slamming in his chest.
Two car doors opened and slammed shut. The two men who emerged continued a conversation they’d been having.
“Daniel is overreacting.”
“Well, Sonny ID’d them at Faye’s apartment.”
“But even if they find Faye, it’s not like she knows about this place.”
“Daniel’s just trying to cover his butt. He’s in the doghouse because he let Faye get away.”
The men were talking about Liam and Elisabeth and Faye.
“So where’s the truck? I don’t want to be here all night.”
“It’ll be here soon.”
Panic tightened Liam’s chest muscles. The Tumibays were going to move the shipping container. Even if Liam and Elisabeth got the container number and the address of this building to the FBI, if the container wasn’t here, on this property, there would be no proof of ties to the Tumibays.
“Can we slash the trailer tires?” Elisabeth whispered to him. It was exactly what he had been wondering.
He tried to think about the specialty tires on the larger trucks he’d used. “I don’t think so. These big tires are at high pressure and I’m not sure if they’d explode or not.”
“When that truck comes to hook up to this trailer, they’ll see us. We have to get out of here before then.”
The frustration welled up inside him. They were so close! But he didn’t want to think what would happen if the Tumibays captured Elisabeth. “Okay, let’s get the number and go.”
“I already memorized it from earlier.”
They’d be exposed once they ran out from behind the tires, but if they moved quickly and quietly, they could cut around the side wall and out of sight.
“Go,” he mouthed to her, and she darted along the wall, her footsteps soft shushing sounds against the asphalt. The men continued talking. Liam took a deep breath, then ran for it.
He’d just turned the corner and out of sight when he heard one of the men say, “What was that?”
“What was what?”
Liam and Elisabeth were still horribly exposed by the outside lights as they made their way around the other side of the building. But once they reached the far corner, they stopped. There was about five hundred feet of lawn in front of them before they could make it to the cover of the trees. The problem was that with the angle, the men standing by the car could easily see them as soon as they got onto the grass.
“There’s no help for it.” Liam paused, then pulled out his firearm.
Elisabeth took a few short, hard breaths. “Okay.” Her gun appeared in her hand.
“Go.”
They sprinted, and almost immediately, they heard a man yell, “Hey! It’s them!” Within seconds, the report of a gun echoed from the walls of the building, climbing the rolling lawn after Liam. Elisabeth ducked, maybe instinctively, and returned fire while she kept running.
His chest felt as if it had caved in. He staggered. The cold air was suddenly hot and arid. Dust was in his nose. The gunfire was suddenly rapid-fire in his ears.
“Liam, come on!” He heard her voice in his ear, her hand yanking at his shoulder. He stumbled as best as he could. His legs wouldn’t respond to him.
Then he was on the ground, breathing in sand and dirt, smelling scrub brush and gunpowder and blood. And at the same time he smelled cold grass and wet earth. The gunfire tattooed over his head.
“Liam.”
Elisabeth shook him violently, and the sand receded. His arm felt bruised. She must have shaken him hard in order to get him out of his mind.
“We have to go.” She twisted to return fire around the edge of the stand of fir trees where they had taken cover.
He dug his fingers into the dirt, feeling the cold and wet in order to drag himself out of the vestiges of the hallucination still on the edges of his vision. “Okay. Let’s go.”
She peppered the men with a round of gunfire, then grabbed Liam under his arm and they ran toward where their car was parked alongside the curb.
The next thing he knew, they were driving on the road that led from the business complex. His heart beat fast and heavy in his throat, and he panted.
“You’re okay,” she said to him. �
��Focus on your breathing. You’re okay.”
He wasn’t okay.
Things were getting worse, not better. He’d stopped his counseling because it hadn’t seemed to be doing anything, but the events of the past few days made him feel like he was going crazy. He had to find a way to keep it together or he’d keep putting people in danger.
He was disgusted with himself.
“Liam.”
He felt her touch on his hand as she spoke.
He was tainted. He was flawed. He’d been feeling attraction for Elisabeth, but tonight only reiterated how broken he was. He pulled his hand away from her.
“Liam, you’re okay.”
“I will be.” His voice was rough.
“Did you want to—”
“No.”
He didn’t look at her. He couldn’t bear to see pity or worry in her eyes. He’d done enough to burden the people around him. He needed to find a way to handle this himself.
Had they really accomplished anything from tonight? They could give the shipping container number to the FBI, who could probably track down the Bagsics’ ephedrine supplier in the Philippines.
But within the hour, the Tumibays would move the shipping container from this facility. There would be no provable connection to the San Francisco gang.
The Tumibays knew that Liam and Elisabeth had seen the container. And the Tumibays would do everything they could to silence them.
He heard a faint buzzing, and Elisabeth frowned. She pulled her cell phone out of her jacket pocket. “I’ve got a voice mail from my answering service.”
She pulled onto the side of the road and checked her voice mail. Liam concentrated on his heart rate and his breathing. His hands and legs were still trembling as if from the aftereffects of shock.
“Oh, my,” Elisabeth breathed.
Her face was so pale that he grabbed her arm. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Her mouth hung open, and she blinked at her cell phone in shock. Finally she swallowed. “I just had a message...from Joslyn. It was really her, I could tell it was her voice. She said...Tomas has found her.”
THIRTEEN
The sound of Joslyn’s voice had ripped into Elisabeth’s chest. The only reason Joslyn would be contacting her would be because something was dangerously wrong.