by Linda Ladd
“If Lucy’s in trouble, I’m in, no question. We’ll get her back, Frank, no matter what it takes. And we’ll get Judith out and make the deal Judith wants out of the Feds. If we involve the FBI, they’ll put their resources into finding Lucy.”
Agitated, Frank stood up and started pacing. Novak remained where he was and watched him. He needed to move and talk and do whatever it took to keep himself calm. He had to relax or he wouldn’t be any good to anybody. But Novak needed to know everything, and he didn’t, not yet.
“How’d they get Lucy, Frank?”
Frank stopped in front of him and blew out a long breath. “I’m not exactly sure. I think they might’ve just knocked on the front door. I was with Lori working out how to find Judith. The judge must have found out that I was involved. One thing’s for certain, Lucy put up one hell of a fight, just like I taught her to do if anyone ever tried to abduct her. The living room was destroyed, lamps broken and on the floor.” His voice trailed off, and he lost his words.
They were silent after that. Novak was worried now that Lucy had been mistreated but didn’t want to say so.
“I never expected them to target her, Will, I swear to God. I should’ve known, though. She’s my one vulnerability. Locke doesn’t care who he hurts. It’s all a big game to him. I’ve got to find her. Too much time has gone by already.”
“When did they take her?”
“Six days ago.”
That was a long time for a kid to be held captive. Novak didn’t like to think about it, either. “Did they contact you? Or threaten to kill her? How’d that go down?”
“The first guy called me from her phone and said they’d kill her if I didn’t back off Judge Locke’s business. That’s when I demanded to see her.” He swallowed hard. “They said they’d butcher Lucy and send her to me piece by piece if I moved against Locke. I saw her face when they said that. Oh my God, Novak. Another guy called once and said I better stop Lori Garner from snooping around or they’d send me her finger. He told me to stay away from Lori.”
“That’s when you sent her after me.”
Frank leaned up against the bulwark. “Yeah. I’ve been online trying to find word of Lucy. But Locke’s never heard of you. You can do things and show up places where we can’t.”
Silence descended, both thinking about the mess they were in.
“Okay, Frank, show me what you’ve got off the internet so far. Let me study it. We both need to get some sleep tonight. We cast off at first light.”
Frank nodded. They went below and talked a bit longer. Lori remained closeted inside her cabin. After Frank went to bed, Novak glanced over the papers Frank had downloaded and found exactly nothing to indicate where either woman was being held. They were all guesses and stabs in the dark. Things did not look good, and they hadn’t even stepped foot on land yet. Now that he knew the odds they were up against, he didn’t get much sleep. He kept thinking about what had already gone down and that some truly terrible things were probably waiting for all three of them down the pike.
Good news? Locke didn’t know where Lori Garner or Frank Caloroso was. They didn’t know Novak was involved or that he owned a sailboat. They’d be staking out the airport and train stations and bus depots. Chances were they could probably guess they were headed back to Galveston. Another plus for Novak was the ineptitude and downright stupidity of Locke’s crew. Novak put down two of their ranks himself within hours. Lori had gotten another one. That rapid a depletion of enemy forces would make the judge shorthanded. It should also tell the boss man that he was dealing with people who knew how to fight back. They’d had time to get ready. They’d have a big welcoming party on hand. Oh yeah, they were heading into a buzz saw, all right.
Chapter 6
The squalls had found them, and the rain intensified as Novak showered and dressed in sweatpants and a white T-shirt. He was glad he’d made it to the sheltered cove before the downpour hit them. The weather had changed abruptly, the front coming in fast with buffeting winds. That would delay their departure and complicate the voyage. He sat down at his bedroom desk and rechecked the weather reports and redrew his chart. Hopefully the thunderstorms wouldn’t last long, but a long line of weather disturbances down along the Texas coast did not look good, nor did the fact that it would probably last several days. He hoped to God the gusts would stop soon so they could be on their way.
When the smell of frying bacon drifted in to him, his stomach actually growled. Frank was up and cooking breakfast. Frank was a hell of a good cook, and Novak was hungry. He left the master cabin, but it was Lori Garner standing at the stove, already up and dressed in a pair of boot-cut jeans that fit her fairly well and his black sweatshirt, which did not. It hung to her knees and looked like a dress. Her sling was gone again, which was a bad idea. As usual, she protected her arm close against her body as she busied around the galley. She was turning the bacon. A carton of eggs was out, and she had bread in the toaster.
When she saw him watching her, she smiled at him. “Hey, man, don’t look so shocked. I can cook as well as anybody. You and Frank don’t have to nursemaid me. I can fend for myself. Besides I already owe you enough.”
Novak wondered why she felt it necessary to say all that. “You don’t owe me anything. It’s fine with me if you want to cook us breakfast. I just figured that Frank would insist. You know him and the way he is in the kitchen.”
Lori lifted out a strip of bacon to drain on a paper towel, and then she glanced back at him. “If Frank cooks breakfast, it would be sausage pizza. My stomach isn’t up for that much Italian yet. At least, not this early in the morning.” Then she smiled again. The pleasant look reconfigured her normally serious face. She looked better without all the lipstick and black eye makeup, too. Despite the black eye and ugly bruises, she looked younger today. She was trying to be sociable; that was obvious. She was still talking.
“I learned a lot about Cajun cuisine from my grandmama in Terrebonne Parish. But this is good old country Southern cooking straight from my Mississippi daddy’s cookbook. I could win prizes, if I was idiotic enough to enter cook-offs.”
Her background took Novak by surprise. He helped himself to coffee and sat down at the dining table. “You’re bayou born?”
“Yep, born and raised to raise hell, as they like to say in my neck of the woods. But you’re not, are you? You live in that creepy old plantation house down in Lafourche, that’s true, but you’re no native. I detected this odd inflection in your accent the first time you opened your mouth. What is that, anyway, Novak? You an Australian masquerading as a Ragin’ Cajun, that it?”
Well, he had to say that she was up on her dialects and in a pretty good mood after having a recent beating and gunshot wound. Those pills were either working like gangbusters, or she was faking her good mood. Novak assumed the last was more likely. He ignored her question, never one to willingly give out his backstory. He still wasn’t sure he could trust her; probably could, but he wasn’t up to sharing confidences yet. She was growing on him, though. He glanced at the fore cabins. “Frank’s still asleep?”
She nodded as she wiped her hands on a towel. “Yeah, but he didn’t shut his eyes until after dawn. I could hear him next door mumbling to himself. He’s real shaky, Novak. I understand why, I really do, but he’s got to get a grip before we hit land.”
“Yeah, I know.” Novak watched her for a moment. “So you feel better, do you? You look better.”
“What’s this? A compliment? This early in the morning?”
“You do look like you feel better today. I’m not coming on to you. You’re too young and immature for me.”
She knew he was joking. “Yeah, right, don’t kid yourself. I’m older than I look. Going out with you would be iffy in my book, though. You’re too clueless about social networking. We’d need a translator. Maybe I could teach you a few things, given time.”
Novak wasn’t quite sure how to take that. “I can use the internet. Not much into hacking, though.”
“Too bad. You can learn a lot from hacking. Anybody who lives out in the boonies like you do has to be a hermit or antisocial, maybe. You look like a guy who needs to have some fun. I could show you a good time.”
Novak wasn’t sure how to take that.
“OMG, dude, c’mon already, not that kind of good time.”
Novak felt relieved. He didn’t get her or her lingo and had a feeling that went both ways. “Maybe you should lay off the hydrocodone, after all, kid.” He smiled a little, but she came back, not liking the kid reference.
“How old do you think I am? Fifteen?”
“Twenty-one or two.”
“Try soon-to-be thirty-one. Next week, in fact. How old are you?”
“Older than that. You look younger.”
That brought a frown. “How could I even be that young? I was graduated at Tulane and in the military for eight years.”
“I don’t know your background. I know nothing about you. Why don’t you tell me all about yourself?”
She ignored that request. “Well, as for looking better, I do feel better, especially now that we’ve got ocean between us and our enemies. Better than yesterday, for sure, and better than any other day since I got Judith’s text asking for my help. My arm can actually move on its own this morning.” She moved it up and down to demonstrate but only a couple of inches. “My face doesn’t feel like somebody just slammed it with a two by four. Tender mercies, true, but appreciated. How about you?”
“Fine, I guess.” Novak wondered if her high spirits was bravado or if she just felt better and her true personality was emerging from the hell she’d endured the last couple of weeks. “Glad to hear you’ve got movement in that arm. You’ve been through a lot. Those guys worked you over pretty good.”
“Understatement of the year, man.”
After that exchange, she sobered and said nothing else. Novak sat there and watched her crack eggs into the bacon grease. Not long after that, she forked bacon onto their plates, followed by fried eggs and grits. Toast and orange juice and a second cup of black coffee followed. He offered to help, but she waved him off. Instead, she juggled through it using one hand and did an okay job. Novak knew what she was doing. She was showing him that she could still function physically and that her mental state was not compromised by fear or stress from being held captive under horrible conditions. The sudden good cheer, the joking, the lightheartedness, all of it was out of place at the moment but intended to show him that she could hold her own and be helpful to them in the coming days. He wished she didn’t feel the need to prove herself to him.
Truth was, however, she wasn’t a hundred percent; maybe thirty percent at the most. Give her a few more days of rest and recuperation and she might get halfway back to full capacity. Food preparation did not equate with handling a loaded 9mm in life-and-death situations. She was forcing the happy mood, but good for her. That was a damn sight better than groveling in self-pity or nurturing internal rage. Lori Garner had guts, all right. Maybe she could convince herself that no harm had been done to her psyche, but it definitely had and would exhibit someday. She needed to talk to somebody about what those men had done to her, but Novak wasn’t sure he was the best person to help in that capacity. Frank probably wasn’t, either, not in his present state of mind.
When she sat down across from him, he watched her surreptitiously while they ate. Neither said anything. Seen from up close, her black eye was fading a bit and most of the swelling around her mouth had gone down but still had the stitches. She actually had some natural color in her face. His intuition told him she could be tough as nails when she had to be, and she was going to have to be. She dined with good manners and gusto and enjoyment and no self-consciousness. Before he was half-finished, she pushed back her plate, blotted her mouth with a paper napkin, and began to tell him about Judith Locke.
“You may think I’m not necessary for this mission and don’t need to tag along with you guys, but guess what? You do need me. Just like Frank told you, I know all the dope about this family. Judith Locke and I were college roommates, all four years. She’s my bestie. I know her family big-time. I’ve stayed at both their houses. I know the floor plans and where everything is. I know pretty much when and where he posts his guards. I know how much grief Judith suffered because her daddy and her big jerk of a brother are sicko perverts. Her mom died when she was six. After that, the judge only had eyes for her. Judith says it’s because she looks exactly like her mom did. Cringy, I know, but she meant it. He bought her affection with gifts and money.” She stared into his eyes. Now that the swelling was down, hers were big and brilliant and a beautiful shade of blue. “You can imagine what that kind of affection that turned into.”
“I’m surprised Judith told you all this.”
She nodded. “She trusts me. That’s why she came to me for help. And probably also because I never lived in Galveston or been under his influence. Everybody else in her world is under his thumb. People are scared to death to cross him. So I headed straight to Galveston because she sounded so desperate.”
Novak listened to all that and watched her face. “What happened when you got there? Did you get to talk to her?”
“I made a beeline straight to the mansion and demanded to see her. The snotty butler told me she wasn’t home and he didn’t know when she’d be back. So I sat out on the street in my car and watched the front gate all day long but she never came. Then I drove down to their beach house on Galveston Island. Judith loves it out there the best. I jumped the wall and got inside the grounds but nobody was home. It was all closed up. So she could be anywhere. She’s in big trouble, Novak. We need to get a move on. She’s in danger.”
“You’ve got no idea where he’s got her stashed?”
“I think she’s still inside the mansion. He likes to keep her close at hand, for obvious reasons. He totes obsesses about her. He’s as sick as they come. She said he acts like she’s his wife sometimes. I’ve seen him do it. She hates him, and she hates Stephen.”
“You think he ordered her husband killed?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. Danny died in a car crash. It wasn’t deemed a homicide by the Texas Highway Patrol, but Calvin’s got his tentacles good and tight around lots of people in local law enforcement. Maybe the fix went in. Timothy Hennessey’s mob is more dangerous than Locke’s people but not as clever or as cautious. He’s pretty much just a sick and sadistic bastard. He likes to kill people. Up close and personal so he can see the fear in their eyes before he throws acid in their faces. That’s what Judith says, anyway. She’s got the goods on him, too, and I believe her. She wants to bring them both down but only with a guarantee of witness protection for her and her girls. She’s scared, Novak. She’s thinks he’ll kill her if he finds out she wants to betray him.”
“You think the children are with her?”
“I hope so. She’s terrified her father’s gonna take them for good and she’ll never see them again. I don’t think he’ll do that. Judith’s the one he wants to keep close. Her kids are just an incentive to make her stay.”
“How old are they?”
“Samantha’s three. Sammi’s what we call her. Susie’s a year older. Judith almost died when she had her.”
“How far is Frank’s fish camp from the Locke mansion?”
“Locke’s big estate is in Houston. In River Oaks, which is real hoity-toity, believe it. Frank’s cabin’s about an hour or so away, maybe more. It’s on an inlet behind a big wildlife preserve on the coast. Pretty hard to access by road, you know, narrow and graveled and remote, but you can sail this boat right up to his dock easy peasy.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ve been there lots of times. Has the area built up in the last few years? Are neighbors gonna notice us coming in?”
“Nex
t to nobody lives out there. Way too isolated. I haven’t seen a single soul since he took me out there.”
Novak hoped the judge hadn’t found it. It was a good place to hide and an even better base of operations. “Look, I’m sorry about your friend, Lori. But Lucy Caloroso’s my main concern right now. There are things I can’t ask Frank because his emotions are all over the place, so I’m asking you. Will these guys kill her?” He watched Lori’s face react and knew her answer before she spoke it aloud.
“Yes. They are killers. The men who had me liked me being at their mercy.” She looked down and kept her eyes latched on the tabletop. “They were going to kill me once they got done playing with me. They joked about how I’d die and smiled when they hurt me. They’re all sadists. Every one of them.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that. But you survived, and that means you’re tough. You’re going to be all right. It’ll take some time, though.”
She wouldn’t look at him, so he asked her another question. “How many men does the judge have on his payroll?”
“Too many for the three of us to put down. Two personal bodyguards travel with him, or they used to. Sometimes they’re in his car; sometimes they follow him in a different car. His driver is armed. All of them are armed. He’s got enforcers that go after anybody who gets out of line or causes trouble. Some Galveston cops are paid off. I don’t know who or how many. Getting Judith and Lucy away from him won’t be easy.”