by Laura Greene
“We're here,” Jessy says, dressed equally in black, a rucksack across her back. Leaning down, she retrieves a pair of binoculars from the bag and takes in the scenery.
“Oh, honey, I never thought you'd be a Peeping Tom,” Mia jokes.
“These are Danny's. One of his many hobbies that never got going. He doesn’t have time for them.”
“Danny is a Peeping Tom?!”
“Shhh!” Jessy whispers. “Keep your voice down, this is dangerous. No, Danny was into bird watching for a while.”
Mia laughs.
“What's so funny?”
“I just don't see Danny as the bird watching type.”
Jessy peers through the eye pieces of the binoculars and looks across the dock. Various huge shipping containers are there, as is a large freight ship, docked alongside the port.
“Let me see?” Mia asks. Jessy hands her the binoculars. “I don't see any Feds.”
“They're here. I'm sure. Probably in one of these shipping containers, waiting to pounce,” offers Jessy. “If I could just get a little closer...”
“Now, honey, we agreed. We're only here to watch the... how did you put it? 'Fruits of our hard work'. We're not here to get involved. Besides, there’s at least twenty men down there, all of them look unfriendly, and I don't fancy the Feds having to come in to save us before we end up in an underground chamber in a graveyard somewhere.”
“There's a gap...” Jessy moves off, weaving between three large containers while remaining in the shadows.
“Hey!” Mia whispers. Reluctantly, she follows.
Pressing her back up against a large crate, Jessy peers around the side. She can see the group of men moving crates and other boxes from the ship into several black vans. “Drugs... Or something worse...” Jessy says under her breath to Mia.
“The something worse bit worries me. Let's stay here until the Feds pounce.”
Something now comes into view. Something Jessy did not expect to see. “My word... I have to get closer.”
“Wait!” But Mia cannot stop her friend, Jessy is moving far beyond her reach. As Mia is about to follow yet again, two headlights from a parking car shine across the top of the crate where she is hiding. She must remain where she is or risk being seen.
Two men exit the parked car. Another man approaches them. They are involved in some kind of bartering.
Jessy is much further forward now. Enthralled by what she has seen and having to confirm it, she has not realized that she is now utterly alone. With each step forward, her friend Mia is left further and further back in the shadows.
“Alright! Come out!” a voice shouts.
“Get yer hands off me, ya creep!” It is Mia. She has been apprehended by the two men from the car. They walk her down towards where the freight ship is docked. Standing at the bottom of the stairs leading up into the boat is a man in a pristine gray suit. The two men shout at him as they approach.
“Falcone! What kind of a deal is this? You let this broad spy on us?”
Falcone is in his early fifties with bleached blond hair. “I have no idea who this is...”
“You better not, or the deal is off.”
Falcone steps forward. “Who are you?”
“None of yer business!” Mia shouts.
“Are there any more of you?”
“I said, 'none of yer business', moron!”
“That's a pit,” Falcone says, smiling with a dead-eyed grin. He reaches inside his suit jacket and pulls out a revolver. He then points it straight at Mia. “If you don't come out, I'll blow this one's head clean off and dump her in the water.”
Jessy starts to move. Falcone and his men hear this and look in the direction of a large container nearby.
“No, Jessy! Run!” Mia shouts.
But Jessy will not abandon her friend, certainly not when it has been her own recklessness that has threatened her life.
“I'm here. Don't shoot!” Jessy stands up, her arms raised in the air.
“Go get her,” Falcone snaps.
Two lumbering goons, both unshaven, both smelling as though they haven't bathed in a week, grab Jessy by the arms. Both she and Mia are then marched up the stairs towards the freight ship. As they walk, Jessy whispers, “I'm so sorry, Mia.”
“Forget it, Jessy. It's not your fault that these guys are chumps!”
Responding to Mia's insult, the man holding her hands behind her back increases his grip. Mia winces in pain, and then looks at Jessy with a worried expression as they enter inside the huge, rusting freight ship.
The ship smells of seaweed, and it has an unmistakable musty smell to it. Jessy breathes deeply through her nose and closes her eyes. She imagines herself someplace else, not out of fear but to chase a thought. A large rusted metal door opens, and then they begin to descend. Step after step down metallic stairs, they head deeper and deeper into the bowels of the ship.
Mia begins to panic. “I can't do underground, Jessy... I can't...”
Jessy remembers how adamant Mia was back at the cemetery that she couldn't go down the ladder into the underground chamber. Seeing her friend's face turn chalk white and hearing her erratic breathing, Jessy now sees how crippling Mia's phobia of such places is.
“It's okay, Mia. It's...” Jessy doesn't get to finish that thought. She and Mia are unceremoniously bundled into another room. They are thrown to the floor. The cold, wet surface knocks the wind from Jessy, and the large gray door to the room is closed and locked. The sound of the lock turning echoes deep into the cavernous ship.
Jessy pulls herself onto her knees and gathers her breath. She then moves over to Mia. who is sitting weeping on the floor. Jessy wraps her arms around her friend and gently strokes her face. A dim red bulb casts a bitter, crimson hue.
“Take a deep breath, Mia. It'll be okay...”
Mia is hyperventilating, but Jessy keeps at her. “Focus on me, honey. Focus on my voice. Breathe in... Hold it... Breathe out...” Eventually Mia gathers herself and her breathing slows.
“Sorry,” she says. “I'd rather they'd thrown me off the ship into the water than bring me down here. I reckon it won't be long until they do away with us anyhow.”
Jessy knows Mia is right, but she doesn't want to concede defeat just yet. Looking around the room, she explores every nook, but there is no way out. No ventilation shaft to climb through. No way to unlock the door.
Just as Jessy pushes against the cold metal of the door, the lock sounds once more. Stepping back, Jessy stands as Falcone enters the room with two of his men. “Well, ladies. Ain't this a pickle.”
“Oh, get it over with you tiny little man,” Mia says, still sitting.
“I admire your spunk, but, unfortunately, I can't afford to be so accommodating right now.” Falcone nods to his two men. One of them brings out a bag, and from it they reveal a blowtorch, which the man lights. The blue flame has a searing heat to it, one that can cut through steel, and so flesh is easy game.
Falcone points to Jessy. “Burn her, make the other one talk. Tell us who you are and who else knows I'm here. Now!”
The man with the blowtorch steps forward. He grabs Jessy by the throat and then brings the blowtorch up to her face. Jessy can feel the searing heat from the flame. Her heart races as she imagines the agonizing pain of the flame against her skin. In this moment, she searches her brain for something...anything that can stall this torture.
“Carmichael is alive!”
“Stop!” Falcone shouts in response. “You two, leave.”
Both of his goons leave the room, leaving the door open, and Jessy breathes a sigh of relief.
“So, Philippe Carmichael is alive, is he?” says Falcone. “How do you know this?” Falcone pulls out his gun and points it at Jessy.
“The seven men,” Jessy says. “The ones in the chamber, you use them to put fear into people, right?”
Falcone laughs. “A little showmanship on my part. I heard the cops found it. I used to use it to bring people in for meetings. Yo
u'd be surprised how amenable people are to your requests when their predecessors are hung up on the wall around them.”
“A friend of mine thinks Carmichael disappeared at the same time as those men, but I don't think a man as intelligent as you would hang up a superior on the wall like that, would you? Wouldn't that result in a war?”
“Of course.”
“I think Carmichael went into hiding and you've been looking for him. I can help you find him.” Jessy is now in pure speculative mode. She is grasping for any possibility to get her and her friend out of the ship.
Falcone starts to laugh hysterically. “You really think you're a good detective, huh? Lady,” Falcone says, standing up and pointing the gun inches from Jessy's face, “of course Carmichael is still alive. I work for him.” Falcone begins to squeeze the trigger.
Something metallic bounces into the room. There is a large, deafening bang and smoke. It is a smoke grenade. The sound of gunfire rings in the distance, and Jessy takes the opportunity to trip Falcone off-balance. He bashes his head against the wall. In the confusion, Jessy grabs Mia and leads her out of the room.
*
“What did I tell you two?” Garrett says, driving his car with Mia and Jessy once more in the back seat. “Do you know the strings I had to pull to get you out of that jam? If they knew I’d told two civilians about an upcoming sting, I'd lose my job and my pension.”
For once, Mia takes a conciliatory tone with her cousin. “Richie, I'm sorry. We didn't mean...”
“It was my fault,” Jessy says from the back seat. “Mia tried to stop us from going in, but I couldn't help myself. So, did you get Falcone?”
“We got him alright.”
“And Carmichael?”
“Philippe Carmichael? Why would we find him there? I thought Falcone had him killed?”
“No,” explains Jessy. “Your contacts in the FBI were wrong about that. Falcone confessed to me that Carmichael is alive and that he works for him. He must have gone underground, if you excuse the pun, and been running Falcone's smuggling operation from the shadows.”
“That's amazing,” says Garrett, “but I'm still mad you went to the docks.”
“I didn't mean to, but when we were watching I saw something and I had to get a closer look. That's when they caught us.”
“What did you see?” asks Garrett.
“I think one of the men at the port was the same man who sold Danny and me our home.”
“Wow!” says Mia. “Are you sure?”
“I think so... The question is, does he know anything about Harlan's room, and if so, did he sell the house to us deliberately so we would find it?”
“That's great – a lead to chase about Harlan, at last we can find out who he is!” Mia says, enthusiastically.
“Maybe... but I don't think I'm the one to do it.”
“What do you mean?” asks Garrett.
“We nearly died tonight. I'm done with being a detective.”
“But Jessy...”
“I've made my mind up.” Jessy looks out of the car window and thinks of Danny. She just wants to see him again and put Harlan's room behind her for good. Little does she know that a chance meeting may soon force her to discover Harlan's true identity, whether she wants to or not.
Want more? Click here to start reading Frozen In Time (Book 4) on Amazon now!
Also by Laura Greene
Wild Cove Mystery Series
Murder At Wild Cove Book 1
Susan Dern is Missing Book 2
The Demise of Tom Hendry Book 3
The Past Life of Jane Scott Book 4
The Hooded Figure Book 5
Behind The Crime Series
The Secret Room Book 1
The Houston Party Book 2
Frozen In Time Book 4
Harlan’s Secret Book 5
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About the Author
Laura Greene is an international bestselling Crime and Murder Mystery author. She loves the outdoors. Hiking, exploring new adventures in nature and spending time with her family make for some of her favorite moments in life. When she’s not writing a new Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, she loves to connect with her readers whom she considers her friends. Join Laura Greene on Facebook.