Close To Home_A Sam Prichard Mystery

by David Archer

  “I know him. Dick, Pete Wilson is something of a hero, down here in LoDo. Most city cops, they find some young person hustling on the street, they take ’em to jail. Pete Wilson takes them to McDonald’s or somewhere and gets them something to eat, then he takes them to somebody who will let them crash for a while and try to get on their feet. You remember Nikki? He found her on the street turning tricks a while back, but instead of calling her in, he brought her to me. One of her tricks got her pregnant, but she didn’t have anywhere to go. I took her in, on the condition that she had to stay clean and off drugs. I put her in that apartment and she’s been doing pretty good ever since.”

  Sam relaxed. “You had me worried for a minute,” he said. “I’ve been using him to help a bit on this case, and for a minute I thought you were going to tell me he was not a good guy. You did surprise me, though. I actually thought you and Nikki were an item.”

  Snake chuckled. “Yeah, we are. I didn’t expect it, but it just sort of happened. I don’t know if I’m really ready to be a dad, but I guess we’re going to find out pretty soon.”

  “I know this might be a rotten question to ask,” Sam said, “but is it going to bother you that it’s not your biological child?”

  “At first, I thought it would. Once I got used to the idea, though, it just didn’t seem to matter anymore. First time the baby kicked my hand, I was hooked. Now I can’t wait to see what we get.”

  “You don’t know? What has the doctor said?”

  “Dick, she hasn’t been to a doctor. We can’t afford that, and she doesn’t have all the identification and everything she would need to get Medicaid, so we’re just doing the best we can.”

  Sam shook his head. “Can’t afford it? I thought you said you were a rich kid. Can’t your folks help you out?”

  Snake started laughing. “Yeah, I said I was a rich kid,” he said. “Unfortunately, my folks invested a lot of money in a couple of the wrong start-up companies. They lost pretty much everything while I was off with the Army and CIA. The only thing they had left was the little house in Florida, so they moved down there. My dad works as a greeter at Walmart, and my mom has a thrift store. She goes out to rummage sales to buy stuff she can sell. I haven’t even told them about Nikki, yet.”

  “You really are an interesting guy, Snake. I gather you don’t have any money saved up from your government days?”

  “I did. How do you think I bought the apartment building? Most of my tenants are on some kind of disability or something, so the rent money comes in. It pays the bills, but it doesn’t do anything left over. It’s not always easy to make ends meet, but we get by.”

  “And everybody thinks drug dealers have lots of money. Listen, Samara is also wanted by Uncle Sam for other things beside the murders. It’s quite possible there will be some kind of reward from them, too, if he gets caught. If you guys can find them, I’ll do my best to make sure you get it.”

  “We’re on it. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.”

  Sam ended the call and drove on home. His mind was on Snake and Nikki and Samara, so he didn’t notice anything at first when he pulled into his driveway. He shut the car off where it sat, opened the door and started to get out, and that’s when he noticed that his front door was standing wide open.

  17

  Sam went carefully up the steps, his hand on his gun. When he got to the door, he looked quickly inside, ready to dive if bullets began flying, but there was no one in sight. He stepped into the living room and looked around, and the first thing he saw was the end table beside his recliner laying on its side.

  “Indie?” he called out. “Babe? Are you here?”

  It took him three minutes to go through the entire house, and he was beginning to panic. None of his family was there, but at least there were no signs of blood or anything. Unfortunately, the only sign of life was Sampson, the cat. He was laying on Kenzie’s bed, and Sam thought the poor thing looked worried.

  He took out his phone and dialed Indie’s number. He wasn’t actually expecting an answer, so he gasped when there was one. “Indie?”

  “Not exactly,” said a masculine voice. “You took my family, so I’m taking yours. Want to trade?”

  Knowing the answer, Sam asked, “Who the hell is this?”

  Samara laughed. “Hell, surely a famous private eye like you can figure it out. Damn, Prichard, I already gave you a big hint.”

  “Samara,” Sam said. “If you hurt them in any way…”

  “I won’t, unless you force my hand. I want my daughter back, Prichard. I don’t care how you do it, but I want her back. You want your family back, too, don’t you? Then you ought to understand. You get my daughter and bring her to me, I’ll give you your wife. It’s that simple, and it’s nonnegotiable.”

  Sam thought fast. “I can do that,” he said. “Tell me when and where, I’ll go get her right now.”

  The evil laugh came again. “Yeah, I thought maybe you’d see it my way. You go get her, then call me again. Once I know she’s really there, I’ll tell you where we can make the swap. But, understand this, Prichard. I’ll be watching. I see any sign of a cop, I’ll put a bullet in the back of your wife’s head and dump her body in the street. You know I’ll do it, so don’t even try to play me.”

  “I won’t,” Sam said. “I’ll go get her now, and I’ll call you in just a little bit. But if you’ve hurt her, you need to know this: I will find you, sooner or later, and when I do, I will skin you alive. I’ll do it one square inch at a time, so that you live long enough to really understand what a mistake you made.”

  “Then I think we understand each other. Get my daughter and call me.” The line went dead.

  Sam stared at the phone in his hand for a moment, then started trying to think. There was no way he could hand Melinda back over, even if he could figure out how to get her away from the hospital. He had to come up with a plan, a way to get Indie and Kenzie back safely, but it was so hard to think when he was so close to panic.

  He looked around himself again, and suddenly it dawned on him that something was amiss. Indie had said that their mothers were bringing dinner from Boston Market, but there was no sign of any food, nor of Kim or Grace. He dialed his mother’s number and she answered on the second ring.

  “Samuel,” she said, but he cut her off.

  “Mom, where are you? Do you still have Kenzie with you?”

  “What? Of course we do, we are on the way back to your house. Why?”

  “Don’t come here,” Sam said. “Take her to your house, keep her overnight. Indie is gone, and the man I’ve been after has her phone, so he must have her as well. I just talked to him, and he wants me to get his daughter and trade her for Indie.”

  “Oh, my God, Sam,” Grace said. “This is terrible.”

  “Yeah. Let me talk to Kim, I don’t want Kenzie to overhear any of this right now.”

  “Oh, yes, I understand. Here she is.”

  There was a rustling noise, and then Indie’s mother came on the phone. “Sam? What’s going on?”

  “Don’t say anything in front of Kenzie,” Sam said, “but Indie has been abducted. The man I’ve been after has her, and he wants me to bring his daughter to exchange for her. Is there any chance Beauregard has any good advice right at this moment?”

  Kim was quiet for a few seconds, then she came back on the phone. “He says you need to look at the numbers, Sam, but I don’t know what that means. He can’t explain it any better than that. He just says you need to look at the numbers.”

  Sam growled under his breath. “I don’t know what numbers it is I’m supposed to look at,” he said. “Okay, look, I’ve gotta go. I’ve got to figure some way to get her back. You guys are taking Kenzie home with you tonight, and I’ll call you as soon as I know something. Don’t tell Kenzie what’s going on.”

  “Okay, Sam,” Kim said, and Sam could tell that she was weeping. “Do whatever you can.”

  “You know I will.” Sam ended the cal
l and put the phone into his pocket. Beauregard said he needed to look at the numbers, but what numbers? One of the worst things about the phony old ghost was that his advice only made sense after it was no longer needed.

  Sam began pacing around the house, trying to think of anything he might do to trick Samara into giving Indie back. The man was a cold-blooded killer, Sam knew, so he had to be cautious. The slightest mistake would cost Indie her life, and Sam knew that for certain.

  Look at the numbers, what could that mean? Sam tried to think of any numbers that might fit the situation, but nothing came to mind. He stalked through the house, going into their bedroom, then back down the hall to the living room, into the kitchen…

  Indie’s computer was sitting on the table, right where she had left it earlier. Sam sat down in the chair in front of it and tapped the touchpad to bring the monitor to life. He’d watched her use it a thousand times, but Sam’s computer literacy was pretty well limited to email and Facebook.

  He knew the little icon for Herman, though. It looked like a big golden H. He put the cursor over it and tapped it twice, and the program opened up. There in front of them on the monitor was the input form, but Sam had absolutely no idea what to do with it.

  There were probably fifty lines or more, each of them waiting for some kind of information to be typed in. There were fields marked name, email, phone number, image input and more, and several different drop-down boxes with lists of things to choose from. One of them was even a list of government databases that Herman had already found a backdoor into, but none of that would do Sam any good. He didn’t know how to tell the program what it was he was looking for.

  Hell, he didn’t even know what it was he was looking for.

  Look at the numbers. Look at the numbers. Beauregard, you dumb son of a bitch, what the hell is that supposed to mean? Numbers, numbers, what possible significance could numbers have in this situation?

  He thought of many different numbers, from phone numbers to ages to license plate numbers and more, but none of them seemed to apply. The only one of those that could be of any use at all was Indie’s phone number, which was how Sam was supposed to reach Samara again. He didn’t think that was the number Beauregard was referring to, though. That would have been too easy.

  What other kind of numbers could there be, he wondered. He stared at the input form on the computer monitor and tried to think of anything he might type in that would help. Still, the only number he could think of was Indie’s cell number, so he finally chose the text box marked “phone numbers” and typed it in. He hit the enter key, and watched as lines of code begin scrolling down the screen.

  “Come on, Herman,” he mumbled. “Help me out here, would you?”

  As if on cue, the computer chimed and a single link appeared on the screen. Sam clicked it, and a map appeared. At the bottom, two different strings of numbers showed up, and a pointer indicated a spot on the map.

  Sam stared at it. Somehow, Herman had figured out what he needed and had given him the exact GPS location of Indie’s cell phone. Sam looked closely at the map, but it was too small to make out. He tapped it twice with the cursor, and suddenly another window opened with a much larger copy.

  The pointer was situated near Highway 285 and South Colorado Boulevard. It was an affluent area, Sam knew, with several large churches, the Wellshire Country Club and hundreds of expensive homes. He tried to think of where, in that area, a man like Samara could find to hide.

  It suddenly dawned on him that the map he was looking at was one of the Google maps, and he clicked on the Google Earth satellite image in the lower left corner. The screen changed before his eyes, going from a simple, drawn street map to a full-color image of the city from high above. The pointer stayed in place, and Sam used the cursor to zoom in on it.

  There were three large churches that were almost on top of one another, and the pointer was stuck right into the rear parking lot of the Denver Evangelical Assembly. Sam stared at it for a moment, then got to his feet. “Good boy, Herman,” he said as he hurried out to the car. He shut and locked the door behind him, limped to the Corvette as quickly as he could and started it up. As he backed out of the driveway, he took out his phone and called Snake.

  “Yeah, Dick,” Snake said as he answered. “Anything new?”

  “Samara has my wife,” Sam said. “The son of a bitch took her right out of my house, Snake. He’s got her down on Hampden at the big Evangelical church. He wants me to get Melinda, his daughter, and trade to get my wife back.”

  “Bump that,” Snake said. “What are you gonna do?”

  “I’m going down there. My wife has this thing on her computer that can find the GPS on a cell phone, and he’s got her phone. It’s sitting in the parking lot, out behind the church. My only worry is that he says he’ll kill her if I don’t bring his daughter to him.”

  “Man, this sucks. Sounds to me like the only thing you can do is exactly what he wants, bring him his daughter.”

  “I can’t do that,” Sam said. “I wouldn’t, even if I could.”

  “Right, you can’t. But it’s pretty dark out there right now, Dick, did you notice that? Wintertime, it gets dark early, remember?”

  “What are you getting at, Snake? I’m not thinking clearly enough for riddles.”

  “No problem,” Snake said. “I know where that church is. About a mile west, there is a big supermarket. Meet me there in twenty minutes, the parking lot right out front. I’ll have a surprise for you.”

  The line went dead, and Sam shook his head. Still, he was at a point where he would take any kind of help he could get. It would take him almost fifteen minutes to get to the supermarket, so he continued driving while he wondered just what kind of surprise Snake might have in mind.

  Sam had been sitting in the parking lot for only two minutes when four cars pulled in and drove directly up to him. Snake got out of the lead car, and a woman who looked very pregnant stepped out the other side. At first, Sam thought Snake had brought Nikki, but then he got a better look at the woman’s face.

  “Dick,” Snake said, “I want you to meet Jackie. Jackie is one of the Devils, and we always tease him because he has such a pretty little face. We’ve used him a few times when we were pulling some little job that needed a distraction, because when he gets dressed up like a girl, he looks better than a lot of real ones. Thing is, he’s one mean little son of a gun; I’ve seen him put down guys bigger than me, so I asked him how he’d feel about helping you get your wife back, and maybe getting a piece of that reward.”

  “I’m in, man,” Jackie said.

  Sam stared at him for a moment, then chuckled despite himself. “Geez, in the dark, it just might work for a minute. Samara’s gonna go absolutely berserk as soon as he realizes it’s not his daughter, though.”

  “I can handle him,” Jackie said, and Sam just shook his head. He even sounded like a woman, and even a little bit like Melinda.

  “You let Jackie ride with you, then you call Digger and tell him you got his girl. We are going to go on down and watch for him to come out of that parking lot, then play leapfrog and follow where he goes. He won’t know we’re there, but whenever he gets to where he wants you to meet him, we’ll fan out and be ready to take his ass down. You show up with Jackie, get your wife away from him, and we’ll make our move.”

  Sam ran a hand over his face. “I’ve heard crazier plans,” he said. “Let’s do it.”

  “Okay, give us a few minutes to get into position. I’ll call you soon as we get down there, then you call him. Maybe he’ll just have you come right to the church, you think?”

  “I don’t know,” Sam said, “but I’ll call you as soon as I get off the phone with him. Get going, I want to get my wife out of this.”

  Snake turned around and got back into the car, and the others followed as he left. Two minutes later, Sam’s phone rang and he answered instantly.

  “Okay, we’re here. There’s only one car in that back parking lo
t, a Lincoln, late-model. I’m sitting in a driveway half a block away from it, but I can see it pretty clearly. Looks like there’s two people in it, so I’m betting it’s them.”

  “Keep your eyes on it,” Sam said. “I’m calling him now.” He ended that call and immediately dialed Indie’s phone.

  Samara answered on the first ring. “Have you got her?”

  “I do, and it wasn’t easy. Where and when?”

  “I’m down on Hampden, the big church where it meets Colorado Boulevard. Denver Evangelical Assembly. Come around to the back of the building, and remember: I see any cops, she dies first.”

  “No cops,” Sam said. “It’s just me and her, nobody else. I’m only about ten minutes away, I’ll be there pretty quick.”

  Sam cut off the call and immediately called Snake back. “He told me to come to the church, but I didn’t want him to know I was this close. I told him I’m ten minutes away, which would be about right if I just left the hospital.”

  “Okay, cool. We’ll be in position by the time you get there. Hey, that reward—that’s for dead or alive, right?”

  “Damn right,” Sam said. “But alive would be better, if we can.”

  “We’ll do our best.” The line went dead.

  Sam looked over at Jackie. “You sure you’re ready for this?”

  Jackie grinned at him, and Sam was struck again by the fact that he actually looked—well, pretty was the only word that would fit. “I’m ready, man,” Jackie said, and suddenly his hand flashed out and a butterfly knife appeared in it. “I can handle Digger. The way Snake tells it, he’s probably not going to be pointing a gun at me or anything. If he thinks I am his daughter, and he wants to keep her healthy, he’ll just want to get me in the car and get gone as fast as possible. I get close enough, I’ll take him down. The rest of the Devils are just ready to back me up if I need it.”

  They sat still for several minutes, then Sam started up the Corvette and pulled out onto the street. He pushed it up to the speed limit and stayed there until he got close to the church, then slowed and downshifted so he could make the turn. He cruised slowly around the building until he saw the Lincoln sitting in the middle of the big empty parking area behind the church.