by Christi Snow
She felt a chill wrack her body at the sense of foreboding. Jake saw her shiver. “You’re getting cold. Do you want to go in?” he asked her.
Mutely, she shook her head, suddenly not trusting her voice.
“I’m gonna go grab your jacket for you, then.”
She gave a terse nod and made an attempt at a smile before he turned away and walked into the house. As soon as he turned his back on her, she felt the tears coming. She sniffled and silently berated herself for being a drama queen. This was ridiculous to react this way when they had just received the good news an arrest was imminent and finally, they were all going to be safe. She wiped at her face and started to take a fortifying drink of her beer, but before the bottle met her lips a strong hand reached around to cover her mouth with an acrid smelling cloth. She felt another arm grasp around her waist and haul her roughly out of her chair. The bottle slipped out of her grasp, but that was her last conscious movement before the darkness enveloped her.
***
While Jake walked around the house, Julie was stirring something in the skillet at the stove and Penelope was sipping wine on a barstool, watching her. Penelope glanced up as Jake walked in. “Is everything okay?”
Jake nodded. “Yes, it’s just a little chilly so I came in to get Cassie’s jacket.” He looked around the living room. “Have you seen it?”
Penelope walked over beside the fireplace where the hall tree stood and snagged the coat which was hanging there. As she turned to hand it to Jake, he saw her focus catch on the miniature Thompson. Her eyes widened slightly. She picked it up, along with the coat, and looked over at Julie. “Julie, do you remember when Cassie got this the day of the funeral? Didn’t it come from someone who signed the card Bernard Kleptofine?”
Jake’s gaze snapped to the gun as he took in her words.
Julie nodded, “Yes, we both thought it was weird at the time.” She walked over into the living room. “Wait a minute…do you think this came from the same guy who’s been stalking her all this time?”
Jake strode over and took the miniature from her and turned it over to look at it more closely before he cursed, “Son of a bitch! Julie, call the detective now! There’s a camera and microphone on that thing. He’s known exactly what we were doing every step of the way.” Jake rushed and flung open the back door. “Cassie…” but the only thing on the back porch was her beer, slowly spilling over the edge of the table where it had been overturned.
Chapter 41
Cassie awoke to a pounding in her head and a cottony taste in her mouth. She groaned as she tried to roll over, but quickly discovered she couldn’t move her arms. As she tried, she heard a clanking sound above her head and a sharp shooting pain along her right shoulder where she’d broken her clavicle. She looked up and realized she was lying in a bed and her hands were handcuffed to the metal bedframe. She quickly took stock of her body and was relieved to find she was still clothed. Besides a raging headache and the pain in her broken shoulder, she didn’t seem any worse for wear. She glanced around the room, trying to find some detail about where she was and who had brought her here.
It looked like a normal bedroom in any house in America. The bed she was attached to was an old wrought iron bed which looked like it would belong in a grandmother’s house, if you could ignore the handcuffs holding her confined to it. The room had wall to wall beige carpeting. A huge antique mahogany armoire dominated one full wall of the room. From what Cassie could see, there wasn’t a single window. If she had to hazard a bet, it was probably hidden behind the massive 7 foot armoire. There was even art on the walls….not very good art, but art nonetheless. The room was illuminated by a single lamp sitting on the nightstand about 2 feet away from the bed. She couldn’t see any other decoration to the room.
As Cassie became more cognizant, the pounding in her head settled to a dull roar. Using her hands to hold onto the bars of the bed, she managed to pull herself into a sitting position. She knew eventually whoever had brought her here, would be coming back in and she didn’t want to be flat on her back when that happened. Jake was going to be frantic when he discovered her gone. Obviously, she’d been drugged, so she had no idea how long she’d been here…wherever here was.
She listened hard, but couldn’t hear any sounds to give her a clue about where she was or where her captor was at in the house, if he was even still in the house. She tugged at the cuffs holding her hands, but they were locked tight and there was no way she was going to be able to slide her hands out of them. Next she examined the bed. It looked old so there might be a weakness there, but if there was one, she wasn’t finding it.
Her eyes sprang to the door as she heard the door knob rattle with the sound of someone coming into the room. Cassie tensed up, but her mouth dropped open in shock with the sight of who walked in the room.
“Melissa?” Derek’s girlfriend was the one behind the stalker? How? Why? Cassie had never even met her before Friday night when she came to the party with Derek. Melissa looked her in the eye as she walked into the room, but she didn’t speak as she entered. She simply smirked. She was carrying in a tray filled with food. Cassie tried again, “Melissa, I don’t understand. Why did you kidnap me?”
Melissa ignored the question and glanced over at Cassie’s hands where they were handcuffed to the bed and reached into her pocket and pulled out a key. “I’m going to let one of your hands out of those,” she glanced at the cuffs, “so you can eat. Don’t try anything though or I’ll make you regret it.” Cassie tensed as Melissa entered the key into the keyhole. As she turned the key, Cassie kicked her foot up, catching Melissa across the side of her head with the heel of her boot. Those kick-boxing lessons paid off. Luckily, while Melissa stumbled backwards, the key stayed in the handcuffs. Cassie reached around and quickly finished opening them and released herself. Melissa stumbled trying to get back over to her, but Cassie grabbed her arm and quickly attached Melissa’s arm to the bed while she screeched and fought back.
Cassie dove toward the door and was relieved to find it unlocked. Melissa was screaming and making a horrible racket so if there was anyone else in the house, Cassie needed to haul ass before they came to help her. As she ran into the hall, she frantically looked up and down the long corridor trying to gain her bearings. There were stairs at one end of the hallway going up. She was obviously in some sort of basement, but she heard footsteps start to come down so she quickly grabbed the closest doorknob and prayed the door would open and no one was inside. Luckily it did and she slid into the room silently shutting the door behind her.
She turned to examine the room she stepped into and was surprised to find what appeared to be a hospital room. There was a hospital bed over on the far side of the room behind a curtain. She could see someone’s blanket covered feet sticking out from behind the edge of the curtain. A heart rate monitor machine was beeping a steady rhythm and was the only sound she could hear. She quickly looked around the room for someplace to hide, but just like her room, this one was sparsely furnished. She looked back towards the curtained area. She had no idea who was in that bed, but maybe she could slide in with him or her unnoticed until her captors stopped searching, but with the footsteps pounding down the hall, she knew she had to move quickly.
With her heartbeat beating a frantic rhythm, she scrambled around the edge of the curtain. The sight which met her eyes had her gasping audibly at the same time black spots started dancing around the edges of her vision. She grasped the end of the bed to steady herself and the man in the bed opened his eyes. Eyes which looked exactly like hers. Her eyes swam with tears as she reached to physically touch him. “Chris?” she whispered in disbelief.
Chapter 42
Jake felt the impatience and frustration thrumming through his veins. Cassie had been missing for six hours already. Police officers spent the night crawling over every nook and cranny of the property, but there was no sign of Cassie anywhere. The camera that looked out into the backyard had been disabled and no
one could explain how that had been done.
The arrests which had been imminent just hours ago had fallen apart, because the suspects had completely disappeared into thin air, even though they’d been under surveillance the entire time. It was assumed their disappearance occurred because of the forewarning the stalker had from the camera and microphone that had been in the replica Thompson gun.
Jake continued to silently berate himself over the fact none of them had caught that before now. The clues had all been there, but no one caught the gun had been a gift from Cassie’s stalker. How could they all have missed that? And now Cassie was in the hands of the psychopath who was doing God knows what to her. Jake stopped himself. He couldn’t do Cassie any good if he became obsessed with all the thoughts of the ‘what-if’s’.
As far as who the stalker really was, Jake was still trying to puzzle that all out. So far, the puzzle pieces just weren’t fitting together right yet.
It turned out the police had kept Melissa Ruiz under surveillance ever since her “emergency” which had left Cassie unprotected at the school leading up to the shooting. As a result, the police connected her to the suspect in War’s shooting, Philip Cortez. They were seen together only hours after that shooting discussing something at length during a meeting at The Mocha Mermaid. His build matched that of the shooter caught on video leaving War’s building. The police lucked out when there had been fiber remnants found on the edges of the duct tape which matched fibers found at Phillip’s apartment. By the time they had enough evidence to issue an arrest warrant for both him and Melissa though, they’d dropped off the face of the earth. At the time, they’d both been under tight police surveillance, but they disappeared into thin air. Those disappearances just happened to coincide with the discussion which took place with Brian in Cassie’s living room. The same living room where that damn replica gun with a camera and bug sat all along.
Jake continued to pace around Cassie’s bedroom as he tried to figure it all out. Julie sent him back to get some sleep, but he knew he’d never fall asleep while Cassie was missing so he simply used her push to sleep as an escape. He needed some space from everyone in the living room. They all kept looking at him like he was going to lose it at any moment. He figured they were probably right, so he might want to lose it in privacy rather than in front of everyone. In here, he could sense Cassie. If he closed his eyes, he could feel her presence in the smell of her which lingered….wintergreen and plum with slight undertones of her body splash she always wore. The smell of her comforted him.
He felt the pull of the pictures on her dresser. There were about a dozen framed snapshots there….mostly group shots of the three of them: Cassie, Chris, and Jake, but there were also photos of just her and Chris as well as a few of Colton with them also. One drew his attention. It was a picture of Colton and Cassie which had obviously been taken over the summer while they were in Europe. It was the two of them standing in front of the Eiffel Tower eating ice cream. Jake could see the lingering sadness and strain in Cassie’s eyes as he studied her face from the stress of the events in May. He picked up the photo and looked at it more closely and what he saw sent his blood running cold. Off to the side, obviously watching them stood Cassie’s favorite coffee barista, Ricky. Son of a bitch!
Jake looked at the man in the photo with his brain scrambling to catch up with what he was seeing. It was most definitely Ricky, but his hair was longer and he was dressed in the height of fashion. He was wearing a high dollar suit, his shirt open at the throat. Off to his right stood a big hulking guy who looked like he could be a bodyguard. So the question was, what was a guy like Ricky, who obviously had money to travel to Paris, wear custom made Italian suits, and have a bodyguard, doing working a minimum wage job in a coffeehouse in Lubbock, Texas?
Jake quickly ripped off the back of the frame and removed the photo and ran into the dining room where Cassie’s scanner was set up while he dialed Colton’s number in England. Penelope and Julie looked up startled when he barreled into the living room, but he just held up a hand to tell them he would tell them what was happening in a moment.
Jake glanced at the clock while he listened to the phone ring. It was almost midnight in Texas, so it was close to 6:00 AM in England. Colton was military and kept long hours so he should be already awake. Jake hoped that was the case because the only thing worse than being woken up, was being woken up with bad news like your sister’s been kidnapped.
“Major Robertson.” Colton answered the phone sounding winded.
“Colt, it’s Jake. I hope I didn’t wake you up.”
“No, I was just doing my morning run. What’s wrong? It’s midnight there. Is Cassie okay?”
Jake closed his eyes because he hated to give Colton news like this over the phone, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. “Damn, Colt, there’s no easy way to say this. Cassie was kidnapped out of her backyard last night, but I think I just figured out who is doing all this. I need your help, though. Do you guys have face recognition software over there?”
“Yes, what do you need?”
Jake typed and attached the scanned photo to an email to Colton.
“I’m scanning and emailing you a photo right now of you and Cassie in Paris. There is a man in the background to her right who works at The Mocha Mermaid here. Obviously, that’s not who he is in real life. I need to know who he is and who we’re dealing with.” Jake could hear a car start up in the background.
Colton sounded terse as he spoke. “I’ll be at the office in 5 minutes. I’ll call you back as soon as I have your information.” The call ended.
Jake looked at the phone with his gut churning. All the clues had been right there in front of his face. He just hadn’t fucking seen them and now Cassie would be the one paying for his mistakes.
He startled as he felt a soft hand in the middle of his back. He’d forgotten that Julie and Penelope were there. He turned to them now. “It’s Ricky, from The Mocha Mermaid.” The pain in his eyes was palpable. He shoved the photo at them and pointed out Ricky standing in the background. Penelope looked confused as she said, “I don’t understand. How would our Ricky be in Paris at the same time as Cassie and Colton?”
“Exactly, which is why I’m pretty sure he’s not ‘our Ricky’. He’s someone else. That’s what Colton’s doing. Figuring out just exactly who Ricky from The Mocha Mermaid really is because I’d say from looking at that photo there, he’s most definitely Cassie’s stalker.”
Julie chimed in, “What about the arrests of Melissa and Philip they were making last night? How do they tie to Ricky? Or was that information wrong?”
Jake shook his head. “I don’t know. I need to call Brian and let him know what’s going on.” Jake picked up his phone to make the phone call, but at that moment, it rang. The caller id said it was an Unknown Caller. He pushed the call button and answered, “Madsen here.”
“Aw, Captain Madsen, I think I have something you would like to have back.”
“Ricky.” Jake growled.
“Very good. For a military man, you don’t seem very acute with your skills. It’s time to prove that fact to Cassie so she realizes her affections are misplaced.”
“Is she okay? If you’ve hurt her in any way, I’ll kill you.”
“Cassie is fine. Right now, she’s just renewing an acquaintance.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s nothing for you to worry about Captain. It’s just another example of your inept skills. Tomorrow night will be the Endgame for you in Cassie’s life. Meet me at Memorial Circle at midnight and you may say your goodbyes to Cassie. Come alone.” The phone disconnected.
Jake felt his blood boiling as he closed his phone. He had 24 hours to figure out how to take this guy down.
His phone rang again. “Madsen.”
“Jake, it’s Colton. The man in the photo is Ricardo Ramirez. I sent you his bio to your email account. Long story short, about six years ago, he became head of the largest d
rug cartel in Columbia when his father was killed in a drug raid. He’s number one on our wanted list for the DEA in that area of the world. He was born in Columbia, but was raised in the United States by his mother, although it’s become apparent he’s always had a hand in the family business. He’s bad news in every way. I made a couple of calls and the chatter is he has been MIA off and on for the last six months.”
“Makes sense since it appears he’s spent that time here stalking Cass,” Jake rubbed a hand over his face, “but the question is, why Cassie? Could this have anything to do with Chris’ mission in Columbia?”
“That occurred to me too, but I can’t find anything to tie the two things together right now. I have my guys on it. One other thing, the gorilla standing next to him is one of his personal bodyguards, Philip Cortez.”
“Damn, they’re pretty sure that’s who shot War. He’s also here in Lubbock. It’s starting to all come together. The problem is we still don’t know why or where they are. We’ve got to figure out where they’ve all disappeared to.”
“I’m coming home, Jake. There’s a military transport leaving here in about 30 minutes headed to Dyess AFB and I plan to be on it. I should be in Lubbock in about eleven to twelve hours.”
“Okay, Colton. He’s made contact and I’m supposed to meet him tomorrow night at midnight at Memorial Circle, alone. We have 24 hours to figure this out.”
“Jake, why would he want to meet you? He already has what he wants. He has Cassie. The only reason for meeting you at this point would be to kill you.”