Archie's Accidental Kidnapping

by Toni Griffin

  Adze sighed. He wasn't sure he really wanted to know the answer to the question he was about to ask. "So, have you finally figured out who it is we're chasing?"

  "Yeah, a guy by the name of Michael Bates, he's twenty-seven, raised by a single mum. No father figures in his life as far as we've been able to track down. His mother passed away last year from breast cancer." Matti informed him. "The latest victim was found only this morning, it brings the total to seven now."

  "Jesus Christ!" Adze swore.

  "You're telling me."

  "Right, what do we know about how he picks his victims?" Adze asked. They needed to stop this guy before even more innocent people lost their lives.

  Matti paused for a second before she rattled off everything they knew, "Okay, here's the breakdown. Two of the seven victims were in town for business or pleasure, the other five all lived in Melbourne and the surrounding suburbs. They didn't drive the same vehicles or attend any of the same groups. Even their professions were completely different. He didn't even keep the men for the same period either. Some he kidnapped and tortured for a couple of days before killing, others were found within hours of them going missing. However, all the bodies have been left in a public place to be found."

  "Great, so we don't know how he's choosing his victims."

  "Nope. The only pattern we've been able to determine is that his victims all had light brown hair, but of varying lengths, their eyes are differing shades of green, they all stood less than six-foot-tall, and their ages ranged from twenty-two to twenty-eight."

  "That's a bloody large chunk of the population," Adze growled.

  "I know. It's not much to go on."

  "Not much would be appreciated right now. This is fucking nothing."

  "I know. But you've tracked down these assholes with less," Matti tried to sound convincing, but Adze wasn't buying it.

  "Not often," he bit out.

  "The police raided the house of Michael Bates yesterday in connection to these murders. His vehicle was caught on CCTV in the vicinity of five of the drop points. Inside his house, they found tokens belonging to the first six victims."

  "Why only six and not seven?" Adze asked.

  "They don't believe he's been home to stow his latest one yet. Something may have tipped him off to not go back there. Doesn't look like anyone's been there in about a week. Mail was piling up in the mailbox out front, and the milk in the fridge had gone bad."

  "Fan-fucking-tastic." Adze took a deep breath to try and calm himself down, then ate the last of the Pringles. They did not make him feel any better about this entire situation. "So, I guess nightly patrols for a while to see if we can't catch this guy when he comes out of wherever the fuck he's hiding?"

  "That would be my advice. If we get no leads in the next week, I would suggest expanding the patrols from the city to the surrounding suburbs as well."

  "Fucking brilliant. That's nearly ten thousand square kilometres." Covering larger areas was always trickier, not to mention dangerous as they couldn't reach each other fast enough if something went down. Covering the entire city was bad enough at over six square kilometres, and just under forty thousand people within those borders.

  "I have faith in you guys."

  "Thanks, if we're starting patrols tonight I better go tell the boys."

  "One more thing before you go," Matti said.

  Adze groaned. "I'm not going to like what you're about to say am I?"

  "Not in the slightest. While you were in Perth, the press had gotten wind of the murders. For the last couple of days, the words serial killer has been splashed on the front page of every paper."

  "Fucking brilliant," Adze swore. Just his luck that none of them had seen the news or even had time to look a newspaper the last few days. Camping out in the middle of the woods with shitty phone reception had effectively cut them off from the world. Adze would usually use the flight home to catch up on things he may have missed while they were out on a hunt, but he'd been so exhausted he'd slept the entire flight home.

  "The police had to make a statement. At the press conference yesterday morning, the police issued a caution that until this person was caught everyone should be taking extra precautions for their own safety. Of course, you know as well as I do that not everyone is going to take that advice to heart. They'll have the opinion that they couldn't possibly be the killer's next victim, and continue with their lives as per normal. Thankfully some people are smart and seemed to listen to the police. There was a noticeable decrease in numbers out in the city last night."

  "The ones that don't take this seriously are fucking idiots." Adze had trouble believing the stupidity of humans sometimes. "Unfortunately, there's not a hell of a lot we can do to stop them from going out unless the government instituted martial law or something, and even I think that might be a little extreme."

  Matti laughed. "Would be interesting though."

  "It certainly would be. Would make our job a hell of a lot easier too," Adze replied.

  "Who wants easy though? You enjoy the challenge, don't even try to tell me different."

  Adze sighed. Matti did know him too well it seemed. He fibbed. "Piss off, you don't know what you're talking about."

  "Have fun, and keep me posted," Matti said before she hung up.

  Adze clicked the phone off, then threw his empty Pringle tin and glass bottle in the bin. The guys weren't going to like his news, but there was nothing they could do about it. The job had to be done, and they were the ones tasked with it. Adze pushed up from the desk and went in search of his team.

  * * * * *

  Archie yawned. It was four o'clock in the afternoon on a Wednesday. He had one more hour of work to get through then he could go home and do nothing for the rest of the night. He wasn't scheduled to work at the restaurant, and quitting time was drawing ever nearer. Apart from Monday night, when the restaurant was closed, he'd worked seven of the last eight nights. His part-time job was turning out to be more full-time.

  As tired as he was Archie wouldn't complain, he needed the money. It didn't help that every day this week a creepy feeling of being watched or followed as he travelled to and from work went up and down Archie's spine.

  Every time Archie had looked, though, he hadn't been able to see anything that might be causing those feelings. He truly wondered if he was just overtired.

  Archie saved the file he'd been working on for the Dennis account and stretched. He needed a little pick-me-up and thought about running down to the café on the ground floor and grabbing himself a hot chocolate.

  Just as he'd resolved to do so, his mobile rang.

  Archie pulled it from his pocket and looked at the caller ID. He groaned when he saw the number. Archie gave serious consideration to not answering his phone but ended up sighing and connecting the call.

  "Hi, Richard," Archie greeted his second boss.

  "Archie, how are you?" Richard sounded a little stressed.

  "Tired, but okay. What's going on?" he asked already knowing where this phone call was going.

  Richard sighed. "I know it's your night off, but could you possibly work?"

  "Really?" Archie didn't mean to whine, but he could see his plans for a night on the couch flying out the window all with this one call.

  "We're booked solid all night, and both Justin and Benjie have called in sick. Justin has tonsillitis, and Benjie is down with mono."

  "What time do you need me?" Archie gave in like he knew he would.

  "Is five thirty too early? I need someone to help Steven open up."

  Archie bit back his groan, he'd have to leave here dead on time to be able to get home, change and make it there in time.

  "I might be a few minutes late if that's okay. All depends on when I can get out of here," Archie told Richard.

  "That's fine. You're a bloody life saver. I'd work the front myself, but you know as well as I do the patrons don't want to see my ugly mug."

  Archie chuckled like he was suppose
d to. "Your mug is perfectly fine, Richard. It's the orders you can't seem to get right that gets you in trouble."

  "Yeah, there is that tiny little issue."

  How the man ever came to own and run a successful restaurant Archie would never know.

  "I'll see you tonight, Archie. Thanks again, mate, I owe you one."

  "See you tonight."

  Archie groaned. He loathed the idea of going into the restaurant but knew he couldn't leave them in the lurch. That wasn't who Archie was. The couch would have to wait for another day. Hot chocolate was sounding better by the second. Archie might even spring for a muffin seeing as how it didn't sound like he'd be eating dinner until late.

  Archie locked his computer and left his office.

  "I'm just ducking downstairs to grab a hot chocolate," he told their receptionist, a cute young man with frosted tips and eyeliner.

  "Oh man, you would be a total life saver if you could pick me up a vanilla latte?"

  "Sure thing." Archie grabbed the ten-dollar note Miles handed him.

  "Be back in a jiffy," he said and left the office heading for the elevators.

  The line in the coffee shop wasn't long at this time of day thankfully. When he stepped up to the counter, there was one chocolate chip muffin left in the case. The damn thing looked like it was on steroids, but Archie wasn't complaining. He placed his order, and in five minutes he was on his way back upstairs.

  Miles's eyes lit up as Archie walked through the door with his latte.

  "Oh God, you have no idea how badly I need this right now. Thank you, you're a gem."

  "No troubles bubbles," Archie said as he grinned, then he handed over Mile's coffee and his change. Miles took a long sip of his coffee and groaned indecently. Archie's eyes widened, and he blushed a little at the obscene noises.

  The phone rang, and Miles picked it up, going from sounding like a man in the throes of orgasm to a stalwart professional in seconds.

  Archie shook his head and retreated to his office. He had a lot to do in the next forty-five minutes if he was going to make it to the restaurant on time.

  At five thirty-five, Archie walked through the kitchen doors. He'd practically run the entire way to the restaurant, but he'd made it, and only five minutes late.

  Archie bent over in the doorway, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. Luke chuckled at him and patted Archie on the back.

  "Good to see you, Archie."

  Archie nodded and smiled warmly at the chef then headed to dump his personal items and grab his apron.

  * * * * *

  Adze called a meeting to tell the guys the bad news.

  "We're on patrol for the foreseeable future," he said as he paced the room.

  The others were all sitting comfortably in the lounge chairs. Nicor, Oriax, Daevas, and Pyro were all still wearing their swimming trunks, towels under their asses to try and soak up any excess water.

  All five of his pack mates groaned at Adze's words.

  "What the hell, man? We just finished a job," Oriax bitched.

  "Yeah, can't the world just get along for a few weeks without going to shit?" Cacus asked as he sat forward.

  "Apparently not," Adze answered them. "You know what it's like. We've been put here to do a job, to keep the peace between the human world and ours. We're not here to have fun and relax."

  "Yeah, yeah, we know," Nicor waved his hand. "So, what's the deal, who are we after?"

  "Matti has finally been able to dig up enough details on the outstanding nephilim case. A guy by the name of Michael Bates. Still not a hell of a lot known about him. His residence is under watch by the police. He hasn't been home for several days. No one knows where he is."

  "That's going to be fun trying to find him then," Pyro said sarcastically. "What do we know about his victims? Can we use them to track him?"

  "Not likely." Adze sighed and ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "The only discernible pattern they've been able to connect is the victim's features. They're all male, have light brown hair and green eyes, that's it."

  "Well that's not really helpful is it," Nicor said.

  "Nope, hence the patrol," Adze said. He knew his pack wasn't going to like what he had to say next, but it was a part of the job. "We'll stick to the city for the next few days, we need to keep moving, covering the entire city from top to bottom, including the Docklands." He ignored the groans he heard, and the muttered curses. "If we can't find anything in the next week, then we expand our search and start going into the suburbs."

  None of them looked particularly happy with that announcement, but Adze knew no matter how much his pack mates bitched, they would happily do the work as they all, him included, much preferred to be here on earth then back in Hell. They'd all built lives up here on the surface. As much as humans could piss them off some days, they were invested in the welfare of the people they protected.

  Adze glanced over at Daevas who'd been quiet this whole time and studied his friend. He had a weird expression on his face, one Adze couldn't quite figure out.

  "You've been awfully quiet, Daevas, what's up?" he asked.

  Daevas shook his head, and glanced around the room at everyone then quietly said, "I have a weird feeling about this case."

  "Weird how?" Adze asked. He'd learned over the years to not discount anything anyone of them was feeling. Usually, it ended up saving one of their lives.

  "I don't know. Just that something big is going to happen." Daevas still looked uncertain.

  "Big good or big bad?" Adze asked. The others were all silent as everyone watched Daevas.

  "Dunno. Just a weird feeling I've got."

  "All right then. Everyone is to use extreme caution. Check in every twenty minutes." Adze pulled out the large map they had of Melbourne city, and he placed it on the coffee table.

  Everyone sat forward so they could see.

  They spent the next hour dividing the city into sections just as they had numerous times in the past and going through their plan for the rest of the night.

  One thing they had going for them was the fact that this one was in their own backyard. Melbourne was their home base, the place they always came back to, and the city they knew better than anywhere else in the country.

  During the decades they had been on the surface keeping the balance, they had travelled the country many times over. They knew their way around just about any city or town. But Melbourne they knew best. Melbourne was theirs. As much as it made things easier, Adze always hated it most when a damn nephilim or demon from the underworld set up operations here.

  Adze took it personally that they thought they could play in his backyard.

  * * * * *

  Archie looked down at his watch and realised it was nearing midnight. He groaned. His feet ached, and he was starving. The small side salad he'd scarfed down on his ten-minute break three hours ago hadn't even made a dent.

  The last table of rowdy guys had finally left about a half hour ago, then he and Steven had spent the last thirty minutes wiping down and resetting all the tables, then they helped Henry get everything sorted behind the bar. Archie said goodnight to Henry and left Steven in the dining room resetting the last table.

  Archie walked into the kitchen and saw Richard in there chatting with Luke. Richard turned to him and stuck his hand out for Archie to shake.

  "Thank you so much for coming in tonight. I know it was last minute and your day off, but I really do appreciate it."

  Archie tried to smile. He wasn't sure if he pulled it off, though, he was so tired. "I would say anytime, but I really don't think I would mean it."

  Luke and Richard laughed, then Luke shoved something toward their boss.

  Richard handed a carry bag to Archie, inside were two large takeaway containers. One had steak and potatoes, the other a side salad. There was even a little pot of sauce in there. Archie's mouth watered and all he wanted to do was race home so he could tuck into the food.

  "Tha
nks, Richard, Luke," he said gratefully.

  "It's the least we could do. You and Steven worked your asses off tonight."

  They really had. The night had been flat out from the moment Archie had stepped foot in the dining room. Archie placed the carry bag on the stainless-steel bench top and reached behind him to undo the knot then pulled his apron off. He grabbed his stuff and dumped his apron then backtracked to grab his dinner and say goodnight.

  "I'll see you guys tomorrow," Archie said as he headed for the door.

  "Night, Archie. Thanks again," Richard said.

  "You did great tonight, Archie," Luke told him.

  Archie waved as he pushed through the back door leading outside to the alley behind the restaurant. He shivered as the cool night air flowed through his body. It had been a stinking hot day, and the fact Archie had been in a rush to get to work, he'd forgotten to grab any kind of coat.

  Tucking his hands under his arms in the hopes to keep them a little warm, Archie started his walk home, the takeaway bag swinging at his side.

  Wednesday night's in the city wound down around this time, and Archie's neighborhood was particularly quiet, their restaurant being the last shop to close. Everything else had already shut down and was dark as he passed the businesses.

  The trees rustled as a strong breeze blew by, the sudden burst unnerving Archie. A tram passed with only a couple of people inside. Archie's steps quickened at the reminder the trams were few and far between at this time of night, leaving him all alone and a little spooked. Archie felt so anxious and tired right now he seriously considered jumping on the tram. The fact that he would have to backtrack from the tram stop to his apartment and the very real possibility he'd fall asleep if he sat down and stopped moving for more than a couple of seconds dissuaded him.

  God, what Archie wouldn't give to be home already. He yawned. His eyes watered with how tired he felt. Another breeze sent his body into shivers with its slight chill.