Strangers

by Crystal V. Rhodes

  “That’s exactly what James’ agency is being paid to do!” Dana countered.

  Her brother-in-law turned to Sin. “Man, I know you can’t agree with this. Talk to these people.”

  “There’s only one thing for me to say,” Sin said quietly. He turned to James. “If this man had anything to do with taking my daughter and my niece, I want to be there when you talk to him.”

  “What?” Ray looked thoroughly frustrated. “Am I the only sane one on this boat?”

  Sin and James weren’t listening to him as they locked eyes.

  “I told you the deal,” Sin reminded him. “Anyway, I’ve got the address and I know his name. I’ll go after him with or without you.”

  James had no doubt that he would. Their encounter yesterday had confirmed for him that in spite of Sin’s urbane polish, there was still plenty of street in him. He could handle himself. James had the feeling that if anything did go down Sin just might have his back, except that he didn’t need him to.

  “The agency has employees in L.A. who can go with me.”

  “You’ve got to pay them, and on what might be a long shot,” Sin reminded him. “I come free.”

  “This is business. I’m not going to be responsible for a civilian.”

  “Dana, write up a document releasing Starr of responsibility and I’ll sign it,” said Sin.

  Dana agreed, “Will do.”

  “Oh hell no!” Ray lamented. “I’m calling Agent Conway.”

  Reaching into his jacket, Ray withdrew his cell phone. Sin removed it from his hand so smoothly that for a second Ray didn’t know that it was gone.

  “Don’t be silly, Ray. It’s my decision, and I’m going.”

  “If you don’t want to go along with this, get on the plane and fly back to Stillwaters, but don’t interfere,” Dana’s tone was harsh.

  “I’ve been doing this for quite some time,” James reassured Ray. “I know what I’m doing. If this guy is one of the abductors, then, believe me, the cops will be called.”

  His words made Ray feel a bit better, but not much. “You’re not going with him to talk to this man, are you Dana?”

  “No, she’s not,” James interjected firmly. “I told her I’d call her as soon as I knew what’s up.”

  Dana glanced at him briefly before turning her attention to Ray.

  “Either go along, or go away. We don’t have any more time to waste on this.”

  Ray watched as the trio went to make plans to leave for Los Angeles. Uttering an expletive, he reluctantly followed them hoping against hope that he wasn’t making a big mistake.

  ****

  James pulled the car up in front of the box-like house and parked. It was late morning and they had wasted no time getting here. Graciously, Dana’s uncle had changed his own plans and had flown them to Los Angeles. They hadn’t shared the reason for the trip. Dana simply informed him that it was important.

  The plan was for James and Sin to drive to the house and question the man calling himself Andy Vega. Dana hadn’t been in that plan, but when they arrived in L.A. it was clear that she has her own agenda.

  She insisted that she was going to the house with them. James had tried to convince her to the contrary. He felt that it might be dangerous, but her counterargument was effective. The man had requested to see her, and she doubted if the two men would be admitted to his home without her. No one could argue with that.

  Ray had decided to go to his L.A. office and wait for them to call and let him know what happened. When Dana was included, he changed his mind.

  “Bev would never forgive me if I let something happen to you,” he told his sister-in-law.

  Nobody said it, but he knew that the others were wondering how he was going to protect her. So was he. Unlike James and Sin, he had no street cred, but at least he would be there to help in any way he could.

  Dana sat beside James looking past him at the house with its peeling paint and missing roof shingles. The neighborhood in which it was located was rife with homes that were vacant or in need of repair. Spiked fences, security doors and windows were the norms. The lawn in front of this particular house was more dirt than grass. Nothing about the place was inviting.

  “This ought to be good,” she drawled.

  “I feel you,” Sin agreed from the back seat. He flexed the leg that held the ankle holster containing a weapon. He hoped that he wouldn’t have to use it; but if this man was one of the abductors, he just might put the weapon to good use. “Are you ready?” he asked Dana.

  She nodded and turned to James. “Are you?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Sliding out of the car, he rounded it and opened the door for a determined looking Dana. She was ready to face this man, whoever he was. James was proud of her. Behind that sophisticated facade and power suits was a woman who was tougher than she looked.

  The three of them crossed the street toward the house. Ray had opted to stay in the car as an unofficial lookout. They had decided that three men accompanying Dana to the front door might look like overkill. It was going to be hard enough convincing him that James and Sin weren’t cops.

  Slouching down in the back seat, Ray felt uncomfortable in this neighborhood. It was a long way from Beverly Hills. The irony was that he had grown up in a working class area of Detroit much like this one. Of course, the homes hadn’t been dilapidated or vacant and there had been no bars on the windows and doors. Plus in his neighborhood there had been signs of life everywhere.

  There wasn’t a sound around here, no voices, no laughter, not even the twitter of birds in the trees. No people walked the streets. It was eerie. That’s why when he heard the quiet hum of an automobile engine coming down the street he sat up. Glancing over his shoulder he saw an unassuming mid-size sedan slowly moving down the street. It was occupied by one person, a man. As the car passed, Ray saw the man glance at the trio, who now stood on the crumbling stoop knocking on the security door of Andy’s house. The driver then turned and looked into the car in which Ray was sitting. For a split second their eyes met and then the car continued down the street. Ray watched it turn and disappear.

  His brows knitted in thought. There was something familiar about the man in that car. It wasn’t anything that he could discern in the brief glimpse that he had of him, still— Ray slouched back down in his seat.

  At the front door Dana got no response to her knock. She turned to James.

  “Maybe he saw us walking up to the door and thinks that you and Sin are cops.”

  “Call his name,” James suggested.

  Knocking harder, Dana called out to him. “Mr. Vega? It’s Dana Mansfield. You wrote and asked me to come see you. I’m here with two friends of mine. They’re not the police.”

  She knocked again. There was still no answer.

  “I’ll try around the back,” Sin suggested.

  James nodded in agreement as Dana continued knocking. Sin followed the weed strewn path that led to the back of the house, stopping momentarily to retrieve his gun. Concealing it in his pocket, he stepped cautiously into the backyard.

  It was as ill-kept as the front of the house, with trash and other miscellaneous items lying scattered in the sparse patches of grass. A high, wooden fence with missing planks surrounded the entire yard.

  Approaching the back door, Sin stood for a moment listening. He couldn’t detect a sound inside the house. He knocked on the security door, taking care not to call out. Andy was expecting Dana, a male voice might spook him.

  There was no answer to his knock. Either Andy wasn’t going to answer, or there was no one home.

  As they had approached the house, Sin had noticed that the house on the right appeared to be occupied. A car had been parked in front of it. The house on the left side was boarded up, apparently abandoned.

  Since there was no response to his knock, Sin decided that he would approach the neighbor and see if he could get some information about this Andy character. Turning to leav
e, he inadvertently gave the handle of the security door a slight tug. To his surprise, it opened.

  CHAPTER 16

  Ray watched as Dana and James went around the side of the house where Sin had disappeared earlier. The neighborhood was beginning to come alive, and he was ready to go. A man and woman next door to Andy’s house came out of their home, got into their car and drove away. They seemed mildly curious about Ray sitting in the car across the street, but hadn’t acknowledged his presence as they drove by. A short while later a teenage boy came out of the same house. He walked in the opposite direction and never looked at the car parked across the street—so much for curious neighbors.

  The car was parked in front of an empty lot that once held a home. The crumbled front steps were still visible among the weeds and trash. Another empty lot was next to that one. Two lots down was another occupied house. He turned back to Andy’s house with the thought that at least privacy shouldn’t be an issue for him.

  It was then that he noticed Dana rushing back around the front of the house. The look on her face propelled Ray out of the car and across the street. She met him at the sidewalk and threw herself into his arms. She was shaking.

  “He’s dead!” She shrieked.

  Ray loosened his grip on her and stepped back, holding her at arms length.

  “What are you talking about? Who’s dead?”

  “In there!” Dana pointed toward the house.

  Ray looked to see James coming around the corner of the house. He was on his cell phone and he looked grim.

  “What happened?” Ray looked anxious.

  Putting his phone away, James folded a still trembling Dana into his arms before addressing Ray.

  “Somebody beat and tortured the guy inside the house. If that’s Andy Vegas in there it doesn’t look good.”

  Stunned, Ray’s jaw dropped. “Dana said that he’s was dead.”

  “Close to it,” James tightened his hold on Dana. “I called 9-1-1. An ambulance is on its way.”

  “You mean he’s alive?” Dana sounded hopeful.

  James nodded. “Sin’s with him. I came out to see about you.”

  Still uncertain about what was happening; Ray took a shaky breath and decided to see for himself. He started around the house.

  “Don’t touch anything,” James called out to him. He took a thin pair of plastic gloves from his jacket pocket. “Use these.” He ordered with no further explanation.

  Ray took it from him and James returned to comforting Dana.

  Entering the opened back door, Ray found it was dim inside the house. The only light emitted was filtering through the closed kitchen curtains. Inside appeared to be smaller than the outside. The place was hot and stuffy and it smelled like fried food. Ray’s stomach roiled. The distance between the kitchen and the cluttered living room was only a few steps.

  “Sinclair?” he called cautiously. There was no sign of him.

  “In here,” a voice called to Ray’s left.

  He followed the sound, turning into a short hallway. Straight ahead was a bedroom with an unmade bed that looked as though it was blocking the doorway. Immediately to his right was a bathroom, where Sin stood, rifling through the medicine cabinet. He wore a pair of thin plastic gloves like the ones that James had given him.

  “What’s going on?’ Ray asked hesitantly.

  Without looking at him, Sin gestured with his thumb toward the bathtub. Ray glanced in that direction and gasped. There was a dark haired man propped up in the empty tub. His eyes were blindfolded, his mouth was agape and his face was bruised and bloody.

  “What happened?” Ray’s voice was strangled. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  Sin shrugged nonchalantly. “From the look of it somebody beat him to a pulp and added a little water torture.” He read the name on the prescription bottle that he had taken from the medicine cabinet. “Andy Vega.”

  “Is he dead?” Ray could hardly breathe. What the hell was going on?

  “He was barely breathing when we found him,” Sin said seemingly unfazed. “Do you have a writing pen on you?”

  “No I don’t!” Ray was taken aback. “Man! There’s a body in the bathtub and you’re acting like it’s an everyday thing! Aren’t you concerned?”

  Sin’s demeanor didn’t change. “If this man put his hands on those girls, then no, I don’t give a damn if he lives or dies. He better be glad that I didn’t get my hands on him first.”

  He slipped the prescription bottle into his pants pocket.

  “Are you crazy? You’re taking evidence from the man’s house. That’s a criminal offense. He’s in the bathtub dying!”

  “Hey, all I did was ask for a pen to write something down.” Sin slammed the door to the cabinet shut.

  “Hell! I’m out of here. I’m not losing my law license over this.” Ray backed out of the doorway and bumped into James.

  “Find anything?” James asked Sin over Ray’s shoulder.

  “A prescription with his name and his doctor’s name on it,” Sin answered withdrawing the vial from his pocket.

  “And please give him a pen and hope that we don’t all go to jail,” Ray asked as he moved past James. “I’ll see you two outside.”

  James watched him for a moment as he left and then tossed Sin a writing pen.

  “How’s Dana doing?” Sin tore a paper towel from a nearby roll and began scribbling the information he needed.

  “She’s still shaken. I asked her to take a seat on the stoop to wait for the ambulance.”

  It had been Sin who had discovered the bloodied man in the tub. When James and Dana joined him, James had tried to shield her from the shocking sight, but was unsuccessful. He had muffled her scream in his chest. Sin had walked her to the back door and sent her outside and then had returned to find James checking the man for signs of life. They were there, but barely.

  James had tossed Sin a pair of the plastic gloves that he carried in his wallet, when he saw him taking the initiative to make a search through the cluttered house. James made a call to 911 before going after Dana to comfort her.

  “Have you checked his pulse again?” James inquired looking past Sin to the unconscious victim.

  “No.” Sin kept writing. It was obvious that he wasn’t interested in doing so.

  “Did you find anything in his bedroom?”

  “No, I could hardly find the bed. The man is a pig.” Sin handed the pen back to James as he squeezed past him and exited the tiny space.

  “You three had better get out of here,” James advised as he checked on the man.

  Sin needed no further explanation. He left the house and joined Dana and Ray outside. Dana was on the stoop massaging her temples. Ray was pacing up and down the sidewalk looking distressed. Sin looked up and down the empty street before calling out to Ray.

  “Hey, man! We’ve got to go.”

  Dana looked up at Sin. Ray hurried to join them.

  “Go where?” He wanted to know.

  “If we don’t want to be involved in any publicity about this thing we’ve got to leave before help arrives.” Sin pulled the gloves from his hands and stuffed them in his pocket.

  Ray agreed. “I know I don’t want to be involved in this. Let’s walk around the corner and call a cab to pick us up while we still have time.”

  Dana wasn’t sure. “What about James?”

  “Starr will be okay.” Sin reached down to help a still shaken Dana up from the step. “He was hired to track these guys down so he’s got a legitimate excuse for being here. We don’t.”

  He walked her across the small yard and out of the gateless fence. Ray followed them, but Dana resisted.

  “What about that poor man. How’s he doing? Is he still alive?”

  “I don’t know. James is checking.” Sin gently prodded her up the street toward the least occupied section of the block. They walked casually, aware that they stood out like a sore thumb in what was left of the decimated neighborhood.

&n
bsp; The sound of a siren in the distance caught their attention as they continued to put distance between them and the house.

  “Maybe that’s the ambulance.” Dana hoped. As long as she lived she would never forget the battered face of the man in the bathtub.

  “I doubt it,” Sin said dryly. “We’ll probably be in the cab and half way across town by the time the cops or the ambulance gets here. Unfortunately, these kinds of neighborhoods don’t usually get quick responses.”

  Dana glanced at Sin. While Ray and she were both nervous wrecks, Sin appeared to be more frustrated than anxious.

  “Are you disappointed because we didn’t get to Andy before somebody else did?” She asked him.

  “Actually I was just thinking. I figure that it took at least three of them, maybe four, to try to carry the kidnapping off. If he dies, we lose an important piece of the puzzle, but I’m conflicted about whether I want him dead or alive.”

  Both Dana and Ray understood what he meant. As they continued walking, she wondered aloud.

  “Who could do something like this?”

  “It was probably one of his cohorts,” Sin speculated. “I guess what they say is true. There’s no honor among thieves.”

  ****

  As he entered his hotel room, Hardman was still berating himself for having made the foolish mistake of driving past the house. He had slipped out successfully, without being seen and had hiked back to his well concealed rental car without having encountered one soul on the street. When he retrieved his car, he could have taken the opposite route out of the neighborhood, but for some reason that had no rationale he chose to pass the house. It came as a complete surprise to see the trio standing at the front door. He wondered about them as well as the man waiting in the car. It was obvious that none of them belonged in the neighborhood. Were they LAPD or FBI? Had the authorities tracked down another one of the kidnappers so soon? Somehow he doubted it. His glimpse had been brief, but none of them looked as if they were law officials. Plus the man sitting in the car had looked nervous.