by C. M. Sutter
J.T. deliberately stumbled alongside the car’s window, buying him a few seconds of precious time. He peered in, hoping to see a clue Julie had left behind, but her car was as immaculate as always. No purse, phone, or his sister lay inside. He sucked in a deep breath, thankful there weren’t any visible signs of a struggle or blood within the car. Fifty feet farther into that second room stood a floor-to-ceiling holding area constructed of chain-link fencing. The makeshift prison cell was divided into two rooms, each with its own entry. The second side stood empty for now. Anthony pushed J.T. through the first open door and slammed the gate behind him. He snapped a heavy padlock over the latch and secured the door. He backed away from J.T.’s confinement, crossed through the garage door opening, and disappeared from sight.
“Where are you going? What’s this about?” J.T. yelled as he kicked the fence.
“I need information, Agent Harper, but there’s always a chance to exact revenge too. Everything going forward depends on your level of cooperation.”
That voice had returned. The man hiding from view spoke up from the shadows somewhere at the back of the room. J.T. spun. His eyes darted back and forth, but he saw no one.
“Revenge? Revenge for what? I have no idea who you are or what you want, and why is my sister involved in something I might have done?”
“She isn’t involved, but she could become a necessary tool I’d use to get information from you. For now, we’ll call her leverage, but there is somebody else here you might enjoy getting reacquainted with. I don’t believe you’ve worked with Agent Belmont lately.”
J.T. heard footsteps heading in his direction. He looked across the room and saw Anthony reappear through the overhead door, this time escorted by that second man. They dragged a badly beaten and unconscious man by his wrists and headed toward J.T.
Chapter 4
We raced to Whitefish Bay after Cam called back with the exact address of J.T.’s condo. Spelling hit the brakes, and our cruiser squealed to a stop at the curb behind the police squad car that had arrived ahead of us. The main entry to the building led us into a small vestibule with a security door beyond that. On the wall next to the door was an intercom with buttons labeled with each resident’s unit number. I pressed the button for J.T.’s unit and held it down, but no one answered. With my hands cupped on each side of my face, I peered through the glass into the building’s lobby.
“The elevator is opening,” I said.
The officer assigned to conduct the wellness check stepped out of the elevator and walked toward us. I held out my badge, and he nodded then opened the door and allowed us to pass through.
“Agents.”
I checked his name tag before speaking, made the quick introductions, then asked Officer Carson what he had found upstairs.
“Nothing, ma’am. I knocked on the door of unit ten a number of times and heard a dog whimpering on the other side, but that was about it.”
The outer door opened, and Cam, Val, and Maria entered the building. Spelling pulled the handle of the security door and let them pass through.
“What’s the word?” Cam asked.
Spelling responded, “Does anyone know what Julie drives?”
We shrugged as we looked from face to face.
“I’ll find out, sir,” Maria said. She stepped away and called the tech department.
“Do you have a battering ram in your car, Officer Carson?” Spelling asked.
“I sure do, Agent Spelling.”
“We may need it, and get your boss on the phone. We can use more officers out here since we have no idea what to expect.”
“Yes, sir.”
Spelling directed his focus back to us. “Okay, as soon as Maria has Julie’s car type, I want”—he pointed—“Cam and Val to check every vehicle in the parking garage. You’re looking for J.T.’s black Toyota Corolla and whatever Julie drives. It shouldn’t take too long.” Spelling turned and counted the number of units listed on the intercom. “There are only eighteen units in this complex.”
Maria returned. “Julie drives a 2012 burgundy Fiesta.”
“Okay, go. The rest of us are heading upstairs.”
Officer Carson propped the door open with a decorative stone from the flower bed along the sidewalk then left and got the ram from the trunk of his squad car. He said he’d make the call to his precinct and wait for the other unit to arrive.
Maria and I boarded the elevator to the second floor, and Spelling took the staircase. We reached the condo at the same time, and I dialed J.T.’s phone while Spelling dialed Julie’s. The only sound that came from the other side of the door was the nasal bulldog whines from Ralph.
“Sir, there aren’t any phones ringing in the unit, and how are we going to ram the door with Ralph whimpering on the other side?”
Spelling raked his hand through his hair as he paced. “All right. Call a locksmith, then, but he better be here in under ten minutes. We don’t have time to wait around.”
I made the call to the nearest locksmith. From the map on my phone, it looked as if his business was only a mile from the condo. He said he was on his way. I hung up and told Spelling we had only a few minutes to wait. The elevator dinged, and when the doors parted, Cam and Val stepped out.
“Anything?” Spelling asked.
Cam shook his head. “Neither vehicle is in the garage.”
“Their phones didn’t ring in the condo and their cars aren’t in the garage, so where the hell are they?”
“I don’t know, but maybe there’s something inside the condo that could help,” I said.
Spelling tipped his head at Maria. “Go downstairs and wait for the locksmith and check on Officer Carson. We’re going to need somebody to start combing the grounds and knocking on doors. Somebody had to have seen something.”
The locksmith, a Mr. Brian Joost from Locks “R” Us, arrived a few minutes later. Maria escorted him to the second floor, where she made the introductions.
“Okay,” Mr. Joost said. “It looks like we have a doorknob lock as well as a dead bolt, but there’s nothing unique about either one. They’re run-of-the-mill locks anyone can buy from a big-box home improvement store.”
Spelling gave him the eyeballs. “How long is this going to take?”
Mr. Joost knelt on the floor, eye level to the knob. He pulled several tools from his work case and inserted them in the key slot. With a few turns and jiggles, the door was unlocked. “Just about that long, sir.” He repeated the process with the dead bolt, then he stood and turned the knob. “The door is open.”
Spelling carefully turned the knob, covering his hand with the bottom of his sports coat. He jerked his chin at Val before continuing. “Settle up with Mr. Joost and get some gloves from Officer Carson.”
“On it, boss.” Val left with the locksmith at her side.
Spelling inched the door open carefully since Ralph waited on the other side. “We need to secure this dog.”
Cam slipped his hand through Ralph’s studded collar and allowed Spelling to squeeze past the door. Cam heaved the solid, fifty-pound dog up into his arms then looked helplessly toward me. I shrugged and pulled out my sidearm, following close at Spelling’s back. Maria was directly behind me. It took only a few minutes to clear the two-bedroom, two-bath unit. I holstered my weapon.
“All good?” Cam asked as he waited in the hallway with Ralph in his arms.
“Yeah, come on in, and”—I pointed at the balcony—“put Ralph out there for now so he stays out of our way. He’ll be fine. He’s too fat to fall through the rungs, anyway.”
I picked up the water bowl and cushion and set both outside in the shade. I closed the slider at Ralph’s back with a dish towel in my hand. “Where are those gloves?”
Val walked in right as I finished my sentence. “Here, I have plenty. The officers’ downstairs are walking the perimeter of the complex to see if anything looks out of place.”
Spelling panned the space as we stood against the kitchen
island. The unit was set up with a common center area consisting of a living room, casual dining room, kitchen, and a large balcony. The two bedrooms were on opposite ends of the unit, each with a full master bath. A powder room stood next to the louvered hallway doors where the stacked washer and dryer were located.
Spelling tried to roll the anxiety out of his neck. “Okay, let’s do a slow and methodical search of this condo. From the way the unit looks, there wasn’t a struggle here or a forced entry to get inside. It appears that they left on their own accord, but we still need to do a thorough search. We’re looking for anything that might tell us where J.T. and Julie disappeared to. Look for day planners, wall calendars, and random notes. Val and Maria, knock on every door on this floor and see what the neighbors know.”
Spelling, Cam, and I began going through every loose piece of paper, including mail stacked on the countertop next to the barstools as well as paperwork that sat alongside the home computer on the desk in J.T.’s bedroom.
It felt odd to be going through J.T.’s personal belongings, as if I were intruding on my partner’s private property. But in that moment, I was an FBI agent and nothing more. Julie and J.T. needed to be found. We couldn’t come up with a logical explanation for their disappearances or why neither of them answered their phones.
Thinking about the phones gave me an idea that I suggested to Spelling. “Why don’t we ping their phones? Locating them or at least triangulating the general area they’re in would tell us definitively if Julie and J.T. are somewhere together.”
“Do it. Call Joe and give him the phone numbers. Get him started on that immediately and tell him to call me the minute he has something.”
With a nod, I dialed our tech department and stepped out to the balcony to talk. Ralph lay on his cushion, fast asleep and snoring. His pink tongue rested against his paw. I smiled briefly and wondered whether I would make a good dog owner. They seemed like lovable pets.
“Tech department, Joe speaking.”
“Joe, it’s Jade.”
“How’s the search coming?”
“So far, we’ve got nothing. J.T.’s condo is empty with no signs of foul play. We need you to ping their phones.”
“Okay, shoot.”
I rattled off J.T. and Julie’s phone numbers. “Spelling wants you to call him directly as soon as you know something.”
“Copy that. I’ll be in touch.”
I hung up and pocketed my phone then scanned the outdoor area. To my right, several officers walked the surface parking lot, their eyes to the ground. Below, I saw Officer Carson searching the shrubbery near the patio of a first-floor condo. I called out to him, “Anything look amiss?”
He shielded his eyes and looked up. “Nothing yet, Agent Monroe.”
“Has anyone searched the parking garage?”
“That’s the next place we’re going to check, ma’am. We were waiting for the agents to clear it first.”
“Okay, keep us posted.” I stared across the street and took in the view. Several blocks of single-family homes faced the condo complex. I leaned over the balcony and looked to see where the driveway from the garage exited onto the street. A day care center stood on the next block to my right with two roof-mounted cameras facing in opposite directions down the street. I looked over the railing again then back to the camera that faced my way. From where that camera was placed, it would definitely catch every car going in and out of the parking garage. I opened the slider and called Spelling to come take a look.
Chapter 5
Horror overtook J.T.’s face as the men got closer.
The hidden man’s voice called out again. “What’s wrong, Agent Harper? I’d think in your line of work, you’d be numb to blood and acts of violence. Anyway, what’s a little blood between friends?”
“Friends? That man is beyond recognition.”
The men reached the cage and tossed the limp, nearly dead man into the second room. Anthony snapped the lock and gave it a shake, as if making sure it was secure.
“You do have a point, Agent Harper. I guess my guys went a bit overboard with your old pal, Agent Belmont. I can see how you wouldn’t recognize his bloody swollen face.” Laughter rang out and bounced off the walls of that empty, hollow room. “Oh, by the way, where are my manners? I forgot to introduce you to Antonio. Obviously, he and Anthony are brothers, but I’m sure you can see the resemblance.”
J.T. knelt at the edge of his confinement. “Curt, is that you? Can you hear me? It’s J.T. I’ll get you out of here, man, I promise. Everything is going to be okay. Just hang on.”
A low-pitched moan sounded for a second, then silence.
J.T. yelled out in the direction he thought the man’s voice came from. “Okay, you have my attention now, so what do you want, and where is my sister?”
“You’ll be reunited with your sister in due time, Agent Harper, in due time. I want all of your security clearance information for the FBI. What that means is, I want your log-in and password, and then you’re going to give me the name of every sensitive file in the system and how to access it. I want top-notch information—Secret Service, Pentagon type stuff.”
“I’m not Secret Service, CIA, or anything closely related to the highest security clearances. I’m FBI, and there are at least thirty levels of security above me. Your request is impossible, and I don’t have access to classified information like that.”
“Get me what I want or suffer the consequences.”
“I don’t know what you want, and being vague isn’t helping. You’ll get nothing from me until I see that my sister is unharmed. Release Julie and Agent Belmont, and then I might work with you.”
“You see, Agent Harper, Agent Belmont refused to get me what I asked for too, and look how that turned out. He’s a bloody mess and barely breathing. The problem you agents have, and what will eventually be your downfall, is your damn arrogance. Even with your hands cuffed behind your back, even from the confines of a locked cage, you still think you’re calling the shots.” His laughter rang out again.
“The question is how badly do you want the information? Without my help, you get nothing.”
“Then it looks like we’re at a standstill, Agent Harper, but listen carefully to my words. You have two days to fulfill my requests. Meanwhile, I want you to envision what Anthony and Antonio are capable of. Those two men are in charge of keeping your sister entertained. My requests are simple. Give me your log-in information, and I want access to every case file you worked on with Agent Belmont in 2014.”
“Why? What is so important about 2014? We aren’t even in the same division anymore.”
“Turn your focus to Anthony, Agent Harper.”
J.T. turned toward the giant who stood on the opposite side of the cage, barely ten feet away. Anthony grasped J.T.’s Glock 22 and pulled it from his pocket, then he aimed it at Curt’s head.
“Stop! I’ll give you the information.”
“Not yet. You need to stew on this a little longer. I want you to be sleepless for forty-eight hours, thinking of your sister and your old colleague lying there near death. The likelihood of Agent Belmont dying during that time will be considerably high.”
“What?”
Anthony pulled the trigger, and a shot rang out. Curt’s body jerked from the impact, and blood began pooling under his shoulder.
“No! You son of a bitch!”
Anthony and Antonio turned their backs and walked away. Moments later, the lights went out, and a door slammed in the distance. J.T. sat on the floor five feet from his bleeding friend and stared through the links. He was at that madman’s mercy, and there was nothing he could do to help Curt or Julie.
J.T. couldn’t even help himself.
Chapter 6
“What have you got, Jade?” SSA Spelling stepped onto the balcony and closed the slider behind him.
I tipped my head toward the street. “Take a look. There are single-family homes directly across from us, but over there”—I poin
ted to my right—“is a day care center. Follow the roofline halfway up on each end.”
“Uh-huh.”
I glanced at Spelling. “See the cameras?”
“I sure do.” He leaned over the railing and looked toward the driveway. “Yeah, the camera facing this way would catch every car pulling out of the garage. At least we’d know what direction they went. The question is, do J.T. and Julie take the same route to work? They both have to go north.”
“I don’t know for sure, sir, but it would seem logical that they’d both take I-43 to their respective exits. J.T. would get off the freeway first, but since Julie drives farther to work, I assume she’d leave the condo before him.” I gave Spelling a hopeful glance. “We’re going to be the unit handling this case, if that’s what this turns out to be, right? J.T. is my partner, and I’m not going to take a backseat in finding him. I physically feel sick right now, but I can do this. We’re going to find both of them, and they’ll be okay.”
“I know, and I’ll make sure we’re the lead investigators. If anything comes up out of state, we’ll let another division take it. J.T. and Julie are our main focus right now.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Spelling tipped his head toward the day care center. “Get over there and see what they can pull from this morning. What’s going on with the ground search?”
“Officer Carson said nothing has popped yet, but they’re about to begin in the garage. Has Joe called you back?”
“Unfortunately, yes, and both of the phones are turned off.”
I groaned. “Can this day get any worse?”
Spelling smirked. “Be careful, Jade. The day is still young.”
“Roger that, boss.” I pulled the slider open and crossed the living room to the front door then looked back at Spelling. “Call me if anything important surfaces.”
Spelling gave me a look of concern. “You know I will.”
I took the elevator down to the main level and exited the building. Officer Carson and two other policemen were walking toward the garage. I called them over.