Private Dancer (The Bancrofts: Book 3)

by Barrett, Brenda

  Nanjo's head felt like it was going to explode. "Who would bug my club?" he roared. "Those damned police."

  "Forget about the who" Juan said urgently. "Let's focus on the here and now. Can you fulfill your shipping obligations? After that, you deal with the mole on your side. Is two days sufficient for you?"

  Nanjo's hands were trembling in rage. "Yes, two days is fine."

  "At the wharf downtown, as you suggested before? At nine in the night?" Juan asked to be clear.

  "Yes," Nanjo said, "I'll have the goods."

  He hung up the phone viciously and flung Cat from his lap.

  "Natty, I have a mole. Somebody who has access to the club went in there and bugged the place. Especially my office."

  Natty swallowed. "It's not me."

  "I know it's not you,” Nanjo hissed. “Why on earth would you rat me out now? Besides, ratting me out would be a double-edged sword. You, Banga, and me are all in this together."

  He glanced at Cat. "You don't know anything about this, do you? You aren't the mole are you?" He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "Because if you are. You would wish you were never born when I am done with you."

  "What are you talking about? What's a mole?" Cathy squeaked innocently.

  Nanjo shrugged. "Never mind. Stop the car Natty. I need to be in the front. We have to discuss what to do with the speeding up of delivery from our contacts to our usual location."

  When Natty stopped the car and Nanjo went to the front, Cat felt for her phone in her pocket. She needed a quiet place to text Natasha and tell her what was going on. At least she could help in some way before Nanjo finally deleted her from this present world.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Natty drove like a mad man to reach the club. Nanjo was seething beside him, and the two were looking so tense that Cathy knew that something big was afoot. Nanjo did not look back at Cathy in the back seat until they reached the club.

  "Stay here," Nanjo gritted at her. "If you dare move I'll have the security at the gate shoot you on the spot, got that?"

  Cathy nodded fearfully. Natty had parked carelessly at the front not bothering to straighten the car properly. The parking lot was deserted. It seems as if all the rats had gone home, she thought uncharitably.

  It was seven-thirty. She looked at her watch then dragged out her phone and dialed Natasha's number. It rang without an answer, and she realized that Natasha was probably on her way to the club to clean it or probably was already in there. It was imperative that the police catch Nanjo and put him away forever. She wanted to be able to live without fear if she ever survived this ordeal. She sent Natasha a text message: "Nanjo found club bugged. New date for exchange- two days at 9 pm. Wharf. Downtown."

  She waited for the few seconds it took her cell phone provider to transfer the message then breathed a sigh of relief when it went through. She deleted the message from inbox as well as her call records. She didn't want to get into more trouble if Nanjo found the phone..

  She looked over at the club entrance and saw that the door was still locked. She dialed Adrian's number quickly. He needed to know that she had not abandoned him willfully again. He needed to know that she loved him. He needed to know that she was sorry. When his voice came on the line, she sighed and said quickly, "Adrian, I am so sorry."

  "Cathy," Adrian's voice was anxious, "what's going on? Mrs. Pink said that Nanjo took you at gunpoint."

  "Yes," Cathy said a sob at the back of her throat.

  "I am going to call the police," Adrian said stoically. "Where are you?"

  "At the club," Cathy sobbed. "Nanjo has no intention of letting me go, Adrian."

  "You can't just give up like that," Adrian said. "There are laws against taking people against their will."

  "If I run he'll find me and kill me, or worse, use Avia as bait," Cathy said hoarsely. "I am sorry I got you involved in this."

  "Forget that," Adrian said, "I am involved, and if that thug thinks I am going to just sit still while he kidnaps you. He has another think coming."

  He heard a shuffle on the line and then Nanjo's voice. "Bancroft!"

  "Yes," Adrian said, "I am not afraid of you. You can't get away with kidnapping Cathy."

  "Cat is mine," Nanjo said slowly, a hint of bravado to his voice. "If you try any funny business, I'll kill her." He laughed menacingly. "I'd rather kill her than have her living with you and playing happy family. Got that?" He hung up the phone and looked at Cat with a dreadful smile on his lips.

  "So I was a way for five minutes and the first thing you do is call your lover," he spat. "I can't trust you again, can I?"

  Cathy pursed her lips. "You can let me go."

  "No I can't, woman. Not you," Nanjo said. "But I am getting rid of everybody here—all the girls who dance for me, my driver, and the cleaner woman."

  "Are you going to kill them?" Cathy gasped.

  "No. Thought about it but I don't want too much attention on me now. But one of them is responsible for my club being bugged," Nanjo said. "Only the newest girls are staying. I did this last year because I suspected a leak. So I am doing it again now."

  He straightened up from where he was hunched over at the side of the car. He had her phone clutched in his hands and he threw it down in the parking lot disdainfully.

  "I am going away for a few days. I need to source some goods. My regular suppliers are short. I can't trust you to stay in the apartment." He smirked. "I know just the place to keep you till I get back."

  Natty came out of the club.

  "Come, Natty," Nanjo said. "I know just where we are going first. We are going to drop Cat off first. Maybe when I get back in a few days you'll be grateful to see me." Nanjo laughed and winked at Cathy. "I can't wait."

  *****

  Natasha, Harry, Jamal, and the rest of the surveillance team were crowded around the boardroom table in the head office of the narcotics building. The commissioner had arrived earlier in the day. He had called a meeting with the lead detectives on the case and was now sitting at the head of the boardroom table with a thoughtful look on his face.

  "I was briefed," he said to the team, "but I don't understand. We are going off the word of this private dancer," he said delicately. Earlier he had called her 'stripper', but everyone had looked uncomfortable about it.

  "Yes Sir," Natasha said. "She was in the car when Nanjo was told the new place and time for the exchange."

  "But how credible is she?" the commissioner asked again. "We are basing the next move of the operation on a text message. How do we know she is the one who really sent it?"

  Natasha swallowed. "Sir, she stayed with me for two days… I can't swear for anybody, but I think she is genuine, and the message seems like the way she speaks. I was told that she is missing because she was kidnapped by Nanjo."

  The commissioner looked over at everyone on the table. "Is there anybody else who thinks that that message could be sent by Nanjo himself to get us off his scent?"

  Nobody shifted.

  After a pause, Jamal said, "It makes sense that they would push up the date for the exchange because they are not sure how much information we have recorded or how much of the details we know. And Sir, there is no further information. Nanjo had all the bugs removed and fired everybody who was remotely close to the club. It took us a year to build up any sort of relationship with him last time. Frankly, this is our last resort. If it wasn't for this girl we would be clueless right now."

  The commissioner looked down at his hands contemplatively. "Okay, I am convinced. We want to keep this as close to our chest as possible, though. I don't need to tell you that I am being pressured left and right for these two men … from several interest groups and countries. We want them alive. They can lead us to several players in the guns for drugs market."

  The detectives around the table nodded.

  "And find this girl," The commissioner said. "A charge of kidnapping would pale on the list of things this Nanjo has to answer to, but if it will give him
some extra prison time, no problem with me."

  *****

  Nanjo, Natty, and Banga pulled up at the wharf at 8:55. They were all dressed in black. Natty was uncomfortable about the whole set up and kept looking around agitatedly.

  "Are you sure about this Nanjo?" He asked for the fifth time. The place just felt still. He felt as if he was being watched.

  Juan Feliz drove up with three of his men and hailed Nanjo heartily.

  "My friend," he said jovially. "I am happy that we can get this deal out of the way."

  Nanjo nodded slowly; he was catching some of Natty's anxiety. There was something not quite right about the stillness of the air. Not even the sea gulls that were usually at the wharf were making a sound.

  Then there was no time to wonder because the small boat that both sides were waiting on appeared at nine o'clock on the dot.

  Juan Feliz, Nanjo, and their cronies started packing their goods unto the boat as soon as it docked. They were using a single low light to help them see across the pathway. They were feeling pleased about the smoothness of the operation when, out of the thick darkness, there were voices.

  "Freeze! Anybody moves gets shot on the spot."

  When Nanjo looked up there were scores of policemen with headlights on their helmets and dressed in black fatigues. He had been on his way to his vehicle. The SUV was dark, and in the dark as well, and he didn't spot anybody near it. The lawmen were all near the scene of the action, near the boat.

  Juan Feliz had his hand up above his head, a look of fear in his gaze. The other men on the boat and their cronies were also still.

  Nanjo was not going down like that. He looked around for Natty. He had been closest to the car. He had gone to retrieve a box of compressed marijuana to load onto the boat. He saw creeping movement, and realized that Natty was creeping for the driver's side of the vehicle. He tiptoed to the back seat of the car, his heart beating with fear as he hoped that the tableau, that was a few yards from him, would not detect when he opened the door. He slid down into the back of the car and watched as Natty opened the door with care and entered the vehicle.

  He breathed a sigh of relief when he felt the vehicle slowly pulling away. He cautiously looked up. Natty was driving as slow as he could out of the dock area. When he looked behind the police were gathering the men together near the boat. Natty sped away down Orange Street and into the traffic.

  "I can't believe it." Natty's hands were trembling. "I can't believe we got away."

  Nanjo was laughing in relief. "Let's get out of town and lie low for a while."

  "Where?" Natty asked.

  "Just drive," Nanjo said laughing again.

  "What about Cat?" Natty asked. His hands were still trembling as he gripped the steering wheel and floored the accelerator.

  "Cat!" Nanjo hissed his teeth. "Cat is the least right now. If we go back to where we left her we'd get in trouble. That's where we have the excess marijuana stored. You forget?"

  Natty shrugged, too grateful that he wasn't caught to spare Cat a second thought.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The Police captured over 5 tons of compressed marijuana, the largest bust in recent history...

  They also captured a huge stash of firearms and ammunition last night in one of the biggest raids on Jamaican soil...

  The police has in custody Columbian drug kingpin, Juan Feliz.

  Breaking news, the police have reason to believe that Jamaican don and drug kingpin Nanjo Jones is on the run. If you have any information about his whereabouts please call crime stop or 119.

  Missing is 23 year-old dancer, Catherine Taylor. If you have any information about her whereabouts please call crime stop or 119.

  "That's an old picture," Adrian said weakly. He was sitting in his parent's living room unable to move. His emotions had just taken a battering. Cathy was missing. What did that mean? Had Nanjo killed her? Surely if Nanjo had killed her, a part of him would also feel dead. He had long thought that she had been wired into his DNA, so if she were dead he would know.

  "Oh Adrian," Kylie whispered, "I am so sorry."

  Adrian looked over at Kylie. "She is not dead, I would feel it if she were. Where is Avia?"

  "Avia is with Mom, over at the Golden Age Home."

  Adrian nodded in relieved. Avia was adjusting to her environment really well. A lot of that had to do with Mrs. Pink being around, he thought. Avia had also taken a very close and swift attachment to her grandmother, so much so that Mrs. Pink had confessed that she was jealous.

  His father was still not speaking to him, and in the nearly three days that he had been there, his father was avoiding him like the plague.

  His mind swung to Cathy for the umpteenth time and he sighed. "Cathy called me two days ago and he dragged the phone from her. He said if he couldn't have her no one else would." He slumped over in the settee. "I can't believe this."

  Kylie patted him on the hand and got up. "I have a whole lot of things to do for this project I am working on, but if you need me call me."

  "Thanks sis," Adrian said tiredly, and closed his eyes.

  "Hi Micah and Taj," she said brightly, heading through the door.

  Adrian's eyes popped open quickly. He had not gotten around to meeting Taj yet.

  "Stop feeling sorry for yourself," Micah said at the doorway. "I brought over a psychiatrist to fix you, Sir Goody, so that you can get your life back on track again and the Bancroft family universe can be righted once more."

  Taj elbowed Micah good-naturedly. "Hey, I'm Taj." He walked over to Adrian and shook his hand.

  "Hey." Adrian cleared his hoarse throat. "I have been meaning to come meet you."

  "I know." Taj shrugged. "I understand that you have a lot going on now, so I came to meet you instead. My girlfriend, Natasha, said you were gorgeous. I just had to come and see."

  Adrian chuckled. "That's funny because she also said I resembled you, have you heard from Natasha lately?" Adrian asked anxiously.

  Taj nodded. "She said she'll be back in the three days."

  "I meant, has she said anything about Cathy?" Adrian scratched his chin.

  Taj shook his head.

  Micah said contemptuously from the doorway. "The police had Nanjo and allowed him to escape. That's crazy."

  "We can't judge because we weren't there," Taj said. "Neither was Natasha, by the way, but from what I heard they were concentrating on the main area where they were exchanging the drugs and guns and they really got quite a bit of drugs and guns and it's all thanks to Cathy. If she wasn't there at the time, the police would have nothing."

  Adrian sighed. "It's hard to feel grateful for that because I wish she was here right now."

  Taj and Micah looked at each other. "Want to join us for lunch?" Taj asked, "somewhere out of this house and away from the news, just for a little while."

  Adrian thought maybe he could go to Kingston and try to find her, instead of sitting down calmly eating lunch when she could be out there, hurt. "I could go find her." He jumped up quickly and looked at both Micah and Taj with anticipation.

  "No." Taj shook his head. "Let the police handle it. They have more information as to where Nanjo may have taken her."

  "The police don't know anything," Micah said sarcastically, "I think they have as much chance of finding her as you do," he said to Adrian, "which is really not much of a chance.

  Adrian slumped in the chair again.

  "Come on." Micah said to him. "You have to be strong for your daughter and you need to take your mind off this, at least for a little while."

  Chapter Fifteen

  Adrian looked at his watch and sighed. His department had a meeting with the president in five minutes. He wondered idly whether the president would look him in the eye during the meeting. He had been avoiding him like the plague this past week, and the tension in the house had been palpable whenever he was around. He was yet to speak to his granddaughter.

  He was making his disapproval of Adrian lo
ud and clear, but Adrian was not used to this coldness from his father. For Micah that was par for the course. For him it was so unusual he almost felt like a little boy again, wanting to catch his Dad's attention and grovel at his feet. That is why he was so elated that the house would be ready for him day after tomorrow. He could move out from under his father's roof and disapproving affection. It would also give him a chance to think about Cathy in peace.

  After a week, there was still no sign of her, or Nanjo and his sidekick, Natty. There was speculation in some parts of the media that Cathy had run off with Nanjo and even that she was the brains behind his evil empire.

  Adrian had stopped watching the news now. The longer they went missing the more lurid the speculations seem to get.

  He was also slightly afraid. He had no idea what to think now that a week had passed. He still didn't feel as if she was dead and was never going to give up hope—never. He prayed about it every night. He asked God to protect her and keep her, wherever she was, and he believed that God would do that. He had been sparing her life now for ages. She could have died long ago, but he had preserved her for a purpose. That was his constant thought, and that gave him hope.

  He had tried to shield Avia from the news that she was missing but the little girl had found out and was also praying for her mother. Last night he heard her praying, "Please Lord bring back Cathy to me and my Daddy." Those were his sentiments as well. He just wanted her back. He didn't care what she did to him in the past or how badly she had hurt him, or that she became embroiled with Nanjo. He just wanted her back. The prospect of death does that to a person: making them want back their loved ones, alive, whatever the cost.