On Thin Ice (Special Ops)

by Capri Montgomery

“You won’t help me?”

  “Mr. Bowman—”

  “Look. I’ll pay him whatever he wants. Please?”

  “Mr. Bowman!” Alex’s harsh tone caught his attention this time. He didn’t think they would turn him down, but maybe they would. “Jet is already on a plane headed to Anchorage. He saw them when they took her and he left right after that. He’s going. It’s not about the money for him.”

  “He’s already on his way?”

  “His plane took off about forty minutes ago.”

  Aaron stroked his fingers along his go-tee. “That’s expensive…the flight. I’ll pay. I’ll pay anything to get her back.”

  “This isn’t about the money for him. Do you understand me?”

  Aaron felt his heart pounding in his chest. “He’s like family to us. I know that sounds crazy, but my wife thinks of him like family and Akira is fond of him. They always got along when we had him over.”

  Alex nodded. “He’s going after her, Mr. Bowman.”

  “Aaron,” he corrected him. “You’ve known me long enough to call me Aaron.”

  Alex nodded again. “I’ll keep you posted as I know something, but for right now there’s really nothing you can do here.”

  “Yes there is,” he pulled out his cell phone. “I can make the way for him.” He scrolled through his address book and then hit the send button as soon as he found the number he wanted. He waited for the party to answer. The chief owed him favors. The mayor owed him favors. They were both about to deliver on those favors.

  “Mayor, this isn’t about what you’re doing now it’s about what you’re going to do. I have a guy coming. His name is Jethro Jackson and I want you to give him anything he wants.”

  “Well this is a—”

  “Anything,” Aaron cut him off. “You and I both know you owe me a heck of a lot more than this. We’ll call it even when my baby girl makes it home safe. You help him no matter what he needs. Understand?”

  “I do,” he said. “He’ll get no trouble from us. In fact, I’ll make sure an active detective on this meets him at the airport. Don’t worry Mr. Bowman; everything is going to work out just fine.”

  “It better,” he nearly growled. If it didn’t there was going to be hell to pay. He disconnected his call and returned his attention to Alex. “He won’t have any trouble getting whatever he needs. Weapons, a vehicle or even armed men—it’s all there for him.”

  “Thank you,” Alex looked taken aback. Well he never said he didn’t know people in all the right places, nor that people in high positions didn’t owe him favors. A lot of people owed him; he just rarely came to collect. When he did something it was because he wanted to do it; he wanted to help. But he wasn’t resistant to the idea of calling in a favor to save somebody he loved. He would call in every favor he had if it would bring her home safely.

  “God, I can’t lose her.” His legs were barely holding him up at the moment.

  “Jet’s the best man for this and I think you already know that.”

  “I know. I’m just hoping it’s not too late. I haven’t received any demands…”

  “Have you even been home yet?”

  “No. I came straight from San Antonio.”

  Alex nodded. “Have your home phone calls forwarded to your cell and we’ll wait for the call. I want to be there when you get it and I can’t leave the office right now. I need to be here when Jet tries to contact me and if Preston tries to contact me too. I can forward calls, but I think everything I need is here. I should be here.”

  Aaron nodded and fiddled with his phone. He called his wife first to let her know he was transferring the calls to his phone in case a call came in, but also to let her know that somebody was working on it. He needed to calm her and since he wasn’t going to be home any time soon he wanted to let her know why. When he hung up with her he forwarded his home calls to his cell. She had a cell so she could call him from that if she needed to, and of course she could still make outgoing calls. At least this way she wouldn’t get any calls from reporters who may have somehow gotten a hold of their phone number. The number was private and unlisted, but that didn’t mean reporters didn’t have ways of getting it anyway.

  “If a call comes through I’ll put the phone on speaker.”

  “I think you’ll be more comfortable in the conference room. Come on in.” Alex guided him into the conference room.

  “Aren’t you going to lock up or something? You know, if you’re back here, the front is left open.”

  “The door is always locked from the outside. I saw you coming through the lobby so I knew you were on your way up here.”

  “Oh,” he nodded. That made sense. Maybe if he were still thinking with complete clarity he would have thought of that. “What if they don’t call?”

  Alex sat down in the chair across from him. “They always call,” he tried to assure him.

  “If the hostage is still alive;” he mumbled. “They always call if the hostage is still alive.”

  “She’s still alive.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “Because if they wanted her dead they wouldn’t have gone through the trouble to take her. They would have shot her along with everybody else. She’s still alive.”

  Right; because what would be the point of taking her if they didn’t want something?

  “Let’s talk about enemies you have. I need to know anybody who has threatened you lately. We’re also going to have to go over any bad business deals, business takeovers, employees fired, and if there’s any residual from when you were being held captive. I need it all. No holding back.”

  Aaron knew he needed to keep a level head. When he was being held hostage he hadn’t panicked. He had remained calm and kept his head clear so that he could process his options for escape. But this was different. This was his little girl and for some reason he couldn’t remain calm. Or maybe he was a little calm. He was at least calm enough to go to find Jet instead of getting on a plane to Alaska. He was at least thinking clearly enough to know that these guys were the best option, maybe even the only option.

  “I’m a rich man, Alex. I’ve done things the right way, the legal way and the morally upstanding way, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who don’t like me. I get letters sometimes from people who are angry simply because I have money. I used to get letters about Kira, but I never showed her those.”

  “What kind of letters?”

  “Oh, just the ones that make a father want to bash somebody’s head in. Things about how good she looked on the ice, and there was one about her changing in the locker room. I don’t know if you know anything about that, but when she was sixteen some guy with a camera stalked her for a little while. It’s why I hired Demetri. A picture of her changing in the locker room at one of the ice skating rinks made it into a tabloid.”

  “She was sixteen?”

  “Yeah…sick I know. What bothered her and me even more was that we knew that wasn’t the only picture. That meant the guy had naked shots too. The tabloid got in trouble for the picture, but they didn’t know who the guy who sent it was. He hadn’t even asked for pay apparently. They took it, published it and went on as if they had done nothing wrong.”

  “They never caught this guy?”

  “No, but we never saw anybody fitting his description hanging around again either. And with Demetri on staff she felt safer. I was able to breathe easier too.”

  “Do you think the letter came from the guy who took the picture?”

  “No…well, I don’t know. I don’t think so. The guy—I think it was a guy—who wrote the letter only mentioned the photograph as he saw it in the tabloid. If it had been the guy who took the picture I would think he would have seen enough to mention more details about her body. This one was more of…fantasizing.” It was hard to think of any man fantasizing about her at that age, even now really. This was his little girl and even though she was now a woman he still felt a need to protect her from guys who w
ould try to use her for her body and for her money. She had made a lot of money doing endorsements and skating appearances. She had also been smart enough to invest some of that money in stable investments. Even if she weren’t his daughter she still wouldn’t be dirt poor.

  “Whoever sent the letters was one sick bastard.” He could tell Alex agreed with him and he hadn’t even read the letters. “She was sixteen, and she looked twelve to most people. How does anybody fantasize about somebody who looks like a little girl?”

  “Somebody very sick. Did the letters stop or do you still get them?”

  “Sometimes I still get some, but not from the same guy. His handwriting was precise, almost as if he took a long time writing each letter just to make it look perfect. The FBI took them from me so they could see if they could figure out who it was, but they never did. The ones I get now are either about how good she looks and what a great skater she is or people angry about her conservation efforts. It all comes to the fan mail address and whenever something off kilter comes through the reader makes sure I get it. Kira never hears about them.”

  “Why?”

  “She’s always been nervous with the publicity and that hasn’t changed just because she’s older. If she knew about the letters then she would feel even less safe. She’s had some confrontations, but Demetri always shut those down before they could get out of control. Most of that happened at conservation rallies, or lobbying, or meetings. She knows there are people not happy about her efforts, but she doesn’t know about every letter that comes into her fan mail. I like to keep it that way. She deserves a normal life. Being a great athlete and doing the job she loves doesn’t give anybody the right to invade her privacy.”

  “I agree.” Alex typed his notes while Aaron rattled off names of possible suspects, although he couldn’t imagine any of them actually resorting to murder.

  “They still haven’t called yet.” He looked at his phone and then at the clock.

  “They will. When they do they won’t talk long. They’ll tell you not to contact the FBI or other authorities. They’ll tell you that they’re going to call you back with their demands. They won’t let you speak with her and that’s okay.”

  “How is that okay?”

  “Because it means when they call back with their demands they will let you speak with her. They’ll want you to know she’s still alive because they’ll think it will force your hand.”

  “They can have whatever they want.”

  “Don’t think that they’ll let her go once they get what they want. These aren’t the kind of men to do that. They just murdered an entire station of people so you know they’re ruthless. But make them think you’re going to make whatever trade they want. They’ll most likely have an account they want the money either wired into or deposited in. I’m guessing wired, but we’ll see what happens when the call comes in with the demands. The first call is going to be short but don’t let it rattle you. The second call is where you’ll get more information and proof of life.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “We’ve worked a lot of hostage cases and they all tend to go one of two ways. These guys seem like the type to do things smarter. They’ll expect the first call to be traced. They’ll probably have something setup to scramble the call, but they’ll expect it so they won’t stay on the line long. They won’t expect it of the second call. They’ll expect you to be too worried about your daughter to trust the FBI.”

  “Why?”

  “Trust me, we see it a lot and people come to us because they don’t think they can go to the Feds. Some of them pay the ransom first and that’s a really bad idea. Once they have what they want there’s no reason to keep the hostage alive.”

  “So what’s the other type of hostage takers you deal with?”

  “The other guys are usually a little dumb. They’re the ones who rattle off everything and stop to answer questions in the first call. Usually the Feds are already involved and already tracing the call. The only time that doesn’t end well is if the Feds screw up and the hostage takers have a chance to move the hostage before the Feds arrive. When that happens, we sometimes are the ones who get the call for a search and rescue. Most of our cases are overseas, and dealing with a lot more than just FBI capable cases so those are the two types for when it’s domestic and the FBI gets involved. There’s always an exception to every rule.”

  “And what might be the exception to this one?”

  “Revenge,” Alex said. “Somebody who wants to take more than just money from you.”

  Aaron felt his heart almost literally skip a beat. He heard the words Alex hadn’t said and those words were telling him that they would kill Kira to get back at him for something he had done. He didn’t think he had done anything to drive anybody to that point. But he had already said it to Alex; he was a rich man and somewhere along the road from poor to extremely rich enemies would always be made. He just hoped his enemies wouldn’t be the cause of his daughter’s death.

  Chapter Four

  Jethro Jackson?” The tall lanky man with the wireframe glasses and the disheveled blond hair approached him. Jet surveyed the guy. He was behind the security checkpoint so he encountered him the moment he got off the plane. “Are you Jethro Jackson?”

  Jet saw the makings of a piece underneath that basic gray suit jacket. “Who’s asking?”

  “I’m Detective Nathan Malloy. I’ve been asking everybody who stepped off the plane if they are Jethro Jackson.”

  “Everybody?”

  He laughed. “All the men who looked able to be here on a mission and not on vacation,” he clarified. “Are you Jethro Jackson? We got a call from our superiors who got a call from their superiors who got a call from the Mayor who got a call from Aaron Bowman that you were coming.”

  Jet cocked an eyebrow at the long list of calls Detective Malloy felt the need to rattle off. He could have just said they were expecting him. “I’m Jet,” he finally said.

  “Good. It was either you or the old guy sitting over there as I think everybody else is off the plane.”

  “There are still people getting off the plane;” he pointed behind him. He knew they were still getting off. Normally he flew first class when he went commercial, but first class was packed and he had to fly coach. He still got a good seat, one that allowed him to get off the plane with haste. He preferred first class for the longer flights because it meant his body wouldn’t be cramped to the point of impeding functioning by the time he got off the flight. This wasn’t exactly an overnight flight so he wasn’t as concerned with where he sat, just so long as he got the first flight out.

  “Oh, so there are. I thought you were the last one. Well…shall we go?”

  “Go where?”

  “The command post; basically that’s just headquarters.” He smiled. “We have been told to give you anything you need.” They walked toward the exit. “Do you need to get your bags?”

  “I have all the clothes I need in this bag. I’ll need weapons.”

  “Yes, I assumed you would. We have plenty. Some of them are very new. We had a good year and so the finances came in for new supplies and equipment. Good thing too as it looks like we’re going to need it soon.”

  Jet got into a black SUV while Nathan climbed in on the other side and started the engine. He pulled a file out and handed him a picture. “See that there is a still shot we got off one of the exit cameras. See the tattoo?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well that’s a bad one to see. It means she’s in a lot of trouble and well…I don’t know how to explain this.”

  “Start talking,” Jet said without a hint of humor. “It’ll come to you.”

  “Yes, I guess it will. This was a little before my time on the force obviously. It was ten years ago. I only transferred in as a detective five years ago. There was a really bad Russian gang starting up here and before it became too big the chief and some others thought they should put a task force on stopping the thefts, the dru
g rings, the prostitution rings and the murders. They didn’t want that here and it looked as if it could take over. They set up a task force.”

  “Makes sense.”

  “One would think. Apparently the governor at that time didn’t think so and she wouldn’t approve the money for the task force. So they tried finding private donations. Nobody would help. Maybe it was fear. Maybe they just didn’t want to give up their money. They found one though, he was willing to help.”

  “Who was it?”

  “Aaron Bowman. Our current mayor was the one who asked him for help. From what I hear he shelled out over a million dollars to help get the task force up and running. He provided all the computers and his money helped get better weapons and body armor.”

  “So what happened? Why are these guys still out wreaking havoc?”