Little Girl Gone (A Logan Harper Thriller)

by Brett Battles

  “You’re kidding,” Logan said, concerned.

  “It’s okay. Standing in the hallway like he was, he’d have been more noticeable if he hadn’t gotten on.”

  That may have been true, but it still had Logan worried.

  “He says they didn’t talk on the way down, but did give each other a little nod as they got out at the bottom. Also says our guy is now carrying a large envelope.”

  An envelope? Logan was very interested to see what was inside of that.

  Daeng was silent for a moment, then said, “The two farang are outside now. The young guy is heading back to his taxi, but the other one is walking down the street. What do you want to do?”

  “Your guy in the building, is he the only one other than us following the cab?”

  “No. There are three others.”

  Logan raised an eyebrow, impressed. “Then have him follow this new guy, and see where he goes. The rest of us will stay with the cab.”

  Suddenly they had quite an operation going. Along with the group following Aaron’s taxi, there was a man tagging after the guy who’d gotten out of the cab before Aaron had burned the duffle bags, and now there was this new guy, too.

  Logan’s phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He frowned as he read the name on the display screen: DAD. Things were a little too crazy at the moment to deal with his father, so Logan sent the call to voicemail.

  A half a minute later, his phone rang again.

  “Dad, not now,” he said, realizing the only way to get rid of him was to talk to him.

  “Logan, is that you? I think we got disconnected before.”

  “No, I sent you to voicemail on purpose. I’m a little busy here.”

  “We haven’t even heard from you. We didn’t know if you made it or not.”

  “I made it, okay? I’ll call you later.”

  “Have you found her?”

  “That’s what I’m working on right now.”

  “Oh. Oh, okay. So you’re busy?”

  “Dad, please. I’ll call you later. I promise. Okay?”

  His father said nothing for a moment. “Tooney wants to know what you really think the chances are of finding Elyse and bringing her home.”

  Logan took a breath. “Better than I would have hoped. Now, I really gotta go.”

  “Wait, there’s something else you need to know.”

  “What?”

  “Elyse’s mother is on her way to Thailand.”

  Logan paused. “Sein?”

  “She finally called Tooney back. Yelled at him for not telling her what was going, then said she was going to go take care of it herself.”

  “How did she find out?”

  “We don’t know.”

  “Great. Just…great.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay, Dad. Nothing you could do. I’ve really got to go now.”

  “Okay. I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Daeng was staring at Logan as he hung up. “What was that all about?”

  “A complication we don’t need.”

  “What complication?”

  Before Logan could answer, Daeng suddenly pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at the screen. He then pushed a button, said something, then listened for several seconds. Finally, he looked over. “It’s the man I have following the guy from the meeting with Aaron.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Apparently, he entered another office tower. My man followed him up to the eighteenth floor, only when he got out of the elevator he was on one of those floors where a single company uses the whole space. There was a reception area and a waiting room, but the guy he was following was gone. My man immediately came back down.”

  “Did he get the name of the company?”

  “Let me check.” Daeng talked into his phone again. The back and forth went on longer than Logan would have thought. Daeng then said, “Sorry. His English isn’t so good, but he knows the alphabet, so I made him spell it for me. He had to find the directory downstairs first. The place is called Lyon Exploratory Research. Mean anything to you?”

  Logan shook his head. “Never heard of it.” He pulled out his notebook, and jotted down the name so he wouldn’t forget.

  “The cab’s pulling over again,” Daeng announced. “They’re at…oh, crap.” He leaned forward and said something quickly to the driver.

  Suddenly they were accelerating down the street, no longer trying to blend in with the traffic. They came around a corner onto a wider road, then stopped in front of a large building with hundreds of people milling around.

  “Where are we?” Logan asked.

  Daeng already had his door open and was starting to climb out. “Hualamphong train station,” he said. “Come on!”

  Logan jumped out, and ran after Daeng through the crowd.

  “I told my guy to follow the farang inside.” Daeng lifted his phone back to his ear, and had a quick conversation with his man. Without warning, he came to a sudden stop, grabbing Logan’s arm so he’d do the same. “He’s just inside. Seems to be waiting for something.”

  He led Logan over to a spot against the outside wall.

  “Maybe this is just another quick stop,” Logan suggested.

  Daeng shook his head. “His cab’s gone.”

  “So where’s he going then?”

  “Trains go all over the country. He could even go all the way to Singapore if he wanted. Or he could head over to the MRT, the subway, and take it to somewhere else in the city.”

  Daeng’s phone vibrated once. The conversation that followed only lasted a few seconds before he lowered his cell again.

  “That was about the farang who got dropped off earlier. He said the guy just pulled up in front of the train station.”

  “This train station?”

  “Yes.”

  That explained who Aaron was waiting for, Logan thought.

  Daeng nodded toward the street. The man who had been on clean-up duty with Aaron was walking toward the station entrance. Logan was pretty sure the guy had no idea who he was. Still, he turned away as the man neared just in case.

  Daeng was on his phone again, this time with the man inside the building. “As soon as the two farang found each other they were joined by a third.”

  “A third?”

  “Yeah. A black guy. He handed them train tickets, and now they’re all heading to the platforms.”

  Logan took a step away from the building. “They’re leaving?”

  “It looks like it.”

  They shared a quick look, then ran for the station entrance.

  Once through the doors, they found themselves in a large, central hall, its roof rising above them in a gentle arc that stretched the length of the space. In the middle was a tiled area crowded with people, and on one side a couple of hundred plastic, orange-colored seats that all faced the same way. Along the edges of the hall were small shops selling food and magazines and whatever else travelers might need.

  “This way,” Daeng said.

  They quickly worked their way through the crowd to the glass doors at the left end of the hall where they were met by Daeng’s man. Through the doors, Logan could see the platforms, several of which had trains waiting next to them.

  The two men talked quickly, then Daeng said to Logan, “You see them?” He pointed out the window. “Over there, just about to get on that train.”

  “I see them,” Logan said.

  “Then come on. We need to hurry.”

  Instead of leading Logan through the door, Daeng headed straight for the ticket counter in the other direction.

  “My bag,” Logan said, suddenly remembering that it was sitting in the back of the car.

  Daeng said something to his man, who then ran off while Daeng and Logan continued to the counter. The line was a dozen people deep, but Daeng pleaded their case, and got them to the front. As soon as it was their turn, he told the clerk what they wanted.

  Th
ere was a quick conversation, then Daeng asked Logan, “You have sixteen hundred baht?”

  Logan pulled a couple of one thousand baht bills out of his pocket, and Daeng exchanged them for two tickets and change.

  “We’ve got to run,” Daeng said, glancing up at a station clock. It was almost ten after six. “The train leaves in two minutes.”

  As they neared the glass doors, the man who’d been driving them around town rushed up, carrying Logan’s backpack.

  “Thanks,” Logan said, grabbing it as they passed.

  “Mai bpen rai,” the man said.

  As they reached the platform, Logan asked Daeng, “You want to tell me where we’re going?”

  “Chiang Mai.”

  Though it had been a while since Logan had been in Thailand, he knew that Chiang Mai was in the northeastern part of the country, hundreds of miles from Bangkok.

  “How long’s that going to take?” he asked.

  “All night.”

  31

  Logan and Daeng made it on the train before it started to roll, but just barely. They were still looking for their seats when they felt a lurch as the engine began to pull them out of the station.

  “There,” Daeng said, nodding toward two empty bench seats at the end of the cabin.

  He took the one facing forward while Logan took the other.

  “No first class tickets left,” he said. “You’ll have to put up with second.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “First class gets their own cabins.”

  Their car was set up like a series of table-less diner booths running down each side. The booths were open to the aisle in the center, but had walls separating the ones on the same side. Padded gray plastic cushions covered the seats, and were comfortable enough for the ride ahead. And while four people could easily fit in each booth, Logan noticed that there were never occupied by more than two.

  A pair of elderly Thai women were sitting across from them, sharing some food and laughing while they talked. When one of the women saw Logan looking over, she held a piece of fruit toward him.

  He smiled, but shook him head. “No, thanks.”

  She held it there for a second longer, then shrugged and pulled it back.

  “Mai, khrap,” Daeng said, looking at Logan. “Khob khun, khrap. It means, no, thank you.”

  Logan tried it out a few times until Daeng said he had it close enough. The two ladies nodded encouragingly when he finally got it, one of them even clapping a couple of times.

  “I didn’t see the others when we walked through,” Logan said in a low voice once the women had returned to their conversation.

  “Neither did I,” Daeng said.

  “We’re sure they didn’t get off before the train left?”

  “My guy would have called us if they had. The real question is, are they going to where the girl is?”

  That had been a worry running through Logan’s mind since the moment he’d realized the others were getting on a train. “I hope so.”

  They sat there silently for a few moments.

  “How many stops are we going to make?” Logan asked.

  “Maybe a dozen. Don’t know for sure.”

  That was more than Logan had hoped. The others could get off at any time during the night. “First thing we need to do is figure out where they are so we can keep tabs on them.”

  “That should be easy enough,” Daeng said. “How many of them know what you look like?”

  “None of the ones on the train, actually. The two who’ve seen me before aren’t here.”

  “Still, maybe I should be the one who looks around,” Daeng said. “Your farang face will stick out, and could give us problems later if they spot you somewhere else. Me, I’m just another Thai.”

  Logan didn’t completely buy the argument, but it made enough sense that he said, “Go ahead. I’ll wait here.”

  As Daeng headed out, Logan slouched down on his bench, antsy. For the last couple of hours his adrenaline had been running at full tilt while they’d followed Aaron through the city. Top that off with the rush to get on the train, and he was having a hard time getting into relax mode.

  He looked out the window. They were still in Bangkok, rolling by areas he was pretty sure most tourists didn’t visit. At one point they seemed to pass through what looked like a little village built between the tracks and the city a hundred feet away. There were huts and stores all crammed together and built from scrap, and around them families ate and children played.

  He heard the car door nearest him slide open, and sounds from outside momentarily rushed in before it closed again. Between the door and their booth was an area with a sink and a small room with a toilet. So it was a few seconds before the man who had come through the door appeared. He was wearing a uniform, and as soon as he reached Logan’s booth, he said something in Thai.

  Logan hesitated a moment, then retrieved his ticket and held it out, assuming that’s what the man wanted. The guy’s smile told him he was right. As the conductor was marking Logan ticket, the train door opened again. Once more there was the delay, then a man squeezed around the back of the conductor. Logan caught a glimpse of his profile, and immediately turned to the window. It was the Caucasian guy who’d been with Aaron.

  A hand touched Logan’s shoulder. He hesitated, then turned, bracing himself in case they’d somehow been able to ID him. But it was only the conductor trying to give him back his ticket.

  “Sorry,” Logan said, taking it from him. “Thank you. Khob khun….khrap.”

  “Khob khun, khrap,” the conductor said, then turned to the women in the opposite booth.

  Cautiously, Logan leaned into the aisle and looked toward the far end of the car where the other man had been heading. The guy was just opening the door to move on to the next car. As he did, he nearly ran into Daeng. There was a moment of awkwardness as they moved around each other, then Daeng bowed his head a few inches, and the door shut between them.

  “He came from the front of the train,” Logan said once Daeng had rejoined him.

  “Yeah, I figured. I didn’t see any of them in the cars back there. It’s all second class like us, so I’m guessing they’re probably up in a first class cabin.”

  “Where do you think he was going?”

  Daeng shook his head. “Nothing back there but more cars like this. Probably just stretching his legs.”

  As soon as Daeng had left to check the cars in front, Logan decided to make sure the man who’d walked through didn’t get a chance for another look at him when he came back.

  He went over to the sink just opposite the door to the toilet, and hovered there, keeping an eye on the door at the other end of the car. Logan’s plan was to simply step into the room with the toilet the moment he saw him. Unfortunately, a few seconds before the man returned, one of Logan’s new Thai friends from across the aisle decided to use the facilities.

  Now he was caught in a situation where if he returned to his seat he’d draw attention to himself, and if he stayed where he was, it would be easy for the man to take a good look at him. It could be it wouldn’t matter, but, if possible, he preferred to remain anonymous for the moment. So the best chance he had to do that was to head into the next car, and hope that the toilet there was unoccupied.

  He slipped out the door into a short, noisy passageway, then opened another door and stepped into the next car. Immediately he could see that this one was different than the one in which he and Daeng were assigned. The walkway took a short jog to the left, and ran along the side of the train for a little bit before passing a kitchen area, then opening into a simple dining room.

  Several of the tables were occupied, and two waitresses seemed to be sharing the duty of serving the customers. There was a snack counter, too, separating the kitchen from the dining area.

  What he wasn’t seeing was a bathroom.

  He quickly headed across the dining area to the door on the other side. Passing through it, he was once
more in the no man’s land between cars, only this particular passage had been set up so that people could move to the sides, out of the way, and smoke next to open windows.

  He knew the further he continued down the train, the more chances he was taking that he’d be spotted. So he decided this was going to have to do. He moved over to one of the windows, his back now to the train’s doors.

  The sun had set in the last ten minutes, and the space was not well lit, so the shadows were also his friend as he leaned into the window to sell the illusion he was smoking, then waited. He expected the door behind him to open within half a minute, but it didn’t. In fact it was almost three before someone passed through, and it was a woman, not the guy he was hiding from.

  He held his position, wondering where the hell the man gone. After another minute, the door opened again. Someone stepped through, then Logan heard something scrape against the second door a couple of times.

  “Dammit,” a voice said.

  Logan resisted the urge to turn.

  “Hey, can you give me a hand?”

  Logan still didn’t move.

  “Buddy, you speak English? I could use some help.”

  Logan turned, but tried to stay as much in the darkness as possible. Sure enough, it was the guy he’d been trying to avoid. “Sorry,” he said. “Daydreaming.”

  “No problem. Can you open this door for me? My hands are kind of full. Got through the other one, but now I seem kind of stuck.”

  He was holding several bottles of beer and some packages of food, which explained why he’d been delayed.

  “Sure,” Logan said.

  He squeezed by the man and opened the door.

  “Thanks. Appreciate it.”

  As the guy disappeared inside, Logan knew he probably should just turn around and head back to his seat, but an opportunity had just been presented to him that he couldn’t pass up.

  Since a person could only go two directions on a train, if someone was walking down the aisle behind them, there’d be very little reason for them to think they were being followed.

  Logan let the man have a good five second lead, then he entered the car.