Abduction

by Michael Kerr

  Wolf had only been dazed. He was resilient and recovered quickly; to get up and run out of the room as Jimmy and the big guy that had broken in were struggling. There was no sign of the SUV or Jade. The bitch had run out on them. The next time he saw her he would play tic-tac-toe on her face with a box cutter. She was the weak link of the crew, but always acted like some diva, just because the boss had an eye for her and, if rumors were true, was regularly fucking her.

  He ran across the parking lot, into the trees behind it, and stopped in the gloom to look back at the lighted doorway. Help was probably only a couple of minutes away, and the team that were supposed to pick up the woman and kid would deal with the stranger, should he get the better of Jimmy and hang around. Best thing to do was stay out of sight and make a phone call.

  Reaching into a side pocket of his baggy hip hop pants, Wolf froze with his hand around the cell phone as the man that had kicked open the door and attacked them came out into the lot and stood still, obviously listening, hoping to hear him.

  Holding his breath, Wolf let go of the phone and stepped to the side, behind the broad trunk of a tall cypress tree. Had he been in possession of a gun he would have just walked out from cover and riddled the bastard with bullets. But he had no weapon and knew that he was physically no match for the stranger. Had he stayed still, then he would have been safe, but he stepped on something that crunched, maybe a snail, and the man jogged towards him.

  Logan had taken the pistol from the unconscious man’s hand and placed it back on the bed. He then picked up the knife from the carpet, turned the woman over onto her stomach and sliced through the tape that bound her wrists together.

  “That woman took my daughter,” Kelly whimpered as she twisted round and sat up to face him.

  “We’ll deal with it,” Logan said. “What I want you to do now is pick that gun up off the bed and keep it pointed at Sleeping Beauty here. Do you know how to use it?”

  “Yes, but―”

  “What’s your name?” Logan interrupted her to ask.

  “Debbie.”

  “Okay, Debbie. I need to talk to the other man. Stay well back from this piece of shit, and if he comes round and makes a move on you, shoot him. Understand?”

  Debbie nodded and picked up the gun.

  Logan walked out of the room armed with the hunting knife and stood still on the gravel and listened to the night sounds.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ON seeing the silhouette of the man approaching, the darkness around Wolf felt like broad daylight. He panicked and turned and ran blindly through the trees, his only thought to put as much distance as possible between himself and the man who was obviously intent on hunting him down like some prey animal. Perhaps he had killed Jimmy.

  Logan followed the noise. It got louder as he drew nearer. The guy he was pursuing was like a spooked horse, running wild and not thinking straight. Had it been him, he would have stopped and turned retreat into attack.

  Wolf caught his shoulder on the trunk of a tree and grunted as he was spun sideways and fell to his knees. Had to keep moving, he thought, trying to ignore the blast of pain that shot through his shoulder. He regained his feet and stumbled on, now disoriented and not sure if he was running away from or back towards the motel. Even as the thought to stop and regroup passed through his mind, he stepped into thin air and fell forward, headlong into cold water.

  The large pond was just one of many that bejeweled the northern tip of the wetlands that stretched up from the everglades. Water filled the low-lying saw grass to create an abundance of ponds, lakes and rivers.

  Wolf almost choked as he coughed up the water that he had swallowed. He turned and stretched his arms out in front of him to reach the bank and cling to clumps of long grass and drag himself up through the thick mud that his feet were sinking in to.

  Logan was standing above the moaning, retching man. He said nothing, just waited.

  Wolf was almost out of the water when he became aware of the figure standing above him. He turned and made to swim away, convinced that he could make it to the other side of the pond and escape into the woodland that fringed the far bank.

  Logan bent at the waist, reached out and grasped one of the would-be escapee’s ankles and dragged him back as…

  …The surface of the pond erupted and enormous open jaws lined with rows of conical teeth took Wolf’s head into the mouth of the fourteen-foot-long male alligator, to bite down with incredible force on his neck and throat, fracturing his larynx and two vertebrae, compressing his windpipe and rupturing arteries.

  As the powerful reptile began its death roll, Wolf was only briefly aware of a smell that could have been emanating from a restaurant’s dumpster, but was in fact the gator’s stinking breath. A second later he experienced a terrible tearing sensation as his head was torn free.

  Logan fell back holding on to the ankle of what within seconds had become a decapitated corpse. He dragged the body up onto the bank and a few yards into the trees, in case the gator came back for a second helping.

  Searching the headless body’s clothing, Logan removed a cell phone and a wallet, and then jogged back to the motel.

  Jimmy came to and reached up to cradle his aching face with his left hand. He could taste blood, and ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek to feel where it had been torn open against a couple of teeth that were now loose. No big deal, but his right hand was pounding. The index finger was broken, bent to the side and swollen up. He looked up from where he was now sitting, to be faced by the woman that he had been seconds away from raping. She had pulled her T back down over her breasts, but was still naked from the waist down. And she was out of reach and holding his gun two-handed, pointing it at his chest. He looked around the room. There was no one else. The guy that had attacked him had gone, as was Wolf, Jade and the kid.

  “Give me the gun or your daughter will die”, Jimmy said to Debbie.

  “Tell me where she is, or it’s you that will fucking die,” Debbie said, finding it hard to stop herself from pulling the trigger. “You broke into my home and murdered my mother and abducted me and my daughter, you sick bastard, so unless you tell me where she is I’m going to gut shoot you. And that’s a promise.”

  Jimmy saw the deadly intent in her eyes, and could see the tension in her body. She was totally pissed at him, and frightened for her daughter, and he knew that ninety-nine percent of mothers would do whatever it took to protect their children.

  “I have no idea where your daughter is,” Jimmy said. “I don’t know where the other two have gone with her.”

  Debbie let go of the pistol with one hand, reached out to the head of the bed behind her and found a pillow. She then pushed the muzzle of the gun into the pillow to muffle the sound and shot Jimmy in the left leg, just above his kneecap.

  Jimmy howled like a kicked dog, curled up on his side and held his leg, attempting to staunch the heavy flow of blood.

  “Where is that sick bitch taking my daughter?” Debbie said. “If you don’t tell me, then you get a bullet in the other leg, and then I’ll start on your arms.”

  “You were supposed to be collected. There are a couple of guys on the way,” Jimmy said through gritted teeth. “Our job was to lift you and bring you here. I don’t know where they’d been told to take you.”

  She believed him, but that didn’t help her locate Kelly. “Who do you work for?” she said, once more pushing the muzzle of the gun up to the pillow, next to the scorched hole that the first bullet had made.

  Refusing to talk was not an option. If he did, then this woman would kill him, of that he had no doubt. She had a crazed look in her eyes.

  “You do realize that if I bleed out you will have committed murder,” Jimmy said.

  Debbie actually managed to produce a bitter smile. “I’m pretty sure that shooting a murdering rapist that abducted me and my daughter would be considered self-defense. I’ll ask you once more, who do you work for?”

  “Nick Cady,�
� Jimmy said, playing for time, just waiting for a single off guard moment so that he could disarm the bitch and then pound her head to a pulp.

  “Where do I find him?” Debbie said.

  “He moves around. He runs a lot of businesses in Fort Myers.”

  “Give me an address.”

  “NC Transport on the Lee County Industrial Park off Old US 41.”

  “Is that where they planned to take us?”

  “Probably.”

  Debbie lowered the gun a couple of inches. She didn’t know what else to ask him. All she knew was that she had to find Kelly and get her back.

  Jimmy took his chance, lurched forward and grabbed her right hand, which was holding the gun. She had thought he was too hurt to do anything, but he was desperate and pumped up with adrenaline.

  Logan walked into the room and saw the man and Debbie struggling. He came around the side of the bed and kicked Jimmy in the ribs with enough force to knock him four feet away from Debbie, who still had possession of the gun. He took the Glock from her hand and turned his attention to the sorry-assed guy who was groaning, and bleeding heavily from his left leg. The blood was pooling on the liquid resistant carpet.

  “Full name,” Logan said, ramming the barrel of the gun into Jimmy’s right ear.

  “Jimmy Carson.”

  “And your late buddy’s name?”

  “Wolf…Diego Lopez. You killed him?”

  “No. A gator beat me to it. Who’s the woman that skipped?”

  “Jade Collins.”

  “What’s her part in this?”

  “She sees to the kids we snatch. She’s an ex-hooker, close to the boss.”

  Logan used his free hand to frisk Jimmy. Came up with another wallet and cell phone.

  “He told me who he works for, and gave me an address,” Debbie said.

  “Who?” Logan said.

  “Nick Cady.”

  Logan checked the contacts in Jimmy’s phone. One number was for someone with the initials NC. He asked Jimmy to repeat the address.

  “That’s what he told me,” Debbie said when he did.

  “Time to go,” Logan said. “We don’t need to be here when more of Cady’s hired help arrives.”

  While Debbie retrieved and put her still wet panties and shorts back on, Logan told Jimmy to tell his boss that if one single strand of the little girl’s hair was damaged, then he would lose everything, including his life. He then asked Jimmy for Jade’s address, and then struck him hard enough behind the right ear with the butt of the gun to put him out again.

  Logan saw the shoulder bag on the other bed. Checked it and added another cell phone to his growing collection. He then switched off the lamps in the room and led Debbie to the damaged door, to be confronted by the motel’s manager aiming a sawn off shotgun at him.

  “Back inside, mister,” Nelson Brown said. “Don’t make me have to blow you in half.”

  Logan slowly turned around, and then pushed Debbie hard enough to knock her onto the nearest bed as he pivoted, stepped back to the shooter’s side and brought his elbow up under his bottom jaw.

  Nelson was already stutter-stepping backwards on his heels and beginning to fall as he pulled the trigger and sent a hail of lead shot into the night sky. And as his back hit the ground, Logan twisted the shortened barrel of the pump-action shotgun from his grasp, reversed the weapon and brought the stock down with measured force against his forehead.

  “Move,” Logan shouted to Debbie as he searched the manager’s pockets and found car keys.

  Ninety seconds later, after having gone to his room to retrieve his rucksack, Logan was driving away from the motel. Less than a mile from it he stopped at the entrance to a narrow track, reversed thirty feet down it and cut the lights. The pickup was shielded from the highway by a stand of hardwoods bordering a swamp.

  “Why have you stopped?” Debbie said, finding it almost impossible to hold it together and not break down in tears.

  “Because the men that abducted you were expecting company. I don’t want them to see us drive past them. They may recognize this pickup.”

  “I need to phone the police,” Debbie said.

  Logan took Jimmy’s cell from his pocket and handed it to her. “Do it,” he said. “But be aware that we’ll both end up in an interview room for hours while they check everything out.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “That your daughter is being taken somewhere, and that the longer she’s missing, the less chance of her being found.”

  “Found by whom?”

  “Me,” Logan said. “I’ve got a name and an address. It’s of no use to the police, because the guy responsible will just act dumb and deny any involvement.”

  “Who are you?” Debbie said. “And why are you helping me?”

  “My name is Logan. And I’m helping you because I suppose I was at the right place at the right time, for you. I checked in that dump earlier, went for a meal, and when I got back I heard you scream.”

  “And you think that you can get Kelly back without involving the police?”

  “I think that at this moment in time I’m your best bet. I don’t have to follow procedure.”

  Debbie was about to ask more questions, but Logan said, “Wait” as he saw the glare of headlights through the trees as a speeding vehicle approached from the direction of Punta Gorda.

  And then the phone in Debbie’s hand started to play some intro to a pop song.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  JUST over a mile out from The Cottonmouth Motel, Larry Kramer phoned Jimmy to check that everything was okay.

  Logan took the phone from Debbie and accepted the call.

  “That you, Jimmy?” Larry said.

  “No,” Logan said. “Jimmy got shot up at the motel, but I think he’ll live. The other idiot fell in a pond and was taken out by a gator.”

  “Who the fuck are you?” Larry said.

  “Just a concerned citizen. Jade took off with the kid, and that was a mistake that you need to put right.”

  “You sound like a man on a mission,” Larry said as he turned to Lenny Marshall, who was driving, and mouthed for him to stop the car.

  “Yeah, I’m one of those types that see things through. Call it perseverance, or dedication to whatever I get involved with. I’m a stubborn kind of guy that could cause you and your boss a shitstorm of trouble.”

  “And who do you think my boss is?”

  “I know who he is; Nick Cady.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Arrange for the little girl to be dropped off outside the Punta Gorda Police Department in one hour. If that happens, then you won’t hear from me again.”

  “And if it doesn’t happen?”

  “Then Cady and his operation, including you, get taken apart.”

  “Easier said than done,” Larry said.

  “No, you’ve got that wrong. I’m outside the law, like you. But I was a Marine, then a cop, and I really will be Cady’s worst nightmare if that’s what it takes. I suggest that after you visit with Jimmy and talk to him, you call your boss and tell him the position he and you are in. You’re on the clock. Call me back in exactly thirty minutes and give me an update, or it’s game on.”

  Larry was going to reply, but the call was terminated. “Get to the motel,” he growled at Lenny.

  Nelson was climbing to his feet, still dazed and swaying and holding his head as the dark blue Dodge Charger’s high beams lit him up like a stage act.

  Climbing out of the sedan with a gun in his hand, Larry walked past the motel manager and into the room with the damaged open door, took a couple of steps forward and saw Jimmy lying on the floor between the two beds.

  Jimmy came round as cold water was thrown in his face, to blink it from his eyes and focus on Larry Kramer’s face.

  “What the fuck happened?” Larry said. “And where’s the broad and the kid?”

  “A guy broke in the room and took us by surprise,” Jimmy slurred.
“I need help for Chrissake; I think I’m bleeding out.”

  “Talk first,” Larry said. “Who was it?”

  “I’d never set eyes on him before. He was a big, strong guy. Just appeared from nowhere. Jade got away with the kid in the SUV.”

  “Where’s Wolf?”

  “He ran off. The guy went after him. When he came back he said that a gator had taken Wolf.”

  Larry saw the shoulder bag on top of the bed nearest the door. Checked its contents, but there was no phone.

  “Why did this stranger get involved?” Larry asked Jimmy.

  “I don’t know. I guess he heard the woman scream.”

  “Why was she screaming?”

  “I was fooling around with her.”

  “What else can you tell me?”

  “Nothing, Larry, that’s it.”

  Larry raised the silenced P226 SIG Sauer pistol and pressed it against Jimmy’s forehead.

  “Jesus, no!” Jimmy said in a quavering whisper. “Don’t kill me, Larry. Please.”

  “You’re a liability,” Larry said as he put a bullet between Jimmy’s eyes.

  Jimmy ceased to exist as a thinking, breathing human being within a fraction of a second. His head was slammed back into the side of the bed as the rear of his skull was blown out. Blood and brains impregnated the grimy duvet. His left foot shot out as if in defense, and was then as still as the rest of him.

  “Make a call,” Larry said to Lenny as he squatted down to retrieve the spent brass from the carpet. “We need ‘cleaners’ here to sanitize the place and get rid of the body.”

  While Lenny made arrangements, Larry went back outside the room to talk with Nelson.

  “What can you tell me about the guy?” Larry said.

  “White, craggy-looking with short brown hair. He was maybe six-four, and could have been anywhere between forty and fifty. He looked…capable. Turns out he is.”

  “Was he staying here?”

  “Yeah, he checked in earlier. He was on foot and carrying a rucksack. Paid cash for one night and asked me where he could get a meal.”