by Dale Mayer
The woman started to cry. “I didn’t know she was diabetic.”
Mickie cried out, “Oh, my God, I recognize you. You were at the hotel.”
The woman looked at her, her lips trembling as she nodded.
“So, you were part of the plot to kidnap the twins?” Asher asked.
She stared at him in fear.
He watched as Mickie grasped the woman’s hands and said, “It’s okay. But we need to find them.”
“I told him that the men took the twins to a hospital.”
“Which one?” Mickie asked urgently.
“A private one,” she said. “One where they deal with special patients.”
“Got it,” Ryker said. “But which one?”
The woman took a deep breath. “Not far from here.”
“Do you know the way?” Asher snapped.
The woman nodded. “Please, can we leave?”
At that, Ryker took off and headed back onto the street. “Which way?”
She did her best to direct them, got lost once, and then finally they drove past a more institutionalized-looking building, but it was older and more run-down.
“It doesn’t look very high-tech,” Asher said.
“It doesn’t,” she said. “But they will look after the twins.”
“Do you think they’re still there?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “The men were looking to move them.”
“Where to?”
The woman didn’t know.
Asher sagged in place. “What were you being paid to look after them?”
“Sorry?” She didn’t appear to understand the question.
“He wants to know why you were involved in their kidnapping,” Mickie repeated.
“I wasn’t,” she said. “They asked me to look after them. I didn’t know that the twins were held against their will.”
“What kind of condition were they in?” Mickie asked not believing a word she said.
“They wouldn’t stop crying once they woke up from the drugs. It just never stopped,” she said.
“Of course not,” Asher said.
Mickie reached out and said, “Can you please tell me a little more? I look after them. I’m really worried about them.”
“I don’t think the men were prepared for their condition,” the woman muttered. “I was kind of an afterthought.”
“But, by then, Alisha had already slid into a diabetic coma, I presume,” Mickie said.
The woman nodded. “Yes, and then the men took her away.”
“One or both?” Asher asked.
“Both,” she said, “but it was the day before yesterday.”
“So, just after they were kidnapped?”
“Eight to ten hours afterward,” she said.
“Do you know if they’re okay? Have you heard the kidnappers talk about their condition at all?” Mickie asked.
“No,” she said. “I just wanted to be released, and they wouldn’t let me free.”
“Were they expecting you to stay and look after the women when they brought them back?”
“I think so. But they were also angry because I couldn’t fix what was wrong in the first place,” she said.
As they pulled up to the side of the hospital, she looked at the building and said, “That’s not a very nice place either.”
“What do you mean?” Ryker said.
“It’s a place where, if you have money, you can put people away.”
“So, they’re keeping them there. Interesting,” Asher said. “I guess you can’t keep people prisoner anymore at too many places, particularly if they need medical care?”
“No,” she said. “A lot of places are in town, but it’s the medical care that you need here.”
“And how come you speak such good English?” Mickie asked.
“I spent a lot of time in Europe,” the woman said. “I went to school in the US too.”
“We want the names of the men who kidnapped the twins,” Ryker said.
“Not only that,” Asher said, “we need to know everything you know about the kidnapping. Is there any chance that the twins have already been removed from this hospital?”
“It’s possible,” she said. “The men were looking for a short-term solution before they moved them again.”
“Move them where?” Mickie asked urgently. “I need to get to them.”
She looked back at Mickie. “Are you Mickie?”
Mickie nodded, tears coming to her eyes. “Yes, I am.”
Chapter 7
“The twins want you,” the woman said. “They kept crying out for you.”
She couldn’t believe that the twins had used her name. Mickie nodded and wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes. “They must be terrified.”
“Very. Almost uncontrollable,” the woman said. “The men weren’t expecting that.”
Mickie sat back. “How could they not be? They’re autistic. They need special care. They need a full-time caregiver.”
“For some reason, the men thought they’d be quiet and would not be difficult.”
Mickie snorted at that. “The twins are notoriously difficult. They need a place where they can be together.”
“Shit,” Ryker said. He looked at Asher. “My turn.” And he exited the vehicle and disappeared.
Mickie leaned forward. “Where’s he going?”
“To see if he can find any information on the twins,” Asher said. He was already on his phone and had the laptop up with a chat window.
“What are you doing?”
“Tracking down the two men who kidnapped the twins and to get a history on this place. If the twins are in there, we need to know where.”
“Chances are they’ve been moved again,” the woman said. “I’m not sure what the deal was, but the men didn’t want to keep them at the hospital for long.”
“Because of the cost or because someone might recognize the twins?” Mickie asked.
“I don’t know,” she said, but she didn’t elaborate.
Mickie wasn’t sure she trusted her at all either. Mickie understood that she’d been locked up and that Asher had rescued her. But that didn’t mean that she was willing to share very much about what was going on. “What else can you tell us?” Mickie asked.
The woman shrugged. “I know that a lot of money is involved,” she said.
“And were you expecting to get some of it?”
The woman shook her head. “No, I was paid to look after the twins. No extra money was coming for me. And they won’t pay me now.”
“Just as well,” Mickie said. “These twins were kidnapped. And that won’t go well for anybody involved in their kidnapping.”
At that, the woman stared at her in horror. “I had nothing to do with that. I was just hired to look after them.”
“Well, you didn’t do it very well, did you?” Asher snapped. “And neither are you making it easy for us to help the twins.”
“I don’t know anything,” she cried out. “You can’t blame this on me.”
“Maybe not,” Asher said. “But, if you don’t start talking, it’s not like you’ll get a lighter sentence.”
At that, the woman shut up and curled into the corner.
Mickie turned to Asher. “That’s not helping.”
He raised an eyebrow at her.
She groaned. “Look,” she said, turning to the woman. “We need to get the twins before they crash again.”
“That’s why they were in the hospital,” the woman said patiently. “It’s why the men are mad at me.”
“Do you know the men?”
She shrugged and said, “Somewhat.”
“Is one your boyfriend? Family?” At that, Asher leaned and twisted around farther, so he could study the woman’s face. “One is your brother, isn’t he?”
Her gaze went flat.
He nodded. “So, you’re in this up to your eyeballs. You were expecting money from this. Were you really locked in that room, or w
as that just a trick too?”
“I told you,” she said. “They’re upset with me because I couldn’t help the twins.”
“Well, guess what?” he said. “If anything happens to the twins, it’s on your head now too. We’re calling for a pickup for you.”
“What do you mean, a pickup?” the woman cried out, frightened.
“Well, you don’t get to walk away now,” he said. “You were involved in an international kidnapping incident, and that’s not pretty jail time.”
Just then Ryker slipped back into the car. He turned on the engine and drove away.
“What did you find out?”
“They were moved earlier this morning,” he said. “About an hour and a half ago.”
Asher twisted around to look at the woman and said, “And you knew about that?”
She was silent and sagged into the corner of the back seat.
“Well, obviously you know more than you’re telling us,” Mickie said, glaring at her. “In that case, just dump her at the police station. They will lock her up. And throw away the key. In a place like this, nobody’ll care about her.”
“No,” the woman cried out in terror.
“Yes,” Mickie said. “You could tell us more. But instead, you didn’t give a damn about the twins that you were helping to keep prisoner. In that case, we won’t help you either.”
“Look. I can tell you,” she said, “but I’ll get in trouble.”
“You’re already in trouble,” Asher said.
She thought about it for a nanosecond; then she said, “They’re moving them to the docks.”
“And why would we believe you now?” Asher asked.
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“And why are they taking them to the docks?”
“They’ll take them to a ship and hold them in the harbor,” she said. “They figured they’d have less chance of being seen.”
“What kind of a ship?”
The woman shrugged. “I think it’s a fishing boat.”
“Well, that makes sense,” Ryker said. “A million of them are out here.”
“Exactly,” the woman said. “But they were looking for medication to knock them out because they were being so noisy. They figured, if the twins were on a ship, nobody would hear them.”
Mickie thought about that and then nodded. “Unfortunately she’s quite right.”
“Is that the only way to keep them happy?”
“No, not the only way,” Mickie said. “But it’s probably the easiest way in these circumstances. The twins are unhappy, and they want to go home. They don’t understand what’s happening, and they are scared.”
“No one will hear them out on the water,” Ryker said calmly.
“Damn,” Asher said. “I just came from the harbor.”
“Different harbor,” Ryker said with a laugh.
“True,” Asher said. “But, if it’s a fishing vessel, hundreds of them are out there, if not thousands.”
“They’re going up the coastline a little bit,” the woman said.
“Until how long?”
“Until they’re contacted,” the sister said. “There’s money to be paid. They won’t hand the twins over, until they get paid.”
“And who’s they?”
“My brothers,” she admitted grudgingly. “But they kidnapped the twins at somebody else’s orders.”
“Whose orders?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I just know that they were hired to do the job.”
“And was anybody else hired?”
Fear whispered across her face again. “Yes,” she said. “Two other men to help. And they’re both dead.”
She clammed up then and wouldn’t say any more.
They handed off the woman to the local authorities shortly thereafter and promptly updated Beau.
They pulled up to a restaurant that looked like more of an internet café. Asher needed a cup of coffee and a chance to sort out where in the harbor this fishing boat had gone. Chinese flowed in a steady stream of conversation around him, dotted by bits of English. More people spoke English than he expected. He was no sooner sitting at the table in the back, away from the other customers, with Mickie beside him and Ryker across from him, when the chat window popped up on his phone. It told them to call. He quickly made the call and listened as information was passed along, but it was old information he already knew. “I need to know where the boat is,” he said.
“I hear you,” Beau said. “Neither of the brothers have a boat registered to them.”
“Friends? Family?”
“Or the sister?” Ryker asked from across the table.
Asher nodded. “Check the sister’s friend circle too. The twins are on a boat in the harbor somewhere.”
Beau said, “Hold on the line while I check that out.”
“What about satellite imagery?” Mickie asked beside him. He shot her a look. She shrugged. “Just trying to help.”
“Satellite imagery is something we’re working on, but we’ve got a lot of boats leaving the harbor today.”
“Sure,” she said. “But maybe you can check with the port itself to see if anybody saw the twins while they were loaded onto the boat.”
“Chances are they wouldn’t have gone to the port at all but someplace off to the side and out of the way,” Ryker added. “You know all kinds of nooks and crannies are to be found for a boat to hide while the men move the twins out.”
“Well, there has to be some way to find them,” Asher said in exasperation. While he watched, Ryker quickly went to the counter and ordered them food and drinks. Asher settled against the wall and watched the busy café around him. “We’re running out of time,” he said to Beau, still holding. “We found one location, but we need to find the next one.”
“Did the hospital give you any other information?” Beau asked.
“No,” Asher said. “Once we realized the twins had been moved already, there didn’t seem to be much point. I didn’t want to raise any alarms in case those men had connections there.”
“Good point,” Beau said. “Give us a couple hours on this.”
“Well, that’s all the time you’ve got,” he said, already setting an alarm on his watch. “What about the harbormaster? Do they keep track of fishing boats?”
“No, not small crafts,” Beau said, “which is why it’s an ideal location to keep the twins.”
“But not long-term,” Asher said. “There are basics to consider, like medicine and hygiene.”
“That’s really not a top priority in this location,” Beau said.
“I know,” Asher said. “But it is something that we must consider.”
“I know.”
He hung up at that, opened up his laptop, and started searching. Then he brought up the chat box once more and typed Give me the satellite feeds of the harbor.
Almost immediately he got a link. He quickly searched through them, and he was right. Probably two to three hundred fishing boats moved in and around through the satellite feed. He started early the night before, but, with night satellite images, you didn’t get to see much, especially if the kidnappers’ boat had gone out without any lights.
Most of them didn’t have any lights at all and were very hard to track. He backtracked the feeds about six hours earlier and kept going through them. The trouble was, there were too many boats to track. Without identifying numbers, it was impossible to move from one feed to the other and to keep any semblance of order. Swearing under his breath, he moved up the coastline, hoping that maybe he’d have a better visual. But that didn’t help either.
The chat window opened up. The sister’s boyfriend has a boat.
Where is it now?
In the harbor.
Is it empty?
Believed to be, yes.
How big?
Too small.
So how does that help us?
The older brother has friends with boats.
Possible.
I still don’t have any idea where up the coast they are though, Asher typed. I’m checking the feeds but there are literally hundreds of boats.
I know. Same problem here.
He frowned and typed, On the off chance, does Chandra’s son own a boat?
He owns several, but none are in this part of the world.
Interesting.
Asher settled back as plates of food arrived, checking his countdown timer for Beau to get back with him. Asher quickly served himself, his mind moving at a rapid pace as he contemplated his newest theory. Just because somebody had a boat didn’t make them guilty of kidnapping and holding somebody against their will. The fact that somebody owned a boat meant that they were quite comfortable on the water most likely. And that brought up a whole different concept. Commercial fishing boats around?
Dozens at any given hour.
He winced at that. Of course. He headed back to his feeds, studying some of the bigger fishing boats as they came and went. He checked back. Any logs for particular companies?
All companies keep logs.
Okay, so anybody not come back last night?
Checking.
Asher went back to his feed, studying fishing boats moving farther up the coastline. Somebody here had to know something. He slogged through this for about thirty minutes before the chat box popped up again. Notoriety Express had four boats out overnight.
What locations?
He was quickly given their respective GPS locations.
Do they keep track of the boats all day?
Yes.
Any up the coast?
Two.
Big enough?
Yes.
Anything suspicious about their activity?
No.
Keep checking with other companies.
There had to be dozens of companies. Not everybody would be fishing in the same area, but it’s possible that some of these people might have seen something. But getting anybody to volunteer information was a whole different story. Swearing, he closed the lid to his laptop and returned to his food.
Ryker looked over and said, “It’ll be hard to track down a single fishing boat, especially if family owned and unmarked and without running lights.”