He shook his head. “Ryne said—”
“That’s the dog whisperer dude, isn’t it? He’s also a shifter. Probably a Lycan if he can train a dog that fast.”
“You’re quick to jump to conclusions.”
“Nah, I’m just quick to see links between facts. No jumping involved whatsoever. So, what about the flash drive?”
He pushed his chair back. “I think I’ll go pay the bill.”
“Aha! You’re avoiding answering which can only mean the flash drive does contain intel from Lycan Link.”
“Or maybe I don’t want to impose on the owners of this restaurant. We’re keeping the table longer than necessary while there are others who are waiting to come inside.”
“This conversation isn’t finished, Armand.”
“I never assumed I would be that fortunate.”
“Fortunate?” She scowled. “Hey, that’s not nice.”
“I don’t mean to offend, however you do remind me of the proverbial dog with a bone.”
“Gum on the bottom of your shoe, that’s what Lulu says.”
“And she’d be correct. Speaking of her, she’s not back yet.” He turned to look towards the rear where the washrooms were located. “Maybe you should check on her?”
“Yeah. She was a bit tipsy. I hope she didn’t get stuck in a stall. That happened to me once when I was drunk. Took me forever to jiggle the door free.” She stood up. “You go pay and I’ll get Lulu. We’ll meet you at the front door.”
She wove between the tables and made her way to the washrooms.
“Lulu, you okay? Your big, burly boyfriend is looking for you.” Her voice echoed around the small room. She cocked her head but there was no answer. Only the steady dripping of a tap sounded in the sink. An uneasy feeling passed over her and she began knocking on the door of each stall.
“Lulu?”
There was no reply.
Had she somehow missed her?
She poked her head into the dining area and scanned the restaurant. Armand was paying the bill. Their table was being cleared and new customers were crossing the room, but Lulu was nowhere in sight.
Maybe Lulu had gone out the back door. She’d had a lot to drink—Roxi skimmed over whose fault that was—and hurried to the rear entrance. She pushed open the door ready to tease her roommate about taking a wrong turn except…there was no sign of her.
Turning in a slow circle, she pushed down her increasing apprehension, hoping to see Lulu barfing up the extra wine in some dark corner. No such luck. The only sign of life was a stray cat blinking at her from behind a dumpster.
Her brain began to scramble for explanations. Lulu could have gone home without them. Or decided to go window shopping. Or… She made a face; Lulu wasn’t the flaky type who’d do something like that.
Oh crud.
She’d wanted to get Armand by himself so she could talk to him, but she’d never thought it would lead to this. Someone must have nabbed Lulu!
Chapter 17
Lucy had been surprised to see Jeff the chef standing near the rear of the restaurant when she exited the washroom.
“Hi Jeff, what are you doing here?”
“It’s all you can eat pasta night. After all the cooking I do at work, I don’t want to see another pot or pan.”
“I can understand that. Where are you sitting?” She glanced over her shoulder looking for an empty table.
“I haven’t got a seat yet. I was hanging back here hoping to talk to the chef. The King’s Plate is okay, but I want to move up in the world and I thought he might have some info on a place that wants more kitchen staff. The chef world is pretty tight knit, you know?”
She didn’t, however she nodded in agreement. “Oh, what happened with your car? I didn’t get to see you today to ask.”
“Yeah, my car.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, would you believe I found it? Someone probably took it for a joy ride and then left it parked around the corner.”
“That’s incredible. Good luck for you though. It would have cost a lot to replace it.”
“Right.” He shuffled his feet and glanced beyond her.
She was keeping him from speaking to the chef, probably. “Well, I’ll talk to you tomorrow at—”
“You know what was strange?” He spoke over her words. “There was a dent in the hood, like something big had bounced off it.”
His comment had her freezing in place as an idea began to form in her head. Had someone stolen Jeff’s car and then used it to run Armand down? Hadn’t that been one of the ideas they’d considered and dismissed? Maybe it wasn’t so crazy after all.
“Jeff, what colour is your car?”
“Brown.”
The same colour as the hit-and-run car! She glanced towards her table where Armand and Roxi seemed deep in conversation; it was nice that they were getting along. She hated to interrupt them, especially if her idea was wrong.
“Jeff, can I see your car?”
“Um…sure. But why?”
“Just something I’m wondering about. I…uh…saw a car racing down the street the other day. It was brown. Maybe it was the joyriders.”
“Really? Well then, yeah, come take a look. I’m actually parked out back in the staff area; there were no spots on the street. This is a really popular place.” He led her to the back door and into the alley. “It’s over there, just past the dumpster.”
A few yards away, she could see the bumper of a car. It looked to be the right shade of brown and the correct model. “Jeff, I think that’s it!”
She was going to take a closer look when something hit her in the back, knocking her to the ground. Landing hard on her hands and knees, her cry of surprise barely passed her lips before a rag was shoved in her mouth. What felt like a foot pressed her flat as her ankles and wrists were tied. When she struggled, her head was pushed down against the pavement. There was a snapping sound and she felt her glasses slipping on her face, then she was jerked upright and something, maybe a pillowcase, was pulled over her head.
No! She silently shouted, squirming as hands ran over her body.
What was going on?
Where was Jeff?
Or was he the one frisking her?
Questions streamed through her mind in rapid succession as panic muddled her thinking and survival instincts had her continuing to struggle to free herself, tossing her head, screaming through the cloth in her mouth. She hit something hard with the back of her head, perhaps a chin or a cheekbone for her captor swore.
“Dammit, that hurt. Hurry up, I can barely hold her.” It was Jeff speaking!
“It’s not on her. Shit!”
And the other voice belonged to Kathy! Shocked, Lou stopped struggling for a minute. Kathy and Jeff were in cahoots? She’d never suspected the two of them!
“You should have just told her it was yours when she showed it to you at the diner.” There was accusation in Jeff’s tone.
“Well, why didn’t you speak up then?”
“Because of that guy she suddenly had sniffing around her. We needed to be cautious. Seems pretty strange that he showed up right after she got her hands on it.”
Kathy sniffed. “And yet you complained when I tried to take him out.”
“Only because you used my car. It was like painting a neon sign on my back. I kept expecting the cops to arrest me.”
“I made sure the plates were too dirty to be read.”
“I don’t care. You still should have used a different car.” There was an edge of anger in his voice.
“Your keys were available.”
“You—”
Kathy interrupted him. “Give it a rest. We have more important things to worry about, like the fact we’re running out of time.”
“Yeah, we need the info and we need it now.” Jeff’s fingers tightened, digging into her flesh. “Where is it?” His voice sounded by her ear. “Tell us and you won’t get hurt.”
“And don’t play dumb. You know wha
t we want.”
She mumbled through the rag in her mouth.
“I’m taking the rag out. You scream or make any noise except answering our question and you’ll be sorry, you understand?” Kathy’s voice hissed in her ear. “You know how Jeff likes to play with knives.”
Jeff? Sweet harmless Jeff who wanted to be on TV? It was hard to fathom but the deadly sincerity in Kathy’s voice sent an icy chill through her. She nodded, the bag was pulled from over her head and the rag removed. She quickly worked her lips, trying to moisten her mouth so she could speak.
“Now where’s the memory stick?” Jeff gave her a shake.
“My dresser. It’s on my dresser in my apartment.” Telling them what they wanted to know might not have been the best move, but in her mind, she was envisioning Jeff dicing carrots in the kitchen, his knife almost a blur. She wasn’t hero material, at least not for something like industrial spying. No lives were at stake except hers. The plans for the latest gizmo weren’t worth dying over.
“Good girl.” Kathy wasted no time shoving the rag back in Lou’s mouth and once again blinding her with the bag. “Shove her in the trunk. We keep her alive until we have the data back, just in case she was lying to us.”
“Right.”
“I’ll take your car—”
“My car again?”
“You expect me to use the bus? Don’t be stupid.”
There was a moment of silence and Lou imagined them glaring at each other before Kathy spoke again.
“Anyway, I’ll search her apartment. Use the scent mask to cover our tracks and we’ll meet back at the diner.”
“We’re almost out of the mask. Maybe we should save it. Didn’t your supplier say he couldn’t get you any more for at least a week?”
“Yeah, we’ve been using tons of the stuff to keep under the radar of the local pack but if the bear picks up our scent here, he’ll connect it to the diner. We can’t afford to have him tracking us now.”
Bear? Scent mask? She had no idea what they were talking about and didn’t really care. The idea of being locked in a trunk was foremost in her mind.
Armand, help!
Of course, yelling his name was pointless. She was hefted like a sack of potatoes, there was a metallic creak and then she was dropped into the trunk. Another metallic screech was rapidly followed by a thunk as the lid slammed shut cutting off what little light she’d been able to see through the bag covering her head.
The vehicle reversed out of the parking spot and then began to move forward, the floor below her vibrating as they travelled over cracked pavement and clunked through potholes. In her mind she mapped out where they were going; down the alley, stopping, turning and then the sounds of other vehicles let her know they’d merged into traffic.
Snippets of advice as to what to do if you were ever trapped in a trunk filled her mind. Emergency release levers, kicking out the tail lights; unfortunately, they never mentioned how to complete those actions if you were trussed up like a turkey and couldn’t see the latches let alone reach them. There wasn’t much she could do so she thrashed about, kicking the sides of the trunk in the hopes someone on the sidewalk might notice the noise and call the police. It wasn’t very likely but right now, it seemed the only hope she had.
Armand was putting his credit card away when Roxi appeared at his side and tugged on his arm.
“We need to talk. Now!” She hissed the words at him, all the while glancing around.
There was an urgency in her voice that had him agreeing without question and he followed her to the back of the restaurant.
“What’s wrong? Where’s Lucy?”
“She’s gone. She’s not in the washroom or anywhere in the restaurant. I even looked in the alley. It’s like she vanished!”
The news sent a chill through him and for a split second he stood still, absorbing the information, regulating his emotional response and focusing on solving the problem. Then he side-stepped around Roxi and headed for the women’s washroom to check the stalls.
“I’ve already done that.” Roxi stood in the doorway nervously nibbling on her thumbnail.
“Right.” He scanned the room taking in the sink, the paper towel dispenser, the beige metal partitions. Of course, Roxi had looked but he’d needed to see for himself. “The window’s too high and too small for her to have exited that way. There’s no other way out, no sign of a struggle.” He automatically began to list and eliminate possibilities. “I can detect her scent though.”
“So…?”
He brushed past Roxi, focused on following Lucy’s trail. It led towards the rear of the building. “She went this way and,” he frowned, “there was a shifter here with her. It’s the same scent I noticed at the restaurant this afternoon.”
“So the bad guy must be someone who works at the diner!”
He shook his head. “I didn’t notice the scent of shifters when I was there on other days.”
“Then that means some random shifter must have come looking for her earlier in the day, not knowing she’d switched shifts!” Roxi gave a decisive nod.
Whatever the case, all sorts of warning bells were sounding in his head. It took great restraint to not rip the back door off its hinges and burst into the alley with a roar. There was only a slim chance that Lucy’s abductor was out there but, just in case, he didn’t want to startle the person into doing something stupid. Instead, he eased the door open, listening intently, testing the air, before stepping outside.
He was met by dumpsters, weeds, stray garbage, cracked pavement and a few cars parked in a small area marked ‘employees only’ but there was no sign of Lucy or anyone else.
“Well, this proves my theory about the flash drive.” Roxi planted her hands on her hips.
Not really listening, he inspected the area, sifting through the myriad of scents that filled the alley while looking for visual clues as to what might have happened. Lucy’s trail indicated she’d walked to the left after leaving the building. He headed that way.
Roxi followed him, still talking. “The info on the drive is valuable to some shifter and whoever it is, isn’t going to let it slip through their fingers. It has to be the leaked data from Lycan Link.”
Something glinted in the light that managed to shine down the alley, the sun beginning its descent and at just the right angle to illuminate the narrow space. Bending down, he picked up the oval glass object; a cracked lens from a pair of glasses. Lucy’s glasses. He carefully rubbed his thumb over the surface, thinking how he’d disliked the eyewear. Now this was all he had left of her. Tucking the remains into his pocket, he stood up, imagining how terrified she must be, unable to see properly, trying to defend herself...
Roxi kept chattering away about her theory. “The shifter that owned the drive must have followed us here, then nabbed Lulu when he saw she was by herself. She didn’t have the drive on her – I saw her set it on her dresser when she was getting ready for dinner—so the guy must have kidnapped her, maybe planning to exchange her for the flash drive.”
He walked a bit farther, still following Lucy’s scent, only to stop as if he’d hit a wall. The scent had disappeared. Shaking his head, he stepped back and tried again, scenting the air, finding Lucy’s trail, following it and then…nothing. It made no sense. About to try again, his nose twitched, and he gave a violent sneeze quickly followed by two more.
“What’s wrong? Are you getting sick?” Roxi seemed to have finished theorizing and was now noticing his actions.
“Sick? No. But something is wrong.” He ran a hand through his hair as he tried to puzzle through what was happening. “I can’t follow the trail.”
“I thought you shifter kinds had super sniffers.”
“We do. Bears are excellent at picking up scents but this one ends in mid-air.”
His bear growled in frustration. A scent trail does not vanish.
Roxi snapped her fingers. “I bet the kidnapper used a scent mask! I’ve heard rumours about them. It�
�s something Lycan Link developed a few years ago.”
“A scent mask?” He searched his memory trying to recall if Ryne had ever mentioned Lycans having such a thing. “How does this scent mask work? Is there a way to counteract it?”
She shrugged. “No idea. I only gather the info, I don’t ask for instructions.”
He gritted his teeth, barely keeping his voice even. “Then you need to go looking for that information right now.”
“Looking? Uh-uh.” She shook her head. “I don’t look, I gather. If people are careless enough to leave stuff lying about or talk when I’m around, that’s their problem. I just collect the crumbs and offer them to those who want them. But I don’t go around asking about stuff. It draws too much attention.”
“Then it’s time you learn the reverse of the process.” There was a rumble in his voice as he pinned her with a hard stare, making no effort to hold back his inner animal. The animal was raging inside, eyes flashing, teeth bared, wanting to break free, needing to vent its anger.
She took a step back. “Okay, okay, no need to go feral. Yeesh, you shifter types can be so temperamental.” She made a face. “I think I know a guy who could help if he’s still in town. Let me see what I can do.”
He gave a nod. “I’ll head back to the apartment and locate the USB. Assuming she’s been kidnapped, it will be our bargaining chip to ensure her safety.”
“Good idea. I’ll meet you back there. If my guy is around and has any info, it shouldn’t take me too long. I’ll go make some phone calls.” Pulling out her cell phone, she headed back into the restaurant muttering to herself. “I’ll probably owe him for the rest of my life.”
Armand clenched his hands into fists and slowly turned in a circle. Eyes narrowed, he examined every surface, every corner, double-checking he hadn’t missed some clue as to who had taken Lucy and where. He hated to leave the alley, it was the last place she had been, but staying proved nothing. Every minute wasted chipped away at the chances of finding Lucy unharmed.
With a frustrated growl, he headed back to her apartment.
Wolves, Witches and Bears...Oh My! Page 90