by A. Hargrove
“Hello, Mr. Kent. You have caused a lot of trouble since you butted into my business. Why did you feel the need to do that?” A middle-aged man with dark hair spoke. His features were ordinary, but then again, my head was still fuzzy. I detected an accent but didn’t know from where.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play dumb with me. You had one small job. Drive the fucking trailer to Atlanta. But you couldn’t follow those directions. Why?”
I blinked. Once. Twice. It was coming back now. Everything. Shit. He was the one whose operation I screwed up. “Because something didn’t add up.”
“You weren’t hired to perform accounting, Mr. Kent. You were hired to drive a trailer from Savannah to Atlanta, but you had to stick your nose in where it didn’t belong.”
“Who are you?” I had to know.
An evil smile spread across his face. “I could’ve been your friend. But now… you’ll soon find I’m your worst nightmare. You’re a pretty man, Mr. Kent. So the way I look at it, I can get some payment back for what you stole from me. That’s what I intend to do.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will.” He chuckled and icy needles ran down my spine. He said to one of the men who was with him, “You know what to do. Leave his pretty face alone.” Then he walked out.
I was alone with two men. “What’s next?”
“You sure are curious, but the new ones always are,” one of them said. He pulled a syringe out of his pocket.
“No more drugs. I don’t like—”
“Shut the fuck up. Did we ask?” He turned to his friend and said, “Hold him down.”
There was no use in struggling because they had me. He stuck the needle in my vein and as soon as he did, it was instant. The cloud came up and cuddled me. I grinned.
“Don’t be too happy. It won’t last and soon you’ll do anything for this shit.”
I didn’t care because I was as high as a kite. But after a few days, he was right. I was begging and pleading. I wanted more. They’d only give it to me after I performed. I had to do them certain favors. In my normal mind, I would’ve gone crazy, but there was no normal anymore. That life was over and I’d never get it back.
I lost count of the days and nights. I couldn’t tell one from the other. It was one continuous high or begging to get there. I spent most of that time on my hands and knees, doing things that would have repulsed my clear brain. I didn’t give a damn. Until the day they tossed something inside my room. I crawled over to it and barely cared that it was Paulie. He was worse than me. After trying to wake him up, I gave up because the truth was, I didn’t care anymore. I only cared about getting high. But they weren’t coming as much as they did before.
I’d roll on the floor, shivering, nauseated, and sweating. When the door opened, I immediately swore to do whatever they wanted of me.
“I do believe you’re ready, Mr. Kent.”
I had no idea what he was talking about, nor did I care.
Then I heard, “Clean him up. He needs to be prepped for tomorrow night. I want to get the highest price possible.”
“Yes, sir.”
They hauled me out of my room after they unchained me, but I still wore the iron choker around my neck. The ankle shackle had been removed. I was oblivious to my surroundings until the water hit me. They’d put me under a shower and scrubbed the grime off me. I hadn’t cared how filthy I was. I only wanted my medicine as I referred to it. Once they finished, they dried me and combed my hair. Next, someone came in and trimmed it. At any time, I could’ve grabbed the scissors, but I didn’t even try. I only wanted the medicine. They told me if I was good, they’d be nice to me afterward. By the time that happened, I was sick again. They finally gave me what I needed and I went to my happy cloud.
One of them replaced the iron band around my neck with a different one. Then they left me naked, on the bed. I’m not sure how much later, I was taken to a room. I stood behind a curtain but I heard men’s voices on the other side. One of my keepers as I called them came and gave me more medicine.
The curtain rose and I stared into lights aimed at me. I had to squint because they were so bright. Someone grabbed my hand and escorted me down a few steps where I was walked around the room. A bright light followed me everywhere. I heard murmurs as I passed and a few hands touched me.
A loud man spoke out and I was walked toward his voice where he groped me. Then I was taken behind the curtain again where more medicine awaited.
“Mr. Kent, you have proven to be quite profitable tonight. I hope you like your new home.”
A coat was placed on me and I was taken outside and shoved into the back of a car. I fell asleep again. When I awoke, I was tied and being whipped. My ankles and wrists were bound as was my neck again.
“You are my slave and will do as I say, when I say.”
I couldn’t speak because I was also gagged. My medicine had worn off and I needed more. I wanted to tell him, but I couldn’t. I shook with each lash of the whip and wondered how long this torture would last. I’d soon find out it would never end. My life had ended up in a hell filled with two demons. One was a drug that I needed to survive and the other was a man who brutally beat me and derived sexual pleasure from it. There was only one way out and it was death.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
ISLA
Three months had passed since Acer’s disappearance. That was what they were calling it now. I still said it was an abduction. Art was fed up with me. I obsessed over it. I had searched every viable lead with nothing. We even analyzed the tire tracks left behind and found it had been a rental car that led nowhere.
Acer’s brother, Brax, called me daily. I had nothing to report. His parents had come to Atlanta for two months, but had gone back to Florida when we had nothing to report. We couldn’t call it a kidnapping because there had been no ransom demand.
“It’s retaliation, Art. He stole their shipment of women and whoever he stole it from decided to pay him back.”
“We’ve been through this dozens of times. I’m not saying I disagree with you. I’m saying we have nothing to go on. Whoever did this was smart enough to cover their tracks.”
“I can’t let this turn into a cold case. You and I both know if we do, Acer will never be rescued.”
Art didn’t answer. He couldn’t because he knew I was right. Cold cases hardly ever got solved. Those shows on TV made it sound like they did, but there were files upon files of them. I didn’t want Acer’s to be one of them. Every time I thought of what might have happened to him, my heart pinched in agony. He had been the innocent one in all of this. All he did was help and this was how he got paid for it.
One night, Acer’s oldest brother, Raiden, called. It had been a while since I’d spoken with him.
“Isla, it’s Raiden. I know you don’t have any news, but I want to run something by you.”
“Sure.”
“I’ve been looking at hiring a PI to search for Acer. There’s a company out of Denver that’s supposed to be top-notch. But I’d like for you to meet with them before I make my decision.”
“Yeah, I’m in. One hundred percent.”
“How soon can you get here?”
“Whenever you need me. I’m due some vacation.”
“Let me set up a time with them and I’ll let you know.”
Turned out, I flew to Denver later that week. When I arrived, Raiden and Cruze picked me up and we went directly to the offices of Wolfe Investigations. They were located downtown in a fancy high-rise.
We checked in at the security desk in the lobby and were escorted to the executive level where Drex and Gemini Wolfe, the owners of the company, met us.
After the introductions, they led us to a conference room where we opened up our discussion.
“So you want us to locate your brother. Is that right?” Drex asked.
Raiden answered, “Yeah. He’s been gone for three months now. Isla can
fill you in on all the details.”
And I did. From the beginning, when Acer drove the trailer to the day he was abducted. I gave them all the minute details. They recorded what I said and both jotted down notes as I spoke.
“This is surprising with your access to the bureau’s information,” Gemini said.
“Don’t get me started on that. It’ll open up an issue I’m not at liberty to discuss.”
“Understood.”
I was curious about them and didn’t know a whole lot, so I asked, “What can you tell me about your company?”
The handsome Drex glanced at Gemini. “We go back a ways. I started the business over ten years ago, mainly doing cybersecurity and that type of thing. But then I was called to work on a case that involved terrorism. That’s where I met Gem. We ended up getting married and joined forces. The business kept expanding and now we do just about everything. But we love working together on finding missing people. Our resolution on that up to now is one hundred percent. Simply put, we have the best team working with us.”
Gemini added, “We have the best tech equipment, bar none. Money isn’t an issue and we warn you ahead of time that we do charge premium fees.”
Raiden waved his hand. “We’re not concerned with that. We only want our brother back.”
“Then, let’s talk about that.” Drex asked for some detailed information on the night he went missing and what I’d found since then. I had so little to give him, it was embarrassing.
“Whoever abducted him, covered their tracks better than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
Drex eyed me for a second, then said, “Follow me.”
We all did and he led us into another room, one that was filled with the type of monitoring and surveillance equipment we had to beg for at the field office. Huge computer screens lined the walls, men and women were working away, and he called out to one of them. “Huff, can you pull up a live image of Atlanta, focusing on the local community college there?”
“Sure. Give me a sec.” Soon, live images filled some of the screens.
Drex asked me, “Where was the last place you said he was seen?”
I gave him that information, along with where his phone was found. Those images filled the screens too. This was impressive.
“Do you have the name of the car rental place?”
I handed Gemini the file I carried. She thumbed through it and told Huff the name of the company and the name of the driver. It came up on another screen with the date and make of the car that was rented.
“Huff, can you access those records?”
“Give me a minute.”
Drex then said, “Am I to assume we have the job?”
Raiden and Cruze both said yes at the same time.
“Good. Go ahead, Huff.”
Huff tapped on his keyboard and the rental car agency’s records popped up on the screen, with that particular rental highlighted.
“Hey, how’d you do that?” I asked.
“We have our ways.”
“Is that legal?”
No one answered, so I asked no other questions. The goal was finding Acer at this point. The longer it took, the less chance of survival he had.
“Stop, there. Zero in on that credit card,” Drex said.
We’d already done that but maybe he’d have better luck.
Huff did as Drex asked and grabbed the name off of it. Then Gemini said, “You know what to do next.”
Huff went to work, keying in who knew what. Numbers flashed on the screen in sequences so fast the human eye couldn’t keep up.
Then Gemini said, “Let’s go grab some coffee. This might take a while.”
We followed her like puppies and she asked one of the employees to bring coffee in. Then we continued on to a lush office, furnished with leather sofas and chairs that surrounded a coffee table.
“Please take a seat. Coffee should be here shortly.”
We all made ourselves comfortable and a large pot of coffee was brought in with cream and sugar to go along with it. Drex came in too and we all poured cups of coffee for ourselves.
“Huff is running a program we developed to tap into the credit card that was used to pay for the rental. No, it’s not exactly legal,” he said, glancing at me with a smirk, “but we only use it to find missing people or uncover other illegal activity. And we never disclose this information to authorities. I hope we can trust you with this.”
“By all means. At this point, I only want to find Acer.”
“I figured as much. Is there anything else you can share with us? It may be little, but could help in a big way.”
I reviewed everything in my head. I mentioned again the incidents at my house, just in case I may have missed something.
“What about your trip to New York? You didn’t find anything remarkable?” he asked.
“Other than Paulie McCutcheon’s house being completely demolished inside. Someone was after something, but we never could figure it out. We had his phone analyzed, as I said, and nothing much there either.”
“Did they check for footprints when they searched the campus?”
“Yeah and nothing. It was all asphalt or concrete, so there weren’t any impressions. The only thing they found was a syringe with traces of GHB.”
“So they knocked him out.”
“Yeah.”
“Fingerprints on the syringe?”
“Nothing.”
Drex nodded this time.
“This is why I’m worried about them closing the case. If it goes cold, that’s it.”
Huff came in and said, “We got a hit.”
We all ran after him to see what it was.
Gemini grabbed my hand. “Don’t get your hopes up yet. It usually takes several times to track in order to find the person behind the plastic because they use dummy names.”
“Right. That’s what we found initially.”
Huff pulled up a name that looked familiar. I walked over to the file and flipped through the pages. It was the same name we’d found.
“That’s the one we came up with too.”
“Just hold on a minute,” Huff said. “They always do this and I have my ways.”
I wasn’t sure how he would find the true owner of the card, but after about fifteen minutes, he did. Or at least he found a different name. “This one is probably a dummy too, but wait a sec,” he said.
This was a new world for me. The analysis guys usually did this and sent the reports to us. We ran certain things but not this. Art did some of it, but I’d never seen a program that did this.
Soon, another name popped up. “Aiden O’Brien.” It was Huff speaking again. “Drex, isn’t he part of the old Irish mob?”
How the fuck did he know that when I didn’t?
“Yeah, and his hands are dirty as hell. That mob supposedly disbanded years ago, but the rumor mill ran that it was still around. Aiden was into everything and anything that was not good and so was his brother, Danny.”
I stepped closer to the screen so I wouldn’t forget his name. “Is it possible he’s involved with human trafficking?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me to hear he was involved with that, dirty bombs, you name it. The guy’s name is associated with nothing but the worst.”
Raiden had walked next to me by now. “What does your gut say, Isla?”
“Nothing good. If someone like this has Acer, I can’t imagine what he wants with him. Me? Yes, because I kept digging into the files, but not Acer. He doesn’t know a thing.”
Gemini spoke up. “Let’s take this back to the conference room. Huff, can you up the search for anyone associated with Aiden or Danny O’Brien?”
“Yeah, but I’m out of here for now. It may have already triggered an alert somewhere.”
“Fine. Crash the search. We can pick it up somewhere else.”
Our group moved back to the conference room where more coffee and other beverages waited. I poured another cup and added cream and sugar. Everyone e
lse made their own.
Drex took a seat and said, “So we know Paulie contacted Acer. Acer went after the shipment. He stopped to check the contents. When he tried to call Paulie later, he got no answer. That’s when the feds came onto the scene. Correct?”
“Yeah, and we never did speak with McCutcheon. Acer and I went up there but that’s when we found his house in complete shambles, and were chased. Shots were fired at us and we fired back. Once in the clear, we went back to the airport and Atlanta.”
“That’s what I have in my notes,” Gemini said. “O’Brien must’ve had a team on the place.”
“When we got back, we found there was an undercover op taking place.”
Drex and Gemini zeroed in on me. “Okay, this is new information,” Drex said.
“Yeah, that was the can of worms I referred to earlier. But what the hell. We went hunting for information and my boss poked his nose where it shouldn’t have been and was told it was an undercover op and to steer clear.”
“So they wouldn’t share at all?” Raiden wanted to know.
“Not one single bit. They were very protective of their men. Then I dug in and kept hitting dead ends. So I came to the conclusion there was someone dirty in our office. I had a flash drive filled with my useless research and handed it off to Art. He told me to say nothing of this. I feared for my safety, so I listened. For once.”
Drex squinted. “Do you trust Art?”
“Yeah. Well, at least I did before today. With this information, it has me wondering why Art didn’t have it.”
Gemini, who was sitting next to me, said, “The FBI is limited by what they can and can’t do. If Art’s superior doesn’t want him sticking his nose somewhere, his hands are tied. He may be a good guy. The problem is, right now it’s too dangerous to put your trust in anyone.”
“I can see that. What will I do when I go back to work?”
“Is there any way you can take a leave of absence and work with us on this?” It was Drex who asked. I was flattered that someone in his line of business was interested in having me come in here to help.
“I honestly wish I could, but I have a house to pay for and other expenses. If I go out on leave, it’s unpaid and then I’m screwed financially.”