Hunted: A Suspense Collection

by J. L. Drake

  Smirking about how ironic is was to be cleaning what she’d used to lure the man to his death to trick his wife into trusting her, she headed out to the garage, hung her dress in the back seat—on the fold down hook by the window—and settled herself behind the wheel. She backed out and sat in the driveway for a few moments, checking for messages on her phone while her garage door closed.

  The drive to the dry cleaners was a short one, taking only ten minutes. Sonya parked in the far corner of the parking lot where she had a good view of the door to the small rectangular building, and she waited.

  To keep herself from getting too bored, she responded to the text messages she hadn’t answered before she’d left the house—most were from Roger and Lloyd.

  After only a few minutes, a car pulled into the parking lot and a woman climbed out. Sonya was in the middle of sending a response to Lloyd and glanced up. Noticing that the license plate on the car matched the one on the paper, she threw her phone down into the passenger seat and quickly climbed out of her car. She made it halfway to the building in her rush and had to turn back and run to the car to get the dress she’d brought. By the time she finally made it to the door, the woman was coming out with an armload of clothing. They collided.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry,” Sonya said, pretending to be upset, but was happy it had happened that way; she was relieved she didn’t have to think something up to start a conversation. “I should watch where I’m going.”

  The woman nodded and bent down to pick up a man’s dress shirt she’d dropped and stood again.

  “Are you okay?” Sonya asked, frowning when the woman didn’t look at her or say anything; she put her hand on the woman’s shoulder and felt a shudder.

  The woman glanced up at Sonya nervously.

  “I’m okay,” she said, and burst into tears.

  “No, you’re not,” Sonya said. “I’m really sorry I bumped you. Did I hurt you? Or is something else bothering you?”

  The woman shrugged. “I’m having a very bad day. Don’t worry about it…”

  She sniffled again and turned toward her car, but the plastic sheeting on her clothes got caught on the door frame and pulled the entire bundle out of her arms as she tried to leave.

  “Damn it!” the woman exclaimed.

  Sonya bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.

  “Let me help you,” she said, throwing her dress over her arm and picking up half of the mess.

  The woman reached forward and tried to take the bundle from Sonya, but she shook her head and laughed gently.

  “I’ll help you get these to your car,” Sonya said. “They seem bound and determined to do you in.”

  The woman laughed and finally took a real look at Sonya.

  “Thank you,” she said, smiling.

  “Which car?” Sonya asked, looking around the parking lot the dry cleaners shared with a sub shop and a small appliance rental store, pretending she had no idea which vehicle the woman had arrived in.

  “That one,” the woman said, pointing to a light green sedan. “I’m sorry about all this.”

  Sonya laughed, following the woman as she led the way to her car.

  “Nonsense! I bumped into you in the first place.”

  “Really…it’s not your fault,” the woman said, opening the trunk of her car with a push button remote.

  Sonya handed the woman the bundle of clothing when she reached for them.

  “If you don’t mind me asking…what’s wrong?” Sonya asked.

  “I don’t want to bother you,” the woman said, stuffing the clothes into the trunk and shutting it. “What’s going on with me isn’t your problem.”

  Sonya smiled and stepped forward, taking one of the woman’s hands in her own, squeezing.

  “You look like you could use a friend, and I don’t have anywhere I have to be. Why don’t we have lunch and you can talk? I’ll buy! After all, what’s better than telling your troubles to a stranger? I mean, it’s not like I’ll go and tell all your friends.”

  The woman smiled tentatively, sniffed, wiped away tears, and nodded with a shrug.

  “Okay,” she said. “I’m Jan.”

  Sonya thought about giving the woman another name, but decided to stick with the one she was currently using.

  “Sonya,” she said, and smiled. “Nice to meet you, Jan. Where would you like to eat?”

  They stood and discussed food for a couple of minutes and agreed on a restaurant, planning to meet there after Sonya took her dress inside and dropped it off. She thought about not bothering, now that she’d accomplished what she’d set out to do, but did it anyway, just to make sure things didn’t seem “weird” to Jan.

  ***

  The restaurant they’d chosen was practically deserted, since it wasn’t quite lunch time yet. The women were shown to a booth and left with menus; Sonya waited until after they’d ordered their meals before she pressed Jan about why she was upset.

  “Now, spill, woman,” Sonya said encouragingly. “Get it all off your chest. I promise you’ll feel better.”

  Jan took a deep breath and tucked her shoulder length, straight brown hair behind her ear.

  “My husband has gone missing,” she said, and her eyes welled up with tears.

  “Gone missing?” Sonya asked.

  Jan nodded and looked down at her hands, which she had clasped together in her lap.

  “He never came home from work one night…after a late meeting. It’s been a couple days and I haven’t heard from him. He doesn’t return any of my calls…”

  “Do you think something happened to him?” Sonya asked. “Or do you think he left you?”

  Jan shook her head and covered her mouth with her hand as tears flowed freely down her cheeks.

  “I…I don’t know,” she muttered, and covered her face with her hands.

  Sonya frowned and looked Jan over. She was average height and pretty. She wasn’t skinny, but wasn’t overweight either. Bill could have done worse, and she was sure Jan could have done better.

  “Did you report him missing to the police?” Sonya asked.

  “What?” Jan asked, jerking her hands away from her face, looking at Sonya. “Report him missing? Involve the police?”

  “Isn’t that what you normally do when you think someone has gone missing?”

  “Yes, I suppose,” Jan said slowly, wiping her face with a paper napkin, sniffling. “It’s just…”

  Sonya waited with her eyebrows raised for Jan to continue.

  “It’s just that I would feel stupid reporting him missing just to find out he’d left me,” Jan finally blurted.

  “I see,” Sonya said. “Has he ever cheated? Don’t you two get along?”

  Jan shrugged. “We get along just fine most of the time. I don’t know if he has cheated, but I’ve been suspecting it for a long time.”

  “Hmm…sounds complicated. You two have children?”

  “Yes,” Jan said, “and that makes it worse. What if he did leave, and I drag the police into it, thinking he’s missing? I would put the kids through all that drama. What kind of mother would that make me?”

  A waitress brought their food over and set the plates down on the table.

  “Enjoy,” she said cheerfully and walked away to take someone else’s order.

  “I think you should at least call the police and report him missing,” Sonya said, picking up her fork and digging into her food. “Or, you could call the local hospitals and see if anyone close to his description has been admitted—that’s the first place the police would check anyhow.”

  Jan thought for a moment and then said, “That’s a really good idea. Thank you!”

  “No problem,” Sonya said, shoveling a bite of salad into her mouth.

  “How do you know that’s what they do first?” Jan asked, picking up her fork and forcing herself to show interest in the food in front of her. “Checking the hospitals, I mean.”

  Sonya swallowed her bite of food and said, “Be
cause I’m a nurse and work at one. The police call all the time about missing persons.”

  “You’re a nurse? I always wanted to be a nurse, but we started having kids right away and I never got the chance to finish school.”

  “You aren’t missing much. Nursing is a grueling job, especially when you’re a traveling nurse and work with new people all the time.”

  “So is being a mother,” Jan said. “What’s a traveling nurse? I’ve never heard of that job. It sounds like it could have its benefits.”

  “In a nutshell, you take short term jobs at different hospitals that need nurses,” Sonya said. “They pay for your travel, housing, etcetera, and you get to move around and see the country.”

  Jan sighed. “Now I really wish I would have gone to school to be a nurse. But I wouldn’t change having my children for anything.” She shrugged. “Life’s a tradeoff, I guess.”

  “Yeah, it is,” Sonya said, taking another bite of food and chewing thoughtfully. “Has his work called? Asking why he hasn’t been there?”

  “What?” Jan asked, swallowing her food and taking a sip of her drink. “Oh! You mean, has Bill’s office called? No, they haven’t called. He owns the company and sometimes takes time off without telling people, or travels for work—sales and stuff.”

  Sonya nodded slowly. “Then how do you know he’s missing at all?”

  Jan frowned and waited until she’d finished chewing the bite of food she’d just taken before replying.

  “He always tells me,” she said. “He’s never not told me. Bill has always been concerned with the kids, especially our son. He’s the youngest and a diabetic.”

  Sonya nodded. “I can see why he’d be eager to keep in touch.”

  “Nothing’s making sense…” Jan said, pushing her food around with her fork, staring down at her plate like it had all the answers. She sighed heavily. “My gut tells me something is wrong, that something happened to him.”

  “I think you should trust your gut,” Sonya said. “You’re his wife. If anyone would be able to sense something was off, it would be you.”

  Jan laughed. “True. I have been with the man for a long time.”

  “How long have you two been married?” Sonya asked.

  “Eleven years.”

  “That’s a long time—congratulations!” Sonya said.

  Jan sighed and started eating again, looking around the restaurant.

  “Thanks for this,” she said, glancing at Sonya. “You were right…I feel better having talked about what was on my mind. I don’t have any friends who live close-by. We moved here last year, after Bill decided to open his own business. There was more of a demand here than where we used to live.”

  “What does Bill do?” Sonya asked.

  “He’s a computer programmer. He writes business specific software for companies with custom systems.”

  “That sounds complicated,” Sonya said. “I bet he spends a lot of time at work.”

  “He does,” Jan said with a sigh. “That’s why I’m so lost right now. I’ve never had him go silent on me. We’ve always talked at least a couple times a day.”

  If he was as attached to you as you think, why was he in the bar that night? Sonya wondered as she ate.

  They kept chatting until the meal was over. Before separating, they hugged and exchanged cell phone numbers with Jan promising to let Sonya know what she found out about Bill.

  ***

  On her way home, Sonya called Jennings.

  “I made contact with the woman—Jan,” Sonya said before he could say more than hello.

  “I’m proud of you,” Jennings said.

  She rolled her eyes.

  “They’re his kids and she thinks Bill has gone missing or left her,” Sonya informed him. “Their youngest son has diabetes.”

  “That’s great! The diabetes won’t be an issue—the organs can still be used. Now I can figure up how much we’ll make off the family.”

  She sighed. “By the way, I got her phone number and found out she doesn’t have any close friends.”

  “Good,” he said. “Next time you talk to her, help her find out Bill’s missing.”

  “You want me to do what?” she screamed into the phone. “Wouldn’t it be easier to leave her clueless about the situation so the family doesn’t suffer?”

  “No, it will help you gain more of her trust.”

  “Okay, fine,” Sonya snapped. “I have to go…I’m driving and almost home. I’ll talk to you later.”

  She didn’t really have to go, but she didn’t want to talk to Jennings anymore. She ended the call and pressed the number on her phone that would speed dial Lloyd. He answered on the first ring.

  “Hello, babe,” he said in a low, sexy voice.

  She smiled sweetly. “Can I add someone to the list?”

  “Who made you mad now?” he asked with a laugh.

  “Jennings,” she said.

  “I thought he was already on the list…”

  “Well,” she said, almost snarling, “he has really pissed me off now.”

  “Okay, I get it,” he said, still chuckling.

  “I have another request,” she said cheerfully.

  “What would you like? I live to serve,” he teased, trying to lighten her mood.

  “I want to bring Roger in on it,” she said.

  Chapter 15

  Before heading to the airport, Agent David McCoy checked over what he’d packed one last time. He wanted to make sure he wasn’t forgetting anything important. When he was satisfied he had everything he needed, he sat down in his recliner and turned the TV on. He was well-versed in the new case files he’d be looking into, so he didn’t need to study them. He knew he’d probably read them again on the plane anyway. What he needed right then was a distraction to calm his nerves. He was nervous with excitement. While he was glad he had a lead and the go ahead to investigate it further, he was scared of what he might find…and that he was somehow missing something. His theory of human traffickers kidnapping adults still seemed…off to him.

  At first, David didn’t pay much attention to the TV. He’d turned it on to be a distraction from his thoughts, but it was only mildly working. The programming that happened to be on the screen was a talk show where they were interviewing a doctor about organ transplants. He had no reason to be interested in being a transplant patient, so he picked up the remote from the coffee table.

  Just as he was about to press the button on the remote, something the mother of one of the young transplant patients said caught his attention. She was in tears, talking about what a struggle it had been to be on the transplant list for so long while she’d watched her child suffer…then, finally, their miracle had arrived in the form of a heart for her small son. He’d apparently had a birth defect and, despite many surgeries, it was something that couldn’t be resolved. Without the heart, her son would have had mere months to live. The arrival of the heart at just the right time had saved him.

  They cut back to the doctor and he started talking about how people got on the transplant list and what the statistics and death rate of those on the list were. Apparently someone was added to the transplant list about every ten minutes and twenty-something people died every day that were on that list. He then went into explaining how long organs could survive outside the human body in expert hands and how important it was to become an organ donor: one person could save up to eight lives in optimal situations.

  He went on to explain how there were over one hundred thousand people waiting for life saving organs, despite the almost twenty thousand lifesaving operations done each year.

  David was mesmerized by the stories of successes and failures of such families on the show. He felt compelled to go to the website displayed at the bottom of the screen and put himself on the donor list. He felt that if something happened to him in the line of duty, he would want to save as many lives as possible. He also couldn’t help but feel that Daniel, with his study and love of helping people t
hrough medicine, would want him to do so.

  As soon as he thought of Daniel, his wishes, and wanting to save lives…an idea hit his brain like lightning. The thought was so strong it was painful.

  No bodies had been found for any of the cases…

  Over a hundred thousand people were waiting for organs to be donated…

  The death of one person could save eight lives…

  And just as he was thinking that organs would be valuable to the families in transplant need situations, one of the other parents on the show half-joked they would have paid anything to get the organ that had saved their child’s life while hugging said child close.

  David couldn’t help but wonder if the lack of bodies meant something more significant than mere kidnapping. He couldn’t help but wonder if they weren’t finding anything because there wasn’t anything left to find.

  It made complete sense to him. Way more sense than adult human trafficking. The kidnappers had to be taking people to harvest their organs and sell them on the black market.

  In a frenzy, he got up from his chair and retrieved his laptop from its carry bag beside his suitcase by the door. He went online to the websites the show provided and started doing research into what parts could be transplanted and how long they were viable—he couldn’t remember everything the doctor had said.

  While he was at it, he also looked into what laws were set in place as far as organs and medical procedures. What he found was the National Transplant Act of 1984. He was almost shocked to find out that before the government had stepped in to research the issues of organ harvesting and medical practices that human organ sales had been ready to go commercial in the United States. The rights to dead bodies and their use for medical purposes had fallen under a very gray cloud for a while.

  He also learned that this wasn’t something new. As early as 1828 two men, known as Burke and Hare, had killed people to make money off selling the bodies of their victims for medical research in Ireland. Apparently, murder for body parts was an age-old crime.