Hunted: A Suspense Collection

by J. L. Drake

  After making the appropriate notes, he read the missing person report. It appeared the report was filed more than 24 hours after the man was suspected to be missing. He found this curious, since he was looking for cases reported in less time. He figured he’d gotten the flag on his search for the man because he’d gone missing from a bar and he wasn’t normally out of contact with his family.

  He’d just closed the file and was sitting back to think about what he’d read and process it when the door to the interrogation room opened and Detective Jones entered with another woman. She was an average pretty, with shoulder length hair. She had dark circles under her puffy red eyes.

  “Jan Housen, Bill Housen’s wife, FBI Agent David McCoy from Los Angeles,” Detective Jones said, introducing them.

  “Thank you for coming in,” David said, extending his hand as he stood. He felt the tremor in hers as their hands met briefly. “I know this is hard for you, but the more information we gather, the better chance we have of discovering what has happened to your husband. Please, have a seat.” He motioned to the empty chair across from him and sat again once she was seated.

  “Do you mind if we record the interview, ma’am?” Detective Jones asked.

  “No, no,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ears. “I don’t mind at all—anything you need to find my husband.”

  “Let’s get started then…” David said, opening the file in front of him once more after Detective Jones let him know they were recording. “Why did it take you so long to report your husband missing? It said in your report he wasn’t usually out of contact with your family and yet it took you over 24 hours to file the report…”

  Jan looked down at her hands, which she had knotted in her lap. “He traveled a lot for work, and I didn’t want to look silly reporting him missing if he’d been working…or if he’d decided to leave me.”

  David raised an eyebrow in question, looking up from the file.

  “Why would you think he left you? Were you having marital issues?”

  “No…” she said. “Not really. We’ve just been married a long time and don’t have much time for each other sometimes. I guess it’s just one of my personal insecurities.”

  “Ah, I see,” he said. “Was it common for him to be at the bar where his car was found?”

  “I don’t know…” Jan said, wringing her hands and looking around. “If he was having a business meeting there, maybe.”

  “Were any of his work colleagues there with him?” he asked, hoping so. He could possibly get a description of the woman if someone Jan knew had been there when she’d made contact.

  “Not that I know of,” Jan answered, frowning. “I hadn’t thought to ask. If he was having a meeting, it could have been with a potential client, but that doesn’t mean there would be a record anywhere.”

  “Has your husband ever cheated on you? Had an affair…could he have been meeting with a woman at the bar?” David asked, pushing her because he suspected she knew more than she was letting on.

  Tears filled Jan’s eyes and she answered in a whisper. “I suppose he could have been. I really don’t know.”

  David sighed and sat back in his chair. “Is there anything you can think of that might help us in the case that you haven’t shared already? Anything? The smallest of details could be useful.”

  Jan shook her head and tears rolled down her cheeks. She swiped them away.

  “Okay, then that’s all we need from you today,” he said, standing. “Thank you again for coming in.”

  “No problem,” Jan said, standing. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure,” he said, sliding his hands into his pants pockets and looking her in the eye, curious.

  “Why did my husband’s report get noticed by the FBI?”

  He sighed. “Unfortunately, I’m looking for a group of people I believe to be kidnapping people across the US. Aspects of your report match some of the other cases I’m working on.”

  Jan thought for a moment, glancing down at her hands before looking up at him again.

  “Have you found anyone from those other cases?” she asked in a shaky voice.

  David’s jaw clenched, knowing she wasn’t going to like the answer, but he wanted to be honest with her and not give her false hope.

  “No,” he said. “No one has yet been found.”

  “Oh,” she sighed.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know it’s scary and it hurts, but I wanted to be straight with you.”

  Jan nodded.

  “Do you have any more questions?” he asked, hoping she didn’t.

  “Why do you think they’re doing it? Taking people, I mean,” she asked.

  “As far as I can tell right now it’s for some kind of profit—I haven’t quite figured out what kind yet, so I can’t give you a better answer. The victims seem random, with no real connections other than they are missing.”

  “Thank you for answering my questions,” she said.

  “No problem,” he said, glancing over at Detective Jones, who’d been silent during the exchange.

  “Let me show you out,” she said, stepping forward to take Jan’s arm.

  “Thank you,” Jan said, and sniffled, swiping at the tears now streaming down her face.

  David sat back down and thought about what he’d just gotten from Jan, which was precious little. But it was enough to make him suspicious of Bill’s motives for being in the bar. If he’d been there alone, and he wasn’t completely happy at home, he might have left the bar with another woman. Even if he’d just stopped there to meet a client, he wondered if a man who’d been married for some time would still be an easy pick up for an attractive woman.

  It was plausible this case was connected to the other cases he was looking into.

  “I think you could have handled that better,” Detective Jones scolded from the door as she re-entered. “She was bawling all over herself. Did you have to tell her you haven’t found any of the people? You could have been vague and given her some hope. Damn!”

  David looked at the angry face of the detective in front of him.

  “Sometimes giving someone hope where there is none is harsher than telling the truth up front,” he said calmly. “She needs to look after her family and she doesn’t need to be fed bullshit.” He couldn’t help but think of his mother and how he should call her as he defended his actions. He felt like a hypocrite. “Sometimes families need the truth to move on.” No one knew that better than him. He was stuck in life until he had closure for his own loss.

  Chapter 28

  When Sonya awoke again it was a little after one o’clock in the afternoon and sunlight was forcing its way through the drawn blinds on her bedroom windows. She yawned and stretched, feeling relaxed and lethargic. Parts of her body still ached from Lloyd’s attention. She smiled thinking about him and what he’d done to her.

  She curled back up and let her eyes drift shut. She was no longer tired, but she was comfortable and didn’t want to move.

  Her cell phone rang, ripping her out of her lazy cocoon.

  “Shit!” she exclaimed, sitting up and blinking, trying to figure out where her phone was. After looking under the blankets and a couple of pillows, she finally found it.

  “Hello?” she answered. “Oh, hi, Jan. Did you get my message from earlier?”

  “I got it…” Jan said. “Could we meet somewhere for lunch?”

  “Yes, I can meet you—give me twenty minutes.”

  “Where do you want to eat? Will the same place as last time work?”

  Sonya threw back her covers and crawled out of bed.

  “Sure, the same place works for me—see you there,” she said, and ended the call as she darted out of her bedroom, down the hall, and into the bathroom to pee. She sighed as she sat on the toilet and found relief for her full bladder.

  Her phone chirped and vibrated from where she’d tossed it down on the counter a moment before.

  “Why can’t people just lea
ve me alone?” she complained.

  Jennings: What have you found out about the FBI?

  Sonya: Nothing yet. Meeting for lunch.

  She finished on the toilet and decided to take a quick shower. She knew the restaurant was only five minutes from her house, so she had fifteen minutes to burn showering and getting dressed.

  She stepped into the shower and adjusted the knobs to make the spray very hot. She wondered about what Jan would tell her while she washed her hair and then her body, and in her detached state of mind her shower took less than five minutes before she was out and toweling off.

  The meeting with Jan was making her nervous. The woman had seemed upset, but calm, on the phone. Sonya didn’t know if that was because they’d found something out, or because they’d decided on a decisive plan of attack to find Bill. She was hoping it was the latter.

  Sighing, she hung up the towel and headed to her room to get dressed.

  She was dressed, ready to go, and out the door in record time and just made it to the restaurant as Jan was climbing out of her car.

  She smiled at Sonya while standing on the sidewalk in front of the building.

  Sonya noticed the other woman’s face was pale and there were dark circles under her eyes. She also couldn’t help but see that she was fidgeting nervously and looking around herself in a paranoid manner.

  Climbing out of her car, she smiled warmly and slammed the door before jogging up to the curb. She didn’t say anything, but wrapped her arms around Jan and felt the woman shivering. She pulled back and frowned at her.

  “Are you all right? You’re shaking…”

  Jan nodded as tears sprang to her eyes; her lips quivered as she tried to speak.

  “Let’s go inside and sit down, then you can tell me all about it,” Sonya said, steering Jan toward the door with her arm still around her. She couldn’t help but wonder why the woman hadn’t wanted to meet at her home where she’d be more comfortable and her grief wouldn’t be as public.

  “Sit down,” Sonya said, helping Jan into the booth, and then sitting across from her. “Tell me what’s wrong. What did you find out at the meeting?”

  “The FBI…” Jan started, and burst out crying, sobbing violently.

  Sonya pulled a paper napkin from a dispenser on the table, handed it to the woman, and looked around. People were staring. She didn’t need this kind of attention, especially with someone she and her coworkers planned to kidnap and kill soon.

  Figuring her best bet was to try and calm Jan down, she leaned over the table and touched the woman’s arms, rubbing them slightly.

  “You need to calm down,” she said. “Do you want a drink or anything?”

  Jan shook her head, gasped in a breath, and hiccupped out, “I don’t drink.”

  “I think we could make an exception this time,” Sonya said with a smile, “but I won’t force you. Just take deep breaths and read over the menu a couple of minutes—then we’ll talk.” She picked up one of the laminated folders the hostess had left behind and handed it to Jan.

  Jan took it in a shaking hand, fumbled it open, and started to read the words on the page.

  Sonya could tell by the way Jan’s eyes were darting back and forth that she wasn’t processing anything her brain was seeing, but she left her be, looking over her own menu. She was starving, not having eaten all day, and everything looked good to her.

  They were both engrossed in their thoughts and menus when a waitress approached and asked, “What can I getcha?”

  Jan visibly jumped, startled by the sudden interruption, but Sonya merely looked up into the face of the middle-aged woman who was holding a pen and pad at the ready.

  She glanced from the waitress, over to Jan.

  “Do you know what you’re getting?”

  Jan shook her head and looked at the menu like it was the first time she’d ever seen it.

  “I’ll order for both of us, okay?” Sonya asked, pulling the menu from Jan’s hands.

  Jan smiled, nodded, and sighed with obvious relief.

  Sonya ordered for them both, figuring Jan probably wouldn’t eat much anyway.

  “Are you calmer now?” Sonya asked when the waitress left.

  Jan smiled ruefully. “Yes, I’m better,” she said. “I guess I just needed a few minutes to let my brain slow down. I was pretty near panicked when I arrived.”

  “You didn’t seem that upset when you called me,” Sonya said, frowning. “Did something else happen?”

  “No…” Jan said, shaking her head. “I was still at the precinct and there were people all around. It wasn’t until I was alone and on my way here that everything finally started to sink in.”

  “What did you find out?” Sonya asked, smiling at the waitress as she brought their drinks—she’d ordered them both lemonade.

  Jan took a sip of hers and smiled.

  “Good choice,” she said, setting her glass back down. “The FBI agent who came to talk to me seemed to believe that Bill was taken by the people he’s tracking.”

  “Whoa!” Sonya exclaimed, sitting forward. “What kind of people?”

  “He didn’t say, but apparently they’re important enough to have searches set up in their system for similar cases,” Jan said.

  “So, they really think Bill was taken by these…people?” Sonya asked.

  Outside she seemed calm and friendly, but inside her blood ran cold. Knowing the FBI was in the area looking for them didn’t sit well with her—they’d never been this close before. Being here with Jan was even worse, because if they had a tail on her for some reason—just in case—then them being seen together was going to be noted.

  Jan nodded and tears sprang to her eyes again.

  “They said that none of the people in the cases had ever been found—that’s basically like saying Bill should be considered dead.” She shook her head and closed her eyes for a moment. “At least I might get a death certificate…if they can catch these people.”

  Sonya nodded. “What are they planning to do? Did they say? Do they have any idea who these ‘people’ are?”

  Jan shook her head no. “They don’t know who the people are, or what they’re doing with the people they kidnap. The FBI agent only said they suspected it was for some kind of profit.”

  Before Sonya could respond their food arrived and there was a break in the conversation. They decided who was going to eat what, since she’d ordered two things that sounded good to her, and started eating.

  “Are you still planning on moving?” Sonya asked, changing the subject while cutting her grilled chicken breast.

  Jan sighed. “Yeah, we’re going to have to. I just made a house payment—which still leaves us five months behind—and, with paying a deposit and the first month’s rent on a new place, I’ll be about broke.”

  Sonya nodded and swallowed her bite of food.

  “You’ll have to find a job…fast,” she said.

  “I know,” Jan said, frowning. “I need to find somewhere to live first, but I’ll get my resume typed up so I can look soon. I just wish we knew what was going on. If Bill’s alive, we need to know. If he’s dead, I need to know that too. It could save us all this hassle.”

  “I’m sorry,” Sonya said, reaching across the table and squeezing Jan’s hand. “If you need anything…let me know. I can help you move, if you want. My cousins own a moving company. They have a truck and everything and will come and move your stuff for you. I bet I can even get you a discount.” She hoped inwardly that Jennings was able to get a moving truck and hire Butch.

  “Oh,” Jan said, “that would be great! I haven’t even thought that far ahead yet. There’s just so much going on that my brain is overloaded. I’ll let you know soon about the moving help.”

  “Okay,” Sonya said. “Don’t be afraid to call me anytime if you need something.”

  Jan smiled, and more tears slid down her face.

  “You’re such a great friend,” she gushed. “I’m so glad I met you. I don’t kn
ow what I would do if I had to handle this all alone.”

  Sonya smiled and squeezed Jan’s hand again before she resumed eating. Her brain was overloaded too, making plans. They needed to avoid the FBI, harvest the family, and deal with Jennings―none were going to be easy tasks. But the sooner they pulled off the harvest, the sooner they could get out of town and away from the FBI.

  Her fingers itched to text Lloyd and tell him what was going on, but she’d forgotten her cell phone in the car.

  Throughout the meal, Jan prattled on about her woes and Sonya listened, intent on every detail because she knew her livelihood and life could depend on it.

  At the same time, she was thinking about the meeting later that evening and if she should stay away, but decided that was probably overkill since the FBI had just arrived and didn’t have much in the way of an investigation on Bill done yet. They had a week maximum to get things decided and done. Otherwise they risked a lot more than any of them wanted to.

  Finally the meal was over and they parted ways. As soon as Sonya climbed into her car, her hand went for her cell phone.

  She texted Lloyd.

  Sonya: The FBI is here already.

  In her anxious state, she didn’t sit and wait for a reply, but backed out of her parking space and looked around her like federal agents were waiting behind every car to ambush her.

  When she pulled out of the parking lot, she turned the opposite direction from where she lived, and drove around town for a half hour to make sure she wasn’t being followed. Once she felt safe, she headed back to her house. She was almost there when Lloyd texted her back.