by Mary Peart
“I thought you said we had nothing to worry about.”
“I thought so too.” Brent clasped his hands in front of him and wondered what on earth he had gotten himself into.
“I will deal with it. Why don’t you go back to your tidy office and try and look as if you are in charge?” the man told him mildly.
“What are you going to do?” Brent knew he was not feeling panicked for no reason.
“Leave it to me and stop worrying. It will work out. You trust me don’t you?”
Not within an inch of my life, Brent thought to himself. “Of course.” He said forcing a smile.
“Good now get out of here and pray that you were not followed.”
Chapter 12
He had not taken into account how desperate the person behind the whole set up would get when cornered and how far he would go to secure what he had started. It was the second week since the children had gone to camp and he had told Sophia that with the house empty, the children gone they were free to make love in all the rooms without fear of being interrupted.
Sophia had called him and told him that she was just going to the bookstore to see her mother and she would see him later at the house. He had made to tell her to let Carlos drive her but he had stopped himself.
She had left after four and he had spoken to her on the way there, telling her that he felt like eating out tonight so he was going to make reservations.
It was almost five o’clock when Sybil called him. “I thought Sophia was coming by me Christopher.”
His heart stopped and for the first time in his life he felt real fear raced through him. “Have you called her cell?” he was thinking that maybe she had a flat on her way there.
“It went straight to voicemail.”
“Sybil do me a favor and look out front if her car is there?” he strove to make his voice sound casual.
“What’s going on Christopher?”
“Please do as I say.”
It did not take long for her to come back to the phone. “Her car is out front and the door is opened but there is no sign of her.”
“I will be right over.”
He dialed Marcus. “They have my wife. Where is Glover?”
“He has not left his office since lunch. You think they took her to the warehouse I went to?”
“I don’t think they are that stupid.” His tone was grim. He was trying not to think of what they were doing to her and what he was going to do to them when he caught them.
“Her car is parked up over her mother’s bookstore with the door still open. I think they grabbed her as soon as she came out.”
“Are you going to call the cops?”
“I have to but we are going to be in charge.”
*****
Sophia came to slowly. She opened her eyes to total darkness and the memories flooded back. She had just gotten out of the car and was reaching for her purse when she felt powerful hands putting a cloth of heavy smelling chloroform over her nose and she had passed out without a fight.
Now she was in some sort of a darkened room and with no idea where she was. She was lying on some sort of a cot with nothing else inside the room. She blinked as the door opened and let in some light from the next room and a tall powerful black man walked in.
“Ah Mrs. Tang you are awake.” He left the door open obviously having no fear of her trying to escape.
“Where am I?” she asked him coolly, willing herself not to show one ounce of fear. She was not going to give him the satisfaction.
“That’s not important right now,” his voice was smooth as if they were passing the time of day. “I want you to be as comfortable as can be but that depends on how much your husband cooperates.”
Sophia felt the quickening of fear inside her. “What do you want?”
“Let me see,” he tapped a finger against his lips as if pondering her question. “I want a slice of your husband’s wealth and to be left alone while I enjoy it. I am sure you will agree with me that that is not unreasonable.”
“You want money?”
“Of course, what do you think makes the world go around.” He looked at her in surprise. “I have been making a comfortable living from the pharmaceutical company your husband owns but now he is planning on messing with all that and I cannot afford that.” She jumped as he pulled out a lethal looking dagger from his waist. “Oh relax Mrs. Tang I have no intention of using it unless I have to. Let’s hope I do not have to.”
“Please,” she found herself begging, her heart quaking in fear. “My husband will pay any amount to get me back, we have children.”
“I know,” he said nodding his shiny bald head. “Three very adorable children. I thought about taking one of them at first or maybe all three but I decided against it. I have seen you with your husband Mrs. Tang and know that above everything else you are his Achilles heel so I think I made the right choice.” He stood up gracefully in spite of his height and girt and stood there looking down at her. “I will bring you something to drink later on. We have a show to make.”
*****
Christopher refused to allow his fear and rage to get in the way of logical thinking. He had called the police and although it was standard procedure to wait until forty eight hours before reporting someone missing they had made an exception. He had told them to be discreet but he knew that somehow it will soon be leaked to the press. He had put his men on duty and had doubled up security at the school where the kids were camping.
Sybil had left the bookstore to ride with him as he went back to the office. “How did this happen?” she had asked him agitated as they made their way back to his office.
He thought about telling her a lie but decided against it. He told her about the trouble at the pharmaceutical company and the man in charge. Brent Glover had been taken in for questioning but apart from giving a description about the man he had no idea of his name or where he lived aside from the warehouse he had which had been cleaned out and abandoned. “Oh God what are they going to do to her Christopher?”
“Nothing,” he said tersely. “As long as I play ball.”
“You are expecting a call?”
“I am,” he forced himself to relax as he pulled the car to a stop in front of the office building. The police had already been in to question him and he had answered the questions the best way he knew how but he had every intention of finding Sophia himself and dealing with whoever took her. If they hurt her… he did not want to think about it because he would have no problem killing anyone who hurt a hair on her head.
It was almost six and most of the workers had already gone home. He nodded as the security jumped to attention when he came in. Sybil noticed the authority he commanded as soon as he stepped inside the towering glass building and realized not for the first time how powerful he was. His secretary was still in her office along with Amelia, Sophia’s assistant. The girl looked like she was close to tears. He stopped and looked at her in surprise. “Go home there is nothing you can do here.” He told her brusquely.
“I can’t,” she said her lips trembling. “I have to find out if she is okay first.”
Sybil moved past him to take the girl’s hand and led her to one of the comfortable chairs in the corner and sat with her.
“Some detectives are in your office Christopher,” Tiffany told him, her voice coolly professional masking her anxiety.
“Thanks Tiffany.” Without another word he went into his office and closed his door behind him.
“If I did not know any better I would say he did not care,” Amelia whispered, her hands clasped tightly in front of her.
“But you know better.” Sybil told her. “Sophia and her children are his weakness and there is nothing he would not do to make sure they are safe. If anyone can get my daughter back safe it is her husband.”
*****
“Detectives any news?” he walked straight over to the well stocked liquor cabinet and picking up a decanter he poured himself some scotch
. “I would offer you some but I know you are on duty.” He turned back to them and knocked back the liquid in one gulp.
The lead detective, Don Carmichael thought he was one cold son of a bitch. He had seen his pictures in the papers and on the internet many times and knew the vast amount of wealth he man had amassed and the companies he owned and knew he was a force to be reckoned with. He had also seen the family together in pictures and knew he treasured them beyond anything else. That was what was worrying him. The man had the means to put an entire team on the task of looking for his wife and getting in their way. He had said as much to his partner, Michael Hamilton and the man had told him that was what he expected. “This is the man’s wife we are talking about after all.”
“No thank you, we are good. We have set up a tracer here and at your home where we have a team there ready as soon as he calls with his demands. We would like to set up one on your cell phone as well.”
Christopher looked at him gauging his thoughts easily. “You are worried that I am going to take matters into my own hands?”
Carmichael shifted his feet a little bit and looked away from the man’s piercing gaze. “We just want to make sure we have all the avenues covered.”
“Of course,” he nodded.
“I am afraid that Glover is not saying anything much and he has lawyered up so apart from what he told us in the initial stage we have not heard anything new.” Detective Hamilton told him.
“I doubt he has much more to add, he was not privy to a lot of things.” Christopher said grimly.
“And you know this how?” Carmichael gave him a narrowed look.
“I had him followed for the past several months. How do you think I knew about the warehouse?”
“Anything else you found out that might be of any use to us?” Carmichael asked him badly in need of a cigarette.
“I would have shared that information with you now wouldn’t I?” their eyes met and held and Carmichael was the first to look away.
“I am sure you would.” He muttered.
*****
Romaine Blackwood or ‘Blacks’ as they had called him growing up in the old seedy neighborhood where he had spent most of his childhood, had graduated from petty thief to pimp and gangster in a very short time. He was the last of eight children his parents had produced and had spent his days on the streets trying to make a living and putting food into his hungry belly. He had spent the time at the little cramped house in the projects as he watched his drunken father beat his mother in front of them whether it was for allowing the meal to get cold or generally just pummeling on her for no apparent reason. He had sworn to himself that he had to get out.
He had done so at the age of sixteen and had shown his distaste for women by pimping them out to make money. His mother had taught him that women were only good for one thing: feeling the brunt of a man’s fist to make her compliant and maybe offering a hole when the man needed to get laid. He had had trouble with his turf and had solved the problem by beefing up his muscle with strenuous workout. He had decided that pimping was not the way to make the millions he wanted and had gone on to loan sharking and it was there he had found his niche.
He had hired others like him and put the fear of God in them and they had gone into schools where they had found eager and willing children who wanted to score drugs to help them with the problem of studying and generally getting ahead. When they did not have the money to pay him he had generously offered them credit and loans. He still had not been satisfied until he had met the Glover kid and then things had picked up from then on. It was then he had struck gold.
*****
Christopher was climbing out of his skin. The man had not called and it was getting close to midnight now. The detectives were still there with him at the manor and Madge had made them comfortable with pots of coffee and snacks in between sniffing and wiping tears for her mistress. He had called to check up on the kids and knew they were okay. He was just glad that they were not here to ask questions to which he had no answers. He had set a whole team on finding out who this man was and he had not gotten answers yet.
“Why hasn’t he called?” Detective Carmichael muttered as he glanced at the ornate clock on the wall. He had been duly impressed as soon as he stepped inside the large hall and had gazed wide eyed at the expensive art on the wall. The place was magnificent to say the least. He had glimpsed a pool and a tennis court further up and admired the velvety soft lawn as they drove inside the circular driveway. What a way to live, he had thought a little enviously.
“He is toying with me. Letting me know who is in control,” Christopher told him softly. He had ignored the tea and coffee the housekeeper had put out and had gone straight to the liquor cabinet to pour himself something very strong. He had no intention of being addled with alcohol because he needed a clear head to deal with getting his wife back.
Detective Hamilton looked at him sharply. “You know the guy?”
“What do you think?” he asked the man sardonically. The detective looked away. “I know his type; he is a bully and thinks he can box me into a corner by making me sweat. The longer he waits to call me the more I will be getting agitated and he will be able to get anything he wants from me.”
“And will he?” this time it was Detective Hamilton. The man looked at him coolly, his eyes piercing and unreadable.
“I adore my wife detective and people who know me are aware of that, she and my kids are the most important part of me and I will do anything, barring nothing, to stop them from getting hurt.” His tone was mild but his expression far from being that.
“I just wish he would call,” Detective Hamilton muttered.
“He will.”
*****
Sophia nodded off to sleep. She had been hoping that she would be able to hold out but sleep had overtaken her. She had refused the sandwich and drink he had handed to her.
“I have no intention of poisoning you Mrs. Tang, you are much too valuable.” He had said with a flash of his very white teeth. She had refused it just the same and with a shrug he had taken it away. He had brought in a smart phone and made the recording. “Look alive Mrs. Tang, we are going to give your husband a show.” He had forced her to say the words he held up by telling her that he was not above sending used goods back to her husband and that he had some very eager and horny men waiting outside to climb on top of her. “You have nothing to fear from me.” He had told her mockingly. “As much as you are a hot piece of ass you are not my type. I like them big and well stocked.”
So she had said what he wanted her to say.
He had left her alone in the room and alone with her very troubling thoughts. She knew that Christopher would pay anything to get her back but she knew her husband and knew he was not going to just hand over the money just like that. He was going to make the man pay for taking her. She had heard him talking to the other men in the next room about some shipment or another and knew it had to do with drugs and the pharmaceutical company her husband owned.
He had not told her anything and she was sure now that he had known that something was wrong. Damn you Christopher, you should have said something to me, she thought in despair. She pushed back the tendrils of hair that rested on her cheeks. Her cotton pant suit that she had worn this morning looked the worse for wear and her mouth felt dry from thirst. The only good thing was that the room was small but comfortable.
Her hands trembled and she clasped them together to keep them still. She had not shown one ounce of fear but inside she was trembling from it. Oh Christopher where are you? Please find me.
*****
He called at two a.m. just as Christopher was about to get up and get himself some more coffee. He had not slept unlike the detectives who had nodded off at around one. To their credit they snapped to attention the minute the phone rang and put the headphones over their heads, nodding to Christopher to pick up. “This is Christopher Tang,” he said briefly.
“Mr. Tang I know you have been
waiting to hear from me,” the voice was disembodied and sounded garbled. “I am so sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Where is my wife?” Christopher’s voice was soft but there was an edge to it that caused the detectives to shiver.
“She is here safe and sound and untouched but for how long depends on your generosity.”
“How much?”
“Ah a man who knows what’s important.” The man said with a laugh. “Ten million dollars to cover the fact that I won’t be doing business with your pharmaceutical company anymore. That will set me up in a business in Mexico maybe or the Cayman Islands.”
“When?”
“A man of few words. Today at noon and I want cash only please so it will give you enough time to go to the bank. And of course no cops. If I even smell one the deal is off and your wife gets a very premature death.”
“Done,” Christopher gritted. “I need to speak to her.”
“Of course,” It was a few seconds before he heard her voice and when he did he went weak with relief. “Baby you okay?”
“Christopher!” she cried. “It’s good to hear your voice.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No but I-“
“That’s enough proof I think and I know I am probably been tracked by the vigilant cops at your house so I will bid you adieu. I will call you later with where we meet.”
The detective shook their heads. “He knows what he is doing. We were not able to trace the call.”
“Of course you weren’t,” Christopher’s tone was impatient. But he had heard her voice and she was unhurt and that was probably going to save the bastard from a slow and painful death. Maybe.
“You are not really going to give him all that money are you?” detective asked the man carefully. He had watched him and heard his voice soften dramatically as he spoke to his wife. The man was clearly besotted.
“What do you think?” Christopher asked him mildly as he stood to pour himself some coffee.
“I would advise against it if I were you.”
“But you are not me, are you detective?” their eyes met and dueled and as usual Christopher won.
