Tahoe Skydrop (An Owen McKenna Mystery Thriller Book 16)

by Todd Borg

  A couple of minutes later, he poured coffee into three mugs. We sat at his kitchen table.

  “How did you find the place where they have Jon?” Vince asked.

  “The man who went missing and who was probably the body up in the crags of Job’s Sister was Yardley LaMotte, the founder of Tahoe Robotics. I learned that Yardley was the visiting teacher who went to Jon’s school. Yardley also hired that blue helicopter to take him up to Job’s Sister two days before we saw the chopper. His wife gave me permission to go through his files at his office. I found property records for a parcel in Tahoe. By cross-checking parcel maps and old topo hiking maps, I found the place up on a high ridge overlooking Tahoe. Because I didn’t want to be obvious, I didn’t even attempt finding the trail that would lead to the drive. Instead, Spot and I bushwhacked up the mountain.”

  “So it’s an old cabin?”

  “No, it’s sizable. Like a lodge. I learned that it was built by Isaiah Hellman, the banker who built the Hellman Mansion back in the early nineteen hundreds. He used the lodge as his private getaway and called it Stone Lodge, much different from Pine Lodge, the Hellman mansion on the lake. Stone Lodge is fenced with stone and wood and barbed wire, and there are alarm systems. There are at least three armed guards. The house itself is stone. The drive has a substantial gate. No one could easily break in, and, if someone attempted it, it would likely put Jon at risk.”

  “Do you know where he’s being held in this place?”

  “No. All I saw was the guard bringing Jon outside from one of the side doors.”

  “Was he okay? Was he afraid?” Vince sounded so worried that I thought he might cry.

  “He seemed okay, and he didn’t seem scared. In fact, he was feisty and a bit wily.” I told Vince and Brie about how Jon seemed to manipulate the guard into letting him fix the guard’s phone and how, in the process, he may have been able to send an email.

  Vince smiled, a father’s pride in an accomplished child. “My boy might not be the rugged outdoorsman I hoped to raise,” he said, “but I think he’s going to grow up to be a really resourceful person, a good, solid man.”

  I nodded at the two of them, wondering if it was wrong for me not to tell Vince what was obvious to anyone - including Brie - who spent time with his kid, that the child was more girl than boy. That, in fact, at the emotional core, the child was all girl. I wondered if I was complicit in a kind of fraud by not speaking out on the child’s behalf. When does the sin of omission become a sin of commission? Yet I stayed quiet. I was just an outsider. And now was not the time. Despite my observation from the forest, I’d never even met Jonni. Yet, it is sometimes the casual observation from someone outside of the inner circle of family that has the ability to jolt a sense of reality into the closest family members. If a casual outsider can see what’s obvious, then wouldn’t that help the father face the facts?

  Vince said, “How can we find out where in this house he’s being held?”

  “It won’t be easy. There aren’t big windows. You can’t see inside during the day. And there are probably drapes at night.”

  Vince slammed his fist down on the table. “I did what the kidnappers asked, and they still have my kid! Why do you think they’re still holding Jon captive?” Vince was shaking with agitation.

  Brie reached over and rubbed his arm. She likely felt helpless, not having the family stature to state her opinion and have it be taken seriously.

  “One of the men said something about a password,” I said.

  Vince nodded in a distracted way, no doubt thinking about Jon trapped in a lodge. Maybe he was tracking what I was saying, or maybe not.

  I continued, “Let me back up. I think these men threw Yardley LaMotte out of a helicopter that was flying over Job’s Sister. I believe the men wanted some computer software from Yardley LaMotte. Maybe it was on his person. When they first asked you to guide them up the mountain, you said no. My guess is that the men kidnapped Jon to force you into taking them up the mountain so they could retrieve something from LaMotte’s body.”

  I waited a moment to see if Vince was following. When he nodded, I continued.

  “Because Yardley protects everything he does with passwords, the men couldn’t utilize or even sell the software. But somehow they came to think Jon might know the password. It could be they mentioned Yardley, and Jon revealed he might know something about it. Jon might have thought that knowledge was a bargaining chip. Another possibility is the men learned that Yardley did outreach to schools and they asked Jon if Yardley had ever come to his school. Jon’s answer might have been more revealing than he anticipated. Either way, they probably decided to continue to hold Jon in an effort to learn the password.”

  Vince still looked distracted. But I think he understood what I was saying.

  I added, “The fact that Jon has resisted their attempts at getting information from him has kept him safe.”

  “I want to break into the house! I’ll kill them!”

  “Slow down, Vince. This can’t be solved by impulsive action. This has to be analyzed and planned.”

  “But where is the house?”

  “Vince, I’ll tell you most of what I’ve learned. But the location is the one thing I won’t tell you. Not yet, anyway.”

  Vince jerked himself to a standing position, knocking his chair back behind him. He looked as stunned as if I’d slapped him. “You know where my boy is, and you’re going to withhold that information from me? Damn it, Owen, tell me or I’ll knock your head off!” He made fists at his sides, his arms rising slightly, muscles bulging with tension. Next to him, Brie looked frightened, her eyes wide with worry, her frown intense.

  I stayed sitting, focused on staying calm and relaxed even though I was ready to jump up. For most aggressors, much of the time, if the guy who is threatened raises his voice or his fists, it will trigger the aggressor’s attack. But if the guy being threatened looks like he has nothing to worry about, it will produce a pause in the aggressor’s manner and sometimes defuse the situation.

  “Look, Vince, you’ve probably got the beef to kill me with one punch if you can land it. And if I get you in a clinch so you can’t get off a punch, you might still kill me. But before I die, I’ll be able to apply some of the nasty tricks I’ve learned over my years of being a cop. And you’ll go through the rest of your life blind in one eye, deaf in one or both ears, rasping your breath through crushed trachea, and learning to write with your left hand because your right hand no longer works well enough to pick up a pencil.”

  Vince snorted like a bull, his chest rising and falling. He was ready to leap over the table, but he stayed put for the moment.

  “One more thing,” I said. “Consider whose side I’m on. The answer makes it pretty obvious that I have a good reason for not telling you where your boy might be. I know your instinct would be to rush in. And that will get you shot into pieces and, in this situation, cut into pieces. It would probably get your boy killed as well. However, if we plan this carefully, we might be able to rescue your kid.”

  Brie reached up and rubbed Vince’s back.

  Vince stared at me, his eyes narrowed. In time, his breathing slowed. His fists relaxed. He sat back down on the kitchen chair, lowered his elbows to his knees, and hung his head. “Okay,” he said toward the floor. “What do we do next?”

  “First, we need help. We can’t go in alone. I’ve watched this place and counted three men. All three were carrying guns. One was a rifle with a scope. Two of the men had knives.”

  Vince said, “Were these guys bulked up? Acted like they were some kind of Nordic killing squad?”

  “Yes.”

  I pulled out my phone and showed Vince the pictures I’d taken.

  He pointed. “That’s Jon.” Vince’s voice cracked. “My poor boy. He must be terrified. I can’t believe this is happening.” He sniffled, wiped his eyes. “His hair looks funny. Like it went curly. And why is his shirt tied up?”

  I didn’t think
it necessary to respond.

  “The guys I took up Job’s Sister wore ski masks,” Vince said. “So I can’t say for certain, but I bet these are the guys. There were three of them. The one who was blown off the summit was the most normal of the three. He probably died, so that left two. And now there are three at this place.”

  “Yeah. I’m guessing the additional man is the helicopter pilot. When you took the men up the mountain, did any of them talk with a Swedish accent?”

  “Not that I heard,” Vince said. “One didn’t talk at all in front of me. And what I heard from the other two was American English.” Vince pointed at my pictures. “Do you think there was anyone else in the lodge besides the three men you saw?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. All three of these guys spoke American English. It could be these guys are the soldiers, and they’re taking orders from a general. Where that general is, I don’t know. The general could be the man called Lucas, who spoke with an accent. But Lucas could also be one of these men. His accent might have only been used on the phone. It would fool us into thinking there are more men.” I pointed at the picture on the phone. “Either way, the building is a well-fortified house, made of stone, nearly inaccessible. It will take more than two of us to take them.”

  “Who do you propose to help us?”

  “First, I’ll give you the standard answer, recognized by all experts as the most sensible thing to do.”

  “No!” Vince shouted. “They said no cops. If they see a SWAT team show up, they’ll gun down my kid. I can tell. I’ve been with these guys. They have dead eyes. That’s what you concentrate on when someone wears a ski mask. Dead eyes. Dead hearts, too. They would kill my boy just to prove that they mean what they say.”

  Vince was breathing hard.

  I waited a minute. “The problem is that this stone house sits at the end of a high-elevation ridge. Because of its setting, it’s closer to a medieval fortress than a ski vacation lodge. There is just one road in, and it’s gated. The land drops away on either side. Glacial moraine with loose scree. Hard to climb. It would be a slow process. All of the approach areas are visible from the house.”

  I paused to let Vince visualize.

  “However, I think I can get a warrant based on what I saw and photographed. If so, a tactical group could approach at night, take down the gate, maybe even disabling the alarm. They could make a fast entry assault.”

  “No! These kidnappers would have a lookout. They would hear the cops coming. They’d have plenty of time to kill my boy.” Vince was shaking his head. “There must be a way to bribe them. They’re ultimately after money, right? So there must be a way to pay them enough to release Jon.”

  “I’ve talked to several people connected to Tahoe Robotics, Yardley LaMotte’s company. I don’t know if Yardley’s software was stolen. But I asked them to estimate its value. The number they spoke of was a billion dollars. Even if the kidnappers were willing to accept a payoff, I can’t think of a way to get that kind of money.”

  Vince looked devastated.

  Vince thought about it. “So you want to pursue the SWAT team approach.”

  “Actually, no. I said it was recognized by experts as the best way to go in this situation. As a law enforcement person, it’s essential that I tell you what the experts think. But I can still disagree.”

  “I don’t understand,” Vince said.

  “I think you might be right that they could kill your boy. From what I observed, it seemed that these men have no common sense. The way they strut around, it’s like they identify with evil comic book characters simply because it feels cool. And because of the layout of this place, I think an approach with a lot of men coming along the road would cause too much commotion. The house appears to have a secure fence and a good alarm system. Maybe two alarm setups, unrelated. The cops could disarm one and still set off another. Even if the armed men inside don’t have a lookout posted, it’s still likely they’d be awakened by an alarm.”

  “You think fewer men is better?” Vince said.

  “Possibly. A small, silent team. I think you should be on the team because you would have the best chance of keeping your boy quiet and protected. I would go in with my dog because he’s usually a help in unfamiliar circumstances.”

  Vince frowned. “I don’t understand. The bad guys can shoot a dog as easily as a person.”

  “Actually, they can’t. A dog doesn’t present anywhere near as much frontal area to a shooter. And they move much faster. It’s relatively hard to shoot a dog. Also, a dog doesn’t shy away from guns. A dog doesn’t have fear. He can be sent to attack a suspect no matter how scary that person is to another person. A dog also becomes a good distraction in case the men have their own dog.”

  I continued, “The last advantage to a dog is that, compared to us, it can pretty much see in the dark.”

  “Because of its ears and nose?”

  “Yeah. Their hearing is much more acute than ours, and their sense of smell is ten thousand times better than ours.”

  Vince nodded. “So you and I go in with your dog. That’s two of us and one dog against three or more armed killers.”

  “I’d like to bring my friend Diamond Martinez,” I said.

  “Who’s he?”

  “A sergeant with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.”

  “I said no cops!”

  “He wouldn’t come in cop capacity. He’d come as a civilian, dressed in his civvies. And he wouldn’t tell the sheriff’s office. Diamond and I have an understanding. As far as anyone is concerned after the fact, they will believe that Diamond had to make a last-moment decision to try and help save your son’s life. He won’t have had time to call in the troops.”

  “Will he agree to help?”

  “I don’t know. I think so. He’s a good guy, determined to do the right thing in every situation.”

  Vince held my eyes. “You’re saying that if the sheriff later asks about it, the official word will be that Diamond didn’t have time to call in backup support.”

  “Yeah. Plus this target is located outside of Diamond’s county. That makes it easier.” That probably wasn’t true, but I thought it would help Vince go with the idea.

  “This all sounds very - what’s the word - tentative,” Vince said. “And it could result in my son getting killed.”

  “That’s why I gave you the official recommendation to bring in the SWAT team.”

  Vince frowned and sat in silence for awhile. Eventually, he said, “I can see that an assault by a SWAT team would be best from the standpoint of rounding up the kidnappers. But I also know what they told me. No matter how successful a SWAT team could be, if my kid died, I would… I’d be destroyed.”

  “It’s a tough call,” I said.

  Vince looked out the window, seeing, probably, not the landscape outside but his boy locked in a room, maybe tied to something to prevent his escape.

  Vince said, “You said the only approach to this place is a gated road along a ridge. We’re coming up on the first quarter moon, high in the sky at sunset. But if we went at three in the morning, the moon will have set. We could sneak along the road without being seen unless someone had an infrared scope.”

  “Good thought,” I said. “You know your moon phases.”

  “When you lead wilderness trips, you always know where the moon is,” Vince said. “But, whether we go before the moon sets or not, we won’t want to stay on the road because it may be monitored, right? Even the forest around the house might be monitored.”

  “True. But there’s probably a way in that won’t trigger any cameras or motion sensors until the last moment,” I said.

  “What would that be?”

  “Can you fly your paraglider without a moon?”

  Vince raised his eyebrows. “I never thought of that! I could do a skydrop.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  “What’s a skydrop?” I asked.

  “In our gliding circle, we sometimes talk about what
to do when the breeze stops and we lose our ridge lift. If that happens when we’re over forest, it creates a dangerous situation.”

  “Because you have to get down through the forest canopy,” I said.

  “Exactly. We have to find an opening and do a pinpoint drop out of the sky. So we call it a skydrop.”

  “Tell me how this could work,” I said.

  “I could fly my glider into the house’s yard. It would be silent. If no one was looking out, I could get right to their door undetected.” Vince thought about it, then said, “In answer to your question, yes I could fly without a moon. It’s like flying a small plane without instruments. All I need are some ground lights to get a sense of how far I am above the trees.”

  “What if there were no lights on at the house and you came down toward the trees in the night?”

  “Then I could fly directly into a tree and kill myself. Or I could get tangled in a tree and hang and twist in the wind until I’m rescued. If I’m rescued. I suppose I could bring a flashlight. But a regular beam wouldn’t be bright enough from up in the sky. If I brought my tactical flashlight, that’s probably bright enough to let me see as I’m flying in. But it would negate the whole point of paragliding in at night, right? A super bright light would announce my approach. If the beam shined on any of the house’s windows, anyone inside would be instantly aware. It’d be like a spotlight on the curtains or blinds.”

  “Right,” I said. “You’d have to drop out of the sky in complete darkness. So we’ll just hope there’ll be some lights on at the house.” I sipped coffee that had gone cold. “How would you get into the air above the house?” I asked. “You said you can’t jump out of a plane with a paraglider.”

  “Right. Paragliding is a foot-launched sport. You’ve probably seen parachutes shaped in an arc that are a cross between a paraglider and a parachute. They’re pretty maneuverable. But they don’t glide like a paraglider. But if you jumped out of a plane with a paraglider, it would rip apart.”

  “How exactly do paragliders work?” I asked.