Diamond Run

by Michael Croucher

  “MS 1, keep your eyes open for another stationary OP, then report back to me. Everyone copy?”

  A stream of acknowledgements crackled over the handset.

  Ernie sensed my anxiety building. He worked the phone, calling every PD from Niagara to Hamilton, checking their occurrence reports in case something turned up.

  By midnight, I’d heard nothing more from Charles. I called him to make sure. Neither he, nor any of Sue’s friends had any idea where she was. Ernie’s calls to the PDs turned up nothing.

  Frustrated by all the dead ends, I turned to Ernie. “That asshole has her, partner.”

  He nodded grimly.

  I slammed my fist down on the desk. “Christ, I’m an idiot.”

  “Shall we put someone inside her house, Phil?”

  “I was there a while ago, and we’ve got her place well covered from the outside. I can’t wait any longer, Ernie. Let’s take a look around that house by the drive-in before we consider putting anyone inside her place.”

  We grabbed our gear and two fully charged handsets. We decided to double up, Ernie driving. That way, if I needed to get out on foot, Ernie could drop me and there would be no parked vehicle to advertise my presence. We could communicate over the handsets, and his car had a police band radio.

  Chapter 33

  Sue heard the heavy metallic sound, like an industrial zipper being drawn, a click and a door opening. She stiffened, her heart pounding. She took deep breaths to calm herself. After all, she reasoned, if they’re after what I think they’re after, they won’t kill me yet. Two men stepped into the trailer. Her blindfold had shifted, leaving a narrow gap below her eyes. She squinted through it, but could see nothing. The floor creaked. One man, she guessed from his gait was the biker. The other moved slowly. The third man involved in her ordeal, his presence seemed the most threatening.

  The two men stood beside her cot. She heard them breathing. Hot fingers touched her neck. They lingered, suggestively stroking her skin. Petrified, her breathing became shallow. She felt the new man’s body heat and she screeched through the gag, bringing the bitter taste of bile to her throat. The screeching was useless. She braced, ready to resist any advances, no matter how feeble her fight.

  There was a sinister chuckle and a sigh. The tow-truck driver stepped away, and the door thumped shut. She was alone with the third man. He sighed again, this time deeply, suggestively. Sue screamed louder, aware that to him her calls were muffled and represented no threat. She struggled to sit up, but was only able to raise her head slightly. The man’s knee came onto the cot. He leaned over her, his fetid breath coming at her face in waves. The back of a finger stroked her cheek. His weight rolled onto the cot beside her and the heat of his breath dampened her ear and neck.

  She pleaded through the gag. “No. No.”

  A finger raised the hem of her skirt and slid across her knee, hinting at a move up her thighs. “Don’t worry, Sue. There’s really no need to worry just yet. But if you don’t cooperate, we’ll soon be getting real close. We have business to take care of first. You know what business I’m talking about, don’t you?”

  Tentatively, she moved her head from side to side.

  “Yes. You know,” he whispered into her ear. “And the intensity of our time together later, will depend on this talk. Honest answers will lead to nicer treatment, and to your freedom. If I don’t hear what I need, it won’t work out well for you. But, I’ll sure enjoy it.”

  He pinched the skin on her thigh lightly and surrounded her ear with his lips. She felt his tongue moving suggestively in and out. She whimpered. He clamped his teeth around her ear, taking it completely into his mouth. His body pressed firmly against her hip and thigh. She squirmed against her restraints. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

  The man pulled back. “Alright... back to business. I’m going to loosen the gag. Just answer my questions honestly and quietly. If you raise your voice above a whisper, I’ll get pissed off.

  “Remember, help me get what I want or you won’t get out of this mess. And, if you take too long to answer, I’ll use the time for other things.”

  His right hand slid back under the hem of her skirt.

  “Do you understand?”

  She nodded. He loosened the gag.

  In order to calm herself, Sue thought about Nathan’s hideaways. Those had to be the man’s real objectives. They needed her to find those places. There was still time for her rescue. She fought against the horrible images of further attacks by picturing the staircase in her house, and the secrets Nathan had built into it.

  “There are some easy questions that you have the answers to, Sue. Nathan had a great deal of inventory hidden away. I have a proprietary interest regarding that inventory. Let’s call it a lien.” His head came close again. “I have as much right to that fucking stuff as he does.

  “Somewhere in or around your house are things I need. Safety deposit box keys, and a list of locations with the phoney box-holder names and box numbers. It’s a shitty situation for me. I have the names, but nothing else.” He gathered the flesh on her knee cap and pinched it savagely. Sue’s body arched in pain. “I need all those things. You’re going to help me get them.

  “When I have my property from the safety deposit boxes, you will be let go. So, the sooner we start, the better it is for both of us. Or...” His hand stroked the top of her thigh, touched the edge of her panties and lingered. “I’ll find ways to pass the time.”

  Sue knew that the best chance for her safe rescue would be at her house. He had to think those things were all there, and he needed her to locate them. She trembled. Her throat felt dry and sore, her voice raspy.

  “Please...I’ve never seen those things. But if they are at the house, I have some ideas of where they might be.”

  He let the hem of her skirt down.

  Sue gripped the material of her dress between her knees as tightly as she could. “Don’t do anything to me, and I’ll tell you what I know.”

  “Then you’ll be all right...You’re a smart lady and you know what my priorities are. So, talk to me.”

  “Right after Nathan and I took possession of the house, he had some small storage places made, hideaways. He said they were for legal papers and bearer bonds, things like that. I’m not sure if he ever put anything in there, but if he hid anything at the house, those are the places he would have used.”

  “Tell me exactly where these hideaways are. No bullshit.”

  “I think there are five of them,” she said. “All in the woodwork of the main stairway, built in by a master carpenter.”

  “Where are they in the stairway?”

  “I don’t know exactly. Nathan made notes on an index card, and he made a little schematic showing the locations in the stairway, and how to access them. On the other side of the card, there is a list of some sort, and a key, taped down. I think the key is for the compartments. It’s shaped like an L, he called the key type by a man’s name, but I can’t remember what it was.”

  Sue was scrambling. She wanted to be convincing enough to stall the process, without angering this man, but was so terrified she found it hard to focus.

  “Was it an Allen key?”

  “Yes, that’s it.”

  “Where’s the index card?”

  “Probably somewhere in the upstairs office. I haven’t seen it since before Nathan was arrested. I’d have to look for it. There are dozens of places up there it could be.”

  “Son of a bitch,” he slapped his hand down on a hard surface, and grabbed her by the top of her blouse. Sue was pulled roughly against the restraints.

  “Listen, lady, you’d better not be screwing with me. An Allen key, really? Do you think I’m an idiot?”

  “It’s the truth,” she whimpered. “The compartments are so well hidden in the woodwork that they don’t need a fancy lock. I remember Nathan saying that.”

  He let go of her blouse. Her head dropped back onto the cot. The light went off and she heard hi
s footsteps move across the floor. The door bumped. He was out of the trailer.

  Sue took a deep breath, trying to compose herself. She knew he would be back soon.

  Chapter 34

  Jasper sat in the dark, on a picnic table, not far from the RV. Marco appeared in front of him and looked towards the sideroad. “See much activity around here, lights moving around, or cars driving by slowly?”

  “Screw all.”

  “Good.”

  Marco inspected the thick cloud cover. Clouds kept the landscape dark. Perfect.

  Jasper looked skyward as well. “What’s the next step, man?”

  “You’ll be taking her home,” said Marco, pointing through the trees. “It’s just a few minutes walk across that field. You can’t miss her house, nothing else near it.

  “She’s going to look for an index card...I need that card... It has a list of names, with box numbers. There’s an Allen key taped to it. Then, you’re going to open up five compartments with that key. On the back of the index card is a chart. It shows where the compartments are. She’ll cooperate, but don’t let her waste time. Keep on her.

  “You’ll find the safety deposit box keys in those compartments. Listen, Jasper, everything hinges on that index card and the keys, every fucking one of them.”

  “Doesn’t she know where the card is?”

  “Bitch says she has a few ideas, but has to search for it. This is where you lean on her, big time. Cut her a bit if you have to. You’ve got to be in control of this broad. No stalling, no bullshit, or she gets hurt.

  “She has to walk a few hundred yards, so we’ll untie her feet, and keep her hands tied in front. We’ll loosen the ropes enough that she can go through drawers and cupboards. Make sure her gag stays tight. If you have to ask her something, loosen it. Then, as soon as she answers, slap the damned thing back on.

  “The card is somewhere in the office upstairs. Take her right up there. Get what we’re looking for and get the hell out of there. Bring her and the stuff back to me. Put her back in the RV. You got your blade and a lighter?”

  Jasper patted a pocket in his leather jacket and nodded.

  “A couple of cops might be watching the house from a distance,” said Marco. “But there shouldn’t be any inside. Most of them will be tooling around looking for her, especially her dipshit boyfriend. But if cops happen to show up, or if there’s any sign of a setup, you snuff them and the broad. I don’t want anyone else to know about that Allen key or what it opens.”

  Marco handed Jasper a .45 automatic with a silencer, and a flashlight. Jasper stuffed them into his pockets. Marco gripped him by the wrist.

  “Here’s an extra clip. Anything goes wrong, start a little fire by the barn on your way out. It’ll confuse anyone watching or coming to the place, and give us a bit more time. If that happens, you split as best you know how, and we’ll meet up later.” His grip on Jasper’s wrist tightened. “This is it, Jasper...are you up to it?”

  “Shit, man, I could waste a cop or two, maybe. But ...her...I hope I don’t have to.”

  Marco leaned right into Jasper’s face. “If you come out of that house without those fucking keys and that card, you’d better come back here with her, or she better be dead.

  “Jasper, you get big bucks for taking big risks. Are you ready or not?”

  Jasper stood slowly, let out a trail of smoke, and dropped his cigarette to the ground. “I’m good, Marco...yeah... okay.”

  “Good. Let’s lay low for an hour and see if any cops get close to that house. There’s an abandoned truck we can wait in up by Lemon’s house.”

  Chapter 35

  Ernie drove south on the gravel road from Sue’s place. I checked my watch: 12:50 a.m. A short way along, we passed the house we were interested in. I’d seen it a few times before. An old Victorian farm house, badly neglected. A dump. It was just visible through the clumps of brush and trees that crowded it. Any acreage on the property that hadn’t been reclaimed by weeds was covered by junked vehicles and trash; their solid shapes looming through the night. The house was dark.

  I couldn’t see it from the car, but I knew there was a second laneway near the back of the property, and that it ran from the small cottage to the side road we were on. The cottage was apparently in worse shape than the main house. Of the two, it was the closest to Sue’s place.

  “What an eyesore,” said Ernie. “I bet the neighbors are glad some of it’s been hidden by high weeds and wild bush.”

  He maintained a normal driving speed. There was no sense attracting attention. We passed the intersection at Green Mountain Road and continued along about a hundred yards. Then we backed into an access lane for a fenced field. The fence was set back a good thirty feet from the road, and the lane ran behind an overgrown stand of cedars, good cover. Ernie tucked the car in close to the cedars. Headlights off, he rolled forward enough for us to see down the road to the back lane of the place we were watching. He lit up a smoke with the car lighter, raising his jacket collar to hide the telltale glow.

  “All right, partner, you ready to do your thing?”

  I nodded, took a small screwdriver to the car’s dome light, flipped open the cover, and removed the bulb so the light wouldn’t be an issue when the door opened. I dropped my handset onto the seat, got out, and walked around to the driver’s side. There was a flashlight in my jacket pocket. I kept it there and flicked on the switch for a second. The light shone through the fabric of my jacket: batteries were strong.

  “Keep an eye on the road, Ernie. If I need you, I’ll flash the light at the ground, and hold it for a few seconds. And if you have info on Sue, or if you need me to come back, pull out of here and park on the road. I’ll be able to see the outline of the car from down there. I should be back inside thirty minutes anyway.”

  “Alright, old son, and if you get into a jackpot, just fire off a couple of rounds. I’ll call in the fucking cavalry.”

  Ernie’s crack improved my mood. I grinned and walked down the road, staying in the shadows as much as I could. I’d check out the place from the perimeter first. Being on foot, I could get close enough to size it up, and watch long enough to see who was around.

  After my three-minute creep along the road, I moved onto the target property, crouching over to avoid being silhouetted against the night sky. Staying close to the tree line, I arrived at a spot where I could watch the old house and the laneways.

  From time to time, I looked into the surrounding trees and brush. I was watching for anything—a sign that people were around, or for something that looked out of place or temporary. As my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness of the property, I noticed straight edges and shaped shadows between the trees. I knew it wasn’t an outbuilding. Most of those trees were over a century old and were spaced too tightly to allow a permanent structure of any size. I thought it might be farm implements or vehicles of some sort. I was about fifty yards away from them. Opting for a different angle, I followed the tree line a little more.

  I was doing my best to stay focused, assessing the area the same way I would at any dangerous location. From time to time, I felt a moment of panic, thinking about Sue and what she could be going through. Whenever those thoughts surfaced, I shook them off. I kept moving towards those shadows.

  One of the shadows looked like an RV. I got close enough to see that it was covered by a tarp. The tarp looked new; not weathered, barely out of the package. That seemed strange on a shithole property like this. After a few minutes I moved, changed my angle again. This time I saw the shape of a car parked a few feet beyond the RV. There was another dark shape that looked like a picnic table.

  I needed to look at that car and the RV. Still crouching, I moved out of the trees. The car was a Chevy, cleaned up, but it had seen better days, there were a few dents and filled in rust spots evident under a cheap paint job. I memorized the plate number. There weren’t any window openings in the tarp on the RV, but I could make out an entrance in the tarp that was secured
by a padlock.

  I got to the front of the car and touched the hood. Still warm ...someone was around. I returned to the road, leaving the property at approximately the same place I had entered. I fought a powerful, almost frantic urge to go back and pound on the door to the RV. If someone was in there, I wanted to find out who, and bring this thing to a head. But if it was Sue, and if anyone was with her, going in now would be a fatal mistake.

  That car’s registration had to be checked. I stepped a few feet into the road, crouched down, and gave two short bursts from the flashlight. I moved clear of the target property line and waited. Ernie was alongside a few seconds later. I got in and pointed back the way he’d come. “That laneway you were parked in will suit us fine, Ernie. I want to stay close. Something’s happening here.”

  We backed in behind the same stand of cedars. I told Ernie about the covered RV and the car. He called in to check the vehicle’s registration. The Hamilton dispatcher got right back to us with the info. He confirmed our suspicions. But just hearing it was like a kick in the nuts. The Chevy I’d found was registered to Jiffy Used Auto Sales. The dispatcher said that they also ran a check on that dealership. It came back showing an employee with a biker connection. The employee was Jasper Bain.

  Christ almighty! There it was.

  I dropped my head into my palms and prayed harder than I’d ever done in my life.

  Sue was on that property, likely in the covered RV. When I lifted my head, Ernie turned to me. He knew what I was thinking.

  “Phil, we can’t just charge in. If Sue’s there, and she very well could be, it would ramp up the risk. We should treat this like any other stakeout. We watch, wait, and get all our resources in place. He’ll keep her alive until he gets what he came for. There’ll be movement eventually, and when the time is right, we do our thing. She’s okay for now, partner. Besides Jasper and Marco, there could be other players. We’ve got to let this situation develop a bit.”