“I’m cleared for some fieldwork and I’m armed.” He moved his coat to show his shoulder holster. “They don’t think I’m totally disabled.” He started down the back steps.
“I don’t think so either!” She raised her voice and immediately regretted it.
Two officers coming in from the field looked at the pair curiously.
Nick faced her. The warmth in his eyes faded, replaced by anger. “Look, we have a job to do. Let’s get a car and go to work and forget all this other nonsense.”
“Fine.” Carly bit her lip and stepped past him. She saw a car marked for homicide and moved across the parking lot quickly. She was in the driver’s seat with the key in the ignition before Nick opened the passenger door. It took him a minute to slide into the seat and get comfortable.
Carly started the car and headed for Ace Bail Bonds. Her knuckles were white on the steering wheel. The silence in the car grated on her nerves like fingernails on a blackboard. A couple of hours ago they were allies with Jonah, and now they were frenemies. This has to be resolved, but—God, help me—I don’t know how to resolve it.
Ace Bail Bonds occupied a dingy office in an old section of downtown Las Playas untouched by redevelopment. The previous mayor of the city had worked hard to redevelop all of the downtown area with remarkable success. Only isolated pockets of old, unrestored buildings still existed.
Carly parked in front, in the red, and got out of the car. It took resolve not to slam the door and storm into the office, leaving Nick in the wake of her anger and frustration. Instead she took a deep breath, hitched up her gun belt, and walked around the rear of the car to the sidewalk. Nick was out and starting for the door. Carly fell into step beside him, careful to match his pace.
The bondsman was a big, thickly built man with long hair tied neatly into a ponytail. Carly never liked dealing with bondsmen. They were a necessary evil, but in her mind they were cowboys, one step removed from being on the other side of the bail bond. She let Nick do the talking.
“I understand you posted bond for Stanley Harper.” Nick flipped out his badge and ID.
“Yeah, I did. It was a big bond, nice payoff for a day’s work. What can I do for you?” The man spoke with his mouth full. A large, sloppy hamburger in his hand dripped grease onto his desk.
“Who put up the money?”
The bondsman put his hamburger down, wiped his hands on his jeans, and turned to grab a file. “That would be Unique Imports Incorporated.” He set the file down and returned to his dinner. “Is there a problem?”
“A business posted bail?” Carly asked.
“Yep. Apparently it was Harper’s employer, and they wanted him back at work. This was all arranged by our office in Riverside.” He stood with his hands on his hips. “Anyway, on the phone they told me to have Harper wait here and someone would be here to give him a ride. Harper showed up, but the driver never did. This Harper’s not going to skip on me, is he?”
“No telling.” Nick shrugged and looked at Carly as if to ask if she had any more questions.
“How long ago did Harper leave here?” she asked.
“’Bout ten or fifteen minutes. He said he had to be somewhere and couldn’t wait for a ride. The bond was valid. I had no cause to hold him.” He sat back down and took a huge bite of the burger, grease running down his chin.
Carly and Nick thanked him and left.
Once in the car, if the frigid atmosphere still existed, Carly was oblivious. Her mind was running in a thousand different directions.
“You were expecting Caswell to have posted bail?” Nick asked.
“Yeah, I was kind of working on a theory. This info blows it. At least I think it does. We’ll have to find out how Unique Imports fits into things. When I asked Harper his employer in booking, he said unemployed. Later, when he was spilling his guts, he said he didn’t want to tell me who his employer was.” She started the car.
Nick put a hand on her wrist. “What’s your theory, and where are we going?”
“We’re going to the apartment Harper shared with Mary Ellen because I think that’s where he’ll go. As far as my theory goes—” she took a deep breath—“let me work on it a little more. It’s foggy.”
“Okay. Let’s go, then.” He slid back into the old Nick.
Carly started to say something about his mood swings but thought better of it. I can’t trust myself to say something that won’t start a fight.
“If Harper’s on foot,” Carly thought out loud, “unless he’s jogging, it will probably take him twenty or thirty minutes. Keep an eye out. He’s thin, looks like a tweaker.” She drove the car along the most direct route to the apartment and prayed her hunch was right.
The streets were teeming with busy workday traffic. Carly chafed at the delay, reminded of one of the many good reasons she liked working graveyard. At least it’s not hot today. It’s actually beautiful outside. I hope that’s something that will work in our favor.
“There are a lot of people out.” Nick scanned his side of the street. “He might be able to blend in.”
Carly’s eyes continually roamed the landscape on her side.
They were westbound on Fifth Street, close to Mary Ellen’s, when their vigilance was rewarded.
“I see him.” Carly pointed to Nick’s side of the street, in front of them.
Harper had just come out of a corner liquor store. Carly saw a bag in his right hand. They were still half a block behind him. He was also traveling westbound and waiting at the corner for the light to change so he could cross the street.
“I won’t be able to get over to him until after the light changes.”
“I’ll keep an eye on him.”
Carly was stuck in the middle lane of a one-way street. She activated the rear ambers on the light bar, hoping it would clue motorists in to the fact that she needed to get over. She didn’t want to spook Harper. The last thing she wanted was a foot pursuit.
The signal turned green for westbound traffic and cars moved forward, but the lane to Carly’s right, the lane she wanted to move to, stopped for Harper to cross Magnolia. Several things happened in front of them so quickly Carly wasn’t sure she could remember the sequence exactly.
Harper reached the middle of Magnolia, and the lane Carly was trying to change to inched forward. She was looking over her right shoulder when Nick yelled.
“No!”
Tires screeched, and Carly jerked forward in time to see a southbound pickup truck career into the crosswalk and slam into Harper.
The burglar flew into the air. The truck never slowed as it turned right, onto Fifth Street, accelerating away into westbound traffic. The sound of cracking glass, blaring horns, and scraping steel split the air as the truck sideswiped two cars while it fled.
The final thud of Harper hitting the hood of another car reverberated down the street before he rolled off onto the pavement.
19
CARLY HIT THE SIREN, and a path cleared to the body. She started to grab the radio mike, but Nick beat her to it.
“I’ve got it. Check him out!”
“You saw the driver?” Carly knew the profile she’d seen of the pickup’s driver would be branded in her memory. She also knew she’d seen him before. He was Grant, the bald man who had run from Mary Ellen’s apartment.
“Enough to describe him,” Nick said. “Go.”
She leaped from the car. Harper’s broken body lay in the middle of the intersection. The pickup truck had disappeared onto the freeway. Several people got out of their cars to try to help the injured man, but Carly waved them back. The last thing she needed was for someone else to get hurt.
Kneeling down, Carly knew it was too late. Harper had landed awkwardly, and his head lolled at an unnatural angle. The bag of goods he’d just purchased lay flattened on the street a few feet away.
She could hear Nick’s voice on her handheld radio explaining the situation, describing the driver of the pickup—a male white, bald with sparse
facial hair—and asking for help. Unfortunately, nothing would help Stanley Harper. She did her best to direct traffic and people away from him until more units arrived. The woman whose hood the body had bounced off of was distraught. It took Carly several minutes to convince her to pull off to the side and stay inside her car to wait for paramedics.
“He dead?” Nick asked, limping around to help.
Carly nodded. “He didn’t have a chance.”
Nick moved away to lay down flares. Once he’d shut down several lanes of traffic, he walked back to Carly. “That wasn’t an accident.”
“Nope, I didn’t think so either.”
Screaming sirens stifled the conversation. Fire trucks and assisting police units crowded the scene. Paramedics double-checked Harper and then covered him with a yellow tarp. Carly and Nick talked to the beat units who would handle the crash, gave them all the information they could. Once the scene was in capable hands, they returned to their police car. The beat unit would file the report. Carly wanted to talk to Trejo.
“Do you mind if we make a stop before we go back to the station?” Carly asked.
“Where?”
“The Messenger. I want to ask Alex Trejo about Unique Imports.”
“You think a reporter can help us with this case?”
“I know he wrote an article on Thomas Caswell a couple of years ago. He might know if there is a connection to this business.”
“Go ahead,” Nick said and then was quiet as Carly extricated the vehicle from the tangle of police cars and flares. “You and Trejo are getting pretty tight, aren’t you?” he asked after a few minutes.
Carly turned to find him watching her, a blank expression on his face. “I like Alex. He’s been a good friend.” Especially now, since you and Andrea have shut me out.
“Is he a Christian?”
“No, why?” Bewildered, Carly found herself slowing, concentrating more on Nick than her driving.
“You shouldn’t be getting involved with someone who’s not a Christian. I mean, not romantically. He could pull you away from the church, weaken your relationship—”
“What?” Carly cut him off, jerking the car to a stop in front of the Las Playas Messenger building. She slammed the car into park and turned to face Nick. All the anger and frustration she’d kept on the back burner whooshed out like water from an unkinked hose. “You have the nerve to lecture me about what might pull me away from the church? I think you need to look in the mirror. I love you, but for the last month you’ve treated me like an unwanted groupie. You won’t give me the benefit of the doubt that I honestly don’t care if you’re a cop or not, if you walk right or not. All you toss me is some self-serving drivel about how you don’t want to be a burden. You aren’t being honest with yourself or me. And Alex, heathen that he is, has been honest and he’s been supportive. Why don’t you practice what you preach before you tell me what I should or shouldn’t do!”
Carly was breathless when she finished and astonished at the words and emotion that came out of her. But not sorry. No, not sorry.
They stared at one another as her heart rate slowly returned to normal. Nick looked away first.
“I don’t know what to say. I—”
A rap on the roof of the car interrupted him. They both looked up guiltily. Alex smiled at them from the sidewalk. Carly welcomed the interruption. She turned the car off and got out, sweat on her brow in spite of the fact that she’d been sitting in air-conditioning.
“What’s up? I was just heading over to the scene of a fatal traffic accident—do you guys know anything about it?” Alex asked.
As Nick also climbed out of the car, Carly didn’t miss the glance Alex shot the two of them.
“Yeah, we were witnesses. Can we trade you information for information?” she asked.
He raised his eyebrows and tilted his head inquiringly. “I’m intrigued. What happened at the accident?” The reporter folded his arms across his chest, and Nick leaned against the passenger door.
Carly stood on the sidewalk next to Alex while she explained what had happened to Harper. Working to control her tone, she related clearly and concisely what she’d seen. The act helped to calm her. The blood slowly stopped pounding in her ears, and she felt drained and empty. Empty, that was, but for the ache in her heart. But the words needed to be said, and she wouldn’t take them back. Now she hoped for strength to deal with the consequences.
“Purposely ran him down?” Alex asked when she finished. His eyes glowed at the prospect of front-page headlines.
“Yeah, but don’t print that until we get some confirmation,” Nick cautioned.
Trejo rubbed his chin and looked at Carly. She prayed her face was neutral. He shrugged with reluctant concession. “So what can I do for you, then?”
“What can you tell us about Unique Imports Incorporated?” she said.
“Off the top of my head, not much. The name rings a bell. . . . I think it belongs to Conrad Sperry.”
“Is it located in Riverside?”
“I’d have to check my notes. Do you need me to make sure?”
“No, that’s okay,” Nick said. “We have to go back to the station now; we’ll be able to find out there.”
“We’ll send you a release about the accident,” Carly added.
Alex nodded but didn’t turn to leave. “Is everything okay?” he asked as he continued to study Carly.
Carly felt Nick’s attention on her also, and she didn’t want to look at him. “Yeah,” she said, walking around to the driver’s side car door. “As okay as it can be, considering another day has gone by and A.J. is still missing.”
She heard Nick thank Alex before he shut the car door. And she noticed Alex in the rearview mirror watching them as they drove away. Silence dominated the ride back to the station.
20
“HIGHWAY PATROL FOUND A TRUCK matching the description of the one you say hit Harper.” Harris hung up the phone as Carly and Nick walked into the office. It had been a little over two hours since the crash.
“That was quick. Where?” Nick asked. He sat next to Pete’s desk while Carly walked to the coffeemaker and poured herself a cup. She took a deep gulp, wishing it were hot enough to scald her mouth and give her something different to think about, but it wasn’t.
“Abandoned off the 91 freeway in Corona. It was still hot and smoking, obviously recently left. It was stolen from that same area sometime last night. They’re trying to pick up the trail of the driver now.”
“There’s no doubt in my mind that the truck accelerated into Harper. And Carly is certain it was the same man who was in Mary Ellen’s apartment, right?” Nick looked to Carly, who nodded in agreement. She didn’t trust herself to speak.
“Just our luck the feds weren’t tailing him today,” Harris said with a curse.
The two men began talking about the case. Harris called Nelson because the sergeant would have to contact the FBI. And since the FBI had been following Grant, they should know where to find him.
She found an empty desk at the other side of the office and called Joe. “How are you holding up?” she asked, happy her voice sounded normal.
“Okay, I guess. Christy is stronger. The toxin that caused her reaction has been neutralized and is out of her system. She was up and walking today. The doctor says he’ll release her tomorrow.” He paused, and Carly heard him take a deep breath. “I don’t look forward to taking her home to face an empty nursery.”
Carly tried to encourage him, telling him about Harper being bailed out and the connection to Conrad Sperry. But as she hung up, she knew her words rang hollow. They were even further away from finding A.J. because their only lead was dead. Her phone buzzed and she saw she had a text from Alex. She called his number.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“I’ll tell you everything I know about Unique Imports, but first you tell me something: are you really okay?”
“Alex . . .” Carly drew in a deep breath and push
ed on her vest. With raw emotions ready to burst forth, she found the restrictive Kevlar a comfort. “Please, I don’t want to talk about me right now. What’s the story on the business?”
“All right.” He paused. “It is owned by Conrad Sperry.”
“What do they import?”
“Says here they specialize in importing unique and difficult-to-find items. Guess that could be just about anything.”
“Where is the business?”
“Mailing address is in Riverside, but I don’t have a physical address.”
“That’s why the bond was posted at the Riverside office of Ace Bail Bonds.”
“Shouldn’t be difficult for an awesome police officer to find a physical address and an excuse to visit the business.” She could hear the smile in his voice, and it made her feel somewhat better.
“Thanks. I appreciate the information.”
“No problem. And if you ever need to talk, you know where to find me.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m always here for you; remember that.”
“I know, and thanks again.” Carly put the phone down and looked up to see Nick standing by the desk.
“Who was that?”
“Alex, confirming that Unique Imports belongs to Sperry.”
Nick nodded. “My bet is that the feds have a lot more information about this, and we need to get it out of them.”
“Nelson will get back to me as soon as he talks to the feds,” Pete said. “He told me to get started on the probable cause for an arrest warrant and a search warrant.”
“I can help with that.” Nick turned back to Harris. “I’ve written my share. Then Carly and I can head out to Riverside.”
“Carly and I.” The words branded Carly. She excused herself to go to the restroom. Instead of using the one on the third floor, Carly bounded up the stairs and escaped to the quieter locker room. The tears began to fall as soon as the door closed. She wiped them away and opened her locker. Taking off her gun belt, she hung it up and took down a small pocket Bible from the top shelf. Sniffling, she grabbed some paper towels and went to the small sleeping room at the end of the locker area. It was empty, so she turned the light on, closed the door, and sat down.
Abducted Page 14
