State of Peril (State of Arizona Book 3)

by Doug Ball

  At 6 AM the next morning, Bart Ramage was sitting in his third story curtainless window watching the world go by until at 7:45 he saw Tan go by in his truck. Running down the stairs and into his Toyota, he was backing out of the garage and moving toward the home Tan had just left.

  To his pleasant surprise, he arrived just in time to see Joan leaving the house in her car. He followed her to a shopping plaza parking lot where she parked in a parking space very close to the front door of the Safeway grocery store. She walked in briskly for a woman as far along as she was.

  He parked next to her by pulling through from the other side as a drive through parking space. His driver’s door was alongside her driver’s door. The blade on his pocket knife came out easily and went through the sidewall of her left front tire with ease. He waited, watching for her to exit the store.

  As she came out of the door she saw the Hispanic man get out of his car looking at her front tire. “No flat tire, please,” she prayed aloud.

  It was.

  The Hispanic man said, “Obviously you are in no condition to change a tire, would you allow me? You can sit in my car in the air conditioning while I get it done for you.”

  “That would be wonderful. That’s the second flat in a month on this car.”

  “Might just be the tires. I had a set once that picked up nails like a magnet. Let’s put your groceries in the back seat, if you’ll hand me your keys, and I’ll get on with it. You should be out of here in no more than ten minutes.”

  She had the keys in her hand like a good girl should. Pushed the trunk button and the unlock button on the key. “You won’t need my keys. That oughta do it.”

  “Great. He ushered her around his car and opened the door for her. She got in and he shut the door. He walked back around and got in his front door.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “We’re going for a ride, Mrs. Brown.” He showed the gun in his left hand as his right hand reached for her purse on the floor.

  “You may end up delivering a baby, Sir. The doctor said it could come any day.”

  “That will double the reason you husband will want to cooperate and pay the ransom.”

  “That’s a joke. We have no money. Every nickel we have is in our home right now. There isn’t fifty bucks in the bank today.”

  “You are very calm for the victim of a kidnapping, Mrs. Brown.”

  “I have to be, my feelings transmit to the baby and I will not have her born in the midst of anger, hate, panic, and just plain me being stupid. So, if you will get on with it so I can get home, I would appreciate it.”

  He put the Toyota in ‘Drive’ and off they went. She watched as he retraced the route she had taken to arrive at the Safeway until a couple of blocks short of her home. “Hand me your cell phone, Mrs. Brown.”

  She did.

  He turned it off, pulled the battery, and threw the pieces in a small ditch feeding a culvert alongside the road in a small park like area that, if school were not in session, would be full of kids. They drove around a couple of blocks tracing circles throughout the subdivision until he pushed the garage door opener while turning a corner and drove into a garage. She knew the house. An older woman from their church had lived there. Tan had even helped her pack up her personal things and leave after her husband died.

  After the door closed, Borrago said, “Into the house, quietly, don’t try to run or trick me.”

  “Run I cannot do. Trick is a possibility.”

  “Then two of you will die.”

  “That is a consideration, isn’t it? It only takes one of us dying for you to die when my husband puts a boot in your butt.”

  “My, my. What language from a cop’s wife.”

  “A Marine cop’s wife. He knows how to use his boots, Señor.”

  “And I know how to use this gun.”

  They walked calmly into the living room where Joan asked, “Can I use the bathroom, please?”

  “Aw, yes, the bladder of a pregnant woman. I thought of that. Right this way. Do not try the window, it is screwed shut.”

  Every thirty minutes she asked to use the bathroom, every thirty minutes he escorted her to the door.

  At the end of the third hour, Boraggo asked, “What is your husband’s cell phone number?”

  “You don’t want to call him. You want to let me go and then run like crazy.”

  “I want his number.”

  24

  She told him.

  He punched in the numbers.

  “Yes, dear.”

  “I am not your dear. I have your wife.”

  “I have known that for three hours, Mr. Borrago. You were spotted putting her in your car. I have the license number, Mr. Ramage.”

  “You gringos think you are so smart. I want my wife and daughters.”

  “Well, I’ll tell ya what, you spit in one hand and want in the other, and see which one fills up first.”

  “This is not a joke, Señor.”

  “You will bring my wife to my house, in person. Then I will talk with you. I understand your situation and am in a position to negotiate. The Governor has given me the authority to talk with you. It all hinges on you and me meeting face to face and you releasing my wife.”

  “I am not loco, Mr. Brown. You will not let me go. You would then have my women and me. I would have nothing.”

  Tan knew this would be a part of the problem with the negotiations ever since his mother had called to tell him that Joan had not come home. Then came the call from Phoenix PD telling him that a carryout boy at Safeway had seen Joan get in a car with a man leaving all her groceries in the cart and her trunk open. Something was wrong. He called PPD. He had the make and model and a few numbers from the temporary paper plate on the back of the car. The man was described as Mexican, older, and large.

  Borrago.

  “Look, Mr. Borrago, you have my wife and child. I want them back. I have your wife and three daughters. You want them back. Meet me anywhere and I will bring your women, you bring mine. You name the place and the time.”

  “I will call you back.”

  Borrago hit the end button.

  #

  Tan asked, “Did you get a trace?”

  “Working on it.”

  #

  Borrago turned to Joan. Where is a good place for us to go to meet with you husband and my women? Crowded, easy to watch the entrances, and easy to leave. Or out in the sticks with lots of ways out. I don’t care. I want my daughters.”

  “Do you not want your wife, Mr. Borrago.”

  “Yes, but she no longer wishes to be my wife.”

  “Why?”

  “Our son died at the beginning of the raid your husband led on my compound in Mexico. She will not forgive me for not bringing him home to her.”

  “I am truly sorry, Sir. To lose a son is a terrible thing.”

  “It is time.”

  “For what?”

  “A trip to the bathroom, Mrs. Brown.”

  Ten minutes later he called Tan again.

  “Yes, Mr. Ramage.”

  “I have a place and a time. You will come with your truck. The women will be in the back where I can see them. I will have your wife in air conditioned comfort inside my car. She is well. Hear this.” He held the phone out to Joan.

  “I am well, Tan. This man sounds sincere. Solid as a rock.”

  The last four words told Tan all he needed at the moment. It was a code between them meaning it is what it is and no tricks.

  Borrago said, “You see, she is well and will stay that way if you play fair.”

  “I don’t play fair with drug dealers, Mr. Borrago, but I will play fair as far as our families are involved. I can give them asylum and immunity if you give me my wife. They can then choose if they wish to go back to you or live without you. Will that do?”

  “No. I need time to talk with them, and I do not trust you. You violated the border after we gave you the treaty. You raided my hacienda and kill
ed my son. You killed most of my men. I have nothing. I will have my wife and daughters for long enough to speak with them, then they may choose. Until then, I have your wife.”

  “You hurt her and I will kill you.”

  “Alas, it is to no reason we threaten each other. All I want is peace and a life for my women. Is that too much to ask?”

  “All I want is my wife. Is that too much to ask? You do not have a reputation of fairness and truth, Mr. Borrago.”

  “Oh, and you do, Mr. Brown who sneaks across borders in the night and kills indiscriminately.”

  “You sent drugs across the border that kill and kill and kill. If the deeds were reversed you would have done the same thing.”

  “Stop this talk. I want my women. I have your wife. Meet me. No tricks. Or your wife and daughter die.”

  “Daughter? Where and when?”

  “I will call you in one hour with the information.”

  #

  Tan looked around the room. “Any suggestions?”

  No one gave him any hint of a suggestions.

  His cell phone buzzed. It was Joan’s number.

  “Yeah.”

  “This is Phoenix PD, Officer Blankenship. We have a found cell phone and your number is the most used number on it. Can you help us find the owner?”

  “This is Officer Les Brown of the Governor’s Special Investigator’s office. That is my wife’s phone. She is currently a victim of a kidnapping. Where did you find the phone?”

  He was told as he rushed to unfold a street map. He stopped. “That’s not three blocks from my home.”

  The officer responded, “A little girl found the phone in a ditch leading to a culvert. The battery had been taken out and all three pieces, phone, battery, and back cover, were there together. I put it together to call you.”

  “Do you know how to check the… Wait a minute. I have tracking turned on for her phone. Can you wait right there while I punch it up on my phone. Let me put you on speaker while I check.”

  “Sure.”

  Tan punched buttons and pounded the screen until Joan’s track since last Friday came up. The only unusual jog on the map was the one going around a couple of blocks that she had no reason to go on. “I got it, it tracked her to that location and quit.”

  “Seems reasonable,” the officer replied.

  Chuck asked, “Why would she take that crazy route at any time?”

  “She wouldn’t. Especially when you consider she is very pregnant. Driving isn’t comfortable. She would go where she had to go and straight home,” Rachel said.

  “Why would the kidnapper go that way which was almost our way home from that store? Why? “

  “He lives there?” Tank chimed in.

  “He lives there! You are my brightest man in this room.”

  Tank beamed.

  “Officer Blankenship, take the phone and give it to the little girl. Tell her it is hers paid in full for the next year, and then get out of the neighborhood. I’ll explain that to you tomorrow.”

  “Yes, Sir.” Blankenship walked over to the girl and her mother, handed her the phone, relayed the message, and drove off calmly and with purpose. He understood all the conversation on the other end of that call.

  25

  Tan thought for about three seconds, “I cannot send any of you into the neighborhood, you may be recognized. From all the diggin’ on Borrago we’ve done, his file, if he has one, could be full of your pictures.”

  Rachel spoke quietly, “What about the Gov’s body guards?”

  “Tank, you and Abdul head for the Gov’s office and send two of the bodyguards over here. Do not let anything happen to the Governor or she’ll kill me.”

  Minutes later two of the body guards came running through the door. “Each of you have your personal vehicle here today.”

  They both nodded.

  Tan filled them in.

  The two of them drove as fast as the law allowed and a few miles faster until they got back on city streets, where they slowed down and became model citizens.

  In a neighborhood filled with garages with doors finding a car was like finding the pot of gold in the outhouse. They each picked a section of the neighborhood and drove through it once looking for anything different. After covering two streets, one of the men stopped like he was receiving a phone call. Instead he made one.

  “Lars, got a funny looking house over here. Drapes and curtains on all the ground floor, but second and third floors have nothing on the windows. Come make a drive by for me. See if something stinks here.” He gave him the address. He called Tan to report the finding.

  Lars drove by slowly, checking a clip board against what he was seeing. Only thing was there was a blank sheet of paper on the clipboard. He saw the house and thought it was strange. Pulling into the next driveway, he walked to the front door, clip board in hand.

  A woman answered. He flashed his badge pushing the woman into the home. “It’s okay, Ma’am. Sorry for the push, but we needed to get out of sight. What can you tell me about the house next door?”

  “It’s a rental. Poor Mrs. Atley lost her husband a while back. Couldn’t afford the house on her Social Security check. Her son found her a place she was comfortable with and bought this place from her. Man rented it just yesterday. Arab looking fella, only no beard.”

  “Arab or Mexican?”

  “Could be Mexican, I suppose. Just struck me he might be a terrorist these days. Man alone and all secretive. Hasn’t even opened those curtains to get some light. And, look at those top floors, no curtains at all. He’s quiet anyhow. Drives out of the garage and back into it when he’s home. He’s even filled his pool and hasn’t used it.”

  “Thank you, Ma’am. Could I ask you to let me out the back door like I was checking your pool.”

  “I don’t have a pool. Never could afford one.”

  “Well, then, how about borrowing a tape measure and me looking like we’re going to install one.”

  “Sure. George has a tape right in the kitchen drawer. Wish he’d get his tools outta my kitchen. He’s got that whole garage to store his junk in and where does he put it, in my kitchen.” She handed him the tape.

  Lars laughed as he headed out the back door to the small patch of grass, sat his clipboard on a rock wall along the flower bed, and proceeded to look like he knew what he was doing. He was able to look into the back yard next door and get a look at all the windows on the back. Every window on the first floor was closed and draped with something. The AC unit was humming away with a purpose. There was no sign of yard furniture or pool toys.

  His mind told him something was fishy and he thought he knew what.

  Jotting a few numbers on an oval he had drawn on the paper, he headed back through the house telling the woman to stay inside and call her husband who was to take her out to dinner as soon as he could get there.

  He went outside and drove around the corner. Lars met Verle in front of the park where the phone had been found. They called Tan.

  As they talked a silver gray Toyota drove past. They checked the license. It was metal and not paper.

  Twenty minutes later three men from the swat team and Tan arrived at their location in civvies and driving a stealth car. Tan got the run down from Verle and Lars. He laid out the plan. The plan was so feeble he would never use it except for the fact it was his wife in there and he was going in.

  The six of them worked their way as near as possible to the house. One eased up on the garage door from the neighbor’s yard and looked through the window on the door. Nothing. There was no car there. From what the neighbor said, her new neighbor must be out.

  Tan walked to the front door after parking on the street. His face was partially blocked by a wide brimmed hat. He arrived at the front door after seeing two men in place at the front corners of the house crawling slowing toward him. He knocked. Nothing. He knocked again as he tried the door. It opened.

  The three of them went through the doorway drawing weap
ons and yelling, “Police. On the floor face down and freeze.”

  They felt very foolish when the only things they found in the whole house that was a note on the rented coffee table saying, “Bang, you’re dead!” and two empty toilet paper rollers in the downstairs bathroom.

  25

  Tan reported in as he kicked divots in the front yard while talking on his phone. The CSI vehicle was there five minutes later.

  An ‘all-units’ call was made reporting the license and other info on the car and possible occupants.

  #

  Just before Lars swung around the corner and spotted the house, Borrago and Joan left the garage and drove away. Joan had no idea where they were going, she was in the trunk with the couch cushions under her and pillows for her head. Borrago had promised her she would be free from the trunk in twenty minutes.

  Bart Ramage walked into a gun shop and chatted with the counterman for a few minutes about a new rifle for his upcoming hunt. He had finally been drawn for big horns after twelve years of trying. The man recommended a Remington .308 with a 3-9 power scope and soft nosed ammo from Hornady. Bart handed him his credit card and driver’s license. The clerk filled out the paperwork and fifteen minutes later handed Mr. Ramage his rifle, scope, and ammo.

  Borrago walked to the car, put his merchandise in the back seat, and drove away.

  Joan was not comfortable in the trunk. She was sweaty, cramped, and, of course at this stage of her pregnancy, she wasn’t comfortable anywhere. At least, that’s what she kept telling herself. She needed a bathroom.

  #

  Tan checked with Rachel to make sure the cell companies were still on the trace for Borrago’s phone. “You tell them if I find out they didn’t catch a call I will come down on them with real shock and awe, not the phony stuff Bush did, but real shock and awe. My wife’s life is in their hands. They blow it and I will come unglued all over them.”

  “Yes, Boss. They and we are on it. Don’t get all excited.”

  “Don’t get all excited. That’s my wife and daughter we’re talking about. Without her, what’s to live for?”