by Debra Webb
Trinity swallowed hard as she marched toward him. He’d seen her every single weekday this year at the office. No matter, each time his internal reaction was the same—uncertainty, yearning…frustration.
Fool he was, even five years hadn’t changed the way just watching her move made him feel. One thing was an absolute certainty, he would take that particular secret with him to his grave.
Giving her the satisfaction of knowing that she had the upper hand on his heart was one humiliation he had no desire to experience.
“Just received word from Simon that there are two possible addresses where Larkin has been known to hang out,” she announced as she strode toward Trinity’s position on the sidewalk.
Simon Ruhl was one of Victoria and Jim’s seconds in command. Possessing deep connections within the FBI, Simon could generally reach out to his contacts for swift and relevant information.
“Excellent,” Trinity acknowledged the news. It was a starting point. Rogers Park had more than its share of less than savory characters and locations. Wasting time sifting through them all was less than optimum under the circumstances.
Glancing past Trinity, then in the other direction, Von asked, “Where’s Jim?”
Jim Colby was the former head of the Equalizers. It had taken time, but the crew who’d come onboard from the Equalizers and the staff at the Colby Agency had learned to consider both Jim and Victoria “the boss.” Trinity doubted Von’s question about Jim had anything to do with her considering him her actual boss. Most likely she had hoped a third party would be around to provide a buffer between the two of them. Trinity had hoped for the same. Just another example of how luck had deserted him completely today.
“He’s on the phone with Chicago PD.” Trinity pulled the collar of his coat up around his neck. “They’re not too happy that we got the jump on their investigation. Larkin’s neighbor mentioned we’d been in the apartment. Jim’s doing damage control.”
Von made a disapproving face. “That’s ridiculous. Who cares who got the jump? Finding the kid is the goal here.”
Her lack of patience with the rules was a leftover of Equalizer methodology. That tactic had slowly but surely been overcome in recent months. Von, like the others, had learned the Colby way of conducting an investigation. Granted, this situation called for swift, decisive action, still some amount of interfacing was necessary when boundaries were breached.
Enemies were easy to make. Allies were far more difficult to attain and even harder to keep. The Colby Agency prided itself on cultivating and maintaining strong allies.
“Where to first?” she prompted.
Trinity kicked aside the distractions and gestured to the apartment building to their right. “Kobi Larkin has a sister who lives on the second floor. The sister, according to neighbors, has refused to speak to him since he and Wanda divorced. We’re hoping she can point us in the right direction.”
“Larkin may be scum,” Von commented as they crossed the street, “but he’s still the woman’s brother.” She shook her head as she surveyed both ends of the block once more. “In my experience a perp’s family is rarely any real help so I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
Trinity couldn’t cite any recent examples to dispute her assertion. But they had to try every avenue, no matter how remote.
Like the building where Wanda Larkin lived, this one was rundown and dingy. Despite the cold, four teenage males loitered on the steps leading to the front entrance. Von ignored their lewd comments. Trinity stared from one to the other, long enough to make them squirm. The door closed behind Von who hadn’t hung around to watch his protective maneuver.
He caught up with her on the stairs leading to the second floor. She didn’t bother glancing back. Von Cassidy could take care of herself and she didn’t like anyone indicating otherwise—in word or deed.
Fixing his gaze someplace besides on her swaying hips was a task. Trinity was glad when they reached the second-floor corridor.
“Two-fifteen,” he said as he led the way along the cluttered hall. Apparently tomorrow was trash pickup day. Most of the doors were flanked by bags of what had the look and smell of household garbage.
At apartment 215, he stopped and rapped on the door, careful to keep to the left in the event whoever was inside opted to take a shot at whoever had dared to knock. Von waited on the other side of the door.
“Who is it?”
The voice inside was female and distinctly unfriendly.
“Maggie Clemmons,” Trinity began, “my name is Trinity Barrett. I’m an investigator looking into the disappearance of your brother, Kobi Larkin, and I have a few questions for you. I’d appreciate it if you’d open the door and cooperate.”
Von arrowed him a look of approval. Nothing he’d said had been a flat-out lie, but he’d left out some relevant info like the fact that he wasn’t a cop.
“I don’t know anything about him or his friends,” the woman claimed. “I haven’t heard from that no-account bum in months.”
“Ma’am,” Trinity pressed, “just a few moments of your time will be greatly appreciated. This is a matter of the utmost importance.”
Silence.
Von raised her eyebrows in question at Trinity.
He wasn’t giving up just yet. “Ma’am?”
“I told you I don’t know anything,” came through the door.
“He took Lily,” Trinity added since the concept that her brother was missing hadn’t done the trick.
Trinity’s gaze locked with Von’s. If the child being in danger didn’t get through to the woman…likely nothing would. Maybe Von had been right in her assessment. Blood was thicker than water.
Grinding metal echoed from turning locks, providing the response they had hoped for. Relief flared in Trinity’s chest.
The door opened and a woman who’d obviously just saturated her hair with a color treatment looked from Trinity to Von and back. “He wouldn’t have taken Lily.” She shook her head adamantly as if that would make her words so. “No way.”
“May we come in, ma’am?” Trinity didn’t want to have this conversation in the corridor. Not with several doors cracked open just enough for nosy neighbors to see and hear too much already.
With a swipe to her brow with the towel dangling around her neck, the woman opened the door wider. “There’s got to be a mistake.”
Once Trinity and Von were inside, she closed the door. “Did Wanda say Kobi took Lily?”
“Ms. Clemmons, have you heard from your brother today?” Von asked.
Clemmons glared at Von, then blinked repeatedly. Apparently the pungent smell of the chemical hair treatment was getting to her. “I told you I haven’t heard from Kobi in months.” She blinked twice more. “Where’s Wanda? Why didn’t she come if what you’re saying is so? She wouldn’t just send somebody around saying such things.”
“Wanda is at Mercy General,” Trinity explained. “According to an update I received from my superior just a few minutes ago, she survived surgery and is currently in guarded condition.” Victoria had called just before Von arrived. He probably should have mentioned that to her as well. But he’d been too busy worrying about how they would manage to work together without killing each other.
The woman hugged her arms around her waist. “He swore to me that he didn’t hurt her. Is Wanda gonna be all right?”
So much for telling the truth.
“If Wanda pulls through with no permanent damage,” Von answered the question, “she’ll be very lucky. Kobi stabbed her, stripped her coat and boots off and left her to die in the snow beneath a stack of empty boxes in an alley where no one would find her.”
“Dear God,” Clemmons murmured.
“When did you speak to Kobi?” Trinity pressed, hoping to get the truth before Clemmons had time to rethink her position.
“About two o’clock, I guess.” She dabbed at her forehead with the towel again. “He said they’d had a big fight, but that everything was gonna be okay. He said
he was going away for a while. To get himself together.” She turned her palms up in an earnest manner. “That’s why he called. After all this time, he just wanted to say bye before he left.” Her head wagged side to side. “He’s pushed her around from time to time but he never hurt her…like this.”
Not so according to the neighbor, but Trinity wasn’t arguing the point. He needed this woman to keep talking.
“Did he give you any idea where he might be planning to go?” Von demanded before Trinity could, keeping the pressure on.
Maggie Clemmons shrugged. “He just said he was owed some money and he was gonna use it to do the right thing…finally.”
“Do you have reason to believe he planned to, as you say, get himself together?” Trinity hoped the man had perhaps gone into hiding with his child and meant no harm to her. Finding a scumbag like him wouldn’t be that difficult. So far, he hadn’t proven that smart. “To do the right thing?”
Clemmons heaved a weary sigh. “No. He’s said that before. He probably took the money and got more drugs. That’s what he usually does.” She divided her attention between Trinity and Von. “That’s why I know he wouldn’t have taken Lily with him. He don’t care about much but he does want her to have a better life. He’s always said she deserves better than he or Wanda could give her.”
“The fact of the matter is,” Trinity said somberly, “he did take Lily, after leaving Wanda for dead. It doesn’t sound like he has Lily’s best interests at heart just now.”
“We have to find him,” Von added. “Before he allows any harm to come to the child…before the police find him. If you care about your brother you need to help us. You know what they do to people who hurt children.”
Silence screamed in the room for two beats. Trinity hoped Von’s strategy worked. A plea from woman to woman—one that included hope for the brother.
“Charlie Jones,” Clemmons said with a confirming nod. “I don’t know where he is. But Charlie knows Kobi better than anyone. He’ll know how to find him.”
“How do we find Charlie?” Trinity asked. “We have to hurry. There’s no time for tracking him down.
Not if you can give us that information.”
Clemmons hurried over to the end table next to her sofa. She scribbled something on a pad of paper, then ripped the page free and brought it to Trinity. “This is his address. I don’t know his phone number. But you’ll find him here. If anyone knows where Kobi is, it’s Charlie.”
While Von thanked Ms. Clemmons, Trinity made his way into the corridor and put through a call to Simon Ruhl. By the time they reached the stair well, Trinity had relayed the name and address to Simon for intelligence gathering. Any info available from any and all sources could prove useful in their approach.
Trinity dropped his cell phone into his jacket pocket. “Simon will call us if he finds anything.” Since the address was only fifteen or so minutes away the preliminary info might be minimal, but they couldn’t wait around for additional details.
Von put her hand out to push through the door of the building’s front exit. “If we’re—”
She abruptly whirled around. Shoved Trinity against the wall. And kissed him.
His fingers tightened in her coat with the intention of pushing her away…but they relaxed instantly as the reality that Von was kissing him sank into his brain. His eyes closed as the feel of her hot mouth moving over his trumped all other senses.
Vaguely he was aware that the door opened and people entered the building. He heard the shuffling of boots, the hushed exchange of male voices. Trinity wanted to open his eyes and assess the new arrivals but her tongue slid along his and all other thought vanished.
Her arms went around his neck and he promptly forgot the past five years…the hurt…the arguments…the loneliness he’d felt so many, many nights along with anyone or anything else he should have been thinking about just now.
“Get a room,” a male voice grunted.
Male laughter faded along with the heavy footfalls tromping up the stairs.
Von suddenly drew away. “Let’s go.”
Trinity blinked. Grappled with the concept of what had just happened.
Von pushed out the door.
He swiped his still burning mouth with the back of his hand. “What the hell?” With a bewildered glance up the stairs, he shuffled out the door to catch up with her.
“You mind explaining what that was about?” he demanded when he caught up with her hurried stride.
She jerked her head toward the street and the dark sedan illegally parked in a red zone. “Cops.”
Trinity stopped. He stared at the sedan then back at the apartment building.
“Come on,” Von called back. “We’re wasting time.”
Since Trinity had arrived in the neighborhood with Jim Colby, he didn’t have much choice but to go wherever he went from here with Von.
He climbed into the passenger seat of her SUV.
His lips still tingled from the unexpected kiss.
It hadn’t meant anything, he reminded that truly stupid part of himself that wanted to be psyched about the fact that she had kissed him for any reason.
Von would do whatever it took to get the job done.
Even kissing a guy she disliked…her ex-husband.
Trinity’s cell phone vibrated. He pulled it from his pocket to check the screen. A text from Simon.
Proceed with extreme caution.
Target is dangerous.
More details to come.
Trinity confirmed that he had received the information. He slid his phone back into his jacket pocket and checked the weapon at his waist.
“Got your weapon?” he asked the driver.
Von sent him a sidelong glance. “Have you ever known me to be without it?”
An avalanche of memories twisted his gut.
At that moment Trinity wasn’t so sure Charlie Jones was going to be the most dangerous aspect of this investigation.
He swallowed back the doubt.
Whatever he had to face…the top priority was finding that little girl and bringing her safely back to her mother.
Chapter Five
5:40 p.m. (four hours missing)
Von studied the photo of Charlie Jones sent via a multimedia message to her phone by Simon. Forty years of age, according to the stats accompanying the photo, long, stringy brown hair, cocaine-skinny with an extra long rap sheet. A real dirtbag.
Even worse, this was a friend of Lily Larkin’s father—the man who had disappeared with her after stabbing and leaving her mother for dead.
Not good.
A snowman, leaning precariously to one side, adorned one of the postage-stamp-sized yards of rundown duplexes.
Only one streetlight worked and that was on the end opposite of where Von had opted to park, allowing for the possibility of trouble getting damned close without warning. The up side was that the dark provided good cover for her black SUV.
Lily Larkin had been missing approximately four hours. Every additional moment that passed was one too many. Von wanted to find that little girl.
“The cops will be right behind us,” Trinity commented. “If they get to Jones first, we’ll be at an impasse.”
“Then what’re we waiting for?” Von had wanted to move as soon as they pulled to the curb. Her partner was the one who’d insisted they hold off.
Colby rules—the investigator with the most seniority at the agency was lead.
“That,” Trinity said, his attention fixed on the row of housing “is what we waited for.”
Two men exited the front door of the duplex suspected as being the hangout of Jones and his friends. The interior light disappeared as soon as the front door closed behind them but not before Von got a decent look at the man with long, stringy brown hair.
“He got a heads-up that the police are asking questions about him,” Von said, voicing the realization that barged into her brain a few seconds later than it had her reluctant partner’s.
“Can you stay on him without him noticing?” Trinity turned to her. “We can’t risk losing him.”
Von didn’t justify his question with a response. She shook her head as she started the SUV’s engine. They were married for three years, during which time she and Trinity had tracked down numerous bail jumpers as well as varied and sundry bad guys.
He knew her driving and surveillance abilities.
“Lots of things can change in five years,” he noted as if that explained everything.
Another remark she wasn’t going to bother rejoining.
She gave Jones a half a block head start before easing away from the curb. The sparse traffic made getting any closer dicey at best.
“He’s taking the upcoming left.”
Like she couldn’t see the luxury silver SUV easing toward the center line. “Looks that way.”
Von drove past the street the target had taken.
Trinity didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to. She felt his tension radiating across the center console. He would have chosen a different strategy. Tough, he wasn’t driving.
She took the next left. Drove the short block and braked for the stop sign at the subsequent intersection. “And there he goes,” she noted aloud as the silver SUV drove past their position.
Trinity said nothing as she made the right turn and followed the target.
Truth was, she couldn’t read minds and the target could just as easily have gone in the opposite direction. That, too, would have been fine. She would have seen his taillights and followed. This neighborhood was pretty barren.
This street was flanked by rundown shops that had long ago closed for business. Scarcely any streetlights still worked. Jones was playing it safe, keeping a low profile in a deserted area where anyone watching was likely up to no good as well. And would be easily spotted.
Von’s choice to take a different route had been a simple diversion tactic that had a fifty percent chance of success.
