by Dale Mayer
“Or he had to leave too fast. Plus he has a month to come back and get this stuff.”
He turned to look at her. “You think he’s guilty, don’t you?”
“I don’t know that for sure. You guys have given me moments of doubt. But he’s the closest link I have to finding Tammy,” she said very quietly. “If he didn’t do it, I don’t know where else to look.”
He understood she was loathe to let go of a suspect, but she needed to start looking in another corner. A lot of other options were under consideration still. The thing was, without bodies, there could be no closure and often no answers.
Saul’s phone rang again. He checked the Caller ID. Ice. “Yes, we’re in the locker, but I’m not finding anything relevant yet. Did you get anywhere with Daniel’s company?”
“Yes, he had asked for time off. He left on a Tuesday. He was due back today but didn’t show up at work.”
“Nobody at work has seen him since a week ago?”
“No. His coworkers didn’t know anything. They figured he was sick. He had not been in the best shape the previous week, so, when he asked for time off, the boss just assumed Daniel was struggling. He didn’t give a reason other than the fact he wasn’t feeling well.”
“Interesting. Did he have any friends we need to talk to at work? Anybody who would know more?”
“Yeah, Tammy.” Ice gave a short laugh. “The boss said he’d come close to firing Daniel several times over the last year. Tammy had submitted a complaint against Daniel at one point as well. I spoke to the head of HR, Roger Ginrod. He had no new information on Tammy. He understood the police had opened a missing person’s file on her, and, until I brought that up, he hadn’t considered Daniel’s disappearance questionable at all.”
“Even when Daniel didn’t show up for work today?”
“Yes, but that’s not unusual for Daniel. Plus no one noticed as his supervisor was scheduled to be in meetings all day.”
“So we now have two missing persons from the same office. Yet somebody answered Daniel’s phone, potentially Daniel himself, to keep his brother happy.”
“Yes, which means it’s likely somebody close enough to Daniel knows his brother’s a SEAL and would raise shit if something happened to his kid brother.”
“Yes, that’s quite possible.”
“Can you access the security cameras on the apartment building?” he asked Ice.
“We went through proper channels and asked the police. They’ve refused. It’s an ongoing investigation and they aren’t willing to share.”
“So we are bypassing that, right?” Saul asked with a wince. “I know perfectly well we can. It’s just how far across the line are we willing to go?”
“Give me another hour to work my way through this.”
He hung up, knowing perfectly well she would find a way around the legal route if she had no other option. But, in the meantime, it would be nice to know the last time Daniel left this property. Saul turned to Rebel to explain. “They tried to get legal access to the security cameras in the building.”
“The police said they would check the video cameras here as well,” Rebel said. She pulled out her wallet and retrieved a business card. “Have Ice contact this man. He’s a detective on Tammy’s case.”
While she watched, Saul sent the information to Ice in a quick text. “Maybe we’ll get some action here after all.”
“I hope so. Nothing makes sense to date.”
They hadn’t gotten more than a few feet away when Ice called back. “Security cameras were down the entire weekend Tammy was there, and the cops suspect Daniel hacked into the system. The detective did say they are treating Tammy’s disappearance as a potential kidnapping/murder. But, of course, until her body shows up, or the bad guys make contact, nobody knows what happened for sure.”
“Will he work with us?” Saul asked.
“He appeared to be happy to take any information we had to offer. He understood you guys were here looking for Daniel, and that your cases have collided. I’ve told him that you will contact him sometime in the next hour. I didn’t tell him about the storage locker, so, when you call, it will give you something to tell him.”
“Does he know we’ve been inside the apartment?”
“You’re entitled. Benji was the co-owner on the property and gave you permission. You have full rights to go in and check.”
“Good.” Saul hung up and smiled. “At least now we have the law working on our side too.”
Chapter 5
By the time they walked back outside, frustration and fatigue rolled in waves through Rebel’s head. She just wanted this over. But she didn’t want it to end with a dead body—not even Daniel’s. She wanted her friend back home safe and sound with her bright smile and shiny light-blue eyes in what had often been a dark and dreary world for Rebel. Why was it always the nice people who got hurt? Tammy went out of her way to even help spiders. Like, who did that?
Rebel leaned against the hood of her car and rubbed her temple. Something must have been left behind by whomever did this to her.
“You may have to accept the fact she was accosted on the way home. She could have been attacked at any number of places and not even related to Daniel’s disappearance.” Saul’s voice was low.
“I don’t want to accept anything other than her being home safe and sound,” Rebel murmured. “But I’m also very aware not all dreams come true. The fact that it’s been ten days now terrifies me.”
Saul nodded. He leaned against the car hood beside her. “The police should’ve checked the city traffic cams on the route between Daniel’s and her home. It’s possible they can find her somewhere on her journey.”
“I don’t know if they did that. Not even sure they went through Daniel’s apartment’s video cameras.”
“The detective told Ice that the cameras were down. And that, of course, is suspicious.”
Rebel nodded. “This is a nice apartment, but the security isn’t superhigh. Until somebody checked the footage, they wouldn’t know it was down, right?”
He nodded. “Only the high-end apartments have security guards monitoring the comings and goings of their patrons.”
“Was the security itself down, or were the video cameras destroyed?”
He shook his head. “I have no idea.”
“Big difference. One could’ve been physical damage, and the other could be IT hacking.” She turned and added, “Why no outside security cameras?”
“There is one.” He pointed to a camera attached to the light over the parking lot. “I don’t know if anybody checked that one or not.” He pulled out his phone and sent a text to Ice. When he was done, he returned his phone to his pocket. “What will you do now?”
She turned to look at him. “I can’t believe I’ve only known you for a few hours,” she muttered, not answering his question. “It seems like I’ve known you for years.”
He gave her a gentle smile. “Times of stress and upset like this shorten the initial acclimation period when meeting and getting to know people. There is just no time to spend on the social niceties. And often you’ll see somebody for a full year, like a neighbor, but you won’t have spoken more than a couple dozen words in that time. But it feels like you know them. In our case we just get to the nitty-gritty right away.”
She smiled. “Benji must be nice for you guys to pull out all the stops to help him like this. I met him once months ago when he showed up at the office to take Daniel to lunch but don’t know Benji otherwise.”
“He’s an awesome guy. He works hard, fighting for our country. If there’s anything we can do to keep his family safe, then we’ll do it.”
She studied Saul for a long moment. “That’s very patriotic and very emphatic. Why didn’t you join the military if you feel that way?”
“I was in the military—in a unit similar to Benji’s. I’m out now. And I’m doing what I can in the private sector.”
“Oh.” Suddenly she felt a whole lot be
tter being around him. “I hadn’t considered it from that perspective.”
“A lot of people don’t. While Benji’s off fighting for us, he can’t be here fighting for his brother. That’s where we step in.”
“Nice. I want to believe Daniel changed over the last year, but I still have my doubts. He broke Tammy’s heart the first time. I was shocked when she opened that door again. She said he was so sincere and so different, but I just didn’t believe it.”
Feeling hot tears burn her eyes, she wiped them away and cleared her throat. The last thing she wanted was to be the weeping, crying, weak woman here. “I just don’t know what to do anymore. I’ve taken the bus from Daniel’s to Tammy’s apartment and back several times, looking for any place where she might’ve gotten off, looking for any reason why somebody would’ve tried to take her. I’ve walked part of those streets looking at every alleyway. I can’t find any trace of her.”
He reached out and gripped her shoulder. “I’m so sorry. Unfortunately we often don’t get answers for years and years and sometimes never. But that doesn’t mean we give up hope.”
She stared at the pavement. “I’ve got hope. But I’m starting to lose faith.”
By agreement they drove back to Tammy’s apartment, where Merk, Stone and Dakota, now back, remained camped out, tied to their computers. As Rebel and Saul walked into the kitchen, an air of excitement surrounded the place. “What’s new? What’s happened?”
“Benji left his phone with Ice to see if she could trace his last call to Daniel. Benji picked up another one for his own purposes while he’s overseas,” Stone said.
And Merk continued. “She just intercepted a text message from Daniel.”
“What did it say?” Saul demanded.
“Help.”
Not what Saul expected at all. “Did we get a location from the text?”
Stone nodded. “In a rough part of town. Down by the docks.”
“Interesting,” Saul said.
“So we’re heading there now?” Rebel asked, heading toward the front door again.
“Almost,” Merk said, nodding his head toward Stone as his fingers flew over the keyboard. “Waiting to see if we can pinpoint it a little closer.”
“Got it,” Stone announced. He spun the laptop around to show a beeping marker on the map.
Saul looked closer. He knew the area. This was a bad street. He turned and headed for the front door. “Let’s go.”
“Was there any mention of Tammy?”
Dakota looked at Rebel and shook his head. “I’m sorry. Nothing other than I’m in trouble. Help.”
Biting her lower lip, she nodded. “I’ll go with Saul.”
The men stood, shaking their heads. “No way,” Stone said.
Saul added, “I’ll let you know as soon as we find anything.”
She glared at them. “I have to find out what happened to Tammy.”
“And we’ll do what we can to find her. But we must get Daniel first. That is our priority. We’ve tracked him down. If he can help us find Tammy, even better. But we have to get him.”
“Maybe Tammy’s with him.”
“Then we’ll rescue both.”
She chewed on her bottom lip and glared at them, then finally nodded. But she would follow them anyway.
The men disappeared out the front door. She was left alone in Tammy’s kitchen. She quickly locked up her friend’s apartment and raced to her own vehicle. They wouldn’t know if she was heading home or not, but she’d rather not be seen or they’d only stop her to question her.
The men hopped into the jeep and pulled from the parking lot. She kept several blocks behind them. She plugged the dock location into her vehicle’s GPS and waited for her system to provide her with the best route. Keeping far enough away from the jeep to not be obvious but close enough to maintain sight of them, she headed in the same direction.
*
“You think she’ll follow us?” Merk asked Saul.
“Absolutely,” Saul said. “She’s determined to save her friend.”
“Admirable but foolish if she’s not equipped to handle the danger she could be facing,” Stone added.
“She’s got guts. And she’s loyal. As far as she’s concerned, Daniel’s responsible for her best friend’s disappearance. No way in hell she’ll let us get our hands on him and cut her out of this opportunity to find out more about Tammy.”
“Guys,” Dakota said, “this may be a decoy, a ruse, just like those emails sent to Tammy were supposedly from Daniel too.”
The other men just nodded, all immersed in their own thoughts.
They reached a T-shaped intersection ten minutes later, deep into the docks, the water before them. Saul turned right, pulled alongside the far corner of one of the industrial-looking buildings and killed the jeep’s headlights. They all hopped out silently and set up to search the premises—one very large main building and several smaller buildings. A dark parking lot ran down the side of one of the buildings. It looked like an abandoned warehouse. And that was never good.
Merk and Stone took the front. Saul and Dakota slipped around the back, first checking out a small outbuilding the size of a garden shed. It was empty, the door hanging crookedly on its hinges. Next they approached the rear of the abandoned-looking warehouse with its first-floor windows mostly broken. They quietly pulled open the door, not surprised to find it unlocked.
No point in locking something when access could be gained via the busted-out windows.
They stepped inside and listened but found only silence. They did a quick search of the ground floor. It was empty. They met their other two team members in the middle, splitting up again; each team of two went up one of the two staircases to check the second floor.
Despite the email, they had no guarantee Daniel had ever been in this building. Also no guarantee Daniel was still here or even if he had sent the cry for help.
Up here were rooms—probably used as offices at one time—on both sides of a hallway. Saul thought he heard something. With a finger to his lips, he slipped to the side along one wall. Might have been a snuffle. Somebody sleeping? Maybe trying to sleep. He peered into the darkness, waiting for his eyes to adjust. No windows were on this level, and the evening sun had gone down, leaving just a gloomy darkness. Not the pitch black of night, but more shadows than anything. He glanced into the first room, stepped quietly across the hallway to checked the opposite room. Nothing. He signaled to Dakota who went in the opposite direction.
Saul came up behind him, and they did a quick sweep of the third room, finding in its far back corner empty food wrappers. Fast food, chocolate bars. They frowned and found a pile of blankets in another corner. They continued to search the upstairs until a distinctive thud rippled through the building. Instantly they froze at the sound, waiting for another, then backtracked and headed toward the source.
Coming around a corner, weapons out, they approached the last hall to be checked upstairs. More empty offices, more footsteps in the dust and dirt. On high alert, they rounded one more corner, ready. And found Stone and Merk back to back, standing over a body on the floor, their weapons at the ready.
Merk gave a hand signal, pointing at Dakota to chase after the killer. Dakota took off without making a sound.
Saul stepped closer and whispered, “Is it Daniel?”
Stone shook his head. “No.” He used his cell phone’s flashlight to spotlight the face of the body, the blood still pouring from his wound. “Looks to be a homeless man.”
“Possibly, but that slice to his neck was made by a sharp knife,” Merk noted.
“Do we think Daniel did this?” Saul asked.
Stone shook his head. “I’m not sure what’s going on. I think somebody’s after Daniel and found this man instead. This guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time and became collateral damage.”
Merk’s phone vibrated. After a listening only a few seconds, he said, “Come on back.” Pocketing his phone, he told Stone and
Saul, “He got away.”
They did a quick search in the rest of the room but found no more fresh blood. Only one man had died here tonight, and it wasn’t Daniel.
“Shit. Daniel’s gone.”
“Gone or never was here in the first place.” The men looked at each other with grim faces. “What the hell is going on?”
Chapter 6
She parked beside the jeep and crept out of her car. Any other day, she’d be miles away from here, but, for a lead to save Tammy, she’d brave even this part of town. Thankfully the men were up ahead somewhere. She didn’t know how helpful it would be if they saw her, as they would be quite pissed. But she couldn’t afford to be left behind. Tammy was out there somewhere, just like Daniel was out there somewhere. And she was pretty damn sure, if she found one, she’d find the other. She crept into the building, her skin crawling with heightened sensations.
The dark shadows shifted with menace, echoing the emptiness that smelled of urine and spoke of danger. Shivering but determined, she took several cautious steps forward, searching the hallways and the rooms on the ground floor. All were completely empty. The men had to be here somewhere. Hearing footsteps, she hid behind a post. She wasn’t sure if it was one of the guys or somebody else. Then she realized the footsteps were from a single person, creeping up the stairs. Shit. She bit her lip and made a quick decision.
The men were here, and, if they weren’t on the main floor, they had to be upstairs with an intruder sneaking up on them. She hoped she hadn’t signed her death warrant as she neared the stairwell and found it empty. Had she mistaken what she’d heard? Sticking to one side, she crept up the stairs, relieved when she heard Saul’s voice. So the men were here. When Saul said, “Dead man,” her heart froze.
She raced quietly in the direction of the voices, stopped at the doorway and studied the room. She could see the men standing around a crumpled figure on the floor. From the corner of her eye, she caught the whisper of a shadow and thought of the footsteps she thought she’d heard earlier. She backtracked to an earlier room and ducked inside.
