He closed his eyes and surrendered.
47
Agent Kate Harper watched, counting down from one hundred to zero, as Senator Richards walked the length of the short street, opened the garbage and threw the briefcase inside. She turned back and scanned the surrounding buildings. Kate clearly saw defiance across the Senator’s features as the woman held her cellphone over her head.
Senator Richards turned around three times before starting on the journey back to her car, her cellphone out in front. The Senator got back into her Lexus and Kate breathed out and gave a small whoop. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath. Even Agent Marks looked pleased. She got back on the walkie.
“Senator is back in the car. Should we follow her?” Kate asked.
“No. Team four will take over for you. You’re the closest to the briefcase. Stay with the money.” Lipsky ordered.
“Copy that,” Kate said and signed off. “You heard the man.”
“She’s not getting Lorelei back this way, is she?” Agent Dale asked making Kate jump a bit in her seat. She forgot the woman was even there.
“Most likely not.”
“The kidnapper would have texted already?”
“Something like that,” was all Kate said. She had believed this farce was never about the money and had been sure they’d see Johan Luken making some sort of appearance. But she’d been wrong about Johan and wondered if she’d been too hasty about the money as well. Only one way to find out.
“Now we wait.”
They’d been sitting in the car for over two hours and the briefcase had not left the garbage. Nary a soul ventured out onto Molino Street in the entire two hours they’d been stationed there. The walkie crackled rousing the entire car out of a bored stupor.
“Suspect coming down the street disguised as a homeless man. He’s pulling a filled shopping cart,” the voice on the other end said. Kate couldn’t make out the voice; maybe it was one of the boys from terrorism.
“Could also be a homeless guy,” Kate shot back.
“Suspect walked next to me and boy did he smell. I think this might be a real homeless guy.” Another agent said. The radio beeped again, this time Kate knew Lipsky’s phlegmy voice.
“Everybody stay at their stations. This looks to be a false alarm.”
“Copy that.” Kate and her car watched as the homeless man made his way down the street and passed the garbage can.
“Keep it together, people. False alarm. Everyone back to their positions,” Lipsky reminded them. Kate was certain that something had gone wrong and nobody was picking up that money.
“We have a car. We have a car. Everyone stand by.” Kate and the other agents sat up to attention and watched as a black car crawled down the street and parked several doors down from the dumpster. A girl and her boyfriend came stumbling out of the car and up to the nearest doorway. They couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. They got inside and Molino Street fell silent. Kate clicked open the radio.
“Has the senator received a text, Agent Lipsky?” The walkie stayed quiet for several moments and Kate wondered if Lipsky had been ordered not to answer her. Paranoid much, she thought.
“Negative. No one has reached out to Senator Richards. I’m worried we’ve been compromised.”
“Agent Lipsky, I’ve found something,” came an excited voice over the line. “It’s his car. Johan Luken’s. Parked just a block away. I ran the plates on all the parked cars like you asked. You were right, Johan is here, somewhere.”
Lipsky barked out orders for an immediate sweep of the entire block. The chase was on and Kate would not be able to do or say anything to convince Agent Morris and his men that Johan Luken was not their man.
48
Johan forced his eyes open. He was strapped to a gurney, restraints at his wrists and ankles. The only part of him that moved was his head. He rotated it to get a better look at his surroundings and almost passed out from the effort. He was in some sort of tunnel, he thought, and tried to retain that piece of information. Johan’s mind clouded over and he lost the battle to unconsciousness.
Johan Luken knew he was still underground before he even opened his eyes. His naked body shivered from the dampness of the stone underneath him and his teeth chattered uncontrollably. Why did he have to strip him?
He opened his eyes to a pitch-blackness surrounding him. Not the faintest bit of light penetrated his prison. He sat up and groaned with the excruciating pain emanating from his head. Whatever drug Asmodeus had given him had still not fully worn off.
He lifted his arms above his head and felt nothing but air. He hadn’t been put into a small box. Johan’s claustrophobia wasn’t severe, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to handle an enclosed space in his condition.
Taking his time standing up, he made sure not to hit his head and stretched out his arms to feel the ceiling. His fingers moved over roughhewn stones. His fingers guided him forward to where ceiling met wall.
He counted twenty paces until he felt the edge of the two walls. Another ten paces to his left, and then another twenty. The last wall had a door in it, and when he stuck his face against the crack, he breathed in fresh cold air and fought the urge to cry. He’d make it out of here. He had to. Johan Luken would not perish in a black hole. His lids grew heavy and he let oblivion in.
Johan opened his eyes again and knew immediately where he was. Sara description of Limbo as a space of no discernible light source and a soft gray covering every surface was spot in. His eyes swam with the lack of contrast. It reminded him of the effect noise from an old TV set had on the eyes.
He lay in the middle of a hallway that stretched endlessly in either direction. Doorways peppered both walls on either side of him and he figured he was in the labyrinth that Sara had talked about. He stood up on stiff legs and held the walls for support. Johan’s head swam against the blandness, the nothingness.
Nothing here had corners or edges and the graininess made it hard to focus. Fear coursed through his body and he tamped it down by sheer willpower. If he was getting out of here, and that was a big if, then he needed all his wits about him.
He clutched at the thread of hope and pulled his mind back from the brink. Sara had reached limbo when she was in a coma. Did that mean Asmodeus put him in a coma as well with whatever drug he injected him with? Or was he dead? Was there any another explanation?
Johan swallowed hard to make sure that everything still worked and pushed the thought out of his mind. If it was the second option, then there wasn’t much he could do about it. He focused on option one and knew he needed to reach his mind out of this place. Or call someone in. If he was in here, then there was no way that he and Eva’s plan could come to fruition. In fact, they would lead Sara straight into Asmodeus’ trap.
“Johan think,” he muttered.
Anderson wouldn’t be able to help him because he was in Eva’s head. Was there another lost soul in this labyrinth that could tell him of a way out? If there was a way in, there had to be a way out. Johan rose off the ground and opened the door directly across from him. It led to another hallway and more doors. He closed it back up again and proceeded down the hall, opening every door he encountered. Not a lost soul in sight.
The only sounds in this place were his footfalls and breathing, and they’d never sounded as ominous as they did now. He swallowed again and noticed his thirst. Was that another a way to be damned? To be hungry and thirsty without the chance of ever satisfying the hunger or thirst?
Johan had only been here for minutes and he now understood why Sara gave up their life together to never come back there. If he didn’t find a way out of here, he was sure he’d lose his mind.
“Get yourself together, Johan. Sara stayed sane in here for a month. The least you could do is not break down in the first five minutes of waking up in the place.” He said out loud, his voice muffled and flat.
“Help me, help me,” he shouted but the sound coming out of his mouth w
as feeble. No one would hear him through these walls. He opened the next door on his right and stepped inside another hallway.
Johan would see where these hallways led. If he kept on walking, he had to find another lost soul in here. Sara’s fearful face flashed back at him. He’d been such a jerk to her. When he got out of here, he’d make it up to her.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I shouldn’t have done forced you to do anything.” He concentrated on her aura, her smell, and the feel of her and hoped his voice could penetrate her walls.
Sara had kept her walls closed for months, or, at least, that’s what she had told him. He stopped.
But Anderson must have some contact with limbo. After all, he was just a spirit, a spirit squatting in another’s body. Maybe you be able to reach him instead. He forced his mind to think of Eva and her house and the way she looked.
His mind went searching for her.
49
Sara Caine and Eva Murphy pulled into Ritchie’s parking lot. They hadn’t spoken much since Eva accosted Sara at the coffee shop and Sara was fine with that. She was having a difficult time containing her panic and, if she was honest with herself, was close to having a full panic attack. She had been practicing her breathing exercises the entire trip and worried that if Eva attempted to have a conversation with her, she’d lose all the composure she had and fully lose it.
“I know,” Eva started.
“What?” Sara asked. “We should get out. Ritchie is waiting for us.”
“Are you even able to walk?”
“What kind of question is that?” Sara asked.
“You look pale and are panting. I’ve been around people who were in the midst of a panic attack.” Eva said and Sara heard the kindness in her voice.
“I’m scared.”
“You have every right to be.” Eva said. Sara wished Eva wasn’t as truthful as she was.
“I’ve been sitting racking my brain about how we could help Johan but I’m coming up blank.”
“You’re missing the solution.”
The blood rushed into Sara’s face. What in the world was this woman saying?
“You can do this.” Eva’s voice turned soft.
“I can’t. Believe me, if I could I would have already.” Sara said while staring straight ahead. It was becoming extremely difficult to hold back her anguish.
“Johan told me how hard it was for you to use your...” Eva stopped and shot her an encouraging look. “Gifts. Fear is a terrible foe. Trust me, I know. When you’re ready, you’ll be able to embrace the fear and vanquish it.”
“I’m not ready.”
“There is no other way for us to contact Johan. Please, Sara. For him.” Eva might as well have gut punched her. Sara wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out.
“I can’t.” Sara whispered.
“At least try,” Eva said and took her by the hand. “Close your eyes.”
Sara obeyed.
“Take a deep breath.” Sara pulled in as much breath as she could and then slowly released it.
“See that wall in front of you. Pull it down gently, like you would a shade in your bedroom.” Eva squeezed her hand again.
“Is it down?”
“Yes.”
“Call him,” Eva said.
Sara concentrated all of her focus on a mental picture of his face. She took down a second wall.
“Johan, can you hear me?” she whispered. When he didn’t respond, she let go of her remaining walls and screamed his name.
“JOHAN!” He didn’t answer. There was no sign of him. That knowledge frightened Sara more than anything else previously had.
To her dismay, the others heard her cry for him.
The whispering and shouting of the undead, the lost souls trapped in this world, all came toward her in a wall of deafening sound. She put her hands against her ears and screeched from pain. Their voices came in waves, as did her nausea.
Sara had announced to them all that she was back. They had been waiting for her to do that and now came at her. Their needs sapped her energy, and it took her all her power to put the walls back up into place inside her mind. Once they were there and stable, Sara collapsed in the passenger seat and gave herself over to the panic attack. She gripped Eva’s hand as each wave of fear crashed against her, doing its best to bring her to her knees.
50
Special Agent Kate Harper stood in front of the body of the man strapped to the pleasure wheel and wondered how in the world people found pleasure in being whipped.
“Haven’t seen one of these crime scenes yet,” Special Agent Lipsky’s voice boomed behind her. He’d gotten there in record time. Kate turned to him.
“The team has found no sign of Johan Luken in the vicinity. We found a broken syringe in an alleyway not too far from here. I got it bagged and tagged for evidence.”
“In this part of town? We’ll find black tar heroin inside of there, I’m sure,” Agent Lipsky said.
“Just doing my due diligence,” Kate said. She had thought the same thing when one of the agents found it but she wasn’t about to give Lipsky the satisfaction of thinking he was right.
“Are we thinking Mr. S&M is related to our kidnapping victim?” Agent Lipsky asked as he watched the team go over the loft.
“All we know right now is that this is Daniel Gandrien, and this is his loft. From the various paraphernalia scattered around, we can infer that he was a photographer. We have found no connection to Lorelei Richards or Johan Luken.”
“Photographer? Didn’t your case file include some snuff film?”
“Yes, but we have found no evidence connecting him to it. But the night is young.”
“We need to pull our resources back to looking for Lorelei Richards. Leave this man to the LAPD.” Agent Lipsky said. Kate couldn’t believe she had to take orders from the likes of him.
“I’ll get on that but shouldn’t we finish our investigation to make sure he wasn’t involved?” Kate asked.
“If I thought that, I would have said so. Make the call to the LAPD now, Agent Harper.” Agent Lipsky ordered and Kate suppressed her scowl. Let him hang himself, she thought.
“I’ll get right on that,” she replied and turned away from the dead man. She couldn’t put her finger on it but none of this felt right, and she was wondering what Mr. Gandrien involvement really was. Kate didn’t believe Johan Luken murdered the man, but she was suspecting that he was involved in the snuff film business. She shot a look over to Lipsky lording over one of the other agents. She would not get any help with that theory, however.
There was no way she was going rogue again though. She’d get kicked out of the FBI for good this time. She dialed Detective Gutierrez and did as she’d been ordered.
51
Sara Caine woke up on Ritchie’s hard black leather couch and groaned. Her head ached and her mouth was filled with cotton. Eva Murphy was nowhere to be seen and from the darkness of the place it was still night.
“What time is it?” Sara asked Ritchie. He brought her some water, and they sat silent as she gulped the water down. The cool liquid coated her rough throat. “Where’s Eva?”
“She went home to catch a couple hours of sleep and shower. I told her I’d watch over you. It sounds like you had a rough ride.”
“Did I pass out?”
“Yes, you did. Do you remember coming up here?” Ritchie asked.
“A little bit.” Flashes were coming back to her through the throbbing of her head. Eva helping her up the stairs, Ritchie picking her up and then the feel of the sofa underneath her. She took another sip of water.
“You have news to tell me?” She guessed. He hadn’t looked so pleased with himself this entire case.
“I’ve found the only place in the world that still produces nitrate films.”
“Are you serious? Is it here?”
“Unfortunately, no. It’s in Germany. Due to the time difference, I’ve been able to get into contact with the person
at the lab. They were very friendly, and I pretended I was our man’s secretary here in Los Angeles having difficulty with a shipment. I’ve confirmed there’s only one customer that uses them in Los Angeles and I got his name and address. Of course, the name ended up being fake. I checked but the address exists.”
“Have you told this to Eva?” Sara asked.
“You’re the first person to know.”
“Should we tell the FBI?”
“Let’s tell Eva and then call Agent Harper. I’m not too keen to talk to the FBI myself.”
“But we’ve been told to stay off the case.” Sara said.
“I’m sorry about what’s happened with Eva. I know you were hoping to have her as a real mentor.” Ritchie offered.
“No, it’s nothing. It is what it is. I can’t force anybody to help me nor should I have to. It doesn’t make her a bad person. After all, she does have Anderson stuck in her head. And that’s my fault.”
“You’re being very generous.” Ritchie said.
“I try to be but it does hurt.”
“Eva can call Agent Harper. She has connections we don’t and maybe she has a person that we could slip the information to. So we don’t appear like we’re still investigating and they get the knowledge.”
“Call her then.” Sara said and sunk into his couch. Eva answered on the first ring and when he told her about the address, she said she’d be right over.
“What do we do now? Do we wait?”
“We wait and we see what she says.” Ritchie said.
“Why are we giving her so much power? Why can’t we make the decision of where we’re going next?”
“She was an LAPD detective and Johan is missing and so is Lorelei.” Ritchie said and sat down next to her. “This is different from investigating a person who has already been murdered. We can hurt them by not letting law enforcement know everything. It’s Johan and a young woman. I don’t want that on my conscience, do you?”
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