"Yes it is…or, it was. I'm no longer a marshal. Now would you mind telling me the reason for your call?"
Nothing registered at first, but when it did, Cole's mind went into overdrive.
"You're the marshal that was assigned to Juan Hernandez." Without waiting for acknowledgment, Cole continued. "All right, tell me what you know."
****
When Faith returned to the station, the look on Cole's face was grave. He told him about the phone call he'd received from Marshal Spear.
"I fucking knew it!" Faith slammed his fist down on the table.
"Alright, tell me what you want to do here buddy. Whatever you decide, I'm behind you one hundred percent."
Cole glanced around and moved closer to Faith. "Obviously, my first plan of action is to get Madison back safe and sound. Then, once I've accomplished that, Castillo is a dead man."
"Wait. How come the feds aren’t all over this?"
"See, now you’re asking the right questions," Cole Replied.
"Spear say anything to anyone about the DNA?"
"Of course he did. Went straight to his director and was told that if he wanted to keep his job, it would be best to keep his mouth shut."
"So the feds know that Castillo is out and that he's killing witnesses. Why does this not surprise me? I knew something was up when I went out to Riverbend. And if Castillo is out, then who the hell was that beat up piece of shit that I interviewed?"
Cole shrugged his shoulders. "Believe me, I'll be the first to ask them that question when they get here, but until they do, all I care about is getting Madison back alive. Now let's go in there and question Robin. I want her to think she's drowning and I am her only lifeline."
****
Madison struggled to open her eyes and when she did, three ominous, albeit blurred, figures stood before her.
She could feel the tightness of the duct tape over her mouth and her hands were handcuffed. There was a long metal chain that led from the handcuffs to the metal piping underneath the bathroom sink.
Even though her head was spinning and her chest hurt, it didn’t take long for her memory to kick in. After a couple more blinks, she was able to look into the eyes of her captors. Ricardo Castillo being one of them.
"Well look who's finally awake." Castillo poked at her with his gun.
"I thought I was going to have to shoot you awake." He grinned.
Madison tried to struggle against her restraints, but it was to no avail. Her muscles felt heavy…unresponsive.
Her heart continued to jolt, but her body refused to move.
She strained to turn her head from side to side. She was lying in a cold, empty bathtub.
Her heartbeat slowed and became sluggish, like her head. She saw the figures staring down at her, and then, she felt something cold against her cheek, steel.
Fear began to jet through her bloodstream as she tried to wiggle free.
"Now, now. There's no need for that, Miss West."
The sound of his voice was fading further and further away and her eyes tried desperately to squeeze out the truth. She'd been taken, but Cole would find her. He would find her before it was too late. Please, let him find me.
"Looks like Miss West needs something to wake her up," Castillo said and moved out of the way.
"Manny, you know what to do."
Manny hesitated before throwing the heavy-handed punch to her jaw. Pain seared throughout her body and for a moment, it felt as if all of her teeth had been knocked out. The strong taste of metal coated her tongue as the blood seeped in between her teeth.
Screams of pain were muffled by the duct tape over her mouth, forcing her to swallow down the warm blood. She had to be strong, but the pain was unlike anything she'd ever felt before.
Tears leaked down her face and soft whimpers escaped her mouth.
With eyes wide with terror, she turned and stared directly at her attacker. Slowly, the monsters came into focus again. A dark ache began to loom in the pit of her stomach and pain was replaced with fear.
"Now she's awake." He grinned, while holding a gun to her temple.
"Do you want to live through this?" He poked at her temple.
"Ahhh, who are we kidding huh? You and I both know that you won't." His voice jovial.
"Time is of the essence, so let's get this party started, shall we?"
Castillo handed the gun over to Manny, pulled out a knife and told the others to leave the small bathroom.
He crouched down and leaned in close to her ear. "I've waited three years for this moment, so if you're thinking that your death will be quick and painless, think again Miss West, think again."
Looking up at the cracked and decaying ceiling, she clenched her eyes shut and started thinking about Cole. Surely, by now he would realize that something was wrong and that she'd gone missing. And what about Jessica? Was she all right? The look of fear in her eyes when the man held a gun to her was one that she would never forget.
"Pay attention!" Castillo slapped her hard on the face.
Using the knife's cold blade, he moved several strands of loose hair out of her face.
He leaned back to admire how she trembled and watched as her eyes filled with tears. Madison wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry though. She had to be stronger than that.
"You want to know what it feels like to be locked away. Well I'll tell you. There's this constant roar, and something is always happening. People are screaming, grown men are crying. The sound of men being raped is a sound that I'll never forget and I'll never go back to Miss West. Are you listening to me? I'll never go back. You look like you have something to say," he said and ripped the duct tape off her mouth.
Madison gasped for breath as she looked at her captor.
"If you don’t like being locked up then maybe you should have thought about that before you committed your crimes. You're not a real boss anyway. You're too money hungry. A real boss would have stayed out of the spotlight, but you crave it. You need it to survive and that is your downfall, and it will always be your downfall." She watched as his eyes widened and his nostrils flared out in anger.
This time, he didn’t call on Manny to do his dirty work. This time, he did it himself and delivered a hard punch to her face splitting her lip wide open. Madison's head jerked back, her jaw was pulsating, and blood was dripping down her chin. She cringed when she saw him reach for the duct tape.
"Fucking bitch," he said and slapped a fresh piece of duct tape over her mouth.
"I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer, you uppity bitch. God I love this, mi hermosa pequeña rata. Yes, my beautiful little rat."
When she looked at him though, he could see that Madison had not yet resigned herself to the situation. There was still a lot of fight left in her and even if she never gave in, he resolved, she would know new levels of humiliation and degradation before she died.
"I see that you're trembling mi hermosa. Let's see if we can't do something about that, huh?" His voice was serene, almost soothing. He shouted out something in Spanish and within seconds, Manny appeared in the doorway. Madison noticed how his large body blocked the small doorway and he was holding a syringe in his hands.
****
It took two hours for the FBI to arrive in Summerbridge and when they did, Cole could feel the combatant anger coursing through his veins.
While Cole and Robert questioned Robin, William Tanner sat anxiously in the waiting room of the Summerbridge Police Department. The moment his wife called him and told him that the sergeant's friend had been taken, he wasted no time in getting down to the station. He was a retired fed, but a fed nonetheless and he needed to tell Cole, that whatever he needed, he would get it.
He thought it odd that the feds had taken so long to get to Summerbridge, especially given the circumstances.
"Are we sure that this isn't some elaborate plan? Maybe she just decided to go back home to Maine."
Barely trusting himself to speak, Cole k
ept his mouth shut. In his mind, his fist connected with the agents face, but he remained silent.
Cole turned his back to the agent and spoke to Robert. "Do we have the photos of Hernandez yet?"
"Just printed them out." Robert replied.
"Good, go get 'em, I want to …"
One of the agents cut Cole off. "Just what the hell are you planning on doing with those? You're not authorized to show those photographs to anyone, let alone a civilian. And you Deputy Faith… aren’t you supposed to be on vacation?"
"Last time I checked, a U.S. Marshal has similar rights to the FBI, in regards to their ability to cross state borders that is," Deputy Faith replied.
"You may be allowed to cross state borders, but you do not investigate. You only function as transportation and capturing services for convicted felons and the like." The agent glared at him.
"Look," Cole said. "I don’t have time for any more of your turf-war games. I don’t know what you people are doing here. It's obvious that I won't have any of your resources at my disposal as I'd hoped. Why don’t you just turn around and leave?"
The agents began speaking in hushed tones while moving away from Cole and Faith.
"Maybe you guys should get a room." Cole interrupted.
Before the agents could respond, a lanky man with a shaved head stepped into the room. Cole and Robert exchanged looks before returning their attention to the man, a man who needed no introductions. Walter Kirsch was the deputy director of the FBI.
"No. My agents won't be needing a room." The director paused and gave the men a long, menacing look. It was as if he was bored and wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of there.
"Sir." Cole and Faith nodded their heads.
"Gentlemen." Kirsch nodded back.
"Sir. I'm not sure if you know everything that's happened so far, but…"
Kirsch held up his hand, stopping Cole from going any further.
"Gentlemen, might there be someplace where we could talk in private?"
"This ought to be good," Cole mumbled to Faith.
Cole was getting tired of the bullshit. Madison was out there alone and vulnerable in the hands of one of the most vicious animals out there and the deputy director wanted to talk.
"With all due respect sir, this isn’t tea time at Buckingham palace. Miss West has been gone for several hours now and I need to find her."
"I'm well aware of Miss West's predicament Harding, you needn't remind me. I'm also aware that Marshal Spear has informed you of the DNA results."
"Yes sir, he has and is on his way here now. And while we wait, maybe you could answer a few questions for me."
"I don’t have to answer anything Harding, but given the circumstances, I'll make an exception. What is it that you want to know?"
It was obvious to both Cole and Robert that Kirsch was not going to be forthcoming with his answers. Cole felt like he was suffocating, it was just the three of them, but the arrogance of Kirsch made the small room seem even more stifling.
The room grew quiet and Cole looked at Robert and said, "I can't stand around anymore. I've got to do something."
Kirsch straightened out his tie and jerked his head towards the empty chair.
"Sit down Harding." His tone low, but forceful.
Cole snatched back the chair and reluctantly sat down.
"Good. Now let me start by saying that Ricardo Castillo is brutal, but not stupid. He commits no crimes of passion. He kills for one reason and one reason only, business."
Cole thought about that for a minute, then he said to Kirsch, "So what you're saying, is you cut some kind of deal with Castillo."
Kirsch paused before answering, he wanted Cole to fully absorb the words.
"I need for you to see the larger picture here, Harding." There was an undisputable tone in his voice.
"But basically, you're only here to cover up whatever mess Castillo makes," Cole said.
"You've got to look at it from our perspective Harding. Castillo and his men are just small potatoes compared to what he's offering us. We're not here to track down Miss West, nor are we here to re-capture Castillo. We want to take down one of the biggest cartels in Bolivia, and in order to do that, we need Ricardo Castillo."
"That's funny, three years ago, Castillo wasn’t just small potatoes," Faith said.
"Yeah well, three years ago, we didn’t know the things that we know now. Besides, things change." The deputy's tone was brash.
"And let me guess, you'll do whatever it takes, am I right? Even if it means allowing him to torture and kill Madison, right?"
Cole already knew the answer, but he needed to hear the words come out of Kirsch's mouth.
"Don't undermine me Harding; it's starting to piss me off! Look, I understand that you're involved with this woman, but understand this, innocent people die all the time. Now I'm sorry that Miss West got caught up in this mess, but like I said, one innocent life is nothing compared to the lives that will be saved if and when we take down this cartel."
Cole's jaw was working, but no sound came out. His mind was working, though: and his mind told him to wrap his hands around Kirsch's neck, but he had a better idea. Before Faith could reach over to stop him, Cole smashed his fist against Kirsch's jaw. Kirsch fell against the metal table and slid onto the floor.
The two other agents descended into the room and tried restraining Cole. His anger had boiled into an uncontrollable rage. Only the words of his partner calmed him down.
"How do you think Madison will fare if you get yourself locked up? You got that out of your system. Now it’s time to concentrate on finding Madison. She needs you. Now get your head back in the game."
Kirsch stood up in a flash, his hand on his gun. He straightened out his tie and took a deep breath. A ghost of a grin flashed briefly across his face.
"I hope you enjoyed doing that Harding, because whatever shred of hope that you had of my helping you, just disappeared. Looks like Miss West is on her own from here on out. Now get the hell out of here before I have you taken into custody!" He slammed his fist down on the table.
Cole did not appear to take the threat seriously. His eyes scanned the room.
Kirsch's face reddened further, and his voice rose. "I said, get the hell out of here!"
Kirsch and the agents followed closely behind as Cole and Faith made their way to the door. "Oh and one more thing," Kirsch said.
"You can kiss your career in law enforcement goodbye Harding."
Cole turned around abruptly, leaned forward, and in as calm a voice as he could muster, said, "I quit."
Kirsch flinched and took a step back.
****
William Tanner heard Cole before he actually saw him. He'd just slammed the door of a small office and was storming towards the main doors.
"Where are we going?" He heard the other man ask Cole.
"I don’t need his help." Cole barked. "I'll find Madison on my own!"
As the two men brushed by him, Tanner stood up and hurried to catch up to the men.
Marshal Spear was just getting out the car when he heard an older man shouting after Sergeant Harding.
Cole took a step back and turned around. He had no time to make small talk with Tanner or anyone else for that matter. And he wasted no time telling him that.
But when Tanner informed him that he still had strong connections with the FBI, Cole's attitude changed and he apologized to Mr. Tanner for being so abrupt.
"Forgive me Mr. Tanner, but would you mind telling me what makes your contacts in the FBI so different from the condescending agents that I just left back in the office?"
"The men that I work with have nothing to lose. They're… what do you young folks call it now?" He said, snapping his fingers. "Oh yes, they're old school. We believe in catching the bad guy the old-fashioned way. We don't take shortcuts and we don't offer deals to rats."
When he saw the look of surprise on Cole's face, he continued.
"That’s rig
ht," he said and nodded his head. "I've already made some phone calls on your behalf. I know where Castillo is holding your friend and I believe there's still time to get to her. My guess is Kirsch, the selfish, sanctimonious bastard that he is, has already put in a call to Castillo, warning him that you're onto him. So, it's just a matter of time before he flees the country. Castillo is planning to kill her, but I believe that we still have time to get to her, but we gotta work fast."
Chapter Twenty Seven
Whatever they injected her with was making her heart sizzle and crackle like an egg on a superhot griddle.
At first, the feeling was one of euphoria. Her body felt relaxed and the pain from the blows she'd suffered earlier, seemed to subside almost immediately.
Although her hands were still bound and the duct tape remained over her mouth, Madison felt as if she were floating away from herself.
Castillo sat through it all as he watched her go through each phase of the drug.
When she dropped her head, he roughly titled her chin so that he could look into her eyes. When he saw that her pupils were the size of pinpricks, a ghastly smile crept over his mouth.
Her pulse was weak and her breathing had become shallow. Madison West was not a drug user, and the small amount of heroin that Jay was able to get his hands on, was definitely doing the trick. Castillo continued to stare at her. His head was cocked to the side and while wearing a satisfied expression on his face, he studied her. He wondered how she would fare when the next drug was injected into her. He was excited to see what the effects of 'molly' would have on her, especially since he wanted Manny to inject her with it.
Witness Protection: Hide and Seek Page 18
