by D. V. Berkom
“Then he won't be any help finding what we're looking for.” Leine assumed Greg was delivering Mara to the buyer personally. It wouldn't look good if he lost her again.
“Are you going to call the cops?” Yuri asked.
“Why? Got some outstanding warrants, Yuri?” His look was enough to tell her he did. “Look, I haven't got anything definitive to tell them. Greg's not here, and we don't know where they took Mara. I'm working on a hunch. The LAPD doesn't roll on a hunch.”
His features relaxed. “I know the buyer is a…how do you say it? A big honcho? I also heard he lives in Los Angeles.”
It fit with what Lou told her. “How does Greg keep his files? Paper or electronic?”
“I think electronic. He is always working on a computer.”
“What kind of security does he have?”
Yuri squeezed his eyes shut as he thought. “There is a camera in the lobby by the elevator, one in the elevator and one outside the front door. At the door to the offices, you wait for someone to buzz you in.”
Leine walked to the trunk of her car and opened it. Rooting around in the bag, she found what she was looking for and pocketed the items, then closed the trunk. “Time to move.” They crossed the street and walked toward the building. “What about the rear entrance?” she asked, as she pulled on a pair of latex gloves.
Yuri shrugged. “I don't know. I never used it.”
As they approached the building, Leine noticed a small security camera above and slightly to the right. She pulled a small black box from her pocket and handed it to Yuri.
“Aim it at the camera and hold this button down. Keep holding it until I say stop.”
Yuri nodded and did what she told him to do. The amber light on top of the camera blinked off. She walked to the door and tested it to see if it was unlocked. It was. She opened it and motioned for Yuri to follow.
“Do you want me to continue to press this button?” he asked.
“Did I tell you to stop?”
“No.” Yuri's face grew pink. He backed into the building behind her, keeping the device aimed at the camera.
“Stop,” Leine said. Yuri dropped his arm and handed the jammer to her. The light on the camera reappeared. Avoiding the elevator, he led the way to the stairwell and they started to climb. A dark stain covered a section of the landing near the fifth floor, which Yuri carefully skirted. Leine ignored it and stopped at the door on the sixth.
Yuri cracked it open and checked the hallway, then motioned for her to follow him. He was visibly sweating and repeatedly looked over his shoulder to check behind them. Leine put her hand on his arm to calm him, and he jumped a foot. She was rethinking her idea of bringing him along to get her inside. She could have scrambled the lock, but she didn't trust the Ukrainian and wanted to be sure they were actually going to Greg's office.
Yuri stopped at the end of the corridor near a door with a card reader next to the handle. No sign indicated whose office it was. He glanced down the hallway one more time and turned to Leine.
“This is where I press the button, Greg asks who is there and then he buzzes me in.”
“Press the button,” Leine said.
Yuri's breathing resembled that of a dog after a particularly long hunt. “What if he's in there?” Yuri whispered, his anxiety palpable.
She slid her gun from the holster and stood to the side. “Then he's going to be very surprised.”
Yuri's hand shook as he pressed the button. Moments passed. There was no response. He let out his breath, relief washing over his face. It was quickly replaced by a look of concern. “But how will you get inside?”
Leine pulled a slim device about the size of a credit card from her pocket and inserted it into the card reader. The red light changed to green and there was a click as the lock disengaged. Leine turned the handle and opened the door. Yuri followed her in and closed the door behind them.
“That's a very handy device.”
“Where's his office?” she asked, ignoring his comment.
Yuri pointed down the short hall. “Past the conference room, second door on the left. I can show you.”
Leine shook her head. “I need you to go to where the monitors are and watch to make sure no one comes.”
“Ah. Of course. I will do this.” Yuri hurried past the reception area and turned right down a second hallway.
Leine walked past the conference room and into Greg's office, and went over to his desk to turn on his computer. While she waited for it to boot up, she crossed the floor to a gray metal file cabinet marked Talent that stood against the wall and opened each drawer. She quickly scanned the files in the hopes that something would catch her attention.
She was amazed at how thorough the records were. File after file had pictures of women attached to comprehensive reports detailing their height, weight, eye and hair color, age, date of birth, home towns, names of family members, everything. However, as far as Leine could tell, there were no women listed under the age of eighteen. There was also no indication of where the women were now.
Leine closed the last drawer and returned to the computer. The screen prompted her for a password. Leine reached in her pocket and took out another electronic device, this one a small gray box with a USB connector, and plugged it into a port on the monitor. She waited a few moments as the screen changed to a black background with several lines of code. Leine typed a command and the device quietly went to work, creating then discarding various combinations of passwords at lightning speed.
Using a jeweler's loop, she peered at the keyboard for signs of wear on the keypad. A series of ten keys appeared to have been used more frequently than the rest. She typed in another command and a second dialogue box materialized with space for her to input them. This second program ran alongside the first one she'd activated and worked specifically on combinations containing those specific keys.
As she waited for the program to finish, she checked in and around the desk, crouching underneath to get a visual in case Greg decided to hide anything noteworthy there. He hadn't. She stood and moved to the middle of the room, then pivoted three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, looking to see if anything stood out that she might need to investigate further.
The device beeped softly and Leine returned to the desk. The password had been determined and the screen now displayed Greg's desktop. She disconnected the hacking device and put it inside her pocket before clicking through the files. Each document she opened appeared to be related to income from a cover talent agency. Names, dates and places were linked to several of the women whose files were in the cabinet, and in most instances they appeared to reference legitimate businesses.
Leine scanned the full list of documents on the hard drive, keying in on one titled Production, which she opened. The document had two columns. One listed twelve gmail addresses, all beginning with the word Gatekeeper_ followed by two letters. A second column listed random letters and symbols directly across from the emails, obviously passwords. Leine brought up the internet and began to methodically check each one. The first five had no messages in the inboxes. She checked the drafts and deleted folders as well as sent messages, but they were all empty.
Gatekeeper_MQ had nothing in the inbox or the sent folders, but there was a message in drafts. She clicked on it and read the single sentence.
88838 Mulholland Drive. Rear entrance. Gate code: brothers1. SE.
Leine looked at the date: it had been composed that morning. Her heart beat faster as she realized there was a high probability the MQ stood for Mara Quigg, with the address indicating where they'd taken her. She plugged a flash drive into one of the USB ports, copied the content of Greg's hard disk and then closed out of everything and shut down the computer.
She walked around the desk, intending to leave, but stopped when she heard the front door open and close. Leine reached for her gun and crept toward the door. Either Yuri just left, or they had company.
Her back to the wall, Leine stood still and l
istened. She caught the unmistakable sound of footsteps falling on carpet, coming toward her. She waited until the person walked past the door and then stepped into the hallway.
A small, gray-haired woman dressed in a white t-shirt, navy colored stretch pants and tennis shoes gasped and put her hand to her chest when she saw Leine.
“Who are you?” Leine asked, keeping her gun hidden.
“The cleaning lady. I was told no one would be here today, so I came in.” The woman glanced around nervously. “Is that all right?”
“Of course. I'm sorry I startled you. Please, go ahead,” Leine replied.
The woman lowered her hand, her relief obvious. “I'll start in the offices down the hall so I won't bother you.” Her smile was tentative as she glanced behind Leine into Greg's office. She cocked her head, a quizzical expression on her face. “Are you a new employee of Mr. Kirchner's?”
“Yes. Brand new. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to what I was doing.”
She nodded, but Leine could tell she was curious about her. “Okay. I'll wait with the vacuuming until last.”
“I'd appreciate it. Thank you.”
The woman hurried down the hallway and Leine jogged back to the reception area. They had to leave, now, before the woman contacted someone to check on Leine's presence.
“Yuri. Time to go.”
There was no answer. Leine moved past the front desk and down the hall to a room labeled Employees Only. She opened the door to a small office with a bank of three split-screen monitors along one wall, a desk and chair stationed in front of them. There was no sign of Yuri. There was also no sign of anyone in the vicinity of the cameras, although the screen marked elevator was dark. Leine reached over to disconnect the digital feed to the camera for the rear entrance and left.
After checking several of the offices with no luck, she returned to the reception area and cracked the front door open. The hall was empty. Leine pulled her gun free and closed the door behind her. She headed for the stairs, wondering where the hell Yuri had gone. The idiot could have compromised their position. She was careful to check the stairwell below her as she made her way to the first floor and hurried out the door to her car.
She peeled off her gloves and looked back at the building once more to see if he was somewhere nearby before driving away. He wasn't.
Yuri was on his own.
***
Yuri backed away from the man with the switchblade as the walls of the elevator closed in around him, his mind filled with dread at his mistake in avoiding the stairs. While he was watching the monitors in the control room two men had entered through the building's front door and took the stairs. Not recognizing either of them, panic got the better of him. Yuri escaped through the emergency exit at the rear of the office and raced for the elevator, not stopping long enough to warn Leine.
Bad decision.
The man in the elevator lunged forward and Yuri barely turned in time, the knife slicing through air. He reached for his gun, but was unable to pull it out before the man attacked a second time. A searing pain, unknown to him before now, radiated though Yuri's body as his attacker buried the blade in his stomach. Yuri doubled over in agony as the man recovered the knife and plunged it again and again into his shoulder, his back, his neck.
The doors to the elevator whispered open and his attacker stepped out, leaving Yuri gasping on the floor.
As his life ebbed from his body, Yuri lay in a pool of blood, staring at the wall above him. On it someone had taped a flier announcing a seminar on becoming rich through real estate.
The elevator door slid closed.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
LEINE SLOWED AS SHE APPROACHED the address on Mulholland and picked up the little black box lying on the seat beside her. The iron security gate was equipped with a camera and key pad. When she was close enough, she aimed the jamming device at the camera and pulled up to the key pad as the light blinked off. She entered the password she'd gotten from Greg's computer and the gate swung open. The monitoring agency would likely log the incident regarding the malfunctioning camera, but probably wouldn't notify the owner since the correct entry code had been used.
She drove slowly up the long, winding driveway, past towering eucalyptus trees and manicured grounds, and parked just out of sight of the large timber frame and stone house at the top of the hill. Two cars were parked in the circular drive; a white commercial van with no signage and a black town car. Noting two security cameras at the front entrance, she silently crossed the yard to the side of the house and crouched beneath a window in the shadow of a boxwood shrub.
The furnishings consisted of white vintage 1950s chairs grouped around a low, intricately carved cocktail table, sitting on a thick, expensive looking rug. A large, silver mirror graced the far wall, with abstract paintings strategically placed among richly woven tapestries. An art glass chandelier hung from the ceiling.
Not seeing anyone, Leine moved toward the rear of the house. A massive patio with an outdoor kitchen surrounded an Olympic-sized pool with a pair of French doors leading inside the home. Tennis courts lay across the rolling lawn with graceful fichus trees punctuating the grounds. The afternoon light was fading, leaving long shadows in its wake. She moved into position under another window to get a better visual.
The rear section of the house was evidently used as a family room of sorts, with overstuffed leather chairs and a large sectional near the window. A pool table and wet bar stood at the far end next to several bookshelves.
Movement in her periphery caught Leine's eye and she slid into the shadows. Selena walked into the room and perched on the arm of one of the overstuffed chairs, ramrod straight, her expression tense. A solidly built man with spiky hair and a tailored, dark gray suit followed her into the room, crossed the floor to the wet bar and proceeded to make himself a drink. Another man with a dark complexion and a thick neck, wearing a black shirt and khakis came in next. The man with the spiky hair carried his drink over to where Selena was sitting. Leine started to slide her phone out of her pocket to call 911, but stopped when she noticed the dark-haired man walk up behind Selena, a garrote stretched between his hands.
Leine stepped from the shadows and aimed her gun through the window at the man with the garrote. The dull pop of the suppressed gunshot was followed by the tinkle of breaking glass. The man's head snapped backward, a dark hole no bigger than a dime on his forehead. The garrote fell from his grasp as he collapsed to the floor.
“Security!” the man with the spiked hair screamed and dove behind one of the chairs. Selena dropped to the floor on all fours and crawled under the coffee table. Leine ran around the corner of the house and burst through the French doors, ducking right as another man came rushing into the room with a gun. Leine shot him in the throat and took cover behind the pool table as he went down. The man in the suit scuttled across the floor like a crab, putting the chair between himself and Leine. Leine skirted the pool table to get a better vantage point for the next wave, keeping her eye on the man behind the chair, the doorway and windows.
Outside, two men with weapons ran past the window and took up position on each side of the French doors. Leine pivoted and fired through the glass, hitting one in the shoulder. The other ducked out of sight, then reappeared and fired several rounds. Leine dropped to a crouch as a bullet buried itself in the edge of the pool table next to her head. The guy in the suit made a dash for the doorway. Leine took aim from under the table and fired, splintering the jamb, but missed him. He disappeared into the hall.
Leine let him go and worked her way to the bookcase next to the doors, staying out of view of the second gunman. He inched upward to see where she was. She lunged forward and slammed her gun against the glass pane next to him, knocking shards into his face and temporarily blinding him before she fired, bringing him down. She checked outside for the man she'd shot through the shoulder, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Leine strode back inside the house and over to
where Selena was hiding underneath the coffee table.
“You need to come out, Selena,” Leine said.
She backed out and sat on her heels. Looking up at Leine, tears streamed down her face. Her hands shook as she clasped them together. “Please don't kill me. I…I had to do it. They have my little sister.” She buried her face in her hands, sobbing. “I never would have done it. Never. They were going to—”
Leine reached down and grabbed Selena by the arm, jerking her to her feet. “Pull yourself together. Where's Mara?”
Fresh tears spilled over and down her cheeks. “In the basement. They locked her in a sound-proof room. There are more men.”
“How many?”
“Three that I saw, plus Greg. I recognized one of them—he's Greg's personal security guard. I couldn't tell if the other two were armed.”
“Which one's Greg?”
“The man who ran from the room just now.”
“The guy with the hair?”
She nodded. “Yes. One of the other men is the buyer.”
“How do you know that? Did he identify himself?”
Selena locked eyes with Leine. “He told everyone to leave, that he wanted to 'break her in'.”
Leine shoved her toward the door and at the same time pulled out her phone. She scanned the grounds. The man she'd just killed lay on the patio near the French doors, but she didn't see anyone else. “You need to go before the others come.”
Selena shook her head, her voice panicked. “No. I can't leave. I don't know where my sister is. I have to find her.” More tears spilled over as she tried to pull away.
Leine backed up a few paces and glanced down the hallway. So far, no one else was coming. “Selena, listen to me.” She snapped her fingers at the distraught woman, but she kept looking between the hall and the door, not focusing on Leine. Frustrated, Leine grabbed her by the chin, forcing her to look into her eyes. “You need to hide somewhere until the cops show up. When this is over, we can both make sure they know about her. Okay?” Selena nodded that she understood. Leine pushed her toward the door. “Now, go.”
