Reckless Behavior

by L. A. Witt

  “Good. Good.” I wrote it down. “Anything else?”

  “It was quiet. I didn’t hear any cars or anything except when they came and went.”

  “Did you see their faces?”

  She sighed. “No. The guys who picked us up had ski masks on, and when they handed us off to these other guys, they did too.”

  “Wait, they handed you off?”

  “Yeah. I heard them talking about money, something about agreeing on a different price, or—” She shook her head. “I was trying to keep Emily calm, so I couldn’t hear a lot of it.”

  “That’s good, though.” Really good. Holy shit. Someone had hired the kidnappers, then. “Do you know how long they drove?”

  “No. I was kind of woozy after I hit my head.”

  The image of the blood and hair inside the vehicle made my skin crawl. “What happened? How did you hit your head?”

  She swallowed. “One of the guys was trying to blindfold Emily. So, I . . .” She shrugged. “Kicked his ass.”

  It was almost enough to actually make me laugh. Or make me insanely proud. And somewhere deep inside, I was. But mostly, I was filled with horror over the prospect of someone trying to blindfold the little one, and of Erin fighting with someone violently enough to get hurt like this.

  “Emily’s okay,” she said again, as if to reassure herself as well as me. “She’s scared, but Casey and I kept her as calm as we could.”

  “What about him?” My heart thudded harder. “Is he all right?”

  “He . . .” She chewed her lip. “He said his arm hurt. Like he might’ve gotten knocked around or something. But yeah, he’s okay.”

  “Good.” I paused. “Do you know why they let you go?”

  “Because they thought I was going to die.”

  I blinked. “Come again?”

  “Casey and I heard them arguing. They were . . .” Her eyes lost focus. “They were talking about things getting out of hand. One kept saying ‘This wasn’t the plan, this wasn’t what I agreed to,’ and the other told him there was no going back. Then the first guy said there was no telling if I had a concussion bad enough to make me hemorrhage, and that if I did, they’d be facing murder charges.”

  It was just as well I hadn’t eaten earlier, or Erin and I would both be wearing it right now.

  “The one said if I did, they could just dump my body somewhere. Or . . .” She shuddered. “Anyway, the other said he already thought they were in over their heads, but he was drawing the line there. He didn’t want to do life or get the needle, and if I was really hurt, they should bring me here. They’d still have Casey and Emily, so what difference did it make if they had me?”

  I just stared at her, unable to comprehend it.

  So, of course, she went on. “Casey and I figured out that if I faked it—made it look like I was really messed up—they’d do it. They’d drop me here.”

  I swallowed a huge, sick lump in my throat. “They could have finished you off and dumped you somewhere.”

  “I know.” She held my gaze, her eyes filled with fierce determination, and she didn’t even shudder this time as she said, “But we didn’t know how else to get help.”

  “Jesus, baby.” I hugged her again, more aware than ever of how easily I could have lost her. And of what a badass I’d raised.

  “I tried to keep track of where we went,” she mumbled into my shoulder. “But they blindfolded me. Went in circles. I . . .” She drew back a bit. “There was a dirt road, though. At the beginning.”

  I straightened.

  Erin swallowed. “I could hear the rocks hitting the undercarriage. And there were potholes. A lot of them.” She paused, chewing her lip. “And he stopped like he was at a stop sign. Twice. Then there was a red light.”

  “How could you tell?”

  “Because he stopped longer and he started drumming on the wheel more. At the stop signs, he kind of just slowed down, then took off. You know, like how Mom drives. California stops.”

  I did find the energy to laugh at that. “Good to know. So at least two stop signs and a traffic light.” Of course the man could’ve sailed right through a dozen green lights and she’d never know, but it was something. A house in a quiet area with a full basement and a swampy smell near a not-so-well-maintained road with at least one light and two stop signs on the way. It was more than I’d had earlier. And Jesus, it was an impressive amount of detail from a concussed, blindfolded kid who’d just been kidnapped and then separated from her siblings. The last thing I wanted was for one of my kids to become a cop, but damn if Erin wouldn’t make an amazing one.

  “Okay. This is all good.” I squeezed her arm. “I need to go talk to Paula. Get this information to people who can start looking. But you did good, baby. Really good.”

  She smiled weakly.

  I leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Get some rest. I’ll be back as soon—”

  “I’ll be fine. Just find them, okay?”

  “I’m doing everything I can. I promise.”

  The smile got a little stronger. “I know.”

  Out in the hall, I found Paula on her way in. She glanced past me. “How is she?”

  “She’ll be all right. Even better once we find her brother and sister.” I took a breath. “And she’s got some information that might point us in the right direction.”

  “Oh thank God.” She gestured over her shoulder. “Because there’s nothing useful on the cameras. Just a van with covered-up plates.”

  “Of course.”

  “So what’s our next move?”

  I gnawed the inside of my cheek. “First we call in some protective detail for Erin. Then I need a map.”

  “He’s asking for you.”

  Hearing my mom say that to me over the phone was like getting a syringe full of guilt injected straight into my heart. My brother was asking for me. Asher hadn’t done that for over a month. He’d just been drifting along in the muddy haze of his disease and all the meds they kept him on to manage it. Manage, because there was no cure for Alzheimer’s and even fewer effective treatments for the early-onset variety. All the nurses at the facility could do was keep him noncombative, and they mostly succeeded. Unfortunately, that usually meant he was just one step above catatonic.

  I hated getting pulled away from the case, but in a purely selfish way, I was a little glad too. Asher might be another problem I couldn’t solve, but he was one I was used to at this point. It hurt less to look at him than it did to watch Andreas struggle with what had happened to his family. Finding the blood in the car, watching the hours go by and knowing that the longer this dragged out, the lower our chances got of finding them . . .

  Fuck that. I was tired, and fatigue turned me into a pessimist. We’d find Andreas’s kids. Their case was going to be solved. For now, though, I could just sit with Asher and breathe for a little bit. He was more alert than usual today—made sense, if he’d actually been asking for me. He’d forgotten that he had by the time I got there, but he remembered who I was when I walked into his room, so that was something.

  A clumsy fingertip traced a line beneath my eye. “You look like you got punched.”

  I chuckled and turned to him. “Nah, I’m just tired.”

  “You should go to sleep.”

  “I can’t. Not yet. Got a case to solve first.”

  “You can nap here.” He patted the bed we were sitting cross-legged on.

  “I want to.” God, did I ever want to. “But I can’t stay for long. I really do have a case, and it’s . . .”

  “A bad one?” he finished.

  “Yeah.”

  “Oh.” He took his hand away, and I wanted to chase it down and take it back, but I didn’t. The doctors kept saying we had to allow Asher his autonomy, that it was more important than ever now that he had lost almost all of his independence. I took a chance and extended my hand, but he didn’t grab it. He reached up to scratch at his neck instead. “Why is this collar so tight?”

&n
bsp; “Special clothes, Ash.” Special as in “clothes that zipped up the back and had a lock at the top so he couldn’t take them off on his own.” Apparently he had a habit of trying to get out of his clothes at odd times of day, so they’d transitioned him to these ridiculous onesies that made him look like an overgrown baby. “Don’t— Hey, don’t scratch at it.” I did take his hand now, to pull it away from his reddened skin.

  “I wouldn’t scratch if it didn’t itch, goddamn fucking . . .” His tirade faded before it could get going, which was so unlike Asher.

  “I’m sorry.” I was, so sorry I didn’t even know how to express it in a way that would count anymore. There were a million things I wanted for my brother, and most of them were impossible. The least I could do was be with him for a little while.

  “I know.” He looked at me, and for a moment I could see him, the him I remembered from five years ago, strong and confident. “You’re going to be okay, Darren.”

  Oh jeez, did I look like I needed comforting? I was doing a great job of being there for my brother today. “I’m fine.”

  “I know you always say that, even if you don’t mean it. But you’re tough. You’ll come out fine in the end.”

  “I . . . Thanks?”

  He smiled a little crookedly. “You’re welcome.” His fingers twitched in mine, like they wanted to do something but couldn’t decide on what. A side effect, the doctors had said. Another fucking side effect. Along with the depression, the paranoia, the fatigue . . . It was one thing after another for Asher.

  “Do you want to—” My phone went off, and I winced. “Shit. I have to take this.”

  “Go ahead.” His eyes were already wandering away from me, but I held on to his hand as I fished my phone out of my pocket and answered. “Corliss.”

  “Erin’s back.”

  All the breath left my lungs in an enormous sigh of relief. After a few seconds, I pulled myself together enough to speak. “Holy shit, really?”

  “Yeah, she’s at the hospital.” Andreas sounded better than he had when I left, that was for sure. Not perfect, but more energized, more alive. “Got dropped there anonymously, and she doesn’t remember much, but what she’s got is enough to do some digging. I’ll send someone to grab Ben from your folks’ house if you can call and let them know to expect—”

  “What? No!” It would be on the way for me anyhow, and I needed to get back to the case. “I’ll go get him.”

  “Are you sure? There are plenty of people to help with this, Darren, you can take your time.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure.” I moved to get up, but now Asher wasn’t letting go of my hand. “Hang on. Ash,” I said. “You have to let go, I need to leave.”

  “Why?”

  “My case, remember? I have a case I need to solve.”

  “You do?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Oh.” His grip loosened until his fingers fell away.

  I leaned in and kissed his forehead. “I’ll be back soon, okay?”

  I was already turning away when he said, “Okay.” The last thing I saw him do as I walked out was bring his hand back up to his neck and start to scratch again. I’d have to talk to the nurses about that―he was going to rub himself raw if he wasn’t careful.

  “I’m on the way to get Ben now. I’ll be back to the station in an hour.”

  “Don’t speed.”

  I laughed. “Who am I talking to again?”

  “I’m serious. We’ve had bad fucking luck with cars lately.”

  “One hour,” I repeated. “I’ll see you soon.” I’m happy for you, I hope this is the break we need, I love you.

  “Good.” He hung up, and I sighed. I’d get better at saying what I meant. Maybe when this case was over and everyone was safe.

  I made it back to my folks’ place in ten minutes—that had been one of the big selling points of Asher’s facility, that it was so close to home. Ben had obviously already been informed, because he was waiting for me on the porch, pacing anxiously. Vic and Mom were with him.

  “Finally!” he exploded as I pulled into the driveway. He was getting in almost at the same time as I got out. “We have to go!”

  “We are, in just a second.” I jogged up to my parents. “We got a break in the case, I’ve got to—”

  “We know,” Vic said. “Go do what you need to. Let us know how we can help.”

  “I will.”

  “Thanks for going and seeing your brother, honey,” my mom added, and I sighed.

  “He seemed a little better today.”

  Mom’s face brightened. “I know! I was surprised when he didn’t get upset when I met him this morning—the hair, you know.” Yeah. Asher didn’t like that my mom was going gray, instead of being the blonde he remembered. “I hope that—”

  “Darren! Come on!”

  “I have to go.”

  “Go on, honey.”

  I got back to the car just as Ben was reaching for the horn. “Whoa, message received, there’s no need to annoy the neighbors.”

  “I’ll annoy anybody if it gets me to Erin faster.”

  Well, I couldn’t argue with that. I pulled away from the house and headed for the hospital, going about twenty over the speed limit and not giving a damn. “Her doctor boyfriend’s there too.”

  Ben smiled weakly. “It’s not exactly the way I thought I’d meet the guy, but I’ll take it. Do you like him?”

  “He’s good at what he does, and he’s got a sense of humor. Plus he adores your sister, so . . . yeah. I like him.”

  “I guess she’s in good hands, then.”

  I wondered why he was looking upset. “That doesn’t mean she won’t be happy to see you too.”

  He nodded. “I know, but . . . Dad said she was helpful. With the case. She kept it together and protected Emily and got information out of it all, even when they were shoving her out of a freakin’ van. I just . . . I don’t know when my sister got so badass. I don’t know how I missed it.”

  I couldn’t help it—I laughed. “Welcome to your dad’s world. Andreas swears he can’t keep up with all of you. He wants to try, though.”

  “Yeah. I’m glad he is. It’s nice to know about you, even if it is . . .” Ben shrugged. “Kind of weird.”

  “It really is.”

  I parked in the emergency lot and we walked into the lobby, where Zach caught us. “Nice timing,” I told him.

  “Andreas let me know you’d be coming. Erin’s been admitted, but only for observation at this point.” He glanced at Ben. “Hi. Um.”

  “You’re the boyfriend.”

  “You’re the brother.”

  “One of them.”

  “Right, right.”

  All aboard the Awkward Express! “Let’s go see Erin,” I suggested, and Zach leaped at the chance to do something.

  Watching Erin and Ben’s reunion was bittersweet, all things considered. There were tears, useless apologies from Ben, a gentle slap to the back of his head from Erin, and then surprisingly, I was drawn into the mix.

  “Darren!” She pulled me down for a hug, and I didn’t fight it. “Oh my God, thank you so much for saving Ben, I was so worried you guys had been hurt.”

  “Not a scratch on me,” I assured her. It was more than almost anybody else could say. “I’ve got to get to the station and get to work. You’re seriously amazing, you know that? How many other people would walk away from getting kidnapped with the kind of information you did?”

  Aw, was she blushing? “Thanks. I just hope it helps.”

  “I know it will.” I didn’t know exactly how, but I’d get the details soon enough. “I’ve got to go, I’ll see you again soon.”

  “You can meet Mom,” Ben said, and I gritted my teeth through a smile.

  “Great.” Zach looked about as enthusiastic as I felt, and we shared a sympathetic glance as I walked out. Meeting Andreas’s ex-wife. Who I knew almost nothing about, apart from the fact that the divorce had been her idea and she was remarried an
d living in another state. Yeah, I’d like to subject myself to that on the second of never, thanks very much.

  I made it to the station with ten minutes to spare, and found Andreas and Paula hunched over the table in our conference room, staring down at a map.

  “—not really swampy,” Paula was saying. “I mean, yeah, it’s a flood plain, but it hasn’t rained for weeks. I think we’ve got to move closer to the river.”

  “The river is too far from the zone Erin indicated, and moving water isn’t going to give you a really swampy smell either.”

  “Erin’s directions need to be taken with a grain of salt. I’m not saying she was wrong, I’m just saying, when it comes to swampy—”

  “This is super fascinating,” I said brightly as I came up to the table. “Why are we looking for swamps?”

  “Darren.” Andreas sounded relieved to see me, which was nice. “Everything go okay?”

  “Brother visited, Ben dropped off, Erin seen.” I grinned. “She’s doing pretty good, all things considered.” I didn’t know if he knew his ex-wife was on the way, and now didn’t seem like the time to bring it up.

  “And the uniforms are there keeping an eye on them, right?”

  I nodded. “So. Swamps?”

  “Erin said she smelled something swampy at the house they were being kept at.”

  “A house, an actual house? Was she sure?”

  Andreas filled me in on the details as Paula did her best to retrace Erin’s impressions of the route and correlate it to where we’d found the ditched car. It ended up putting the kids in the northwest part of the city, and . . . yeah, there was a distinct lack of swamp there.

  “So really, we want a house close to a body of water that has a dirt or gravel road.”

  “Something like that.” Andreas sighed and prodded the map like it had offended him. It probably had, just by existing. He was right, the river was too far away, and there were no tributaries listed. There were plenty of housing developments in the flood plain—which seemed like a dumb place to build, but what did I know—but it had been so dry lately, Paula had a point. That left the occasional little pond, or possibly even a man-made one. We could look up building permits for something like that, but it would be a tedious process, and there was no guarantee it would be listed if the house was remote enough to escape inspection.