Boss frowned. “I told him to kill the girl if it got to that.”
“You told him to kill her?”
“She saw his face,” Boss said.
“And you told him to kill her?”
Boss must have sensed her irritation. “Only if he had to.”
“That was a mistake.” She reached behind her, drew the gun, aimed and fired—one shot into the head of the man known as Boss.
Number Two took the IDs from Number Five and Boss, cleaned out their pockets, and got her cell. She dialed Number Four.
He answered in a whispered voice. “What?”
“Status.”
“Where’s Boss?”
“Dead. You’re talking to me.”
“I don’t take orders from you.”
Defiant even to the end. No sense in telling him he had been taking orders from me all along. “I have the money. You will take orders from me.”
“If I get caught, I’ll tell them everything.”
“You know nothing.”
“I’ll…I’ll tell them…”
“Calm yourself. Listen to me, and you’ll be okay.” She waited while he got composed.
“What?” he said.
“You can escape this. But if not, your money will be waiting for you when you get out. Or I will give it to whoever you want if you keep quiet about everything.”
“You’d do that? Give me my share?”
“You earned it.”
“Okay, what do I do?”
“First, understand that things can still go wrong. No matter what happens, do not kill the girl. Do that, and you get the needle. Kidnapping, even with nobody hurt, is bad, but we’ve got money for lawyers.”
“Okay.”
“The rest is easy. Stay calm. Make no noise. Same things I told you before.”
“All right. Thanks, Number Two.”
“Good luck. Now let me talk to the girl. Take her gag off.”
“What if she screams?”
“I told her before that I’d kill her parents if she did that. I am going to reinforce the order. Give her the phone.”
Jada took the phone. “Yes?” The tone was meek even for a whisper.
“Can he hear me?” Two asked in a low voice.
“No.”
“Good. Listen closely. While I’m talking, pretend you’re scared. I know you’re already scared. Act more scared.”
“Okay.”
“In ten minutes, ask to go to the bathroom. He will probably have you gagged. Once inside, quickly lock the door. He won’t break in for fear of making noise. With the door locked, make all the noise you can. Kick the walls, scream if you can get the gag off, slam the toilet seat up and down. Break something.”
“Okay.” Jada shivered. There was no need to act. “What about what you said…my dad…”
“Forget what I said before. Do as I say, and you’ll be home safe very soon. Now I want you to say the following. ‘I won’t. I swear. Just don’t hurt them.’”
“I won’t. I swear. Just don’t hurt them.”
“Good. Give the phone back to him.” Four took the phone, and Two went on. “She won’t give you trouble. Remember, stay calm.”
Two hung up, started back toward the van then stopped, thinking. She turned, exited through a side door, and crept around to the front of the building, peeking through a window at the van. Driver was not in the front of the van. A quick scan of the room showed Driver pressed against the wall beside the door—waiting to ambush her.
Two went back inside and crouched beside the door. She reached up and opened the door.
Driver made the move, but Two was not where Driver expected. She reached forward and yanked Driver’s feet out from under her. After disarming Driver, Two put the body in the van, cracked the side of Driver’s head and let the body tumble out onto a pile of metal pipes. She then went to a small room in the back of the warehouse and removed the body of a previous Number Four from a freezer sitting against the wall. She dragged the body to the main room and placed it next to Boss.
This should work just fine.
Chapter 61
The Pieces Don’t Fit
I hadn’t gotten half a mile before the phone rang again. “Cataldi.”
“Gino, you were right!” It was the tech I had talked to earlier.
“You found the bug?”
“Sort of, but it wasn’t really a bug; it was the phone.”
“For God’s sake, that should have been the first place you looked.”
“But it wasn’t a bug. They had spyware on his cell phone.”
“Spyware? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Good, sophisticated stuff—it let them listen to anything, even if the phone was off.”
I panicked. “Where is it now?”
“I’m outside. It’s in the kitchen, and I let Delgado know about it.”
I was pissed now. These fuckers had been listening to us the whole time. “How did you not notice this shit earlier?”
“You need to understand, this stuff is almost impossible to detect. We had to get into the code to find it.”
He was getting way over my head now. “How did it get there? Who could have put it on?”
“Anybody who had access to the phone for a few minutes and who knew Winthrop’s password and personal information. It’s not difficult. And once it’s in there, the things they can do with it are amazing—keep track of him with GPS, see who he texts and what he says, listen to calls, listen to conversations near the phone.”
“Son of a bitch!”
“Yeah, it’s not pretty.”
“Put Delgado on.”
“I’ll have to get him to come outside.”
“Okay, hurry up.”
I looked over to see Lonny about to go crazy with worry. While I waited for Delgado, I filled Lonny in. “We got a tip that Jada is still at the motel in another room. We also found out that someone had Scott’s phone bugged.”
He looked more stunned than I was. Delgado got on the line. “Some shit, huh, Gino?”
“Who could have put it there?”
“I’ve been thinking on it. It could have been Alexa, but that doesn’t play out. No reason for it to be Scott. If he wanted to tell the kidnappers something, he could have just told them.”
“How about people he works with?”
“Tip said one guy didn’t seem right, a guy named Sanjay.”
“I remember. We need to go over this later. I need to give Tip a call.”
I hung up, but before I dialed Tip’s number, I realized the implications of the spyware. That phone had been lying on the kitchen table. No wonder the kidnappers told him to leave it at home. They were listening to everything we said. Then it really hit me. They knew every move we were going to make. That’s how they knew we were going to the motel. That’s how they knew everything. There was no way they’d be at the hotel now waiting on Scott and his money. I punched in Tip’s number.
“Tip, get in Scott’s room now! I’ll fill you in later.”
“What’s going on?” Lonny asked.
“Nothing good.”
There was no way the drop would pay off. I prayed that the woman wasn’t messing with me about the motel. It would be up to me to find Jada now. Me and Lonny.
Not five minutes passed before Tip called back. “We’re fucked!” he said.
“Tell me.”
“They got him one block from the goddamn house. They took the money, put a live phone on him, and headed out. We’ve been on a dead run for hours.”
I punched the steering wheel. “Fuck!”
“Yeah. Twice,” he said. “I got a description of the van from Scott and I put it out already.”
“It’s been hours…”
“I know. Fat chance.”
I tried gathering my thoughts, but my head was scrambled. “Tip, fill Delgado in. Then go see that guy from Scott’s company. Delgado will tell you all about it, but they had some kind of spyware on
Winthrop’s phone.”
“I’m on it.”
Shit! I’d almost forgotten about Harbough. “Tip, the guy who was running the insurance investigation firm—it wasn’t Masterson, it was Ed Harbough.”
Dead silence. “Where is he?”
Tip usually had a semi-dufus, friendly, funny voice. This time his voice was scary.
“On his way downtown.”
“You should have let me have him. You owed me that.”
“I did it for you.”
“The fuck you did.”
I felt bad about what I did to Tip. I knew how much he wanted to find his mother’s killer, but I also knew he’d have probably killed Harbough. If he had, one of us was going up for it.
I looked in my rearview mirror as I drove. I half expected to see something resembling a spaceship flying by at any minute, piloted by a humanoid who resembled Tip. He’d be pissed as hell at what I did. When he was pissed, he drove fast. And he drove ninety when he was happy.
I called Ribs to pick up where we left off. “Go outside.”
“On my way.” I waited a few seconds, then he came on again. “What’s up?”
“Let’s try to figure out who planted the spyware. Do that, and we’ve got our kidnappers.”
“None of us had access to his phone. No reason for Alexa to do it. No reason on earth for Scott to do it.”
“So that leaves the people at his work,” I said. “They would have access to his phone at various times. And they’d likely know, or suspect, his password. His admin would surely know.”
“But why would someone from work do this? Don’t they all stand to make money from this IPO?”
I didn’t have an answer. “Maybe it’s a jealousy thing, like that case a while back where the scientist put the carcinogenic stuff in the other guy’s nasal spray.”
“Cruel shit there.”
“So you think somebody could hate Scott that much?”
Delgado laughed. “You tell me.”
I thought about it for a moment. “Let’s assume it’s somebody from work. Why would they not know they had the wrong girl?”
“If their information relied on listening to the phone, maybe we didn’t mention her by name when Scott was there.”
Delgado got me thinking. “So as long as Scott didn’t mention it at work…”
“And you told him not to.”
I nodded. “That could explain it. We’ll have to ask Scott when I get back.”
“You want me to tell him about the spyware and see if he comes up with any suggestions?”
“Yeah. See how he handles it.”
I hung up and stared across at Lonny. “I won’t tell you not to worry, but we’ll get her. I promise.”
“Like you promised those people in Philadelphia?”
That was a low blow, but he had a right to say it. I shouldn’t have promised. Not them. Not him. We rode in silence for a few moments. I exited the freeway, turned left, headed toward the motel.
Chapter 62
Last Room on the Left
Number Four paced the room, cracking his knuckles and squeezing his hands. The crime scene unit was in the next room, vacuuming, moving furniture, doing God knows what.
When the hell are they going to leave?
He walked to the window. Number Four had the curtains closed again. He didn’t see any more cars, but that didn’t mean anything. They could have an army around the corner, for all he knew. Why the hell did Boss have to send him here, of all people? He shot a quick glance to the girl, lying on the bed. Number Two must have scared her good. She’d been perfect ever since that phone call.
***
Lonny had been on the phone with Lucia ever since I told him about Jada being in the motel. He hung up as I pulled into the parking lot alongside Lance’s van. How Lance had gotten back so fast was beyond me. Maybe he and Tip went to the same driving school. Maybe all Texans did. Lonny and I got out of the car and went to the van.
“Detective,” Lance said and nodded.
“Everybody ready?”
“Good to go. Just give the word.”
I turned to Lonny. “Stay in the car. Call Lucia. Do anything, but stay in the car. I can’t be worried about you with Jada’s life on the line.”
“Lucia’s on her way,” he said. “Mars is driving her.”
“Good. Jada will like that.”
I waited for Lonny to get in the car then turned to face Lance. “Consider this a hostage situation. As far as we know, we’ve got one kidnapper in the room with the girl. He’ll be desperate, feeling trapped.”
“Not good,” Lance said.
“No, it’s not.” My phone rang. “Hang on, Lance.” I answered the phone, assuming it was Delgado but it was her.
“Detective, in a few minutes, you will hear noise from inside room #178—screaming or banging on the wall. The girl will be in the bathroom. That will be your opportunity. Don’t miss it.”
“How—”
“Goodbye, Detective.”
I stared at the phone then looked at Lance. “That was one of the kidnappers. They’re in room #178, and the girl will give us a signal when she’s out of harm’s way.”
“When?”
“A few minutes.”
“They’re giving up their own?”
“Along with the girl,” I said.
“What the hell? Why?”
“My guess is she doesn’t want any witnesses.”
Lance looked at me and shook his head. “‘She’?”
“The one who called is a woman. These people are cold, Lance.”
“Ice cold,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter. We’re ready.”
Gino turned to Lance. “Make sure they are. Have the crime scene unit listening for the signal. And Lance, we want this guy alive. We need him alive.”
“We’ll do our best.”
“Alive!” I said as he gathered his men.
***
Jada had been counting down the minutes, waiting for the right opportunity. She tried judging the time by watching Number Four’s mood, but he seemed so…wired. It scared her. Number Two had been insistent though, so Jada figured she’d better make her move. She grunted low to draw his attention.
Number Four turned. “What?” His voice was a harsh whisper.
Jada gestured with her head toward the bathroom.
“You’ll have to wait.”
She shook her head and indicated again she had to go.
He closed his eyes and sighed. “Can’t you wait?”
She shook her head. He grabbed her arm and led her toward the bathroom. When they got to the door, he spoke into her ear with a low voice. “Remember what Number Two told you. Try anything…”
Jada put fear into her eyes. It was easy to do, because she really was scared half to death.
He let go of her arm but stood close to the door. She went in, but he kept watching. She started to close the door, but he stopped it, shaking his head.
Jada unzipped her pants, sat on the toilet, and pretended to try. After a minute or so, she motioned for him to turn his head. She got ready. As soon as he turned his head, she jumped up, slammed the door and twisted the lock.
He banged against the door, but not very hard. Then she heard him threatening her.
“Open this fuckin’ door. You know what will happen.”
Jada tried getting her gag off, but it was tied too tight. She kicked the wall, once, then more. Her stomach lurched. Number Four was pushing on the door. If he got in, she was dead. She got on her back, stretched her arms back and braced against the tub, and kicked with all she had. She kept kicking, and kicking, even punching holes in the drywall.
Somebody please help me!
***
Inside room #180, the CSU lead heard the noise and called Gino. “We’ve got a signal. It’s a go.”
Gino looked to Lance. “Go!”
Lance had men inside #180 and outside of #178. He gave the order to move in.
&nb
sp; Number Four heard footsteps. He ran to the window, looked out. They were coming up the steps. He waited for them to get close. Fifteen feet, ten. He fired through the window, taking the lead cop down.
The door from #180 burst open. Two guys rushed in, one low to the ground. The low one fired. The first shot blew out Four’s chest. The second ripped a chunk of his head off.
***
Lance’s guy went down. I prayed his vest covered him. I drew my gun and rushed the room. A shot rang from inside. Then another. Lance’s guys busted through the door of #178. I followed them in. The guy on the floor wasn’t a pretty sight. Noise was still coming from the bathroom.
“Jada! Open the door, Jada. It’s the police. You’re safe.”
The bathroom door burst open, and Jada flew out. I held my arms open, and she wrapped herself around me, showering me with tears. When I took out the gag, her words couldn’t come fast enough.
“Oh my God! Is it over? Oh God.”
I patted her back and kissed her head. “It’s over, Jada. You’re safe.”
She couldn’t stop crying and wouldn’t let go of me.
“Your dad is outside. Probably your mom and Mars, too. How about we go see them?”
She broke off from me. “Oh my God. Are they really here?”
I held her arm and led her through the room, trying to shield her from the gory mess on the floor. She cried all the way out of the room and down the walk. When we turned the corner, she saw Lonny and Lucia. And Mars. Jada broke from me and ran, screaming something incoherent. I took my time getting to them, but it was an easy scene to interpret. A family reunited, sharing in grief and relief. When I got to within about ten feet, they were still crying, even Mars. I felt good inside. This was not how my other kidnappings ended, though there was still a sour note to play out. I felt certain that Lonny hadn’t told them of his situation, and I knew that as good as it felt for them to have Jada home safe, it was going to be just as bad to see Lonny go. Maybe worse. For the time being, though, I let them enjoy the moment.
Lucia ran to me, hugging me and spreading more tears on my shirt. “Detective, we can’t thank you enough. I knew you’d do it. I knew you’d save my baby.”
“I’ll get an ambulance out here. You can ride to the hospital with her.”
Necessary Decisions, A Gino Cataldi Mystery Page 30
