by Lisa Hughey
“You got it, boss.”
Fog swirled in the early morning. Dawn was barely more than a pink-edged sky. Squirrels clicked and chattered as they scampered up the thick eucalyptus trunks. The birds were silent. The creek bed was dry. Small rodents rustled in the underbrush. Smells battled for dominance, the piney scent of eucalyptus, the decay of underbrush and leaves, and the faded sweet of the porch roses. Besides the animals, the quiet was absolute.
“Who owns the house?” Jack asked gruffly as they approached the front porch.
“It appears to be abandoned.” Bliss shifted into business mode. “In theory it was foreclosed on about ten years ago. The previous owners left.”
“Can they be tied back to Fernandez in any way?”
Bliss shook her head, even though he wasn’t looking at her. “So far we’ve been unable to find a connection.”
“Then why hasn’t the bank taken possession?”
“That’s where it gets a little murky.” Bliss huffed out a breath. “According to county records it was foreclosed on by Banke of America.”
“So why not go back to Bank of America?”
“Because it’s B-A-N-K-E of America.” Bliss continued, “On the surface it looks like a typo. But the real B of A has no record of foreclosing on the property.”
“Have you thought about seeing if there are any other properties registered to the company with that typo?” Jack mulled over the discrepancy.
“We have a forensic accountant working on it.”
“I could ask Connor.”
“Not necessary.” Bliss shut him down before he could offer to call his brother again.
Jack said, “I would think you’d want everyone working on this, if we can tie the house back to Fernandez, it is one more piece of evidence.”
He was right but…“We can’t risk that he’s monitoring your brother and Ava after yesterday.”
Bliss knew she was right. But she understood his wish to figure this out and to use the resources he had at his disposal.
They breeched the porch at the same time.
Bliss wondered if they’d have to break down the door, but as she approached she noted the handle was broken, the knob crooked in its bore hole, and the door held shut with a single strand of twisted metal wire.
Bliss uncoiled the wire and stepped into the darkened, nearly empty house. In the living room, an old sofa had been nibbled on by rodents and rested on a rug worn bare in spots, and a single chair sat in the kitchen. Bliss swallowed and searched for the entrance to the basement. A fine powder dusted all the surfaces where someone might have left fingerprints. The handles and faucet in the sink, the sashes, the locks of the fragile windows, the door knobs. It took all of two minutes to determine there were no stairs to the basement.
Jack lifted the rug and there, almost invisible in the rough plank floor, was a trap door. “In the ground.”
She’d told him. But he hadn’t really heard her.
There had to be a trick to finding the way to lift the door. Bliss ran her fingers along the seam of the door, looking for any way to lift it. At the very edge was a hinged piece, and when she pushed, the small piece folded in and Bliss was able to curl her fingers around the edge and lift.
She pulled up the trap door and flipped it until it lay flat on the floor. Inside was another smaller door with a cat door installed in the center. Both doors were dusted with the fingerprint powder. The larger trap door had been welded to the floor support beams. The welding had been cut for the crime techs to get down into the basement and search for any evidence against her jailors, but they’d found nothing that wasn’t directly attributable to Maria.
Bliss pulled a pair of vinyl gloves from her messenger bag and snapped them on her hands quickly before continuing. They had both taken out their flashlights.
Inset in the metal door was the pet door, designed for a cat or a very small dog, on hinges to push inward. So her captors could literally just drop bags of food and supplies in. The flap was fitted with a spring mechanism so that it snapped closed as soon as the pressure from above was off. The way the door was installed would have made it impossible for Maria to get out. All the mechanisms were on the outside of her prison.
Bliss pushed the cat door open and shined her flashlight on the small room. A twin bed was in the corner, an exercise bike in another corner, a mini-fridge and a hot pad sat on a Formica counter, and a television perched on a wood plank resting over two cinder blocks.
That was it.
Black powder covered every surface.
“Jesus,” Jack muttered from beside her. She’d been doing her best to ignore how close he was but as his breath feathered over the back of her neck, Bliss was forced to acknowledge the sweet warmth emanating from his body, and his solid comforting bulk beside her.
“No stairs?” Jack whispered.
“They dropped her food down once a week and she gave them her garbage. All the fingerprints they found down there were hers.” Bliss revealed softly, “I don’t think they ever went down into the hole once they sealed it off.”
“How,” Jack swallowed. “How the hell did she escape?”
“She saw Shawshank Redemption. She used the handles of a plastic spoons until they broke. She basically dug a tunnel out to the creek. You can’t see the walls but they are papered with posters of woods.”
Jack’s forehead dropped to her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
That was unexpected. “What for?”
“I understand.” Jack’s lips moved against the bare skin of her neck. “I still need to protect my family but I get why you don’t want anything else to jeopardize her safety.”
Bliss shivered at the heat of his body pressed up against hers. His casual touch set off tremors inside her. If he didn’t move soon, she was going to start shaking on the outside.
“Guys,” Shane called softly. “You need to get out. Now.”
The urgency in Shane’s voice galvanized Jack. He pushed to standing on his powerful thighs and pulled her up with him.
“What are you doing?”
“Shane is the most even keeled guy I know. If he sounds that panicked then we need to listen.”
He didn’t sound panicked to her. As Bliss stood, the arc of light from her flashlight scanned the basement prison and something caught her eye. Holy shit. “Jack. We can’t leave yet.”
“Bliss, we have to go.” Jack pulled on her arm.
“Maria,” Bliss shouted. “It’s Bliss Lee. Will you come out?”
“What?” Jack hissed.
“Guys, we really need to get out of here.” Shane’s voice lifted. “Like five minutes ago.”
“Maria, you’re in danger here.” But that flash of fabric, the pattern on one of the dresses that Bliss had given Maria, was gone.
Fuck.
“Are you sure you saw something?” Jack’s palm curled around her bicep.
Bliss whirled, her face inches from Jack’s. “I am not leaving her behind. She’s down there, Jack.”
“Okay. I believe you.” His hand on her shoulder was soft, placating.
“Maria, honey, come on out.” Bliss tried to keep her tone from being too desperate but at Jack’s look, she knew she hadn’t succeeded.
“Maria, my name is Jack Stone. Your friend Ava Sanchez would really like to see you.”
They both heard the rustling at the same time. Bliss averted her light from the open hole so that it wouldn’t shine in Maria’s face.
“Maria, it’s not safe here.” Bliss gave up and begged, “Please, please, come out. Por favor.”
Jack said, “You remember Ava. She never forgot you. Never.”
Suddenly, Maria’s pale, gaunt face appeared in the opening. She was wearing the dress that had been captured on the security cameras and tears tracked down her cheeks. “Ava?”
“Yeah. I know she would love to see you.” Jack knelt down and lowered his arm into the opening. “Grab hold and I’ll get you out of there.”
&nb
sp; Maria clambered up on a chair and reached up to Jack.
Dawn had broken, the sun was mostly obscured by the gray marine layer fog, and with the tangle of tree canopy, only random streaks of pink rippled in the early morning sky. It was still pretty dark, which was a good thing. Otherwise, Bliss wasn’t sure they could have gotten Maria to leave the basement.
Once Jack pulled her up into the living room, Bliss curled her arm around Maria’s shaking shoulders. Bliss was pretty sure she was shaking too. “I’m so glad to see you.”
“Hurry, guys,” Shane called out.
Maria stiffened.
“It’s okay. He’s with us.” Bliss reassured Maria as Jack asked, “What’s wrong?”
They were out the door and Bliss still couldn’t see any threat. But she thought she heard a cell phone ringing in the distance.
“We need to get the hell out of here.” Shane was running toward the car.
The smell of gasoline suddenly hit Jack’s nose and he could hear the muffled ring tone of a cell phone.
“Fuck. Is that what I think?” Jack started running toward the car, shoving Bliss and Maria in front of him as Shane threw himself into the drivers’ seat and the engine roared to life.
Shane answered, “Remote detonator. With this brush, the entire canyon is going to go up in a few seconds.”
“Can we stop it?” Bliss asked.
“I don’t know where the phone is, based on the echo of sound, it’s somewhere in the brush by the creek,” Shane said calmly as he yanked the wheel into a sharp U turn.
“Shouldn’t we go look for it?”
“No time.” Jack shook his head. “Because of how dry our fall and winter has been, once it catches the entire place is going ignite. If we don’t get out now, we won’t make it. Forget about the house, with all this tinder, it’s going to be an inferno.”
Nine
Shane gunned the engine and the Charger leapt forward, bouncing on the uneven path back to the main road.
“We have to call Garrett.” But Bliss didn’t have any hands. Maria was clinging tight to her fingers. Oh my God. She’d been right!
Elation filled her. She’d been right. She’d found Maria.
But that elation was tempered by the devastation they were leaving behind. The house ignited in a whoosh.
Bliss craned her neck, staring out the back of the car window as the house was instantly engulfed in flames. The blaze reminded her of her own childhood home. Destroyed by fire and ultimately what lead to their family’s separation. They’d been lucky they hadn’t been home.
Maria had been lucky that Bliss, Jack, and Shane were there.
What if she hadn’t thought this is where Maria would go? What if they hadn’t gotten here in time? What if they’d set the house on fire last night? She would have never forgiven herself.
“We have to call this in,” Jack said. “With the current drought, this fire could spread fast.”
Shane was busy calling 9-1-1 on his cell but it was going to be far too late. The entire house would be a smoldering pile of ash before the local fire trucks made it to the ignition point.
With one trembling hand, Bliss dialed Marshal Garrett’s cell. Bliss hoped that the retired marshal answered since she was using a burner phone they’d picked up last night. She spoke urgently to him as thankfully he answered his phone. “Someone torched the house. We already called emergency services but you may need to evacuate. Dammit, I’m sorry, Garrett.”
Her stomach roiled as she realized that another piece of evidence against Fernandez had just been eliminated. It didn’t matter that the way it disappeared was extremely suspicious. Without the house and the trace evidence of Maria’s captivity, Fernandez eliminated another link to him. Even though they had crime scene pictures, the destruction of the property was a blow.
Marshal Garrett was still speaking in her ear. “Thank goodness we got the techs there before it went.”
Maria clung to Bliss, shivering, likely in shock. “Sorry, Garrett. I’ve got to go.” She didn’t want him to know that she had Maria right next to her, not safely tucked away somewhere else in the country after he took the initiative to get her to DC.
But Garrett wasn’t finished. “We’ve got to wait until we get the DNA results back. We should have them tomorrow. But we can’t make a move until we have definitive proof that she is Maria.”
Bliss knew that. But now that they had Maria in custody again, Bliss was antsy to get the confrontation with Fernandez out of the way. “Let me know as soon as you’ve got the results. You can call me on this phone.” And she disconnected the call.
Dammit.
“Do you think they knew we were there?” Bliss asked Jack and Shane the question that was weighing on her mind. They hadn’t seen any evidence of surveillance cameras and the crime scene techs from the marshal’s office hadn’t found any but what were the odds?
“I think my brother spooked Fernandez. The groundwork was likely already laid so that they could torch the house as soon as it looked like they needed to. They probably set it up as soon as they discovered she was missing.”
Which would have been only three days ago. After the crime scene techs were done.
Shane said, “I didn’t even smell the gasoline until I decided to check the back of the house. The ground was saturated. I think it was dumb luck—”
“Or something,” Jack muttered.
“—that we were there when they set it off.” Shane sped down the dirt lane, his gaze cutting to the fireball that rose behind them.
Bliss flinched as an explosion boomed behind them. She felt as if this whole operation was cursed. She thunked her forehead on the headrest behind Shane.
With her right hand, she held on to Maria.
“Where to?” Shane asked.
“We need to get back to our hotel,” Bliss directed him. “And get Maria hidden.”
There was no way she could let Maria out of her sight. It was imperative that Fernandez not get a lock on Maria’s location.
“Well, boss, where to?” Shane asked Jack again.
Bliss fumed. Really?
“You heard the lady,” Jack deferred to Bliss. “Back to the hotel.”
Bliss relaxed.
“And then we’re calling in backup,” Jack said in a firm tone.
As much as she wanted to argue, he was right. They had their witness. But before they could set up the confrontation that would bury Fernandez, they had to get all the evidence and their ducks in a row. And Bliss was going to need help guarding Maria.
They needed to make sure Maria didn’t bolt, again.
“You need to talk to us, honey.” Jack’s voice was unbelievably gentle as he stared at Maria.
“At the hotel,” Bliss interjected.
“Okay,” Jack agreed. And then he brought up back up again.
While they drove back to the hotel, they argued about who they were going to call as backup. Shane navigated the back roads, and watched Bliss and Jack hash out who they were going to call for help like it was a match at Wimbledon.
Bliss wanted Marshal Garrett. Maria was comfortable around Garrett.
Jack wanted Connor and Ava.
The worst part of arguing with Jack was she saw his point, she just didn’t think it was safe. She could tell by the way Maria reacted when Jack told Maria that Ava remembered her, that seeing Ava Sanchez would be a good thing.
But the fact remained that they couldn’t call them. “We can’t have Ava Sanchez or your brother anywhere near Maria until we can go public. Fernandez has to be totally spooked by what your brother and Ava did yesterday. So he’s getting rid of evidence. And he’s got to know now that the house is a dead end. We want him to relax, not get more stressed.”
As their conversation escalated, Maria interrupted. “No Ava.”
That shut them both up. “Why not?” Jack asked.
“I don’t want her in any danger.” And with that plea, Maria sealed Bliss’s argument. But the fact remaine
d that they needed help.
Jack snapped his fingers. “Keisha.”
“Who?”
“She works for GHR.”
“Great, Jack. A relief worker?”
“She’s got…other skills.”
“Um, Jack.” Shane tried to interrupt.
“Not now, Shane.”
“But—”
“We’re good.” Jack cut Shane off. But Bliss had had enough.
“I’m curious what Shane has to say.” Bliss balled her fists and put her hands on her hips. “Please continue, Shane.”
“She’s a scary woman.”
Shane, the giant badass, thought this Keisha was scary? That didn’t sound good.
But Jack dismissed Shane’s words with a flick of his hand. “She can be. She can also be a total marshmallow.”
“We talking about the same woman?” Shane’s eyebrows rose along with his voice. “She’s a total ball buster.”
Jack snorted. “Keisha is perfect. She can guard Maria and keep her safe.”
“How are we going to get here?”
“Easy.” Jack bared his teeth. “Shane is going to call and invite her over.”
Ten
Shane called from the car and arranged for Keisha to meet him at the hotel. By tacit agreement, he didn’t mention Jack at all. They had been back in their room less than five minutes when there was a decisive knock at the door.
Shane peered out the security peephole in the door. “It’s her. I just want to reiterate, she is going to be pissed.”
Another loud bang on the door had Shane jumping back. “Shit.”
Jack watched Bliss stifle a laugh. It startled him. It was the first genuine smile he’d seen on her face since they reconnected.
Shane yanked open the door. “Hey, Keisha. Come on in.”
“Oh, hell no, I want answers first,” Keisha shot back. “What’s this about?”
“We really need privacy.” Shane pulled her into the room.
“What is wrong with you?” Even though she was a foot shorter, she twisted to break his hold, jabbed him in the stomach, and was reaching for the doorknob when Jack stepped into her view.
“Hey, Keish.” Jack smiled broadly. She had been one of his absolute best hires. Keisha Johnson had attitude in spades. She topped out at five foot five but her personality was so big, he never noticed how short she really was. She had tight, dark brown curls with streaks of gold. Her skin and hair always seemed to shimmer with bronze. Even better, she was a killer logistics manager but wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. And while she did have a bit of a chip on her shoulder, she also had a soft center that most people never noticed.
