Progeny

by E. H. Reinhard

  “Set,” I said.

  “Okay. Clearwater PD is already on the condo. No signs of her, though.”

  “All right. I guess we’ll see what we find inside,” I said.

  Hank and I grabbed keys for an unmarked Charger. Jones and Donner did the same. I flipped on the red-and-blues in the rear window and grille and left the station. I led our convoy toward Clearwater. Normally half an hour, the drive took us just a bit over twenty minutes at my rushed pace. We entered Angel White’s neighborhood a couple minutes after two thirty in the morning. Two Clearwater PD cruisers were already on the scene, parked in opposite directions so they could sit in their cars and talk as they waited for us. After I pulled to the curb, Jones did the same behind my car, and the captain followed suit behind him. One of the Clearwater cruisers looped around and parked on the other side of the street. I glanced over at the condo. The SUV that I’d assumed belonged to Angel’s adoptive parents was gone from the driveway. Hank and I got out and walked to the closest Clearwater patrol car. The officer exited his car and came toward us.

  “Lieutenant Carl Kane,” I said.

  He reached out for a handshake, and I took it.

  He seemed to be in his forties, with a bald head and no mustache or beard. “Ross Welsh. I got Officer Tim Kieth with me here. No signs of the woman in question.”

  “This is Sergeant Rawlings.”

  He shook Hank’s hand.

  “I’ll let the other guys handle the introductions when they get over here. What do we know? Is she in the house?” I asked.

  “I’ve been here for a good hour. No signs of her.”

  “Did you go to the door?” Hank asked.

  “No answer or sounds coming from inside,” he said.

  I saw the other Clearwater officer speaking with the captain, Jones, and Donner at their car.

  “All right,” I said. “We got the warrants. Let’s get in there.”

  We gathered the rest of our group and went to the front door. Bostok handed me the warrants. I pulled my service weapon from my shoulder holster, and the other officers did the same. Holding the warrant in my left hand, I banged on the door. “Police! Search warrant!” My firearm hung against my right hip.

  No one came. I made the announcement again—again, no response.

  I twisted the doorknob, but it was locked. “Do you want the honor, Jones?” I asked.

  He holstered his weapon and motioned us to the sides. We moved.

  Jones took two lunging steps and delivered a boot to the door next to the handle. It flew open, wood splinters flying inside and sliding across the foyer floor. I motioned for everyone to enter. The men filed up the steps. I checked and cleared the garage—no car. Then I followed the guys upstairs.

  “Police! Search warrant!” Hank called.

  I heard nothing. We flipped on the lights as we spread through the main floor of the condo. The living room and kitchen were cleared. Hank, Jones, and I headed up to the third floor. We checked each of the three bedrooms—empty. She wasn’t there. We went back to the guys on the main level.

  “Okay let’s get digging,” the captain said. “Anything that could lead us to where she may be or could go. Kane, Rawlings, take the top story. Jones, Donner, and I will get started here. We’ll move down to the garage after.”

  Hank and I climbed the stairs to the third floor.

  “I’ll take the master,” I said.

  “Sure.” Hank jerked his head at the bedroom to his right. “I’ll start in here.”

  Chapter 32

  Angel’s right eyelid spread open, and the left one followed a second or two later. She saw blurry streetlights with her left eye, blades of grass being lit by the same streetlights with her right.

  “Ugh,” she moaned.

  She raised her head from the lawn and pushed herself to a seated position. Her head pounded. She brought her hand to the side of her face above her right eye. Her hand slipped over an egg-sized lump. She looked at her fingertips—they were covered in blood from the wound.

  “That bitch,” she mumbled.

  Angel looked down the street. She didn’t see Maria. She didn’t know how long she’d been out. She put her right hand down and got her knees under herself. She stood and stumbled across the grass to the street. Her head throbbed with each footstep. She headed down the street to where she’d last seen Maria running.

  “She couldn’t have gotten far,” Angel said.

  She neared the cross street and looked left to right. The brightness of the streetlights overhead was causing the pain in her head to worsen. Her vision blurred. Angel looked down and closed her eyes, holding them tight until the pain began to subside. Then she opened her eyes, and her vision came back. She stared down at the street, where something caught her eye.

  Angel knelt and jammed her index finger into what she saw. She pulled her finger back and rubbed its tip against her thumb. Red spread across her fingertips.

  “Blood,” Angel said.

  She looked up the street. More drips came into view. Angel followed them down the block. The drops of blood veered from the center of the street toward the sidewalk. Angel continued following the drips until she reached the grass. She knelt. More blood. The grass looked folded over.

  Angel stood. She looked directly across at Robles Park, the same location she’d dumped Henry Pullman. Angel’s head went left and right, looking up and down North Avon Street. Maria was nowhere in sight. Angel searched the sidewalk, the street, and the grass. She found no more blood anywhere.

  “Shit,” Angel said.

  She wondered if someone had picked Maria up.

  “Damn.”

  Angel turned and headed back toward the house. She could only assume the woman had gotten help, and if she had, the police would be on their way. Angel needed to be ready when they arrived.

  Chapter 33

  I covered just about every inch of the master bedroom. I found nothing in the nightstand drawers or dressers. The closet appeared to be empty, minus some clothes hanging and shoes strewn on the floor. I searched underneath the bed and between the mattress and box spring. I went through each drawer and cupboard in the master bathroom. Either she had done an extremely good job of covering her tracks, or there was nothing there for me to find. I walked out and headed toward Hank in one of the spare bedrooms to see if he was having better luck. I heard him rummaging around in the bedroom at the end of the hall. I walked in.

  “Anything?” he asked.

  “Pretty clean,” I said.

  “Yeah, here too. I came up empty at the first bedroom I went through. Nothing in this one either, unless you know how to break into a safe. We’ll have to call someone to get it open.”

  “She has a safe?” I asked.

  Hank nodded at the two-door cabinet that the television sat upon. The doors were open. I could see the corner of a safe located within. I walked over and knelt before it. The safe itself was a dark gray, two-foot cube. The front had a single combination lock in the center of a handle. The brand logo on the top-right corner said Impenetrable Safe Co.

  I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and dialed information. I had the operator put me through to a twenty-four-hour locksmith in Clearwater. I waited as the phone rang in my ear.

  “Lock Masters. How can I help you?”

  “Lieutenant Carl Kane with the TPD. We’re serving a warrant on a Clearwater home and have a safe that we need to get into.”

  “Personal safe?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Can you see the make and model?”

  “It says Impenetrable Safe Company. I can’t see a model number, though. It’s two foot cubed with a combination lock on the front.”

  “Okay, I just wanted to see if it was a cheap brand or something with a digital keypad that I could just guide you through the process over the phone. That would be after I confirmed you as law enforcement, obviously.”

  I stared at the safe. It appeared to be a quality item. “This thing
looks pretty solid,” I said.

  “Yeah, that’s a good safe. We’ll have to send someone out to you.”

  “You can get into it, though?” I asked.

  “Yup. What’s the address? I can get someone out to you right away.”

  I gave it to him. He told me someone would be out within a half hour.

  Hank stood from searching under the bed, placed his hands on his hips, and stretched his back. “Locksmith coming?” he asked.

  “Yeah, they said someone would be out within a half hour.”

  “Good. Hopefully, there’s something in there because so far, I got zip.”

  “Let’s head downstairs and see if they got anything.”

  Hank nodded and followed me out.

  We hit the main level. Bostok was on his phone in the corner of the living room. The two Clearwater officers seemed to be searching the kitchen. I didn’t spot Jones or Donner and figured they were down in the garage.

  Bostok hung up from his phone call and looked at me. “You need to go to Tampa General.”

  I walked toward him. “Why?” I asked.

  “The station just got a call from the hospital. Maria Flores is there with a head injury. She said your name and ‘Call the Tampa police’ to those attending to her.”

  “What else did they say?”

  “That’s all I got. That call was from the station, relaying the information. All they told me was she was dropped off in front of the emergency center. Significant head injury. She just said, ‘Lieutenant Kane, Tampa police.’ That’s it.”

  “Okay, I’m heading over there. I’ll call your cell as soon as I speak with her.”

  “Take Rawlings. Jones, Donner, and I can handle it here. Call me as soon as you know something from the hospital.”

  “I will.”

  We left the condo and made for our unmarked car out front.

  “She must have got away,” Hank said.

  I got in the driver’s door, closed it, and started the motor. “We need to know where she was picked up and who dropped her off.”

  We were almost to the hospital when my phone rang. The screen on my phone said it was the station. I clicked Talk.

  “Lieutenant Kane.”

  “Hey, it’s Rick. I took the prints from the phone and ran them. No match.”

  “Well, I pulled the sheet on Angel White. She didn’t have any priors,” I said.

  “Yeah, I did the same. This phone is hers, though. It was dead. I got some power to it and went through it.”

  “Anything that can help us?”

  “Nothing on first glance that I saw. Her e-mail and a few other things are password protected. I called Terry from tech. He is going to come in and get on it. I’m probably going to wrap up here as soon as I hand the phone off to him.”

  “Yeah, whatever you have from the scene that you’re working on can wait, aside from the phone. Maria Flores is over at Tampa General. We’re on our way there now.”

  “Tampa General?”

  “Yup. Somehow, she got away, we’re thinking.”

  “Man, that’s good news.”

  “Okay. I appreciate all the help, Rick.”

  “No problem.”

  I hung up.

  “Anything?” Hank asked.

  “Terry is coming in to see if he can get through any of the passwords on the phone. That’s about it.”

  Hank grunted in response and rubbed his eyes.

  My condo came into view up ahead to the right as we drove down South Hyde Park Avenue. I glanced over as we passed. I could see my bedroom windows. The lights were off, but a flicker of light from the television came through the blinds. Callie always fell asleep to the television. I wanted to be inside, in bed, lying next to her. My condo disappeared from view. We drove over the bridge and made a left toward the hospital. Hank and I pulled around the loop by the emergency center and parked along the curb. We walked inside and went to the reception desk.

  I made eye contact with a midthirties woman in scrubs behind the counter. “I’m Lieutenant Kane with the TPD. A woman was brought in within the hour with a head injury, asking for me. Maria Flores.”

  “One second,” she said. She left the desk and walked down the hall. She reappeared a minute or two later with another nurse in tow.

  The woman came toward Hank and me. “You’re Lieutenant Kane?” she asked.

  “I am. This is Sergeant Rawlings. Can we see her?”

  “Miss Flores is actually undergoing some testing at the moment. It should be just a few minutes.”

  “What can you tell us?”

  “She was dropped off, out front, unconscious. The man who dropped her off said he was going to park his truck but then never came back. She regained consciousness a few minutes after arriving. Your name was the first thing she said. She has multiple head injuries. One at the front and back, another above the eye. She’s concussed and required suturing to the injured areas.”

  “What kind of truck dropped her off? Did you get a license-plate number?” I asked.

  “Sorry, I didn’t. The guy said he was coming back inside. It was a red, older pickup.”

  “Okay. Does she remember the attack?” I asked.

  “We asked her what happened. She was a little foggy on the details. They may come back. That’s to be expected in something like this. Why don’t you two have a seat? We’ll come get you in a couple minutes.”

  “Sure,” I said.

  Hank and I headed to the waiting area and took seats in the back corner. Hank scooped up a magazine and began to thumb through it. I thought about Maria Flores.

  Hank glanced over at me. “What’s up? You have the thinking face going.”

  “Nothing. Just wondering how the hell she got away. That, and nothing in the gas-station video shows her getting hit in the back of the head.”

  “Well, maybe we’ll find out.” Hank motioned toward the nurse we’d spoken with, walking back over.

  “You guys can follow me,” she said.

  Hank and I trailed behind her down the hallway. She led us into an emergency-care room. A doctor was attending to Maria Flores, sitting on a table. She looked over at us, her head partially wrapped in gauze. The side of her face was stained from either iodine or blood. The doctor told her he’d see her again shortly and came toward Hank and me, just inside the room.

  “Just a couple minutes here, officers. We’re going to be taking her upstairs to a room for the night. We’ll need to monitor her.”

  “Okay, thanks,” I said.

  We walked over to the woman seated on the table. She stared at us.

  “Mrs. Flores. I’m Lieutenant Kane. We spoke on the phone, remember?”

  “Stubborn,” she said.

  I showed her a bit of a smile. “Can you tell us what happened?” I asked.

  “It’s a bit fuzzy. I remember being at work, outside in the back. I remember looking at a woman’s phone. I remember waking up in a trunk. The woman shouted instructions at me. She was trying to get me to go into a house. I tried to run. She hit me over the back of the head with something. A rock, maybe? I say that because that’s what I hit her with. After that, I just ran down the street of some old neighborhood. It’s kind of like a dream. I remember feeling dizzy, and then I woke up here. It’s just bits and pieces,” she said.

  “You hit her with a rock?” I asked.

  “I just… I knew something bad was going to happen if I went in that house. I guess instincts took over. She hit me as I tried to run, which dazed me, and then I hit her and ran.”

  “Do you know who brought you to the hospital?” Hank asked.

  She shook her head and winced. “Sorry.”

  “Well, I saw what happened at your work. The woman who attacked you is an accomplice of the woman I warned you about. Do you remember anything specific about where she took you?”

  She shrugged. “Just some old neighborhood.”

  “Did you see street signs or house numbers?” I asked

 
; She looked down and shook her head. “I don’t remember.”

  “Do you remember how long you were in the trunk?” Hank asked.

  Maria was quiet. She held her palms up. “I don’t know.”

  “Okay,” I said. “You’ll be safe here for the night. I’m going to get someone from our department to watch over you. I’ll stop in tomorrow… or, actually, later today and check in on you.”

  “Okay,” she said.

  Hank and I left the room and stood in the hallway.

  “Now what?” Hank asked.

  I headed toward the front desk as Hank followed. “We’re going to find out who dropped her off.”

  The nurse we’d spoken with when we walked in was heading past us.

  I stopped her and asked, “Do you guys have a camera out front in the drive-through area?”

  “A couple, I think,” she said.

  “Who do we need to talk to in order to look at that video?”

  “Um, I can get someone from security.”

  “Perfect,” I said. “We’ll be in the waiting area by the entrance.”

  “I’ll have them meet you over there.”

  I nodded. We walked back to the waiting area by the front doors and took a seat. I pulled out my cell and dialed the captain.

  He picked up right away. “Hey, Kane.”

  “Cap. Did you get into that safe yet?”

  “Not yet. The guy got here about ten minutes ago. He keeps going back and forth to his truck.”

  “Did you find anything else in the house?”

  “Jones and Donner brought up a box from the garage. They’re going through it now. We have Carmen Simms’s name on a couple of documents. So far, nothing looks current. What about you? What’s going on over there?”

  “Well, it’s Maria Flores. She can’t remember much, though.”

  “How is she?”

  “She took a couple hits to the head. Concussion. They’re keeping her overnight. It seems like she’ll be fine, though. I need to call Mueller and have him send someone from patrol over to watch her.”

  “I’ll get someone from patrol out there. Did she remember anything that can help?”