There was another boy with his men. Vasquez had explained that he had taken Henry as he’d been out running with a friend. Vasquez said he had used the boy to gain Henry’s cooperation. It had been a good idea and Kagan told him that they would take the other boy with them until Henry no longer needed to be forced to behave. Kagan was sure that he could talk his son into coming to live with him in Mexico. The truth was that once he had Henry across the border, the boy would have little choice but to do what he was told. In time, Kagan believed that Henry would no longer want to return to his old life. In America, he was just another boy and a high school student. In Mexico, he would be the son of Kagan Andreas, a man of wealth and power.
Henry was standing at the rear of what had been the old mill when he heard a car engine coming along the nearby road. Vasquez’s phone rang and he answered the caller in Spanish, telling whoever it was to drive around to the rear. As far as Henry could tell, Vasquez was unaware that he spoke Spanish. Henry saw no reason to let him know otherwise.
He looked back at Jax, who had been made to sit in the grass. One of the younger Mexicans had gagged him after Jax kept talking and asking questions. It was probably for the best. Henry didn’t doubt that the men might kill Jax if he annoyed them enough.
An old car appeared and parked, then a man got out. He was dressed in blue chinos with a matching blue polo shirt and motorcycle boots that zipped up on the side. He was tall, handsome, and grinning at Henry.
“Are you my father?”
“You’re damn right I am. Come here, boy.”
Henry walked over to Kagan and guessed that he was about six-foot-three. He was glad to see it. It gave him hope that he might someday be as tall.
“My name is Kagan, and I want you to know that I loved your mother. I also want you to know that it was not my choice to be away from you for so many years.”
“The FBI is looking for you. They once questioned me, hoping I could tell them how to find you.”
“They’re not smart enough to catch me, but I took a chance coming here like this. It’s also the reason why we have to leave and head into Mexico. You’ll be coming with me.”
Henry shook his head. “I’m glad I’ve finally met you, but I’m staying here with my grandmother.”
“Wrong. You’re coming with me. You’re going to put this life behind you and eventually you’ll be my partner. I’m rich, Henry, very rich, and I’ll give you anything you want, cars, women, anything.”
“You’re not listening. I already have a life, and I don’t want to be your pet. You say you had no choice and had to stay away while I was growing up; that’s fine. I had a good life anyway, even after Mom died. You don’t need to feel guilty and think you have to make things up to me.”
Kagan laid a hand on Henry’s shoulder as his face darkened in anger. “You’re coming with me, and that’s that.”
Henry slapped his hand away. Kagan’s temper flared and he reached out to grab Henry by his shirt. Henry, who had been taught basic self-defense moves by Cody, grabbed Kagan by the wrist with one hand and gave him a shove with the other. At the same time, he had slipped a foot behind Kagan’s knee. Kagan lost his balance and went down to land on his back, but he had maintained his grip on Henry’s shirt and pulled him down with him.
Realizing he couldn’t break his grasp, Henry punched Kagan in the face and bloodied his lower lip. That was followed by a knee to the groin and a fist to the throat. Kagan’s grip on Henry’s shirt went away as the master mover of drugs brought his hands to his throat while gagging.
“Over here!” Vasquez said. Henry had been about to deliver another blow to Kagan’s face; he froze with his fist poised to strike as he looked over and saw what Vasquez was doing to Jax.
The squat man had a handful of Jax’s long blond hair in one fist and was wrenching his head back to expose his neck. His other hand was carving a line of red across Jax’s throat with a knife, the blade biting deeper as it moved along. The look in Jax’s eyes was one of astonished terror.
“Stop!” Henry said. “Don’t kill him!”
Vasquez stopped cutting. “You will do what your father tells you to do or the next time your friend dies. After that, we’ll go find that girlfriend of yours to keep you in line.”
Kagan leapt to his feet. He had recovered from the blow to his throat, but blood dripped from the cut on his bottom lip. The anger he’d felt had been replaced by pride. He spoke in a raspy voice.
“Did you see that, Vasquez? He’s my son all right. He takes shit from no man.”
Henry had been looking away from Kagan and staring at the blood running down Jax’s neck. The cut inflicted on Jax wasn’t serious, but it covered about two inches. When Henry turned to look at his father, he saw Kagan’s fist headed toward him. The blow struck him on the side of the head, and he staggered.
Vasquez told the two young Mexicans to secure Henry. With his head reeling from the punch he’d taken, Henry had trouble resisting them. He still managed to elbow one of the men in the eye. The pain from the blow angered the man and made his eye water. He wrenched Henry’s arm behind him, causing Henry to gasp in pain.
“If you hurt my son again, I’ll kill you,” Kagan said in Spanish.
The man with the watery eye apologized and released Henry’s arm. Instead of binding his wrists behind him, they bound them in front of his waist. Afterward, he and Jax were loaded into the rear of the van.
Kagan looked in at him. “I didn’t want to do things the hard way, but you’ve left me no choice. Someday soon you’ll see that this is for the best.”
Henry said nothing. Threats wouldn’t change anything, and Kagan obviously didn’t care what he wanted.
Kagan grunted at him and slammed shut the rear doors on the van before climbing in the front with Vasquez, who was behind the wheel. The van left the mill property and drove toward the nearest highway. Its destination was south, and into Mexico.
9
Captured On Camera
Mendez showed up at Henry’s home with an ambulance trailing him and another one not far behind. Cody was relieved to see them as Laura had lost a lot of blood and appeared to be going into shock. She was sweating profusely, and when her eyes had fluttered open momentarily, Cody saw that her pupils were dilated.
Before joining Cody out in the field behind the home, Mendez checked out the house. He puzzled over the lone slipper that was on the porch then came across its mate once he’d ventured inside. The front door had been kicked in.
Henry’s note was still on the countertop, it stated what time he had gone out for his run. Unless he had entered a marathon, the boy should have returned already.
A second officer arrived on site and Mendez told her that the house was a crime scene and to make certain that no one else entered it. By the time he reached the field, Cody had wiped most of the blood off his hands using a large moistened cloth given to him by one of the paramedics. Laura was being loaded into an ambulance while a second team of paramedics was working on Chris Monte.
“Is Henry in the house?” Cody asked.
“No, and he left a note for Laura saying that he was going for a run. According to the time written on the note he’s been gone for about two hours.”
Cody took out his phone. The moist cloth had only absorbed so much blood and he’d left faint streaks of red on his tan pants as he reached into his pocket. At that point it didn’t matter. Laura’s blood was already on his clothing, and the knees of his pants were crimson from when he’d knelt beside her to apply pressure to her ragged exit wound.
“Henry’s still not answering.”
Mendez had his own phone out and was taking pictures of the scene. After photographing it, he took out an evidence bag to gather up the gun Monte had used on Laura. He informed Cody that he would need his weapon as well. The chief appeared to be stunned by the crime scene.
“Why the hell would Chris try to murder Laura? As far as I could tell they got along fine.”
�
�It looked to me like he was ordered to do so by the other man that was here, the one that left in his truck.”
The ambulance took off with Laura, as the second one strapped Monte down onto a gurney. More cops had shown up. Mendez told one of his men to ride along in the ambulance and that Monte was considered a suspect in an attempted homicide investigation. The chubby cop was someone Cody knew better than most of Mendez’s men. He had been wounded defending their home when Ordnance Inc. had attacked them. His name was Clay Milton. He gave Mendez an astonished look.
“Chris shot Laura?”
“That’s right, and he would have killed her if Cody hadn’t stopped him.”
Clay pushed back the hat he was wearing. “What the hell, Steve?”
“I know, it’s a shock. You ride with him. If he wakes up, try to get a statement. Once he’s treated, handcuff him to the bed. I’ll be by the hospital when I can make it.”
Clay climbed into the ambulance and it soon drove off, bumping over the uneven field.
“I’m going to need a statement from you, Cody.”
Cody was staring at the house. “I think I can do better than that.”
“What do you mean?”
“When Sara and I lived here I set up hidden security cameras. I’ve had no reason to check the feeds since Henry and Laura moved in but there’s a chance that they’re still working if their batteries haven’t died.”
“You’ve been in the new house for a while now.”
“It shouldn’t matter. There’s cloud storage and the cameras only record when there’s movement. Come back to the house with me and I’ll use my computer to check.”
Mendez had to stay on scene for another few minutes to give orders to his people and make certain that all protocols were being followed. The crime scene concerned one of his officers and his main dispatcher. There was no room for mistakes that might be used later to call into question their integrity, or that might work in Monte’s favor to avoid a conviction.
They had taken Mendez’s pickup truck and parked in front of the ranch house. Sara had seen the vehicle approaching on a security monitor and had walked outside to greet Mendez. She was unaware that something was going on at a different part of her property because she’d been in the yard behind the house playing with Lucas, before laying him down for a nap. When Cody stepped out of the truck wearing his bloody clothes, her face paled a shade and her mouth opened in shock.
“I’m okay, Sara. It’s not my blood.”
“What’s happened?”
Cody explained what he’d witnessed and about shooting Monte to save Laura. Sara wiped at tears.
“Is Laura going to be all right?”
Cody shook his head. “I don’t know. She lost a lot of blood and there’s still a bullet inside her.”
“Where’s Henry?”
“No one knows yet,” Mendez said. “He’s not answering his phone and he left a note saying that he was going out for a run. The note was written hours ago.”
Cody looked down at himself. “I don’t want Lucas to see me like this.”
“He won’t. I just laid him down for a nap, but you should get out of those clothes before entering the house. Walk around to the side door that leads into the basement. I’ll bring you fresh clothes and you can use the shower in the gym.”
“I’ll take Cody’s bloody clothing, Sara. I doubt it will be relevant in the case against Chris, but I don’t want to make a misstep that a slick defense lawyer might use against me.”
Sara nodded her understanding and went back inside the house to get clean clothes for Cody.
“You can wait for me in the office, Steve. I’ll shower quickly and join you there after I’ve changed. Better yet, Sara will be able to retrieve any video that might have been recorded at Henry’s house.”
“Let’s hope there’s something that will help us identify the other man you saw.”
By the time Cody had cleaned up and dressed in fresh clothes Sara had accessed the video they’d been hoping to find. There was no accompanying sound because the wind often interfered with outdoor microphones and Cody had decided that they weren’t worth the trouble of using.
Three of the eight cameras hadn’t captured anything recently; their batteries must have gone dead. A camera on the front porch had filmed Monte and Kagan’s arrival, while another angle showed Laura rising from her seat on the porch to greet them.
Mendez leaned forward to stare intently at the screen when Kagan removed his cap and the sunglasses. After that Kagan walked out of the camera’s range but was picked up by the other one, which showed a view of him from the side. They watched Kagan stand before Laura while holding a gun and noticed the shocked reaction she displayed.
“Do either of you recognize him?”
Cody and Sara said that they didn’t and continued to watch the video. Laura had grown angry and was yelling at the man. Monte was summoned and given a gun. Before he could use it, Laura buried her foot in his groin and hurried into the house.
Mendez commented on how many kicks it had taken Monte to open the door. Kagan had helped him by also sending kicks into it. Cody explained.
“I reinforced that door when we moved in there temporarily. I replaced the short screws in the door’s hardware with long ones.”
“It gave Laura a chance to run. It’s too bad she didn’t have a weapon handy,” Mendez said.
Only one of the cameras at the rear of the house worked. It captured Laura fleeing the home and Monte giving pursuit. Kagan’s face was seen again as he walked outside, but then he was only viewed from behind as he stood on the back porch to stare at Monte’s pursuit of Laura. By the time the shooting began, Monte and Laura were out of the camera’s field of vision.
Sara removed a data stick and handed it to Mendez. “There’s a copy of everything on there, Steve.”
“Thank you, and thank God you had cameras. I’m betting we’ll be able to identify the mystery man soon.”
“What about Henry?” Cody asked.
“I have people out tracking down his phone now. They’re working with his service provider.”
“Olivia said she hadn’t seen Henry since last night,” Sara told Cody. “I called her while you were in the shower.”
“His disappearance is related to Chris Monte too. There’s a reason why Monte was paying so much attention to him.” Cody used the computer to back up the video to a section where they could get a good look at Kagan’s face. He pointed at the screen. “There’s not much of a resemblance, but I wonder if this could be Henry’s father.”
“I assumed Henry’s father was dead, or had abandoned him,” Mendez said.
“Laura never talks about him, but we know that the FBI is interested in Henry’s father. I’m wondering if this man is him.”
Mendez headed for the door. “I’ll let you know when I find out anything.”
“I’m coming with you,” Cody said. “I don’t want to just sit around here and wait.”
“All right, and anyway, I need a statement from you.”
Cody kissed Sara goodbye and told her that he would call the instant he knew something. Whoever the mystery man was, he had harmed Laura, a friend, and might be behind Henry’s disappearance. Once he had a name to go with the face, Cody would do everything in his power to find the man and get Henry back. Henry’s flesh and blood or not, the man would pay for what he’d done, and might even pay with his life.
10
Identity Confirmed
Mendez entered the police station with Cody and learned that Laura was in critical condition with a collapsed lung. Her heart had stopped beating on the ride to the hospital, but the paramedics revived her, and she was being prepped for surgery. An x-ray revealed that the bullet still inside her was dangerously close to her heart.
Monte also had a slug in his chest, but it hadn’t hit anything vital. Another round had severed a section of his right ear and nearly split his skull open. He was still unconscious, and the doctors were c
hecking him for signs of brain swelling.
Mendez took an image out of a section of the film that gave the best look at Kagan’s face. He uploaded the photo to a national database and waited for the results to come in. In the meantime, he took down Cody’s statement.
When they were finished, Mendez had to deal with a petty crime. An old woman had entered the station and demanded to talk to him. She claimed that someone had stolen plants off her back porch overnight.
“I keep them perched on the porch railing. When I went out there this morning to water them, they were gone.” She lowered her voice and whispered. “Mexicans moved in next door to me.”
Mendez knew most of the people in town by their names, the old lady was no exception.
“Mrs. Booth, I’m Mexican. Do you think I’m a plant thief too?”
She looked him over. “You’re as white as I am.”
“My name is Mendez; My father was Mexican.”
The old lady’s hand flew to her mouth. “I didn’t mean anything by what I said about the neighbors being Mexican.”
“Of course you didn’t. I have an idea. It was very windy last night. Maybe your plants were blown off the railing.”
“Blown off?”
“That’s right. It’s possible.”
“Can I use a phone? I want to call my daughter.”
“You don’t have a cell phone?”
“Why would I?”
Mendez asked the deputy at the front desk to let Mrs. Booth use the phone. The old lady called her daughter and told her to look and see if the plants had fallen into the yard. By the sheepish expression on her face, it was obvious that Mendez had guessed right about the wind.
“My daughter found the plants.”
Mendez smiled. “Good, that’s one problem solved.”
“And I really didn’t mean anything about my neighbors, you know, their being Mexican.”
Flesh and Blood (A Tanner Novel Book 35) Page 6
