Switchblade

by Carsen Taite

  “You act so high and mighty. You have no clue what I’ve had to go through.”

  “Next you’re going to tell me he beats you like he beat his wife.”

  “Have you met that woman? If you had to spend any time with her, you’d beat her too. She’s a conniving bitch who threatened Greg when she didn’t get what she thought she was owed.”

  “What she was owed? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Teresa stuttered for a moment and then finally said, “Nothing.”

  “Come on. You can tell me. If he’s threatening you I can help you.” Jess lowered her voice to a whisper. “If it’s just a good business deal, maybe you can help me.”

  We waited through the beats of silence, and I thought we’d been disconnected until I heard one of them clear her throat. Had Jess wedged into what sounded like a crack in Perez’s resolve?

  No such luck. Perez growled her next words. “Leave now or I’ll call the cops. You know, the real cops, the ones that stick together.”

  We heard the sound of a door slamming shut, footsteps, and then a car engine starting. Finally, Jess spoke again, this time directly to us.

  “Sorry, guys, I guess that was a bust.”

  “Not so sure about that,” I said. “You got her riled and probably set something in motion. All we have to do now is keep a close eye on them and watch for their next move.”

  “I guess I’d hoped for something a little more immediate.”

  I took the phone off speaker. “Come back and we’ll figure out something.” I wanted her here, by my side.

  “Deal. I’m going to make one quick stop to pick up a few things since I guess I’m going to be staying with you until things blow over.”

  Anxiety rose in my throat, but I managed to choke out, “Wait a minute. You’re not going by your house. What if someone’s watching it?”

  “Chill. I’m going to run by the store. Get a toothbrush and a couple of other things. I’ll be there in thirty minutes, tops.”

  “Hurry. I miss you.” Wasn’t until I hung up the phone, I realized Ryan and Brett were still in the room. Of course they were. It was their office, after all. “When Jess gets here, we’ll head back to my place and give you guys your space.”

  “Tell you what,” Brett said. “I’ll have Tony order lunch. We can brainstorm together when she gets here. I’d like to meet Jess, if that’s okay with you.”

  “Sounds great.” I kinda meant it, although for once, food wasn’t one of the top things on my mind. All I wanted was for Jess to be back here, by my side, and for this case to be solved so we could move on to the next step in our lives—whatever that was and however scary it might be.

  *

  An hour and a half later, scary thoughts about love and relationships took a backseat to another kind of fear. Lunch had come and gone with no sign of Jess. By the time the hour stretched into two, I’d called my phone twenty times, but every call went straight to voice mail and every text went unanswered. I called John, but he hadn’t heard from her. Ryan and Brett kept telling me she’d probably gotten caught in traffic. Maybe the store was understaffed or out of stock. I nodded at each of their suggestions, but all I really heard was thirty minutes, tops. The words echoed in my head, taunting me. Probabilities and possibilities aside, I knew Jess kept her word. She was reliable. She was considerate. She wouldn’t keep us waiting. Not on purpose and not without letting us know.

  I was just about to head out to find her on my own when the phone in the middle of the conference table, Jess’s phone, rang. Relief flooded through me and I lunged for it. “Jess, where the hell have you been?”

  “She’s right here with me. Would you like to talk to her?” A male voice. Not John. Not anyone I knew.

  “Who is this?”

  “Not important.”

  “Let me talk to her.” I tried to match his calm, easy tone, but my voice shook. I couldn’t help it. Ryan and Brett moved close to me and I held the phone in a death grip. My only connection to Jess.

  I heard a scuffle and then another voice. This time it was Jess. “Luca?”

  “It’s me. Are you okay?”

  “I’m good. Luca, I told them you have the recording.” She emphasized each word as if she was talking to a two-year-old. “The recording of Perez and Jackson telling us everything. I’m sorry. I had to tell them.”

  All I could process was that she was alive, but in danger. Them. The guy who’d called wasn’t alone. Remain calm. Don’t let her hear your fear. “It’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay. I promise. Trust me, okay?”

  The male voice was back on the line. “She may trust you, but I don’t. I want that recording or you’ll never see her again. You understand?”

  “Yes.” I agreed just to keep the peace, but I was confused. I didn’t have a recording, Jess did. She must’ve told them she didn’t have it on her, and they must not have figured out it was on the iPhone. I glanced at the caller ID. This guy hadn’t called from my iPhone. Maybe she’d managed to hide it from them, but now wasn’t the time to ask questions. Something about the way Jess had been talking told me to go along.

  “I’ll text you the instructions. I’d say don’t call the cops, but I think you know better by now than to trust cops.” He laughed. “Follow my instructions to the letter. I’ll be in touch.”

  The call ended and with it, my connection to Jess. I sat down and put my head in my hands, gripping the phone with both hands. Stupid. Stupid. I’d been so stupid. It hadn’t occurred to me that whoever had been watching me would also be watching Perez and Jackson. Hell, I’d thought they were the bad guys. They probably were, but whoever had Jess was way worse, and I wouldn’t rest until I found him.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  “Someone’s got Jess. I gotta go.” I shouted the words as I ran to the door of the conference room, Cash at my side. Before I could cross the threshold, a strong hand grabbed my arm. Ryan.

  “Luca, wait.”

  “Can’t. She’s in trouble.”

  Her eyes were calm. Mine couldn’t stay focused. I had to get out of here, find Jess, get her back. I repeated my words, but this time I sounded more desperate than determined. “She’s in trouble.”

  “Let us help you.”

  I looked between Ryan and Brett. They meant well, I could see it in their eyes, but they couldn’t do what I had to. Instinctively, I felt for the Colt against my side. “I’ll call you later.”

  “What if we could figure out where she is? Right now.”

  Brett sounded so sure. “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Your phone. She has your phone. It has GPS. Do you know if you have Find My iPhone? It’s an app that allows you to find your phone.”

  “I don’t have a clue. The guy at the store set everything up for me.” All the times I’d shrugged off learning about technology flooded back to haunt me. I didn’t use the damn phone to its full capacity because I took pride in doing things the old-fashioned way. Pride wouldn’t do me any good now.

  “Give me your password and I’ll check it out.”

  I supplied Brett with the information, and while she pounded the keyboard, I filled them in on the contents of the phone call. Just as I finished, a map filled her computer screen. She pointed at a green dot. “See that? That’s your phone.”

  I thought hard. “There’s a Walgreens at that intersection. Jess said she was going to stop and get some stuff. Toothbrush, stuff like that. You think she’s there?”

  “It’s the best bet.”

  “Thanks.” I scrawled Jess’s phone number on a pad sitting on the table. “I’ve got to go, but call me at that number if the phone moves.”

  Ryan met me at the door. “I’m coming with you.”

  “No.”

  “Luca, you have no idea what you’re walking into.”

  “Neither do you. But I do know this. I’ll do whatever I have to do to get Jess back. Are you prepared to break the law to help two people you barely know?”

/>   “I know what it means to love someone so much you’d risk everything, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Ryan looked at Brett and I did too. Brett broke the standoff. “Go, both of you. I’ll call if anything changes. Be careful.”

  We were at my car in seconds. Ryan held the door while Cash jumped in back. “You want me to drive?” she asked.

  “No, thanks. I’m good.” I was glad for the company, but letting her come along had probably been a stupid idea. In any case, I would be the one in control. I had to be. Too much was at stake.

  On the way, I talked to keep from freaking out. “I don’t get it. Jess made a point of saying that she had the recording of Perez and Jackson telling her ‘everything.’ But they didn’t. She only talked to Perez, and she didn’t tell her shit.”

  “Maybe she was just trying to get the guys she was with to believe she had more evidence than she did.”

  “And they would only care if they thought Perez and Jackson had ratted them out. If we don’t find Jess, Perez’s place is my next stop.”

  “Not without me.”

  I started to argue, but her face was set in stone. Fine. She could watch Cash while I went inside and did whatever was necessary to get Perez to talk. Besides, I might need a lawyer. Hopefully, all this planning would be completely unnecessary. We’d show up at Walgreens and find Jess buying a toothbrush. Nice thought, but then I remembered the voice on the phone.

  The drugstore wasn’t far, a fact that stung as I realized how close Jess had been when she’d run into trouble. When we got there, it only took a minute to find Ryan’s car, parked a couple of rows from the front of the building. We parked a few spaces down. I told Cash to wait for us and ignored his protests as we shut the doors and left him behind.

  “Let’s try inside first.”

  Ryan followed me in and we split up, meeting back at the front after we’d walked every aisle. I stated the obvious. “This isn’t good.”

  “Don’t give up yet. There’s still the car.”

  Store wasn’t that big. No way Jess could’ve been in the store and made it back out to the car without us seeing her, but I held onto a shred of hope. When we reached the parking lot, I signaled Ryan to stay back as I crept closer to the big SUV, then circled the entire vehicle to verify no one was inside. I tried the door. It was locked.

  “I have an extra key.” Ryan clicked her remote and I opened the driver’s door and peered inside. Nothing. I walked around to the rear and opened the back hatch and held my breath.

  Nothing.

  Part relieved and part frustrated, I shut the rear door and stated the obvious. “She’s not here.”

  “Is the phone in the car?” Ryan asked.

  Duh. I hadn’t even looked. I ran back to the driver’s side door, crawled in, and started combing through the interior. Ryan took the back. A few minutes later, we met at the rear bumper.

  “Nothing, you?” I asked.

  “Me neither.”

  “It has to be here somewhere, right?”

  “Unless she’s not here anymore. I’ll call Brett and see if the phone is still showing up here.”

  “I’ll go back inside and ask around. Maybe one of the employees saw her.”

  Like magic, a wiry kid with a Walgreens nametag, wandered up. “You gals need help?”

  I looked back at Ryan’s SUV. All the doors were still open. We did look kind of lost. I decided to pretend like I hadn’t heard the “gals” part, but I wanted him to take off so we could finish brainstorming. I started to say that we were fine, but Ryan said, “Any chance you found an iPhone in the store or out here in the parking lot?”

  He crossed his arms and rocked back on his heels. “Maybe. It’s possible.”

  I stood up. His cagey response didn’t fool me. He had the phone and I’d strangle him if I had to. “Where is it?”

  “If there is one, you’ll have to present ID and a full description.”

  Again, I struggled with the desire to choke him. The desire to see Jess alive won out. “Fine, but if you don’t take me to it right now, your own ID won’t be good for anything other than identifying your body. Understood?”

  *

  “Let’s go back to the office and figure out what to do from there,” Ryan said. “I’ll drive. I can get someone to get my car later.”

  I was torn. We had the phone and the recording. The entire conversation between Jess and Perez was exactly as I remembered, random implications, but nothing overtly incriminating. I wanted to go charging into Perez’s house and choke her until she told me everything she knew. I was convinced she’d warned Calderon that Jess was on his tail. She’d gotten Jess kidnapped.

  I might never see Jess again, and the very idea made me want to curl up in a ball and die. So my options boiled down to letting fear paralyze me, killing Perez, or thinking things through. I’d never tried that last one, but I was game.

  “Okay.” I handed Ryan the keys. Cash sat in my lap instead of the backseat. He didn’t say anything, but he rested his head on my shoulder and hugged me the length of the trip. I hugged him back because I knew he missed her too.

  Brett was waiting for us when we got back. Ryan started to tell her what happened, when my phone rang—the iPhone. I nearly had a stroke trying to get it out of my pocket, hoping desperately it was Jess.

  Ronnie. She was the last person I wanted to talk to, but a nagging feeling propelled me to answer. I stepped away to take the call. “Bennett.”

  “Luca, are you okay? I’ve left you a million messages, but I haven’t heard anything from you. What’s happening with Jorge’s case? Have you found out who threatened him?”

  I started to tell her I couldn’t care less about Jorge or the threats against him, but a memory surfaced. Something Perez had said to Jess. About Jorge. Who said he was threatened? You think the fresh-faced boy is so innocent? At the time, I’d figured Perez was saying those things because she’d been the one to turn Jorge in and she was just sticking by her story, but maybe there was more to it. “I need to see Jorge. Now.” I put my hand over the phone and asked Ryan if I could use her conference room. She nodded. “Ronnie, here’s the address. Tell him to get here now.”

  I hung up and paced the reception area. It would be dark outside soon, and somehow that seemed symbolic. Lights out for Jess. Lights out for both of us. I couldn’t lose her. Not ever, but especially not now.

  “Luca, why don’t you go on in the conference room? When your guest arrives, I’ll show him back.” Brett’s voice was soft, soothing. I bet Ryan couldn’t deny her anything. I followed her back into the conference room. Ryan was sitting at the table, several open files in front of her. I sank into a chair.

  “I’m sorry about all this,” I said.

  Ryan looked up. “All this?”

  I waved an arm. “You know, descending on your office, demanding your help, and taking over your space.”

  “I figure we’re all after the same thing here, right? I want to find out who set my clients up. You want to find out if your client did what he’s accused of. We may not like the answers we get, but we’re more likely to find them if we work together.”

  “You sure you worked for the DA’s office? Maybe you didn’t get the memo about convictions are more important than truth.”

  “Oh, I got it, and you may notice I don’t work there anymore. Actually, most of the prosecutors there are more interested in justice than an easy conviction, but there is a bias in favor of cutting corners. I trust you’re more interested in finding out what really happened, than covering for your client or I wouldn’t be helping you.”

  I trust you. Ryan’s words made me think of Jess. She trusted me too, and she’d been taken, was being held. All because she’d helped me. She trusted me, and I had to earn that trust by getting her back. I glanced at her phone as I’d done about a thousand times in the last hour. No text from whoever had Jess.

  “Any word?” Ryan asked.

  “Nothing. I thought we�
��d hear something by now.”

  Brett poked her head in the door. “There’s a Jorge Moreno here to see you. And—” She didn’t get a chance to finish before Ronnie barged through the door, Jorge tailing behind. Ronnie ran over to my side and swept me into a hug.

  “Are you okay? I was worried when I hadn’t heard from you. I left so many messages. After Jorge was threatened, I thought maybe…”

  Her words trailed off. I was surprised. She did seem to be genuinely concerned about me. I caught Brett and Ryan looking between us, trying to figure out the connection, and I pushed Ronnie away. “Sit down. We need to talk. Jorge, you sit down too.”

  Ryan stood up. “We’ll give you the room.”

  “No, stay. Please. Ryan Foster, Brett Logan, meet Ronnie and Jorge Moreno.”

  “Luca, I know who Ryan Foster is. I can’t believe you asked us here.” Ronnie’s eyes flashed as her temper flared. I used to think that was sexy.

  “Sit down, Ronnie. Jorge, you too.” I waited until they obeyed. “Okay, here’s the deal. Ryan and Brett are helping me.” I pointed at Jorge. “If you’ve been telling me the truth, that means they’ve been helping you too. If you’ve been lying to me, then no one can help you. Only you know the answer, so you can leave, but if you do, you’re on your own. Don’t have your sister come to me begging to save you. But whatever decision you make, you will tell me everything you know about Jose Calderon because the woman I love is in danger, and if anything happens to her, I will hold you personally responsible. Do you understand?”

  While I stared him down, his eyes shifted in Ronnie’s direction. I couldn’t help it. I looked too. She looked faded, a little lost. Had she been so misguided as to think she and I were a thing? Had I misled her?

  Time to set the record straight. I spoke directly to Ronnie this time. “I love Jessica Chance and she’s in trouble. If you care about me at all, you will help me find her.”

  She didn’t say a word, but Jorge piped in. “I know who Calderon is. He’s registered with the department as a CI, but I’ve never used him. I tried to make contact with him, but Jackson told me to steer clear.”