As Roxy approached, the man peered past her at the car Skip drove, then looked up and scowled at the security lighting and cameras.
“Excuse me, would you mind lending me a hand? I’ve got a heavy piece in my storage locker I need to load into my car.”
“Get outta the way,” the man yelled. “My friend can’t get by you. I ain’t helping you.” He ignored her and motioned for Skip to pull forward.
“I can’t do that,” Roxy said as she raised her hand.
Skip winced when the man’s body jerked spasmodically and he collapsed on the asphalt. “That has to hurt,” he muttered. He jumped out of his car and rushed to help Roxy, but she already had the man’s wrists secured with a zip tie. They took the guy’s cell phone, then dragged him through the open door into the storage unit.
“One down, one to go,” Skip said. He parked the sleeping man’s car in front of the unit, moved him in also, and while he was rolling down the steel door had Roxy lock both men’s cell phones in the car.
As he and Roxy drove away, he handed her one of Baldorf’s communications earpieces. “This will let you stay in touch with both me and Baldorf at all times.”
She took the tiny device, placed it in her ear, and said, “Hey, Baldorf. Can you hear me?”
“Crystal clear.”
“Are you doing okay, Roxy?” Skip asked.
“Not exactly. Did you see the arsenal they had in that unit? They could launch a full-scale war.”
“I did, and I texted Baldorf a photo. I’m hoping when the cops arrive they put away those guys for a long time.”
“We’re making more enemies,” Roxy sighed.
“I know. We’ll worry about that once we have Lily back. Let’s get out of here before the cops show up. Let’s send that photo to the police, Baldorf. Also, let them know the situation.”
“Roger that, bro.”
The streets were nearly deserted. The red and green traffic lights glowed with an eerie softness in the fog. Dawn would be here in a few hours, and Skip suspected that by the time the sun came up they would have either succeeded or died trying. He wondered what Roxy was thinking as she gazed out the passenger’s side window.
Finally, to break the silence, he said softly, “They say there are times when failure is not an option. The problem is, it’s a real possibility.”
Glancing sideways, he saw Roxy’s face in the dashboard illumination. Her eyes glistened; her jaw was tight. “I was thinking the same thing. We can’t fail, but what if we do?”
“We’ll all be dead and won’t know the difference,” Skip said matter-of-factly.
“Cheery thought,” Roxy muttered and turned her gaze back out the side window.
Skip turned right at the next corner onto a dark residential street lined with antique street lamps. The low fog swallowed the illumination, which gave the entire neighborhood a foreboding ambience. Only one house on the block had interior lights on. Roxy pointed to it as Skip slowed the car. The house was an old Victorian with a large oak tree in the front yard.
“That has to be it, right?” Roxy said.
Skip nodded. “I can’t see any numbers, so I’m not positive, but it’s easy enough to tell. We’ll let the drone do the work.”
“Nice,” Roxy said. “Hey Baldorf, does your toy give phone numbers, too? Nearest living relatives?”
“Oh, ye of little faith. I already know the house you’re looking at is the one you want. Your earpieces give me your exact location.”
“Pervert,” Roxy snickered.
“Tools of the trade, dude.”
“Baldorf,” Skip said, “I’d like to get a feel for this place. The drone can’t convey everything, so if you can scout for guards, I’ll do a walk-around.”
“Please, don’t get yourself shot on your little outing,” Roxy said.
Skip shook his head. “I’ve no intention of getting close yet. I’m thinking we want to find an empty room and break in. If they’re holding Lily in a room by herself, that’s even better. We could snatch her and disappear before they know what happened.”
“Sonny will find another way to come after me, Skip. This won’t end just because we blow up his plan.”
“In fact, it will probably only make him more determined. So once Lily is safe, we’ll work on neutralizing Sonny. If Mateo has his way, that will happen. But Sonny’s proven remarkably adept at staying one move ahead.”
They fell into silence, and Skip began his assessment. He grimaced as he examined the front of the house. A short walkway led from the sidewalk to steps and a porch. Two windows flanked the door and fronted to the street. Unlike Juan Castaneda’s place, this one had no fence that might serve as cover, but it did have an alleyway on the left. He eyed the alley, wondering if it might provide a way in.
“There’s no way to enter through the front,” he said. “It would be suicide. Let’s get out the drone.”
Skip pulled on his door handle, but stopped when Roxy grabbed his arm. Even in the dull light of the overhead bulb, he saw a renewed determination on her face.
“In case I don’t get another chance to say this—I love you.” She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips.
Skip pressed his fingers to her cheek. The delicate touch of her tongue on his nearly broke his spirit. “I love you, too.”
A moment earlier, he’d felt resigned that being shot while trying to save Lily would be a noble way to die, but after Roxy’s kiss, all he could do was smile weakly. “You know what I said about failure? Let’s not even consider that possibility. I refuse to accept it. Period.”
They exited the car, went to the trunk, and removed the drone from its cradle. No sooner had he placed it on the roof than the rotors began to spin. As it lifted silently into the air, Skip said, “Baldorf, you’d damn well better get us good intel on this. We have zero room for error.”
“No worries. We’re not accepting failure.”
“Oh, you heard that.”
“I’m in your ear, bro. I hear everything around you. Now, shut up while I do some reconnaissance.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Roxy
SKIP AND I waited silently as the seconds ticked by. After what felt like forever, Baldorf said, “Alley’s clear. There’s nothing there except trash cans. No cars or people. No sign of security cameras on the outside.”
Skip looked at me with raised eyebrows. “Would you rather stay here? Someone should watch the front.”
“Okay, but if you need help, say something and I’ll be there. And don’t you dare die on me.” He kissed me again, hoisted a sling pack over his shoulder, and slipped away with his Sig in hand. He padded down the alley, the only sound the faint crunching of his rubber soles on the gravel. Soon, even his footsteps faded, leaving me alone with only my thoughts and two voices in my ear.
“Dude, stay where you are. That’s the back of the house. I can see you on the drone cam and have you on the map. The good news is, there are no security cameras on the outside and no guards. But the bad news is super bad. The house is sealed up tight. There are no open windows or other access points for the MD-1.”
“I was hoping for a break, Baldorf.”
“Sorry, bro, but people don’t leave windows open on a night like this.”
“You two are worse than a pair of bickering old women,” I said.
“Enough,” Skip said. “I don’t need three people in my head.”
“Bro, technically it’s only two and we’re nothing more than electrons transmitted through…”
“I’m sorry I said anything. Okay, virtual people in my ear, let me focus.”
“Where are you, Skip?” I asked.
“I’m parking my butt next to the trash cans.”
“Nice disguise, dude. Finishing the circumference.”
I glanced up and down the block. Nothing. “All quiet on the street. So you disguised yourself as a trash can? I’d love to see this.”
“You two are getting maxed out on your adrenaline
levels,” Baldorf said.
“You can monitor that, too?” Skip asked.
“No. But even I can read nervous energy. You’re like, off the charts. Okay, full circumference complete and checking for identification of heat signatures.”
“That means he’s looking for people,” Skip said.
“Duh. Baldorf, can you distinguish the size of those heat signatures?”
“If you’re looking for an accurate determination of body mass, it’s not one-hundred percent.”
“That’s too bad,” Skip said. “It would be nice to know just how big these guys are.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about that, dude. There’s a big pow-wow in the front room. Three heat sources of about the same size. There’s one in a back room.”
“Lily…” I whispered.
“Exactamundo, dude. Got to be. Especially because the one in the back room looks like the body is prone. The others all appear to be standing.”
“Which room, Baldorf?”
“Back right corner of the house. Let me put the laser microphone on the window and see if we get any sound.”
“I thought you had to set down for that,” Skip said.
“Already done. I’m on a neighbor’s roof. Got the laser on the window. Whoa. It’s the kid.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because she’s crying.”
I sucked in a breath and stared daggers at the front door of the rental house. My eyes burned and the house blurred. I croaked, “Are you sure, Baldorf? She’s crying?”
“Sorry, dude, but yes.”
My heart felt like someone ripped it in two. I gritted my teeth, cursed Sonny Panaman and the day we’d met. “If it’s the last thing I do…”
“Roxy, stay where you are,” Skip said.
“I have to get to her.”
“I know, but you won’t be of any use to her if you’re dead. Wait out front while I finish checking out the backyard. Baldorf, is the coast still clear?”
“You want eyes in the sky again, bro?”
“There’s nobody else in that back room as far as you know. Right?”
“Roger that.”
“Go. Give me a heads up if anything changes out back. Roxy, please, watch the street. We’re ahead of Mateo, but he might show up any time. If I can get in and out before they arrive, we’ll be good.”
“I need to go with you.”
“No, I need you to tell me if the situation changes out front. Baldorf can only cover so many places with the drone and if Mateo’s coming, the sooner I know about it the better. And Baldorf, if something really bad happens, call 9-1-1.”
“Ready to rock-and-roll, bro. Coast is still clear, but I don’t know for how long.”
“And Roxy, if I can’t get out you need to be here when the police arrive. Tell them everything.”
As much as I hated to admit it, Skip was right. We didn’t need him performing a quick extraction only to be caught by a different set of bad guys. Someone had to maintain the vigil out here, and if Baldorf was handling the backyard, he couldn’t do this, too. “On one condition,” I said. “If you run into trouble, you call me. This is a two-way street.”
“Deal.”
I shrugged down into Skip’s jacket and looked both directions. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since I’d received the ransom demand. And since the moment I’d learned Sonny Panaman was behind the kidnapping, I’d debated his motives almost constantly. Did he just want revenge? Was this really about money? Only a fool would think I could come up with five million overnight, which meant this wasn’t about money at all.
The heavy mist had turned the few streetlights on the block into glowing orbs whose light barely lit up the ground beneath. The pocket of fog enveloping us obscured the moon, and even the city sounds seemed to be swallowed up in the mist. Droplets of water collected on my nose and lips. I could almost taste the fog, and the silence it brought ate at my nerves. Never had I hated the sound of quiet so much. When the silence became unbearable, I spoke just to hear a human voice.
“Where’s your drone, Baldorf?”
“Thirty feet above the rooftop, dude. I can observe all sides of the house from this location.”
“You can see everywhere? Front and back?”
“Just the house, dude. Not the street.”
“Roxy, keep watch. Mateo could show up any moment.”
I looked for the drone, but spotted nothing. “I can’t see it. I can’t hear it, either.”
“A friend of mine is an awesome aeronautical engineer. He over-engineers everything, so we collaborated on the exterior elements to reduce the drag coefficient on…”
“Baldorf,” Skip hissed. “You’re doing it again.”
“Sorry. It’s like a super-awesome design. Almost totally silent.”
I listened to their banter. It was good to hear voices, even if they were just electrons in my ear. They soon shifted into reconnoiter mode and that, too, brought me solace. At that moment I could have listened to someone recite the alphabet and begged for more.
“I’m on my way across the backyard. You said far end, back side. Is that right, Baldorf?”
“Totally.”
“I’m here, but it’s dark. Are you one-hundred percent certain it’s Lily?”
“It’s the logical deduction. There’s only one heat source in the room, and it’s smaller relative to the other three.”
“And she’s crying, Skip. That has to be her. They wouldn’t keep her out in the main area. Oh, God, I hope they haven’t drugged her.”
“I don’t think so,” Skip said. “It’s too big of a risk. She looked alert in the proof-of-life photo. I suspect they have her bound and gagged.”
The fog at the intersection brightened. I watched closely as light became more pronounced. “I have headlights coming.”
“Stay there,” Skip said. “I’ll come back.”
I crouched down, ran across the street, and hid behind a parked car. “No! Don’t you dare stop now.” I hissed. “Keep going.”
The headlights dimmed when the car turned onto the street. A short time later, four vague images exited the car and assembled in a small group. My heart pounded in my chest.
“Four guys,” I said. “As far as we know, Mateo only had a force of three after we locked up two of his guys, right?”
“Right. Does it look like they’ve got weapons?”
“I can’t tell in this fog.”
“You want me to do a photo flyby?” Baldorf asked.
“No,” Skip said. “We need to keep the element of surprise.”
One man moved toward the house in front of the others. He was large, hulking, and even though he was blurred by the fog, I recognized his movements. They were those of a man who moved with stealth and purpose. “Bad news, Skip. Jackie’s here. And Drake. I saw him in a streetlight, and he’s carrying what looks like an assault rifle.”
“Drake?”
“The guy I tased a few hours ago. He is not going to be happy to see me.”
“I suspect he’ll shoot first, say hello after,” Skip said.
I held the Glock in my right hand. My insides shook. I had a semi automatic against an assault rifle? What kind of odds were those? I was not a killer, but if Drake came much closer, and if I took the first shot, and if I aimed to kill… There were too many ifs. Most likely, I’d be his next victim.
After releasing the safety, I wrapped my hands around the gun, extended my arms, and took aim. Drake was thirty feet away at the most, but he was standing sideways while he inspected the house. This was the Hail Mary of desperation shots. I held my breath. Prepared to fire.
Drake nodded to himself, then turned his back on me and trotted silently toward the other three men. I let out the breath I’d been holding and made a dash for the alley. When I was out of view of the street, I slowed my pace to a hurried walk and held the Glock at the ready. “I’m coming toward you, Skip. Where are you?”
He w
hispered in my ear. “To your right.”
I jumped and spun to face him. He reached out and lowered the aim of my gun.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
“Jackie has three guys with him?”
I nodded.
“And they’re armed? Heavily?”
I swallowed hard and nodded again.
“But no sign of Mateo yet, right?”
“No. Drake’s a seasoned killer, Skip. You were right, he’ll shoot first, worry about who’s dead later. I had him, but couldn’t shoot him in the back.”
Skip nodded slowly and sighed. “I’m glad.” He cocked his head in the backyard's direction.
Like it or not, Jackie had forced our hand.
I followed.
CHAPTER FORTY
Skip
SKIP FELT HIS way across the dying lawn for the second time. Though he’d been along this stretch before, he wanted to take no chances. Except for hints of gray from the fog, the backyard was almost pitch black. Beneath his feet he felt the unevenness of the ground and the faintest crunching of dead grass. The noise seemed like an alarm announcing their arrival, but the fog dampened all sound, and he recognized his apprehension as nothing more than his imagination running wild.
When he arrived at the window, Skip held his hand out and Roxy clasped it. They looked at each other and Skip whispered, “Baldorf, this window is different from the others. It looks like a poorly done room addition.”
Skip placed his hands against the cold glass and pressed up, but the window didn’t budge. “It’s locked. No freebies tonight.”
Roxy seized his arm and leaned close. “How do we get it open?”
“No problem. Just pray for single-pane glass while you watch for visitors.”
He reached into the sling pack, pulled out a glass cutter, and assembled it by securing the suction cup against the window and the attached arm to the cup. As he moved the end of the arm in a circle, the blade etched the glass. The fine line grew deeper as he made multiple passes while Roxy peered into the blackness, her gun held out before her with two hands.
“How’s it going?”
“Almost done.” A minute later, he pulled a circular piece of glass away from the window. A rush of warm air hit him in the face and he chuckled. “I was right. It was a cheap reno job.”
Shadows from the Past Page 17
