by C. M. Sutter
Hanna turned in to the driveway and left the car running since she planned to be inside for only five minutes. She needed the phone to charge so she could call her mom. Since she didn’t have house keys anymore, she went to the garage, slid up the panel, and entered the door code. The overhead creaked as it lifted. Hanna ducked under the door and froze as if she’d hit a wall. She was staring at her Explorer.
“What on earth?”
Fear took over. Should she run away or run inside?
Is it possible that Jesse is here, but why would he be?
She felt like she was wearing concrete shoes—her feet didn’t want to cooperate, yet she needed to know. Hanna pushed forward and forced herself to open the inner door. She entered the laundry room and then the kitchen. She didn’t see anyone, but she heard movement just around the corner. Her mouth felt as dry as if she had poured a glass of sand in it, but she called out, anyway. “Jesse?”
Hanna turned the corner and saw him. Jesse was lying on the floor, his hands and legs bound to a dining room chair and his mouth covered with tape. His face was bruised, and when he saw her, his eyes bulged.
“Oh my God! Jesse, let me help you!”
He twisted and jerked his head, clearly distressed. He tried to vocalize something that she couldn’t understand.
“Jesse, I’ll be right back. I need to call 911!”
Hanna spun to run back to the car and slammed right into Josh Stevens. She was face-to-face with Jesse’s abductor, and as he smiled, he clenched his fist and swung.
Chapter 41
“Stupid bitch. Now I have to deal with your ass too.”
Josh stared at Jesse’s unconscious girlfriend lying five feet from the bound detective. He had to get rid of the car that was running in the driveway, but he had to secure the woman first. Luckily, her street had plenty of leaf-filled trees and blooming shrubbery that partially obscured the driveway.
Josh checked on the detective before addressing the girlfriend. “Looks like you’ve been busy. Guess I’ll have to tape over what you’ve worked so hard at.” Josh tore off a two-foot length of tape and wrapped Jesse’s right hand again. He did the same with the left. He checked Jesse’s ankles and saw that the detective hadn’t gotten that far. “Ankles are still good. Now relax and quit working so hard. You don’t want me to inflict more pain on you, do you?”
He jammed what was left on the roll of tape in his waistband, grabbed Hanna by the legs, and dragged her down the hallway. In the guestroom, he tossed her on the twin bed and pulled the final length of tape off the roll. There wasn’t enough to do the job. “Damn it. Guess I’ll have to do some shopping after all.” He gave her a glance and decided he had enough time to hunt for something to bind her before she regained consciousness. Josh ran to the garage, searched the shelves, and found a canister of various-sized cable ties. “These will do.” He ran to the bedroom, and by using the longest ties, he secured her hands and feet to the scrolled metal headboard and footboard. Mirroring how he’d muffled Jesse, Josh stuck a washcloth inside the woman’s mouth and used his last piece of tape to keep her quiet.
“There, that’ll do for the time being. Now I have to get rid of that car.” He closed the bedroom door and shot McCord the middle finger as he passed him on his way out. He yelled to Jesse before closing the door. “I’ll be right back.”
Josh saw Hanna’s purse in the passenger-side footwell as he climbed into the Lexus. “That can’t stay with the car.” He grabbed the purse by the strap and noticed the cell phone.
Hmm, that must explain why her old phone doesn’t work anymore. She’s already replaced it with a new one. I don’t need either phone, but it looks like this charger might fit my prepaid one.
Josh pulled the charger out of the port and pocketed it. Inside the garage, he hung the purse on a nail then realized he didn’t know the code to lower the door. He would have to get that from the girlfriend later. He closed the overhead with the wall switch and left through the front of the house.
Inside the car, Josh dug through the glove box to find out who the Lexus belonged to.
“Here we go, a Lee Denise Bradley. Obviously a relative of Hanna Bradley. No matter what, the car has to be left a good distance from here so nobody puts two and two together.”
Josh drove to a less-desirable area of town a good four miles away. He turned in at a run-down alley that was littered with trash cans, dumpsters, and discarded stained mattresses. It would do just fine. He shut down the car and left the keys in the ignition and the phones visible on the passenger seat. He stared at the new phone before climbing out. If there was any charge at all, he could call for a driver to pick him up. Josh pressed the power button and saw the slightest charge on it. He made that quick call and hung up. After erasing that entry, he wiped down both phones, the steering wheel, and the driver’s-side door handle with his shirt, then he walked away from the car. The next person to turn on the phone could possibly be tracked—or not, he wasn’t sure—but at that point, he didn’t care.
Josh was picked up fifteen minutes later at the intersection of West Sixty-First Street and South Yale and dropped off at the corner of South Stoney Island and East Sixty-Seventh Street. He had an eight-block walk to Hanna’s house, so he kept his head low as he took to the alleys.
Chapter 42
Back at Jesse’s house, Conway and Jarvis searched the outside of the home while Forensics printed the doors, doorknobs, drawer and cabinet pulls, and flat surfaces.
Lutz fumed as he paced. “There has to be prints on the sledgehammer’s handle, doesn’t there?”
“Nothing we can use, sir,” Mike said. “The prints on the handle overlap each other and are smeared. We haven’t found a single defined print yet.”
The commander groaned, and Frank wasn’t much better.
“There must be something we can do other than walk around being pissed,” Frank said.
“Call the bullpen and see if there’s any action on the news segment yet. Ask about the BOLO on Hanna’s Explorer, too, and see how soon that cruiser will be here.”
Frank walked outside and made the call while Lutz followed Mike and Danny around the house.
“Did you print the toilet’s flush levers?”
“Yes, sir. Keep in mind, Commander, that some of the prints we do find likely belong to Jesse or Hanna. It’s going to take time.”
Lutz grumbled under his breath. “And that’s time we don’t have.”
Frank returned minutes later. “Nothing yet on the BOLO, not a single call has come in on sightings of McCord, and an officer is en route with the car.”
“Son of a bitch. Go find Jarvis and Conway and tell them to start banging on doors that have a view of Jesse’s house, especially if they have a doorbell or wall-mounted camera. The officer bringing the cruiser can lend a hand when he gets here.”
“Copy that.” Frank headed outside again.
Lutz went downstairs and stepped into the garage. He did a slow and methodical walk around what remained of Jesse’s car, then he scratched his cheek as he replayed the scene in his mind.
He grabbed the sledgehammer and began smashing the car, but he had to have the keys to disable the alarm. It’s obvious he wanted to do something that would really get to Jesse, and besides destroying the family portrait, decimating the Camaro would definitely do that.
Lutz tried to think like Jesse’s abductor.
What would I do if I hated him and jealousy was my motivator? I’d want to be the last person who sat in that vehicle, appreciated its power, and had control over its fate. I’d start the car, rev the engine and feel its force, and then I’d destroy every inch of it just because I could.
Lutz walked up the stairs and called out to Mike. “Hey, did you guys dust anything on the car?”
Mike appeared from the hallway. “No, why?”
“Because we aren’t dealing with a normal person. My guess says he got in the car, enjoyed it the best he could without taking it for a spin down the st
reet, and then beat the shit out of it. I want that car dusted for prints, especially around the steering column, the key area, the door handles, and maybe even the hood and trunk lids and the levers that pop them.”
“You bet. We can do that later or stop what we’re working on and do it now.”
Lutz jerked his head toward the lower level. “Let’s do it now.”
Mike and Danny carried their supplies down to the garage and got busy.
Frank walked in through the open overhead and nodded at Lutz. “Conway and Jarvis are walking the street, and Jeeter just arrived with the cruiser.”
“Good. I hope they find something that’ll help. Tell Jeeter to help Conway and Jarvis. Meanwhile, see if we have Hanna’s mom’s phone number on file.”
“Yep, I’ll get the keys from Jeeter and check on the cruiser’s computer.”
Lutz watched as Mike dusted the driver’s-side door handle. He shook his head. “Nothing but smudges.”
“Keep going. Try the steering wheel and ignition area.” Lutz walked out to the driveway and filled his lungs with fresh air. It had been several days since Jesse disappeared, and the longer that maniac had him, the worse Jesse’s odds were.
C’mon, McCord. Where are you? We can’t find you without your help. We need you to come home. Hanna, Frank, Bandit, myself, and the entire precinct need you. You’re too damn tough to let that psycho get the best of you. Just hang on a little longer, buddy. We’re doing the best we can.
“Commander Lutz.”
“Yep, what have you got, Mike?”
“A clean print on the hood lever, and if it’s in AFIS, we’ll have the results in a half hour.”
“Good. Run it for a match and do it fast.”
Frank jogged across the street. “I have Lee’s house number from the time that Hanna was abducted by those pharmacy thieves.”
“Okay, then call it and tell Hanna that an officer will drop off one of our prepaid phones for her to use for the time being. That way, we can stay in touch with her about the case.”
“On it.” Frank pulled his cell phone from his pocket and entered the number. He furrowed his brows as he waited for somebody to pick up, then he shrugged at Lutz. “Nobody is answering.”
“Do we have a cell number for Lee?”
Frank said that they didn’t. He finally hung up after ten rings. “They must have gone out.”
Lutz tipped his wrist and noted the time. “Okay, try again in a half hour.”
“I’ll set my phone’s timer.” Frank entered the garage with Lutz alongside him. “Any luck with prints?”
“We’ll see. Mike finally found a clean one on the hood lever. He’s in his van, running it through AFIS right now.”
When his name was called, Lutz turned. Conway, Jarvis, and Jeeter were walking up the driveway. “No luck, Boss. Only two houses have cameras. One is a doorbell type that only catches the porch and right side of the yard.”
“And the other?”
“That one only runs live video feed. They don’t have a subscription with the security company to store footage.”
“Shit.”
“So what’s our plan if the print belongs to Josh Stevens?” Frank asked. “That is our assumption, isn’t it, since the timeline doesn’t work for the perp being Leon Stanley?”
Lutz scratched his forehead. “All that tells us is that he’s a volatile man who is on a serious mission to harm Jesse. Will that help us find him? I’m afraid not.”
Chapter 43
Josh unlocked the front door and entered the house, then he grabbed the knife from the table and turned down the hallway. He heard Jesse’s muffled pleas from the dining room.
“Shut up, McCord. You have no control over what I do to, or with, your lady friend.” He chuckled. “It’s been more than ten years since I’ve been with a woman, and that bitch will do just fine.”
He walked into the guest room and closed the door behind him. After pulling the desk chair next to the bed, Josh took a seat and stared into Hanna’s petrified-looking eyes.
“I need answers, so I’m going to remove the tape from your mouth. If you do anything that pisses me off, or yell out for help, I’m going to beat the shit out of you. Do you understand?”
Hanna nodded.
Josh grinned when she saw the knife. “Better not move. I’d hate to cut that pretty face of yours. Now just stay still so I can lift the corner of the tape.”
When the cold blade scraped her cheek, she flinched.
Josh glared at her. “What did I just say? If you aren’t going to follow my instructions, I’ll make you watch me kill McCord.”
Hanna lay motionless as he lifted the corner of the tape then yanked it across her mouth. Her lips bled.
“I bet that hurt, didn’t it?”
She remained stoic.
“Now, let’s begin. I want to know how you got home from the campground since your SUV is in the garage and it was me that put it there.”
“I got a ride.”
He slapped her across the face and left a red imprint of his hand on her cheek. “You want to be cute, you’ll get more of that. Details, bitch, details. Who drove you back to Chicago?”
“The police commander.”
Josh ran his thumb along the knife blade. “From where?”
“From Chicago. I called Jesse’s commander after he went missing. Commander Lutz and Jesse’s partner, Frank Mills, drove to the campground and helped look for him.”
Josh laughed. “How could any of you find a thing when your heads were up your asses? We were long gone by then.”
“We realized that by Sunday.”
Leaning in closer, Josh continued firing off questions. “Where are they with the investigation?”
“Not far.”
He raised his hand to slap her again, but she yelled out that she had more to say.
“You’re damn lucky. Now go on.”
“We got back a few hours ago, and the commander wanted me to stay at Jesse’s house since it was safer. He called ahead for police to station themselves there. We saw the damage to Jesse’s car as soon as I raised the garage door.”
Josh chuckled. “I bet the cops damn near shit themselves. How did you like the house?”
Hanna glared at him. “You’re an evil man.”
“Yeah, too bad. I’ve spent over a decade in prison because of McCord. I’d say I owe him some comeuppance. So nobody expects anyone to be here, right?”
“No.”
“Whose Lexus was that?”
“My mom’s. The commander said I could stay with her. I only came here to pick up more clothes.”
“Ha! And you found us instead. Does your mom know where you went?”
“I told her I was going to the mall to buy a new phone.”
“Yeah, I already got rid of that phone, along with your old one, and the car. Right now, some lowlife crook is probably driving that car around and calling all his boys with your new phone. I can just see the cops’ faces when they track it to the Chicago projects.”
“I didn’t have time to set it up, so I doubt if the locations are on.”
“Yeah, but if there’s a will, there’s a way. How soon will your mom begin wondering why you aren’t back and start making calls?”
“She’s at her friend’s house and won’t be expecting me to pick her up for another hour.”
“What about a hidden house key and the garage code?”
“I don’t—”
Josh interrupted. “Choose your words carefully. If I search around the front door or you give me the wrong door code, I’ll gut the detective right in front of you. Now, you can be straight with me so I don’t have to waste my time or—”
“Fine! The hidden key is under the big rock that has Welcome etched on its surface.”
He laughed. “Ironic, right? What about the garage code?”
“It’s four-one-eight-five.”
“Good. That’s about to change.” He gave her a long once-over
. “Now I have to decide what to do with you.” He leaned forward and squeezed her cheeks between his fingers. “You messed up everything by coming here, you know that? McCord has already been tried, convicted, and is getting the death penalty, but you? I’ll have to give that some thought.” He rose and knocked over the chair, then he grabbed the rag and jammed it back in her mouth.
Hanna turned her head and tried to resist him.
“Look at me and close your mouth, or I’ll knock your teeth down your throat.”
With tears streaming down her face, she complied, and he secured the tape over her lips.
Chapter 44
Mike exited the back of the forensics van and called out to Lutz. “Commander, I have a positive ID. The print belongs to Josh Stevens.”
Lutz kicked a rock as he stared at the ground, his hands buried deep in his pockets. “I figured as much. He’s here in the area, and so is Jesse. I want a net wrapped around this city, and we’re going to pull it in. I’m not about to let Josh Stevens slither away when I know he’s nearby. Frank, find out what’s going on with that cell phone warrant. Did it arrive at the precinct earlier?”
“I’ll find out. Oh, and by the way, I still haven’t gotten ahold of anyone at the Bradley house.” Frank pulled his cell phone from his pocket and called the bullpen.
Lutz paced while Frank talked to Gaines. Seconds later, Frank hung up and told Lutz that the warrant had arrived.
“Debra dropped it off on your desk before realizing that Norse was already gone. It’s been sitting there for a few hours.”
Lutz swirled his finger in the air. “Okay, get this house sealed up, and I want a patrol unit sitting on it until further notice. We’re heading back to the station to pick up that warrant, and then we’re off to the cell phone provider. I want a location on Hanna’s phone tonight.” He handed his keys to Jeeter and told him to return his car to the precinct’s lot.
It was pushing nine o’clock by the time Lutz and Frank reached the cell phone provider’s location with the warrant. Lutz’s phone rang just as he presented the warrant to the person behind the counter.
