Abducted: A Jake Badger Mystery Thriller (22 page)

Chapter 45

Tuesday Night

“At the moment,” I said, “I've
no idea. That's an aspect of
adapt
and overcome.”

Alex said, “I'm starting to
think that
adapt
and overcome just means make it up as
you go.”

“There's always a plan,” I
said. “But the plan is always subject to change without notice.”

“I see.”

“Immediate creativity is the
key to adaptability,” I said.

“Yeah, for you and Indiana
Jones. I prefer to have a plan in place and then follow the plan.”

“We have a plan in place. We
get dropped off. We sneak into the backyard and check the guesthouse. If
Monica's there, we take her and go. If she's not, we enter the house and go to
Mr.
Durrani's
room, where you keep him quiet while I
enter the safe room. If Monica's there, we take her and go. If she's not, we
start going from bedroom to bedroom. Eventually, we find her and take her out.”

“What if Mrs.
Durrani's
got her stashed somewhere off site?”

I hadn't thought of that.
Crap. After a moment, I said, “Then Mrs.
Durrani
will
suffer a great deal of pain until she's ready to tell me where Monica is.”

“What if Mrs.
Durrani
is offsite with her?”

“Then we keep looking until
we find both of them.”

The coffee was brewed and
Alex went to pour himself a cup. I got up and put some tea in the microwave to
heat.

“What if some of the
staff become
aware of our presence?” Alex asked.

“I'd prefer not to kill
anyone we didn't have to kill.”

“Wrist and ankle restraints,
duct tape?”

“Simple is best,” I said.

He nodded. “But if we have to
shoot, we shoot.”

“Yes.”

“I only have my .40 with me,”
he said.

“I've got plenty of extras.”

I went to my gun safe and retrieved
a small .357 and a hip holster. I picked up an extra revolver for myself,
another Taurus eight-shot with a four-inch barrel. I'd carry one in a shoulder
holster and one on my right hip. I also grabbed my Recon survival knife and a
couple of speed loaders and two small flashlights as well. I gave Alex the
things he needed.

“Should we take a look at the
back of the property?” Alex asked.

“That's probably a good idea.”

I put my laptop on the table,
opened Google Earth, and typed in the
Durrani's
address.

We got a good view of the property.
There was nothing built behind it, not even an access road. No way in from the
back. The front of the property had street access, but the back was fenced. A
six foot block wall came out a good fifty feet from either side of the house
and then ran down the sides to the back of the property and across the back. It
was a secure compound of five or six acres. There was an expansive patio off
the back of the house and a large pool. Fifty feet beyond the pool was a
two-story guesthouse that was probably two thousand square feet. To the right
of the guesthouse were tennis courts. Beyond the guesthouse and tennis courts,
an expanse of neatly manicured grass, shrubs, and trees.

I said, “Heidi can let me out
first, about a hundred yards before the house, and you about a hundred yards
beyond it. We'll work our way to the house and go over the wall at the side.
I'll go over on the right side of the house, you go over on the left.” I was
pointing to the computer screen as I spoke. “We'll meet on the side of the guesthouse,
here, between the house and the tennis courts.”

“You gonna be able to pick
the locks?”

“Unless they're some kind of
special high tech mechanism.”

“What if they are?” he asked.

“Then we do it the old
fashioned way ... we break a window.”

“You know how to do that
quietly?”

“Breaking and entering is
part of the basic private investigator training course.”

“Always good to have a skill
to fall back on in case your detective agency goes belly up.”

“Uh-huh. You bring your vest?”

“I left it in the trunk of my
car.”

“We can stop and pick it up
on the way.”

We seemed to have covered
everything. My tea was ready. Alex sipped his coffee.

“I'm getting hungry,” he
said. “Got anything to snack on?”

“Help yourself,” I said. “Pantry,
fridge. Grab whatever.”

He looked around. “Wow, not
much here.”

“I eat out mostly. Same as
you.”

“Yeah, but I'm hungry,” he
said.

“Okay. It's only nine. Go get
something. There's plenty of time.”

“Good idea. Want a sandwich?”

“Sure.”

“I'll go. What do you want?”

“Pastrami.”

“Good choice” he said. “I
need the keys.”

It was going to be a long
night. A few extra calories would do us good. While Alex was gone, I tried to
clear my mind and focus on what we were going to be doing in a couple of hours.
Didn't work. All I could think about was Monica. I remembered the look in her
eyes the Sunday night she left my apartment to go home. I remember kissing her
goodbye and watching her walk to her car. I remembered the scent of her hair.
Then I remembered her hovering over me after I'd been shot, doing chest
compressions, keeping me alive. I remembered waking up after my surgery as she
stroked my hair and said my name. I remembered the first time I kissed her, the
first time she told me she loved me, the first time I told her I loved her. I
remembered the first time we had sex. And I remembered the panic I felt when I
realized that someone had taken her. I remember the rage. And I remembered the
agony of the past week, a week of being without her, a week of wondering who
had her, where she was, whether or not she was okay. And now I knew who had
her. I knew where she was. I wanted to go right then and get her. I wanted to rescue
her and then kill the person who had taken her from me. But then I remembered
who took her and why. Mrs.
Durrani
.
Bahara
. I'd killed her son and now her husband was dying.
She was hurt. She was angry. She needed someone to blame. I had become the
target of her rage. The thing was, I understood how she felt and why she was
angry
at
me. I didn't want to kill her. If I could, I
would rescue Monica without killing
Bahara
. Life had
punished her enough. Wasn't my job to punish her
more.

Alex came back with two
pastrami sandwiches,
cole
slaw, and a
half gallon
of butter pecan ice cream. I ate half of my
sandwich and put the rest in the fridge. Alex ate all of his sandwich and half
the Cole slaw. We both had some ice cream.

Heidi came over right on the
dot at ten forty-five. She was wearing jeans and a sweater, a pair of boots. I
could see the stress on her face. She was worried.

Alex was already wearing his
shoulder rig. He put the small .357 on his hip. I put my second .357 on my
right hip and the Recon knife on my left side. I put my speed loaders on the
right side of my belt and put my Kevlar on over my shirt. We each had six
plastic wrist restraints, a roll of duct tape, and a small flashlight.

“
Lotta
guns,” Heidi said.

“And hopefully we won't have
to use them,” I said.

I knelt and told Wilson I’d
see him later. I hoped that would turn out to be true.
He
woofed a soft goodbye.

 
We left at eleven.

Chapter 46

Tuesday Night

The breeze that had blown
most of the day had left the night sky brilliantly clear. The moon was full, so
bright that it created shadows. Not optimal conditions for stealth. But it was
what we had to work with.

It took thirty-five minutes
to get to
Bel
Air. Heidi had never been in the area
before, so I wanted her to drive around a few minutes and get familiar with the
roads that wound through the exclusive neighborhoods. When she felt
comfortable, we drove slowly up Stone Canyon Road, past the
Durrani
house.

“That's where they're holding
Monica?” Heidi asked.

“Yeah.”

After a moment she said, “The
people in that house have no idea what's coming do they?”

“They know we’ll be coming,”
Alex said.

“But I don’t think they
understand what it’s going to involve,” I said.

A couple hundred yards beyond
the
Durranis
, Heidi turned around and drove back down
Stone Canyon Road, beyond the reservoir, to Sunset and found a place to stop.
It was eleven-fifty. Alex's phone rang. It was
Kodi
.

“Yeah, we're ready,”
Alex
said… “Okay, call back when the system is disabled,
including the guest house and the safe room door.”

He clicked off and said, “She
said it would only take a few minutes.”

“This is a good spot for you
to wait,” I said to Heidi. “When you drop us off, come back here.”

“Okay.”

We waited about five minutes.
When
Kodi
called back, Alex answered and listened.

“Okay,” he said. “Good job.
Stay online and monitor what's happening. Call me if anything unexpected
happens.”

He clicked off.

“Call you?” I said.

“I'm turning off the ringer
and setting it on vibrate.”

“Time to go?” Heidi asked.

“Time to go,” I said.

She drove casually. We didn't
see any police or security patrols.

“You can let me out about a
hundred yards before we get to the house,” I said. “Let Alex out about a
hundred yards past the house. Then go up a ways, turn around and go back and
wait for thirty minutes. If you haven't heard from either of us in thirty
minutes, drive by to see if anything's happening. If you see anything alarming,
call the number Alex gave you. If everything looks quiet, go back a wait
another fifteen minutes.”

“And if you haven't called by
then?” she asked.

“Then do another drive-by.”

“And if everything looks
quiet,” she said, “go back and wait again.”

“Yes.”

“How many times do we do that
routine?”

“If you haven't heard from me
after an hour, even if everything looks quiet when you drive by, call the
number Alex gave you.”

“It's an agent who knows what
we're doing,” Alex said. “He'll be able to respond quickly. I gave him your
name. Identify yourself and ask him to send help.”

About a hundred yards from
the house, Heidi slowed and I hopped out. She drove on as I hurried to the
cover of the trees and shrubs and began making my way up to the
Durrani
house. I moved as quickly but as quietly as I
could, hoping I wouldn't encounter any late night strollers or dog walkers.

I didn't. I made it to the
side of the
Durrani
house and went over the six-foot
wall, dropping down into the manicured expanse of grass that ran the length of
the house. It was a large open area, fifty feet wide and a hundred or so feet
long. Would have been a nice area for a holiday flag football game.

I pressed myself against the
side of the house and looked around to see if I was visible to people in the
house or to neighbors. It didn't look like I was. I made my way to the back
edge of the house and peered cautiously into the back yard. It was empty and
quiet. It was also beautiful, like a resort. The moonlight glistened off the
still waters of the pool, the shrubs swayed gently in the soft warm breeze, the
taller trees cast shadows in the moonlight that looked liked creatures of the
night emerging from subterranean caverns.

I watched the guesthouse for
a moment. There was no movement inside or out that I could detect. I crouched
and scrambled silently across the big patio, around the pool and to the side of
the guesthouse. The tennis courts were about a hundred feet across the lawn from
the guesthouse. Alex came up beside me about two minutes later.

“Almost looks like we've got
the place to ourselves, doesn't it?” he whispered.

“Yeah. Doesn't feel right.
Come on,” I said softly. “Let's go see if there's a back door to this little
cottage.”

There was. The moon provided
enough light that we didn’t need the little flashlights we’d brought. I took
out my lock picking tools and went to work. When I got the door open, Alex
said, “A minute and thirteen seconds.”

“What?”

“That's how long it took you
to work the lock. A minute and thirteen seconds.”

“It's not a competition,” I
whispered, as I entered the kitchen gun in hand. Alex followed me in, his .40
caliber
out and ready.

The house was still.
Moonlight streamed in through the windows, casting shadows off the expensive
traditional furniture. We stood still and listened, straining to hear any sound
there might be. There was none. We might as well have been inside a tomb.

“Split up,” Alex asked, “or
stay together?”

“Let's stay together.”

We moved cautiously but
quickly from room to room on the ground floor,
then
went silently up the stairs. There were two bedrooms on each side of the
stairs. The master suite was straight ahead. A second story bath sat opposite
the master suite. We went into the master first. We checked the bedroom itself,
the bathroom and the walk-in closet. Empty. We went back to the other bedrooms.
Each one was empty. Finally, we checked second bathroom. Also empty.

“Looks like we're going into
the main house,” Alex said, quietly.

“Looks like.”