Bad Habit (24 page)

Angel reached to drag him down from
the fence but Ludwig hoisted himself over the top, landing in a
heap on the other side.

They stared at each other for a
second before Ludwig took off after Teri. Angel holstered his gun
and jumped to grab the top of the fence with both hands. He swung
one leg over the top rail and landed in the marsh.

The muddy sludge impeded both men.
Ludwig slogged his way toward the flamingos, frightening them in
the process. A brilliant panorama of flapping wings sent Ludwig
sliding in the mud. He floundered, trying to regain his
footing.

Tolliver and his men tried to scale
the fence, Tolliver yelling non-stop orders.

Angel caught up with Ludwig and
punched out with his fist, catching him on the chin. Ludwig sank to
his knees. Angel was filled with a mixture of disgust and relief.
“Not such a tough guy now.” He cuffed Ludwig and left him for
Tolliver. He followed Teri’s footprints in the mud and entered the
concrete hole in the side of the overhanging wall. He couldn’t wait
to tell her that she was safe.

The air inside was cooler. Angel
followed Teri’s tracks through the employee’s area of the aviary.
The tracks faded away, but he found small clumps of mud that may
have fallen off her sneakers or they might just as easily have
fallen from someone else’s shoes.

Where did you go?
He tried to imagine where Teri might take shelter,
not knowing that her pursuers had been taken into custody.
Come on, Baby. Where did you go?

#

She needed to be in a crowded area.
Stepping out of the shadows, Teri squared her shoulders and walked
briskly to the aviary exit. A group of school children were
assembled in an open area. Half a dozen women stood amid
approximately thirty children who appeared to be nine or ten years
of age. She edged closer to the group, gazing around all the
while.

A young man in a city zoo uniform
emerged and handed out programs to everyone. He greeted them and
announced that the tour could begin now that everyone was together.
The tour guide led them to the entrance of the next exhibit and
waited for the children to quiet down. The teacher made shushing
sounds.

A shiver ran down Teri’s spine as
she realized they were going into the reptile exhibit. She was
definitely not fond of reptiles.

The interior of the reptile house
was cool and dark. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust after
being in the bright sunlight. She pushed her sunglasses up on her
head. The smell was distinctively musky.

She listened to the tour guide’s
voice droning about the exhibit, but couldn’t focus on his words.
She looked around, alert for her pursuers. The children giggled at
something the guide said and the sounds of their laughter echoed
off the hard surfaces.

Teri spied a concrete bench in
front of one large glass window showcasing reptiles from the Rain
Forests. She perched on the edge of the bench as fatigue closed in
around her like a shroud. Tears filled her eyes as her fingers
gripped the edge of the bench.

She leaned forward and concentrated
on breathing; trying not to think about the two shots she’d heard.
She closed her eyes as the tears fell onto her lap.

Another smell filled her nostrils.
A different animal smelling of cigars and tangy after
shave.

Teri opened her eyes and found
herself staring into the cold eyes of the second man she’d seen
when she’d found Colin’s body. She felt her throat tighten. Panic
clutched her gut, but she couldn’t move. This man was much more
menacing than the others. His close cropped hair was silver at the
temples and his eyes a steely blue, devoid of any trace of
humanity.

The student group was leaving. Teri
moved slightly as though to follow, but a slight shake of his head
stopped her.

In a moment, they were alone
together in this darkened place.

He stood and held out his hand to
her, a hand with a shiny scar across the back.

She cringed away from his touch but
stood, swaying slightly. She held his unreadable gaze, staring up
at him.

“
Your photos don’t do you justice,”
he said in the raspy voice she remembered so well. Slowly, he
reached into his breast pocket.

Teri held her breath.

He drew out a silver cigar case and
opened it.

“
I don’t think you can smoke in
here,” she said.

“
I wouldn’t think of it.” He
extracted a small hypodermic needle and jabbed it into her
thigh.

Teri stared down at the syringe and
screamed, but it came out as a whimper.

“
Now, my dear, you are going to
come along with me and you will behave yourself.” His voice rasped,
but his tone was silky and solicitous.

Bile rose from her core as the room
spun around dizzily. She swayed and the man took her arm to lead
her from the reptile house. He clasped her close to his side,
embracing her as Angel had when they had walked on the River Walk.
She glanced around in hopes of getting someone’s attention, but
found she was incapable of speech. Her legs felt heavy. She
stumbled, but her abductor kept her from falling. He stopped to set
her sunglasses down on her nose and pull the baseball cap lower
over her face.

“
Come, my dear, we have business to
discuss.” He walked with her toward the exit.

#

“
Angel! Over here.” Arturo motioned
to his son.

“
I can’t find her. She just
disappeared.” Angel stopped beside a primate cage filled with
curious monkeys.

“
If you can’t find her it means the
bad guys can’t either.” Arturo turned around in a circle. “Where
are the police? Can’t they help?”

“
Tolliver is booking Ludwig. I
winged Altman and he’s on his way to the hospital with a police
escort.” Angel circled the monkey cage. “Teri doesn’t know they’ve
been captured. She’s still running scared.”

“
What about the tracking device?
It’s still working, isn’t it?”

“
I gave the monitor to you back at
the car,” Angel said impatiently running his fingers through his
hair.

Arturo patted his pocket. “And I
brought it with me.”

Angel grinned at him. “And to think
I almost made you stay at home.” He motioned to his father who dug
the device out of his jacket.

He expelled a sigh of relief as the
blinking dot appeared on the small screen. He frowned.

“
What’s the matter, son?” Arturo
came to look over his shoulder. “Maybe she’s going to the
house.”

“
I couldn’t be that lucky,” Angel
said. “She’s going toward the exit. Let’s catch up.”

The two men started running in the direction Teri
was heading. Angel couldn’t wait to hold her. He’d almost lost her.
Now they could return to New York and see what they really had
between them.

#

Teri felt curiously unafraid,
though she knew the man who held her upright had absolutely no
compassion in his heart. She concentrated on placing one leaden
foot in front of the other. She stumbled, slipped and scraped one
knee on the pavement. Her abductor jerked her upright, but she sank
down again. She closed her eyes and felt the rough pavement grate
against her cheek.

This is the answer; passive
resistance. Didn’t it work for Gandhi? No, it was sit-ins in the
sixties.

“
C’mon! I know you’re faking. Get
up,” he hissed against her ear. He pulled on her arms but she
remained limp.

Several people stopped to see what was happening. A
heavy-set woman stepped forward.

“
I’m a nurse,” she said. “Can I
help?”

“
No! No, she’s fine.” He pulled her
to a sitting position. “She got too much sun.” He picked her up and
carried her away from the gathering crowd.

Teri’s baseball cap fell off as he
tried to lift her high enough to avoid the turnstile at the exit.
An elderly guard smiled and swung the crossbar aside to allow him
to pass more easily.

They moved from dense shade to
bright sunlight. It shone down relentlessly, bringing a rush of
perspiration to her brow.

The man was breathing
hard.

She hung limply, but her knee
throbbed and blood oozed from her scrape.

The pain awakened her and her sense
of peril. Teri opened her eyes and realized she was being lugged
across the parking lot adjacent to the zoo’s entrance.

A couple unloading a stroller from
an SUV turned to stare. A toddler pointed as they
passed.

She heard the beep of a remote
opening a locked vehicle nearby and she was jostled to a standing
position, leaning against hot metal.

The man opened the car door and
folded her onto the backseat. The interior was
oven-like.

She heard another door open and the
man turned on the ignition. The air conditioner spewed more hot air
into the airless vacuum. The vehicle was moving and Teri slipped
into her former lethargic state.

If I could just keep my eyes
open...

#

Angel picked up the baseball cap.
His adrenalin surged as he scanned the milling crowd.
Where are you?

The guard at the exit smiled and nodded to them.

“
Did you see the woman who was
wearing this cap?”

The old man nodded.

Angel took a deep breath. “Tell me
where she went!”

The old man nodded and pointed to
the crossbar.

“
Are you telling me she jumped over
this bar?” Angel felt his face redden as he glared at the
guard.

“
No. The man in the suit carried her
out. I opened it like this. See?” He demonstrated his previous
performance.

Angel’s pulse quickened. “What
man?” he demanded.

“
The big man in the suit. He said
she was suffering from the heat.”

“
Did you see where they went?”
Arturo asked.

“
To the parking lot. He carried her
all the way to his car and helped her inside.”

Angel ran to the parking area while
Arturo gathered a quick description of the vehicle.

When Arturo caught up with Angel he
said, “He said it was a black Mercedes and it headed
east.”

Angel stared at a drop of blood on
the pavement. His jaw tightened. “Let’s get the car,
Pop.”

#

Teri was lying on a soft surface.
Someone was speaking but couldn’t understand the words. She inhaled
the odor of the fabric under her face. It smelled like people. Lots
of people.

Cautiously, she opened her eyes.
She was in a room sprawled face down on top of a bed. The fabric of
the bedspread was wet. Teri had been drooling.

The man who’d abducted her was
talking on the phone. His voice droned on. She caught a word here
and there.

“
...not what I expected...arrested
Hugo and...that detective shot Frank. He could be dead for all I
know.”

Teri kept her head down. Clem was
safe. She should have let Angel handle things. He would never have
allowed her to get into this mess but, at least she’d gotten Clem
back.

The man paced as he talked. He came
close to the bed and seemed to be looming over her.

“
No,” he spoke gruffly into the
receiver. “She’s out of it. No, I didn’t hurt her, but she’s the
only one who knows where the money is. I’m not letting her get away
with it. Yes, I’ll bring it to you when I get it.”

Suddenly the door burst open and
she heard yelling. Teri opened her eyes and saw Angel with a gun.
The man had his hands in the air and Angel pushed him to the
floor.

My Angel’s here.
Teri felt a rush of gratitude as she closed her
eyes again and dozed.

#

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Some time later Teri was awakened
by a bright light. A paramedic held her lid open, flashing a small
penlight in her eye.

Angel rode in the ambulance with
her and she learned later that Arturo followed close behind driving
Angel’s rental. Teri was checked out in the emergency room, her
knee wound cleaned and stitched closed, and she was released a few
hours later.

It was dark when they pulled into
the driveway at the Garcia household. Isabel wept when Angel and
Arturo brought Teri inside. She went from her husband to her son
with tearful reproaches.

“
We’re fine, Mom,” Angel assured
her.

“
Arturo, I was so worried.” She
wrung her hands tearfully as she spoke.

“
Isabel,” Arturo took her hands in
his. “Everyone is fine. We got Teri back and she’s fine.” He gave
her hand an encouraging squeeze.

Angel’s sisters and brother
gathered around, everyone talking at once.

The scene had a dream-like quality
for Teri. She felt detached, as though observing from a
distance.

She caught Angel’s attention over
the head of the family clustered close to him. She was still a
little woozy and she felt nauseated. It occurred to her that she
hadn’t eaten a bite all day.