Equity (Balance Sheet #3) (2 page)

Clawing my way to the surface of consciousness was slow. It felt as if I was reaching for a pinprick of light at the end of a very long tunnel. Through it all, I caught snatches of whispered conversation to my left. The words were indistinct and indiscernible. I felt the urge to move my head in that direction to give my ears better chance of making out what was being said. Something stopped me.

Feeling my limbs stretched out to four corners, I remembered. I’d been outside trying to come to terms with my decision. I’d been trying to come up with how I was going to explain myself to Kalen when I heard a noise. I’d turned too late. An arm clamped around me from behind before I could defend myself. A cloth pressed against my mouth and nose. A smell faintly sickly sweet filled my nostrils. Darkness closed in on me like a shut door to the face. With a lingering thought, I didn’t know if it was the smell or lack of oxygen that claimed me.

It was a slow cloud that parted leading me into consciousness. Knowing my situation may have been perilous, I didn’t move. I tried to fight the nausea that threatened to overtake me. For once, I needed to be smart. If I was to survive, I needed to figure a way out. With as slight a movement as I could muster, I tested the bonds on my left foot and arm. There was no give. I cracked my eyes opened, and tried to keep my breathing slow and steady.

My head was faced to the right towards faint light that filtered through heavy drapes. Below the window was a beige AC unit that hummed in the background. Just to the left of the window I spied a door. My guess was I was in a motel of some sort. Where, I had no idea. I also didn’t know how long I’d been out.

Calming my brain, I tried to listen again to the continued murmurs from the other side of the room. There was no hope. They were doing a good job of being quiet enough so that I couldn’t tell for sure if the voices were female, male or one of each.

There was no way to know without seeing. Could it have been Mike? Turner and Kalen’s plan had been to lock him in the jail, but maybe they hadn’t caught him. If it was Mike, oh god… I racked my brain trying to figure out whom else. There was another option. Whoever trashed Lizzy’s apartment was more likely the culprit. The words
die bitch
written on my wall was certainly telling. I wasn’t sure which fate was better, death or the sick things Mike might try. In the end, if he had killed old man Fisher, set fire to Mary’s house, he was capable of kidnaping as well. A quick death at the hands of the people stealing from Kalen’s company sounded like the better option.

Kalen
. It all came back to him. The idea that I might never be able to explain myself hurt so deep I nearly cried. The fact that I thought of Kalen and not Turner first caused me to lose control over the retching that had been threatening since I first woke up.

Nothing was in my stomach. I gagged uncontrollably at my fear of death and whatever else my unknown enemy had planned for me.

When I stopped dry heaving, there was silence before movement. There was no need not to look. I turned my head and simultaneously pulled at my bonds. Rope bit into my skin as someone donning a mask filled my vision. The black cat-like disguise covered the person’s head like a sock. Blonde hair that looked too fake to be real sprouted from the top. There were tiny holes at the places where eyes, a nose and a mouth should be. I couldn’t understand how whoever wore it could see or breathe.

“Pretty,” the cat-like woman purred. Once she was closer, I could take my eyes off her hooded face. I took in the rest of her. She wore a black leotard with what appeared like a tail curling off to the side from the back. What was this?

A black-gloved hand reached out and stroked hair that had come lose from my bun off my face. “Pretty,” she purred again. I shifted my head as much as I could from her touch. Warning flares shot off in my head. Could this be worse than Mike or the embezzlers? Had I been snatched by someone else at random? Or was Mike the other person in the room?

Her hand stroked down my cheek, not stopping there. She caressed from my face to my neck and lower still. When she palmed my breast while straddling me, I didn’t even fight the nausea that boiled over in my gut. Her hand left my breast and roughly turned my head to the left at the gagging noise I began to make. Apparently she didn’t want me to choke on my vomit and die. That couldn’t be good. They wanted me to live for what?

Off in the distance, hidden in the shadows in the back of the room towards what appeared to be a bathroom, was another figure. It was too dark and my panic too much in hyper focus for me to tell if the shape was man or woman.

I didn’t have to wait long. A voice rang out. “Don’t.” That one word was all I needed. It was familiar.

I took command of the mobile unit that showed up. They parked their truck, which was equipped to rival any Crime Scene Unit, several yards away from the evidence. One of the team members stepped from the back to begin to videotape everything we did. Rulers were set on the ground to measure both the length and width positions of the tread before high quality photos were taken.

Matt stood next to me watching my security team work. “What did you need me for?” he asked quizzically.

“I wasn’t sure how good these guys would be. I couldn’t take chances. I needed a point person to oversee and let us know what we should do.”

He stared at me with cop eyes I couldn’t read. “Did you call the authorities?” he asked, watching my eyes as if to tell if I was lying.

“What for? It’s a well-known fact that the police don’t do anything about a missing person for 24 hours.”

He nodded. “What do you know?”

It wasn’t much. I told him about looking for Bailey. How we searched the grounds and asked around before ending up back here. I pointed to the disturbance in the wheat stalks. We walked over, leaving the lab guys to finish at the tire tread. Just as we approached the opening, Turner stepped through.

“You didn’t come get me,” he accused.

“Time was a factor. I assumed you’d appreciate that I was getting my guys on finding Bailey and not you.”

He caught the dig but didn’t flinch. “You’re Matt,” he said to the other man.

Matt reached out a hand. “Yeah, you are…”

“Turner. Bailey’s fiancé,” he announced, taking Matt’s hand in a firm but quick handshake.

Matt’s head snapped in my direction. I pinched the bridge of my nose. It wasn’t the time for a pissing contest.

“I appreciate you coming out to help,” he said, his face looking hopeful.

“There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for Bailey,” Matt said.

This was getting ridiculous. If we didn’t find Bailey soon, none of this posturing would matter.

“Kalen said you had interest in Bailey.”

Matt sized up Turner, measuring his response. “I love Bailey.” Matt stopped and let Turner absorb that statement. “Like a sister though. I won’t lie and say I didn’t make a play for her when I finally took my head out of my ass. But Kalen here had already stolen her from me.”

Had Matt just taken my side? “Matt,” I said, ready to steer this conversation back on task. I pointed to where Turner had just stepped out of stalks as tall as those in the movie
Children of the Corn
. “This is where we believe he, or whoever it was, came through.”

The cop moved forward, back in investigation mode. Turner gave me a look I ignored. I understood his need to stake a claim. Hell, I might have done the same if I’d had a leg to stand on. Bailey, however, had made her choice. Instead, I followed Matt, ending up back behind Violet’s house.

“Whose place is this?” Matt looked between us.

“Violet’s house. Bailey’s sister. She shares it with her loose cannon of a husband,” I stated, beating Turner to the punch.

“Loose cannon?” Matt asked.

I shared the story of the night before. Matt’s frown deepened when I gave him the details of the fire, Violet’s injuries and the scuffle that resulted in Mike’s capture.

“And you’re sure this guy had nothing to do with Bailey’s disappearance?”

Turner and I shared a glance. “We checked. He’s still locked up,” Turner offered.

It was easy to tell Matt wanted to see for himself and maybe interrogate our prisoner. “We’ll take you to him.”

I called the leader of the security team on the way and instructed him to let me know immediately when they had something. The guys appeared efficient. They gave me an update and suggested looking into video feeds of nearby cameras. Matt waved away my restating of their ideas. He didn’t want to know about such things. A cop through and through he was. However, it didn’t seem like he wasn’t going to stand in the way of helping us locate Bailey by any means necessary.

The building we approached was unassuming from the front. It looked like any other building in the town. Turner opened the door, which wasn’t locked. We stepped inside into what looked like a living room. There were plenty of places to sit and lounge. Having been here before I knew that beyond the next door lay a room with metal cages. Turner opened the door and stopped. Matt and I crowded in behind to see over his shoulder. All three cages were empty.

When my retching subsided, my captor’s hand tightened around my neck. So much for thinking they didn’t want me dead.

“Play nice with the kitty or you won’t live through the day.”

I didn’t have time to analyze the other’s voice in the room for the unwelcome touch started to blur my vision. As suddenly as her hand tightened around my neck it loosened. Her other hand appeared holding a syringe.

The disembodied voice said only a few words before I fell into darkness again. “Not too much.”

When I woke again all was quiet. Nervously I turned my head slightly to the left. All I could see was a faint glow on the ground. Someone was in the bathroom. Feeling like this might be my only chance I pulled on my bonds more forcefully than the first time. They were taut with very little give. Unable to move anything but my head I started to feel as though there was little hope of my escape.

Staring at the ceiling, my vision adjusted to the lowlight. I took that time to inventory myself. I was still wearing my dress. I could also feel my underclothing. My shoes, however, were gone, leaving my feet in socks, which combatted the faint chill in the air. The fact that I hadn’t been undressed gave me some solace.

I wondered what my next move, or rather no move, would be. My heart ached at the thought of not seeing Kalen, Turner, my parents, my siblings or Lizzie. Had all this happened because I had made a mistake last night? If I had turned Turner away, would I have been outside lost in my thoughts, making myself vulnerable to my captors?

None of that mattered. There was no turning back. I replayed the voice of my other captor in my head. I was pretty sure I knew who that person was. The realization scared me.

The door to the bathroom opened, spilling light into the darkened room. My vision was temporarily blurred as my irises adjusted to the sudden light.

Just as quickly, the female captor stepped into the room, switching the light back off. She stalked towards me and I had a moment to think she might be the greater threat of the two. I closed my eyes to no avail.

“Playing dead won’t save you now. You should’ve thought of that before you meddled in business not your own.”

The bed dipped as she sat next to me. I tried not to cringe but my heart raced, betraying my fear. I said nothing and my masked captor decided to continue with her monologue.

“When the Master gets back, Kitty will get to play with mouse. Pretty mouse.”

She stroked my face with her satin gloved hands. One-handed she squeezed my cheeks until my lips puckered. She dipped her head as if she planned to kiss me. The door opened. Captured I was unable to move my head to get a view of the person who entered. In fact, her face was so close to mine, I could see nothing but her pupils peeking through the tiny eyeholes.

“Pretty mouse is awake. Master must disguise himself.”

She didn’t let go of my face. I couldn’t see beyond her, could only hear movement.
Maste
r must have put something down. I heard the bathroom door close before she let go. When she stepped away headed in the same direction, I got a good look at what
Master
had set down. It was a tripod with a video camera attached. Trepidation crawled over my skin. Based on Kitty’s words and actions, I didn’t think they would be taping me for a ransom video.

Many things came together in a short period of time. After inspecting the cage and stepping out of the makeshift jail, we were intercepted by a member of the community. A young woman with a sling about her frantically spoke to Turner.

“Beth didn’t show up to morning chores. Father fears she’s missing just like Bailey.”

Turner glanced at me and then to Matt before he spoke to the young woman. “Mary, I think Beth may have let Mike out.”

“What? No, she wouldn’t do that.”

His look held sympathy. Gently he said what we all knew. “He couldn’t have gotten out on his own.”

He let that sink in and waited until she accepted the truth. It was easy to tell when that happened. She sort of crumpled in on herself. The sling began to wail. It took me a moment to realize that a baby was inside. She pulled the bundle out and cradled it to her breasts.

“It’s possible they may have taken your sister.” Turner watched for her reaction and so did I.

She whimpered. “No,” she declared emphatically. “That’s not true. He must have tricked Beth. Has to be.”

I waited for her to ask about her sister, but she didn’t. Turner didn’t seem to be surprised, or at least he didn’t show it. Mary stomped off in the direction she’d come without another word. Matt, Turner and I traded glances just before my satellite phone rang.

“Glenn.”

“We’ve got something,” the voice on the other line said.

“We’re on our way.” I ended the call. I didn’t have to say anything to the other guys about what was said. They caught my meaning and we headed off. There were too many questions and maybe now we had some answers. We made it back to the truck in record time.

“What have you got?” I said to the man who met us outside.

He waved us in. “We think we’ve got a location on the car.”

Matt looked impressed but didn’t say anything. Inside the truck, we strode past a row of monitors where a part of my new security team was hard at work on various tasks.

My efficient team leader, a balding man with a stern but likable face, began with bad news.

“The bad news is the tread matches tires made for many economy models.” Inwardly I groaned. This couldn’t be good if we were looking for a needle in a haystack. “The other bad news is in a small town like this, there aren’t many traffic cameras.”

Matt spoke up. “What about security cameras on convenience stores and banks?”

My team leader nodded. He looked thoughtful and not at all resentful that Matt’s suggestion made it sound like they didn’t know what they were doing. Good to know. This guy wasn’t a hot head or egomaniac. I’d have to find out just where he was in the organization chart and keep an eye on him for future promotions.

“Yes, we thought of that. And that’s the good news. About a mile and a half down the road there is a national bank. Although it’s a small branch, it has big city-like security. There are two cameras on the building, each pointing in opposite directions. We were able to get footage and a two-hour window of when we think the victim was taken.”

Matt sighed. “Should I even ask how you got access to that footage?”

My rising star shook his head and said, “There was not a lot of traffic early this morning. We were able to quickly analyze the license plates of the twenty or so vehicles that passed by that bank. Although there are a couple of crossroads between here and the bank, this is the main road that leads to the highway a few miles down.”

“You found something,” I said hopefully.

“Yes. One of the vehicles came back as a rental procured yesterday. Lucky for us, the rental companies have GPS tracking on their vehicles in case of theft.”

Turner jumped in, looking buoyant. “You found the vehicle.”

“Yes.”

With that one word, a plan was formed.