The Body Hunters (33 page)

"What phone number was that call placed to?"
  Aiden asked, hanging over the back of the tech's chair. The agent pointed out the number to Stone on his display.

"Fuck!" He yelled, piercing Johnson with his eyes as he jabbed a finger at the computer. "This call was to Wolfe's house exactly where Danny was supposed to be forty minutes ago.
"

Lucius seemed to shrink in his suit, looking totally helpless. Not even waiting for his orders, Aiden
 marched out of the room with his plan formulating in his head. He had to get to her
.

"Stone!
Wait!" Finally having regained his composure, Johnson jogged to the end of the hall, catching Stone at the elevator
.

"What do you want? Haven't you done enough?"
 Aiden accused, his rage barely on its leash. His heart was pounding and the only thing keeping him moving was adrenaline. Even when he was in Afghanistan he had never been this afraid, not even for his own life
.

"I deserve that." Lucius admitted. "But you'll need help. I am having the jet at Dallas-Fort Worth being refueled. A bucar will be waiting for you after you get off the plane. Get to Phoenix and find Danielle.
"

A malicious storm seemed to brew in Lucius gray eyes, his voice growing cold. "Whatever you have to do to bring her back, do it. I'll clean up the mess afterward.
"

"Somebody needs to check on Ramirez."
 Aiden said, stepping backward into the elevator. He held the door open with his forearm
.

Lucius nodded. "I'll get in touch with the Phoenix field office and have
themsend someone to check on your partner. Agent Ramirez can take care of himself. My concern is Danielle, I want her safe.
"

Removing his arm from the door,
 Aiden let the elevator close. Sighing deeply, he pressed his head against the chrome of the elevator wall saying a silent prayer. "Hang on, baby. I'm coming for you. Just hang on.
"

Chapter 1
9

Danny attempted to open her heavy eyelids, blinking several times to clear her clouded vision. Her head was pounding like thunderbolts were going off inside her brain. Her entire body was achy as if someone had thrown her down a flight of stairs. Slowly remembering and trying to comprehend what had transpired, her sight was now clearing and she could see the outline of another human coming into view.

Danny's hands were tied behind her back, and she tried to right herself into a sitting position. She closed her eyes until they adjusted to the semi-darkness of the room. She then made out another human form more clearly seated before her. The woman's blonde hair was definitely familiar. It was Cassie. Danny sat stunned for a moment as she tried to regain her voice. Finally she was able to speak, her voice dry and cracking in the confined space
.

"Cassie? Is that you?" She asked. Chastising herself for being relieved she wasn't the only one in this predicament
.

Cassie sat whimpering in the corner, her mouth still taped over and holding the dishrag. Danny slid over to the whimpering woman and sat in front of her.

"Listen, it's going to be OK. I can't see you very well, and my hands are tied behind me. I need you to turn around and get back to back with me. We have to try to untie our hands, OK? Are you with me? Head butt me if you understand.
"

Cassie leaned her head forward till she gently touched Danny's head.

"OK, it's going to be OK. Just scoot around now.
"

Cassie obeyed and soon Danny was furiously trying to untie the knots in her bindings. Luckily the cord gave way fairly easily. It seemed Cassie had just been too afraid to move to undo the loose knotting herself. Cassie's hands now free she ripped the tape off her own mouth and spit out the dishrag coughing. Her hands were quaking as she tried desperately to get Danny untied. She managed to get it loose enough for Danny to finish the task herself
.

"Are you alright? How did you get here?” Danny asked in hushed tones
.

"Oh, my God, Danny I'm so sorry, I'm sorry." Cassie wailed
.

"Calm down. It's
OK,just tell me who brought you here?
"

Cassie whined through her tears, "Gerard, he's gone crazy! He's going to kill us!
Just like he killed that man!"

"What man, Cassie?" She queried, suddenly anxious as to this mystery man's identity. "Tell me what man did Gerard kill?"

"The guy in your apartment.I think he was a cop or something. Oh my God! He's going to kill us! I'm sorry I did this.
"

Danny's heart leapt in her ribcage at the slim possibility that
 Aiden may have been in her apartment. "Cassie, stay with me! What did the man look like? The one you say Gerard killed." She cradled Cassie's chin and turned her head until they were eye to eye. "C'mon girl, stay with me!"

"He had skin color like yours maybe lighter." Cassie offered. Danny's heart sank and for a moment she couldn't breathe, steeling herself to hear more
.

"What did he look like? C'mon honey stay with it. What did he look like? Was he big, small, what?
"

"He looked Mexican, had straight black hair and Brown eyes! His eyes! I saw his dead eyes in the back of the car. He was just a kid!" Cassie trailed off sobbing.

Danny realized she meant Alejandro Ramirez and hated herself for feeling a moment of relief that she was not describing. She let go of Cassie's face and slunk back down against the back wall. Alejandro was dead, and her ex-fiancé was responsible. This bit of information struck her like a thousand bee stings simultaneously. Still reeling from the knowledge, she turned back to Cassie. "How did you get here? Tell me all of it."

Cassie recounted the entire story, from the video she secretly took, to being tied up in the SUV staring at the dead agent's brown eyes. She sniveled through the whole story peppering in her remorse as she went along. Danny sat stunned in silence and let her blather on as long as she needed, picking at the necessary details.

As the story unfolded, she remembered her own struggle with Gerard. It made sense now that he thought she was investigating him. The situation swam in her head over and over again. Her brain did not want to believe any of what was being said. She was connecting the dots faster than her emotions would allow
.

She had loved this man. She had shared a bed with him and given him her body. She had planned a future with him, planned to bear his children. Yet she hadn't had any inkling that Gerard was a ruthless killer. She finally hit information overload and crawled over to the corner of the small room and threw up, gagging loudly as if a demon was being exorcised from her.

Danny took a few minutes to recover from her heavy heaving. She found her way back to Cassie and held her. Cassie wrapped her arms around Danny like a small child clinging to her mother. She repeated her apologies over and over again. Finally Danny hushed her speaking very softly.

"Cassie, listen to me! I forgive you. This isn't your fault. We are going to get out of here, but you have to trust me? Tell me now you trust me OK?
"

"I trust you, I trust you. Please get us out of here!
"

"Shhh now, calm down. Now part of trusting me is listening and doing what I tell you OK?
"

"OK." Cassie said softly not letting up on the tight grip she had of Danny's waist
.

"OK no windows, but there's got to be a door. Tell me what you saw when he brought you in. Try to remember details. Did you see any stairways, doors, windows, lights? Just take your time and retrace as best you can, starting with is there a light in here?
"

"No, there's no light in here."

Danny encouraged her. "OK, good. Now just retrace in your head. C'mon you can do it. Take your time."

"Rob Grady and Gerard took me in from a side entrance. I think this is where they keep some cleaning equipment. We went down a set of stairs. They were kind of narrow. This building is not finished, a lot of tools and stuff lying all over. We passed a big furnace. You know, to burn things.
"

"An incinerator?"
Danny aske
d

"I guess. It had a sign that said it was for biohazard waste."

"OK, good girl, keep going"

"It was on the other side of this basement. Rob opened the door to this room and threw me in.
"

“OK can you remember how long ago that was?"

               “Um, it feels like yesterday, maybe I don't know. No one's been back until Gerard threw you in here! You were passed out. I thought you were dead!" Cassie started the waterworks all over again
.

“Cassie
it's OK, Please stop crying. I'm not dead." Trying to snap the woman out of her crying jag she urged, "I need you to focus! Did he say anything or could you hear anything else?"

"I heard them dragging that guy down the stairs! I put my ear up to the door! I could hear Gerard yell at Rob to get plastic and then I heard the sound of sawing. Sounded almost like a power tool." Realization hit Cassie hard.
"Oh, God!They cut him up didn't they? They used the surgical saws!" Cassie started gagging. Danny leaned her forward and held her hair back while Cassie dry heaved
.

"C'mon honey, we can't help him now. Just keep trying to remember anything that can help us."

"I heard the sound of the incinerator. It ran for a long time it seemed. It smelled terrible. I didn't know what it was, but now I know!" Cassie's eyes widened the whites visible in the dark space. "It was burning flesh! It's all myfault! If I hadn't been a horrible bitch he'd still be alive!" Cassie put her head in her hands
.

"C'mon girl you promised you'd listen to me! You didn't kill him, Gerard did! Remember that please! Damn, I wish we had a light in here!"

With that statement a small light started shining at the door. It grew bigger until she could see a smiling Alejandro looking at both of them. Dressed in all white he illuminated the room for a brief moment, Alejandro walked over to Cassie who was still sobbing and put his hands on her head. She was oblivious to the sight of his ethereal form. Alejandro waved his hand in front of the door and it became transparent. Danny could see outside the door and all its contents. The ghostly figure pointed to a screwdriver carelessly dropped by a bunch of boxes. His light fading, the door reappeared and he kissed the top of Cassie's head and kissed Danny's cheeks before his figure faded.

His light now gone, Danny sat down and held Cassie once more. "Alejandro forgives you." She told her.

Cassie stopped sobbing for a moment "How do you know?"

"I'll tell you. But please, just try to keep an open mind, OK?" Danny sighed heavily. "I have a special gift. People who have passed on come to me and they show me things. The man in the apartment, his name was Alejandro Ramirez, he was an FBI agent and he kissed you on the top of your head before he just left. He's OK now. You have to remember that. You didn't do this, Gerard did."
                        
 

Danny's words seemed to lift Cassie spirits just a little. She wasn't going to question her at this point, and she was willing to believe anything. Hearing her say the agent was just there and OK in the afterlife gave her at least a glimmer of hope
.

"Don't let us die!" Cassie pleaded. "If we get out of this I swear I'll change!"

Danny shook the woman's shoulders. "Stop it! We are not going to die, OK. You have to stay positive! There are probably people looking for us! Dominick has got to be worried by now, and the FBI has been investigating." Danny really wanted to believe her own encouraging words. She was praying that there really was a search and that if really was in love with her, like he blurted out in Dallas, that he would be tearing up Phoenix by now trying to find her. Surely they would also be searching for Ramirez by now too.

"Danny, I'm so sorry.
"

"Please stop apologizing. It's going to be alright.
"

Cassie found Danny's eyes in the dark. "Danny you know I didn't mean it, calling you names at the restaurant. I was horrible. I just wanted to say whatever I could to hurt you."

"Why? Tell me why did you want to hurt me?" Danny asked in hushed tones hoping that if Cassie continued talking that would calm the girl down
.

"Because it seems to come so easy for you.
You're young, confident and pretty. You were everything I wanted to be. Growing up I was the fat girl. The other kids picked on me, and my mother was no help at all. She just said that I needed to go on a diet. She said that I was fat because I wanted to be fat! She called me lazy. The kids at school would throw food at me!"

Cassie stopped for a moment and Danny just sat silently holding her letting here continue. "When I graduated high school I had gastric bypass surgery. I lost a ton of weight but was paranoid it was all going to come back. I had a lot of skin hanging so I sought out a plastic surgeon and found Dominick. Fresh out of his intern rotations, he had landed a job at a small practice. He was the only black doctor there, and over the course of my visits we realized we had a lot in common. He felt like a token in that office. They were just keeping him there to say they were diversified. He told me he felt out of place. I understood totally, feeling like a fat girl in a skinny girl's body. We dated on the sly for about a year and got married when he could officially say I wasn't his patient anymore. That's when Gerard came into our lives. He got Dominick to go abroad with Angel Faces off and on for a couple of years and he financed the whole thing. He was like a godsend. In return, when Dominick got back he set him up in a practice, and the money started rolling in. The more money we got the more it went to my head and I became the very thing I hated!"