The Body Hunters (36 page)

 
"Not a trace. I'm going downstairs to check in with my supervisor."

The Phoenix agent shut the door leaving
 alone with his morose thoughts. He bent down to pick up one of her family artifacts from in front of the sofa. She had told him days before that the porcelain doll had been one of her grandmother's favorites. Luckily the fragile piece had survived the destruction.

When reaching down,
 Aiden discovered Ramirez's shield. There was no way Alejandro would leave voluntarily without it. Clutching it in his fist, felt the chill associated with an object belonging to the dead
.

Once again Stone found himself submerged in the spirit realm. He was still in the apartment, though it was still intact and it was only hours before. He bore witness to Alejandro's shock when Wolfe kicked his way into the apartment and felt the sheer helplessness as the doctor maliciously murdered him. He observed the sudden presence of an unidentified blonde woman and Gerard binding her wrists. Gerard made a brief phone call before he methodically began tearing the apartment apart, presumably looking for evidence condemning him
.

A little while later another man showed up and helped Gerard move Alejandro's lifeless form. They tossed Alejandro and the woman in the back of an SUV. Taking a cue from Danny,
 Aiden followed them downstairs and noted the vehicle's make and model and license plate number
.

Revived and alert,
 he awoke with renewed purpose. If he could locate Gerard's accomplice, he may put him in the direction of where Danny was being held.

 
           Rob's slumber had been plagued with nightmares, the ghastly work he'd done with Gerard the evening before coming back to haunt him. Every time he closed his eyes he saw the dead FBI Agent's eyes staring up at him, the thin streams of thick blood as the surgical saws did their dirty work and the sickening crunch when Gerard wrenched the agent's head from his body. His sleep had been stop and start, and he was never able to stay asleep for longer than a half hour. Guilt ridden, Rob left the bed, careful not to wake his wife. He hopped in the shower, attempting to cleanse the stain of the deed off his body. Hours later he could still smell the burnt pork-like smell of the poor man's roasting flesh as if the odor was clinging to his skin.

When Gerard had enlisted him into this human trafficking hell, Rob thought it was a good way to make a few bucks under the table. Truth be told, he did owe Gerard for helping him with his little drug problem and sweeping the information under the rug. However, Rob never knew the tax being in league with Gerard would take on his soul
.

Beneath the veneer of the good doctor with the proper etiquette and expensive tastes, Gerard was evil incarnate. The doctor was a chameleon, adept at concealing his sinister ways from view. When Rob joined Gerard's business, he may as well have sold his soul to the devil. The man was ruthless, making life and death decisions for the unfortunate women involved in the cartel like he was judge, jury, and executioner. To him the women were not people but products, and if one of his products stepped out of line, then there was a terrible price to pay. Many were the times that Rob had aided Gerard in digging graves for hapless women who had the audacity to speak up for themselves
.

Rob thought of Cassie. He knew that because of his drinking problem, Dom wasn't involved in any cartel business. He felt bad for the doctor and his wife. Hopefully, Gerard would spare Cassie's life and let her off with a warning not to cross him in the future. However, knowing Gerard's penchant for brutality, that scenario wasn't going to be very likely
.

Leaving the marble-encased shower, stepping out onto the heated stone floors, Rob wrapped an expensive silk robe around his body. Though he had given up the hard drugs, every now and then Rob smoked a little weed to calm his nerves. He went to his little stash which was hidden inside an old sneaker in his walk-in closet
.

Sitting on the deck on the back of his condo, Rob thought he would watch the sunrise. His feet propped up on a step stool Rob lounged in his chair, letting the marijuana take him away from his troubles. A slight knock at his front door snatched his attention away from his high
.

"Can I help you?" Rob asked, sticking his head out the door. Some angry-looking, muscle-bound guy was darkening his doorstep
.

Through the local DMV records,
 Aiden had tracked down the man who had owned the truck that hauled away Alejandro's body. It was registered to a Lisa Grady, who he assumed was the man's wife. The two occupied a condominium in a subdivision not too far from the Wolfe residence.

He
 flashed his shield. "Agent Stone, FBI." He nodded, indicating the SUV parked in the driveway. "That your truck?
"

Oh shit, Rob thought. He hadn't yet had time to get the vehicle detailed as Gerard had instructed. "Uh, yeah, that's my truck." Rob weakly admitted
.

Rob's front door burst open, and in a fury
 Aiden charged through. With his hand around the smaller man's neck, he didn't stop moving until Rob's back slammed against the living room wall
.

"What are you doing man? Have you lost your mind?" Rob rasped, his fingers trying to pry his hand from around his neck.

"You're going to help me locate Gerard Wolfe." He informed him, his eyes blazing right into Rob's face
.

Aiden's worry for Danny's safety had transformed into an inconsolable rage overnight. Not only had the bastard abducted her, he had murdered his partner. The kid had survived the hell in Afghanistan just to have his life snuffed out by that murdering sonofabitch. When he found Wolfe he was going to tear him limb from limb with his bare hands. Gerard had taken him to a dark place, and he wasn't sure if he was going to be making a return trip
.

While he was searching for Danny, he could have sworn he heard her voice calling out for him. He got an impression of her being in pain which frightened him like nothing else in the world. Where she was concerned, he was feeling an ache, a pain he couldn't even describe. He had known she had gotten her hooks in him, but he didn't realize how deep until she was in danger. He would get no rest until he found her, and heaven help any fool who got in his way.
 He was ready and willing to take his frustrations out on Wolfe's accomplice.

"Wolfe's not here, man. I don't know anything." Rob lied, still fighting Aiden’s iron grip
.

For emphasis he pulled Rob away from the wall, before slamming his back into it again. Several pictures dropped to the floor, and Rob was sure the foundation of his condo shifted a little. Hairline fractures started to appear in the drywall, the cracks coughing dust with the indentation of Rob's body in the wall
.

"I know for a fact that you helped Wolfe move an FBI Agent's dead body, and you also took a blonde woman with you. Where is the woman?" He figured that perhaps Danny was being kept with the woman. He prayed that the woman and Danny were unharmed
.

"Man, you're tripping." In panic, Rob slipped into street slang. "I don't know anything. You've got the wrong guy.
"

 
               Aiden moved his face in front of Rob's until they were face to face. He could smell the marijuana scent adhering to the man's skin. "You're lying to me, and I know it." His tone brooked no nonsense.

"I wouldn't lie to an FBI Agent, I swear." Rob was more afraid of crossing Gerard than crossing this FBI Agent. If Gerard found that he had double crossed him, Rob knew he would find himself in a shallow grave
.

Enraged at the man's lies,
 he pulled his pistol and put it to Grady's forehead.

His voice was deep and threatening, like something born from the darkest abyss. "I am giving you till the count of three. If you don't tell me where Wolfe is holed up, I'm going to send your worthless ass to the next world."

"I can't tell you." Rob said, tears running down his cheeks
.

"One!
"

"He'll kill me! You don't understand how evil he is! Please!" Rob begged
.

"Two."

"He will!
"

"Rob! Oh my God!
What's going on?!"Lisa suddenly entered the room, her eyes wide in terror
.

Aiden
 slammed his Glock back into his holster, releasing Rob from his grip. His wife had literally saved him from great bodily harm. Even if his bluff with the gun didn't work, he was prepared to beat the truth out of the man
.

"We'll be in touch."
 Aiden uttered threateningly, leaving Rob and his wife to themselves
.

He
 took the Crown Vic around the block out of Rob's sight and booted up his laptop. Before he had confronted Dr. Grady, he had installed a portable GPS tracking unit on the doctor's SUV. He wouldn't be going anywhere without him knowing about it first. The only trouble was that he had to do something he wasn't very good at, being patient.

However, Aiden's patience paid off early that afternoon when Rob left his condo. Following the man's trail on his computer's map,
 he made a point of staying several cars behind him, for fear of being noticed.

Rob's first stop was a do-it-yourself car wash where the man meticulously erased the evidence of Alejandro's existence from his vehicle. Watching from a nearby parking lot, he observed the man thoroughly vacuuming the vehicle, shampooing the rugs, and obsessively cleaning the outside.
  He felt like stopping him in the act of destroying the proof of his partner's murder, but there was nothing he could do for Alejandro now. Any hopes of rescuing Danny lay with Rob Grady and locating where Wolfe was holed up.

After leaving the car wash, Rob took a leisurely drive around Phoenix, apparently while smoking more marijuana. The man's SUV nearly skidded into another car when he pulled in front of the Beautiful Image Spa late that afternoon
.

True to his word, Agent Johnson had raided the spa earlier in the day. Swarms of government-issued vans and cars chaotically filled the parking lot, mixed in with the luxury vehicles of the patrons and staff. Agents in ugly navy blue windbreakers with FBI written across the back in yellow were either carrying out boxes containing paperwork belonging to the spa or were escorting out the doctors in handcuffs. Vans belonging to local news agencies waited in the background, biding their time until they could get a quote from a Bureau representative. Obviously terrified, Rob made a U-turn in the parking lot and burned rubber getting back into traffic
.

Aiden
 was a little closer behind Rob this time, and he could see that he was talking frantically to someone on his cell, barely staying within the lanes. Rob Grady was speeding, racing through traffic like he was trying to escape from evil spirits. The SUV descended from the upscale champagne life of Phoenix's suburbs to the everyday hustle and grind of the inner city
.

Rob's journey ended in the yet unpaved parking lot of a still under construction building. Using the nose of his truck he pushed open the chain link fence surrounding the new construction site and parked. Running, Rob unlocked the glass door of the structure with a key before disappearing inside
.

As stealthily as he could on the unpaved gravel, Aiden pulled his car into the lot. Rob had parked his truck alongside Dr. Wolfe's Bentley. The sumptuous vehicle was definitely out of place in a neighborhood like this. Danny was here and he could feel it
.

Before leaving his car,
 he placed a call to Agent Johnson who promised to arrive with the Hostage Rescue Team within the next ten minutes. He opened the trunk and strapped on a bullet proof vest and grabbed his SPAS-12 pump action shotgun, loading it with shells.

Armed, ready and dangerous he followed Grady's path into the facility.

Chapter 2
1

Hurrying through the unfinished interior of the future medical clinic, Rob was on the hunt for Gerard. Since the discovery of the Fed's investigation of their operation, Gerard had decided to relocate his headquarters to this newest future off the books clinic. Before things fell apart, the cartel was working to bring a fresh shipment of product out to Phoenix's slums. Being the control freak he was, Wolfe wanted to supervise things personally, thus his big move to Phoenix to work at the Beautiful Image Spa. They had started construction on the newest clinic a few short months ago, and the project was nearing completion. However, that was before things all went to hell
.

Since their phones might be tapped Rob had planned on catching Gerard at the spa to tell him about his visit with the FBI agent that morning. Finding the facility on lockdown, he figured he would try finding Gerard at the new clinic. Along the way he'd also sent a message to his wife. In the contingency that things went afoul with the human trafficking/prostitution operation, he and Lisa had established a special code. Rob had called her telling her that she ought to pay her sister a visit. Hopefully Lisa had packed a bag and was on her way out of town
.