CHAPTER 16
The Pawn
“No! It’s been over a week, goddammit!”
I’m hanging on by a thread. I’ve successfully chewed the skin off my lip.
I can no longer say a fucking word about the way Seven Grey makes a buffet out of her fingernails, and if I have to look at the empty side of the bed another damn day…
I’ll lose it. I swear, I’ll lose it. Dan sighed, sitting in my bat cave at the apartment, while we looked over every piece of information we’ve managed to gather as to where they would have taken her.
Which is shit.
Nada.
Zip.
We’ve got traffic cam footage that cuts off at Bristol Street…
because the good town of Castine has the budget of a middle-class family, and that budget doesn’t fucking cover fixing the broken, outdated tech.
I’m gonna absolutely fix that problem by offering my service and money to mend them, but…
it sure as fuck doesn’t help me right now.
I’ve got a general direction of where that SUV went that could have changed a thousand times after the video loses the trail.
We did dig into some forensics that the police department has no idea we have access to, but that was another bust. We already know who he is.
Doesn’t tell me where he went. We did, however, find out that two of the three bodies in the suite where Bridget was hiding, were none other than Zach and Angus McKinley.
They were obviously working with Mikhail Romanov, and so the only thing that makes sense, because Bridget had no gun, is that they turned on them.
The question is…why? Bridget had to have something to do with that.
I brought up everything I could find on Mikhail Romanov.
Dan and I sat there, looking at three different screens for what seemed like forever.
Two sons. Vikter is sleeping with both eyes open with the critters.
The other son, Jekhov, is apparently in actual Russia…
running drug operations and some kind of weird hostile takeover of random crops?
There’s gotta be something more to that, but I couldn’t fucking care less.
He’s not gonna be a problem until I take out his fucking daddy.
I clicked over to Mikhail’s financials, comparing them to what we have of Jonas’s dirty dealings and Dan stopped me.
“Wait…go back.” I zoomed in on the file he was pointing at.
“Pull up Mikhail’s bank transactions from the time you said they took Bridget and Malek’s wife.
” I did, and…now I see what he’s looking for.
“That transaction there, matches the one in Jonas O’Dell’s file. Not the money, but what they bought.”
“Yeah, but it’s a wholesaler. If we’re looking for property, it wouldn’t be anywhere we could easily find it. It would be something offshore, or hidden as something else in plain sight,” I argued.
“What if that’s exactly what this is?” Dan took my mouse, copied some numbers, and pasted them into an encrypted database and ran a search.
“Elite Wheat and Barley?” I hopped back over to Jekhov’s weird side business…sure as shit. The crops…wheat and barley. “Holy shit, it’s a cover. You’re right.”
“Romanov made this an LLC. On paper it’s a legitimate business getting passed off as a warehouse. Look that shit up and see if it has an address.”
Clicky clicky.
“Bingo. Right here. It’s in Penobscot. Literally twenty minutes from here.”
My slippery little soldier got excited, and brought out his expensive toys.
This, I’m not allowed to touch, but fuck…
I wish I could. This is a hacker’s fucking dream.
Real-time satellite footage appeared on the middle screen, and he zeroed in on the warehouse that potentially housed several missing girls, and my reason for fucking breathing.
A few guys were walking around the property in the same getup they wore when they broke into Leviticus House.
It’s them. It’s gotta be them. I leaned in closer.
“Look. There’s the fucking truck. Right here,” Dan growled, zooming in on it and adjusting the view to run the license plate. I tapped into the police department’s access and plugged in the plate number.
“Registered to a Mikhail Firenze Romanov. This is it. Holy fuck.”
I found you, Little Doe.
The crime scene has been closed for three days now, but you can’t convince me they have anything they need, especially when the work I did behind the curtain involved borrowing what they have.
What a bunch of fucking scuts.
I wonder if they know how much it shows, since they took two of those days to ream Seven’s family at the hospital because they refuse to leave.
They’re back, yet again, but at least my presence and the news I’ve got will soothe the burn of whatever they’re saying now, that’s got Seven’s face red with fury, and Malek’s…
very mischievous and snarky. Somebody must be getting handed their arse.
I love having a front row seat to things like this.
It’s like a free ticket to midget wrestling.
“I don’t give a shit if you work for the CIA…
you’re not gettin’ in that room.” Yeah, Sev’s fired up.
Detective Cheap Suit has his arms crossed like a shit head, and Malek is drooling over somebody else being on the receiving end.
I strolled towards them in the waiting room…
campsite…whatever. Mal grinned and wagged his eyebrows while he shot a thumb towards Sev.
“She’s the only one we haven’t spoken to, Mrs. Grey—”
“Byrne. Mrs. Byrne. And you haven’t spoken to her because she’s recovering from a gunshot caused by men you still haven’t arrested.
What do you suppose you’ll get from her, Officer Jockstrap?
Everything she saw from her near-death experience?
What Jesus really looks like? She was unconscious the whole time this was going on! ”
“We still need her statement. I’m trying to be respectful, here. I could’ve just flashed the badge and went ahead, but I thought she’d be more comfortable having you present.”
“You’re helping neither your case, nor ours.
Respect flew out the window the minute I found out my dad and brother were penciled in as a ‘person of interest’ and called the men that shot my fucking mother ‘victims’.
Answer’s still no. You go anywhere near her, and I’ll file a formal complaint.
I’ve got zero qualms with ass-raping you in court, and trust me… I’ve got the money.”
Malek made a show of demonstrating her threat, to which I had to take a seat and cover my mouth so that I wouldn’t explode in laughter. The detective seemed like he’d test her for a second, but then rolled his eyes and rammed his prissy, leather-bound notebook under his arm.
“I’m done arguing with you. I’m just trying to help.”
“That right? Well, I’m done arguing with somebody who’s g-spot is in his asshole.
You wanna help? Go park your derriere behind that desk and find out where they took my sister.
And bring the men that tried to shoot up a house with little girls in it, to justice.
Good. Fucking. Day.” She slipped her middle finger up and stormed over to the nurse’s desk, leaving Malek and I to make this cop feel more uncomfortable. I love this part.
“She would know, mate. She’s pretty damn good at findin’ a g-spot.” Malek winked at the guy and I couldn’t hold it anymore. I burst out laughing and buried my head between my knees.
The gowl didn’t even respond. By the time I raised my head back up, he’d disappeared. “Well,” I chuckled, “that went about how I ‘figgered it.”
“Fuckin’ amazing, isn’t she?”
“Remind me not to pish her off…again.”
He plopped down into the seat next to me. “Well, it’s Tuesday. If you didn’t bring her chicken salad, or good news, then yeah, mate…I’d say it’s a good day to get on her bad side.”
“Is Vern with Miss Ruth?”
“No, actually. He’s with Greg at Leviticus, which is another reason Viper’s bullin’. Cleanin’ up bloody messes is something she’s good at. What they left behind after closing the crime scene is…bad. She hasn’t forgotten who helped make the rutting mess…in case you were wondering.”
Oh…yeah, um. Well, this is awkward.
“Nope. Sure haven’t,” Sev snapped, taking a chair next to Malek. “That spindly little fucker won’t be coming back anytime soon. If I didn’t need to switch shifts with Dad, I’d post up at her door.”
Deciding it was time to lighten the mood, I pulled a bag of chocolate almonds outta my backpack and handed them over. “Maybe I can brighten your day. Both of you.”
“You’ve got somethin’?!” Malek nearly leapt out of his chair. Sev looked around when I nodded and jerked her head towards the hospital chapel.
“Nobody ever goes in there. It’s safer. Let’s go.”
It feels weird being in this room. I’m not worthy of it, even if it is in a hospital.
It has a sort of peace to it that I feel like I’m disrupting just by poisoning it with my presence.
But she’s right. There’s no one here and the door closes.
Malek stared at the open Bible and Seven crunched on almonds.
I had to force myself to speak past the uncomfortable silence.
“We found her.” That got their attention. “I know where she is, but I gotta play it smart. I dunno how many girls are in this dungeon other than Bridge.”
“Whadd’ya mean, you? You’re not goin’ alone, mate. That’s my sister.”
I waved a hand towards the door.
“What about everybody else? Sev needs you here.”
She scoffed and shook her head, slamming the bag of nuts down on the wooden pew. “No. I don’t. Because we’re both going with you. The worst of this has already passed with my family, Dec. We’re not whole without her. Now, skip to the part where you get to the plan.”