Fifteen
Icalled Caleb Reid because I had an idea.
“Hello?”
“Caleb? It’s Jory, are you awake?”
“I’m awake now,” he grumbled. “For crissakes, J, do you know what time it is?”
“No, but listen. Do you remember anything at all about the place we were kept?”
“What? Why are you—”
“I found the guys that stole the car with me in it.”
“What?”
“The guys that stole the car? Remember? I found them.”
“Bullshit.”
“No, it’s true.”
“You found those guys?”
“Yeah.”
“Seriously? You did?”
“Yeah, and they led me to Oak Lawn, but now I gotta try and find the—oh, wait…I just thought of something else. I’ll call ya in the morning.”
“Jory, is Sam still in the hospital?”
“Yeah.”
“Why aren’t you at the hospital with him?”
“Because I need to figure this out.”
“Aren’t you still kind of bruised up yourself? You had a concussion, you know.”
“That was a while ago. I’m fine now.”
“It wasn’t a while, it was—”
“Let it go.”
“Jory, what are you doing?”
“Sam got hurt.”
“I know he did. He’s in the hospital. That’s why I asked you why you weren’t there.”
“But how did you—”
“Dane called me and told me this whole thing wasn’t over and that I should be careful.”
“You should.”
“So, Jory, you—”
“I’m at the strip mall where the car was stolen, and I’m gonna wait until they open, and then I’m gonna walk around and ask people if they saw you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, I was in the trunk of the car, but you were in the front seat with the kidnappers, so you they might remember.”
“Jory, there was only one guy that I ever saw, and I’ve looked at pictures until my eyes bled and never found him.”
“Sure, but this is—”
“And the sketch they made from what I said the guy looked like didn’t come up with anything either. Don’t you think if someone saw the sketch on the news or in the paper, they would have called the police and—”
“I think they’ll remember you, and that might jog someone’s memory.”
“What picture do you even have of me?”
“The ones from Dane’s wedding,” I explained to him. “I have them all in my email because I sent them to your mother ahead of the ones she ordered.”
“How’re you getting into your email?”
“There’s a printing place here, so I’ll rent some time and download and print. Easy peasy. No worries.”
“You’re insane. It’s not gonna work.”
“It’ll work. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Jor—”
But I hung up on him, powered off the burner, and got comfortable in the car, waiting for everything to open. No matter what he thought, it was worth it to walk from door to door and ask if anyone remembered seeing Caleb Reid.
Just as I’d told him, renting time on a computer, accessing my email and printing out pictures of Caleb was simple. I had my photos ten minutes later.
Because I was worried that Zach and Billy might get in trouble with Rego over me not showing up, I called the club and got him on the phone.
Before he could threaten me, I explained about being on a stakeout.
After five minutes of me explaining things to him, he let out a quick breath and said I was the weirdest guy he’d ever met.
It was probably true. When he hung up, I figured I’d covered the guys.
I turned the phone off again after that.
Back in the car, I didn’t realize I’d nodded off until I jerked awake at four twenty in the morning.
I was freezing, and I also had to pee. I crossed the street to use the bathroom at the gas station, and when I walked out after going, some guy was hitting a woman around back near the dumpster.
I had the attendant call the police as I went to intervene.
The guy had her by the throat, and even though she was already bleeding from her lip and nose, he was going to punch her again.
I was afraid if I went for his arm, he’d still connect, so even though he was much bigger than me, I tackled him, diving forward, which sent both of us crashing to the ground.
Of course he turned fast under my weight, and punched me in the face.
He had a ring that opened up my right eyebrow, and I felt like he had shattered my right cheekbone as well.
The woman tried to help by pulling me away, her fingers clawing at my jacket, but the guy was so big, it was useless.
All I could do was fight dirty since, compared to me, the man was a giant.
I rolled over and my knee came up into his groin, and when he curled up, I used the hardest part of my body, my elbow, and drove it down across the back of his neck like Sam had taught me.
He went face down onto the asphalt as the woman grabbed my hand and we ran.
At the side of the building, she turned and hugged me tight.
I held the young woman until I heard the sirens, walked her to the attendant, then bolted back across the street.
There was blood on my parka, so I turned it inside out and lay down on top of it in the back seat.
My face was throbbing, but I was so tired that I fell asleep with the engine running, lights out, with the heater on.
I woke up three hours later, and when I sat up and looked at my face in the rearview mirror, I realized it was crusted with blood. I looked lovely. Since it was at least a normal-ish hour of the morning, I called Dane.
“Will this number work longer than the last one?” he groused at me.
“For a bit,” I told him. “But I’m just gonna turn it off when I’m done. I can call you, not the other way around.”
“I’m aware.”
“Tell me how you are.”
“That’s not important. The vital news is that Sam’s awake, and he’s asking for you.”
My stomach flipped over. “Oh yeah? How’s he look?”
“He looks good. Come see for yourself. Everyone’s here except you. Why don’t you stop what you’re doing and visit?”
Visit. Dane was funny. “Listen, I’m doing really good. I found the place where the guys jacked the car from, and I’m here now. I’m gonna show Caleb’s picture around and see what turns up. Hopefully I can—”
“Jory—”
“Last night I had to talk this pimp into letting the guys help me, and you should have seen me. I was scared but—”
“A pimp? What are you talking about?”
“This guy, Rego James, he owns a club down—”
“Rego what?”
“James. He—”
“James? Rego James?”
“Yeah, he—”
“Wait, Sam’s trying to say something… Hold on.”
As I waited, I turned off the car, got out, and looked around.
There was a diner across the street on the other side, and farther down a thrift store.
I couldn’t wear the parka with blood on it, and I couldn’t use my debit card to get a new one.
I had used one of the credit cards I shared with Dane for the car rental, but they’d only needed it to guarantee the pay-as-you-go card I’d put cash on, they hadn’t actually run it.
I appreciated them and the fact that they were just a bit shady.
I had taken a two-thousand-dollar cash advance on that same card that I would pay back as soon as the mystery was solved, and I got back to work.
Not that I was worried that Dane would be mad, he’d know I was good for the money.
At the moment, I had to eat, and I had to wash my face. I needed a Band-Aid too, since my eyebrow felt like it was hanging open.
“Jory.”
“Yeah? Who’s this?” Not my brother.
“Jory, this is Detective Hefron. Jory, Rego James is a very dangerous man. Please have no further contact with him and simply return immediately.”
“But I got this far, Detective. I’m running down a lead.”
“Jory, just come back and I’ll run it down. You don’t know what you’re—”
“Gotta go, my eye’s killing me.”
“Why? What’d you do to your eye?”
“It’s all busted open. Shit, it hurts.”
“Jor—”
I hung up on him too and then turned the phone off. I didn’t want them tracing the call like in the movies.
I ducked my head down and covered my face with my hand.
It was funny that sometimes the smallest injuries, like paper cuts, hurt the most. The cut above my eyebrow hurt like crazy, but it really wasn’t that big.
The scrape on my face and all the big red bruises, looked really bad but didn’t hurt as much as the cut.
The waitress at the diner was very nice and got me hydrogen peroxide, Neosporin, and three small butterfly strips and one big one.
I got it held together well, and after I had a short stack of pancakes, bacon and three eggs, orange juice, and lots of coffee, I gave her a ten-dollar tip.
She was appreciative, and I felt better.
In the thrift store, looking for a new coat, I turned on my phone to call my brother back.
“Jory.”
“Hey, Dane.”
“Jory, buddy, you’re killing Sam.”
“What?”
“Sam’s losing it. He needs to see you, make sure you’re okay. The thing with this guy James… He’s really agitated about that.”
“Well, tell him not to be. I didn’t get assaulted or anything.”
There was a pause.
“By assaulted, do you mean raped?”
“Yeah, he threatened to—forget it. Don’t tell Sam, that won’t help.”
“Jory.” He barely got my name out.
“After I get a new coat, I’ll start taking the picture up and down the—”
“What do you need a new coat for?”
“There’s blood all over my parka from a guy hitting me, and I don’t wanna look like some serial killer when I talk to these people, so I’ll call ya back after, okay?”
“Who hit you?”
Sometimes I talked like everyone knew what was going on, even when they were joining a program that was already in progress. “Some guy. It doesn’t matter.”
“Are you really hurt?”
“No.”
“Jory, may I remind you that you have a concussion? No one should be hitting you or—”
“I know. I didn’t mean to get hit.” Like I got hit on purpose. “And I don’t have a concussion anymore. Be serious.”
“Jory, I want you back here now.”
“Okay,” I said, then I hung up and turned the phone off.