Chapter 3 #4
“You don’t have to make a decision right now, do you?
” he asked, glancing at her as he waited for their order to come up.
“Because the best thing you can do right now is just relax and get used to this new normal. Whether it feels comfortable or feels completely awful, this is the present, and now you must deal with it,” he explained.
“It’s not bad. It’s not awful, but it is something that requires handling.
So, let’s deal with that. Then we’ll go from there.
” He got up when their food order was called.
As he walked over to pick it up, he heard a sound. As he turned back, she was standing, staring. He turned to look at what she was staring at, and right there in front of him was the same man she had created with the sketch artist.
The man took one look at her, fury crossing his face, then lunged toward her.
Hayden stepped in front of him, grabbing the man, dragging him outside. The man was not a pushover, but Hayden wasn’t either, and he had a solid grip on the man’s arm, twisting it back as they moved. “I want to have a talk with you.”
The Hulk, as Andrea referred to him, was just that. He was big, bulky, glaring at Hayden with that fury, upset that he’d been caught off guard.
“Ain’t no way we’re talking, asshole,” the Hulk muttered.
As Hayden looked around, right ahead of him was one of the cops he had seen earlier with David Perry, the sketch artist. Hayden called him over.
With Hayden’s help, he quickly secured the Hulk.
Pulling out his phone, Hayden opened the image created by the artist, held it up to the guy’s face, and showed the cop, who whistled.
“Damn, that’s a hell of a likeness.”
“It is,” Hayden agreed. “This guy needs to go to lockup for kidnapping. Attempted murder too, if we can make it stick.”
“That’s for the DA’s office.”
“Sure, but, in the meantime, the other problem is—and I don’t know if this guy has figured it out yet—but his failure to hold onto his kidnap victim means his days are numbered. So, we need him in prison before somebody in his own group takes him out.”
“Nobody’s taking me out,” the Hulk snapped.
“Yeah, that’s what you say. But you’ve now been picked up by the cops, and you already screwed up with your bosses when you let your victim get away,” Hayden pointed out. “So, I wouldn’t be looking for any kudos from your buddies anytime soon.”
“You don’t know nothing,” he muttered.
“But I do know thieves and crooks,” he argued. “And they only accept so many screw-ups before they start looking for ways to cut their losses—so you don’t get another chance to screw them over. Been there, seen that.”
“They aren’t like that,” the Hulk spat, groaning about the discomfort caused by the handcuffs pulling his oversize arms behind him.
Just then a cop car arrived, and the two uniforms quickly loaded the Hulk into the back, then drove off with him. The cop who had helped Hayden asked, “So, that’s the guy who kidnapped the woman?”
“Yeah, it absolutely is,” Hayden confirmed. “And I would appreciate it if you could speak to your supervisors at the station. I need to talk to the suspect.”
“You might need to talk to him, but you have no jurisdiction here.”
“Oh, I know,” he replied. “And I’m okay to share intel on my end, but I really need to confirm we catch the rest of his cronies.
They’re part of a ring that has already kidnapped at least three other women, killing one and badly injuring another, but we recaptured the third.
Now they kidnapped Andrea Galanis. All this in less than ten days. ”
“That’s a long list.”
“Yeah, we got the last woman back just last week,” he shared.
“And the woman I’m with was kidnapped just the other day.
They’ve been using the universities and colleges as their hunting grounds, looking for victims from rich, influential families.
Then they extort money from them or pressure them to influence certain decisions or political processes. ”
The cop whistled. “Finish your brunch and then come back over to the office,” he suggested. “We’ll see what we can do in terms of getting some answers.” And, with that, he turned and left.
Hayden entered the coffee shop, then froze because he saw no sign of Andrea inside. He was just about to panic when a woman who had been sitting beside them piped up.
“She’s gone to the washroom, at least I hope so. She looked pretty upset over the whole thing.”
He glanced at her and smiled. “Thank you.” Then he quickly raced to the woman’s bathroom. When nobody came out soon, he knocked on the door and called out to Andrea. She opened the door hesitantly. He nodded. “It’s okay. It’s all good. You can come out.”
She stepped out, looking a bit worse for wear.
Pulling her into his arms, he gave her a quick hug.
“The thing is,” he began, “it’s really okay.
He’s been taken to the police station. So, that nightmare, for the moment, is completely stopped.
We do have to go back there so I can have a talk with him, but that’s a whole different story. ”
She looked at him hopefully. “And find the rest of his kidnapping crew?”
He nodded. “That’s the plan. I’ll go pick up our brunch, okay?”
She winced. “Don’t know if I can eat after that.”
“Maybe not, but we’ll take it to-go. Then get back to the station,” he noted.
“If I can talk to him right away, if I can get clearance, we can be in and out. If he’s uncooperative, things may take a little longer.
Plus, chances are the locals will get heavily involved, and I’ll have to pull rank,” he added.
“That could take a bit more time than you’re letting on,” she noted, rolling her eyes, “I guess it’s all about jurisdiction, isn’t it?”
“In something like this, there are a lot of issues. We don’t want to step on toes, and we need cooperation from everybody we come across. So, it’s ultimately all about exchanging information,” he shared, with a smile. “So, let’s just deal with one thing at a time.”
Holding her hand, he walked up to the counter, collected their order, and headed back to the police station.