Chapter 4 #3
“No ID, not a single hit on any database. He used a burner phone. The last text this guy received was, She’ll get it now, which means nothing to us.”
“But we have to assume his buddies would be on our heels,” Hayden stated, with a nod.
“Exactly,” Rubin acknowledged. “They’ve been a step ahead of us all this time, which suggests that they bugged her, but our scanner showed she was clean.
So maybe they know who we are, or at least that’s how we should look at it.
” He handed over the dead man’s burner phone and suggested, “If anybody can figure out more from this, fly at it.”
Oakley snorted. “You think they can find something that I missed?”
His ego was bruised, but Trent was as good as Oakley. They may be shooting shit all the time, but they made a hell of a team—when they weren’t at each other’s throats.
Trent grabbed it quickly. “Let me take a look.” He sat down and started working away on the phone. “Deleted messages are in here.”
Oakley sniffed. “Find something I don’t already know. They don’t really say anything. The one message was all I pulled off.”
“And he was talking to another burner phone, so that doesn’t help us either,” Trent confirmed. He glanced over at Oakley. “That’s what you were expecting anyway, wasn’t it?”
“Of course. If you think about it, how could it not be? They have whatever information, and they’re trying to keep everybody separated, in case what just happened, happened. In the event somebody finds them and their phones, the good guys can’t track them all down.”
Rubin nodded. “Per Tricia, more kidnappers were involved when these three women were first taken. Then it dropped to two kidnappers as they took off with Tricia and left the other pair behind. When we rescued Tricia, just one kidnapper remained with her, now dead. One of the other kidnappers let the dead man’s first name slip at some point.
However, Tricia thought of him as Double Chin, which you can see why in the photo, but Rick is all we know about the guy.
So”—Rubin sighed—“we assume she’s still not safe, at least until we can get more details on who is really behind this. ”
“And we don’t have anything on that yet, do we?” Oakley asked.
“Nothing,” Rubin conceded. “Yet we have theories to test—international drug ring, countries wanting to control the US, big-name companies wanting to control trade deals via congressional votes, a worldwide mob syndicate that you pay to play, or evil billionaires wanting to control the world. Take your pick or maybe it’s a combination of two or more.
Think up more suggestions. Hell, it could be some nobody with revenge on his mind.
So let’s talk about how best to do that. ”
They had a short discussion and quickly divvied up the work, and everybody searched for leads on whoever may be behind all this. Hearing a noise, they all looked up.
Tricia stared at them from the middle of the living room, her eyes wide.
Rubin hopped up and walked over to her, raising his hands and trying to keep her focused on him. “No need to worry. It’s the rest of the team. You’re fine.” He reached out a hand.
Blinking repeatedly, she looked back and forth at the others, visibly trembling and obviously disoriented.
“Hey, look at me. Tricia, look at me. You just woke up, and more people are here. I get that it is disconcerting. It’s okay.” She started shaking her head. “Listen, Tricia. … You’re okay. They’re part of my team, and we’re the good guys, right?”
She took a shuddering breath and nodded. With a last glance at the others, she stepped out of the room, as if running from a fire, heading back to her bedroom.
Rubin followed and asked, “Hey, are you okay?”
She looked back at him and nodded. “Yeah. … I just wasn’t expecting to see so many.”
“That’s my fault. I should have told you that they were coming today. We were so busy trying to alter your appearance, and you were too tired to focus clearly, so I didn’t say anything.”
“It’s fine,” she muttered, pushing her hair off her face. “It was just a shock.”
He nodded. “And some shocks are easier than others. Hopefully this one wasn’t too much.”
She smiled. The shivering had subsided. “I’m a big girl,” she said, with a wave of her hand, “and you need to go deal with them, … so go. Sorry for the drama.”
“They’re fine. I just want to confirm that you’re okay.”
She laughed, but bitterness filled it. “That’s kind of funny. I mean, … one day I’ll be okay, but right now? I just can’t see it and certainly not today.”
“Yeah, and okay is relative. I get it. Look. I understand this was brutal for you, but we’re getting somewhere.”
“Are you?” she asked caustically, turning to him. “It sounded more like warring egos. Did you get anything off Double Chin’s phone?”
“No, nothing useful.”
“He was expecting an arrival right away.”
“You heard that? Are you sure?”
“Oh, good God. Yes, I’m sure,” she snapped, as she collapsed onto her bed.
“Are you sure you didn’t imagine it? I know the nightmares—”
“Seriously? You think I’m imagining things?”
“Yes, it’s certainly possible,” he noted, moving cautiously into a difficult territory. “It’s not your fault. The mind is a complex thing.”
“I’m damn serious, and you better hear what I’m telling you. You got me out of there just in the nick of time.” Tears came to her eyes, and she brushed them away impatiently. “Holy crap,” she muttered, as she started shivering again.
“The shivering is likely one of the side effects to those nightmares for a while. And I hear you. Just in time. We figured the other kidnappers would follow us anyway.”
“Great,” she muttered, again brushing away her hair. She then touched her hair and asked, “Did the dye job work?”
“It did,” he noted, holding back a smile.
She glanced at him suspiciously. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”
“No, it’s not that bad,” he stated, with a grin, as she snorted. “It’s just that, you look like a two-year-old right now.”
She snorted. “A two-year-old would have the innocence of the ages. Unfortunately, I have lost that, and probably forever,” she clarified. “You don’t realize when you’re a child just how much freedom comes with that innocence.”
“And now that you’re an adult?”
“It’s been ripped away,” she declared, shaking her head, “and there’s no going back. And right now, all I want to do is forget about all this. Forget that it even exists. Forget what I went through. I just hope that, one day, this whole experience will fade away.”
“And you won’t ever have to remember exactly what happened ever again,” he stated with a raw reality that seem to touch her.
She turned to him. Her eyes were full of tears. She wiped at them forcefully, then she waved at him. “I’m fine. … I’ll be fine. Just go, go back to your team.” She repeated, “I’m fine.”
“Yeah, sure you are.”
“I am,” she snapped, glaring at him. “And I just need a little time alone before I go back out there and face that … that crowd you gathered.” He hesitated, and she waved him off. “I mean it. Just go. I’m fine.”
And, with nothing else to say or to do to help her at this moment, he nodded and stepped backward. “I’ll be in the other room. Just come out before too long. I don’t want to come back to find you moping and crying alone.”
She winced. “Yeah, no. … I promise. I’ll be out soon. But, right now, I could really use some time by myself.”
And, with that, he turned and walked back out, leaving her alone.