Abducted (21 page)

THE HARD STEEL OF A GUN BARREL
pressed into her cheek. She looked in horror as blood poured down Nick’s face from a gash the door left on the right side of his forehead.

“Be still.” A harsh voice spoke in her ear.

A second man appeared on her left, pointing a gun at Nick, who looked dazed as he stood and brought a hand to his forehead in an effort to stop the bleeding.

“Don’t move!” the man ordered Nick. “Slowly take your gun out of the shoulder holster and toss it my way.”

Nick’s confused gaze flicked from the gun to Carly and back again. He complied, and the man scooped the gun up and shoved it in his pants. When he grinned, Carly didn’t miss a gold tooth shining in the middle of his mouth.
This must be one of the goons who attacked Alex.

“What about you?” the man holding Carly asked. “Where’s your gun?”

When she didn’t answer right away, he jerked his hand toward Gold Tooth. “Hit him again.”

“It’s in my backpack!” Carly said as she strained against his grip.

He ripped the pack from her shoulder with his free hand, half-opening it in the process, and then upended it, dumping everything at his feet. He pushed the contents around with the toe of his shoe. She didn’t have much: wallet, brush, spare set of handcuffs, and off-duty weapon. He didn’t bend down to pick the gun up; instead, he stepped on it. His grip on her did not loosen.

Sour, hot breath assailed her nostrils as he spoke into her ear again. “Now, I’ll make this quick because we’re in a hurry. My boss has a plane waiting. I want the package, and I want it now.”

“What package am I supposed to have, Casper?” Carly asked, shifting a bit so she could see his face.

His eyes registered surprise that she knew his name, and he cursed. Gold Tooth rammed an elbow into Nick’s gut, doubling him over. Blood now covered half his face and dripped to his shoulder.

“Hey!” Carly struggled against Casper’s grasp.

“I said hurry.” The gun barrel dug into her cheek. “Give me the package and I’ll just lock you up and leave.”

Nick looked up from one knee, blinking as blood ran into one eye, voice breathless after the stomach shot. “If you’re after something that would be evidence, what makes you think we’d have it on our person? If we had evidence, we’d put it where it belonged—at the station.”

“I’m not stupid. I know the pastor is that little brat’s uncle. She must be hiding here, and if she’s here, so is the package she stole.” He pressed the gun harder into Carly’s face. “And if she’s not here, I want to know where she is. Now.”

Carly leaned back as far as she could from the pressure of the gun barrel. She could see the man holding the gun on Nick from the corner of her eye. She knew that if the tables were turned and they were on the other side of the gun barrels, she and Nick would finally be close to Sperry. But how to get there?

“We don’t have your package, Casper.” She spit the words out, angry at having a gun in her face and furious that Nick was bleeding and she couldn’t help him.

Just then there was a noise from the stage. Rawlings had come out of the prayer room. “What’s going on out here?”

Everyone turned toward him. Gold Tooth raised his gun in the pastor’s direction, and Nick lunged, hitting him in the midsection and driving him into a row of chairs.

The gun barrel left Carly’s face to take aim at Nick, and Casper’s grip on her loosened. Free to move a bit, Carly jerked her head back and connected with the bad guy’s face, feeling the satisfying crunch of cartilage. At the same time, she reached for the hand that held the gun and grabbed with both her hands. Once she had hold, she jerked his wrist down hard on the back of a chair. The man was forced to let go and cursed as the gun flew toward the door.

Carly drove an elbow into his face and then leaped toward the gun, picked it up, and pivoted to hold it on Casper, who had fallen to his knees and was crawling toward her gun.

“Don’t touch it!” she ordered. The man who’d once had her in his grasp stopped moving and looked up at her from the floor, blood dripping from his nose. “Believe me, I will shoot.”

Casper was the classic picture of a deer in the headlights. Carly knew then that there was nothing tough about him in spite of his earlier bluster.

“Nick, you okay?” she asked without taking her eyes from Casper.

“I’m good. Jonah is with me. And I have cuffs for this guy.”

“I have a pair for Casper.”

Nick was at her side a second later. He picked up her gun and then quickly ratcheted her handcuffs onto Casper.

It was then Carly heard the sirens, lots of them. She turned to Nick, who’d just pulled Casper to his feet.

“Sounds like the cavalry,” he said as he wiped blood from his eye. “Better late than never. Jonah and I have these guys. Why don’t you go check?”

Carly nodded and left the sanctuary. She stepped outside the church to see four black-and-whites, three black SUVs she knew were ICE vehicles, and two plain cars turn in to the parking lot, sirens wailing.

Wondering how on earth they knew they were needed, but not complaining, she held her gun at her side and raised four fingers on her right hand. The sirens shut down as the vehicles pulled to the sidewalk and came to a stop. Sergeant Nelson jumped out of one of the plain cars with Alex on his heels.

“Everything okay?” Nelson asked. Behind him came Jacobs, Wiley, and a few ICE agents.

“Now, yeah. Nick needs medics for a cut, but we have two in custody. How’d you know to come here?”

“Boxer talked about their next stop,” Alex said as Nelson directed one uniformed officer to request medics and another to help Nick and Jonah. “They were to come right to the church and kill the pastor if he wouldn’t tell them where the girl was.”

Nick and Jonah walked out of the church, the two handcuffed Sperry employees between them.

Jacobs walked her way and smiled. “Guess it’s getting to be a trend, Trouble. Now you’re dragging Sergeant Anderson into things.”

Nick answered, “Nah, she doesn’t drag me into anything. We just make a good team when stuff comes up.”

THE GOONS WERE HANDED OFF
to ICE, who quickly moved in to take control of the entire situation. One of the agents gave Carly back Nick’s and her cuffs as they replaced them with their own restraints. Paramedics rolled up shortly thereafter and looked after Nick. Carly learned from Nelson that as soon as he and Harris had arrived at Alex’s house, Boxer started talking.

“He wouldn’t shut up. Says he’ll testify. It made Wiley and ICE extremely happy.”

“Did he say where Sperry is?”

Wiley nodded. “He’s trying to charter a plane out of the country. Agents are on their way to the airport as we speak.” They were standing out in front of the church. ICE was impounding a black Cadillac. Carly assumed the vehicle was Casper and Gold Tooth’s.

“Not disappointed that the feds are whisking this all away, are you?” Jacobs asked.

Carly sighed. “Frankly, I’m tired. I really don’t care who handles this as long as all involved parties go to jail for a long time. The only thing I do have a problem with is that Mary Ellen Barber is still outstanding.”

Nelson nodded. “We need to debrief about all of this. I think here will be as good a place as any. Maybe by the time we’re finished, Sperry will be in custody.” He and Wiley stepped to Jonah to ask him where they could hold a quick meeting.

Carly took the opportunity to check in with Nick, who’d just had his head bandaged.

“You’re going to need stitches, I bet.”

“Yep,” Nick agreed. He asked the medics to stand by in case he needed transport.

She reached out and gently touched his face. “Does it hurt?”

“It smarts a little.” He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “I can hear it now—I’ll get stitches, and before long my nickname will be Zipper Head.”

Carly laughed and grasped his hand in both of hers. “For me it will be
GQ
Zipper Head.”

Nelson joined them. “We’re going to review the day’s events in the church. Why don’t you make your way in there?” he said to Carly before turning to Nick. “You go get your head taken care of. Is it bad?”

“I think I just need some stitches.” He looked down at all the blood on his shirt, and Carly winced. “It looks worse than it is, Sarge. You know head wounds bleed a lot.”

“Even so, get it taken care of. You can file paper later.”

Nick nodded, then took off his shoulder holster and handed it to Carly. “Take care of this for me.”

“Sure.”

Before he climbed into the medic van, Nick squeezed Carly’s hand and apologized. “Sorry to leave you here to do all the explaining.”

“That’s okay. The next big mess we’re involved in will be all yours.”

“Deal.”

With that, the medics closed the door and the van left for the hospital.

Alex joined her as she walked toward the church. “How is it you hitched a ride with Nelson?” she asked.

“It was easy. He didn’t want me to slip out of telling him about my visit with Mary Ellen.”

“And you’re a witness to a big story now. So why do you look so glum?”

“I’ve had enough ICE to last a lifetime.” He shuddered. “They call this a sanctuary, don’t they? Think the good pastor will give me sanctuary from the storm troopers?”

Carly laughed. “It doesn’t work that way, but sure, give it your best shot.” She watched as Alex hurried inside. Things in the parking lot had calmed down a bit. The medics were gone with Nick, but ICE agents were talking to Casper and Gold Tooth and going through the Cadillac with a fine-tooth comb.

“Trouble.”

She looked toward the church door as Jacobs waved her over.

“We’ll be ready for you in the office in a few.”

In the sanctuary, Alex was sitting about midway down the aisle with Pastor Rawlings. They were speaking in low tones, and Carly found herself praying that Alex was asking questions that would lead him to a saving relationship. She gathered up her belongings and put them in her backpack before she took a seat. As she sat, she realized that the only worry she felt now was for Mary Ellen. Carly was shocked at the thought that she no longer looked at the girl as a suspect but as a victim. Frowning, she wondered if she was being disloyal to Joe. About a minute later, Alex waved her over to where he and Rawlings sat.

“We were talking about Mary Ellen,” he told her when she plopped down next to him. “Pastor Rawlings was telling me what you told him—you know, about the process with minors, what happens when they’re arrested.”

Carly stretched. “Yeah, it’s kind of strange. I never thought I’d say I was glad I worked juvenile, but I am because now I know a lot about the process.”

“There’s a chance they’ll go easy on her.” Alex looked at her expectantly.

“It all depends on probation’s evaluation and if they decide to try her as an adult. But we still have to find her.”

“Any idea where she might be?” Jonah asked.

Carly shook her head. “At least the men threatening her are in custody.” Even as the words left her mouth, she noted that worry and remorse still hung around Jonah like a shawl.

“Odd, huh.”

“What?” She turned to Alex.

“She kidnapped a baby from your partner, stole my car, and left me to get beat up, and still we feel sorry for her. Go figure.”

Carly set Nick’s shoulder holster on the seat next to her. “I can’t figure, Alex. I want to be mad at her, but I can’t. I find myself hoping that when she’s caught, she’ll get a little leniency. From what Joe has told me, he and Christy might be leaning the same way.”

“The fact that she kept the baby safe probably carries a lot of weight.”

Jonah noticed blood on the carpet from Nick and left to get something to clean it.

Alex watched him walk away, then turned to Carly. “So this is your church, huh?”

Carly nodded and yawned as she experienced an adrenaline crash.

“Maybe I’ll come here sometime, check the place out.”

“You’ll be welcome.”

Jacobs stepped into the sanctuary. “Carly, we’re ready for you.”

“Okay.” She got up and followed the lieutenant into Veronica’s office, where everyone else was seated.

“Edwards.” Wiley handed her a cup of coffee. Obviously someone had made a 7-Eleven run. “You look like you could use this.”

“Thank you.” Carly took the coffee as her stomach reminded her that she’d had nothing to eat all day. She and Nick had never made it to breakfast.

“Your timing for this little incident was impeccable,” Nelson said. “I was with Wiley, and ICE said they were just about ready to set up on the church. Then we heard the news that you caught Boxer at Trejo’s. By the time we got there we had to slow him down, he was so eager to talk.”

“And you saved ICE a surveillance team,” Wiley said. “It looks as if Sperry’s desperation played right into our hands. Thanks.”

“Really, good work, Trouble. Chaos seems to become you,” Jacobs said. His phone rang, and when he looked at the caller ID, he cursed. “Garrison.” He and Nelson shared a look Carly pretended not to see. “I’d better talk to him.” He left the room to take the call.

“Why don’t we have a seat and piece this thing together.” Nelson pointed to a chair, and Carly sat.

“Still no word from the airport,” he said, answering her unasked question. “But Casper has stated unequivocally that Conrad Sperry ordered the attack on Trejo as well as the trip here to bully Jonah Rawlings.”

“Glad he isn’t screaming for a lawyer.”

“A lot of people are. He’s corroborating much of what Boxer had to say. What happened here?” Wiley asked as he clicked on a recorder.

Blowing out a breath, Carly started from the beginning with Trejo’s text message and attack. Once or twice Wiley asked questions, but Nelson was quiet.

“Conrad Sperry will be charged with ordering the assault on Nick and me and probably a lot more charges ICE will add, right?”

Wiley and Nelson exchanged a look she couldn’t decipher before Wiley spoke up. “Yeah, ICE and the bureau both have a list of charges. Especially after Riverside. What has surprised everyone is how long Sperry has been at this.”

“What you may not remember,” Nelson said, “is that before Sperry was forced to quit the reserves, there was suspicion building that the reason he wanted to be a reserve was so he would have access to law enforcement–only information. We couldn’t prove it and then didn’t have to when he got caught red-handed tampering with evidence.”

Wiley continued. “There were signs of Sperry’s activities back then that federal investigators missed, and as a result, a lot of people have been victimized by the man. We could have prevented a lot, so right now ICE and the task force are committed to building a solid, ironclad case.”

“So Sperry will go away for a long time.”

“Yes, and though it hasn’t gone out to the press yet, we found another underground area, right on the border.”

“Sperry’s?”

“Yep. He dug right under the border fence. This wasn’t just a hole in the ground; it was a sophisticated underground highway.”

“ICE calls Sperry a modern-day slave trader,” Nelson added. “He brought people in, used them at his businesses, and also sold people to others just as exploitive as he is. ICE knew his operation was big, but the scope is staggering.”

Carly’s mind raced to keep up. She knew human trafficking was modern-day slavery. She’d even rescued a woman once who had been brought across the border illegally and forced to work in prostitution. The human trafficker often promised foreign-born individuals legitimate work to get them across the border. But once the workers arrived, the trafficker would take all their IDs and threaten them with jail—or worse—if they tried to escape. The trafficker instilled in them a fear of police and sometimes forced them to live in squalid conditions. It had been heartbreaking to rescue the one woman and to hear what she’d been through. To think that Sperry had brought thousands across the border to live in servitude made Carly sick to her stomach.

“How do the diamonds fit in?”

“That gets murky,” Wiley said. “We think he was trying to fence them, but he also used them as bribes—or, as it turns out, the promise of bribes. I think he knew we were closing in on him. He paid off two border patrol agents in San Diego, near where we found the tunnel, to throw us off the scent. People had to look the other way for him to get out of the noose we were closing around his neck, and the sparkle of diamonds turned heads. He was set to make a payment yesterday. But we showed up instead and have the two agents in custody, caught waiting for their payoff.”

“As far as Harper goes, he just had rotten luck. He obviously misinterpreted something Sperry said about a baby. What he did may have been bad for A.J.,” Nelson said with a shrug, “but it threw Sperry off his game, especially when his keys disappeared.”

“They were safe keys.”

“Right. Apparently Sperry thought the remote location in Riverside was the best place for his most important safe. And when the keys disappeared, he panicked. He wanted them back, and that’s why Caswell showed up so fast. When they realized that Harper didn’t have them when he was booked, they just wanted him out of jail and out of the picture as soon as possible.”

“And they needed the keys. That’s why they snatched Mary Ellen and took her out to Riverside, not because they wanted the baby. She said she didn’t have them, which was a lie,” Wiley said with a smile. “She must have been smart enough to realize that once they had the keys, she was dead. It was a stroke of luck that reporter showed up when he did.” He looked out the window at the parking lot. “Hopefully Sperry will be in custody by the end of the day. ICE thinks he hoped to have the diamonds with him when he fled the country.”

The agent leaned back in his chair. “We’ve kept a lid on the tunnel for as long as we could, but it’s going to be all over the news later today. Indictments are coming down against Sperry and company when we hold the news conference.”

Jacobs had come back into the room, and he nodded. “Sperry may be slime, but he’s smart. And he hired a slick lawyer to work all the angles. Thomas Caswell is as slick as they come.”

“And Caswell may go down with his client,” Wiley said. “I can’t divulge everything, but from what ICE has collected, Caswell was in the thick of things.”

“I knew that guy was dirty.” Nelson shook his head in disgust.

Carly drained her coffee. “What about Mary Ellen?”

“Good question. She must have the diamonds,” Nelson said. “What do you think she’ll do with them?”

“I don’t know—I’m not sure she knows what she has.” Carly stood. “But as long as Sperry is loose, she is in danger.”

Wiley shook his head. “Sperry’s on the run. I don’t believe he can hurt her now. Maybe we should ask her uncle to do some kind of televised plea, asking her to turn herself in. It’s probably safe now for her to raise her head.”

“That will only help if she’s somewhere near a television. I want to hike around in the catch basin. Nick and I never made it there yesterday. And Harper’s car is still outstanding; that has to be her mode of transport. Maybe we should even keep the catch basin as a DCC.”

“I’ll make that happen.” Nelson cast a glance at Wiley. “What’s your game plan?”

Wiley stood. “First things first: we need to thoroughly interview everyone who is in custody.”

“I’m sure the ones who won’t talk are screaming for Caswell,” Carly said.

“Yeah, where is he?” Jacobs asked.

Wiley shook his head. “I’ve paged him twice. He may be our next BOLO.”

“Then I’ll check the catch basin on my way to the station to file my report,” Carly said.

Nelson gave her a mock salute. “We’ll tell DHS to expect you in a bit.”