Call Of The Witch (20 page)

When he had done about all he could do to
draw attention to himself, just shy of blowing the car horn, he
marched up to the trash can, looked inside and tossed the bag of
money in.

“
Annnd we have a drop,”
said Spinelli. “All units stand by.”

“
Dominic,” I said. “Radio
a black and white to the Brewbaker house. Have them keep Lionel
company until we get back there.”

“
Roger that,
Tony.”

“
Do we have an ambulance
standing by?”

“
Two blocks away. Motor’s
running.”

“
Good. Thanks. All right
everybody, keep your eyes peeled. Carlos you good?”

Nothing.

“
Carlos?”

Dominic came back, “Try Charlie Romeo.”

“
Papa Tango to Charlie
Romeo. You good?”

“
Charlie Romeo looking
good.”

I no sooner keyed off the mike when the
officer poising as the maintenance worker keyed in, “I got
something here.”

“
What do you have sector
three?”

“
A jogger. He’s run by
here twice already after stopping to watch the drop go
down.”

“
Roger that. All sectors
stand by. Keep your eyes on the jogger.”

From my vantage point, I could not see the
jogger, though I did hold a prime view of the drop point. I waited
until I heard someone report that the jogger was moving in before I
made my own move. I opened the car door, slipped out and made
myself skinny behind a tree. I drew my weapon, stretched my finger
across the trigger guard and waited.

“
He’s almost there,” I
heard Dominic report. “He’s there. He’s looking into the trash can.
He’s reaching into the can.”

I gave the command. “Move in! Now! Move it!
Move it!”

The poor bastard nearly wet himself. With
seven of us swooping in on him, and two snipers pinning him in
their crosshairs, he never had a chance.

“
Where is she?” said
Dominic, his voice noticeably high and squeaky for the excitement.
He was still crouched in a shooter’s stance even though another
officer had already cuffed our suspect. “Where’s Kelly? What did
you do with her, scumbag?”

“
Whoa, cowboy,” I said,
blanketing Dominic’s weapon with my hand and palming it toward the
ground. “He’s not going anywhere. We got him. Park your piece,
son.”

Dominic holstered his gun, shook the loose
energy from his body and steadied his breath. “That’s right. We got
him. We gotcha motherfucker. Ha!”

“
You got nothing,” our
suspect argued. “What’s this about? I didn’t do
anything.”

“
What’s your name?” I
asked.

“
Smith. John
Smith.”

“
That’s a good
one.”

“
No, it is,” said Carlos.”
He handed me the man’s wallet. “It’s on his license.”

“
Mr. Smith, where’s Kelly
Brewbaker?”

“
Who?”

“
Brewbaker,” said Dominic.
“Tony, you want me and Carlos to kick the crap out of
him?”

I had to laugh. To see Dominic so wound up
was a rare event, akin to seeing Carlos make a hole-in-one at the
windmill putt-putt in Saugus. “Nobody’s beating anyone up,” I said,
hiding my smile from Mister John Smith. “Not here, anyway. Too many
witnesses.”

“
I want a
lawyer.”

“
You’ll get one, if you
need one. Now tell me why you retrieved that money from the trash
can?”

“
Money? I didn’t know it
was money.”

“
Then why were you digging
it out of the trash?”

“
I was curious. I saw that
guy get out of his fancy car and look around like someone was
watching him. Then I saw him get something from the car, walk over
to the trash can and pitch it in.”

“
And just like that you
figured it was something worth getting?”

“
I figured it was worth a
look.”

I gave Carlos the high brow. “What do you
think, Partner?”

He took a second to look around the park. “If
he’s not our man, we’re screwed.”

I did the same. “Yeah, if anyone else were
about to move in, we surely played our cards too soon.”

“
Uh, guys?” Spinelli held
a finger up on one hand while fishing into his pocket with the
other. “Brewbaker’s phone is ringing.”

Carlos, Brittany and I huddled around Dominic
as he put the phone on speaker and answered it.

“
Hello?”

“
You fucked up,” the
caller said, his cold mechanical voice sending a shudder through my
entire body. “Kelly’s dead.” And he hung up.

Dominic looked up at us. His hands shook.
“They killed her.”

We all turned to look at Mister John Smith.
His expression seemed genuine. He didn’t know who Kelly was, but he
understood what was happening. “Get him out of here,” I said,
dismissing him with a flip of my hand. “Read him his rights and
take him downtown.”

“
I’ll do it,” said
Brittany, and she and another officer loaded Smith into an unmarked
cruiser and drove off.

“
You think he’s involved?”
Carlos asked.

My eyes settled on a mother and child playing
on a seesaw halfway across the park. I wondered if the mother knew
how lucky she was. “No,” I said, after reeling my thoughts back
into the moment. “He doesn’t know anything.”

“
Then why––”

“
Carlos.” Spinelli reached
out and touched him on the arm. Carlos looked at him. Spinelli
shook his head no. They let it go at that.

I checked my watch. It was ten after nine.
“We blew it,” I said. “Send everyone home.”

Dominic keyed his mike. “Pack it up, team.
It’s over. Go home.” He looked up at me with worried eyes. “What do
we do now?”

“
We go back to the house
and wait.”

“
Wait for
what?”

“
For the kidnappers to
call back.”

“
But they
said––”

“
I know what they said.” I
set my hand on his shoulder. “She’s not dead.”

Carlos said, “How do you know?”

I gestured a hand sweep to encompass the
entire park. “Look where they had us do this; right out in the
open. They knew we would try to set a trap. This was their way of
flushing us out. That’s why the ransom demand was so small. I see
that now.”

“
So Kelly’s alive?” This
from Dominic, who’s voice was back to squeaking.

“
Of course, she’s alive.
The kidnappers don’t want to hurt her anymore than they want to
hurt their chances of scoring a huge ransom.”

Carlos laughed. “Ten-thousand dollars is
hardly a huge ransom.”

I smiled back at him. “It’s no longer
ten-thousand dollars.”

“
No? Then how much is
it?”

“
We don’t know yet. Why
don’t we get back to the house and find out?”

Lionel Breaker already knew the results of
the ransom drop by the time we made it back to his place. It’s not
that anyone told him; it was the fact that no one called to report
that we had his daughter back, safe and sound. We found him
standing on the front steps waiting for us as we pulled into the
driveway.

“
Carlos!” he said, rushing
to the car before it came to a complete stop. He opened the
driver’s side door and practically pulled Carlos out by the sleeve.
“What happened? Where’s Kelly. Is she all right?”

“
We didn’t get her,
Lionel. Something went wrong.” Carlos grabbed Brewbaker by both
forearms to steady him. “The whole thing was a setup. They were
never going to make the switch.”

“
But…I don’t understand.
We gave them the money they asked for?”

“
I know. It’s complicated.
Tony can explain.”

The two looked at me. I came around the front
of the car and offered to help lead Brewbaker back into the house.
“Let’s get inside,” I said. “I’ll tell you what I think is going
on.”

Once inside, Brewbaker took a seat on the
sofa, and I laid out my theory as best I could. I told him I
thought the kidnappers knew all along that Carlos and I were
handling the investigation, and that they wanted to verify the
extent of our involvement to the exclusion of all other agencies,
including the FBI.

“
They’re definitely
smarter than we’ve given them credit for,” I said. “The
ten-thousand dollar ransom demand was just the bait. And we took
it.”

“
Bait for
what?”

“
To see if we were willing
to negotiate with them. Now they know we will.”

Lionel pitched his head back against the sofa
cushion and crossed his hands at his chest. “I can’t take this.
It’ll be the death of me.”

I set my hand on his shoulder. “Mr.
Brewbaker, are you all right? Can we get you anything?”

“
Yes, aspirin please. I
have some in a cupboard in the guest bath off the
kitchen.”

“
I’ll get it,” said
Dominic.

Carlos and I settled into a couple of chairs
opposite the sofa and waited for Dominic to return. We watched
Lionel Brewbaker’s expression fade to a porcelain stare, seemingly
void of spirit and emotion. Carlos nudged my foot with his. I
looked at him. He gestured a subtle nod in Brewbaker’s direction. I
took that to mean he wanted me to say something.

“
What?” I
mouthed.

He mouthed back, “Anything!”

I leaned forward in my seat, pressing my
elbows to my knees. “Lionel,” I said. “Kelly’s all right. I’m sure
of it.”

He blinked and pulled back from a distant
stare. “Do you really think so, Detective?”

“
Yes, I do.”

I could see the color coming back to his
face. “So what happens next? What do we do now?”

“
Now we wait. That’s all
we can do.”

“
Wait for
what?”

“
For the real ransom
demand.”

“
Tony!” I looked up to see
Dominic hurrying back from the kitchen. “Someone’s been
here.”

“
What?” I stood up and met
him halfway.

“
The back door’s
open.”

“
Maybe one of us forgot to
shut it this morning.”

“
No. Impossible. I locked
it myself. I threw the deadbolt.”

“
Has it been
forced?”

“
Doesn’t look like
it.

“
Somebody with a key must
have let himself in.”

“
Who?”

Brewbaker answered, “Amanda. It has to be.
Aside from Kelly and Karina, no one else has a key.”

“
Dominic, is anything
disturbed?”

“
Just the medicine
cabinet.”

“
How do you
mean?”

“
The door was open. I
found pill bottles scattered on the floor and in the
sink.”

“
Mr. Brewbaker, do you
keep narcotics in that cupboard?”

He shook his head faintly. “No, the only
medicines we keep in that cabinet are pills for my blood pressure,
my cholesterol, some antacids, sleeping pills…. Uh-oh.”

“
What?”

“
Kelly’s
medication.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
I told you about that,
about her heart condition that causes her palpitations. She takes
Propranolol to control it.”

“
Dominic. Go see if
Kelly’s meds are missing.”

“
You got it,
Tony.”

“
Mr. Brewbaker. Does the
key to the back door also fit the front door locks?”

“
No. The back door is
keyed differently. Why?”

“
Yeah, Tony.” Carlos
crossed the room to meet me. “What are you thinking?”

“
I’m thinking if Amanda
came in while we were gone, she’d have used the front door, not the
back.”

“
So you think Karina
Martinez used her key to let herself in?”

“
Possibly. Lionel, does
Karina know about Kelly’s heart medication?”

“
Of course.”

“
What are you thinking,
Tony?”

“
I’m thinking the
kidnapper cares enough about Kelly to make sure she gets her
meds.”

“
You think Karina came in
and got them?”

“
I don’t know. I’m just
saying.”

“
No meds for Kelly,” said
Dominic, returning with an empty prescription bottle in his hand.
“I found this one with her name on it. It’s her Propranolol.
Whoever emptied it probably meant to put it back, hoping we
wouldn’t notice.”

“
You’re probably right,” I
said, “except Lionel returned from the drop this morning earlier
than expected. He must have interrupted the intruder who got scared
and ran off.”

“
I don’t like it,” said
Carlos. “You’re suggesting Karina Martinez kidnapped Kelly. I can’t
believe that for a minute.”

“
Then who else had a key
to this place?”

“
Raul
Martinez.”

“
Raul?”

“
He could have stolen it
from Karina.”

“
You think Raul possesses
the compassion to risk sneaking in here to get Kelly’s
meds?”

“
Tony’s right,” said
Dominic. “Sneaking back into the house suggests an up-close and
personal relationship between kidnapper and victim.”