Covert Exposure (15 page)

She reached up and gripped the top left wall
of the toilet stall and pulled herself up as she stepped onto the
toilet seat. She peeked over the top of the stall to find one of
Loukas’ men standing near the row of sinks. He held Miller by his
upper arm. Miller’s hair was dampened with sweat and his cheeks
were flushed. Duct tape covered his mouth.

Turning her head, she found another one of
Loukas’ goons walking past the front of the bathroom stalls. She
tried to scream but her throat closed, allowing no sound to
escape.

The man entered the stall next to hers and
she jumped down off the toilet. She reached into her handbag and
retrieved her cell phone but before she could dial Spinelli the
goon reached over the top of the stall, grabbed her by her hair,
and pulled. As he yanked her upward, she plunged her hand into her
purse and rummaged for anything that could help her out of the
immediate situation. Her fingers wrapped around her glass nail
file. She gripped it tightly in her hand and pulled it out of her
purse. She reached back and then flung her arm forward and sank the
nail file into the goons forearm. He released his grip from her
hair and she dropped to the floor.

Shannon sprang to her feet and used her
frantic fumbling fingers to unlatch the lock on the stall door then
she threw the door open. She’d wanted to make a run for it but the
goon was too quick. He wrapped his strong large hand around her
tiny bicep and tugged her to a halt. His other hand held a handgun
pointed in her direction, only inches from her face. Her heart beat
wildly as she eyed the gun and the glass nail file still stuck in
his arm. Blood dripped from the file. Oh, how she wished for
Spinelli! He would know what to do and he would take care of
her.

The sound of shuffling feet drew Shannon’s
attention, as well as the attention of her captor. They looked in
Miller’s direction. With his mouth taped shut and hands tied behind
his back, Miller still made an attempt to free himself from his
goon.

Shannon shifted her attention back to the
bloody nail file and in one swift movement she reached over,
gripped the file in her hand, and shoved it further into the goon’s
arm. He dropped his gun and released his grip on her. The gun fell
to the floor and she lunged for it. She circled her fingers around
the grip of the gun but before she could lift her arm, the room
went dark.

Damp, musty air stung Shannon’s lungs and she
fought to open her eyes. She couldn’t. The back of her head
throbbed and her neck ached. Muffled voices echoed in her head but
she couldn’t make out the words. Among the voices, the distinct
sound of a low tone groan found its way to her ear. She fought to
open her eyes again. Her persistence paid off and she found herself
staring down at her lap. Her chin tucked to her chest. She
struggled to lift her head but the slightest movement caused the
throbbing in her head to beat harder and faster. She shifted her
eyes to find Miller sitting in a chair beside her. No, not sitting,
bound. Not good.

* * * *

Marsh stared at the computer screens. “Still
nothing happening,” Marsh reported again over the air to Spinelli
and Walker as they sprinted toward the restaurant. ”Damn it. This
fucking fat suit. Why didn’t I take it off,” Spinelli muttered
under his breath as he trailed behind Walker. They posted behind a
pillar and studied the restaurant, finding it hard to see through
the tinted windows and closed metal gate.

“Marsh, anything on the video?” Spinelli
asked.

“No, still no activity.”

“What about in the parking ramp?”

“Only a few parked cars, no one in sight,”
Marsh replied.

“I don’t get it. If there’s no one left in
the restaurant and all the exits are covered by cameras, why isn’t
Marsh seeing anything?” Walker asked Spinelli.

“The head of security,” Spinelli
whispered.

“What?”

“The head of security is in on it. I bet he’s
working for Loukas the Greek. Think about it. He’s the only one who
knows that we’ve been monitoring the mall cameras. What if he shut
one off? If Marsh had access to all of the exit cameras he would
have seen something, right?”

“We’re on our way, Marsh. In the meantime
call up the camera that shows the exit just beyond the bathroom
Shannon used, and go back to your last visual on Shannon and
Miller.”

Spinelli could hear Marsh rapidly clicking
keys on his keyboard. The clicking stopped. “I got it, the last
visual. There doesn’t seem to be anything unusual.”

Spinelli and Walker climbed into the van.
They all stared at the computer screen in silence.

Spinelli watched as the computer monitor
focused on the bodies of Shannon and Miller. The last visual of
them was of their backsides as they headed down the hallway
corridor leading to the restroom and one of the mall exits. Just
short of the restrooms was the last he saw of them on the
monitor.

“Hmm, back it up again, to the point where
they walk past the photo machine,” Walker instructed Marsh.

Spinelli turned toward him. “Did you see
something?”

“Stop, right there.” Walker leaned forward
and pointed at the monitor. “Look, right here. If you look past
them, you can see the exits beyond the restrooms. Now start it
again.”

Marsh hit the forward button.

“Watch the camera angle as they get closer to
the restrooms. Stop right there,” Walker instructed as he leaned
forward again and pointed at the monitor. “Look, the camera angle
dropped, and you can no longer see the exits. As they walked toward
the bathrooms someone adjusted the angle of the camera downward so
Shannon and Miller dropped out of sight before they got to the
bathrooms.”

“Shit, I can’t believe I didn’t notice that,”
Marsh said in disbelief.

Walker shook his head. “You were probably
focused on a different camera at the time. I guess we better pay
the security guards a visit.”

Chapter
Twenty-One

Spinelli and Walker headed toward the main
security office of the mall and Marsh stayed in the van.

“Anything going on?” Spinelli asked.

“My eyes are glued to the computer monitors
and other than you and Walker there’s no other activity taking
place.”

Spinelli knocked on the door to the security
office. No one answered. He tried the handle but it wouldn’t budge.
His chest constricted, nearly cutting off the blood flow to his
heart.

He pulled his cell phone from the pocket of
his Santa suit and dialed the number to the mall security office.
Through the doorway, he could hear a phone ringing but no one
answered.

Spinelli glanced at Walker. “Step back.”

Spinelli used his heel to kick the door open.
The door to the small vacant cluttered office flung open. He took a
seat on the high-backed office chair and wheeled himself up to the
desk. He opened the desk drawers looking for any information that
could possibly lead them to Shannon and Miller. Finding nothing of
use, he slammed a desk drawer shut and pushed himself away from the
desk. The chair rolled over a thin throw rug making a hollow echo
sound. Walker glanced down then gripped the back of Spinelli’s
chair and wheeled it off the rug.

He sprang from the chair, picked up the throw
rug, and tossed it aside. He studied the flooring, which looked
normal and intact. Walker knelt down and rapped on the floor with
his knuckle and again the sound seemed to echo. Spinelli glanced
around the small office taking in every detail he could process.
Things seemed in order.

A draft of cold air swept over Spinelli.
“Walker, did you feel that?”

“Feel what?” Walker asked as he stepped
toward Spinelli. “Wait, I feel it now. Where’s it coming from?”

Spinelli held up his hand as if trying to
determine the direction in which the draft blew. “Over there,” he
said as he pointed to the small sized closet door in the corner of
the office.

Spinelli opened the closet door to find a
couple of mall security uniforms hanging from the rod in a
dry-cleaning bag. The cold draft caused the plastic bag to flutter.
He reached in and slid the uniforms to the side exposing a door on
the backside of the closet. He opened the door. The doorway led to
a dark narrow staircase leading downward. “Walker, look at
this.”

Walker poked his head through the closet door
and looked down the stairwell into the darkness, “What the hell?
Where does that go and why is there such a cold draft? We’re on the
first floor of the interior of the mall.”

Marsh still sat in the van listening to the
whole ordeal. “What? What are you guys seeing?”

“There’s a closet in the security office and
the backside of the closet is actually a doorway to a stairwell
leading downward,” Spinelli replied. “Call up the blueprints of the
mall and see what’s supposed to be underground.”

Marsh opened the blueprint file and viewed it
on his computer screen.

“Well?” Spinelli asked impatiently.

“I’m looking. There’s nothing, there’s
nothing underground on the blueprints,” Marsh replied. “I guess
this explains why I didn’t see anything. They obviously took Miller
and Shannon out via the underground.”

“Marsh, we’re going in. Keep your eyes peeled
to those cameras and let us know if there’s any activity,” Spinelli
barked.

They each grabbed a flashlight from the metal
shelving unit, which stood next to the closet door. Spinelli edged
his way through the closet door and the stairwell door first.
Walker followed. Spinelli barely fit through the narrow stairwell.
He’d been so preoccupied with everything he forgot he still wore
the Santa outfit, fat suit and all. Earlier he’d shed the hat and
beard and left it in the van but foolishly, he still wore the
suit.

The thick cool damp air stung Spinelli’s
lungs as he descended the staircase. It smelled musty, like rotting
wood. When he reached the bottom, he placed the palm of his hand on
the cold perspiring cement wall to balance himself as he leaned
around the corner to eye what lie ahead. A dim light glowed at the
end of the tunnel. The ceiling, riddled with pipes running along
the weak looking support beams glistened with moisture.

Spinelli and Walker headed in the direction
of the light, their guns drawn, their eyes peeled, and their ears
tuned in. Other than the sounds of water droplets falling from the
ceiling and splattering against the cement floor, and pools of
water sloshing at his feet he heard no other noises.

The tunnel turned left and the light grew
brighter. The sound of vehicles passing overhead surfaced. The
walls of the tunnel shook slightly with each vehicle that passed.
Eventually the vehicle noise grew faint.

“We must be under the abandoned warehouse
across the street from the back entrance of the mall,” Spinelli
whispered as he pressed onward down the narrow tunnel.

With each step they took, the tunnel grew
brighter, warmer, and dryer. Eventually the tunnel dumped them into
a small empty room with cement walls and a large metal door with a
sliding peephole viewer about the size of Spinelli’s hand. The door
appeared to be locked, bolted from the other side.

Spinelli and Walker pressed their ears
against the door. The sounds of at least two different muffled
voices and the distinct sound of a low tone moan escaped through
the doorway. Spinelli dropped to his knees and pressed his cheek to
the cold cement floor. Peeking through the narrow crack under the
door, he hoped to get a view of whom and what lie beyond the closed
door.

Metal shelving units lined the far wall of
the dimly lit room except for the gap, which a metal door occupied.
Small packages that held a white substance bound in clear plastic
wrap filled the shelves.

Spinelli lifted his head and looked at
Walker, who met his gaze. He mouthed, “drugs,” before returning to
the crack under the door. He heard the snick of knuckles hitting
flesh followed by a groan and a loud raspy gasp for air. Spinelli
tried to see what was happening from his position on the floor but
it was difficult to make out. He could identify two sets of legs,
toes pointed in the direction of the gasps for air, both subjects
clothed in black jeans and black boots. He recognized them as the
same style Loukas the Greek’s musclemen wore. Roughly, two feet in
front of the musclemen he could see two more sets of legs bound by
duct tape to the front legs of pale yellow wooden chairs. One set
were covered by green leggings with matching green shoes that
curled up at the toes, with the other set covered in nude colored
nylons and small black shoes with a big gold buckle.

Spinelli froze. His worst nightmare had come
true; Shannon sat beyond the door.

He willed himself to breathe.
Snap out of
it…think…think.
He pulled himself up off the floor.

“What’s going on?” Walker asked.

Spinelli and Walker stepped back into the
tunnel and Spinelli got Walker and Marsh up to speed on what he saw
under the door. They quickly formulated their plan. While Spinelli
and Walker found their way through the tunnel Marsh had called for
backup and two uniformed officers now stood by his side. They
decided that Marsh and the officers would sneak into the abandoned
warehouse and try to find the entrance to the underground room.
This way they could penetrate the room from both entrances with
more presence and hopefully rescue Shannon and Miller without any
more harm coming to them.

It seemed like an eternity, the waiting game.
It about killed Spinelli to leave Shannon in the hands of Loukas
the Greek’s goons until Marsh and the officers could get into
place. He and Walker listened to the sound of muffled voices beyond
the door while they waited.

“Marsh, where the hell are you?” Spinelli
asked.