Jamie Hill Triple Threat (25 page)

“They should be there momentarily,” she replied, and even as she spoke Jack heard sirens in the distance.

“Okay, I got ’em. Thanks.” He hung up and kept his hand on Zeus’s neck. “Hey, back here!” He hollered.

Two uniformed officers came through the gate cautiously.

“The scene is secured. Far as I can tell we’ve got two dead cops, one injured canine, and three missing witnesses.”

“Holy Christ,” one of the officers muttered. Jack glanced up. The guy looked about twelve years old.

“Stay with my dog until the vet gets here, will you? He put in a lot of years on the force, and now he’s taken one in the line of duty.”

“Uh yeah, I can do that.” The officer knelt opposite Jack. He seemed relieved to have a relatively easy job assignment.

“Hang in there, Zeus.” Jack patted him one more time, then stood up. “Come on,” he told the other officer. As they entered the back of the house, Brady Marshall and two more officers entered through the front.

“Dunlevy, what the devil went down here?”
Marshall
looked around.

Jack slapped his hand against the wall. “They’re gone. I promised them they’d be safe, and now they're fucking gone.” He pounded the wall again.

“Okay, okay.”
Marshall
took him by the arm and shook him briefly. “Stop touching things and give me a description we can get out there. She has long red hair and is what? Five-six, five-seven?”

Jack collected himself and nodded. “Five foot six, about a hundred and twenty-five pounds, red hair, green eyes—contacts.”

“Any idea what she was wearing?”

Jack remembered what she was wearing the last time he saw her.
A whole lot of nothing.
He shook his head. “I have no idea.”

“Okay, now the kids—”
Marshall
started, but Jack’s cell phone rang.

He snapped it open and barked, “Dunlevy.”

“Detective, this is Osborn down at the department. We have a kid here asking for you. I tried to get his name, but he says he won’t talk to anybody but you.”

“What do you mean a kid?” Jack asked distractedly.

“A small human male. Looks to be seven or eight, scruffy brown hair. Half frozen, too. Seems he ran here without a coat.”

Jack’s heart leapt. “Scruffy brown hair?” Mark or
Devon
? Jack's mind churned. Teeth. “Does he have all his teeth?”

“What?”

“His teeth! Does he have his two front teeth?”

“Yeah, I think he does. He’s not smiling much, though.”

“Mark!” Jack exclaimed. “Sit on him, Osborn! Warm him up, but don’t let him leave. I’m on my way. Ten minutes.” He snapped his phone shut and looked at
Marshall
. “I think Mark just showed up at the department looking for me.”

“Excellent! Go, I’ll handle things here, and meet you back there later.”

Jack gave him a nod and a quick smile before he ran to his truck. He slapped his portable flashing light on the Explorer's roof and broke all speed records getting to the department. He pounded the elevator buttons and ran through the halls, forcing people to jump aside. Arriving at his office, he saw the little boy wrapped in a blanket and sipping from a mug. Jack was elated. “Mark!”

“Jack!” He set the cup down and flew into Jack’s arms.

“Oh my God, baby, I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life.”

“Me too, Jack.” Mark hugged his neck tightly.

Jack embraced him for another minute, then inhaled and pulled back carefully. “Mark, do you know where
Crystal
and
Devon
are?”

The boy dissolved into tears and answered, “They took them!”

“Who took them, honey? Think real hard.”

“Two men. They came in the back door. I was—”

“Okay, wait.” Jack held a hand up to him. He looked up and saw his lieutenant and a couple other detectives standing nearby. “We should go into the other room with someone to take down his statement.”

Reeder nodded. “Let’s do it. Right in here, guys.” He motioned to the little room they had used before, and nodded for Jack and Mark to go first. He got a stenographer and the other two detectives. With everyone assembled, Reeder closed the door. “Can we get you anything, son?” Reeder asked Mark, who didn’t reply. The lieutenant looked to Jack.

Jack asked, “Mark, you want anything before we start this?”

“No.” He shook his head.

“Okay buddy. Start from the beginning, and tell me everything. What were you doing, and what were Crys and Dev doing?” Jack realized Mark might say something that would tip the lieutenant off to the true nature of his relationship with
Crystal
, but he had to risk it. “Go ahead,” he encouraged.

“We were drawing in the dining room,” Mark started.

“Drawing?” Jack repeated.

“Yeah. We got in trouble fighting over the Playstation, so
Crystal
made us shut it off and take naps.”

Reeder interrupted. “He calls his mother Crystal?”

Jack shrugged it off casually. “Kids these days. Go ahead, Mark.”

“She made us draw pictures after our naps. I got mad because it was stupid. You don’t have crayons or markers or nothing, just pencils.”

“You got me there.” Jack smiled. “So you were drawing…?”

“Yeah, but
Crystal
finally gave in and let us play the Playstation again, as long as we didn’t fight. I started playing. Dev kept drawing. He was making some stupid pumpkins or something, and he was all happy about it.”

“What happened next?” Jack asked softly.

“I don’t know exactly. The next thing I know Dev shouted, and I looked in and saw two men pushing them around.”

“Did they say anything? The men, I mean.”

“No. They had this silver tape and they put it across
Crystal
’s mouth. When I saw them put it on Dev’s mouth, I ran back to my room and hid in that little crawl space in the closet. Remember, you told me about it?”

“Yeah.” Jack ran his hand through the boy’s hair. “That was really quick thinking.”

“I heard one of them come into the bedroom, and he was calling to me like, ‘Come out, come out wherever you are.’ For a second I thought I should go out and try to help
Crystal
and
Devon
, but I was scared. His voice sounded mean. So I just stayed where I was. After a while I didn’t hear anything, so I snuck out and saw they were all gone. I grabbed my shoes and ran out to the policemen in front of the house.” He looked stricken. “They were dead, Jack.”

“I know, buddy.” Jack pulled the boy close to him. “I know. I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“I just started running. I kind of remembered where your office was, from the other day. I stopped and asked one guy, and he gave me directions here.”

Jack sat back and looked at him, amazed. Then his fatherly side kicked in and he inquired, “So you grabbed your shoes but you forgot your coat?”

Mark’s eyes filled with tears. “Crys and Dev don’t have coats, Jack. I don’t even think they have shoes.”

Jack fought back his own tears as he hugged Mark tightly to him. Once he was sure he could speak without his voice cracking, he said, “We’re going to find them, Mark. One way or another, I promise you, we’re going to find them.”

The door to the conference room flew open and Brady Marshall bounced in. “Wait until you get a load of this!” He set a tape player on the table and practically beamed.

“What is that?” Jack cocked his head.

“The tape from your answering machine. Take a listen.”

He started to press Play but Jack said, “Wait!” He was trying to remember what was on his message tape. What was it that
Marshall
wanted to play for the whole room?

They looked at him expectantly and Jack finally cleared his throat and pondered, “Is this something that Mark should hear?”

Marshall
grinned and shrugged. “Not a problem as far as I can tell. Damn, Dunlevy, this woman is one smart cookie.” He pressed Play.

“What?” Jack was confused, but listened along with everyone else.

There were muffled scuffling sounds, and then a voice said “I thought there were supposed to be two kids.”

Another man’s voice said “There are.”

“Then where’s the second brat?”

There was another long pause and muffled sounds.

“What the hell? How are we hearing this?” Jack stared at the tape.

Marshall
grinned. “She hit the Record button. At some point before he tied her to the chair, she was quick thinking enough to hit the damn record button!”

Jack looked at Marshall, who was grinning. Jack grinned back at him and Mark. He turned the sound up and heard a ripping noise.

“Ouch!”
Crystal
said.

“That was
Crystal
!” Mark hollered.

“Yeah.” Jack put his arm around the boy. “Let’s listen.”

Unknown man: “Where is the other kid?”

Crystal
: “He’s not here. He wanted to get out of the house, so Jack took him to the grocery store. They’ll be back any minute.”

Unknown man: “Don’t lie to me,” followed by a loud slap.

“He hit her!” Mark cried, and Jack pushed the Stop button. He looked at the boy. “Maybe you shouldn’t be in here.”

“I can handle it.” Mark shoved out his chest. “But why did she lie, Jack? I never went anywhere.”

“She was trying to protect you,” Jack answered softly. “I’ll let you stay, but I need you to be real quiet, okay? And if you change your mind and decide you want to leave, just tell me.”

“Okay.” Mark nodded, and Jack started the tape again.

“Where’s your brother?” Unknown man apparently talking to
Devon
.

“At-at the store. He wanted to pick out his own cereal. Jack kept buying stuff he didn’t like.”

There was another long silence and Jack nodded. “
Devon
picked up on Crys’ lie. Pretty astute for a little kid.”

They stared at the machine again and
Marshall
said, “Now get a load of this.”

Crystal
’s voice came on. “That’s a cool red dragon tattoo. Did it hurt?”

The second man said “Not really. When they first started I thought—”

“Shut the fuck up,” unknown man returned. 

Marshall
hit the Stop button and smiled at Jack.

“He has a red dragon tattoo!” Jack ran a hand through his hair. “God damn, Crys, give us something else.”

They listened as the tape started again.

Unknown man: “Go pull the truck into the garage, and shut the door. We’ll take these two before the cop gets home with the other kid.”

Crystal
: “Please don’t take us. We don’t have anything you want.”

Unknown man: “Don’t be so sure of that, baby. But it’s not really what you
have
that we’re after. It what we can trade you for.”

Jack’s jaw tightened. He knew they wanted to trade her for the money. He just didn’t know what they would do to her in the meantime. He thought for one moment that he might be sick.

Crystal
went on: “You have to know that we don’t have the money. Jack’s a cop. He turned it in as soon as we found it.”

Unknown man: “So you did find it. Must have been one hell of a hiding place. We’ve been tearing that place apart for over a week now.”

Crystal
: “It was under the bathroom sink, behind some stained sheetrock. It was hard to see. Believe me, if I’d have known it was there, we wouldn’t be sitting here today.”

Reeder hit the Stop button. “Why did she tell him that?”

Jack shrugged. “What difference does it make? I think she’s trying to be friendly with him.”

Marshall
muttered, “Friendly can be dangerous. Hope she can take care of herself.”

Jack frowned and punched the player back on.

Unknown man laughed: “I believe that. A person could disappear far, far away on a quarter of a mil. Erickson got greedy.”

Crystal
: “Dave stole it from you, then?”

Unknown asshole, as Jack had started thinking of him: “Dave was a liar, a thief, and a junkie. How does it feel to know that about your old man, kid?”

Jack put a hand on Mark’s shoulder as they heard
Devon
say: “My dad had problems, but he was a nice dad.”

Crystal
: “Yes, he was.”

Jack heard the pride in her voice.
Devon
was being so brave. How could she not realize how much she loved these kids?

She went on: “Take me and leave the boy. Please. You don’t need him. He’ll slow us down. Please.”