Kill Switch: A Vigilante Serial Killer Action Thriller (Angel of Darkness Suspense Thriller Series Book 1) (5 page)

“I was trying to feed it,” Elena said, as if she expected that to explain things.

So, either the woman was an imbecile or she had a death wish? “You were trying to feed a wild bear?”

“No, a dancing bear. I volunteered at a sanctuary that rescued them.”

“Ah.” As a young girl, Tess had been so close to her black cat Tickle that it had followed her everywhere like a little dog. She’d been devastated when the poor little thing had died of leukemia when it was only six. She’d cried every day for a month. One day, she’d love to work with animals. One day, when this life was far behind her. One day, after she’d finally reaped her vengeance back home.

“We have thousands of bears in Transylvania,” said Elena, “but unfortunately, many people only see them as a way to make easy money.”

“Transylvania?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Transylvania where Dracula lives?”

Another wry smile crept across Elena’s face. “Transylvania where Vlad Tepes lived in the fifteenth century. You probably know him as Vlad the Impaler. He was the inspiration for Dracula.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that.”

“Anyway, we rescued bears people had trapped. Most of them traumatized from years of abuse or neglect.” She caressed her scarred hand. “This was Tia. My favorite. Her owner kept her as a tourist attraction outside his restaurant, but the problem was, camera flashes frightened her, so she always moved and ruined people’s photos. So her owner stuck needles in her eyes to blind her – if she couldn’t see the flash, she wouldn’t move, so happy tourist.”

“Jesus.” Tess winced at the thought of it. “He stuck needles in her eyes?”

Elena nodded. “She was almost dead when we found her. I nursed her back to health but forgot she was basically still a wild animal and got too close one day. It was my own stupid fault, not Tia’s.”

Tess studied the three scars and then her drinking partner. Elena brought light into a world overwhelmed by darkness. Should Tess help her? Like there could be any other answer to that question but one. Tess would do everything she could to find Catalina. And along the way, she’d learn more about Tia’s owner. He was one real nice guy she’d love to meet.

Elena said, “So, do you have any idea how we might find Cat?”

With a red pen, Tess tapped an area she’d circled on the free tourist map of Krakow Elena had picked up in her hostel, a map exactly like the one Catalina had followed.

“We’re sure this is where Cat was looking for work?” asked Tess.

“As far as I know. She looked here” – Elena pointed to another area – “the day before.”

“Okay. But you couldn’t find anyone in this area who’d seen her.”

“No.”

“What time did you try?”

“Last night, around nine thirty, when I just couldn’t settle anymore without doing something. I wandered the streets for hours – that’s how I spotted you.”

Tess jabbed with the pen to emphasize her point. “You see, that could be the problem.”

“What could?” She took another swig of her beer.

Again, Tess tapped the map with her pen. “Well… if Cat tried all these places first thing in the morning, but you went there in the late evening, it’s very possible no one had seen her because the daytime staff had been replaced by the nighttime staff.”

Elena stared at her. A tiny smile crept across her face.

Tess sipped her beer. “What?”

“And you thought you weren’t a detective.”

“Yeah, well I’ll pat myself on the back when we find Cat.” Tess planted her finger firmly in the center of the circled area on the map. “I want to go here tomorrow morning. See if we can speak to people who were actually working around the time we think Cat was there. Is that okay?”

“Oh, don’t worry about me, Tess. Anything that needs doing. Anything. You don’t even need to ask, just tell me and it’s as good as done.”

“Okay, so we’ll meet outside Town Hall Tower at six thirty a.m. Now, about this guy.” She tapped a piece of paper on which was scrawled the name Jacek Grabowski, a cell phone number, and an address.

Tess took out her smartphone. When she’d been in the Far East, she’d never wanted a cell phone. In fact, she’d hated the thought of having one all but surgically attached to her, as ninety-nine percent of the world had these days. Since she’d started making her way back home, however, having one had helped her with travel arrangements and with online research that might enable her to find who she needed to find back home.

She called the number Elena’s receptionist had had the sense to note after Cat had phoned with the message for her mom. It rang and rang and rang. Didn’t even go to voicemail.

Listening to it ring, she shook her head at Elena.

“No one ever answered when I tried it,” Elena said.

Tess let it ring.

Elena coughed. Just a gentle tickle-in-the-throat kind of cough. Except it didn’t go away and she coughed again. And again. And the coughing didn’t stop. Her whole body shook. Elena held her hands in front of her mouth, as her head jerked back and forth.

Tess put her phone down and held Elena’s beer out to her, hoping a drink would ease the cough.

Elena reached for it, but was coughing so violently, her hand hit the glass and splashed beer on the table.

Tess moved around to Elena’s side of the table and held the glass up to her lips. Elena managed a couple of sips. The hacking started to subside.

The rotund waitress who’d laughed at Elena’s joke appeared beside them and said something.

“I’m sorry,” Tess said, “I don’t speak Polish.”

The waitress held out a mentholated candy, the kind people sucked to help a tickly throat.

“Oh, thank you,” Tess said. “Er…
Dziekuje
.” She placed one on the table next to Elena’s beer.

The waitress nodded and disappeared.

Her coughing under control, Elena patted Tess’s hand. “Thank you. I’ll be okay now.”

Tess retook her seat. “Do you want me to fetch your medication for you?”

Elena shot her a sideways glance. “I only take it because Cat nags me to.”

“Why? Doesn’t it do any good?”

Elena popped the candy in her mouth. “About as much good as this.” She must have seen the sadness on Tess’s face, because the lady reached over and squeezed her hand. “Please, don’t waste a second worrying about me. I’ve had a wonderful life. All I want now is to see Cat safe again. And you’re already helping me with that.”

“But—”

“Please.” Elena gestured to the map on the table and the notes they’d made. “Somehow, I don’t think we have a lot of time.”

Tess took a slow breath. No, Elena was right. If they were to find Cat, they had to start before the trail got too cold.

“Okay, so this address.” Tess held up the piece of paper with the address Cat had given over the phone. “You said you’d tried to find it.”

“I spoke to six taxi drivers. None of them had any idea where it was.”

Tess felt that tingling sensation again. The same one she’d had the previous night when she’d known someone was in the shadows watching. Her instincts said this was not a simple case of someone going missing, but that it was far more than that. Far darker than that. So dark that she didn’t want to discuss it with Elena until she was certain for fear of how it would upset her. But she didn’t need to.

Elena stared unblinking. “This is bad, isn’t it?”

Tess didn’t reply. Elena already knew the answer.

Elena hadn’t received any demands for money so that left only two reasons for why someone would abduct a beautiful woman – rape or murder. Or more probably, both.

Bad? Bad wasn’t the word for it. There was no way the situation could get any worse. Unless…

No, Tess couldn’t think like that. They needed to stay positive. Maybe she could yet offer Elena some reassurance.

“Look at it this way, there’s been no local news story about the police finding a body. That’s a big positive. Very big. That’s what we have to focus on at this point.”

“Okay,” Elena said, forcing a brave smile which was belied by the sadness in her eyes.

Cat might be trapped in a living nightmare, but at least it was still ‘living’. Hopefully. If only Tess could reach her in time. But with so little to go on, could she?

Tess stood outside Elena’s hostel. In the entrance, a black plastic bag of trash had burst, spilling out water bottles, used toiletries and fast-food packaging. The place looked as inviting as a brothel that offered free crab cream at the door.

Tess waved as Elena entered. “See you in the morning.”

As she turned away, a gang of six young men strutted down the street heading toward the bars in the Old Town. In what appeared to be some kind of English, they talked about a ‘bird’ in the last bar who had ‘norks as big as Tony’s head’. From the context, Tess guessed ‘bird’ meant woman and ‘norks’ were breasts.

In the middle of the group, a guy in a white soccer jersey emblazoned with the word ‘England’ shouted at Tess. His slang and odd accent made what he said almost incomprehensible.

“Alright, love. Now your mam’s away to her pit, how about a pint with me and our kid? This is his stag do but he’s still a free man till a fortnight Saturday.”

Away to her pit? Fortnight Saturday? Stag do? What the hell part of England were they from?

She smiled to placate him, but said, “That’s okay, thanks.”

His friend with a huge pimple on the side of his nose said, “Leave it, Gazza. I tell you, you won’t believe the vag you can get here for a hundred zlotys.”

Gazza shoved his friend on the shoulder. “I’m not sodding paying for it.”

“A hundred zlotys? That’s only twenty quid, you tosser.”

“Twenty quid? So why didn’t you say so?”

Pimple Nose grinned. “Jesus, you’re going to cream your pants in Red Riot. Cream, I tell you.”

They passed by.

Having seen Elena safely home, Tess zigzagged through backstreets toward her own hotel, deep in thought about what might have happened to Catalina and what might be the best approach to finding her. As she crossed a junction, at the far end of the street on her left, neon signs lured customers into bars.

She stopped.

Scrutinized the signs and silhouettes of people milling about.

A bar might not be such a bad idea.

She marched down toward the nightlife.

As far as she knew, prostitution was legal in Poland but brothels weren’t – in theory. Because of the tourist dollar, Krakow’s authorities chose to turn a blind eye. Maybe the Brits’ idea of looking for a cheap lay had opened up possibilities she hadn’t considered and could give her a head start in the search for Cat.

Tess spotted the club the Brits had mentioned: Red Riot. The building’s medieval architecture was a stark contrast to the pulsing strobe lights shafting through its arched windows.

A guy with a barrel of a chest guarded the door. He smiled as he let her enter. Inside, the lower two floors had been knocked out and lights suspended on a metal rig hung from the double-height ceiling. They spun and flashed and swept in arcs, their light reflecting off the walls and floor, which had been decorated in a silver metallic effect.

Tess wriggled through the revelers to the bar and ordered a bottle of local beer. It cost twice what she’d paid in the bar with Elena, but then, that bar hadn’t offered a light show or opportunities for cheap sex.

Taking a swig of her beer, she surveyed the scene for who might help her with her questions, while music thumped up through the floor and into her feet.

She hoped her logic was sound. Prostitution was legal here, so johns didn’t suffer the degree of social stigma they did in the States. There was a fair chance that a person who would abduct a woman might also regularly pay for sex. If he did, the hookers he used would likely know more than just his name.

On the other hand, if he didn’t use prostitutes but was a known sicko, word would have spread through the hooking community that women had to be wary of him.

Either way, the local working girls might have information which could be helpful.

Of course, he might not use prostitutes and might appear a decent, upstanding member of the community, which would make this a total waste of time. But an investigation had to start somewhere. And right now, this was as good a place as any.

A red-haired girl bursting out of a skimpy black dress lounged on a stool alone at the bar. She did not have a drink in front of her. While the occasional local woman might venture in here alone, or even the odd lone female tourist, Tess doubted they’d be allowed to sit at the bar very long without a drink.

Tess meandered over and stood beside the girl. “Hi.”

Red Head raised an eyebrow and panned her gaze over Tess. “Hi.”

“Do you speak English?”

“Why?” she said with a Polish accent. “Are you looking for a good time?”

Tess winked. “Oh, I’m always looking for a good time.”

A girl with a jet-black bob moseyed over and slung her arm around Red Head’s shoulders. She smiled at Tess. “Are we having a party?”