LIES OF THE PHOENIX (A Lieutenant Cassidy Mystery Book 1) (22 page)

“J
ORDAN, WHERE ARE
you taking me?” Sarah said with a note of concern creeping into her voice.

“You know you can trust me. I just had to see you. It took me a while to figure out a way to do it without putting you in danger.”

“You didn’t answer my question. Where are we going?” Sarah countered.

“Calm down. I’ve worked this all out. I have a safe place where we can go. It’s a good distance from Chicago, out in a rural area. We’ll be safe there.” Jordan drove out of the parking garage scanning in every direction for anyone taking notice of them. “Sorry, but I have to concentrate. You need to stop talking for now. I have to make sure no one is following us.”

Sarah did relax somewhat. She knew exactly where they were going. It was the Wisconsin property. She needed to get a message to Lieutenant Cassidy. She thought for a minute and then said, “Alright. I’m just going to text my office and tell them I will be out for the rest of the day.”

She pulled her phone from her purse and scrolled to the text file for Lieutenant Cassidy. She started typing a message:
With Jordan. Taking me to Wis—

Jordan grabbed her phone, but she hit
send
before he yanked it from her hands.

“I can’t let you do that. It’s too dangerous. Those people I told you about could trace your phone and find us.” He opened the window and threw the phone out on the street. The car behind them ran over it and crushed it to pieces.

Suddenly Sarah felt trapped. She hoped Cassidy would get her incomplete text and then find Ben. He would be able to figure it out. Now it was more important than ever to keep up her ruse. Jordan had to believe that he was still successfully deceiving her.

Jordan saw the stunned look on her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. It just has to be this way.” He stopped talking and returned to searching for anyone tailing them. “I need to focus on getting us out of the city.”

They drove in silence as Jordan crisscrossed his way across the Northside of Chicago changing directions every couple of blocks. His eyes darted back and forth searching the roadway and sidewalks for anything that looked like a threat.

He knew a killer was scouring the city for him. He had been so careful. He couldn’t believe anyone had tracked him to that basement flat. It rattled him. All was not lost though. He only had a couple of things left to do, but he needed to move fast.

Once they were outside the city limits Jordan started to relax. He saw no signs that anyone was following them. He turned his attention to Sarah. In an apologetic tone he started, “I know I owe you an explanation.”

Here it comes,
she thought, but she was ready.

“When I was in Los Angeles some criminals approached me and wanted me to steal financial data for them. When I refused, they threatened to kill me. I had to leave. I came here to Chicago to hide from them and thought I could start over. I was naïve; they found me.”

He’s probably expecting some expression of emotion on my part,
thought Sarah.
O.K., here goes.
“Oh, Jordan, how terrible!” She hoped she was showing the proper mix of adoration and rapt attention that would flatter his ego and prompt him to continue.

The response was just what Jordan wanted. He resumed his story, “That man I shot at our townhouse, he was a hit man sent by a crime syndicate in Los Angeles.”

Sarah gave him an appropriate look of horror and disbelief, but said nothing. She waited for the rest of his fabricated tangle of truth and lies.

“I thought it was over after he was dead. I thought the crime syndicate would be afraid that his death could be tracked back to them in L.A. and they would stop. I was wrong. The night of the play I saw another hired killer sent by the syndicate. I had to leave and draw them off. I couldn’t take the chance that they would hurt you.” Jordan finished with an anguished expression meant to impress her.

So he wants me to believe that he left for my safety!
she thought in disgust. She sat quietly, as if trying to take in everything he was saying. In reality, she was trying to figure out what to do next. She still didn’t know why he needed her.

“But what can we do?” she replied hoping he would divulge his plan for her.

“I have it all figured out. I’ll explain later, after we arrive where we are going.”

“You haven’t told me where that is.” She knew, but wanted to hear it from him. Maybe it would give her some hint as to what he wanted.

“It was supposed to be a surprise, our own private get-a-way.”

“A get-a-way? For us?” Her irritation was hard to cover up, but she forced herself.

“You kept saying we needed more time alone. You know, just the two of us. I had some bonus money from a deal I closed and I used it to buy a vacation cottage for us.” He looked in her direction expecting to see an adoring gaze.

Bonus money? A vacation cottage?
She could hardly believe what she was hearing. The lies just tumbled out of his mouth so effortlessly. It made her sick. And worst of all, he turned everything around to make it sound like she was the reason he did it! She forced an indulgent expression and waited to hear the rest.

“The place was a little run down and needed some work. I bought it for next to nothing. I was fixing it up—then all this happened.”

“You mean when you said you were out of town on all those business trips, you were working on this vacation cottage?”

“Well, some of the time. I fit it in around my work schedule. I wanted it to be perfect. It was going to be my gift to you.”

And there it was! His secret hideout had just transformed into a love nest, all for her. She marveled at his ability to bend and twist the facts to his advantage. But this wasn’t telling her anything helpful. Why did he need her now? It had nothing to do with the faux marital bliss he was spouting. He wanted something. She needed to keep him talking.

“Jordan, we should go to the police. That’s the only way you’ll be safe,” she pressed.

“No, not the police! Not yet. These crime organizations have ears everywhere. I have evidence that will put these guys away, but I need time to put it all together. If the crime syndicate learns what I’m doing before I have all the evidence to bring them down, I will be on the run forever.”

But what part do I play in all this?
she thought.
All she could do was keep asking questions,
“I don’t understand. What are you trying to tell me?”

“I need to disappear for a while, until I can work everything out. It won’t be for long, maybe a few weeks until I have enough evidence to turn over to the police. Then we will be safe. We can be together and these criminals will be in jail where they belong.”

Blah, blah, blah, more of his drivel,
she thought. He was stalling for time for some reason. Whatever he was planning was going to happen at the cottage. For the rest of their ride she tried to elicit more information, but he refused to reveal details of his scheme. He admonished her in paternalistic tones that he was withholding the information for her own protection.

She would have to wait until they arrived at the cottage to learn his real reasons for spiriting her off to rural Wisconsin.

L
IEUTENANT CASSIDY’S PHONE
sounded a text message alert. He looked at the screen trying to decipher the message. It was from Sarah Lawrence. He sat up with a start when he read the incomplete text,
With Jordan. Taking me to Wis—

Cassidy called Sarah’s cell phone. It immediately went to voicemail. He called Ben Taggert. His phone rang, but then went to voicemail. Cassidy punched Nora Castle’s extension into his desk phone.

“Come in here. I think we have a problem.”

Nora was in his office immediately. Cassidy showed her the partial text.

“Sarah isn’t answering. Neither is Ben. She’s with Jordan and we need to find her. Have both of their cell phones pinged and see if you can get a location for them from a cell tower.”

Nora nodded and left immediately.

Cassidy made another call and posted a BOLO alert for Sarah Lawrence and Ben Taggert. He then dispatched a patrol unit to Ben’s apartment.

* * * * *

As Ben regained consciousness, it was hard to breathe. The air reeked of putrefying garbage fermenting in the summer heat and his lungs objected to the fetid assault with a violent bout of coughing. It was dark and he could see a sliver of light coming from over his head. His brain was starting to clear and he remembered being grabbed in the alley. It didn’t take long for him to figure out he was lying inside a dumpster on mounds of trash.

His mouth was covered with duct tape and his arms and feet were so tightly trussed with the same tape that he could barely move. He tried to yell, but all he could generate was a muffled sound unlikely to carry through the steel dumpster walls. He rolled from side to side trying to reposition himself so his feet were against the dumpster wall. Then he kicked the metal wall repeatedly hoping to attract someone’s attention. His efforts went unnoticed.

He rested for a moment trying to regain his energy before starting another barrage of kicks. Just as he was about to attack the steel sidewall again, he heard a familiar sound. It was the ring of his cell phone; it was still in his pocket! He was surprised. He expected his wallet, cell phone and wristwatch all to be gone after the alley mugging. Unfortunately, his phone was just out of reach from his bound hands, but it gave him another idea.

He positioned himself on his back and forced his head and shoulders down into the trash. The smell wasn’t as bad as it was a few minutes ago. Maybe he was getting used to it. He hoped this worked because he was out of ideas. He snaked his bound feet up the wall so his body was now in a slanted up-side-down position. He maneuvered his duct taped arms behind his back to as close to his right pocket as he could. Then he started flexing and extending his knees hoping to shake out the contents of his pockets. He heard coins tumbling out and then a set of keys. His cell phone was wedged in his right pants pocket, but with continued jostling it finally fell onto the pile of trash. He maneuvered his hands to trap it before it slipped down between the bags of garbage.

He felt pretty good about what he had accomplished until he remembered that his phone had a virtual keyboard and he couldn’t make a call without seeing the on-screen number display. The garbage smell once more became oppressive and the rising heat of the morning made it worse.

As he contemplated his next move, his phone rang again. This time it was in his hands. He blindly swiped his fingers across the screen. The ringing stopped. A faint sound of a voice broke the silence, but he could not make out the words. He yelled through his taped mouth, and kicked viciously at the side of dumpster hoping that the person on the other end of the line would hear him. He stopped to listen and the voice was still talking.

As he kicked the dumpster wall, the crack of light over his head started to expand. The lid of the dumpster lifted slowly and a pair of eyes peered warily over the metal edge. Then the dumpster cover flew open and the flood of light blinded Ben. His eyes adjusted and he could make out a shaggy head of red hair leaning over the edge. It was a restaurant worker hauling bags of trash to the dumpster.

“Holy shit! What happened to you? Let me get some help.” The redhead disappeared below the edge of the dumpster.

He was back in seconds with an older man and a knife. The younger man leaped over the wall of the dumpster and landed in the garbage pile next to Ben. He pulled the tape from Ben’s mouth and began sawing at the tape that bound his hands and feet.

The older man was on the phone calling the police. Within seconds a police patrol car pulled into the alley. Ben’s redheaded rescuer cut the last piece of tape from around his ankles and Ben was free. He scrambled to his feet, but remembered his keys were lost somewhere in all the rubbish. He scanned the refuse pile and found a data drive Ruth Abbot had given him containing designs for his apartment. He picked it up and put it in his pocket. His loose change was gone forever, but he caught a glimpse of his keys just as they disappeared into a crevasse between the bags of trash. Despite the stench he reluctantly plunged back into the garbage and retrieved them before they slipped deeper into the foul smelling abyss. When he emerged all he could think about was how badly he wanted a shower.

As he climbed over the side of the dumpster a second police cruiser pulled into the alley. Two uniformed officers jumped out and charged towards him. Ben knew immediately that they were not responding to a downtown mugging dispatch.

“You need to come with us,” said one officer from the second cruiser. When he was within a few feet of Ben he made a sour faced and added, “Man, you really smell ripe!”

Ben shrugged an embarrassed apology. “What’s going on?” His mind was racing. He knew something was wrong.

“Lieutenant Cassidy put a BOLO out on you. We’re supposed to bring you in to the station. Tracked your cell phone and got a hit in this area. Couldn’t pin point you until you answered Detective Castle’s call.”

“A BOLO? Why would he be looking for me? Has something happened?” All he could think about was Sarah.

The officers had no other information. After making sure he did not require medical attention, they escorted him to the cruiser and headed to the precinct station. The dumpster investigation was left to the patrol unit that initially arrived on the scene. They told him they would get his statement later.

Ben took a seat in the rear of the squad car, apologizing again for the stench that followed him. He knew that it would linger long after they dropped him off at the station. The officers opened the cruiser’s front windows hoping the rush of air would flush the foul odor from their vehicle. It didn’t help. They would be stuck with it for the rest of their shift.

The officer driving hit upon a solution. “I think I hear a really bad knock in this engine. Can you hear it? I think this vehicle needs to go to the service garage—soon!”

The officer sitting in the passenger seat nodded in agreement and responded, “Yeah, real bad knocking. We’ll have to pick up a replacement as soon as we drop Taggert off.”

At least I won’t have to feel bad about ruining their whole day,
Ben thought. He located his phone. It had some unrecognizable slime smeared across the screen. He wiped it on his shirt and called Sarah’s cell phone. His call went immediately into voicemail. He called his apartment and heard his recorded greeting on the answering machine. When the greeting finished playing he said anxiously into his phone, “Sarah, it’s Ben. Pick up if you’re there.” There was no answer.

He started to call Ruth Abbot next, but noticed he had a voicemail message. As he listened to the message, a feeling of dread filled him.
God, no! She went out to meet Ruth.
He dialed Ruth’s number and it went to voicemail. He then dialed Eric’s number.

Eric answered, “Hi, Ben. What’s up?”

“Eric, this is important. Did Ruth go to meet Sarah this morning?”

“No. I don’t think so. I just talked to Ruth. She was with one of her clients. She misplaced her cell phone and was having a fit about it. She’s going to drive back home to see if she can find it.”

“I hate to ask you this, but is everything O.K. between you and Ruth?”

“That’s a strange question! Sure, couldn’t be better. She’s making me one of my favorite dinners tonight and then we’re taking the kids to the park. Why do you ask?”

“I can’t locate Sarah. I have a message from her saying that she was going to meet Ruth at a deli this morning. Sarah said Ruth wanted to talk about some problems you two were having.”

“Couldn’t be this morning,” Eric countered. “Ruth went directly to her client’s after dropping off the kids. And hey, I resent the inference that I could be the problem,” he said with a laugh.

“Do you know when she last saw her cell phone?”

“Last night sometime. She thought she put it in her purse. I told her to check the car. It might have slipped between the seats or maybe one of the kids took it to play with. It will turn up somewhere. She didn’t go anywhere between last night and this morning.”

“Could you contact Ruth and see if she knows where Sarah might be? Tell her to call me if she hears from Sarah. I’m worried, Eric.”

“Of course.” Eric’s tone sobered. “I’ll see if I can catch her at home right now. Let us know when you locate Sarah.”

The call ended and Ben had a sickening feeling. He knew why Lieutenant Cassidy was looking for him.