Abduction (7 page)

Logan put his rucksack on top of the bed nearest the door, along with the two handguns and the wallets and cell phones that he had taken that evening.  He then gave the room a cursory inspection.  It was about as seedy as you can get: mold on the bare walls, no coffeemaker, and a small TV that was coated with dust.  The carpeting was threadbare, and the twin beds were sunken, due to the old springs having been put to the test for many years, and hardly ever for sleeping on.

“Yuck!” Debbie said as she turned on the heat and heard a clanging sound as the unit slowly came to life.  “This place should be condemned and burned to the ground.”  She could actually smell a mélange of mold, sour sweat, cheap perfume, semen and tobacco.  Plus, her shorts were almost dry, but she could still smell them.  She was a mess, and supposed that she fitted in perfectly with these disgusting surroundings.

“We’re safe here for the rest of the night,” Logan said as he walked over to the bathroom door and pushed it open.  It was as he expected.  The toilet bowl stank of piss, and there was a used ribbed condom floating on the surface.  Logan ripped off a few sheets of toilet tissue and used it as a buffer as he depressed the handle to flush everything away.  The shower was cheap with a dripping plastic head.  And beneath it the plughole, set in cracked tiles, was choked with matted hair.  He leaned forward and used the tissue to unblock it, and dumped the mess in the lidless trash can, which was two thirds full.

Debbie checked the drawers of the dresser and night tables.  The only things she found were a yellow Post-it pad and a ballpoint pen, no bible. Opening the door of the closet she was surprised to find a pair of sheets that looked old and thin, but clean.

“Get a shower and wash your shorts,” Logan said as he came out of the bathroom.  “I’ll find a T-shirt that will fit you like a dress.  Come daylight we’ll leave here, visit the local store and get you some new clothes to wear.”

While Debbie showered under tepid water, Logan went through the wallets.  There was a total of seven hundred and forty-two dollars.  He pocketed the bills, and also took the driving licenses.  Finding the small yellow pad and ballpoint, he made notes from the contact lists in the cell phones.  They were all pay as you go.  He switched all but one of them off, and then made a call.

LARRY
cruised the area for ten minutes until Vince told him to quit and head for HQ, which was what he called Cady’s transport company.  They’d missed their chance to take Logan out of the equation, and that bothered Vince.  He decided that Logan wasn’t just some bozo who’d got involved and was causing them grief.  He had the kind of ability and confidence that you only got from experience.  Maybe he was an ex-Marine or navy SEAL.  Whatever his background, Vince was positive that the guy’s threats were not just so much hot air.  He would keep coming at them, and to an extent they were sitting targets, because he knew who they were, but they hadn’t got a clue as to his identity.

As Larry drove towards the industrial park, Vince’s phone rang.

“Yeah, boss?” Vince said.

“I was expecting to hear from you before now,” Nick said.  “Have you dealt with the problem?”

“Not exactly,” Vince said.  “This guy, his name is Logan, got lucky at Jade’s apartment and has given us the slip, but we still have the kid.”

“Define lucky,” Nick said, his voice monotone.

“He’s a pro.  He hurt Al, and Lenny is probably dead.  He got away from us.  The guy knows how to handle himself.”

“What’s the current situation?”

“Jade is driving to HQ, and Larry and me are just a few minutes behind her.”

“You mean Larry and
I
,” Nick said, picking Vince up on his bad grammar.  “Tell Jade to stay with the kid and keep her safe.  Logan won’t do anything to risk her getting hurt.  She’s the bait to draw him in.”

“That could be asking for more trouble than we need, boss.  He can pick his time and come at us when it suits him.”

“So think of a way to take him out.  That’s what I pay you for, Vince, to deal with shit like this.  Warn him off.  Tell him that if he fucks with us again the kid gets sliced and diced.”

“All I’m saying is that if we hand her back now the problem is solved.”

“We don’t know that.  He could be one of those nutters on a mission that keep coming against all odds.  I want him dead.”

“Okay,” Vince said.  “I’ll set a trap for him.”

Nick disconnected without saying another word.  This was pissing him off.  Some no account guy with nothing better to do with his sad life was making waves.  He was livid.  There was no way he could go to bed and sleep.  He needed a Scotch, and time to calm down.  He already had high blood pressure, and situations like this sent it through the roof.  A headache was beginning to tap a beat at the center of his forehead, and if he didn’t relax it would begin to pound like a bass drum being hit with a mallet.

After sipping his way through three shots of Scotland’s finest, Nick dozed off on the twelve-foot long sofa that looked small in his enormous living room.

Logan speed-dialed the contact number for NC that was listed in Jade’s phone.  It rang eight times before it was accepted.

Nick was only half awake, but the headache had backed off.  He picked his cell up off the arm of the sofa, saw the caller ID and answered.

“Jade?”

“No, I just borrowed her phone.  I have quite a collection mounting up from your less than able employees.”

“You’re Logan.”

“Correct, Cady.  I thought we should discuss the current state of play.  I need to know whether you intend to be sensible or not.”

“Who exactly are you, Logan?”

“A drifter with nothing to lose.  I just happened to be at the motel where your badly trained apes were about to rape a woman they’d abducted.  I got involved, and when I bother to do that, I see it through to the end,
always
.”

“Do you have any idea who you’re threatening?”

“Yeah, a medium sized fish in a small pond.  You might be king of the swamp in Fort Myers, Cady, but you’re no big deal.”

“I’m the only deal you’ve got, Logan,” Nick said as his head started to ache again.  “The little girl that you want back will end up as shark chum if you don’t keep drifting and get the fuck out of town.”

“Whatever you do is your problem.  I don’t know the kid or particularly give a damn about what happens to her.  I’d rather you saw the light and handed her back, but if you don’t, then I’ll demolish your setup and you with it.  Look around at all that you’ve got and ask yourself, is this worth losing over one little girl?”

Nick wanted to say, ‘Okay, Logan, you win this one, I’ll let her go’, but he couldn’t back down, it wasn’t in his nature.  He wasn’t about to let some loose cannon dictate to him.  He would fight his corner, and Logan would go down, hard.

“Your silence is like a picture, Cady. It’s worth a thousand words,” Logan said.  “You think that you can find me and wrap this up, but you can’t.  I’m going to show you that having an army doesn’t count for shit if you can’t find your enemy.  If the girl dies, you die.  Remember that, and bank on it.”

Nick listened and half-believed that this stranger could make good on his word, but he couldn’t and wouldn’t relent.  He hadn’t got to being where he was by running scared from anybody or anything.  Over some things he was inflexible.  Sitting around a table making deals with other gangsters was business, but this was now personal; the guy was threatening him; a drifter for fuck’s sake.  His pride was too big for him to swallow.

“Last chance” Nick said to Logan.  “Leave it be and move on.”  But he was talking to a dead line.  Logan had ended the call.

Debbie came out of the bathroom with a damp towel wrapped around her that was just wide enough to cover her breasts and reach down far enough to conceal the fork of her thighs.

Logan couldn’t help but feel a stirring in his chinos.  She looked as sexy as hell with her wet hair plastered to her face.  And she was biting her bottom lip and blinking too much, which for some reason caused him to think of a nervous virgin bride on her wedding night, eager to consummate the marriage, but at the same time hesitant and a little fearful of making love for the first time.

“Who were you talking to?” Debbie said.

“Nick Cady.  I gave him a last chance to hand Kelly back, but he’d rather do it the hard way.”

Debbie said nothing, just stood and looked as if she was going to cry again.  But she didn’t.  Something about her was now far more resolute.  She had not only washed away the sweat and grime in the shower, but had come to terms with what had taken place.  There was a level of acceptance that came in the knowledge that you cannot go back one second and change a single fucking thing.  You had to deal with what was happening moment to moment and do your utmost to alter things for the better, and never give up.  She believed in Logan.  He was still a stranger to her, and yet in some indefinable way she felt that she had known him all her life. She stood hugging the towel to her body and studied him properly for the first time, and decided that he was a big man with an even bigger heart.  He engendered confidence and strength and trust.  Maybe one or two old-fashioned American heroes still existed, reminiscent of the characters that John Wayne had so ably portrayed in countless movies.  But Logan was
real
, and he gave her the impression that he had the capacity to be as cruel and vicious as need be to right anything he perceived to be a wrong.  His slate-gray eyes conveyed a depth of purpose that was uncompromising.  Debbie considered herself to be in safe hands, with a man that she thought was her best chance of being reunited with Kelly.

“Here,” Logan said, handing her a plaid shirt that was long enough to reach down to her knees, and a pair of boxer shorts to make do while her own shorts and T-shirt ‒ that she had washed in the shower and hung over the curtain rail ‒ dried.

Back in the bathroom, Debbie dropped the towel on the floor and dressed.  The shirt was like a tent on her, and she had to roll the sleeves up.  The boxers were long and baggy.  She felt like a dwarf wearing a giant’s clothing.

They lay down on separate beds.  Debbie did not believe that she would be able to sleep, and was amazed to hear Logan lightly snoring only a couple of minutes later.  Her mind was being bombarded by the images of her attackers, and of her mother being gunned down, and most of all by the wide-eyed expression of fear and lack of comprehension on Kelly’s face.  And then the mental fatigue caught up with her and she drifted into light and troubled slumber.

Jade had almost reached the tall galvanized steel gates, which were set into a fence that was topped with razor wire and could have graced a military base.  She was beginning to relax, although the little girl was making her angry.  Kelly had cried a lot, but was now chanting, ‘Mommy…Mommy…Mommy’, nonstop in a high-pitched voice that was causing Jade to lose her temper.

“Shut up, you noisy little bitch,” Jade shouted, but Kelly just upped the volume. Jade red-misted a little and lashed out to slap the tot hard across the face, stunning her into silence for a few seconds, before she started screaming again, louder than before as red finger marks blossomed on her otherwise pale cheek.

Stopping in front of the gates, Jade waved to the guard in the small gatehouse behind them.

Charlie Moore recognized Jade.  Vince Palmer had phoned him less than fifteen minutes ago and told him to expect her, and to let her in.  He hit the green button and the gates slid smoothly back in their tracks and Jade drove in and stopped in front of the pole barrier and waited for the gates to close behind the SUV.

“You’re working late, Miss. Jade,” Charlie stated as he came out of the gatehouse brushing cigarette ash off the front of his pants.  He was wearing a creased blue uniform with a patch on the breast pocket of the jacket that had NCT embroidered on it in bright yellow letters.  The peaked military style cap he wore was a couple of sizes too small and seemed to float on his thick and crinkly graying hair.

“Yeah, Charlie, I’m putting in the overtime,” Jade said to the affable security guard.  “I’m saving up for a cruise in the Caribbean, and I plan on doing it in style, in a first-class cabin with a balcony.”

“That sounds like a fine plan,” Charlie said as he raised the pole and watched as she drove beneath it and headed for the main office, where she parked in Mr. Cady’s slot, which was nearest to the entrance door.

Charlie was no fool.  He knew more than most people gave him credit for; knew that Mr. C was a nasty piece of work with his dirty little fingers in a lot of the bad shit that went down in Fort Myers. He also knew that Jade was his current piece of skirt on the side.  The dumb broad didn’t seem to realize that her ‘best before’ date was probably almost up, and that she would soon be traded in for a younger and sleeker model.  Women seemed to think that their power over men was their pussy.  They were right, but there was plenty of it out there for the taking.  After working for Mr. C for over eight years, Charlie knew to keep his eyes and ears open, but his mouth firmly closed.  He was on decent pay, didn’t have to break sweat, and so minded his business.  He pretended to be what he had once overheard Cady call him;
a good old nigger
.

NC Transport was open 24/7.  In the main its operations were legal, delivering and collecting goods nationwide, though mainly in the southern states, complying to the letter of the law with required regulations.  But the hidden source of its tax-free revenue was generated by the transportation of drugs, weapons and people.  Moving legal merchandise from A to B was just a front, though in itself a profitable enterprise.

Jade roughly picked Kelly up and took her inside the large office.  A young guy in shirt and tie and wearing rimless glasses got up from his chair at a work station and smiled at her.  He looked like a college kid with his clean-shaven good looks and a spiky haircut with bleach tips.

“Would you like a cup of coffee?” Will Fleming said to Jade.

“No, son, I’d like for you to take this rug rat to wherever you keep the kids.  If it starts screaming for its fucking mommy again I think I’ll shake it to death.”

Will gulped and picked up a handset.  Phoned an extension and spoke to one of the guys that worked in the ‘Bunker’ and asked him to send someone to collect a package.

Jade put Kelly down on the floor and sighed with relief.  Her part in this fuckup was now over.  She went over to the coffeepot, poured some into a fresh paper cup and added creamer and a sweetener.  It was gritty and too strong, but good and hot.  She sat at a desk next to Will’s and decided to check in a hotel for the rest of the night.  There was no way that she was going back to her apartment until the guy that had been chasing her was taken care of.

Five minutes later a middle-aged woman wearing a white lab coat arrived at the office in a small Kia.  She had ultra short bottle blond hair and a face that had been filled with far too much botox and collagen.  Her forehead was as smooth as glass and her top lip was abnormally fat and protruding, and would have looked just fine on a catfish, but not on a human being.

Carla Melville nodded to Will and Jade, before scooping Kelly up from where she was asleep on the floor with her thumb in her mouth.  The hard-faced bitch left without saying a word, which suited Jade just fine.  Perhaps she was dumb as well as plug-ugly.

Vince and Larry arrived a few minutes later in the Dodge.  They drank coffee and ran through what had happened with Jade, after Vince had told Will to get lost for ten minutes.