Jamie Hill Triple Threat (28 page)

“They’re never going to let me take that money out of here, even if we don’t plan on actually doing an exchange.”

“No, they aren’t,” Brady agreed. “So what’s the best way to go about this, since we’re only pretending that you have the money?”

“We need to get the bastards where I can see them, so I can blow their fucking heads off.” Jack sipped on his fifth cup of coffee for the morning.

“You know there are going to be at least two of them. If you take one of them out, that leaves the other possibly hurting
Crystal
and
Devon
. You need me to go with you.”

“Yeah, I do. They said I need to go alone, and I don’t know how many hoops I’m going to have to jump through, but I do know I need your help.”

Brady nodded and lit a cigarette. “The first thing we need to do is talk to Rodriguez. When the call comes in tonight, we want him to tape it but not tell anyone. You and I will decide who needs to be told what and when.”

Jack agreed. “I can talk to Rod. He’s a good guy, he’ll do that.”

“I should come to your place tonight. After we get the call, we can firm up our plans.”

“Okay.” Jack lit his own cigarette. “I quit smoking, like, a hundred years ago.”

“I’ve quit more times than I can count.” Brady stood up, and ground his butt out. “Not worth the effort anymore. Well, my guys are supposed to be here by ten for a briefing. I’m hoping they’ll have some names to go with the descriptions we have so far. If we come up with any possibilities, we might get Mark to look at some mug shots.”

Jack nodded again. “He got a quick look at the kidnappers. He might remember something.”

Brady hesitated. “You know if we manage to get
Crystal
and
Devon
back, and we manage to hang on to the money, and the perps get away, this isn’t going to be over.”

Jack looked at him. “I
am not
living with this hanging over us for the rest of our lives. They can’t get away, Brady.”

“I agree. The other thing we can do once we get them home safely is hit the press with the story real hard. Once we put it out there that the money's been turned over to the authorities, that should be a signal to whoever hired these guys that it’s basically a hopeless cause. They’ll know it.”

Jack nodded. “There’s that, too.” He looked Brady in the eye. “We can’t screw this up.”

Brady grinned. “I don’t intend to. Meet you back here at ten for the briefing.”

At ten the conference room was packed with detectives when Jack made his way inside. He thought wryly that it took a kidnapping and two dead cops to really get the case going.
Three dead nobodies from the apartment complex hadn’t seemed to raise any eyebrows, but look at the interest level now
. He found a seat and watched Brady discuss something with a couple of his men before he called everyone to attention.

“Good morning, everybody. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Detective Brady Marshall from Special Investigations. I’ve been asked to work in conjunction with Detective Dunlevy to try and put some names and faces on the kidnappers in this case.”

He pulled out an eight-by-ten photograph and held it up. “Thanks to the information provided by our quick-thinking kidnap victim, we got a partial description on one of the two kidnappers. Rafael Juarez sports a large red dragon tattoo on his left arm.” He held up another picture. “We’ve got two possibilities for
Juarez
’s known associates, Jason Cheevers and Orlando Nelson. Cheevers speaks with an English accent so we don’t think it’s him, which leaves Nelson. I’m going to put a few mug shots together and see if our boy out there can identify him.” He nodded to Mark, who still sat in the other room playing his game. “He only got a quick look, but hopefully it was enough for him to recall something. Any questions so far?”

They talked for another twenty minutes. When the briefing broke up, they took several random mug shots from another book and laid six pictures out on the table. Jack brought Mark into the conference room. Mark picked out Nelson at first glance. He wasn’t so sure about
Juarez
, but he thought he was the second man. That was good enough for the detectives, since they felt sure Juarez was the tattooed man
Crystal
referred to.

Jack studied the pictures and the rap sheets attached to them. “
Juarez
.
Juarez
…why do I know that name?”

Brady shrugged. “He’s got quite a sheet on him. Petty stuff mostly. Nelson is a little more hardcore. He’s done some prison time. Unfortunately, neither of them is smart enough to be the brains of the operation. They’re henchmen.”

“Yeah.” Jack sighed and looked around. Mark had returned to his desk and was once more hunched over the video game.
Crystal
would be irritated that he allowed the boy to play for hours with no break, but what choice did he have? He gave himself a minute to think about
Crystal
and the way she looked when she scolded him or the boys. The thought made him smile. But then that thought drifted to various other scenarios of her in his mind. That led to other thoughts, not so pleasant, as in what might be happening to her right now.

And some too pleasant, as in the last time he had seen and made love to her. Both sets of images made him shift uncomfortably. He approached his desk and Mark. “Hey, buddy. Why don’t we get out of here for a while and go get some lunch?”

“Sure,” Mark shrugged and shut his game off. He shoved it in the pocket of his coat and slipped the coat on.

Jack put his hand on Mark’s shoulder as they walked out. “Sorry you have to hang out here all day. We’re making some progress, though. Hopefully we’ll have Devon and
Crystal
home with us real soon.”

They got into the Explorer and Jack drove to a fast food restaurant. Over hamburgers and fries, Mark gazed up at him thoughtfully. “What’s going to happen when
Crystal
and
Devon
do get home?”

“What do you mean?”

“With Dev and me, I mean. What’s going to happen to us?”

Jack pushed back the rest of his fries and looked at Mark. “I wish I could say for sure. Crys and I were just starting to sort that out.” He saw the look of disappointment on the boy's face and continued, “I can tell you what I’d like to happen. I’d like to marry Crys and raise the two of you as our kids.”

Mark’s smile lit up his face, but Jack felt uneasy and hastened to add, “But I can’t make any promises, buddy, because everything is up in the air right now. That’s what
I
would like to happen. Crys is going to have an opinion, as will the state of
Kansas
. We’re really going to have to sort everything out.”

Mark continued to smile and nod. “It’s what I would like to happen, too, Jack. You know,
Devon
wasn’t exactly true on that tape we listened to.”

“Which part?”

“The part about our dad being a nice one. We hardly ever saw him, and most of the time he was drunk or whatever. He almost never did stuff with us. He’d try, on the weekends sometimes, but then we’d bug him and he’d start drinking again and we’d just go watch TV.”

Jack fiddled with the straw in his drink. “Do you remember your mom, Mark?”

He nodded. “She was real pretty, with long yellow hair. She was nice. She took us places and took care of us. But then she started getting tired, and we didn’t do as much anymore. She still always took care of us.”

“Does
Devon
remember her?”

Mark shrugged. “Not so much. He remembers that she sang to us at night. He remembers that she took care of us. It was a safe feeling. We didn’t always feel that way with our dad.”

Jack nodded. “I guess not. I’m really sorry about that. Kids deserve to be taken care of, and they should always, always feel safe with their parents.” He thought about
Crystal
, and the life she led growing up. He knew that the two of them could do so much better by these boys, if she'd only agree to it.

Mark toyed with his own straw and spoke without looking up. “I feel safe with you and Crystal, Jack.”

“I’m glad. But something’s bothering me. I’d hate to think you like being with me because I buy you video games and stuff. We’ve been thrown into some unusual circumstances, and I’ve tried to compensate for that. But I don’t want you thinking that I’d be a better dad because I’d buy you stuff.”

“It’s not the games,” Mark shook his head, but smiled slyly. “They’re fun. But it’s more fun to spend time with you, like at the park or in the back yard. That’s what I think of as dad stuff.”

Jack smiled at him. “That’s what I think of as dad stuff, too, buddy. A dad should want to spend time with his kids, and try to do fun things with them. Even things that aren’t so fun, like mowing the grass or something. Seems like it would be better doing chores with someone you love and want to be around.”

Mark’s eyes lit up. “I’ve never had any grass to mow. I bet I could do it, though.”

Jack chuckled and gathered up their trash. “I bet you could. We may just have to find out. You ready?”

“Yep.” He slid out of the booth happily, and they dumped their trash and walked back to the Explorer hand in hand.

Jack was driving back to the department when something occurred to him. “Come on,” he told Mark as he parked and they walked quickly up to his office. “Have a seat, there. I’ve got something to check out.” He motioned to his desk and Mark took his usual position, video game player in hand. Jack went in to the conference room and rifled through the files on the table.

“What are you looking for?” Brady shoved the last of a hamburger into his mouth.

“The
Juarez
file. I remembered somebody else with that name, and I want to see if there’s a connection.” He found the file and flipped through it. “Bingo!” He waved it in Brady’s face. “Rafael Juarez has a brother, Caesar, who just happens to be a very unfriendly cook at the same diner where
Crystal
works.”

Brady grinned. “Now isn’t that one hell of a coincidence? What makes him so unfriendly, do you suppose?”

“
Crystal
said she went out with him once, and he wanted more out of the date than she was willing to give. I guess he’s never gotten over it.”

“I think we need to have a little talk with this Caesar the cook.” Brady grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair. “Let’s get a home address, a search warrant, and a black-and-white for back-up.”

Jack nodded. “I’ll get on the search warrant.” They took care of the required paperwork and got ready to leave for the diner. “Mark, I need you to stay here with Detective Curtis. Detective Marshall and I have something to check out.”

“You promised you wouldn’t leave me!” Mark cried.

“Hey,” Jack said softly and touched the boy’s shoulder. “I’ll be back, and you’re safe here with Mel. Be a big guy for me now. I need you to be strong.”

Mark nodded, and Jack used his thumb to wipe a tear off the boy’s cheek casually. He leaned down to murmur to him confidentially, “See if Mel can touch your high score on that racing game. I hear she’s a pretty good driver.”

Taking her cue, Curtis stepped up to Mark. “Let me see that game! I’m a dang good driver.” She smiled at Jack and he smiled back—the first sincere smiles they had exchanged in he couldn’t remember how long. His spirits lifted. He was jazzed to get going and check this lead, and Brady was right behind him.

Jack made it a quick trip to Moe’s diner, with the marked police car following them. He parked in front. Brady and the other two officers had to move swiftly to keep up with him. He found Moe behind the register.

“Well, detective, it’s nice to see you! How are Crystal and the children?” Moe smiled at him.

“Not too well at the moment. We need to talk to Caesar.”

“What’s happened?” Moe asked, concerned.

Jack glanced around quickly. “I don’t think we want to talk out here. Caesar?”

Moe looked confused but nodded and motioned to them. “Back here. Come on.” He led them into the kitchen, where Caesar loaded dishes into the dishwasher. “Caesar, the police want to talk to you.”

The cook looked up at them suspiciously. He glanced at Brady and the two uniforms, but focused on Jack. “I know you.”

Jack took a step toward him. “I’m a friend of Crystal Cartwright’s. I don’t suppose you know where I might find her?”

Moe spoke up. “I thought she was with you, Jack.”

Jack glanced at him, then back at Caesar. “She was, until she was kidnapped by a man with a red dragon tattoo. Sound familiar to anyone?”

Caesar looked at him and shrugged.

“Where’s your brother, Caesar?”

“I wouldn’t know. We’re not close,” Caesar sneered.

“When’s the last time you saw him?”

“It’s been years.”

“Do you know where he lives?”

“Somewhere on 22
nd
, last I heard.”