The Abducted Book 0 (14 page)

“
Let’s see those hands!” O’Leary
shouted.

Gowdy was startled, apparently not expecting
a run-in with the law. He looked genuinely surprised, though Miriam
wasn’t buying it.

Gowdy stuck his big, tattoo-covered arms
outside the car and then stepped out. His hair was short, recently
trimmed, and his beard had been shaved off completely. He wore a
blue mechanic’s jumpsuit with an auto salvage patch over the
chest.

“
That’s it,” O’Leary said. “Nice and
slow.”

He faced them with his arms halfway up and a
face that was hard to read—blank and indifferent, as though he had
been through this routine many times before, which he had. O’Leary
then told him to walk toward them and get against the back of his
car. Miriam kept a careful eye on his car, trying to see if there
were any other passengers.

Gowdy leaned forward onto the trunk of his
Dodge with his palms flat on its surface. O’Leary made his move and
strode over to him with his pistol aimed.

“
Not another move,” he
said.

Miriam remained at her car door, taking
O’Leary’s back. Gowdy was in her sights. Her finger inched toward
the trigger, but she fought the urge. Shooting Gowdy would be
satisfying, but it wouldn’t get them any closer to finding Emily.
She moved closer to them while staying locked on Gowdy as O’Leary
searched his pockets and patted him down. He pulled a wallet, cell
phone, and car keys out and placed them on the trunk.

“
Okay, now turn around.”

Gowdy lowered his arms and looked at O’Leary
with an assured cockiness. “What’s this all about?”

“
You know damn well what this is
about, Gowdy,” O’Leary said, lowering his pistol.

Miriam kept a careful distance in case Gowdy
tried anything. O’Leary pointed to her and then looked at Gowdy.
“You remember Sergeant Castillo, don’t you?”

Gowdy looked at her and froze. O’Leary
studied his face. Gowdy’s left eye twitched in his brief, catatonic
state, then his eyes narrowed as he nervously looked away. He knew
who she was. For that split second, he looked as guilty as any man
ever could.

“
Yeah, you know her,” O’Leary
said.

Gowdy turned to him, angered. “What are you
talkin’ about? I don’t know her at all.”

Miriam moved on him, raised her pistol, and
pressed it against his head.

O’Leary freaked. “Miriam, no!”

“
Where is she?” Miriam said, seething.
“Tell me or so help me God, I’ll—”

“
This is not the way!” O’Leary
shouted.

She flinched and backed off, lowering her
gun and taking a few steps away.

Gowdy looked at her, both astonished and
afraid. “What’s this crazy bitch’s problem?”

O’Leary cut him off. “That’s enough. We want
to talk.”

“’
Bout what?” he said, leaning against
his trunk.

“
About what you know.”

Gowdy narrowed his eyes at O’Leary and shook
his head. “What do you mean?”

“
We’re close,” O’Leary said, holding
two fingers together. “We’re this close to shutting down the entire
operation. Whatever you’re up to, we’re going to find out. So why
don’t you do us and yourself a favor and come out with
it?”

Miriam circled back around and stood close
by, waiting.

“
I ain’t got nothing to tell,” Gowdy
said. “I’m on my way to work. Is that a crime now?”

O’Leary smirked. “A guy with all your money
still works. That’s pretty commendable.”

Gowdy shot him an angry glare. “A man needs
to work. Builds character.”

“
And we know all about your character,
Mr. Gowdy.” O’Leary said.

“
The hell’s that supposed to mean?”
Gowdy snapped.

O’Leary continued. “If we were to search the
salvage yard, we wouldn’t find anything illegal out there, would
we?”

“
Like what?” Gowdy asked.

“
I don’t know. Guns.
Drugs…”

“
Children,” Miriam added.

Gowdy looked at them, shocked, as his face
went flush. “Of course not. Have you lost your mind? Get your heads
out of your asses and listen to me! We run a legitimate
business!”

“
Cut the crap,” O’Leary said. “We know
all about you and that family. You’ve got your hands in some pretty
shady stuff.”

Gowdy gave O’Leary a long stare then crossed
his arms and tilted his head back. “If you know so much, you’d
arrest somebody. You’d also know how crooked this whole county is
and how they tried to ruin my life. I wasn’t afraid to take ’em to
court back then, and I’m not afraid to do it now.”

“
I’m aware of the history between you
and the county PD. But I’m also aware of a lot of other things
too.”

Gowdy rocked his head back and chuckled
bitterly. “Hell. If you were so close to taking me down, I’d be in
handcuffs right now.”

“
Don’t press your luck. I can make
that happen real soon,” O’Leary said, pointing to his
chest.

Miriam stepped forward. She couldn’t take it
anymore. She had to ask.

“
Did you kidnap those
children?”

Gowdy stopped and looked at her, stunned, as
the color drained out of his large, round face.

“
Did you”—she stopped, looking
down—“shoot my partner?”

“
I’m not answering anything this crazy
bitch has to say,” Gowdy said flippantly. “I don’t have to say a
thing to either of you. I know my rights. In fact, I think I’ll
just get my lawyer on the phone now and see what he has to say
about all of this. County’s got deep pockets, and it looks like
it’s time to cash in again.”

O’Leary’s cell phone vibrated in his pocket.
He pulled it out and looked at the screen. “It’s headquarters,” he
said to Miriam. He pointed to Gowdy. “Watch him.”

“
I will,” Miriam replied.

“
Detective O’Leary,” he answered,
holding the phone to his ear. He turned and walked away from them.
“Yeah. Yep. No, we’re off Pine Road, out in the boondocks. Anderson
country.”

Miriam stood with her eyes locked on Gowdy,
an arm’s length away.

“
Y’all got nothin’ on me,” Gowdy said,
shaking his head.

“
Shut up,” Miriam told him.

“
I’ve been accused of a lot of things,
but diddling kids. That’s about the lowest thing yet.” He spit
between his teeth and looked away.

Miriam examined his body language. He
appeared nervous and avoided eye contact, looking beyond her toward
the empty interstate.

“
You remember me, don’t you?” she
said.

He turned and looked her up and down. “Yeah,
I remember you.”

Her stomach burned. “I knew it.”

He spit again. “You’re that cop who got her
partner shot. You could have got that child-snatching pervert, but
you fucked up.”

An urge to shoot him rushed through her. She
raised her pistol. Gowdy held his hands up defensively. “Wait, now!
Don’t go doing nothing stupid. I’m not judging you. That’s just
what the news said. Don’t shoot the messenger!”

Her face went stone cold. She gripped her
side with one hand. A panic attack was in the works, but she did
her best to stay calm.

A bullet was the only thing that could stop
his poisonous words. She’d be doing the world a favor. Who would
shed tears for such a monster? But then she thought of Emily and
Jenny again, and her anger subsided.

“
Just tell me where she is,” she said
as tears welled in her eyes. “That’s all. Tell me, and I won’t
shoot you.”

“
You lost your mind? I don’t know what
you’re talkin’ about!” he shouted.

O’Leary was deep in his conversation,
walking back and forth in the road. “What do you mean you got a
match?” he asked loudly. “A DNA match?”

His words caught Miriam’s attention. She
lowered her pistol and walked over to him. “What? What did they
say?”

Holding the phone tight against his ear,
O’Leary looked over to her and held one index finger up for her to
wait. A semi-truck appeared in the distance, heading toward them.
Miriam turned back to Gowdy. He remained standing at the trunk of
his car, arms folded. The semi grew louder the closer it got.
O’Leary got out of the road and leaned against the side of his car,
continuing his questioning.

“
The fingerprints? What about them?”
he asked, trying to talk over the approaching truck.

Miriam turned back to O’Leary, hoping to
catch what was being said.

“
We got a match?” he said. “Who? Who
is it?”

Miriam turned back to Gowdy just as he
grabbed his nearby car keys and pushed a button to unlock the
trunk.

“
Hey!” she shouted.

The semi-truck veered into the left lane as
it passed by. Its engine rattled as it flew past them, sounding
like a locomotive. A gust of wind blew Miriam’s hair into her face,
obstructing her vision for just an instant. She aimed her pistol at
Gowdy just as he pulled an Uzi from his trunk.

“
Get down!” she shouted to O’Leary,
firing two shots.

Gowdy leapt to the passenger side of the
Crown Victoria and sprayed the air with bullets, shattering its
windows.

O’Leary looked up in panic and hit the
ground. Miriam fired back, blowing out the front left tire. She
jumped to the driver’s side of Gowdy’s car for cover just as
bullets came in her direction.

She looked over to O’Leary. He was lying on
his back, bleeding from his leg. His pistol and phone lay in the
road within his arm’s reach but seeming yards away.

“
I’m hit! Take cover!” he shouted to
her. His leg twitched and oozed with blood from below his knee.
Shards of glass were all around him. Her eyes darted back to the
car, where Gowdy had taken cover.

“
Just stay down!” she said to
O’Leary.

She couldn’t see Gowdy, but she knew he
might strike at any moment. Crouched down, she inched toward the
rear of his vehicle and looked under both cars to see where he was.
Suddenly another hail of bullets rang out. She lowered herself to
the gravelly pavement, hands on her pistol, and fired a few more
shots toward the car. A gust of wind from another semi-truck blew
past, apparently unaware of their predicament.

Miriam looked again under their car for
signs of Gowdy, but his feet and legs weren’t showing. Must be
hoisting himself up somehow, she thought, or possibly inside
O’Leary’s car. O’Leary cried out in pain and tried to push himself
up. His leg had taken some damage and was bleeding profusely.

“
Son of a bitch!” he shouted. “Where
is he?” He reached for his cell phone and managed to grab it by the
tips of his fingers and make a call. “Shots fired! I’m hit. Need
backup!”

Like a nightmare repeating itself, Gowdy was
nowhere to be seen. Miriam got up just in time to see him running
off, down alongside the fence that separated the road from the
endless forest. Miriam sprinted ahead and fell on her knees at
O’Leary’s side. She grabbed the phone from his hand.

“
Hello? This is Sergeant Castillo. Is
anyone there?”

She glimpsed Gowdy just as he jumped the
fence and ran into the woods.

“
Who got hit?”
the voice asked. It sounded like Lou.

“
Lou?” she said, too distraught to
notice her own injuries: the torn pants, the cuts on her knees and
elbows.

“
Yeah. What the hell
happened?”

“
We’re out here by the Anderson
property and need immediate backup. Gowdy fired at us. Dwight’s hit
in the leg.”

O’Leary’s hand reached out toward her,
bloodied from his leg, trying to take the phone.

“
We’re on our way,”
Lou said.

“
Wait,” O’Leary said, coughing. His
face had gone pale and was drenched with sweat. “Tell him to bring
the warrant. Time to turn that place upside down!”

Miriam held the phone up as O’Leary spoke.
She then put it to her ear. “You hear that?”

“
Yeah, I got it,”
Lou said.
“We’re on our
way.”

Miriam looked up. Gowdy was gone, but there
was something she had to find out first. “Whose fingerprints did
you find?”

“
Fingerprints?”
Lou asked, obviously rattled by everything going
on.

“
Yes!” Miriam shouted.

“
Phil,”
Lou
said.
“We got a match on Phil
Anderson.”

His words were surreal. She was confused. It
wasn’t the name she expected or wanted to hear. But the more she
thought about it, the more it all made perfect sense. She placed
the phone back in O’Leary’s hand and brushed his hair back, trying
to comfort him, hoping he wouldn’t go into shock. His blood was
everywhere now. She took off her jean jacket and wrapped it around
his leg, propping it up with a block of wood nearby.

“
I have to go,” she told O’Leary,
trying to put on a strong and reassuring face. “You’ll be okay.
Help is coming, but I can’t let him get away.”

“
Don’t… go,” O’Leary said,
shaking.

“
You’re going to be okay,” Miriam
repeated. “They’re on their way, and they’re going to take care of
you.” He reached for her as she stood up. Any further delay, and
she was sure Gowdy would disappear. She held O’Leary’s hand and
squeezed it as tears welled in her eyes.

“
I’ll be back. I promise.”