“Detective Choral? Daisy Watson.”

 

“Ms. Watson,” the detective said. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any news for you.”

 

“It’s been three days!”

 

“Yes, ma’am, I know. Eugene police checked out the Firechrome. They were very familiar with them. Unfortunately, Leo has an alibi during the time of the abduction. He was at the Harley Davidson dealership having the oil changed in his motorcycle.”

 

“But I know it was the Firechrome! He wouldn’t be so stupid to come do it himself! He had some of his club members do it for him!”

 

“Yes, ma’am, I understand. I believe you. The Eugene police department probably believes you, as well. But we can’t arrest anyone without evidence, and there’s no evidence that Leo or the Firechrome were involved in the kidnapping.”

 

“So what are the police going to do? Can’t you issue an AMBER alert or something?”

 

Choral paused, not wanting to give Daisy the news. “No, ma’am, we can’t issue an CAE. We—”

 

“What’s that?” she interrupted.

 

“CAE stands for Child Abduction Emergency.”

 

“What?” she shouted. “Why not?”

 

“As I was going to say, we don’t have enough information to issue a CAE. We have no description or identity of the kidnappers or the vehicle.”

 

“Mom gave you the description of the car!”

 

“Yes, ma’am, and the Eugene police found the car abandoned in a parking lot. It had been reported stolen over a month ago.”

 

“So you’re doing nothing?”

 

“No, ma’am. The case is still active and the Eugene police are investigating the Firechrome.”

 

“So you’re doing nothing,” she repeated.

 

“Ms. Watson, Daisy, we’re doing everything we can. I promise you, we won’t let this drop. Every officer here and in Eugene wants to get Riley back to you as soon as possible.”

 

“Thank you, Officer Choral,” she said before she banged the phone down, “for not doing shit!” she snarled at the phone. She wanted to rip the phone off the wall and throw it through the window in frustration. She stomped around the house for several minutes trying to burn off her anger and frustration. It had been three days of unmitigated hell, worrying about Riley, unable to eat or sleep. She returned to the kitchen and picked up the phone, dialing her mother’s number from memory.

 

“Daisy?”

 

“Yeah, Mom. I just talked to the police and they haven’t done anything. I can’t take it anymore. I’m going to Eugene to get my son back.”

 

“Daisy, no! Let the police handle it!”

 

“I would, Mom, but they’re not handling it! Riley is just another missing boy. Well, he’s my missing boy and I’m going to get him back!”

 

“What are you going to do that the police can’t?” Lizzie cried.

 

“I don’t know, but I have to do something.”

 

“Daisy, you need to think about what you’re saying. Don’t do anything. I’ll be right home.”

 

“Don’t bother. I’m not changing my mind.”

 

“Just wait there!”

 

“Goodbye, Mom. I’ll see you after I find him.”

 

“Daisy! Don’t—” Lizzie was saying as Daisy hung up the phone. She had less than four hundred dollars to her name, but that would buy gas to get her to Eugene. She didn’t know when her mom would be home. As a real estate agent she could be anywhere from the next street over to near the small airport. If Mom is in the office, I have twenty minutes to be out the door, Daisy thought as she began to stuff clothes into a small suitcase.

 

***

 

“Where’s Leo?” Daisy demanded.

 

The gorilla blocking her at the door stared down at her. “He’s not here.”

 

“Where is he?”

 

“Don’t know.”

 

“When will he be back?”

 

“Don’t know that either.”

 

“I want to see for myself,” Daisy said as she made to step around the brute, but he stuck his hand out to block her entrance.

 

“You’re not welcome here anymore.”

 

“I want to speak to…what’s his name? The President. Hillon.”

 

“Helton. He’s not here either.”

 

“Then who the hell is here?”

 

“Nobody for you.”

 

“Get out of my way,” she said as she tried to muscle past, but the man shoved her back as easily as she would manhandle Riley. Maybe easier. “Don’t try it, Daisy. You’re nobody to this club now.”

 

“I want my son back!” she screamed.

 

“He’s not here either.”

 

She tried to duck past, but the man shoved her back, harder this time. She immediately came at him again, trying to dodge past. When she was shoved back this time, she went down, hard. She sat, stunned a moment before slowly getting to her feet, then charged the man at a run. She almost slipped past before he grabbed her arm and yanked her to a stop.

 

“I’m not leaving without my son!” she screamed as she kicked and scratched, and would have bitten if she could have reached him.

 

This time she bounced down the two concrete steps before rolling to a stop in the parking lot. She staggered to her feet, cradling her right arm as she sobbed. “I’m not leaving without Riley. Riley!” she screamed as loudly as she could, hoping to hear him answer. When she heard nothing, she sobbed again. “Please. Just give me my son and I’ll leave. Please.”

 

“You shouldn’t have tried to take him away from Leo,” the man growled.

 

“I just want my son back,” she sobbed. “Please.”

 

“Damnit, Guillotine, do you want the cops back here for assault and battery?”

 

“Leo said to not let her in,” Guillotine rumbled.

 

“Fine. But look at her! The damn cops will have your ass. Go get me a wet cloth.”

 

“You better not let her in.”

 

“I’m not letting her in! Now go! Warm water!” she called as the man stepped back into the Firechrome clubhouse.

 

Leeda stepped down to Daisy. “Riley’s not here,” she said softly as she grimaced at Daisy’s scrapes and cuts.

 

Leeda was one of only a handful of women in the club she’d any respect for, and the only one she actually liked. “Where is he? Please, Leeda, you know Leo.”

 

“If I knew, I’d tell you,” she began but stopped when she heard the door open behind her. Leeda retrieved the cloth from Guillotine. “Go away,” she ordered. “You make me nervous.”

 

“You better watch your mouth.”

 

“Yeah, or what? You touch me and Dirk will have your balls for breakfast.”

 

“You just better watch your mouth,” the man rumbled as he went back inside the clubhouse.

 

Leeda returned to Daisy and began to gently clean her bloodied face and arm. “Can you move your arm?”

 

“Yeah,” Daisy said moving her arm slowly, grimacing in pain. “It just hurts.”

 

“What were you thinking?”

 

“I have to get Riley. I can’t trust Leo, you know that!”

 

“I know. But they’re not here.”

 

“Where are they?”

 

“I don’t know. He probably knew you would know it was him and have the cops show up here.”

 

“You don’t have any idea where they may be?”

 

Leeda shook her head. “No, not really. You might try Douglas.”

 

“Douglas? Why?”

 

“There’s a rumor going around that the Chromes are going to patch over a club there. You know Leo: he always wants to be where the action is.”

 

“Do you think that’s where Riley is?”

 

“Daisy, I swear, I would tell you if I knew. I like you and I think you deserve better than that shit Leo. I don’t even know if he’s in Douglas. It’s just a guess, but it’s all I’ve got.”

 

Daisy looked up and met Leeda’s eyes as she gently cleaned the scrape on her head. “Thank you, Leeda. For everything.”

 

“If I hear anything I’ll let you know. You have a number where I can reach you?”

 

“No, I’m sorry. Leo smashed my phone and I haven’t been able to replace it.”

 

“What an asshole! I’m glad you’re divorcing him. I don’t know what Helton sees in him, other than he’s a suck up and a yes man.” Leeda pulled Daisy into a hug. “I hope you get Riley back, and soon. Do you have something to write my number down on? You can call me and I’ll pass along anything I hear.”

 

Daisy limped to her car and after a bit of searching turned up a working pen and scrap of paper. Leeda quickly jotted her number down.

 

“Good luck,” Leeda said as she handed the pen and paper back through the window.

 

“Thank you,” Daisy said as she began the process of trying to start her car.

 

“You deserve better than this. Are you sure that thing will make it to Douglas?” Leeda asked as the car spluttered and died again.

 

“It has to.”

 

She nodded as the Beetle finally coughed to life, lurched with a grinding bang, then backed out of the space, before lurching and banging again and trundling out of the parking lot in a faint cloud of blue smoke. She shook her head and returned to the clubhouse, hoping Daisy would find her son and Leo got what he deserved.

 

***

 

Dixon swung the heap of metal that was Kevin’s Yamaha off the side of the trailer using the hoist and lowered it to a cart. The bike was a total write off, suitable only for crushing, but he had to know what happened. Kevin was too good a rider to crash like he did. Something had to have happened to the bike, some kind of catastrophic failure. Dix had thoroughly checked over the bike before Kevin had ridden it to the Green Hell as Dix followed in the support truck hauling gas, tires and tools. He said the bike rode fine and Dix had only given it a cursory check before sending Kevin out the first time.

 

Dix pushed the bike into the machine shop, staring at the lump that had taken his friend’s life. On the first run Kevin had reported no issues and Dix hadn’t checked the bike before sending him out again. It was clear he’d missed something. He should have checked the bike between the runs, but he hadn’t, and now Kevin was dead and Vicki was a widow. Because of him.

 

He walked around the bike slowly. Everything was so mangled it was going to be hard to tell what had broken before the crash and what was broken as the result of the crash. But he owed Vicki an explanation of what happened, and he’d find it if he could.

 

It had taken almost a week before the police released the bike, or what was left of it anyway, from impound. A week of sleepless nights as his mind replayed the crash over and over.

 

The massive rear swing arm was broken, almost certainly the result of the crash, but the pivot point, while deformed, was intact. He moved around to the front of the bike. The front forks were so badly twisted and misshapen there was no way to know if something happened there, but Kevin would have felt the looseness and reported it long before the failure would have caused him to crash. Even if the both fork tubes blew out the walls of the tubes would have held the assembly together, and the tubes, though twisted and bent, were still intact. Kevin might have shit himself if it happened, but he likely wouldn’t have crashed.

 

Nothing made sense. No oil was sprayed all over the rear of the bike that would indicate engine failure, oil that could have caused Kevin to crash. Everything about the crash pointed to rider error, but Dix couldn’t accept that, not with Kevin, and not on a near straight bit of road. Kevin was too good a rider for that to have happened.

 

He walked around the bike again. The answer was there; he just had to find it. He knelt in front of the bike and begun cutting it apart. He started by cutting the mangled radiator away so he could get to the top engine mount, and had just lit the torch to cut the mount when he noticed a hole in the engine. He killed the torch and set it aside as he examined the hole more closely. He stuck his little finger into the hole, trying to figure out what could have hit it hard enough to punch a hole through the radiator, possibly the front wheel and tire, and still penetrate the engine. His eyes widened as a possible answer came to him. He relit the torch and began to cut.