Chapter 17
By the time Bruiser arrived at his apartment complex, it was almost 7:30 PM. The rest of the team were sitting at one of the picnic tables off to the side. All talking ceased as he dropped the picture on the table.
"Who's that?" Railroad asked.
"I'm not sure. Jayden had this man's picture in the background of several sketches he made of Olivia in the past few weeks. When I asked him about it, he said the man was following her around." Bruiser stabbed the drawing with his finger. "I'd bet Cowboy's favorite Stetson this man knows something. If we find him, we'll have a leg up on where she is."
Hick pulled the picture over and studied it. Bruiser noticed for the first time how drawn his friend's face was. How long had it been since he had taken a break? He knew most of them were running on fumes, but Hick was still recuperating.
"When was the last time you got some rest?" He asked Hick.
Lifting one shoulder with a wince, he replied. "Day or two ago. I'm good. We've gone longer than this with less." He dropped the page on the table and readjusted the sling keeping his left arm immobile. "You don't worry about me. We're here for Olivia. I'll sleep when we have her back."
"You're still recuperating," Bruiser began.
Hick stopped him with a slash of his hand in the air. "I said I'm fine. Drop it."
Toad picked the picture up. "Latino maybe? We can take this down to the park area and try to find someone who recognizes him." He passed the page to Railroad.
"Have you given a copy of this to the police?" Railroad lifted the sketch.
"No, I came straight over here. No offense, but I'm not exactly thrilled to put Olivia's return in their hands. They have too much going on with other cases to concentrate solely on this one. However, I will still give them a copy."
"You should." Railroad dropped the drawing onto the table top. "They have more manpower than... we..." He stopped mid-sentence and stood, staring down at the rendering.
"You got something?" Toad asked.
"Finch, Cowboy, look at this picture. Now imagine him in dark sunglasses and no mustache. Who does that remind you of?"
"Son of a motherless mule. It's our friend, Cheesy." Cowboy growled.
"Sure as hell is," Finch added.
Bruiser's heart leaped into his mouth. "You've seen this man?"
"Yeah, just an hour or so ago," Cowboy agreed. "Remember the freight company we went to check out? This man met us at the gate and took us to his boss, Jonathan Jacobson. Jacobson told him to show us around. The guy grinned the whole time, so we called him, Cheesy."
Bruiser grabbed the sketch and jogged to his truck. "I think we need to go have an unescorted look around JRJ Shipping."
Cowboy and Railroad hopped into the SUV with Bruiser while the other three climbed into Finch's pickup. The two vehicles made it to the shipping yard and parked down the road behind some old containers. The team moved together silently as they inched along the access road. Once the coast was clear, they entered the shipping yard. Using hand signals, Bruiser motioned for the team to fan out and start their sweep. They would meet back at this point in ten minutes.
"There's something going on over to the right of that shed. I saw a couple of those personal storage trailers off to the side. Someone was hauling a box full of stuff out of one of them," Railroad whispered.
"Let's go check it out," Bruiser muttered and motioned for Railroad to lead the way.
What they saw set Bruiser's teeth on edge. Two men were in one of the storage containers, scrubbing the interior with brushes while a third pulled over a barrel and began dumping various items inside.
"Shit, they're going to torch it," Cowboy whispered. "Hick, call the cops. Railroad, stay with him and cover us."
The remaining four inched their way along the back of the containers, using the shadows to their advantage. As the two workers jumped out, Toad and Finch took them down with choke holds. Cowboy grabbed the last one who was still by the barrel and threw him on the ground. With one well-placed knee to the middle of his shoulder blades, he was silenced as well. Though they were quick, the shock caused the man to drop a lighter into the barrel. "What the hell?" He yelled as his face kissed the yard.
Bruiser kicked the barrel over and stomped on the burning pile. Finch appeared at his side with an industrial fire extinguisher and put the flames out. Sifting through the scorched items, Bruiser swore. Picking up a smoldering ball of fabric, he shook it out and turned to the rest of the team. It was a dark brown tee shirt with "The Whole World in My Cup" in white letters across the front. A partially melted name tag hung limply from the upper left side. Even in the growing darkness, Bruiser could make out the name.
Olivia
"I told you, I don't know anything." The man spat at Cowboy angrily. "I was told to burn some old shit that was left in the storage container. I don't know where it came from."
"Liar." Railroad kicked away from the wall and stalked over to Cheesy's side. "Let me explain something to you. I have a special ability; I see what others don't. I notice subtle things like breathing, eye movements, and body language. I can tell when someone is lying to me and you are cooking up a big one. We know for a fact you were following Olivia for the last few weeks. We know the last time she was seen, she was wearing that shirt," he nodded toward the pile of clothes on the table.
Cheesy's eyes widened, and he swallowed. His muscles bulged as he pulled on the wire-ties holding him to the rack bolted to the floor of Cowboy's garage. "The cops are gonna come looking for me."
The door opened, and Hick stepped through. "Not here and not today they won't. However, they do want to talk to you about her disappearance. It seems you weren't as stealthy as you thought. There's an eyewitness who saw you following her on many occasions." He shrugged. "They are searching for you down near the border."
"So what, that doesn't prove anything. I'll have you all brought up on wrongful imprisonment charges."
Cowboy leaned in until his nose was less than two inches from Cheesy’s face. "I guess you didn't get the memo, jackass. We are Navy SEALs. We can make you disappear so fast, your own mother will second guess your existence. You see, the person in question is our brother's lady. That makes her our sister. He's not happy at the moment, and that makes us unhappy. He's already faced one review board for almost beating a man to death over hurting a stranger. How do you think he's going to respond to someone withholding information about his fiancé?"
Cheesy slowly shifted to the left until he could see Bruiser leaning against the wall of the garage. He had taken out his Ka-bar and was flipping it into the air. Not taking his eyes off Cheesy, Bruiser watched the man, unblinking, as he caught the knife. Cheesy swallowed, making his Adam's apple bob nervously.
"I've had enough," Bruiser snarled and lunged forward. Gripping the Ka-bar in his fist, he shoved Cowboy out of the way and grabbed Cheesy's shirt. "You don't know anything? Fine. I don't have the time to dick around with you. I've got to find my woman." He drew his fist with the blade back and gave a feral grin.
"Shit!" Railroad yelled and lunged forward. "Bruise, man, you don't want to do this. What about your career?"
"Screw the career. This prick knows where Olivia is. If he doesn't start talking, he’s gonna stop breathing."
It took only one glance at the insane fury burning in Bruiser's eyes for the man to make the right decision. "She's at Treasures! Don't kill me!" Cheesy screamed at the top of his lungs as the strong stench of urine filled the room. "The warehouse two blocks over from the shipping yard. Precious Treasures. I swear! She's there!"
Bruiser brought his fist forward and stopped the blade a quarter inch from Cheesy's eye.
The pressure was too much for the man. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he slumped in the chair.
Bruiser straightened and resheathed his knife. The team broke out in applause.
"Damn fine job, Bruise. You even had me scared there for a minute," Toad called out.
"I was afraid he wouldn't go for it," Cowboy muttered.
Finch laughed. "Nothing like a little 'good SEAL, bad SEAL' to get the creative juices flowing."
"Meh." Hick shrugged. "I give the performance an eight out of ten. The execution was spot on, but the ending was predictable."
"What you want to do with diaper baby here?" Railroad stood over the man with a frown on his face.
"Leave him. We'll take care of him later. Right now, we need to get to Precious Treasures."