Lucy had been surprised to see Jeff the chef standing near the rear of the restaurant when she exited the washroom.
“Hi Jeff, what are you doing here?”
“It’s all you can eat pasta night. After all the cooking I do at work, I don’t want to see another pot or pan.”
“I can understand that. Where are you sitting?” She glanced over her shoulder looking for an empty table.
“I haven’t got a seat yet. I was hanging back here hoping to talk to the chef. The King’s Plate is okay, but I want to move up in the world and I thought he might have some info on a place that wants more kitchen staff. The chef world is pretty tight knit, you know?”
She didn’t, however she nodded in agreement. “Oh, what happened with your car? I didn’t get to see you today to ask.”
“Yeah, my car.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, would you believe I found it? Someone probably took it for a joy ride and then left it parked around the corner.”
“That’s incredible. Good luck for you though. It would have cost a lot to replace it.”
“Right.” He shuffled his feet and glanced beyond her.
She was keeping him from speaking to the chef, probably. “Well, I’ll talk to you tomorrow at—”
“You know what was strange?” He spoke over her words. “There was a dent in the hood, like something big had bounced off it.”
His comment had her freezing in place as an idea began to form in her head. Had someone stolen Jeff’s car and then used it to run Armand down? Hadn’t that been one of the ideas they’d considered and dismissed? Maybe it wasn’t so crazy after all.
“Jeff, what colour is your car?”
“Brown.”
The same colour as the hit-and-run car! She glanced towards her table where Armand and Roxi seemed deep in conversation; it was nice that they were getting along. She hated to interrupt them, especially if her idea was wrong.
“Jeff, can I see your car?”
“Um…sure. But why?”
“Just something I’m wondering about. I…uh…saw a car racing down the street the other day. It was brown. Maybe it was the joyriders.”
“Really? Well then, yeah, come take a look. I’m actually parked out back in the staff area; there were no spots on the street. This is a really popular place.” He led her to the back door and into the alley. “It’s over there, just beyond the dumpster.”
A few yards away, she could see the bumper of a car. It looked to be the right shade of brown and the correct model. “Jeff, I think that’s it!”
She was going to take a closer look when something hit her in the back, knocking her to the ground. Landing hard on her hands and knees, her cry of surprise barely passed her lips before a rag was shoved in her mouth. What felt like a foot pressed her flat as her ankles and wrists were tied. When she struggled, her head was pushed down against the pavement. There was a snapping sound and she felt her glasses slipping on her face, then she was jerked upright and something, maybe a pillowcase, was pulled over her head.
No! She silently shouted, squirming as hands ran over her body.
What was going on?
Where was Jeff?
Or was he the one frisking her?
Questions streamed through her mind in rapid succession as panic muddled her thinking and survival instincts had her continuing to struggle to free herself, tossing her head, screaming through the cloth in her mouth. She hit something hard with the back of her head, perhaps a chin or a cheekbone for her captor swore.
“Dammit, that hurt. Hurry up, I can barely hold her.” It was Jeff speaking!
“It’s not on her. Shit!”
And the other voice belonged to Kathy! Shocked, Lou stopped struggling for a minute. Kathy and Jeff were in cahoots? She’d never suspected the two of them!
“You should have just told her it was yours when she showed it to you at the diner.” There was accusation in Jeff’s tone.
“Well, why didn’t you speak up then?”
“Because of that guy she suddenly had sniffing around her. We needed to be cautious. Seems pretty strange that he showed up right after she got her hands on it.”
Kathy sniffed. “And yet you complained when I tried to take him out.”
“Only because you used my car. It was like painting a neon sign on my back. I kept expecting the cops to arrest me.”
“I made sure the plates were too dirty to be read.”
“I don’t care. You still should have used a different car.” There was an edge of anger in his voice.
“Your keys were available.”
“You—”
Kathy interrupted him. “Give it a rest. We have more important things to worry about, like the fact we’re running out of time.”
“Yeah, we need the info and we need it now.” Jeff’s fingers tightened, digging into her flesh. “Where is it?” His voice sounded by her ear. “Tell us and you won’t get hurt.”
“And don’t play dumb. You know what we want.”
She mumbled through the rag in her mouth.
“I’m taking the rag out. You scream or make any noise except answering our question and you’ll be sorry, you understand?” Kathy’s voice hissed in her ear. “You know how Jeff likes to play with knives.”
Jeff? Sweet harmless Jeff who wanted to be on TV? It was hard to fathom but the deadly sincerity in Kathy’s voice sent an icy chill through her. She nodded, the bag was pulled from over her head and the rag removed. She quickly worked her lips, trying to moisten her mouth so she could speak.
“Now where’s the memory stick?” Jeff gave her a shake.
“My dresser. It’s on my dresser in my apartment.” Telling them what they wanted to know might not have been the best move, but in her mind, she was envisioning Jeff dicing carrots in the kitchen, his knife almost a blur. She wasn’t hero material, at least not for something like industrial spying. No lives were at stake except hers. The plans for the latest gizmo weren’t worth dying over.
“Good girl.” Kathy wasted no time shoving the rag back in Lou’s mouth and once again blinding her with the bag. “Shove her in the trunk. We keep her alive until we have the data back, just in case she was lying to us.”
“Right.”
“I’ll take your car—”
“My car again?”
“You expect me to use the bus? Don’t be stupid.”
There was a moment of silence and Lou imagined them glaring at each other before Kathy spoke again.
“Anyway, I’ll search her apartment. Use the scent mask to cover our tracks and we’ll meet back at the diner.”
“We’re almost out of the mask. Maybe we should save it. Didn’t your supplier say he couldn’t get you any more for at least a week?”
“Yeah, we’ve been using tons of the stuff to keep under the radar of the local pack but if the bear picks up our scent here, he’ll connect it to the diner. We can’t afford to have him tracking us now.”
Bear? Scent mask? She had no idea what they were talking about and didn’t really care. The idea of being locked in a trunk was foremost in her mind.
Armand, help!
Of course, yelling his name was pointless. She was hefted like a sack of potatoes, there was a metallic creak and then she was dropped into the trunk. Another metallic screech was rapidly followed by a thunk as the lid slammed shut cutting off what little light she’d been able to see through the bag covering her head.
The vehicle reversed out of the parking spot and then began to move forward, the floor below her vibrating as they travelled over cracked pavement and clunked through potholes. In her mind she mapped out where they were going; down the alley, stopping, turning and then the sounds of other vehicles let her know they’d merged into traffic.
Snippets of advice as to what to do if you were ever trapped in a trunk filled her mind. Emergency release levers, kicking out the tail lights; unfortunately, they never mentioned how to complete those actions if you were trussed up like a turkey and couldn’t see the latches let alone reach them. There wasn’t much she could do so she thrashed about, kicking the sides of the trunk in the hopes someone on the sidewalk might notice the noise and call the police. It wasn’t very likely but right now, it seemed the only hope she had.
Armand was putting his credit card away when Roxi appeared at his side and tugged on his arm.
“We need to talk. Now!” She hissed the words at him, all the while glancing around.
There was an urgency in her voice that had him agreeing without question and he followed her to the back of the restaurant.
“What’s wrong? Where’s Lucy?”
“She’s gone. She’s not in the washroom. She’s not in the restaurant. I even looked in the alley. There’s no sign of her anywhere.”
The news sent a chill through him and for a split second he stood still, absorbing the information, regulating his emotional response and focusing on solving the problem. Then he side-stepped around Roxi and headed for the women’s washroom to check the stalls.
“I’ve already done that.” Roxi stood in the doorway nervously nibbling on her thumbnail.
“Right.” He scanned the room taking in the sink, the paper towel dispenser, the beige metal partitions. Of course, Roxi had looked but he’d needed to see for himself. “The window’s too high and too small for her to have exited that way. There’s no other way out, no sign of a struggle.” He automatically began to list and eliminate possibilities. “I can detect her scent though.”
“So…?”
He brushed past Roxi, focused on following Lucy’s trail. It led towards the rear of the building. “She went this way and,” he frowned, “there was a shifter here with her. It’s the same scent I noticed at the restaurant this afternoon.”
“So the bad guy must be someone who works at the diner!”
He shook his head. “I didn’t notice the scent of shifters when I was there on other days.”
“Then that means some random shifter must have come looking for her earlier in the day, not knowing she’d switched shifts!” Roxi gave a decisive nod.
Whatever the case, all sorts of warning bells were sounding in his head. It took great restraint to not rip the back door off its hinges and burst into the alley with a roar. There was only a slim chance that Lucy’s abductor was out there but, just in case, he didn’t want to startle the person into doing something stupid. Instead, he eased the door open, listening intently, testing the air, before stepping outside.
He was met by dumpsters, weeds, stray garbage, cracked pavement and a few cars parked in a small area marked ‘employees only’ but there was no sign of Lucy or anyone else.
“Well, this proves my theory about the flash drive.” Roxi planted her hands on her hips.
Not really listening, he inspected the area, sifting through the myriad of scents that filled the alley while looking for visual clues as to what might have happened. Lucy’s trail indicated she’d walked to the left after leaving the building. He headed that way.
Roxi followed him, still talking. “The info on the drive is valuable to some shifter and whoever it is, isn’t going to let it slip through their fingers. It has to be the leaked data from Lycan Link.”
Something glinted in the light that managed to shine down the alley, the sun beginning its descent and at just the right angle to illuminate the narrow space. Bending down, he picked up the oval glass object; a cracked lens from a pair of glasses. Lucy’s glasses. He carefully rubbed his thumb over the surface, thinking how he’d disliked the eyewear. Now this was all he had left of her. Tucking the remains into his pocket, he stood up, imagining how terrified she must be, unable to see properly, trying to defend herself...
Roxi kept chattering away about her theory. “The shifter that owned the drive must have followed us here, then nabbed Lulu when he saw she was by herself. She didn’t have the drive on her – I saw her set it on her dresser when she was getting ready for dinner—so the guy must have kidnapped her, maybe planning to exchange her for the flash drive.”
He walked a bit farther, still following Lucy’s scent, only to stop as if he’d hit a wall. The scent had disappeared. Shaking his head, he stepped back and tried again, scenting the air, finding Lucy’s trail, following it and then…nothing. It made no sense. About to try again, his nose twitched, and he gave a violent sneeze quickly followed by two more.
“What’s wrong? Are you getting sick?” Roxi seemed to have finished theorizing and was now noticing his actions.
“Sick? No. But something is wrong.” He ran a hand through his hair as he tried to puzzle through what was happening. “I can’t follow the trail.”
“I thought you shifter kinds had super sniffers.”
“We do. Bears are excellent at picking up scents but this one ends in mid-air.”
His bear growled in frustration. A scent trail does not just vanish.
Roxi snapped her fingers. “I bet the kidnapper used a scent mask! I’ve heard rumours about them. It’s something Lycan Link developed a few years ago.”
“A scent mask?” He searched his memory trying to recall if Ryne had ever mentioned Lycans having such a thing. “How does this scent mask work? Is there a way to counteract it?”
She shrugged. “No idea. I only gather the info, I don’t ask for instructions.”
He gritted his teeth, barely keeping his voice even. “Then you need to go looking for that information right now.”
“Looking? Uh-uh.” She shook her head. “I don’t look, I gather. If people are careless enough to leave stuff lying about or talk when I’m around, that’s their problem. I just collect the crumbs and offer them to those who want them. But I don’t go around asking about stuff. It draws too much attention.”
“Then it’s time you learn the reverse of the process.” There was a rumble in his voice as he pinned her with a hard stare, making no effort to hold back his inner animal. The animal was raging inside, eyes flashing, teeth bared, wanting to break free, needing to vent its anger.
She took a step back. “Okay, okay, no need to go feral. Yeesh, you shifter types can be so temperamental.” She made a face. “I think I know a guy who could help if he’s still in town. Let me see what I can do.”
He gave a nod. “I’ll head back to the apartment and locate the USB. Assuming she’s been kidnapped, it will be our bargaining chip to ensure her safety.”
“Good idea. I’ll meet you back there. If my guy is around and has any info, it shouldn’t take me too long. I’ll go make some phone calls.” Pulling out her cell phone, she headed back into the restaurant muttering to herself. “I’ll probably owe him for the rest of my life.”
Armand clenched his hands into fists and slowly turned in a circle. Eyes narrowed, he examined every surface, every corner, double-checking he hadn’t missed some clue as to who had taken Lucy and where. He hated to leave the alley, it was the last place she had been, but staying proved nothing. Every minute wasted chipped away at the chances of finding Lucy unharmed.
With a frustrated growl, he headed back to her apartment.
Jimmy gave a snort and stirred in his chair waking from a sound sleep. He yawned and scratched his chest then levered the recliner upright. His neck was stiff, having fallen asleep in front of the TV as he so often did. Rubbing the protesting muscles, he stared at the screen watching the woman on the shopping network extol the virtues of a scarf that could be worn a dozen different ways.
“Yeah, like I need one of those.” He clicked the remote to turn off the TV and pushed himself to his feet.
The drone of the fan mixed with the faint sound of the aquarium water. He tapped the glass and his goldfish swam closer knowing the sound meant feeding time. They darted back and forth as he dropped the food flakes into the water.
“Greedy little beggars.” He set the can of fish food back on the shelf. “Enjoy your dinner. I’m going to get another beer.”
He shuffled to the fridge and found a can, popped it open and took a long drink, idly looking out the window. There was a car in the alley, which wasn’t that unusual. Turning to go back to his chair, he looked at the vehicle again.
The sun was setting but there was still ample light to see. The car was an older model and in pretty bad shape with a dent in the hood and rusty fenders. He made note of the license plate; an old habit from his cop days. Yeah, he’d been a good cop, given a commendation when he’d been on the force barely a year. Ha! He’d still been wet behind the ears and thinking he’d save the world…
His gaze grew distant as he remembered his glory days. He’d been so proud of that badge and uniform. Yep, those were the days. Nothing like that happened anymore. He was retired now, had been for what? Twenty years? Maybe more. He couldn’t really remember. All he knew was his pension cheques didn’t stretch as far as they used to. Good thing he had this job as a building superintendent. It helped make ends meet. Well, that and a few carefully-placed bets. He took another drink and then belched before looking at the car again.
It seemed to be rocking about. Probably dumb kids making out in the back seat. He remembered when he’d been nimble enough to do that. Chuckling, he considered going out there and banging on the hood. Scare the shit out of them. That would be fun. Of course, kids today could just as likely pull a knife on you and he didn’t want to get carved up like a ham.
Yeah, he’d stay inside, find a game to watch or maybe a rerun of a cop show. He liked to watch those and find all the discrepancies. Real police work was nothing like what they showed on TV.
He was wandering back towards his chair when the sound of someone entering the building caught his attention. His apartment door was partially open so he could watch the comings and goings of the building’s occupants. As the building super, it was his job to keep an eye on things after all.
“Who are you?” He studied the woman who was about to mount the stairs. Short, sharp features, reddish hair; he mentally noted her appearance.
“I’m here to see Lou.” She smiled at him and took a step forward.
“Nope. She ain’t home.” He shook his head. “She and her friends left for dinner.”
“Well, I’ll wait for her outside her apartment.” Once again, the woman moved to climb the stairs.
“No can do. It’s against the rules. No loitering.” He shook his head. “No one can hang out in the hallway.” That was his job. Enforce the rules. Like when he’d been a cop.
“But…” Her smile had vanished and there was a hard, impatient look about her now.
He pushed off from the doorframe, drawing on his background to inject a firmness to his tone. “Rules are rules. Gotta follow them. You’ll have to wait outside until they get home.”
The woman huffed and then stormed out of the building. He gave a satisfied nod and stood there watching to ensure she didn’t return. Yeah, he was still as good a cop as he’d always been; he wasn’t too old, regardless of what anyone said.
He cocked his head at the sound of a car starting. It came from the alley. Had those kids been making out in the woman’s car? He laughed at the idea. That would put an extra twist in her sour expression!
Well, he’d better go patrol the halls. Roxi had said there’d been trouble in the neighbourhood. Couldn’t leave his tenants unprotected. Yeah, he took good care of the building. Just the other day, he’d helped put that new window in. Giving himself a congratulatory toast, he took another swig of beer and began to do his rounds.