Chapter 6
She parked beside the jeep and crept out of her car. Any other day, she’d be miles away from here, but, for a lead to save Tammy, she’d brave even this part of town. Thankfully the men were up ahead somewhere. She didn’t know how helpful it would be if they saw her, as they would be quite pissed. But she couldn’t afford to be left behind. Tammy was out there somewhere, just like Daniel was out there somewhere. And she was pretty damn sure, if she found one, she’d find the other. She crept into the building, her skin crawling with heightened sensations.
The dark shadows shifted with menace, echoing the emptiness that smelled of urine and spoke of danger. Shivering but determined, she took several cautious steps forward, searching the hallways and the rooms on the ground floor. All were completely empty. The men had to be here somewhere. Hearing footsteps, she hid behind a post. She wasn’t sure if it was one of the guys or somebody else. Then she realized the footsteps were from a single person, creeping up the stairs. Shit. She bit her lip and made a quick decision.
The men were here, and, if they weren’t on the main floor, they had to be upstairs with an intruder sneaking up on them. She hoped she hadn’t signed her death warrant as she neared the stairwell and found it empty. Had she mistaken what she’d heard? Sticking to one side, she crept up the stairs, relieved when she heard Saul’s voice. So the men were here. When Saul said, “Dead man,” her heart froze.
She raced quietly in the direction of the voices, stopped at the doorway and studied the room. She could see the men standing around a crumpled figure on the floor. From the corner of her eye, she caught the whisper of a shadow and thought of the footsteps she thought she’d heard earlier. She backtracked to an earlier room and ducked inside.
She pulled out her phone and risked its backlight giving away her position by sending Saul a quick text. You are not alone. She gripped her cell phone to her shirt, hiding the backlight, which should turn off soon. Hopefully before the wrong guy saw it and found her. She didn’t even have a weapon. How foolish of her.
She did a quick survey of her surroundings. Nothing was here, not even a stick. This place was full of dust and garbage. It looked like it had been abandoned years ago. She waited in the shadows, her breath raspy. Instinct told her to run downstairs to her car and to get the hell out of here before she got involved in something she couldn’t get herself out of.
She backed up along the wall until she hit a corner and waited quietly. From her vantage point, she would hopefully see anybody who entered this room before they saw her. Maybe, if the intruder stepped in far enough, she could scoot out behind him and through the doorway, giving her a few seconds head start.
She jumped when her phone vibrated in her hand. She again risked her cell’s backlight being seen by the bad guy to read the message. From Saul.
Stay hidden.
Really? You think I’m an idiot? Of course I’m staying hidden. Well, as best she could in an empty warehouse. She was tucked in a corner with walls on each side, her own phone lighting up to give away her position, but she had nowhere else to hide.
Then she heard footsteps running down the hallway, just on the other side of the same wall she was behind. And a kerfuffle ensued with raised voices, but they were now too far away for her to hear clearly. She gasped silently and sank to the floor. Next came the yelling.
“Rebel, are you there?”
She froze. That was Saul’s voice. Or was it? What if it was someone else? Maybe it was a trick.
Then she heard Merk. “Rebel, it’s okay. They are gone. Where are you?”
Then things got quiet. Too quiet.
She could hear heavy breathing nearby where she hadn’t seen anyone earlier. Was the intruder in the room with her? Was he just outside in the hallway, leaning against the same wall she leaned against? Someone else was in this building. She froze, tried to still the panic within.
From her current position, she could hear the breathing—breathing where there shouldn’t have been any. Breathing that said somebody else lay here in wait.
“She has to be here.”
“Unless she’s still hiding.”
“Or she took off?”
“Where? Back to her car.”
She closed her eyes, sending Saul a mental cry for help.
“Shh.”
Silence descended.
Even the breathing near her had stopped.
She hugged her chest to her knees, while she held her breath and waited as footsteps approached. The sound of one person. Closer and closer and closer. She wanted to cry out. She shoved her hand over her mouth to still the screams threatening to erupt. She closed her eyes and listened to distant racing footsteps and the shouts of men as everyone took chase on the opposite end of this floor. So when a light shone on her face, she screamed.
“It’s okay. It’s me,” Saul said. “It’s okay.”
She stared up at him, frozen. He reached out his arms and hauled her to her feet, wrapping her tight against his chest. Just that solid security of knowing he was here, that she wasn’t alone, that the heavy breather wouldn’t find her unprotected and vulnerable and open to attack, had her wrapping her arms around him and squeezing him tight. It took a few minutes of his hands gently stroking up and down her back for her to realize how badly she was shaking. He murmured gentle words against her ear. Words she barely understood. She focused on that.
“It’s okay. Calm down, Rebel. It’s all right.”
Finally she tilted her head back and took a deep breath. “Did you find him?”
“Find who?”
She pointed to the doorway. “A man outside that door. I could hear him breathing. Just a heavy, rasping, guttural tone that terrified me.”
He bolted out the door. She could hear his footsteps. She winced, hating to be left alone again, but he returned almost as fast. “Whoever it was is gone now.” He paused. “And that’s why you didn’t call out when we yelled for you?”
She stared at him, her gaze still wide with fright. “I didn’t dare give away my position. He was closer than you were.”
Saul nodded. “I wondered.” He gave her a gentle shake. “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you stay away?”
“Even though I’m terrified of this place, I wanted to be here. If I can find out anything that will help me save my friend, I’m doing it,” she said with a hard determination. “I don’t care if it’s stupid or if it’s dangerous.”
He groaned. “I know it’s hard, honey. I know that. But you are not helping Tammy by getting hurt yourself. Or by distracting us from a murderer and now this other guy.”
She brushed loose strands of hair off her forehead. “I know that. Really I do, but what am I supposed to do? I’d do anything to save her.”
He turned and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her from the room. “Is this where you thought you saw someone standing?” He pointed to the wall just outside the room she’d been in.
Rebel nodded. “Yes.”
He turned his flashlight to study the spot. Outside of misshapen footprints in the dust, there was nothing.
“Any idea who it was?” she asked.
“No. We found a dead man, homeless from the looks of it. Only he’s not been dead long.”
“You’re sure it’s not Daniel?”
He glanced at her. “It’s not Daniel, and I doubt Daniel killed him.”
She shrugged. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because we know his brother. Daniel could be a loser in life and someone who we would like to see buck up, take responsibility and be a better man, but that doesn’t mean he’s a complete write-off. Whenever there’s an opportunity, we give people that chance.”
*
Her dedication to finding her friend was admirable. But, Christ, he’d almost had a heart attack when he’d seen her crouched in the corner. But he knew there was no talking to her. Loyalty was something he could understand. Even hard-headed bullheadedness. It was impossible to talk her out of these attitudes which he could fully relate to. He knew she was determined to follow them. But, when he had seen the docks’ surroundings, the abandoned buildings and the overall decrepit state of the area, he’d hoped she had turned around. Or at least stayed in her car. But, of course, she hadn’t. When they’d found the dead man, Dakota had taken off in the direction of his murderer, but obviously more than one intruder had been here.
It chilled him inside to think she had heard a man’s breathing, heavy and harsh enough to be positioned very near her, like on the opposite side of one interior wall. Not much structurally between them. He didn’t know if she had any self-defense training to handle herself in a situation like this, but nobody ever had enough skills. Being here was asking for trouble. He was just grateful he’d found her before anything else bad happened.
He nudged her toward where he’d left Stone. Although Saul didn’t think anybody was still around, he couldn’t leave the homeless man here; yet Saul didn’t want her to see the dead body either. “Let’s join the others. It’ll be chaos soon. The cops are on the way.”
She glanced at him. “Will they care enough to find out who died? Who did this to him?”
He nodded. “Yes, they will. With the slit throat this guy has, it was a little too professional.”
“So it’s more about the killer of the victim?” she asked incredulously.
He frowned at her. “That’s not what I meant. Don’t twist my words around.”
She snapped, “Why? I haven’t seen the cops exactly jumping on Tammy’s case.”
“You don’t know they haven’t done anything either. The problem is, she’s disappeared, and they can only follow so many leads before they hit a dead end. When they do, what do you expect them to do next? They can’t just pull her out of thin air. If she has willfully disappeared, she’s done a hell of a good job of it. If she’s been kidnapped or killed, and no signs were left behind, it’s very hard to investigate further when they’ve exhausted what leads they do have. Sometimes you have to sit and wait.”
“I know that,” she said. “I’m just so frustrated because I can’t find anything.”
“And the police have a lot more resources available. They haven’t forgotten her. Plus finding out more about this man and his murderer are as important to giving the dead man’s family closure as it could be to finding Daniel and Tammy.”
She shrugged off his hand and distanced herself by moving away another step.
He turned to see Merk, Stone and Dakota walking toward them. “Did you get them?”
“No,” Stone snapped, obviously aggravated.
“Both of them escaped?” Rebel asked, her voice incredulous. “From the four of you?”
The men turned their gazes on her, anger and frustration clearly etched on their faces. Saul reached out and squeezed her arm. “Yes, both. It’s dark. This is their space. They would have bolt-holes that we don’t know about.”
She sighed. “Look, I’m sorry. I’m not accusing you of not being good enough or anything. I was just so hoping we would find something useful here.”
“And maybe we will. Have patience.” Saul turned to the others. “I guess there is no power in this place, is there?”
“Even if the power was still connected, no working lightbulb has been left here,” Dakota said from his side. “Cops are about ten minutes out. I already called this in to Ice.”
“Right, she’ll connect this case to Tammy’s and Daniel’s cases.”
“Well, that’s something,” Rebel said. “Maybe if they bring in forensics, they could find something.” She turned to study the building and then shrugged. “Although how they could possibly find anything of value here, I don’t know.”
“And that’s the problem. No police department has the resources to fingerprint a massive place like this or to check for DNA among all this trash. This place is a squatter’s paradise and a veritable hygienic nightmare. It’s been used by the homeless for decades probably.”
Merk shone his cell phone light on the victim and said, “Anybody run his ID?”
Dakota spoke up. “I did. There’s nothing on him.”
“Did you check his shoes?” Rebel asked.
The men turned to look at her.
She shrugged. “I’ve heard stories of some homeless people keeping their valuables in their shoes. Everybody steals from these homeless people’s pockets and backpacks, their carts and their bags, but nobody steals a homeless man’s ratty shoes. The only time the shoes on a homeless person are removed is when they’re dead.”
Dakota stepped forward and said, “I didn’t check. But I will now.” He pulled a pair of gloves from his pocket, slipped them on and pulled the shoes off the man’s feet. Underneath the sole of one was a twenty-dollar bill. “Interesting.”
“A twenty is a lot of money for this man.”
The other shoe held a locket.
Rebel rushed forward. “Let me see that,” she snapped.
Dakota laid it in his gloved hands. “Don’t touch it, just in case.”
She shook her head. “There won’t be any fingerprints left on that,” she said. “I need to open it. It looks very much like Tammy’s.”
Having difficulty with the tiny mechanism, finally Dakota managed to open the locket. Inside lay a picture of a woman and a child. “It’s Tammy’s.” Rebel stared down at the dead man. “Where did he find Tammy’s locket?”
“That could explain why he’s dead,” Saul said in a determined voice. “Come here away from the body please.”
She turned to look at him. “Are you squeamish?”
“No, I’m not. But I do like to honor the dead.”
She cringed. “Again I’m sorry. I just get so focused on one thing, and I tend to forget all the niceties that go with it.”
“As much as we admire your determination to help your friend, you can’t impede the police investigation. Somebody killed this man, and he deserves justice as much as the person who may have hurt Tammy.”
She nodded and stepped back. “Still this is a clue. Somehow in this man’s travels, which I can’t imagine were very far, he came across Tammy’s locket. That it’s in his shoe means either it was worth keeping or he wanted to hide it.” She turned to Dakota. “Was anything in his pockets?”
He shook his head. “They’d been cleaned out.”
She nodded. “Chances are somebody was looking for the locket.”
“That’s an assumption we can’t afford to make,” Merk warned. “We follow evidence. We find clues. Assumptions are good in terms of discussing hypotheses and options. However, we can’t count on them yet.”
She groaned and stared at the dark ceiling. “I understand that. I just need to find Tammy.”
Saul looked at her. “We understand when a friend goes missing. That’s why we’re here.” He studied her for a long moment. “Is there another reason as well?”
“No. She’s just a very good friend of mine.”
Then they heard the sirens. Dakota said, “I’ll direct them up.”
As soon as he disappeared, Rebel said, “I’ll go downstairs and wait.”
“Wait for what?” Merk asked.
She shot him a look. “Wait for whatever you guys do next.”
“Meaning, if we don’t include you, you’ll follow us?” Stone asked.
Stone was such a big man but such a gentle giant. Rebel took no offense. “Yes, I will. If you lead me to Daniel, Daniel leads me to Tammy.” She spun on her heels downstairs in the dark.
Saul glanced at the others, his gaze questioning. They looked at each other and then nodded. “Okay,” Saul said, “I’ll stay with her. Let me know how this goes.”