Cries in the Night (36 page)

“Hey, my name is Reno.”

“What can I do for you?” He held his index finger on the page, marking his place. It wasn’t that he was being rude; he was just distracted by something far more important to him than customers.

I placed the picture of Angela and the stranger on the counter. “Have you seen this girl before?”

The clerk picked it and squinted at it. “She works at the tattoo shop next door, doesn’t she? I think her name is Amy or Angie.”

“Angie, right … ever seen the guy in the picture?”

“I don’t think so … sorry. Does he work next door, too?” He set the photo back down on the counter and pushed it toward me.

“You sure you’ve never seen him?” I picked the picture up off the counter and handed it back to the clerk again.

The young man took it and scanned it more closely under the crook-necked lamp he’d been using to read his textbook. He even pulled a pair of heavy black rimmed glasses off his head and re-examined the picture before shaking his head. “I don’t recognize him, specifically.” He looked around the store nervously, “but there have been a lot of men who look a lot like him coming and going next door.”

“Meaning? Tattooed?” I prompted.

“Tattooed, yes … but I meant … Hispanic,” he whispered as his gaze darted around the empty store. “Some real scary looking dudes, you know?”

“I thought her clients were mostly students,” Jenny stammered, becoming more overwhelmed by the moment.

The clerk shook his head. “Definitely not students … too old and too … dangerous. Straight out of central casting for a Robert Rodriguez film.”

It took a few seconds for me to digest that information. I’d seen all of those films, and they had some chilling characters. “When’s the last time you saw her?”

The door opened and four University students strolled into the store. They headed for the coolers and held the doors open while they debated which beer to buy.

The clerk shrugged. “I don’t know … maybe four days ago.”

“That’s pretty specific.”

“I’m off on Wednesday and Thursday, so it would have to have been Friday.”

“Anything unusual that day? I mean about her?”

“No … not really. I’ve been working on a big project and haven’t paid much attention to what’s going on outside lately.” He shook his head and handed the picture back to me. “Sorry.”

I slid the photo into the pocket of my tight leather pants and pulled a business card out. “Thanks. If you can think of anything else, call me. We don’t have a lot to go on, so any little detail would help.” I slid it across the counter toward the clerk. “Thanks.”

The cow bells clattered noisily as we left and Jenny jumped. Her nerves were stretched thin, and I could understand why. The only thing we had found out so far was that Angela had quite a secret life going on … and her sister knew nothing about it.

It was almost noon when we arrived back at the agency. The early summer heat was pushing the 100 degree mark and the lobby’s temperature hit us like a winter cold front when Jenny and I walked through the front door. Instead of going home, she had asked to come back to the office so we could rehash our discoveries.

Without waiting for me, she led the way to the conference room and took the same chair as before. I assumed she was as hot and thirsty as I was, so I retrieved three bottles of water from the mini-fridge and set them on the table. I knew Dallas was right behind us.

“Let me check in with Liberty and see if she’s found anything. I’ll give the photo to Tulsa to run through the facial recognition program,” I told her. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

Jenny nodded and dumped the contents of the envelope on the table and starting counting.

Liberty was sitting in her office with her foot propped up on a chair. A bright purple cast inscribed with a dozen or more names and a few caricatures encased her foot, leaving just her toes sticking out.

“How’s the ankle today?” I asked.

“It’s itching like crazy,” Liberty replied. “I don’t know if I can take four more weeks of this.”

“I have a saw if you want me to break you out,” I offered with a grin. “There’s hardly any blood on it.”

“If that’s the one you use to saw women in half, I think I’ll pass. You might not know when to stop.”

“So, how’s the research coming?”

“I’m not finding much. It’s a new technology, and they’re still working through the regulations.”

“We’re in the conference room if you want to come down and tell us what you’ve found. Need any help?”

“You could carry my laptop. I can get around pretty well on my crutches, but I haven’t figured out how to carry things.” She closed her laptop, then pulled herself up and balanced on a pair of aluminum crutches.

I picked up the laptop. “I’m going to see if Tulsa can join us. Meet you in the conference room.” I headed to the end of the hall where Tulsa’s office was located while Liberty shuffled toward the conference room with a click-click-click of her crutches.

I stopped in Tulsa’s doorway, and she looked up. She and I had the most similar backgrounds, and yet I knew less about her than anyone else. She was a foster-system drop out and had a chip on her shoulder the size of Ohio. But she was hell on wheels with anything to do with computers.

“Did you find anything?” she asked.

“Nothing concrete. But there are a few things that don’t make sense.” I held out the photo of Angela and the mystery man. “What do you know about facial recognition?”

“Christopher showed me how to use the program, but I haven’t actually done one yet.” She took the photo. “Let me give it a shot.”

“Great. We’re down in the conference room if you get a hit.”

She looked at the photo of the attractive couple, but clearly her focus was on the bare-chested man. “Nice abs.”

“Focus … on the face,” I reprimanded her with a laugh.

“Right.” Tulsa’s agreement was tempered with just a hint of a smile.

I retraced my steps up the hall to the conference room. There were several stacks of hundred dollar bills in front of Jenny.

“$5,600,” Jenny told me before I could ask.

“I was pretty close,” Dallas reminded them. “Too many poker games in the frat house.”

I whistled. “That’s high stakes for college kids.”

“For some of them, it’s chump change. UT attracts some big money.”

“If it had been in chips, I could have given you a quick count,” I told him. “I’ve dealt a few thousand games in between magic gigs.” I set the laptop in front of Liberty who had settled on the seat in the opposite corner so she could prop her leg up on an empty chair. She opened the screen of the small computer and started
clicking the keys. It was amazing how quickly she was picking up modern electronics, especially considering that she had grown up on a commune without electricity, television, computers or cell phones.

“Here’s what I have so far on what it takes to be a tat-removal expert in Texas,” she said. “According to the Texas Department of Health website, you have to use an FDA approved machine and a licensed medical doctor either needs to be present during the removal or one has to sign off that you don’t need to have one there.”

“I’m thinking that’s most of the time,” I commented. “If a doctor has to decide between hanging around for hours for a few hundred dollars while some dumb shit gets his ex-girlfriend’s name zapped off or getting paid while he’s out playing golf … it’s a no-brainer.”

Liberty nodded her agreement as she continued, “You have to register the machine and pay $230 for a two-year license. And oh yeah … they
suggest
you get malpractice insurance. That’s about it, and you’re legal.”

Jenny looked dumbfounded. “I can’t believe Angie went through all that … and I never knew anything about it.”

“Is she generally a rule-follower?” Dallas asked.

“Last week, I would have said absolutely. She wasn’t raised to cut corners and disobey laws.” Jenny cradled her face in her hands with her elbows propped on the table. “Today … I’m not so sure.”

Everyone in the room was silent. I stared at the piles of money, then back to Jenny who was in a state of shock. My hands itched to distract her with a card trick or to make a fuzzy baby bunny appear. Who could resist bunnies? I could make a horse disappear or turn a dove into a bouquet of roses, but I had no idea how to make her sadness and disappointment go away.

Abruptly, she pushed her chair back. “You guys have been really nice. I hope you find out more from the photo or Angie’s computer.”

“We’ll let you know as soon as we do,” I assured her.

Dallas gathered the money into one stack and replaced it in the envelope before handing it her. She stuffed it in her purse as if she was repelled to even have it in her possession. “Thanks for your help.” Her gaze swept around the room, but ended on me. There were dark circles under her big green eyes, and she looked like she hadn’t slept since her sister went missing.

“I’ll walk you out,” I said and hurried to open the conference door for her. We stopped in the lobby. “Listen … Jenny … we’ll do everything we can to find out what happened to her … okay?”

She forced a smile. She was about to speak when the sound of a popular Taylor Swift song came from her purse. She jumped and started scrambling through the small bag to find it. Finally, she pulled the plain black cell phone out and punched the answer button as a shaky smile broke though. “It’s Angie.”

RIP

(Rest in Peace)

CHAPTER ONE

WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, PRESENT DAY

FORT MYERS, FLORIDA

“Slow down.… watch out for that truck … okay, turn right here … hurry, hurry … speed up …”

Kelly was having enough trouble concentrating on driving the big black pick-up truck known as The Stallion and all the moans and groans from the guy sitting in the passenger’s seat wasn’t helping. As she stopped at a red light, she dared to glance over at him.

Austin held his right hand up, trying to stop the flow of blood that had already soaked the beach towel he had wrapped around it. “Just drive … faster….”

The light turned green and the truck surged forward. “Oh, Austin … I am so sorry about this.” Kelly knew she should have made him wait for an ambulance, but he insisted. Technically, she knew how to drive … in an empty parking lot or on the back roads of Texas. She hadn’t driven since she moved to Florida earlier this summer. And it was her first time driving in a city, even one as small as Fort Myers. Having Austin shouting out commands wasn’t helping her confidence behind the wheel.

There was also the issue that she didn’t have her license yet … or even her learner’s permit. Her aunt Jane was an Assistant District Attorney and didn’t take breaking the law lightly, but surely she would understand that this was an emergency. If not, Kelly feared she would be facing another stretch of house arrest. She had just finished being grounded for the first time in all her sixteen years, and it had been horrible.

But she couldn’t worry about that now. It was her fault that the guy who she was secretly crushing on was wounded, and she had to do everything she could to help him. A quick glance in his direction caused her hands to clench tighter on the steering wheel as she saw how red the once white towel had become. Austin’s
tanned, handsome face was pale and his jaw was clenched. “Is it feeling any better?”

“No, it hurts like hell … just stop talking about it, okay?” He groaned again and shook his head. “My dad’s going to kill me.”

“When you get into the emergency room, I’ll give him a call. Where’s your phone?”

“I left it at your house.”

“Good place for it.”

“I didn’t want to break it, so I took it and my wallet out of my pocket and put them on a lawn chair. There’s the hospital on the left.”

“I see it.” She pulled into the emergency entrance next to an ambulance.

“I’m not lame. Park in the lot and I’ll walk in!” Austin snapped.

Not wanting to upset him any more than he already was, she complied, even though she thought it would be a lot quicker if he just got out and went in. The parking lot was almost full, but she finally found a spot several rows away. Kelly didn’t have any practice parking such a large vehicle, so it took her a couple forward and backward adjustments before she was finally able to get into the space. It was one thing to mash his thumb while helping her, but it would be unforgivable if she scratched his precious truck. After putting it in
Park
and taking out the key, she jumped down and ran around to the passenger’s side where Austin was trying to get out while keeping his right hand elevated and protected. Reluctantly, he let her hold the door open and even leaned on her for support so he didn’t jar his hand as he stepped down.

He was right about one thing; there was nothing wrong with his legs. Kelly had to almost jog to keep up with his long strides as they crossed the parking area and finally reached the door to the emergency room at Gulf Coast Medical Center. Once inside they found the registration desk and sat on the two chairs in front of it.