Deadly News: A Thriller (8 page)

“Hold up,” she called to Fe, as the door shut behind her. She answered. “Hello?”

“Hello Abby.”

“Hi. Who’s this?”

“Who, what? Where, does it matter? No.”

Abby waved frantically at Fe. Maybe they could trace the call? Or would they know already where it was coming from? Unless he was using a burner.

Fe held out her hands, mouthed ‘What?’

‘It’s them,’ Abby mouthed. It had to be. Or a prank call. Either way, tracing it would be a good idea.

“Abby,” the voice said, almost playfully. “Are you there? Please tell me, you didn’t, drop the call.”

“I’m here. Who is this?”

“I think you know. I think, I think,” he repeated, putting emphasis on ‘think’, “that you know exactly, and, so does your friend there. Say hi to her for me.”

“My friend?”

“Oh I’m sorry. Is she not your friend? Officer Fe?”

Abby said nothing. She looked around for anyone, any cameras. There weren’t even windows though. Then her eyes fell on the peepholes in each and every hotel room door. Suddenly, nowhere felt safe. She gestured for Fe to open the door to their room again.

She frowned, but did so.

“Abby Melcer? What are you doing?”

“I’m going to hang up if you don’t tell me who you are and what you want.”

He sighed, like one might sigh at their child. “Very well, if you insist on forcing my hand.”

The two of them entered back into the room, and Abby quietly shut and locked the door, then put a finger to her lips and put her phone on speaker.

“I want,” he continued, “we want you. As for who I am? That’s not something you need be concerned with.” There was a pause, then he said, sounding like he was smiling, “Am I on speaker?” A chuckle. “How quaint,” he added quietly.

Shit, Abby didn’t know what to say. “You want me?” At least this confirmed that her bait-plan might have worked.

“Of course we do. The problem is how to get you. Not as easy as it was.”

“What do you want me for?”

“Oh, nothing. Just to talk.”

“What about?”

“Oh, look at the time. I have to go. I just wanted to check in with you, let you know that we’re still here for you. Talk to you soon.”

“What do you—” Abby stopped herself as the call time stopped ticking and started flashing. “Fuck!”

Fe was breathing fast, lower lip entirely in her mouth. “We can contact the phone company, see where it was coming from.” She looked at the phone, Abby, phone. “He sounded crazy.”

Abby let out a burst of air. “No shit.”

“Could be an act,” Fe said more calmly, seeming to parse the situation. “I’m not so comfortable leaving here now.”

“I agree, but probably for a different reason. I think he could see us.”

“See us?”

“Yeah, he said he could. Like he was watching us.”

Fe shook her head. “Nope. Even if he could somehow get access to the cameras, there are none out there. Safer that way for us, and the identity of anyone we’re protecting.”

“I noticed. But there were doors.”

“The rooms? We would have heard him talking.”

“Maybe not. I can’t think of any other way he would know. Maybe he—or they—had someone looking out a peephole.”

Fe was still shaking her head, but she said, “I’m going to call for backup, just in case. We’ll stay here till then. I don’t think anything would happen, but…”

Abby nodded. “Yeah. Better safe than sorry.”

Fe went to the door and fastened the security latch. “Shit. You know, this is the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”

“Great.”

“Eh, I know.” She then pulled her phone from her pocket and made a call. “Lieutenant, it’s Heighton.

“I’m here with Abby Mel—

“Right. Well, she just got a strange call.

“Got it in one.

“Oh yeah, on speaker, I heard most of it.” She looked at Abby. “What’s your number?”

Abby gave it.

Fe relayed this to the lieutenant. “That’s just what I was about to ask.

“I do. If nothing else, maybe we can see who they are. Abby thinks, based on some of the things the caller said, that he could see us.

“That was her idea, him or someone working with him.” She looked to Abby again. “How detailed was it? How much did he know? Did he say anything about Ecks?”

“Damn”—Abby shook her head, exhaled—“he knew you were with me. I— I can’t really remember what else, I was shocked, you know. Nothing about Ecks though. I—” She shook her head again. “No, that’s all I can remember for sure.” Seeing Fe’s look, she hastily added, “But it was a strong impression, enough that I wanted to come back in here.”

“You did seem spooked,” she said to Abby, then, back into the phone, “LT?

“Yeah, she’s not sure. He knew he was on speaker though.” Fe nodded as she listened. “Thanks.

“Yeah, that’s the room.

“Straight to your office, I won’t even let her use the bathroom.

“Okay.” She hung up. “Looks like we’ve got some waiting to do.”

They waited in the hotel room until Fe got a call from a fellow plainclothes, letting her know they were there, and were coming up. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. Fe went to it and looked though the peephole, then opened the door. “Guys,” she said, gesturing to them to wait. “We’re already ready.” She motioned to Abby, who was standing by the bed. She positioned Abby between herself and the other officers, then they locked up and left.

As they walked through the hall to the elevator, Abby felt like royalty, or a prisoner.

No one assaulted or ambushed them on their way out, and they made it to the unmarked vehicle waiting outside, with two more officers in it.

“They went all out,” Abby said, getting in.

Fe got in next to her. “We sometimes do.”

At the station, it was as Fe had promised, and Abby was taken straight to the lieutenant’s office, by which time she did actually have to use the bathroom. Fe just laughed, probably taking it as a joke, but Abby had been serious.

So now, she sat in a seat across from the lieutenant, who was standing behind her desk with arms resting atop a large leather executive chair, trying not to move around too much, lest she disturb her bladder or make the lieutenant suspicious, which she already was in spades.

“And that’s all he said?” the lieutenant asked Abby, for the third or fourth time.

Abby nodded. She rubbed her legs together, then crossed them. “He said he’d”—she frowned—“‘be in touch’, were I think his words.”

The lieutenant lifted her head toward Fe, who was next to Abby, also present was Detective Masterson, who was sitting on the lieutenant’s desk like he owned it and Delano, who was more respectfully leaning on the edge of a chair, mirroring the lieutenant. “Sounded like a nut-job?”

“Definitely,” Fe confirmed. “The way he spoke”—she shook her head—“it was just weird, his intonation. Didn’t make much sense either, what he was saying.”

“If he’s crazy,” Masterson said, “don’t get too wrapped up in his words. Most are going to be bullshit.”

There was a silence, and they looked expectantly at the lieutenant. Even Masterson pivoted his large frame toward her.

“We don’t have a hell of a lot to go on here. No fingerprints in Sellwood’s car. No blood. Nothing in his apartment, which I’ll probably get shit for getting a warrant for.” She ceased leaning on the back of her chair, and paced behind her desk.

“I have an idea,” Abby said. She was tired of waiting for Fe to bring it up. Fe had procedure to worry about, upsetting her boss. Abby did not.

The lieutenant looked at her. “Okay. What is it?”

“Use me.”

She stared at Abby. “Ms Melcer, I don’t like ciphers. Can you please be a bit more verbose in your ideas?”

“They want me, yeah? Well, give them me.”

“Give them you. So, you want us to just say, ‘Hey guys, that woman you wanted? Here she is, do what you like with her. No, no, we don’t want anything in return.’”

Abby was silent. She clenched her jaw once, then, “That’s not what I meant. You could bug me, then you’d know where they were.”

“Do you realize how dangerous that is?” Masterson asked.

Delano was shaking his head. “We’re not going to give you to the bad guys, this isn’t some kids’ game. Things don’t always turn out okay in the real world.”

“Do any of you have better ideas?” She looked at each of them. None looked happy, but they all remained silent.

“Just because,” the lieutenant began, “we can’t think of anything else, doesn’t mean your idea is a good one.”

“Look, he’s calling me. They followed me to Ecks’s, then kidnapped him. They know where I’m staying—”

“You don’t know that,” Delano interrupted.

“No,” Abby agreed, “but we don’t know they don’t. It’s possible they do. I don’t want to underestimate them.”

“And yet you want to give yourself over to them?” Masterson asked. “That seems like a damn big underestimate.”

Abby looked at her hands. “All I’m saying”—she looked up—“is that they know where I am. They’re capable of being careful when they commit crimes, which means they have experience. And now my friend has been kidnapped because of me. I got him involved.” She waved a hand. “Soren, I mean, yeah, I’m worried about him too, but I didn’t get him involved in this.”

“Other way around,” the lieutenant said.

Abby shrugged. “I guess. He couldn’t have known though.”

“He knew something. I’m damn interested in knowing just what was in that folder.”

“I’ve given you all I remember.” She paused. “What about that name?”

Masterson pressed his lips together and shook his head. “No, nothing. It’s a common name, some are in the system around the area, but wrong initials.” He frowned. “Surprisingly, none for kidnapping. You’d think at least one of these guys would have, what with how many there were.”

“So you guys have nothing.” She paused. “I’m your best choice.”

Again, silence as Abby looked around at the faces.

The lieutenant pinched the bridge of her nose. “We’re not handing you over. That’s idiotic. No offense.”

Abby began to object, but the lieutenant stopped her.

“But, we can bug your phone, see if we can get anything that way. Maybe set up a meet. A fake meet, maybe. I don’t know, these things are delicate. If they want to try to ransom your friend—”

“Friends,” Abby said, uncrossing her legs, then bobbing the right up and down on the ball of her foot.

“Right, if they have both. Hell, at this point, we don’t have any evidence that the have either.”

“The footage—”

“Showing them doing exactly shit-all that’s illegal.”

“Actually,” Masterson said, “the front bumped looked to be about half an inch in the red.”

“Well that’s good, at least we’ll have something to charge them with if we can’t find any other evidence. Should be good for one, two
hours
in the big bad traffic court.”

“We should hurry. How long will getting my phone bugged take?”

“Not long.”

“Well, come on, what are we waiting for?”

“You’re in a hurry all of a sudden,” the lieutenant said.

“Someone wouldn’t let me make a stop before we got here,” Abby said, staring her down.

“A stop?” the lieutenant asked.

“Yeah, remember, straight to your office.”

“Oh my God,” Fe said, “you were serious.”

“Deadly.”

She laughed. “Sorry. I didn’t know. Come on, I’ll show you where it is.” They headed for the door.

“Melcer,” the lieutenant called.

They stopped and turned. Abby was having a hard time thinking now; standing had made it worse.

“Leave your phone.”

“Oh.” She withdrew it from her purse, and handed it to Masterson, who had walked up to take it from her. Then she was led to the bathroom, and relief.

Abby’s phone was duplicated and returned to her. The next time ‘They’ called, the police would be able to record it, which might give them something or might give them nothing, but would be better than what they had now.

The call came the next day, while Abby and Fe were spending their third day in a rapidly deteriorating hotel room. Abby had wanted to go somewhere else, but was shot down. She guessed the police didn’t believe anyone was watching them there. Fe had only caught the end of the conversation, so only Abby had heard him suggest he could see them. And even, then, it was indirect. She only had a
sense
he could see them. He had known Fe was with her, but that didn’t mean he could actually see them; there were other ways he could have gotten such information.

They had ordered room service, again, and Abby was eating something like vegetarian lasagna, when her phone rang. She glanced at the screen as she forked a large piece into her mouth. Unknown number.

She spit out the food and grabbed the phone, then halted. “Do I just answer it?” She asked Fe, who also was eating sitting on her bed. “Him? Yeah, yeah yeah, answer. On speak—” But then the phone was to Abby’s ear and Fe cut herself off.

“Hello?” Abby said.

“Abby Melcer. Enjoying your food?”

Abby’s vision went black. The painting of a ship on the wall in front of her was the only thing that was visible, and then only a single letter on the side, part of its name,
E
.

A chuckle. “Oh, don’t look so surprised.”

She couldn’t speak. Her head was throbbing with blood, her lips and tongue tingled. “What do you want?” she stumbled out.

“Haven’t we been over this? We don’t like repeating myself.”

“Then why’d you call?”

“I want you, Abby. I want you to stand in your window.”

“Why?”

“Because if you don’t, I’m going to inject your friend Ecks here with something that won’t be very pleasant. He may not survive.”

“You have him? Let me talk to him!”

“No. Not until you do as we say?” It was almost a question. Almost.

“Why would I believe you?” Though she did.

“It’s up to you. Your belief won’t change the facts. Now stand in the window, or… well, you already know.”

Abby stood. Her legs felt numb. She walked to the window, pulled the curtains aside, and looked out. It was a floor-to-ceiling window, so the view was good: the park below, the other buildings towering above, the busy streets.