Chapter 4

Final Chapter

“Kyle, Kinsey’s been kidnapped.”

There was a little silence on the phone. “Kyle, you there?”

“Yeah. What did you just say?”

“You need to get up here now. Kinsey had been kidnapped. I called the cops and we caught them on security footage. We know the asshole that took her. I’m not waitin’ on the cops and I thought you might like to be with me when I run them to ground.”

“I’ll be right there.”

He, Suzette, and their little girl showed up as quick as I thought they would. Suzette immediately went into the house to comfort Allie while Kyle and I talked in the yard. I told him who took Kinsey and he grunted.

“You know him?”

“I sort of kicked his ass the day I went to confront Allie about Kinsey. He wanted to go all caveman on me and it didn’t work out.”

“We got that in common. I’ve kicked his ass three times. The last time I fucked him up pretty good. It took him almost a year to recover. Wonder how much it’s about her and how much it’s about me and you?”

“Probably a combination. I’ve got eyes out and he’s a creature of habit so I figure it won’t be long until someone calls me. How do you want to handle it?”

“If we get to him first I intend to make him realize what a horrible idea this was.”

I nodded. “And I intend to make him realize he’d have been better off aborted.”

Kyle kind of looked sideways at me. “We don’t know each other well but I know that even if you’re an engineer now somewhere in your past you were something else entirely. You’re kind of like the beserker legends about the Vikings. Getting in front of you when you’re pissed would be kin to suicide. Just don’t kill him. Kinsey thinks a lot of you. So do I. As far as she’s concerned you’re a big marshmallow. I’m pretty sure Allie knows better but none of us want to visit you in prison.”

“They’d have to find evidence of a crime, You’d be amazed how easy it is to disappear someone. Destroy the evidence and deny everything has stood me in good stead a time or two. Now, go in and talk to the dectective. The big black patrolman you see is a friend and rides with me and he knows me well enough to try to stop us, we just need to make sure we don’t make him make decisions he doesn’t want to.”

“I met him. Good guy. All right, I’ll go in and make nice, but just as soon as they’re gone we’re going hunting.”

Brain called me while he was inside. “They’ve been seen in Hooterville. My boys are going over there. They know not to put the kid in danger but if they get a chance there may not be much left of him when you get there. Most of my guys have a family.”

“Hooterville” was a section of the nearest big town that was known for the sex trade. Hookers walked the street and there were ten strip joints in a five block radius along with seven adult bookstores. No one would think to look for a kid there unless they thought she was in the trade and even then it was dangerous to let people see a kid that young. Kyle and I were on our bikes just as soon as we hung up.

We rolled into a strip club parking lot and the hookers gravitated to us, careful to stay on the sidewalk because they knew they’d get the shit kicked out of them if they tried to ply their trade in the parking lot. Territorial disputes were frowned upon.

“Hi honey? Loking for a girl?”

“We are, but not like you think. We’ll give every one of you a fifty if you talk to us.”

A big blond seemed to be the spokesman for the five of them.

“You ain’t cops are you?”

“No. Not cops. We’re fathers.”

The blond looked at Kyle, trying to figure out what he was talking about. He pulled out his phone and showed them a picture of Kinsey. “This child had been kidnapped and was last seen in this area this afternoon. I’ll give five grand to the person who can tell me where she is and fifty even if you don’t know a thing.”

“Your kid?”

Kyle shocked the hell out of me with his answer. “She belongs to both of us. I’m her father and he’s her stepfather. Can you help us?”

They all looked. I know some did it just for the fifty but I’d like to think some did it out of compassion. None had seen her but all promised to keep a lookout and ask others in the trade to help. I think an early teen girl getting kidnapped may have hit a little close to home for a couple of them.

We were about to go into the club when six bikes rolled in and pretty much surrounded us. Four got off and ranged in front of us and I got a good look at their colors. They were Demons, a regional club with a reputation for being hardnosed over their territory and businesses.

The leader looked us over. Kyle was big and probably pretty tough but he dismissed him at a glance and focused on me. Every leopard can see the spots of another. “Who are you?”

I shrugged. “I’m just a guy that has no interest in you or your enterprises. We’re only here because something that belonged to us was spotted nearby this afternoon. Something that means a great deal to us.”

“He’s looking for a kid, Shack. A girl that got grabbed. It’s their daughter.” Blondie was trying to keep things calm, an effort I appreciated.

“Why don’t you give us the information and let us see what we can do.”

“Normally that’s exactly the thing we’d do but the asshole who grabbed her ain’t all there and it’s a little time sensitive. If you don’t mind we’ll just pass some pictures around, talk to anyone that will listen. The lady here can tell you about the reward we offered.”

“Five grand, Shack. Five grand if we can find her. I asked. It will be cash. Come on man, it’s a kid.” Blondie seemed more moved by us than anyone there.

Shack looked us over and I continued talking. “If she’s been seen it’s only a matter of time before someone tells the cops. Then they’ll be down here in force poking around. We find her and we never see each other again.”

Shack was thinking about it when two more bikes pulled up. They were flying colors from a national organization not known for their retiring ways. Most clubs avoided each other’s territories out of mutual respect so this was unusual.

They hopped off and pulled their Helmets. It was Brain and Leroy. It was the first time I’d ever seen Brain in his club gear.

Brain must have known Shack at least by reputation. “Be cool, Shack. These are good people and all they want is their kid. You help them out and I’ll consider it a favor.”

That put a whole new spin on things. A favor from an outfit like Brain’s was like money in the bank. Pretty soon the bikers fanned out and we hit every strip club, talked to all the hookers and street people, every adult bookshop and bar in the area. Nobody had seen Kinsey but they said they would keep an eye out. Five grand was a fortune to some of these people.

Kyle was silent for a while when we got back. Suzette was still with Allie and Doc had ridden over to check on her. He gave her a mild, pregnant friendly sedative and she finally went to sleep, still crying.

We grabbed a cup of coffee and sat on the porch for a while. It was almost daybreak and we watched the sun come up. When he got up to get some sleep he looked at me.

“Who are you, really? You don’t need to tell me but I saw how those biker guys treated you. You were one of them once and they recognized it.”

“That’s a story for another day. Right now we need to grab a few hours of sleep. I want to be functioning if any news comes in.”

I snuggled down beside Allie and lay my hand on her stomach. She spooned to me instantly and it helped me get to sleep.

They woke us at eleven, telling us the police were in the living room. We got ourselves together and went out to meet them. The detective was pretty pissed.

“I got a call from a detective in Walden. Seems two guys on bikes were seen in the red light district talking to even more bikers. Bikers who flew colors from two serious organizations. Word is all over the street about the reward. It seems one of your friends tripled whatever you offered. Every hooker and bum there is looking under rocks.”

I didn’t back down. “When I’m faced with a hard problem at work I use every tool and resource available to me to solve it. I may have access to people you wouldn’t necessarily talk to and wouldn’t cooperate with you even if they knew something. That’s all I’m going to say about that.”

“Well let me tell you what we’ve been doing. We identified the other man in the video, a low rent biker with a sheet about a mile long. Of the two, he’s the most dangerous. It would be best if we didn’t alarm them too much before we find them. We found the van in an abandoned warehouse near Hooterville. It was stolen and we have a witness that said he saw a newer black van pulling out. We didn’t get plates but there was one matching that description stolen two days ago. The APB is out and every law enforcement officer from town constables to the State Troopers are looking. The FBI will be here soon and you need to cooperate with them. The Amber Alert went out yesterday with pictures of your daughter and both the men who were on the video. The local media is using the footage in heavy rotation. And since you’ve been asleep the reward has grown to 50,000. It seems you two have a lot of friends.”

I got the details later. Brain had kicked in ten grand and Leroy added five. Some of Kyle’’s friends and business associates had added another 7500. It seems Kinsey went to work with them occasionally and often attended family friendly social functions so they knew who she was. Kyle kicked in ten grand so I added another five. Wanda had never had children and she was fond of Kinsey so she added five thousand, and my friends in the club and the bar came up with 3500. It was still growing and we knew it would be considerably higher before this was over. I’d owe these people for the rest of my life and I’d make sure any time anyone needed anything they would know to ask me first.

...

The call was supposed to come in at 2:00 and by then the FBI team had arrived and had everything set up to record when it did.

The FBI had a profiler come in and once she had all the information she could get she talked to us. “Theodore Beltski is below average in intelligence and was raised by abusive parents. In spite of that he’s got delusions of granduer and an inflated sense of self worth. That being said while he’s been into a lot of stuff he’s never been overtly violent. He is probably doing this more for revenge than anything else. You two have a history with him and he’s never fared well with either of you. Ultimately he’s a weak man who always looked for the easy way out. He’s been gambling and it seems he’s not good at it. He’s in pretty deep with a bookie in Hooterville. Arm or leg breaking deep if he doesn’t come up with some money soon. Desperation is pushing him.”

She stopped to draw a breath. “His partner is another matter altogether. Harrison Beech has been convicted of strong arm robbery, assault four different times, aggravated assault twice, manslaughter, grand theft auto, and forgery in a counterfeit money scheme. From the time he was fourteen he’s spent more than two thirds of his life in custody, juvie first and then the real deal when he turned eighteen. He’s currently wanted for probation violations and he knows if he’s found he’ll go back to jail for another fourteen years. He’s got a high IQ and can be logic driven when it suits him. He’s probably the planner of the two. His partner obviously didn’t give him any clue of who he was kidnapping or your connections to high and low friends. He’s probably watched the news by now and we’re hoping his logical side kicks in and he runs before it gets any worse. He has no motivation to kill her but he knows that besides the fourteen he owes, kidnapping is a federal crime and that’s a automatic seven years without other charges. He’s the one we need to be most careful with. When the call comes behave and agree to anything. We’ll handle it.”

When the call came they were ready. You could hear the arrogance in his voice when he spoke. “Got the money together?”

“We do. You know you’ll never get away with it, right Theodore? The cops know who you are. They know who your partner is. How long do you think a hundred grand is gonna last, especially split two ways? Let her go Ted. Let her go and I won’t come after you.”

“Fuck you Grant. You behave or maybe we’ll have a little fun with her before we let her go. She looks a lot like her mother and we both know how hot she is.”

I wonder if he heard the sound of death in my voice. “You’re not that stupid. You touch her and you’ll die a slow, miserable, extremely painful death, even if you go to prison. You think about that.”

The tech was grrinning and gave his boss a thumbs up. They had located the signal and knew where he was. I tried to keep him on as long as possible to help out. “I got the money Ted. Tell me where you want me to drop it.”

“I don’t want you to drop it. I want your bitch to do it.”

“Never gonna happen Teddy boy. She’s seven and a half months pregnant and not in the greatest emotional state right now. You get me or you don’t get the money.”

“Fuck you. I’ll...”

You could hear a struggle and then a new voice came on. “He’s not too smart, now is he? I found out how much you and her daddy are worth so the price is going up. Two hundred grand and we’ll text you a bank account number in an a day or so. I’m sure the feds are listening in and you know a little about me. Don’t get cute. Just wire the money and I’ll let the kid go without a hair out of place. You don’t and I’ll make sure she dies.”