AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’ve got thirty minutes,” the voice said. “Get here by then, or bring a trash bag to pick up the bloody pieces of her.”
And the woman screamed in agony again as the call ended.
----- ? ----
Chapter Two
----- ? ----
Victoria’s scream was still echoing through Billie’s mind as Presley and she drove toward the park. He was going at a bat out of hell speed while Ruby blurted out info through the SUV.
Adrenaline was sky high and pulses were racing.
But that scream was cutting through Billie’s focus.
Because she’d heard a scream like that before. Another time, another place. Another woman.
Tread carefully. Wouldn’t want another hostage dying on your watch, would you?
No, she didn’t, but for the kidnapper to be able to use that taunt, he or she must have been aware of the case that’d gone horribly wrong. Billie wanted to know how that info had gotten into the kidnapper’s hands.
And if it was important in Victoria’s abduction.
But for now though, she just tried to shut it all out and listen to Ruby.
“Angel DeLuca will meet you in the parking lot of Merilee’s Café, that’s a block from the park,” Ruby spelled out, and her voice sounded a heck of a lot calmer than Billie felt. No need for her to explain who Angel was. He was a former SAPD and now worked for Ruby. “He just picked up the diamonds from Jesep’s assistant and is en route to you now.”
“The fake diamonds,” Presley grumbled like profanity, and that expressed Billie’s sentiment.
Hostage extractions were dangerous enough without adding a bogus ransom to the mix. But they weren’t calling the shots here. Jesep was, and apparently he valued the diamonds more than his wife’s life.
“Yes,” Ruby muttered, her disproval there as well. “Once Angel has handed off the diamonds to you, he’ll head to the park and set up surveillance while staying out of sight. I’ve also just gotten approval for a drone to go in, and I’ll send you the feed once I have it.”
Good. The drone could help them pinpoint Victoria’s location. Hopefully, anyway. Billie doubted the kidnappers would have her out in the open, not unless they had a way to protect themselves. They would no doubt know the cops could and would use SWAT snipers in situations like this.
“How many cops will be nearby?” Presley asked, barreling down the interstate toward their exit.
“Four plain clothes,” Ruby provided. “I’m vetting them now. Judging from the initial search, the two of you never worked with any of them.”
Not surprising. SAPD had over 2500 cops on duty, and probably at least a couple of hundred of them would have joined the force or transferred in after Presley and she left two years ago.
“What’s your ETA?” Ruby asked.
“Ten minutes,” Presley relayed.
“Good. That should give you time to park and get your bearings. Keep your earbuds open at all times so I can hear what’s going on. Angel will give me a visual of you. Vest up,” she tacked onto that.
They’d already put in the buds and donned vests before Presley had sped away from Maverick Ops’ headquarters. They’dcovered the vests with shirts to conceal both them and their shoulder holsters. Presley had had such a shirt in his SUV, and Billie had gotten one of her own from her go-bag.
“Message me after you’ve left Angel,” Ruby instructed. It sounded as if she was on the verge of hanging up, but that didn’t happen. She paused. “I’ll be looking into that case the kidnapper mentioned. The one where a female hostage died. Anything I should know about it?”
“Other than I failed?” Presley said. The dread was there in his voice. In his intense brown eyes, too.
“Ifailed,” Billie was quick to interject. “I was the senior officer on that investigation.”
“Yes, other than that, tell me what happened,” Ruby responded in a matter of fact tone.
Presley launched into the explanation. “Two years ago, Helana Frankfort killed her married lover, Charlie Belmont, after a heated argument. Charlie was friends with our captain, so he pressured Billie to lead the investigation. She tapped me as her partner, and we were a couple of hours into it when we learned that Helana had taken Charlie’s wife, Sandy, at gunpoint.”
