“Like you took care of her? Not good enough. Tell me everything.”
“That guy came out of nowhere. I don’t know how he knew I was here. He thinks I owe him--”
The yacht owner raised a hand. “Spare me your tales of financial woe. Did you kill him?”
Her kidnapper nodded.
“Great, so you’re going to have to clean that up, too.”
“Don’t worry about it, Boss, I can handle it.”
“No, if you could handle it, it would already be handled. Now just shut up and stand there and don’t shoot off your mouth or your gun until I tell you.”
He turned to Cindy.
“You have posed more of a problem than I would have thought,” he said, almost conversationally.
“Who are you?” Cindy asked, struggling to understand what was happening to her.
He smiled at her. “You can call me Mr. Black, and this,” he said, indicating the other man, “is my associate.”
“That sounds like a fake name,” she blurted out, not knowing what else to say.
“It’s as real a name as you’re going to get, sweetheart. Now, let’s talk about what you have and how you’re going to give it to me.”
“That’s the problem, I have no idea what anyone’s talking about.”
“Okay, I’ll play along, for a while. Uncle, you remember him?”
She blinked at him. “The dead restaurant owner?”
“Yes, that Uncle. Very good. See, I knew you were a smart girl. So, let’s talk about Uncle.”
“I found his body. I went to his restaurant for lunch and there was no one there and the cash register was open and it all just seemed weird. I went into the kitchen and found his body and then I called the police.”
“Of course you did. Smart. Nice job posing as the innocent bystander by the way, couldn’t have done better myself. Clever girl. Now be a clever girl and give me what I want.”
“I wasn’t posing!” she half-yelled, desperate to make him understand.
“Save it for someone who believes it. When you found Uncle dead, what did you do with it?”
“Do with what?” she asked, choking on a sob. This was stupid. Why wouldn’t someone just tell her what they were looking for? She swallowed hard. Mr. Black had told the other guy to kill her when he got what he wanted. If they knew for sure she didn’t have what they wanted wouldn’t they go ahead and kill her anyway?
She struggled, trying to figure out what to do, what to say that wouldn’t get her shot.
“Come on. It wasn’t in your room. You clearly hid it somewhere. Just be a good girl and tell me where.”
“Why should I if you’re just going to kill me?” she asked, stalling for time to think.
And then she heard a siren in the distance. Police! They must have been called because someone heard the gunshots. Her heart leapt.
“This is what happens when you get sloppy,” Mr. Black said, turning to glare at his associate. “Now, go clean up the mess on the other boat before they search it.”
“But the girl-”
“Leave her to me,” Mr. Black said. He ducked inside the cabin for a moment and then came back out with what looked like a pillowcase. She stared at him in shock, wondering what he intended to do with it. As he moved toward her head she understood. He meant to blindfold her. That meant that not only would she not be able to see where he was taking her but also that she wouldn’t be able to watch to see what new dangers were coming her way.
The man who had kidnapped her leered at her, his eyes sullen. As Mr. Black moved the cloth close to her head she smelled something pungent.
“Please, don’t blindfold me again. I’ll be good.”
“Oh, you won’t be giving me any trouble.”
He put the pillowcase over her head. She sucked in air to scream.
And her world went black again.
~
Jeremiah hung up. A woman at the front desk of the hotel Cindy was staying at had just informed him that she’d never checked out that day. He began moving, heading for the ticketing counters even as he called Marie.
“Hello?” his secretary answered.
“It’s Jeremiah. I’ve got a bit of a...family emergency.” He winced. He knew his secretary didn’t like Cindy and didn’t approve of the time he spent with her. He was in no mood for a lecture now.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, alarm clear in her voice.
“I don’t know yet. I’m getting on a plane. Can you please take care of Captain for a couple of days? I’ve got a spare house key in my desk with the pens.”
“Of course. What else can I do to help?”
“Cancel all my appointments for the rest of the week. I’m not sure how long I’ll be.”
“All right. The gentleman who’s coming in to meet with you tomorrow hasn’t given us any contact info, though.”
Jeremiah shook his head. Otto wouldn’t be happy, but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment.
“Then give him my apologies and get it from him. Try to reschedule him for next week.
He’s bringing something for me, if he leaves it just put it in my office.
”
“You’ve got it.”
“Thanks.”
He hung up just as he made it to a ticketing agent.
“I need to be in Honolulu as fast as possible,” he told the woman.
“We’ve got a flight that leaves at 6:35 in the morning.”
“Not good enough. I needed to be there already.”
She frowned. “The only flight tonight leaves in twenty minutes. I don’t think-”
“I’ll take it.” He slammed his driver’s license and his credit card down on the counter. “Please call the gate and tell them I’m coming. It’s a family emergency.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Two minutes later he was standing in the line for security, chafing at the delay. He watched in disgust as they signaled out a man with crutches for extra screening. The guy was well-dressed, traveling with his wife, and looked like he was ex-military. What the idiots of the TSA didn’t realize was that whatever flight that guy was on would be one of the safest flights possible. A terrorist wouldn’t survive three seconds with someone like him on the plane.
Or someone like me.
At last he made it out the other side. His gate was at the far end of the airport and the plane would be leaving it in five minutes. He ran. The airport was crowded and he had to dodge in and out, running around other startled travelers.
One woman dropped her bags in front of him and bent to pick them up. He had no choice and he vaulted over her. He would make that plane and no one could stop him.
At last he made it to the section of the airport he needed to be in. His gate was at the far end and he saw a lone flight attendant standing, waving him on. He put on a fresh burst of speed, relieved that this section was empty.
She moved over to stand in front of the door to the jetway and he flung his ticket at her, pausing only long enough for her to hand it back. He raced down and the flight attendants clustered inside the door of the plane parted way for him.
He heard them close the door behind him as he made his way to his seat. Fortunately it was on the aisle and he slid into it. As he buckled his seatbelt the plane backed away from the gate and he closed his eyes.
He could hear the flight attendant giving the safety spiel. He didn’t bother paying attention. He’d heard it thousands of times before. And if the plane went down he already had his own safety plans well figured out years earlier.
The guy in the seat next to him was nervous. He could smell the fear on him. Jeremiah opened his eyes a crack and turned his head slightly to study his travel companion. The man had the white-knuckle look of a terrified flyer, not the nervous anticipation of a terrorist.
Reassured, Jeremiah closed his eyes again. He wondered where Cindy was and what she was going through. He should have never let her go on vacation alone.
But who am I to make those kinds of decisions about her life?
he chided himself.
I’m no one, just a friend. It’s not my place.
Though the thought made him inexplicably sad, he knew it was the truth. He tried to take comfort from that. It was not his right to stop Cindy from doing anything she pleased regardless of how dangerous it might be.
It was Hawaii. It shouldn’t have been dangerous. In his gut, though, he knew that wasn’t a real excuse. Pine Springs wasn’t a dangerous place either. Still, Cindy always managed to seem to find trouble. Or it found her. Either way, trouble and she seemed to go together.
Even though it wasn’t his job to save her, he knew that he would always feel compelled to. He knew that if he was going to save her now he needed to be alert and focused once he landed in Honolulu.
He slumped down in his seat and focused his breathing. Before the wheels were off the tarmac, he was asleep.
~
Mark was pacing in his office like a man gone insane. Something was wrong. Something had happened to Cindy. Every instinct he had told him that, but there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. Even if he wasn’t in his current state of suspension he was a California cop not a Hawaii one.
If only he had eyes and ears on island, some way he could help out. Jeremiah was going to need help, that much he was certain of. The rabbi was incredibly resourceful and resilient but he was going into completely unknown territory and he was going blind.
Since he wouldn’t be able to prove that Cindy was technically missing yet he’d get precious little help from the Honolulu police department either. And suddenly he stopped pacing. A friend he had gone to college with who had been from the islands and had gone into law enforcement as well. They barely spoke anymore, just sent the occasional Christmas cards and he got email with pictures of the guy’s kids and sent appropriate responses pertaining to how big they were getting.
And a light dawned in his mind as he remembered the last Christmas card he’d gotten from the guy and the big news he’d had to share about his promotion. And he knew he had an ally in Hawaii that could help Jeremiah, or at least get the search for Cindy going. He reached for his phone.
~
Cindy woke with a start. She blinked, trying to get her eyes to focus. Her head was buzzing and her tongue felt swollen and thick.
I’ve been knocked out again
, she realized. She remembered the odor inside the pillowcase. She wondered if she could expect any kind of long-term brain damage from it all. In the next moment she realized it was ridiculous to worry about that when she was facing imminent death.
She forced herself to breathe in and out slowly as she tried to bring herself fully awake. The process was slow and she hated the hazy feeling.
Her chin was touching her chest and she slowly raised her head. Shooting pain shot up her neck and her shoulders felt like they were on fire. She winced as she finally got her head upright. She felt like her neck and her entire spinal cord was kinked.