First Born (26 page)

“Because Lily told me she was hiding at their place.”

His confession seemed to suspend time. Caldwell held his breath as he turned his head toward Lake. Lake licked his lips and swallowed. When Caldwell turned back toward Seth, the kid wasn’t blinking.

“So you’ve been withholding information from us?” Lake asked.

“I’m protecting my sister.”

“Do you really believe that?” Caldwell asked.

Seth was quiet.

“Wouldn’t Arthur be proud,” sneered the lieutenant.

Seth stared back at him, a crease formed across the bridge of his nose, his mouth set in a snarl.

“Did your sister assault Phil Miller and kill Peter Marx and the Sinclair woman?” asked the lieutenant.

“Do
you
really believe that?” Moore asked turning toward Caldwell. Caldwell stared at him. Seth Moore’s eyes made him hesitate.
Something’s just not right about him.

Seth interrupted Caldwell’s thoughts, “Somebody is trying to kill her. That’s why she’s been running.”

“You’re not telling us everything. Why the hell wouldn’t she come to us?” Caldwell asked.

“That’s complicated,” he said, folding his arms across his chest.

“She was shot then she ran from me! You want to explain that?” barked Caldwell.

“She’s terrified.”

“Of whom? Is it Frank Harding? Li Liu? Dr. Hitomi?” Lake asked leaning toward Seth.

“I don’t know who it is. She—”

“She what? We know you’ve been talking to her. We found the phone. A team’s searching your place right now as we speak,” Caldwell said.

Seth turned to Lake, his brows furrowed. “Well, your team may find the fact interesting that it’s been ransacked.”

“What do you mean?” Caldwell asked.

“I got home yesterday to find someone had tossed my place.”

“Did you report it?” Caldwell asked.

“No.”

“You got something in there you don’t want us to see?” Lake asked.

“Honestly, I was just too damn tired last night.”

“I need to call the team,” Caldwell said as he excused himself from the room. He got a hold of Crime Scene Specialist Maura Reeves to let her know they needed to treat the place like a breaking and entering. It could be a ploy, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

Returning to the room, he found Lake questioning Moore about the dog. “The employee on the sixth floor at Colony Square said you were adorable and really had a way with animals,” said Lake. “In fact, she mentioned a toy dog you were watching for a woman named Mrs. Brown. Your bud, Reggie, confirmed this story. When we looked at the visitor’s log for that day, there was no Mrs. Brown.”

Caldwell stared at Seth’s eyes again.

“Mr. Moore, you listening to me?” Lake asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Where’s the dog?” Lake asked.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t have the dog?” Caldwell asked, settling back in across from him.

“No, sir. I thought Mr. Jones had the dog.”

“You told Reggie Mrs. Brown had the dog,” Lake said.

“Yes, but last I heard Mr. Jones had the dog, but then it ran away.”

“Screw the dog, Seth,” blurted Caldwell standing up. “What the hell has your sister gotten herself into?” He was standing over him, fists clenched.

Seth wiped Caldwell’s spittle from his face.

“My sister hasn’t gotten herself into anything. She’s in grave danger.”

“You’re gonna be here a while,” Caldwell said. “You may as well start talking.”

“Shit!” Seth said, standing up. Lake jumped up as well. Seth looked at them as if sizing them up. He quickly sat back down. “Sorry,” he said, while raking his hands through his hair.

“What the—” Caldwell said.

“Geez son, what the hell you got going on in that head?” Lake asked.

“You guys been following me?” He looked straight at Caldwell.

Caldwell made himself sit back down.
Bastard’s gotta know where his sister is
.

“We ask the questions,” Lake said.

Seth looked like he was trying to figure out some complicated calculus equation.

“You have a tracking device on my car?” he asked.

“What’s with the paranoia, Seth?” Caldwell asked.

“People are dying and someone’s attacked my sister and Mr. Liu.”

“Who?” Caldwell asked.

“Lily said it was some big guy with blue eyes in a black mask. She said he knew Mr. Liu.”

“When did you last talk to your sister?” pushed Lake.

“Yesterday.”

The two detectives looked at each other.

“Listen. I really need to know if someone’s been tracking me or following me from your department.”

This guy’s either really stupid or he has the cojones of a Right whale.
Caldwell looked over at Lake.

Lake stood up and smiled. Caldwell hadn’t seen this smile on the boss before and that in and of itself was frightening. “Seth. I’ve lost all my patience here. Where the hell is Mr. Liu?”

“Lily said some masked man took him.”

Caldwell sat across from him with his mouth agape. “Where’s your sister?”

“I think in a lot of danger,” cried Seth.

“I’ll be right back,” Lake said. He placed his back toward Moore and mouthed “car” before exiting the room. Caldwell knew he was looking at Seth Moore’s car hoping to find it unlocked so he could check for drugs. Moore’s behavior was erratic and Hitomi’s phone records indicated that he had a lot of communication with her.

Caldwell allowed silence to pervade the room. He watched as Seth’s eyes bounced around the space eventually coming to rest back on him. But the detective continued the silence. He would wait him out. After several minutes, Caldwell leaned forward. “Where did you go after you left Li Liu’s the afternoon he disappeared?”

“I think I’m going to be sick!” Seth started to gag.

“Not again!” Caldwell said, turning his head toward the garbage can in the corner.

Caldwell didn’t have enough time to process the flash of movement in his periphery. The heavy metal table rose up smacking him in the head with so much force that he flew back, crashing into the wall.

When his vision cleared, he scrambled out from under the table to find Seth’s clothes on the floor. Caldwell yelled as he stumbled from the room. Officers came running.

“What happened?” asked another officer.

“He kicked the table, then I don’t know...” Caldwell said. “Son of a bitch. Didn’t any of you see him run past?” Caldwell felt something wet on his face. He put his hand to his temple where the table had struck him. Blood.

Grabbing his cell phone from his belt, he called Lake.

“Simms?”

“Lieutenant. Moore just escaped.”

“What!”

“I’d stay by his vehicle in case he heads your way.” Caldwell pushed past people as he headed down the hall.

“I’ll call to lock down the building,” Lake barked before hanging up.

Caldwell secured his phone in his belt and took a napkin one of the detectives offered him. The napkin did little to staunch the bleeding from his head, but Caldwell kept it in place as his eyes scanned cubicles and offices. Fellow officers joined him in searching every inch of the work space. His head hurt like hell, but he felt certain they’d find Moore.

“What an idiot,” he mumbled under his breath. His thoughts were of Seth, but they applied to himself as well. He felt woozy from the knock to the head and even worse when he considered having to answer to the lieutenant. “Where the hell did that bastard go?”

“Awww, what’s your name, kitty?” Tiny asked while scratching Seth’s ears. He almost didn’t have to bend down to reach Seth who was a large Bobtail.

“You’re sho are a big sumabitch. What you been eating...midgets? Hee, hee, hee.”

“Meoooowww.”

“’Long as you don’t eat the black ones,” Tiny laughed as he sat back down at his desk to finish his lunch. Seth eyed his tuna fish sandwich.

“Oh, I see how it is. You want my food!” He broke off a piece and placed it on the floor for him. Seth gobbled it up all the while keeping an eye on the elevators.

They both heard the code for lock down called overhead.

“Oh Lord, it’s gonna be one of those days.”

Ding.

Seth took off like he was shot out of a cannon, darting into the elevator just before the doors closed.

He heard Tiny yell, “Hey,” but nothing else as the door shut and enclosed him in the strange elevator world.

The machine lurched then whirred as it descended. Seth stood at the seam of the doors willing the metal box to move faster. Tom Jones crooned “What’s New Pussycat?” through the speakers.
Really? Ya gotta be kidding me.

It stopped with a gentle bounce as Seth’s body quivered. He crouched low to the ground, his bobbed tail twitched impatiently. The doors opened and he dashed through the lobby, following the exit signs to a back hallway. The smell of a lit cigarette led him to a young maintenance worker who happened to have the back door propped open with a cinder block. Seth launched past him down the alley toward Peachtree Street.

He heard choking sounds behind him as the young worker was startled from his moment of nicotine Zen. Seth sprinted north on Peachtree Street toward Colony Square and Reggie. It was not a short trip. Once in front of the building, he waited at the revolving glass doors, scooting inside with a young businessman.

The clock read 11:30, which meant Reggie would be taking lunch soon. Seth stalked behind two guys who were talking about Italian food. He crouched in the shadows, waiting at the column of elevators. When he darted inside with them, one man sneezed and the other voiced his strong dislike of cats.

Reggie’s red Pontiac Grand Am was in the corner of the parking garage. Seth knew it would be locked so he waited.

Crouched under the car, he felt useless, having no way of warning Lily that she was in more immediate danger than he initially thought. Twenty minutes seemed like two hours. Finally, he heard Reggie’s familiar whistling in the parking garage followed by the click of the doors unlocking remotely. Seth considered shifting and opening the door, but didn’t want the security cameras to catch his naked form slipping into Reggie’s car.

When Reggie popped the trunk, Seth used the opportunity to throw his Barry White voice, “Mr. Green!”

Reggie turned toward the elevators seeking the source of the loud, authoritative voice. Seth leapt into the trunk, maneuvering himself under Reggie’s work blazer.

“Huh,” Reggie said before closing the trunk.

Over the hum of the engine and thrum of tires, Seth listened to his buddy’s rendition of Luther Vandross’s “Here and Now.” He concentrated on breathing to stave off a panic attack. He never liked closed spaces.

Eight minutes into their ride, Seth flailed as Reggie swung the car left. The car swerved left again and Seth bumped his head on the top of the trunk as he bounced along with the car over several speed humps. They came to a halt in what Seth assumed was a parking space. Reggie finished singing “Dance with My Father.”

While Reggie was distracted, Seth launched his attack, kicking down the back seat with a tremendous “Meeeooow!”

“What the—”

Seth jumped through the front bucket seats and landed as his passenger.

Reggie flung himself against the driver’s door. Alarmed and suction-cupped to the window, he attempted speech, “Wha, wha, wha—”

Seth waited for Reggie to catch his breath and purred to try to put him at ease.

Reggie pulled his arms down and turned from the window, managing to look over at Seth with a wide-eyed crazed expression. If he had hair, it would be standing on end.

“What kind of demon...cat, animal...how’d you get in here?”

Seth looked at the car keys swinging in the ignition.

Reggie’s chocolate brown eyes magnified three-fold as he looked at his uninvited passenger. Seth tilted his cat head while staring back at him.

“You’re one big mo fo. You know that? What the heck are you, some kind of bunny/puma crossbreed?”

Seth laughed.

“What kinda noise is that?” Reggie asked. “I never heard a cat make a noise like that?” Seth inched closer to him.

“Whoa, uh, niiice kitty. You stay there. You had all your shots and stuff?”

Seth leaned forward to bite down on the keys. He pulled them out of the ignition before leaping into the backseat.

“You slinky sonuvabitch!”

Seth growled.

“Damn. You got rabies?” Reggie asked, just the top of his head and eyes visible at the side of the seat.

Seth attempted to look innocent.
This isn’t going to work
.

“Listen. No offense, but I’m not a cat person. Now give me back my keys and I’ll let you out of the car,” Reggie negotiated.

Seth stared at him—willing him to exit the car.

Reggie turned back around in his seat, placing his forehead on the steering wheel. “No one would believe the week I’m having.”

“Try me,” Seth said, having dropped the keys and maneuvered his body on top of them.

“What the—!” Reggie lifted his head up to glance in the rearview mirror. He waited a moment. “Shit, I just thought you talked to me,” he laughed.

“I did.”

Reggie spun around so fast he must have wrenched his neck. “What?”

“Reggie. Your friend, Seth, needs to borrow your car. Leave now, have lunch. Tell people the car wouldn’t start. Get a ride from Mama Green. Then you can say the car was towed by the time you came back to get it. By tomorrow, you can come to the conclusion that it must have been stolen.”

Seth was sure Reggie was going to pop out his contacts. His nostrils flared and his pupils dilated.

“Breathe,” Seth suggested. “Your friends are in danger. Now I’m commandeering your vehicle.” This was one thing the two friends had discussed. If Reggie went into law enforcement, he’d have the authority to commandeer a civilian’s vehicle. Seth had suggested he make sure it was a Mercedes S Class.

Reggie went back to resting his forehead on the steering wheel with his eyes closed. Seth watched him gulping in deep breaths. “I swear to God I need to get more sleep.”

“Why don’t you go have a beer and relax? By the time you come back, I’ll be gone,” suggested Seth the cat.