Gather the Sentient (27 page)

CHAPTER

49

JOSE

Wednesday, October 12

Baltimore

Jose was pacing.  If there hadn’t already been a worn path in what passed as a carpet on the floor of the motel room, he’d have made one on his own.  He hadn’t slept at all overnight, although Andrea had forced him to lie down beside her for several hours ‘to rest for the day ahead.’

She looked up now from her phone and said, “You’ve gotta call Officer Rosetti, Jose.  You need to let the police know they have Carla.”  When he didn’t respond, she continued.  “If you don’t, I will.”

While staring at the water stain on the ceiling above the bed overnight, he’d mulled over various scenarios to decide their best course of action.  Of course, none of them included handing over Andrea outright, but he’d considered the possibility she might have to go along with him, at least for appearances.  What he couldn’t work out was how he was going to uncover Carla’s whereabouts from Alejandro before he was forced to confront them.

“They specifically said no police,” he reminded her.

She rolled her eyes in exasperation.  “What do you think they’re gonna do if the cops show up?  Shoot her right in front of them?  You’re not making any sense.  The only logical thing to do is call them.”

He didn’t want to involve the police.  He no longer felt he could depend on them to solve the case.  The two of them had been locked away in the motel room for over two weeks and in that time, the police had given them nothing – no viable leads, no end in sight.  “What if we got someone else to go pick up Carla?”

“They’re not gonna tell you where Carla is unless you hand me over.”

They locked eyes with one another.

“You have got to be kidding me.  We’ve gone through all this…”  Andrea’s hands flailed above her head defiantly as she stood to face him.  “Shipping me across the country, hiding me away like some princess in a tower, and
now
you’re gonna hand me over to him?”

She was in front of him, inches away, anger radiating from every pore of her body.  He reached out to brush a tendril of hair from her face but she recoiled.

“I don’t want to hand you over.  But I don’t know if we have any other options.”  He reached out to her again.  “Just hear me out.  What if, after they tell me where Carla is, I call a taxi to pick her up and then follow them to wherever they take you to get you back?”

She stared at him incredulously.  “How long do you think it’ll take him to kill me, Jose?  Five minutes?  Ten?”

She was right, of course.  By the time he followed them to wherever they were planning on taking her, she might already be dead.  There was no way of knowing for sure what Alejandro’s intentions were, and he knew in his heart he couldn’t risk losing her.  Frustrated with the entire situation, he threw his hands in the air and began retracing his path across the room.  “I don’t know what else to do, Andrea!  None of this was supposed to happen.  You were supposed to come here to get well, and I was supposed to have Alejandro arrested back home.  That was it.  An easy plan.  And I’m so sorry it didn’t work out.  And I’m so sorry this happened.  But I need to figure out a way to get my aunt back and…”  He glanced at his phone.  “We only have five hours left.”

“Call.  The.  Cops.”

“So they can do what?  The same nothing they’ve been doing this whole time?”

Without responding, she turned her back on him, her shoulders slumped, her chin lowered.  It was the very same posture she’d been displaying the first time he’d seen her, waiting in the ER for the attending physician to stitch her wounds.  And that was when he realized…

He wasn’t helping her.

He wasn’t saving her.

He wasn’t making any difference at all.

“Fine,” he said at last.  “Let’s call the cops.”

An hour later, Rosetti and Anderson were caught up on Carla’s abduction and the proposed exchange.  Jose and Andrea sat beside one another on the far mattress while the officers sat across from them on the one closest to the door.  Everyone leaned forward, their heads together.

“They said not to involve any police,” Jose was reiterating.

Rosetti scoffed.  “They always say that.  You were smart to call us; I just wish you’d done it sooner so we would have had more time to put something together that resembled a decent strategy.”

“You still have time though, right?  You think you’ll be able to get her without having to give me up?”  Jose heard the fear in Andrea’s voice and although it tore at his emotions, he was reassured by her sense of self-preservation.  Perhaps she was healing after all.

“We’re not giving you over,” Anderson reassured her.  “We just need to figure out where they might have Carla stashed and get to her before Jose’s supposed to make the exchange.”  He looked at Rosetti, and Jose caught an unspoken understanding pass between them.

“What?” Jose asked.

“You’re thinking they’re hiding Carla wherever they’re hiding the cars?” Rosetti asked her partner.

Jose was lost.  “What cars?”

“We’ve recently discovered that a few of the guys Alejandro’s been hanging out with here in Baltimore are running a car theft operation.  We assumed they might be hiding some of the stolen cars down by the harbor since there’s a good chance they’re smuggling them out of the city on freightliners.  Seems like more than a coincidence that they’ve asked you to meet them near the shipyard.”

“So you think they’ve hidden my aunt with the cars?”

Rosetti nodded thoughtfully.  “It makes sense, we just don’t know exactly where they might be.”

“We have the list of recently missing cars from Carson,” Anderson added.  “I think our best bet is to spend the next few hours canvassing the docks and shipyard for the cars.  We find a car, we might find your aunt.”  He turned then to Rosetti.  “Two squad cars aren’t gonna cut it though.  You might need to pull out the daughter card on this one to get us some more boots on the ground.”

She smiled at Jose and explained.  “My dad’s the chief of police.  Sometimes it helps.  He’s already familiar with your case against Alejandro, so it shouldn’t be a hard sell for him to divert a few other officers in our direction this afternoon.”  She stood up and pulled her walkie off her shoulder harness.  “I’ll see if I can reach him now.”

As he watched her walk out the door to make her appeal in private, he felt the strangest sensation, as if he knew her far better than he actually did.  Or perhaps that one day he would.  He must have gawked after her far longer than was appropriate because without warning, Andrea shoved him with both hands, rousing him from his contemplation.

“Stare much?” she whispered.

Embarrassed, he ignored her insinuation and turned to Anderson.  “When you two leave, I want to come with you.”

Anderson shook his head, chuckling.  “Not a chance, buddy.  And don’t bother to ask Officer Rosetti.  Trust me when I tell you she’s been down that road before, and it didn’t end well.  There’s no way she’ll let a civilian ride along on this one.”

He couldn’t stand the thought of being left behind.  Waiting.  Not knowing what was happening.  It was one of the many reasons he hadn’t wanted to involve the police in the first place.  Now they were effectively shutting him out of his own responsibility.  “She’s my aunt,” Jose protested.  “It’s my fault she’s involved in any of this to begin with.”

Andrea took his hand.  “No.  It’s way more my fault than it is yours.”

Anderson hoisted himself off the sagging mattress and started for the door.  “Neither one of you are responsible for the behavior of these men.  But you need to let the professionals handle them.  We’re trained to deal with people who would rather shoot you than talk to you.”

“Not that we enjoy getting shot at,” Rosetti added, returning from outside.  She turned to her partner.  “Dad’s sending three other units to the area, and he thinks we should bring Jose with us.”

Anderson raised his eyebrows in shock and disbelief.  “You’ve got to be kidding.  Why the hell would he want us to do that?”

“He’s not convinced we’re gonna be able to find any of those cars in such a short amount of time.  Jose is plan B.”  Her eyes cut to him, gauging his reaction.  “Are you good with that?”

Before he could respond, Anderson interrupted.  “I just got through telling him there was no way you were gonna let him go along.”  His eyes were pleading, and Jose could tell there was history between them neither wanted to discuss in front of him.  “There’s got to be another way.”

Rosetti shot her partner a look that was the police equivalent of ‘Not in front of the kids, let’s talk about his later,’ and returned her attention to Jose.  “We’re going to keep you safe, but we might need you to meet with them.  Is that something you’re willing to do?”

“Yeah, of course,” he replied, without hesitation.  “Just tell me what you need me to do.”

CHAPTER

50

MIA

Wednesday, October 12

Baltimore

It was just after three o’clock, and they hadn’t found any of the stolen cars from the list.  Mia clung desperately to the last rays of hope as the sun set on their original plan.  The last thing she wanted was to involve Jose in the operation.

“Unit 136, this is 214.”  It was Carson, checking in on their progress.

“136.  Go ahead,” Jack responded.

“214 reporting a code G on the stolen vehicles.”

Mia sighed, resting her head against the window as Jack responded. “10-4.  136 reporting a code G on the stolen vehicles.”

“10-4. Request 10-19 to the station.”

“Received.  15 08.”

In the mirror, Mia saw Jose lean forward, slipping his fingers between the metal bars which separated him from the front of the cruiser.  “What’s going on?” he asked.

Jack shook his head.  “The others haven’t found any of the cars either.  We’re gonna meet up with them back at the station so we can get you set up for plan B.”

Ten minutes later, Mia was fitting Jose with both a wire and a vest while she explained the logistics of what they expected him to do.  As she carefully taped the hidden microphone just below his collarbone, she couldn’t help but think of Kate, the other civilian life she’d risked, and prayed this operation would have a more favorable outcome.

“You don’t have to do this,” she said, feeling obligated to give him one last chance to change his mind.

He scowled at her.  “You said it was our best chance of catching Alejandro and getting Carla back.”

“It probably is.  But there’s still no shame in backing out.”

He shook his head, resolutely.  “I coulda backed out a long time ago,” he said.  “But I didn’t then, and I won’t now.  Not when I finally feel like things are gonna get better.”

As she tightened the vest around his chest, there was no mistaking just how much she liked Jose.  If they’d met under different circumstances, in high school or through a mutual acquaintance instead of as part of an assignment, she was sure they would’ve been friends.  The last thing she wanted was to see him hurt.  “Now this vest is really thin and will only offer minimal protection.  But they’ll know immediately if you’re wearing a heavier one so this’ll have to do.  I promise it’s better than nothing.”

“I’ll be fine,” he told her, with a level of conviction she couldn’t help but admire.

She nodded but was too nervous to agree aloud.  It was best not to tempt fate.  “So here’s what’s gonna happen after we head out.  We’ve got a couple of guys stationed at the meeting place already, watching to let us know when Alejandro gets there.  Once we have confirmation, you’ll drive my car the rest of the way, park along Holabird, and then walk over to where they’ll be waiting for you.  I’ll be sitting in the backseat listening to everything.”

“And you think Alejandro’s gonna buy that you’re Andrea?”

“I’ll be wearing her clothes and leaning forward so my hair covers my face.  We’re the same basic size and shape and our hair is practically the same color.”

“You do look a lot alike,” Jose agreed.

“It’s the only lucky break we’ve gotten, so we’ll take it and cross our fingers.”  She smiled at him as he buttoned his shirt back over the vest.  “Your only job is to get them to tell you where Carla is.  Hopefully when they see me in the back seat they’ll be willing to tell you the drop off location.  Once we have an address, hand them the keys to the car and walk away.  Just get outta there and we’ll do the rest.”

“What if Alejandro’s not there?”

She was convinced Alejandro was the type of predator who would want to be on site to see Andrea for himself.  Over the years, she’d spent enough time with profilers to know Alejandro wouldn’t leave the job to someone else.  She was banking on it.

“He’ll be there, but even if for some reason he’s not, the only other place he’d be is with your aunt, and we’ll find him when we get there.”  She hoped she was bolstering Jose’s confidence since she couldn’t help but notice the way his foot had begun tapping nervously against the floor.  “Okay?” she asked.

He smoothed his shirt over the vest and raised and lowered his arms to adjust the fit.  “Okay,” he said.  “Let’s do this.”

Eleven men and women were assembled in the staging room, just inside the back entrance of the station.  Mia was wearing Andrea’s favorite bright pink tank top with her hair draped casually around her face.  Four other officers were also in civilian attire while the other five remained in uniform.

“Carson, you’re taking your crew to get Carla as soon as we have a location.  Suarez, Dickson, Houston, and Briggs, you’re coming with me and Jack to pick up whoever shows up to make this trade.”  Mia paused, glancing around the room and then at her watch.  “We’ve only got 25 minutes.  Where the hell is Jack?”

“Saw him about five minutes ago, heading the opposite direction down the hall.  He looked upset.  I think he got a personal call or something.”

Mia pushed past Carter and Suarez into the hallway, sprinting as fast as she could up the stairs to her office.  Jack was there, receiver wedged against his ear as he bent over, lacing his sneakers.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come?” he was saying, his voice worried, heavy with emotion.  “Yes, but what did they say?” he continued.  “How many hours?  Three?  Six?  Nine?”

Mia tried to get his attention, but his back was still toward her, blocking her entry into the room.

“I can be there in fifteen minutes, Stella.  I swear to God if this baby comes and I’m not there, I’ll never forgive myself.”  There was a long pause and Mia felt like an intruder as Jack listened to his wife on the other end of the line.  “Fine.  I’ll go.  But as soon as this is resolved, I’m on my way.  Don’t have her.  Promise you’ll wait for me.”  Another pause.  “I love you too.  Both of you.”

Jack set the receiver down and turned to Mia.  “Damn stubborn, that woman,” he said, ushering her out into the hall.  “Her water broke this morning, but instead of calling me or going to the hospital, she stopped into work to drop off some papers.  Apparently she didn’t want to alarm me until she spoke with a doctor and now he says she’s only one centimeter dilated and 5% effaced, so it’ll probably be six to ten hours before the baby’s born.”

“I don’t even know what you just said, but it sounds to me like she didn’t want you to race over there.”

“No!  She wants me to ‘serve and protect’ and only go to the hospital once we’ve got Carla back and Alejandro down in lock up.”

They took the stairs together two at a time and rounded the corner to where the others were waiting.  “At least someone believes in us,” Mia laughed thinly.

“Wish I shared her sentiments.”