OBSESSED WITH TAYLOR JAMES (22 page)

                                                                                                                                                      
Chapter 20
           
 

The sun was setting over the western sky as Edward parked
his car across the street from Taylor’s house.  Mario shifted to face Sabrina
in the backseat. “Sabrina, stay low and keep an eye on the house.  If you
notice anything suspicious, don’t hesitate to call 911 immediately.”

She nodded fiddling with the screen on her phone. “Hurry
up, please.” She fastened her hand on Edward’s shoulder. “Hey, you’d better be
careful…both of you.”

They exited the car and went across the street.  The dog
barking from the house behind them caught Mario’s attention. He slowed.
“Edward, wait a second.”

“What is it?”

“Do you hear that dog barking?”

Edward shrugged his shoulders.  “So?”

“That’s Taylor’s neighbor’s dog.”

“And, he’s barking, so what.”

“That guy has his dog trained.  He sits quietly at his
feet, and sneaks up on people without making a sound. The dog would not be
barking unless something is wrong,” Mario said running at a speed reduced by
his sore body would only allow.

They reached the garage and lifted up the door. Edward
supported the door letting Mario slip underneath.  Mario checked the doorknob
leading to the house.  It was locked.  Using his shoulder, he attempted to
break in the door. “Cabron!” he bitched as pain engulfed his shoulder to spread
through his arm.

Edward helped him lean on the car. “Dude, you okay?”

“Yeah,” he said swaying his forearm to rid the pain. 
“I’m not trained to knock down doors.  I’m a mild-mannered attorney.”

“Well, you’re banged up from the car accident.  Let me
put these size thirteen’s to use,” Edward said reeling his leg back to kick in
the door with his foot.

“Hold up, Edward.  Taylor’s purse is on the ground by the
door.  She has been here.”

“Ah, that son of a bitch is gon’ be sorry he messed with
us!” He kicked the door in with two hard foot jabs.  Edward stepped aside saying,
“After you.”

Mario retrieved the purse from the ground throwing the
strap around his neck to carry it.  Entering the house, he flipped the light
switch with no illumination following.  “We need a light source.”

“I got a laser.  It won’t give off much light but enough
to see what’s in front of us.” Edward flipped on the penlight making sure it
worked.

“It will have to do until I get the power on.  I’ll go to
the basement and restore that while you look around the living room.”

Edward cleared his throat reconsidering. “Yo, man, we
should stick together and not split up.  We don’t know what or who is in here
waiting on us.  I mean; I’m sure the door smashing in tipped off anyone
inside.”

Mario procured the small laser from Edward’s hand and
whispered, “Calm down, Edward.  This is not a movie.  There won’t be any bad
guys jumping out of closets.”

“Oh yeah, then why are we whispering?  Dang it, Mario,
I’m a postal employee and not disgruntled. I ain’t count on this shit getting
my ass killed.”

Mario frowned. “Nobody is going to get killed.  The less
talking we do, the quicker we can get this over with.  First, we get the power
on then search the house.  If Taylor isn’t here we move on to the next phase.”

“I got a bad feeling about this, Mario.”

Mario sucked in a breath to psych himself, “Man up,
Edward; we’re losing time with petty bickering.  If we want to find Taylor
alive, we gotta do this.”

 Creeping through the kitchen, they readied to enter the
basement.  A mumbled moan halted both of them.  Mario lowered the slivered beam
of light to see a body on the floor.  “Who the hell is this?”

Edward nervously swiped at his nose. “Hell if I know! 
Man, we’d better book.”

Mario kneeled down to get a better assessment of the
man’s condition. “He’s barely alive,” he said feeling the victim’s blood squish
between his fingers.

Edward scooted over to the kitchen door unlatching the
chain and releasing the deadbolt. “Man, we gotta raise our non-gun toting asses
the hell up outta this joint!”

Mario shifted his weight to one knee. “Edward, it’s two
of us.  We already have this person out-numbered. Freaking relax! You’re making
me nervous.”

“You should be nervous. Dude could be a hired gunslinger
who prefers using bullets instead of his fists.  If you look at it from his
perspective, we’re out-numbered four fists to his one gun.”

Mario wished Edward would shut up and help him with the
victim. “Can you shush it and help me, please?  We are not leaving him to die. 
We’re going to help this man.”

“Screw that!  I’ll call the cops from the car.  Hell from
around the corner!  Do you realize how much trouble we are in?”

“What are you talking about?  We didn’t do anything.”

“Wanna bet? We got three strikes already and haven’t ever
got to bat.” Edward counted on his fingers. “Strike one—I’m a Black man. 
Strike two—you are Hispanic.  Strike three—we are in a dark house that we don’t
own!  Who in the hell else you think the cops are gonna suspect did this to a
WHITE man?”

“Chill, Edward, we won’t be considered suspects.” Mario
said flashing the light around the man’s chest looking for the gunshot wound.

“Then, what if whoever did this is watching and wants to
finish the job?  Now he has two more people to take out?”

“I doubt whoever did this to him stuck around.  If he
had, he would have killed us already after listening to your idiotic
ramblings!”

“We gotta let 5-O handle this.  I repeat…I ain’t trying
to die tonight!”

Mario sighed heavily; in a roundabout way, Edward was
right. The police had to be called since a man was shot inside Taylor’s
residence.  “All right, you win.  Help me get him outside.”

Edward carried the man’s feet letting Mario haul his
bloody torso.  Safely away from Taylor’s house, they hurried to the front yard
of the house across the street.  Laying him on the grass Sabrina hopped from
the car.

Hysterical, she pushed the men aside. “Was Taylor
inside?  I called the police when I heard yelling coming from the garage.”

“We didn’t get a chance to look for her yet.”  Mario
recognized the man once under the bright street lamps. “This is Taylor’s
neighbor, Sebastian.  He has a gunshot somewhere in the upper chest area. 
There is too much blood on his shirt for me to locate the wound.”

Sabrina removed the scarf from around her head.  “Find
it! We have to stop the bleeding.”

“Y’all the police are coming,” Edward said noticing the
blue and red flashing lights headed in their direction.

Police cars zoomed in as Mario and Sabrina worked to save
Sebastian.  EMS took over the duties once they arrived.  Wiping his hands on
the lawn, Mario got off his knees.  Tossing the purse in the car, he started
across the street. “I’m going in to look for Taylor.”

A police officer stopped him. “Where do you think you’re
going?”

Mario did not waver and answered curtly, “I’m going to
look for my girlfriend in her house.”

“No, you’re not.  Until we secure the scene, no one is
allowed inside except law enforcement.”

Narrowing his eyes, Mario pressed. “You don’t understand
what’s at stake—Taylor James is likely in danger.  We found that man shot
inside her home and no signs of her!”

“We’re investigating so please stay behind the yellow
tape.  It would be big help to us if you’d kindly go with this officer and give
him your statement.”

“You can get my statement later!  Right now I’m going in
for clues to where Taylor may be and who might have taken her.”

The officer refused him entry and secured his arm
re-igniting the flares of pain to his shoulder. “Don’t make me cuff you.  You
and your friends are suspects until we verify who you are and why you are
here.”

Riled, Mario roared at the officer. “I told you who I am!
This is her sister and brother-in-law! If this were a woman you cared about,
would you be content standing behind some damn tape instead of doing whatever
you could!”

“Sir, I sympathize with you.  Unfortunately, this is how
it works.  Stand behind the tape or go to jail…the choice is yours.”

Sabrina wiped her hands on her pants tugging Mario away
when the officer reached for his handcuffs.  “Mario, sit down.  I can’t afford
to have you thrown in jail.”

The blood on his hands transferred to his face after
rubbing it. “Why didn’t she listen to me instead of pushing me away?”

 Sabrina held onto Edward. Her bright yellow tank shirt
and white cotton pants were covered in blood also. “Because she is Taylor and
does what she wants.”  Her cell phone rang.  “Oh no, it’s mom.  What am I
supposed to say to her?”

Mario lifted his head looking around.  There weren’t any
news crews on scene, but neighbors were lining the sidewalks gawking. “Sabrina,
if she doesn’t mention Taylor, don’t you mention anything about her missing.  I
want to talk to Dillon later.  Maybe he has seen her.”

“Okay.”  She put the phone to her ear. “Hi, Mom; what’s
up?  What! Mom, when did it happen?  I’m not with Taylor now, but I will tell
her.  Bye.” 

Sabrina closed her eyes. Mario waited patiently for her
to repeat the conversation, when she didn’t he asked. “What was that about?”

Curling her fingers under her nose, she sniffed. “You can
cross Dillon off the list of suspects.  He is in the hospital listed in
critical condition.  Mom said Dillon collapsed at his home earlier today.  She
is looking for Taylor to let her know.”

                                                                                                                                                      
Chapter 21
           
 

Mario entered the front door of his house throwing the
keys in the dish on the table. Frustrated and perplexed twelve hours had passed
with no trace of Taylor or any evidence of who she might be with.  He scratched
his fingers through his low-cut hair.  His body hurt; his stomach growled from
hunger, and the police were more concerned about his and Taylor’s relationship
rather than her disappearance.

Detective after detective questioned him about his
relationship with Taylor.  They wanted to know how and why the car accident
happened. His background in criminal investigation had him understanding it was
standard routine, but it nonetheless left him appearing he was the main suspect
in her disappearance.  Even though he offered to front the reward money for her
safe return, police advised him not to leave Cleveland.

He kicked the magazine stand sitting by his recliner
across the room. He sat in the chair propping an elbow on his knee caressing
his forehead with his fingers. 
Where are you Taylor? Where in the hell can
you be?

He stood up taking the cell phone from his pants pocket. 
He’d taken it from her purse before handing it over to police.  Mario turned it
on hoping it wasn’t password protected.  The screen opened with a picture of
them together set as her wallpaper.  He scrolled through the text messages
looking for anything received before she left work, or any unusual texts such
as the one she’d told him about.  There weren’t any text messages after 2:30am
that morning.  The only call she made was to Yellow Cab.  There were several
missed calls, a few from a repeated number he could not locate in her contact
list.  Those could have been work-related calls.  He would check on those
tomorrow at the office.

He laid the cell phone on the table next to the chair and
leaned back.  The dominance of exhaustion took over forcing him to close his
eyes.  Taylor’s likeness appeared.  She seemed scared and calling to him for
help.  Drifting off to sleep that was his last image of Taylor James.

*****

Mario’s eyes opened hearing the loud noise.  He’d heard
the steady pounding in his sleep thinking he was dreaming.  He pulled the lever
sitting the recliner upright to get to the front door.  “Hold your horses…I’m
moving as fast as I can,” he said limping to the door.  Sleeping in the chair
had stiffened his muscles to a state where every step he took was a major feat
to accomplish.

He opened the door stepping backwards from astonishment.
“Taylor?” She took one step forward falling into his arms.  He held onto her,
not dropping her weight from his sore arms.  “Jesus, Taylor, what happened to
you?”  He looked up to see three more women standing in the doorway bloody and
terrified.  “What the fuc….”

She cried against his chest. “Mario, I’m glad to see
you.  I didn’t think I would ever see you again.”

He hugged her grateful she was alive. “Hold, on, baby;
I’m calling for help.”

“No,” she rebutted. “You have to help them first.”

 “Baby….”

“Mario, listen to me, we had to leave two women behind. 
They were too injured for us to move them; we have to hurry before they die.”

Mario could not make sense of her conversation and
believed she may have been drugged, and was incoherent. “Okay, I will get them
help.  Let me get you all to the hospital. We can get help for the others on
the way.”

She grabbed his shirt, on the verge of hysterics. “You
have to help them now!  He was stabbed, Mario.  We aren’t sure he is dead.  You
have to get those women out of there if he isn’t dead.”

“Taylor, give me the whole story.  I can’t put what you
are trying to tell me together.  Slow down and tell me what happened to you? 
Who did you all kill?”

“There was a man in my house.  The bastard shot Sebastian
in front of me!” She covered her mouth crying.

Mario went to the bar and poured three glass of water
handing a glass to each of the frightened women.   He returned to Taylor, he
asked.  “How did you get here?”

“We took his van and got the hell away from that house.”

He waited for her to take a few sips and calm down.
“Baby, I have to call the police.  I know you don’t want me to do that until we
get help for the others, but they are looking for you…all of you.  I have to
let them know you are safe.”

“Call them.  Those women need help before they die from
their injuries.  I couldn’t help them, Mario.”

He tried pacifying her by picking up the phone and
dialing.  She began taking off her torn clothes.  “Taylor, don’t take off any
of your clothes; just sit still, okay.  I’m calling the police now.”

Mario called the number Detective Diego gave him. He then
called Sabrina to let her know Taylor was at his house.  Thirty minutes had not
passed before Detective Diego, and his partner was on his doorstep.  They
wanted to speak to Taylor and the other women alone.  Mario gave them access to
his home office to conduct an informal interview.

Sabrina and Edward entered his house with her parents in
tow.  “Where is Taylor?  She asked in a frantic voice.

“She is with Detective Diego in my office.  I have to
warn you she arrived on my doorstep with three other women.”

Sabrina crinkled her brow. “What three other women? 
Mario, could those be the women that went missing a few weeks ago?”

Mario nodded. “From the way they look, I would say so. 
Taylor said there are two more women in the house they couldn’t free because of
their injuries.”

Mr. James paced. “Is my baby girl hurt, Mario?  Did that
asshole beat her?”

“Mr. James, from what I could tell she has been in a
fight.  She has cuts and bruises on her body.”

Mrs. James collapsed to the floor crying.  “Oh, my lord,
my baby!”

“Mom, she is alive.” Sabrina cried cuddling her mother on
the floor.

Detective Diego came into the living room. “Mr. Infante,
can I speak to you alone, please?”

Mario followed the detective to the kitchen after seeing
Mrs. James sitting under her own power. “What’s wrong?”

“Ms. James is going to take us where she was held.  She’s
only going if you come along with her.”

Eager to be of assistance, he said, “Let’s go.”

Detective Diego held up his hand. “She’s pretty adamant
the abductor is dead.”

“She mentioned that to me.  She also mentioned two other
women are seriously injured.  Did she expand on that?”

“Yes.  From what she has told us, we believe she her
abduction is connected to the recent disappearance of women on the eastside of
Cleveland.  We recently received a report of a woman missing from the westside;
that woman is here.”

“Detective Diego, so this has nothing to do with the
cameras found in her house?”

“I don’t believe it does.  Did anyone bother to check the
front door to Ms. James house?”

“I didn’t, why?”

“That is how he entered her house.  Forced entry was made
through the front doors. That is the same condition we found the other homes
have in common.  The perpetrator would hide and wait to pounce.  Everything she
described is exactly what each woman described happened to them.”

“Damn.  I don’t know how I missed that.”

“You’re not a trained police officer.  Anyhow, we have
zone cars in the area looking for the house to rescue the other two women.”

Mario scrubbed his hands over his face. “This is unreal. 
Well, if she is ready to go, so am I.”

“I assume those other people are family members?”

“Yes.  They are Taylor’s parents.  The other women have
not asked for anything but to use the phone.”

“They are pretty shaken up and wish to stay here until we
return. Is it okay with you if they stay and contact their families and wait
for them to arrive?”

Mario nodded. “Sure. I will ask Sabrina to look after
them until their families are contacted.”

*****

Detectives and police officers searched the property of
an abandoned house located on a residential street with only three or four
houses actually occupied.  The rest of the run-down homes were waiting for a
brisk wind to knock them over.  Treading through the trash strewn about the house
Taylor claimed she was held, two women were found inside beaten violently but
alive.  The suspect was found in a bedroom with multiple stab wounds to the
neck and torso.  The paring knife remained embedded in his jugular.

Detective Diego poked around the man’s body for a pulse. 
He shook his head looking at his partner. “He’s gone.”

Detective Franco smacked the gum he was chewing while
writing in a notebook. “She’s a hero.  She saved those women who could not
escape on their own.  If she hadn’t initiated the fight, all of them would be
dead.”

“Yeah, but one of them killed him.  That won’t be easy to
live with.  I’ll talk to the boyfriend to see how she will react to the news. 
Also, I don’t want her to see the coroner removing his body.  Tell him to hold off
until we clear the area.”

*****

Mario was standing against the car.  He straightened his
body when Detective Diego approached him.  “Well?”

Detective Diego looked inside the car. Taylor had her
head down with her hands folded in her lap.  The woman had been through hell
and lived to talk about it.  “Do you speak Spanish,” he asked.

Mario screwed his nose turning his lips to the left. “I
am Latino.”

“Bueno.”  He said preferring to speak in Spanish.

Mario asked.  “Que encontraste a dentro?”

“Encontramos dos mujeres, pero el sospechoso esto muerto,
que tanto creses Ms. James va ha recivir la noticia?”

Mario shook his head. “Ella es una mujer fuerte. Ella va
a creer lo que ella hizo es correcto y acepto la resposabilidad.”

Detective Diego folded his arms across his chest.
“Tenemos que llevarla a la estacion. Ella nova a ser acusado da nada, Pero
necesitamos su declaracion en el expesiente. Sespues de eso, llevala al hopital
para un chequeo.”

“Gracias, Detective Diego.”

*****

The clock ticked to 7:00am with the alarm promptly
blaring.  Mario swiped his hand across the night table searching for the button
to turn off the annoying noise before it woke Taylor.  He had finally laid his
aching bones down a few hours ago.  After leaving the police station and the hospital,
he tended to Taylor by bathing and feeding her before going to sleep himself. 
Silencing the alarm, he turned over in bed slowly; she was gone. 

He rubbed the crust from his eyes sitting on the side of
the bed.  Dragging his robe from the chair, he went in search for Taylor.  He
followed the aroma of coffee once in the hallway.

Taylor sat at the kitchen table nursing a tall mug of hot
coffee.  She had corn-rolled a long braided to the back of her head. Mario sat
opposite the table from her. “Hey, why are you up so early?”

“I couldn’t sleep.  Every time I close my eyes, I get an
instant replay of what happened.  God, how will I live with this?”

Mario held her hand. “Taylor, it was self-defense for all
of you.  The four of you saved two lives because of what you did.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I know and I would probably
do it again if I had to.  There was no other way out, Mario.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

She lowered her eyelids.  Her heart panged with guilt for
taking a life to save her own. “It happened so fast.  He forced me into a
windowless van and handcuffed me inside a dog cage.”

“Taylor, did you know the man?”

 She shook her head.  “No.  I have never seen him
before.  He had to be from around the neighbor.  He knew I ran and what time I
usually did my runs.”

“They haven’t identified him yet.  The police are hoping
someone will report him missing; otherwise, they will have to wait for DNA
results to come back.”

“I don’t care who he is.  I want to forget his face.  I
want to forget how he shoved me in a closet and left me there for hours.  I
don’t know where he went or if he was in the house somewhere torturing those
other women.  I will never get the smell from my nose.  The place stunk of
trash and dead animals.  It was awful.”

Mario moved over one seat next to her.  Embracing her, he
said, “Baby, you are safe.  You are home.”

She nuzzled her head against the bulk of his shoulder. “I
am not home.  I will never be able to go home again.  The kitchen will be a
constant reminder of Sebastian on the floor gurgling.  I’ve never seen so much
blood drain from a body.”

“Sebastian is alive because of Sabrina’s quick thinking.”

“She used to be a nurse.  Do you have any word on his
condition?” She asked leaning away to wipe her eyes.

“Last I heard he is in guarded condition.  He is fighting
to live.”

“If it wasn’t for me he wouldn’t be fighting for his
life.  He is a nice person willing to help his neighbors.  I had the nerve to
be scared of him when he was only trying to help me.”

“Taylor…”

“I’ve managed to hurt any man that has had any contact
with me lately.”

“Sweetheart, that is not true.  Do you want to go on or
is talking about this too painful?”

“I have to get it out before the media comes knocking.”

He held her hand. “I’m listening.”

She rocked back and forth to stop her stomach from
quivering. “I heard one of the women screaming.  It scared the hell out of me. 
I had no clue if he was coming for me next or saving me for later.  All I knew
was I had to get out of there.  That fucker was not going to take my life.”

“It was smart to arm yourself.  Where did you hide the
knife?”

Her widened and her nose flared.  “I was terrified he
would find the knife before we left my house.”