Reprisal Read online

  “No way, I’ll make sure that never happens.” And I step towards her, hoping her anger has dissipated and I can touch her, but she steps back from me.

  “No, you aren’t getting it Gabe. You need to put me in.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “He wants me, let him have me.” She says, determination in her eyes.

  “No fucking way, Syd. You’ve seen what this guy is capable of and I will not allow him to do it to you. No way.” I shake my head and turn my back to her. I feel her small hand on my shoulder and my body tenses up. I will not allow myself to be distracted anymore. If she’s volunteering to go be killed, then I have to distance myself.

  “Gabe. I wouldn’t do it unprotected. Geez, I’m not a martyr. I’ll have my gun and you won’t be far away. I just have to figure out how to lure him to me without being obvious. Gabe, I need to go home. Now.”

  And she turns to get her jacket.

  “Sydney, wait. Let’s talk this through before jumping in.”

  “No, no more talking Gabe. Let’s go.”

  And she walks out the door, slamming it behind her. I grab my keys and jacket, following her out. I lock up behind me and nod towards the house across the street, silently notifying them to be on the lookout.

  But I look towards the car and Sydney’s not there. She’s gone. I hit the sidewalk and start turning in circles, looking up the street. Then down the street as I grasp for my phone. “What the fuck!” I ask the officer on the other end. “Who is this?” I ask.

  “This is Detective Reynolds, sir. Are you leaving the house?”

  “REALLY? DID YOU NOT JUST SEE US EXIT THE PROPERTY? WHICH WAY DID DOCTOR DECARLO GO?” I scream in to the phone.

  “I...I...I’m sorry, Detective. I didn’t see her leave, we thought she was locked up tight inside.”

  “Damn it! You had a job to do and you fucked it up! Now she’s gone! Get Chuck Matthews, over here stat! I’m going searching on foot! You keep your God damn eyes on this house and you call me if she comes back, you got that? Can you handle that small task?”

  “Yes sir.”

  Fuck, she’s gone. FUCK! Why did she have to just barge out of the house like that? Damn, stupid!! She knew he was after her and she.....damn it, I have to get moving. I hike up the street and see one of my neighbors, Old Lady Thomason. I calm down and approach with caution, cause she’s a skittish old bird. “Evening Mrs. Thomason.”

  She turns to look up at me, “Oh hi Detective Torres. Lovely evening isn’t it?”

  “Yes ma’am. Listen, did you see a young woman walk this way? She’s about five foot five, long brown hair. She’s wearing jeans and a yellow sweatshirt.”

  Her eyes glaze over as she thinks, “Well now, let me see. How long ago?”

  “About two minutes ago, ma’am. Please, did you see her?”

  “Ah now, Detective, running the ladies off already?” She tsks shaking her crooked finger at me.

  “Apparently, ma’am. Did you see her or not?”

  “Umm, no. I don’t believe I did. But I will send her over if I see her.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Thomason.”

  And I head back the other direction, scanning the street for unknown cars and people.

  Nothing, I throw my hands in the air and scream about the time tires come screeching behind me.

  Seeing it’s the chief of the Brooklyn precinct, I march right over.

  “Chief, you have a load of morons working for you. How in the hell can they......”

  “Easy Torres, those are my men you’re talking about.”

  “I don’t give a FUCK about your men, Chief! They took their eyes off of my house and now Doctor DeCarlo is missing. If you want to claim those men, then go ahead because MY men wouldn’t have slacked off on the job. Now, we need to get an APB out for Doctor Sydney DeCarlo, now! The first few hours are the most important.”

  “Don’t tell me how to do my job, Torres. You brought this problem to Brooklyn from

  Manhattan, you’ll work on my terms here.”

  “Fuck you, I’m calling in the FBI.”

  “No you won’t Torres. You have no jurisdiction here, now back off and let us do our job.”

  “Do your job? If your men had been doing their job, we wouldn’t be standing here arguing.”

  “Torres, you don’t know Jack Shit, now step down.”

  “Fuck you, Chief! Your men’s ineptitude just caused a young woman to disappear!”

  “Wait, what do you mean disappear?” He asks.

  “REALLY? ASK YOUR FAITHFUL MEN WHAT HAPPENED!” I scream as I point over to the vacant house across the street. “I’m calling in the FBI and when you find out how stupid your men are, you’ll be glad I did.”

  I march towards my house as the Chief gets on his radio. I hear him barking orders but I ignore him, dialing my own phone.

  “Chuck Matthews.”

  “It’s Torres, call in the FBI.”

  “Why, what’s happened?”

  “Idiots here not paying attention and Sydney’s gone.”

  “WHAT THE FUCK?” Chuck screams in to the phone.

  “Yeah, she got a wild hair up her ass to go home, to become a martyr and walked out the damned door. Before I could grab my keys and follow her, she vanished without a trace. Damn surveillance team fucked up.”

  “Obviously. No witnesses? No one saw her outside?”

  “Not that I can locate. Street was pretty empty when I got out here. When I called the team across the street, they were like ‘huh’. Fucking morons.”

  “Easy, Gabe. We’ll find her. Calling Jason Morrison with the Feds right now. Stay put, I’m on my way too.”

  “Right, easy for you to say Chuck. She was in my protection and...FUCK!” I scream as I drag my fingers through my unruly hair. “Damn it Chuck, I failed her. She’s never going to trust me again.”

  “Gabe, you and I both know this unsub is unpredictable, look at the last girl. He knows we’re on to him so he’s changing it up. We’ll find her.”

  “We better, cause I don’t think we have much time.”

  “I know. I’ll be there soon.”

  Chapter 15

  Gabe

  An hour and a half later, Chuck pulls in with Special Agent Jason Morrison of the FBI right behind him. Jason shakes my hand and nods towards the house across the street, “They still there?”

  “Yeah, they’re going through the video footage, looking for anything that might tell us what happened to Syd.....Doctor DeCarlo.”

  “Surely they had the camera on and saw where she went, right?” Mo says as he walks towards the surveillance house. “Let’s go light a fire under them, eh?”

  Chuck and I follow him as we ascend the stairs of the brownstone and cross the street. This house has been vacant for years, supposed rumors of a murder occurring there, and the owners have never been able to sell it. It’s been up for rent now for a few weeks, but so far it remains empty, and right now I’m glad for that.

  Mo opens the door and walks in without knocking, heading up the stairs to the master bedroom that overlooks the street. As we walk in, we see three NYPD officers staring at a blank screen and pressing buttons frantically on the recorder.

  “Gentlemen? You have been relieved of your duties, you may be dismissed.” Jason tells them as he marches into the room.

  “Excuse me?” One of the officers stands up and faces him, nose to nose. “And who the fuck are you?”

  “Special Agent Jason Morrison, Federal Bureau of Investigations. This is now a federal case, your services are no longer needed.” He replies as he flashes his badge at the man. The officer moves to pack up the equipment but Jason quickly shuts that down, “No. Leave the equipment.

  We’re going to go over all of the footage you obtained to see if we can figure out what happened to Doctor De Carlo.”

  “Well, there’s a problem with that.” The officer says.

  “Problem? There better not be a problem,
Officer. And if there is, you’d better take care of it now, or you’ll have even bigger problems.”

  Jason is a no holds barred kinda man, takes no prisoners and gets his point across quickly.

  “Now, what appears to be the problem, and then tell me what you plan to do to correct the problem?”

  “Umm, you see sir.....” The officer stutters. “The camera, umm, it didn’t capture anything.”

  “What do you mean it didn’t capture anything?”

  “It malfunctioned, or something, sir. That’s what we were just trying to figure out.”

  “Show me.” Jason says as he walks over to the small TV screen that the other two men are staring at.

  “Nothing to show you, sir. Just a blank screen. Either the camera malfunctioned or.......”

  “WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE CAMERA MALFUNCTIONED?” I yell from behind Jason.

  Jason turns to me, “Easy Gabe.” Then he turns to the officer that appears to be in charge, though I doubt any of them have a fucking clue what they’re doing. “What kind of malfunction?”

  Damn, how can he be so calm? Sydney is out there somewhere, possibly being raped and......shit, I can’t think that way. I let her down earlier buy letting this bastard get her, but I will make it up to her by saving her ass. God, I hope I can save her.

  “OUT OF MY WAY, OFFICER!” I hear Jason scream at the dude blocking the TV. The skinny officer backs away slowly, fear crossing his eyes. Jason pulls up a chair and starts pressing buttons, adjusting the focus and after about ten minutes, the blurred screen comes in to view.......a beat up blue Honda parked on the curb, the door opening up and a young kid exiting the vehicle.

  “You guys need to go back to the academy.” Jason mumbled under his breath. I watch the three officers eyes dart between each other and the ‘oh shit’ looks they have on their faces. I silently chuckle as it appears they are amateurs at best. The three officers back away and I take one of the vacant seats next to Jason, Chuck standing behind me.

  “Can you zoom in on the tag?”

  “Yeah, but let’s make sure this is the dude that got her.” About that time my front door flies open and Sydney descends the stairs, hitting the sidewalk at a fast clip. Before she can even take in her surroundings the young guy that just exited THE car slyly walks up behind her, pressing a white cotton cloth over her face, her body instantly collapsing in his arms. The guy moves quickly, shoving her in the back seat of his car and takes off about the time my door flies open again and I can been seen locking my door.

  “Damn, he was quick. I never even saw his car pull away. He moved so fast!”

  “Yeah, but at least we have a lead now.” Jason says as he presses the rewind button, precisely stopping on the clearest view of the car. He spins the dials and presses more buttons, zooming in on the tag. It’s not very clear, cause the car was dirty and beat up. But after a few minutes we’re able to get a clear enough shot of the tag, taken as the vehicle drove away.

  “Shit!” I exclaim as I realize what I’m seeing.

  “What?” Jason asks, turning to me.

  “Can’t you see that? That’s not a New York tag.”

  Jason zooms in a little closer and sure enough, an Illinois tag.

  “Does she have a connection to Illinois?” Jason asks as he ejects the CD and stands up.

  “Yeah, she’s from the Chicago area, Lincoln Park to be exact.” And I’m suddenly thankful for the small bits of personal information she divulged during our previous conversations. She didn’t give away much, but she gave away enough for the time being.

  Then Mo freezes, his eyes on the television monitor. “Jesus.” I hear him whisper as he glares at the officer standing behind him and pokes his finger in his chest. “You have no idea what a fuck-up you really are, do you?” Then his eyes meet the eyes of the two other officers in the room. “You guys better start praying.” He says as he turns to me.

  “Well, let’s get to the local precinct and run this tag.” He says as he exits the home, glaring at the clueless officers standing against the back wall. “Clean this shit up and meet us downtown, you have a meeting with your superiors.”

  It takes about eight minutes to get to the Sixty-Seventh precinct down on Snyder Ave, in late evening traffic. I follow Jason in through the doors and straight to Chief Andrew’s office. Great, we’ve already had one altercation today and I have a feeling there’s about to be another one.

  He’s not going to be thrilled that the FBI has been called in, especially after he defended his men.

  I can’t let that bother me at this point. Right now, I want that tag run so we can get an APB out on the vehicle. He couldn’t have gotten far, but far enough to cause a substantial delay in finding Sydney. The first twenty-four hours are the most critical, and we’re only three hours in. But, a lot of ground can be covered after three hours. If those idiots had been paying attention and doing their fucking jobs, we wouldn’t be here right now. I’d be back at my place playing doctor with Sydney.

  “ANDREWS!” Jason yells as he blasts past reception and straight down the hall towards the Chief’s domain.

  “Sir? You have to check in, please. Sir!” The dispatcher at the front desk hollers down at us, but we don’t look back. The three of us march down the hall, single file, and on a mission.

  “ANDREWS!” Jason calls out again. As we approach his office, he meets us in the hallway.

  “What the fuck......shit, Morrison.” He says, his eyes darting back and forth between the three of us.

  “I told you I was calling in the Feds, now let’s have a seat in your office, Andrews.” I say as I step around Mo. Mo steps back and allows me this one moment before I’m sure he’ll take over. I get up in his face, my finger poking his chest. Andrews may be six foot three and two hundred pounds, but he doesn’t scare me. “Your men fucked up back there, Andrews. They’re packing up that shit you call equipment and they’ll be coming to see you, soon. Now, we’ve got work to do.”

  I say as I push him back into his office, somewhat gently, but probably a little harder than needed.

  Morrison tosses the slip of paper on Andrews’ desk with the tag number of the car. “I need this tag run, now. Had your men been paying attention and doing their fucking job, we wouldn’t be here right now. But they didn’t and we are, so you are at my mercy right now, Andrews.”

  I see a flash of fear cross Andrews’ eyes as he reaches for the paper, his eyes never leaving mine. With his other hand, Andrews picks up his phone and presses a number. “King, it’s Andrews. I need a tag run, stat.” He says in to the phone and then rattles off the tag number.

  “This is priority one man, I need it yesterday.” And he hangs up the phone.

  “Morrison......” Andrews speaks, but Mo cuts him off.

  “Andrews, don’t even try and pull rank here. Feds have jurisdiction of local PD and you know it. This is my case now, and you will do what I say.” Mo says as he leans on to Andrews’ desk, fire shooting from his eyes.

  “Your ‘so called’ men back there allowed a marked woman to get out of their sights. They were put in place to watch and instead, they were jacking off and watching porn. Do you get that? They tried to cover it up, but MY MEN are smarter than yours.” He screams at Andrews as he slams a CD on to his desk. “Go ahead, fire it up.” He says as he nudges his head towards the DVD player in the corner of his office. “I expect to hear about a mass firing here and if not, well....let’s just say you don’t want the press involved in this.”

  Andrews reluctantly picks up the disc and inserts it in to the machine while turning on the television. I stand back and watch his reaction as he sees what his men were watching. At first, you see the street and my house, and all is quiet. Then static covers the screen and a low budget porno fills the screen. I drop my head in embarrassment for the whole of NYPD. This is a scandal waiting to happen and I start to rethink my career choice. Maybe once this is over, I’ll leave NYPD and join the bureau. I can’t think about that rig
ht now, though. We need to find Sydney, and we need to find her now. Before it’s too late.

  I watch Andrews watch the video feed and redness creeps up his neck and I think I see smoke coming out of his ears. He looks furious, as he should. His men are douche bags and if they worked for me, they would be out of here. He grabs his phone and calls another number.

  “Karen, get me Officers Flint, Miller and Sanchez. I want them in my office within the hour.”

  And he slams the phone down. He stares at the screen shaking his head, “I don’t even know what to say, except this.....I need to call the academy and get some new recruits, cause I’m down three men now.”

  Chapter 16

  A musty, moldy smell awakens me. Shit, it’s happened again. As I blink away the cobwebs, I glance around the room. Fuck, it’s the same damned basement. He brought me back to the scene of the original crime. The hairs stand up on the back of my neck and my body tenses up. My hands are bound behind my back and I’m sitting upright in a metal chair. THE metal chair.

  But I’m alone. The only sounds are dripping water somewhere behind me. The air is stagnant and the smell.....the smell is the same, nothing has changed in almost twenty years. Gray cinder block walls, dirty concrete floor and only a trace of light drifting in under the door. I stare at it, waiting for it to open and my father to come walking in. I know deep inside that it’s impossible, but if it isn’t my brother......

  The door opens and the bright light shines in, blinding me. In walks a young man. No, a boy.

  I glare at him through squinty eyes, and can’t quite focus on him. Dark hair, dark eyes and just a baby. Surely.....

  “Well, well. The bitch is awake. How about that, Sydney? Or should I say, Doctor? ”

  “Who are you and what do you want from me?”

  “In time, Doctor. All in good time.”

  He moves up closer. His face now, right in mine. His breath smells rancid and rotten, so I try to hold it in without vomiting all over him. His grimy fingers brush across my face, “Beautiful.