Chapter 2 – holding the ace
Steve surfaced from the water to find Chin Ho Kelly looking down at him, "trouble", Chin stated succinctly. Steve quickly slipped out of his diving gear and into his clothes in what Chin considered speed worthy of an account in the Guinness book of records then settled himself in the passenger seat.
Whats going on, he asked Chin. "A possible kidnapping", Chin replied. "Only a possible kidnapping, Steve repeated in a puzzled tone," aren't we sure."
"It happened at a party thrown by that art dealer Roderick Hendricks, since a lot of drinking was going on its hard to get at what exactly happened. But the reports were that a car took off with a person in the back with a sack over their head. It could just be a prank on the part of some drunken party goer but we should check it out to make sure", Chin reported. Steve agreed with Chin's assessment, "if this is for real then we will have to mobilise everything quickly. I assume Danny is already on scene checking everything out," he remarked .
Chin paused for the tiniest of moments cluing in his boss that something was not quite right. "I've called his cell at least 6 times and there is no response. I know he was probably at a loud party himself but he should have had it on vibrate" Chin told Steve .That was unusual as Danny acted very professionally and was often the one that had to chase him down when there was trouble , "keep trying", he muttered.
Steve's driving to the scene was what Chin would describe as 'almost lethal' and he knew if Danny had been there he was would throwing barbs at Steve while clinging on to his seat belt in a death grib. Chin was not as verbal as Danny just closing his eyes and being thankful when they reached the Henricks mansion is one piece. The scene that greeted them was chaotic as drunk guests milled about in the driveway yelling and gesticulating. The car had barely slowed when Steve leaped out into their midst, "alright everyone I need to know what happened", he demanded. That achieved exactly nothing with the party goers all focusing on talking amongst themselves , drinking or in some cases being terribly sick, "listen up right now", Steve yelled in a tone that cut a path through the party goers rending them silent .
"I need to know what happened", he repeated slowly but firmly so it could penetrate their liquor filled brains. One man stepped forward, "someone had a sack over their head and was tied up in the back of a car, that's what happened", he told Steve. "yes, we all saw it", a woman chipped in pointing to the large group of people".
Deciding that the report sounded genuine and not part of a drunken hoax Steve responded, "good then you can tell me something about the car, it's make, color, license plate or failing that a description of the driver".
The expression on the faces of the group varied as they thought about their answers. Steve waited impatiently unable to stop thinking about valuable time slipping away. Finally one man called out, "the car went by so fast all we noticed was a dark blur".
Steve could feel his body tensing , so far these witnesses were worse than useless.
"Alright, so is anybody missing", he demanded moving the conversation on to his next major question. Several people in the group looked around but nobody made response. That made Steves frustatrion reach boiling point and he yelled, "you all came with someone didn't you,"so is that person still here". "I can tell you whats not here," Roderick hendrick interupted pushing through the mass of people, "my two million dollars.
"So the easy question is who knew about the money", asked Kono as she she arrived at Steve's side.
"Everyone because the whole point of this party was to celebrate the sale of my painting . I invited only the elite, not the type s that need to steal money", Roddy reported in a distintcly sour tone.
Steve recognized Mr Hendricks from an article in the paper. It had called him an intelligent man but in his mind advertising the fact he had 2 million dollars in his house just seemed like stupidity . But the mans attitude was not his problem, what had happened tonight was. "Okay so we have a robbery and a kidnapping", he told Chin. "Perhaps the thief was interrupted by someone and decided to snatch that person", Chin theorized.
"That points to a more elite type of criminal as it is far easier to knock someone out or shoot them that to grab them", Steve remarked thoughtfully.
Chin,go with Mr Hendricks and look at where he kept this money", he instructed. Kono, search the grounds to see if our kidnapper has left anything behind".
Kono and Chin left to carry out their bosses instructions. 'I asked you all who is missing", Steve yelled again getting the group back on track with what he wanted to know. "Well it's kind of hard to be sure . I sent out invitations but you could have up to two guests included in that invitation, that means there was about 200 people here tonight. Some could have met someone and went home with them or maybe just fell asleep somewhere drunk", Roderick Hendrick told him
Steve gritted his teeth feeling his anger rise again, "alright I will need names of everyone who might be missing".
He handed around pieces of paper. It looked like this was going to be difficult.
"Think more about the car as well", he told them, "if you all saw it then you must remember something. I know it's late and you're all tired but nobody is going home until I get some clear information. One of your fellow party goers needs your help and you need to slap the fog from your brain and give me some answers", he yelled the last and noted that everyone seemed to suddenly become more alert.
Seconds his blunt attitude bore some fruit as scantily clad blonde approached him, "the car knocked me over", Penny told him making sure her voice slurred just enough to keep up the illusion she was drunk." I was lying on the ground looking directly at the license plate for about 1 second, now what were those first three letters", she began to walk around in circles muttering to herself.
Out of the corner of her eye Penny watched the cops face. He looked like he was about to explode with frustration, Thomas was right to get so much enjoyment from playing with the authorities. This was definitely fun and she could keep it up all night but she had to remember what the plan was, "KRT or KRL something like that. I'm sure the car was dark blue", she concluded
Steve relaxed at least now he could actually do something. He rushed to the car to order several HPD units as well support from the air to look out for the car.
After doing that a man stepped forward and handed him several pieces of paper containing the names of party goers no longer present. Steve continued his conversation with HPD, "I'll need other units to check on the whereabouts of the following people, one of them is a possible kidnap victim", he explained. Steve looked at the first name, "Laura Bolt", he flicked to the next paper, 'Marcus Dryer", flick," Karl Maddison", flick , "Danny Will….". Steves head shot up and his chest tightened as a horrible suspicion began to come upon him,"who came here with Danny Williams", he yelled.
A slim dark blonde woman stepped forward, "he went home", she told Steve. Steve thought about Danny lack of response to the phone calls, perhaps he was just totally out of it. But this thought was chased away when Kono came walking toward him holding some things in her hands and looking like something truly awful had happened. She was shaking as she stood before Steve and held out Danny's ID, phone, wallet and gun, "I found these…"her voice cracked, "I found these under the master bedroom window," she finally choked out.
Feeling rather like he'd just been punched in the gut Steve ordered HPD to stop the searches for the other missing party goers and instructed that a police officer had been taken. 'I want everything mobilized looking for that car", he demanded. Looked over at their youngest team member Steve noted she was trying to hold back the tears.
"We are going to find him and the bastard who took him", Steve vowed to Kono.
Penny watched the search being mobilsing and smiled inwardly, she had carried out her part of the plan and after a little questioning would go and join her boyfriend.
A few miles away Dave pulled over the dark blue BMW and slid out of the drivers seat. Moving to the passenger door he pulled it open and grabbed the sack enclosed person hard, "are you scared sucker", he demanded. When no answer came Dave began to laugh and pulled the sack off his victims head. "That was not really funny", Greg protested as he gulped in the fresh air. "Sorry just getting into the character of things", Dave laughed. He pointed over to the red handled brief case, "it actually worked and we have 1 million dollars", he told his friend. "Yeah but don't forget the police will be looking for this car so lets go get our other car quickly", Greg implored. Dave pulled his gloves on tighter just to make sure there was no possibility of prints before placing a long slim envelope on the passenger seat.
"Right lets go", he pulled out the briefcase and with Greg by his side walked along the darkened road until they came to a car concealed carefully behind a large shrub. Jumping into the drivers seat, Dave grinned, "Let's go home crack open a few cans of booze and celebrate", he suggested
"That actually was as easy as that Thomas guy said", Dave remarked 10 minutes later as he sat with a large beer in his hand. "You sound surprised", Greg pointed out. 'Yeah ,there was something about that guy I just didn't like. I kind of expected him to betray us", Dave mused. "Ha well I'm glad you were wrong", Greg got out of the chair and moved out onto the apartments tiny balcony. "Now we can actually afford something that looks out over the ocean", he proclaimed looking down at the car park that was the tiny apartments 'view'. "Don't forget the classy ladies and better booze", Dave remarked as he placed the brief case on his knee. 'I've always wanted to see 1 million dollars", he snapped open the case and lifted the lid.
Greg saw a fireball leap and enclose his friend and set fire to the furniture as the case exploded. He gripped the railing tight and looked down debating whether he would prefer falling 12 stories onto concrete or being engulfed by flame.
Seconds later the choice was taken from him as the fire reached him. "Thomas you bastard," he cried as his clothes began to burn.
That bastard was several miles out to sea in a high powered jet boat with a still unconscious Danny Williams lying at his feet. He glanced at the luminous dial on his watch ,by now the authorities were alerted and off on a false lead. Eventually they would find the car but would not of course ever find the occupants. "I really wish I could have seen their faces", Thomas laughed as he coaxed more speed out of the boat.
