Alex POV
Carolyn Barek is a professional. She worked for the FBI. She worked for the NYPD. And now she writes her own ticket, using her creative and insightful mind to help law enforcement solve difficult cases.
But despite all her training, and all that she's seen, she was about to come unglued.
Her voice had been calm, her carefully constructed composure still in place, but I could tell that she was about to break.
Once I got a handle on my own reaction, I put the phone back to my ear and asked her to give me the details. I listened intently while Bobby took over my earlier job of pacing through my apartment.
"He went to get the car and he didn't come back," she stated simply.
"Where were you?"
"We were still at the hotel here in Boston. I was checking out while he was going to get the car from the parking garage."
"And no one has tried to contact you?"
"No," she said quietly.
"Have you called the Boston Police?"
"He's an adult. I can file a report, but they won't really consider him missing until he's been gone at least twenty-four hours, and so far it's been less than two."
"What did you find in the parking garage?" I asked. I had no doubt that she had already gone to check it out.
"The car is there. Our bags are in the trunk, but there is no evidence that he got into the car."
"His cell phone?"
"It's unaccounted for, but it must be off. I already tried to track him."
"So he was grabbed some time between loading the bags and getting into the driver's seat," I stated.
"Right," she agreed. She paused for a minute, but the she asked quietly, "This is Masarro, isn't it?"
I wanted to say no. Or at least that I didn't know. I wanted to say anything but the truth. But she's my friend, and I respect her too much to be anything other than honest.
"Yes," I answered. And then I told her about the body and the article.
"Oh my God," she whispered.
"Carolyn, we'll find him. I promise."
"It's the mafia, Alex. I know how these people work."
"This is a scare tactic. Just like the dead body in my apartment." I had the thought that if Masarro planned to kill Mike, then he would've done it and left his body in my apartment. But I didn't say that out loud.
"Well, it's working," she admitted. "I don't know what to do next."
"Where are you right now?"
"I'm in a coffee shop down the street from the hotel."
"Have you felt like anyone was watching you?"
"No. I left the car in the garage and then I walked several miles and stopped in a lot of places before I came in here. I wanted to make sure." Still a good cop.
"Okay. Stay there then. Bobby and I will be up there in three hours."
"Alex, it's two hundred miles."
"I know. That's why we're going to leave now. Bobby can call Rodgers from the car. We'll get her to come here and check out this body. Call my cell if you need anything."
"Okay." I hung up the phone and looked at Bobby.
"We're going to Boston."
"And we're back to just asking Rodgers to come?" he asked me.
"If we make an official report, we'll be here for hours at the very least, giving statements and answering questions. We can't leave Carolyn alone in Boston if Masarro has gone up there after them."
"You think Rodgers will do this on the sly?"
"I know she'll do it," I said emphatically. "She owes us. Besides that, I think she's got a thing for you now that she's seen you in the buff." It probably wasn't the best time to be making a joke, but it's how I cope. And of course, Bobby knew me well enough to play along.
"And that doesn't make you a little jealous? Because, I don't know, but I think I could give Ross a run for his money." I flashed him a grateful grin and we got the hell out of my putrid apartment.
"We should tell Ross," I decided as we climbed into my car. We had to make a quick stop by Bobby's place to let him grab a bag. We didn't know how long we'd be gone. I still had a few clean clothes at his place, too, so I was going to take those. I didn't want anything porous from my apartment. Not until I could wash it first.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"I don't want to keep so many secrets. Ross will understand our need to go to Boston. He can sit on this case for just a little while."
Bobby was quiet for several minutes and I knew he was analyzing all of the pros and cons of letting our boss in on our situation. I wasn't sure it was the best thing to do, but it was the right thing. The events over the past six weeks had changed him, and for the better. He still liked to ride our asses, but I felt more like I could trust him than ever before. He was willing to keep Moran in the dark about our relationship as long as we didn't flaunt it, so I thought he deserved to be kept in the loop.
"Okay. We'll call Ross first," he agreed, but I noticed he didn't make a move for his phone.
"Are we going to wait until we've left the city?"
"No, I just thought maybe you would do it while I run in my place to get our bags?" It was a statement, but he said it like a question. And then he laid on the charm.
"You just handle him so much better than I do, and…"
"Fine," I conceded as we pulled up in front of his place. "I'll do it." He winked at me and hopped out of the car before I could change my mind. I made the call.
"Eames?" Ross asked by way of greeting.
"Yes, Captain. I'm sorry to bother you on a Sunday, but we have a situation."
"Another situation."
"Yes, sir."
"Is this situation just getting started, or am I coming in on the tail end of it?" he asked sarcastically. Okay, I deserved that.
"It's new."
"Masarro?"
"We think so. I found a dead body in my apartment today, bullet through the eye."
"What? Have you called it in yet?"
"This is me, calling it in. Goren was with me when I found it, but we can't hang around for questioning. We've got to get to Boston. Mike Logan has disappeared."
I filled him in on everything I knew, and finished up by asking him to have Liz take a look at the body. I told him I suspected that it had been there for days, and to his credit, he didn't ask why I had only found it today.
"We can't sit on this for long. I'll ask Liz to go over there and do a preliminary look-see, and I'll authorize you two to go to Boston, but the report is going to have to be filed."
"Captain, we can't have the press getting wind of it. We don't want the mob to know what we know. And we really don't want the Feds to get involved. They'll pressure for protective custody. And if the connection is made that we've gone to Boston, they could find out about Mike missing, and then they'll try to take over that investigation, and…"
"Okay, Eames. You made your point. I'll squash it for forty-eight hours. If this guy's been dead as long as you think, a couple more days won't hurt. Get your asses up to Boston and find Logan."
"Yes sir," I said with relief. "Thank you."
"I'll have Liz call you if she finds anything of value."
"And if she can i.d. the guy."
"Of course. And Eames…"
"Yes, Captain?"
"Be careful."
It was nearly six o'clock when we arrived in Boston. I drove like a maniac the whole way, and only got pulled over once. I thought about badging my way out of it, but then I went for sweet-talking him instead. No ticket.
"I had no idea you were so good at that," Bobby said once we were back to going ninety on the interstate.
"At persuasion? I've been using that my whole life. People underestimate me all of the time because of my size and gender. I simply play into that and let people think I am what I appear to be. It either gets me what I want, or it gives me the advantage of surprise if I have to switch it up and play hardball."
"I have never underestimated you," Bobby countered.
"No, you haven't," I agreed. "But you're probably the only one." Bobby gave me a funny look and I knew he was probably wondering about Joe. He never asked me about him. One of these days, I was going to have to open up about him. I didn't want Bobby living with the misconception that he was in another man's shadow.
We drove in silence through the outskirts of Boston. My thoughts went to Mike, and I hoped desperately that he was okay.
"Do you think Logan's still alive?" Bobby asked suddenly, our minds clearly in tune with each other.
"Yes," I replied quickly. Thinking anything else was simply unacceptable. "We need to pick up Carolyn and have her walk us through everything. She may have missed something in the parking garage."
"I wonder if there is security footage?"
"I don't know, but we need to find out. And quickly. I hate to think what they might be doing to him."
We picked up Carolyn from the coffee shop and went to the hotel. She was holding herself together remarkably well. Much better than I would be in her situation.
I ran inside the lobby to ask the clerk about the security tapes, and then met the others in the parking garage.
"You drove your car here?" Bobby asked as we walked up the ramp to the second level.
"Yeah, it's the dark blue Camry," she said, pointing toward the middle of the row. We kept a wide perimeter and closed in on the car slowly, checking the ground and nearby cars for evidence as we went.
"We don't know how many of these cars would have been here before," I stated.
"The white Ford, the tan pick-up and the red Miata were all here. That black one over there is new," Carolyn said immediately. I smiled at her encouragingly, tremendously impressed with her ability to absorb details in a crisis. Always a cop first.
"I think this is blood," Bobby said from the far side of the tan pick-up. The truck was parked two over from Carolyn's car, and the spot on the other side of it was empty.
"What?"
"Just a smudge, but I think maybe it's a palm," he said distractedly as he analyzed the substance from all angles. The pick-up had a black bed liner in it, but Bobby climbed up into the bed and got down on his knees to look more closely. Fortunately, there was no alarm.
"I think he grabbed for the truck. I bet the car was parked here, and he tried to hold onto to the truck to keep from being loaded into another vehicle."
"And he had blood on his hand," Carolyn clarified in a shaky voice.
"Yeah, but he was coherent enough to try to stop the abduction," I said. It was a good thing. They could've shot him right there in the garage if they wanted him dead.
"I'm going to see how that clerk is coming with the security footage," I said. We needed to find out what kind of car he had been taken in.
"I'm almost afraid to ask, but how'd you get him to let us see it?"
"I badged him, but I did it quickly. I may have let him believe that we're BPD."
"Alex," Bobby warned.
"Hey, I didn't lie. If he assumed facts not in evidence then shame on him."
The three of us went into the lobby and the clerk waved me into the office.
"I've got it cued up for you. You said a car was broken into at twelve-ten? Because I don't see anything."
"If you don't mind, we'd like to look at it for just a minute. I'll come and get you when we're done," I said, ushering him out the door. Then I fast-forwarded the tape to twelve-thirty-five and hit play. The camera only had a partial view of the Camry, but hopefully it would be enough. After a minute, Mike came into view. Carolyn sucked in a breath and I hit pause.
"Maybe you should…"
"Play the tape, Alex," she said firmly. I pushed play.
Two thugs entered the garage a few seconds after Mike. They must have been watching from out on the sidewalk.
"Russo and DeMarco," Carolyn said quietly.
"You recognize them?"
"They're soldiers for the Masarro family."
We watched as Mike put the bags in the trunk and closed the lid. One of the thugs must have said something, because Mike turned around and faced them. One of them sucker punched him, but he came back with a nice upper cut. The three men brawled for several minutes, and it almost looked like Logan was winning, but then one goon caught him by the arms and the other one started pummeling him. He was defenseless at that point.
Once he submitted, they dragged him off camera.
We kept watching and after another minute, a car left the garage.
"There!" Carolyn said, pointing at the screen. Mike's head was visible in the backseat of a maroon Chevy Malibu.
"We've got a plate number and a car. Let's put Ross' new loyalty to the test and see what he can dig up for us."
TBC...