Chapter 4

"Hey Sam," Russ greeted Sam the next morning as he crossed the lobby.

Sam stopped, waiting for the man to catch up to him. "Morning, Russ. How was your night?"

"Excellent. Your lady has a fine hotel here." He smiled. "I'll be sure to give her more of my business the next time I'm in town for more than a day trip."

A silence fell between them, and Sam broke it. "You heading back to Orlando until they release your car?"

"No. I got a call from the station," Russ replied. "They want me to come in and get fingerprinted for their investigation. Can you believe it? They're treating me like the criminal, and it's my car."

Sam held up a hand to calm him. "It's just standard procedure, Russ. They want me, Fi, and even Maddie to get printed too, so it's nothing to get excited about. They just want to rule us out as suspects, that's all. Look, I know it sounds crazy, but I know how these guys work. Everyone is suspect until they narrow down things."

"Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?"

Clapping a hand on Russ's back and leading him toward the exit, Sam replied, "That's just a fantasy, pal."

After getting fingerprinted, Sam found Charlie in his office.

Charlie heard his knock and looked up from the file he was reading. "Sam. I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"I was just wondering what you've come up with in your investigation. Russ Walters was hoping he could get his car back soon and take it home. Like today?"

"After the lab boys lift prints, but that could take a good part of the day." Charlie sighed and folded his hands over an open file. "I'm afraid it's gonna be at least tomorrow. I wish I could pull some strings for you on this, but I can't."

"Okay, so what about the auction house? Did you do any checking on them?" Sam took a couple steps into the room and stood in front of Charlie's desk.

"I've got enough for a warrant, which I'm waiting for, and we'll be raiding them as soon as it's in my hands." He looked up at his friend with a sympathetic expression mixed with a hint of frustration. "Sam, I wish this could get tied up all neat for you and find Michael's car."

"I know. I'm sorry I'm badgering you on this." Sam turned on his heel. "I'll talk to you later, Charlie."

"Let me know if you find anything, Sammy."

"Will do!" Sam found the women in the lobby with Russ. Maddie seemed to be taking all of this in stride, and she looked relaxed and chatted with Russ. Fiona, however, appeared more like a caged tiger unable to even pace. Her eyes locked on Sam's and without words she asked him what was happening. He told them everything he knew.

"So I guess I should probably hang around town another day, huh," Russ mumbled, then put on a more amicable expression. "Hey, it's okay. I can conduct business down here just as well. Thanks for all you're doing, Sam. I appreciate it."

"No problem. You need a ride back to the hotel? We can drop you off, and then we'll drop off Maddie at her house. After that, Fi and I need to do some surveillance." Sam said.

"I can assure you that you are not packing the cooler this time," Fiona said. "Baloney, crackers, and cheese in a can? Eeew!"

Sam chuckled and explained to Russ, "When we're on stakeout, that's the only time I can let loose a little. Elsa's all about my eating healthy."

Russ nodded, understanding how things worked. "Where are you going to stake out?"

"The auction house. They don't do auctions today, but this is probably the day when they'll do something illegal," Sam answered. "So we better get a move on."

The four got into the car and Sam pulled out of the lot. As he waited for traffic to clear, Russ, who sat in the back with Maddie, geared up the courage to ask, "Can I come with you? Maybe there's something I can do to help."

Glancing in the rearview mirror, Sam's eyes were full of doubt. "Fi and I have done this dozens of times, Russ. And we've got a friend who can help us if we need him."

"I'd rather not get Jesse into this unless we need someone to act as a player," Fiona said as she brushed away a strand of hair from her face. "Maybe you can help us with that too, Russ. If we need to set something up to trap the thieves. Until then, you're better off sticking to your business."

Russ remained silent, but he settled into the back seat with arms crossed, staring out the window, his jaw working. No doubt he was a man of action, not unlike Michael. It struck Fiona that the way Russ dressed and carried himself reminded her of the man she loved. His face, which was now clean shaven, didn't look much like Michael's at all, at least in her opinion. Although, that stubborn set to his lips brought back memories.

"We'll call you if we need your help, Russ." Fiona laid a reassuring hand on his arm. "I promise."

He gave her one of those consolation smiles like Michael used to give her and said, "Thanks. I just want to get my car back, and I want you guys to find your friend Michael's car."

Maddie had been listening to the two talk, and an idea formed in her head. She finally let it out. "Sam, did you ask your detective about any other Chargers missing?"

"No, but I was going to look into that," Sam replied. He pulled in to the hotel drive. "I have access to a database of cars reported stolen in Florida, and I want to check it out. I can do that while we're on the stake out." He turned his head and glanced at Russ. "We're at the hotel. I've got your number, and you've got mine, so if you can think of anything strange that may have happened before your car was stolen, or whatever, let me know. Okay?"

"Sure thing, Sam." Russ got out of the car, his movements slow and hesitant. "Be careful. All of you. A car isn't worth getting killed over."

"No, there are definitely better things worth dying for," Sam said. He waved at Russ and took off, leaving their new friend watching him drive down the street. "Okay, Maddie, we'll get you home and then Fi and I..."

"No, I'm going to help you with this. It's either that or I sit at home and watch TV all day." She let out a huff. "Ever since I was on the run with you, normal life just doesn't seem so attractive."

"We spoiled her, Sam." Fiona grinned from the back seat.

"Mikey'll kill us if something happens to her," Sam said. "I'd rather not take the chance."

"It's just surveillance," Fiona countered. "What could it hurt?"

Sam glanced at Maddie to his right, then Fiona in the mirror. She knew better, but both women made good points. Michael had put his own mother in danger while trying to protect her and it all worked out in the end. He tried to analyze and think what Mike would do if he was there. In the past he would have said he would insist on taking her home, but now she actually had experience. In some ways, she was quite the operative, good at playing roles and interrogating almost as well as any of them.

Sam let out a deep sigh. With Jesse finding a lucrative position at a security firm and Michael off to somewhere else in the world, they were seriously low on manpower. What would it hurt to use Maddie for some of the less dangerous stuff? This was just a surveillance as Fi said, and maybe she could go get them some supplies for the stake out while he and Fi watched the auction house.

"Okay, fine. Maddie can come along. Maybe Charlie will get his warrant and show up before we need to do anything."

"You didn't tell us about this," Fiona said as she leaned forward to glare at Sam. "When were you going to spill it?"

"I wanted to wait until Russ was out of the car. It's not that I don't trust him, it's just that we don't need to be getting him involved." Sam parked across the street from the auction entrance. "Russ just has to be patient for the cops to be done with his car and then he's out of the picture. We still have to find Mike's car ourselves."

Sam parked close enough to see into the office beyond the chain link fence. He pulled out a pair of binoculars from the glove compartment and sent Maddie off to a small market not far from the scene. Fiona sat in back with another pair of binoculars and studied the lot full of cars. Maddie returned and dropped the plastic sack on the floor in the back with Fiona and sat in her seat waiting for something to do.

"Maddie, here," Sam handed her the binoculars. "Can you keep an eye on that office and let me know if there's any activity?" She nodded, and he nodded, smiling at her. She was happy to finally be doing something constructive.

While the women spied on the property, Sam got out his tablet and searched the database for stolen Chargers. He whistled at the long list of several dozen that had been stolen throughout the state. He narrowed it down to the model year, give or take a couple, and the list flashed and changed. Including Mike's car and Russ's, which hadn't been taken off the list yet, there were three others within the same model year. Sam ruled out the red one and a white one. Only one other black vehicle remained. It had also been stolen from the Miami area.

"Sam," Fiona said.

"Yeah?"

"I see another Charger, black, that looks like Michael's. It's in that other lot over to the right of the office."

Sam held out his hand for the binoculars. Fiona gave them to him and he focused on the sight. "Well, I'll be." He handed them back to Fiona and reached into the console for a small pad of paper and a pen. He scribbled down the VIN number in the report on his screen. "Okay, ladies, I'm going to need a distraction so I can check out this car's identification number and see if it matches Mike's or this other stolen car. Think you two can handle it?" He glanced at Maddie and Fiona, then shook his head. "What am I thinking? Of course you can." He gave them an encouraging grin. "Set it up, ladies."

Fiona and Maddie met on the driver's side of the Cadillac and crossed the street together. "Fiona, what are we going to do?"

"Remember the roles we played when we were trying to get into the DMV records to find the man posing as Michael," Fiona asked, and when Maddie nodded, she continued, "That's what we're going to do again. Only this time, my boyfriend is a thief and he took my car. We'll try to get them to search their inventory to the south while Sam is in the north lot checking out that car."

"Are you sure this'll work?"

"There are only two guys here right now." Fiona popped a stick of gum in her mouth and chewed, and she spoke with an accent that was near hillbilly. "We'll get them both to be gentlemen and help us out, won't we, Momma?"

Maddie grinned. "We shore will, baby!" As they neared the office, she changed. Her smile wiped away, replaced by a frown and a furrowed brow.

Fiona appeared just as worried as she stopped and knocked on the door. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sam walking along the fence looking for a good place to scale along the north line of the property, where he would have a less conspicuous place to make his entry.

"We're closed, ladies," a tough looking man said with a gravelly voice as he opened the door. "There's an auction tomorrow, and you can come back then."

"But we need your help, mister! Mah boyfriend took mah car, and we found out he brought it here to sell," Fiona drawled. "We broke up and he took it. He just took mah car, and I have a lot of sentimental things in there. Not to mention how much that car means to me." She poured on the tears and clasped her hands together. "Please, please, help us. I mean, you wouldn't wanna sell a stolen car, now would you?"

"We don't sell stolen cars."

"Well then you wouldn't mind if we picked up mah daughter's car, now would ya," Maddie burst into the conversation. "Otherwise, we might have to go to the police, darlin', and report it. The police'll come right here and look for us."

"Uh, no, ma'am, we don't need to get the police involved." The man grew nervous and opened the door wider. "Why don't you two come in, and we'll go through our inventory list? If you see your car, you can point it out."

"No, no, no, I have to go find it out there," Fiona said, pointing to the field of cars.

"Lady, we've got close to five hundred cars in that lot," he said. His partner gave him a glare, as if urging him to get rid of the two women as soon as possible.

"I can tell you what kind of car it was," Fiona said. "It was a red Saturn, two door... as a matter of fact, I think it see it right out there! Look, Momma! Don't that look like it?"

"It shore does, honey! Please, take us out there."

"Okay, fine. Let's get this over with. Kip, find the keys for that one."

They waited a few minutes until Kip, who was as scruffy as the nameless man who appeared to be the boss, found the keys. Kip said, "We have a couple of red Saturns, so I'll take both sets. One of them has to work with that car."

The boss said, "Why don't you grab one set and I'll take the other. That way we get these broads outta here quicker and we can get back to work."

Kip shrugged. "Okay." He handed one set to his boss. "I think those go to the one out there, the one that these ladies picked out. The other one is over on the southwest side of the lot."

Fiona picked the right car to get the men away from the office and out of sight for Sam to make his entrance. As soon as he spied them on the far end of the lot, he threw a floor mat over the razor wire and climbed up and over. The effort pulled at the site where he'd been shot a few months earlier, but he ignored the slight throbbing and dropped to the pavement. He looked around, seeing no one noticed his gymnastics, and he pulled the mat off the wire. Then he turned toward the Charger and ducked down to inspect it.

The vehicle could have been Mike's, but he checked the VIN and it matched the other car that had been stolen. The only way to be sure was to look inside, because it was possible that these guys switched VIN tags. He jimmied the lock and opened the door, and the built up heat blasted him as it rolled out, but Sam ignored it and crawled inside. His first instinct was to check the glove compartment. If the car was sold at the auction, most likely the storage space would be empty. If not, and no one had messed with it, Sam would find plenty of evidence that it was Mike's car.

He opened the compartment door and he found an original manual, some maintenance records, and a spare key stuck way down into a recess. He pulled it out and retrieved his car keys. He had a copy of Mike's car key, so he compared the two. Shaking his head, he put it back where he found it. This wasn't Mike's car, and a glance at the handwriting on the maintenance records finally convinced him. Sam replaced everything in the glove compartment and slammed it shut, then began to crawl out of the front seat. He closed the door without making much noise. As disappointing as it was to discover that this wasn't Mike's car, Sam was still relieved that they found one more nail in the coffin for the guys at the auction house.

The sound of gravel crunching caught Sam's attention. A gray sedan parked in front of the office and a man in a suit got out, looking around, puzzled that no one was about at this time of day. He got on his phone, and Sam heard the phone inside the office ring, he was that close to it. Scooting around to the corner, he watched one of the guys turn and hurry back to the office, leaving Fiona and Maddie surprised and not sure what to do. Fiona followed, and Maddie brought up the rear.

"Hey, where were you," the man in the suit barked. "I've gotta pick up that car now. The boss wants it."

"Relax, Johnson, it's out in the north lot waiting for you. Just gotta grab the key." A few moments later, he said, "Here it is."

"Hey, did you ever find out what happened to that other Charger, the one the lady bought yesterday?" Johnson asked.

"No idea. She bought it and it's gone. If your boss wanted it, he should have bid more."

"Yeah. Don't worry. There aren't many of those babies out there, and we'll find it if it's still in Miami." Johnson laughed. "We found it in Orlando, so we'll have no trouble finding another one."

The office door slammed and Sam heard footsteps. Time was running out. If he tried to make a run for the fence, Johnson would see him. If he moved around the corner, he wasn't sure that the owner or Kip wouldn't see him. There was only one option Sam could see that didn't involve them losing sight of the Charger. He rushed to the back of the car, ducked down and popped the lock on the trunk. He rigged the latch and got inside as he heard Johnson round the corner.

"Yes, Sir, I'm getting the car now. I'll have it at the shop in about a half hour, and we'll go over it. If it's not Westen's, we'll just keep looking." He unlocked the door and got into the driver's seat, then started up the Charger. "This would have been so much easier if you had the VIN, but hey, I never said that, did I. Alright, it runs fine. I'll see you in a little while."

Fiona and Maddie reached the front of the office as the black Charger drove past and out the gate. A man in a suit was driving. Another man took the wheel of the sedan parked in front of the office and drove away, leaving the two women to search the area for Sam.

"Where could he be," Maddie asked.

"I don't know. Maybe he's back at the car." Fiona couldn't get a good look from where she stood.

"I think you ladies should leave now," Kip said.

"Thank you for your time," Maddie said. "I'm sorry, that wasn't my daughter's car."

The guy looked at her as if he didn't think it would be, and now that they all knew the truth, it was time for her to leave before he decided to get ugly.

Fiona led Maddie back to the car, squinting behind her sunglasses, hoping to see Sam in the driver's seat. "He's not in the car, Madeline." She picked up her phone and texted him. 'Where are you, Sam?' She and Maddie got into the vehicle and hoped that Sam would return soon.

In less than a minute, Fiona's phone buzzed. She glanced at the screen and saw Sam's message. 'In Charger trunk, heading to unknown location.' "Sam, you idiot," she muttered.

"What's going on," Maddie asked and stuck her head between the seats to see what was on Fiona's screen. She gasped. "Is Sam crazy?"

"I'm sure he had a good reason for ducking into that trunk. At the very least, he'll wind up where the new owner of the car is. I'm not sure why that should matter, unless... maybe this is Michael's car and he didn't want it to disappear." She rolled her eyes. "He should have just put a tracker on it."

"Well, what do we do now?"

"Go back to your house and hope Sam sends a message telling us where he is," Fiona answered. "We have no idea which way that driver went with the Charger." She slipped into the driver's seat and reached under the dash. "He didn't leave the keys, so I'll have to resort to hot wiring the car." Maddie got out and sat in the passenger seat. The engine roared to life, and at the same moment, the street filled with cruisers and a detective's sedan that pulled up behind them.

"Fiona, what's happening?"

"Looks like Sam's friend got his warrant," Fiona replied with a slight smile as she turned off the car. "You stay here. I'll be right back."

Detective Howard stood near his door speaking with an officer, coordinating the operation. A group of police stormed the office and soon brought out Kip and the other man, shoving them into squad cars.

"Detective, I'm Fiona Glenanne, Sam's friend." She introduced herself to him.

"Yes, I know who you are. Where's Sam?" His eyes were on the Cadillac.

"We don't know." She explained what they had done and that Sam was now missing. "I think he hopped a ride in the Charger's trunk."

Charlie muttered a few curses under his breath while he stood with hands on hips. "That sounds like something Sam would do. I thought you guys had trackers and stuff."

Fiona shrugged. "Maybe he didn't have on one him. I don't know! I'm hoping that when he gets to his destination he can text me again."

"If he doesn't get found out first." Charlie snapped his fingers. "Perhaps we can triangulate his cell signal. We would need to get him on the phone, though."

"It's too risky," Fiona warned, fear for Sam's welfare creeping into her voice. "We'll wait for a text, or if you can get one of those scumbags in the cars to talk, I'm sure they could tell you where that guy in the suit took the Charger."

"Don't worry, Fiona, we'll find Sam safe and sound." Charlie assured her with his lips, but she saw on his face that he was just as worried about his friend.

"Don't let your mouth write checks that you can't cash, Detective. A friend said something similar to Michael once." She gave him a thin smile.

"Just go back to Sam's car. I'll talk to you in a little bit." Charlie strode to one of the units holding a suspect, his hands clenched at his sides swinging to the beat of his sensible cop shoes clomping on the asphalt. Fiona imagined that the bad guys would soon be shaking in their shoes.