SO sorry this took so long. I have not deserted this story, I promise. Life has been so busy! I promise to be better at updating. I will apologize bc I did not proof read this chapter as much as I should have. Also, I am suffering a bit of writer's block so I am trying to power through that.
I hope you all enjoy.
-\\-
"Jimmy, don't talk. Shhhhhh. I am ok, I am ok. Just stay still. Nod or shake, is your breathing getting worse?" Annie was petrified. She knew that the window to get Jimmy to a hospital was closing quickly. Jimmy started to shake his head but knew she needed to know the truth. He nodded slightly panting. The pain was getting worse. Annie blinked tears out of her eyes. There was no time to cry right now. She needed to figure something out – NOW.
-\\-
"We need a clue!" Marco threw his pen at the table in frustration. "We need to get to them NOW! Jimmy has got to be in pretty bad shape." Marco's fear was shared by the rest.
Luke sighed heavily and rested his head on the conference table. No one had slept in 33 hours. Daisy and Marco seemed used to it. Luke was new to the concept and was struggling to keep his concentration. Daisy patted his back as she walked by to stare at the map again. There had to be something they were missing. Then she had an idea.
Daisy walked out of the conference room toward Bouff's desk. She had a new bounce in her step. She was talking before she even got to the tech guy's desk. "Bouff, I have two ideas. First, can you replay the call brother Cordova made to the chief's phone? Maybe we can break down background noise."
"I already thought of that. I was just about finished. Check this out." He pushed a button and noises popped up on the external speakers. "Here, let me put another filter on it." Out of the speaker squawked the very distinct sound of seagulls. But there was a mechanical growl deep in the background. It was constant like a white noise. Bouff replayed the audio again. "Do you hear that?" Daisy was holding her fingers to her ears hoping that by cupping them she could catch more sound from the speakers.
"What?" Bouff replayed the clip again.
"That background machine sound or some constant sound. It is in the background. It is like a whirring sound or something. What makes that sound near a place where there are seagulls?" Daisy finally looked him in the eye. "We need to figure this out. Jimmy's life has to be on the line after what he has been through. We don't even know where Annie is. . ." Daisy trailed off and she looked down.
"What was your other idea?" Bouff cleared his throat.
"Oh, um, do we know what year of Mercedes SUV Manuel has? I mean, if his car is newer, it could have that chip in it to trace it." Daisy seemed exhausted suddenly and she exhaled in a heavy sigh. Bouff shook his head and mumbled dejectedly "They must have had it turned off or somehow removed. I already thought of it and checked."
Daisy put her hands in her pockets and wandered out feeling even more confused and depleted. She entered the bullpen area and headed toward her desk but something caught her eye. Coming in the front door was a familiar face and Daisy turned and marched right up to the Bounty Hunter. "Ben Crowley, what are you doing here?"
"Hey Daisy" he smiled his normally heart melting smile but it wasn't as sincere. There were deeper lines of concern etched into that handsome face. "Can we talk?" Ben started walking toward the kitchen and Daisy followed him.
They grabbed a cup of coffee each and sat down at the table. "I think I know where they took Annie." Ben got right to the point staring at Daisy.
"How did you know about Annie?" Daisy was concerned that word had gotten out and others would think the Marshall's office had become weak in their security.
"Relax; I was searching for a particularly nasty criminal when I stumbled upon a conversation with the new Cordova head." Ben took a sip of his coffee and looked at Daisy with worry in his eyes. In a low voice he said, "Do you know where she is? Is she OK?"
"I don't…." Daisy cleared her throat, "we don't know." There was a pause and Daisy continued, "Ben, Jimmy is gone, too. We don't even know where to start. Do you have anything to help us?"
Ben shook his head and looked deep into his cup of coffee, "Not yet. But I will."
Daisy looked across the table. She had had her suspicions of Annie and Ben's relationship but she was under the impression that Annie and Jimmy had become closer since he had broken it off with Natalie. She wondered if Ben knew any of this. If he didn't, he would soon. But until that happened, having him on their team significantly raised their odds. "Come with me, Ben."
Daisy led them back to Bouff's office again. "Hey Bouff, can you replay that audio again?" She asked nicely.
Without even looking up, he keyed in some info into the computer than reached forward to turn up the speakers. Again the background noise of seagulls and that whirring mechanical sound pounded out of the speakers. When the clip ended, Bouff restarted it. Ben stared ahead. Daisy watched the back of his head hoping he had answers. Bouff just stared at his keyboard so he could replay the clip when it ended.
-\\-
Annie was running every idea that she could through her head. Jimmy had been dozing in and out of consciousness while she distractedly rubbed his forehead to calm him. An hour had gone by and it was getting close to 5:30pm. There hadn't been a sound outside; the whirring of the gravel mill had halted at 5pm, as predicted. Annie knew exactly where they were but for how long?
As if on cue, loud truck sounds rumbled outside. Annie ran to the front and tried to look out the crack in the door as if that would help but she could see nothing. "Annie, what's going on?" Jimmy was trying to sit up. "Shhhh, Jimmy lay back down! You need to not displace those ribs! You can't puncture your lung." Jimmy rolled his eyes. He needed to be more involved. He couldn't just take a back seat and let Annie do something crazy – as she usually did.
Outside they both heard beeping as the truck was backing up. Annie's eyes grew as big as saucers as she put it all together. "Jimmy, I gotta get you into the back of the container! They are loading us on a truck! "
He instantly knew what she meant, "Annie, I need you to help me. My shoulder and my ribs… I can't do it fast enough" he said grunting while trying to lean forward. Annie was at his side instantly apologizing. She was trying to find the best, safest, most pain-free way to grab Jimmy's tortured body to help drag him to the end of the container. Nothing was available. His shoulder prevented her from reaching under his arms. His ribs prevented her from grabbing him around the chest.
"Sorry, Jimmy, this is the only way I can do this" Annie grabbed Jimmy unceremoniously (and rather embarrassingly) by his left leg and started dragging him toward the back wall of the container. She was running out of time by the sounds of the truck outside. Jimmy was horrified but in too much pain to do anything about it. No sooner did Jimmy get close to position when the entire container tilted up.
It was being mounted on a truck for travel with the two Marshalls inside as baggage. If Annie had not gotten Jimmy to the end in time, it would have been a nasty fall into a steel wall. Jimmy knew she had spared him more pain and injury and he was infinitely thankful. With all of his will, he was trying to conserve what little of his energy he had left just in case. Just in case…
Within the next 2 hours, the container was loaded onto yet another mode of transportation – train car. Annie could tell by the sounds outside though it had been difficult to hear much of anything over the truck. "Jimmy, are you ok? Are you awake?"
"Yep!" Jimmy grunted. It was different to hear Annie playing his usual role and it got Jimmy thinking. He had been in numerous relationships, if you wanted to call them that. The most serious had been Natalie. But he had always had an escape plan. He never really thought of any of these relationships as being forever. So, what about Annie? Before all this craziness, they were starting something. It was just the beginning of this connection and he already had in his head that forever was coming. Annie could be his forever. Was he ready for a forever?
The container made a jerky landing on the train car. The bump radiated through his badly broken collar-bone and Jimmy was yanked out of his deep thoughts by the pain.
"Oh Man!" Jimmy yelped. Annie was at his side instantly. "Jimmy, can I put the robe sleeve under your head and shoulder? Will that make this floor a little softer for you?" She was desperately concerned about him. Jimmy just looked at her. He wanted to reach up and touch her face. Make her not worry. But the pain was too intense and he could only nod his head looking forward to her gentle touch.
Annie wrapped the sleeve up and under his injured shoulder and then under his head. The soft terrycloth felt good compared to the hard floor. He closed his eyes and did his best to take a deep breath. He opened his eyes when he felt a soft kiss on his forehead. Annie was looking down at him sporting one of the worst black eyes he had ever seen. How had he missed this?
"Annie!" Jimmy lifted his good arm up and touched her puffy eye. "Did Manuel hit you?" Annie nodded but smiled. "Don't worry, he knocked some sense into me" she giggled trying to lighten the mood. Jimmy gurgled trying not to laugh too hard and Annie quietly apologized with a look on her face.
-\\-
They were sprinting to Ben's vehicle, Daisy actually chasing him demanding that he stop immediately. Ben did. In the middle of the front steps he turned on Daisy. "They are at the gravel mill at the Shipbuilding Yard off of the i10 freeway! Daisy, I can guarantee we do NOT have much time left if they are even still there! We do not have time. You either go WITH me or I go alone!" Daisy nodded and ran with Ben to his truck.
As soon as she got in his pick-up, Daisy called Marco on her cell. "Marco, I am with Ben Crowley. He heard the audio clip we had. He thinks they are at the shipbuilding park gravel yard. I need you to organize HPD and meet us over there as soon as you can!"
Marco hung up the phone after agreeing to Daisy's request. What was Ben Crowley doing in the mix? This was going to make things even more interesting knowing Annie's history with the bounty hunter. Marco walked up to Luke's desk. "Daisy and Ben are on their way to a possible location." Luke spun on his heel and looked at Marco in shock. "Ben Crowley the bounty hunter?" Marco nodded his head smiling.
"Hunh…" Luke looked into space with his mouth left open in shock. Marco punched him in the arm, "she asked me to meet them over there with HPD as fast as we can." Luke snapped out of it, "Got it. I'll call right now"
"Good, I am going to update the chief. Let me know when you are ready to go and we can head out." Marco headed toward Edward Brown's office and Luke picked up the phone. It was almost 5:30pm. They had just over 3 more hours of daylight.
-\\-
The freeway was stacking up with commuter traffic and it had taken Daisy and Ben a bit longer than they had hoped. By the time Ben had turned down the road leading to the gravel yard, it was almost 6:15pm. He was sweating and silently agitated as his truck bumped down the industrial road toward their destination. 18 wheelers dragging trailers were trundling by carting containers full of materials to the train yard or a ship yard but neither paid them any mind. They were focused on their destination.
Ben skidded to a stop on the rough sandy lot and both of them leaped out to look around. The wind blew dust devils around them as they spun around for any clue. Ben was getting angrier and angrier the less he could find. Daisy just started looking at the ground for any track in the shifty sand that she could identify. Where the road sort of ended into the sandy lot, there was a deeper spot of loose ground. In that area, Daisy started to detect tire prints. Tire prints that looked a lot like the generic SUV tire print that Marco had sent to Bouff to analyze. "Ben! Over here!" Daisy called.
"This tire print – it doesn't fit in this area of mill." Ben nodded starting to follow the print to a possible stopping point. After several minutes of struggling where the wind had swept away the prints, they were able to determine a place where the car turned around. Ben sighed and rubbed his forehead. Daisy just kept her head down looking for more.
Suddenly Daisy found it! "Ben, a container was moved from right here next to where the car turned around! It couldn't be long ago bc the deep scrapes have not dried in the wind and sun." Daisy swallowed and looked at Ben, "Do you think they drove right by us and we didn't even know…?"
Marco, Luke and two HPD squad cars pulled up interrupting Daisy. The limited cavalry had arrived and they could use the extra manpower. The three Marshalls convened by where Daisy had found the deep grooves in the ground. "We are so close" Daisy updated them on everything she and Ben had found. "They are either on their way or at a shipyard or a train depot. We need to spread out if we are going to find them. How many do we have?" Daisy started counting heads.
"There are eight of us" Ben answered before she finished. "You need to pick your teams. Half should go to the nearest train yard, the rest to the nearest shipyard. We need to be searching already if we hope to find them."
Marco nodded. "You and you, follow me and Luke to the nearest train depot. You and you are with Daisy and Ben heading to the shipyard." Marco was taking control. He nodded at Ben and ran back to his vehicle with Luke running alongside.
Daisy looked at Ben and they turned to climb in his truck. Ben punched shipyard names into his GPS and 4 locations instantly popped up. They were off in a swirl of dust with the HPD police car hot on their trail. The nearest shipyard was less than a mile away. There were numerous containers stacked throughout the yard waiting to be loaded on the floating barges and ships. This was going to prove a monumental task! They jumped out and started their work. Daisy spoke with the yard supervisor and within minutes, they had the help of 5 additional shipyard workers.
Marco and Luke had a bit further to go. The nearest train depot with a line that was useable was about 2 miles up the road. They rode in silent concentration until Luke was hit with an idea. "Marco, do you think one of the HPD guys could go get 59?" Marco turned to look at Luke. "That is a brilliant idea! 59 would find Annie any day. I bet he would find Jimmy, too!" Luke smiled his big toothy grin and picked up his phone to place his request.