Author's Note: I'd like to thank phnxgrl, foreverHenry919, superlc529, KenH and SSTrans for their reviews. SSTrans: Riddles are surprisingly hard to write. I tried to find a riddle generator, but none would allow me to input enough information. Adam does like watching Henry squirm and Henry is willing to for Jo. KenH: Hanson won't be following Henry, he'll listen to Henry's suggestion and follow the evidence. superlc529: I guess Adam is being the Riddler a bit. The flashbacks were fun to write; I didn't know much about shanghaiing so it was interesting doing the research on that. I'm glad you like the flashbacks. foreverHenry919: No jumping overboard, I'm afraid. Henry wouldn't want to risk the crew finding out about his immortality. National Treasure is a favorite of mine as well; I wondered who might catch on to that reference. Enjoy!
Chapter 37
Jo had been searching the room for something that would get her out of the handcuffs since Adam had left. She found a nail on the floor, but she couldn't get it to her hands. Adam had constructed her prison well. Jo's hands were stuck three feet off the floor. Her handcuffs were thread through a simple piping construction made of big, metal parts. The long sides of the loop portion, which made an elongated oval shape, were too close together to put her hands through to the same side of the structure, but the pipes were also too thick for her to reach around them, so even if she had the nail in her hand, she would have a hard time trying to use it.
Jo tried again. "Come on." She'd gotten out of the chair and was leaning as far away from the structure as she could, but she still wasn't flexible enough to get her foot up to her hands. "Guess I should have done gymnastics when I was younger."
"You won't get free." Adam walked back in. "I learned a lot at Auschwitz. Mengele used to keep me chained up this way when he wasn't busy killing me."
"Assuming what you're saying is true, why are you telling me about this?"
"What do you mean?"
"Let's assume, hypothetically, that you are immortal. Why are you telling me about any of this? Are you planning to kill me?"
Adam took her chair and sat in it. "You work with a man who is immortal, and he hasn't seen fit to tell you about it. You should know what he will be capable of. What he is. Why he doesn't have a self-preservation instinct. I'd hoped you would have found out the truth almost a year ago when I killed him down in the subway station."
"But why tell me about you?"
"So that you can see what he will become. I used to be a good man. Like Henry, even. But I've been alive for two thousand years. It changes people. It'll change him too. He's only been on this planet for a couple hundred years. But he has time to change."
"He won't." Jo hated how she had to sit on the floor when she was trying to defend her friend.
"I never thought I would either. But two thousand years is a long time." Adam knelt so he was in Jo's face. "I can force him to change."
"He won't."
"We'll see." Adam stood up. "So far, Henry is following my instructions. I hope your partner doesn't interfere."
"And if he does?"
"If he does, you'd better hope you both are immortal."
Atlantic Ocean 1834…
Henry woke with a pain in his head and nausea in his gut. The floor he was on swayed and creaked. He'd felt that kind of movement before. He was on a ship that was already at sea. He tried to calm his pounding heart by breathing deeply. It only seemed to make his nausea worse. Henry finally opened his eyes. He was in a cell surrounded by ten other men in various stages of alertness. One had already vomited on himself. At least some of the smell was explained.
A man walked up to the cells bars and banged on them. "Wake up! On yer feet!"
Henry approached the bars. "Sir, what is this?"
The man looked at him curiously. "You have good manners. Better than the way you're dressed. What's yer name?"
"Henry Morgan, sir. I'm studying to be a doctor."
"Not anymore." The man turned to the rest of the cell's inhabitants. "Welcome to yer new life, gentleman. I am the ship's captain and you are now all members of my crew."
One of Henry's cellmates clutched at the bars. "No, I can't. My wife just had a baby. I need to go home. She needs me!"
"She'll find something to do until you get back."
"But, sir!"
"Silence!" The captain stared everyone down. "This ship is headed to China. You will work on my ship on the way there. If you want to return to England, then you will do the same to earn passage back. When we return, you will be free to go yer way or sign on for another voyage."
The men around Henry groaned. A couple put their heads in their hands and sat down again. "Some rules. You will address me as Captain or Sir at all times. If you steal, you'll lose a few fingers. Do it again and you'll lose your life. Disrespect any member of my crew, the same applies. Try to escape and you'll be flogged before you're tied to the mast to die of exposure."
"How long will we be gone?"
"What was that?"
"How long will we be gone?... Sir."
"That depends on the weather." The captain turned to Henry. "You said you're a doctor?"
"Studying to be, yes, sir."
The captain unlocked the door to let Henry out. "I've got a man who needs tending to. You'll look at him?"
"Yes, sir."
"Make me happy and you won't be spending nights in that cage."
Present day…
Hanson returned to the precinct and went straight to the Lieutenant's office. "Henry won't be helping us on this one."
"Why not?"
"His stalker is leaving notes for Henry to find that might lead him to Jo. The first note said that if he didn't come alone, Jo would be killed."
"Does he not trust is?"
Hanson sat across from Reece. "I don't think this is a lack of trust. This is more like he doesn't want to risk 'Adam' killing Jo."
Reece leaned back to think. "What do you want to do?"
"I think we follow the forensics and hope we can find her before Henry does."
"Go. Park yourself in the lab if you have to. I'll continue to direct the manhunt."
"Copy that."
Hanson went downstairs and checked in with the lab about the evidence collected from the crime scene. A criminalist by the name of Messer told him that not much had been left behind. "Adam" had not left DNA or fingerprints at the scene. In fact, the only evidence that he had been there was the note Henry had found on the banister. Hanson asked several questions, but Messer had nothing much to offer him.
Hanson went to the morgue next to find Lucas, but the assistant M.E. wasn't there. "Anyone know where I can find Dr. Wahl?"
One of the other assistant M.E.'s looked up. "I think he went to your crime scene."
"Thanks."
Meanwhile…
Lucas had been frustrated by the lack of much evidence to work with, so he went back to Jo's house. The uniform stationed there had been reluctant to let him in, but had eventually caved. Lucas now stood in Jo's bedroom looking over what was left of the scene. The sheets had been stripped from the bed and several surfaces of the room had been dusted for prints. Lucas stepped to the middle of the room and tried to get in the kidnapper's mind. All he knew for sure was that this man was obsessed with Henry. It wasn't much to go on.
Hanson walked in. "Find anything?"
"No. I'm not Henry, though." Lucas looked around. "You were here first. What am I missing?"
Hanson held out a photo. "This is what it looked like when Henry and I got here. We figure she was drugged before she could shoot him."
"Yeah, that makes sense." Lucas held up the photo. "You know, there is something we can look for."
"What?"
"He had to get her away from here somehow." Lucas headed downstairs. "He had to have a car."
Hanson followed him outside. "We should look for cameras facing the street."
A man came out of his house and waved then down. "You guys are cops, right?"
Hanson took his badge off his belt and held it up. "Yeah, I am. We spoke earlier."
"That was before I'd looked at my home security footage. My cameras don't face the house, but I think the person who took her was parked in front of my house. Follow me."
Hanson and Lucas followed the man into his house. "So your cameras did get something?"
"Like I said earlier, I hadn't looked at the footage yet. You gave me your card and asked me to call when I had. I was about to call you when you came out of the house." He pulled up the video. "Here, take a look."
The man hit play and the video's time stamp started rolling. A car pulled into the space in front of the man's house. "Adam" was behind the wheel. The man, whose name was Justin if Hanson remembered it correctly, sped up the playback until two hours had passed. "Adam" finally got out of the car and walked out of frame. Justin sped up the video again until Adam walked back into frame with Jo over his shoulder. He put her in the trunk and then pulled away from the curb.
"Pause it." Hanson wrote down the license plate number. "Can we get a copy of this?"
"Sure." Justin burned the video onto a disc. "Here."
"Thanks." Hanson left the man's house and used his phone to look up the license number. "The car was a rental. You coming?"
Lucas nodded. "Yeah."
"Yes, detective, that car was returned this morning."
"Okay, we're going to need to see that car."
The managed looked up. "May I enquire as to why?"
"We believe it was involved in an abduction. Have you cleaned it today?"
"Not yet. I'll tell them not to."
Hanson nodded. "I'd appreciate that."
"Okay, I'll take you to the car." The manager led them to the Honda Accord. "I'll leave the keys with you. Just… make sure you have a warrant before you take the car."
"Like this one?" Hanson handed him the warrant.
The manager looked at it. "Yes, like that one. I'll leave you to it." He walked away.
"Alright, Lucas. The car's yours."
Lucas started by taking pictures of the car, inside and out, and then he took a closer look at the trunk. He collected a few swabs, but there didn't appear to be any DNA. There was a sticky spot though. He collected the sample and turned his attention to the rest of the car. Some dirt on the exterior was collected before Lucas looked at the tires. Three of them were mostly devoid of everything but dirt. The last one had some kind of plant life on it.
"I got something." Lucas held it up. "I haven't seen this in New York much. Some kind of plant life; maybe from the conservation efforts? I think Henry said this kind of grass is usually found on the East side of the East River."
"So that's where Adam took Jo?"
"Maybe. I'll need to take this back to the lab to narrow it down."
"We're running out of time, Lucas."
"Look, I'm sorry. I'm not Henry!" Lucas sighed and put the plant in a jar. "Between the dirt and the plant, we should be able to narrow down where to look."
Lucas took nearly an hour to analyze the plant and the dirt. Hanson had no idea what he was doing, but it looked like Henry's assistant did. When Lucas was done running the tests, he spent some more time cross referencing what all the data meant. Hanson was getting anxious. Time wasn't on their side. Henry was on a treasure hunt that would (maybe) lead him to the right place. Hanson wanted to get there first.
"I think I got it." Lucas beckoned for Hanson to join him. "From the grass and the composition of the dirt, Detective Martinez is being held here." He pointed to a spot on the map.
"That's still a lot of ground to cover."
"It's less than all of New York City."
"True. Thanks, Lucas." Hanson put his phone to his eat as he left the morgue. "Lou, Dr. Wahl was able to narrow down the search area…"
Meanwhile…
Henry found the last note and got an address. Adam must have been setting this up all morning, possibly throughout the day. He'd thought this through too. With the exception of this one, all the notes had a riddle on it that would lead Henry to the next clue. The ones Adam had used invisible ink on were in very public places. The ones he could read right away were not. Henry was just glad that the search was finally over.
He got into a cab and told the driver where to go. It was time to save Jo.
A/N: Partnering Hanson and Lucas in this chapter was an interesting dynamic to write. What's going to happen next? Stay tuned to find out.