Morning Star
Chapter 11
As the car sped along the highway, for about two more hours by Syd's estimation, the night began to turn to morning. The stars Syd could see out the car window started to disappear from the sky and the early morning sunlight began to fill the heavens. Soon all but one star had vanished, a faint but still visible, morning star.
Syd's eyes focussed on the star and she almost smiled. As a child her grandmother had always told her that she had been born under a morning star. Her Nana had strongly believed that the power from that star would always be there to protect her granddaughter, as it had protected her during the illness that claimed Syd's mother and the gang violence that killed her father. On her deathbed Syd's grandmother had reminded Syd to look to the morning star when she needed strength. Syd looked to the star now and, more than ever in her life, hoped that her Nana had been right.
As the morning star too faded into oblivion, blocked out by the bright light of the sun, Syd determined that it was going to be a beautiful day. If she had not been bound, gagged and scared, travelling to an unknown destination in the back of a vehicle driven by two large men dressed in black, she would have enjoyed it. It was the kind of day to go out hiking or cycling, the kind of day where she would agree to sit on the back of Gage's motorbike and let him take her anywhere.
***************************************************************
Gage and Alex returned to his apartment after having Gage's head examined at the hospital. The doctors concluded that Gage would be fine but predicted that his head would probably ache for the next 24 hours. They had been gone about 3 hours and by the time Alex dropped Gage off Angela was fussing and hungry. Returning Gage to her husband's care and giving him a quick kiss Alex left and drove home to get Angela settled for the night.
As she was leaving she gave Gage a hug.
"Don't worry honey, you'll get her back." she whispered in his ear and then more forcefully, "Just don't do anything too rash, we all want you, both of you, back in one piece."
"Thank you Alex, for everything. I couldn't have gotten through these last hours without you."
Glad to hear that Gage was cleared for work, despite his head injury, Walker launched into the details of the investigation.
"The forensic team has uncovered tire tracks in the parking lot with trace amounts of mud in them. They believe that they were made by the getaway vehicle based on the location and nature of them with respect to tenant and guest parking spots. The lab guys are running analysis of the mud as we speak; they may be able to pinpoint a location for the origin of the dirt which will be a good starting point. They are also checking the tire tracks against their tire database which should help us to narrow down the vehicle type."
"And two of your neighbours on the first floor reported seeing a dark black or blue unmarked van outside your building around the time of the attack and none of the tenants report having deliveries of any kind tonight." Trivette added. "Boring neighbours Gage, no one even ordered pizza!"
Glaring at his partner Walker carried on. "Your apartment turned up no fingerprints except yours and Syd's. All we can do now Gage is wait. They could have taken her anywhere and we do not have the resources to begin a search of the whole city, never mind the countryside. We don't even know who took her."
"Myser - it has to be, Walker."
"Myser is dead Gage; he died when Syd shot him. If it is people connected to Myser, it is surprising because he was pretty low down in the pecking order of the Dallas drug world. This kidnapping and the destruction of Syd's apartment indicate big money and powerful influences. Did your investigation of Myser uncover any connection to anybody with that kind of clout, no matter how small? Its possible that Myser was far better connected than we had ever suspected."
"I don't think so Walker. I guess I can go through all the paperwork that Syd and I pulled together, run through the surveillance tapes that we took again looking for any clues. I have to do something; I can't just sit here and wait."
"None of us can. You and Trivette head over the office and start looking through the Myser case details. Trivette keep your cell on in case I need to call and Gage keep yours on in case Syd manages to get to a phone. Chances are she'll call you first. I'm going to head to the lab and try to get a jump on the results of the data."
Before leaving his apartment Gage's Texas Ranger survival skills kicked into place, overtaking his personal fears for Syd's safety and allowing him to think in a calm, rationale manner. He grabbed a small knapsack of supplies – medical tape and bandages, a couple of pairs of warm socks, his favourite well-worn sweatshirt, a couple of bottles of water and some energy bars. If, when, they found Syd she may need some or all of these things and he wanted to be prepared to take care of his partner.
Trivette waited until Gage was ready and helped him to lock up. They left Syd's crutches where they had fallen, Gage didn't want to look at them and remember how Syd screamed out his name as they carried her away. He had failed her so miserably. He swore to himself that once she was safe he would never, ever let anything happen to her again. She would hate him being so protective, he knew he'd have to do it surreptitiously, but he'd do it and face her wrath because she was the most important person in the world to him.
Trivette drove to the office in his car and Gage followed on his bike, after persuading Jimmy that a motorcycle might come in handy later. At the office Gage viewed tape after tape of surveillance footage that had been taken in the warehouse district in the weeks leading up to John Myser's capture while Trivette sorted through court documents and statements given by witnesses in the Myser case. They worked through the night and well past daybreak and found nothing unusual.
Gage was standing in the window drinking his fifth or sixth cup of coffee, staring out the early morning sky, watching the last star fade into the light of the bright sun when Walker came in. Turning, his nerves on edge from too much caffeine, not enough sleep and intense worry, Gage put down his coffee cup.
"Walker?"
"Good news. The tire tracks were from a 1999 Chevy Trailblazer, which matches the description of the van we got from the other tenants in Gage's building. Residents near the highway report seeing a vehicle of this description heading east out of Dallas at about 11:00 pm last night. This corresponds well with what the lab managed to analyze from the mud in the tire tracks. They found high amounts of lead in the soil, meaning it almost certainly came from one very specific location, the ..."
"The Shindank Smelter" Gage and Jimmy both chimed in, grabbing their guns and heading out the door each knowing the exact location of the environmentally dangerous site that the EPA had shut down just two years earlier.
Tearing off on his bike Gage was filled again with a sense of purpose. This was the first real lead since Syd had been taken almost nine hours earlier and with each passing minute he had worried that increasingly horrible things were happening to her. Alex had convinced him that they hadn't wanted Syd dead, at least at first, but he remembered the chilling words from the back of her apartment door and was certain that she would not be kept alive for long.
Trivette and Walker followed Gage, their lights flashing, but soon overtook him on the over-two hour drive as Gage had to fill up his much smaller gas tank. Turning up the paved but dusty road that led to the site of the closed smelter, Walker stopped his truck at a site where some activity had clearly taken place.
There was tire track evidence of at least two vehicles, one of which was the van which had originally driven out of Dallas. They also found the bodies of three men, all dressed in black, lying just off the edge of the road. Each had been shot through the heart at point blank range.
Walker was calling for the coroner as Gage pulled up behind them. Seeing the bodies and the evidence of a flurry of activity at the site, Gage's heart stopped cold.
"Syd?"
"No Gage, she's not here." Gage visibly relaxed. "I think these might be some of your attackers though."
"It sure does look like them. Not that I got much of a chance to study them but these guys certainly are dressed like them."
Looking around a shiny glint of gold caught Trivette's eye. He walked over and picked it up.
"Gage." Trivette's voice was soft but urgent.
"That's Syd's." Gage took the watch from Trivette's hand and studied it. The face was smashed and the band mangled as if it had been driven over but the hands were still visible. "5:48 - she was here Trivette. Walker! Syd was here at 5:48 this morning and she was alive. She left this for us; she knew that we'd recognize it."
"Where was it Trivette?" Walker queried and Trivette led him over the edge of the road. Gage held the watch tightly in his hands and thanked God for this sign that Syd was, or at least had been a few hours ago, alive and alert enough to leave them a sign.
Walker walked around the location of the dropped wristwatch several times.
"Syd was moved from the Trailblazer to another vehicle here, probably a car – the tracks aren't wide enough to be a truck." he concluded. "The van was then driven back along the road we just came down, and the other vehicle continued heading down this road."
That was enough for Gage. Slipping Syd's watch into his pocket and pulling on his helmet, Gage jumped onto his motorcycle and sped off in the direction Walker had indicated.
"Damn fool." muttered Walker.
"How many times have I said that to you when Alex has needed help?" Trivette looked at his partner, the question requiring no answer. "Gage is no different than you Walker. He's hurting and he's scared and he's in love. It makes a normally sane man do foolish things."
"I better go after him. As soon as the coroner gets here I'll follow. You mind staying and clearing up all this business?"
"Nope. Just take care of yourself." Trivette smiled "and bring home the kids honey."
Walker gave Trivette a grim smile and climbed into his truck as he saw the coroner's van turning down the road. Walker sped off himself and disappeared quickly in a large cloud of dust.
**************************************************
Sydney felt the car stop and tried to sit up and look around. She had tried a couple of other times during the ride to secure a better view of her surroundings but had been unsuccessful. In pain and knowing it was better to reserve her energy for a time when she might really need it, she had given up. But now that they had stopped she made the effort again.
However, her efforts were soon cut short when the two men driving the car got up and opened the back door. Reaching inside one of them grabbed her by the ropes around her ankles and pulled her out of the vehicle, hard. Dragging her to feet without speaking either to his partner or to her, the heavier of the two men in black, pushed Syd towards a building directly in front of them. It was difficult for Syd to move, her hands and feet were still bound but it almost felt good to move again.
Looking around as she got her bearings straight, Syd could see that there were several buildings in the vicinity, all of them in a poor state of repair. Looking up she saw the building she was being pushed towards was a large two or three storey civic type structure with the letter A printed in faded black paint above a large gaping hole where there was once was a window. The remainder of the windows in the building appeared to be boarded up.
Shoving her up cracked cement steps and onto a wooden porch that was beginning to cave in, Syd was pushed through a makeshift entranceway beside a sign that read "No Trespassing". Inside it was dark and smelled of decay. What little light filtered in highlighted peeling paint and now useless electrical wires.
She was herded down a set of decaying wooden steps lit only by the flashlight of one of her abductors. When she stumbled they made no effort to right her but merely grunted and waited for her to stand up again. Once in the basement she was directed to a small room and the door was swung shut. Feeling around the room in the total darkness she realized the door was made of metal bars, as if in a jail cell.
And with a sinking feeling Syd finally realized where she was - the abandoned Psych Hospital which had been closed in 1997 due to poor conditions and reports of abuse and neglect. Hundreds of people had died here since the institution had first opened – some of natural causes, others apparently by more sinister means.
As she sat on the cold, damp floor and felt a furry animal scuttle near her feet, Syd could not help but wonder if she would be the next victim.
Chapter 11
As the car sped along the highway, for about two more hours by Syd's estimation, the night began to turn to morning. The stars Syd could see out the car window started to disappear from the sky and the early morning sunlight began to fill the heavens. Soon all but one star had vanished, a faint but still visible, morning star.
Syd's eyes focussed on the star and she almost smiled. As a child her grandmother had always told her that she had been born under a morning star. Her Nana had strongly believed that the power from that star would always be there to protect her granddaughter, as it had protected her during the illness that claimed Syd's mother and the gang violence that killed her father. On her deathbed Syd's grandmother had reminded Syd to look to the morning star when she needed strength. Syd looked to the star now and, more than ever in her life, hoped that her Nana had been right.
As the morning star too faded into oblivion, blocked out by the bright light of the sun, Syd determined that it was going to be a beautiful day. If she had not been bound, gagged and scared, travelling to an unknown destination in the back of a vehicle driven by two large men dressed in black, she would have enjoyed it. It was the kind of day to go out hiking or cycling, the kind of day where she would agree to sit on the back of Gage's motorbike and let him take her anywhere.
***************************************************************
Gage and Alex returned to his apartment after having Gage's head examined at the hospital. The doctors concluded that Gage would be fine but predicted that his head would probably ache for the next 24 hours. They had been gone about 3 hours and by the time Alex dropped Gage off Angela was fussing and hungry. Returning Gage to her husband's care and giving him a quick kiss Alex left and drove home to get Angela settled for the night.
As she was leaving she gave Gage a hug.
"Don't worry honey, you'll get her back." she whispered in his ear and then more forcefully, "Just don't do anything too rash, we all want you, both of you, back in one piece."
"Thank you Alex, for everything. I couldn't have gotten through these last hours without you."
Glad to hear that Gage was cleared for work, despite his head injury, Walker launched into the details of the investigation.
"The forensic team has uncovered tire tracks in the parking lot with trace amounts of mud in them. They believe that they were made by the getaway vehicle based on the location and nature of them with respect to tenant and guest parking spots. The lab guys are running analysis of the mud as we speak; they may be able to pinpoint a location for the origin of the dirt which will be a good starting point. They are also checking the tire tracks against their tire database which should help us to narrow down the vehicle type."
"And two of your neighbours on the first floor reported seeing a dark black or blue unmarked van outside your building around the time of the attack and none of the tenants report having deliveries of any kind tonight." Trivette added. "Boring neighbours Gage, no one even ordered pizza!"
Glaring at his partner Walker carried on. "Your apartment turned up no fingerprints except yours and Syd's. All we can do now Gage is wait. They could have taken her anywhere and we do not have the resources to begin a search of the whole city, never mind the countryside. We don't even know who took her."
"Myser - it has to be, Walker."
"Myser is dead Gage; he died when Syd shot him. If it is people connected to Myser, it is surprising because he was pretty low down in the pecking order of the Dallas drug world. This kidnapping and the destruction of Syd's apartment indicate big money and powerful influences. Did your investigation of Myser uncover any connection to anybody with that kind of clout, no matter how small? Its possible that Myser was far better connected than we had ever suspected."
"I don't think so Walker. I guess I can go through all the paperwork that Syd and I pulled together, run through the surveillance tapes that we took again looking for any clues. I have to do something; I can't just sit here and wait."
"None of us can. You and Trivette head over the office and start looking through the Myser case details. Trivette keep your cell on in case I need to call and Gage keep yours on in case Syd manages to get to a phone. Chances are she'll call you first. I'm going to head to the lab and try to get a jump on the results of the data."
Before leaving his apartment Gage's Texas Ranger survival skills kicked into place, overtaking his personal fears for Syd's safety and allowing him to think in a calm, rationale manner. He grabbed a small knapsack of supplies – medical tape and bandages, a couple of pairs of warm socks, his favourite well-worn sweatshirt, a couple of bottles of water and some energy bars. If, when, they found Syd she may need some or all of these things and he wanted to be prepared to take care of his partner.
Trivette waited until Gage was ready and helped him to lock up. They left Syd's crutches where they had fallen, Gage didn't want to look at them and remember how Syd screamed out his name as they carried her away. He had failed her so miserably. He swore to himself that once she was safe he would never, ever let anything happen to her again. She would hate him being so protective, he knew he'd have to do it surreptitiously, but he'd do it and face her wrath because she was the most important person in the world to him.
Trivette drove to the office in his car and Gage followed on his bike, after persuading Jimmy that a motorcycle might come in handy later. At the office Gage viewed tape after tape of surveillance footage that had been taken in the warehouse district in the weeks leading up to John Myser's capture while Trivette sorted through court documents and statements given by witnesses in the Myser case. They worked through the night and well past daybreak and found nothing unusual.
Gage was standing in the window drinking his fifth or sixth cup of coffee, staring out the early morning sky, watching the last star fade into the light of the bright sun when Walker came in. Turning, his nerves on edge from too much caffeine, not enough sleep and intense worry, Gage put down his coffee cup.
"Walker?"
"Good news. The tire tracks were from a 1999 Chevy Trailblazer, which matches the description of the van we got from the other tenants in Gage's building. Residents near the highway report seeing a vehicle of this description heading east out of Dallas at about 11:00 pm last night. This corresponds well with what the lab managed to analyze from the mud in the tire tracks. They found high amounts of lead in the soil, meaning it almost certainly came from one very specific location, the ..."
"The Shindank Smelter" Gage and Jimmy both chimed in, grabbing their guns and heading out the door each knowing the exact location of the environmentally dangerous site that the EPA had shut down just two years earlier.
Tearing off on his bike Gage was filled again with a sense of purpose. This was the first real lead since Syd had been taken almost nine hours earlier and with each passing minute he had worried that increasingly horrible things were happening to her. Alex had convinced him that they hadn't wanted Syd dead, at least at first, but he remembered the chilling words from the back of her apartment door and was certain that she would not be kept alive for long.
Trivette and Walker followed Gage, their lights flashing, but soon overtook him on the over-two hour drive as Gage had to fill up his much smaller gas tank. Turning up the paved but dusty road that led to the site of the closed smelter, Walker stopped his truck at a site where some activity had clearly taken place.
There was tire track evidence of at least two vehicles, one of which was the van which had originally driven out of Dallas. They also found the bodies of three men, all dressed in black, lying just off the edge of the road. Each had been shot through the heart at point blank range.
Walker was calling for the coroner as Gage pulled up behind them. Seeing the bodies and the evidence of a flurry of activity at the site, Gage's heart stopped cold.
"Syd?"
"No Gage, she's not here." Gage visibly relaxed. "I think these might be some of your attackers though."
"It sure does look like them. Not that I got much of a chance to study them but these guys certainly are dressed like them."
Looking around a shiny glint of gold caught Trivette's eye. He walked over and picked it up.
"Gage." Trivette's voice was soft but urgent.
"That's Syd's." Gage took the watch from Trivette's hand and studied it. The face was smashed and the band mangled as if it had been driven over but the hands were still visible. "5:48 - she was here Trivette. Walker! Syd was here at 5:48 this morning and she was alive. She left this for us; she knew that we'd recognize it."
"Where was it Trivette?" Walker queried and Trivette led him over the edge of the road. Gage held the watch tightly in his hands and thanked God for this sign that Syd was, or at least had been a few hours ago, alive and alert enough to leave them a sign.
Walker walked around the location of the dropped wristwatch several times.
"Syd was moved from the Trailblazer to another vehicle here, probably a car – the tracks aren't wide enough to be a truck." he concluded. "The van was then driven back along the road we just came down, and the other vehicle continued heading down this road."
That was enough for Gage. Slipping Syd's watch into his pocket and pulling on his helmet, Gage jumped onto his motorcycle and sped off in the direction Walker had indicated.
"Damn fool." muttered Walker.
"How many times have I said that to you when Alex has needed help?" Trivette looked at his partner, the question requiring no answer. "Gage is no different than you Walker. He's hurting and he's scared and he's in love. It makes a normally sane man do foolish things."
"I better go after him. As soon as the coroner gets here I'll follow. You mind staying and clearing up all this business?"
"Nope. Just take care of yourself." Trivette smiled "and bring home the kids honey."
Walker gave Trivette a grim smile and climbed into his truck as he saw the coroner's van turning down the road. Walker sped off himself and disappeared quickly in a large cloud of dust.
**************************************************
Sydney felt the car stop and tried to sit up and look around. She had tried a couple of other times during the ride to secure a better view of her surroundings but had been unsuccessful. In pain and knowing it was better to reserve her energy for a time when she might really need it, she had given up. But now that they had stopped she made the effort again.
However, her efforts were soon cut short when the two men driving the car got up and opened the back door. Reaching inside one of them grabbed her by the ropes around her ankles and pulled her out of the vehicle, hard. Dragging her to feet without speaking either to his partner or to her, the heavier of the two men in black, pushed Syd towards a building directly in front of them. It was difficult for Syd to move, her hands and feet were still bound but it almost felt good to move again.
Looking around as she got her bearings straight, Syd could see that there were several buildings in the vicinity, all of them in a poor state of repair. Looking up she saw the building she was being pushed towards was a large two or three storey civic type structure with the letter A printed in faded black paint above a large gaping hole where there was once was a window. The remainder of the windows in the building appeared to be boarded up.
Shoving her up cracked cement steps and onto a wooden porch that was beginning to cave in, Syd was pushed through a makeshift entranceway beside a sign that read "No Trespassing". Inside it was dark and smelled of decay. What little light filtered in highlighted peeling paint and now useless electrical wires.
She was herded down a set of decaying wooden steps lit only by the flashlight of one of her abductors. When she stumbled they made no effort to right her but merely grunted and waited for her to stand up again. Once in the basement she was directed to a small room and the door was swung shut. Feeling around the room in the total darkness she realized the door was made of metal bars, as if in a jail cell.
And with a sinking feeling Syd finally realized where she was - the abandoned Psych Hospital which had been closed in 1997 due to poor conditions and reports of abuse and neglect. Hundreds of people had died here since the institution had first opened – some of natural causes, others apparently by more sinister means.
As she sat on the cold, damp floor and felt a furry animal scuttle near her feet, Syd could not help but wonder if she would be the next victim.