[Chapter 4]
"I'm here for that ID card." Lisbon flashed her badge when she reached the checkout area.
Jane's ID was clipped to the cashier's polo. The cashier politely nodded and handed it to her.
"That was a quick response for a ID card," she said. "You guys must be very efficient."
"Can I ask you a few questions, Gwyn?" Lisbon read the cashier's name off the tag pinned to her shirt.
"Sure," Gwyn grinned as she bagged a customers purchases and handed back their change. "I'm the only one on the clock though. I need to stay here."
"That's fine." Lisbon and Cho took a step over to let the people behind them pay for their things.
"Were you the one who found the ID badge?" Cho asked.
"Yes," Gwyn responded.
"Did you see the man who left it?" Lisbon asked.
"No. I was straightening the things on the counter when I found it in the tub of Swedish Fish. I only got here half an hour ago or so. Jessie didn't want me to call and that I should toss it in the lost and found box, but I want to know what a CBI was. What does it stand for?"
"California Bureau of Investigations." Cho answered.
"Oh," she sounded disappointed. "It doesn't stand for Caribbean Basin Initiative?"
"No."
"Really? I wanted to see if you'd give me a free trip to the Caribbean for finding it. Are you sure?"
"Positive," Lisbon assured the young woman. "Where is Jessie?"
"She's probably sitting on the pallets in the back."
"Thank you for your time."
"Can I get a trip to the Caribbean?"
The agents ignored her and kept walking. Lisbon and Cho made their way behind the store, where they found another young woman sitting on a stack of wooden skids. The woman swung her feet as she text on her cell phone.
"Jessie?"
"Yes?"
"I'm Agent Lisbon." She flashed her badge. "This is Cho. We would like to ask you a few questions."
"Really? I'm on break," Jessie whined. "Can't this wait until I'm on the clock."
"This is regarding the kidnapping of two state agents-" Lisbon continued.
"Hey. Yeah babe, hold on a sec..." The girl answered her phone completely ignoring Lisbon. "Excuse me, give me a few minutes. I'm on the phone..."
Cho grabbed the phone and pressed the end button. "Now you're not."
"How rude! You can't do that."
"I just did." Cho replied.
"Now I'm definitely not talking to you guys."
"Why don't we just take this to the police station," Lisbon said.
"You can't charge me with anything," the girl argued.
"We can charge you with obstruction of justice," Lisbon stated. "Cuff her."
"Aiding and abetting," Cho added as he pulled out his cuffs and cuffed her. "And that's on two state agents."
"Who was I aiding?" Jessie interjected. "You would need evidence and proof."
"We'll find something," Lisbon replied.
"We could always just plant it," Cho added. Lisbon nodded in agreement.
"Doesn't that carry prison time, Agent Cho?" Lisbon continued.
"Yes, it does, Agent Lisbon. It's a felony. That's at least five years."
"Let's go." Lisbon ordered.
Cho grabbed her by the arm and proceeded to lead her away.
"What? Wait." Jessie gauged their reactions. She was now cuffed and they looked serious about the whole thing.
"Let's try this again," Cho said. "What did the man look like?"
"He kidnapped my colleagues. We won't charge you with anything if you cooperate. All we want to do is get them back safely," Lisbon said.
"He was blond wearing a vest," Jessie cooperated.
"The other one." Cho said.
"I don't know. I wasn't paying attention to them. It was early and I was half asleep. White guy, brown hair, thinning, combed over, black t-shirt, I think," she stammered.
"And..." Lisbon motioned her to keep going.
"I don't know. I don't wanna go to jail," Jessie panicked.
"What did they buy?" Cho asked.
"Drinks and ice," Gwyn answered.
"I need details," Cho informed her. "Think."
"Uh, Gatorade, kitchen towels, and water. The blond guy wanted to pay with a credit card but the other guy said something to him and he paid in cash."
"Paid in cash? Who paid?"
"The blond guy."
"Did the other guy say or do anything?"
"He kept his head down and basically dragged the other guy out of the store after they paid for their stuff."
"Are there cameras in the store? Where is the owner or manager?" Lisbon asked.
"The owner opened the store. He said he'll be back in twenty minutes. That was four hours ago. He does it all the time."
"Call him," Cho ordered.
"He doesn't answer when I call."
"What do you do if something goes wrong, or if you have an issue?" Cho asked.
"If there is anything really wrong Gwyn call him from her cell phone and sometimes gets a response. Or we call Kay, she works here, but isn't on today. She'd tell us what to do."
"Does Kay have access to the cameras?" Lisbon asked.
"The camera in the front doesn't work. I unplugged it. I've been skimming from the till for weeks. My boss hasn't noticed it."
"Great. Uncuff her," Lisbon told Cho. "Look, we aren't going to arrest you, but we are going to tell your boss what you've been doing."
Cho handed the girl back her phone. "Call Kay," he ordered.
He quickly scrambled to his knees, but was thrown to the floor once more as another object collided with him, knocking the breath from his lungs. Jane wheezed, tangled up with the heavier object. He realized it was a person when it groaned.
"Rigsby?"
"...ow.. yeah Jane? " He weakly answered.
"Don't try anything or we will shoot you," Humpty warned.
"Easy. There's no need for that. We aren't resisting," Jane assured them after he forced himself to a kneeling position. He gave a quick glance over to Rigsby who still laid on the ground. "What's this about?"
They did not give him an answer. Lanky threw Jane's bag of provision next to him, then the two walked out of the room. The metal door clanged shut behind them sealing them in.
Jane struggled to his feet and then pulled Rigsby to a sitting position and leaned him against a wall. He then gnawed at the tape that bound his hands until they were free.
"How do you feel?" Jane asked after freeing Rigsby.
"Tired."
The poorly lit room was no bigger than twenty by ten and thankfully air conditioned. Jane could hear the ac unit struggle as it blasted cool, stale air around the room. There was a makeshift workbench on the far end and bunch of stray crates here and there, some covered by plastic tarps.
"How long was I out?" Rigsby pressed himself against the coolness of the wall. He felt nauseous and really dizzy, but he was trying not to think about it. Out of sight, out of mind as the old proverb said.
"We drove around for about an hour before we stopped, and they threw us in here. It seems to lock from the outside," Jane said as explored their surroundings. There were no windows, just a slotted vent on the roof that was closed. It seemed to be a rather large storage shed, with metal walls. The consultant pushed his weight against them. The walls did not bow, flex or warp and was made of a fairly thick steel or aluminum. He pushed on the door. It did not budge.
"It's too square to be a shipping container..." Jane mumbled to himself.
Rigsby pulled off his dress shirt to press more of his bare skin against the cool metal wall. It felt so good and he didn't want to move from this spot. "I'll help you. Give me a minute."
"It's okay, you rest up. Think cool thoughts." Jane patted him on the shoulder and handed him a bottle of cold water.
"Sorry. I just feel useless. I should have done more."
"From the trunk? It's all right, you did everything you could. We are okay, a little worse for wear, and not shot, which is good. I thought they fried your brain when you kept laughing about mango smoothies during the drive. Hallucinating about a certain redhead drinking mango smoothies with you?" Jane wagged his eyebrows as Rigsby blushed.
"Wait? What did I say?"
"Nothing really. Other than she should get you another. I was only guessing at the Van Pelt part. Judging from your reaction I was right..."
"You know we are in danger here."
"I sure do," Jane laughed, "but you know I can't resist. I tried to leave Lisbon a clue to where we were headed, hopefully she gets it."
Rigsby closed his eyes and nodded slightly.
"I'm just trying to figure out where this here is," Jane continued his search of the room.
Jane was glad that Humpty and Lanky were gone. They ordered him to keep his head down and not look out any of the window as they sped down the highway. Jane glanced up once, and Lanky pistol whip him in the face, leaving a gash and a rather large bruise. Then Humpty threatened push him out of the speeding car if he did not listen.
Jane obliged. He tended to Rigsby from the backseat, applying ice packs to the agent to reverse the heat stroke, all the while carefully keeping track of their speed, direction, and Lanky and Humpty's hushed conversation. The kidnappers were improvising and this was not how it was suppose to go down. They were suppose to take Rigsby from his house, but got lost and arrived there too late.
"Descendant of a foot soldier..." Jane thought out loud.
"What?"
"Do you know a Troy? Lanky and Humpty were talking about a man named Troy. Troy told them you were resourceful."
"I know a lot of Troys. My college roommate was named Troy, couple of firefighters in San Diego, people I've arrest with CBI and when I was with arson, had a best friend named Troy. A maintenance man in the building I use to live in..." Rigsby slowly rattled off.
"Any of them want to kidnap you?"
"I don't think any of them would. I mean my roommate's girlfriend left him for me. She was hot, but no substance, you know. I got into a fist fight with a firefighter named Troy. There's people I've arrested. I haven't spoken to my former best friend since we were fourteen..."
"What happened?"
Rigsby took a sip of the water then answered, "a difference in opinion."
Jane took Rigsby's tone as he wanted to drop the subject. "Did you notice that smell?"
"It's diethyl ether."
"These bottles say nh3 on them." Jane picked up one from the crate in front of him.
"Anhydrous ammonia," Rigsby mumbled.
"I just found a few dozen boxes of matches. At least we won't have to worry about light."
"Great."
"What?"
"We're holed up in a meth lab."
"That was pointless," Lisbon said.
The two agents sat in Lisbon's Tahoe, still parked in front of the store. Lisbon was frustrated. They still had no clue where Rigsby and Jane were or which direction they were headed.
Kay, who was more helpful than the other two employees, had came and went. She had shown them the security cameras, but they were useless. The surveillance DVR wasn't set properly and did not record anything. The camera they really needed was the one Jessie unplugged.
Lisbon tapped the ID card in her hand and looked down towards Jane's smiling photo. Jane left it for a reason, but she couldn't figure out why.
"Check in with Van Pelt. I'm going back inside to ask a few more questions," she told Cho.
"Hey, wait!" Gwyn jogged up to the SUV. "I forgot to mention something I noticed."
The two agents waited for the girl to continue. After a few moments of not answering Lisbon snapped. "What! We don't have time to waste."
"Sorry, zoned out there for a moment. You don't have to be so mean," she said. "I was playing with the ID card, looking at the security holograms and what not, and I noticed that there's something etched lightly onto the back of the card. You kinda gotta tip it a certain way to see it. It looked like letters to me. I made out one word I think it said 'gson' "
"Thanks."
"I hope you find your people," Gwyn nodded and retreated back into the store.
Lisbon tipped the ID card towards the sunlight. What she originally thought were scuffs and scratches, formed crude letters.
"W-e-0-k. w-.-g-s-o-n. v-9-1-1-z-f-i. h-l-p." Lisbon read it out loud. "What's that suppose to mean?"
TBC