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Harmless Liaisons: Chapter Nine
"You have to tell us." Catherine said as she looked at Zack, her eyes brimming with pity. He simply nodded at her.
"When...When I told you that Andrea had gotten out of that life...I was completely honest... she was trying to get out...she really was, but she owed a lot of people money...a lot of bad people...she finally managed to get a steady job and pay them off...but they just kept asking for more..." He explained. Catherine knew too well the consequences of getting caught up with the wrong people and to never get out. She had been lucky but she was fully aware that many of the girls she had spent years dancing with did not have that chance.
"Right...and you think it was one of the people that owed her money that did this?" Catherine attempted to interpret the explanation Zack had given her.
"Not one of these people...a specific person...Ray Bemson." He said quietly, his hands clasped firmly together in front of him. The fear obvious in his eyes. What was going to happen now he had named names? He wondered.
"Do you know what happened to Andrea?" Catherine asked sternly.
"He took her...I don't know what he did after that..." He responded looking up at her hoping that Catherine would see the honesty in his eyes. "He's called me...asked for money...said he would let her go if I did what he said..."
"When? Where?" The desperation in Catherine's voice was obvious.
"I don't know...he said he would contact me." He recalled the cold, heartless tone to the voice of the man he had spoken to on the phone. A part of him feared that it was already too late.
"How?" Catherine asked not giving him a chance to explain.
"Text. He said he'd text me a location for the drop off." Zack said quickly.
"Give me your phone." Catherine demanded. Without resistance he slid it across the table at her.
She stepped out of the interrogation room to be face with Nick.
"Run a background on this guy, we need local haunts, any where he could hide someone...or a body..." She instructed Nick disappearing in direction of the lab.
xxx
"We should get back to work." Sara muttered, her voice being muffled by her head being buried in Greg's shoulder. He simply nodded and reluctantly pulled away.
"What are you doing?" he asked, a frown appearing on his face as he looked around the mess surrounding them.
"Processing the evidence Nick and Langston collected from Andrea Martin's place." Sara informed taking a look at everything that had been laid out to be processed.
They both turned to each other; slow smiles appeared on their faces as they realised they were both thinking the same thing.
"This is going to take forever." Greg groaned slightly.
"Well...we better get started...who knows you might even get a treat at the end." Sara gave him that half smile that always managed to get him a little hot under the collar.
xxx
Catherine stood next to Archie as they trawled through surveillance tapes of the roads that surrounded James Holden's home.
"She has to be on here somewhere." Catherine insisted as Archie flicked to another video of the same road just from a different angle, his eyes felt as if they were about to give up on him.
"I think you're right..." he said perking up slightly. On the screen they saw a woman being dragged towards a car.
"She fits the description and the images we have." Catherine agreed as they watched her being forced into the passenger seat of a dark Mercedes. The video quality was terrible meaning she couldn't be sure.
"Run the licence plates." She instructed Archie. "I'll put out a BOLO."
Catherine disappeared through the door to see what everyone else had found.
xxx
Nick placed all the information that he had been able to recover about Ray Bemson in the layout room. Sara, Greg and Langston joined him, disappointed looks on their faces from the lack of useful evidence they had found amongst Andrea Martin's belongings.
"This is our suspect." Nick said pointing to the mug shot he had pinned up behind him. It was at this moment that Catherine appeared at the door an anxious expression on her face.
"He's be pulled in for everything from drunk disorderlies to attempted murder. He used drugs money to start up a loan sharking business. These are his haunts." Nick said pointing to various locations that he had highlighted on a map. "But he hasn't been seen there recently."
"He's been black mailing Zack Berry." Catherine added. She placed the phone she had taken from Zack on the table, and within a few moments it buzzed. Everyone paused and looked at the phone a moment before Catherine picked it up.
"We got a location for a drop off." she announced.
"He's bound to be there, doesn't trust anyone...works alone most of the time..." Nick explained another aspect of their suspect's character.
"We better get going. He wants to meet in half an hour."
xxx
The team stood waiting for their suspect to appear and as Nick had suggested he walked out alone, the gun tucked into the small of his back obvious. He had gritted teeth and his face twisted into a mean expression as he pulled Andrea roughly by the arm as he walked. She looked dehydrated and underfed, her eyes were red rimmed but she had stopped herself from crying, most likely a result of a not so polite request from her captor.
They decided not to waste any more time. Within seconds he was surrounded by armed officers, their weapons pointed directly at him.
"Let her go." Vartann shouted at him. But all he did was give them a smirk and pulled out his gun and holding it firmly to her head.
"That pathetic arse told you didn't he?" he said through clenched teeth.
"Let her go!" Vartann shouted again.
It became apparent to Ray that if he shot Andrea he would be accepting a death wish, so he pushed her towards Vartann and dropped the gun holding his hands up in surrender.
"You're the one that's pathetic." Brass said as he cuffed him.