3:00 AM TUESDAY
I couldn't see water, but I could tell it was nearby, and by the look of things, I thought we might be in Jersey. If that was the case, and Kate was here, whoever was responsible for this would be answering not only to state and local officials, but would face federal charges as well. That fact didn't seem to bother them, which was disturbing.
He'd parked behind an abandoned five-story brick industrial building of some sort. A mill, a storage facility…most of the surrounding buildings looked abandoned, too. The whole area seemed deserted. There was no hope for outside help. We were on our own.
Just before we entered the building, the guy turned me around, pushed me up against the brick wall and delivered about a half a dozen body blows, either to try to take some of the fight out of me, or just for the hell of it. Or both. I couldn't tell by his smile, but I am pretty sure he cracked a rib.
He unlocked a heavy door on the loading dock, shoved me into darkness and, stepped in behind me, pulling the door closed with a clang. It took a minute for my eyes to adjust. There was light, but it was dim and distant. He pushed me along a long hallway and down a flight of damp and dripping stairs. The continual drip of water hitting water was ominous, and was the only sound I could identify other than our movement.
I didn't know who and I didn't know why, but at least I knew Kate was here and she seemed to be okay. In a distant room I could hear her practically yelling a song from The Sound of Music.
'The Lonely Goatherd.' And she was doing a damn good job of it, too.
The lighting was dim and I pretty much had to squint at what was ahead of me as the guy prodded me along. There were pools of water here and there and I wondered about the structural integrity of the building.
At one point I heard a heavy door slam open and someone yelled' "Shut up! Shut up!" and when she didn't I heard the smack of flesh upon flesh and Kate did shut up.
But only for about ten seconds. She came back, steely and determined, and I could almost hear that her teeth were clenched, with the Jet's song from West Side Story. Nothing like a little Bernstein to keep your captors off-balance. I laughed a little and the guy gave me a hard shove to the back that made me breathe sharply at the pain on my left side. If not cracked, definitely bruised.
She was barely twenty seconds into the song before I heard the smacking sound again.
Someone was going to pay for that. I didn't know how, but I would make it happen.
As we got closer I could see, farther down the hall, an open door with some light spilling out. It seemed to be our destination.
As we approached the door a woman stepped out and faced us, arms crossed. She'd taken a step forward out of the light so all I could see was her silhouette, and the fact that she was armed.
We came up close and I found myself, incredibly, facing Serena again.
Now I really didn't know what this was about.
'Thank you, Victor." She said to my captor, who was way too close behind me, one hand on my right shoulder, the other holding my cuffed wrists.
Victor. Classic 'Bad Guy' name.
"I told you I'd see you later." And the freakishly strong Serena took hold of my arms and hauled me into the light spilling out from the doorway, Victor right on my heels. She stepped forward, grabbed my face in both her hands and kissed me again, in what I assumed was a performance for Kate's benefit.
I couldn't even make an attempt to step back because of Victor.
She released me and, this time, I had the presence of mind to calmly and deliberately spit her saliva back in her face, and wipe my mouth on my shoulder.
Someone coughed out a little laugh from inside the room to my left and I dared to glance over. Kate was seated at a table, very pale, unbound hands flat on the tabletop, trembling a little, and I couldn't tell if it was from the seriousness of the situation, or the damp and cold: she was wearing only a tee shirt and shorts. And why was she barefoot?
It was pretty clear by her expression that she'd worked through things and Serena was no longer an issue between us. Still, Serena shot her a look that was pure evil.
Kate's guard, 'Rocko', I assumed, was bent solicitously over her, his weapon resting harmlessly on the table inches from her hands, pressing one of his hands against her cheek where she'd been struck, the other using his sleeve to dab blood from the corner of her mouth. Kate lifted her gaze to his and smiled her thanks.
It looked like Kate had already partially won over her guard, and that told me our strategy had to be precisely what Serena had been attempting with us: divide and conquer. I needed to make them think Kate and I were still at odds. Kate had already gotten Rocko's sympathy; if I behaved like a bully toward her, he'd just get more protective. He'd be easy – she'd already gotten that game going. It would be more difficult to convince Serena I was interested in anything she had to say.
I didn't know how I was going to make Kate understand what needed to be done, but I had to do it right away. I couldn't let her speak until she knew how things had to go.
At Serena's gesture, Victor shoved me into the room and Rocko retrieved his weapon and stepped back. All business with Serena there. I took inventory of the room and saw nothing we could use to our advantage, unless Kate could manage to flip the table over onto our petite friend. I doubted it.
Kate looked at me, eyes wide, luminous with tears ready.
I hated what I had to do.
She was about to say something.
"Shut up!" I said viciously, angrily, and she looked as if I'd slapped her.
Serena pointed. "Cuff him to the bed frame." Victor gave me shove off to the left and Serena eyed Kate, then Rocko.
Victor sat me on the bed, uncuffed one of my wrists, looped the cuffs around the thickest part of the frame and shackled me back up. I was incapacitated. All I had at my disposal was words.
An involuntary tear rolled down Kate's right cheek. I knew how much that cost her. She was struggling to hold the rest back.
Her guard stepped forward and wiped it away with two fingers, giving me an accusing look. I didn't know how to get Kate and I on the same page.
"Last chance, sweetie," Serena said, lifting my chin. "You know what they say: 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em'."
I glared over at Kate. "I'll think about it." That ought to buy us a little time.
Serena stepped back and crossed her arms. "Really." She looked smugly from me to Kate, who looked more than a little shell-shocked.
Kate was giving me a look of pain and desperation. Again, she started to say something.
"Shut up," I warned. "You keep your mouth shut and you listen to every word I have to say."
I don't know if it was the way I phrased it or my tone, but it caught her attention. She bit her lip and looked at me both warily and broken-heartedly.
"You," I said accusingly, but giving certain words emphasis, "let them divide us. Separate us. So they could take us down one at a time." I flicked my eyes to Rocko and back to Kate. She got it.
"I let them?" she snapped, rising from her chair. Rocko guided her back into her seat. "I wasn't the one caught kissing a whore." She hissed pointedly to Serena, and I winced, fully expected her to receive another slap to the face, but Serena just seemed to enjoy watching us argue.
"You made assumptions. You didn't believe in me." I spat angrily.
"What the hell was I supposed to think? How did you expect me to react?" Kate made her voice rise shrilly, comically. We'd disagreed on some things, but it had never been like this. We had to get out of this and have a good laugh about it. I didn't know how things were going to go and I didn't want my last words to Kate to be in anger, manufactured or not.
"You didn't believe in me." I said fiercely through my teeth. Her eyes softened for a moment, in apology. Then hardened:
"I still don't! Want to tell me where you went after you left? Did you go to work or did the two of you just go hook up somewhere?" Kate demanded.
""That's exactly what I'm talking about!" I yelled back. " And who the hell are you to talk? I seem to remember you had a few extra half-hour sessions with your personal trainer that that body does not account for!" Who the hell was I kidding? They could see she was perfect.
Kate's right eyebrow rose, and I could see the hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth as if to say, "Oooh, I get a personal trainer?!" And she looked ready to escalate things. This was almost fun.
"Listen, T.J. Hooker -" she began sarcastically, but Serena stepped between us. Which was a good thing because that reference almost made me laugh out loud.
"Please. We have business to discuss." Serena said.
"Oh, honey, I'm not finished with this business." Kate said, with a warning tone, starting again to rise from her chair. Rocko placed his hand on her shoulder and she sat back down with a defeated look.
Business? I still didn't really know why we were here.
Serena placed both her hands on the table, elbows locked and leaned intimidatingly over Kate.
"You seem to have forgotten what I told you, sweetie. This is your last day. Now, depending on how well you cooperate, I can make it quick and painless, or I can let Victor and Rocko take their time with you." Was that an attempt to terrorize Kate with her past? How would she know that?
"I won't." Rocko spoke up resolutely. "I won't do that." Kate shot him a quick, but sweet, grateful smile, managing to lookincredibly vulnerable at the same time. She was good.
"No matter. Victor's more than enough."
"What is it exactly that I have to cooperate with? Are you going to fill us in on what this is all about, or-"
Serena slapped the table hard with her hand. "Where is it?" she demanded.
"South Dakota." Kate replied smartly, randomly.
"Where is it?"
"Where is what?" Kate snapped. It looked as though she'd had just about enough and was ready to lunge across the table at Serena. Oh, please don't.
"What Evan gave you." Oh, Lord. Evan?
Kate leaned forward, gripping the table, hands white from the effort to keep them there. She gave Serena a stare that would have had me back up a couple of steps.
"Evan," She said tightly, "gave me a beating and three years of self-imposed exile. If that's what you're really after, I'll be more than happy to supply the beating!"
Serena backhanded her again. Oh, I was going to kill her. Out of the corner of my eye I'd seen Rocko move a little bit, as if he was thinking of intervening. What was this – reverse Stockholm syndrome? Kate had really roped him in quickly.
"Where is the flash drive Evan gave you?" Serena slapped the table again and Kate spit blood right next to her hand.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"His father knew he had it – he sent us after him. Evan knew we were here. We thought he'd hidden it in your apartment to keep it from us."
"So you tore the place apart." I acknowledged. Serena glanced back at me and gave a curt nod.
"Clearly he didn't." Kate said.
"Clearly he gave it to you. It's what he was coming back for the night he was killed. Where is it? A safe-deposit box?"
He hadn't given it to Kate. He must have hidden it in her apartment.
I had a pretty good idea where it was. Aside from Kate, there were only three things we had that were ever in that apartment.
"What's on the flash drive?" Kate asked. "Why is it so important?" Kate was smart to try to keep her talking, to delay.
"The keys to the kingdom." Serena answered.
Kingdom? Evan Benedict II's kingdom?
"The Benedict crime dynasty? What interest could you possibly have in that?"
"My mother married him. Six years ago."
Kate grimaced, while Serena continued.
"He's in jail. She's dying. It's the perfect time for me to step in and take things over-"
Kate snorted. "So, Chicago's next crime boss is a tiny little woman."
"He destroyed all his records. Everything I need is on that flash drive. Almost everything." She turned to me. "I need a right-hand man. I've decided that's you."
"You are so stupid!" I hollered at Kate. "I told you we should have taken care of this years ago. I told you someone would come after it. But, no, you wanted to wait." I was bluffing like crazy, and I hoped Kate would help me out.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Kate said coolly, haughtily, looking away.
"I'm talking about moving the money." That got everyone's attention.
"And where were we supposed to put it?" She asked sarcastically. "A New York City cop with a 'couple a mil' in savings? No red flags there!"
Serena watched our debate with interest. "Money?"
"Bank accounts in other countries." I said as an aside and turned my attention back to Kate. "All we had to do was create a new account in the same bank and transfer funds there. No one would have known."
"And yet we'd still be here." She reminded me.
"I didn't know about any foreign accounts." Serena frowned.
"You want the flash drive? I'll show you where it is." An opportunity to get unhitched from this bed frame.
"You'll tell me where it is and I'll go get it." Serena demanded. Victor took Kate's keys and mine out of his pocket and tossed them on the table.
It could be in one of three places. That left the city skylines. I took a chance that Evan was as unimaginative as they come.
"It's tucked into the back of the frame of the Chicago skyline photograph in the bedroom."
Kate looked at me in shock, which I hoped they interpreted as betrayal.
How did I know that, she asked without words. I gave her a very slight shoulder shrug. I didn't. I'd guessed.
Serena leaned in close. "If you're lying, you will get to watch her die. If you're not, you might have a future." She turned and grabbed both sets of keys off the table, gestured to Victor to follow her and left us alone with Rocko.
I guessed this was probably the only chance we'd have. If they came back with the flash drive they wouldn't need either of us any more.
I hoped I'd done the right thing.