The Return
Chapter 22
The man gave his captive a wide toothy grin as he entered the room and then just as quickly it faded. She is much prettier awake, her luring eyes would hold anyone captive – except for me, but I will take great pleasure in spending some time with her.
He pulled the metal chair over the concrete floor toward the blonde and sat down just a couple of feet in front of where she was secured to a chair with zip-ties. He leaned back in the straight chair, remaining silent as he studied her thoroughly, taking his time before speaking. I can understand the Lieutenant's fascination with such a creature.
As soon as the tall, well-dressed man in a finely tailored Italian suit stepped inside the room, Calleigh knew who he was. Andrew Kunis. She also remembered what she'd read in his file, 'ex-KGB where he held the position Chief of Interrogations.' The file went on to say that he had denounced his American citizenship in exchange for Russian and joined the KGB. After the former KGB reinvented itself due to the break-up of the Soviet States, Kunis had joined the mob, quickly rising to notable status in the underworld. Obtaining a high rank in short-time only meant one thing – he fulfilled a talent the mob evidently lacked and did it well.
Finally he spoke as his face brightened in a mocking smile and in a manner, Calleigh thought like that of a snake if they could actually talk.
"I hope the ride was not too bad. I instructed my men to be gentle with you, I do hope they complied."
Calleigh glared at the man, not responding.
"Forgive my liberty," he stretched out a hand as he leaned toward her and fingered the long blonde hair as she moved her head away trying to increase the space between them, "I removed that awful wig," he clicked his tongue a couple of times, "it did absolutely nothing for you."
Her stern look and silence were intriguing to him. "I suppose no introductions are necessary, you undoubtedly know who I am. I do imagine you're wondering why I had you brought to me here. I assure you it was for just one reason - insurance; you see Horatio Caine has a knack of not cooperating. We think we've killed him, but he just pops back up. I don't have much faith that my men were successful in the task today, hence you are my insurance that if they failed, Caine will undoubtedly look for you. And, if he's as good as they claim he is, I have great confidence he will find you, but we'll be ready for him." He smiled and started chuckling, "Since I lost Diedra, thanks to your Lieutenant, I've had to take a more, um… how shall we say… hands on approach to business."
Kunis' words struck fear in her heart. If Horatio wasn't killed the first time, this madman is planning for him to find me just so he can personally make sure Horatio won't survive.
Not wanting to dwell on that thought, Calleigh decided to find out some information. The man seemed so full of himself; he might reveal how he found them. She was curious.
"How did you find us?"
Feigning surprise, Kunis fell back in the chair mocking, "Well, she does talk after all."
He smiled, allowing a couple of minutes to pass before answering her question.
"It wasn't an easy task – especially after my mole in the FBI's Miami office was taken down. But, under-paid government workers can be bought if you find just the right one, it just took a little time," he explained. "The key to any operation is always being aware of what your enemy is doing and their location. In fact, we now have even better access to information within the FBI than before, thanks to our new man. Once we learned where you and Caine had been hidden, it was just a matter of sending a couple of scouts out to pinpoint you."
His words almost caused her to take in a sharp breath as she stared at the gloating scum sitting before her. A couple of scouts... Ivanov was one… who's the other?
John sat silently after hearing Bill explain that he was actually Lieutenant Horatio Caine from the Miami Police Department. Freeport Maine and Miami were over fifteen hundred miles apart, therefore John was not familiar with him, but he did remember the man's death being reported on national news. The deputy was also aware that his department had nowhere near the manpower required to take on such a case – they would need help.
Finally looking into the eyes of this obviously devastated man who not only was a friend, but now, a fellow member of the 'thin blue line' causing John to feel even closer to him.
"Bill… um, Horatio… If the Russians have Calleigh as we believe, we just don't have enough men to…"
Horatio's lips thinned in anger recalling his meeting with the director, "I know FBI assistance will be needed, even mandatory as you know, but they have more of a role in what's happened than you'd think."
John cocked his head and was about to get Horatio to explain when the doorbell rang. Horatio stood and quickly walked to the door with his gun in his hand; not seeing anyone , he jerked the door open and saw Timmy Millan, a ten-year old boy who lived across the street stepped back on the porch. The boy's eyes widened with spontaneous fear when he saw his friend holding a big gun. Horatio immediately eased his stance and lowered the gun.
"Mr. Bill… I, uh… I wanted to come over and see if everything was alright cause I saw some strangers here and Miss Emily... she didn't look too good before they took her away."
Horatio's face twitched in reaction to the boy's words. He saw what happened to Calleigh? "Thank you Timmy. Could you come in and tell me and a friend of ours what you saw?"
"Sure. Can I have a glass of water? I'm hot from chasing bad guys around our yard."
The boy's innocence made Horatio smile. "You sure can."
Horatio stepped aside and ushered the boy into the house. Walking toward John with a hand on the boy's shoulder, Horatio told the deputy,
"Timmy saw what happened here this afternoon and wants to tell us about it."
John greeted the youngster, "Hi Timmy, do you remember me from the safety talk I did to your class not long ago?"
"I sure do. You were cool!" John responded with a reserved smile.
"That's good Timmy; we're all friends here so we'd like to hear about what you saw today."
Horatio poured cold water from the refrigerator into a glass for the boy while listening to their conversation from the kitchen. He then joined them after handing the water to the youngster and sat down on the edge of a chair, listening while Timmy explained.
After swallowing some of the cold liquid, Timmy began,
"I saw Miss Emily walking up the drive-way after getting the mail. I started running across our yard to holler at her, but that's when I saw this strange man come out of nowhere, touch her and she fell against him. Then this white van came up the drive real fast… I was afraid it might be out of control, but it stopped and the man put Miss Emily inside and jumped in too, then they took off."
Horatio felt a sudden wave of nausea roll in his stomach as he pictured the scene.
John asked, "Were you able to see the van's license plate?"
"I sure could. That's the first thing you do when you want to catch the bad guys like they do on TV, get a tag number."
Timmy gave the number to the deputy who immediately got on his radio and broadcast the information to his officers with instructions to search the streets as well as interview some of the Robinson's neighbors.
The boy stepped over to Horatio, who was now standing and asked, "Did I do good Mr. Bill?"
Horatio forced a smile as he reached out and ruffled the blonde headed boy's curly hair.
"You sure did Timmy. You've helped us a lot and we really appreciate it."
I gotta be going. I've got a stupid piano lesson, but I just had to tell you about this. Will you be able to find Miss Emily?"
Horatio, touched by the boy's sad expression, took a deep breath to steady his voice before answering quietly, "I sure hope so son."
After Timmy left, Horatio walked back to his friend who was now talking to someone on his cell phone. Placing his hand over the mouthpiece John explained,
"I've called a friend of mine who works in the Portland PD to see if he can request security camera footage from the northeast side quadrant. If the van went in that direction from here, we'll be able to get a better idea where they were headed," then he abruptly went back to the conversation on the phone.
Horatio knew he needed to call Director Whittle's office. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he looked up the number and punched call. Just as he expected, the standard we'll investigate and be in contact with you was the response given by the man's assistant.
John was now off his phone so, Horatio asked, "Are you familiar with any abandoned places near here?"
His friend didn't hesitate to answer, "About three. Let's go check 'em out before it gets dark."
During the ride to the first one, Horatio asked that John continue to refer to them as Bill and Emily around others. He knew there was a chance the national news agencies might pick up on the kidnapping and he didn't want those in Miami to hear that he was alive over the news. He wanted to be the one to break it to them, if they survived.
An hour later, John and Horatio walked out of the last abandoned farmhouse as their fears grew about Calleigh's safety. Then John's cell phone rang.
"Rumo," he answered and listened. "Good work, we'll be there within the hour."
He ended the call and turned toward Horatio. "Portland PD techs spotted the van on camera footage and saw it take Highway 35 to the north. I'll call state police and update them."
Horatio felt a slight twinge of hope rise to the surface, but experienced enough to know that they needed a hell of a lot more information than that.
It was already dark outside when they walked through the front door of the Portland Maine Police Department. The desk Sargent on duty directed them toward a conference room where others were meeting about the case. When John opened the door Horatio stopped abruptly, as the deputy continued on. In the room among the detectives, stood FBI Director Whittle. The man looked up from the computer screen and saw the two men enter. He knew it would only be a matter of time before Caine appeared.
Whittle shook Rumo's hand then offered his hand to Horatio,
"Glad to see you survived your ordeal earlier Bill. I'm sorry that it seems the Russians went after your wife. We're doing everything we can to find her."
Horatio picked up on the condescending tone in Whittle's voice even if no one else seemed to, but they had no knowledge of what had transpired between the two earlier.
Refusing the offered hand, Horatio responded in a low growl,
"Only hours ago I warned you that they might have found us, yet it took this happening for you to move on it."
Horatio's words angered the director, "I was following protocol… something you should learn to do."
The response caused one corner of Horatio's mouth to twitch in anger as his jaw clenched several times before adding,
"Following protocol sometimes gets people killed. You'd better hope we find her."
The pair's exchange caused the others to stop what they were doing momentarily until a detective spoke up,
"Gentlemen, we need to focus on the difficult task of finding the victim. Let's leave personalities outside."
Later that night, somewhere around mid-night, John looked over at Horatio riding shot-gun in his patrol car and thought the man looked horrible. He's feeling the accident today on top of everything else… I need to get him home. I'll grab a couple of hours sleep on their couch.
John made a couple of turns causing Horatio to realize where they were headed.
"You're going back to our house?"
"Yep… you need to rest a bit my friend. You look beat; you have to be sore from that accident. A couple of hours…"
"I won't be able to sleep – thinking about Calleigh and what might be happening to her."
As they turned on Horatio's street, John encouraged, "You need to lie down before you fall down. I could use a couple of hours myself."
Calleigh laid on the uncomfortable bare, dirty mattress with her eyes wide open in total darkness. Not being able to see the small, windowless room with a concrete floor containing a hole for relieving herself was actually a blessing. I wonder what time of the night it could be, or are we into another day. I may have been unconscious longer than I thought after the man took me. It's just one of Kunis's interrogation techniques to break me down; disorient the subject would be the first step. The thing is I know the procedure and that will go a long way in my favor. But still, it will affect me.
Then her thoughts turned to Horatio.
TBC...