Chapter 23

I woke up feeling like shit but had no idea where I was. I could feel the texture of sheets underneath me and the warmth from a comforter over the top of me. Opening my eyes there was enough light coming in through the drapes to recognize that I was in a bedroom. One that I didn't recognize. Please don't let this be Ranger's bed, went through my mind, though looking around it bore no resemblance to his apartment in Trenton. Sitting up I pulled the covers back and moved to the side of the bed, only then realizing that I was wearing an orange T-shirt with some motif on the front and my black panties. No bra. So who had brought me here.

My immediate thought was that it must have been Les, though the T-shirt did seem big even for him. I needed the bathroom first before I explored where I was and sought the answers. The bathroom was huge with an enormous walk in shower but it was catching a glimpse of my reflection that shocked me. My hair was a mass of tangles and my face was all red and blotchy. Gees, I looked a mess, which was probably how I was feeling. After a quick shower, wrapped in a towel I carried the clothes that I'd slept in back into the bedroom. That was when I noticed just how big the bed was. I never guessed that you could buy a bed so long and wide. A chair in the corner held some clothes so hopeful that they were for me I walked over to investigate. A bra and pantie set, black leggings, a black strappy top and a lose fitting black shirt affirmed that they were probably for me.

Once dressed I dared to approach the second door but stopped when I was sure that I could hear voices. Okay maybe loud whispers which all seemed to be male. Bracing myself by taking in a deep breath I opened the door and walked out. Sat in two large leather couches were the four men who I had missed the most when I'd left Trenton. After Ranger that is. All of them went quiet and looked at me before ,as if in unison ,they all got to their feet.

"Little Girl it's been too long seeing you"

"I know Tank'

I answered as I felt his large arms come around me. Once he released me, I was being pulled toward Bobby.

"I missed you Bomber"

"Me too"

Because I had missed them, all of them, and only now that I was seeing them did the impact of that loss hit me. As Bobby released me from his hug, he sat me down on one of the couches next to Les and sat down beside me. Hector and Tank took the other couch that was at right angles to us.

"Why Steph. Why did you disappear?"

Came from Tank. Not a question that I expected to be asked and it wasn't such an easy answer to give. Having the four men looking at me, anticipating a response I wasn't sure what to say. Tell them how it was, went through my mind.

"Everything changed and people moved on. Joe and I decided that we weren't a forever couple. We're still really good friends, but without any of the complications. My mother decided to try and set me up with any man that was single seeing as she couldn't get Joe and me back together, so I stopped going to visit for dinner. Ranger, well I just never saw him around and then he told me that he would be gone for a long time. After that was the whole disaster at Vinnie's. The new manager, which had Connie leaving and Lula finding another job which entailed a lot of travelling. So with Mary Lou relocating to Pittsburg, it left me with few friends. I never saw any of you guys. After getting seriously hurt I knew that I'd had enough"

"Hurt, how did you get hurt?"

Hmm, what details did I want to give? It was part of my reasons for leaving Trenton, so I ploughed on.

"The new manager was giving me more high bond FTAs only he decided to skimp on the information that he gave me. I wasn't allowed to use the search program on the computer in the office. This one skip, on paper he seemed harmless enough, but I couldn't get an angle on him from my usual sources. When I went to the address for where he lived, I ended up getting stabbed"

Looking at each of their faces I could sense their annoyance so knew that I'd get bombarded with questions.

"This new manager knew he was dangerous?"

I nodded my head as I looked down at my hands clenched on my knees.

"We pulled out of our contract with Vinnie because he was trying to get us to bring in the skips for a vastly reduced rate. Didn't they hire a new bounty hunter?"

Shaking my head, I knew how lucky I had been with some of those skips. There had been some close calls but, in the end, I'd managed to get them to the station. Okay, Lula and I had devised some sneaky ways of doing it, but I wasn't ashamed of what we'd done.

"One man was wanted for armed robbery, well Lula and I worked a distraction on him in his local bar. While Lula flashed her tits for him, I emptied some ground up sleeping tablets into his beer. We had to come up with some unusual capture techniques. Anyway, Lula couldn't cope with the stress of it all. It was Joe who suggested I find another job. He actually helped me which was how I ended up here in Boston. I did visit Rangeman, but a new guy wouldn't let me in and said that no one I asked after was available"

Because I didn't want the guys to think that I hadn't tried to see them before I left. Looking up I was seeing Les frowning across to Tank before he came up with an explanation.

"That was after Ranger left. Remember, we had that FBI contract to bring in that group"

There were some nods of heads but to be honest it was a time in the past now. I'd moved on.

"I'm sorry Little Girl. This whole mission that Ranger was made to take on came as a shock and he tried every which way to get out of it. Picking up an old alias and trying to insert himself back into that backstory was hard for him. He knew that he had to stay off anyone's radar before he went, and his greatest worry was of you being associated with him and being targeted. That was why he wasn't around as much"

Ranger had been worried about me, yeah right. He should have been more worried about how it would be me that impacted on his cover.

"I know that it's all my fault. If I hadn't been so determined to find out what had happened to Lisa, then I wouldn't have been seen by Alina and Ranger's cover wouldn't have been compromised"

I felt so miserable as I said those words out loud, the problem was that it was true. I waited for what the men would say to me, almost dreading the lecture that was bound to come.

"Do you think him being caught is because of you?"

I was nodding my head as the tears began to form again. Of course it was. Ranger was too careful to have blown his cover, so it had to be down to me. Damn it, how was it that I was always crying?

"It wasn't you. We know exactly how it happened. A man turn up yesterday, scared shitless at coming to see us. Told us everything"

Okay, that had me looking at Bobby wondering what he was talking about. What man?

"He told us that a woman that he thought liked him, had tricked him. She'd given him a photo and asked if he could find out who he was. It took him days before he struck out and came back with Ranger's alias, Marc Pardo"

I was following what Bobby was telling me but couldn't work out who it could have been and why they came here to Rangeman to confess to doing that. Wasn't Marc Pardo who Alina thought Ranger was?

"Apparently the program that he was using trawled through newspaper articles as well. He discovered a second name to go with the face from a headline from a Miami newspaper a few years ago. It was when Julie was kidnapped by Scrogg. Of course, he then ran with that and found the connection to Carlos Manoso. It was him who passed on that information to the woman. We all know what happened after that"

So it hadn't been because of me that Ranger's cover had been blown. So who had been responsible for doing that?

"He confessed what he'd done to his boss because it also highlighted who you were. His boss was furious and told him that he had to come here and tell us"

I was still at a loss at to who Bobby was talking about. Why would someone be looking around for who Ranger was and how did me cropping up in that search have a boss seeing red?

"Does the name Jex ring a bell?"

Oh no, surely not. I was quickly putting things together now. Jex was ace on computers and finding things out but why would he do that? Who would give him a photo of Ranger to investigate? That was when the penny dropped. I bet that it was Kiera who asked him to do it, but when he recognized me, he knew that he'd done the wrong thing and told Jonas the whole story. Les must have recognized my expression showing that I now understood what had happened. He smiled because he knew how upset I'd been at thinking that it was because of me that Ranger was in danger.

"His boss fired him on the spot and the woman responsible, Kiera, the boss's niece hasn't been seen since. Seems Kiera told him some cock and bull story of how you'd picked her up from the train station but had then complained that you had a stalker. That you were going to give this stalker the run around before coming back to the office. She gave him the photo of Ranger and asked him to find out who he was. Jex is devastated at how gullible he was. I'd say he had a crush on the woman, and she used that to her advantage. Penderton had pulled in a lot of contacts to find you but because he knows Ranger, from years ago, he was the one who told this Jex to get his arse here and tell us everything"

Jonas must be mortified that his own niece would do that. I wondered if he realized just how involved Kiera was in what happened to those women. Was her turning up at Jonas's a coincidence or was it because she knew that we were investigating the disappearance of Lisa. Maybe me finding those journals was when Kiera saw the need to get close to me and then basically make me disappear. She would certainly have got rid of the evidence that I was sure was in those journals. I bet all of them had been burnt. Then again, I knew the truth. Isaac Jacobs, was Elijah Banning's twin brother. Isaac must have hated his brother to let him be caught and take the wrap for those murders. I suppose he may have seen it as a way to distract the FBI from what was actually going on. There was no doubt in my mind that Elijah been a part of it, at least to the murder of those women that were found. He knew too many details. Those thoughts had me suddenly figuring something else that could be important if we were to find Ranger.

"I know of two places where I think Ranger will be"

Am I slow or what. Sheesh, it took me thinking about Elijah and those murdered women for the penny to drop. Of course, that had everyone looking at me as though I was totally mad. I just knew that I was right.

"The homestead and the settlement where Elijah and Isaac lived. No one would think of looking there because very few people know about them"

Okay, maybe the homestead was a place known to the locals for where Elijah had lived but I was pretty sure that none of the locals would want to venture anywhere near it. I wasn't aware of any media coverage that gave away its location either.

"Bomber, you seem pretty sure of that. Why?"

Why indeed. I knew that it was a strong feeling that was pushing the idea forward but wasn't that based on what I knew about the murders and the type of men who were capable of doing those things. That would have to be enough to convince these hardened men sat around me.

"Elijah was supposedly seen in proximity to where women went missing from, so he became the FBI's prime suspect. When the FBI raided the property, they found seven sets of clothes and from DNA tried to identify who those clothes belonged to, but had no idea where the bodies were buried. Three unidentifiable women's bodies were found at the homestead, buried in the surrounding woods. They'd been tortured and held in a pit under the house. Those three women had died seven years ago. My job, or should I say the job of the team was to find Lisa's body, one of the missing women"

I wasn't sure if I'd explained that clearly enough for the guys to follow but stopped there and waited for any questions that they might have.

"Why would Ranger be there? What's the connection?"

I could see why Tank had asked that, but I still had more to say that would hopefully help to explain that.

"Elijah and Isaac were twins. I think that they were born at the homestead and lived there for the first eight years of their lives. The mother then moved them to the settlement. Maybe she was Amish and had been made to move away because she was pregnant out of wedlock but wanted to reconnect, I'm not sure on that"

Tank nodded at me giving me the go ahead to continue so at least he understood why I saw the homestead as a possible location for Ranger.

"When Elijah was arrested, he was sent to a secure facility and underwent psychiatric evaluations. He was diagnosed as having multiple personalities, named Elijah, Isaac and James. I was keen to find the mother and eventually traced her to an old Amish settlement, but she'd changed her name. I thought that maybe if she changed Elijah's name as well then that was why he was mentally unstable. I found him, well I found a boy named Isaac and we went to where they'd moved to. The mother was in the top bedroom and was dead. I reckoned that Elijah might have murdered her and then moved back to where he was familiar with. I had no idea at the time that Elijah and Isaac were twins, I thought that they were the same person. Anyway, the FBI turned up and found three more women who had been murdered and buried with their possessions who had been dead from five, two, and one year ago"

Two brothers who both obviously had mental health issues. Elijah knew what was happening, but was he responsible for those murders or was Isaac? In my own mind I was seeing Isaac as being the aggressive brother. Come on, he had been working with Kiera and Alina in abducting women and girls and selling them. Had he sought Kiera out or had they come together and thought out a scheme that was mutually beneficial? Pfft, that wasn't what was important at the moment. Finding Ranger was.

"We need to be in the conference room to plan out what we're going to do"

Ever the one to take charge Tank stood up as he said that. I wanted in on those plans and whilst the homestead might seem to be a prime location, I was inclined to believe that the settlement was more important to Isaac. That was where the mementoes of his childhood were so he would have a stronger attachment to that place.

I hadn't given the details of where those places were so as the men started to leave the room I was thankful when Hector pulled me to my feet. While the men took the stairs Hector called the elevator for me which gave me a chance to look at the apartment that we'd just left.

"Whose apartment is that?"

Curious now I asked Hector as we rode down in the elevator.

"Core team's for when they visit here. It has two bedrooms and can accommodate Tank comfortably"

I was relieved that it hadn't been Ranger's apartment but now realized that I'd kicked Tank out of his bedroom.

"Oh"

Just came out as I also acknowledged that the very large T-shirt that I'd slept in was probably Tank's. Nope, I wasn't going to be asking.

"You were distraught outside Ranger's apartment and were fighting with Les not to go inside, so Tank suggested their apartment"

Ouch. I hadn't realized that I'd been so emotional because I couldn't remember anything after laying down outside in the hallway.

It was weird because we stopped at the fourth floor. This building obviously wasn't as tall as the one in Trenton, so the layout was different. As the doors opened, I recognized the sounds. From chatting to the buzz of computers and at one end of the hallway was a huge area with a bank of monitors. Did the noise level go down as we emerged? Nah, just my imagination. I followed Hector into a huge room that had a large oval table in the center with every chair occupied. Geez, talk about feeling embarrassed when they all turned and looked at me. When they all stood up and clapped, I was wanting the floor to swallow me up. What the hell. Why were they clapping? At Hector maybe?

"Steph. Some of the men here you already know. The rest are from the crew here at Boston"

Looking around the table I felt elated to be seeing Cal, Ram and Manny and before I could say anything to them Tank was interrupting me.

"This is Rider, Oakes, Corey and lastly Rapp. I think that you already know the guy sat in front of you"

I looked at the faces of the men as Tank told me their names but was so surprised to see Oscar turn around and look at me.

"How's it going Annie?"

How was Oscar here? Was he going to be working with us now? I didn't get a chance to ask him that because it seemed that the meeting was about to start. Geez, I had so many names going for me in this room. Not wanting to get involved in the whole name debacle at the moment, I sat down between Oscar and Les. The room went quiet as Tank stood at the head of the table so I waited to see where I would be included.

"Two targets. Beaver Brook, Adam Street just past Holliston"

As a map came up on the screen to my left, I was sure that I was frowning. How did Tank know where those two places were? The map changed to an ariel view, but it was Oscar who got up and walked over to the screen. Huh, so he was the secret informer. I sat back as Oscar used a laser pen to highlight specific areas. The sites where the women had been found, the hut behind the house that held the clothes and finally the pit. I knew where the entrance was but was actually surprised to learn how large it was and that whoever had made it had used an old wooden ladder to access it. I tuned out as he went through the interior of the house comparing how it was and how it was now. Instead, I was thinking about the settlement.

"I'll be taking Ram, Oakes, Rapp and Brown with me. The rest of you, you'll be assessing the settlement site. Remember we assess through surveillance first and if we have reason to believe that Ranger is being held at the site that we are focused on then we call in reinforcements. Oscar"

I quickly looked around the room to work out who was on the team going to the settlement. Cal, Manny, Rider and Corey. I assumed that Les would be team leader, but I wasn't sure where Hector would be. I watched with renewed enthusiasm as the video from the drone that Oscar had set up to fly over the place viewed on the screen. I'd seen it before, but I suppose finding Elizabeth Lehman had been on mind along with a glance of the contents of her room.

The fields that had been abandoned so many years ago were now overgrown with the tall grasses and weeds. The dirt track that led to the buildings and where we were parked had been left for nature to advance on. Then there were the buildings. The large barn with a section of broken roof that had allowed the drone to do a fly through. Now that we were looking for a possible place where Ranger might be being held, I was a lot more observant. Before I knew it the drone was flying high over the house where I'd found Elizabeth before taking in the layout of the buildings. Six including the barn. So if you were hiding Ranger here, where would you chose.

"Beautiful. You okay?"

I looked to my side to see Les looking at me and was wondering how to broach the subject of me going with him. Go straight for what you intend to do, came to my mind.

"I'll clear that house there. I know the layout inside because I've been inside there before"

I waited as Les continued to look at me and was surprised when he just nodded his head before looking away from me. Wow, that was easy. Then again Les would know that I wanted in on this.

I knew why I always avoided planning meetings. Les went over and over how we would enter the property and from where, where we go to first and who with and to cap it off that was before we even got to the buildings. He was planning our moves down to the last detail until I was in despair of us ever leaving. But no, even then I was given clothes to wear, a flak vest, a gun and even a fucking helmet. Yeah right, like I was going to be wearing that.

"Comms will be through Hector. He's in communication with both teams. Whichever team finds Ranger's location then the other team will provide backup"

Came from Tank right before we were due to load into the cars. As we travelled what Tank had said kept going through my head. What if Isaac had a distraction going at one of the sites and it pulled the other team away from finding Ranger? What if it was Nikita that was holding Ranger? Would he take Isaac's advice on where to go? Damn it, I was starting to second guess myself. He was there, he had to be. That was where Isaac had the most memory of. It had been Elijah who had left there and gone back to his first home. Had Isaac gone back with him? Were they together when they picked up those first women and then tortured and killed them. Hmm, something to think about.

I was riding with Les and Oscar with the other three guys following behind. Apparently Corey was the medic at Boston so he would be on hand to tend to any injuries if we ran into trouble. It was quiet in the car, something that I found difficult to cope with. No matter how many changes I'd tried to make chatting had remained one of my virtues that I actually thought was endearing. But not today, not now.

As we neared the settlement my stomach felt as though I had a swarm of butterflies inside of me. Was it anticipation of finding Ranger or fear that we might already be too late, or that he wouldn't be there and I'd led the men on a wild goose chase. The road past the fields was familiar and yet not. There were areas where there were mounds of earth which had the hair on my arms springing to attention. Were those mounds where the FBI had dug looking for bodies? Probably. Instead of following the dirt track we were approaching from the side where the trees met the fields. Les parked the vehicle at the back of the barn away from view of any of the houses. Hopefully if anyone was here then they wouldn't be aware of our arrival.

I purposely left my helmet on the back seat and refused to acknowledge the look that Les gave me. I wouldn't need it, of that, I was sure. I did pull on a large black hoodie over my flack vest, mainly because it was cold out here.

"Comms check"

Came from Les so after switching mine on and fitting it behind my ear I listened as each of the men responded.

"Annie"

Was what I said not knowing how I was supposed to respond in a military fashion. Oscar's arm came over my shoulder before he pulled me to the side of the barn.

"Okay, Cal, Manny and Corey will take care of the barn. That was where Tank reckoned was the prime place to look. A lot of places to hide someone in there. Les and Rider will skirt around the buildings and start with the house the furthest away and work toward us. You ready to go?"

I nodded my head at Oscar, glad that Les had partnered me up with him. He knew the house we were going to as well as I did, well almost. There was something that I remembered from my last visit. Something that at the time I hadn't thought about, but I did now. I turned my comms off and then reached out to Oscar, using my hand on his arm to get him to stop and to listen to me. Reaching for the side of his head I turned his comm unit off which of course had him frowning at me. Maybe this wasn't one of my better ideas. Hell, Ranger had always said that I was impulsive, but I'd thought about nothing else as we'd driven over here.

"Oscar. When we get inside, I need you to do as I ask, please. I know what I'm doing"

I could see that Oscar was about to say something and that he would probably not want to do as I asked but he had to do it.

"I'm sure that Isaac will be here. It's the house where he lived with his mother before she was killed. Probably where those women were killed. In the back bedroom is an old rug"

Yeah, that had Oscar's attention, yet he still waited for me to finish talking.

"Hide in one of the other rooms, don't come out whatever you hear. Isaac will be too intent on wanting to know who is in the room upstairs and that will be me"

The frown on his face came straight away but I already knew what he was going to say.

"Search that room for an underfloor access, it'll be well hidden. I might be totally wrong, if I am then we keep looking. But if I'm right then you're stronger than me and can get Ranger out"

That rug was what had me thinking in this direction. Elijah and possibly Isaac had dug a pit at the other house, so why not expect to find one here. That rug being left behind hadn't seemed out of place, but it did now.

"Why not call the others over, we'd be better if we had more men here"

Maybe logical to Oscar, after all he was an ex navy seal so would always verge on a group assault for safety.

"No. They will give us the distraction that we need. Isaac will know that they're looking through the buildings. He'll never imagine that we might know of a place underneath the house. If Ranger is there then this is the only way to make him leave Ranger alone and come upstairs"

I suppose in Oscar's mind if I was totally wrong then we wouldn't be doing anything other than checking out the rooms, which was what Les wanted us to do anyway. No harm done so I guess that he didn't really believe what I was saying to him. That wouldn't matter, as long as he checked that room out very carefully. If I was wrong then I just hoped that the other guys found something, anything to give us a lead.

We were very quiet as we approached the front of the house and even though the FBI had been here very little was different. I wondered how Isaac had reacted to finding the top floor empty? I was sure that he'd be very pissed off about it. At least the boots that we were wearing were quiet as we walked through that front room. I waited until Oscar had moved into the first room, as he hid behind the door out of sight, before turning to the door that led up the stairs.

You may be asking why I was doing such a fool hardy thing. All that I can say is that my gut was telling me that I was right. Coming into this house with a load of men would have Isaac possibly killing Ranger and knowing Isaac he probably had an escape route out of that pit. I was doing this for Ranger, for all of the times that he had helped me and rescued me from what would have been a certain death.

Noise, that was what I was going for now. I needed Isaac to want to come upstairs. To be curious with who was alone in the house. As I slammed the door open and stomped my way up the stairs, I was actually following why a behavior science unit was so important in the FBI for finding perpetrators of violent crimes. Know your man and how he ticks. I think I had a better understanding of the dynamics of Isaac's family and let me tell you Elijah wasn't the only one who was bat shit crazy.

Stepping into that room, well it was a surprise. If the FBI had done as they had at the homestead, then every item from the room would have been removed for forensic testing. I'd expected some items to have been brought up here. Now I was looking at the room as though Isaac had tried to replace everything, just as it had been. Right down to the rocking chair sat in front of the window. I was very hesitant walking over toward it, scared in case there was a body there. Empty, whew, thank goodness for that. I pulled my hair from the ponytail that had kept it from my face and made sure that it was covering my comms unit before switching it on. If the worst was to happen, then at least Hector would have a recording. I walked over to the shelves and was looking at the photos when I was aware of someone watching me from the doorway. At least my plan had worked, but now I was feeling very nervous with how I would deal with Jacob and how he would react to me being here.