A Matter of Circumstance, M J Marlow [books you need to read txt] 📗

the other side of town. It was nearly ten p.m. and the street was quiet as she found a place to park and got out. She noted everything as she waited. The fact that she was out in the open alone and unarmed was the first warning that she might have been wiser to call her father and double check things with him. The second was the three men in a car that looked exactly like hers parked a block and a half away looking like they weren’t looking. “Inside quickly,” Fernand said and she nodded. When they got on the stairs, his features shifted from worry to success as he raised his gun. “Your papa is going to pay a lot to get you back, Mademoiselle Beauclerc!” Every fiber of her being screamed ‘set up’ and she whirled to open her door. She heard a sound like thunder and she watched the man who had brought her here flying back. She checked the man and he was still alive. She got out her phone to call in the murder, her eyes scanning the area as she stayed low in case the shooter was looking to add her to the list of his victims. “This is Victoria Ryan,” she whispered urgently into the phone. “There’s been a shooting at 1523 Union Street…” She quieted as she felt something hard being pressed into the back of her head. Someone had slipped up behind her as she was calling. She let the phone slip from her hand so that Cabrera’s body hid it from her attacker. The gun went off again and she watched the man die. “Why?” “Please get in your car, Mademoiselle,” a cold voice spoke in her ear. She saw his dark grey eyes over the blue bandanna hiding his face and knew he was quite prepared to hurt her. “We are going for a little drive,” he continued as his other hand came up to stroke her neck. “Do not give me any trouble. I do not wish to hurt you.” Victoria was forced to follow his directions as his fingers dug into her neck. He made her get behind the wheel and he got in the seat behind her. As they drove away from the murder site, the other car fell in behind them. Victoria activated the cameras and recording equipment that her father had built into the car as the man instructed her to leave the city and head west. “Why are you doing this?” Victoria asked the man, wondering if this was the man who her father had warned her about. “Your father ruined a business deal for me, ma belle,” the man said as he reached up to stroke her cheek. “I lost a lot of money.” “So you’re holding me hostage,” Victoria snapped, “to get him to pay you that money?” She looked at him coldly. “You are a very brave man. No one moves on my father like this and lives.” “Then I shall be the first,” the man shrugged. “Take I-7 and continue west.” Three hours later, she saw a patrol car and headed directly for it. It was the first car they’d seen in almost half an hour since they’d moved out in the country. The sound of the gun being cocked ended her bid for freedom. She saw the patrol car turn around and come after them and the other car cut it off. “The officer is dead because you had to play games with me, ma petite,” the man hissed and tightened his hold on her neck. “Don’t try it again.” “Where are you taking me?” Victoria demanded of her captor. “It is a surprise,” the man laughed. He leaned his cheek against hers and she felt the cotton of the bandana against her skin. “I am looking forward to this with a great deal of anticipation.” He saw her hand creeping to the door handle and yanked her back. “Pull over and stop the car.” Victoria did as she was told and they waited for the other car to catch up to them. He made her get out and she pressed the control for the camera hidden in the side mirror and rear view mirror. He pushed her up against the car and cuffed her wrists behind her back. The gun pressed into her spine kept her docile. “Did he call it in?” the man asked his confederates, both tall very heavily muscled men with hard cold eyes. They stayed in the car so Victoria could not identify them. One of them nodded. “That is a pity. I had hoped to keep her car for a while.” He yanked her up and forced her towards the other car. He opened the back door and shoved her face down into the foot well, placing his foot on the back of her neck to keep her in place. “We go.” He kicked her in the head with his steel-toed boots. Pain exploded in her head and then there was only a man’s laughter and darkness. Martin was just leaving when the phone on his desk rang. He frowned. He had been looking forward to the weekend at home with his wife. He saw the number and grabbed the receiver. He listened to the report from the police detective in the station downstairs. “I’ll contact MPB,” Martin told the man. “Work the murder scene for now and don’t tell anyone there is a possible kidnapping associated with it.” He hung up and ran down the corridor to the Missing Persons Bureau. Hawk looked up from where he was conducting a training session and the look on Martin’s face told him something very serious, and very personal, was going down. “What?” “I just got a call from Detective Vincent,” Martin said. “Victoria was calling in a murder when she was assaulted,” he continued as Hawk nodded. “The 911 operator heard the phone drop, the sound of gun fire, and the sound of a car driving away.” He frowned. “Hawk. She’s either dead or she’s been kidnapped by whoever shot the man they found at the location her phone was dropped.” “Get an APB out on her car,” Hawk snapped at one of his team as he scribbled her license plate number on a piece of paper. He saw Martin’s look. “I’m going under the assumption that she is still be alive, Martin. For all we know she was the target for a kidnapping and the man who was shot was a case of ‘wrong place, wrong time’.” “You should let someone else handle this, Hawk,” Martin said as he saw his friend’s expression. “It’s too personal for you.” “Damn right it’s personal,” Hawk snapped at his friend. “I was going to ask her to marry me tomorrow night.” He pulled a box out of his pocket. “Do you think she’ll like it?” He cursed and put it back. “Damn, Martin! How could this happen?” He turned to his lieutenant. “You’re point on this, Victor. Cavenaugh is right. This is too personal for me.” He pulled out his keys. “I’ll work her room at the Rectory and let her uncle know what’s going on. You can reach me there.” Martin went with him, following in his own car. He called Joanna and let her know what was going on and then he joined Hawk in a sweep of the rooms. He was amazed when the man pulled open a panel in the closet near the front door and rewound it. There was Fernand Cabrera telling Victoria to come with him. They watched her follow him to her car and drive away. “So it wasn’t a kidnapping at that point,” Martin frowned. “Is he the murder victim?” “I’ll leave you to find that out,” Hawk said as he made a copy of the tape and handed it to him. “Only Victoria and the man who kidnapped her know the answer to that question.” He went to get a beer. “Want one?” “No,” Martin shook his head. “I’ll get on top of this.” He looked at Hawk worriedly. “It’s different when it’s personal, isn’t it?” “If the bastard hurts her, Martin,” Hawk said as he nodded, “I will not be responsible for my actions.” He saw the plate in the drainer. “Mrs. Botley might have seen something, Martin. She brought Victoria dinner earlier tonight.” “I’ll talk to her,” Martin nodded, “on my way out.” He put his hand on Hawk’s shoulder. “Hang tough, buddy. We’re going to get your girl back for you.” His phone rang and he answered. “Cavenaugh.” He nodded. “Yes! I’ll be heading out that way as soon as I drop off a tape.” He hung up. “They found her car about half a mile from where a sheriff’s deputy was murdered in his patrol car, Hawk.” “I’m going with you,” Hawk snapped and finished the beer. Visions of her lying dead in her trunk or buried somewhere nearby filled his mind as he let Martin drive. They turned over the tape to Vincent and drove west, watching as the Sheriff and his team went over the cars. “I’m not the lead on this,” he told the Sheriff. “Miss Ryan is my fiancé.” “Our preliminary investigation suggests that Earl was alerted to Miss Ryan’s plight by her erratic driving,” the Sheriff told him. “We have a tape of her heading straight for him before she veered off and he called it in. We have a complete description of a man with a bandanna over his face holding a gun to her head.” He was white as he continued. “He started to follow and two men in a twin to her car cut him off. The tape ended with one of the men, wearing a ski mask, shooting the recorder.” He bit his lip. “I guess he thought that would destroy the recording inside.” “At least we know she was still alive at the time the recording was made,” Martin nodded. He watched Hawk walk down to Victoria’s car. “Damn!” “Hard when it’s someone you know,” the Sheriff nodded, “much less someone you love.” He watched Hawk a moment. “How long have they been engaged?” “He was asking her tomorrow,” Martin told the man. “If anything happens to her, I’m going to have to jail him to keep him from murdering someone.” “My cells are comfortable,” the Sheriff said, “if you want to get it over with.” He frowned as he saw the man open the car door and pull the mirror off. “What is he doing?” “Victoria has some very high tech toys,” Martin told him. “Her father’s way of keeping her safe.” “Didn’t work,” the Sheriff sniffed. But they could just help us find her and the man who abducted her,” Hawk said as he got the camera out of its hiding place. They watched as he scrolled through the photographs and saw the man yank Victoria out of the car and cuff her. There was a clear shot of the other car and its license plate as she was shoved in the back seat and the car took off. The Sheriff called in an APB and they went to his office with Victoria’s car to wait for a hit. Victoria woke up to find that she was bound and blindfolded. She could hear engines from where she lay leaning against something cold and metallic. She sat up and decided she was in a metal building somewhere on an airfield. She felt the gag and something on her ankles holding them together. They were making certain she couldn’t go anywhere without a great deal of trouble. Someone moved closer and she did not move. “You are a most intelligent woman, ma belle,” her primary tormentor said from directly in front of her. He removed the gag and held something to her ear. “Say bonjour to your papa, Victoria. Tell him that you are fine.” “Papa?” Victoria asked and Nicol’s voice