Garret's Gambit by Dale Mayer (book club books .TXT) 📗

tracking his vehicle location,” Garret said. “So far we haven’t found any place that he would have taken Gregg that was his own property.”

“And now we’ve expanded on the places that the bar owner owns.”

“I guess it could be anybody, couldn’t it?” Astra asked.

“Absolutely,” Garret said, “and chances are, it is anybody. It’s just never as clear-cut as we want it to be.”

“And that’s just ridiculous.” She got up and paced. “We need this to come to a conclusion.”

“Yes,” Charles said gently, “but, if we rush things, we’ll get people killed.”

She raised her hands in frustration and flung herself onto the couch. “So you’ve got people running down all these leads, right?”

Charles, Garret, and Kano all nodded. Even Jonas. On that point, they all agreed.

“And, so far, nothing?”

“Correct.”

“So why don’t we go back to good old-fashioned threats,” she said. “Go back to the pub owner and pound him into the ground. Wouldn’t that be simpler?”

“I like it,” Garret said, with a big smile. “But?”

“I feel like I’m missing something,” she said.

Jonas nodded.

“You are,” Garret said. “We’ve already got information on that guy’s house—the first bar owner—and we’re checking to see if there’s any chance Gregg is there.”

“You don’t want to just go threaten him?”

“Well, he won’t be alone. It’s hardly legal, and what we don’t want to do is get caught or push any panic buttons, so that he moves Gregg, and we can never find him.”

“But wouldn’t it be easier to find Gregg in transit, instead of squirreled away somewhere?”

“Only if we knew where he was. That’s what we were hoping to do earlier. We wanted to grab Gregg, while he was being moved this last time. Only he wasn’t there.”

She sat back, closed her eyes, and whispered, “This is so wrong.”

“You deal with this all the time in your job, don’t you?” Charles asked.

Jonas listened with interest.

“Not really,” she said. “Other people deal with this kind of frustration level. It’s not really something that touches my aspect of the job. I know what we’re always working on, and I get involved, and we get big cases, but I’m not the one sitting there at the computer, working my way through all these processes.”

“Oh, so this gives you a whole new understanding, doesn’t it?” Charles asked.

“And a whole new level of frustration, yes,” she said, with a smile. “And that’ll be an issue.”

“Okay, so then what?” Garret asked.

“I don’t know,” she said.

Kano, looking up from his laptop, suddenly said, “I do. This Rick guy, who’s holding Amy and wants Gregg, Rick doesn’t have a full brother, but he has a half brother. And the half brother lives in town.”

“In town, in town?” Astra asked.

“No, not in town, just outside of town, at an old farmhouse,” Kano explained.

“That sounds positive. That’s certainly an interesting location. How often has anybody been there?” Garret asked.

“Seems brother actually lives there, so there should be a fair bit of traffic,” Kano said.

“I’m coming this time too,” she said.

Garret and Kano stopped and glared at her. She shrugged. “For all you know, my sister’s there,” she said. “And, if that’s the case, you won’t want to deal with her.”

The men looked at each other but back at her and frowned.

Charles chuckled. “She’s right, you know? If Amy is there, which is quite possible, then you’ll need somebody to look after her.”

“Speaking of which,” Kano said, “did we get any intel on the vehicle she got into?”

“We only had the basic model,” Charles said, “and it disappeared into a parking lot and never came out.”

“Is anybody looking to see who’s in the parking lot?” Garret asked, looking straight at Jonas.

“Yeah, we found it deserted and checked it already,” Jonas said. “It’s empty.”

“So they moved her into another vehicle then?”

“Yes,” Jonas said. “And, yes, I know. We have traffic cams all around there. We’re tracking that, but over three hundred vehicles came and went.”

“During that hour?”

“No, not during that hour,” he said, “but what I can tell you is that not one vehicle went out with two people sitting upright.”

“So she was either stashed in the trunk or lying down in the back seat?”

Jonas nodded. “And, yes, of course we’re tracking all of those, but that’s a lot of vehicles and a lot of data to sort through.”

“Right, and we don’t have any connection to Rick.”

Kano held up his phone. “I just got an address for him, and it looks like they’re only maybe two miles apart.”

“Do you think they’re connected?”

“I wouldn’t think so, but who knows?” he said.

The men just looked at each other and then turned and stared at her.

“I don’t care what you say,” she said. “I need to come.”

“It’s safer if you stay here,” Garret said.

“As long as I stay inside, you mean?”

“Absolutely, and Charles’s staying this time, so he can run command central from here.”

“I’m not staying,” she said smoothly. “I’m coming with you.”

“Why?” Garret asked, sincerely curious.

“I already told you, about my sister,” she said. “And there’s another aspect, which is that this is the part of the job that I never see, and I think I’ll be a better person and better at my job if I do see this part.”

“You better be careful what you wish for,” Garret said. “A lot of ugliness is out there.”

She stood up straight, shoved her hands into her pockets, and glared at him. “I already killed two men tonight,” she said. “At some point in time, after all this, I’ll have to deal with that. But, right now, I’m dealing with the loss of my sister. Through her own foolishness, she’s got herself caught up in something very ugly again. Let’s just get her out of this, please, and find your brother.”

He took a slow deep breath, looked at her and then Kano, who shrugged.

“Let’s go,” Kano said. “We’re wasting time.”

*

Garret didn’t know how he felt about bringing Astra again. She was here, and she was safe at the moment, but she was right. If Amy were there, it could get difficult. At