Page 33

CHAPTER 33

Not long after that. Families United.

“What do mean she’s missing?” Kristopher didn’t try to control his shout, even if it was at Elaine. “How long has she been gone?”

“About twenty minutes, but she’s not answering her phone,” Elaine’s fingers twisted together. “Barry isn’t answering the phone at Daisy’s either, but I think she called him on his cell and I don’t have his number. Kristopher I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Elaine,” Kristopher stopped long enough to hug her as he called 9-1-1.

“I think she went through the alley,” Elaine called after him. “She said Barry wanted her to come to the back door so no one would know they were open. Kristopher, is her nickname ‘Suze’?

Her question had him wheeling about to face her. “What did you say?

“She had him on speaker. Barry said, “Can you hurry, Suze’”, Elaine said. “Does that mean something?”

“Holy mother of God,” Kristopher rasped as he bolted for the door. “That’s what David Phillips calls her when he needs her. They’ve got her. The Cadre’s got Suzanne.”

Daisy’s was a scene of bedlam when Kristopher arrived. Squad cars, lights flashing lined the back alley and took a minute to convince a very young officer to let him in the kitchen. Inside Barry and Libby Collins were giving statements to another officer. Barry was holding a bloody cloth to his head and Libby was crying. Alex and Sofia Langley were there giving statements as well. Seeing him, Barry’s face lit up. “Kristopher! How’d you know–”

“I went by Families United,” Kristopher gasped. “Elaine told me Suzanne was coming here but never came back. What the hell happened?”

“Stan Dembowski took her,” Libby sobbed. “He came to the back door, forced his way in and then said he’d kill me if Barry didn’t call Suzanne and convince her to come here.”

“I had to call her.” Barry looked as if he was going to cry as well. “Stan put a rag over Suzanne’s mouth, and she passed out. I guess it was chloroform. Then he shoved Libby and me into the freezer and said he’d be back. If Alex hadn’t come by–”

“Alex?” Kristopher turned to stare at the young man and his mother. “You were here?”

“I left a textbook here,” Alex explained. “Barry gave me a keycard to the back door since I work extra shifts. I heard him and Libby yelling and beating on the freezer door, so I let them out.”

“He missed them by about ten minutes,” Barry said. “What the hell is going on?”

“Revenge,” and the old rage surged through Kristopher’s heart. “Did Stan say anything?”

“Yeah.” Confusion knotted Barry’s features. “Something about going back to the beginning, whatever that means. Here’s her purse.” Tears rolled down Barry’s face. “And her phone is in it.”

Damn. Back to the beginning? Where the hell would Dembowski take her? I can’t find her without her phone.

Another officer stuck his head in the back door. “Hey. Are you Kristopher Brower?”

“Who wants to know?” Kristopher snapped. Rage was making him forget his good manners.

“Sergeant Grant Miller wants you down at the precinct, pronto,” the officer said. “Seems like there’s a new development in your case.”

“The one with the girls?” Kristopher asked, heading for the alley.

“No. The one with that missing kid. David Phillips.”

“Suze, wake up. Please wake up.”

“Oh, this is bad,” Suzanne moaned. “Howie, why did you let me drink so much? I think I’m dying.”

“Who’s Howie?” the voice asked.

“That’s not funny, Howie,” Suzanne moaned again. “Oh, my head.” She rolled over, her hands patting what felt like a mattress. She sat up and squinted into the dim light at the small figure wearing a rumpled shirt and cargo pants seated next to her. “You’re not Howie? Ouch. Why does my mouth feel like it’s packed with cotton?”

“Suze, it’s me. David,” the figure said plaintively. She blinked again and her beloved young friend came into view, his blue eyes wide with hope.

“David,” she coughed, pulling him close. “David! Oh, my head. Where are we?”

“Across the street from my house. I think,” David told her. “That’s where I’ve been all this time. I mean, at my house, not here.”

“You’ve been at your house?” Suzanne repeated, trying to make sense of this. “Why didn’t you call the police? Or me?”

“T.J. said the police would put me in foster care and that’s a bad place to be.” David knuckled his eyes, trying to stop the tears running down his cheeks. “My head hurts so bad, Suze, I can’t think. But T.J. stayed with me at night, you know? We’d sit up playing games and watching movies. He’d come back and check on me during the day too. Don’t be mad at T.J., Suze. He said he was gonna take me to his parents tomorrow when his parents came home from working all night and it was probably safe for me to leave the house, you know? Suze, why does my head hurt so bad?”

They must have used chloroform on him like whoever opened the door at Daisy’s used on me. Trying not to gag against the dryness in her throat, Suzanne rasped, “I’m not mad, David. Just glad you’re safe. If you were staying at your house, how did you get here?”

His tears started again. “Some man got in. Maybe he picked locks like T.J. I kept the blackout curtains pulled like T.J. told me so no one would know I was there. But that man put a cloth over my face, and I went to sleep. Now my head hurts. But Suze I’ve got a–”

“Ah, you are awake,” a heavily accented voice interrupted. “So, you are Suzanne Bennett.”

Her arms still around David, Suzanne moved them to face the voice’s owner, and her heart froze as she stared into the pair of eyes that held nothing. Gregori Bogdan.

“I told Toby–or Stan as you know him–to be careful with how much chloroform he used,” Bogdan mused, as if they were discussing plans for dinner. “The fool should have killed you that first night. You’re a great deal of trouble, Suzanne Bennett.”

A wave of nausea surged through Suzanne. “Stan from Daisy’s attacked me?” She could barely get the question from her sore throat. “But the man who attacked me at my home was English!”

“One of my colleague’s many little talents,” Bogdan purred, his dark eyes staring at David. “Stanislaus Tobias Dembowski is an Englishman who grew up in Poland and can pass as an Eastern European as easily as you apply your mascara. It’s funny to consider your Brotherhood Protector thinks he’s chasing a Pole with limited English. Did they not know that?”

A man who hurts children. But Suzanne kept that opinion unspoken. David had been through enough. She wasn’t going to add to his fear. “What are you going to do?” she asked.

“Wait for your Brotherhood Protector to find your body.” Bogdan smiled and Suzanne suppressed a shudder. Like his eyes, there was no warmth to it. Only a chilling mockery to go along with his words. “He’ll no doubt track you on your phone that will lead him right here which is what I want. I want him to find what’s left of you when Stan finishes with you.”

Realization broke through the remnants the confusion that the chloroform left. “This isn’t about the children, is it,” Suzanne said slowly. “It’s about getting back at Kristopher for taking down Balaur in Romania. He and his team cost you millions of dollars. I’m surprised they let you live. You’ll have to wait for Kristopher to find me because I left my purse at Daisy’s. I guess Stan forgot it.”

Bogdan launched himself at her, striking her face with his open hand, while knocking David to the floor. The boy shrieked and rolled away. Suzanne recoiled but managed to not cry out. “Will you kill Kristopher too?” she asked. “He doesn’t know where we are.”

Bogdan struck her again, harder this time and she bit her lip to keep from crying out. At her feet, David had curled himself into a shivering ball.

“Fool!” Bogdan hissed. “Enough of this. I have work to do. Get on the floor and pick up the boy and sit back to back.”

She did as he asked and winced as he tied her and David together. Then he took out a bottle from his coat and poured something onto a cloth.

“I can’t have you screaming,” he said. “So now you will sleep. “I will deal with Stan later He’s probably had a little too much to drink, but he’ll sober up soon enough. I hope he destroys your pretty face before he takes you. You are going to wish a million times before you die, you’d never involved yourself in this.”

He covered the sobbing David’s mouth. The smile he gave Suzanne was pure evil as was the light in his eyes.

“Good night, Suzanne Bennett. Enjoy your time with Stan.”

And then the world went black again.