Page 26 of One Cry Too Loud (Coastal Crime Unit #9)

A s I looked around the room; a large empty space with a few nightstands that held swift hued lamps and more than half a dozen televisions on the wall, I realized what had just happened.

Nefarious, and it seemed more and more likely that he was Joe, had trapped us in a defunct bank vault.

While I had never been a banker, I knew my fair share about the vaults they worked in.

Blame it on decades on the police force and the fact that I had stopped a bank robbery or two in my day.

While there might have been a sheet of solid steel in front of us, that wasn’t the only steel in this room.

All of the walls were reinforced. It would take more than a couple of guns to get us out of here. It would take a damn bazooka.

“You’re in a bank vault,” Tag said into my ear. In addition to his voice, I could hear his fingers feverishly hit against the keypad.

“Yes. We are in a bank vault,” I confirmed. “Any ideas on how to get us out of it?”

“I’ve got one,” he said. “And I think-”

Tag’s voice cut out, and in its place, I heard static loud enough that it forced me to pull the communicator from my ear.

“That’s enough of him,” a voice that I had heard once before in my life boomed through some as of yet unseen speakers. “Really guys, you brought in the preschooler to come after me? You couldn’t even pay me the respect of keeping Holly?”

“You’ll never see Holly again,” Charlie said.

Looking over at him in the dimly lit room, I saw that his teeth were ground together and the veins on his forehead looked like they were either going to burst or come popping out through the skin.

“You’ll never get your slimy hands on that woman ever again! I promise you that!”

A low, serious chuckle boomed through the room. “And what makes you think my slimy hands have ever been on her in the first place?” Nefarious asked.

“We know who you are, you sonofabitch!” Charlie said.

“Well, my mother was definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but you might not know as much as you think,” the booming voice sounded. “That’s okay. I’m very well versed in dealing with people who aren’t nearly as smart as they think they are.”

“Don’t you mean not as smart as you?” I asked.

“I do, but that’s a broad brush, Jack. No one is as smart as me.” he chuckled again. “You know that now, though. Don’t you?”

“Where is the girl, Joe?” I asked, taking a big verbal swing. “Where is Cindy?”

“Oh, look at that. Two assumptions in one sentence,” Nefarious answered. “If I am Joe, and if I do have the girl, do you really think asking me is going to get you the answers you want?”

“Listen, if you-”

“How about this?” the voice cut me off. “I’ll tell you right before you die.”

As the words left his mouth,a loud whooshing sound started. It was coming from the ceilings. I looked up, expecting to feel air rushing down on us, given the fact that it sounded like a set of fans had just been turned on. I didn’t, though. I didn’t feel anything.

“”You have a choice to make,” Nefarious said, his voice booming over even the loud noise that had just started. “What you’re hearing are two of the largest industrial exhaust fans in the world. Do I need to tell you what that means?”

“Exhaust fans?” I asked.

“He’s pulling the air out of the room,” Charlie said. “He’s going to suffocate you.”

“You’re half right,” Nefarious said. “I am pulling the air out of the room, but whether or not it suffocates you is your own choice.”

“What are you-”

“Oxygen is precious for you right now, Jack. Don’t waste it asking questions that I’m about to tell you the answer to,” Nefarious said. In ninety seconds, these fans will pull every speck of oxygen from the room. You’ll be dead minutes after that, unless you do as I say.”

I didn’t ask what it was that he wanted us to do. He had just said that asking those types of questions would be wasteful and foolish. Charlie followed suit, staying quiet.

“Good men,” Nefarious cooed. “You’re both here. You’re both good shots. One of you kills the other, and I’ll turn the fans off. One of you kills the other, and he gets to live.”

“Is that a joke?” I asked. “We’re not going to do that. We’re not going to kill each other.”

“Then you’ll both die,” Nefarious said.

“Then we’ll die!” Charlie shouted. “But we’ll die with honor.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “Charlie isn’t on your list. I’m the one with the bounty on my head. I’m the one you want dead. Let him out of here. Let him out and I’ll stay.”

“He can leave anytime he wants,” Nefarious answered. “All he has to do is kill you.”

“I’m not doing that,” Charlie said, his eyes pinned on me. “I’m not killing anyone. I’d rather die.”

“Yeah. I figured you might say that,” Nefarious said. “I figured both of you would. That’s why I’ve got some incentive.”

“What did you do?” I asked. “If you’ve done something to Cindy-”

“This has nothing to do with Cindy,” Nefarious answered. “This is about something else.” He chuckled. “You hid the people close to you from me.”

“You’ll never find them,” I said.

“I will. I’ve almost found them now,” Nefarious answered. “But you missed one. Isn’t that right,” Charlie?”

“What did you-who did you find?” Charlie asked, almost gasping for breath.

Instead of answering the question, the televisions sitting on the walls came to life. Each one showed a stream of a house. It was the same house from seven different angles. There was a family in it; a middle aged man, a thin blonde woman, two girls and a boy.

Charlie gasped, and if not from the look on his face, I would have thought it was because of the quickly fading air supply. As soon as I looked at him, I could tell that what we were looking at meant something to him.

“What?” I asked, my stomach doing flips.

“It's Walker,” he said, horrified. “It’s my sister’s little boy.”