She just glared at him. “What neighbors?”
“I don’t know,” he said, “but somebody’s living in there.” She looked over at the door, shrugged, and said, “It’ll be his brother then.”
“Perfect,” he said, “I need to talk to him.” At that, she just turned back inside and slammed the door. He knocked on the apartment in question and waited. He knew that Hudson was outside and would keep watch if anybody was trying to jump out the windows, but, when he knocked again, a call came from the inside.
Baylor shouted out who he was, and he said, “I want to talk to you.” The door opened, and there was his quarry.
The middleman glared at him. “What the hell do you want?”
“To talk,” he said, slamming him backward into the apartment and shutting the door behind him. “We have a few things to discuss.”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
“Yeah, well, how about Henry, the brother of the dead guy. I want him.”
“He’s not here,” he said and dropped onto the couch.
But Baylor glanced around, turned, and walked into the bedroom, where, sure enough, there was Henry, the perv gunman, the man he was looking for, sound asleep. Baylor looked over at his quarry, smiled, and asked, “Lovers by any chance?” The guy on the couch looked nervously around the room, and Baylor realized that, in this area, that expression of sexuality was probably not generally accepted. “I don’t have any problem with it,” he said, “but you know a lot of people will.” The guy looked at him in horror, and Baylor just nodded. “I still have questions.”
“No, you don’t understand,” the middleman said. “We’re in a lot of trouble.”
“Yeah, you sure are,” he murmured. “Even more so now.”
The guy just looked at him, his slumped shoulders now evidence that he’d been caught.
“Look. I don’t care about your relationship,” he said. “I don’t care about your sexuality. I just want to know how any and all of this relates to the father and the mother and the daughter who were kidnapped on that boat.”
“Dammit,” he said, “that was a stupid job.”
“Sure, but you still have to tell me what’s going on.”
“And if I don’t?” he challenged, getting some of his bravado back.
“Then I’ll just force you to tell me,” he said.
“It’s not like I’m alone,” he said.
“Of course not,” Baylor said, “but he’s sound asleep, so what’ll he do about it?”
“He won’t stay asleep,” he said.
“Actually he will because I’ll go in there and knock him out.”
As he walked toward the bedroom, the man called out, “Don’t.”
“Why not?”
After getting no response, Baylor stood at the doorway and studied the prone man again. Looking at him in surprise, he said, “Interesting. He’s not asleep. He’s dead.” He looked at the defiant man and asked, “Did you kill him?”
The man stared back at him.
Baylor nodded, with a sense of deep satisfaction. “You did,” he said. “Now I really have some questions for you.”
Chapter 10
Gizella sat here, trying to go through the rest of her emails, but her mind wandered from scenario to scenario. “I can see that my mother would have tried to help him, but I don’t think that implicates my father in any of this mess.”
“Not necessarily, no,” Dane agreed from the other side of the room. Just then came another phone call.
“Is that Baylor again?” she asked immediately.
Dane looked at it, shook his head, and said, “It’s Hudson.” He put it on Speakerphone. “Hey, Hudson. What’s going on?”
“Well, there’s definitely a problem,” he said. “I don’t have firsthand knowledge of what’s going on, but Baylor’s in with our quarry. But somebody else may be in there as well.”
“Do you think he’s in trouble?” Dane asked, his tone sharp. Gizella could feel her own stomach starting to cramp.
“Not necessarily,” he said, “but he’s not responding either.”
“No? That’s definitely an issue too. So that vehicle is registered to the father.”
“Right, and I’ve been looking at the documents, and that transaction was just done in the last couple of days.”
“But he was dead,” she cried out.
“Yes, so I think somebody is trying to set up some different evidence.”
“Ah.” She sank back and thought about it. “You know what? That would make sense. We had already been told about a government looking to make an exchange over all this. Now that it’s backfired, maybe they are trying to clear their path.”
“I would think it’s probably something like that,” he said. “I’m not even sure how much of this paperwork is legal. We have the transfer documents here with all kinds of stamps, but they’re smudged.”
“So you think it was just put there to tie us up or to lead us away from something?” Dane asked. “It’s parked right outside the apartment of the guy who kidnapped Gizella and was trying to take off with her. So that makes a connection right there.”
“Go check on Baylor,” she cried out, leaning forward. “He’s in trouble.”
“We don’t know that he’s in trouble,” Dane said.
“There’s something wrong. I know it.” Such a note of urgency was in her voice that she grabbed Dane’s arm and shook it. “You go and help too.”
He looked at her quietly. “Baylor can handle it,” he said.
“I don’t care,” she snapped. “I don’t want him hurt.”
At that, Dane raised an eyebrow, and a small smile played at the corner of his lips. “Interesting.”
She glared at him. “No more games.”
“I’ll go take a look,” Hudson said. “Dane, you stay there with her. She tends to have a mind of her own.”
“I’ve noticed that,” he said. “Baylor should have fun.”
“Yeah, if we ever get the two of them together.” Hudson chuckled.
And, with that, Dane hung up and sat here, his arms across his chest. “I don’t
