My eyes had adjusted to the bright daylight and I saw that I was in a junkyard, probably somewhere on the south side of town was my guess. There were towers of wrecked cars everywhere and scraps of metal littered the ground.
But, directly in front of me, was a grave. Unmistakable. The well-dressed man was standing just on the other end of it.
“We’ve brought you here to advise you to drop the Indro Lastra case. It’ll be better for your general well-being. If you don’t, well…”
He gestured down to the grave.
“This will be your new living space. Not as roomy as the place you currently occupy.”
He nodded to the goons, who grabbed me again. I noticed this time one of them had a scorpion tattooed on his hand.
“Enjoy the rest of your day,” the well-dressed man said and turned and walked away. The goons threw me in the van and we hurtled off again, as quickly as we had come.
Fifteen minutes later, I was back at my corner. The scorpion tat guy ripped off the tape, and crouched in front of me.
“Don’t cause a scene,” he said. “Just get out and go home.”
I nodded and exited the van when they opened the door again. I stood there while the van pulled away and I ran back to the apartment as fast as I could go.
I had to tell Indro what had happened.
Chapter Nineteen
Indro
I poked around Sophie’s place while she was out getting some food. Man, I gotta say, lawyers live pretty good. This place was nice.
Good views, hardwood floors, the bedroom had floor-to-ceiling windows on one side. You could really see the whole city. Lovely.
She had shelves and shelves of books. Lots of law stuff, as you’d expect, but I saw plenty of cookbooks and lots of biographies. All kinds. Athletes, presidents, rock stars, inventors, world leaders. I’ll have to ask her about that, I thought. I wonder what that’s about.
After I got dressed, I went back into the bedroom and made the bed up. Gotta have a made bed. That’s the only way to start the day. Otherwise, it’s all a mess afterwards. My mother taught me that and I believed it to be very true.
I poured myself another cup of coffee and turned on the news. They were spouting off about some union dispute or other. I made a mental note to check in about that. Wonder if there’s an angle that the Maloik family could play there? Unions were always good sources of earning.
I glanced up at the clock Sophie had on the wall. She was gone longer than I would have guessed. More than 40 minutes.
Hmm.
Didn’t she say that the grocery store she used was just a couple of blocks away?
Something began prickling at the back of my neck. I always paid attention to that feeling. It had saved my life more than once over the years. Something was wrong. Sophie should have been back by now.
I took the coffee mug to the kitchen, pouring what remained down the drain and rinsing it out. Putting on my shoes, I resolved to head out down to the street, see if I could find her.
Yeah. Something was wrong. I could feel it.
I was just about to head out the door when it banged open and Sophie came rushing inside, flustered and flushed.
“Soph! What happened? Where you been?”
“Indro, Indro, I was—I was—”
Her breath started to hitch and she couldn’t control it. I put my hands on her shoulders, trying to keep them in place.
“It’s all right, you’re home and you’re safe now. Deep breaths, babe. Slow it down for me. You can do it. I got yas. Nothin’s gonna get you here.”
She looked at me with wide eyes that were full of fear. She nodded and slowed her breathing down.
“I was… I was kidnapped, Indro.”
“What? Where?”
“On the… on the corner,” she said, her breath returning to a more normal pace. “A black van. It pulled up, like they were waiting for me, threw open the panel door and grabbed me.”
“Who? Who grabbed you?”
She shook her head, putting her hand up.
“I’m not sure. I need… I need some water.”
I sat her down at the kitchen table and poured her a glass, bringing it to her. She gulped it down greedily.
“They taped my mouth. It was awful. It made me so thirsty,” she said, putting the glass down.
“Yeah. I know. It’s a trick your brain plays on you. Even if you don’t really need it, when your mouth is shut forcibly, your brain reacts that way.”
“I don’t want to know how you know that.”
“Tell me some more. Where did they take you?”
“It was a junkyard, that much I know. I think on the south side of town. That’s where—”
“—where most of the city’s scrap yards are, right. Good thinking. What happened when you got there?”
“They shoved me out of the van. There was a guy in his 50s, dressed well, silver hair. He had sunglasses on. He told me that if I didn’t drop your case, Indro, they were gonna come back for me.”
“He did, huh?”
“Yes. He did. And he showed me a shallow grave, saying that it was going to be my new home if I didn’t do what they asked.”
“What else did this guy say?”
“Nothing. That was it. They threw me back in the van and brought me back here.”
I stood up and moved to the window, looking out. Who the hell did this?
“You didn’t hear anyone give a name?”
“No,” Sophie said.
“A nickname maybe? Anything that could clue you in to who they were?”
“They didn’t say anything else, Indro.”
“Think, Soph! Think! There must be something! C’mon, you’re smart. Smarter than me. You must have seen something.”
“One of the goons who grabbed me had a tattoo. On his hand. I spotted it when they grabbed me at the junkyard.”
“A tat? Of what?”
“A scorpion. Green and ugly. It was drawn in such a way it looked like it was curling around his wrist. Does that mean anything to
