Even if I had managed to escape, I would have never been able to climb over that wall, Christina realized.
She glanced around, but there were no other cars on the road, except their small convoy. She couldn’t tell which way they were heading, but she knew she had to stay alert. When she finally saw a couple of cars passing them on the road, she realized they were approaching closer to occupied areas and shifted anxiously.
“Stay put!” the mobster next to her growled. “If you try anything, I’ll kill you.”
Christina froze in her seat; she could tell he meant it.
A few minutes later, they turned onto a main highway. Christina read the signs and realized they were on I-75 heading south. We’re heading to South Georgia or maybe Florida. Now they were traveling next to quite a few cars. All I have to do is catch someone’s attention. Then again, she thought of the man next to her and sat still. I’ll find a chance, she promised herself and clenched her fists.
***
Dan had spent most of the day in one of the small rooms they used for questioning in the back of the police department. He and Miles had taken turns interrogating Collins, using the good-cop, bad-cop technique. But so far, they had learned nothing. Late in the evening, he left the room, followed by Miles.
“There’s a chance he might in fact not know anything,” Miles said. “Even though, I doubt it.”
“I doubt it, also,” Dan replied. “I think he’s too scared to talk, and that worries me even more.”
Miles glanced at him silently.
“If he’s afraid of someone even more than he’s afraid of us, then we’re dealing with some awfully dangerous people,” Dan pointed out.
He marched to the coffee machine, frustrated, thinking they were losing valuable time. “Our chances of solving this and finding the girl alive are diminishing,” he thought out loud. Walking to his desk, he took a look at his messages. Nothing important. I’ll take care of them tomorrow. He stepped into the corridor outside, holding the coffee cup in his hands.
He was still pacing back and forth when he noticed a man in uniform, coming in through the front door. Who the hell is he? he wondered, having never seen him before. He kept a close eye on the cop who was heading toward the back rooms. Picking up his pace to catch up with him, he saw the cop reaching for his gun.
“Freeze!” Dan yelled, grabbing his own gun.
The guy turned abruptly and fired at Dan, who fired back. Dan’s bullet found its target, and the man in uniform dropped to the floor. The door leading to the interrogation room swung open, and Wilson appeared in the doorway holding his gun and pointing it at the guy lying down.
Dan ran down the corridor and kicked the gun away from the guy. Then he reached, turned him over, and checked his pulse. He’s dead.
“What happened?” Miles asked, appearing around the corner, out of breath.
“Probably a hit man!” Dan replied and glanced at Collins, who appeared at the entrance of the interrogation room. His eyes were opened wide in horror, and his face had turned white. “You better tell us everything you know,” he urged him. “Otherwise, we can’t protect you.”
“You can’t protect me, anyway,” Collins mumbled and swallowed hard, staring at the guy lying dead on the floor.
“If you talk to us,” Dan said, “we’ll take you to a safe house until it’s all over.”
“And then what?” Collins inquired in a squeaky voice. “No one has ever turned on them and survived. There’s always going to be someone waiting for me around the corner.”
“If you help us, we can get you on the witness protection program,” Miles said. “Tell us all you know, and we’ll hide you until the trial. Then we’ll help you disappear and make a fresh start somewhere else.”
Collins kept his mouth shut, still staring at the hit man.
“All right!” Dan said, pretending to lose his patience. “Let him go.”
Wilson glanced at him surprised but kept his mouth shut. So did Miles, who probably understood Dan’s bluff.
Collins didn’t seem to understand.
“Go on!” Dan ordered him. “Get the hell out of here! You’re free to go.”
Collins swallowed hard and stared at him with eyes wide open. “You must be joking!” he stammered. “I won’t be able to take one step outside this station. They’ll never believe I didn’t talk to you.”
“That’s not my problem now, is it?” Dan pointed out, and noticing the trembling in Collins’s hands he turned on his heel to leave.
“No, please…” Collins begged.
Dan glanced over his shoulder. Collins had both elbows on the table, holding his head between his hands. “I’ll tell you all I know,” Collins said under his breath, keeping his eyes lowered to the table.
***
Christina felt sick to her stomach; she was scared to death, and the fact that she hadn’t had anything to eat all day but a sandwich made things worse. The three men in the car with her remained quiet most of the way. Keeping her eyes on the taillights of the truck she almost drifted off. I must stay awake, but I am so tired…
She was woken up suddenly by an abrupt stop. Frantically glancing around, she realized they weren’t on the highway anymore. The truck had stopped farther up the road.
“What’s wrong?” the guy next to her barked, shifting uneasily.
“I don’t know,” the one sitting next to the driver replied. “I better go check. Keep an eye on her,” he added, pointing at Christina with his head.
The man jumped out of the car. Holding a gun in his hands, he started up the road heading for the truck. Suddenly, shots were fired. People ran toward the woods on the side of the road. The mobster next to her cursed and grabbed his gun. He jumped out of the car and ran to the truck.
Christina’s pulse accelerated. She glanced at the driver in the mirror. He wasn’t paying attention to her. Abruptly, she opened the door, jumped out, and sprinted toward the woods. She heard the driver jump out of the car, yelling at her to stop. A bullet hissed right over her head. She ducked and kept on running in the dark.
“Stop!” the guy yelled and fired again, but Christina wasn’t about to listen. She kept running, feeling the branches of the trees tearing her face and arms. She fell a couple times but got up again. She had no sense of direction, but she tried to get as far away from the yelling and shooting on the road as possible.
After a while, she collapsed on the ground, exhausted and in terrible pain. Remaining still, she tried to listen… Nothing. I have to keep on going, she thought, not allowing herself to hope they’d lost her. Then again, she was too tired to go any farther.
I’m going to hide for a moment, catch my breath, and then go on. She crawled underneath some bushes and remained there holding her breath. She didn’t know how long she stayed there. Then she heard barking. Oh! My God! The dogs are going to find me! Seeing flashlight beams coming her way, she closed her eyes and lay still, feeling her body go numb.
Chapter Four
HIDING IN THE DARK, seeing the lights all around her and hearing the barking of the dogs, Christina’s whole life flashed before her eyes. She was scared to death, waiting for the inevitable. Wild thoughts whirled around in her mind, having flashbacks on how hard she’d tried to stay away from all this. And now, here she was, at the mercy of those people again. Oh! Johnny! What did you get me into?
Before she knew it, they had found her. Her eyes fluttered shut as her lips murmured a prayer. The dogs were over her head, sniffing her. She was immobilized, too scared to open her eyes.
“Are you all right?” someone asked.
Her eyes flew open. A policeman was leaning over her. Surprised, she glanced around and realized policemen were all over the place, and the dogs were search dogs.
“Thank God!” she whispered and passed out, exhausted.
***
Unwilling to wait in Atlanta, Dan drove down to Savannah. The information Collins had given the police proved to be very helpful. The bust
on the country road close to Savannah took a large shipment of drugs off the streets and into the police warehouses.
The police found out that the drugs had been moved to Georgia from Charleston, South Carolina, where they’d been brought on board a ship named Madison. Dan had talked on the phone with Detective Jefferson of the Savannah Police Department and had been informed that several arrests had been made. Jefferson also reassured Dan that Miss Connors was escorted to the hospital, and her condition had been pronounced satisfactory by the doctors.
Dan arrived in Savannah early that morning. He always loved this town with its beautifully restored old mansions. Only now, he had no time to enjoy the drive. He headed directly to the police station and asked to speak to Detective Jefferson. The heavy-built policeman met Dan with some reservation, but after a few minutes, he realized that Dan was genuinely interested in the case and wasn’t just trying to take credit for things.
They compared notes, and Jefferson took Dan to see Adriano Reynolds, who was believed to be the head of the gang. They entered a small room separated from the interrogation room by a large window. Dan stepped closer to the one-way glass and peered at the tall man with the dark brown hair and the cold gray eyes. Two detectives were still questioning him, but Jefferson informed Dan he had told them nothing so far.
Reynolds and the other four men who had been arrested were facing trial for murder, abduction, and smuggling drugs. Hopefully, Dan thought, Collins will remain alive long enough to testify. Then again, even if he didn’t, they had enough evidence to convict them.
***
A couple hours later, Jefferson took Dan to the Memorial Hospital to visit Christina. They asked to see the physician who’d treated her, and he reassured them that besides two broken ribs and some scrapes and bruises, she was okay. Of course, it would take some time to recover from the shock, but they couldn’t keep her in the hospital for that. So Dan arranged with the physician to pick her up that same afternoon.
Walking inside Christina’s room, Dan’s heart sank as his eyes rested on the pale face, and the golden-brown curls spread over the pillow. He felt sympathy for this girl who seemed so helpless and fragile, lying there. He could imagine what she must have been through.
Christina turned and laid her big, emerald eyes on Dan. “Detective…” she whispered.
“How are you, Miss Connors?” Dan asked, trying to use his professional tone. Something about this girl made him want to take her in his arms and protect her from the world. Maybe it was those big, innocent eyes staring at him full of trust.
She had trusted him before, though, and he had betrayed that trust. He let them take her out of his hands, just like that. He wasn’t about to make that same mistake again, he promised himself. He wasn’t fooling himself that her troubles were over. He knew there must be some members of the mob who had escaped the bust. And even if there weren’t, an organization like that had people everywhere.
He was determined not to let Christina out of his sight until this whole mess was over. He wasn’t sure what her connection with all this was, but he could sense she was in grave danger, and his instinct had never fooled him before.
“I’m okay,” she whispered, and he heard a tone of doubt in her voice.
“Detective Mallory will escort you back to Atlanta,” Jefferson said. “You’re going to be under police custody until the trial.”
“Am I still in danger?” Christina asked in a shivering voice, looking at Dan straight in the eyes.
“We just want to take every precaution,” Dan reassured her. He didn’t want to upset her anymore.
***
A few minutes later, Dan returned with Jefferson to the police station, but first, he promised Christina he was coming back to pick her up as soon as possible. After they had wrapped things up, Jefferson asked Dan if he wanted to grab a bite. Dan refused politely, even though he hadn’t had anything to eat all day. He just wanted to get back to the hospital.
About an hour later, Dan walked into the hospital room, feeling a little awkward, holding a bouquet of flowers in his hands. This was a stupid idea, he told himself for the hundredth times. I’m here as a policeman and not as a friend, he reminded himself. However, when he saw Christina’s eyes open wide with excitement, he forgot all his doubts.
“Thank you, Detective!” she cried out and gave him a bright smile. “You’re so kind.”
“I know you’ve been through a lot,” he said, “and I feel that part of it is my fault.”
“Don’t feel guilty,” Christina told him. “It wasn’t your fault I was abducted from the hospital.”
However, Dan didn’t feel any less responsible than before.
While waiting for the discharge papers, Christina confided in him like an old friend. She described what had happened from the moment she was abducted from the hospital and told him about the notebook she stole from the mansion. She also talked about her thoughts and feelings, things that didn’t need to be mentioned in a police report.
At some point, Christina reached over and grabbed his hand. Dan didn’t pull it away, letting her go on with her story. He already knew most of it from the police report he had read at the station, but it was different hearing it from her.
When she was finally silenced, he stared at her pale face stricken with tears and felt an uncontrolled impulsion to hug her. However, it was Christina who threw herself into his arms. Dan was taken by surprise, and all he could do was let her cry on his shoulder and run his fingers through her silky hair, trying to calm her down.
“Please, Danny…” she whispered, and he felt goose bumps all over, hearing those sensual lips pronouncing his name. She called him Danny. No one ever called him that, except his niece and his late mother… “Please, help me,” she pleaded, drawing him from his trip down memory lane.
“I’m here,” he reassured her. “And I won’t let you out of my sight. I’ll watch over you until every single one of those mobsters is put behind bars,” he promised her.
At that point, a nurse walked in to tell them that the paperwork was ready. Dan stepped outside to let Christina get ready and then escorted her to the reception desk to sign some forms. They then made their way out to his car.
He was on guard the whole time, watching everybody and everything around them. Christina seemed to feel his nervousness and remained silent. Only after they turned on I-75 going north, he relaxed a little bit and let out a deep breath.
“Are we out of danger?” she asked.
“Everything’s going to be all right,” he reassured her, and for the first time, he believed it.
***
Christina kept thinking about everything that had happened in the last few days. Dan had told her they had made several arrests and that the man who was holding her prisoner was Adriano Reynolds, a mobster from Las Vegas that the FBI was interested in. They suspected that Reynolds was involved with Antonio Rosetti—head of a very rich and powerful family in Las Vegas, believed to be involved in drug smuggling, illegal gambling, prostitution, and all kind of other illegal things.
“Have you found Johnny?” she asked suddenly.
“No,” Dan replied. “We checked his apartment, but he hasn’t been there for a while. The place was messed up, and there was a dried-out blood stain on the floor, but we weren’t able to find any fingerprints or any clues to where he might be.”
“I hope he’s all right,” Christina said and let out a deep breath.
“We know he managed to escape,” Dan informed her. “Collins told us that he did, and that’s the reason they were in such a hurry to get rid of Beavers’s body and you.”
“Who’s Collins?” Christina inquired, puzzled.
Dan looked at her and once again wondered why Lawrence would lie about Collins being Christina’s friend.
He explained to Christina about Collins and how, thanks to the information he gave the police about the shipment of the drugs, they were able to save her from the kidnappers.
“I gu
ess I owe him my life,” she said with a bitter smile on her face.
“More than you know,” Dan commented, and Christina glanced at him confused.
“You see,” Dan explained. “It seems that when Johnny escaped, the people you saw in his apartment had to move fast. So they ordered Collins to take you and Beavers, who was already dead, and get rid of the bodies.”
Christina stared at him, shocked.
“I’m sorry,” Dan said, glancing at her sideways. “It seems that Collins’s orders were to kill you, too. However, he was scared and just dumped you next to Beavers. Then he tried to leave town.”
“Why did they kill Beavers?” Christina asked.
“We’re not sure yet,” Dan admitted. "He was probably involved in some illegal dealings with them. Maybe he got scared and tried to back out, or maybe they decided that he knew too much. We’re still checking on it," he continued. "The good thing is that Collins is just a small-time crook and not a murderer, and you’re still alive. He insists he didn’t kill Beavers, and we tend to believe him, even though we found the gun that killed Beavers in his car."
“I don’t understand,” Christina admitted, puzzled, and rubbed her forehead to relieve the pressure from a pounding headache.
“For some reason, they decided to get rid of Collins, and I don't believe it was just the fact that he disobeyed orders and didn’t kill you. They were probably planning on framing him all along for both murders. The only thing I don’t understand is Lawrence’s involvement in all this. We’re still checking on her.”
“I never liked that woman,” Christina admitted. “As a matter of fact, after Lawrence took over the business from Mr. Morley, my old boss, I’ve been thinking about searching for another job. However, I can’t believe she might be involved with people like that.”
“You can never be sure about anybody,” Dan pointed out. “Believe me, I’ve seen so much in all those years I’ve been with the police force.”
His words reminded Christina of Johnny. She had trusted him, and now she was running for her life.