AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He has their wives or children,” said Carol, staring at the three people. “They’re kept in a secret location and are allowed to speak with their parents, spouses, siblings at least once a week. As long as they are healthy, the police do nothing, always looking the other way.”
“Any idea where they are?” asked Eazee.
“No. I’m afraid not. I’ve tried to make sure that I am out of his sight. I don’t have children of my own, never re-married, but I always prayed that Morgan would be found again.” She stood, walking into the other room. They could hear drawers opening and closing, shuffling of papers, then she reappeared with a folder.
“Take this to her. It has everything about the house and evidence that my sister collected on him before he killed her. I hope it helps you to stop him.”
“We need to find those family members,” said Brooke. “If we can find them, he has nothing to hold over their heads any longer.”
“Maybe they’re in Mexico, not here,” said Matt. Brooke stared at Eazee and Matt, then nodded at Ms. Todd.
“Thank you for your time. I think we need to find these people. If you hear of anything at all that could be useful, please let us know.”
“He owns every business along Aztec Boulevard. If he’s running tunnels beneath his businesses, then you might start by looking there.”
“You’ve been very helpful,” said Brooke. “I’ll make sure to let Morgan know that you asked about her.”
“She doesn’t have to reach out to me. I’m just glad she’s safe. I want her to stay that way.” Matt nodded at the old woman.
“I don’t think you have to worry about that.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Where do we go from here?” asked Brooke.
“We need to wait until your father is back from speaking with Rivera. Hopefully, he was playing nice since you said he’d been providing information to all of you,” said East.
“What we really have to do,” said Matt, “is find the wives and kids of the officials in this damn town. See if we can get them back on our side.”
“They’re probably in the tunnels somewhere, but where?” asked Eazee.
“You said you found tunnels beneath the zoo,” said Brooke, staring at the men. They nodded, frowning at her. “What if he placed them beneath one of the more dangerous cages? I can picture him threatening the officials with blowing the tunnel above them. Lions and tigers falling through, killing their wives and children.”
“That’s a scary fucking thought,” muttered Matt. “Where’s the entrance for the tunnel to the zoos?”
East pulled up the images on the screen, following the line with his finger. There were three different possible entry points. The botanical gardens, which they’d already found, the elephant enclosure, which they’d successfully filled with elephant shit. Tons and tons of elephant shit. And an apartment building.
“Well, we know that we’ve already eliminated the first two. The apartment building would be simple, especially if he owns it,” said East.
“Then the apartment building is the location entrance,” said Matt. “Let’s take both SUVs and see if we can clean house. Cowboy, Matt, Eazee, Tanner, me, and Brooke. Once we have them out, assuming that they are down there, we take them to the mansion to be picked up.”
“Sounds like a party. Let’s go,” said Eazee.
“Seems like just a regular old apartment building to me,” said Tanner.
“Except it’s owned by Sutton,” said Brooke, staring down at the tablet. “According to what we’re seeing here, the entrance should be inside a janitorial closet. I’m going to guess that it’s a stairwell.”
“Let’s find out,” frowned East as they parked the SUVs at the back entrance of the building.
Inside, they walked down a long corridor to an L-shaped section. At the end was the closet they’d seen on their screens. Locked, Tanner made fast work of the door, and then they entered to find a second door at the back of the closet.
“This one may take a moment,” said Tanner. He knelt in front of the lock, working his magic, but it opened within seconds. Now on silence, they signaled to one another to have weapons ready in case some of Sutton’s men were down there.
With the door wide open, there was a staircase leading down. East went first, then Matt, Brooke, and Eazee followed by Tanner. The damp, dark tunnel smelled of dirt and wet earth but nothing else thus far.
Following the direction of the tunnel, they realized that their hunches were correct. It was directly beneath the zoo across the street. If they had tried to exit in that direction, they would have been trapped by elephant shit.
After walking for almost ten minutes, Brooke stopped them to show the hollow space on the screen that appeared to be a room that lay just up ahead.
