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Chapter Seven
Ransom
“You think they are going to discharge her today?”
I turned down the street to the clubhouse and pulled down my visor to block out the sun. “I don’t think Luna is going to give them a choice. She woke up spunky as hell today. I was glad when you showed up. Got me the hell out of there.”
“Yeah, well, I could tell where she got her spunkiness from.”
I glanced over at Bear. “You do know that was her aunt, not her mom, right?”
“No shit,” Bear laughed. “I thought for sure that Meg was her mom. Though, I did find it weird that she called her Meg and not mom.”
“And everyone thinks you are going to be the one to solve this case.” I shook my head. “Hell, you can’t even tell who is related and who isn’t.”
Bear took a sip of his coffee. “You can fuck right off, Ran. You failed to mention that you didn’t have a recliner, so I had to sleep on your fucking couch sitting up.”
I chuckled and turned into the clubhouse. “You failed to ask me if I had a recliner.”
“Withholding information,” Bear muttered. “That’s what that is called.”
I parked in front of the clubhouse and turned off the engine. “Well, since Luna is breaking out of the hospital today, you’ll be sleeping in her recliner tonight.”
He glanced at me. “I’m not going to ask how you know that she has a recliner.”
I pushed my sunglasses on top of my head. “Now that is information I will be withholding.” I opened my door and stepped out of the car.
“Crooked cop,” Bear called before I shut the door.
I was happy that Bear was back and we were working together, but damn if the guy didn’t know how to push every one of my buttons. I had Luna doing that enough. I didn’t need him to do it, too.
Bear unfolded from the car and followed me to the front door.
“So, they hide under running a body shop?” Bear asked.
I shook my head. “They aren’t hiding, and they have three successful businesses. Sultry Knights, Knight Garage, and Pole Stars.”
It seemed like I didn’t like the Devil’s Knights, but that wasn’t the actual truth. Anyone had to admire the way they handled their business. Years ago, before I moved to Rockton, I had heard that there were some problems with the Knights, but that had all settled down. Sure, they had direct connections to one of the biggest mafia bosses in the states, but for the most part, I didn’t hear from Leo or his men, either.
“And these fuckers wouldn’t let you in their club, huh?” Bear laughed.
“He wasn’t made for the biker life,” King called. He was sprawled out on a bench at the end of the building next to the body shop.
“It’s the hair, isn’t?” Bear called. “He had that cop haircut before he even joined the force.”
I glared at Bear. “It’s nice to know you have my back, brother.”
Bear shrugged. “You can’t deny the truth, man.”
King chuckled and gingerly stood. “Not the hair. It’s his heart. Even when he tried to prospect, I could tell he was meant for something purer than the Knights.”
“He was just telling me how you guys are on the up and up,” Bear chuckled.
King shrugged. “And we are.”
“Yeah, for what you want to show me.”
King walked over to us and held out his hand to Bear. “I don’t think we were properly introduced yesterday. Things were pretty hectic like they normally are when the ol’ ladies are around.”
“Oh, he met Greta last night. He knows all about hectic.”
King smirked. “Luna and Greta together are like a circus. You never know which one is going to egg the other one on.”
“They mentioned something about a donkey yesterday,” Bear laughed.
King closed his eyes and shook his head. “That is a story. Anyone who hears that story knows not to mess with Luna or Greta.”
Everyone who was a Devil’s Knight seemed to have some crazy stories to tell. Hell, I had arrested Frost a few years back for driving while drunk. He had been driving a pink Barbie Jeep. Dispatch had barely been able to keep it together when I had told her I was in pursuit of a pink power wheel Jeep.
“You think we could take a look at the rooms Pam and Macy had been staying in when they were taken?” I asked.
King pursed his lips. “What for?”
I nodded to Bear. “We’re going over every crime scene again to see if there is something I had initially missed.”
“I had heard you were out at the trailer yesterday.” King moved toward the clubhouse. “Let’s grab Hero on the way. He’s been taking on more responsibility lately.”
“King had a stroke a couple of weeks ago,” I told Bear.
“That’s not the only reason why Hero is stepping up. I’m also getting older and think taking off with my ol’ lady whenever when I want sounds pretty fucking appealing.” King opened the door and motioned for Bear and me to go in. “We’ve got grandbabies a few states away that we want to see more often.”
King called for Hero who was playing a game of pool with Easy.
“Don’t fucking tell me,” Hero called.
I raised my hand and shook my head. “No bad news this time.”
Everyone in the room sighed audibly. I guess I had been the bearer of bad news for the past couple of months.
“They wanna take a look around the rooms Pam and Macy were in,” King replied. “You wanna do the honors?”
Hero laid down his pool stick and nodded. “Sure, but I don’t know if you’re going to find anything in Macy’s. Chick just bounced out of the room. No one has really been in that room since the girls were moved.”
“Moved?” Bear asked. “What does that mean?”
“We had all of the club girls staying at the clubhouse since the first attack. You could only imagine how not good that was. We were able to move them into some duplexes on the other side of town.” Hero moved toward us.
“So, who is watching the girls there?” Bear asked.
“We have some friends who are helping out,” Hero chuckled.
I grunted. “Banachi.”
Bear reared back and looked at me. “Come again? Did you just say Banachi?”
I nodded. “I think I need to catch you up on a few things later tonight.”
King clapped Bear on the back. “Yeah, there is a pretty big chunk that you’re missing.”
Hero motioned to the hallway. “I’ll show you the rooms. Like I said, no one has really been in Macy’s and Pam’s has been cleaned by some professionals King hired so I don’t know what you’ll find.”
Bear and I followed behind Hero and stopped in front of a closed door down the hallway. He pulled his keys out of his pocket, opened the door, flipped on the lights, and stepped to the side. “You guys first. This one is Macy’s room.”
Bear and I moved into the room while Hero leaned against the doorframe and watched us.
I pointed to the window on the back wall. “The window was wide open. We assume Macy hopped out and headed to the gas station down the road.”
“So, she wasn’t killed here?” Bear asked.
I shook my head. “No, but I just feel like there is something here that I keep missing. The girls were restless being crammed into the clubhouse, but I find it hard to believe that Pam left when she knew there was a psycho out there.”
“For all we know though, she could have done this before and made it back safely to the clubhouse each time. We were keeping an eye on the girls, but once they went into their bedrooms, our surveillance of them dwindled.” Hero sighed. “They weren’t too keen on being watched twenty-four-seven.”
“Can’t blame them,” Bear muttered. He moved to the bed and pulled back the covers. “Did anyone else know if she had gone to gas station before?”
Hero shook his head. “Not that they are owning up to.”
I moved to the bookshelf on the wall and looked at the books. After I got past the initial shock of her having so many books, my eyes landed on an issue of Popular Mechanics, and I knew something was going on. I pulled out a glove and grabbed the magazine.
I held it up to Hero. “You guys read this around here?”
Hero tipped his head to the side. “Well, yeah. We do own a mechanic shop. We normally have them in the waiting room, though. Well, that one and a bunch of other ones.”
I looked over the magazine. “You wanna explain why we found a copy of Popular Mechanics at Bunny’s, and now, we just found one in the room that Macy was staying in?”
Hero furrowed his brow. “Well, I can most likely explain why that one is in here, but the one at Bunny’s, I can’t tell ya. Did it have the address to the clubhouse on it?” he asked.
I glanced at Bear, and he shook his head. “Hers didn’t have an address on it. Looked like it was bought at newsstand or something.”
“This one doesn’t have an address either,” I muttered.
“Well, then that isn’t one that we have in the waiting room at the shop. Meg has a subscription to the ones there.” Hero folded his arms over his chest and shrugged. “You’re welcome to take a look, if you want.”
“We will,” I muttered. Did I think one of the guys was the killer and was leaving Popular Mechanics at each scene? No. But did I have to investigate everything? Yes.
Bear and I looked over the room but didn’t find anything else.
We moved to the room Pam had been taken from, and it was in pristine condition. Bear and I weren’t going to be able to find any new evidence in there.
“What’s the verdict?” King asked when we walked back into the common area.
“Not much to go on in there,” Bear muttered. “I find it hard to believe that there is anything in the room to lead us to the killer, but it was worth a shot to look.”
“We do want to check out your magazines,” I interrupted.
“Gotta take a shit or something?” Easy called. “There’s Playboys on the top of the cabinet if you’re interested.”
“What in the hell is going on?” King laughed. “As much as I would like to tell Easy he is an idiot, that was where my mind went at first, too.”
“They’re finding the same magazine at crime scenes. We have a subscription to the one they found,” Hero explained.
“I’m assuming it wasn’t Playboy since we keep ours on top of the cabinet,” King muttered. “Take ‘em to the waiting room. I think Meg might be back from the hospital. She can help you.”
Hero nodded and led the way to the body shop. We walked into the front office where Meg was seated behind the desk. She had a puzzled look on her face as she stared at the computer screen.
“Problem?” Hero asked her.
Meg looked up from the computer. “Uh, well, I don’t think so.” She grabbed her reading glasses and perched them on her nose. “At least, not yet.”
“Ransom is wanting to know about our magazine subscriptions,” Hero told her.
“Is he looking for the Playboys?” she asked. “I see them for about two seconds before they disappear.”
Bear laughed and sat down in the chair opposite Meg. “You would think I would know that shit is just going to be crazy when you guys are around, but you guys just up the ante each time.”
“Life is interesting with the Devil’s Knights. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Meg turned back to the computer screen and sighed. “If you are not looking for the Playboys, then what are you looking for?” She clicked her mouse a few times and scrunched up her nose. “And please don’t say you are looking for a rear bumper for a seventy-three Cougar because I am going to tell you it is near impossible to find one.”
“Popular Mechanics,” Hero called.
Meg flited her fingers to the room behind her. “Check in there. All of them should be in there. You might have to sift through all of the other magazines, but there should be about seven months’ worth in there.”
I moved into the room and grabbed a stack of magazines that were next to one of the chairs. Bear grabbed another stack, and we both looked through them.
“I found three and they are all addressed to the clubhouse.” Bear held up one. “And this is the one that was at Bunny’s.”
I held up one. “And this is the one that was found in Macy’s room.” This was a dead-end. It was just a coincidence that the Knight’s had a subscription to the same magazine that we were finding at the crime scenes.
“Well, I think we should take the one we found here and go back to get the one from the trailer,” Bear suggested.
“What for?” Hero asked. “You really think Popular Mechanics is going to help you find out who the killer is?”
I shrugged and pulled a pair of gloves from my pocket. “We really don’t know. We need to go through them and see maybe if there is something special in them.”
“The magazine maybe the killer’s calling card,” Bear suggested. “He may have something inside each of them.”
“So, if the magazine does have something to do with the killer, then where are the other magazines at the other crime scenes?” Meg called.
I glanced back at her office. “Aren’t you busy trying to find a bumper for a Cougar?” I called.
Meg scoffed and moved to stand in the doorway. “I’m a woman who can multi-task and do four things at once. I’m running a search for the bumper, and I was listening to you three.”
“Let’s grab the other magazine from the trailer, and then head to the other crime scenes,” I suggested. There were two other places we needed to check. Yesterday, we had stopped at the convenience store, but there really wasn’t anything there for us. We had the surveillance from the CTV, and there was no way we were going to find any evidence there.
“Was there any trash or debris picked up around where Macy was found?” Bear asked.
“You think there might be a Popular Mechanics in evidence?” Meg asked. “Like, really?”
Anything was possible. That was a lesson I had learned very early on. Never underestimate anyone, and anything is possible.
“Only one way to find out.” I set down the stack of magazines and moved to the door. “I’ll have a unit swing by the trailer to grab and bag the magazine, and we can head back to the station to check what evidence we do have.”
Bear nodded and set the magazines back down. “You think maybe we can stop for something to eat on the way? All you had was sour milk and pickles in your fridge.”
Meg wrinkled her nose. “Jesus, you’re just as bad as one of the guys before they managed to find their ol’ lady.”
“Well, I don’t have an ol’ lady so I guess I’m right on track.” I pulled my shades over my eyes.
“Give me five minutes and I’ll pack you guys a lunch to take back to the station with you. I need to make something for Lo, anyway, so it won’t be a hassle.” Meg turned on her heel and was headed toward the clubhouse before we could tell her not to bother.
“Do I want to know who Lo is? Another ol’ lady?” Bear asked.
Hero double over with laughter and clapped Bear on the shoulder. “You better hope I never repeat what you just said.”
“You guys really think I am going to remember everyone’s name?” Bear grunted.
“Lo is also known as King,” Hero wheezed.
“Oh, fuck,” Bear muttered. He pointed his finger at Hero. “If you so much as whisper a word about me calling him a woman, and I’ll snap your neck like a twig. You dig?”
Hero held up his hands. “I hear you loud and clear.” He turned and shook his head. “You can believe that I would never whisper about this. I fully intend to shout it from the rooftops.” Hero took off on a laugh.
“You think you could give me a heads up on this shit?” Bear demanded. “How the hell was I supposed to know that King had a chick’s name?”
I shook my head. “I’m not helping you with shit. It’s kind of fun watching you stumble over the shit that used to throw me. Now I understand why the guys are always laughing and cracking jokes. Shit is entertaining.”
Bear grunted and headed in the direction of the clubhouse. “Let’s just get our lunch and get the hell out of here, yeah? We might be on to something with this magazine.”
“You got it, partner,” I chuckled.
This was the first lead we had in a while, so I was more than happy to get to work on it.
I just hoped it panned out and it wasn’t another dead end. I had more than enough of those, and I was ready for a break in the case.
Even if it was a fucking magazine, I would take it.
