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Sighing, and still hoping this was a prank, I called his phone again.
No matter what Darby was into, he would never go without picking up my call. I remember once I caught him in the middle of his latest flavour of the day and he stopped thrusting and answered the phone.
I thought that was funny.
The girl he was drilling—not so much.
Hanging up, I dug through my bag for my gun. After checking it, I shoved it into the back of my jeans and pulled my coat down over it. I gathered some cash before shoving the bag under the center table and exiting the house through a side door and into the garage.
After the side door opened, I hunched down in the silence, checking out the area around me. In a way, it was getting to know the space—places for escape should things go hairy.
In another way, I was trying to catch my breath before being dragged back to the dark place being Darby’s friend always seemed to land me.
Being as ready as I’d ever be, I wandered, on foot, in the heat to a main street. It took a little bit of time but eventually a public buss pulled up and I climbed on. And as I usually did, made my way along the aisle before sitting in very back.
That way, I could see if I was being followed, if anyone came on after me that looked remotely sketchy, and just because I’d always like sitting in the back of the bus.
By the time I arrived at my destination, I was starving. But Darby was already gone for nearly a week before I knew about it, then another four days had passed since I did find out. The longer I waited, the more likely I wouldn’t see him alive again.
He could already be dead, and I was just rushing to find his body.
There wasn’t really any time for food yet.
I entered through the backdoor and was very careful. I checked the dust on the floor for footprints or any signs of someone paying the property a visit recently.
The furniture was still covered with sheets. Spiders had taken over, stringing their nets everywhere they could.
The air in the space hadn’t moved around for almost two years, and all I could smell was dust.
I didn’t mean to not come back.
The plan was to go to Thailand and stay there until people in Australia stopped treating me like a leper. Once I was in Thailand for three months, I knew going back would be hard—damn near impossible.
Wandering into the garage, I braced my palms to a cabinet and pushed. It eased out of the way to expose a black bag as well as a rolled bag. I lifted them both out and dropped them on an empty table. Quickly, I worked to strap holsters to my thighs and after checking the guns, I shoved them in. I dumped extra cartridges into a small backpack but dropped one into my pocket.
That was for a quick change, should I need it.
I armed myself with a knife, by sticking it into the holster around my ankle then pulled my pantleg down over it.
Sitting in a drawer, was a map of the nearby warehouse district. It was the place my contact thought Darby was being held. Even with that information, I had to check out other possibilities first—it seemed they were right.
I spread the map on the table and sighed at the vastness of it.
The map once belonged to my father who worked in the area all his life. Sure, it was a few years old, but I could get a basic idea of layout.
A bunch of things could have changed since then—but structures, like building locations should be the same since they hadn’t really done any major construction since I was a child.
I set the bags back, eased the cabinet in place and pulled my motorcycle helmet down from where I usually kept it.
Thankfully, Darby had been servicing the cycle, ensuring the engine still worked and that it remained in good condition.
I checked the front yard and the road that ran along the front of the house. Seeing it clear, I rolled the bike out, climbed on and slipped the helmet down over my head. I started the engine and sped from the yard, going left off the driveway.
I parked some ways from the warehouse and ventured in on foot. The cycle purred beautifully, but I needed to have the element of surprise.
Aside from new containers, the permanent structures hadn’t changed except the cameras sitting on the outside of them. Leaning backward to remain hidden, I pulled my hood over my head, calculated the cameras blind spots and continued on my way.
I located the building Darby was being held in and let myself in through a side door.
