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“We know he’s using her as a bargaining chip, so if that’s true, then he won’t hurt her. He needs her to get what he wants.”
“He won’t kill her, but that doesn’t mean he won’t hurt her.” Turning onto a backroad, I took off toward the town that I’d only been to once and assumed I’d never go back. Funny how life seemed to have a different plan. “You hear from Rachel?”
“Yeah.” He grunted.
“You tell her the shit we learned from Kyle?”
“No, but I asked her if she thought Jane’s dad would give this guy money if he requested it.”
“What’d she say?”
He snorted. “She hesitated but then said she wasn’t sure.”
“Meaning she knew he wouldn’t.”
“That doesn’t make sense to me either,” Ritz said. “Why wouldn’t he? If nothing else, it would help his reputation.”
“Shows he has a weakness. That could be used against him, and he knows it. Opens the door for other people to do the same thing in the future. What’s to stop anyone from doing it again if he proves he’ll pay to get her back?”
“You agree with that bullshit?”
“No.” I shook my head. “But I understand the logic.”
“Doubt Jane would see it that way.”
“She knows her father,” I answered. “I doubt Jane thinks anyone is coming to get her.”
We drove in silence, but that thought had been bothering me over the past two days, and it added to my anger. I hoped she realized I would be looking for her, but the way we ended things, I wasn’t sure, and that had been haunting me.
It wasn’t long before we entered the town that was nothing more than a blip on the map, which Ritz pointed out. “Jesus, this is the town that time forgot.”
“I know.” I turned down the street I was familiar with. “Came here for a specific part once because I needed it fast, and they were the only ones with it in stock. Thought the same as you. This place is just sad. Can’t imagine many people feel safe living here.”
Ritz pulled out his phone. “Looking up Third Street.” He pointed toward the street. “Two blocks up and to the left.”
I followed his directions and turned into the alley, shocked as hell when I saw the truck I’d been searching for. Relief immediately filled me when I realized I was finally about to get some answers.
“How do you want to play this?”
I pulled up beside the small gray truck until I could park in front of it. “Let’s start by taking a look inside that truck.”
Turning it off, I jumped out, followed by Ritz, and together, we made our way to the truck. It was locked, but I reached into my pocket and pulled out the pick that had gotten me into Jane’s house. This truck was too old to have an alarm, so at least I didn’t have to worry about that. We did a quick search but found nothing. The truck was bare, which surprised me. Usually, people left something identifying in their vehicle, but not this kid, which told me he didn’t want anyone to know who he was.
Backing out, I looked up the fire escape and realized it led to a few windows. “Why the fuck would he climb up the fire escape? Why not go in the door to the apartments?”
“Maybe he’s squatting,” Ritz suggested.
“Could be,” I agreed. “No matter what, we don’t have a name, so we can’t just walk in and ask around.”
“Then we wait. He’ll eventually have to come out.”
I nodded, not wanting to wait, but I knew we could lose him altogether if we went about this wrong. We walked back to the truck, jumped in, and I drove out of the alley, only to pull back in and park alongside the building, farther away but close enough that we could see the truck head-on.
Ritz pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, yanked one out, and held the pack out in my direction. When I shook my head, he lit his and threw the pack on the dashboard. “What are we gonna do once we get him?”
“We’ll take him in.” I turned on the truck so he could put the window down and then shut it off again. I didn’t want any noise identifying us before we could get to him.
“Think he’ll talk?”
