He went out and I heard him call down from the top of the stairs. “Caitiebear come up here a minute sweetie.” I’m sure his even, easy- going tone was for his wife’s benefit and I was once again reminded of why I was going to take a leaf from his book and keep shit from Caitlin.
She took her time getting up here and once she did it was obvious that she’d been crying. “Yes daddy?” He grabbed her and hugged her hard and she started bawling.
Lyon
It’s been a while since I’ve been this scared. She was standing right in front of me, safe, unharmed, but all I could think about was what-if. I finally put her away from me and looked down at her tear stained face.
“What were you doing there baby?” Through hiccups and sniffles she explained how she’d been the one to describe the man she’d seen the night before to her sister and how her sister’s friend had sent them the drawing, the same drawing I’d gotten off of Mengele earlier.
“And why didn’t you tell me about this?”
“I don’t know… I just figured I’d keep it to remind me if I ever saw him again. I wasn’t really thinking daddy.” I pulled her head back into my chest and comforted her. “It’s okay, you’re safe now. I guess this is the last time you’d do something that stupid right.” She nodded her head and wrapped her arms around me.
I looked at Todd who still looked like he was fighting to breathe and then at Mancini who looked the same as before the kid busted in here and tried to break his face. “Okay, you go wash your face and try to calm down.” I dried her tears as she looked around me at the boy. “I’ll send him right out I promise.”
I waited for her to leave before turning back to the two of them. “I’m guessing there’s no longer any doubt that this is our guy?”
“No, it’s him, I saw him through the window from the backyard. I was about to cut around the door handle when she came back there and almost gave me a heart attack.”
“Cut out the handle? I thought we were going in and out without him knowing we were there.”
“The doors are steel, commercial grade, which would’ve taken too long to take off the hinges which would’ve been the only other way of getting in. I didn’t see anything from the outside but I’m almost certain he’s hiding something in there.”
“Didn’t I tell you to just scope out the place?”
“Yeah, but if some girl is in there I’m not about to sit on my ass until she’s dead.”
“You know that’s not how it works. His place from what you described is probably a holding place…”
“Yeah, but we don’t know how long before he moves her or if he’s already moved her.”
“That’s why you’ve been staking out his street the last week boy. We couldn’t go knocking on each door on the street in the off chance we tipped him off that we were on to him, but while you were there you didn’t see any strange activity, which means there’s a good chance that she’s still in there.”
“He made a grab for someone else last night so he’s still hunting-gathering. That ups the chances that she’s still there. An outfit this far out probably moves more than one female at a time, they’d have to-to be profitable.”
I listened to Mancini break it down to the kid who still looked like he wanted to commit murder. I was happy to see that shit. The boy had dropped everything and come back to take care of my kid, fuck yeah. I knew what he must be feeling right about now so I sent him off to be with her before he lost his damn mind.
“Why don’t you go find Caitlin and the two of us will think about where to go from here.” He got to his feet, gave Mancini a look and didn’t bother apologizing. As fucked up as the situation was I couldn’t help laughing once he left. “Whoa Hank, he was about to clean your clock. Pretty hotheaded isn’t he?”
Mancini got one of his sticky sweet smiles on his face. “Yep, I got two for the price of one.”
“What the fuck you talking about?” The asshole just grinned and went back to playing with his toy.
CAITLIN
I didn’t go back downstairs after leaving daddy’s office but instead went to my sister’s room. I was still shaking and was sure I was wearing a look of fear which I’d barely been able to hide from mom when I lied to her once again and told her that I’d run into someone I knew at the store and that was the reason for the holdup.