"In here," he said as he pushed the door open and threw me inside before slamming it shut again. I heard a lock click and assumed that he'd made sure we couldn't escape.
I looked around the room and saw Liz lying on a dirty mattress in a far corner. There was a bathroom attached to the room, and that gave me a sense of relief that I wouldn't have to beg to be allowed to use a toilet.
"Liz! Liz!" I said as I sunk to the mattress and gently shook her limp body. "Liz, wake up. It's Alex. I'm here to take you home. Liz!"
"Alex?" she mumbled with her eyes closed. I could see that she'd been drugged with something to keep her pliant and quiet, but what I couldn't figure out was whether she'd taken the drugs willingly or not. "Alex, is that you?"
"It's me, Liz," I said as I rubbed her arm trying to bring her back to consciousness. "Wake up and talk to me, Liz!"
"I don't feel so good," she moaned as she rolled over on her side and dry heaved a little. "My stomach hurts."
"I know, I know," I said, smoothing the hair back from her forehead. "We'll get you out of here and to a hospital."
As I said this, I realized that I needed to call for help before they realize
d I had a phone and took it away. My phone rang as I was pulling it out of my pocket. It was Cam.
"Cam! I'm with Liz at Jarvis and Paulina, call the cops and come get us!" I shouted into the phone. "Apartment 3A! Come find us now! Jarvis and Paulina! 3A! Mermaid in the purple lobby! It's Vic--"
The door to the room burst open, and Victor stormed across the room grabbing the phone out of my hand before I could say anything else. He took the phone and threw it against the wall.
"NO! You can't do that!" I screamed as he backhanded me and grabbed me by the throat.
"You shut the hell up, you stupid bitch," he growled as he looked right into my eyes. "You're going to do what I say, and if you fuck up again, I'm going to kill you and your friend. And I won't lose a wink of sleep over it."
"We didn't do anything!" I sobbed. I felt the air being forced from my lungs as he punched me in the gut and dropped me to the ground.
"Shut the hell up, and don't make me come in here again," he warned before grabbing my phone off the floor, slamming the door shut, and turning the lock.
"Liz, what's going on here?" I cried as I crawled over to the dirty mattress and curled up next to her holding my stomach. "What happened?"
"Don't know," she said in a thick voice. "He took me from the hospital. Said Cam told him to pick me up and take me home. He stuck a needle in my arm. Then I was here."
"This is screwed up," I said as I grabbed Liz's hand and held on tightly. "I hope Cam heard me and comes to find us."
"He will," Liz said before she fell back into her haze.
I hoped that she was right, because from my vantage point, I wasn't sure he'd be able to find us.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Cam
When I heard Alex's frantic scream on the other end of the line, I immediately went into action mode and began driving north to the intersection she'd told me to find. With the exception of the address, none of the rest of what she'd said had made sense, and I wasn't sure how I would be able to find her, but I trusted that once I got there, I would be able to figure it out. I was tempted to call in back up, but the last thing I needed was publicity like this before Leo and I made our first public appearance with Richard Metzler.
"Jarvis and Paulina. 3A. Mermaid in the purple lobby," I kept repeating to myself as I drove north on Sheridan. She'd started to say something else, but I had no idea what that was, so I just kept repeating what I knew until I was sure I wouldn't forget it.
In the meantime, I called the Rogers Park Police and reported a kidnapping. I told them what I'd heard over the phone and said I was on my way to the intersection. They assured me that they would send officers over to check it out as soon as they could, but at the moment the bulk of their force was dealing with a gang shooting on the West Side of the neighborhood.
I swore under my breath as I made a left onto Jarvis and slowly drove down the block. I wasn't sure if whoever had kidnapped Alex would be waiting outside or if they'd have lookouts. I drove past the intersection Alex had told me to find and then parked my truck around the corner before walking around the block to enter from the other side. I felt ridiculous playing spy in the middle of the day, but I didn't want to take any chances.
"What the hell is going on?" I muttered under my breath as I looked into the front door of an apartment building on the Southwest corner and saw nothing. I crossed the street and found exactly what Alex had said: a mermaid and purple walls. I knew I was at the right place.
I dialed Alex's number, but the call went straight to voicemail. So, I snuck around the side of the building to see if there were any doors open. I found one that led to the basement and carefully pulled it open and snuck inside. The whole basement was full of cobwebs and dead animals and I nearly vomited the contents of my stomach when I saw the stack of dead rats piled in the corner. Someone had been out hunting, and I'd have been willing to bet it wasn't the neighborhood feral cats.
"Where are you, Alex?" I whispered as I looked for a way out of the basement to the lobby. I felt my way along the far wall and finally found a door that lay flush with the wall. I tugged at the handle for almost a minute before I felt the door begin to give way and then all at once, I yanked it open and found myself staring into the basement laundry room where I surprised two women who were transferring clothing from the washing machine to the dryer. One of them screamed.
"Sorry, ladies!" I said as I stepped through the doorway and pulled the door shut behind me. No sense in letting the beasts that roamed that side of the basement out. "I'm looking for apartment 3A. Unconventional entrance, I know."