Desperate Measures
- Автор: Вудс Стюарт
- Серия: Stone Barrington #47
- Год: 2018
- Язык: английский
- Год: G.P. Putnam's Sons
- ISBN: 978-0-7352-1922-9
- Жанр: Триллеры
Электронная книга - «Desperate Measures». Краткое содержание книги:
The three men left, slamming the door behind them.
Cilla’s phone rang, and she answered it and listened. “Thank you so much,” she said, then hung up. “That was Herb. Picasso recovered and on its way to its new home on Fifth Avenue.”
“I expect Herb short-circuited the process,” Stone said.
“As long as the picture is mine again,” she replied.
Uptown, in turtle bay, Faith went downstairs and looked around for Jimbo. It was past ten, so his relief was due. Impatiently, she left the house and began the walk to Lexington Avenue. “I’m not a baby,” she said aloud to herself.
Jimbo came out of the downstairs powder room as his relief rang the doorbell, and he let her in.
“Evening, Jimbo,” she said.
“Evening, Sylvia.”
“Is she ready for the hand over?”
“Let’s go upstairs.” They took the elevator to the top floor and let themselves into Faith’s apartment. “Faith?” Jimbo called out. No reply.
Jimbo and Sylvia quickly searched the apartment. “She’s gone out, and without me,” he said.
“Why would she do that? She had the riot act read to her by Barrington.”
“She’s impulsive,” Jimbo said, “and impatient.” He dialed her cell number, which went immediately to voice mail.
“Faith,” he said, “this is Jimbo, please call me immediately.”
Faith had the bell turned off and didn’t hear the cell phone. She continued her trip uptown, where she wanted to visit the Caswell-Massey pharmacy on Lex. All she needed was some soap; she’d go straight back to the house after she’d bought it.
She spent a half hour in the drugstore, sniffing things, then bought her soaps and left. She vanished into the night.
27
Jimbo and Sylvia walked around the block, each in opposite directions, looking for Faith. She was nowhere in sight. Jimbo called Stone Barrington.
Stone and Cilla were finishing up dessert at the River Café when his phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID. “Please excuse me.” He pressed the recall button.
“Stone?”
“Yes, Jimbo, what is it?”
“Faith has disappeared. At change of shift, I was in the downstairs powder room, thinking she was upstairs. Then, when Sylvia arrived, we went up to her apartment and found her gone. We made a quick search around the block, but no joy.”
“Go up to that hotel on Lex where she used to stay and start a new search there,” Stone said.
“Right.”
Stone hung up and called Dino.
“Bacchetti.”
“Are you at home?”
“With my feet up,” Dino replied.
“I just got a calclass="underline" Faith has disappeared.”
“How’d that happen with her security on the job?”
“She left the house at the change of shift, while one of them was in the john. They’ve had a look around the block, but no luck. I’ve sent them up to that hotel where Faith used to stay.”
“I’ll call it in,” Dino said. “We’ll saturate the neighborhood.” He hung up.
Cilla was signing the check. “I heard, we’ll use my car,” she said.
Jimbo called Strategic Services for a patrol car, and they went immediately to the hotel. Once there, he and Sylvia walked into the lobby and encountered only a janitor mopping the floor. They went to the front desk.
Jimbo showed his private badge to the desk clerk. “Do you remember Faith Barnacle?” he asked. “She used to stay here.”
“The little blonde? Sure, I remember her. I heard she got a job flying private.”
“Has she been in here in the past hour?”
“Nope. Hey, Sid!”
The mopper paused in his work. “Yeah?”
“You seen the little blonde, Faith, in here tonight?”
“Nah, not for two or three weeks.”
“You’re sure she didn’t come in during the past hour?”
“I’ve been mopping for longer than that; she didn’t come in.”
The clerk turned back to Jimbo. “Sorry, sir, we haven’t seen Faith tonight, and not for some time.”
“Thanks,” Jimbo said, then rejoined Sylvia. “Okay,” he said, “you take this side of Lex, I’ll take the other; we’ll walk uptown and check every side street.”
“Right,” Sylvia said, then watched Jimbo cross to the other side. They started walking uptown.
Jimbo heard a police car in the distance, then another. He could see the flashing lights way up Lex, coming his way. He flagged down one of them. “You guys looking for Faith Barnacle?”
“Yeah,” the cop replied.
“So are we. Any sign of her?”
“Nothing, and there aren’t that many people on the street, except around Bloomie’s.
Jimbo showed his ID. “I’m from Strategic Services — mind if my partner and I ride with you?”
“Hop in.”
Jimbo whistled up Sylvia, and she joined them. They drove up Third Avenue, vainly seeking Faith.
“We haven’t had a call on this thing for a week or more,” said the cop who was driving. “I had hoped it was over.”
“I don’t think it’s over,” Jimbo replied.
Stone and Cilla got onto Lexington at 86th Street and cruised slowly downtown. Stone’s phone rang. “Yes, Jimbo?”
“We’re in a patrol car, going up Third, then down Lex.”
“Good. We’re doing much the same thing. Keep in touch if something happens.”
Faith came to slowly, but she couldn’t see anything. A soft cloth bag was over her head, there were some holes around her mouth that enabled her to breathe. She could hear the muffled sound of classical music. Her hands were bound to a wooden chair that should have had a wicker seat, but didn’t. “Hello?” she said. Then she heard the sound of a heavy door closing and being locked. “Hello!” No response. She squirmed, trying to loosen her bonds, but they were too tight.
Then she realized that she was naked.
28
It was nearly two AM when Cilla dropped Stone off at his house. “Let me know if you hear anything,” she said.
“I will.”
He was getting into bed when Dino called.
“Did I wake you?”
“You would have in another ten minutes,” Stone said.
“We’ve got nothing, not a trace. She went into the Caswell-Massey store on Lex and bought some soap, but after that, nobody saw her on the street.”
“This is bad,” Stone said wearily.
“The search is still on,” Dino said. “Not to be pessimistic, but nobody will be able to dump a body in that neighborhood without being seen.”
“I don’t think it will happen tonight,” Stone said. “The kinds of injuries the ME described won’t happen fast. He’ll want to enjoy himself.”
“Until he gets tired of her,” Dino added. “Talk to you in the morning.”
Dino hung up, and Stone fell into bed, exhausted by his worry and his inability to do anything to help Faith.
Faith knew the man would be coming back for her. She managed to get the cloth between her chin and her shoulder and move it until, with her head pitched back, she could see out through one of the small breathing holes if she tilted the chair back a bit. She nearly went too far and fell on her back, but caught herself in time.
She could see a stool on the floor in front of her, next to the wall, and there was a window above it. The window appeared to be fixed, with four large panes. There was no sign of a lock. Then she heard a noise: the sound of an elevator running. She had an idea, but she would have only one shot at it before the elevator reached wherever she was.
She stood on her feet, bent over because her hands were tied to the chair. For an instant she wondered what floor she was on, but she pushed that thought out of her mind. If she was going to die, then better to do it now.