Dancing In Darkness (16 page)

“No, Mr. Linston. I do not think that, conversely, that is my job. I have to look at every possible angle that there could be. Do I think this was foul play? Yes sir, I do. Am I positive? No sir, I am not. Now, I will work with you on this case but you have to let me do my job. Am I clear?” She almost spit at him.

He thought carefully before opening his mouth. “I’m sorry. My emotions got the best of me.” He sounded contrite.

“Mr. Linston, please, take yourself back to the apartment and let us deal with this. This isn’t the place for you right now, because honestly, we don’t know what we are going to find.” She said sympathetically.

He appreciated her honesty and the fact that she hadn’t arrested him, although technically he hadn’t committed a crime, only ran his mouth. It wouldn’t be the first time it had gotten him in trouble. Regretfully, he walked to his car to go back to the apartment. His heart was shattered and had been left on the ground. This was the single worst thing that they could have found. As he drove away, he cried like a baby.

Nina met him at the door and he was still in tears. “What’s wrong?” She whispered.

“Nina, I found her car on the freeway. There was blood on the door. They are going to process the car and didn’t want me there when they opened it up.” He sobbed.

“You have to be strong, very strong. She could still be out there. She wasn’t found in the park, so that’s a good sign. Please Adam, do not fall apart on me. I don’t have the strength to hold us both together.” Nina told him gently.

“I’ve never felt like this about anyone, Nina. Ever. I didn’t want her to leave in the first place. Now I have to deal with the possibility that our last words were an argument. It hurts knowing that I could have simply let her go without the fighting.” He spoke softly.

“We can never second guess ourselves and have to remember that what’s done is done. Move forward from there and don’t dwell on human mistakes. More relationships are ruined over things people have done and instead of trying to work through them, they walk away. This is a little different but you have to look at it the same way.” She said.

Sitting on the sofa with his head in his hands he let the emotions flow through him. It was therapeutic in a cleansing kind of way. There was nothing they could do now except for wait. He would wait forever for her, even if forever turned into a final goodbye. As heart wrenching as it was, it was a very real possibility.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Mike Ward had to rush through picking things up in order to make it back to the city quickly. He wasn’t as far away as he had told Tony, but he didn’t want them calling him for anything. Not while he was away. This time was different, he needed uninterrupted time. He would make the exception for this case. It intrigued him to a degree because he had never seen so many people eager to help a group of strippers. Strippers for fucks sake.

As he pulled into Priscilla Barnes’ parking lot again, he noticed that there was quite a bit of police activity. It never dawned on him that it was this bad. Climbing the staircase, the uniformed officer met him outside. “Det. Tony is at a crime scene out on the freeway. Looks like they found the ladies car abandoned there.” He told him.

“Thanks, Long. Who’s upstairs?” Ward asked.

“A Ms. Powalski and Adam Linston, sir.” Long replied.

“Great. The lead stripper herself and the fucking millionaire lover boy.” He said. “Can this night get any damn better?”

“Sorry sir. It’s been a long one that’s for sure.” Long told him before he continued on his way.

Reaching the door, he sighed and walked in. The Powalski woman jumped up to see if he knew anything.

“Ma’am, I just walked in the door. I have no clue what is going on. If you can give me a few minutes I will see what I can find out.” He told her.

The first hints of daylight were starting to show themselves over the horizon. Under normal circumstances the sunrises here were beautiful. There was nothing beautiful about this one. Beth Tony was working with forensics and the crime scene investigators on the car that had been located on the interstate. Thankfully there had been no body in the vehicle, unfortunately there was no body in the vehicle. Now they had to find her. They were still waiting on fingerprinting and blood typing, DNA would be sent to the lab for processing. Either the victim or the suspect had lost a lot of blood and there had been one hell of a struggle. It was a good thing it had been dark when the car was spotted or she was afraid Mr. Linston would have ended up at the hospital himself.

If this woman was somehow still alive it would be a miracle. That car was one of the worst that Tony had seen. It never ceased to amaze her at the amount of hurt one human could cause another. Grabbing her now ringing phone from her pocket she swiped the call to talk. “Tony here.” She said.

“Tony, its Ward, I’m at the apartment. Where do we stand?” He asked her. He was very interested in what they had.

“Right now they are still processing the vehicle. It’s a mess, Mike. I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it in a car before. Whomever did this was determined. I am not sure at all that we will find her alive. We have to be prepared to find a body.” She told him.

“Damn. Well I can’t tell them that.” Ward said.

“You are going to have to. I’m going to be tied up here for a while and the Sheriff will be gathering search parties to start in an hour or so.” She replied.

“I’m not exactly the best one at breaking this kind of news, but I don’t think it matters much in this case. A bunch of losers crying over another loser.” He half laughed. “Okay, okay, I’m going.”

“Ward! What the fuck is your problem lately? Especially with this case? These are people, just like you and I.” She snapped. With no sleep and little rest when she did manage to grab a couple hours, she was in no mood to put up with his misogynistic and discriminatory bullshit.

“Chill, I can handle it.” Ward told her, wanting to head off any battle with her, because she wouldn’t quit.

Beth couldn’t figure him out. He had always been professional and a concerned officer. An asset to the force, lately though that had changed somewhat. He had a horrible attitude when having to deal with victims that had been involved in the sex industry in any fashion. This case had been particularly bad. She was starting to second guess herself on calling him in. However, it’s what partners do. There was no way she could go back and change that now. He was already there.

Adam was the first to intercept him before he made his way out of the door. “Did you speak with Det. Tony yet?”

“I did. If you give me a couple minutes I will be back up to give you what I have.” He said to Adam.

“Fine, please let us know.” Adam replied.

Ward sneered at the thought of the man as he walked away. He was going to tell them alright. Every single detail that he knew. It was ludicrous for anyone to be this worried over someone that took their clothes off for a living. This should be an interesting night. They interrupted his plans, he was going to royally screw up their night as well.

Going down to grab a cigarette from his car before he broke all of this news was imperative. He needed to get ahold of himself and gather his thoughts. While he wanted to tell them everything, he knew that he had to keep his mouth shut a little bit. It was going to get him in trouble. He hadn’t come this far to let his mouth get the better of him. In spite of the fact that he could spill it all to them, he opted to refrain from a few details. Only a few. The rest they were going to hear.

Not taking the time to smoke the entire cigarette, he took a few drags and ground it out. No time like the present to take care of the dirty work. It might lighten his mood for a change. Running into Adam, who was coming out the door, he told him, “Let’s talk.”

Sitting with Nina and Adam in the small living room the detective began to speak.

“We all know that it was Ms. Barnes’ vehicle that was found on the interstate. I believe you found it, Mr. Linston, if I am correct?” He stated.

“Yes, I found it and called 911.” Adam agreed.

“We also know now that there had to be some pretty significant injuries involved. We can’t be sure if it was the victim’s blood or the suspe…”

“Victim?” Nina interrupted him. “We don’t know that she is a victim.” She burst into tears.

“…or the suspect’s blood at this point, we have to wait on DNA results to come back in. There are signs that a major struggle had taken place inside the vehicle and her handbag and phone were still inside, along with the keys.” Ward continued.

“Dear God.” Adam muttered under his breath. “She wouldn’t have gone anywhere without all of those things.”

“For now, everything is speculation. Anything could have happened, we can’t jump to conclusions in regards to the outcome of these events.” Ward said.

“I’ll never give up hope. She’s a fighter and she knows how to survive.” Nina volunteered.

“I’m sure you are correct, Ms. Powalski.” Ward offered. “Now that the sun has come up, I am sure the Sheriff’s office will start their search teams. I would venture to say that they will search the park in its entirety as well as in the fields and swamp areas near the interstate, then spread out from there.” He had continued.

“This is unbelievable. Why did you convince everyone that you had the killer behind bars?” Nina was pissed off and close to yelling.

“We did what we thought was the right thing. He had tried to kidnap the other woman and we had no reason to believe that it was a random incident.” Ward explained.

As Nina was talking, Ward kept thinking to himself that she needed to shut up. He hated mouthy women, they were of little use. Sometimes thinking that it should be the way it was in the past. Women aren’t heard. There is nothing of great importance that ever falls from their mouths, even his so called partner.

“Now, if you will excuse me, I need to get to the precinct and get some things taken care of. I am sure that we will be in and out of here until we find her. Dead or alive.” He smiled at Nina with his parting words.

“Adam, so help me, I could kill that fucker with my own two hands.” She spit.

Adam followed Ward outside into the sunlight. “Hey, wait up. You know, I don’t give a damn if you are a cop or not. No one talks to people like you do and gets away with it. Someone that she loves as her own daughter is missing and there’s a good chance she is dead. You are making a fucking joke out of it.”

“Do not forget who you are talking to Mr. Linston. Ever.” Ward shot back.

It wasn’t worth the effort to say any more. Detective Mike Ward was a cold hearted bastard. He might be a good cop, but he sucked at basic life skills. He went back to find Nina.

“Come with me to grab some breakfast. We have to eat.” He told her.

“I don’t know if I could stomach anything or not right now.” She said honestly.

“At least try. A few bites.” He suggested.

His prodding worked and she left with him. Once they were in his car and away from the prying ears and eyes of the police officers that had been placed or had gathered at the scene, he told her, “I don’t like that Ward. I can’t put my finger on it but I know him from somewhere. It’s driving me insane.”

“I know, he’s a complete asshole. The hate he exudes for these women is abhorrent.” Nina agreed.

“Will be good to find Priscilla and be done with this mess.” He said softly.

“If it does you any good Adam, I know for a fact that she loves you too.” Nina whispered.

It was all he could do to not cry right there with her in the car. He parked in front of the nearest restaurant that was open for breakfast and they went in to sit down.

“Nina, I know that cop from somewhere. It’s not a thing where I’ve seen him some place. I know him. The question is, why is it bothering me so bad?” He asked her.

“Who knows? There wouldn’t be anyone you know that Priscilla or the other girls knew, I wouldn’t think. Unless it was on an acquaintance level.” She replied.

There was so much going on in his head that he couldn’t think clearly. What he had to do was take a break from it all. Walk away for a short period of time and think. Where did he know this cop from and why the fuck was it bothering him so much? Those were questions that he had to have answers for.

With police searches underway and friends agonizing over her disappearance, Priscilla was struggling to come to terms with her situation. She didn’t want to die here alone, she didn’t want to die at all. Where was here? She didn’t even know that much. Whoever had her was at least kind enough to slide a bowl of water under her so she could lap at it like a dog. While she hated it, she was aware that it was going to keep her from dehydrating. Her leg hurt horribly bad, as did her side. She could remember fighting with a man in her car and she could see the knife that he had in his hand. She was cognizant of the fact that her pain was coming from injuries inflicted with the knife. She valiantly tried to fight back and even to start her car. It wouldn’t do anything. She had been stuck inside her car.

Now here she was, wrists still bound and unable to move them, her legs free to stretch out. He had told her point blank that she was going to die a slow painful death. When he left, he had left in a hurry. She could hear him stomping around and cussing to himself. There was never any reply from anyone so she assumed that he was working on his own. Once she had figured out that it was the shadowed man that was watching her dance her mind went to work. There was no one that she would have known that could be there. It was a member’s only club and they had to be registered members. Her one hope was that Adam would remember her asking about him even though she wasn’t sure that he would put it together with anything. Her time looked grim in every aspect.

Pulling against the restraints didn’t work, she had done so until her wrists were rubbed raw and bleeding. There was no furniture that she could fray the rope against to help cut it. Every idea that she had seemed to have a dead end. She had to laugh at the thought of a dead end, it was more than appropriate. As sad as it was. More than anything she wanted to feel Adam’s arms around her and holding her, she wanted to see Nina’s eyes light up the way they do when she is happy. Why would a stranger want to take all of this from her? There were no answers.

“Priscilla you need to stop and think. There has to be something you can do.” She told herself. “Quit feeling sorry for yourself and figure this shit out. You do not want to die here. Period. You have to get out of this mess yourself. No one is here to help you, other than you”

Once she stopped feeling sorry for herself, she laid still and was deep in thought. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she heard her dad’s voice talking to her.

“Sweetheart, take a few deep breaths and relax. You can get out of this if you stay calm. I am right here with you every step of the way. Remember how I taught you to ride your bike? You were so scared but I stayed with you. Holding on to the back of the seat until finally you took off on your own. You stayed calm and you did it. This is just like that. I’m holding on to you and I’m here. Think about what you can do. There is no one here and you have a little time.” The voice continued.

“I am going insane. I had to have lost a lot of blood.” She was still scared but was calming herself.

“Look at your hands baby. You can’t use them and they are connected to your waist but you can still get to them. Think baby. You’ll have to work fast and hard if you want to try to get out of here. Use your teeth on the rope. It won’t be easy but you can do it.” The voice inside her started to fade away, but she held on to the words. Her teeth bit into the rope. She thought she was going to break her teeth doing so. It wasn’t going to work that way. What she had to do was bite through smaller pieces of fiber to weaken the entire piece of rope. “Think of it as a knot in your hair, you idiot. Each piece you free loosens the tangle.” She told herself.