Chapter 5 - Warehouse Seventeen
Rain had begun before they reached Newburgh.
Not heavy rain.
Cold, needling rain that blurred highway lights and turned the Hudson into a sheet of black metal.
Lena sat in the rear of Dominic's SUV.
She hadn't planned on spending her Thursday night riding toward a possible kidnapping scene with a man newspapers apparently called one of the most feared figures in New York.
She had planned to finish deliveries.
Buy groceries.
Maybe do laundry if the machines in her building weren't broken again.
Instead, her ruined work jacket lay across her knees, still carrying the smell Rook had recognized.
Dominic sat beside her.
Two security vehicles followed.
Nobody talked for most of the drive.
Finally Lena asked, “Why didn't you call the police?”
Dominic looked out the window.
“I did.”
She hadn't expected that.
“When?”
“Before we left.”
“Milo made it sound like you're not exactly a police fan.”
“Milo reads too much.”
“So none of the stories are true?”
“I didn't say that.”
She looked at him.
Dominic almost smiled.
Then it vanished.
“Hallie is a kidnapping victim. That requires law enforcement.”
“Then why are we going?”
“Because whoever took her expects my people before police.”
“And that's useful?”
“It makes them predictable.”
Lena studied him.
There were rumors around men like Dominic.
She knew the type of rumors.
Bodies.
Judges.
Bribes.
People vanishing.
Maybe half were fiction.
Maybe none were.
But right now he looked less like the mythical criminal Milo feared and more like a tired man whose dog had been tortured by somebody he trusted.
“Tell me about Rook.”
Dominic didn't answer immediately.
“What do you want to know?”
“Why him?”
“He belonged to my wife first.”
There it was.
“Her name was Elena.”
Lena stayed quiet.
“She found him at a rescue outside Newark. Eight months old. Too large. Bad hip. Nobody wanted him.”
“And she did?”
“She had a talent for choosing difficult things.”
This time the smile lasted a little longer.
“Was that how she chose you?”
Dominic turned toward her.
Then laughed.
A real laugh.
Short.
Unexpected.
“My wife would have liked you.”
“What happened to her?”
“Cancer.”
Lena regretted asking.
Dominic continued before she could apologize.
“She was sick for eighteen months. Rook never left her room during the final six weeks.”
Lena thought about the sound he'd made when she hummed.
“He's grieving.”
“He was.”
“Still is.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Maybe.”
“He lost her. Then he lost his sight. Then someone he trusted took him away and hurt him every time he couldn't understand his surroundings.”
She looked toward the rain.
“You don't get over losses just because people think enough time passed.”
Dominic said nothing after that.
Warehouse Seventeen appeared near the river twenty minutes later.
A hulking brick building behind chain-link fence.
Four stories.
Broken upper windows.
A faded APEX LOGISTICS sign hung over the loading bays.
Lena pointed.
“Kill the headlights before the south turn.”
The driver looked at Dominic.
Dominic nodded.
Darkness swallowed them.
They stopped behind an abandoned machine shop one block away.
A police tactical team was staging farther west, waiting for confirmation.
Dominic's security chief wasn't among them.
Obviously.
“Show me the layout,” Dominic said.
Lena drew it on the fogged window with one finger.
“Main loading bay here. Office entrance here. South storage is isolated from the rest.”
“Cameras?”
“Front, north, loading dock.”
“South?”
“One camera. Broken for months.”
“Convenient.”
“Very.”
“Access?”
“Keycard.”
“You have one?”
“Yes.”
“Then you're staying in the vehicle.”
“No.”
Dominic looked at her.
“We already had this argument.”
“This is different.”
“How?”
“Now I know someone threatened you.”
“They threatened me before.”
“Now we're at the building.”
“And I know the building.”
“My team can use your card.”
“They'll trigger a pressure alarm in the south hall.”
Dominic paused.
“What pressure alarm?”
“It isn't listed in the system. Mara had it installed after somebody stole imported furniture last year.”
“How do you bypass it?”
“You walk along the yellow forklift line. Sensors are under the center tiles.”
One of Dominic's men looked at him.
“We need her.”
Dominic did not look pleased.
“Stay behind me.”
“Fine.”
“And if I tell you to run—”
“I'll consider it.”
His expression darkened.
“That's not what I said.”
“I heard what you said.”
They crossed the alley.
Rain soaked Lena's hair.
Her Apex keycard opened the employee entrance.
Inside, Warehouse Seventeen smelled exactly as she remembered.
Dust.
Oil.
Cardboard.
Cedar.
Dominic noticed her reaction.
“This is it.”
She nodded.
The same smell had come from Rook.
Every step made her angrier.
They moved past stacked furniture crates.
Dominic's men carried flashlights but kept them low.
Lena led them around the pressure sensors.
At the south partition, the electronic lock showed red.
“My card won't open this.”
A security man produced a compact bypass tool.
Twenty seconds later, green.
The door opened.
Lena stopped.
The hallway beyond had been cleaned.
Too clean.
New paint on sections of concrete.
Bleach smell.
But on the far wall were dark scratches.
Four long gouges.
Dog claws.
Dominic touched them.
His face changed.
“Rook.”
They moved farther.
Room one contained a folding table.
Plastic restraints.
Empty food bowls.
No food.
Room two contained medical supplies.
Dr. Sato would later identify them as veterinary sedatives and equipment for placing subcutaneous electrodes.
Dominic stared at the supplies.
“Photograph everything.”
His men did.
No one touched anything.
At the end of the corridor stood a heavy steel door.
Lena heard something.
“Stop.”
Everybody froze.
A sound.
Barely audible.
Three taps.
Pause.
Three taps.
Dominic moved closer.
“Hallie?”
Three taps.
Fletcher's daughter was alive.
They opened the door.
Hallie Boon sat bound to a chair, exactly as in the photograph.
Tape over her mouth.
Bruises around her wrists.
But conscious.
When she saw them, panic exploded in her eyes.
Dominic raised a finger to his lips.
His man checked the room.
No obvious explosives.
No captor.
They cut Hallie free.
The moment the tape came off, she whispered one word.
“Trap.”
The warehouse lights came on.
Every fluorescent fixture.
Every loading lamp.
White light flooded the corridor.
A voice emerged from overhead speakers.
“Dominic.”
He froze.
Lena recognized the speaker system immediately.
Same cheap vibration.
Same frequency undertone she'd heard at Lakewood.
Elias Kane's voice continued.
“I was hoping you'd come yourself.”
Dominic looked toward a ceiling camera.
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere safer.”
Hallie clung to the wall.
“They left twenty minutes ago.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
Elias laughed through the speakers.
“You always did prefer solving problems personally.”
“Why Rook?”
“That’s what you want to ask?”
“Yes.”
“Not why me?”
“I know why men betray.”
“Do you?”
“Money. Fear. Pride. Usually some combination.”
The voice turned colder.
“You forgot resentment.”
A low electronic hum filled the corridor.
Lena's blood chilled.
She knew that tone.
“Turn off the speakers.”
A security man reached toward the electrical panel.
“No!” Hallie screamed.
He stopped.
“It's wired.”
Lena looked at her.
“What?”
“The panel. They said opening it triggers the doors.”
Metal slammed behind them.
The entrance locked.
Then another.
Then another.
Compartment doors sealed down the corridor.
Dominic looked toward the ceiling camera.
“What do you want?”
Elias replied, “For once, I want you to understand what it feels like to be helpless.”
Smoke began leaking through the vents.
Lena covered her mouth.
One of Dominic's men shouted, “Fire?”
“No smell.”
“Gas?”
Hallie coughed.
“Sedative.”
Dominic grabbed her arm.
“Get low.”
The same type used for Rook.
Of course.
Lena's knees weakened.
“There's another exit.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Where?”
“Freight tunnel.”
“What?”
“Old river access. Building used to move goods underground.”
“Where?”
“Behind bay four.”
They ran.
The hallway distorted as the sedative thickened.
Lena led them through storage.
Bay four.
Crates.
Old equipment.
A wall.
“No door,” Dominic said.
“It was covered.”
“With what?”
Lena kicked a rotting wooden panel.
Nothing.
Again.
A security man rammed his shoulder into it.
Wood split.
Behind it was rusted metal.
A wheel lock.
Dominic and two men turned it.
The door opened into darkness.
Cold river air rushed in.
They carried Hallie through.
Lena was last.
Just before entering, she heard the speaker.
Elias again.
“Lena Mercer.”
She stopped.
Dominic turned.
“Move.”
But Elias continued.
“You've been very inconvenient.”
Lena looked toward the camera.
“You hurt the wrong dog.”
Silence.
Then Elias laughed.
“No.”
His voice became soft.
“You found the wrong dog.”
Lena's stomach tightened.
“What does that mean?”
“Ask Dominic why Rook was at Warehouse Seventeen in the first place.”
Dominic looked up.
Elias continued.
“He'll tell you I stole him from his estate.”
Lena glanced at Dominic.
“Didn't you?”
Elias laughed again.
“No.”
Dominic's face changed.
“Don't listen.”
“He didn't steal Rook from the Vale estate,” Elias said.
“He took him from here.”
Lena stared at Dominic.
The smoke thickened.
“Dominic?”
“Move.”
“What is he talking about?”
The speakers crackled.
“Your great protector is lying to you.”
Dominic grabbed Lena's wrist and pulled her into the tunnel.
The steel door slammed.
Darkness.
They moved toward the river.
Hallie coughed.
Someone turned on a flashlight.
Lena yanked her wrist free.
“Tell me.”
“Not here.”
“You said Rook was stolen from your property.”
“He was.”
“Elias said—”
“Elias lies.”
“Then why did your face change?”
Dominic stopped.
Rainwater dripped through cracks above them.
Nobody spoke.
Finally Dominic said, “Three weeks before Rook disappeared, I brought him to this warehouse.”
“Why?”
“I was looking for someone.”
“Who?”
Dominic's expression tightened.
“A woman named Sarah Mercer.”
Lena stopped breathing.
The tunnel seemed to tilt.
“My last name is Mercer.”
“I know.”
“My mother's name was Sarah.”
“I know.”
Lena stared at him.
Her voice came out almost soundless.
“My mother died when I was twelve.”
Dominic looked at her.
“No, Lena.”
May you like
The words echoed through the tunnel.
“She didn't.”
