Almost Dead (Lizzy Gardner #5)(66)

A lock clicked in place. She could hear a chain being dragged across cement.

“Let me out, Mr. Chalkor. You’re going to go to prison for a very long time if you don’t.”

She banged on the door and then kicked it as hard as she could near the lock, hoping to jiggle it loose. “You will regret this. I have pictures, proof that you came here. You’ll never get away with this.”

More kicking and pounding.

“My friends know where I am, Mr. Chalkor. The people I work for will be here in a matter of minutes, so you might want to let me out while you have the chance.”

Bang!

That was the distinct sound of the main warehouse doors clanging together.

How could she have let this happen? How stupid could she be?

She looked around. A second look revealed that the room was too small to have ever been an office. It was eight-by-eight at the most. Low ceiling. No windows. She’d left her bag in the car. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

She pulled out her key and pressed the alarm. She walked the entire room, holding the key at various heights and at different areas of the room, pushing the alarm over and over. Nothing.

To make matters worse, nobody knew where she was. She’d promised Lizzy more than once that she would never follow anyone by car for more than a few miles. She was never to get out of the car unless she called it in and told someone else where she was. She was never to leave her cell phone behind. She pulled her phone from her pocket. At least she had her phone. No service. He must have known that, too. The bastard did his homework.

That’s when it dawned on her. Mr. Chalkor had planned the whole thing. He’d led her here.

He had her right where he wanted her.

She was screwed.





CHAPTER 46

“Where’s Kitally?” Lizzy asked, looking out the window toward the cars parked outside the downtown office. “Did she know we had a meeting planned?”

“She knew about it. I’ll give her a call.” Hayley left a message on Kitally’s cell, then hung up.

“I have class in an hour,” Lizzy said, “and I need to go over a few things, so we’ll have to do this without her.”

“OK, what’s first on the agenda?”

“I have good news and bad news.”

“Let’s start with the good.”

Lizzy opened the newspaper. There was an eight-by-ten picture of Jacque Victoria Mason, her dog, Gracie, and Kitally. The headline read, “New Hero! Pet Detective Saves Pug!”

Hayley smiled.

“The article talks about Kitally being the new pet detective in town. It’s great publicity.”

“We’re never going to hear the end of this from Kitally, you know?”

“I know.”

“So, now for the bad news.”

“The Dow case,” Lizzy said and then watched Hayley closely. Not too surprisingly, Hayley didn’t so much as flinch.

“What about it?”

“Mr. and Mrs. Dow have filed a suit against us.”

“On what grounds?”

“Mr. Dow claims you ruined his Mercedes and broke his arm. He’s claiming damages of over one hundred thousand dollars.”

“He’s an idiot.”

Lizzy tapped her pencil against the desk. “Did you drive your Chevy into his Mercedes?”

“Yes.”

“Did you use your stick on him?”

“It’s an expandable baton.”

“Did you use your expandable baton on Mr. Dow?”

“Yes.” Hayley stood. “I’ll be right back.”

Lizzy nodded. Waited.

Hayley returned with a file and a mini-cassette recorder. She set the recorder on Lizzy’s desk and pushed Play.

For the first minute or two, there was nothing more than muffled noises. Then they heard a man scream out in pain.

Lizzy winced.

The next voice was Hayley’s. “What did you give her?”

“Nothing, I swear.”

“Bullshit. Was it Rohypnol? Tell me what you gave her or I swear I’ll break both your legs.”

“Gamma 10,” the man blurted. “I didn’t give her much.”

More muffled sounds, car doors opening and closing.

Hayley hit the Off button and then opened the file and handed Lizzy photographs she’d taken of Mr. Dow exiting the club and then Mr. Dow helping Kitally outside the bar.

Lizzy leaned back in her chair. “Why is this the first I’ve heard of Kitally being drugged and taken captive? Not to mention you crashing into the man’s car?”

“You’ve been busy.”

Lizzy eyed her for a moment, then shrugged and said, “I’ll give his wife a call, tell her what we have, and see if she wants to come have a listen for herself. We’ll see where we go from here.”

“Any luck with the Shelby Geitner case?” Hayley asked.

“Not so far. Apparently Shelby has a friend who told Detective Chase that Shelby was spending time with a new boy in town. Nobody seems to know anything about him. As soon as I can figure out who the source of this new information is, I plan to get to the bottom of it. In the meantime, we’ll keep the cameras rolling around the perimeter of Kitally’s house and see if anything turns up.”