The Discarded

CHAPTER 33

Desirae turned toward the noise, startled.

“What is that?” Quinn asked.

“Driveway intercom,” she said, and then headed across the room.

The buzzer went off again as she reached a panel by the door. On it was a speaker, a few buttons, and a small video screen. Though Desirae blocked most of the screen from view, Quinn could see it flicker to life when she pushed one of the buttons.

“Yes?” she said.

“Detective Baker with the county crime investigation unit,” a woman’s voice said. “Wondering if I could have a moment of your time?”

Quinn moved quickly across the room so he could see the monitor.

“About what?” Desirae asked.

“It would be much easier to do this face to face. Could we come in?”

Though the camera appeared to be mounted several feet above the gate, it was angled enough that Quinn could see most of the driver’s face. He grabbed Desirae’s hand as she was about to push the button again.

“It’s them,” he said. “McCrillis.”

She looked at the monitor. “Are you sure?”

“That’s the woman responsible for Eli’s death.”

Desirae thought for a second before pushing the button again. “Now is not really a good time for us. Would it be possible for you to come back in the morning?”

On the monitor, the woman hesitated before she touched the talk button again. “Of course. Would eight a.m. be all right?”

“That would be fine,” Desirae told her.

“We’ll see you then,” the woman said. She pulled back inside her vehicle and backed out of camera range.

“They’re not leaving,” Quinn said.

“I know,” Desirae said, turning. “Follow me.”

“Now is not a good time for us,” the woman inside house number six said. “Would it be possible for you to come back in the morning?”

Alarm bells clanged in Gloria’s head. The woman was hiding something. But did it have to do with the phone call or was she worried because Gloria had said she was the police?

“Of course. Would eight a.m. be all right?” Gloria asked.

“That would be fine.”

Gloria pushed the button again. “We’ll see you then.” As soon as her window was up and the Suburban was rolling backward, she said, “Everybody ready. We’re going to check this one out.”

Desirae grabbed her Tavor assault rifle and quickly led Quinn, Orlando, and Nate into the hallway.

“Please tell us you have more of those,” Quinn said, motioning to her weapon.

Instead of answering him, she yelled, “Terri, code red.”

Before they reached the end of the hall, Tessa, pulling Abraham by the hand, came rushing out of her room, looking scared but in control.

“Is this practice?” she asked.

“No, honey. You know what to do. Take Abraham with you.”

Tessa nodded and led him down the hallway and into the guest bathroom, while Quinn and the others followed Desirae into the master bedroom.

“Where’s Tessa taking Abraham?” Orlando asked.

Desirae flung open the door to a walk-in closet and hurried inside.

“Tunnel under the house,” she said, pulling an old trunk away from the wall. She yanked back the carpet, revealing a trapdoor. “Comes out in the jungle behind my neighbor’s place.” Using a key on a chain around her neck, she unlocked the door and pulled it open. “There’s a path that goes to the next valley. We stashed a motorcycle there.”

“Tessa knows how to drive one?” Nate asked.

Desirae leaned into the opening. “She can drive pretty much anything in a pinch. Here.” She handed out three more Tavors and then pulled out four GLOCK 9mm pistols, suppressors, and extra magazines. When she was through, she jumped back up and shut the door.

As she connected the suppressor to her GLOCK, she said, “I’d rather not freak out my neighbors too much if we can help it. So rifles only if you have no choice, okay?”

Once they were all ready, they moved back into the hallway. Quinn was expecting them to go into the guest bathroom and join Tessa and Abraham in the tunnel, but Desirae kept going toward the living room.

“We need to get out of here,” he said.

“In a second,” she said. “I just gotta grab something.”

Quinn motioned for Nate and Orlando to wait by the bathroom, and then headed after Desirae.

Gloria pulled to the side of the road a hundred feet down from house six’s driveway.

“King, you and Andres go to the other side and work your way in. Nolan and I will take this end.”

They jumped out of the car and rushed around to the back, where they equipped themselves with pistols and ear-mounted radios.

“Backpack?” Andres asked.

Gloria nodded. “Bring it.”

The pack contained several specialized items such as flash bangs, tear gas, disposable gas masks, lock picks, and knives. Since they didn’t know what they were getting into, it was best to be prepared.

As King and Andres hustled off to their assigned entry point, Gloria and Nolan moved into the jungle near the back of the car. Since they were far enough away from the house, Gloria decided to sacrifice stealth for speed, not slowing until she estimated they were level with the house.

While she expected to find a fence, it was telling that the one surrounding house number six’s property was topped by two strands of razor wire. Since the wire cutters were in the pack with Andres, she looked around for an alternate way over and spotted a tree that would do the trick. It didn’t have any branches that went over the fence, but its trunk was solid enough for her to push off from as she leaped over the fence. After Nolan joined her, they continued toward the house.

From the driveway gate she’d been able to see one car parked in the driveway, but her new vantage point revealed there were two. She crept between the vehicles to the lanai that surrounded the house. Lights were on in the room at this end, but the windows were covered by a sheer fabric that made it hard for her to see anything distinct inside. She moved to the back of the house to check for a better way of getting a glimpse of the interior. Before she got there, she noted a structure near the back corner of the lot, half hidden among the trees. A shed maybe, or a guesthouse.

She sent Nolan to check it out and returned her attention to the main house.

The back had large windows but they were all covered by opaque curtains. Quietly, she climbed up on the lanai and moved back around to one of the windows covered only by sheers. As she neared, she heard a man’s voice in the house, which meant at least two people were home.

She moved directly under the window and slowly rose enough to look inside.

Abraham watched Tessa open the bathroom cabinet and press something inside. She then grabbed the top and pulled. The whole cabinet swung out as if it weighed nothing at all, revealing a three-by-three-foot hole in the wall.

“This way,” she said as she slipped through the opening.

Abraham had to crouch way down to follow her, something his body wasn’t exactly happy about, but he made it through with only a small scrape of his shoulder. On the other side was a set of narrow wooden stairs leading down into darkness.

“Tessa?” he asked.

“Down here,” she said.

A flashlight winked on a dozen feet below him, lighting up the girl’s face and part of a passageway leading to the left.

“Where does this go?” he asked when he reached the bottom.

“Shh. We’re not supposed to talk,” she whispered.

As she started to move off, he said, “What about the way we came in? Do we need to close it?”

“Mom will get it. Now come on, and stay quiet.”

He followed her down the tunnel.

“Careful,” she whispered about a minute later. “Slopes down here.”

She shone the light above her and he saw what she meant. Not only did the floor angle downward, but the ceiling did, too.

“How far does this go?” he asked once they were level again.

“Shh. I told you — no talking.”

After another dip, the tunnel went on for an additional fifty feet or so before ending at a second set of stairs. Like the others, these had been cut right into the dirt and covered by boards. At the top was a trapdoor.

As Tessa started up, Abraham said, “Let me go first.”

She considered it for a second before nodding and moving out of the way.

“There’s a lock,” she whispered into his ear. “Twist to the right and pull down.”

“Got it.”

As soon as he had a hand on the lock, Tessa doused her flashlight. Following her instructions, he twisted and pulled, then ever so slowly pushed up the door.

Small clumps of dirt and dried leaves rained down on him as the opening widened. The door, though, was remarkably quiet. When it was high enough for him to stick his head above ground level, he took a look around. The dark jungle was everywhere, not only to the sides but above, too, blotting out most of the sky. As for noise, the only thing he could hear was the gentle wind whooshing through the trees.

With a wave for Tessa to follow, he climbed out.

“Where are we?” he whispered, after she shut the door.

She pointed to the right. “My house is over there, but we go this way.”

She turned in the opposite direction and flicked her flashlight back on, keeping the beam pointed at the ground right in front of her.

“Stay close,” she whispered as she started walking.

Though the outbuilding was only a garden shed, Nolan knew better than to return to his boss without giving it a full inspection.

As he turned along the back side, he heard voices, too low to understand. They had come from beyond the back fence. He cocked his head.

There it was again. A quick little spurt.

Then quiet.

What he heard next was not talking but the movement of bushes, like someone passing through.

He moved back around the building, putting it between him and the noise, before activating his mic.

“There’s someone in the jungle beyond the fence,” he reported.

“A neighbor?” his boss asked.

“Not sure,” he told her. “You want me to come back or check?”

“Check.”

Desirae raced into the kitchen with Quinn only a few feet behind her. She opened a drawer, cursed, and started opening others.

“What are you looking for?” he asked.

She angrily pushed another drawer closed. “My tablet computer. It should be right…” She froze, her gaze on the ceiling. After a second, she groaned and said, “Right.”

Reversing course into the living room, she ran over to a cabinet next to the back wall. There were several books on it, mostly textbooks by the looks of them, along with spiral binders and a thin stack of loose pages. Desirae began rifling through everything, finally finding the computer under a white three-ring binder.

“I hope to hell that’s important,” he said.

“All my pictures of Terri are on here. I’m not leaving it for them to find.”

She grabbed the empty book bag that was lying on the floor, stuffed the tablet in it, and slung it over her shoulder.

“That it?” he asked.

She nodded, and together they raced back to the hallway.

Gloria looked through the window just in time to see a man run into a room on the left. She could hear muffled voices and the slamming of a drawer, and knew the woman must be with him.

The receiver in her ear emitted a soft beat, and then Nolan reported hearing someone in the wild area beyond the property.

“You want me to come back or check?” he asked.

“Check,” she said.

A few seconds later, as she continued observing through the window, a woman ran into the main room, carrying a Tavor assault rifle. High end. Not easy to obtain. When the man followed her out, Gloria saw that he was similarly equipped, but that was not the most interesting thing about him.

He was none other than Jonathan Quinn, the same son of a bitch who had disabled her team and almost killed her.

She sank below the window ledge and turned on her mic. “You’re going to like this, boys. One of our friends from the other day, the main guy — he’s inside. The other two may be here, too, but I haven’t seen them yet. Nolan, after you check out that noise, get back here as soon as you can. Unit two, meet me on the east side of the house.”

Nolan used an empty barrel near the shed to get over the fence, and was well into the forest when Gloria made her announcement.

Despite her orders, he almost turned back. He didn’t want to miss any of the action, especially if it meant getting some licks in at the men who’d surprised them in Virginia. But orders were orders.

He found a trail about thirty yards back. It went down a gentle slope for a hundred feet or so before going over a ridge to the right. The valley on the other side was dark, no signs of habitation. Once more, he almost turned back, but a brief but very real flash of light on some bushes farther down the slope stopped him. He increased his pace as much as he could without drawing attention.

About a minute later, he saw the light again, but not only the beam this time. The person holding the light source walked through a gap in the brush.

The halo was wide enough that he could see a second person, too. Judging by their shapes, the one following was a man, maybe six feet tall, while the one holding the flashlight was considerably smaller. His first thought was a petite woman, but she seemed small even for that.

Then it hit him.

A girl.

No, he thought. It couldn’t be.

But back at the house was a man who was tangentially connected to the girl they were hunting. Nolan kept watching, hoping to get another look at the two people, but they had been swallowed up by the jungle.

She had been about the right size.

He let the thought stew for another moment before clicking on his mic. “This is Nolan. I may have found something you’ll be very interested in.”