Abduction by Michael Kerr Page B

Jimmy’s number, hoping that he and Wolf had got the better of the guy that had broken into the motel room.
    “Yeah?”  A muffled voice.
    “Is that you, Jimmy?” she said.
    “No, he’s in no condition to speak on the phone, Jade,” Logan said.
    Jade almost slammed the receiver down, but thought better of it.  Knowledge was power.  “Who are you?” she said.
    “A good friend of the woman whose daughter you abducted. And I know who you are and where you live.  Work with me on this to return the girl, or I give you my word that you’ll end up in a world of pain.”
    “I don’t take any notice of idle threats,” Jade said.  “You don’t know who you’re going up against.”
    “You mean Nick Cady and his halfwit band of amateurs?”
    A sliver of fear flashed down Jade’s spine.
    “I’ve got names, phone numbers and addresses,” Logan said.  “If the girl isn’t returned, and soon, then I’ll work through it at random.  You’ll find that nowhere is safe.  And if I have to go to all that trouble, you’ll wind up in a canal, or on some waste ground with your throat cut.  Take a few seconds to think about it, and then throw the dice.”
    Jade did think it over, and decided that she would stay on side with Nick.  He had an organization and would be able to deal with one guy.  She racked the phone, then picked it up again and tapped in the number of Vince Palmer’s cell.  She would have rather spoken to Nick directly, but thought that his wife might answer and start a question and answer session that she didn’t have the time or inclination to get into.  The hard-faced bitch was like a guard dog when it came to Nick.
    “Talk,” Vince said when he accepted the call.
    “Do you know what’s happened?” Jade said.
    “Yeah.  Where are you now?”
    “At my apartment.”
    “Do you have the kid with you?”
    “Yes.”
    “Good.  Keep the door locked until we get there.”
    “He knows where I am,” Jade said.  “I just tried to call Jimmy, and he answered.”
    “What did he say, and how did he sound?”
    “He said he had a lot of details about Nick and others, including me.  And he sounded chilled and confident.  Said that if I didn’t hand over the kid he was going to work his way through the organization.  He said he would kill me.”
    “It’s bullshit, Jade, just empty words.  He’s one guy.  He’ll be history before daylight.  Just sit tight.”
    “Okay, but make it quick.  He could already be outside my apartment.”
     
    Larry was driving.  He left 41 at Daniels Parkway and slowed to make the turn on to Sauer Drive.  He and Lenny had been on the lookout for a tail all the way, but hadn’t spotted one.  The guy could be anywhere.  Maybe he was already targeting Nick.  Worst case scenario was that the stranger would manage to take a hostage important enough to trade with.  It could get problematical.  Giving the kid back would be the sensible thing to do, but he knew that Nick was not the kind of guy to back down to anyone, ever.  He had to win at everything whatever the cost, and at times that made him reckless.  In the main he had no problem in using bribery or violence to achieve his goals.  His weakness was that he had a god complex: an unshakable belief that was characterized by inflated feelings of personal ability, privilege and infallibility.  He found it impossible to ‒ even when faced with intractable complex problems ‒ consider that his judgment was less than unquestionably correct.  He did not possess the facility to acknowledge his own failings, of which he had many, and disregarded the laws and rules of society in general, that he did not believe applied to him, due to his inflated ego and the awareness from experience that many of the lawmakers’ themselves were corrupt.
    Larry parked at the curb, sixty feet from the Starbucks.  He and Lenny got out and walked along the sidewalk to the corner, turned it and stopped.  They hadn’t