Kale Read online

  It didn’t make sense that it was young guys if that was the case. We didn’t have any issues with people fitting their description as far as I knew. If it was something having to do with the club they would have just taken Jenna, not all three girls. I didn’t know whether to let that reassure me or not.

  I heard the door open behind me and saw Bird walking out, followed by Clem. Bird reached inside his cut and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He pulled the top open and took one out and offered it to Clem and then me. I took it from him and he got another out for himself. After he lit his smoke I borrowed his lighter and took a big drag. The smoke burned all the way down but seemed to calm my nerves after a few seconds.

  “Is Dad with Mom?” Bird nodded at me.

  “He’s at the diner with her. She’s gonna stay there and stay busy. Probably best.”

  “Who do you think these boys are?” I asked my brothers as I took a second drag.

  “Could be just some punks out partying. Probably go to the college. Phoebe said she met the one a few weeks ago at the gym.” Clem was leaned against the bricks beside me, texting on his phone.

  “The tattoos. Phoebe said three of them are covered. Not normal for ones that young to have so many. I don’t think they’re average kids her age. If they are even her age.” Birds eyes snapped up at my comment, telling me he hadn’t thought of that angle. “Could it be someone pissed at us? If it was they would have just taken her I think.”

  “We’ve got no problems right now. The waters are calm. Had an issue with The Dominions, what was that, a year ago? But that’s settled. I think it’s something else.” Bird crushed his cigarette out on the bricks by his hip and flicked it over in the empty flowerpot Jenna kept out her for his butts.

  “Grunt is at the compound mapping out a grid of town. He’s got men assigned all over town looking for her car. They’re driving street to street and knocking on every door. Looking in every fucking window. Zeke and Sam called as many of their men is as they could get. They shut down their garage and all of them are looking. All of our places are closed and everyone’s out with an assignment. I’ve got Kari on her way here to sit with Phoebe. Brenda is at the clubhouse directing the sweetbutts for food and shit. We just need Chandler to come through with something.” Bird lit another cigarette and inhaled deeply.

  “Is this the part where one of us says we just need to stay positive?” I glared at Daughtry. “Right now, that’s all we’ve fucking got, brother.”

  My phone rang and I opened it, hitting the button to put it on speaker.

  “Yeah.”

  “I found her phone.” Chandler told us the approximate location of Brenda’s phone and we started walking through the house to our motorcycles. “Still nothing on her ankle. I checked, and your Mom’s is pinging at the diner. Jenna's should be working. She has to be in something or under ground. Even if she is out on the highway I should be able to get her.”

  I stopped at my bike for a second, thinking. There was something I was missing. Bird stood at my side, his hand on his forehead. He was having the same problem.

  “I’m too close. I can’t think. Fuck.” I saw movement to my left and looked to see Clem with both hands fisted in his hair, his elbows out wide. “Wait. You can’t see where she is but can you see where she was? Where it stopped?”

  Daughtry was walking down the sidewalk toward us and heard my question. “Anything after midnight. Phoebe remembers that it was a little after midnight when she went to the bathroom. Jenna was at the party at midnight.”

  “I can work with that. Go to the phone. I’ll have more information by the time you get there.”

  2.

  O=O=O=O=O=O

  All four of us got on our motorcycles and drove across town to the location Chandler picked up her phone signal. It was a business park area. Since it was a Sunday most of the offices were closed. A homeless shelter was just a few blocks over, so we saw plenty of people as we parked our bikes at the curb.

  Chandler had been able to give us a general area. Just about a one block radius. All four of us got off our motorcycles.

  “I’ll start calling it as soon as that train over there passes. We couldn’t hear it right now anyway.” Bird directed us around. Clem and I went through two buildings to the alley. Bird went to the left, Daughtry to the right. We were looking for the phone or anything it could be inside of.

  As we entered the alley I turned to go left, Clem turned to the right. I saw a homeless man and woman pushing a grocery cart up ahead, looking through the dumpsters as they walked. I saw Bird at the mouth of the alley and put my hand up, motioning for him to stay there as I approached the couple.

  As I walked closer I called out a greeting. Both of them ignored me and began to walk faster.

  “I’m not here to fuck with you. I need your help.” The man was pushing the cart so fast that his woman was damn near jogging to keep up with him. “Stop right fucking now or I will gut you before I’m done with you.”

  They both stopped instantly. Neither turned to look at me. They were staring at Bird as he walked toward them.

  He had his hands up at waist level, his palms out to his sides.

  “Not gonna fuck with ya. Just have some questions. My sister’s missing. Her phone is somewhere around here. Need to make sure you don’t have it or haven’t seen it.” At Bird’s words the woman's head snapped around and she looked at her man.

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called Jenna’s phone. It rang from the basket the man was pushing. Bird and I rushed closer.

  I put my fingers to my mouth and let out three short whistles to alert the other two that we had found it.

  Bird arrived at the cart before I did. He put his hands on the end of the basket and then started to sort through it looking for the phone.

  “It’s in here. Where did you find it?” Bird picked up a trash bag and dumped it out on the ground next to the cart. “Talk to me, man, or I will let the very large man behind you hurt you until your woman tells me anyway.”

  “It was in that dumpster there.” The man turned and pointed to a bin about midway from either end of the alley. “We just found it. We didn’t steal it. They dumped a bunch of shit in there a little bit ago. A couple of trash bags and some purses.”

  “Who did?” I barked out at them. Both of them jumped and turned to look at me. When their eyes got wider I realized that Daughtry and Clem were both behind me.

  “Clem. Check the dumpster.” Bird barked the order out as he started throwing shit out of the basket.

  “Some kids. Some boys.” Daughtry, the one of us with the calmest voice started asking questions. What kind of car? What did they look like? How many were there? I listened to their answers as I helped Bird sort through all their shit to find the phones. I saw a piece of leather and reached down and grabbed it. It was a purse. There was a phone inside it but nothing else. I reached back down and found another piece of leather. When I pulled it out I saw that it was Jenna’s purse.

  “Fuck.” I knew it was Jenna’s because I had given it to her on her last birthday. I opened the bag and saw Jenna’s phone inside. Her wallet was in there, empty of anything important or identifying.

  “Guys. Need the cops here. Right fucking now.” I turned, the purse dangling from my hand, to see Clem standing in front of the dumpster with one hand over his mouth. “Oh fuck, man. Oh fuck.”

  I dropped the bag and ran toward him, Bird beside me. I heard Daughtry bark out an order to the couple to stay there.

  I skidded to a stop in front of the dumpster, bumping into Clem who was now turned away from the dumpster. I looked in and saw some black plastic bags inside, one of them had been ripped open and I cold see a hand inside.

  “No. Oh, fuck no.” I heard Bird moan beside me.

  I reached into the dumpster and put my hand in the bag. I grabbed one finger to pull the hand up and turn it over. I saw the wrist and the air left my lungs as I realized it wasn’t Jenna.

  “It
’s not her. No tattoo. Oh, God. It’s not her.” I dropped the hand and stepped away from the dumpster. “We’ve gotta get the cops involved. If we’re here when they get here, they’ll tie us up with bullshit for hours.”

  I walked back to the couple, leaving my brothers standing next to the dumpster.

  I pulled my wallet out of my pocket and sorted through it. I pulled out a bill and held it up in the air.

  “I’ve got $100 here. I’m going to give it to you. If you do what I ask, you can come by my bar and I’ll give you ten more of these.” The couple nodded at me, both silent.

  “You’re gonna pick up that phone right there and call the cops. You’ll tell them where you are and that you found a body in that dumpster. You’ll show them the purses you’ve got and the phone you found. You’ll answer every one of their questions about who you saw drop that shit off. You be honest and answer every one of their questions.” The couple nodded again. “You won’t mention you saw any of us.”

  “If you do what I ask, I’ll reward you. If you cross me and tell the cops we were here I will find you and I will kill you. Do you understand what I’m saying?” They nodded again.

  “Both of you repeat what I just said.” They both repeated my exact words. I handed the bill to the man and he slipped it into his pocket and reached for the bag that was still on the ground. I grabbed Jenna’s purse and phone and handed them to Bird. “You call the cops when you can’t hear our motorcycles anymore. Understand? If you do what I say, you come get your reward tomorrow night. Come to the Glass Slipper. You know where that is? Tell the man at the door ‘Cinderella is a whiny bitch.’ He’ll know it’s you and he will find me for you.

  O=O=O

  I pulled over at a convenience store and parked my bike at the side of the building. My brothers pulled up beside me and cut their engines.

  Bird pulled his phone out and called Chandler. He answered on the first ring.

  “Good news. I found her at Midnight. Tracked her movement until three hours ago when it was still for an hour here in town. It started moving again and hit a dead spot. Then it comes up again two hours ago at a spot outside of town for five minutes. There’s nothing since then. Nothing now.”

  We all four sat silently, thinking.

  Bird was the first to respond to Chandler.

  “Clem and Daughtry will go to where she was held for an hour. Figure out where it is. Do whatever it takes to get answers. Kale and I will go to the spot where it was live outside of town. We’ll do the same. Right now, I still want everyone out looking for her car. Keep them busy. If they find the car, call Lout. He knows how to ask the right questions. If we find something and need help, we’ll bring in who we need.”

  Chandler rattled off landmarks and coordinates for Clem and Daughtry and then Bird and me. I hugged both brothers and slapped their backs before they got on their bikes and roared off.

  As I sat back down on my bike Bird put his hand up. “It sounds like your house is just past that. Let’s see what’s there as we drive by and get your truck. They won’t hear us coming in your truck and we can watch and see what we’re walking into.”

  I nodded my head and started my bike up. Bird pulled out ahead of me and I followed him to my house. As we drove up the long driveway the sensor attached to my motorcycle tripped the gate and it opened ahead of the two of us. As the gate closed behind us the sensor alerted the garage door and we pulled in and parked our motorcycles. By the time we entered the garage both of my dogs were standing at the garage door, their tales wagging in greeting.

  I hurried over to the workbench and grabbed a shiny toolbox off the bottom shelf. I reached into my Bronco and put it on the floorboard between the two seats.

  “Let’s take the dogs. See if they can find her scent there.” I walked over to my saddlebag and got Jenna’s purse out. “If nothing else they can catch someone if their hiding. Or running.”

  “You still work with them on that?”

  “Yeah.” I chuckled. “I use the prospects.”

  Bird barked out a laugh.

  I moved the seat up and gave the dogs a command to get in for a ride. Once they jumped in, I turned my cut inside out and put it back on. I saw that Bird was in the passenger seat, his cut folded across his lap. I pulled out of the garage and hit the button to close it as I drove back to the road.

  As we neared the coordinates Chandler had given us, I pulled over to the ditch. Bird and I silently watched a semi-truck with a trailer pull into the gravel drive of a trucking company. Neither of us said a word.

  As I watched the activity at the truck yard I tried to keep my breathing steady. My sisters last known location was in that yard. Now she could be anywhere.

  I heard Bird flip his phone open.

  “Grunt. Her last location was a trucking company.”

  I heard loud cussing coming from Bird’s phone.

  “Everyone. All of them here. All of them armed. All together as they go in. Right fucking now.”

  Bird and I didn’t utter a word as we waited on our brothers to join us. Fifteen minutes later the dogs perked up behind me in the backseat. A few seconds later I hear the sound of engines in the distance, headed our direction.

  I pulled out of the ditch and moved to the entrance of the trucking company. I waited in the road until the bikes got closer before I pulled in and parked my Bronco in the middle of the yard.

  Fourteen men pulled in behind me and parked their motorcycles. Bird and I got out of the truck and I called for the dogs to join me. I gave them the command to heel and started toward the office.

  As I reached to pull the door open, I turned to see my club brothers spreading around the yard. I saw Lout approach a truck, Grunt right behind him. Lout opened the truck door and pulled the driver out and threw him on the ground at Grunt’s feet.

  The man scrambled up to fight and found Grunt’s gun pointed at his forehead. Lout moved to the next truck and did the same with another driver. This one, having seen Grunt’s reaction, stayed on the ground.

  On the other side of the yard Daughtry was doing the same, Hank behind him with gun in hand.

  I walked into the office and the bell over the door rang. A woman sitting behind the desk looked up with a bright smile, greeting me in a cheerful voice until she saw the dogs at my sides.

  “If you touch that phone I’ll shoot you. Come out from behind the desk.” Her eyes wide, hands up in front of her she moved from behind the desk toward me. “Who else is in this building?”

  “My husband. He’s in his office.” She had tears streaming down her face.

  “Call him out here.”

  “Kevin! I need you. Kevin!”

  I heard a toilet flush and a man’s voice grumbling. A door down the hallway to my left opened and a large man walked out, wiping his hands on a paper towel.

  He looked up and saw I had a gun pointed at his wife and he visibly paled.

  “Let’s walk outside so you can tell me about the girls that were here this morning. Then, you can tell me where they are now. I’ll put bullets in your wife until I think you’ve told me everything I need to know.” The woman whimpered, the man’s gaze went to her as he moved my direction.

  “She doesn’t know anything!”

  “Well then, it’s going to suck even more when I start shooting her, isn’t it? Let’s go outside.”

  “Search!” The dogs both shot away from my side. They moved around the office and down the hall, searching for more people in the building. “If there’s anyone else in here you didn’t tell me about then I’ll just have to go ahead and start.”

  “No. No, it’s just us!” The woman whimpered again as the man spoke.

  The dogs came back to me and sat silently at my side.

  “Now, let’s go on outside and get this taken care of, why don’t we?”

  O=O=O=O=O=O

  I walked behind the couple to the truck wash bay where my brothers had the four drivers and two other employees kneeling on the floo
r.

  I nodded my head. “This is perfect for cleanup. Good plan.” I motioned my gun at Mr. and Mrs. Trucking Company, directing then to their knees with the others.

  I pointed at John and Mattie and then down to the ground, letting them know to stay in the bay. I put my finger in the air and spun it in a circle and turned to walk back out into the yard.

  “Spread out. I’m sending the dogs to find any strays.” The men started moving out toward the edges of the yard.

  Once I was outside the bay I gave my dogs the command to search. “Retrieve!”

  I watched the dogs as I felt Bird come up beside me. Daughtry and Clem stood on my other side.

  “We found the car. And the four guys.” Daughtry spoke as our eyes followed the dogs. “Three of them are in the hidey hole. I think they know more than they’re saying. Number four is with them. They can look at him twitch for a while and think about how much I want them to tell me the rest.”

  I heard a gunshot behind me and the three of us turned as one of the drivers let out an ear-piercing scream. He was laying on the floor, his hand clutching what was left of his left foot.

  “I told you to shut the fuck up and be still. Do I need to fucking tell any of you again?” Mattie roared at the group.

  I turned back to watch the dogs and saw that they had finished going around the yard and buildings I whistled and pointed to the trucks. The dogs shot across the gravel and started sniffing around the truck and trailers that were parked in the yard. “

  I’ll go in and look at the books, see if there are any records. See what other drivers are out in the field while you speak to these fine folks. Don’t kill the office bitch yet. I might need some passwords.” Daughtry turned and spit in the general direction of the group on the ground.

  “I’ll go see about cameras and such.” Fain moved off with Daughtry.

  “Hank, John, Mattie, Prospects. Go search the trucks. Wear gloves.”

  Just then, Rolo barked from the ground beside one of the trailers that was attached to a red semi. It was the one that Grunt had pointed the gun at the driver’s head. Rolo ran back and forth on the side of the trailer.