Treasure

Chief Clarke sat with his detectives as they finished off the delivery Chinese food in the conference room that had become headquarters for the investigation. His detectives were exhausted, and the nightshift was going over what the dayshift investigators had learned.

There wasn’t a lot.

The drawings of the suspect hadn’t gone without tips getting called in, but so far they had found nothing. They had compared the drawings to photos in the sex offender database, bringing the most likely matches to the hospital to have Jenny and Treasure review them. None of them generated a positive identification. The press was demanding updates, and the young women of the city were afraid.

“We’re missing something,” he said. “What doesn’t seem right to you guys, other than the whole dog track thing?”

Detective Jones was looking through the victim statements. “It doesn’t seem right for a sexual assault,” he said. “They already had them out of sight, deep in the woods in the middle of the night. If they wanted to rape them, why not do it there? Why take Treasure away?”

“For that matter, why choke Jenny to near death?” Detective Anderson was looking through her statements. “They never even touched her except to put her in the chokehold. Treasure had given up, if they just wanted to use her as a threat or take turns with them, they wouldn’t have needed to kill her. All it did was make her fight them more. It’s more like they weren’t after Jenny at all.”

Clarke nodded, the scene was too clean for a rape. Treasure had been found naked, but they never found her clothes and she hadn’t been assaulted. “Do you think they figured out she called for help, and that’s why they took her away from the scene?”

Detective Jensen shook his head. “We had the necklace dusted for prints, there weren’t any except Treasure’s. There aren’t any lights or anything on the panic button to show it was activated, either. It’s all tactile.”

The Chief leaned back, pinching his nose. “In Treasure’s statement today, she said they called her Charlotte. Jones, you check Missing Person reports around the time she was found for a girl named Charlotte. Check everything from a year before she was found to a year after, and do it nationwide.”

“On it, Chief.”

“Jensen, if this was a kidnapping instead of a sexual assault, that changes our list of suspects. Talk to the FBI, bring them in on our suspicions.” He looked at his men. “The rest of you get some sleep, you two call me if there is a break. I’m going to the hospital to see if Jenny, Treasure or her Mom have any other ideas.”

The three men parked their SUV in the lot of the Mayo Clinic. Todd looked at his men, they all knew how serious this was. The two were dressed in scrubs, with their fake badges hanging from chains around their neck. “I’ll have the car ready, bring her down the freight elevator to the loading dock. Get the gurney and don’t waste any time with her.” He passed back the autoinjector, one they used to incapacitate werewolves or humans. The strong sedative would knock her out in a few seconds. A female who had shifted, even one untrained like she was, could be dangerous and they didn’t need to attract any attention. “Get in there, dose her and wheel her back out before anyone notices. You guys packing?” They nodded, both were carrying pistols under their scrub tops. “If it goes bad, do whatever you have to do to get out of there. You can’t get caught. The Council will figure out what is going on and our whole Pack would pay for it.”

“It will be done, Alpha,” his Beta said. He took the injector and put it in the shirt pocket of his scrubs. “We’ll link you on the way down.” The two men got out of the truck and ran across to the employee entrance. They were in luck, a man came out to grab a smoke as they arrived, and they mumbled a thanks as they went inside through the door he held open.

They walked through the corridor, finding a wheelchair they pushed it to the elevator and pressed the button for the fourteenth floor. They kept their faces away from the camera as much as they could, and the surgical caps covered their hair. A few people got in and out, but they stayed to the side and no one paid any attention to them.

The door opened on the fourteenth floor, and they pushed the chair down the empty, darkened hallway as they looked for room 1422. “I’ll take care of her this time, you make sure no one comes in,” the big man said.

Jenny was sitting up in her hospital bed, her Mom with her after Dad left with her younger sister and grandparents. She was staying one more night under observation; the Doctors said that they needed the swelling to go down in her throat or it risked her having breathing trouble again. She was doing better; she could whisper now, and she had been allowed to visit Treasure earlier in the day. The two had hugged, well, as best as the could with all her injuries. They had passed the white board back and forth for an hour before she was made to leave so she could rest.

She was watching Dancing with the Stars with her Mom when the door pushed open. She recognized Chief Clarke from their interviews and waved to him.

“Sorry to interrupt you two, but I needed to follow up on some things for the investigation,” he said.

“It’s all right, Chief,” Debbie said. She muted the television and offered him a chair next to the bed. “You’ll have to lean over, she can talk now but not too loud.”

He nodded, pulling the chair close to the bed as Jenny scooted over to the edge. “You said in your statement earlier that the man who grabbed Treasure called her Charlotte,” he said. She nodded. “Do you know why?”

She shook her head no. “It wasn’t a question, it was a statement,” she whispered. “Like they were certain that was her name.”

“Has she ever mentioned that name?” She shook her head no. “All right, this might be a little more difficult. We’re pursuing a lead that makes this not a rape attempt, but a kidnapping gone bad.” Her eyes got a little wider. “Did they ever do anything to you that was sexual in nature?”

“He just grabbed me in the chokehold,” she said. “After getting hit with pepper spray I wasn’t focused on anything but breathing.” She thought for a minute. “The way they acted, it was like they were bringing back a runaway, like they owned her or something.”

“Anything else?”

“Let me think. I need to use the bathroom first.” She pulled the covers back, then put her slippers on and walked slowly to the bathroom. When she came back out, her eyes went to the open door and widened when she saw two men walk past. “I’ll take care of her this time, you make sure no one comes in,” the big man said. She recognized the younger guy, his hair had been cut, but it was HIM, and the voice belonged to the man who had grabbed her.

She ran over to the Chief. “They’re here, the two men who attacked us. In the hall, they said they’ll take care of her this time,” she said as loud as she could.

“Stay here and dial security, let them know officer needs assistance on this floor,” he said as he got to his feet. He clicked on his microphone. “All units, rape suspects sighted at Mayo Clinic main hospital, room fourteen twenty-two. Officer needs assistance.” The radio was full of responses, and he turned it down. “Jenny, barricade the door when I leave and don’t open it unless it’s police,” he told her.

He moved to the door, his pistol drawn and held low. He poked his head out, finding the hallway empty, but he knew Treasure’s room was only three rooms down. Moving down the side of the hall, he startled a nurse. He put his finger to his lips and gestured for her to get out of the hallway, and she did.

He approached Treasure’s room carefully, finding the door closed. He took up position on the wall, hoping help would arrive soon, when he heard a scream for help and knew he was out of time.

Treasure was half dozing, the pain medication she was on still messing with her. Her Mom sat in the chair by her bed, she wasn’t going to leave her daughter tonight and her overnight bag sat in the corner. She didn’t even look up when the door opened and closed. “Oh, does she need to go somewhere?”

Rea opened her eyes, then tried to say something as she recognized the big man pushing the wheelchair, but with her jaw wired shut she couldn’t say anything. The smaller man walked past the hanging screen, then turned towards her with a gun in his hand. Dawn screamed, but he just backhanded her, sending her flying into the corner of the room.

Treasure scrambled off the bed, falling painfully on her injured shoulder as her feet tangled in the sheets. The big guy had missed grabbing her, and as his partner stalked towards her Mom, he went around to the other side of the bed. Treasure was trapped between the bed and the sink, and she frantically looked for something she could use to defend herself. She grabbed one of her drawing pencils in her hand as she stood with her back to the wall, brandishing it like a knife.

“Charlotte, you don’t want to get your Mom hurt now, do you?” She looked over and saw her Mom; she was being held by the hair with a gun to her head. “Come with me quietly and she can live.”

Treasure looked at the two, and knew it was over. She’d never let her Mom get hurt, not after all she had gone through with her. She was broken, she was expendable, her Mom wasn’t.

She dropped the pencil and watched it fall to the floor. The big man smiled, taking an object from his pocket that looked like a syringe, he walked towards her.

Everyone turned their eyes to the door as it slammed open. “POLICE!” the man said as he came in. The younger man turned his gun towards the door, but he wasn’t fast enough. Two gunshots rang in the small room before he could fire back, and she watched in horror as the Chief fell to the ground, shot in the left thigh. She looked over to her Mom, but the Chief hadn’t missed; the younger man was laying on the ground, partly covering her screaming mother.

The big man grabbed her by her good arm, pulling her in front of him as he held the syringe to her neck with his right hand. “Don’t be stupid,” he said as he started walking towards the door.

The Chief was on his side, his leg hurt like hell but he kept his pistol trained on the man’s head. “Let her go,” he told him.

Treasure looked around, it was all going bad, and then the headache started again. She brought her good hand up and things went black again.

The Chief heard her try and scream through her closed mouth, and when she dropped to her knees he took the shot. One round hit just under the big man’s jaw, blowing the back of his head onto the ceiling. He fell, releasing Treasure, who ran from the room as he bled onto the floor.