Линвуд Баркли - Find You First

“Who’s that?” she asked, her voice suddenly filled with panic.

“He’s okay!” Travis said. “He knows what’s going on! He can help us! Just get in!”

Sandy hesitated one last time, decided to throw the dice, and hopped in, settling into the middle seat as Travis hit the button to close the door. He pulled away from the curb.

Miles shifted in his seat so he could address Sandy full-on.

Sandy, getting her first good look at him, said, “Oh, shit.”

“Hi, Samantha,” Miles said.

“No, her name’s Sandy,” Travis said.

“No, it’s Samantha,” Miles said. “She’s my niece. My brother Gilbert’s daughter.”

New York, NY

“Jeremy who?” Chloe asked, once she was fully awake and had the strength to sit on the side of the bed.

“Pritkin,” Nicky said.

Chloe rubbed her forehead briefly, as though she recognized the name but couldn’t place it. “And where am I?”

“Manhattan. It’s a big house, but I guess they want us to be roomies.”

“I’m getting out of here,” Chloe said, standing.

“You can’t. The door’s locked. We’re prisoners. It’s a nice enough cell, and I won’t lie, the food’s pretty good, but we’re not going anywhere.”

“What do they want? Why are they keeping us here?”

“It’s not a we . It’s a him .”

“Who?”

Nicky brought Chloe up to speed about Pritkin. Who he was, the people he knew, and the kinds of things that went on in this house.

“He’s like this megalomaniac or something. Has more money than God and houses all over the world but spends most of his time here. Thinks he’s some kind of superman who doesn’t have to worry about what’s legal and what isn’t, and considering that some of his best friends are judges and cops and lawyers and mayors and shit, I guess he’s right. Oh, and he likes young girls. Like me.”

Chloe was dumbstruck. “Is that why I’m here? I got kidnapped by some sex slave ring?”

Nicky shook her head slowly. “No offense, but you’re a little too old for Jeremy.”

“Why are you locked up?”

“I heard something I shouldn’t have,” Nicky said. “I’ve told them I’d never tell, but I guess they don’t believe me.”

“Why?”

“I was already thinking about telling what goes on here.”

“So, what are they going to do? Keep you here for the rest of your life?”

Nicky shook her head slowly. “No.”

“Then what?”

Nicky said nothing, but the silence spoke volumes.

“No way,” Chloe said.

“I heard them talking. They’re waiting for someone to do it. And the fact they put you in here with me, well, I guess it’s going to be a twofer.”

Chloe swallowed. Her mouth was dry. She walked into the bathroom, cupped her hand under the tap, ran some water into it, and lapped it up.

“There’s glasses,” Nicky said.

Chloe saw two clean glass tumblers on a shallow shelf above the sink. She picked one up and stared at it for several seconds before putting it back, the sides now wet from her fingers.

Chloe returned, sat back down on the edge of the bed, and asked: “What did you hear that you weren’t supposed to hear? You might as well tell me if we’re both in the same boat.”

Nicky leaned in close and whispered, first giving Chloe the background of how she’d been in a position to hear Jeremy’s phone conversation, and finishing with the three words she had heard that chilled her to the bone.

Kill them all.

About an hour later, they heard the door being unlocked. When it opened, a woman entered, carrying a loaded tray. There were two plates on it, shrouded with metal warming covers.

Out in the hall, just a few steps away, stood the security guard.

The woman set the tray on the top of the dresser and left without saying a word. The door closed, and locked.

“Dinner is served,” Nicky said. She took off one lid and said, “Ooh, Italian.”

Chloe approached and lifted the lid off the second plate, slowly, as though there were a rat underneath it.

“Linguine with chicken in a garlic and wine sauce, I think,” Nicky said. “The food’s so good here, I keep thinking every meal must be my last one, you know? They serve you something nice before they strap you into the chair.” She rolled her eyes. “Actually, I don’t think that’s how they’ll do it.”

Chloe tucked into the food. She hadn’t realized, until the meal had arrived, how hungry she was. She ate standing by the dresser, and inhaled the pasta in less than three minutes.

“You in a rush to get somewhere?” Nicky asked.

Moments after finishing, the door was unlocked and opened. Standing there was the woman Chloe saw, very briefly, in the back of the limo.

“This is Roberta,” Nicky said. And then, to Roberta, she said, “I’d introduce you but I figure you already know who she is.”

Roberta ignored Nicky’s snide comment. She turned to Chloe and said, “Your host would like a word. Come with me.”

Chloe looked worriedly at Nicky. Was this it? Had she just had her last meal?

“Don’t be afraid,” Roberta said. “He’s really looking forward to meeting you.”

Roberta stepped into the hall and motioned for Chloe to follow. They walked a short way to the broad landing, then up to the third floor, through a set of open doors and down a hallway that was lined with windows on the street side, and black-and-white erotic photography on the other. Chloe paused in front of a four-foot-square photo of female genitalia.

Chloe asked, “Is this you? Because you seem like a really big cunt to me.”

At the end of the hall was a set of double doors. Roberta opened them outward and motioned for Chloe to walk in first.

Holy shit, Chloe thought.

She figured this was supposed to be an office, or a library, judging by all the shelved books and the big desk in the center of the room, but there was more square footage here than in her entire home. On top of that, a goddamn RV was parked on the far wall. How the hell did that get up here?

But her focus quickly turned to the man sitting behind the desk. Midfifties, sixty maybe, with a full head of gray hair, neatly trimmed. Slim, tanned, handsome. Long face, chiseled jaw. Sitting behind the desk, all she could see was his shirt. Powder blue, button-down collar.

But then he stood and came around the desk. Jeans, faded, but shit, were they pressed?

“Let me look at you,” he said.

Oh no, Chloe thought. Maybe she really had been brought here to be part of some sex thing.

“Please, sit,” the man said, motioning to the leather chairs on this side of the desk.

Chloe sat.

Roberta said, “Would you like me to stay, Jeremy?”

“If you wouldn’t mind waiting in the hall,” he said.

With that, Roberta slipped away, closing the double doors behind her.

“I’m Jeremy Pritkin,” he said, sitting in the chair next to hers.

“Figured,” Chloe said.

“How are you enjoying your stay, Chloe?”

“I thought the pasta had a titch too much garlic in it.”

He nodded. “If there’s something else you’d like, we could fix it up for you.”

“I’d like a ticket out of here.”

Jeremy smiled. “Tell me something about yourself.”

“Like what?”

“What do you do?”

“I’m a waitress. At a diner in Providence.”

“I see. You’ve been at that for a while, haven’t you?”

Chloe’s eyes narrowed. “Why do I get the feeling you already know the answers to the questions you’re asking?”

“It’s true, most of them I do,” Jeremy Pritkin said. “I know your history. About your mom, and her partner. That she passed a few years ago. I would get occasional reports.”