“Who was at the door?” she asked. “Morning guests coming for tea or Rod Howley?”
Elmore’s eyes twitched in response to what she asked. “Rod and Spencer didn’t want to stay too long. They were asking about you though, which I don’t quite understand, but I will in time. Everything in time.”
Rod and Spencer? That’s great, but impossible. No one has those kinds of tracking skills.
But now that Spencer was working with Rod, and they were already at Elmore’s door, that instilled a surge of hope. With Rod on Elmore’s tail, things could change fast. For a brief moment, she was happy Rod was as tenacious as a shark out for blood.
But how did he do it? Was he psychic like Dolan or Esmerelda? Maybe that’s why he’s the head of the Sophia Project, because he’s got a sixth sense. That put a lot of things together for her. How he knew she was in that coffee shop and how he just showed up at the CN Tower.
She thought about Parkman. He had to be going crazy wondering where she was. Why wouldn’t he be working with Spencer too? Parkman and his fucking toothpicks. Sarah smiled at the thought.
“What’s so funny?” Elmore asked.
She stepped up to the bars and gripped one on either side of her face. “You can’t beat guys like Rod Howley. He’s too good. That man chased me all over Europe and back here, right to your house. There’s no way you’re smarter than he is.”
Elmore’s face twitched and he looked away. He picked up something from the tray and slid it into his wide front pocket before she could catch a glimpse of it. When he looked back at her, his lips had tightened. Without averting his eyes, he picked up the food tray and bent in front of her cell door. He placed one sandwich on the floor and slid the paper plate under the bars.
He walked over to Drake’s cell and did the same.
“You are looking better this morning, Drake. How’s the breathing going?”
Drake took in a large breath, smiled and on the exhale said, “Fuck you.”
“How sweet. Good morning to you too.”
“Drake,” Sarah said. “Don’t eat anything he gives you.”
Elmore stood and walked back towards Sarah’s cell door. “So it’s like that, is it?” he asked.
He produced a key of some sort and pressed down on it. Sarah’s cell door unlocked. She couldn’t believe it. All she had to do was get past him and she could leave.
This’ll be so easy.
She braced herself to lunge.
From behind his back he pulled out a gun.
Shit. That’ll confuse things a little.
He aimed it a little left of her head. She saw movement at the trigger.
He’s going to shoot that thing!
The gun fired, a bullet zinged by her head barely a foot away.
Drake screamed, but she could hardly hear it. Sarah dropped to her butt at the thought that he was about to fire his weapon again. She lost her balance and rolled onto her back, bumping the back of her head on the concrete floor. All she could think to do was drop and roll. Be evasive.
She turned around to see what Elmore had fired at. A small hole in the back wall showed where the bullet had entered. Small pieces of concrete had trickled down to the floor where the hole had formed.
She brushed her hair aside and looked up at Elmore. Would he shoot again? Did he try to hit her?
He knelt down close to her. She tried to back away, but her head hurt from kissing the concrete. She couldn’t get away fast enough. He jammed his hand into her thigh. She saw the tip of a needle near his thumb.
What the fuck is that?
She screamed and tried to scramble away from him. She hit the back wall, used it to get to her feet and then pushed off the wall to jump on Elmore. He repelled her easily and stepped back to the cell door, a foolish grin on his face. Then her cell door shut and clicked to lock.
Why am I so weak suddenly? What the hell was in that needle?
She looked at Drake but her vision blurred. She felt wobbly on her feet now.
“What have you… done to me?”
Drake banged the bars on his cell. “What have you done? I’m going to kill you. You hear me. I’m going to fucking murder your fucking face.”
Sarah slipped down onto the mattress. She felt vertigo and her eyes rolled back in her head.
Then she lost consciousness.
Chapter 24
When Drake called Sarah’s name, it pleased her. She smiled, turned onto her side and woke with a sudden pain in her neck. She opened her eyes and lifted her head up. Blood stained the mattress in the area where her head had been.
What the fuck did that asshole do?
“Sarah,” Drake called. “You doing okay?”
From the emotion in his voice, she could tell he cared for her. He had feelings for her and she didn’t mind it at all.
Yeah, but nothing goes down between us if we’re killed. Gotta get outta here first and in one piece.
She examined the back of her neck for the source of the blood. The stitches where Rod’s man had hit her with his baton when she got off the plane in Chicago had reopened.
“Shit, that hurts.”
She sat up on the mattress and looked at Drake.
“That guy did stuff to you,” Drake said. He appeared to be on the verge of tears.
Now she was fully awake. “What kind of stuff?” she asked, not sure she wanted to hear the answer.
“He used a knife and cut into the back of your neck.”
“Oh, that’s it? Nothing else?”
“What do you mean, nothing else? He fucking performed an operation on you, and I couldn’t do anything about it.”
“But he didn’t… you know, touch me?”
“No, nothing like that. He operated on you, and then went upstairs mumbling to himself, pissed off about something.”
The lock clicked on the door above. It slid open and Elmore’s footsteps came down. Sarah ran her hands all over her body checking for anything that may indicate Elmore did more than just cut into her neck. Everything felt fine, except she needed to pee bad.
He could’ve waited another minute.
“Sarah, you’re up,” Elmore said. “Glad to see it. We need to talk. Things have changed.”
She got off the mattress and stepped to the cage’s door. “Tell me what you drugged me with. Then we talk.”
“Ketamine. I call it Special K. It’s a human tranquilizer. Perfectly safe. Now, I have a question. Are you willingly working with Rod Howley?”
Sarah looked at Drake and then back at Elmore, confused by the question. “No. He wants me to work with him, but the more I refuse the more difficult he makes my life.”
“Are you saying you’re not in collusion with him to take me down?”
“Take you down? You’re deluded. I’ve never heard of you before. I came to Toronto for Drake.” She stopped and looked at Drake. His eyes widened and his mouth moved up a little. She was happy to see his eyes had cleared. She turned back to Elmore. “What I mean is, I heard Drake was in trouble. That’s why I’m here. Rod tried to keep me in the states.”
Elmore moved his armchair within three feet of her cell door and sat down. “So I’ve been thinking. How did Rod find you so fast?”
“I’d love to know that too. The bastard feels attached to my hip.”
Keep him talking. Listen. Evaluate him. There has to be a way out of here and I will find it.
“I know you don’t have a hidden cell phone that you could’ve called the police on because of this.” Elmore held up a small black device. “This is what they call a Spy Wireless, WiFi Bluetooth Signal Jammer. You can buy one of these babies for just over a hundred American.” He turned it in his hands, examining it like he would appraise a diamond ring. “It’s frequency range blocks anything for up to thirty meters, which to you Americans is about a hundred feet,” he said this last part sarcastically and laughed at his own joke. “It’s great for my business because it’s portable. I can take it with me to the photo studio. If anyone sends a girl in to record a conversation of mine, or open a line on a cell phone to an outside listener, they’ll get nothing. I’m free to talk at my place of business without being recorded. This means even if you brought a cell phone with you to your little cage, you wouldn’t have been able to call out as I’ve had this plugged in down here since you first arrived. I forgot to grab it in my haste to get downtown yesterday.” He shrugged and raised his eyebrows. “I fucked up and totally forgot it. That’s why I had to toss Drake’s cell out of the car.”