55
“We’ve been worried sick about you all day! Roger spotted a video of you being abducted online. We went to your office but you weren’t there and no one could reach you or any of the executives.”
“Was it the Russian mob? Were they after you to get them back door access to the financial data at your office?” Roger blurted excitedly.
Stanley looked at him in surprise.
“Roger, shut the fuck up!” Dayshia growled. “Can’t you see he’s still shaken by the ordeal?”
“I- I didn’t really see them too well. I was drugged and woke up in an old building by a bay. It collapsed while they tort- hurt me but I managed to get away. They didn’t.” It was the truth or at least enough truth for him to say convincingly.
“Holy fuck!” Roger blurted as the others stared at him in horror.
“Oh my god, Stanley!” Sandy exclaimed and pulled him into a hug and once more he was enveloped by her hair.
When she recovered from her shock she held him out at arm’s length to look in his eyes as her locks settled to rest on her chest. “How did you get away?”
“The pole they taped my arms around fell through the floor and I got out of the room before the rest of the floor broke free. I found my bag in the next room and carried it upstairs where I called for help.”
“You called the police? Then why are they still looking for you?” Roger asked.
“I called Sigrid- Ms. Gunderan, head of HR at my company,” he replied quietly as his mind absorbed the fact that the police were looking for him. This could be bad.
“Why did you call her?” Sandy blinked.
“It was- I remembered her number,” he said with a shrug. He couldn’t really say the real reason but they accepted his state of mind at the time probably wasn’t at its best. “She and our head of Security picked me up and took me to the CIO’s place. We went to speak to a lawyer this afternoon. I’m laying low until Monday.” Stanley heard himself babbling so he shut up.
“Siobhan called me just minutes ago when the CIO’s assistant called her to say you were ok and on your way home,” Sandy explained.
“You spoke with Siobhan?” Stanley asked, his mind struggling to keep his two worlds separate. He knew the Hidden Races interacted with humanity but the awareness didn’t run both ways so that’s where the danger lay. He was too shaky at the moment so his safest bet was silence.
Sandy smiled. “Yes, she’s a lovely person! She really helped us out this morning. Roger made a nuisance of himself and got tossed from the lobby of VRL but she started calling people to get information. She said she’d call when she heard something and she did.
“Yeah, then you sent me home when you three came here. You left me to fret all day. If I hadn’t come over when I did I would have missed this!” Roger complained.
Tish gave him a weary look and he pouted.
There was another sharp rap on the door and Stanley jumped again.
“Let me answer it,” Roger said with a growl as he leapt to his feet.
The tall man stormed over to the door and glanced through the peep hole. Two serious looking men in tan raincoats over black slacks. He pulled the door open. “Yes?” he boomed belligerently.
They stared up at him in surprise.
Roger noted they both had slim builds and a gauntness to their faces. Both also now had expressions like they’d just smelled something bad. One chose to speak and his aristocratic voice grated on Roger’s irritated nerves.
“We need to speak to Mr. Garin.”
“Mr. Garin isn’t entertaining guests in his home this evening,” Roger said in an equally haughty tone.
“You are a guest are you not?”
Roger paused at the boldness of the question. “No. I’m a friend. There’s a difference.”
“Regardless, he needs to speak to us.”
“I said, not tonight,” Roger said leaning closer.
The elevator chimed and three people exited and headed down the hallway in their direction. The raincoat wearer not speaking with Roger glanced back and paused when he saw the surprised and angry expressions on the approaching faces. He reached out to touch the sleeve of his partner who was about to respond to Roger with some belligerence of his own. The speaker paused and looked in the direction his partner was looking. His face froze and his jaw clenched in frustration.
Roger took in the newcomers when he saw how upset the two at his door had become. There was an older woman, maybe in her sixties, slim and wearing a nicely tailored but severe business jacket and skirt. The one in the middle was almost as tall as he was, looked younger than the woman, had a lanky build, close cropped black hair, and chunky plastic rimmed glasses. The third was short and barrel chested with long red hair and a braided beard. The short man looked like he was all muscle.
The three took a good look at Roger who just stared back. They glanced at each other with cautious expressions.
“Are you here for these clowns or are you wanting to speak with Mr. Garin as well?” Roger asked before anyone else could speak.
The woman was their spokesperson. “We have business with Mr. Garin.”
“Like I told these two. He isn’t seeing guests tonight. Come back on Monday,” Roger explained.
The tall one with glasses frowned. “That won’t do. We need to speak with him tonight.”
“No, he needs to come with us tonight,” the agitated man in the raincoat asserted.
“You will leave before this becomes a reportable offence,” braid beard said to the two at the door.
Suddenly there was a palpable tension and the five people froze as they eyed each other warily.
Tish appeared at Roger’s elbow. “What the hell is going on out here? We can hear you arguing from the living room-” She saw Roger was grinning at the escalation before him. She immediately picked up on the tension. From the way they were holding their bodies, she swore they were about to pull out weapons.
“Nobody do anything stupid. Remember, this is a residential building full of innocent bystanders,” she berated them scornfully.
The elevator dinged once more and eyes flicked back to see who else was approaching.
Two largish men in rumpled suits were walking towards them. From her years in the ER Tish immediately recognized the swagger. Here came two of New York’s finest.
“What’s this? A floor party?” the one in the brown suit called out with a cheeky grin as his partner in a dark blue suit scanned the group with cold eyes. The five visitors immediately relaxed their stances.
“Tell Mr. Garin we will return and he must join us when we do,” the raincoat closest to Roger said tersely and moved off into the stairwell followed closely by the other. Tish grabbed Roger’s arm to keep him quiet.
“We really must speak with Mr. Garin at his earliest convenience. Before the others,” the woman said stiffly.
“You have a business card?” Roger asked and got three blank looks.
“We’ll return as well,” the older woman said and they left.
The cops stood aside as the three passed on their way to the elevator.
“Was it something we said?” brown suit snorted.
“I’m Detective Harmon and this is Detective Morris,” the big man in the blue suit said to Tish and Roger. “This is Stanley Garin’s place? You’re not him, are you.”
“Nope,” Roger said with a grin.
“This idiot is Roger Jensen,” Tish sighed.
“Roger ‘RogerDodger’ Jensen?” Detective Morris asked with a grin as he glanced at the scribble he’d made earlier in his notes of the address on the message they’d received.
The tall intern’s smile slipped off his face and he glanced nervously at Tish as she looked at him with wide eyes. “Uh, yeah. How-”
“We’re following up on the tip you texted in,” Morris said.
Tish was staring daggers at Roger so he panicked. “We saw the video of Stanley getting nabbed and the security goons at VRL weren’t listening to me about how he was probably being used to hack into their financial systems and they tossed me out! I was trying to help! I was angry! I angry texted!”
“You’re such a moron,” Tish growled.NôvelDrama.Org owns all © content.
“Is Mr. Garin in? We need to speak to him,” Harmon said.
Tish pushed Roger back into the condo and gestured for the two officers to follow. They all walked down the short hall into the living room.
Stanley looked up from the couch at the two big men in suits and looked at the badges they held out briefly.
“I’m Detective Harmon. This is my partner Detective Morris. I understand you were grabbed off the street last night and tossed into the back of a van. What can you tell us about it?”
Stanley’s mouth was dry. He was really in over his head and way out of his comfort zone. He took some deep breaths to calm himself.
“I remember coming out of the wine shop. Someone hit me from behind and I was pulled into the van. They stuck a needle in my neck. I woke up in the basement of an old building. My arms were taped together behind me around a metal post.” His body shook as a tremor went through him. Sandy held his hand.
“Did you see their faces?” Harmon asked.
Stanley’s mind flashed the Goblin’s hideous faces at him and he twitched. “No… not clearly,” he muttered as the cops shared a look.
“There was a man there. Small, slim, wore a lot of rings. He… he tortured me.”
“You saw this guy’s face?” Morris asked. “You can give a description to a Police sketch artist?”
Stanley nodded. He saw no point in protecting the dead Fae.
“How did he torture you?” Harmon asked.
Stanley twitched again as he relived the man sliding into his brain. He shook his head to get the images and the sick feeling out. “I don’t want to talk about it!”
Harmon frowned and changed direction. “What did he want?”
“I- I don’t know. The building began falling apart,” Stanley said quietly.
“Falling apart?” Morris blurted.
“The pole he was tied to fell through the floor and the bad guys fell in but Stanley got away!” Roger blurted excitedly.
Detective Harmon frowned at Roger then looked at Stanley.