He turned and headed for the stairs.
CHAPTER 24
The charter landed right after eleven p.m., and the Audi A6 Orlando had arranged for during the flight was waiting for them at the private terminal.
As soon as she climbed behind the wheel, she called Quinn.
“You there yet?” he asked.
“Just arrived,” she told him. “Did you find Daeng?”
“We did.”
“And?” she asked, concerned.
“He’s a little drugged up and has two holes in his leg that are getting stitched right now. Probably won’t be running anytime soon, but otherwise he’s all right.”
“Thank God. And you and Nate?”
“We’re fine.”
“No one got hurt?”
“Not on our side.” He gave her the highlights of what had happened, ending with their trip to a discreet DC-area doctor Misty had arranged for them. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine.”
“Did you get any sleep on the flight?”
“Some, yeah.” Twenty minutes, but she wasn’t going to elaborate.
“Get more tonight.”
“You my doctor now?”
“If I need to be.”
She and Abraham then headed into the city, arriving at DeeDee’s Comics twenty minutes before midnight. While the sign in the window said CLOSED, lights were still on in the back of the store. As they walked up to the glass front doors, they could hear music blaring from inside. Orlando rapped on the glass.
“I don’t think anyone can hear you,” Abraham said after a few minutes.
Orlando waited until a lull between songs and then knocked again.
The head of a woman with long dark hair popped up from behind a high counter near the back. When Orlando waved, the woman disappeared. After a few seconds, the volume of the music dropped to a more conversation-friendly level, and the woman reappeared, moving between the stacks. As she drew near they could see tattoos covering one arm and peeking out under the collar of her shirt.
“We’re closed,” she said when she reached the door.
“Are you Vanessa?” Orlando asked.
“Yeah.”
“I talked to you earlier this evening,” Abraham said.
She studied him for a moment. “So you’re the guy, huh?”
“I am the guy, yes.”
“Hold on.”
Vanessa grabbed the lanyard hanging around her neck. She picked out one of the keys attached to it, unlocked the door, and let them in.
“We appreciate you staying late for us,” Abraham said.
“For the couple hundred bucks your friend gave me, I figure I should do a little something to earn it.” She looked at Orlando. “And who are you?”
“I’m Orlando. Abraham’s friend.”
As they shook, Vanessa said, “Please tell me you don’t live in Florida with a name like that.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Good, ’cause I don’t even want to think about the crap some people might give you.”
“You have what my friend left for me?” Abraham said.
“This way.” Vanessa led them through the store to an office in the back. “I have to be honest. I’ve been a little annoyed with myself for agreeing to hold on to this. I mean, your friend swore there was nothing illegal about it, but two hundred bucks to hold on to an envelope with just a piece of paper and a memory card inside for a few days? Seemed over the top, you know what I mean?”
“You looked in the envelope?” Abraham asked.
“I made him show me,” she said. “He wouldn’t show me what was on the card, but at least I could see there weren’t any drugs or something like that. Police find that crap, they shut this place down.”
“So why did you take it?” Orlando asked.
Vanessa shrugged. “He seemed sincere, you know? And a little bit desperate. I’m a sucker for desperate.” She opened a large door on a cabinet behind the desk, revealing a safe. “Didn’t know where else to keep it.”
As she input the combination, Orlando asked, “Did our friend say anything else when he was here?”
“Just gave me a description of him,” she said, nodding at Abraham. “Pretty accurate, too. Then he told me if you called to ask you the question about the girl.”
She finished with the last number and opened the door. The space inside was crammed with papers, files, a cash box, and a few other items. She moved some of the files and pulled out a 9x12-inch manila envelope from behind them.
After shutting the safe again, she held out the envelope. “Here you go.”
Abraham’s name was scrawled on the front in thick, black pen.
Looking wistful, he said, “Eli’s handwriting.”
He turned the envelope so he could open it, but Orlando put her hand over his. “I’m sure Vanessa would like to go home. We can look somewhere else.”
“Of course,” Abraham said. He smiled at Vanessa. “Thank you so much for holding on to this for me.”
“Like I said, it was really nothing.”
“No,” he said. “It was much more than that.”
Orlando pulled five twenties out of her bag and put them on the desk.
“Your friend already paid me enough,” Vanessa said.
“Take it,” Orlando said. “Consider it part of your fee. All we ask is that if anyone else comes around asking about this, act like you don’t know what they’re talking about. I don’t think anyone will, but just in case.”
Vanessa considered her for a moment before picking up the money and stuffing it in her pocket. “I can do that.”
Orlando made Abraham wait until after they checked into the Embassy Suites Hotel to open the envelope.
The moment they stepped into Orlando’s room, Abraham slit open the top and pulled out the piece of paper and memory card. Printed on the sheet was an address for a location right there in Tampa. Below this was a short, handwritten note:
This first. Your answers start here.
Eli
“Well, that’s annoyingly cryptic,” Orlando said. She pulled out her laptop. “Give me the card.”
As soon as he handed it over, she stuck it into a slot on the side of her computer. But before she clicked on the icon, she decided to check the address first, so she opened Google Maps, selected satellite view, and plugged in the information.
“Oh,” she said, surprised.
“Well?” Abraham asked.
She turned the computer so he could see the screen.
A red arrow was pinned in the middle of a large green area that could easily have been mistaken for a park if not for the identifier typed across it.
GARDEN OF MEMORIES CEMETERY
“You don’t think…” he said. “I mean, she couldn’t be…”
“We don’t know anything,” Orlando said in a calm voice. “And until we do, there’s no reason to speculate.”
She could see him struggling to accept her words and not think the worst. He didn’t quite get there, but at least his growing panic seemed to subside a bit.
Clicking on the memory card icon brought up a password screen. She tried one of her decryption programs but the screen was proving difficult to crack. Given time, she knew she’d break through, but she thought there might be a quicker way.
“Hand me that,” she said, pointing at the paper with the address.
As soon as Abraham gave it to her, she reread Eli’s note.
“‘This first,’” she read aloud. She turned to Abraham. “Do you think he’s saying we have to go here before we open the card?”
“Possibly? I don’t know.”
“We’re going to want to check this place out anyway. Might as well do it now.”
“But it’s after midnight. It’s going to be closed,” he said.