Kidnapped

Chapter 1: The Phone Call

The phone call came in past midnight, awakening him to full alertness. He reached for his cell phone in the dark, finding it easily, guided by familiarity alone.

"Talk," he barked.

"There's a situation boss," came Tank's voice over the line, the deep baritone concerned.

A situation could mean a lot of things, a terrorist in need of a death wish, a break-in, a skip turning up after a cold trail, or Stephanie in trouble. "What situation?" he asked, sitting up in bed and throwing the sheet off of himself.

"Over the police scanner, there's been a child abduction at 315 Hoovington Street," Tank replied. he tried to remember what Hoovington Street should mean to him. Was that a skip's residence? No, it didn't feel right, Tank sounded worried, and than it came to him, and he felt his stomach drop.

"That's Steph's sister's place."

"Yeah Boss."

He finished getting out of bed and reached for his cargoes quickly. Holding the phone against his ear and shoulder, he spoke again. "Pull up Stephanie's location." He jerked on the pants, the phone nearly becoming dislodged in his haste.

"Already did Ranger, the tracker in her car is heading towards the residence."

He didn't let himself think about how scared Stephanie would be; her family was crazy, but they stuck together, and something like this could tear them apart. There was a heaviness around his heart, a new weight that made him have to push the forthcoming emotions back. The late hour, the phone call, and the situation, reminded him of when Julie had been missing, but he didn't let himself think about that either.

"They saying anything else over the scanner?" he asked, wanting more information as he opened the gun safe and started taking out weapons.

"That's a negative."

He inhaled, sticking a knife in his boot. "Call if you hear anything." Not waiting for Tank's reply (he knew it would be an affirmative anyways) he hung up.

He pulled on a jacket to cover the gun at his back and was hurrying down the stairs not even a minute later. He was feeling… edgy as he entered the garage, heading towards the Porsche. Now that he was aware of the situation, he began to search his mind for possible suspects and motives, even before he was rolling out of the garage.

Being close to Stephanie would always be dangerous for her and for others; there were people out there who wanted to hurt him and those that he cared about. He wasn't close to Stephanie's family but hurting Stephanie would be an effective way of hurting him. But he always kept close track of his enemies, foreign and domestic, there hadn't been any recent stirrings of trouble to suggest that anyone was planning anything. It could be just a nutjob with a sick mind, or one of Steph's skips, looking for an edge against the system. Either scenario made his temper boil just beneath the surface, his famous control tested by the thought of an innocent child hurt.

Though he had only met Steph's nieces a time or two he remembered the two girls well. The oldest was Angie, a polite, quiet child, and there was Mary Alice, the curly haired imp who thought she was a horse. Stephanie's family was different to say the least but even seeing Mary Alice once made Ranger realize how much like Stephanie she was. Mary Alice thought she was horse, and Stephanie, as a child, thought she could fly.

Now only five minutes from Hoovington Street, he pulled out his phone again, hitting speed dial two. It rang for only a second before it was picked up.

"Tank here."

"I want you to start running preliminary searches. See if Kloughn has had any recent, unhappy clients, look for any sexual offenders in the area, pull up the files on Stephanie's skips from the last six months, and send out feelers to see if there's any stirrings from my VIPs."

"Will do boss."

Ranger hung up then, knowing that Tank was already heading for his computer, if he wasn't in front of it already.

Ranger knew that he'd pulled onto the right street by the amount of activity. The Burg had truly lived up to its reputation, nearly every light on the street was on, the houses lit up like beacons in the otherwise dark neighborhood. Most civilians were on their lawns, talking with their neighbors, and the closer he got to 315 the number of police cars quadrupled. It seemed that the entire TPD was in attendance.

He pulled smoothly in a spot a few houses down and cut the Turbo's engine. He got out and walked down the sidewalk, scanning his surroundings with detached professionalism. He was here because of Stephanie, because he was driven by a need to protect her and her own. But the longer he knew and loved Stephanie the harder it became to be totally detached, at least on the outside. Here though, he found it easier, with an emergency.

He'd been passing cops ever since he exited the car but it wasn't until he turned up the Kloughn's front walk that he saw someone that he knew on a first name basis. Eddie Gazzara was clearly off duty, dressed in a t-shirt and a pair of old grey sweats, but as a friend of Steph's, he was probably there for support.

Eddie spotted him and nodded, looking grim. "Ranger, I wondered if you'd show up."

"Heard it over the police scanner. What happened?" he asked, coming to a stop in front the other man.

Gazzara sighed, looking tired as he ran a hand over his face. "Albert and Val were woken at about midnight by a neighbor's dog barking, when Val went to go check on the girls, she found Angie in the closet and Mary Alice gone."

Ranger felt his blood run cold.

"Sign of a break in?"

"Yeah, the window was already open but the screen had been cut with a knife. The intruder climbed through and grabbed Mary Alice, we're not sure if Angie saw anything, she's not talking right now."

Ranger looked at the house. "The girl's bedroom, is it on the second floor or the first?"

"Second, there's a tree right out back that the intruder must have climbed."

Ranger's eyes narrowed, but said nothing as he followed Gazzara inside. The house was crawling with cops and family alike. He looked around, feeling a low hum in his blood, alerting him that Stephanie was somewhere in the house. Ever since their night together, he had something of a sixth sense about her that he couldn't shake; but it had come in handy more than once when there had been a crazy after her.

The hum grew more prominent as he neared the center of the house, towards the area that he figured was the living room. The entire Plum family was there, scattered around the room. His eyes zeroed in on Stephanie immediately, sitting with her sister on the sofa, a comforting arm around her as the police asked questions. He watched Stephanie reach her other arm back to rub the back of her neck, like there was an itch she couldn't get rid of. A moment later, Stephanie turned her head just enough to look behind her and spotted him, her eyes widened in surprise.

He gives her a nod and enters the room, stopping just behind Stephanie. Her eyes are swimming with tears, a heartbroken expression that makes him ache; he places a warm hand on her shoulder, and listens to the questions that the police are asking Albert and Valerie. They're the standard questions, nothing that he hadn't heard before, and it was clear that the police had no idea who took the girl.

The older girl had her face pressed into her mother's shoulder, but Ranger could hear the quiet sobs over the other voices in the room. The cop sighed and snapped his notebook closed.

"What are you going to do to find my little girl?" Valerie asked tearfully, an arm tightly around Angie.

"We're going to do everything that we can ma'am." The cop's (Ranger recognized the detective but was not familiar with his name), eyes swiveled over to Angie. "Sweety," he began gently, "are you sure that you didn't see the bad guy?"

Angie's body shuddered and she shook her head, her features still hidden.

Over the course of the next hour, police continued to come and go until they'd done all they could with forensics and questioning. Ranger stayed with Stephanie the entire time, saying nothing, but his presence was soothing for her none the less. When the police did leave, it was anti-climatic, painfully so. When the house was nearly empty besides the family, it was eerily quiet. Valerie sobbed into her hands, Albert clumsily rubbing her back as he sniffled as well.

Ranger, now that the cops were gone, began his own search. Leaving the Plums by themselves, he retraced the polices' steps, looking for clues that they might have missed. He had respect for the TPD, but if anyone was going to find anything else, it would be him. He climbed the steps to the second floor and stood in the doorway of the girls' room. Hearing steps behind him almost immediately he knew it was Steph without having to turn and look.

"Ranger," she whispered, almost scared to break the heavy silence of the house. "What are you doing?"

"Searching, Babe."

She nodded, apparently needing no other explanation. He turned his full attention back to the room; Ranger stood just in the doorway, taking in the lay out of the room before actually entering. It was painted lavender with white molding, there were two beds in the room, both facing the doorway. The window, the cut screen flapping a little in the light breeze coming in, was between the two beds. The closet, presumably the one that Angie had hid in was right next to the door leading out to the hallway.

"How did you know?" Stephanie whispered, her hand reaching out to touch his forearm as he surveyed the room.

The sound of her voice, soft and sad in the quiet, made his heart do funny clenching things in his chest and he gave into the urge to hold her. He turned and brought her to him, wrapping his arms around her as she did the same to him. She tucked her head under his chin and sniffled. "Tank called me, he heard over the police scanner."

"Thanks for being here," she said.

"Always." Ranger kissed the top of her head and released her.

Stephanie wiped at her eyes. "What are we looking for?"

Now that her voice had taken on more of a determined quality, like she was going to do anything to find her niece, he swiveled back to face the room. He stepped inside, going straight to the window. It was large enough to fit an average sized man through, but certainly not anyone of his stature. Like Gazzara had said there was a large tree just outside. One of the large side limbs extended up to just below the window, a few more inches and one of its side sprouts would be able to touch the blue-grey siding.

"Anything off, anything the cops might have missed." Realistically he knew someone could climb that tree, and that that same someone could climb out without the limb breaking, but he was having trouble imagining climbing back out the window and down the tree with an active, struggling child. Unless the child wasn't struggling.

"Babe, was the front door locked and secure when Valerie called 911?" he asked, a hunch forming in his mind.

"Uh, yeah, she said it was, why?" But in the matter of seconds the expression on her face changed, she was getting the same idea that he was. "You think they didn't come up the tree…."

He nodded and retraced his steps down the stairs, paying more attention now to the hallway and stairs. He'd been trained to hunt other humans for the United States Government through Middle Eastern deserts and Columbian jungles, and that same training was easily applied to his life now. Hunting skips and criminals through New Jersey was just different terrain, the same principles always applied. Even in residences there were tracks, just different kinds. Strewn dust trails and fibers and hairs that didn't belong, for example.

The hall and stairs were clean, no sign of an intruder; the small foyer was in the same state. He inspected the door but nothing there either, no sign of forced entry, and it was a standard issue deadbolt – a key would be needed to lock and unlock from the outside. He could feel himself getting close to something, and opened the front door. The light was on, illuminating the still pre-dawn dusk. The sun wasn't far from rising, he had been there for several hours.

Ranger's eyes zeroed in on a volleyball sized rock next to the front walk. There was an inch wide damp spot running the length of the rock to the side, like someone had moved it recently, uncovering the ground beneath. He kneeled next to it, hearing Stephanie come to a stop behind him, she was holding her breath. He lifted the rock and uncovered a gold toned key, undoubtedly for the front door. Ranger didn't remove his eyes from the key.

"Babe, call…" But he was unable to finish his sentence because in that moment the shrill ringing of the house phone broke the early morning air.

The ringing stopped when someone answered the phone inside, and he could vaguely hear Valerie's voice. A shiver of something cold and foreboding went down his spine and he stood. A moment later Valerie stepped into their sight, just outside the door. She was pale as death, her eyes red rimmed and puffy, and she was holding the phone out to him.

"Who is this?" he asked, wary.

The voice that replied was masculine, yet silky at the same time. "Well Mr. Manoso, it's so nice to finally get a chance to talk to you."

His heart stopped in his chest, and he quickly herded Stephanie and her sister back into the house, locking the door behind them, suddenly feeling overly exposed so close to the street.

"Most won't make me repeat myself, who are you?" His voice had turned forceful, harsh, but unlike most, it didn't seem to faze the man on the phone.

He laughed. "Oh, we've never met Mr. Manoso, though some of my more unfortunate associates have had runs in with you in the past. he heard that you were good, I'm hoping that's still true. Tell me Mr. Manoso, what would you do to get Mary Alice Marrino back?"

His hand tightened over the phone until he heard the plastic dangerously creaking under his ear. His eyes found Steph in the room, pale and concerned a few feet away from him – she knew something was very wrong. "Anything."

The man laughed. "That's what I thought, very good Mr. Manoso."

"Seems unfair that you know my name and I don't know yours."

"You may call me Eduardo for now Mr. Manoso." Eduardo chuckled darkly. "Let me guess, you're still trying to figure out who I am."

He remained silent, rage bubbling just beneath his calm shell.

"Like I already said, you don't who I am, but I know who you are. I was most surprised to see your name attached to the Plums when I was arranging the procurement of young Ms. Marrino from her home."

Surprise flooded through him. "What do you want with the Plums?"

"It's not so much what I want as it is, what they and you can help get me. I don't have anything against the Plums per say, but their ex son-in-law is causing severe problems for me, and he needed punishing. Taking his daughter was a good way to do that. But finding you was just a bonus, killing two birds with one stone if you will. Steve Marrino is an internal problem, easily taken care of, but external problems need a more heavy hand."

His eyes were still on Stephanie, and the connection between them was filled with palpable fear. "And you want me to be the heavy hand."

"Right Mr. Manoso, you are a smart one! I will call this number again in exactly 24 hours, by that time I will expect your decision and then I will give you further instructions," he hung up with a click, leaving deafening silence on the line.

Fuck.