“But Chief! Look at the progress we’ve made…”
“I don’t care, Lieutenant. I’m taking you and Thompson off of the Midland case.”
“Sir! I don’t understand? We’re so close to finding the kidnappers, I know it!”
“I’m not going to argue this with you, Lieutenant. You’re both off the case, do I make myself clear?”
“But chief, if you’d just give us a chance…”
“That’s it! You’re suspended! For one week!”
“What! You can’t do that, sir!”
“Two weeks suspension! Without pay! And if you keep arguing, you’ll be off the force!”
Fuming with rage, Lieutenant Sally Fletcher stormed out of her boss’ office. The gorgeous 28-year old curly haired brunette didn’t stop until she’d gotten back to her office and thrown herself into the creaky, old rolling chair at her desk.
“What happened?” Her partner, Jenny Thompson, a 25-year old Auburn haired woman asked, her eyes wide in surprise as she saw the look on her partner’s face.
“We’re off the case!” Sally said, exasperated.
“What!” Jenny replied in disbelief. “Didn’t you tell him about the warehouse? We need to hit it as soon as possible, before the kidnappers can move out.”
“I tried…” Sally told her partner. “But he suspended me! For two weeks!”
“How can he do that?”
“I don’t know…” Sally leaned her head back and sighed. “What are we going to do?”
Jenny thought for a moment. Then she snapped her fingers. “He told you we’re off the case...but not me. If anyone asks, I left the station before you could tell me.” She jumped to her feet and started pulling on her coat. “I’ll be down at the warehouse, keeping an eye on things. You come join me in…” She glanced at her watch. “Let’s say three hours. If we’re lucky, I’ll spot something that can give us an excuse to go in.”
“But the chief…”
“Relax, once we catch the kidnappers, he’ll have no choice but to reverse your suspension, or pretend it never happened. Besides, we both agreed, this could be our only shot at nabbing them.” Jenny added, as she headed out of the office.
Three hours later, Sally pulled her car beside Jenny’s, a couple blocks from the warehouse itself. Though it was getting dark now, the young officer had little trouble finding her way over. She was very familiar with the location by now. They two had done quite a bit of surveillance in the last few days, trying to get enough evidence the kidnappers were using it as a hideout and a place to stash the girls they’d kidnapped to persuade the Chief to let them get a warrant and get inside.
During that time, the two had identified the south end, around the back, as their best entry point. There was a rusty chain-link fence but it could be easily cut and all the windows on that end were boarded up, so there was less chance to them being seen. There was even a small side door they could use to access the inside.
Sure enough, as Sally got close, she could see a small hole cut in the fencing, doubtless Jenny’s work. But unfortunately, she didn’t see her partner anywhere. “She must have gone in already.” Sally thought, a little worried. Best they could tell, there were at least seven or eight kidnappers in this gang altogether, and even though they thought only half that number were at their hideout at any given time, that still left at least four to one against Jenny if things went wrong.
“Come on...Jenny’s a big girl. She can handle herself.” Sally told herself, reassuringly, as she crouched low through the hole in the fence and made her way towards the side door. Sure enough, she could see boot prints in the muddy ground here and there that told her Jenny had been here before her and already gone in. The side door had been forced already. As Sally slowly swung it inward, it made no noise. The rusty hinges had already been oiled. “Good job, Jenny.” Sally thought quietly. Her partner was always better at remembering those little details.
Sally paused just inside, after closing the door, letting her eyes adjust to the gloomy interior. The section she had entered seemed to be mainly offices and other such rooms for the warehouse. As far as the two officers had determined, the kidnappers didn’t use any of these rooms, another reason for entering here. After getting her bearings, she made her way to the stairs up to the second floor. If her hunch was correct, she could get a good view of the entire warehouse floor from up there, maybe spot the kidnappers...or her partner.
On the second floor, Sally managed to find an office with a window looking down onto the ground floor. Keeping low, she crept up and peered through the dirty, smudged glass. Most of the space was filled with high shelves, packed with crates and boxes, but in one area, the shelves had been pushed to one side, creating an open space on the floor. A couple of industrial lights had been set up on nearby shelves to provide a small pool of light within the larger shadows of the warehouse.
Within this were set up what could only be described as large cages, half a dozen of them, twelve foot square and half as tall. In the dim light, Sally could just make out the occupants of the cages: a score of young women or girls, sitting two or three to each cage. The girls appeared to have their hands and feet restrained and to be gagged in some way. Apart from that, though, the captives appeared to have been stripped of any other clothes.
“Well...looks like we found Midland High’s missing cheerleaders.” Sally said to herself in a quiet voice. She grabbed her phone and quickly began shooting video of the horrifying scene. Two of the kidnappers stood guard in front of the cages, pacing back and forth, automatic weapons in their hands. From time to time, they’d pause and lean into the cages, saying something to the captives or just leering at the girls’ naked bodies.
“Only two men…” Sally thought, “There should be four. Where have the other two gotten? And where is Jenny?” As she watched the scene below her, Sally soon got an answer to both of her questions. Somewhere off to the right, a door swung open and the other two goons came in, dragging between them a third person. As they came into the light, Sally saw to her horror their captive was Jenny. The young cop had her hands and feet bound and, judging from her loud groans, a gag over her mouth. She was still dressed, though the ragged state of of them said she’d had some rough treatment at the hands of the kidnappers. Still, the active struggles she was putting up against them reassured Sally her partner wasn’t seriously hurt...yet.
As Jenny was dropped to the ground in the center of the warehouse, Sally abandoned her position at the window, trying to get closer to overhear what was going on and, hopefully, find some way of rescuing her partner. Just outside the office was an open stairwell, descending to the warehouse floor. Getting on her belly, Sally crawled out onto it, looking over the edge and straining her ears to pick up what was being said.
“...don’t like this.” One of the men said. “I don’t like having anyone snooping around, even a nice piece of merchandise like this one.”
“She still won’t tell us who is is, boss…”
“I can tell you who she is. She’s a cop…” A voice, very familiar, took Sally by surprise. From the way Jenny stiffened as well, she recognized it to. She grunted angrily into her gag as the police chief stepped into view. “Sorry my dear…” He told Jenny, “You and your partner were getting too close. I tried to stop it by taking you off the case, giving Sally her suspension...Just 24-hours would have been time enough. The boat’s sailing tonight with everyone on it, and that would be that... But I guess you and your partner will have the join the other ladies on their one way trip to the Middle East...”
He straightened up, as if thinking of something very suddenly. “Her partner...did you find anyone else with this one?” He pointed to Jenny. The slavers shook their heads. “Damn! She must still be around somewhere. Find her!” The slavers nodded. One of them opened one the cage doors and pushed the struggling Jenny inside. Meanwhile, the other men switched on flashlights and began to spread out into the warehouse.
“Oh shit…” Sally said, watching from her hiding place as they got closer...