The Next Generation: The Legacy (Book 3)

Chapter 17 - It's all about the money.

Chante

There was no way out of the room we were being kept in. It quickly became clear that Cat had thought her plan through very carefully. She wasn’t just a dime a dozen criminal. She made sure we had food and water, but also that there was no way we were going to get out until she decided to let us go. Cat burst into the office and gripped my hair.

“Where did your dad hide my money?!” She almost growled and I winched in pain.

“I don’t know! He never told us about any money!” I shouted right back, and she glared at me for a moment before storming out again. In the distance, I heard sirens and my heart nearly stopped. Please, please, let them find us!

Freddie

I was furious. Thankfully, Christa finally allowed me into the briefing room and I tried to work on the case with the task team. I wasn’t allowed out on the streets because Christa knew very well that I would find Cat and kill her! The department of corrections quickly advised that there was no way they were going to give Simmons up that easily.

He still had to stand trial and if he was handed over to Cat, they believed she was going to kill him and his entire family once she got what she wanted. That much we were all sure about. Cat wasn’t going to just hand over the Simmons family. The only way this situation was going to work in our favour was if we found Chante and her mother ourselves without handing over the man that was the damn cause of all of this!

I waited for Christa to leave the briefing room before I made my way out of the station. I noted something that the task team didn’t. If they found out, they would go in guns blazing, and then we could lose the people we were trying to save. The only way I was going to get my hands on the two women was if I went in alone. I drove out to the warehouse near their apartment and made my way inside as softly as I could.

My hunch, unfortunately, didn’t pan out. I checked the entire place and there was no sign that they were ever there. I had just gotten into my car when my phone rang, and I rolled my eyes.

“Where the hell are you?!” Christa barked over the phone and I sighed deeply.

“Checking on a hunch that turned out to be wrong.” I rolled my eyes.

“Freddie! Dammit! You know how dangerous this situation is!” She berated me about how Chante got herself in trouble, probably because she had done the exact same thing I did. I didn’t listen to half of what she was saying. When it sounded as if she had finally calmed down, I told her that I was on my way back.

As soon as I arrived, I was dragged into the briefing room to explain. I told them that the warehouse I had been to belonged to Cat and was situated near Chante’s apartment. It was actually funny to see their reaction when they realized they didn’t see it! Hour after hour, I sat scanning through the evidence in the hopes that I would note something else they might have missed, but it eventually became clear that Cat had covered her trail incredibly well this time. I was just about to give up for the day when one of the patrols burst into the briefing room.

“We found her phone! Simmons’s phone!” He held the phone in the air and all hell broke lost as people tried to find out where they found the phone while others made calls to get units out to that area. I was smiling. Chante wasn’t that stupid after all. Cat would have taken her phone and destroyed it immediately. By leaving it behind, Chante had given us an idea of the area she might be in. Or so I hoped.

Cat might very well have thrown it out of the window and driven off with Chante, but I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind. All I could do was hope that it wasn’t the latter. I left the station with some of the task team members, and we arrived at the scene a couple of minutes later. The phone was found in the middle of a huge industrial area.

None of the buildings belonged to Cat, which made it harder. While our IT people worked on Chante’s phone, we started going through the buildings one by one. I was nervous that at some point Cat might hear us if they were in one of the buildings! We were moving too slowly and if she found out, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill Chante and her mother!

We spread our search even further in the hopes of finding them, but by nightfall we had found nothing. We hadn’t gone through nearly enough buildings and the task team were getting ready to set up huge lights. I was standing on the spot where they found Chante’s phone when my phone rang.

“Darling Freddie, it seems you are trying very hard to find me, but you won’t. Just give up now.” Her voice was far too confident, and it was enough to make me furious.

“I’m going to find you, Cat, and when I do, I’m going to kill you myself!” I hissed, trying not to alert anyone to the fact that I was talking to her.

“Oh, dear. I’m so scared. Now, I’ve decided to change my demands. I don’t want that useless man. I want the money. If you can get that for me, I will let your precious rookie go. You have two hours, Freddie. Two hours before I will kill one of them!” She shouted before hanging up, and I scanned the buildings surrounding us. We were close. I was sure of it! Cat was somewhere in one of those buildings watching us!