ENTER: NIGHT
Chapter 4: Missing Person
From: Strong-arm Security Corporation
To: #1487
Subject: Probationary Assignment #4: Missing Person
The New Salem Police Department has been overworked and understaffed recently. They are requesting that we take certain cases off their hands.
Go to the NSPD headquarters and meet with Detective Mann. He will apprise you of the details of your new missing person case.
That is all. And remember, we have high hopes for y:eBiiL;!tLoia!!
-SSC:Xoey
Weird, Pierce thought, it's like the girl fell asleep on the keyboard or something.
When he got to the New Salem Police Department Headquarters, people were going in and out like ants. Once inside, he saw that some officers were trying to corral people into order, trying to form a line at the crowded front desk. Other officers were walking with purpose, ignoring the citizens trying to get their attention. Not wanting to wait for everyone who was here before him, Pierce got in front of a quick-walking officer: "Excuse me, I'm looking for Detective Mann."
The annoyed policeman gestured vaguely at the center mass of the crowd and replied, "Get in line," then pushed passed him.
Pierce looked around and saw a closed off hallway with a placard next to it that indicated the detectives were working beyond the doors. He walked up to the entrance that was guarded by two officers, one getting shouted at by a middle aged woman.
"Let me through!"
"Ma'am, you have to get in line, our people are doing everything they can to handle all complaints as fast and as thoroughly as they can."
"Well, maybe if you two lazy pigs stopped standing around and hassling citizens like me, you could go do some real police work!"
Pierce showed his probationary agent ID card to the other officer. "I have to see Detective Mann so I can help with a missing person case."
The policeman examined the card and checked Pierce's face against the photo. "Glad to have the extra hands. Go on through." He returned Pierce's card and opened the door.
As Pierce walked through, he heard a scuffle behind him. Looking back, he saw that the woman had tried to rush through after him, but the officer caught her by the waist and was pulling her back. The door shut them from view.
Pierce walked passed a couple of officers talking in the hall and came to an open room on the right. He saw it was filled with desks, a few of which were manned by detectives in plain clothes, some wearing firearms on their hips, others wearing them in shoulder rigs like his. Most of the men were going through paper files or using their computers.
He looked at the placards on the desks, then spotted the one that he was looking for. "Detective Mann," he said as he approached, "I'm Pierce, with SSC." He showed his ID card, but the man ignored both it and him. "I'm here for a missing person case."
"Why did those useless desk jockeys not just send it electronically when they forwarded your Corp the case?" he growled. He rummaged through a drawer in his desk and handed Pierce a file.
Pierce opened it and began to examine the details of the case. Aside from the heading "MISSING" and the case number, there was nothing but a physical description and photograph of the girl, along with her home and work addresses.
"Are you still here?" Detective Mann glared up at him.
Pierce looked back at him in kind, then walked out of the room and out of the building.
As he walked the busy streets in the autumn sunshine, he thought about the facts of the case. The missing person was a girl, Maryanna Rivers. Age, 18. Height, 5 foot 6 inches. Weight, 110 pounds. White. Reddish-brown hair, green eyes. Cute. Apparently she worked at one of the bars on the seedier side of the city, and she lived in an apartment near there. She had been missing since October 8th, a week ago today. That was all he knew. Nothing about her family, nothing about where she might have gone or why.
Eventually Pierce reached the apartment. It was definitely a nicer place than the one he was in on his extra assignment on Sunday, but it was nothing fancy. The door to the building was locked. It had a key-card lock on it. He tried a maintenance entrance on the side of the building, but it was locked the same way.
He walked across the street and bought a paper from a news stand. A front page picture of a familiar grotesque statue caught his attention, and he briefly read that the Cathedral of the Resurrection had recently become the flagship congregation for the New Church throughout the continent. They were going to make a very big special announcement soon. He sat on a bench, pretending to read his paper, but watching the many people as they walked by, hoping to spot someone with a key-card in hand approaching the building so he could get in behind them. But an hour passed, and nobody with a card showed up. He decided to get up and take the ten-minute walk to the bar.
As the bouncer let him through, Pierce saw that the bar was a neon-lit hazy jazz joint that had a live band with a cute singer. The waitresses all had the same uniform, black skirt, white button-down shirt, black tie. But now was not the time to be distracted.
There was only one that wasn't dealing with a customer at the moment. Pierce asked her if she knew Maryanna Rivers, but she replied that she did not, she was new here. She looked around, saw everyone else was busy, and asked if he would like to see the manager. He agreed and was led to a back room guarded by another bouncer. The waitress departed, and the bouncer ushered him into the dimly-lit room, closing the door behind them.
Behind a desk sat an old man in a very large, rather extravagant chair. He folded his hands and glared at Pierce over his thick glasses. His name was displayed on a fancy engraved placard on the desk.
"What do you want?"
"I'm looking for information on Maryanna Rivers."
"What's it to you?"
"I'm looking into her disappearance."
"Is that so?" The man smiled. "The world would be a better place if the police were sent out every time some self-centered young person ghosted their employer and left them in the lurch. They're all just lazy, nowadays. I would hire people of my own generation for every position here if I could, but most of us are not so easy on the eyes these days, and the clientele would certainly object."
"Are you the one who reported the disappearance?"
"No, I wouldn't bother taking any of my problems to the NSPD these days. They're falling apart at the seams. Crime is on the rise, and they aren't hiring the numbers they should be to keep up. And when they do, they hire those without experience like you. I could show them a thing or two about how to run a business, but I own several in this city, and they need my attention."
He thinks that I'm a police officer and that I have no experience. This old geezer presumes way too much.
"Do you have any information that could help me find her?"
"Listen, all I know is that being a singer here was her first job, at 26 years old, and she couldn't hack it. She had talent, the voice of an angel, really. But she left within three weeks of starting, no reason given. I had high hopes for her. Goes to show you, don't ever get your hopes up about anything."
"Do you know anything about her family?"
"She never said anything about it that I can recall."
"Friends?"
"Not that I am aware of. Listen...It's a real shame about the girl and all if something has happened," he said with some sarcasm, "but I'm a business man, and if I don't run this place, nobody will. Now, will that be all?"
What a heartless bastard. "Yeah," he said, trying to keep the disgust from showing on his face. He turned around, the bouncer opened the door for him, and he left the room.
As he was exiting the office, a pretty blonde waitress came up to him and introduced herself, offering her hand. "Hi, I'm Alexis. The new girl said you were looking for Maryanna Rivers?"
"That's right. Did you know her?"
"Know her? Well, more than anyone else here, but no, nobody really knew her. She kept to herself, mostly. She lives in the same apartment complex that I do. On occasion, we would go into work together, though she would never say much of anything to me on the way."
"When was the last time you saw her?"
"Probably...a couple of weeks ago. You know, I'm just getting off my shift, and if you want I can get you into our apartment building."
"That would be great."
And so, after she gathered her belongings from her locker and clocked out, the two exited the bar.
Pierce walked with her in deep thought while his eyes scanned the crowd, wondering why people like the bar owner were allowed to live by whoever or whatever was in charge of the universe. Such callousness, such selfishness. It was that kind of attitude that put his sister in the hospital. He should have stopped it. Occasionally Alexis would ask Pierce a question about his job or his family, but he just brushed her off, stewing in his anger. But this made her get angry.
When they got to the apartment building, she swiped the card, opened the door, and began to walk through. Suddenly she stopped and turned around in the doorway to block Pierce out. "Hey, you haven't answered a single question I've asked you," she scolded. "Now, get to answering, or I'm not gonna let you through!"
Pierce didn't care to play games right now. "Move."
"Hey, did you not hear a word I just said?"
"Move," he said more sternly as he glared down at her and started walking forward. All sense of anger left the girl as she backed out of the doorway wide-eyed. He walked into the elevator and clicked the button for the fifth floor. The doors closed, and smooth jazz played softly over the speaker in the ceiling. He liked smooth jazz. He decided to try to relax, focus on what was in front of him. Can't dwell on the past.
The elevator dinged and opened up, and Pierce was face-to-face with a panting Alexis, red-faced with her high-heals in her hand. This girl was really starting to disturb his calm.
"You think you can just...just shove people around, Pierce?" she asked angrily.
He pushed her out of his way and walked to Maryanna Rivers' front door, looking around for security cameras (there were none), Alexis hot on his heels. He knocked on the door and waited for an answer. He stared intently at the door, Alexis staring intently at him, tapping her foot. Was she really waiting for an answer?
After what seemed like forever, he turned to Alexis and asked, "Do you happen to have a spare key?"
"Oh, now you're asking me for favors?"
"Never mind," he sighed as he took some lock picks out of his pocket and began working the lock on the door. Before Alexis had time to let out a full complaint, he was in the apartment with the door closed and locked behind him.
"Hello? Anybody here?" No answer.
The first thing that caught Pierce's attention in the dark room was the smell. Leftover food that was never finished or disposed of, definitely moldy.
The apartment was pitch dark. He reached out to feel the wall for the light switch, but his hand landed on something hard that scurried away when he touched it. He recoiled and cursed under his breath. He found the lights and flicked them on.
Yup, this place looked about as clean as it smelled. Everything was a mess. Dust covering everything, clothes and food lying about, overflowing trashcans. At least she tried to put stuff in the trash before it was full. There were several roaches crawling on the floor, over the walls, and on the food.
He never understood how people could live like this. He wondered if Maryanna was still alive. He didn't smell a dead body, so she probably had not died in the apartment.
He began searching the place for anything that might give a clue as to where she had gone. He looked at the papers scattered over the place, some bills, old flyers for some local metal bands, a calendar. Nothing gave an indication that she had gone anywhere in particular within the time that she had been missing.
In the middle of the living area there was a torn up old couch with a loosely patched hole in the back. On a hunch, he lifted the patch and shone his flashlight down into it. "What do we have here?" he said as he reached into the couch and pulled out a wad of cash. As he unwadded it, a roach fell out. He stomped it repeatedly and aggressively until it stopped moving, then went back to wondering why this girl who had supposedly never had a job before had $30,000 in cash just stashed away in a couch. Did she have rich parents? Was she into something illegal? Maybe that was why she went missing. Pierce pocketed the money.
After a little more searching in the living area, he went into the bedroom and turned on the light. The state of the bedroom was the same as the rest of the place, except there were newspapers and various documents neatly organized on a desk. Above them was a whiteboard hanging on the wall with information scrawled on it in nearly unintelligible handwriting.
As he began to decipher the writing, he realized that Maryanna Rivers had been trying to find someone, a girl who was taken by some thugs. Maryanna seemed to have found out that these thugs planned to sell the girl to some mysterious contact pending some sort of test. The last thing written on the board was an address. He knew the area, it was by New Salem Harbor, not far from here.
New Salem Harbor was rumored to be home to many nominally illegal smuggling operations, some more dangerous than others. Even if Rivers had not found the kidnappers, she could still be in significant danger if she was snooping around. Pierce knew that he had to act fast. It would be nice to have some SSC backup on this, but he could not wait around for it. He did, however, sit down at the desk and write a brief note detailing what he had found out, just in case something bad happened to him.
On his way out of the apartment, note in hand, he thought back to the walk here with Alexis. He was pretty sure she had mentioned her apartment number at some point, but what was it? 2B? 2D? He could not narrow it down. Once he got off the elevator at the second floor, he knocked on all of the doors that he thought it could be. No answer from any of them.
Well, he couldn't just stand around waiting. He walked briskly down the stairwell to the main floor. When he opened the stairwell door, he saw Alexis leaning against the wall near the building's main entrance on the opposite side of the hall. Was her shirt unbuttoned lower than it was earlier? When she saw him staring at her as he made his way down the hall, her face became flushed. She opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her short, "Alexis, I need you to take this letter to the SSC field office on Terry Street, do you know where that is?"
She nodded her head, but she was clearly confused. "Yes, but--"
"Do it as fast as you can, all right?" Pierce said as he handed her the letter and began walking quickly out the door.
She looked down at the letter, then up at where Pierce had been. She walked to the doorway, opened the door and looked out, and saw him shrinking into the crowd on the busy street.
After a moment's consideration, she turned and made her way to her apartment. If she was going to be fast, she would need more appropriate shoes than heels.
New Salem Harbor swarmed with workers, some transporting cargo from warehouse to ship, others from ship to warehouse.
According to Maryanna Rivers' information, the kidnappers were two brothers who led a small but well-connected smuggling operation.
Pierce approached the kidnapper's hideout cautiously, and made a wide circuit around the building. Just another warehouse in a sea of warehouses, it was an old rusty corrugated-metal structure, about thirty yards wide and forty yards long. The main room was a square, and there was a shorter segment in the back likely consisting of several smaller rooms. The only entrances to the warehouse were two side-by-side rolling steel shutter doors in the front. Both were open. No security cameras were to be seen.
A small group of men were moving crates from the main room onto several horse-drawn carts, while two tough-looking armed guards conversed. After the guards were done talking, one crossed his arms and watched the workers, while the other disappeared into the warehouse's labyrinth of crate stacks.
There did not seem to be any way to get in unseen at the moment. Pierce considered what he should do and looked around. It was then that he spotted a dirty-looking, poorly-clothed, bearded man slumped against the wall of a nearby warehouse.
He approached the man. "Hey, mister." No response. The old guy was fast asleep. Pierce crouched down and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him awake.
"Uhhh? what's happening?" The old man looked frightened.
Pierce took out a bill from the wad of cash in his pocket and showed the man, whose face went from fearful to awestruck.
"It's been years since I've seen a thousand dollar bill!"
"Well, you can have it if you do something for me." Pierce helped the man to his feet. "You see those guys over there loading those crates into those carts?"
The man nodded his head.
"I need you to go distract them for me. Scream something crazy at them, mess with their horses, get in the carts, something."
The man looked at the armed guard and back at Pierce doubtfully. "I don't know, that seems pretty dangerous. Some of the guys around the harbor are good to me, but I don't know these guys, and the one with a gun looks dangerous..."
Pierce looked back at the guard, then sighed. "You're right." He pulled four more bills out of the wad and held them up for inspection.
The old man's jaw dropped and his eyes sparkled. "Alright, I'll do it!" Pierce handed him the money and the man hid it away in his ratty shoes.
The new hire walked slowly over to the men loading the carts. When he closed the distance he began to shriek and jump around. The horses were getting agitated. Excellent. Then some of the loaders, telling the old man to stop and get away from the horses, began walking towards him. The old man started laughing hysterically, and, walking backwards while taunting his pursuers, tripped over his own feet and fell backwards, bouncing off of the side of one of the horses and landing face-first on the gravel. This sent the team into a gallop, and their cart quickly disappeared around the corner of another warehouse.
Some of the loaders ran after the runaway horses, shouting for anyone to stop them. The now angry armed guard began walking towards the old man, who was now being restrained by two of the loaders.
As Pierce sneaked into the warehouse unwatched, he heard the old man groan as the guard punched him hard in the gut. I hope it's a short beating, Pierce thought.
He crept from crate tower to crate tower, listening for anybody who might be in the warehouse, but everyone seemed to be sufficiently distracted. When he reached the other end of the building, he crept up to the door left ajar on the right side of the back wall. He looked through the opening and saw a hallway leading to three doors. He put his ear to the first door and heard talking.
First man: "Do you have the DNA test results for the red-head?"
Second man: "Yeah, they came back negative."
Third man: "Blast. I guess we can do something else with her then."
First: "We could sell her to Richards."
Third: "That mad flesh-peddler would pay a good price for her."
First: "He probably wouldn't even rent her out. She's definitely his type."
Second: "Anything else, boss?"
Third: "No, enjoy your day off, Charlie."
Second: "Thank you, sir."
The doorknob turned and the door opened with Pierce lying in wait behind it. As soon as Charlie had swung the door to close it, Pierce saw the man was facing his direction. He launched his right fist at Charlie's throat, and in the instant the door clicked closed, Pierce's fist crushed Charlie's windpipe, causing him to reel back, stunned and gasping for breath. Pierce quickly got behind the man and snapped his neck, ending his misery.
Charlie went limp, and Pierce dragged him to the second door, listening for any noise inside. Not hearing anything, he silently opened the door a crack and peaked in. It was a kitchen lit only by the sun shining through a skylight in the slanted ceiling. After making sure nobody was inside, he dragged the body in and placed it in a corner.
He exited and closed the door behind him, making his way to the third and final door. Once again he listened carefully for any human sound, but heard none. He tried the knob. Locked. Quickly and quietly, he took out his lock picks and opened the lock, then the door very slightly. In the middle of the room, bound and gagged, sat Maryanna Rivers in a metal folding chair.
As Pierce cleared the room, he saw the walls were lined with metal filing cabinets of varying colors and sizes.
Maryanna was awake, but looked out of it. She turned her head and stared at him blankly as he walked in, closing and locking the door behind him.
"Maryanna Rivers," Pierce whispered. Her eyes lit up a bit. She probably hadn't heard her name for a while. "I'm going to get you out of here, alright?'
She gave a weak smile and nod. He cut the ropes that bound her, took off her gag, and tried to get her to stand up. She had trouble rising to her feet, as the ropes had restricted her circulation.
Pierce stepped back, examined his situation, and then hurriedly began moving the filing cabinets into a makeshift staircase up to the skylight. Although he tried to be silent about this, the larger ones were very heavy, and he could not help but make some noise. He climbed to the top of the staircase and reached up as far as he could reach, just managing to open the window and swing it inward.
The door suddenly burst open, kicked in by the guard that pummeled the old man, his gun drawn and ready. Pierce moved quickly for his pistol and smoothly drew it from his shoulder-holster with practiced ease before firing three rounds at the guard. Pierce felt a round whiz dangerously close to his head, and the guard fell to the ground dead and bleeding.
Another man peeked into the room, and Pierce fired a round, but just as the shot rang out, the head jerked back.
"What, are you crazy? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"I know what I'm doing. Let go of me!"
"No way! This was obviously a professional job! Sometimes you have to know your limitations."
Pierce, sensing that this might be his only chance, holstered his gun and quickly descended the stairs to put Maryanna on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Hold on tight!" She held on as tightly as she could manage, and he climbed to the skylight and pulled them both up to the roof. Pierce slid on his stomach to the roof's edge and let Rivers down gently, then hopped down to the ground himself.
The loaders who went chasing after the runaway horses and cart were now returning to the warehouse with their quarry. Pierce grabbed Maryanna's hand and pulled her along as he ran after the cart, which was just disappearing around the corner. When he reached its rear, he took down the tailgate and lifted Maryanna, placing her in between crates of probable contraband. The driver and his partner turned around at the noise.
"What are you doing? Get out of here!"
Pierce hopped up on the moving cart, closed the tailgate and made his way to the front.
"What's wrong with you? I told you to get lost!"
Pierce unholstered his pistol. "Get off the cart."
Both men enthusiastically complied.
As Pierce took the reins and brought the horses to a gallop, a bullet whizzed by his ear. He glanced back and saw the angry face of the man that had peeked into Maryanna's cell firing several rounds in his direction before the horses turned a corner and got out of the man's line of sight. Pierce weaved the cart in and out of different harbor streets and finally reached New Salem's main city streets. He slowed the horses to a trot and looked back in the cart. Maryanna was lying among boxes of likely illegal goods, eyes open but still glazed over. This would be tough to explain if he got stopped by a policeman.
When he finally made it through pedestrian-filled streets to the Terry Street Field Office, he drove the cart into the garage where he handed the cart over to some SSC personnel. Some medics on standby took a look at Maryanna. Alexis opened the door leading from the lobby and found Pierce answering a medic's questions. When he was through and the medics took Maryanna away, he turned to her.
She blushed. "thank God you're okay. I tried to get them to send backup, but they said they couldn't send anyone. You'd think they would want their men to have enough support to get the job done without too much risk."
"Yeah, but I'm still probationary."
"That's no excuse."
Pierce shrugged. "I have to go file my report now. Thanks for delivering the message."
Her face broke into a big smile, her arms behind her back. "It was no problem, really." She looked at him half-expectantly. He lingered, then turned away, leaving the garage for the lobby.
"See you around," she said as the door was closing behind him.
Next Chapter: Nyanlathotep