A Father's Place

by Kelly Wood

*Part 14*

Peter Caine groaned. His head hurt. He tried to raise his hand to feel the source of the pain, but he couldn't seem to move one arm without moving the other. It was too much to try to figure out. He attempted to open his eyes, but the barest glimpse of light seemed to bring the ache in his head to an intolerable level. Instead, he tried to relax and take in his surroundings through his other senses.

There were sudden whisperings around him. "See, I told you he wasn't dead," one voice proclaimed, sounding triumphant.

"Why won't he wake up then?" the other voice asked. Peter could barely hear it.

"I don't know. On TV they slap somebody to wake them up."

There was a short silence. "I'm not slapping anyone," the quieter voice said.

"Sometimes they throw water to wake them up."

This time, the other voice sounded practical. "That would be messy."

"I know that." The first speaker sounded slightly offended. Peter could feel eyes watching his every move.

There was silence for a moment. "Maybe there's a towel or something in that bathroom," the first voice said after a while.

This was very interesting listening, but it didn't make Peter feel any better. Another groan slipped out as he tried to ask the voices who they were.

"Let's go see," someone said. There was the sound of feet walking away. Vaguely, Peter translated the next noise as water running nearby, then the feet came back. A wet cloth dropped on his head.

"You can't just drop it!" The voices were growing louder as they got interested in what they were doing. "You have to wash his head or something." The wet towel was removed, and Peter could feel small hands using the towel to dab at his temples and forehead. It felt good.

"Maybe we should wash away the blood on the back of his head." Peter had pulled his wits together enough to realize that this was a boy's voice.

"You mean, maybe *I* should?" This time it was a girl speaking. Peter gasped as she gently lifted his head and placed the cold, wet towel right on the spot where his head hurt the most. His eyes flew open and he focused on the two small faces hovering over him.

"Hi," the boy said. "Are you going to get up now?"

"I don't know...should I?" Peter asked, still trying to pull himself together.

"Yes," the girl said. "Me and Ayaas will help you." With a child on each side, Peter was raised to a sitting position. He saw the reason he couldn't move his hands; they were cuffed in front of him.

He raised both hands so that one could feel the bump. Although the lump was tender, blood was no longer flowing. "Thank you, Ayaas and..."

"Sophie."

"Sophie." Peter repeated. "I'm Peter."

"We know. Your father told us your name." Ayaas said.

"Of course he did." Peter muttered. "Did my father and the other kids get away?" Both children nodded, staring at him wide-eyed. "Do you kids know where we are?"

In unison, shook their heads. "After they hit you, one of those big guys picked you up and they made us all go in the elevator." Ayaas said. "It went down to a parking garage."

Sophie continued, "There was a limo, with dark windows. They put you in the trunk, then they made me and Ayaas get in and drink something, and we fell asleep."

"We woke up here." Ayaas finished. "I think it's an attic-the ceilings are slanted and the only windows are tiny ones near the floor; but they're boarded up on the outside. There's a little bathroom over there," he pointed somewhere behind Peter, "and stairs over there."

Peter looked around the room; there was actually quite a bit of floor space, but the ceiling was sharply angled; he doubted he could walk upright more than four feet across the room. He could see the staircase leading down. He agreed with the kids that it was an attic-it had that little-used, musty smell that he associated with attics. There were a few chairs at one end of the attic, and a stack of headboards beside them. A light fixture in the middle of the ceiling held a low-wattage bare bulb, which allowed them to see their surroundings, just barely.

"The door at the bottom is locked," Sophie said. "We tried to open it."

"We're in big trouble, aren't we?" Ayaas asked, looking at Peter, his dark eyes troubled. "Caine said that Sophie's uncle was going to help us escape, and he did, but then they got us again. Do you think he can help us again?"

"Sophie's uncle?" Peter asked, looking at the obviously Chinese Sophie. The ache in his head started up again. "Sophie, what's your last name?"

"Li. But his last name is Chan."

"Chan is your uncle?" Sophie nodded. "When was the last time you saw him?"

"In the room before we got away," Ayaas answered promptly.

Peter's mind raced. "Look, Sophie. Unless he mentions it first, don't let anyone know the two of you are related, okay?"

"Okay," Sophie agreed in a shaky voice.

Peter looked at her small, miserable face and wondered how his father would handle this. With a smile tipping at the corners of his mouth, he cupped her cheek with one hand. "If it helps, I think he did try to get you out of there," he told her. It was the right thing to do. She leaned into him and sighed.

"All right, help me up you two," he finally said, rising to his feet.

"What are we going to do?" Ayaas asked eagerly.

"We're going to see if there's a way out of here." Peter answered.

"How?"

Peter shrugged, "We'll start with the door, and go from there."

*****************

*Part 15*

The precinct was in chaos. Strenlich had sent black and whites to the Palmer Building, then driven the kids to the station. It had been quite a trip over; Jessie had sat up front with him, all six children had crammed into the back seat. One was lecturing him on the lack of seatbelts, two were encouraging him to use the siren and drive faster, and one child was crying. With relief, the Chief hoped. To top it all off, he was beginning to regret allowing Kermit and Caine go off on their own.

Inside the precinct, he had appropriated one of the interrogation rooms and herded the children inside. On the way over, he had discovered that they hadn't eaten since lunchtime, so he had an officer waiting with pizzas. While they ate, he took down their names and parent's phone numbers. Now, stomachs full, they were going through the mug books, looking for shots of the kidnappers.

Strenlich motioned for Skalany and Blake to watch the kids while he spoke to Jessie. They hadn't had a chance to talk with her yet; she had been busy keeping the kids calm. He handed her a cup of coffee and took one for himself. "Okay, Miss Reed..."

"Jessie, please." She interrupted, watching him write something on the form in front of him.

"Jessie," he repeated obediently. "Have you ever seen any of the kidnappers before today?"

She considered the question carefully. "No, I haven't. But Caine had."

"What? How do you know?" Caught by surprise, the question popped out.

"He knew one of them, called him by name on sight. His name was Chan." Jessie said. "Sophie said he's her uncle."

Strenlich choked on a mouthful of coffee. "Chan? You're sure it was Chan?"

Jessie nodded.

Skalany had heard the name and come over to investigate. "Tall, handsome, Chinese, uses a large vocabulary?" she asked.

"That sounds like him," Jessie agreed. The two detectives exchanged an unreadable look.

"Which one is Sophie?" Skalany asked, glancing at the kids.

Jessie looked down at the table. "She's with Caine's son...she didn't get out of the building." She ran her finger over a pattern carved into the table. "I think that Chan helped us escape...he and Caine had a strange conversation..."

"How strange?" the dark-haired detective asked, her voice sharp.

The librarian hesitated, "Well, it wasn't what they said, it was more what they didn't say. Like they were talking around something. But I think Chan somehow told Caine that he could escape. There's something else," she said, remembering the photo Peter had handed her. She pulled it out from her pocket. "This is a picture of a girl who used to work at the library...but she disappeared a few years ago."

"What does that have to do with this case?" Strenlich asked, taking the picture.

"This picture was on the desk in the office we went through...and Peter seemed to know who she was."

Strenlich looked at the picture and frowned. "Diana Pearce," he said heavily. Both Jessie and Mary Margaret looked with surprise at the Chief. He shook his head. "If Avery Pearce is aligned with Chan, Peter Caine is in serious trouble."

********************

Kermit was ready to erupt. The first problem was getting into the Palmer Building. Someone had locked the door. This, of course, had proven to be no problem to the Shaolin priest at his side. Even if Kermit had been alone, a locked door wouldn't have stopped him, but it was irritating.

The next aggravation was the two security guards who came out of nowhere to stop them. A flash of his badge had made them back off, but Kermit wondered where they had been when his friends needed help. The guards wouldn't leave them alone. They trailed behind as Caine led Kermit to the room where he and the children had been prisoners.

The last straw was the empty office and the small conference room beyond it. Both rooms were completely void of anything but furniture. The photos and stack of folders Caine had remembered seeing on the desk were gone. The children's backpacks, left behind in the escape, were also missing. The only thing that showed they had been there was the poster paint still smeared over the mirror.

"These guys work fast," Kermit growled, opening yet another empty drawer in the ornate office. "It doesn't look like they left anything behind."

"They did not." Caine agreed, his eyes roaming around the room.

With a sound of disgust, Kermit straightened. The head security man looked nervous as the detective stalked over to him. "What can you tell me about the person who rented this office?" he demanded.

The security officer looked like he wasn't going to answer, until Kermit grabbed his tie and pulled him forward. "My friend has disappeared because of the men in this room," he said quietly into the man's face, "and I want to know everything you know about them." The words were all the more menacing from the cold, emotionless delivery.

"They...it...he..." the security officer stammered, hardly able to get any words out. "It was rented last week. The man paid cash. I heard this morning that the address he gave was bogus. I don't know anymore...honest!" His voice rose to a squeak as he watched Kermit's free fist clench with fury.

Two uniformed officers arrived on the scene at that moment. Kermit let go and waved a disgusted hand in the direction of the security man. "Take him down to the station for questioning. Get a fingerprint team up here. Dust everything. See what you can find out about the person who was renting this office...use whatever channels are necessary."

He whirled on his heel. "Come on Caine, let's go back to the 101. I need to try to access some records from my computer. Maybe we can find Chan and Peter that way."

Caine inclined his head and followed Kermit. Until Peter regained consciousness, he would wait...and having his son's friends around him would make the wait more bearable.

******************

*Part 16*

"Where's Strenlich?" Kermit demanded as he entered the precinct.

Sergeant Broderick looked up from his paperwork. "In Interrogation Room three with a bunch of kids. Go on in," he added. "I think they're having a pizza party in there."

Kermit snorted as he led Caine down the hall to the room. As they approached the door, it opened and Strenlich and Mary Margaret walked out. Frank was still holding the photo that Jessie had given him.

"All right, Chief," Mary Margaret was saying, "Who is Diana Pearce? And who is Avery Pearce?"

Strenlich observed the approaching men without surprise. "I guess you should hear this too," he said in greeting. His hand rubbed the back of his neck, he obviously felt uncomfortable. Skalany and Kermit exchanged worried glances.

"It was my last case before I was promoted to Chief," Strenlich started. "Peter had just been made detective and transferred over here. Paul wanted me to show him the ropes, so we went after a drug dealer in Chinatown as partners. We discovered he had a major pipeline to Rosedale.

"We followed the trail just a day too late-a bunch of kids had overdosed on a bad batch...and one died. The school board was horrified-claimed that kids in their town were too clean for drugs. They wanted us to address a school assembly...tell the kids if they had any information they should come to us. Peter did the honors, we figured that the kids might listen better to someone around their own age." Strenlich said, looking at his audience.

"Makes sense," Skalany nodded.

"We really didn't expect anything to come of it...kids usually won't rat each other out." Strenlich sighed. "After the kids left the auditorium, we were ready to leave...and Diana Pearce came in.

"She seemed nervous, fiddling with her hair, looking everywhere but at us. Peter talked her into sitting, calmed her down, asked her what she wanted to say." Strenlich looked at the faces hanging on his every word. "She told us that her father was the one who was supplying drugs to kids from his office at the local hospital."

"He worked at the hospital?" Kermit asked.

"He was a doctor." Strenlich said heavily. "Seems he had always lectured her about the dangers of using drugs... when she found out that he was selling them to her friends, she didn't know what to do. The boy that died was a friend of hers, so she decided to turn in her father."

"Poor kid," Mary Margaret said. Caine rested his hand on her shoulder. Absently, she patted it. "So, what happened?"

"We needed proof in addition to her testimony. Peter went in undercover to buy some drugs. Pearce actually told Peter to pick up the drugs at his home." Strenlich looked away, remembering the ugly scene. "Diana wasn't supposed to be there, but she was. Peter arrested her father in front of her, and she told Avery she never wanted to see him again. Pearce eventually found out that she was the one who turned him in, only he wouldn't believe it. Thought that Peter convinced her to do it.

"During the trial, we learned that Diana and her mother had vanished, apparently of their own volition. Avery Pearce told Peter that he had caused him to lose his only child, that he would never forgive or forget him." Strenlich lifted his shoulders. "I don't think he'll have forgotten."

"No one has seen...Diana...since the arrest?" Caine asked.

Strenlich frowned. "She was around after the arrest. She disappeared during the trial. She testified against her father in the first few days. She and her mother were gone before the verdict. You know Peter, he felt guilty. I know he looked for her for a few months...I think he still checks periodically for any trace of her."

"What was the verdict?" Skalany asked.

"Guilty. Pearce was sentenced to twenty years. Obviously, he got out early."

The group stood awkwardly, no one quite able to say what they felt. Kermit broke the silence. "I'm going to go see what information I can dig up on Mr. Avery Pearce, Chan and little Sophie's family. I'll look into Diana Pearce while I'm at it. Maybe I can find out something." He turned to Peter's father. "We'll find him, Caine."

******************

*Part 17*

Peter had given up on going out through the door; it was solid maple and opened out. The hinges were on the other side and the frame was sturdy. He was now lying on his side, using a metal slat pulled out of one of the box spring mattresses to pry at the corner of a boarded-up window.

Sophie was squatting beside his head, trying to see if there was any light showing through. Peter didn't have the heart to tell her that he was fairly certain it would be dark outside. Ayaas checked each of the other windows, trying to see if any boards looked loose. All three were surprised when they heard the sound of a key grating in a lock--then the attic door swung open and three men climbed the stairs. The first two were the bodyguards from the Palmer Building...the third one was the man Peter had both expected and feared to see: Avery Pearce.

Peter dropped the slat and climbed awkwardly to his feet, the cuffs throwing him slightly off balance. Sophie stood with him, peering out at the men from behind Peter's back. Ayaas stayed where he was on the other side of the attic; the men were between him and his friends. Peter settled himself firmly into place and tried to look confident.

Obviously, Pearce had not known who his captive was. He came to an abrupt halt at the top of the stairs as he saw Peter for the first time. His eyes widened, then narrowed as a pleased smile stole over his face. "Well, well, well," he purred. "Detective Peter Caine...what a pleasant surprise! I was all set to teach my interfering guest a lesson in manners, but this is indeed an unexpected opportunity."

"Manners?" Peter scoffed, ignoring the jibe, "Which manners are we talking about? Is there some rule about not rescuing kidnapped children? Sorry, I never heard that one..." He stood his ground as one of the burly bodyguards approached purposefully, and winced as he felt Sophie press closer to his side. "Sophie," he said quietly, "go stand over against the wall."

Sophie shook her head. "Go!" Peter said urgently, pushing her gently away without taking his eyes off the man. Sophie backed away; her gaze fixed on Peter. Avery Pearce laughed, and put out one arm, stopping the bodyguard with the motion.

"Not yet, Dave," he scolded. "I need to have a little chat with our friend." Looking disappointed, Dave halted.

Pearce moved to stand in front of Peter. "How long has it been, Detective?"

"Not long enough," Peter muttered under his breath. He raised his hands to deflect a backhanded swing towards his face. Pearce's breath hissed out with disappointment.

"You must have just got out, Pearce." Peter said, hoping to distract him with questions. "Why the kidnapping? Why a bunch of kids? What were you hoping to accomplish?"

"Money." Pearce said calmly, circling the younger man. Peter turned with him, watching him intently. "You remember my daughter, don't you Detective? The beautiful girl you turned against me?" Peter's heart dropped as he saw the barely suppressed rage lurking under the calm façade. "She disappeared, you know, during my trial. I need money to locate her."

"Money?" Peter repeated, thinking of the large house, the two vacation homes, the sailboat and other expensive toys Pearce had owned; seized upon his arrest. "If you hadn't wasted all your talents and energy on acquiring more money, and other things...Diana might still be with you." Peter could have kicked himself for, once again, talking before thinking.

Pearce snarled, "I lost everything because of you, Caine. I had just enough tucked safely away to seed this little operation. It seemed appropriate...to get the money from the town where this all started. Diana worked at the library, she used to talk about the programs." He snorted. "They hadn't changed anything. All I had to do was find out when there was a program after school-all kinds of little rich kids, no adults except the library staff around. Take them, ask half a million dollars apiece as ransom, and have a tidy little sum to use to find my daughter."

"What if she doesn't want to be found?" Peter asked rashly.

"I'm her father. Fathers and their children should be together." Pearce stated, sidestepping the question.

Peter shook his head. Although he was the last person to argue with *that* particular statement, he felt he had to try. He feared for Diana if her father did find her. "Fathers and their children should want to be together..." he began.

The rage boiled to the surface. "Shut up!" Avery Pearce shouted, attacking him with his fists. Peter raised his handcuffed arms to defend himself. Almost in reflex, his foot swung up at the man; he kicked Pearce in the stomach. There was a whoof of escaping air, and Pearce landed on the ground, trying to catch his breath.

"You shouldn't have done that," Dave observed, stepping around Pearce's gasping body. "Grab him, Vito."

Peter had come to that conclusion on his own. He moved, trying to keep both Dave and Vito in his line of sight, but Dave went to the right and Vito to the left.

There was a flurry of movement as he kicked out, knocking Vito away, then Dave moved in behind him. He tried, but all too quickly he was flat on the floor with Dave's knee in his back.

Moving as a well-organized team, Dave held him down as Vito removed the cuff from his right wrist and brought both arms around his back, snapping the cuffs back on.

"Get him on his feet," Pearce snarled, kneeling on the floor, holding his stomach. "We're going to teach this worthless piece of garbage a lesson."

Peter closed his eyes.

*****************

*Part 18*

"Anything, Caine?"

Mary Margaret's voice was gentle as she placed one hand on the worried father's shoulder.

Caine shrugged, his face showing no emotion, but Mary Margaret could hear the strain in his voice. "Peter is...awake. His head aches but he has not been harmed. He is in an...attic with the children. He does not know where they are."

Strenlich crossed the squad room to sit down beside Skalany. "The kids and Jessie are all on their way home. They identified the original kidnappers--local small-timers. We've got an APB out on them." His voice softened as he looked over at the priest. "Don't worry Caine, we'll find them."

The door to Kermit's office opened, and the scowling detective came out with a pile of printouts. He threw them on the desk in front of Skalany. "Okay. Not much to go on, I'm afraid. Chan is clean, according to the computer--no record, no arrests, a professional student who doesn't seem to be enrolled anywhere."

"How is that possible?" Skalany asked.

"He's either a professional hacker, or he's got connections..." Kermit looked furious. "Officially, Chan does not exist. I found him by looking up Sophie's parents...the only place he appears in any database is as her mother's younger brother. He not even in on our records of the Tan case. They now say that Peter was shot by an 'unknown associate' of Tan's. I will get to the bottom of this, after we find Peter."

They now had an audience as Jody and Blake joined them. Kermit tapped the stack of papers on the desk. "This is the information on Avery Pearce. He got out of jail three months ago, never reported to his parole officer, who apparently did not see fit to mention that to anyone."

"Pearce used to be an extremely wealthy man, but most of his assets were seized when he was sent to prison. He owned quite a bit of property. I cross-referenced the property with current records, and I have several possibilities to check out that are still on the market or abandoned."

"Anything on Diana or her mother?" Jody asked.

Kermit grinned. "Guess who's living in Canada?"

"How did you find her?" Skalany asked.

"How did Pearce miss her?" Jody put in.

"I'm good, and Pearce doesn't have the right kind of contacts." Kermit said with a smirk. "Diana and Elizabeth Pearce are residents of a very small town in the northwest."

"How does this...information help us find Peter?" Caine asked.

Kermit's scowl returned. "It doesn't. The girl might know a special place where her father might bring Peter, but we would have to contact her. I'm not sure I want to bring her down here and risk getting her anywhere near her father."

Caine looked at his hands, the fingers interlocked. "We should not."

"I have a...friend up there, who is willing to contact them in person; but it may take some time. Until then, our best bet is to check out the property associated with Pearce. Have there been any ransom demands?"

Strenlich shook his head. "Nothing. Nothing on the office rental either. The company never rented it out. Pearce and Chan showed up with keys and the paperwork last week, and set up shop. We did discover that Pearce once owned the office building, and the trucking business behind it. I can see you knew that though," he said, leafing through the stack of papers.

Suddenly, Caine stiffened. "Ahh..."

"What is it?" Skalany asked. "What's happening, Caine?"

"Peter..." Caine gasped. Pain tightened his face. "Pearce has...lost patience with Peter. He is...hurt."

"Where, Caine? Can you tell where?" Kermit asked urgently.

"No..."

*************

Ayaas stood in the shadows of the rafters and watched with horror as one of the big men grabbed Peter's arms. Dave held the detective in place as the man he had knocked down got to his feet and began punching. Peter tried to kick him again, but the third man grabbed Peter's hair and said something that made him look at Sophie. Ayaas winced as Peter kind of sagged and let the man hit him.

Sophie was huddled in a dark corner with her knees drawn up to her chest. She had put her head on her knees, wrapped her arms around herself and rocked. Ayaas's little brother did that when he didn't want to see something. The boy hesitated. He wanted to do something to help, but what? Peter looked up at that moment and met his eyes. Ayaas flinched at the blood on his face.

Peter looked from Ayaas to the stairs, then to the men. He deliberately closed his eyes and moved his head to the side sharply. One of the men stood in front of him again and Ayaas couldn't see his face anymore. Ayaas looked at the backs that blocked his view of Peter and realized that if he couldn't see their faces, they couldn't see him...and he knew what Peter had been trying to tell him. Moving as quietly as he could, Ayaas headed down the stairs towards the open door at the bottom.

*******

*Part 19*

Creeping to the bottom of the attic staircase, Ayaas stuck his head out into the hall. No sign of anyone. Moving quietly into the hallway, he looked around. There was another flight of stairs at the end of the hall, leading to a lower level. There were several doors off to each side, but none were open.

Ayaas took a deep breath and moved towards the stairs. From the top of these stairs he could see a table with a telephone on it in the lower hall, and past that, another flight of stairs that led down to a door that obviously went outside. The phone or the door? "Both." Ayaas decided. Swiftly, he made his way to the phone. First, he'd call 911 and leave the phone off the hook, then he'd get out and look for help. He lifted the receiver...and someone's finger pressed firmly on the disconnect button.

"What are you doing?" Chan sounded curious, and slightly amused. "Aren't you supposed to be up in the attic with Caine and the other kid?"

Ayaas opened his mouth, but nothing came out. With a quick spin, he tried to run, but Chan caught his shirt and pulled him back. He shifted his grip to the boy's collar and upper arm. "Come on kid, it's just a couple days. You and your buddy will be back home soon; nothing terrible is going to happen."

"Nothing terrible?" Ayaas repeated, with outrage, the words tumbling out. "You won't let us go home. Three men came upstairs and are beating up Peter. He's got blood on his face. Sophie's so scared she's hiding in the corner. We haven't had..."

Chan's grip tightened. "You're hurting me!" Ayaas protested, looking up at the tall man. His face no longer looked amused.

"Sophie's here?" Frightened, Ayaas just nodded. "That son of a bitch," Chan cursed, "he said it was two boys." Taking the stairs two at a time, he dragged Ayaas behind him. Chan threw open the attic door but climbed these stairs at a more controlled pace. Ayaas looked up; by the time they had reached the top, a lazy grin had returned to Chan's face--but Ayaas could tell it was false.

Chan gently pushed Ayaas towards Sophie and took in the scene in front of him. Peter Caine, his hands cuffed behind him, hung from Dave's arms. He was breathing in hoarse, rasping breaths. As Peter glared at the new arrival, Chan noted that he looked terrible...there was blood on his face and shirt; sweaty hair hung in his eyes. Blood stained the knuckles of the two men facing Caine.

"*What* is going on?" Chan asked. His three associates turned to look at him, the expressions on their faces ranging from mild surprise to rage. None of them spoke. Almost predictably, it was Peter Caine who broke the silence.

"Chan," he panted. "Come to join in the fun? You gonna get your hands dirty this time, or are you just gonna shoot me again?" He groaned as Dave shook him roughly.

Chan winced as he glanced over at his niece. She had lifted her head from her knees, and was watching him. Tears stained her cheeks.

"We discussed this, Pearce," he said, ignoring Peter, pretending Sophie was not in the room. "We can still get the money if we play this right. We ask the city for the ransom of two children and one of their finest, the Channel Three Action News hero. We can't ask for a ransom if he's dead."

"How would they know?" Pearce asked, with a casual backhand towards the captured detective's face. Peter dodged, but his reflexes were off. Chan watched, his face impassive, as blood started to trickle from another cut from the heavy ring the older man wore.

"They're not stupid. They won't pay a ransom unless they know he's alive." Pearce raised his hand again, this time in a fist, but Chan grabbed his arm in mid-motion.

"What's the deal, Pearce? I thought you were a professional. Do you know this cop? Do you have some kind of grudge?"

Pearce whirled on Chan, eyes glittering. "Yes, I know him. He's the one who took everything away from me; my daughter, my money, my life. I want him to suffer."

Chan frowned as several different scenarios rapidly ran through his mind. He picked the one he felt would work and started talking. "Well, join the club, Pearce. Caine broke up a very lucrative organization I was running...drove me out of town. Do you see me resorting to physical abuse? There are better ways to get revenge."

A flicker of interest ignited in Pearce. "How?" he asked.

Chan tried to fan that spark. "I can think of at least a couple different ways...AFTER we get the ransom."

"Got any examples? Pearce asked harshly. "I need more than that, before I agree to stop my fun."

Chan hesitated. He had to make this good. "Caine is afraid of heights," he said finally.

Pearce scoffed. "So what? Lots of people are afraid of heights."

"Not like Peter Caine. And anticipation makes it worse," Chan said slyly, getting into it now.

Pearce looked from Chan's smirk to the horrified expression Peter was trying to hide. "You might be right, at that," he said thoughtfully. "Okay, we'll get the ransom first. Then we'll work on revenge. Let him go, Dave."

Dave let go with a shove, laughing as Peter fell facedown on the floor. With his large foot, the bodyguard flipped the prone detective over. Peter closed his eyes so as not to see the faces circling him, staring down. Pearce knelt and grabbed his chin, squeezing cruelly. "Look at me, Caine."

Peter's eyes flew open.

"Heights, hmmm?" Pearce murmured. "Tall buildings, catwalks, open helicopters, water tanks...the list is endless, wouldn't you say, Caine?" Whatever flashed across Peter's face must have satisfied him, for he smiled and let go. "Think about it, Caine, I have three or four days to come up with the perfect plan."

Tapping Peter's cheek playfully, he regained his feet. "Come on, boys, we have a ransom to demand."

As they left, Chan turned around and met Peter's dazed look with...regret? "See you around, bro." He said jauntily, the voice not matching the expression. He hesitated for a moment, unsuccessfully searching the shadows for Sophie, then left. The door slammed shut behind him.

***********