Page 40 of Survivor
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Frank
“Come on, come on, Taylor, pick up.” The phone rang several times before connecting Frank to voicemail. He immediately hung up then hit redial and his heart skipped a beat when it didn’t even ring; the call went straight to voicemail.
“Caleb, we need to get to my place, now!” he hollered, and everyone in the room stopped what they were doing, the sudden silence disturbing. “What are you looking at? Get every goddamn patrol car available to my apartment, now!” Frank told the officers staring at him like he’d lost his mind.
Caleb and Davis were coming his way when Frank stepped out into the hall, Rory Landers right behind them. “What the fuck, Frank, what’s going on?”
“Come on,” He pushed past them, explaining while he hurried down the hall to the stairs. He was already on edge, no way he could wait patiently for the elevator. “I was texting Taylor and he said a reporter showed up, told Taylor he was with the Dallas Morning News and wanted to talk about the case, said his name is Landry. I texted him back after pulling up the employee records for the paper and not finding a Landry, reminding Taylor his birth father’s middle name is Landry, but I got no response.”
At the bottom of the stairs, Frank shoved the door to the parking garage open and sprinted to their squad car. Climbing in and starting it, revving the engine, he impatiently waited for Davis and Landers to climb into the back. Caleb had barely put one foot in the car and Frank was backing out, speeding through the garage while his partner cussed at him. “Goddammit, Frank, we are no good to Taylor if you wrap us around a pole on the way there.”
“Blair, it’s Rory, who’s in the apartment with Taylor?” There was a pause while Blair answered the question and Frank growled at Landers, telling him to put it on speaker phone.
“…very inconspicuous.” Blair’s voice came through the phone. Frank and Caleb had learned earlier in the day that Blair was Taylor’s long-time friend Kian’s real name. He was still shadowing Taylor and it finally dawned on Frank that Kian, Blair, Frosty the fucking snowman, had let that man into his apartment with Taylor.
“Kian, what the fuck man, why’d you let anyone in there with Taylor?” Caleb barked, still using the name they’d grown accustomed to.
“As I was just telling Rory, a man arrived in a DMN press car with a press badge and approached the apartment. I didn’t think…”
Frank shouted, cutting the younger agent off. “That’s right, you didn’t think, now get your ass in there and make sure Taylor is okay or I swear to God I will kill you, have you stuffed, and hang your dead fucking carcass over my fireplace!”
“Did you just…” Frank met Rory’s eyes in the rearview mirror as he zipped past a car and flew down the Dallas North Tollway in the HOV lane. Fuck if he cared, there were four of them in the car.
“Did I just what? Sit back and shut up, or I’ll pull over and toss you out on your ass, Trevor,” Frank promised and the annoying little shit had the audacity to bite back.
“It’s Rory, Frank.”
“You’re a conniving liar is what you are—who cares what name you go by?” Caleb turned and glared at the agent in their back seat.
“Yeah, I’m still here, assholes,” Blair reminded them. “I’m hanging up now and going to try to find a way into the apartment without alerting the perp.” The click when he disconnected the call sounded like a gunshot to Frank, his senses heightened. He couldn’t drive fast enough and it was seriously pissing him off. From what Davis had uncovered in the last twenty-four hours, Kevin Landry Taylor was a real piece of work. His wife, Melissa, had indeed disappeared with their baby boy, George, in 1992 after suffering years of abuse at the hands of her domineering and sadistic husband.
Frank and Caleb had listened in on the video chat between Rand Davis and Melissa’s cousin, Peggy. The picture she painted was disturbing, to say the least. As long as Kevin Taylor’s anger was directed at her, Melissa was determined to stay with him. The young mother likely feared her husband would follow through with his threats to harm her and their child were she to ever leave him. Apparently, hubs made a terrible judgment call one night while inebriated and pointed a loaded gun at their infant son, telling Melissa that if she ever left him, he’d shoot their son and make her watch. That was the final straw. If what Frank and the other three men in the car now suspected was true, Kevin Taylor had followed through on at least one of his threats, hunting his wife down and killing her. Frank knew for a fact that if the man had found his son that night, Taylor would be buried in a grave beside his parents.
“Hey, it’s Davis. Are you still with the Stones? Stay with them; we think the father has Taylor. Don’t let them out of your sight and if possible, don’t let them turn on the TV or the radio or answer the phone.” Davis disconnected the call. Keeping the Stones on a leash was going to be difficult to do, but necessary. Not knowing what was happening with Taylor was enough for him to worry about at the moment.
“Shit!” Caleb swore, reaching for the radio. “Dispatch, can you tell any cars answering the call to Officer Frank Moore’s apartment to go in without sirens?” Fucking hell, that was all they needed, for the cavalry to arrive sounding the trumpets. God only knew what Kevin Landry, evil incarnate, would do to Taylor if he were backed into a corner.
Arriving at the apartments, Frank saw there were four squad cars and one unmarked already there. Slamming the car into park, he jumped out and started walking toward his apartment. “Whoa, Frank, let’s talk about a plan.” Caleb grabbed him by the arm.
Jerking out of his hold, Frank snarled. “Fuck off!” and stepped around his partner. In a flash, he felt the car door digging into his back. Caleb had grabbed him and spun them around, slamming Frank against the door of their squad car. Frank struggled to get free, squirming and cussing, trying to push Caleb off him, but it was no use. He was bigger and stronger, and obviously smarter.
“Dammit, Frank, if you storm into that apartment, guns blazing, you could get Taylor and yourself shot. Is that what you want?” Caleb tried to get him to see reason. Frank stopped fighting, leaned against the car, and prayed that Taylor was okay. Looking over to his apartment, he saw that the windows were dark. That didn’t bode well; were they even still there? Had Landry taken Taylor? Where was that little shit Kian? His mind was racing, heart pounding in his chest. He couldn’t lose Taylor. Hell, they’d only just started their life together.
Davis was barking orders when a gunshot rang out, piercing the air, and then another. Frank took off toward his apartment right behind Caleb who was eating up the distance quite a bit faster with his much longer legs. They drew their weapons outside the door, pausing briefly to listen, but the night had gone silent. “POLICE!” Caleb shouted, kicking in the door.
