The Innocents by Nathan Senthil (autobiographies to read .TXT) 📕

was ok. He said into the phone, “They are gone. Can you send someone now?”

“Look, these men are holed up pretty good. It’ll give away their positions,” Conor said. “How about this? I’ll instruct the local PD to check on her in the morning.”

Satisfied, Gabriel began discussing the case. Conor was very careful because no one had an inkling where Ryatt was. Chances were, even Iris didn’t know. And they couldn’t get a warrant to search her house with what they had.

At Gabriel’s suggestion Conor went through Ryatt’s history, especially the records from the IRS. They found that whatever money Ryatt had robbed, he had deposited it in the Lawrence Foundation. Not all at once but in five or six installments. They knew it was the banks’ money because the Lawrence Foundation saw sharp growth in anonymous donations, always a week after Ryatt robbed some bank.

The IRS did flag this account. But when they saw that Iris was really spending all the money on public welfare and not using the Foundation as a device to launder money, they cleared her.

Ryatt co-owned an electronic shop, Goodwill Electronix, and he paid taxes for what measly income he earned from it. Two other guys had shares in this shop. Leopold Williams Jr. and Thomas Brown, who Gabriel guessed was the third member of their gang.

One of the biggest puzzles Joshua couldn’t crack was why Ryatt had taken a hiatus. This was revealed through his tax records.

Goodwill Electronix was opened at the end of 2008, after Ryatt’s gang stopped robbing. But it was a really bad year to come into the retailing business. Many online markets were taking the world by storm, buying in bulk from factories and selling them at discount rates that physical retailers just couldn’t keep up with.

Still, Ryatt and his friends managed to run the shop until 2018, when it finally began sinking.

Evidently lacking the skills to run a business, they turned back to the only lucrative job that they could do. Robbery.

Seeing how Goodwill Electronix might be the only other location where they could find Ryatt, Conor had suggested that they storm the place.

Gabriel refused, stating that they would observe it first, since they had no assurance that Ryatt was there.

Conor had a camera installed across the shop, and like Gabriel had said, only Thomas was in, not Ryatt or Leo.

Conor called it a night, Morgan left, and Bill had been sleeping for the last hour.

Gabriel dug into his rucksack and took out a phone, a burner he’d bought the day before, then he went to buy food for Brooks and Bill.

He typed Goodwill Electronix - Howard Street and sent it to Roman. A minute later, Roman texted back Tnx. If this leads us to Lolly, you get reward.

* * *

A few hours later, a call from Conor blared and woke up Gabriel.

“You won’t fucking believe what happened.”

I will.

Gabriel said, “What?”

“Thomas was abducted. The guy manning the camera before the shop just told me. I sent two plainclothes to investigate.”

“Let me go,” Gabriel said.

“Okay,” Conor said. “Shit!”

Twenty minutes later, Gabriel braked in front of Goodwill Electronix. The shutter was down. A bloody streak trailed across the sidewalk, leading from inside the shop to the road.

An unmarked car was parked a few yards down the shop. A guy with a marine haircut behind the wheel greeted Gabriel with a nod. A small black kid was sitting beside him on the passenger seat.

As Gabriel got down from the Camaro and walked to the car, its window rolled down.

“Agent Chase?” Jarhead asked.

“Yup.” Gabriel flashed his ID. “What happened here?”

“We got information that the shop owner was taken.” Jarhead pointed at the shutter. “My partner is in there, analyzing the CCTV. We closed it because this little shit,” Jarhead motioned at the black kid, “and his friends were stealing chargers and headphones from the shop when we came. Others escaped, but I caught him.”

Gabriel peeked inside. The boy couldn’t be more than thirteen. He was trying to look tough but his chest was heaving, forehead peppered with sweat. He was too young for prison. Juvenile didn’t rehabilitate boys. It criminalized them. Gabriel had seen kids going inside, all innocent, but coming out with a vast expertise in the art of crime.

Gabriel’s eyes shifted down. The boy’s thin wrists were tied together with plastic wires, and a thick cable extended from it, which Jarhead held.

Gabriel pointedly looked at the degrading harness.

“We don’t got no handcuffs.” Jarhead shrugged. Then without a prompt, he leaned in and slapped the boy on his head. “I didn’t know we were going to encounter these sticky-fingered sons of bitches when we came.”

The boy stared at Jarhead, his eyes tearing up in humiliation. Oh brother, was he in for a surprise when they strip him naked and powder him on his first day in juvie!

“Mind if I talk to him?” Gabriel asked.

“Sure.” Jarhead exited the car. “I’m going for a smoke.”

Jarhead transferred the cable to Gabriel. He got it and climbed into the car.

Once the Jarhead was out of earshot, Gabriel asked, “What’s your name?”

“LC,” the boy said, his voice full of fake depth.

“LC?”

“Lil’ Cessna.”

Gabriel lifted his brows.

“Because I love planes.” LC got defensive.

Gabriel shook his head. “What’s your real name, kid?”

The boy did not open his mouth.

“Okay, LC. Do me a favor?”

“Man, I ain’t snitching on my friends.”

“Not on your friends, though you must ask yourself, are they really your friends?” Gabriel said. “Friends don’t take you down a path that ends with you getting slapped around by strangers.”

The boy didn’t answer.

“Tell me what happened in the shop, before you guys ransacked it,” Gabriel said.

LC gawked, unsure what to do.

Gabriel added, “I’ll make it worth your while.”