Kidnapped - State Intrigues

By Pierpaolo Maiorano

On a quiet afternoon in June, Steven Barrimore, a multinational's executive in Dallas, is taken from his home by a group of well-trained armed men, with an actual raid. Why did Steven Barrimore disappear? His partner and the detective of the DPD Fernanda Roy begin the search believing him to be the victim of a kidnapping for extortion purposes. They soon discover that he is in the hands of a governmental agency led by Carl Thompson, a shady and ruthless man, protected by a powerful politician.
Why was he not arrested but taken and kept locked up? What do they want from him? They torture him to make him confess what? Who is the mysterious man they call "The Senator" and what does he intend to achieve? Who or what is behind him? What role does the President of the United States have?
The answers to the many mysteries surrounding the matter will lead to the discovery of ...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pierpaolo Maiorano
• Release date: Oct 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9791222007946

Book preview

Prologue

Southern suburbs of Dallas.

A quiet Thursday afternoon.

A residential neighborhood.

A long and silent tree-lined avenue surrounded by villas.

A lightning-fast operation, which lasted four minutes and twenty-eight seconds, so swift that no one noticed anything.

3:58 pm…

«Thompson, we are in position. The house if surrounded. As soon as you give us the okay, we are going in...»

«Director are you really sure? We don't have indisputable evidence. It could be a gamble. We had him followed for weeks and no leads were found, he didn't do anything suspicious. He leads a normal life and ..."

«Barry, the documents we found in Austin's raid are clear. The address and photo who do they belong to? And anyway it's too late for second thoughts. Let's go over the operation's details.»

«He is home alone. No alarm and the neighbors are all away. It will be a quick and clean operation.»

«Where do we transfer him?»

«To the farm. It's the best equipped refuge.»

«Okay then, go!»

«Use the battering ram...»

«Come on, he must be here somewhere.»

«He's under the door. We immobilize him, you search the rest of the house.»

«Clear...»

«Clear...»

«Clear...»

«Get him to the van, go, go!»

«He's regaining consciousness, put a hood on him...»

«But what... who are you, what do you want...»

«Make him shut up... Thompson, we have him. We are heading to the agreed location.»

Day 0

I gained consciousness almost immediately, but I pretended I was still unconscious to listen to their conversation.

I was terrified.

What was happening to me? They were talking about an operation that had gone really well, that the information matched and that they had captured the head of the organization. They expected recognition for the precision and swiftness of the operation.

They had captured the head of the organization? I tried to understand something more about them. Their clothing, their weaponry didn't give rise to any  doubt, they definitely belonged to some governmental agency.

But what did they want from me? I didn't panic and, as if I had already experienced similar situations, I had a clear idea of what to do already.

I distinctly heard those in charge give the order to head north, so I began calculating the travel time to get an idea of where they were taking me, listening to every noise, smelling any smell. Suddely one of them:

«But are we really sure he is a dangerous terrorist? Looks like a normal guy to me. Even from the few words he said he sounds American. Let's hope Thompson didn't mess up!»

I gathered that this Thompson must have been the boss... well, I thought. I found the following sentence more alarming,

«It's the boss' problem but especially of this guy. Even if he is not who we think he is, we know what will happen to him!»

The fact that they had mistaken me for a terrorist was obvious and I hoped to clarify my position in a few minutes, but that last sentence took away all my certainties and I realized I was in a bad situation. I began to fear for my life, that sentence was certainly not said by chance.

Every day we heard and read about judicial errors related to the methods adopted by the various agencies.

They stayed silent for the rest of the ride, and I could concentrate again on the travel time, sounds, smells and any other clue that could help me understand where we were headed. The silence was broken after about an hour of travel, by a prayer near a cemetery, to rememeber two of their colleagues.

I thought quickly. Northbound... traveling for about an hour... the cemetery... we were almost certainly in Denison.

After a while, they left the paved road. First a dirt road, then they crossed a riverbed.

«Be careful, stick to the left that the water is lower than twenty centimeters there. If you get it wrong we will have a nice out of season dip.»

A river... it must be little more than a stream, given the depth. But where exactly ... Think, Steven, you know this area inside out.

Another ten minutes and we arrived at our destination. When they dragged me out of the van, I smelled the unmistakable smell of a barn, abandoned or otherwise empty. No other kind of noise indicated that we were in an isolated place. They dragged me for a few meters. From the smell of mold I realized that we were underground, another good clue.

They took me into a room, and pushed me onto a cot, untying me and taking off my hood. Only then did I pretend to regain consciousness, and asked again what was going on.

Without answering they closed the heavy door behind them.

I looked around, my room besides a bed and a chair, was bare and windowless. The electrical system was of an industrial type, the aeration system was powerful.

It occurred to me ... It's been just over an hour and a half since they broke into the house. Bruce is certainly back, who knows how frightened he will be.

I couldn't give up, for him and for myself. I then began studying a plan of action.

When I got back from work and found the door kicked in, I looked everywhere for Steven, but found no trace of him. From a first quick glance of the house nothing was missing, only the uprooted door and small drops of blood on the floor. The first thing I thought was that Steven had felt sick and that they broke down the door to assist him. I called the health emergency number but they hadn't received any requests for help from our address. I was relieved, but then I thought of an attack. I called 911 to report the break-in and Steven's disappearance. Two patrols arrived within minutes. They carried out the surveys and questioned the neighbors. No one had heard or seen anything.

Unable to do anything else, they advised me to go to the station to file a report.

At the police station I asked for my old friend, police officer Fernanda Roy.

«Bruce, is it really you?»

«Fernanda... what does Detective Roy mean?»

«I got the promotion. I'm a detective now. Let's go over there, tell me everything»

«Steven, my partner, is missing, I found the door uprooted and no trace of him. All of his things are at home. I have no idea of what could have happened. I saw him for the last time at 2 pm. He went back home, I had to go back to work.»

«Do you know if he had any enemies? Did he argue with anyone in the last few weeks?»

«No. Steven is a gentle and good person. He prefers to leave even when he has a squabble on the street. It's something more serious, but I cannot understand who can be angry with him, with us. We have been together for a year and we never had any problems not even with the neighbors.»

«About the neighbors. Nobody has heard or seen anything. And it's weird. Let's do this, now we'll write the report, then you need to find a place to stay, I don't think it's safe to stay there. Don't worry, we will get to the bottom of this and we will find him. I assure you.»

«Thanks Fernanda. Find him. I'm not sure he can take it, he's too sensitive and calm. And then, I feel lost without him.»

Day 1

Following Fernanda's advice, I booked a room in a motel a few miles from home. As soon as I woke up I still couldn't believe what had happened. So many strange thoughts came to my mind that I could hardly think, and analyzing what little we had managed to put together, I relived terrible moments I had already experienced as a child.

They called me at 9 am from the company. Fuck, I hadn't warned them of Steven's disappearance and I couldn't go to work. I had to think fast. I called them back and told them I was sick. It was easier for Steven. He often went away for work, telling the secretary was enough.

I started going door to door to question the neighbors. Nobody could tell me anything but, when hope of being able to discover something useful was fading, an elderly married couple, who lives at the beginning of the avenue, insisting, remembered that for a few days a van of an electric company, white with green and blue writing, was parked at the beginning of the avenue 24 hours a day. They couldn't tell me which company it belonged to.

A white van... why didn't it sound new to me?

I mentally went over the previous weeks, retracing, as far as possible, all of our movements. From the moment we left the house in the morning, to the route we took - always the same -, to the coffee shop where we used to have breakfast, to the arrival at the office. The restaurant we went to every day, the people we met… trying to focus on any detail, even the eye contact we made with people.

Suddenly I remembered the van! A couple of weeks earlier as we were leaving for lunch, the doorman stopped us, pointing to a van parked across the street. He didn't understand why it kept parking there for the past few days. I used to see it in the evening too when I returned home - in retrospect it was very similar to the one described by the old couple -, it seemed strange to me too and upon returning from the break, I convinced Steven to go the long way around to pass in front of it. A black man in a white tracksuit, medium build, with no hair and a scar on his right temple, began to stare at us from afar and followed us with his stare until we went inside. When we were face to face, I met his gaze, I remember shivering.

After making an anonymous call to the police, he never parked there again. I also linked another episode, which happened a few nights later. Upon leaving the restaurant, having the feeling of being followed, I turned around and saw a large black SUV driving at a walking speed, a few meters behind us. Curiosity and fear led me to take Steven by the arm and force him to cross the street. The driver of the SUV, as we had stopped between two cars waiting to pass, could not help but speed up as he passed by us. Although it was dark, a shop sign lit up the face of the man sitting on our side: black, bald, leather jacket and a dark mark on the temple ... it was the same man!

It could be a good lead, so I immediately went to tell Fernanda explaining everything in detail. I stayed at the station until the afternoon to look at mug shots, but nothing. I had that man's face clear before my eyes: he was not among those with a record.

With the help of the sketch artist I was able to recreate that face on paper. An incredible final resemblance. An officer scanned the sheet and issued it to the various departments soon after.

Day 2

The second night was a sleepless one as well. As soon as I would close my eyes, Steven's smiling face would appear to me... all of a sudden I would see him fall into the void. I didn't have breakfast. I went home to wait for the workers that would repair the door.

Going into that house and knowing I wouldn't find Steven was really hard, but I had to do it.

When the workers were done and I was alone, I searched the house from top to bottom. A bit to check if something was missing, but mostly in the hope of waking up from that nightmare and finding Steven on the porch in the garden, where he loved to take refuge when he wanted to relax. Unfortunately