Free Deadly Treatment by David McLeod Page A

door quickly in case they fell.
    Together in the middle of the room, they looked around at the shelves and surface tops. Ferraris, Porsches, red emergency service vehicles, and big rigs covered the spaces not occupied by books, lamps, and CD covers. Malone moved to the bed and looked underneath; he was greeted with another mishmash of mess.
    As they made their way safely out of the room, Malone turned to Erin, ‘We’ve had a word with Detective Rodriguez; so far he hasn’t got much to add, but he has ensured me that they’re doing all they can.’
    Erin looked deflated.
    Malone offered a few words of advice before both he and Taylor left, vowing they’d do all they could to help find Joshua. Thankfully, the blue Ford was still in one piece where they’d left it.

Chapter 12
     

     
    A side from arson, Vince and Scott shared one other illegal skill, auto theft. To say they were good at boosting cars would be like saying America had a minor weight problem. Vince was the better of the two, but both saw LA as one huge car showroom. After their individual scopes of the job, Vince and Scott got together and decided that since the majority of the combustible material they needed was already inside the office, trunk space wasn’t their biggest concern, so they picked up a dark blue Subaru for the night’s task. Should the need for a fast getaway arise, the Subaru offered both speed and — being a 4-wheel-drive — great cornering. It was also a popular car and, therefore, would easily blend into the background when necessary.
    It was just after two in the morning when they gently rolled, headlights off, into the alley at the rear of the job. They brought the car to rest with the driver’s side snugly against the wall and directly under the office’s air conditioning grill. Vince switched off the engine; Scott, who was riding shotgun, quickly jumped out with an electric screwdriver in his hand; it was fully charged and ready to go. With his seatbelt on and child locks preventing any form of escape, Joshua watched from the back seat as Scott jumped onto the car’s roof and got into position. Penned in the car by the office’s back wall, Vince’s job was to shine the torch through the door’s open window, illuminating the grill so his partner could unscrew the panel. After a quick look up and down the alley to make sure the coast was clear, Scott began.
    The screws and panel came off easily, and Scott laid them silently on to the car’s roof. He tapped twice on the windscreen and Vince slid over to the passenger side, got out of the car, and like a chauffeur, opened Joshua’s door. As Joshua got out of the car, Vince grabbed his shoulder.
    ‘You know what’s gonna happen to your mother if you don’t do this right, don’t you kid?’ he said menacingly.
    Not responding, Joshua pulled away from his grasp and hopped onto the hood of the Subaru.
    He climbed to the roof of the car and joined Scott who then checked him over to make sure there was no loose clothing or anything to catch or restrict his movements.
    Satisfied that everything was fine, Scott clipped a fanny pack onto Joshua and tied one end of a rope to his waist. ‘Everything will be fine; just do as we practiced, Scott said, and then lifted him up to the mouth of the vent.
    It was a tight fit. Joshua slid head first into the stainless duct and inched his way along. It was pitch black, but it didn’t matter, he didn’t need to see where he was going, after all there was only one way to go. Using outstretched arms to feel his way and pull himself forward, it only took a few minutes to get to his destination — the metal lattice grill that pointed directly toward the floor of the office’s kitchen. Joshua slipped his fingers inside the holes, and the grill popped out. Unable to keep hold of it, the grill fell downwards; crashing heavily onto the table below. Joshua immediately shrank back into the AC duct and tried to reverse his way along the narrow