Page 50 of Stripped

"I know. And for what it's worth, I'm glad you involved me. It's brought some closure."

"Well, at least there's that."

"Wraith," she said. "You can change a person's name, but you can't change their soul. You'll always be Robert."

He hung up. The conversation rocked him, dredging up emotions he hadn't thought about since the explosion. Ailsa was right; it did bring closure. He knew now that whatever feelings he thought he had for her were in the past. What he had been holding on to for the past year, was nothing more than memories. The longing of wanting to be in love, but not actually love. Dougie was right; he had been living on the fringe. It had been that way since he was a little boy and his parents died. Always on the outside looking in, never a real player in the game of life. But Pim. Pim was tangible, and what he felt when he was around her, as much as he tried to deny it, was tangible too.

He crossed over the Forth Bridge, skirting the city of Queensferry to Leith. The pub he was to meet Sinclair in was near the port. Wraith parked in a back alley at the address Gabriel sent him and crossed the street. Overflowing bins of trash lined the street, spilling out onto the walkway, the reek of rotting food and rancid garbage pungent in the damp night air. The bar itself, appeared no better. The place was dark and dingy inside, Wraith looked around. Drug addicts and scantily clad women made up the clientele, a place where drinkers went to die a soulless death. Sinclair was sitting in the corner. Wraith knew it was him without ever having met. He sat down opposite the agent. "No one provokes me…" he said, giving the sign.

"…with impunity," Sinclair finished with the countersign.

Verification complete, Sinclair began to debrief Wraith, not waiting for introductions. "The building is located across the street. It's owed by a Vance Stevenson. It has four stories and an exit in both the front and back. I have only seen people come and go from the back. A man with a young girl, possibly a daughter, left about two hours ago, and a different man entered not long after. Both men were wearing suits and appeared to have money, not local residents. I have someone tailing the man and girl. I did see a girl peer out one of the lower windows not long before the other girl left with the man."

"What did the girls look like? I lost the signal on Primrose, it's stopped working."

"The girl who left with the man was blonde, and she was wearing a school uniform. The girl in the window was blurred, she possibly had brown hair."

Wraith pulled a photo of Pim up on his phone, showing it to Sinclair.

"It could have been her. I can't say for sure, though."

"What's the plan?"

"We treat this as a search and rescue. We'll go in together. You know her, so your goal is to locate her. William and I will back you."

"William? I thought it was just the two of us."

Sinclair reached under the table, and Wraith noticed for the first time a large sable and white dog. He popped his head up, giving Wraith a discerning look. Wraith held his hand out, so the dog could sniff it, but instead, the dog bared his teeth and growled.

"Be nice, William," Sinclair said. "Stop showing off."

The dog closed his mouth. "Do you have something that belongs to the girl? Clothes, perhaps? William can search by scent."

Wraith shook his head. "No clothes, but I have, uhm, something that was in her mouth and touched her. Will that work?"

Sinclair nodded. "That will do."

"It's in my car."

They walked across the street in silence, to the alley where Wraith had parked. Though there were people out on the street, everyone seemed to be minding their own business, typical in a part of town where latent danger loomed everywhere. Keep your head low and mind your own business. Broken windows, the overflowing trash, graffiti, were all signs of the breakdown of social control. Disorder and crime were inextricably linked in communities ridden with destruction, prostitution, drug dealing, robbery and ultimately serious violence. Hopefully, they wouldn't be noticed. Wraith unlocked his car and pulled the black tie out that had been tied around Pim's mouth, handing it to Sinclair. "Will it work?"

Sinclair's brow cocked in question.

"I had to kidnap her to get her to the safe house," Wraith explained. "She wouldn't come willingly."

"It's a fine line we walk."

"Yes, but at least I know what side I stand on," he said more to himself.

"Really?" Sinclair asked. "Because there's more than one path to the dark side of morality. Welcome to The Watch." He let William sniff the gag. "What weapons do you have on you?"

"A knife and my pistol."

"Okay. Let's go."

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