Chapter Fourteen: Day Three - Great Job So Far
When Hami got out of the shower, he noticed Tiffany had written her cell phone number on the notepad by the hotel room phone. Hami rolled his eyes, but it might be nice to have local contacts. He saved the number under 'Tiffany- Set Person'. He didn't actually know her job title. He got dressed and headed over to Ron's room.
Day Three of Ron's schedule was a day full of interviews. He was going to sit in one spot while a parade of journalists and media people would take turns asking him 3 to 5 questions. They would get about 10 minutes each. Ron wouldn't need Hami to be right there with him; he could stay in the green room. Kiki stayed in the limo.
Realistically, it was another boring day, really. Being a bodyguard was a lot less action-packed than working for the local crime family. He was happy not to have to hurt anyone. The closest he'd come to it was flipping Tiffany into bed last night. After his interviews were done, they had another evening free, but Ron wanted another night at the club, instead of a hotel party, which was probably for the best. Just then, Hami got a call from an unknown number. He didn't answer because who would, but then they called again, and it didn't come up as suspected spam. So he thought it might be an emergency.
"Hello," Hami said.
"Hello Hami, great job body guarding so far," A distorted voice said over the phone. "Do you know where your client is now?" Hami looked over at Ron, who was sitting across from him in the Limo.
"Uh. Yes?" Hami was confused. Was this supposed to be a threat? Kiki was driving on the highway, and the windows were tinted. Even if they knew what Limo they were in, what was the plan? Was there a bomb in the car? Did they have snipers nearby? DID THEY POISON RON'S MINI BAR? Hami's anxiety was getting the better of him. He took a deep breath and calmed down.
"Wait, what?" The distorted voice said. "You KNOW where your client is?" Hami hadn't noticed before, but this guy was doing a Boston accent. On top of using a voice modulator, he was doing a fake accent.
"Yes, he's sitting in front of me right now," Hami said. He listened for background noises, but didn't hear anything.
"Uh... please hold." There was a shuffling sound and then two people talking to each other. The voice modulator was still working, so the voices were distorted, but one person was no longer faking a Boston accent. They sounded farther away, but they were obviously still in the same room as the phone.
"I grabbed the old man, you said to grab him."
"Yeah, because you told me you checked his IMDb page, you said you knew what he looked like."
"I can't help it if old guys all look the same."
"Well, who the f**k is this guy?"
There was some shuffling again, and then the voice spoke again.
"Well, we don't have Ron, but we have the woman he was with the other night!"
"Crystal or Brandy?" Hami asked.
"Ooo, yeah," Ron spoke up, "Are you ordering alcohol for tonight?" Hami shook his head at Ron. He put his phone on mute and then speaker phone so Ron could hear the so-called kidnappers.
"Ron, these guys are saying they kidnapped the woman you were with the other night." Ron purked up.
"It's been a long time since I've had a good old-fashioned kid napping. What are they asking for?" Ron's face went serious. Hami seriously wondered if he'd ever dealt with this kind of thing before. Hami unmuted the phone.
"What do you want for her safety?" Hami asked.
"We want 5 million dollars passes to the con this weekend." There was some shuffling again, and then the distorted voice came back sounding a little winded. "Five million, just the 5 million."
"5 Million Dollars? You think I have 5 million dollars lying around?" Ron screamed into the phone.
"No way, Ron Wilber!" the voice said.
"Oh sure, now you recognize him," another person said with the same distorted voice.
"You listen to me," Ron said, grabbing the phone from Hami's hand. "You little shit, I don't know who you are, but I wouldn't give you a dime if you had my own mother locked up there. As for Randy or Clarie, I didn't really know them very well, so best of luck with them." Ron made a gesture to Hami to hang up the phone and handed it back to him.
"What about this old guy?" The distorted voice said. "He was in your hotel room, and he's old, he's gotta be a friend, right? How much for him?"
"I just said I wouldn't give you a dime for my mother, what makes you think..."
"Ron! Ron! Wait..." the kidnappers turned off their distortion machine for a second so that Ron could hear Chuck's voice. "It's my Ron, don't leave me with those guys. They seem serious!" Hami doubted that. They forgot to put the phone on mute, and they didn't know the face of the person they were supposed to kidnap.
"Chuck! What happened?!" Ron was suddenly concerned.
"They got me in the hotel room, they got me while I was sleeping. The girls are here with me, you gotta do whatever they say." Chuck said quickly. Then a let out a scream. The sound was cut for a few seconds. Then the distorted voice came back.
"Bring us a million dollars at the comic convention, we'll do a hand off in a public place," they hung up.
Hami was suspicious. They didn't even say not to involve the cops, but Hami didn't think they were dealing with the brightest bulbs in the bunch.