“Amy Wu?” he repeated.
Jack crept further to his left, closer to his gun.
“How is this girl still alive? Why? Why?!” His knuckles went white from the grip on the shotgun. Every muscle in his body was clenched. “My family was torn apart for this girl. And she’s still alive!”
Jack was almost at the gun.
Slightly further to go.
“No, Monty.” Terrance tried to reason with him. “It’s not her. She’s mistaken.”
Jack’s fingers reached out.
“It’s not her? I can see that it’s her! She’s the spitting image of her mother! I can see that! Don’t lie to me!”
Monty gripped the gun.
The rage was bubbling inside him.
The anger was ripping through his veins.
Jack moved closer.
Almost there.
“She should have died five years ago!”
“No, Monty,” Terrance pleads, too far away to save her, “that’s not what this is.”
“What?!”
Monty turned away, letting go of the girl’s hair, unable to control his movements as the anger fueled him.
Jack was so close now. Within striking distance.
Monty turned back.
The confusion was gone.
Only rage existed now.
Only anger controlled him.
“She has to die!” He held the shotgun inches away from her face, the butt of the gun resting on his chest.
Tears streamed down her cheeks, but she didn’t move. She couldn’t.
“She’s not dying!” Terrance yelled.
“Tiffany died because of her!” Monty stepped closer, biceps clenching as he pointed the gun at her head again.
“No!” Terrance moved.
Monty’s attention swung to the man charging towards him.
Jack moved.
Two shots were fired.
Two people went down.
Chapter 36
In the blinding headlights, it took Bill Harvey a few moments to understand what had happened.
There were two shots, in quick succession.
He looked to Jack, lying on the ground, conscious, gun in hand, pointed in the direction of the headlights.
He looked to Amy, frozen in fear, holding her body tight, waiting for someone to tell her what to do next.
Then he looked to the bodies on the ground.
Terrance Marshall lay on top of Monty Lee, a slow creep of red filling the carpet next to them.
Harvey inched forward next to Jack, still with his gun drawn, still ready to fire.
“You hit?”
“I’m good.” Jack’s response was cold, but still, he didn’t move.
“Amy? Are you ok?” Harvey came towards her.
She didn’t answer.
He rested a hand on her shoulder, careful not to startle her. “Amy?”
With large innocent eyes, she looked up at him and nodded.
“Terrance?” Harvey advanced towards the two men, Jack now standing to his right, gun still drawn and pointed at the two bodies on the ground. “Terrance?”
Terrance moved, rolling over as he clutched his stomach. He moaned with the agony of a man who had just taken a gunshot to the abdomen.
“No.” Amy reacted, running to the side of her captor. “No!”
“It didn’t get all of me.” He groaned, clutching his side, trying to stop the fast flow of blood. “He must be a bad shot if he missed this stomach.” He tried to laugh, but instead, he coughed deeply, spitting blood.
“Don’t die,” Amy cried, cuddling him. “You can’t die. I need you. I need you to stay alive.”
“You don’t need me.” He tried to laugh the statement off, but the fast flow of blood from his stomach, drenching his hand, was sapping all his energy. “Nobody needs me.”
“I need you,” she cried. “I need you to stay with me.”
His presence was all she had known for the last five years, it’s all she could remember.
“And I’m afraid that I can’t let you die today either, Terrance,” Harvey stated, hearing the ring of sirens in the distance. “I still need you to testify. I need you to testify that Kevin set me up, and I need you to testify that Kevin killed Tiffany Lee.”
“If I live, I’ll testify.” Terrance panted, short of breath. “He set you up, but he didn’t kill Tiffany.”
“You drove the car to the reserve with Tiffany in the trunk.”
“I did.” His voice was soft as Jack moved past them. “But I didn’t drive Kevin Wu.”
Jack leaned down to the body of Monty Lee.
“He’s alive,” Jack said as he pressed two fingers against his throat, looking for the wound. He located the wound on the side of Monty’s chest, covering it with hands. “Your jacket.”
Removing his jacket, Harvey handed it across to Jack, who pressed it hard over the wound.
“You’re going to make it, Monty.” Jack tried to get a response from the man he shot. “We’ll get you through it.”
“Thank you,” Terrance mumbled to Amy. “Thank you.”
“No, no, no,” she cried. “Don’t die.”
Terrance didn’t respond to Amy, conserving what little energy he had left. “Harvey.”
Harvey turned his attention to the dying man. Terrance nodded then looked at the girl by his side.
“I will,” Harvey responded, acknowledging Terrance’s unspoken request.
And then Terrance Marshall laid down for the final time.
Chapter 37
“Did you find Monty Lee?” Harry Beach came to Bill Harvey’s side, outside the steps of the courthouse that held his fate.
“Not now, Harry. It’s been a very long night.”
“Are you going in to settle?”
Despite his fast stride, Harvey stopped in his tracks, staring down at the reporter. The sun was still early in the sky, bathing the area in a soft morning glow. “What are you talking about, Harry?”
“The case.” He adjusted his hat, confused by the question. “Are you going in there to settle?”
Harvey’s mouth dropped open a little. Harry Beach didn’t know what occurred only hours earlier, and if Harry didn’t know, nobody knew. “Are you playing me? Is that what this is? Looking for a different angle for your story?”
“I don’t understand.” Harry squinted. “Kevin Wu said that he was coming here to settle. He said that this meeting was about settling this case.”
“Kevin Wu is here?”
Harry nodded. “As is his wife.”
When Harvey left the hospital, he left the young Amy Wu in the care of Detective Stacey Oates, her shock at the girl’s story only matching his. Oates had already tried to contact the Wu family three times before he left, but nobody answered, and no one returned her call.
For Harvey, the recent ordeal was nothing more than a few cuts and bruises, the same for Jack Grayson. The same could not be said for Terrance Marshall—declared deceased at the scene.
“How long ago did they walk in?”
“Only ten minutes ago.” Sensing a story, Harry pulled out his phone and stepped closer. “What’s going on, Harvey? You look like you haven’t slept, and you look very confused. Where have you been all morning?”
“The hospital, and then a storage facility.”
“I don’t understand. How’s that connected to this case?”
“Follow the Wu family and have a camera ready.” Harvey looked to the courthouse. “You’ll get a front-page story, Harry. A shocking one.”
Chapter 38
“Thank you for your timely arrival, Mr. Harvey.” Judge Dean looked at his watch. “I trust that you have come to this Case Management Conference in good faith for a settlement.”
“I’m only here because it’s mandatory.”
“We have made our conditions clear.” Taylor Reaper unbuttoned his Italian fitted suit jacket as he sat down. “Mr. Harvey needs to acknowledge that he takes full responsibility
for his actions, and the actions that he influenced Kevin Wu to take, and then we can begin to discuss a smaller settlement amount.”
Still angry that he was played by Harvey last time, Taylor wouldn’t be fooled a second time.
But in response, Harvey only shook his head.
“Mr. Harvey?” Judge Dean questioned. “If you would like to begin proceedings.”
A phone buzzed on the table. Kevin Wu, dressed impeccably in a dark blue suit, looked at the number and then placed his phone back down without answering it.
Sitting behind her husband, Eva Wu took her buzzing phone out of her purse. Following her husband’s lead, she did the same, not answering the call.
“Detective Oates?” Harvey nodded towards the phones.
Kevin’s eyes squinted together. “How would you know that?”
“She has important news for you.” Harvey placed his briefcase on the table. “I suggest that you return her call.”
Kevin scoffed. “No. I’m not falling into that trap. I don’t return the calls of police officers. I know what she wants—she wants to trap me, force me into a mistake. I know how those guys work, but I’m not going to fall for it. Not today.”
“That’s not the case. She has good news for you.”
Kevin burst out laughing, slapping his right hand on the table. “There’s not a chance that I’m falling for your tricks. Not a chance. If Detective Oates wants to find me, she can send out a warrant for my arrest.”
“Return the call. She has information for you.”
Harvey looked at Eva Wu, sitting behind her husband, arms folded across her chest, hair covering half her face.
“Mr. Harvey, I’m keen to get this CMC moving,” Judge Dean interrupted. “If you could please sit down and begin.”
Tired from the night of fighting and confusion, Harvey took pleasure in sitting down. “I’m not settling this case.”
Taylor looked away, shaking his head, fist clenching on the table. “I knew it. This is just another play by you.” He began to pack up his files. “I don’t have time to waste here. I have a job to do, not games to play. I’m not your pawn, Harvey.”
“Your time here won’t be wasted,” Harvey stated, staring at Kevin, whose eyes were focused on the edge of the table in front of him. “But I imagine that your last four months have been.”
“Mr. Harvey,” Judge Dean interjected again before the argument got out of hand. “We’re all busy people. Get on with it.”
Harvey nodded, still discerning how he was going to play this. He had expected to walk into the room and find that Taylor Reaper had requested an extension with all the confusion surrounding the night’s events.
“Tell me, Kevin, what’s it like to be the smartest person in the room?”
Kevin tilted his head as he stared at Harvey.
“You’re too smart for me, obviously. You outsmarted me in those hypnotherapy sessions, didn’t you, Kevin?”
“What game are you playing?” Taylor asked.
“Kevin is a very smart man. Very, very smart.” Harvey’s voice was composed. “Too smart, it appears.”
“I don’t have time for this.” Taylor threw his hands in the air.
“The orange door, Kevin. I found it.”
“What orange door?” Kevin uncrossed his legs and leaned forward.
“Mr. Wu, I would ask you to stay out of these discussions,” Judge Dean asserted, but Harvey ignored his request.
“Door 1649. Centinela Road. That’s the door you found in the hypnotherapy sessions. The one that you couldn’t open because it held too many of your secrets.”
“That…” Kevin leaned backward, crossed his legs, folds his arms, and shook his head. “That means nothing.”
After unclipping his briefcase, Harvey reached in and removed a small black book.
Kevin didn’t respond; instead, he turned to look at his lawyer.
“What’s this?” Taylor questioned.
“It’s Kevin’s black book from the year in question. It proves that he bought drugs the morning of his brain scan. He even noted why he purchased a barbiturate named Thiopental: Drugs for brain scan. There’s a date, and a location, of where he bought the drugs.” Harvey flicked the book open to the middle page. “It clearly has the date and the time that he bought them.”
“I’ve never seen that book before in my life.” Kevin turned away.
“The storage facility has video footage. It shows you entering that storage room numerous times.” In the early hours of the morning, the storage facility attendant was offered a few hundred dollars, and he happily looked away while Harvey downloaded the surveillance recordings.
“It’s not me.” Kevin moved back from the table, looking at the door. “This book is a fake. I’ve never seen it before.”
“It’s your handwriting, it’s your notes, and it proves everything.” Harvey leaned forward. “It proves that you set me up. It proves that you deliberately took drugs on the morning of the brain scans to influence the results. You’re done, Kevin.”
“So what?”
“That means this case is over. It’s clear that you have tried to set me up right from the start. This is all the evidence that I need to dispute your claims.”
“You think you’ve won?” Kevin shrugged. “This proves nothing. Nothing. All this proves is that you might not be responsible for my claims, and that means nothing to me. All I do is withdraw the case, pay these people, and then I go about my life.” He defended himself. “Losing this case doesn’t affect me.”
“There are names in that black book.”
“So? They’re just names. It doesn’t connect anything to anyone. It proves nothing!” Kevin’s fight or flight response kicked in. “Nothing!”
“In court, it proves that I’m innocent.”
“Congratulations. You’ve won this case. I withdraw it. I withdraw the whole case.” Kevin threw his hands in the air. “But guess what? It still means nothing to me. I still walk free.”
“The names in this book might prove nothing for the courtroom, but on the street…”
Kevin’s mouth dropped open.
“That’s right, Kevin. I have no intention of handing this book to the police. To them, it’s worthless. Without testimony from you, it’s just a bunch of names. But those names are the people who requested you to traffic young women from Hong Kong. I can’t prove that, but I don’t have to. I’m not taking this book to court—I’m going to hand this book to the people whose names are in it. They know that the only thing keeping them out of prison is your testimony.”
“You wouldn’t,” he whispered.
“It’s called karma. And it’s coming for you.”
Kevin shook his head, flicking his hand in the direction of the book. “Makes no difference to me. None. The names in that book trust me. They trust that I won’t testify against them, and you said it yourself, without my testimony, those names mean nothing. I will still walk away from this.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Harvey snarled as he leaned forward. “Because your life is about to be turned upside down. I know who murdered Tiffany Lee.”
Kevin laughed, leaning back in his chair. “Now you’re losing the plot. I didn’t kill Tiffany Lee.”
“Come on, Harvey,” Taylor interjected. “This isn’t the time or the place for this. This is a Case Management Conference.”
“And that CMC has concluded,” Judge Dean interrupted. “Mr. Wu has indicated that he’s going to withdraw the case. Go on, Mr. Harvey, I’m interested to see where this goes.”
Harvey paused for a few moments, allowing the tension to build. “Did you know that there was a tip-off that you were at the entrance of the Ernest E. Debs Regional Park on the night that Tiffany Lee disappeared?”
Kevin’s voice was soft. “I didn’t kill her.”
“The tip-off stated that you were at the entrance to the park. They stated that you took Tiffany Lee into the park and murdered the young girl.”
/> “That’s enough,” Taylor interrupted again.
“I have nothing to hide,” Kevin responded. “I wasn’t there.”
“Of course, you weren’t. But someone wanted you to take the fall for the crime.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Someone wanted you out of their life. They killed Tiffany, and they wanted you to go to prison for it. They tried to set you up for murder.”
“You’ve lost me. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t say anything more,” Taylor interjected. “Keep your mouth closed.”
“Last month, the LAPD received an anonymous tip-off from a woman that stated you were at the park with Tiffany Lee.”
“That’s a lie.”
“The tip-off said that they watched you take her into the reserve. They could say this because they knew exactly what happened that night.”
“I wasn’t there. How many times do I have to say it?”
“The tip-off came from a woman, Kevin.”
Harvey’s eyes drifted towards the woman sitting behind her husband.
Everything fell into place.
Squinting, Kevin turned around. “Eva?”
Eva Wu.
A wife, a stepmother, and a cold-blooded killer.
“And it wasn’t just Tiffany.” The thoughts rushed through Harvey’s mind. Back to everything that Terrance had told them. “It wasn’t just Tiffany…”
“No.” Eva shook her head. “I have no idea what you’re saying.”
“The anonymous tip-off—it came from you. It came from you because you wanted your husband gone. You wanted him out of your life. You told the police it was Kevin so that they would arrest him, and drag him out of your life.”
“Eva?” Kevin questioned. “Is this true?”
She shook her head again, struggling to find the answer. “Of course not. How could it be?”
“Eva?” Kevin pleaded.
“What?”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.” She looked away from her husband.
“Eva?”
“I didn’t…”
“Eva.”
“He’s turning you against me, Kevin. Can’t you see that? Can’t you see what he’s doing?”
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