And just where is that? her subconscious asks her. Rayna doesn’t know. Honestly, she’ll probably just hang with her parents for awhile like the quintessential college dropout.
With a sigh she turns to Detective Grady, who is still waiting patiently by the door. “I guess this is it,” she says as she slings her duffel bag and makeup kit over her shoulder and begins to wheel the suitcase toward the door.
“Are you sure? Because once the techs come in here and tear the place apart looking for drugs, I can’t guarantee we will be able to get anything back for you.”
She takes one last look around and zeroes in on her jewelry case on the dresser. She quickly picks it up and stuffs it in her duffel bag. “Now I’m sure,” she replies.
They make their way down the stairs and back out to the car. As they step in, Detective Grady gets a phone call. She steps out of the car to take it, and Rayna watches as she paces back and forth while she’s given information. When she’s finished, Grady slides into the driver side.
“That was the station. The forensic accountants finally finished analyzing the files on that flash drive.”
“And?” Rayna prods, practically sitting on the edge of her seat.
“Did your sister mention anyone by the name Lyle, Jared, or Jonathon?”
She squints at the list of male names; they mean nothing to her. “No, why?”
“They were your sister’s coworkers, and they have just become suspects. I can’t give you too many details, but I’ll be dropping you off at your parents’ then heading to the station. If you think of anything about the three of them, you let me know.”
Rayna nods and turns her attention back to the window. How has she missed this much of her twin sister’s life?
DETECTIVE GRADY
NOW
She steps back into the station, giving the woman manning the front desk a nod before heading to her own. Tossing her jacket over the back of her swivel chair, she collapses into it with a huff of frustration.
“Anything new?” Leary looks up from the paperwork on his desk. He looks just as disheveled as she feels.
“Nada. The twin just maintained the same story, she didn’t know anything about her sister’s work, nor the men I mentioned.”
“Seems odd, doesn’t it?” Leary questions as he leans back in his chair, placing his hand on his chin and rubbing an imaginary beard.
Grady nods. “Very. What twin barely speaks to her sister? We talked to the parents, and they both said the girls were glued at the hip through both primary and secondary school. They even lived together in college.”
“But then something had to happen.” Leary leans forward.
Grady pulls up her notes on her iPad. “According to Rayna there was an issue with the boyfriend, Zeki, did we confirm that with him?”
“No, he clammed up once the lawyer showed and advised him to remain silent. They took him down to central booking. Probably going to spend some time in jail, unless his lawyer is good. Which, with the drug money, who knows what sleaze this guy has on retention.”
Grady shakes her head in disdain. “So we are back at square one as far as the relationship between the girls is concerned.”
“Pretty much.” Leary pulls up his own notes. “Boyfriend John seems very forthcoming. Told us all about how Remi had found things missing all over her house, he mentioned there had been some prank calls…” He trails off as he evaluates the paper in his hand.
“Funny you call him forthcoming,” Grady pipes in.
“You wouldn’t?”
“He forgot to tell his girlfriend he was married. That definitely isn’t very ‘forthcoming’ to me,” she elaborates, leaning back in her own chair. Her eyes begin to close from exhuastion. She only managed to sneak in a few hours of sleep in the early morning. And all of those hours were in the employee break room, which is far from comfortable.
“True. Where’s he at, anyway?”
“His apartment,” Grady rattles off the address on her iPad. “Got a couple of plain clothes officers sitting on him.”
“Good,” Leary agrees. “Now tell me about this work debacle.”
Grady checks her watch. “Well, the three gentlemen in question should be in here at any moment, but basically the work on the flash drive we found showed that Remi had discovered that there was someone stealing from her company. She had it narrowed down to two people, took the info to her boss, then found out about two weeks ago that her boss was in on it. Turns out, over a hundred thousand dollars has gone missing over the past year and a half.”
“So do we think all three are guilty?” Leary is scribbling down notes of his own.
“Definitely not. I’m no forensic accountant, but I personally think it’s the boss and one of the accountants. For some reason I don’t think three of them would be in cahoots like this. And one hundred thousand doesn’t seem like an amount high enough to keep three people happy, especially since it was taken over such a long period of time. I think if there were three of them, they would have taken more.”
He nods. “I guess we will split them up for interview and see what comes of it. Make sure we triple check all of their alibis.”
There’s a pause in their conversation as both of them mull over their individual thoughts.
“I still think the twin is hiding something,” Grady interjects.
“Oh yeah?” He sets down his papers, his full attention on her.
“Yeah, seems like she’s keeping something back. Her answers…well it’s not that they seem dishonest, it’s just that they seem…not all there, if that makes sense?”
“Makes sense, but listen, you’re too tired to look into this more now, I can see your eyelids slipping down from here. Go catch a couple hours rest in the break room and I’ll wake you up when the three stooges are brought in.”
He’s right. She is too tired to deal with this now. She nods in agreement, then heads to the break room for a quick nap.
***
Leary shakes her shoulder to wake her, much too soon for her liking. But she quickly gets up and uses the mirror to freshen herself up.
“They here?” she garbles.
He nods. “In three separate rooms. They’ve been here for an hour actually, just letting them sweat it out a bit before we take a crack at them.”
An hour? Grady checks her watch and realizes she’s been asleep for almost three. “Think they’ll lawyer up?” she asks as she tries to straighten the wrinkle that’s appeared on her shirt.
“The boss? Definitely. The two suspected henchmen? I’m not sure. Honestly, for corporate accountants they don’t seem all that bright. The left quite the paper trail which Remi caught onto. Our accountants were easily able to trace the money and the amounts from her detailed notes.”
She nods, then opens the door to head into the hallway. “Anything else I missed?”
Leary shakes his head. “Nope. Still sitting on the vic’s apartment trying to wait for this sketchy roommate to show up. Zeki will be spending the night in jail before his bail hearing tomorrow…and I think you’re up to date otherwise.”
“No calls from the twin?”
“You mean random confessions? Nope. But the parents did call trying to see if there was any update.”
Grady exits the room and heads for her desk, stopping by the office printer where a picture of the girls has printed out. It looks like it was taken when one of them graduated college, as one is wearing a cap and gown. The other is wearing a pale blue cocktail dress with a white cardigan. Grady stops and picks up the picture.
“Shocking, isn’t it?” Leary is right behind her.
“Very. They look like the same person.”
Setting the photo back on the printer for whatever officer printed it out, she grabs her iPad off her desk and heads toward the interview rooms. “Which one am I taking?” she asks.
“You get, uh…” He flips through his phone for a picture, showing her briefly before turning his phone back around to look up
the name. “…Lyle Roberts. Says here he’s thirty-two and unmarried. Has been at Johnson Finance all of his working career. Social media accounts are pretty dry, can’t find any evidence of a girlfriend.” Leary finishes just as Brown walks up behind Grady. He smells nice and fresh, as if he just got out of the shower.
“Brown is going to take Jonathon, the boss. I’ll be in with Jared.” He motions to an interview room at the end of the hall. “Remember, Mirandize them, be their friend, see what we can get out of them. But if they lawyer up, stop talking immediately.”
“Will do,” Brown replies as he heads for the nearest interview room.
“But if they do lawyer up,” Leary continues, a certain gleam appearing in the corner of his eye, “make sure you take your sweet ass time calling that lawyer.”
The three of them laugh, then straighten themselves up as they prepare to go into their respective interview rooms. Three other officers come down the hall, prepared to watch from the outside and be their backup if needed.
With a quick breath to compose herself, Grady plasters a fake smile on her face, then ducks into her interview room. Here goes nothing.
REMI
NOW
She wakes to the face of a strange man right in front of her. Surprisingly, she doesn’t open her mouth to scream. Instead she tries to move backwards, but finds she’s up against something sturdy. She turns to find another man behind her.
“Well, she’s awake,” the one in front of her says.
“Yeah, no thanks to you. I told you to lower the dose on those pills.”
“Whatever.”
Remi blinks as the two men bicker. Her mind is clearing from the fuzz for the first time in days. She begins surveying her surroundings, trying to figure out just where she is. The man seated directly behind her holds her wrists tightly. Remi becomes aware of pain in her shoulders. It’s the first pain she’s felt in awhile. She knows whatever they gave her is definitely wearing off.
“I thought you said she was coming,” grumbles the one behind her. Obviously he’s growing tired of holding her wrists. He loosens his hold slightly, allowing Remi to relax her shoulders. It’s still painful, but not nearly as much as it was before.
“She is,” the other one snaps back. “She called and said she was on her way like thirty minutes ago.”
“Ugh.”
Remi surveys the man in front of her. He’s short, probably about her height, but it’s hard to tell as he’s sitting down. He isn’t the skinniest, but definitely isn’t fat, either. Stocky is probably a more appropriate word. His skin is light, but with a tinge of something. Perhaps he has a tan. Or a distant relative was from somewhere else. His clothes are average, a basic colored tee and what look like cargo pants. His shoes are worn tennis shoes that obviously needed to be replaced long ago. Remi gets a feeling that neither of these men has much money.
She wants to turn around and get a good look at the man holding her wrists, but she knows they’ll think that suspicious. One thing is for sure, though: neither of them is wearing a mask. Which means they aren’t worried about her turning them in. If she wants to get out of here alive she needs to think of a plan.
“Gah. Next time I get to sit there and do nothing and you get to hold her wrists!” He tightens his hold again and Remi gasps in pain.
“Dude, she’s like a twig, don’t tell me you’re having trouble controlling her. Plus it’s not my fault you cut the only zip-tie we had off of her when she passed out!”
The two of them continue to argue, and Remi zones out again to survey the room. The carpet is white, and stretches wall to wall. She’s on the floor now, not on the couch like she was when she passed out. The couch is cloth covered and worn looking. Although this room appears to be an auxiliary TV room, it doesn’t seem to belong to someone with a lot of money. It seems homey, and very middle class. There are no windows, making Remi think it’s definitely a basement room.
“Swap me!”
“No! We took this job because of you, so now you have to deal with her!”
“She wouldn’t have passed out if you hadn’t over drugged her!”
Remi rolls her eyes. The way the men are bickering reminds her of how she and Rayna used to bicker when they were younger. It makes her think that the men could possibly be siblings.
She searches her memory for anyone she might have pissed off. The first people who come to mind are obviously Lyle and Jared. But these two men are definitely not them. And they keep referring to a “she.” Remi can’t think of a female she could have possibly pissed off. She doesn’t even really have many female friends. And none who could possibly be mad at her.
Suddenly her bladder reminds her it’s there. And she needs to go. Bad.
“—It’s not my fault you invested all our money in that shotty off-shore—“
The men are still bickering, but Remi really needs to go.
“Um.” It comes out as a whisper. She clears her throat and tries again. “Um, I need to go to the bathroom.”
The men stop mid sentence and look at her, then at each other. The one in front of her speaks first.
“Well what are you waiting for? Take her to the bathroom.”
The man holding her wrists groans and drags them both to their feet, almost yanking Remi’s shoulders from their sockets.
He lets her toward a corner of the room that has been out of her field of vision so far. He opens a small, thin door and tosses her into the dark room. She stumbles as he lets go of his hold on her wrists.
“Hurry up,” he says before closing the door behind her.
Remi feels a sense of déjà vu as she is completely enclosed in the dark room. She stands there for a moment rubbing her wrists, until her bladder once again reminds her it has been way too long.
She begins to feel along the side of the wall for a light switch, but can’t find anything. She realizes this is taking way too long and quickly gives up on looking for a lightswitch. Instead she feels around for the familiar shape of the toilet.
She has just sat down to use the toilet when the man begins banging on the door.
“What’s taking so long? Hurry up!” he shouts again.
Remi tries to go as fast as possible, but it has been way too long since her last bathroom break. She tries to think back to the last time but she can’t remember. Maybe while she was in one of the drug-induced comas in the cellar? Remi suddenly realizes she has no idea how long she has been here. It feels like days. But it could have been longer, after all, she was out for much of it.
The door slams open and the man grabs her wrist before giving her a chance to wipe.
“Pull up your pants,” he snaps at her. Remi does the best she can with one hand. She probably looks like a mess, but she supposes it doesn’t matter anyways. Not like she’s trying to impress anyone anyway.
With that thought, a sudden image of John fills her mind and a small nudge of longing fills her heart. She is definitely still mad at him, but a part of her misses him too.
The man drags her back to the couch, taking a seat and roughly shoving her down on the floor. Then he wrenches her hands once again behind her back. The other man sits on a beanbag on the other side of the room, staring at them.
“You comfy?” he sneers.
“Fuck off,” the man holding her wrists replies. Remi prepares for them to start their bickering where they left off, but the sound of the door above makes them pause.
Suddenly, the man on the beanbag stands up and walks over to the bottom of the stairs. The man holding her wrists sits up straight. Just who is this woman?
She hears the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs and the two men share nervous glances. The woman turns the corner and Remi quickly observes her appearance.
Unlike the men, she’s concealing her identity with a thin Mardi Gras type mask that covers her eyes and nose. Her blonde hair reaches her shoulders and looks glossy and healthy. She’s dressed well, obviously endowed with more money than the two henchman s
he has watching over Remi. She wears a designer pantsuit, leading Remi to deduce she just came from a job of some sort. Maybe she does work in the office Remi works in? Maybe she’s in on the money stealing operation at Johnson Finance. Maybe—
The woman leans down in front of Remi’s face. Moving it from side to side as if she’s doing an inspection.
“Well hello, Rayna. Have I got plans for you…” the woman sneers as she steps back.
Her words take a moment to register.
Rayna?
RAYNA
NOW
She knows what she’s doing is a bad idea. She’s seen some of the cop shows her sister loves. Vigilantes never actually help the cops, they only get in the way.
Even as those thoughts register, she can’t be persuaded, as she finishes getting dressed and heads to the bathroom. She inspects her face in the mirror, trying to decide what she should do. She has bags under her eyes, which is expected considering her lack of sleep over the last two days. She could put make-up on them to conceal them, but that doesn’t seem like something Remi would do. She decides to leave them as they are and heads down the stairs toward the door.
“Where are you going?” her mother asks tearfully from the couch. Rayna doesn’t think she’s stopped crying since Rayna arrived here yesterday.
“For a walk, mom,” Rayna fibs, knowing her mom won’t let her leave if she knows otherwise.
“Okay dear, be careful.” Her mom sounds suspicious, but Rayna is an adult so she can’t prevent her from going out—even though Rayna knows that’s exactly what she wants to do. If it were their mother’s choice, she and Remi would have never moved out at all.
Rayna walks down the street toward the subway, her mind running over her plan again and again. It isn’t even a good plan, but sitting around doing nothing doesn’t seem like a good idea, either. She has to try and help Remi somehow.
The trip across town to her sister’s apartment takes about half an hour. When she walks up to her old home, she looks around quickly before slipping her key in the lock and turning the knob.
Before Now Page 15