Tainted Evidence (Evidence Series Book 10)

by Rachel Grant

  She reached for the volume button to shut it off.

  “No,” Ava said. “We need to hear it. It’s important to know the enemy.”

  She nodded and set the remote down, sighing as she did so. “You’re right.”

  But still, she couldn’t watch, so she returned to the window to look at the crowd. Using the binoculars, she quickly spotted Ava’s dad, Ari, who remained by the bridge.

  Josh was nowhere to be seen.

  She frowned again at Ari’s thick coat—warm for the August day, but by the river, there would be the occasional cool breeze. He tucked his head down, and his lips moved, as if he were talking into the collar of his coat.

  So the guy wore a wire. Nice.

  “Are you getting video of this?” she asked Ava, glancing at the camera on the tripod.

  “Yeah. If Dad throws the first punch, I’ll have proof.”

  Maddie smiled as she followed Ari’s path through the crowd with the binoculars. Clearly, someone had gotten him out of jail to mess with Josh, which was alarming in and of itself. The WPs wanted Josh distracted, and they’d pulled out all the stops.

  Was that why C-IV had invited them to the historical society benefit? To make sure Josh knew Alan was her brother? To further divide his attention today?

  Ari moved out of sight under the bridge, and she watched the other side closely, waiting for him to emerge. He did, finally, but he no longer wore the heavy coat.

  Instinct said something was off.

  She picked up her cell phone. She needed to tell Josh.

  Tisdale urged the White Patriots to take the bridge as a demonstration of how they would reclaim America. The crowd surged toward the bridge in response. It had happened at other rallies here, where one faction or another tried to take over the bridge and stop traffic. In the past, police had even allowed it, but they were supposed to prevent it if possible.

  Now, the crowd moved en masse. Josh’s team held their line, blocking the curved walkway ramp and stairs on the north side of the bridge, but if the police didn’t back them, this could get ugly.

  He got a cell call via his headset. The voice ID said it was Maddie. She wouldn’t call right now unless it was important, so he accepted the call.

  She didn’t waste time with preliminaries. “Ari disappeared under the bridge, and when he came out the other side, the heavy coat he was wearing was gone.”

  “Shit. Thanks for the heads-up. Gotta go.” He clicked off without waiting for her response and radioed the team. “I’m checking out something suspicious left under the bridge. Chase, move up to my position.”

  He pushed his way through the crowd, heading for the pedestrian underpass.

  Ava had joined Maddie at the window, watching the surging of the crowd as they pushed beyond the barricades and swarmed the curved ramp to storm the bridge. “They just…shoved aside the blue shirts,” Ava said, distress in her voice. “Why didn’t the police stop them?”

  Two officers had moved a barricade, essentially welcoming White Patriots to seize the bridge. Once there was a hole in the line, the rest was a blur.

  “Did you get a video of that?” Maddie asked.

  Ava checked the camera on the tripod. “Yes, video is still running.”

  “I hope you can clearly see the police officers’ faces.”

  “The news cameras might have gotten it too.”

  “Not if they were all focused on the stage.” Maddie pointed to the TV, which still showed her brother at the podium.

  She was so not going to family dinner next month or any month after. Not if her brother was invited.

  She put the binoculars to her eyes again and scanned the scene in the park below, spotting Josh working his way through the crowd next to the railing that lined the walkway above the Willamette River. He disappeared under the bridge, enveloped in a group of counterprotesters.

  Seconds passed. A full minute? The top of the bridge filled with White Patriots. Cars were forced to stop on the metal grating near the end of the span. Shouts—audible through the TV—went up from the crowd on top of the bridge.

  Suddenly, a massive boom sounded. The hotel shook. Ava gasped, and Maddie watched in shock and horror as the west end of the bridge collapsed.

  33

  Nausea and dizziness made Maddie sway on her feet as she witnessed the chaos below. She pressed a hand to the cool glass of the window to keep her balance.

  “Uncle Josh!” Ava said, her words an echo of the scream in Maddie’s mind.

  Josh.

  He was under the bridge. Under the pile of rubble with dozens of other people.

  Josh.

  Smoke and dust clouded her view. She could just make out the scene of White Patriots—the ones who’d been atop the bridge—scrambling. Several appeared to be injured.

  It looked like the bridge had snapped near where the green arch ended above the pedestrian underpass.

  Ava let out a screeching kind of sound that spoke directly to Maddie’s soul.

  Josh.

  Maddie picked up her cell and dialed his number. Her call went directly to voicemail.

  She tried to call Chase, but the call wouldn’t go through. Cellular bandwidth was already being tested as sirens sounded in the distance.

  What do I do?

  They were under strict orders to stay put in the hotel room until Josh and Chase returned.

  Did Chase know Josh was under the bridge? Did his headset still work? Was he…? She couldn’t finish that thought.

  No. No. No. No. No.

  NO.

  A sound behind her penetrated her haze, and she turned to see the door close. Maddie glanced around the room and realized Ava was gone. The girl must’ve said something—or maybe she hadn’t said a word. It was hard to tell given the chaos in Maddie’s mind.

  Ava had left. To find Josh?

  Probably.

  But she’d just be in the way of the emergency crews and…if the worst had happened, Ava shouldn’t be there to witness it.

  Maddie had to put a lid on her own horror and fear. She had to go after Ava. She’d find her and drag her back up here until someone who wasn’t suffering from debilitating pain could offer instruction on what to do.

  She went to the dresser and pulled out the pistol Josh had given her this morning. It was a tool of last resort if she and Ava were located while Josh and Chase were dealing with the protest. But Ava had left the room, so it seemed wise to take it with her.

  Time moved in the strangest way. It had been scant minutes—seconds?—since the bridge collapsed, but Maddie felt like everything was in slow motion. Surreal.

  She shoved the gun into her purse and slung it crosswise over her shoulder. She grabbed the room key and Josh’s car key from the dresser and headed out after Ava.

  This isn’t a flashback. The thought swam through Josh’s mind as he wavered in a place between conscious and unconscious.

  This isn’t Iraq and a firefight in a crumbling building.

  It smelled like it, though. Twisted metal and crumbling concrete. The scent of explosives and blood. The shrieks of civilians caught in the crossfire.

  Not Iraq.

  Portland. Oregon.

  Home.

  He took a deep breath and coughed. Dust from the shattered concrete permeated the air. He managed to open one eye—his head hurt like a bitch, and the other eye simply wouldn’t cooperate. He’d been hit by something.

  The bridge. That’s it. He’d been hit by a damn bridge.

  He heard nothing but a high-pitched ringing—his hearing another thing demolished by the blast.

  He lay on his stomach in a tight, dark space, the air thick with dust. Just above him, a crossbeam had collapsed and landed on a pile of debris, forming a pocket. He moved his arms and legs and realized he’d been incredibly lucky and wasn’t pinned down, but enough debris rained down on him to let him know he needed to get out before his luck ended.

  He scooted an inch to the left and touched something warm
.

  A body.

  Living or dead?

  He couldn’t move to get a fix on the person with his one good eye, so he felt along the skin and recognized an arm, which he followed up to the neck. He contorted himself to reach and press fingers to the carotid artery and felt a faint pulse.

  Alive.

  No clue if the person was breathing or not.

  Didn’t matter. Josh had to get himself and the mystery person out of here before the bridge finished collapsing on them.

  He pulled a small flashlight from his minimal utility belt—he wasn’t allowed weapons, but this flashlight was too small to hurt anyone—and shone it around the space, spotting crumbled concrete that might be loose enough to move. Maybe he could tunnel them out.

  A grinding sound from above—loud enough to break through his muted hearing—warned him he didn’t have time to wait for rescue. He guessed the explosive had been TNT or another kind of shock-wave blast. If it had been C-4 or other type of cutting charge, it would have sliced through the bridge cleanly. Boom and done.

  But this wasn’t clean. The metal had bent to a new shape, and it was now determining if the new form was structurally sound or not. Everything above him could give way in an instant.

  He thought of Ava and Maddie. Had they seen the blast? Did they know he was under here? Did they assume he was dead?

  He might be. Dead, that is, if he didn’t get out of here quickly.

  Even though he couldn’t hear, and anyone in close range of the blast would be equally deaf, he started shouting. Warning others he was tunneling through. Calling for assistance.

  Ava needed him. Maddie wanted him. He loved them both with his whole being.

  He pushed at the chunks of concrete that blocked his way, making a hole wide enough for his shoulders. A memory of Ava at eighteen months came to mind. It was the third or fourth night of her second Hanukkah, and just the week before, she’d helped her mom blow out the candles on Lori’s birthday cake. That had seemed to lead to a fascination with the lit menorah.

  She’d dragged her little stepstool to the window and climbed up. Josh had been about to grab her, but Lori seemed to understand what her daughter was doing, and she put an arm out to stop him.

  Little Ava sang her own version of the birthday song, gibberish that included the word Hanukkah, and blew out the candles, one by one, just as she’d done with her mom the week before. Then she turned and faced them, her eyes big and round and full of excitement, and said, “I have cake?”

  Josh and Lori had howled with laughter. They both figured she’d wondered why lighting the menorah wasn’t followed by cake on the other nights, and had decided that it was because she failed to blow them out properly.

  They’d had cake after lighting the menorah every night after that. But they’d had to work to convince Ava to not blow out the candles.

  He needed to tell Ava that story. She needed to hear about the parts of her childhood that were good and sweet. She needed to know that her mother immediately baked a chocolate cake that Hanukkah night to appease Ava’s sense of order. Because her mother had loved her with all her heart.

  There was so much he had to tell her.

  He’d abandoned her twice already. He wouldn’t abandon her again. Not if he could help it.

  34

  Ava had already caught an elevator by the time Maddie made it to the vestibule. She cursed inwardly and debated which would be faster, elevator or stairs. But the stairs were at the other end of the floor, and then she’d have twelve flights down.

  She dialed Chase again, and still, she couldn’t get a line out.

  She kept trying as she paced and waited for the elevator. In her mind, she kept seeing the flash and plume as the bridge collapsed.

  She was going to be sick. Josh.

  The elevator doors opened, and she jumped inside and jabbed at the Lobby button, cursing every time it stopped on another floor to pick up another person. The expressions on the faces of the new passengers were as bleak as her own must be.

  The car was full by the time it reached the fourth floor.

  When they finally reached the lobby, she was trapped in the back and too short to see if Ava was still in the building while the passengers in front of her were disgorged.

  Finally freed, she scanned the lobby. No Ava.

  She hurried to the west hotel entrance, which faced the park. But her escape from the building was blocked by hotel staff making announcements that the area around the bridge had been cordoned off for safety.

  “Have you seen a young woman—under twenty—tall, with dark hair in a ponytail?” Maddie tried to remember what Ava was wearing, but her mind had gone blank.

  Josh. Josh. Josh.

  “I don’t know, ma’am,” the man said. “The entrance on the other side of the building is still open, but you won’t be able to go to the park.”

  Maddie turned and ran for the exit on the east side of the building. She stepped out into the street with a dozen other hotel guests. As warned, the street leading to the park was closed.

  Had Ava made it through before a police officer was in place? Had it taken her a long time to reach the lobby too, or had she zipped down, ahead of the crowd because she hadn’t hesitated?

  “Please,” Maddie said to the officer redirecting traffic. “My niece is in the park. She’s only seventeen. I need—”

  “Sorry, ma’am. Only first responders are allowed through.”

  “But my boyfriend was under the bridge! I need—”

  He gave her a sympathetic look. “Sorry. The bridge is unstable, and you’ll only be in the way of first responders. Police are having enough trouble clearing out the rally crowd.”

  “If I can’t go to him, I need to find Ava. She’s a minor—”

  “Ava? Dark hair? Ponytail?”

  “Yes! You’ve seen her?”

  A siren on the street behind her that ran parallel to the one that fronted the hotel and river drowned out all sounds as it crossed the intersection.

  “She was here a minute ago,” the officer yelled, his voice dropping as the sirens passed by. “Her dad was here.” He pointed to the corner to the east, close to the park. “He saw her talking to me and ran up. Said he has a car parked in the public lot two blocks north, in the containment zone. I let her through since she was with him and he was giving her a ride out of here.”

  “Her father? You’re sure?”

  “He said he was her father, and she didn’t deny it.”

  Maddie doubted Chase would pass for being old enough to have a seventeen-year-old kid, which meant it really had been Ari. And Ava had used him to get past the barrier. But did she manage to elude him once she was out of sight of the officer? Was Ava in danger from her father?

  Maddie’s gut said yes. The first night she met Josh, he’d said Ari believed Ava had revealed his embezzling on purpose.

  He could want revenge. How had he gotten out of jail early, without anyone notifying his daughter?

  “Please. Ava could be in danger from her father. I need to find her.”

  “Sorry, ma’am. She was eager to go with him. Why do that if she was afraid?”

  “To get past you, because she’s worried about her uncle, who was under the bridge.”

  The bridge.

  Josh.

  Panic threatened to engulf her again.

  She thought of the man who’d held her last night and told her he loved her. The man who moved across the country to take care of his niece. The man who’d told her from the get-go that Ava came first and meant it.

  Josh would want me to stuff my grief and fear for him and go after Ava.

  But how?

  Then she remembered. Josh put a tracker in Ava’s purse. Had she grabbed her purse on her way out? Probably. Maybe. Hopefully.

  Maddie turned on her heel and ran back into the hotel. This time, she opted for the stairs instead of the elevator. It was only two flights down into the underground parking garage. Josh had l
eft her the keys and authorized Maddie’s thumbprint on the Raptor vehicle’s key fob this morning, just in case something happened and Maddie and Ava needed to leave while Josh was busy with the rally.

  She pressed her thumb to the back of the fob and unlocked the door, then hit the power button the moment her butt landed in the driver’s seat. The vehicle came to life, the touch screen computer offering a full menu of options.

  She couldn’t figure out how to get it to find Ava’s tracking signal, however, so she pulled out her phone and called Trina, thankful she was able to get a line out this time.

  Trina answered right away, “Maddie, I just heard—”

  “I need to speak to Keith.”

  “He’s on the phone with—”

  “It’s urgent. Ava’s missing. I think she’s with her dad. I need to find her through the tracking device Josh put in her purse, and I don’t know how to use the computer in Josh’s SUV.”

  She was desperate to know if there was any news about Josh, but she buried the questions.

  Find Ava, then ask about Josh. It’s what he would want.

  “I’ll tell Keith,” Trina said.

  A moment later, Keith was on the line. “There’s a menu on the project screen where you can find phones, computers, cars, and trackers,” he said without preamble. “Josh would have set up a project or client under his own name and listed Ava’s phone and the purse tracker there.” He talked Maddie through the menus, and in seconds, she had a map with a flashing red dot.

  “I’ve got her,” she said.

  “Good. Where is she? If she’s in the park, I can have Chase—”

  Maddie studied the map, trying to make sense of it. “She’s not in the park. She’s…” The map had to be wrong. Why would she be there?

  “She’s in Nielsen Tower,” Keith said for her. He must’ve logged in to his own computer.