When she and Vic got out of the department store with their unmentionables also dealt with, Willie was waiting in his car talking on the phone. Erin and Vic got in quietly and listened to Willie’s half of the conversation, trying to analyze how he was doing with getting them inside the Dysons. Erin’s stomach was tight with nervous anticipation.
“You know I usually don’t get involved in this kind of thing,” Willie said. “I keep my nose out of other people’s business. But this is different. I actually know Charley’s sister. If anyone can get the truth out of her, it’s Erin.”
There was a long pause while he listened to the voice on the other end, Nelson Dyson, Erin assumed.
“Would he still have her there if he’d gotten everything he wanted out of her?” Willie countered. “He obviously doesn’t have everything he needs. And the longer he’s got her, the hotter things get. The cops are looking for her. Other people are looking for her. It’s only a matter of time until they come by there with a warrant, and then what?”
More waiting.
“Of course Dwight is careful. He wouldn’t be where he is today if he wasn’t. But this is your chance, Nelson. Your one chance to do right for Bobby and show your father that you’re not second-best.”
Erin and Vic looked at each other, gauging each other’s reaction to Willie’s conversation. Erin had a strange sense of being in an alien world. She’d always seen Willie as a blue-collar worker. He did his mining, he did odd jobs that involved physical labor, like moving boxes, painting buildings, and putting flyers on cars. She knew that he had advanced skills in caving and first aid, but those were hobbies, not a professional skill-set. Listening to him smoothly negotiating with Nelson Dyson was a freaky, out-of-body experience. She’d never even imagined him in that role before.
Willie started to nod. “Yeah. Yep. I know. I can’t guarantee results, but this is about as close as I can get. Give me this chance. If it doesn’t pan out, then nothing is lost, right? You’re no further behind than you were to start with. It’s not your job to get the story out of Charley, so if you can’t, no skin off your back. If you do, though… Well, Dwight isn’t going to ignore it, is he?”
Wrapping up noises from the phone, which Willie acknowledged, and then hung up. He looked at Erin and Vic.
“Okay. We’re in. I just hope we’re not jumping into a hornets’ nest.” He swallowed, lips tightening. “I want to keep you girls safe.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
E
rin had been expecting a big house. The foster families she had grown up with had always lived in little places, relying on foster parenting checks to help pay the bills. She had worked in some bigger houses, cleaning or caregiving, and that was what she had pictured in her mind. A mob boss would obviously live in a big house. But she had never seen anything like the mansion that Willie drove up to.
There was a big gate with a guard booth. Willie handed over his wallet. “Here to see Nelson.”
The guard took his time going over Willie’s ID and checking it against his list, then handed it back and pressed the button to open the motorized gates. “You have a nice day, sir.”
Erin thought she detected a sneer in his voice, but she couldn’t think of anything that warranted his contempt, so she brushed the feeling aside. They drove down the long driveway, and then the house came into sight. It was at least as large as the hotel they had slept in. Erin stared, her mouth gaping open.
“That’s… a house?” she asked weakly.
Willie nodded. The muscles in his jaw and neck were tight, belying his calm exterior.
Erin shook her head in amazement. A dozen regular houses could have fit into the same footprint.
“How many people actually live here?”
“Good question. Dwight and his second or third wife and her kids. Nelson. I think there are a couple of grown daughters. Household staff. Security. Gardeners and groundskeepers. Whatever soldiers or guests he has at any time. All in… somewhere over fifty, I would think.”
At least it wasn’t just Dwight and Nelson, but it still seemed like an incredible waste of space and resources.
“It’s huge,” Vic observed.
Erin was glad to hear it from someone else. Willie hadn’t grown up in a house like that, but he’d been there before, so he had known what to expect. Vic had grown up as part of the Jackson clan, but she hadn’t lived in a mansion like that. She’d lived on a farm. Erin didn’t know anything about it, but she pictured a quaint little traditional farmhouse when she thought about Vic growing up there as a child.
“It’s insane. I can’t imagine anyone living in a place like that.”
Willie shrugged. “People live in all kinds of places. It blew me away when I first saw it too. But when it comes right down to it, it’s just like animals living in different cages at the zoo. You can have a little barred cage, or a huge fenced environment they can roam around in. But either way, it’s still a cage.”
Was that what it was? Erin didn’t consider her home a cage, and she didn’t think Willie saw his that way either. But the people who lived in that huge mansion—he saw them as caged animals. That was how he had felt when he had lived there, or whatever place they’d put him in while he’d been an apprentice to the clan. He’d felt trapped and penned in—Willie, who could crawl through the narrowest caves and tunnels without feeling a flicker of claustrophobia.
They drove up to the house and Willie pulled into a small parking lot around the side, screened from sight by a row of trees. He led the way to a side door. A servants’ entrance, not the front door.
He knocked a couple of times and opened the door, leading Vic and Erin in.
It was a small anteroom, where a receptionist sat at an antique desk with an appointment book and there were a number of doors leading in different directions. The receptionist looked at Willie. She raised one eyebrow.
“Mr. Andrews. I wasn’t expecting to see you today.”
“I have an appointment with Mr. Nelson.”
“Yes, I saw that. I meant before that… no one had told me that your services would be required.”
“Something came up. I arranged it with Mr. Nelson this morning. There shouldn’t be any problems.”
“No, no problem.” She picked up the wired phone handset on the desk and pressed a button. “Mr. William Andrews,” she announced. She waited for a reply. “I’ll send him up.”
Her gaze slid to Erin and Vic as she hung up.
“I didn’t realize you were bringing anyone with you.”
“Miss Victoria Webster and Miss Erin Price.”
The receptionist wrote their names down. She was obviously waiting for more information, but it was not forthcoming. “And they are here as your… assistants?”
“Yes.”
The woman studied Vic for a long time, frown lines between her penciled eyebrows. Then she smoothed her face and nodded. “Take the back stair,” she gestured to one of the doors leading out of the room. “You know the way.”
Willie jerked his head at Vic and Erin and led the way through the door and into the warren of back halls and passages. Erin tried not to gape at the wealth on display as they moved through the halls. Paintings on the walls, antique furniture topped with priceless vases, lamps, and other ornaments. She wasn’t as well-versed as a collector would be, but she knew quality when she saw it.
“This is amazing,” she breathed, not daring to raise her voice above a whisper.
“If you think the back rooms are something you should see the ones intended for public viewing,” Willie murmured back.
Erin didn’t touch anything. She was intensely aware of the video cameras that undoubtedly recorded every move. In the locations she couldn’t see any cameras, she assumed they were only better hidden. Miniaturized and placed in a crack, a button, or behind a mirror. They wouldn’t leave an inch of the place unmonitored. And Erin had thought she’d be able to just walk in and get Charley out of there? She could just unlock whatev
er door Charley was imprisoned behind and spirit her away? Even though she’d been told repeatedly how dangerous the Dysons were, she still thought she could just walk in and walk out.
Vic gave Erin a look that eloquently expressed she was thinking the same thing.
Then they were there. Willie led them through a door into an office. The carpet on the floor was thick, big tomes lined the bookshelves along the walls, and a man sat behind the walnut desk. He didn’t look up immediately when they arrived, but continued to read whatever report he was paging through on his desk. Willie stood quietly waiting, and Erin and Vic followed his example.
The man eventually put the report down and looked up at them.
He was blond, with a long face, impeccably dressed and groomed. When he looked them over, he didn’t seem haughty or self-important. Curious and tentative. Not sure how to proceed. He looked at each of Erin and Vic in turn, then back at Willie, the one of them that he knew, eyebrows up in a query.
“Willie. I see you brought the whole gang.”
It calmed Erin to hear him call Willie by his nickname, just like he was a friend. No Mr. Andrews for him. Just a couple of guys who had worked with each other.
“This is Victoria Webster. And Erin Price.”
Nelson looked at them and nodded. His eyes went back to Vic.
“Victoria Webster?” he repeated.
Vic nodded. “Vic,” she advised.
He pressed his lips together, frowning, then caught himself and looked at Erin. But she apparently didn’t set off anything on his radar. He looked back at Vic.
“Willie said Charley is your sister.”
Vic looked over at Erin, and Erin raised her hand tentatively. “Mine.”
“Yours. Erin Price…” he seemed to be consulting his mental files. “I don’t think I know your family.”
“No. We weren’t… involved with your family in any way. Not that I know of. My parents died years ago, around the time Charley was born. I haven’t been around until just recently.” She was about to offer up that she had a bakery in Bald Eagle Falls, then thought better of it. Did she really want him knowing all of her business? She was sure he could ask a few questions and find out, but there wasn’t any point in just handing it to him. She bit her lip and waited for him to ask anything further.
“I never knew Charley had a sister,” Nelson said.
“We didn’t grow up together.”
“I see.” He nodded. “Even siblings that grow up together can sometimes be estranged. You and Charley aren’t close, then?”
Erin could feel the chance to find out where Charley was and to make sure she was okay slipping away from her. If the man decided she wasn’t close enough to Charley to make any difference to them, he might just send Erin on her way.
“We met just recently, but we’ve hit it off. I think I can help you, Mr. Dyson. I think I can convince her to tell what happened between her and Bobby.”
“Nelson, please. There are too many Mr. Dysons around here for me to keep track of when anyone is talking to me.”
“Oh. Okay. Mr. Nelson.”
“Just Nelson. I could call you Erin, if that would help.”
Erin nodded slightly. “This is all a little bit new to me. I don’t know what I’m supposed to say.”
“I’m not my father. I don’t expect any kind of formality.”
“Okay. I’ll try.”
“Why don’t you have a seat. Would you like drinks? Anything I can do to make you comfortable?”
“Oh, no,” Erin said. “We just ate.” She looked down at her clothes, not feeling much more comfortable than she would have if she’d still had on her pajamas. “I mean… nothing for me. I don’t know…?” She looked at the others for their input. Vic and Willie both shook their heads.
Nelson pressed a button on his desk. “Bring Charley in.”
Just like that. Erin had been expecting to have to do some heavy negotiating, but apparently that was not required. Willie had already smoothed the way for them, and Nelson, not standing on ceremony, was ready for action.
Erin swallowed and looked at the floor, not wanting to have to meet Nelson’s eyes.
There were a few minutes of silence, and then a door clicked open, and Charley was escorted in.
Her eyes were down. They were dark and deep-set, like she’d lost weight in the couple of days since Erin had seen her last. Erin couldn’t decide whether they were bruised or if it was just the lighting. Charley walked in under her own power, free of any restraints, but they might as well have been holding a gun to her. She walked into the middle of the room and waited there for further instructions.
“Sit down.”
Charley looked around and selected a seat. She raised her eyes for a moment to look at Nelson, glanced at the rest of them, and looked back down again.
Erin waited for Nelson to say something to Charley, but he didn’t. He looked at Erin and made a motion toward Charley. There she is. All yours.
Erin licked her lips and wished she had at least asked for a glass of water. She had no idea what she was supposed to say. She had been the one to suggest to Willie that she might be able to get Charley to talk, but she couldn’t find anything to say. She swallowed.
“Uh… hi, Charley.”
Charley raised her eyes to look at Erin for a moment, as if she hadn’t been expecting any sound to come out of Erin’s mouth.
“Hi.”
“I was really worried about you. When those guys showed up to talk to you, I was really afraid of what was going to happen.”
“Bright girl.”
Erin was amazed that Charley could still use sarcasm as a weapon in the situation they were in. Erin was there to help Charley, but Charley was acting like they were talking privately.
“I was hoping I could help you to get out of here.”
“I don’t see how. You don’t know the way things work around here.”
“I thought that if we could prove that you were innocent, that you didn’t have anything to do with Bobby’s murder…”
Charley let out a short, sharp bark of laughter. “How are we going to do that?”
“If you’ll just tell the truth about what happened that night. I know you didn’t kill Bobby. If you just explain what happened…?”
“How can I do that? I wasn’t even there.”
“Ward is pulling surveillance video from inside and around the apartment. If you weren’t in the apartment, he’ll be able to verify that.”
But inside, Erin knew he wasn’t going to be able to verify that Charley wasn’t there. The police had already reviewed her alibi and decided it had been fabricated. Why would she need to fabricate an alibi unless she was really there?
“Erin… you shouldn’t be here.”
“I know. But… I was in danger too. People came looking for me last night.” Erin looked at Nelson. “Dysons.”
“Why would they want you?” Charley scowled “you don’t have anything to do with this. There was no need to bring her into this,” she told Nelson. “Erin doesn’t know anything. I didn’t even meet her until after Bobby was dead. You know she doesn’t have anything to do with her death. You shouldn’t have brought her here.”
“I didn’t bring her here,” Nelson said mildly. “She brought herself.”
“She shouldn’t be here. The Dysons have no reason to interfere with her.”
Nelson looked at Charley, his nostrils flaring. “You seem to be under the mistaken impression that I have something to do with Erin being here. I don’t. She and her friends were the ones who called me. I don’t know what might have happened last night…” He looked over at Willie.
“I don’t know if it was something Dwight ordered, or just a couple of soldiers deciding they needed to take care of any threats. Whatever it was… I caught wind before they got there and got Erin and Vic out. Whether there is still any kind of planned action against them, I have no idea.”
“We can sort that out later,” Nelson m
ade an uncaring motion. “They can’t be any safer than they are here.”
“Charley, what happened?” Erin begged. “Can’t you tell me? If you didn’t kill Bobby, then tell them what did happen, so that they’ll let you go.”
“What makes you think anyone is going to let me go if I tell the truth?” Charley demanded. “I’ve been trying to tell them for two days that I didn’t kill Bobby. I threw myself on their mercy. What else can I do?”
“Charley. Just tell us what happened. The truth.”
“I was out with the girls,” Charley maintained. “I have no way of knowing what happened to Bobby.”
“You were out having margaritas,” Erin agreed. Ward had confirmed that.
Charley looked surprised. “How… who told you that?”
“And then what happened? After last call, when everybody went home, where did you go?”
“A few of us went out for a nightcap. Just because the restaurant closes, that doesn’t mean you can’t go to someone’s apartment and have a few more. We were having a good time. We weren’t ready to hang it up for the night.”
“You didn’t go to the apartment of one of the other girls. You went home to Bobby.”
“You don’t know anything,” Charley asserted. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Nelson just rubbed his chin and watched the two of them.
“You went to Bobby’s apartment,” Erin repeated.
“You weren’t there. You don’t know anything.” Charley coughed. It was a deep, croupy cough that sent a chill through Erin. What had they done to Charley? Had they tortured her? Waterboarded her? Left her in a cold, dark dungeon under the big house?
The coughing didn’t stop. Nelson pressed the button on his desk, but didn’t give any directions this time. A woman poked her head in the door, looked at Charley for a minute, red and gasping for oxygen between the deep, wrenching coughs, and then withdrew. She was back a couple of minutes later with a tea tray. She placed it beside Charley and picked up the cup, pressing it into Charley’s hand.
Stirring Up Murder Page 17