Distortion (Moonlighters Series)

by Terri Blackstock

  As he stepped out of the shadows, Holly gasped. “No way!”

  Juliet’s mouth fell open as she locked onto his face and snapped. “Leonard Miller.” She would recognize that face anywhere. “Call Michael.”

  Juliet took one picture after another as Holly got Michael on the phone again. “We’ve got Leonard Miller,” she blurted when he answered.

  Juliet could hear Michael’s excited response: “Are you sure?”

  Holly gave him the address and apartment number. “Want us to stay with him or follow Amber?”

  “Stay with him until I get there,” Michael said.

  As Amber got into her car and drove out of the parking lot, Miller closed himself back into his dark apartment. Juliet lowered her camera and drew in a deep breath.

  “Man, are we good or what?” Holly asked.

  Juliet couldn’t help smiling and giving her a high five.

  CHAPTER 38

  Where are you going?” Cathy asked Michael as he turned his car around.

  “I’m taking you home before I go to Miller’s apartment.”

  “No, I want to go!”

  His jaw muscle was clenched tight, and she could see the intense anger on his face. “Cathy, I’d rather you didn’t.”

  “I don’t care what you’d rather. I’m as invested in this as you are.”

  “But it might get dangerous.”

  She stared at him for a moment. “What are you going to do? Go in there and beat the daylights out of him?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Then I’m coming. You’ll need me. Between the two of us, we can gather a lot of information about him. We’re not letting him disappear this time.”

  Michael still hadn’t turned back around—he was taking her home. “Michael, Miller lives that way. Turn the car around.”

  Michael let out a great sigh and turned into a parking lot.

  As he circled it and came out, Cathy sulked. But Michael was quiet too.

  “I know how you feel,” she said in a softer voice. “I feel the same way. I dream about Miller suffering. Tortured. Locked behind bars. I could hurt him.”

  Michael didn’t answer.

  “But, Michael, we have to keep our heads. We have to do this right.”

  Michael’s eyes had taken on a steely determination as he drove. “We’ll do it right, don’t worry about that. Leonard Miller is about to get what’s coming to him.”

  CHAPTER 39

  School was the last place Zach wanted to be today, but when his mother had given him the choice, he’d decided to go. Uncle Jay had a password on his computer, so Zach couldn’t get on it without telling him why. The password was mainly to keep Jackson from getting on the computer when he wasn’t supposed to, and since his cousin was only five, Zach got that. But he didn’t want every Google search to turn into some big hairy deal. At school, he could search in peace.

  The first few teachers who’d greeted him with hugs had made him mad, and he’d locked into brooding mode, practically daring anyone to talk to him. Some of the girls ventured too close and told him how sorry they were about his dad, but he pretended not to hear. What was wrong with them? Couldn’t they see when somebody didn’t want to talk?

  He thought of putting a sign around his neck that said, “Yes, I’m fine. Leave me alone.” But that would just draw more attention.

  He bided his time, paying no attention in class, counting down the minutes until he had computer lab. Finally, fifth period came. By now, most of his classmates were giving him his space, but the teachers hadn’t got the memo.

  Mrs. March greeted him at the door. “Zach, I didn’t expect you back so soon.” She touched her chest as if she was about to cry. He hoped he didn’t get stuck having to comfort her. “I know this has been a hard week for you.”

  “I’m okay,” he managed to say around the knot in his throat.

  “I won’t make you take the test today since you’ve been out for a few days. You can make it up next week.”

  Zach didn’t even know there was a test. “Okay, thanks.”

  Good. Now he’d have time to get on the Internet and see what was going on with his dad’s case.

  He waited until the test started and his classmates were working, then he signed onto the computer and got online. He googled “Dr. Bob Cole Murder Panama City” and waited as the list of related articles came up.

  He clicked on the first one. It only outlined what had happened the night his father was shot. Nothing new. The next one was pretty much the same, but told about the arrest of Jerome Henderson in his father’s shooting.

  He made a mental note to find out everything he could about Henderson. But first he clicked on the third link, which took him to the News Herald, Panama City’s local newspaper. Today’s news links came up, but he saw nothing about his father. He typed “Bob Cole” into the search box, and several headlines came up. He skimmed them, looking for the most recent one.

  There it was—an article posted two hours ago. “Bob Cole Murder—Drug Deal Gone Bad?”

  He clicked on the article and saw a photo of his dad that he hadn’t seen before. His pulse throbbed in his temples as he leaned forward and read.

  Panama City Police Department spokesman Horace Gerrison told the News Herald today that the investigation into the murder of Dr. Bob Cole was turned over to the FBI, after Drug Enforcement Agency officials in Florida alerted police that the prominent spine surgeon had been on a watch list for the past year.

  Sources say that Dr. Cole was suspected of money laundering and drug trafficking, though officials at the DEA and the FBI declined to comment. However, anonymous sources at the PCPD confirmed that the murder may have been drug-related.

  Cole was gunned down in front of his wife in the U-Haul store parking lot on Highway 57. Dr. Cole’s wife identified Jerome Henderson in a lineup, and he was arrested. FBI agents have confirmed that the investigation continues and that Henderson may have been part of a larger conspiracy.

  Zach wanted to put his fist through the computer. What did they mean, drug trafficking? And money laundering . . . what was that?

  He read the article again. Were they implying that his dad was to blame for his own murder? That he’d made drug dealers mad or something?

  Those were lies! His dad was a good man. Tears sprang to his eyes, and he blinked them back and looked around. His classmates were focused on their tests, but if he lost it, all eyes would be on him. No, he couldn’t do this. Not here in front of everybody.

  Heat flushed his cheeks; his chest grew tight. He closed the computer window so no one else would see the article, and got up. He slipped between desks to where the teacher sat. “Mrs. March, I don’t feel good. I need to go home.”

  She gave him a long, sympathetic look, which didn’t help. “It’s okay, Zach.” She wrote out a hall pass. “Maybe it’s too soon to be back?”

  He grabbed the yellow slip and rushed out of class and into the bathroom across the hall. He stood at the sink and let the tears go.

  Why had his dad been on a drug watch list? What did that mean? He was a surgeon—a great one—and people respected him. Now he’d been shot dead in the middle of a parking lot, and they were twisting this around and trying to make him the bad guy?

  No way.

  He went into a stall and sat down, pressing his face into his palms as he wept. The sound of footsteps made him cover his mouth to muffle his sobs until the boy left. He couldn’t let people see him like this . . . hear him like this.

  He had to talk to his mom.

  He went to the sink and threw water on his face, then wiped it off with a paper towel. Taking a deep breath, he headed for the office.

  Two student workers stood at the front desk and looked up at him as he came in.

  He looked past them to the secretary beyond. “I need to go home,” he told her.

  “Zach, are you okay?” the girl at the desk asked.

  “No. I have to call my mom.”

 
The secretary came to the desk and handed him the school’s landline with that stupid look of sympathy. He hated that look. “Sure, go ahead, honey.”

  Zach punched in the number and turned his back to them, not wanting them to see him if he fell apart again.

  CHAPTER 40

  Juliet’s phone rang as she waited with Holly in the van for Michael to arrive at Leonard Miller’s apartment complex. She recognized the number that came up—Zach’s school. Quickly, she clicked it on. “Hello?”

  “Mom, it’s me.” Zach sounded hollow, stopped up.

  “Honey, are you okay?”

  “No,” he said simply. “Come get me. I don’t want to be here.”

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Just come get me. I can’t be here.” His voice was muffled, low.

  She closed her eyes, hurting for him. “Okay, but I can’t come right this second. It’ll be a few minutes before I can leave.”

  “No, Mom! I can’t go back to class. Please just come.”

  She frowned at the urgency. “Did something happen?”

  “Yes.” His voice flattened to a whisper. “I read what they’re saying in the paper, okay? Everybody’s going to think he’s . . .” His whisper faded out.

  Alarmed, Juliet met Holly’s eyes. “Zach, what did it say?”

  “We can talk about it when you get here. Just hurry. Will you ask her to let me wait in the office?”

  Juliet sighed. “Yes, put Miss Carol on the phone.”

  In a moment, the secretary’s voice came on. “Hi, Juliet,” she said. “I’m really sorry he’s so upset. What you must be going through.”

  Juliet didn’t know what to say. “Look, I can’t get there for a few minutes. Can you let him sit in your office until I do? Just don’t make him go back to class. I think I needed to give him the rest of the week. He’s really grieving.”

  “I can see that,” she said. “I’ll get him a drink and let him cool off.”

  Juliet ended the call and leaned her head back on the seat. “I can’t believe this. Did you hear that? The newspaper is onto Bob’s past. Now it’s going to be all over the news.”

  “I’m looking this up.” Holly was already on the Internet on her phone. She found the article recently posted on the newspaper site, skimmed it quickly. “Okay, it really doesn’t go into any detail about the trafficking and stuff. It just says there are rumors that the murder had a possible drug connection and that Bob had been on a DEA watch list.”

  Juliet took the phone and read. “How did they find out?”

  “People talk. At the DEA, the police department . . . anytime humans are involved, you know somebody’s going to spill it.”

  Juliet didn’t know how much more she could take. “What am I going to tell people? And now the kids have to deal with it.”

  “Maybe it’s not so bad. For now, let the kids think it’s just a rumor. People who knew Bob won’t think it’s true.”

  “But it is true,” she said weakly. “And the kids will have to know the truth soon enough. Zach is too adept at googling and researching things on his own. There’s no way to keep him in the dark.” She put her hand over her mouth. “I never thought I’d feel this way about my own husband.”

  Holly nodded. “I know.”

  “He’s not even here and he’s hurting our kids. It was bad enough when it was just me who was crushed, but now Zach and Abe . . . How did he think he’d keep getting away with it?”

  Holly had the grace to stay quiet.

  Soon Juliet saw Michael’s Caprice pulling into the parking lot. “There they are. Call them and tell them which apartment.”

  When Michael had positioned his car to watch Miller’s apartment, Holly called him. “Can you take it from here? Juliet needs to leave.” She listened to Michael for a moment, then said to Juliet, “He wants to talk to you.” She put it on speaker. “She’s on.”

  “Juliet,” Michael said, “I got a call from Sid Griffin who owns Griffin Security. He gave me the address of the place he wired for Bob.”

  Juliet sucked in a breath. “What is it?”

  “It’s 542 Court Boulevard, in King’s Point subdivision. I just went by there. It’s a gated house on North Bay.”

  “A house?” she asked. “Why would he have another house?”

  “No idea. We can’t get in until Sid gets back to town and gives us the codes, and he’ll have to scan your eye and fingerprints and put them in the computer instead of Bob’s. Apparently, it’s locked down like Fort Knox.”

  “Why?”

  “We’ll find out soon.”

  When Juliet hung up, she wiped her tears and pulled out of the parking lot. Somehow she’d have to swing by that address. She had to see what other secrets Bob had kept from her.

  Zach had little to say when Juliet checked him out of school. His eyes were puffy, his nose red, and he didn’t meet her eyes as the two of them walked out to the car.

  Juliet climbed into the driver’s seat just as Zach opened the van’s sliding door—where Holly was already sitting. She looked up from her camera screen. “Hey, kiddo. You can sit up front with your mom.”

  He didn’t answer, just got into the front next to Juliet and slammed the door, eyes straight ahead.

  During the entire trip to Holly’s house to drop her off, he just stared silently out the window. When they were finally alone, Juliet set her hands on the steering wheel. “Son, tell me what you’re thinking.”

  His face turned crimson and twisted. “I’m thinking that they’re telling lies about Dad, and you don’t care. He was murdered, and you’re back to work like nothing even happened.”

  “That’s not true, Zach. I’m working on finding everyone involved in killing him.”

  “Great,” he said. “You’re still helping them make Dad out to be a criminal. It’s not right.”

  “Honey, I’m trying to protect you and Abe, trying to get to the bottom of this so we can be safe and go back to our house.”

  “How can they accuse him of stuff when he isn’t here to defend himself? He was a good man.”

  She sat there a moment as he smeared the tears across his face. “Zach, your dad wasn’t honest with me about things. We already talked about this. You know he had secrets.”

  “I don’t want to hear that.”

  “Then why were you googling him?”

  Zach wiped a tear rolling down his face. “Because I thought they’d be saying things about the dude who shot him. I wanted to see what you were keeping from me. I didn’t expect them to accuse him of things.”

  “I know, Zach. The whole thing is like a nightmare.”

  “Whatever you’re doing, I want you to stop. I don’t want you looking for more reasons for people to talk about Dad. Why can’t we just remember him the way we knew him?”

  The tragedy of Bob’s choices cut through her. “I wish we could, honey. But we’re in it, and I don’t know a way out of it. Your dad exposed us to danger, and somehow I have to get us out.”

  “My dad would never hurt people with drugs or anything else! He took care of people! He saved lives! They’re getting everything wrong.” He wept for a moment, wiping his face on his sleeves. Finally, he looked at her. “What else haven’t you told me?”

  She stared at him, wanting to say there was nothing else. But what about tomorrow, or the next day, when the local media’s investigative teams went snooping for dirt in what could be the year’s biggest local story? Zach was sure to see that too.

  “There is something else.”

  “What?” he asked.

  “Your dad . . . he had a girlfriend.”

  “I heard you say that to the FBI people. But it’s not true!” He paused. “Who was she?”

  “Somebody who worked in his office. Her name is Amber. And she had a baby.”

  His mouth fell open. “A baby?”

  She nodded. Zach had known where babies came from for years, so she watched his face, heartbroken, as he puzzled it together. “
Did she have a husband?”

  Juliet shook her head. “No.”

  “Then Dad . . . ?”

  Juliet nodded. “He’s nine months old.”

  “A boy? Like . . . my stepbrother?”

  Her heart sank further. “No . . . your half brother.”

  A fresh flush of crimson reddened his face and his ears. He shook his head and leaned his forehead against the window. “This is so messed up.”

  “I didn’t want you to know. But it might come out, and you might as well be ready. But let’s not make Abe deal with it yet, okay?”

  Face pinched and twisted, he nodded agreement.

  “Just remember that I’m trying to help the FBI find anybody who had anything to do with Dad’s death. I want this behind us.”

  Zach seemed to consider that. Finally, he managed to speak again. “Can’t they just let all this go? It’s not like they can arrest him or something. He’s not here.”

  “But the others connected to this drug ring are, honey.”

  “But I don’t care about them. I don’t want you to help them ruin Dad’s reputation. Can’t you just leave it alone?”

  Juliet didn’t tell him that she wanted nothing more.

  CHAPTER 41

  Michael had parked two buildings over from Miller’s, his car facing Miller’s apartment. He squinted into the setting sun. Though it was hard on his eyes, he hoped it put a glare on the windshield that would keep Miller from seeing through it.

  Cathy was in the backseat, digging through a duffel bag.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Disguising myself,” she said. “I’m going to walk behind his building and see what I can see.”

  He watched in the rearview mirror as she pulled her hair into a high ponytail and tied a bandana into a do-rag, covering most of her hair.