Distortion (Moonlighters Series)

by Terri Blackstock

  “We sent someone to the safe house to check on them. They found the guard dead and . . . your sister and the kids are gone.”

  Cathy kicked Michael’s desk. “I told you!”

  “We just reviewed the security video at the Court Street building for the last hour. Juliet was there.”

  “What? Why would she go there?”

  “She was with Miller and one of the Harper brothers. They used her to get inside.”

  “Where is she?” Cathy yelled into the phone. “Tell me where she is!”

  “They took her with them.”

  Cathy wanted to scream. “You’re telling me they kidnapped my sister and took her to that building, and you guys weren’t watching? That the safe house wasn’t safe?”

  Holly had started to cry, and Michael was on his feet bent over his desk, listening. “You find her and you get her back!” Cathy screamed.

  “What about the kids?” Holly asked weakly.

  “Were the kids with her in the video?” Cathy said into the phone.

  “No, they weren’t.”

  “Then where are they?”

  There was a long pause. “It’s possible they used the kids to manipulate her.”

  Cathy couldn’t believe their complacency. “What is it you people are doing? This whole thing is going to pot and you’re just sitting there—”

  “We’re not just sitting here, Cathy. We’re doing everything in our power.”

  “Well, obviously you don’t have any power if they could do this. So help me, if anything happens to her or the kids, I’ll sue the federal government and make sure everyone knows—”

  Michael stopped her. “What’s the plan now?” he asked into the phone.

  “We’re working on broadcasting an Amber Alert.”

  Cathy saw Michael’s face reddening. “Have you found out anything from tapping Amber’s phone?”

  There was a sickening moment of silence. “It appears that Amber is using an alternate form of communication. They had her buy a disposable cell phone. We haven’t been able to get the number.”

  “So she’s communicating with the traffickers and probably the kidnappers, and you guys are out of the loop? How will you resolve this?”

  “I told you, we’re working on it.”

  “That means they don’t have a plan!” Cathy shouted, knowing they heard her. “It means they don’t have any way of tracking her down!”

  “Oh, dear God,” Holly said as she came closer and reached for Cathy. They clung together as Michael ended the call.

  “What now?” Cathy asked.

  “First we pray,” Michael said. “Then we figure out a plan of our own.”

  CHAPTER 55

  The car slowed, and Juliet braced herself in the trunk. It stopped, and she heard the car door slam, then a key in the trunk lock.

  The trunk opened, light spilling in. She sat up, squinting.

  Along with Steven, Amber Williams stood there with her arms crossed. “Did you have a nice trip?”

  “Where are my children?” Juliet demanded, climbing out of the trunk. When her feet were on the ground, she lunged at Amber and screamed, “Where are they?”

  Amber stepped out of her reach, and Steven stuck his arm between them, holding Juliet back. “They’re safe for now,” Amber said. “They will be as long as you do what we tell you.”

  “Are you going to take care of them the same way you take care of your own?”

  Amber slapped her. Juliet gasped, and rage erupted in her head like boiling lava. As Amber turned away, Juliet pushed past Steven, swung and knocked Amber to the ground, then threw herself on top of her, satisfied that she’d drawn blood on her enhanced cheek.

  “Tell me where my children are!”

  She heard Steven cocking his revolver. “Get off her. Now!”

  When Juliet made no move to get off, Steven grabbed her by the arm. Juliet got to her feet, her chin set tight and her shoulders rising and falling with each breath. She pointed to Amber. “I don’t know what Bob told you about me, but I can guarantee you that you’ve all underestimated me!”

  “He said you’d die for your kids. We might just arrange that.”

  “Wrong!” Juliet countered. “He should have told you I’d kill for them. What do you want from me?”

  “You’re going to help us get access to his bank accounts,” Amber said, touching her bloody cheek.

  Juliet hoped the wound would leave a scar. “I don’t know anything about them. Just our joint account. I’ll give you access to that, but—”

  “We want the big ones. The ones that matter.”

  “I don’t know how to get into those! I didn’t even know they existed.”

  “You can help us figure out his passwords. You can answer his security questions.”

  “All right,” Juliet said. “Let’s do it now.”

  Steven tied her hands behind her back, and they pushed her toward the house. The place looked like a deer camp, set deep in the woods. She tried to figure out where she was. An address . . . a street . . . But she saw nothing. Only a dirt road leading to the house from who-knew-where. There seemed to be only one set of tire tracks.

  They took her into a dusty, moldy room and set her down. She hadn’t seen Miller. She wondered where he’d taken the cash. “Leonard Miller’s going to take the cash for himself, you know,” she told Amber. “He’s using me to keep you busy while he does.”

  “Shut up!” Amber sat down at a computer and navigated to an international bank’s website.

  Juliet sat stewing, going back over the day’s events in her mind. When she’d let Darren and his partner into the King’s Point house, they hadn’t called for backup. Shouldn’t they have roped it off? Shouldn’t the place have been crawling with feds by the time they’d left there?

  And where was the cash that had been in the first safe?

  All they had done was taken her to a supposed safe house—which turned out not to be safe at all. It had been someone’s home . . . dirty, cluttered . . . not the kind of place the federal government would put an endangered witness in.

  Were they bad cops?

  She knew that Darren was in fact the regional bureau chief. He’d been recruited into the FBI in his twenties, had spent time in Washington, then other bureaus around the country, and finally had come back to Panama City.

  Could he have been corrupted at some point along the way? If greed could change Bob, it could change Darren. What if the feds were in this with Amber and Miller? As it stood, it looked like Darren and Blue had taken most of the cash but left just enough for the crime scene investigators to log as evidence. No one would know they’d taken half of it.

  But no, if they’d been working with Miller, he wouldn’t have had to take Juliet back there. He would have had access.

  She couldn’t work it out in her mind. All she knew for sure was that her children were in trouble.

  To the thieves, what would be the point in keeping them alive? If Miller planned to escape with the money, he’d be better off with Juliet and her children dead.

  The reality of that blazed in her like a nuclear dawn.

  CHAPTER 56

  Michael had lost track of Miller, so he’d parked in Miller’s parking lot, hoping the man would return. When he was about to give up, the white cargo van pulled in. Michael slowly sat straighter. He couldn’t see the driver from so far away, but there was no question it was Miller’s van. Same tag.

  He watched as Miller got out, locked it, checked all the doors, then ran into his apartment.

  Michael grabbed some plastic ties out of his console and shoved them in his pockets in case he got close enough to cuff the man. He considered taking the risk to cross the lot and look in the van for Juliet or the kids, but before he could make a move, Miller rushed back out and got back in, then pulled out of his parking space. Michael’s heart raced as he followed at a distance, knowing in his bones that Miller was about to do something that would crack this case. If Michael
could stay on his tail without being spotted, Miller might lead him to Juliet.

  With every mile, rage pounded harder through Michael’s veins. Miller had murdered Joe in cold blood—and now he had Juliet and her kids. He would pay this time. He followed, trying to keep several cars behind him.

  Then Miller turned off the main road to a small street—it would be difficult to follow now without being seen. Michael didn’t take that turn; instead, he went another block down and turned onto a road parallel to where Miller was, hoping he would find him at an intersection. When he came to a red light, he looked down the block and saw Miller’s van turning right. Michael turned. There was one car between them.

  Then the car turned off, and the buildings on the street grew farther apart, until there was nothing but trees, and there were just Michael and Leonard Miller on the road. Michael backed off about half a mile, and then just in case Miller had seen him, he turned off and drove up the parallel street again.

  Michael checked the GPS to see what street it was, but the screen didn’t show a road here. The asphalt was new; this must be a new street. He turned again and returned to the road Miller was on—but Miller had disappeared. Michael drove slowly, looking from one side to the other to see if Miller had pulled off anywhere.

  The road was flanked by woods. No parking lots or buildings. There was an occasional dirt road. Maybe he’d turned onto one of those. Michael braked at one of them, then checked his mirror.

  Miller was barreling up behind him—too fast.

  Michael groaned and punched his accelerator. Miller had seen him! Now what? He wasn’t able to accelerate fast enough, and Miller caught up to him, rammed his bumper. In the mirror, Michael saw that Miller was smiling and laughing, playing with him. Something burst inside Michael’s chest. Gritting his teeth, he stomped his brakes, skidding to a stop. He braced himself as Miller bashed him from behind.

  Michael jumped out of the car and ran back to open Miller’s door. Miller’s airbag had deployed. Michael grabbed him by his collar and threw him to the ground, going for his throat.

  “Where is Juliet?”

  Miller’s face was turning red, and the veins on his face and chin bulged.

  “Where is she?” Michael shouted. “Spit it out!”

  Miller spat in Michael’s face.

  Michael flipped Miller over and twisted his arms behind his back, grinding his face into the asphalt. He pulled the plastic ties out of his pocket and bound Miller’s wrists. Then he bound his ankles. Quickly he patted him down, looking for his weapon.

  “You don’t know what you’re doing,” Miller hissed.

  “Oh, I know,” Michael said through his teeth.

  “They’ll kill the kids.”

  Michael went back to Miller’s van, pulled a pocketknife out of his pocket, and stabbed the airbag so it would deflate. He searched until he found a .38 revolver and a knife with an eight-inch blade in the door pocket. He took them both, cocking the gun and pointing it at Miller’s head.

  “Get up.”

  Miller struggled to his knees. “You’ll go to prison for even touching that gun,” he said.

  “You’re right,” Michael said. “And it’ll be worth it. Get up!”

  Miller struggled, so Michael roughly helped him to his feet.

  Michael bent and lifted Miller over his shoulder. The man yelled and tried to fight, but he was bound and Michael was stronger. Michael took him around the van and opened the passenger door, then dropped him to his feet and shoved him into the seat. “I’m driving,” Michael said. “If we’re seen, your scumbag friends will think it’s you.”

  He got into the driver’s seat, the gun in his left hand across his stomach. “You make one move,” he said through his teeth, “I’ll blow out your kidneys and your liver.”

  “You’re making a big mistake,” Miller said. Blood was oozing on his lip and cheekbone.

  “I don’t think so. I think you and your thugs are the ones making the mistakes now. Take me to her before I blow out each of your major organs. And don’t test me, because I’ve been dreaming about doing it for years.”

  Miller’s forehead glistened with sweat. “Go up another mile. Take a right onto a dirt road. You’ll come to a red mailbox. Take a right there.”

  Jaw popping, Michael pulled back onto the street.

  CHAPTER 57

  Amber and Steven cut the ties binding Juliet’s hands and put her in front of the computer, her feet bound. Then Amber sent Steven to the kitchen to make her something to eat. Amber had already figured out Bob’s password on the first account, but the security question had stumped her.

  “Best Vacation,” Bob had listed as his hint.

  Juliet knew that the sooner she gave them what they wanted, the sooner she’d have her kids back. She closed her eyes and tried to think. Her favorite vacation was the one they had taken to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee with the boys. They’d camped out on a lake and fished and boated and hiked. The place was called Dawn’s View Campground. Could the answer be Dawnsview?

  She typed that in. That wasn’t it.

  “They only allow four tries an hour, and then they lock you out,” Amber said.

  The answer probably had something to do with his vacations with Amber. Somewhere in the Bahamas, probably. “Why do you need me? Where did he go with you?” Juliet bit out.

  Amber shrugged. “Nassau. Mexico City. Kuala Lumpur. Peru.”

  Juliet swallowed the sour taste in her mouth. “Which one of those trips was his favorite?”

  Amber’s lips grew thin. “He didn’t use those. I already tried them.”

  Juliet hoped that meant that his adulterous paradise wasn’t what it was cracked up to be.

  Juliet told herself not to care. Her children were depending on her to manage the next few minutes wisely and carefully. She racked her brain for other vacations. There had been the one they had taken to Hawaii on their tenth anniversary. They had rented a house on Kauai. Bob had spent their first day in Kilauea sleeping, but after that he’d done whatever she wanted. They had gone to Moku’ae’ae Island and watched the exotic birds, sat for hours watching the geysers at Spouting Horn, sunbathed at Waiakalua, snorkeled at Lawa’i Beach, hiked to Ho’opi’i Falls. One day they’d taken a helicopter tour over the Na Pali Coast. Juliet would never forget looking over at Bob as they hovered over the Wai’ale’ale Crater with its threethousand-foot waterfalls, seeing his eyes tearing at the sheer magnificence of the sight. He had smiled at her and kissed her. “These are the good days,” he whispered.

  He hadn’t had Amber back then, had he? Maybe that was before his descent. Maybe some of what they had then was real.

  If his favorite was Hawaii, what would the favorite vacation clue be? She typed in “Kauai.”

  An error message came up again.

  “That’s two tries,” Amber said, her voice growing sharper. “Think!”

  Juliet tried. Maybe it was more specific. She tried to type in Wai’ale’ale, but the log-in screen wouldn’t allow apostrophes. She backed up and tried it without them. She typed in “Waialeale.”

  Suddenly the beach ball began to spin, and Amber sprang to her feet. “It’s working! What did you type in?”

  “Wai’ale’ale, without the apostrophes. It’s a crater in Hawaii, where we went together on a helicopter ride.”

  Amber’s smile faded. She kept her eyes focused on the screen. The account came up, and Juliet clicked on it to open it.

  All of Bob’s recent deposits were revealed in living color: $75,000 in May, $190,000 in June, $235,000 in July, $400,000 in August.

  The balance was just over fifty million. How in the world?

  Amber pushed Juliet out of her chair and took her seat. “Move. I can make the transfer to our accounts.”

  Juliet went back to her seat against the wall, relieved that she’d given Amber what she wanted. But she’d said accounts. Plural. There were other hurdles yet to cross.

  “Steven,” Amber called as s
he worked. “Tie her up again.”

  Steven got a roll of duct tape and led Juliet to a chair. He bound her hands in front of her, then wrapped her ankles together. She didn’t fight, hoping this was just temporary until they’d transferred the money and needed her for the next account.

  As Amber worked on making the transfer, Juliet said, “My children. Call your partners now. Tell them I did what you told me to do. Tell them to bring my children.”

  “Shut up,” Steven said. “We’ll do it when we’re ready.”

  Juliet stared at Amber. “If you loved him, why would you hurt his kids? You know he loved them.”

  “Call it payback,” Amber said through her teeth as she typed.

  “Payback for what?”

  “Never mind.”

  Juliet dwelt on that for a moment. What did she mean? Had Bob betrayed Amber in some way? He must have, if she’d been part of the group who’d killed him. What could have caused her to do that?

  Steven walked across the room and stood behind Amber, looking over her shoulder. “That’s a lot of money.”

  Amber looked up at him. “I told you I’m hungry.”

  “You called me in here!”

  “Well, go back. I haven’t eaten all day.”

  Steven looked reluctant, but he went back to the kitchen. He glanced back over his shoulder as he left the room.

  So Amber clearly didn’t want Steven to know how much money was involved. And that meant that Steven wasn’t intended to get this money, or not much of it, anyway. Miller had also kept him in the dark at the house, not telling him what was in the boxes he was helping load.

  That must mean they paid Steven a set amount and had no intention of sharing Bob’s cash with him.

  Amber whispered, “Yes!” and leaned back in her chair as her transfer of funds processed. “For a while there, I thought it was all gone. He almost lost it all for us.”

  Juliet stayed quiet as Amber completed the transaction and navigated to another bank website. She used the same password and security question, and got in without Juliet. Juliet sat quietly until she couldn’t bear it any longer. “You said he almost lost it for all of you. How did he almost lose it?”