“I know that,” she snapped. Her tears dried up quickly with her temper “I just know he said you’re the only one I could tell. He wants us to come to Blue Lake. He said he’d meet us at some motel.”
“That’s twenty miles away.”
“I know that. Please, stop asking questions. I don’t want anything to happen to my baby. You have to come with me.” She kept saying that, but something was wrong with this scenario. When I hesitated, she continued. “If you really loved Hannah, you wouldn’t want her to be hurt either.” She added guilt to her plea.
I wasn’t sure what choice I had. I didn’t want anything to happen to Hannah, but I didn’t see this ending happily. If this guy was a killer, he wasn’t going to let me or Hannah go. “Did he say why he wants me to come? That doesn’t make any sense.” Why would a killer kidnap Hannah if he was trying to get me? I had to convince her to call Drake. “Jane, we can’t go somewhere without telling someone. Don’t you think Jim has the right to know Hannah has been kidnapped?”
“No, I mean yes, he has that right, but he’ll want to call Drake. Then this guy will hurt my baby. You have to come with me.” She was urging me towards the door.
“Where in Blue Lake am I supposed to go?”
“It’s a little motel. He gave me the name. Come on, let’s go. I want my baby.” Her tears had dried up, and she was all business now.
“I need my purse, and I have to tell Linda that I’ll be gone for a while.” I edged towards my desk. I wasn’t sure how I could signal her that something was going on.
“Is everything all right?” Linda came up to my desk as I picked up my purse.
“Um, I have to go out for a little while. Can you handle things here?” I was getting a bad feeling about this. I hoped she was able to pick up on my uncertainty.
“Of course, will you be back before closing?” She looked between Jane and me.
“I think so.” I looked at Jane for confirmation. She had her hands clenched together to keep them from shaking. “I have a lunch date with Drake at noon,” I stalled. “Can you let him know I might not be back in time?”
“No,” Jane snapped. “I mean, you can call him from the car. Besides, I’m sure we’ll be back before noon.” People in the lobby were beginning to take interest in our little drama. “We need to leave now.” She urged me towards the door before I could say anything else.
Outside, I reached in my purse for my phone. “What do you think you’re doing?” She grabbed my purse away from me. Her voice held a note of panic.
“I need to call Drake to cancel our lunch.” I hoped she’d believed that lie.
“That’s not necessary. We’ll be back in time.”
“How can you be sure of that? If we’re dealing with a kidnapper, he isn’t just going to let us go.” I turned towards the back of the building where my car was parked, but she grabbed my arm.
“We can take my car. It’ll be faster. I know where we’re going.” She pushed me towards her little sports car. “Just get in.” She tossed my purse in the back seat.
“Jane, what’s really going on? Did someone really kidnap Hannah?”
“Yes, why don’t you believe me?” Tears swam in her eyes again.
“You’re just acting funny.”
“You’d act funny too if your baby had been kidnapped. I want to get her back before something bad happens to her.”
“Then why didn’t you call Drake? You need to call Jim to let him know. He should know about this.”
“I told you, he said he would hurt Hannah if I called anyone but you. Now, just sit there and be quiet. I need to think.” For the next few minutes the only sound was the roar of the powerful engine of her sports car.
Please, God. If someone really did kidnap Hannah, please keep her safe. She’s so little.
Looking up from my lap, I realized we were going in the wrong direction. “If we’re going to Blue Lake, you need to turn around.” My heart was doing flip flops now. Whatever was going on, Jane was a part of it. I was certain of that now.
“That’s not where we’re going,” she confirmed my suspicion. “I had to say that, or you wouldn’t come with me. I’m following the directions I was given.”
“What directions are those? What does the kidnapper want with me?” A strange calm came over me. If Hannah and I were to get out of this unharmed, I needed to keep my head.
“You can ask him when we get where we’re going.” She turned off the highway onto a forest road. After a mile or so, the pavement turned into gravel until it became nothing more than a dirt track. The low slung car bounced over the potholes in the rutted road. Jane swore softly with each bump. She didn’t want her pretty little car ruined.
She finally stopped beside what was little more than a lean-to in the forest. We could hear the cries of a baby as we stepped out of the car. She rushed inside, announcing, “We’re here.”
“It took you long enough,” the man grumbled. I swallowed a gasp before it could escape my mouth. He wasn’t alone with Hannah.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Jane hurried across the small enclosure to where Wendell Kramer was holding Hannah. “What did you do to her?” Jane reached out to take Hannah from him.
“Nothing! She’s been like this ever since you left. She wants her ‘dada.’ I tried telling her I’m her dada, but she didn’t listen.”
“She’s a baby, of course she didn’t listen.” She gave him a look filled with disgust as she rocked back and forth to comfort the crying baby. It was the first time I’d seen her show any real affection for her daughter. Hannah’s tears slowed, but didn’t stop.
If Jane was to be believed, Hannah had been taken from her bed. The blanket sleeper she was wearing would keep her warm, but not for long. The temperature hovered in the fifties, and the sorry excuse for a cabin had gaping holes in the walls. There was no glass where there should be windows, allowing the wind to whistle through the open spaces.
It was clear Hannah hadn’t been kidnapped. Jane was a part of this. This wasn’t going to turn out so well. I quietly moved over to the other occupant in the cabin. “Beth Ann? What are you doing here?” Where did she fit in? Why was she here? “What’s going on?” I whispered. While Jane and Wendell ignored us I needed to figure out who the players were. “Why are you here?”
“I’m not really sure.” She looked puzzled.
“Do you know what’s going on? Did he kidnap Hannah?”
Beth Ann shrugged. “I was just told to come out here.”
“Why? What do you have to do with them?” She shrugged again, but didn’t say anything.
Jane looked at us, aware of the other woman for the first time. “Beth Ann? What are you doing here?” She echoed my question. Turning to look at Wendell, she looked genuinely mystified about Beth Ann’s presence.
“Never mind that.” Wendell Kramer snapped. He stepped in front of me, shooting daggers at me. “I want our money. Where did you put it?” His voice was a snarl.
I stepped away from his fury. “What are you talking about? I don’t have your money.”
“Well, someone took it.”
“Why do you think I had anything to do with that?” I kept an eye on Jane while keeping track of Wendell as he paced around the small enclosure. Beth Ann moved away from me, leaning against the wall crossing her arms over her ample chest. If she wasn’t careful, it would collapse under her weight.
“Max said he had evidence of what we’d done. You’re the only person he saw before I…” His voice trailed off.
“Before you killed him?” I raged. “Is that what you were trying to say?” I would have rushed at him ready to scratch his eyes out, but his arm flashed out, backhanding me across the face. I stumbled backwards, landing on my backside on the dirt floor. Jane screamed, causing Hannah to start crying again.
“Why did you do that?” Jane grabbed at his arm, trying to pull him away from me. “We need her to tell us where our money is.” Beth Ann didn’t move. A small smil
e lifted the corners of her lips.
“If she doesn’t have it, where is it?” He shook off her grasp. He turned to glare at Beth Ann, but he quickly dropped his gaze to the dirt floor. She hadn’t moved, but he was oddly intimidated by her. “She has to know where he put it,” he said, talking to the floor. “Max said we’d never get our hands on it.”
Those screenshots Max left on my laptop had to have something to do with where the money is. A few things were beginning to fall into place. Wendell worked in the IT department. He had access to Max’s email account, along with anything on the server.
With Max’s passcodes he was able to get into the bank accounts. He would know how to manipulate the information to make it look like Max had transferred the money. I hoped Drake’s people could find it and us before this guy lost all control. Had I been wrong about Jack Johnston? Maybe he didn’t have anything to do with Dynamic Corporation wanting to build a store in Pine Mountain. Drake never said Johnston was involved with that. Maybe I’d been wrong.
“I told you we should have left town as soon as Max figured out what we were doing.” He frowned at Jane. “But no, you still wanted to get your pound of flesh from your husband.”
“I wanted something out of this marriage. You aren’t the one who had to suffer with an old man groping you. I thought he’d add my name to the ranch and store so I could get my share in a divorce. But no, everything he has is tied up in a stupid trust.” She released a frustrated breath. She’d been using Jim all along. She was only after his money.
“You said no one would ever be able to figure out your game” she accused. “You said you were smarter than everyone in this hick town. That didn’t turn out so well, did it? I don’t know why I ever thought you could get away with this.”
“Don’t try to put the blame all on me,” he snapped. “This is as much your fault as it is mine.” He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Can’t you shut the kid up?” he shouted, making Hannah cry harder. The crying baby was beginning to wear on their nerves. I needed to get her away from Jane before they both lost it.
“That’s no way to talk about your baby.” She sniffled, blinking her eyes rapidly. My mouth dropped open. What was she saying? I stared at them from my place on the floor. Was this man, this killer, Hannah’s biological father? I stared at Hannah trying to pick out features from Jim.
Wendell went over to Jane, giving her and Hannah a hug. “I’m sorry. You know I didn’t mean that, but I can’t think straight with her crying all the time. We have to make her tell us where our money is. Without it, we can’t go anywhere.”
I had no idea where the money was. Drake said the money hadn’t been transferred to the account it had been intended for. If he didn’t find us soon, this wasn’t going to turn out well for me. They had already said enough to hang themselves. I didn’t believe they were naïve enough to think I wouldn’t tell everything once I was found. My heart was in my throat at what this meant. They weren’t planning on letting me go.
I didn’t know how I was going to get out alive. I wouldn’t leave without Hannah, and I wouldn’t let them take her. I needed to stall for time. As long as they were arguing, there was the chance that Drake would find us. I had to keep them talking. “How did you think you were going to get away with this?”
“Max was a con man, plain and simple. I don’t know what Jim was thinking when he put him in charge of the town’s money. When Jim gave that job to his no-count brother, I knew what I could do. I’d already been syphoning money out of the accounts. I didn’t think anyone would notice.”
“But Max did notice,” I said.
“Not right away.” He shook his head. “When he did, I conned the con man.” He chuckled, bragging about his accomplishments. “I told him it was just a game. I even conned him into playing along. We would see who could get away with taking the most money without getting caught. He thought we were playing with phony accounts. But I was playing for real.” He drew a shaky breath.
“When he realized what I was doing, he threatened to turn me in. But I had outsmarted him. He was the one that would go to jail. You see, all along I made it look like Max was the one taking the money.” He was proud of what he’d done. “When he disappeared, I thought we were done for. But it worked against him instead. Everyone knew his reputation. They believed he was the one that took the money.” He chuckled again.
“If you’re really that smart, why did you turn to stealing? Why not get a good job?” Struggling to my feet, I wiped at the thin trickle of blood from the cut on my lip. I didn’t care if he hit me again as long as he stayed away from Hannah.
They seemed to have forgotten about Beth Ann. It didn’t appear that she was interested in getting away either.
“Do you know how hard it is to get ahead in a small town?” he asked. “Unless you know someone, you’re going to be stuck in some go nowhere job for the rest of your life.” He got right in my face, yelling at me. “A college education no longer guarantees a good paying job. How am I supposed to support my family on what I make?”
“You can’t expect to earn top dollar right out of college,” I tried to reason with him. “You could have gotten a job and work your way up.” He’d spend the rest of his life in prison now. But only if Drake found us in time. The thought was depressing.
“Sure, that easy for you to say,” he sneered. “You got a job because Jim’s your stepfather.” He seemed to forget that Jim hadn’t been that for a long time. “What about the little guy who doesn’t have someone pulling strings for him?” he continued to rail. “Until someone higher up the ladder dies or quits, I’m stuck doing the same menial job day after day.”
I knew I had gotten my job because of my relationship with Jim. But I didn’t want to think there was someone with the same qualifications that got passed over because of it. Linda didn’t want the job. Was there someone else who did? I gave a mental shrug. I couldn’t think about that now. I needed to concentrate on getting Hannah and me away from them.
“So why did you come to a small town? Why not live in a big city where more jobs are available and you could work your way up?”
“Because Jane and Hannah are here. Are you really that stupid? I needed to be close to them.” Hannah’s cries had turned into hiccups, but at his shout she started crying again. He shot Jane a warning look. “Besides, big-paying jobs aren’t any easier to find there than they are here. It all boils down to who you know, not what you know. I don’t know anyone. My folks don’t have any clout. How am I supposed to get ahead without someone to help me?” He had the same entitled attitude of so many young people. They wanted everything handed to them.
“Stop arguing with her, and make her tell us where the money is.” Jane stepped in front of him. “She’s stalling for time.” Hannah had worn herself out, and was almost asleep on Jane’s shoulder. Her breathing shuddered with each breath.
“Why do you think I know where the money is? I had nothing to do with this.” I kept praying that Linda had called Drake. We didn’t have a lunch date, and he would know something was wrong. I had to keep them talking long enough for him to find us. I wasn’t sure the GPS on my phone still worked in the forest though.
“Max gave you something when he went to see you. What was it? You need to give it to me right now.” Wendell’s question brought me back to the present.
I shook my head. “He didn’t give me anything.”
“He had to. He said he left evidence of what I’d done. You’re the only one he saw after he disappeared.”
“How do you know that? Were you following him?”
“Because I’m smarter than he was,” he boasted. “I knew he wouldn’t leave town without trying to clear his name. I figured he’d turn to one of his nephews. I wasn’t far wrong. He went to his niece instead. I caught him leaving your place.”
“Well, he didn’t give me anything that night. Maybe he left it wherever his was hiding.”
He shook his head. “It’s not
here.” He looked around the small enclosure. “If he didn’t give you anything, who took our money?” The question wasn’t so much for me as it was for himself.
“Did you break into my house?”
“Yeah, and I owe you one for this.” He lifted his pant leg revealing a large bruise where I’d hit him with the broom stick. “It’s payback time now.” He raised his hand to hit me again, but Jane grabbed his arm to stop him.
“Stick with the program so we can get out of here. I’m about to freeze.” She had on a light-weight sweater and fashion jeans that fit like a second skin, neither of which was meant to keep her warm.
“Maybe Fred moved it,” I said. “He caught on to what you were doing. That’s why he was so nervous when I went to see him. Isn’t that why you killed him?” Beth Ann made no attempt to escape even though it appeared they had forgotten about her. I still didn’t understand why she was there.
“No, he was helping us. He was my half-brother.” He looked close to tears now.
“You killed your own brother?” I gasped. “How could you do that?” This was getting worse with everything he said.
“Half-brother,” he said, stressing the half.
“Well, I have several of those, and I’ve never killed one of them.”
“It wasn’t like that. It was an accident. It was your fault. If you hadn’t been poking around, asking him questions, he wouldn’t have panicked. He wanted me to give the money back. When I wouldn’t do that, he said he’d tell. I couldn’t let him do that. I had to protect my family.”
“What family? Jane is married to Jim, and Hannah is his daughter.”
“No, she’s my daughter, and Jane loves me.” He turned to Jane. “Tell her,” he demanded.
“Of course I love you.” He didn’t notice that she didn’t say Hannah was his daughter.
“Then why did you marry Jim?” I asked. I kept stalling. As long as they were talking, there was still the chance Drake would find us.
“Duh, he had money.” She made it sound like a no brainer. “He said I would never want for anything. I didn’t count on living in some back-water town, and being saddled with a baby.”
Never Con A Con Man (An Arizona High Country Mystery Book 1) Page 19