“He’s done so much for us. I feel we have to.”
He nodded, accepting her answer. “Okay, we’ll go at twenty-two hundred.”
“With any luck, he’ll call before we head out,” Scarlett said, clinging to a single thread of hope that her gut was wrong and Conrad was simply lying low as a precaution.
But as the day wore on and Conrad’s silence grew, Scarlett was agitated and ready to bounce as soon as nightfall hit. Somehow she managed to wait until the agreed upon time but was out the door at 22:01.
Following the same plan, they rolled up to Conrad’s neighborhood and she was hit with memories that she’d forgotten.
Conrad had just purchased the house on Howitzer Lane and had been eager to show her.
Leading her by the hand, he gave her the grand tour, ending with the large master bedroom with the beautiful granite countertops and full-size state-of-the-art Jacuzzi tub.
“What do you think?” Conrad had asked, his gaze beaming with hope. “Nice, right?”
“It’s more than nice. It’s gorgeous,” she’d answered, glancing around, impressed. “This is quite the pad, man. You’ve done well for yourself.”
Conrad reached for her and she went with a wary smile. “But do you like it?”
Scarlett knew with a sinking heart where he was going with his question. She’d worried for a few weeks that Conrad was getting closer than she was comfortable with but had hoped that she was overreacting.
Apparently, her instincts were spot-on—Conrad was in love with her.
“It’s a lovely house for you. You should be proud of your accomplishment.”
Conrad frowned, knuckling her cheek softly as he said, “Scarlett, can’t you see that I’m crazy about you? I want to build a life together.”
Scarlett knew she would never feel that way about Conrad and it was cruel to keep him living in hope that she might someday. Gently tugging herself free, she took a step back, saying sadly, “But I don’t.”
“What do you mean?” Conrad asked, confused.
“I mean, I don’t want to settle down in the ’burbs with you...or anyone for that matter. I’m just not into that scene and never will be. I’m sorry.”
Conrad’s crestfallen expression was one she had to live with but breaking his heart then had been a mercy. Shortly after, she’d taken the job with Red Wolf and hadn’t looked back.
When Conrad had contacted her a year later, she’d been wary but she’d missed their friendship. As long as he stayed in the friend zone, Scarlett was happy to remain in contact.
Now, as they rounded the backside of the darkened house, she wished she’d never accepted that phone call because then he wouldn’t be caught in the middle of this mess.
Xander went to jimmy the side-door lock but she stopped him with a silent shake of her head, knowing where Conrad kept his spare key. For someone who worked with cutting-edge technology every day, Conrad was endearingly old-school about certain things.
Quietly letting themselves into the garage, Scarlett saw Conrad’s Mercedes sedan and her misgivings grew.
They gained access to the house and Scarlett couldn’t help but relive some of the memories, the hope and the possibility that Conrad had entertained when he bought this place and how awful it had been when she let him down.
Honestly, she was surprised he’d kept the house but he’d admitted that right after their breakup the housing market had crashed and he’d been forced to keep it, which had turned out to be a blessing because now the house had tripled in value and he had plenty of equity to play with.
Shaking off the memories, Scarlett and Xander slowly checked the house but as they approached Conrad’s office, Scarlett stopped, her sensitive nose catching the faint odor of copper.
Xander could smell it, too.
They entered the office and Scarlett flipped the light, casting an eerie glow on the macabre scene.
Dried blood splatter on the walls.
Xander caught Scarlett as she stumbled back, horrified.
Conrad, slumped over his computer, a bullet through the back of his skull and the cloying smell of decomposition starting to tease the air made Scarlett want to vomit.
She was no stranger to death. Dead bodies didn’t usually phase her but then she’d never been witness to a former lover’s dead body like this.
“I’m going to be sick,” she whispered and backed out of the room, needing to get away from the scene.
Xander nodded grimly and she couldn’t get out fast enough. Drawing deep gulping breaths, she tried to steady her nerves, tried to think straight but all she could see was Conrad dead because of her.
Because she’d roped him into this mess when she should’ve left him out.
Someone had killed a good man to hide their corruption. She swallowed and wiped at her mouth, feeling numb.
Xander joined her and she went straight into his arms, needing some kind of comfort before she fell completely apart.
“It’s my fault,” she whispered against Xander’s chest, wanting to sob but her brain was too stunned to process anything but the pure guilt and agony of Conrad’s death. “He’s dead because of me.”
But Xander wasn’t going to let her throw a pity party, not yet. He grabbed her by the arms and gave her a sharp shake. “You did not do this. You hear me? Whoever did this is going to pay. I swear to you. We’re going to find out who killed Conrad. I promise.”
“We don’t know what we’re doing,” Scarlett lamented, her grief quickly melting into rage because that was something she understood. “We’re stumbling around in the dark like a couple of amateurs and we’ve gotten someone killed. Who’s next? Zak and CJ? I can’t do this, Xander. I can’t have more people dying because we’re playing detective when we’re not trained like that. I don’t know what I was thinking. We ought to just cut our losses and leave for Mexico while we still can.”
“What the hell is wrong with you? The Scarlett I know doesn’t tuck tail and run just because things are tough.”
“Don’t lecture me on tough,” she hissed, wiping at her eyes. Irritated that the tears had started. “If you’d been tougher on yourself, checked your damn ego and gotten help before the Tulsa job, none of this would’ve happened!”
She knew the answer wasn’t to start attacking the one person they were trying to save but she couldn’t help the rage that was beginning to percolate inside over Conrad’s senseless death.
But Xander didn’t lash back and it only made her feel worse.
“You’re right,” Xander said, bowing his head under his own guilt. A beat of heavy silence passed between them and Scarlett’s chest felt ready to cave in. Xander lifted his head and grasped her hand, holding it tight. “I promise you we will find who did this and make them pay. Even if we make them pay the old-fashioned way...”
“An eye for an eye?” Scarlett asked, her grief and rage needing a victim.
And only Xander could understand and not judge her for it because he felt the same. “Hell, yes, baby. We’ll pluck the son of a bitch’s eyeball out and make him choke on it.”
That was a promise she would count on.
We’ll avenge you, Connie. I swear it.
* * *
Xander knew the moment his TL had returned to beast mode because she snapped back into forward action. Ignoring Conrad’s body, she began a methodical search of the room, going through papers, looking for clues that Conrad might’ve left behind.
In their line of work, they saw a lot of messed-up shit—it just came with the job—and sometimes it left a person jaded but nothing ever prepared them to see someone they knew or cared about splayed out like human garbage.
Whoever had done this had been cowardly, shooting Conrad in the back of the head.
The bullet had gone through Conrad and right into the computer, killing the hard drive. Whateve
r Conrad had been working on was lost to them. They didn’t have the time or the resources to have the hard drive recovered by forensics. But whatever Conrad had been investigating must’ve been damaging enough to send someone after him.
As much as he hated to point out a painful truth, they were getting close to the answers and someone was trying to stop them.
Scarlett said, “Conrad said he thought someone was blackmailing his boss, Platt, which was why he was riding his tail so hard. Knowing Conrad, he would’ve bugged Platt at some point to get more information.”
Xander nodded, impressed. “Maybe he heard something that he shouldn’t have and Platt found out?”
Scarlett stopped to think, then said, “Conrad loved his gadgets. He was always trying to outdo himself with the newest tech. Whoever did this killed the computer but they probably didn’t think to take his phone. Conrad always sent a backup of his computer to his cloud. If we can find Conrad’s phone, we can find who Conrad was listening to.”
But Conrad’s phone was gone, too.
“Damn it,” Scarlett cursed, pacing as she racked her brain for another solution. Then she remembered something that she’d always teased Conrad about but hoped against hope he’d continued to do. Going to his closet, she threw open the doors and rummaged through his sock drawer where she pulled out a single key. Then she went to the bottom drawer, shoved aside the neatly folded shirts to reveal the false bottom with the single keyhole. Xander watched as she unlocked the secret drawer and pulled out a metal fireproof box. She explained as she opened the box, “Conrad was always paranoid of losing important information so he kept everything he wanted to keep safe in here, including a backup phone that automatically updated through the cloud so if he ever lost his main phone, he never lost any speed.”
Just as she’d hoped, a duplicate phone, powered and ready, sat alongside important paperwork and a few pictures.
She handed the phone to Xander but paused as she retrieved a single picture of her and Conrad during happier times. Conrad had her wrapped in his embrace, his smile shining brighter than the sun.
Scarlett rubbed at the tingle in her nose. “Why couldn’t I have loved him like I should’ve?”
Xander knew that torment. He’d broken hearts of good women just as Scarlett had broken Conrad’s, but they were a different breed of people and sometimes that heartbreak was a mercy.
And she knew this but sometimes the guilt of doing what needed to be done was something that remained with you. He gave her a look of understanding and she let it go. Stuffing the picture in her back pocket, she returned the box and locked the drawer.
“Whatever Conrad was working on will be on this phone,” she said, sniffing back unshed tears. “We should go.”
Xander agreed but before they left, he called 911 from the landline with gloved hands. They weren’t going to leave Conrad there to be discovered by the neighbors after the smell had gotten so bad someone finally noticed.
Scarlett wiped at her eyes and nodded her gratitude. Without saying another word, they slipped from the house, closing everything up as they’d found it, driving off into the night with the hope that Conrad didn’t die in vain.
Back at the motel, Xander took a moment to hug Scarlett hard, knowing in his heart that he couldn’t push the broken pieces back together again but he could show her that she wasn’t alone.
Scarlett pulled away, needing to focus on anything other than what she was feeling, which was something he understood. Avoidance was a tried-and-true method of dealing with emotional pain, at least for the time being, and he was going to follow her lead.
“Hand me Conrad’s phone,” she said, sitting at the small table and firing up her laptop. Xander complied and she hooked her cord up to the phone, downloading the contents of Conrad’s hard drive to her own.
It took a few minutes but finally the laptop dinged softly and she unhooked the phone, winding up her cord and putting it away before opening the files.
She scanned quickly, bypassing anything that seemed unimportant. “Ah-ha,” Scarlett murmured, double-clicking on a file marked TEMP. At Xander’s confusion, she explained, “Conrad always dumped everything into the TEMP file until he could sort it later. It was a digital catchall but he was a little OCD about things and always wanted everything as organized as possible. That little fact might just work in our favor.”
Xander nodded. “Let’s hope.”
Scarlett opened file after file until she came across the jackpot, her mouth dropping open as she turned to Xander, unable to believe their luck. “I think we just found the evidence we need to link Platt and Sheffton together.”
Xander leaned forward, his heart rate quickening. “What does it say?”
“It’s the transcription of the bug Conrad planted in Platt’s office. Sheffton was blackmailing Platt.”
“With what?”
Scarlett turned the laptop so Xander could read for himself.
“If I’d known you were this incompetent, I would’ve handled this myself.”
“Scott is a specially trained soldier, not your average citizen on the run. I told you to be patient.”
“I’ve been patient and my patience is at an end.”
“Please, I got this. I have some new leads—”
“Bullshit. You’ve got nothing. You think I don’t have eyes and ears in all the right places? You’re sitting with your thumb up your ass and we’re finished with your lack of results.”
“Please... It was one time... A mistake. I swear I never did it again...”
“You and I both know that’s not true but we’ll let the courts decide.”
“No!”
“Senior Director Paul Platt caught with child porn...has a certain ring to it, don’t you think?”
...
Xander’s gaze widened at the intel. Platt must’ve found out that his office was bugged and realized it was Conrad. He would’ve done anything to keep that secret quiet. “Why do I get the feeling Conrad’s murder is going to get pinned on me, too?”
Scarlett shared Xander’s grim assumption but she placed her hand on his. “Not if we stop Platt first,” she said.
“But does Sheffton say anything that links him to McQuarry specifically?” he asked.
Scarlett scanned the transcript, stopping with a grin. “Right here. It’s weak but it’s definitely shady.”
Xander leaned in to read.
“Don’t make the same mistake McQuarry did and underestimate my influence. I can make you go away just as easily.”
“Of course, of course... I’m on your side. Please, trust me. I can get the job done. I’ll take care of any loose ends. Just give me another chance. Please.”
“Even on paper, this guy sounds like a pussy,” Xander said with a frown. “I’m almost willing to bet my liver that Platt was the one who killed Conrad. Shooting someone in the back is cowardly as shit.”
Scarlett agreed, her gaze darkening. “I think we ought to pay Senior Director Platt a visit tomorrow.”
Tomorrow Zak and CJ were tailing the secretary and Sheffton to see if they scuttled off together for some private time. They were armed with high-powered cameras to photograph anything interesting and/or salacious.
That part CJ had been excited about.
So while CJ and Zak were chasing after Sheffton and the secretary, she and Xander would pay Platt a visit and see what they could shake out of the fat bastard.
Both Scarlett and Xander shared the same thought—morning couldn’t come soon enough.
Chapter 24
The following morning after Scarlett uploaded the transcript to Red Wolf servers for safekeeping, she and Xander loaded up and went to seek an audience with Platt.
He wasn’t hard to find—predators had a tendency to flock where they could find or be close to prey.
There was a children’s
park near to the federal building. With precious little digging, they discovered Platt liked to take his lunch at the park, watching the kids play.
Platt, planted on one of the benches across from the play structure, was mid-sandwich when Xander and Scarlett flanked him on both sides, sitting uncomfortably close. Xander yanked the sandwich from Platt’s hands and tossed it. Before Platt could say anything, Scarlett pressed the barrel of her gun into his fat side with a charming smile edged with glass. “Good afternoon, Senior Director Platt. Lovely day, isn’t it?”
“Who are you?” he demanded, his lips compressing as Xander relieved him of his sidearm and recognition dawned. “You’re making a huge mistake. Turn yourself in, son, before you make things worse.”
“Thanks for the heartfelt advice but I’m not your son so shut the hell up,” Xander returned with a cool smile. “But seeing as you’re fond of advice, let me return the favor. Be careful of the company you keep.”
Platt’s lips thinned. “What do you want?”
“So many things,” Scarlett answered, her tone hard. “But what I really want is to watch you fry. I’m Scarlett Rhodes, by the way, and I’m your worst nightmare. Did you know there are twenty-seven bones in the human hand, not counting the wrist, and it’s possible to break each one with a certain Muay Thai strike to the center?”
Platt paled and swiveled his gaze to Xander, knowing he was in serious trouble. “You have a lot of nerve,” Platt bluffed, trying to seem in control of the situation. “But you’ve saved me a lot of trouble by coming to me.”
“Here’s the deal. You’re going to come with us and you’re going to do it nice and quiet like a good boy or else things are going to get ugly for you real quick,” Xander said.
Platt scoffed. “And why would I do that?”
Scarlett shoved the gun hard against his flab, causing him to grunt in pain. “Because if you don’t I’m going to take real pleasure in gutting you like the pig you are.”
“You wouldn’t do that. Not here. There are kids everywhere,” Platt said.
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