Don’t Keep Silent

by Don't Keep Silent (epub)

  “Daddy?” Callie crept from the hallway.

  Alan turned on the detective. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave now.”

  Detective Mansfield kept trying to turn this around on Alan. He hoped Rae was having better luck with her own investigation, especially now that she’d employed a private investigator’s assistance.

  After Detective Mansfield left, he was able to distract Callie with her toys again. He took the milk glass and bowl to the kitchen. The anger and hurt that boiled to the surface could break him.

  When he looked in on Callie, she’d fallen asleep on the floor. Normally he would have lifted her and tucked her into bed, but he couldn’t risk facing her. He couldn’t let her see him like this. He quietly shut the door and headed to his own room. He wanted to punch the wall, but that would wake Callie. Instead, he punched his pillow repeatedly until it burst open and down feathers accosted him.

  Then he fell to his knees and sobbed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  2:13 p.m.

  Jackson Hole, Wyoming

  Liam sat with Rae in his truck. Again. The heater pushed out hot air to keep them warm on a colder-than-usual winter day.

  Seemed like all he ever did anymore was wait. Now he was waiting for the sheriff to follow through. Liam hoped that would happen within the next hour, considering a life was on the line. Sheriff Taggart was a good man and a good sheriff, so Liam would give him the benefit of the doubt.

  “I know we have a plan, but it’s not good enough. There has to be something else we can do. Something we’re missing,” Rae said. “I thought you were a hotshot agent who took chances.”

  “That was then. This is now. I only took risks that were deemed necessary and approved by my supervisor.”

  “And now you’re your own boss.”

  “No. I’m working for you. Besides that, I don’t want to get arrested.”

  “You’re playing it safe when Zoey’s life is in danger.”

  Liam understood her frustration and the fact that she was becoming physically and emotionally exhausted, especially considering she was close to the missing woman. He had to hand it to Rae, she was as strong a person as he’d ever met. “If there was something to go on, then the sheriff would barge into that house. These things take time.”

  “Time she might not have.”

  “You’re letting your emotions rule you. Time doesn’t have to be wasted. Put your mind to finding something we can use. Have you looked at this guy’s Twitter feed or something? His social media?”

  She blew out a long breath. “You’re right. I’ll put in search parameters to track his movements. You know, like geolocated posts on social media that would potentially put him in Denver the day she was taken.”

  “That sounds like a plan.” He let Rae work. Astor had resorts in Colorado, so his being there didn’t mean he abducted Zoey, but Liam wouldn’t be any more of a downer than he already had been. Rae needed her creative juices to flow.

  “I’ve discovered that if you start digging,” she said, “you usually find dirt. All we need is some dirt that will give us the ability to thoroughly shake him down. I have a feeling about this.”

  “Gut feelings have their value, I’ll give you that.”

  “When Zoey disappeared in college, she begged me to keep it to myself. I shouldn’t have agreed. Zoey didn’t leave me much choice then. If I hadn’t, maybe none of this would be happening now. Instead, I’ve regretted that decision. Why didn’t I do more? Why didn’t I say something?”

  Rae’s words resonated with Liam, and he reached over and squeezed her hand. “You couldn’t have known that your decision to keep her secret would impact her future. Don’t beat yourself up. Sometimes we shouldn’t keep silent. Other times we need to keep secrets.”

  “And sometimes we need to speak up. Become a voice for the voiceless. That’s all I ever wanted and why I became an investigative reporter. To follow in Dad’s footsteps, but Zoey was a big part of it too.”

  Rae pressed her head against the seatback and released a remorseful-sounding sigh. “She never told me what happened that week. But seeing her like that compelled the journalist in me to expose the truth about what happened to trafficked and abused women and led me down the road to interview women in prison who were being trafficked, being hunted while still in prison. Prisons have become a lucrative recruiting ground for sex buyers. People don’t know about this. The women are promised somewhere safe to go when they’re released, because where else are they going to go? They’re outcasts. These sex buyers, these recruiters, send money to them for their basic needs while in prison. They become a lifeline for the women, and once they get out of prison, the women go into another prison of sorts when they’re trafficked. It’s a never-ending nightmare for them.”

  She sat up, her gaze fixed on Liam. “In fact, I think Zoey was the one to bring up the women trafficked out of prison. Her comment was one of many ideas I put into a file to explore later.”

  “I get it. The prison trafficking story wouldn’t let you go.”

  She cleared her throat as if clearing tears. “No. It wouldn’t. And the next thing I knew, I had spent months interviewing Dina in prison. I gained her trust and she depended on me, Liam.”

  He hated hearing the pain, but he knew he couldn’t stop her from sharing this even if he wanted to.

  “In the end, I let her down, because then she was trafficked again. I was so scared that she would suffer for talking to me at all!”

  He vaguely remembered her telling him this when he was in a drugged-up haze in the hospital recovering from the gunshot he’d taken while saving her life. But when he woke up fully, Rae was already gone, and he was angry and in pain. She’d had her reasons for using him, but he hadn’t wanted to see her.

  “That last night,” she said. “That last time we saw each other before everything exploded in our faces. That night before you were shot because of me and your cover was blown, I had overheard your conversation. I heard the name Malcom Fox, and I made the connection.”

  Rae wiped her cheeks. “I knew I finally had a name for the man behind the group responsible for taking Dina and so many others for that prison-trafficking scheme. I also knew that if I told you what I had planned, you’d prevent me from going after her because it was too dangerous.”

  She huffed a laugh and surveyed her hands. “I’m not good at asking permission. I’m sorry. Again, I didn’t work closely with you, get to know you, just to use what information I could secretly glean from you.”

  He’d shifted to watch her as she spoke, and as she said those last words, her face colored. Her cheeks grew even more rosy than they were from the cold. Rae hung her head, and he had no doubt what she was thinking about. Every conversation, every thought seemed to come back to their previous investigation—the two of them together a volatile mixture that had reached the flashing point and ignited.

  “I’m sorry about everything, Liam. I didn’t mean to use you.”

  “You don’t need to keep apologizing. I’m over it.” And her. At least that’s what he would keep telling himself.

  She had come into the field office wanting an interview and had somehow ended up talking to Liam, who’d also been tasked with looking into the drug and human trafficking ring. She claimed to be gathering research for an article. Something about her—her deep-seated passion as well as her optimism—drew him to her that first day. They were on the same page in some respects, reaching into the dangerous shadows to pull people out. He saw a passion in her that he once had when he’d first started, but his job had lost its luster. Rae inspired him. Though he was working undercover, they shared information. But going after Malcom Fox—that was his mission, his task. Not Rae’s.

  He could still hear the terror in her frantic voice when she called him about Dina’s disappearance. Rae feared she’d been trafficked again.

  Then Rae disappeared, leavi
ng Liam feeling helpless. Until he saw Rae bound and gagged—then he hadn’t been helpless. It had all been an elaborate setup to flush out the undercover cop in Fox’s organization. Liam did everything he could to save her, including giving up his cover. In the end, Fox was charged, so all was not lost.

  A car sped down the street going much too fast, drawing him back to the present moment.

  He said nothing more regarding her apology and explanation. Being here with her almost felt like they had come full circle. Except he’d prefer not to be betrayed and used, but maybe it was more that he reaped what he sowed. Working undercover required him to get close to people, befriend them and gain their trust, all so he could use them for information to catch bigger fish. Rae had been doing her job like he had. That was all. She’d saved a life. He could applaud her for that. Dina had been found.

  But had Rae ever cared about him? Some part of him wanted to believe that she had. Or maybe part of him wanted to believe that she hadn’t—so he wouldn’t so easily give his heart up again.

  Her eyes shimmered. “She escaped because I followed through.”

  “I hear what you’re saying—you’re going to follow this through and hope for the same results. But remember that Dina escaped as you were caught and could have died.”

  “I know you risked everything to save me. Please tell me that you know I never meant to hurt you. I never lied to you about—”

  “Movement. The sheriff is exiting the building with a detective.” Liam was glad for the break. Their conversation about the past was circular. It could go nowhere.

  Rae said nothing for a few moments, then, “He isn’t going to be happy that we’re following him.”

  “Nah. He’ll see us and know what we’re up to. I just wish Heath were here. He could make this a lot easier. He would convince the sheriff to let me assist. Or Heath could be the one to go to the house with him.”

  “I don’t get it,” she said. “Why don’t you just work for the county, then? You could do a lot of good.”

  “Yeah, well, there’s considerably more freedom involved in what I’m doing now.”

  “Freedom that’s limiting you. You could just as easily interrogate this guy if you were officially a detective. Detective Liam McKade.”

  Hmm. Different from his old title, Special Agent Liam McKade. It did have a nice ring to it. “Well I’m not a detective, and I don’t want to interfere with the sheriff’s investigation. Let’s see if he uncovers something with his visit to Astor.”

  He steered onto the road, following the sheriff but not too close. His cell rang. The display read Bridger County. He answered.

  “You’re following me—why?” Sheriff Taggart asked.

  “I thought that would be obvious and you would understand.”

  “I don’t like being followed, McKade.”

  “We’re headed in the same direction, Sheriff. That’s all. We could have just driven to the house and waited for you.”

  “I don’t recall inviting you. But let’s cut to the chase. What are you planning?”

  “After you leave, we want to see if there’s a reaction.”

  “I want to hear from you later today.” Sheriff Taggart ended the call.

  Except I don’t work for you, as you keep reminding me, Liam thought. Still, everyone would benefit if they worked together. Liam had seen firsthand what happened when team members didn’t play well together.

  Liam followed the sheriff on the straight road out of the valley and then onto a curvy, winding mountain road that swept past houses hidden on steep inclines in a densely wooded neighborhood. Finally, near Enzo Astor’s home—the same house they had watched earlier—Liam parked along the road. “I’d like to hike in and watch.”

  If nothing happened today, maybe he would surveil the home tonight.

  Rae continued to work on her laptop. This was more what stakeouts were like—sitting and waiting and nothing at all like action movies. But the hunt stirred him. This felt right.

  “I got an email from Reggie.”

  Rae’s super geek resource guy. “And?”

  “Reggie says he might have something for us on the shell companies, but he’s having trouble tying Astor to it, which is what makes him think he’s onto something.”

  “I get it. In the DEA, we could find the drugs coming in and watch the cash flowing out, but where it went, nobody knew. Usually it went to an anonymous shell company incorporated in Delaware. Just one big dead end.”

  Rae lifted a finger. “He says it isn’t out of the ordinary for real estate investment funds to own multiple properties, and for those properties in turn, for example income-producing commercial properties, to also own companies that own more properties. That said, E.S.A. Holdings is unusually convoluted. He has a friend in the US Treasury’s FinCEN—Financial Crimes Enforcement Network—who’s looking into it for him to see if there are any anomalies.”

  “Oh boy. As in officially looking into it?”

  Rae shrugged. “He didn’t say.”

  “Why doesn’t Reggie work for the feds? They need him.”

  “He’s British.” She chuckled. “In the meantime, he attached some documents for me to look through, though I feel wholly incompetent compared to him. I’m just glad I have him. He can save us a lot of time. When I’m working on a story, it can take months. Sometimes years. That’s what has me concerned—we don’t have that kind of time.”

  He understood. Infiltrating trafficking rings and building trust took time. “What else?”

  “Sam mentioned a client had stalked Zoey, so we know Simon frequented their heli-skiing business. Maybe once was all it took for him to become obsessed with her. That brings me to this. I’d like to talk to Zoey’s mother again.”

  “What about our stakeout?”

  “We could split up. Time is running out for Zoey.”

  “Not a good idea. The guy in the mask? He’s been watching us too.”

  A vise squeezed his chest, cinching tighter with each day, each hour—he feared time could be running out for Rae too.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  3:02 p.m.

  “What?” Rae gasped. “When were you going to tell me?”

  “I’m telling you now.”

  Rae looked in the mirror to check behind them.

  “Don’t worry. I don’t think he’s following us now. All that to say, I’d prefer it if we stick together.”

  Because he couldn’t let her get hurt? It seemed the two of them working together was inevitable. The chemistry between them remained, despite issues that needed to be worked through. He seemed to have let go of his resentment regarding her previous actions, and she hoped it was more that he finally understood she’d had no choice. Maybe he’d been hurt that she hadn’t let him in on her plans, but what was done was done.

  As Providence would have it, they were here now working together as though they were being given a second chance to make things right.

  Her cell phone rang. A fist gripped her heart.

  “It’s my brother.” She answered. “Alan. How are you?” Stupid question. But what else could she say?

  “Rae . . .” His voice croaked.

  Oh no, what . . . “Alan?” Tears choked her throat. She imagined the worst kind of news. “Please tell me what’s going on.”

  “Oh . . .” He blew out a shaky breath. “They have pictures of Zoey meeting someone at the place where they found her car. She left with a guy. It looked as if she left willingly.”

  Oh. Man. What could Rae say to that? “What do the police think?”

  “The detective on the case asked me if I knew the man in the picture, and she kept pressing that point. I think she’s formulating a theory that I’m a jealous husband and I knew Zoey was having an affair. That I killed her.”

  Rae bent forward as if she felt the proverbial punch to her own gut. A moment passed before she could
gather her composure enough to speak again. “And what do you believe? Do you think Zoey was having an affair?”

  Please, let it not be so.

  “I don’t want to believe it. I can’t believe it, yet the images show her talking to him like she knew him well.”

  “But she wouldn’t leave Callie. Even if—and I’m sorry to say this—even if she left you, she wouldn’t leave her little girl. I know this to my core, and you know it too. Something else is going on here. He must have been able to coerce her. To threaten her. Send me the pictures.”

  “I’m still waiting to get them. As soon as I do, I’ll send them.”

  Rae glanced at Liam, who watched her. “Can you at least describe him?”

  “He wore a ball cap, but he had light brown hair. Was kind of stocky. The complete opposite of me.”

  “Alan, listen to me. Get ahold of yourself. I don’t believe for a minute she was having an affair. So we’re going to go with the supposition that she was forced to leave.”

  “How could he force her?”

  “By threatening you and Callie—the most important people in her life.”

  Callie’s soft voice sounded in the background.

  “I have to go,” Alan said. “I’ll send you the picture if I ever get it.”

  The call ended.

  Rae stared at the screen as tears dropped to her phone.

  “Hey.” Liam’s gentle voice comforted her. He took her hand in his. She continued to glare at her phone. Then she sniffled and wiped the moisture from her eyes. Rae lifted her gaze to meet the concern in Liam’s. “Did you catch any of that?”

  “I got the gist of it.”

  Rae shared everything Alan had said.

  Liam shook his head. “That’s rough. You said you don’t believe she was cheating. How sure are you, Rae?”

  “She loved him. I just know, okay?” She huffed and stared out the window. “Look, Zoey was super smart. She had amazing job offers. If she didn’t love him, then she didn’t have to stay with him. But she chose to stay home with her little girl. She wanted to be there with her.”