by Karen Rose
“Olivia came into the gym this morning. Really early, so she could avoid me.”
David winced. “It’s been a while since she’s been to the gym.”
“Which you know because you’ve been reading the sign-in sheets. Rudy told me. He also told me you’d asked about Olivia and that he told you we were old friends.”
“Rudy’s a weasel,” David muttered and her ruby lips twitched, but just once.
“That’s what Olivia said this morning because Rudy told me she’d come in.” Her expression darkened. “Goddammit, you know her. And I mean that in the biblical sense. You knew I knew her and you never said a word. Did you join my dojo just to use me to get to her?”
In the biblical sense. Based on his vague recollections, that was quite possibly the truth. “It’s not what you think.” He sighed. “I met Olivia at a wedding.”
“I know. Her sister Mia’s wedding two and a half years ago. After which the biblical knowing ensued.” Her voice rose. “After which you never called her.”
“Quiet,” he hissed. “My mother has ears like a damn bat. I met Olivia at the rehearsal dinner. I was sitting on the steps of the church, putting off going inside.”
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Why?”
“Because it was one more wedding I’d leave alone.”
Paige’s look turned skeptical. “Now you want me to believe you have trouble getting a woman. You? Mr. Perfect, who’s too nice to possibly be true? Please.”
His laugh was mirthless. “Look at you. You’re gorgeous. You’re nice. Usually. Do you have a good man?”
Her shoulders sagged. “Point taken, thank you very much. But I’m fucked up.”
“Well, honey, you’re not the only one,” he said bitterly. “We all have our issues.”
She considered this. “Fair enough. So why did you glom onto me? Why me?”
“Evie took your self-defense class and she said you were good, so I came to the dojo to meet you. I liked it there, so I joined. I didn’t know you knew Olivia, not at first.”
“Olivia recommended my class to Eve,” Paige said and he could see she believed him. “So we’re caught up in a circle of friends. But then you went all spy-guy. Why?”
“I saw Olivia’s name on the sign-in sheet at the gym and was surprised, so I asked Rudy. He said she came in regularly, that the two of you are friends. So I let things go where they would. I kept an eye on the sign-in sheet and Rudy kept me filled in.”
Her brows lifted. “He really is a weasel.”
“I prefer ‘confidential informant,’” he said and her lips twitched. “What?”
“That’s what I said to Liv. So you met her at a wedding, were obviously taken with her, you two did the horizontal shuffle, and then you don’t call? That’s not nice, David.”
“She left me,” David protested. “I woke up and she was gone. No note, no nothing. And I did call, but the number I found in the online phone book had been changed.”
“She moved right about that time. You could have asked her sister for her number.”
David thought about Olivia’s sister, Mia, who was one of the few who’d known how hopelessly he’d fallen for someone else. “That was… complicated.”
“You slept with Mia, too?” she asked, her voice rising to a shriek.
“Goddammit,” he hissed. “Be quiet. I did not sleep with Mia, too. I may not even have slept with Olivia. Whatever happened between Olivia and me is our business. I hoped she’d call and figured when she didn’t that she regretted what happened.”
“Which she says she does.”
David lifted his brows. “And does she?”
“You’ll have to ask her. Why did you come to Minneapolis? I want the truth.”
He sighed. “Evie needed help fixing her roof. I’d been looking for some kind of… I don’t know, a sign or something. I get here and Evie gets attacked, then I get run off the road by that psycho and Olivia’s the cop on the case.”
“Hell of a sign,” Paige said.
“Yeah. I should have left Chicago a long time ago. There was a woman named Dana…”
Her mouth drooped sadly. “She died?”
“No. She met someone else.” And he’d thought he’d never live through it.
She sighed. “Been there, done that. And?”
“And nothing. Dana was happy with this other guy. She never knew how I felt, and she never felt the same. I walked away. Just not far enough. Our families are all… connected. Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays. I had to see her all the time.”
“I know that name,” Paige said. “Dana was in the wedding, too. I saw her picture.”
“She was Mia’s matron of honor. I was glad I didn’t know Mia’s fiancé well enough to be asked to be the best man.”
“That would have sucked.”
Paige had a way with understatement. “True,” he said. “I’d been looking for a way out of Chicago for a while, but my job was there. My family. Evie gave me the shove I needed to make the move.” She’d dared him to stop hiding from the world, to stop watching other people be happy. And she’d been right.
“So after two years, you moved here. Why didn’t you call Liv for seven months?”
“Because Olivia was digging bodies out of that psycho’s lime pit, informing all those families. Evie would tell me how withdrawn Olivia was becoming, so I watched her for a few weeks. I wanted to see if she looked better, less stressed. I wanted to walk up to her front door and”—he drew a breath—“take up where we left off. But she looked worse as the weeks passed, and there was never a good time. Look, Evie told her I’d bought this place. I figured if she didn’t call, she didn’t want to take up where we’d left off. So I waited. I could be patient.”
“Seven months?” Paige shook her head. “Not even you’re that patient. I want the truth.”
He closed his eyes. He wasn’t certain he could handle the truth. “The truth is, I don’t remember much of that night.”
“Yeah, right. You remember everything you’ve ever seen or read. You have a photographic memory. How could you possibly not remember that night?”
“I had too much to drink at the reception. I never get drunk. Never.” A memory jabbed at him. He hadn’t gotten drunk since that night nearly twenty years ago. A night that ruined so many lives. A night for which he’d done penance ever since, but all the good deeds in the world would never bring the dead back to life. “I don’t know why Olivia ran. I don’t know what I did.”
“Can I give you some advice?” she said softly.
He opened his eyes, found hers warm again. “Why not?”
“Olivia can take whatever demons you’ve got burning you from the inside out. Tell her the truth. Let her decide if you can take up where you left off. David, you can’t take care of everyone. By trying to protect her, you did the exact opposite. You hurt her.”
“I never meant to. She said she’d talk to me.”
“Good. Don’t fuck it up again.” She leaned up and kissed his cheek. “Good luck, David. Trust yourself.”
He shook his head. “I can’t. It’s too important.”
“You have to. I’ll see you tomorrow at the dojo. And don’t worry.” She made a locking motion across her lips. “I won’t tell. Gotta get back. My lunch break is over.”
Chapter Six
Monday, September 20, 12:15 p.m.
You are batshit crazy,” Albert said, backing away, palms out. “No fucking way.”
Mary sat on the grass in front of the library, her eyes red-rimmed. “Eric, Joel’s dead. How can you even suggest such a thing, now of all times?”
Joel’s death had actually given him the argument he needed to convince the others to help him torch the texter’s target. Just this one, he thought. Tomorrow, we run.
When do you tell them about the video so they know they need to run?
Tonight. After the job is done.
The warehouse belonged to a guy named Tomlinson who sold plumbing fixtures
but who had to have done something bad to be a target of blackmail and arson.
“Albert, come over here and stop pacing like a tiger. People will notice.” Eric sat down next to Mary and patted her hand. “Look, Tomlinson’s warehouse was next on Joel’s list.” Which was so totally not true, but fortunately Joel was not there to refute it.
“He sells plumbing fixtures. What does he have to do with wetlands or habitat?” Mary asked. “Joel never mentioned Tomlinson to me.”
“He mentioned him to me, lots of times,” Eric lied smoothly. “Tomlinson’s an investor in KRB, Inc. One of the bigger investors, in fact.” Of course he was not. But he didn’t expect either Mary or Albert to know how to double-check him. “If KRB goes forward with their project, it’ll be with money this guy gives them.”
“You’re batshit crazy,” Albert mumbled again. “Doing another one, after last night?”
“It’s the perfect time,” Eric said. “Look at it this way. Who knows what Joel told his parents or what they may have suspected? He goes home upset. He’s been going on about saving the wetlands and there’s a fire. You all took showers, but his clothes still smelled like smoke. The Fischers aren’t stupid. If we never do another, they’ll think Joel did the condo fire. If we strike again, they’ll know Joel had nothing to do with it.”
“They’ll suspect you,” Albert said stonily. “You were his friend.”
Hell of a friend. I gave the order to have him killed. “No, they won’t suspect me,” he said flatly. “Mr. Fischer used to say I had no imagination. No passion. Just a number cruncher. He’d laugh about it. Say I was the one safe person to have around Joel. That I kept him from running off half-cocked to do his causes.”
“How could this happen?” Mary lamented. “Joel was upset when I dropped him off last night, but he wasn’t… you know.”
“No, what?” Albert asked.
“Suicidal,” she said. “The road was dry. It was daylight. I think he ran off the road deliberately. If I’d thought he’d hurt himself, I never would have left him.”
Eric didn’t dare look at Albert. “It was an accident, just like the girl. Nobody meant for the girl to get hurt. It was an accident.”
Mary covered her face with her hands. “I can’t watch the news. I couldn’t stand knowing her name. I keep trying to forget her, but I see her there, screaming.”
A shiver slithered down Eric’s spine. The image hadn’t left his mind either. But at least Mary wasn’t watching the news, so she hadn’t heard about the guard yet.
“Mary, listen. Think about what had Joel so fired up. What had you fired up. Those wetlands. Our earth. We wanted to keep one corner of our earth… safe.” He oozed sincerity. He was choking on it. Yesterday he’d believed every word. Today he just wanted it to be over. “We stopped them, but only temporarily. With Tomlinson’s money, they’ll rebuild. Bigger, maybe. That means all of our sacrifice was for nothing. Joel would have died in vain. You don’t want that, do you?”
Mary shook her head. “No,” she whispered.
“He would have wanted this,” Eric murmured. “You know it. We owe it to him.”
She went very still. “What do we do?” she whispered.
Eric wanted to blow out a relieved breath but kept it in. “Meet in the parking lot, same place as before. Tomlinson has a guard dog. We’ll need to bring some steak with some sleeping powder on it. Just to make him sleep, Mary,” he added when she flinched. “I had some muscle relaxants, but they expired a long time ago.”
“I have some sleeping pills,” she murmured. “Just to make him sleep.”
“Absolutely,” Eric assured her.
She squared her shoulders. “Joel’s burial is tomorrow.”
Eric’s brows rose. “Tomorrow? Oh yeah. That’s some Orthodox rule, right?”
“Burial within twenty-four hours. I want to go, but if I go alone his parents will freak. You’re going, right? You’ll go with me?”
If I’m still in the country. “Of course. Get some rest. Don’t watch the news.”
He watched her go, then turned to Albert. “You in?”
Albert looked straight ahead. “What does he have?”
“What does who have?”
A muscle twitched in Albert’s taut jaw. “The guy who shot the guard. He saw us. He’s making us do this stupid crime.” His accent became more pronounced, as it always did when he became emotional. Usually Eric found it a turn-on. Not today. “That’s the only explanation for this ridiculous charade. So what does he have on us?”
What was there to say? “Video. The whole thing. Close-ups of our faces and of the girl’s face in the window. You smacking Joel and us dragging him away.”
“So we are now his bitches?” Albert asked bitterly.
“Either that or we run.”
“Where would we run? The world is a very small place.”
Eric attempted a small smile that fell painfully flat. “France? They don’t extradite if there is a possibility of the death penalty. And you do speak the language.”
Albert did not smile. “This is Minnesota. We’d just go to prison for life.” He turned only his head, spearing Eric with his eyes. “When did you plan to tell me, mon ami?” What had once been an endearment was now a soft snarl.
“Tonight. After we were finished. I needed some time. If you refused, he’d show the video and I’d be trapped.”
“I, I, I,” murmured Albert. “You took a lot on yourself. When did I get to choose?”
“What would you have done differently, Albert?”
For a moment Albert said nothing. When he spoke, his voice was cold. “I wouldn’t have kept it from you. I’m not going to run. This person, how does he contact you?”
Eric took the cell phone and MP3 player from his pocket. “He texted me on my cell, then told me where to find these.”
“Tomlinson is not a KRB investor.”
“No.”
“That was not a question, Eric. Did you think I was too stupid to check on this myself? Before I agreed to this arson scheme of yours, I wanted to be sure you would remain unhurt. I checked the condo investors to be sure your father’s company was not among them, that they would take no financial loss. That in your zeal you would not bite the hand that feeds you.”
“And that feeds you, too?” Eric asked bitterly.
Albert’s expression remained unmoved. “Did you not wonder why I went along with you?”
Eric shook his head, not sure he wanted to know. “I thought you believed.”
“In saving a lake?” Albert scoffed. “I believed in your future. I thought if you got this… obsession out of your system, you’d be able to go on. I wanted to be sure you’d be safe.” This was said stiffly, accusingly. “So I did what needed to be done.”
“I’m sorry,” Eric said quietly. “I didn’t think.”
“No, you didn’t. Now it’s my turn to think. Tell me everything you know. Somehow we have to figure out who this blackmailer is.”
“And then?” Eric said.
Albert lifted a shoulder. “We kill him. What’s one more?”
Eric drew a breath, nodded. “And then?”
“And then, I’m leaving. Find yourself another toy. I’m not interested anymore.”
Monday, September 20, 12:45 p.m.
Abbott leaned against Olivia’s desk as she hung up the phone. “Well?” he asked. “You get anything from that serial number?”
“The girl’s name is Tracey Mullen,” Olivia said, moving her goddess statue to one side so that Abbott didn’t knock her fedora to the floor. “Tracey was sixteen. Her father lives in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and her mother lives in Gainesville, Florida.”
“You were right about the Gators,” Abbott said, then pointed to Kane who was drumming his fingers impatiently, the phone crushed against his ear. “What’s with him?”
“He’s talking with Tracey Mullen’s father in Iowa, who is deaf. They’re using a relay service. Kane speaks, the relay operator types i
nto a TTY, Mr. Mullen types back, and the operator reads to Kane. It’s a slow process.”
“So what was Tracey Mullen doing in Minneapolis?” Abbott asked.
“We’re still sorting it out. I spoke with the mother in Florida, who’s hearing and who has custody, but who said Tracey begged to live with her father and go to the deaf school in Iowa. She put Tracey on a plane to dad two days before Labor Day. She thought Tracey was with dad. Dad thought she was with mom. It’s not clear why Tracey ran away, but she hasn’t been seen since Labor Day. She’d texted both of them, as recently as yesterday morning, indicating she was with the other parent.”
“Did either parent indicate the other was abusive?”
“Mom didn’t, but they don’t seem to communicate very frequently. Most of their communication went through Tracey. We haven’t mentioned the bruises and arm fracture yet. We’re going to talk with her teachers and area social workers in both Iowa and Florida to see if anyone noticed anything suspicious. This could take some time.”
“How did the mother sound?”
Olivia shrugged. “Devastated. Stunned. Angry. She and her new husband are flying up here on the first flight they can get.”
Kane hung up and let out an exhausted breath. “There has got to be a better way. Dad is on his way. He should be here after dinner. He seemed very upset, especially at his wife for ‘throwing Tracey out,’ but going through the operator, it’s hard to say.”
“Mom said Tracey begged to live with dad,” Olivia remarked.
“Dad said Tracey hated Florida but never said she’d asked to live with him. It’ll be interesting to have them all in the same room. I’ll line up a sign-language interpreter.”
“What about the guy she had sex with?” Abbott asked.
“Mom said there was no boyfriend. Tracey was focused on her studies,” Olivia said. “Whether that was true, Mom wanted it to be, or Mom was naïve remains to be seen.”
“Dad said Tracey didn’t have a boyfriend because her mother forced her to go to hearing school in Gainesville and she was isolated,” Kane said.
Abbott sighed. “I’ll call Jess Donahue. I’m going to want a shrink’s take on this family. I thought this girl had the implant, so she could hear.”