Expired Game (Last Chance County Book 5)

by Lisa Phillips

  Ted reached out and clasped her hips. She looked up. “Thanks.”

  He let go like he’d touched something hot.

  Jess sighed.

  “I can’t believe I missed all of this.” Mia jerked back around to concentrate on her call. “Hey,” her tone softened along with her expression. “It’s me.”

  Jess tuned out Mia’s conversation with Conroy.

  “I’m going to go check the surveillance video.” Ted walked off in the direction of his office.

  Dean gave her a pitying look she didn’t like at all, and pulled a penlight from his backpack. “Bill?”

  Jess wandered off. She was way too antsy to sit down, and there was no way anyone would let her do actual police work. Even she would admit her arm hurt. A lot.

  Ellie joined her at the door of the empty Chief’s office.

  It didn’t look much different than it had before Conroy took over when her Grandfather died. Prior to that, there had been a hospital bed here. Her grandfather had wanted to spend his final days where he was most comfortable. The twenty-four-seven staff hadn’t hurt.

  How many nights had she sat by his bed, holding his hand, while he fought for his life? She was fighting a battle of her own right now. And she was losing.

  He would be ashamed of her.

  Eighteen

  Ted shut the door to his office and leaned back against it. Felt like forever since he’d been in here, even though it hadn’t been more than a couple of days. The place was a big storage closet that he’d asked the chief to convert into an office.

  In here, he could breathe.

  He could be himself, while outside this room he had to put on a face. Talk about a growth mindset. And whatever productivity tactic he’d learned most recently. They weren’t lies. He charted on the walls how he progressed at the tasks he was assigned. And he tried to have a positive outlook as much as possible.

  It helped combat the darkness and scarcity inside him.

  Ted wandered around his desk to sink into his chair. He hit the power button on the computer tower on the floor. Then the one beside it. On the desk were four monitors. The inside two rotated so they displayed vertically and the two outside screens horizontal. He shut his eyes and listened to the fans whir.

  First, he would check the surveillance to see if it was possible to ID the person who had attacked Bill and killed Sally Peters. Then, he had several confiscated cell phones to go through. Every cell that belonged to everyone associated with West that they’d arrested so far. The judge had granted them full access in order to bring down their enemy.

  The more phones he had, the more data he got.

  So far, he had a pretty robust algorithm running that sifted through phone numbers they gathered. The source phone number was added, along with whoever they called or messaged over the life of the phone. Based on frequency, location, and several other things—like specific keywords from messages—he was building a program that would give Ted the number of the person most likely to be the boss.

  West.

  After that, it was only a matter of time before they found him.

  A low hum sounded from the corner of the room. Ted’s eyes flashed open. Seconds later, the door handle twisted down. Dean stuck his head between the open door and the frame. “Come in?”

  Ted nodded. He had no other chairs in his office apart from the one he was sitting in. Prior to the previous chief’s cancer diagnosis, the cushy chair now in Conroy’s office had been in here. Ridgeman had liked to come in and sit when the old chief wanted a quiet place to rest—somewhere to think when he was trying to figure something out. More than once he’d fallen asleep in the chair, and Ted had listened to his light snoring.

  Now he had to play music so it wasn’t deathly quiet in here.

  “Everything okay?”

  Ted blew out a breath.

  “Yeah.” Dean smiled. “Pretty much.” He looked around, then said, “One sec.” He disappeared and came back with a rolling office chair. Who knew where he got that from.

  Ted eyed him.

  “You have company. Deal with it.”

  “Take the chair with you when you leave.”

  Dean eyed him right back.

  Ted logged into both computers with one swipe of his fingerprint on the scanner between the two computers. He loaded the phone data into his program first, so it could run while he looked at the surveillance footage.

  “What are you thinking?”

  Ted glanced at his brother.

  “Why so determined to get to work? It’s your day off.”

  “You think I won’t log this as time and a half?” Ted tried to brush it off with humor.

  “We both know this is bigger than your paycheck.” Dean leaned forward to pin him with a stare that was one hundred percent special forces. “You’ve been hedging on the hunt for Dad since Ellie first showed me that photo. Dad was in Vietnam with the founders. There’s a reason this was always his home base.”

  “He wouldn’t come back here now. That makes no sense.”

  Dean said, “Do you actually believe that?”

  “You think he would come back here?”

  “I think if I was the FBI, the spot where his sons—and his support system—are would be the first place I’d look.”

  Ted’s finger stilled over the mouse button. “I’m not a special agent, and I’ve never been a SEAL.” He motioned at the computer monitors in front of him. “This is what I do.”

  “So why haven’t you found him yet?”

  Ted said nothing.

  “Did you know he was running the organization that hired Stuart?”

  “Because it would be my fault he and Kaylee were nearly killed over it?” Ted understood that he’d be considered an accessory if what he’d done ever got out. But what would that matter? It didn’t have a knock-on effect on the Last Chance Police Department. Sure, he’d testified in a lot of cases, but it was the cops here who did the real work.

  Which was, of course, completely the opposite of what he’d decided before.

  So, basically, he was in complete denial. Trying to hedge all his bets.

  Dean sighed. “What has you all tied up in knots? I mean, I get that he dragged you into his stuff, but that stopped when you took the job here. Right?”

  Was life ever that simple? One chapter ended and another began. Life moved on. Chains fell away, and someone walked in freedom from that point. Only if that was the case, Ted would have been different the day he’d given his life to Christ, however many months ago that was now.

  Instead, nothing had changed, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d seriously missed something about the whole Christianity thing. It seemed like God wasn’t too bothered by the fact Ted couldn’t seem to shed his past and move on. He hadn’t changed anything about Ted, or his life.

  “Please talk to me.”

  He was about to answer his brother when the footage loaded, and he got a look at the person who had been in the room with Bill during his phone call with the dispatcher.

  “What is it?” Dean stood. Before Ted could click off, his brother tugged the corner of the screen and looked at it. “That’s—”

  “Dad.” Ted choked the word out.

  “He’s here.”

  Dean was worried about that? Ted had bigger problems than just the fact they’d confirmed their father was in Last Chance. “He killed Sally Peters.”

  “Why would he come here? That makes no sense.” Dean straightened. “If I was him, I’d have disappeared to Canada by now.”

  Ted shrugged, slightly taken back by Dean’s shift in option. “If he didn’t escape the draft that way, why would he do it now?”

  “Maybe. He’s not one to run.” Dean settled on the edge of the desk. “Do you have footage from the cell?”

  Ted pulled up the holding cell used for women who had been arrested. Sally had been the only occupant. “Here.” He clicked play. Sally was sitting on the bench seat at the rear of the cell under t
he tiny window. Slumped down, she looked defeated. Or tired. Or both.

  Cut off from her support. Betrayed, and let go by West.

  Her body flinched, and she lifted her head. She mouthed something, and then a flash off screen erupted. She was shoved back by the force of a bullet. Her body hit the wall, and she slumped on the bench again. This time, dead.

  “He shot her through the bars.” Dean shifted. “Is there another angle that shows his face?”

  “What are you, a cop now?”

  Dean cuffed the side of Ted’s head, though not in a way that hurt.

  It was on the tip of his tongue to tell his brother not to treat him like a kid, but the screen went black. He stared at his reflection, saying nothing. What was the point in trying to convince his brother? Dean would always see him as someone who needed protection.

  Maybe he did.

  Since Ted had taken the job here, Dean thought their father had left him alone all those years. If he knew the truth, his overprotectiveness would get so much worse.

  “The last few days have been crazy for you and Jess.” Dean studied his face. “How are you doing?”

  “I have a lot of work. If the heavens are smiling on me, I’ll get a lead that will send these guys right to West’s doorstep.” He waved in the direction of the main office, through the wall.

  “You know that isn’t what I was asking.”

  “I don’t want to talk about Jess.”

  Dean glanced away, his huge shoulders lifting and falling in a sigh. Ted had always wondered why his brother’s frame was so much bigger than his. They both had their father’s coloring, but Ted was pretty sure they had different mothers. Though, he didn’t know for sure.

  No matter. It didn’t change their relationship. Or it wouldn’t if they indeed were only half-brothers. They were still family nonetheless.

  “All this time, you knew what he was doing.”

  Ted opened his mouth to argue.

  “You didn’t want me to know.” Dean got up, circled the desk, and stared at the artwork on the wall—a magic eye image of a dinosaur Ted had pinned up there years ago. He turned around. “You were supposed to have been using your superpowers to find Dad. Instead, you probably knew where he was this entire time.”

  “I didn’t know where he was. And I didn’t know he was the CIA director.” Ted shook his head. “How was I supposed to know what he was doing? Or that he would work his way into that position.”

  Their dad was the ultimate conman. He’d used his military credentials to fool so many. People in powerful positions, so high up in government, there should have been checks. Someone should have realized who he really was.

  But no one had.

  “The FBI arrested him.” Ted gritted his teeth. “I figured that was the end of it until he called.”

  “You mean ‘they’ right? The FBI started calling because they wanted a statement from you.”

  Ted stared at him.

  “Dad has a way to contact you.”

  He nodded, swallowing. This was about to get so much worse. But there was no way Ted could control it all by himself. Not when his dad was in town now. “Why did he kill Sally Peters?”

  A muscle flexed in Dean’s jaw. He didn’t like the subject change. He wasn’t going to change the direction of their conversation now, but he’d bet they’d be finishing that conversation later.

  Ted didn’t like his brother knowing exactly how long he’d been under their dad’s thumb.

  Dean said, “He doesn’t do anything without a reason.”

  Ted said, “It doesn’t make sense why he’d risk coming here and killing her. Unless he needed something or got something out of it.”

  “For him, or someone else?”

  “Good question.” Ted leaned back in his chair, trying to think it through the way Jess would.

  “One you have an answer to?”

  Ted realized he’d been completely distracted by thoughts of Jess. Go figure. That had been a pretty all-consuming kiss. He shook his head, not wanting to go down another rabbit trail. “Could be he did it as a favor. He needs something, maybe from West. So he contacts him and gets the job to kill Sally Peters in exchange for…what?”

  “Maybe a new ID. Or money?”

  Ted nodded. “I’d believe that. He just escaped federal custody. Either he has a nest egg, or he needs one.”

  “Stands to reason he’d go back where his support system is.”

  Ted’s body shuddered. He couldn’t hold back his reaction. Was his dad going to call again? If he did, was that a way for them to get West? Surely if Ted got his dad to identify the person referred to as West, that would absolve him of a lot of his culpability in whatever his dad had forced him into over the years.

  Now there was an idea. Have his dad roll over on West and bring the man down that way.

  Use his dad. The way his dad had used him so many times.

  Dean was studying him, a knowing look in his eyes. “You have a way to contact him?”

  Nineteen

  “It was Pierce Cartwright?”

  Bill’s jaw hardened under Jess’s stare. She figured her expression was pretty intense. How else was she supposed to get the information from him?

  There was more. He was holding back, and her whole plan was to attempt to intimidate him into telling her not just who attacked him.

  “Tell me, Bill.”

  He only nodded.

  That was good enough for now. Later Mia could get a statement from him, and that—along with his testimony—would be part of the DA’s pile of evidence against…

  She could hardly even think it.

  Pierce Cartwright. Ted’s dad was here. He’d killed Sally Peters. Jess shut her eyes for a second and felt Mia squeeze her shoulder.

  The lieutenant said, “You expect us to believe that’s all of it?”

  She opened her eyes to find Bill glaring at both of them.

  Of course, Mia had already figured out what it took Jess much longer to realize. Hopefully the lieutenant wouldn’t hold that against her.

  Ellie looked up from her phone. “Dean says they knew that. Ted looked at surveillance. He wants to know if we found the duty officer yet.”

  Mia said, “Tell him Conroy and Donaldson are looking still.”

  Jess tried to figure out why the duty officer wasn’t inside. He was either dead by now, or he’d been kidnapped. Would they get a ransom demand soon? Or would the two men find him somewhere, beyond help?

  “Should I go help them?”

  Mia shook her head. “Stay here, Officer Ridgeman.”

  She didn’t argue with her lieutenant. Instead, Jess turned to Bill. “You’ve worked for this department for how many years?”

  Bill swallowed. Not nervous. That wasn’t the expression on his face. He looked more like he was choked up because he’d been caught. Guilty and maybe slightly relieved they’d discovered the truth. He didn’t have to hide anymore.

  Finally, he said, “Twenty-six years.”

  So, longer than she’d been alive. “Do you know who the founders are?” She remembered then that Ted had identified them all. He’d also kept that fact to himself for several weeks while the rest of them waited for that intelligence. “Are you one of them?”

  “Of course not. I’m not old enough.”

  Jess rolled her eyes and stepped away while Mia kept asking him questions. Everyone in the room was listening. Ellie lifted her attention from her phone. “Dean said he and Ted are going to run an errand. He asked if I could go home with you instead, and he’d call me later.”

  Jess would’ve slung her arm around her sister’s shoulder except it was bandaged. She leaned against the desk beside her and nudged Ellie with her shoulder.

  Her sister shrugged. “It’s fine. They’re upset over their dad, and he’ll probably talk to me about it later.”

  “He talks to you…about their dad?”

  Ellie frowned. “Only a little, I think.”

  “Huh.�
� She didn’t want to sound upset by that. They were engaged. She and Ted were… Jess didn’t know what they were.

  Friends who felt like more, mixed in with some casual and ill-timed kissing, that nearly cost their lives?

  Something like that.

  Ellie gently nudged her back. In a low voice, she said, “You okay?”

  Jess didn’t even know the answer to that. She had no energy and everything hurt. Her thoughts didn’t seem to want to coalesce, let alone provide any kind of clarity.

  Ellie gave her a gentle smile; the kind her big sister was best at. “You will be.”

  “Sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “You guys are so cute.” Mia looked about ready to burst out of her chair.

  Jess said, “Get over here.”

  Mia rushed over and hugged them both, her arms circling them and her head between the two of theirs.

  “Ow.”

  Ellie chuckled.

  Mia looked like she’d done a grave wrong to Jess.

  She shook her head. “I’m fine.”

  “Sure. You really don’t look like you need to go lie down and sleep for hours.” Mia walked away, shaking her head.

  “You aren’t fooling anyone.”

  Jess stood. “I’m good to go.”

  Bill snorted. Jess spun to face him. “Something to say?”

  His lips twitched. “You’ve been the same since you were five. Always looking for approval, seeking out whoever will pat you on your head and tell you, ‘job well done.’”

  “And that’s a bad thing?”

  He scrunched his nose up in a shrug that ruffled his craggy face.

  “You’re in enough trouble.” Plus, he was baiting her into losing her cool.

  All this time, she’d thought she could trust him. That she knew him, and he was a good guy. Guess not. That had been happening a lot this week. Who hadn’t lied to her? Probably there were several people in that category. Jess simply couldn’t think of them right now.

  What she needed to do was get Bill to tell her everything so Mia would know she was still perfectly capable of doing her job, even when things were all over the place, and she could make sense of nothing.

  “Is this an interrogation?” Bill lifted his chin. “Because you suck at it. Don’t expect to make detective anytime soon.”