Expired Game (Last Chance County Book 5)

by Lisa Phillips

  Jess was as irritated about that as he looked to be.

  Only, was he talking about West or Pierce Cartwright?

  “Given the fact this guy is giving you so much attention,” Cullings said. “I’d probably have removed you from the case. If you were one of my people, there is no way you’d be working this.”

  What she wanted to say to him would probably have gotten her suspended, so Jess just kept her mouth shut. Behind her, Basuto made that choking sound again. Conroy shot him a look.

  Jess shrugged. “By now, I figure it’s personal for all of us.”

  Though, why West was looking so hard at her, she had no idea. Why would a local crime boss who’d been nothing more than a ghost to them for months now risk revealing his identity by coming after her? Sending men to hurt her and Ted. Using Pierce Cartwright to deliver a message. Killing a woman—and risking physical evidence.

  It had to mean that she was close.

  On the desk in front of Conroy was a clear plastic evidence bag. Inside she could see the driver’s license and cell phone. “That’s all that was on her body?”

  The chief nodded. “Except for your uniform, which Cartwright must have stolen when he killed Sally Peters. The cell is on, but it needs a passcode we don’t have.”

  That meant Ted was going to have to try and break into it. Or they would get nothing from the device.

  “And the driver’s license?”

  Special Agent Cullings answered, “Very clearly a fake. Probably a rush job that didn’t cost very much.”

  “But he gets the job done, right?” She figured that was true, at least. “It sent the message it needed to send, and we didn’t need to believe it was real.”

  What she needed was a way to flush out West. But all they had was bait to make her jump too fast into something she wasn’t prepared for. She would only wind up missing something because she raced in too fast, determined to get this done. West would have a plan set up. She would fall into it.

  A trap.

  They needed a plan of their own.

  Before she could suggest that to her bosses and the FBI agent present, the phone in the evidence bag rang.

  They all stared at it.

  Conroy opened the bag and pulled it out. He put the call on speaker and held the phone in front of him. “This is Chief Barnes.”

  “Conroy?”

  Jess knew that voice. She jumped out of her seat. “Ellie? What’s happening? Why are you—”

  “They hurt Dean. It’s really ba—”

  The line went dead.

  Twenty-six

  A notification popped up. Ted blinked at the computer screen, then frowned. He swiped a paper off the printer and grabbed his tablet as he headed out to the bullpen. Conroy was in his office along with Eric Cullings, Basuto, and Jess.

  Right now, he didn’t have time to be distracted by her, so Ted didn’t even look at Jess as he knocked on the Chief’s door and entered the office.

  He handed over the paper. “This is the list of everyone who could be identified as West, from every piece of evidence we’ve gathered so far.”

  “We have a bigger problem than that right now.”

  Before Ted could ask the Chief what he meant, Jess said, “Or, at least a more immediate one.”

  He realized then that her face was unusually pale.

  “What’s going on?”

  Conroy stood. “Something happened to Dean and Ellie.” He snatched up his phone and made a call.

  As he did this, Jess laid her hand on his arm. “We just got a call on the dead girl’s phone. It was Ellie, and she sounded upset. She said Dean has been hurt.”

  “Yes,” Conroy spoke into the phone. “You need to find Dean and Ellie. They went for a walk outside the police station, and we think they might have been hurt. Maybe even taken by someone.” He hung up the phone. “Donaldson is on it. Just pray he finds a witness.”

  Ted glanced between each of the four of them. All cops. They were the kind of people who knew how to get a kidnap victim back. “Are we thinking that West took them? Is that what this is?”

  Jess said, “I can’t believe someone could have gotten the drop on Dean, but if he was hurt in the process, then that makes sense. Take out the threat first. Then you have open access to get both of them in a vehicle. As much as I love my sister, she is not trained the way the rest of us are.”

  Ted had thought Ellie was pretty tough. She’d faced down the town’s previous doctor who had turned out to be nothing but a selfish criminal who murdered a young man just to keep his dirty secret. Ellie had faced him down long enough for Dean to find her.

  But now they were both gone.

  He looked down at his tablet. “So that was what the notification was about. An incoming call from one of the numbers on that list—” He pointed at the paper he’d handed to Conroy. “—to a phone at this location, which also happens to be on the list.”

  Conroy’s eyes flashed. “This phone belongs to one of West’s people?” He pointed at the cell phone on his desk. “And whoever attacked Dean allowed Ellie to make a call to us? For what, to spin us into chaos?”

  Ted said, “I’ll have to figure out which one it is, but we know West has a series of burner phones he’s handed out to his people. One of them my father used to implicate Basuto. The dead woman might’ve simply been a method to get this phone into our hands.”

  Jess looked at the tablet screen in his hands. “Which phone made the call to this one?”

  Ted scrolled down with his finger. If they could figure out which number made the call, they might be able to trace it and find out where Ellie and Dean currently were. If West had left that avenue open to them, it would be by mistake. West hadn’t made any of those yet.

  But it could happen.

  And if that didn’t work?

  Ted didn’t want to consider the alternative.

  Was West really determined to destroy more lives? He’d been under the radar so long, now it seemed like he was only lashing out at their attempts to bring him in. Focusing on Jess. Using his dad to send messages. Now taking Dean and Ellie.

  Conroy’s phone rang. He snatched it up, “Chief Barnes.” There was a serious frown on his face as he listened to the caller speak. “Thanks.” He hung up and looked at them. “Donaldson found Ellie’s purse and signs of a struggle. There are tire tracks in the gravel beside where they were walking.”

  Jess said, “Any witnesses who saw the vehicle speed away with them inside?”

  Conroy shook his head.

  “So we have nothing. All we know is that they are hurt and missing?” Ted didn’t understand why that would be a good thing.

  “We’ll figure it out.” Jess’s voice was soft, the expression on her face one he’d never seen before. Usually she was the first to jump in. Especially while someone she cared about was in danger. This time? She was trying to give him hope.

  “Will we be able to figure it out in time to get them back?” There had been far too many near misses lately. And he’d argue they were still not much closer to bringing in the man who’d evaded them thus far. After everything that’d happened, they still had little more than nothing.

  Ted tapped the screen and sent Conroy the phone number. On the desk, the chief’s phone vibrated. “That’s the details of whoever made the call to this phone. I’ll run the number and see if I can get a location, but if they turned it off, I may not be able to.”

  Basuto clapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll find them.”

  Ted shot him a look. Were they all counting on him to come up with some kind of technological miracle? Of course they were. “And in the meantime, you guys are just going to stand around here waiting for me to tell you where my brother is?”

  “Of course not.” Conroy shot him a look that told Ted exactly what the chief thought of that assessment. “We’re going to run down every number on this list. Shake some things loose, and see what falls out.”

  Ted had never heard such a cop-
like statement in his life.

  Jess grinned. “That sounds like fun. Much better than standing around here.” She pinched Ted’s ribs under his elbow and then strode out of the room.

  Ted shook his head. “And when you guys realize that Basuto is on this list, along with Hollis from the diner and several other people you go to church with?”

  Eric lifted a paper from the desk. “They’re either involved, or they’re being implicated like a lot of other people. It may take time, but we will straighten all of this out.”

  “I hope so.” Ted turned to Conroy. “I’m going to go and run these numbers, see whose location services are switched on.”

  The chief nodded. Ted strode back to his office and set the tablet on the desk.

  Were they going to be so cavalier? Sure, the cops had their way of doing things. They were good at their jobs, and they got results. But this was his brother.

  Because he had said that he would, Ted entered the phone numbers on his computer and started searching for GPS locations on each of them. If the cops were going to break up the list, assign officers to visit every place, and look for his brother, then he wasn’t going to be a hindrance to that. Not if it might mean they found Dean and Ellie.

  Ted had alternate resources. Or, more accurately, just one.

  He dug the phone out of his bottom desk drawer and powered it up. Thankfully, this phone—one of the burners handed out by West—was not on the list he had given Conroy. Ted hadn’t found it necessary to falsify evidence. Just leave out a little bit. So while it put his career in a rocky place, he wasn’t exactly in danger of getting fired.

  Yet.

  He dialed the only number in the contact list on this burner phone. It rang three times, long enough for Ted to get worried his dad might not even pick up.

  “You call me now?”

  “This isn’t about us.” Ted fought to keep the frustration from his voice. “Dean and Ellie are hurt. They’ve been taken by West.”

  “And you want me to give up all the pull I have with him to get them back?”

  “Of course.” Ted didn’t bother to keep the bite from his tone. “You would only save your son and the woman he loves if it benefited you.” Ted moved to end the call but heard his dad’s voice.

  “Hold up.”

  Ted figured if his dad would do anything, he would make sure it cost Ted more than he wanted to pay. At least, that would be his justification. Instead, what he didn’t realize was that Ted was willing to pay anything. Everything.

  Ted gripped the phone. “I need your help. Dean has never asked you for anything in his life. But he needs you to help him with this.”

  How badly was his brother hurt? Dean had always seemed so strong and capable. The man was a former Navy SEAL, which everyone knew meant that he was the toughest of the tough.

  And now he had been felled like a giant oak, cut down.

  A lump rose in Ted’s throat, and he tried to swallow it down. “Please.”

  “As much as I enjoy listening to you beg, I have things to do. What exactly do you want from me?”

  Jess had already asked him for West’s identity. Ted didn’t figure he was willing to give that up. At least not without a really good reason, which meant he would get something out of it.

  “I need you to tell me where my brother is.”

  “And if I do that?”

  “Then you’ll be able to die knowing that for once you did the right thing and saved someone’s life.”

  His dad chuckled.

  “It was worth a try,” Ted said. “But we both know there’s not one single noble cell in your body. So here’s the deal.” He took a deep breath, wondering if he was going to do this. “We both know you are never going to let Dean and I fake your death, but if you want to disappear, I can get you all the resources you need.”

  “Money? That’s what you’re offering me? I can get all the money I want, whenever I want. I don’t need you for that.”

  No, Ted figured he didn’t need cash. That was something his father had never seemed to have trouble amassing. But right now, there was a lot of heat on him.

  “So not only are you going to let West tell you what to do—” Something Ted figured chafed everything his father thought about himself. “—but you’re also going to give him carte blanche with your oldest son.”

  He heard his father grunt.

  “You killed for him, and you delivered a message to Jess. Are you really going to let him control your son’s life and his future?”

  Because when it came down to it, his father was all about control. The more people whose lives he could direct where he wanted, and end when he wanted, and do with what he wanted, the better. That was what his previous operation had been about. Directing the course of the world through clandestine special operations.

  As though he thought he was God.

  More than once Ted’s father had pointed a gun at him and told him that Ted’s life was in his hands. The adage he figured every parent thought at least once in their life. I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of it. Only with his dad, Ted figured the old man was completely serious.

  “I thought you’d gone soft, going to work for the police.” His dad’s voice was low and mean. “Now I know what I put in you is still there. Forged in the fire. You’ll always be who I made you to be.”

  Ted swallowed down a sick feeling. If it got Dean and Ellie back, then it would be worth it. But right now, he wanted to hang up the phone and hurl in his trash can. Even just the thought of being anything like his father was enough to make him want to quit his whole life and walk away.

  Just so no one found out the truth. That deep down inside him, Ted’s soul was black.

  His dad was right. Nothing was ever going to change that.

  “I’ll get you what you want,” his dad said. “You get me access to my Cayman accounts. The ones the feds don’t even know about.”

  Ted clenched his stomach muscles. “Fine.”

  Twenty-seven

  Basuto led the way through the warehouse, Jess right behind him. Conroy had also assigned Special Agent Jenkins to go with them, but the guy was outside on the phone. The whole police department had been divided up into teams. All of them out searching for the spot where Dean and Ellie were being held.

  She and the sergeant had been given the same warehouse Jess had searched only a few nights ago. Had it really not even been a week? The place where the former bank manager had been receiving his “entertainment.” Supplied by West.

  This was the spot where—as far as they knew—several women had been held and used in a prostitution ring.

  Jess’s most recent theory was that the dead woman they had discovered earlier, wearing her uniform, would turn out to be one of them.

  Whether or not Ted’s father had stolen her police uniform from her locker at the same time he had murdered Sally Peters was at the bottom of her list of priorities right now. But she’d like to know how it got out. However it happened, it was a serious invasion of her privacy. But considering her sister was who–knew–where she was trying not to worry about that right now.

  “Upstairs first?” Basuto glanced back over his shoulder as he spoke.

  Jess shrugged one shoulder. “Sure.”

  The special agent would probably wonder where they had gone. Considering she and Basuto both had their weapons drawn, she wasn’t too worried about needing additional backup. She just hoped he announced himself when he did show back up. To keep from being shot by them when he reappeared.

  They headed up the stairs where Kaylee had been held for a while by the bank manager. Just one more piece of the puzzle, considering the fact Pierce Cartwright had intended to marry her in his role as the CIA director. Jess didn’t even want to think about the mess it all was. Kaylee was happy now and on an extended vacation with her husband until the threat was back in federal custody. That particular threat, at least.

  Considering she’d stared the man down in her
kitchen right before he threw a flashbang at her, she could understand why Kaylee wanted to be anywhere but here.

  Pierce Cartwright might be Ted’s father, and there was some family resemblance, but the man was a sociopath. Only, when she considered the fact that he was currently under West’s thumb somehow, didn’t that mean the man she was currently chasing was so much worse?

  Jess shivered, turning to prayer. God in his sovereignty could make sure that nothing lasting happened to her sister. Ellie had finally found the best kind of relationship. It would destroy all of them if that was taken away.

  She and Basuto cleared each room between the stairs and the end of the hall before he turned and said, “There’s no one here.”

  Jess nodded. “It was too obvious, anyway. This location has been burned. We know all about it, and we’ve been through it with a fine-tooth comb many times over. There’s no way West would have risked bringing them here.”

  Jess figured he hadn’t evaded arrest this long without having plenty of places all across town where he could hide people. And himself.

  “We’ll find them.” Despite Basuto’s words, his tone indicated he didn’t quite believe it.

  “We have to.”

  After all, she didn’t even want to consider the alternative. Her sister. Ted’s brother. Jess wanted to find them with a desperation that was stronger than any urge to solve the case. Even the determination to take down the person who had murdered Nicole so many years ago.

  West had sent Ted’s father. Then he dropped a woman’s body in front of the police station with the name Nicole. He wanted her to lose it. To be swallowed up by her fear and unable to keep a cool head.

  She wasn’t going to let him win. They needed to get West and Pierce Cartwright. Both of them. In a way that saved Ellie and Dean’s lives.

  “Sergeant?” The special agent called out down the hall.