by T. R. Ragan
Knowing it was pointless to try to get back to sleep, he unlocked the door and headed upstairs, where he found Merrick in bed with two broads. “Get up,” he said. “We need to talk.”
Merrick came out of his bedroom, half-dressed, and shut the door behind him. “What’s going on?”
“I can’t sleep. I want you to take care of Hayley and her friend.”
“Seriously?” Merrick raked both hands through his hair. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea.”
“I don’t care what you think. I want them both dead.”
“I don’t know, Brian. It’s risky. We’ve worked too hard to let that bitch ruin everything we’ve built.”
Brian lit up a cigarette. “I can’t keep the business running smoothly with this hanging over my head.”
“Listen,” Merrick said. “If we’re going to do this, we need to be smart about it. Let me put one of our guys on watch for a few days, make sure she’s not working with the feds.”
“Sure. I’ll give you the rest of the week to figure out what’s going on. If Hayley and her friend are working on their own, I want them killed, though, do you understand? No more fucking around. This is the last message I’m going to send and this one is for everybody . . . fuck with me and you’re dead. Plain and simple.”
CHAPTER 53
With everything that was going on of late, doing something normal like making Rice Krispies treats set Lizzy at ease. She set a plate of the marshmallow goodies on the kitchen counter in front of her assistants and said, “Now that Kitally is on the mend, I thought we should get together and see where we’re all at.”
“These taste pretty good,” Kitally said after she swallowed.
“What’s with all the Rice Krispies treats?” Hayley asked. “Who are you going to bribe this time?”
“You know me too well,” Lizzy said. “I made these for the nurses at Sutter . . . for taking such good care of my father.”
“How’s he doing?”
“He’s hanging in there,” she said, doing her best to ignore the pang she felt in her chest.
“How cool is this?” Kitally asked as she held up her cell for them to see.
“What is it?” Lizzy asked.
“It’s a GPS tracking application. Anyone can download it and keep track of family and friends. For instance, I can see that my mom has just arrived at Nordstrom’s in San Francisco and Dad must be working from home.”
“Can anyone use that?” Lizzy asked.
“Absolutely. Here, give me your cell phone. I’ll download the app and then you just have to accept my invite.”
Lizzy handed Kitally her cell and after only a few moments Lizzy was able to accept. A few minutes later, Kitally showed her the red dot that placed them both at the same exact location.
Kitally gestured for Hayley to hand over her cell phone.
“Not going to happen,” Hayley said. “I don’t want everyone to know where I go and what I do. Nobody’s business.”
“Your loss,” Kitally said as she grabbed the newspaper sitting on the counter in front of her. “I didn’t realize Dr. Blair made front-page news.” Kitally read the article, then set the newspaper aside. “Another friend of Madeline’s went missing?”
“Two men and three women now. All three women are in a book club with Madeline.”
“I’d hate to be a member of that book club,” Kitally said.
“Madeline is letting the other members know that they need to be aware of their surroundings.”
“What about the police? Are they doing anything about this?”
Lizzy sighed. “All eyes are on Madeline right now.”
“What about Chris Porter?” Hayley asked.
“It doesn’t look good,” Lizzy said. “I found his ex-wife. She lives in the Bay Area. He was supposed to pick up his daughter last weekend, but he was a no-show and she hasn’t heard from him.”
“Madeline must be freaked out.”
“I finally have a lead,” Lizzy said. “Madeline’s neighbor Mr. Whitton told me that the man sitting in his car for hours was wearing hospital scrubs.”
“Ah,” Hayley said. “So that’s the real reason for the Rice Krispies treats.”
“You’re right. There’s a nurse named Margery who likes to talk. I’m hoping a mouthful of marshmallow treat will get her going.”
“It says in the paper that Madeline lost her job,” Kitally said. “How is she holding up?”
“As well as can be expected. God knows she’s made a lot of mistakes, but I believe she honestly never thought they would jeopardize the lives of her friends.”
Lizzy took a seat. “So what about our own missing person case? What’s up with Owen Santos?”
“Owen’s wife is not even a little bit interested in locating her husband,” Hayley said, “which we found odd, considering her financial situation. But then Kitally found something that might explain her reticence.”
“What did you find?”
Kitally pulled a file from her purse and showed Lizzy the pictures of Abbi.
Lizzy frowned. “Where did you get these?”
“On a site where people are paid to post pictures of their kids. Ninety percent of the site’s clients are parents. They get paid for every click.”
“Is there any way to tell if both parents are involved?”
“Highly doubtful that Robin knows anything about it,” Kitally said. “Everything I found—user name, et cetera—points to Owen Santos.”
“So Robin Santos has not seen these.”
“Not yet.”
“Prior to finding the pictures,” Kitally said, “we did get a chance to talk to Robin’s brother and both of her daughters. We got mixed reviews about good ol’ Dad.”
“Meaning?”
“The older daughter is a cutter,” Hayley said. “There’s no love lost between her and her father, which is understandable under the circumstances.”
“But the younger daughter misses him, or at least the way her family used to be,” Kitally added. “Lara said that everyone was happy before her father left.”
“What about Owen’s friends and coworkers?”
“Nobody can imagine him even having one affair, much less being the kind of lothario his wife paints him as. If there’s one consistent comment, it’s that he was a homebody.”
“He talks to fish,” Kitally said.
Lizzy stared at her for a moment. “Say again?”
“Talks to fish,” Kitally repeated. “According to Robin’s brother, the guy was either on his computer or talking to his fish when he visited. Now we know what he was doing on the computer.”
“I need to talk to Robin and show her these pictures,” Lizzy said.
“If it’s OK with you,” Hayley told Lizzy, “I’d like to talk to a few more people before I hand over the file to you.”
“That’s fine,” Lizzy said. “I have two new workers’ comp cases.” Lizzy handed two files to Kitally. “I figured you could do some surveillance while you’re healing.” Lizzy looked at Hayley. “If you could loan Kitally your camera, we’ll need pictures.”
“I have a camera I can use,” Kitally told her.
“Great. Let’s meet at the office next week. You can give me the Santos file then. If there are no new leads, I’ll talk to Robin and her brother and determine where to go from there. No reason to search for a man who would exploit his own daughter. It makes me sick.”
As soon as Hayley and Kitally got into the car after Lizzy walked them out, Hayley said, “We’re going to pay Robin Santos another visit.”
“Right now?”
Hayley nodded, pulling away from the curb.
“Why?”
“I just need to look around a bit. Robin Santos doesn’t want to talk to us for a reason. I want to know why.”
“Nope. You wanted this job and now you’ve got it. You’re going to earn every bit of your nine dollars an hour.”
“I thought Lizzy agreed to ten.”
“Talk to Lizzy if you have a problem. Now listen closely,” Hayley said as she merged onto the highway. “Robin isn’t going to be happy to see us at her house, but I’ll tell her it’s important that we talk to her. Once we’re inside, I’m going to say I need to use the restroom. That’s your cue to start talking and keep her busy while I take a quick look around the back of the house.”
“What are you looking for?”
“I’m not sure yet. Do you think you can keep the woman occupied?”
“I can do that.”
“Great.” After a quiet moment, Hayley said, “We’re supposed to meet Tommy at his karate place today. Are you up for it?”
“This is my first day without painkillers.”
“Maybe you should just watch and learn.”
“And let you two have all the fun? No way.”
Less than ten minutes later, they pulled up to the curb outside the Santos home. Hayley rang the doorbell. A few minutes later, the youngest daughter opened the door. “Hi, Lara. I don’t know if you remember us. I’m Hayley and this is Kitally.”
“I remember you,” she said, looking at Kitally. “What happened to your face?”
“I fell down a hill.”
“A hill with lots of rocks, looks like.”
Kitally brushed her fingers over her swollen jaw. “Yeah, lots of big rocks.”
“Is your mom home?” Hayley asked.
“No, but if you want to wait inside, you can. Mom should be home soon.”
“Sure, that would be great.”
Lara led them into the family room.
After making sure it was OK if she used the bathroom, Hayley gave Kitally a squinty-eyed look, letting her know it was time to start talking and keep Lara busy.
Kitally asked the girl about school and by the time Hayley was halfway down the hall, they were talking about fashion.
The first room on the right was the bathroom. The next room was the office. Bingo. Hayley looked through every drawer, skimmed quickly through a stack of bills on the desk. Everything was neatly organized. The bank statements showed about fifteen hundred dollars in the bank, which confirmed Robin’s claims that she was out of money.
Hayley searched through another file cabinet, scanned the books on the bookshelf, looking for anything that might not belong. If the woman was hiding anything, she did a good job hiding her tracks.
Since she could still hear Kitally talking a mile a minute, Hayley moved to the master bedroom at the back of the house. She looked through dresser drawers and under the bed, but came up empty. A glance into the walk-in closet revealed the woman had a shoe fetish. Using the footstool to reach the shoeboxes on the top shelf, she began opening boxes, one at a time. She hit pay dirt on the eighth box: a checkbook and two statements. The account was opened two months ago and there was more than two hundred thousand dollars in it.
A car door sounded. She stopped and listened. Nothing. No sounds of the front door being opened and closed. Working fast, she used her cell phone to take a picture of the bank statement before sliding everything back into place.
Once that was done, she walked back into the family room and went directly to the sliding glass door leading to the backyard.
Kitally glanced her way, noticed Hayley wasn’t finished, and quickly moved the conversation to boys. As Hayley slid the door closed behind her, she heard Lara giggle.
The koi pond was large and deep. Rocks of all sizes and shapes encircled the outer edge, along with green ferns and some sort of Japanese pine tree. The fish shimmered in the water in every combination of gold, black, orange, and yellow. They were fascinating to look at, but she didn’t have time to admire the fish. As she walked around the pond, her gaze sweeping across the yard, she noticed a large section of grass that had been dug up for a rose garden.
At closer view, she noticed that the rosebushes had been hastily planted.
She sniffed the air, wincing at a sharp, foul smell. When she sniffed again, the smell was gone. Depending on where she stood, the smell eluded her, then returned.
Who planted roses immediately after their spouse went missing?
Kitally and Lara made their way outside.
“Looks like you guys have been busy planting a new garden out here,” Hayley said to Lara.
“Mom’s been working out here a lot lately. I think the flowers make her happy.”
“You need to take a good long look at those koi,” Hayley told Kitally. “They’re mesmerizing.”
Kitally took the hint and asked Lara to tell her the names of each fish while Hayley sneaked around to the side of the house and took a side door into the garage, where she made quick work of looking through drawers and cabinets. Her gaze settled on rakes and shovels hanging on the wall. She examined the shovel. Fresh dirt, just as she’d suspected.
“What are you doing in here?”
Hayley whipped around, surprised to see Robin Santos standing two feet away. Hayley stiffened. “We need to talk.”
“I thought I made it clear I didn’t want to talk. Get out before I call the police.”
“Kitally and I have seen the pictures of your daughter, pictures that your husband sold online.”
The woman took a shuddering breath.
“Is that why you killed him?” Hayley asked.
Her shoulders fell and she dropped back a step—if the workbench hadn’t been there, she might have fallen over. She rubbed hard at her eyes with a thumb and forefinger. “He was raping my daughter,” she said in almost a whisper. When she took her hand from her eyes, they were red and puffy. “For seventeen years I was married to that man, and I had no idea what was going on in my own house.”
“When did it all start?”
A haunted look took over Mrs. Santos’s features. Her lips twitched; her eyes became focused. “I’m not sure. Abbi won’t talk about it, but I didn’t find out until recently.”
“How could that be?”
“Every so often, Owen would bring me a cup of tea before bedtime. On one particular night, I thought I saw him slip something into my cup. I poured the tea down the drain but I didn’t tell him. That night I caught him in my daughter’s room. He’d been drugging me on the nights he wanted to . . .” Her voice crackled with anger. She couldn’t finish her sentence.
“Abbi never told you what was happening?”
“She was ashamed,” Robin said. “She thought it was her fault.”
“Does Abbi know you killed him?”
“No, of course not.” Robin’s hands were shaking. “I never planned to kill Owen. The night I found him in my daughter’s room, I kicked him out of the house. I threatened to tell everyone he knew what he did if he didn’t go far, far away. Instead of leaving town, though, Owen found a way to clean out our bank accounts. He came home while the girls were at school and said he wasn’t going anywhere, said if I told anyone, he would swear I knew what was going on.” Mrs. Santos inhaled a sharp breath as she looked Hayley in the eyes. “I had to protect my daughters.”
“So you hit him over the head with the shovel when he went outside to take care of his fish?”
Robin nodded. “I hit him more than once. I had to protect Abbi. It was awful, but I had no choice.” She held her head high, her hands rolled into fists as if to stop herself from breaking down and at the same time daring Hayley to defend the man.
“Nobody needs to know. Scrub the shovel until it shines and then get rid of the smell in the garden.”
Robin’s eyes narrowed as she listened closely.
“Agricultural lime
should take care of the smell until decomposition has taken place. And I suggest you transfer the bank papers from the shoebox to a lockbox.”
“You’re not going to turn me in?”
“I know what it’s like to be damaged by someone you trust. I only wish I’d had someone like you to take care of business.”
Mrs. Santos sucked in a ragged breath. “What about everyone else?”
“The police are already convinced that Owen took the money and ran, so that leaves your brother. Once he drops the case, Lizzy Gardner will drop it, too.”
“My brother will never stop looking.”
“Maybe he will if you tell him the truth about what Owen was doing to Abbi.”
Silence.
“He doesn’t need to know what you did. Nobody does. Do you want me to tell your brother what we found on the Internet?”
“No,” she said. “I’ll tell Andrew what I need to—make him understand that we’re better off without Owen.”
“So what happened in there?” Kitally asked as they got in the car.
“I found evidence that Owen is in another country and won’t be returning.”
“I’m glad,” Kitally said.
“Yeah, me, too. Is there any way you could hack into that website again and get rid of all the pictures of Abbi?”
“Already taken care of.”
Hayley inwardly smiled. She was about to drive off when she saw the neighbor, Helen Smith, calling their names and waving an arm.
Kitally rolled down her window and took the bag of cookies Helen had for them.
“Any luck yet finding Owen?” the woman asked.
“I don’t think you’ll be seeing Owen Santos again,” Kitally said. “It turns out he took the money and ran—left the country, in fact.”