BREAKING STEELE (A Sarah Steele Thriller)

by Patterson, Aaron; Ann, Ellie

  Chapter 18

  TWO HOURS AFTER I’D dumped the roses in my trashcan, I was late. I’d dropped off the card at the police station, filed another report, and then hightailed it to the office. My meeting with Hannah Williams was in forty minutes and it was all the way across town.

  I rushed down the hallway. My heels sounded funny on the marble floor, like horse hooves on pavement. I entered the common room and waved Joshua over. He was talking with some other interns. Then I entered my office. Someone moved from behind the door and grabbed my arm.

  On a reflex, I yanked my arm out of the grip and elbow-jabbed him in the chest.

  He cried out, and I looked up into my boss’s face.

  “Dan!” I said. “Geez, don’t scare a girl like that.”

  Doubling over, he grabbed his chest, trying to catch his breath. I think he was being overly dramatic. Joshua came behind me and looked over my head to see what was holding me up. “You did that?” he mouthed to me. When I nodded, he grinned.

  “You surprised me,” I said unapologetically as I edged past Dan and to my desk. I just had to grab my notes for the interview and then I’d jet out of here.

  Dan finally stood up, wincing. “That’s going to leave a mark,” he said. I tried not to smile.

  Joshua came to the desk and I handed him a list of things to do. I didn’t want to take him with me to Williams, Inc. I told myself it was because he had a lot of things to do here, but I knew it was really because I wanted him out of the limelight, to keep him safe.

  I shoved the file in my briefcase and turned to leave. Dan was still blocking the door.

  “Was there something you needed?” I asked with as much respect as I could muster. Which wasn’t a whole lot.

  “I need updated,” he said. “This case is blowing up in our face, literally.” He looked down on me with a serious frown. That’s why I hated being short—everyone looked down on me. “What kind of evidence did you find at the barn? What plans do you have today? And why were you at the police station early this morning?”

  My eyes widened, trying to look sincere. “I will catch you up on this case. On everything. But I really have to go right now, I’m late for a meeting with Hannah Williams and those aren’t easy to come by.” I held his gaze.

  He sighed and stepped away. “Fine. But call me once you’re driving and fill me in, okay?”

  “Okay,” I promised.

  Joshua followed me, but I held a hand up. “You stay here. I’ll catch you when I’m back.”

  His brow creased in worry and he opened his mouth to protest. I turned and walked out the door before he said anything.

  Chapter 19

  THE DRIVE FROM THE office to the Williams, Inc. building took just over fifty minutes. It was located out of town past the airport heading toward the foothills. I’d called Dan and told him everything, which meant he had more questions than ever. Just like I did. What I realized as I told him about the flowers was that I didn’t want to go home again. They knew where I lived, and my place wasn’t exactly an insurmountable fortress. My mind whirled, wondering where I should go. I must’ve wondered out loud because Dan said, “You can stay at my place.”

  I curled my nose in disgust, but said sweetly, “No, thanks. If they could find my home, they could find your place. I’ll figure something out.”

  And then I saw the place I was looking for. “I’m at Williams, Inc.,” I said, “I’ll catch you later.”

  “Be careful,” he said in a fatherly tone.

  I almost said, “whatever,” but then thought better of it and said, “I will.”

  I stopped at the gate, which was a good mile from the main building. I could see the white, gleaming buildings in the distance shining like diamonds against the sagebrush.

  Williams, Inc. had over four thousand employees; it brought a huge amount of income into the valley and was good for everyone. They also were working on new battery technology. If they could create a battery that lasted three times as long, just imagine what that would do to the auto industry. Cell phones would run for days on one charge, electric cars would take over and the oil crisis would be over. The world had high hopes for Williams, Inc. And I was trying to take down the CEO,which didn’t put me on very good standing with a lot of powerful people.

  The rent-a-cop was darkskinned from the hot summer sun and had a smooth, baldhead and mirrored sunglasses. I thought he looked just like one of the DB on Reno 911. He approached my car and I rolled down my window.

  “I am Sarah Steele, the ADA.” I waited a moment and said. “I have an appointment with Hannah Williams.”

  “Hold on.” The short man took off his glasses and picked up a black phone and turned to me. The guard booth was about six-by-six and had a small TV in the corner with a view of the turnoff from the main road.

  I waited and wondered if I was going to strike out. Was I too late? I could pretend to be a cutthroat lawyer if I needed to, but it was more show than anything else.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “But you’re too late.”

  I couldn’t stop now. “No way. I need to see Williams today. I’m late because her father has been terrorizing me and I’m going to hear what she has to say about that. I need to get in.” I gave him a soft look and the guard rubbed his chin and glanced back toward the white buildings in the distance.

  “Look, Miss, I just work here. I got kids, and they fire people around here for sneezing too loud. I really want to help you, but I can’t.”

  Groaning, I gripped the steering wheel and half thought about gunning it and breaking through the gate across the road.

  “Tell you what,” the guard leaned out the window and smiled, “I will get her secretary on the phone and you can see if you can wheedle your way in after all.”

  I grinned. Wheedling was one of my greatest skills. After he dialed, I took the phone from him. “Hello, this is Sarah Steele.”

  “Hello, Sarah Steele,” a crisp female voice answered. “You’ll have to make another appointment.”

  “No, I don’t,” I said. “Williams needs to see me today. I’m working a case involving her father and I need to hear her statement.” Silence on the other side of the line. “I can either come in now, or in three hours with a court order. You don’t want that kind of hassle, do you?”

  More silence, then the woman said, “Let me talk to the guard.”

  Perking up, I handed the phone back to the guard, tapping my nails on the steering wheel as I waited.

  He hung up. “You’re free to go, Miss Steele.”

  I smiled. “Thank you.” I was about to pull forward when I noticed his expression. It was as if he had something on the edge of his tongue.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “You should be talking to Glen Williams, not Hannah.”

  I’d never heard that name before. But I better find out why it mattered. “Really?” I said, my expression open. “Who is he?”

  “I think he’s Hank’s brother or cousin or uncle or someone.” The guard stared intently at me for a moment, and then looked away.

  I knew he couldn’t be Hank’s brother. Hank was an only child. “Got anything to dish on him?” I asked in a quiet voice.

  “Nothing much, the man is a ghost. He only comes around like twice a year and most people around here don’t even know what he looks like. Hank Williams is the face of the company.Now that he’s in trouble there’s a lot of speculation about who is going to run things. People are scared of Glen. I mean, he is a weird guy!”

  “What do you mean ‘weird’?”

  “Well, I don’t really know. I just hear things, you know. They say he lives in hiding, like a hermit, or some sort of recluse or something. But they say he’s always watching us.”

  I held back a smile. The gossip chain was not going to help me. This story was turning out to be a tale the employees were told to stay in line.

  “Thanks,” I said. I was about to pull forward but I hesitated. The name Glen Williams stuck
in my head, as if it mattered somehow. “Anyone you know I could talk to that could tell me about him?”

  The guard stood up and rubbed his jaw as he thought. “Hmm, you could try to talk to Heather Dade”

  “Heather Dade?” I straightened up at the familiar name. She was the one who had filed the abuse claim on Hank Williams. “Who is she?Is she related?”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. She stops by here every now and again. I feel bad for her. Lives over in the—” He suddenly looked around, as if realizing how much he’d told me. “G’luck,” he said quietly. He tipped his head to me. I got the hint and drove on.

  The Williams family was larger than I’d thought. How much did they have to do with Hank, and were any of them following in his footsteps? I’d have to find out.

  Chapter 20

  WILLIAMS, INC. SPANNED OVER fifty acres of white buildings; they were so white that the nickname for the place was The White City. I had to go through one more guard booth and, after I parked, three more sets of security. I was directed to the top story office where Hannah Williams resided. It reminded me of the Evil Queen in her tower in Snow White, looking out over her kingdom.

  “Miss Steele.” A tall woman with brown hair and a slim figure greeted me. I recognized her voice from the phone call.

  “Yes?”

  “Come this way. Miss Williams will see you now.”

  I followed the secretary back to a tall, smooth, white door. She opened it and let me pass. The room beyond was huge, white, and blinding. Tall floor-to-ceiling windows were on one end and a simple glass desk sat in the middle of the near-empty room. Sitting behind the desk was a tall, blonde woman; she stood up and held out her hand.

  “Miss Steele?”

  “Miss Williams.” We shook hands. Her fingers were as soft as rose petals.

  I sat in a high backed chair and tried to keep my hands from shaking. She had pure skin; big brown eyes; a lithe, athletic figure; and hair that fell in glistening curls around her shoulders. Her outfit was unique, a pencil skirt with an asymmetrical hem and a jacket with curious blue buttons. It fit her like a glove. It looked as if it had been made for her. After gauging her appearance, I had to concede, she really was the fairest in all the land.

  “I want to start off by saying that I can in no way discuss my father’s case without my lawyers present.”

  “I understand,” I said. Taking out a notepad I pretended to take a note. There had to be something in this glass house I could throw at her;something I could learn that would help me. I decided to shoot for the moon and make a fool of myself. People did not take fools as a threat, and might say more than usual. “We are not interested in him so much as his brother. Glen, is it?”

  Hannah grinned but it was not a nice smile. “I am not sure where you got your information, but my father was an only child.He does not have a brother.”

  I didn’t say anything, just waited. Staying perfectly still, I just looked at her with a clear expression. Most people can’t handle it. She couldn’t, and spoke again.

  “So this visit has nothing to do with my father?”

  “No, it has to do with Glen and you.”

  “Me? What does any of this have to do with me?”

  “Because no one can work as closely with someone as you have with your father and not recognize something is off.” I kept my voice steady. “Now I know you don’t want to testify against your parent, no child does.” Color rose in her cheeks at the word child. “But can you tell me anything about his lifestyle that will give us a stronger case?”

  “No,” she said.

  “Why are you keeping his secrets?” I prodded.

  “I’m not keeping secrets,” she said, and the lie was evident in her voice.

  “Then give me all the information on the employee who filed an abuse claim against him,” I said.

  She broke my gaze, and picked up her pen. She doodled a figure eight on a note. My gaze shifted to the words on the note. I read it upside down. It looked like RuSat 11. It didn’t make any sense to me.

  Hannah finally spoke. “I was betrayed. In the most personal of ways. Everything I knew about my father, about my life, about the world … is a lie.” She looked at me, her eyes sad. “There’s no recovery from something like this. My foundation is crumbling. When people look at me, they don’t see me. They see the spawn of a monster. So I’d like to get what normalcy I can back in my life.”

  I nodded in understanding. I knew quite a bit about betrayal. And about parental units being criminals. But I couldn’t leave with nothing.

  “So who is Heather Dade?”

  Hannah stood up and said curtly. “This meeting is over.”

  “Miss Williams, a good way to bring peace into your life is to help others along—”

  “This meeting is over, Miss Steele!” Hannah pushed a button on her desk and a moment later two guards walked in and I stood. Guards? She must be more jumpy than she let on.

  “Very well. If you change your mind, here’s my card.” I left one on the table. “Hope you find the normalcy you’re looking for.”

  Chapter 21

  ON MY WAY THROUGH the reception area, I stopped at the front desk. A young woman clicked away at a keyboard and looked up at me when I cleared my throat.

  “Hello, I have to run some documents out to a—” I paused and looked at my notepad and pretended to read. “Heather Dade, I was told to get her address from you.”

  The brown-eyed receptionist smiled and started typing again. I made sure to cover my visitor badge with my purse and waited. Without a word she wrote something on a sticky note and handed it to me.

  Taking it, I thanked the woman and hurried out the front door.

  Heather Dade

  610 Mockingbird Lane

  Eagle, ID 83713

  It was a long shot but her name had come up too many times not to follow up, and Joshua ran into a dead end trying to find her.

  I frowned as my mind reeled with questions. Taking out a pen and notebook, I jotted down a few of the questions right away before I forgot. There was only one thing on my mind now: find this person and see what she had to say about Hank Williams.

  As I walked to my car, I rolled my neck from one way to the other and closed my eyes. The restless nights were getting to me. I was going to have to learn how to tame that nocturnal side, or I might break.

  I typed in the address on the GPS in my phone. It was on the other side of town. I wanted Joshua with me on this one. We could combine our information on the way there.

  And he had a face anyone would trust—those round cheeks and big brown eyes—most people were putty in his hands. No one suspected that he usually had multiple schemes and motivations behind each of his questions.

  Chapter 22

  WILLIAMS HAD MONEY, HE had power, and this afforded him the means to hire out. But like his father used to say, “If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.” Hunting was a solo job, it was a sport really—and one he enjoyed, but the mess, cleaning up and doing the dirty work, that’s what he paid others to do.

  “You see, Marco, if you would’ve done your job, if you’d just once done what I told you to do, this would not be happening.” Marco squirmed, but Williams held him down with a knee in the chest.

  “I’m sorry, you said fix it, so I did.” Blood trickled from his nose and his eyes darted to Williams and to the eight-inch knife Williams was holding.

  “No, Marco, you didn’t fix it, you fixed nothing. If you fixed it then why is she still snooping around, hmm? Tell me, Marco, why is she still alive if you fixed it?”

  In a way he was glad Marco misunderstood him. He needed this, needed to feel again, to see the fear. It fed him like a drug. He was addicted.

  “No, boss, you said fix it, not fix them.” Williams hit Marco in the neck with the palm of his hand. Marco gagged and tried to get free, but Williams was a strong man.

  “Don’t tell me what I said.You failed me and now I have to do it. I
have to do your job, Marco. How do you think that makes me feel?”

  Marco couldn’t speak. He spit out more blood and Williams pressed harder into his chest, feeling a rib snap. This felt almost as good as a good scotch …

  “Marco, Marco, Marco …” He lowered his tone as if calming a child. “You made a mistake, it is okay.” Marco stopped struggling and looked up at Williams. A new hope filled his eyes. This was the best part, giving them hope, making them think that they might live.

  “Just tell me, Marco, did you do your job? All I want is the truth and this will all be over, you will be free.Just tell me the truth.”

  Marco was crying now and the sight filled Williams with glee. “No, I didn’t, I failed you.”

  “Lie!” Williams screamed and thrust the blade into Marco’s side. “You weak little man, you did just what I told you and now you are lying to me?” Pulling the knife out, he stabbed him three more times, once in the left side and two in the right. Blood pooled out of Marco’s mouth and Williams stood to watch. His lungs would fill up and he would drown, it was not a fast way to die. Which made it one if his favorites.

  “You should have told me the truth, Marco. Not let me push you around. But you were weak, and the weak deserve to suffer.”

  Chapter 23

  “SO WHAT ARE WE hoping to find out from Heather?” Joshua asked. He rolled down the window and set his arm on the sill to feel the breeze.

  “I don’t know, just want to talk to her, see what we can find out. I want to see what happened that made her file that ambiguous abuse claim. And if it’s anything, maybe get her to testify about him.”

  “So we are fishing?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Got it.”

  “Have we got anything back from the evidence in the barn yet?” I asked, needing something concrete to hope in.

  “Nope, not yet,” he replied. “It is a long shot, not sure the judge will even let us use it.It has been in that barn a long time and it’ll look to the other side like it has been planted.”