by T. R. Ragan
“She can sleep on the couch. She’ll be fine.”
The quiet settled between them while Lizzy waited for dinner to heat up and Salma played her card game.
“If you need any help with anything, let me know,” Salma said.
“I will. So, what’s the deal with you anyhow? Do you have family in the area?”
The girl nodded. “I do. Not that you’d know it. Since they found out I’m pregnant they’re not talking to me.”
“What about the father of the baby?”
“He’s around.”
When Salma grew quiet, Lizzy went to the table and took a seat across from her. “How old are you?”
“Eighteen.”
Lizzy didn’t believe her. “You look much younger.”
“That’s what everyone says.”
“Are you a runaway?”
She rubbed her swollen belly. “No.”
“Do your parents know where you are?”
She shrugged.
“If you tell me where you live or give me a number, I could call and talk to them.”
“Listen, this isn’t something you can just jump in and fix. My father is not happy with my choices—that’s a nice way to put it. The cultural differences between my boyfriend and me make it impossible for my family to accept him. My brother can be a hothead. If they find out where I am, who knows what could happen? So no, no phone calls. If you don’t want me to stay, I’ll leave. I didn’t ask to come here. Your friends dragged me here against my will.”
Lizzy didn’t like the ultimatum. She also didn’t like the idea of the young girl roaming the streets. She needed to think things through and figure out what to do with the girl. With a baby on the way, she couldn’t stay here indefinitely.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Annie Shepard staggered out of the doctor’s office. Her cell phone was inside her purse, and she could feel it vibrating against her thigh. It was probably her husband, calling from work to find out the results of the latest test.
A tear ran down her cheek.
Standing in the hallway, her only thought was, Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
She wasn’t ready to talk to her husband. Not yet. She just needed a moment to herself to take it all in. She’d never felt so damned happy in her life.
Deliriously happy.
After all these months of staying strong, refusing to cry or show emotions, she was a wreck. Her heart pounded inside her chest. Her hands felt clammy; her legs wobbled beneath her bony frame. It boggled her mind to discover she’d never really seen this coming. It was a miracle. And she knew it.
As she followed the carpeted hallway, making a left and then a right, she recalled taking this same walk through these same hallways two years ago, almost to the day.
She’d been given an upsetting diagnosis that day—told she had ovarian cancer. One year to live was the most they could promise her. Tops.
She’d spent the last twenty-four months of her life doing everything she could to reverse the cancer that had dared to invade her body and turn her life upside down. After getting a second and third opinion, each diagnosis grimmer than the last, she’d had surgery, and then chemotherapy followed by radiation. Not to mention a radical change in her diet. Despite the weakness in her arms and legs, she began to exercise, which consisted mostly of stretching and taking long walks. Every day. When she wasn’t exercising, she was reading self-help books. All very inspiring and positive books: No Fear for the Fearless. You Can Beat the Odds. Don’t Look Back, Moving Forward.
Not once had she allowed herself a pity party. In fact, the minute she had walked out of this same building two years ago, she had refused to accept the verdict. She would not go out without a fight.
And today, she’d learned she had won.
Her cancer was in full-blown remission.
She would live long enough to see her children grow, marry, have children of their own.
She stopped right there in the middle of the hallway and let out a “Yippee!” She blushed when an elderly couple passed by, gawking at her. After they disappeared inside the elevator at the end of the hallway, she let out another whoop, and then she laughed out loud.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed—a real honest-to-goodness laugh that made her insides thrum like this.
Things were going to change, she decided as she continued toward the stairwell at the end of the hallway. She needed to try new things. Live a little.
She spared a quick glance at the elevator as she walked by.
By nature, she’d always been a scaredy-cat. There were quite a few things, in fact, that scared the bejesus out of her, and the top two on her list were bridges and elevators.
After turning away from the door to the stairwell, she turned back toward the elevator. As she bit down on her bottom lip, she looked at the shiny metallic doors in a new light. She’d lost track of the number of times someone or another told her that the elevator was the most used transportation on earth. Elevators required regular inspections and maintenance, they would tell her. Elevators were perfectly safe. Accidents only happened in the movies or on TV. If there was an emergency, there were call buttons for just that reason.
She reached out and hit the red Down button.
Then she waited.
Since he still had plenty of time before his meeting, he’d taken the first empty parking space he could find on the side of the road and decided to head for Capitol Mall to do some people watching. Once his meeting was over, he planned to visit the Crocker Art Museum, one of his favorite places in Sacramento. The new wing was nice, light and spacious, but he treasured the original Crocker with its elaborately carved wood, dark colors, and stained glass. He always felt at home when he visited.
As he’d walked along the sidewalk, he watched various people pass him by without a second glance. With his neatly trimmed hair and casual suit, he was one of them. Everyone was rushing to work or perhaps to lunch.
After he’d noticed an elderly couple exit an underground parking garage, something possessed him to head that way. It was almost as if he were being pulled by some magnetic force. There were very few cars parked within the garage, and despite it being daytime, the area was dark. Bits of trash were scattered about. No security whatsoever. A black hole in the middle of a bustling city.
The elevator doors to his left opened, startling him. Before the doors could shut again, he rushed over and used his right foot to hold the doors open while he stepped inside. He had no idea where he was going or what sort of building this was, but it was such an odd little hole in the wall, he couldn’t resist.
There appeared to be three floors. A short ride, no matter which button he pressed. He pushed the button with the number 3, hoping to feel a jolt before takeoff.
No jolt. No fun. Not until the doors parted and he found a tiny bird of a woman waiting to get on the elevator. Her eyes were twinkling until she saw him frowning.
“I’m afraid I’m lost,” he told her, bedazzling her with one of his wide grins.
“Are you here to see Dr. Roth?”
“Yes, Dr. Roth. Am I on the right track?”
Her frown bloomed into a smile that made her eyes sparkle again. She pointed to her left. “It’s a bit of a maze, but his office is that way,” she said.
He stepped off the elevator, holding the door for the woman to get on.
“Thank you,” she said after she’d stepped inside.
“Anything for such a lovely woman.”
He let go of the door, saw her blush as the doors slowly moved toward each other. Before the doors met, though, he grabbed hold of the edge of a door and squeezed his way back inside the elevator. “I forgot something,” he said.
Five seconds passed before the doors began to close again.
“It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?” he asked h
er.
How fitting, Annie had thought, that the elevator doors would open and such a handsome and distinguished-looking man would be standing before her. Her day kept getting better and better.
After she’d pointed him in the direction of Dr. Roth’s office, she’d stepped into the elevator and felt a ripple of anticipation rush through her body. Instead of being afraid, she’d felt a thrill she couldn’t explain if she tried.
When the man turned and stopped the elevator doors from shutting so he could step back inside, a moment of trepidation had fallen over her, but any worry was short-lived. He had simply forgotten something.
“It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?”
He had a rich and pleasing voice. He asked the question in such a way that made her feel as if he knew she’d just been handed a second chance to live life. His eyes were so blue, his smile so bright, she had a difficult time looking away. “Today is the best day of my life,” she said cheerily.
He smiled again and said, “You have no idea how happy that makes me.”
Their space was limited, but he stepped closer, all the while looking at her with a fiery intensity.
Her pulse raced.
He lifted his hands, and for a moment she actually thought he was going in for a kiss.
“I’m a married woman,” she said as his fingers brushed over her throat, her eyes never leaving his.
“Even better,” he said. And then his hands clamped hard around her neck and he began to squeeze. It was then she noticed not only his crooked nose but four faint lines across his cheek. Scratch marks he’d tried to cover up.
This wasn’t his first time. He’d killed before. And he would kill again.
Today was not the first day of the rest of her life, after all.
It was her last.
If only I’d taken the stairs, she thought as the elevator lurched to a stop and her legs crumpled beneath her.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Lizzy had been sitting behind the wheel of her car in the parking lot at a shopping center in West Sacramento for over an hour. Kobi Millard worked at the bank. She was one of many women who had been sexually assaulted by Wayne Bennett. Kobi was also one of the women whose reputation had been damaged before the judge ruled there was not enough evidence to hold a trial.
Lizzy needed to talk to her, and she figured Kobi Millard had to take a lunch sooner or later.
Her stomach cramped, and she winced in pain.
Damn.
She white-knuckled the steering wheel, reminded that she needed to make a call to the doctor. Something was definitely not right. It was time for a checkup, and she’d already missed one appointment. About to turn on the engine and ask her voice-activated phone to call her doctor, she stopped when she saw Kobi walk out the front door of the bank and head for her car.
It was about time.
The woman’s sleek black hair was rolled up high on her head, her bangs sweeping across one eye. She wore a two-piece gray suit and black heels. Kobi climbed into a silver Toyota Corolla with a dented bumper.
After Lizzy followed her car for less than two miles, Kobi made a right and parked in front of a grocery store. Lizzy parked nearby, jumped out of the car, and caught up to her before Kobi could enter the store. “Hi, Kobi, my name is Lizzy Gardner, and I need to talk to you.”
Kobi stopped and looked Lizzy over, her eyes scanning from head to toe. “You’ve got balls, lady, coming around, following me. I already told you on the phone I didn’t have anything to say in the matter of Wayne Bennett.” She pivoted, ready to walk off, but Lizzy grabbed her shoulder. “Get your hands off me.”
Lizzy let go. “I don’t have a recorder on me, Kobi, I swear. Not even a phone. I just need to know the truth. I can’t get the monster or even go after him if nobody will straight up tell me the damn truth. Is he raping young women enrolled in his program?”
A heavy sigh escaped Kobi as she looked around the parking lot. Finally, her gaze met Lizzy’s again. She nodded and said, “Yes.”
“Did he rape you?”
A very subtle nod was her response.
“But he paid you off, and that’s why you refuse to talk,” Lizzy stated instead of questioned.
Kobi’s somber expression turned to fury. Her anger tightened all the features on her face. The woman smoothed out the bangs covering her forehead and straightened her shoulders, lending power to her stance and fire to her eyes. “You’re a bitch, Lizzy Gardner.” She then jabbed her finger into Lizzy’s chest.
“Ouch.”
She did it again.
“Knock it off!” Lizzy looked down to see if she was bleeding.
“He didn’t pay me one cent. He threatened my life and the life of my daughter. Valerie is my everything. If he finds out I talked to you and messes with my family, I will come after you myself. I swear I will.”
“I’m sorry,” Lizzy said.
“No, you’re not. You wouldn’t still be standing here if you were.”
“He’s ruining so many lives,” Lizzy told her, “and he’s getting away with it. It’s only going to get worse. Miriam Walters is still missing, and yet I can’t find anyone who will talk to me.”
Kobi’s head fell. Her chin nearly hit her chest.
“We both know she’s probably dead,” Lizzy said. “And we both know who killed her. My girls and I have been following him for weeks. With or without your help, I will catch him in the act and I’ll make sure he’s put behind bars for a very long time.”
“Tomorrow night, after work,” Kobi blurted. “Six o’clock. He’s asked one of the women in the program if she would like to be interviewed for the chance to work for a very lucrative company. He’s told her the pay starts at sixty thousand.”
“You’re no longer in the program. How do you know this?”
“I have my ways. Just like you. The girl was warned, though. But sometimes we don’t listen because we all like to think we’re special, don’t we?”
“So there won’t be an interview. He’ll take her somewhere else instead?”
Her eyes narrowed. “You didn’t hear any of this from me. Me and you,” she said, “we never talked. And don’t you ever come anywhere near me again—you hear me?” And then Kobi Millard turned around, spine stiff and head held high as she made her way toward the store’s entrance.
Lizzy watched the house, her gaze on the electric gate in front of a long driveway lined with palm trees. Even from here she could see the fountain with trickling water in front of the grand entrance to Wayne Bennett’s mansion.
What is he doing at this very moment? His wife probably shoved dinner in front of him and then watched the clock, waiting for him to leave. She probably didn’t give a rat’s ass what her husband did after he left the house. Women like Mrs. Bennett weren’t stupid. He’d already been arrested once, long ago, for molesting an underage female. And Lizzy could guarantee he’d be arrested again. In fact, she was going to make sure of it. Mrs. Bennett was probably counting the minutes, waiting for a nice quiet respite from the evil man who shared her bed.
But did Mrs. Bennett ever stop to think of her husband’s victims?
Were diamonds and pearls worth living with a disgusting, manipulative excuse of a man?
Lizzy counted to ten and reined in her anger. She’d never met the woman. She shouldn’t judge. She wanted to throw up. Every thought of late, every bit of focus, was on taking Bennett down. She couldn’t stop if she wanted to.
Lizzy sipped water from her reusable bottle, and then rubbed her stomach. She felt bloated and uncomfortable. She unfastened the top button of her jeans and was rewarded with instantaneous relief. It was six o’clock already, and she began to wonder if Kobi had the date and time wrong. Maybe tonight wasn’t the night, after all. And that’s when the iron gates to the monster’s lair slid open.
It was him. Time to t
ake care of business.
The video camera hooked to her dashboard was ready to go. She turned it on, waited until he was far enough ahead, and then followed him down the street. She’d been doing surveillance long enough to know she needed to stay a safe distance away.
Tammy Walters had confirmed that Bennett preferred to do his evil business under the cloak of darkness. He’d rarely taken her sister Miriam out during the day. The problem for Lizzy was that ever since he’d been under public scrutiny, he’d been more careful. He was a patient man. But although he had deep pockets, he’d already called in a lot of favors. She could only hope he was running out of people to bribe.
As she followed him, making sure not to miss a traffic light before merging onto the highway, it angered her anew that he used his position in life to take advantage of these young women. He was rich and handsome. A reputable man like Wayne Bennett made it easy for the women being mentored to throw caution to the wind. He was their savior—the man who could change their lives for the better. He took dreams into the palm of his hand and crushed them.
Fifteen minutes later, she followed him off the highway and through a maze of smaller side streets, bringing them to La Riviera. Many of the houses on this particular road had weeds for lawns and broken windows. Most of the mailboxes had been dented in or were missing altogether. Kids vented, got their frustrations out by damaging other people’s property. And then they went on to become gang members, druggies, rapists, whatever. Nobody gave a shit.
Two blocks away, parked at the curb, Lizzy watched a young girl leave her apartment, turn back, and wave at whoever stood at the door before she climbed into the black sedan awaiting her arrival.
It boggled the mind to see the man at work. Not a care in the world. Right there out in the open for everyone to see. He wasn’t afraid of anyone. He was king of the world, powerful and in control. The hatred she felt for the man continued to grow in intensity. He used his success to manipulate people and make them do things to satisfy his revolting desires. Wayne Bennett’s father had been a well-respected businessman in Sacramento, all the way up to his death. Wayne Bennett attended the best schools. He married well and went on to have two kids. He made his family proud. After his business flourished, he decided to give back to the community. But apparently that wasn’t enough.