by Scott Pratt
“We each packed a bag, got in my car, and drove to the airport, where we got on that beautiful jet and flew off to parts unknown. But before I left, I used what Lana had taught me, as well as some information I’d gathered since that day in the park, and set up an offshore bank account of my own. The last thing I did before I walked out of the house was pull the laptop out and transfer the rest of the money from the bank account Lana had made me set up to my new bank account. It’s since been moved several more times. There was more than two and a half million dollars in that account, money that I assume was supposed to go to the contractors after Kasey and Paul were dead. I took every dime of it.”
“I guess this means you’re probably not going to voluntarily return and testify at Paul’s trial.”
“And admit to murder conspiracy, kidnapping, and to stealing more than $2 million? I don’t think so.”
“Are we in Ecuador?” I asked. “Rafael mentioned to me that one of your parents is from Ecuador. Your mother, maybe?”
“Yes, my mother,” Alex said, “but you could be anywhere. My father is Greek and extremely wealthy, as is my mother and her family.”
“These men speak Spanish,” I said, glancing around the room. “It was uncomfortable as hell riding in the back of that truck, but it’s pretty warm even though we’re at a high elevation. The flight was about five hours in a jet that probably cruises around six hundred miles an hour. I don’t think we’re too far from the equator.”
“If I don’t tell you where we are, then you can truthfully deny knowing where I am if the need arises.”
“Doesn’t Paul know where you are? You worked for him for three years. Surely you told him about your family.”
“Paul wasn’t interested in my personal life,” Alex said. “Paul was interested in business.”
“So tell me again why you brought me here?” I asked.
“I wanted you to know the truth. Lana had Kasey killed and intended to kill Paul.”
“But I can’t use any of it. If you’re not going to testify, everything you’ve told me is irrelevant. I can’t go into court and tell the jury what you’ve told me.”
“You can tell the district attorney and the police.”
“Tell them what? That a man who, as you say, was part of a murder conspiracy, stole more than $2 million, and kidnapped me from my own backyard and flew me to God knows where, says Paul Milius didn’t kill Kasey? Do you happen to know who did kill her?”
He shook his head, and his chin dropped to his chest. “I don’t,” he said. “There was no identifying information in the email I sent. The address was jibberish.”
“Then without your testimony, this trip has been pretty much a waste.”
“But at least you know Paul didn’t do it.”
“You were his personal assistant. Was he as promiscuous as I’m hearing he was?”
Alex nodded. “He was pretty much insatiable.”
“What about Kasey? Did you hear or see anything that told you he was trying to seduce her?”
“I had my suspicions. He practically drooled on her every time he saw her.”
“That’s great,” I said. “That’s just great. I appreciate all the information. Can I go home now?”
The door opened again, and this time a woman walked through. She was beautiful, very much like Lana in terms of having a perfectly structured face and all the right curves in all the right places, although she was a bit taller than Lana and a bit thinner. She also had long, thick, brunette hair and eyes that were a deep, glossy brown. She was wearing tight, black jeans and knee boots and a white blouse.
“And you must be Tilly,” I said. “Forgive me if I don’t get up and shake your hand. I tend to lose my manners around people who kidnap me and haul me halfway around the world. I suppose you’re also going to tell me what a terrible person Lana is but that, like Alex here, you’re not going to come back to the good ol’ U.S. of A. and testify.”
“Lana and I grew up less than half a mile from each other, Mr. Dillard,” she said. Alex got up from the chair he was sitting in, and she took his place. “We’re first cousins. Her momma and my daddy are brother and sister. She’s a year older than me, but we were inseparable. We went to the same schools, the same church. We rode horses together in shows for years on the weekends. I loved her like a sister. When she and Paul got married, nobody in the family approved because she was so young, and everybody boycotted the wedding. But I went. I was seventeen years old, and my daddy whipped my tail with a belt for doing it, but I went and I was her maid of honor. And then as soon as I graduated from high school, I went to work as her personal assistant. I toured all over the world with her and saw her career take off like a rocket. I was there when she got all the awards and sold all those records. I was there when the house was built.
“And then I saw Lana come crashing back down to Earth when she started having problems with her voice. I’ve seen the decline, Mr. Dillard, and to be perfectly honest with you, it breaks my heart because somewhere deep down inside of me I still love Lana. But you need to understand what you’re dealing with. I think that’s mainly why Alex went to all this trouble and expense to bring you down here—so we could try to get across to you that you’re dealing with someone who is dangerous, someone who has become mentally ill and morally bankrupt, someone who has gone so far over the line now that she can’t go back. She was responsible for killing Kasey, and she would have killed Paul if something hadn’t gone wrong. And she’s had help. That lawyer, that disgusting Carl Browning, has been helping her. I’ve heard them plotting. Be careful, Mr. Dillard. She’ll kill you if she thinks she needs to. Don’t doubt that for one minute.”
“Why did she hire me?” I said. It was something I’d wondered about. If Lana had wanted Paul dead and it didn’t work out, this murder charge seemed to be the perfect remedy for her. If he wound up being convicted, he’d be gone for a long, long time. So why hire me? Why not hire some rube who couldn’t try a case?
“How did she find you?” Tilly said.
“Through a mutual friend, a sheriff. His name is Leon Bates. He’s from the same county I’m from.”
“I’ve met Sheriff Bates,” Tilly said.
“Yeah, Lana mentioned that he’d stayed in the guesthouse.”
“He and his girlfriend. What’s her name, Erlene Barlowe? Redhead who owns a strip club? Calls everybody ‘honey child’ and ‘baby doll’?”
“That’s her.”
“I don’t mean to insult you, Mr. Dillard, but Lana thought Sheriff Bates and Miss Barlowe were charming hillbillies. I heard her talk about them more than once. It wasn’t very flattering.”
“She thinks they’re stupid?” I said.
Tilly looked at the ground. “Like I said, I don’t mean to insult you.”
“So when Paul got arrested, she called Leon and he told her about me, which means she thinks I’m stupid, too?”
Tilly shrugged.
“Well I’ll be damned,” I said. “She hired me because she thought I was a rube. What will she do if I win? What will she do if I get him off?”
“She won’t let you win, Mr. Dillard.”
I stood and noticed a couple of the men around me stiff en.
“Is that right?” I said.
“I’m sure you’re very good at what you do,” Tilly said, “but I’ve seen Lana in action for a long, long time. You don’t have a chance.”
“We’ll see about that,” I said. “Alex, if you and Miss Hart have said everything you have to say, would you please have these men take me back where I belong? I’ve got work to do.”
CHAPTER 23
The ride back from Ecuador (I was sure it had to be Ecuador) was uneventful. I had to wear the bag again when we rode down the mountain and got on the plane, but once we’d been airborne for a while, the mystery man allowed me to remove it, and I didn’t have to wear it again. They even allowed me to sit up and ride in their rented car once we touched down at the Tri-Cities airport
in Tennessee and got off the plane.
They dropped me in front of my house at around nine o’clock at night. I’d been gone since a little after seven that morning—roughly fourteen hours. When I walked in the door, I thought Caroline was going to break my neck hugging me. Sarah and Lilly and Randy and all the kids were there, too, and Rio almost knocked me down trying to slather me in dog spit. I regaled them all with the tale of my kidnapping, but I kept the most dangerous details about Lana Milius to myself.
I drank one beer and found myself dozing by ten o’clock. I barely heard the others leaving, and Caroline got me off the couch and helped me into bed, where I slept dreamlessly until I sat straight up at five the next morning. I was sore from bouncing around in the back of the truck the previous day, but I was able to get up and move around. I texted Leon Bates half an hour later: “Got anything for me?”
He texted back: “Behind the church. One hour.”
Leon slid his long legs into the passenger side of my pickup right on time. We’d often met in the parking lot behind the old Highland Church of Christ. It was rural and isolated, and we’d never been bothered there.
“What’s new, Brother Dillard?” Leon said as he removed his cowboy hat and laid it on the seat between us.
“Not much,” I said. “I was kidnapped yesterday and flown to Ecuador, but other than that, things have pretty much been normal.”
“I’m gonna assume you’re pulling my leg,” he said.
“No, no. It’s true. I was running early yesterday morning, and the next thing I knew I’d been tased and hogtied and thrown in the trunk of a car. The car took me to the airport, where I was hustled onto a plane and flown three thousand miles away to visit a young man named Alex and a young woman named Tilly.”
“Alex and Tilly? Aren’t they Paul and Lana Milius’s personal assistants?”
“They used to be. They have a new address now.”
“Do you care to fill me in on the whos, whats, whens, wheres, and whys of this little caper?”
“I don’t know all the whats and whys,” I said. “But I promise I’ll tell you everything as soon as I figure it out. Tell me what you found out about my son-in-law.”
“I put one of my best guys on him,” Leon said. “He was off duty, of course, but you’re going to need to compensate him for his time.”
“Not a problem. What’s the verdict?”
“Well, it’s a bit complicated. The boy is apparently allowing himself to be led along by the nose a bit. This Tiffany Hill girl is a nurse at the medical center. Just graduated last year, twenty-five years old. Very, very attractive young lady. Lives by herself on the west side of town not far from where your daughter and son-in-law live. From what my man tells me, she is making no secret that she would very much like to have an affair with him. He also tells me that those sorts of things go on all the time in hospital settings. Nurses love to hate doctors, but they also love to catch one if they can.”
“Even if the doctor is married and has a kid?”
“Some of them aren’t too scrupulous about it.”
“And I take it Randy isn’t exactly fighting her off with a stick.”
Leon folded his arms and rolled his head around a little.
“That seems to be a matter that’s still up for debate,” he said. “My man says he doesn’t have any evidence that they’re sleeping together or that they’ve slept together, but he also says he thinks it’s just a matter of time. The girl has a bit of a reputation already, and she’s working him hard. She calls him a lot. Shows up where he happens to be. If you’re going to say something to him, my best advice is that now’s the time.”
“Thank you, Leon,” I said. “I really appreciate this.”
“So how far are you into this Nashville thing?”
“Far enough to know I’m up to my knees in BS,” I said. “Oh, and by the way, I need to tell you something.”
“What’s that?”
“You know that guesthouse you and Erlene stay in when you go to the Miliuses’ place? I interviewed all of Paul and Lana’s employees, and one of them told me that Lana has video and audio recordings of everything that is said and done in there.”
“Yeah,” Leon said.
“Yeah? You’re not worried about that?”
“Nah.”
“Why not? Aren’t you afraid some sex tape of you and Erlene will pop up in a political campaign somewhere down the road unless you pay somebody a bunch of money or do somebody a huge favor?”
“I ain’t worried, Brother Dillard.”
“Mind telling me why you’re not worried?”
“Because Erlene’s been doing that kind of thing for years. She spotted the cameras and the microphones less than five minutes after we got inside the house.”
“So you got Lana to turn them off?”
“Not really. We kinda get a kick out of thinking Lana might be watching us sometimes.”
“C’mon, Leon. Spill it.”
“You’re aware that Erlene has contacts all over this state and in lots of other states, too, correct?”
“I don’t know the particulars, but yes, I imagine Erlene knows a lot of people.”
“And I know a lot of people.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that.”
“And Lana Milius ain’t no vestal virgin, am I right?”
“I couldn’t comment on that.”
“I can. She ain’t. And Erlene has proof. So we already have an unwritten agreement. Erlene took care of it right away.”
“Enough said, Leon. Don’t tell me anything else.”
“You shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“I was just trying to help.”
“That you were. So back to Paul Milius. You gonna be able to get him off?”
“I have absolutely no idea. I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.”
“And when do you expect that will be?”
“When the jury comes in with a verdict.”
CHAPTER 24
I was waiting just inside the hospital cafeteria door when Randy came walking in. He was wearing his white coat, accompanied by a young man and two young women, also wearing white coats. He turned and said something under his breath when he saw me, and they walked on.
“I need a minute of your time,” I said to him.
“I don’t have much.”
“Won’t take long. Can we step outside?”
There was a small courtyard outside the cafeteria with five small tables and about a dozen chairs. It was empty because the temperature was below forty degrees, and the day was blustery and dim. After we’d walked about twenty feet from the door, I turned and planted myself in front of him, less than a foot away.
“I know what you’ve been doing,” I said.
“What? What are you—?”
“Tiff any Hill ring a bell?”
His jaw went slack, and the color left his face. “I don’t know what you’re—”
“Yes, you do. Nurse. Pretty nurse. Word is she’s looking for a doctor. That kind of thing happens a lot from what I’ve been told. She was in your car the night you wrecked, and the two of you have been spending some sneak-around time together. How am I doing?”
“Have you been following me?”
“I don’t have time to follow you. I paid somebody to do it.”
“You paid somebody? That should be illegal or something. I’m not…I’m not having this conversation.”
He turned to walk away, but I grabbed the sleeve of his coat and spun him back around.
“You’re going to stand here and listen to what I have to say, or I’m going to kick your ass all over this courtyard,” I said.
“You wouldn’t dare,” he said. “There are witnesses all over the place.”
“Yeah, and those witnesses are going to tell the cops that the old guy beat the living shit out of the young guy while the young guy is being carted off in an ambulance.”
I meant every word of it, and he could obviously t
ell I meant it because he didn’t offer to move. He stood there looking at the ground.
“You don’t love my daughter anymore? That’s fine, Randy. It happens. People fall in love. People fall out of love. You don’t want to stay with your son and be part of a family anymore? That’s fine, too. My old man abandoned his family. Scumbags do it all the time. But if you don’t love my daughter and if you don’t want to be a part of a family anymore, you’re going to do it the right way. You’re going to go to Lilly, you’re going to look her in the eye, and you’re going to say, ‘Lilly, I don’t love you anymore. I want a divorce.’
“Then you’ll get a lawyer and Lilly will get a lawyer and they’ll act like they’re being nasty and battling for you, but all they’ll really be doing is running up the tab and having a drink together after work. In the end, they’ll make a standard financial deal and a standard child custody deal and you’ll be able to tell your new girlfriend what a bitch your ex-wife and her lawyer were and how badly you got screwed in the settlement.
“Then in a few years, your wife, who didn’t care to break up your family, will start looking around to break up another family. Maybe you won’t make enough money to suit her. Maybe your house won’t be big enough or your cars won’t be nice enough or your pecker won’t be big enough to suit her. She knows you’re married, right? She knows you have a child, right? What’s she telling you? What’s her pickup line? That she thinks you might be soul mates?
“Here’s the thing, and I want you listen closely to me right now. You’re a young guy, you’re good-looking, and you’ll soon be a doctor, which means you’re going to be relatively wealthy unless you turn out to be a lousy money manager. You’re going to have women make plays for you. Some of them will be subtle, some of them will be overt, but all of them will be empty. And what you have with Lilly and is not empty. I’ve seen you two together for what, seven years now? Lilly loves you the same way Caroline and I love each other. There is nothing she wouldn’t do for you. She cherishes you and everything that goes with you. You’re a wonderful father. Joseph’s eyes light up every time he sees you.