I started from the beginning, the unsafe buildings, my buried reports raising the issues, the offers of bonus’ to keep my mouth shut, the assertion that they could find Dani and what I had on Lucy herself. The Ferrari they paid her for getting close to me, the missing condom. It’s not the first time we’d been to bed, but I’d never been in her apartment, it was always a quickie in one of the new builds or my place while Maia was in school and Stacey was out getting high.
“There are children living in those buildings, Lucy, babies with their whole lives ahead of them and your father didn’t give a shit, what makes you think he’d care about the kid of a junkie?”
“Maybe you were wrong, maybe they were safe.”
“Then why don’t you live in one? Think about it Luce, they’re every bit as high-spec as this place if you believe the lies they printed in the sales leaflets, he’d get one half the price of this place, they’re closer to the hospital, yet he bought you somewhere built by his biggest competitor.”
“He got a good deal,” she sniffed.
“I don’t buy it, Luce, and neither do you. Maybe you can live with my death on your conscience, but what about all the people in those buildings? The babies, the innocent families, people’s grandparents?”
“My father would never hurt a child, ever,” she snapped squaring her shoulders. I was losing her.
“I never said he would. We don’t think he meant for Maia to get caught up in it. It was Stacey he was after, whose gonna miss a junkie whore? Maia tried to defend her momma. She died fighting to save her mother.”
Lucy collapsed on the white leather sofa, her head in her hands, her body trembling under the power of the heart wrenching sobbing coming from it.
I slid over to her, wrapping my arms around her, pulling her to my chest.
“I’m innocent, Lucy, so are all the people in those buildings. We need you to help us, Maia needs you to get justice for her. She wanted to be a doctor, just like you. She dreamed of helping people, fixing them when they were sick. You’re a good person, Luce, you’ll make the right choice, I know you will.”
“I’ll be alone,” she sobbed, “they’ll kill him, he’ll be sentenced to death like you and I’ll be alone.”
“They won’t kill him, Luce,” I soothed, stroking her hair away from her face, “I was sentenced to death because I wouldn’t admit my guilt or ask for forgiveness. He’ll have a better lawyer than me, he didn’t commit the act himself, he didn’t mean for Maia to be hurt.”
“They’ll lock him up for his whole life then and I’ll still be alone.”
“You’ll have me.”
“Dani has you.”
“As a friend, Lucy. Danica’ll be your friend too. You won’t be alone. If that building goes down in the night when everyone is sleeping how many families will be wiped out? How many parents will lose their children and grandchildren in one night?”
“What do you need me to do?”
“Do you think he’d confess to you if you confronted him?”
“Are you kidding?” Lucy scoffed, wiping a tear from her cheek, “he won’t even tell me when he has a date. I’ll try, but he won’t tell me jack, I can promise you that. I don’t think I can cope with this, Leo. How can my own father do such awful things?”
“I’m with you, Luce, every step of the way. If he won’t confess to you, do you think you could get access to his office? If you could find some files, order slips for substandard materials, anything like that, we might at least be able to get those buildings evacuated.”
“Maybe, if he’s not in. His receptionist sometimes lets me into wait for him.”
“Great, I’ll catch up with the people helping me and get in touch with you. They want you to wear a wire when you talk to him. We’ll be right there, Luce, listening to everything.”
“You don’t think… he’d hurt me, do you?”
“I hope not,” I whispered.
I left my number with Lucy, Schilling’s and Ramirez’s too. Danica’s involvement in this had to stay under wraps, no-one wanted her paying for this if went wrong.
The guilt at leaving her, processing this alone, tore me apart. She promised to catch up with a friend, go for coffee, watch a movie, anything but sit alone and replay all the nightmarish things I’d just told her.
“She going to help then?” Ramirez snapped the second I made it back to the car.
“She’s going to try. I have a favour to ask of you.”
“No.”
“You don’t know what I’m going to ask.”
“I’m not driving you home. That’s a one-way ticket back to the death house. For reasons I cannot fathom my daughter loves you. You stay alive. End of.”
“Maria could go. If anyone questioned her, she could tell them she’s a family friend.”
“No.”
“I’m a mother, Joey, what that woman must be going through, I can’t even imagine. Let me go.”
“Fine,” he sighed.
◆◆◆
I paced the cabin relentlessly. Ramirez sat at the table glowering at me. Maria was late back. By hours. Schilling and Dani would turn up any second. If Schilling learned what we’d had Maria do, the risk we’d taken, he’d call off the whole damn thing. Ramirez tried her phone again, hissing when it was sent to voicemail. The twenty-four news channel played in the background.
My parent's house wasn't shown. Since Theo soaked thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment, they’d been given a break. He’d escaped criminal damage charges because they’d been on our land at the time, trespassing. My face flashed up regularly, they’d scoured my friend’s social media, finding pictures from my youth to show alongside my mugshot. The mugshots taken in prison over the years were shown. Pictures of me dressed in the death row white jumpsuit.
Crime analysts and psychologists discussed the danger I posed to the public. Anti-death penalty charities protested my innocence. Suddenly every lawyer in the country wanted to defend me. My own attorney released a statement, denying any knowledge of my plans, assuring the public that I posed no threat to them, telling them she was convinced of my innocence.
Maria’s face never made it to the news. Not yet at least. That brought us little comfort. She might be under arrest, she might have told them everything. They could be on their way here. Armed feds could be surrounding the building without us knowing.
Finally, a car crunched over the drive. Ramirez raced to the window, peeling back the blind.
“It’s Maria,” he sighed, his well-built frame visibly shrinking with relief. Maria walked in seconds later, her face puffy and red, her eyes bloodshot.
“Did you talk to her?” I snapped.
“She knows you’re safe, Leo,” Maria smiled. “That poor, broken woman. I don’t know how much more she can take. She’s tiny, skin and bones. I made her a paella. What else could I do for her?”
“Does she understand why I did this?”
“She supports, Leo. She’d rather you run, live abroad, Theo has money for you but she understands why you need to do this. For Maia, that baby. She showed me her picture, that poor little chico. My heart aches for her. You must get them justice, Joey, you must.”
“I will.”
“Thank you, Maria.”
I pulled the short, matronly woman into my arms.
“You’re a good boy, Leo. Our Danielle is lucky to have you. If only her mother met a man like you and not him.”
“Her mother?” I glanced at Ramirez.
Of course, Dani had a mother. She never spoke of her. We’d only had eight carefree hours together before tragedy ripped us apart. Since meeting again our love affair has been one of heartache, separation and drama. The time for pillow talk would come later.
“My Theresa,” she sniffed.
Hers? Not ours like Dani, but hers.
“What’s the love in for?” Dani grinned, swinging open the door.
She had the same soft brown eyes as Maria, the same kind, forgiving heart
.
“Oh nothing,” Maria huffed, straightening herself up, “just an old woman being silly.”
“You survived Lucy, then?” Schilling asked, following Dani into the cabin.
Maria rushed to the kitchen, determined she’d beat Schilling to making us dinner. Her nose had been firmly out of joint this morning when Schilling told her she didn’t need to pack him and Dani a lunch. His wife had made a frittata and potato salad for them.
Dani folded herself into my arms.
Chapter Fifteen
Danica
As always, we had to eat before we could talk like paella and fruit salads had the power to strengthen us, enlarge our brains. Schilling had an ally now on the eating front. Maria piled a mountain of fluffy golden rice onto my plate. Leo’s too. We both needed fattening up.
I tried to suppress my grin when she bulked my father’s plate out with salad, muttering about his heart. His hand caught the back of the serving spoon when he reached for more rice. Maria glared at him. He dropped the rice, tucking reluctantly into his salad and the meagre portion of paella Maria had allowed him.
“Lucy will help,” Leo announced. Everyone but me shook their heads at him. There’s a time for the case, a time for eating, this was the latter.
Only when the plates were cleared away, did Schilling allow us to discuss the case.
We sat around the fire, Schilling and my father nursing tumblers of brandy, Leo curled on the sofa with me wrapped in his arms. Maria sat opposite my father, by my side, smiling adoringly at Leo, insisting on stroking my hair, no matter how many times I shrugged her away. Every time I pressed closer to Leo, she shuffled across the sofa until she was on top of us again.
Leo went over everything, replaying every detail of his conversation with Lucy. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to kill her or comfort her. Her father was every bit as evil as my own and yet the weak-minded doctor craved the safety of his company. I would happily see mine rot in a cell, it’s no less than they both deserve. Maria’s mind was clear on the matter.
“That poor little girl,” she sniffed, smoothing down my hair.
“She’s a grown ass woman.”
“It’s her dad, Dani, family,” Leo sighed.
“Not all family is deserving of the name,” I spat. My father bristled, taking a long sip of his brandy. Maria opened her mouth, closing it again when he shook his head at her.
“She’s worried he’ll hurt her, so am I, to be truthful. If she does this, she doesn’t go in alone. I want someone with her.”
“I’ll do it,” I offered.
Everyone spoke at once. The strong woman I’d fought to become didn’t exist in their eyes. To them I was broken, fragile, in need of protection.
“I said I will do it,” I snapped. “Who else could? There’s no viable reason for Schilling, Maria or my dad to be anywhere his precious Lucy. She could pass me off as a girlfriend.”
“And if he knows who you are?”
“I carry a weapon, one I’m trained to use.”
It took an hour to convince them. My father insisted on contacting men in the cartel, having them stationed around the building, all armed to the teeth. Leo and Schilling would wait in a van out front, listening in on everything, ready to call for backup if we needed it.
Leo called Lucy with the plan. Her snivelling echoed over the line. Maria shuffled on the sofa, feeling every iota of Lucy’s pain. I still hadn’t decided whether I wanted to kill her or not. She’d suspected her dad was involved in this from the start, she let Leo rot in prison, thinking he was going to die for a crime he didn’t commit.
Schilling drained the rest of Brandy, before heading home to Emma. Maria insisted we all head to bed, so we were fresh for the morning.
◆◆◆
The cabin bustled with activity the next morning. Schilling and I had to at least show our faces at work. We’d planned to meet up with Lucy at lunch. Schilling had managed to pilfer a wire and recording equipment from his contact in the feds. They still weren’t watching Lucy or her dad. He’d ordered protective detail for Lucy, to start once we were done with her. It seems Leo wasn’t the only one who believed her dad capable of causing her harm. How could she love such a beast?
Maria sent us to work weighed down with quesadillas and fresh fruit. Lunch time didn’t come soon enough. The quesadillas sat cold in my bag. I made my way into Lucy’s building. A petite blonde jumped up to meet me, her blue eyes rimmed red, her face pallid and drawn. She had to pull herself together, her father would take one look at her and shoot us both.
My eyes roamed over the tiny, falling apart woman. She was attractive, slim. Give her a bikini and a volleyball and she’d fit right into Leo’s life, at least the one he had before her dad snatched it away from him. From us.
“You must be Dani?”
“I must be.”
“I’m Lucy, Leo’s friend.”
My blood boiled when she fell into Leo’s arms as soon as she stepped into the van. She’d been willing to see him die and there she was fawning over him. Schilling peeled her off him, fitting the wire under her shirt.
By the time we pulled up at her dad’s office she was a hot mess, her body shaking, tears streaming her face, soaking into her shirt.
“This isn’t going to work,” I snapped.
The urge to grab her quivering shoulders and shake her grew with every second that passed.
“Sure it is,” Leo smiled, “you’ll do great, Luce, promise.”
He brushed her long, golden hair behind her ears, smiling at her. She sniffed, nodding her head.
Ugh.
“Dan, she’s asking her dad if he’s a cold blooded killer, that would upset most people.”
Not people who’d been raised by out and proud cold blooded killers.
“Whatever,” I shrugged.
Schilling agreed with Leo, assuring Lucy she was doing fine, she’d be safe.
She grabbed my hand as we stepped out of the van. Her shirt fluttered with the pounding of her heart, her palm slick in my hand. She rested her weight against my side. I dragged her towards the towering, glass fronted office block. She followed blindly.
Men in suits rushed past us, ignoring the poor weeping woman at my side. Lucy stepped slowly towards the bank of silver fronted elevators.
“Which floor?”
“Penthouse.”
I pressed the button.
She had to be forced from the elevator when it stopped on her father’s floor.
A lithe, barely dressed blonde manned the reception desk.
“Lucy,” she smiled, painting on a thin veneer of concern. “Is everything okay?”
“Bad break up,” I smiled. “Is her dad here? Lucy needs some retail therapy.”
“He’s in his office,” the icy blonde replied, her eyes running disapprovingly over my frumpy slacks and blouse. Even soaked in tears, her button nose glowing red, her hair piled on her head, the designer clothes Lucy wore, the microbladed eyebrows and eyelash extensions, put her in a different league to me. One I’d thought Leo wasn't interested in.
I grabbed Lucy’s sweaty hand, pulling her towards the office.
“Leo needs this,” I hissed, kicking open the high gloss black door.
Mr Attwood sat behind a glossy, midnight black desk. His suit matched the monochrome decor. He sported the same tattooed on eyebrows his daughter did.
“Lucy,” he gasped, running quickly around his desk, pulling Lucy from my grip into his arms. “What’s happened?”
My own father never hugged me that way. Maria did. She’d fussed over me every chance she got. My dad was too busy running his drug empire to give two hoots about spending time with me.
“Leo, Daddy, he’s on the run. I can’t stop thinking about him.”
Attwood pulled his daughter to the black leather sofa, holding her in his arms, her body encased in his, the sound from her wire muffled by his expensive Italian suit. Idiot, this doctor, daughter of a billionaire, graduate from an Ivy Lea
gue college was a goddamn idiot.
“I can’t understand it,” she sniffed. I guessed there was a lot Lucy didn’t understand, like how wire transmitters work. “When he was in prison, it was hard, like really hard. He wouldn’t do those things, not Leo, daddy, I know he wouldn’t. Now he’s running I feel so helpless. He must be so frightened, daddy and I can’t help him.”
“Oh, Lucy,” Attwood sighed, pulling her away from him. “It’s all his own doing. How well can you really know a man? You weren’t together, were you?”
“He was a good man, daddy.”
“There was a side to him you didn’t see, Luce. He had a temper. That woman he killed was a junkie, my money’s on her bringing home more trouble than he was willing to put up with.”
“Leo wasn’t bad tempered.”
“Oh, believe me, he was. That man was a tragedy waiting to happen. I only hope they catch him before he hurts someone else.”
Lucy slid across the sofa, inching closer to me.
“If you thought he was dangerous why did you ask me to get close to him?”
“Excuse me?” Attwood blinked at his daughter before turning his gaze to me.
“That’s Ella, my friend from work, she won’t talk daddy, she’s a good friend, she knows everything, the Ferrari, you telling me to bring Leo home, when you came round the next day. She’s known for months and she hasn’t told. I need the truth, daddy.”
“You’re a doctor?” He sneered, running his gaze up and down my off the rack work slacks and jacket. When this was over, I was kicking this man where it hurts. Hard. And I’d enjoy every second.
“I’m a nurse,” I replied through gritted teeth, placing my hand on Lucy’s shoulder, giving her a reassuring squeeze.
“I see.”
“The Ferrari, daddy,” Lucy pressed on, drying her tears. “If Leo was a dangerous man why did you pay me to sleep with him?”
“This conversation is over, Lucy.”
“Daddy, please.”
“Sir, Lucy needs to know if the man she loved is a monster, that’s all. She’s been beating herself up over this for months. Her work is suffering, she’s this close to losing her job. She’s broken, Sir. She needs answers.”
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