A victimless crime if there ever was one.
Over time, two things happened. Spore got older and the game changed.
When he played, the world was in the late seventies. Football was easy to predict. It had changed though. It was no longer a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust sport. It was a speed game, a passing game.
The kind of game where anything could happen any weekend.
It didn't take long for the losses to start adding up. To cover them, his bets went up.
By the time these guys found him, he was ass deep in debt. He didn't want to even listen to their proposal, let alone take it. He had no choice though.
Worse yet, they knew he had no choice.
Now, two years later, here he sat. Outside a citizen's house on a Saturday afternoon. Stalling because he was afraid of what he might find inside.
On cue, as if knowing he needed encouragement, his cell-phone started to ring. His other cell-phone.
Faced with having to hear that damn thin, nasal voice again, Spore climbed out. Went in through the front door without knocking.
He wasn't sure what he might find inside. Touched the service gun on his hip every few seconds. Felt sweat rise on his back.
One by one he checked each of the rooms. Found nothing. No signs of struggle. Not even a drop of blood.
So far, Notch was good for his word.
The last door stood closed and Spore zeroed in on it. For good measure he pulled the Glock out, held it in his left hand. Pushed the door open with his right.
The smell of blood and mildew made his eyes water. He coughed twice as he stepped inside. Followed the path of darkened blood spatter on the floor.
In total, he spent ten seconds in the bedroom.
In rapid fashion, he jammed the gun back in its holster and went outside. Left the front door unlocked. Climbed into his car and dialed Yelena.
"Bout damn time," her voice rasped.
"We've got a problem," Spore said. Ignored her comment.
"I'm tired of you starting every conversation that way."
"I'm tired of having to clean up your messes."
The words were out before Spore realized he was saying them. His eyes snapped shut. He pushed his breath out through his nose. Waited for the vitriol that was coming his way.
Instead, Yelena asked, "He killed her, didn't he?"
"I...I don't know," Spore replied.
The line was silent for a moment.
"What do you mean, you don't know?" Low voice. Measured words.
"I mean, I don't know. There's a ton of blood for sure. No body."
Spore could hear a sharp intake on the other end of the line.
"I'll call you back."
Chapter Twenty-Four
Beth Haggerty shoved pizza into her mouth like she hadn't eaten in days.
She was perched against the headboard of the bed in the opposite bedroom of Ella. Pillows buffeted her oversized body.
Ava sat beside her. One leg perched on the bed, the other foot planted on the floor.
Sage leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed.
Drake sat on the desk in the room, his legs swinging free beneath it.
Ajax and Kade continued to watch football in the living room.
After Drake got Ava inside, he commandeered her laptop and went to GoGriz.com. Sent a message asking if Beth and her boyfriend wanted to swing by an after party off-campus.
Beth's response came back within three minutes.
Ava took him to grab his car while he filled her in on what he knew. She seemed skeptical of everything he said, but went along with it anyway.
Drake wasn't sure if it was the sight of Ella or morbid curiosity that compelled her to do so.
He picked Beth up at the Food Zoo. Dropped her off at Albertson's. From there Ava picked her up and took her to Wal-mart. One more transfer to Sage, who brought her to The Hawthorne.
Ava pulled in a minute later. Drake another after that, a stack of pizzas in his hands.
The first order of business was to show Ella to Beth. Her reaction was as to be expected.
Violent crying followed by hysterical anger.
Once they assured her Ella was okay, she started to calm down. Everyone else attacked the pizza while she sat and stared into the distance.
About the time Kade turned the television to USC and Hawaii, she came around. Began speaking again.
Started to eat. And eat.
When everybody was done, Drake and the three ladies retired to the spare bedroom.
Beth kept eating. Her eyes were glassy, cheeks red.
"I'm sorry," she said. "This is just so damn good. They watch what we eat out there, like a slice of pizza might hurt the baby or something."
"Aren't pregnant women prone to crazy food cravings?" Ava asked. "That must be hard."
"You have no idea," Beth confirmed. "I have been dying for mint chocolate chip ice cream. The closest thing I ever get is graham crackers."
Drake made a face. He didn't know much about being pregnant, but that sounded like a poor trade-off.
"Beth, please keep eating, but do you mind if we ask you some questions?"
She nodded. Shoved half a slice in her mouth. Mopped her face with a washcloth.
"Now, before we do this, let me say you are safe here," Drake said. "Nobody is watching and nobody is coming. This can't be like last time. You need to talk to me here."
Beth finished chewing. Swallowed. Nodded.
"Let's start with Ella. You told me it was just you and your mom. How is it you have a cousin here? Is there more family around?"
Drake had filled in Ava earlier on his prior conversation with Beth. Sage had now heard it twice.
Beth shook her head. "Ella isn't my cousin. She was my roommate the first part of college. Before I moved back home to take care of mom. We just came up with that so I didn't seem quite so...alone."
"Make them think there was family nearby. Somebody checking on you," Drake thought out loud.
A tear slid down Beth's face. "Lot of good that did."
"Why would anybody hurt her? Did she try to take you away? Was she investigating them?"
Again Beth shook her head. "They hurt her to send a message to me. After they were done with her, they took a bunch of photos. Brought them to me. Told me it was only the start, that they'd kill her and make me watch if I tried anything else."
"Anything else?" Drake asked.
"Like meeting with you," Beth whispered.
Drake's eye narrowed, a sigh slid out. He turned his head, met Sage's gaze.
They knew who he was. What he might represent for them.
In her fear, Beth's floundering was pulling more and more people into the deep end with her.
"I bet they're going crazy now," Beth said. "I was supposed to be going for eggs."
"I can't believe they let you out at all," Ava said.
"After they showed me the pictures earlier, I was a wreck. I don't think they believed I would try to meet with anybody again."
"If they monitor you, how have you been communicating with me?" Drake asked. "I can't believe they give you guys open internet access."
Beth pulled an iPhone from the pocket of her hooded sweatshirt. Held it up and wiggled it in the air. "It's Ella's. She slid it to me a few days ago. They don't know I have it."
"How many are they?" Ava asked.
"I don't know," Beth said. Another head shake. "There's the woman that runs things at the house. She always seems to have a few guys around, but I don't know how many.
"Like I told you the other day, outside of that I have no idea. I know a week ago they blindfolded us, took us all out to a barn. Made us watch as they tortured a girl that had tried to get her child back."
She fell silent for a moment. A shudder wracked her body. When she resumed speaking, her voice was just a whisper.
"You should have seen the guy doing the torturing. He was a twisted bastard if there ever was one."
&nb
sp; "Any clue who he was?" Drake asked.
"No," Beth whispered. “All I know is they refer to him as Notch. I have no idea what his real name is.
"We were all scared to death. And that was before he went to work on that girl. After that, we were all catatonic."
"So they killed her?" Ava asked.
"No," Beth whispered. More tears. "Just killing her would have been merciful. What they did to her was savage."
Beth's chin fell to her chest. Heavy sobbing.
Drake, Ava, and Sage all exchanged glances. None of them spoke. Waited for Beth to cry herself out.
It took almost five full minutes. When she was done, she raised her wet and blotchy face up to look at them.
"That's when I decided to find you. All along I knew what was going on was wrong, but I steeled myself to it. Told myself I would get through it, collect the money, move on. Maybe go out to the coast, start over.
"But in that moment, I knew without a doubt that it would never happen. I would never see a dime that was owed to me. And if I tried to make them pay, I would end up just like she did."
The room fell silent. After three long days, things were starting to fit together.
"So this girl," Drake asked, voice low, "she tried to make them pay?"
"Yes, but that's not why they killed her," Beth said. "What got her killed was when she went to the police."
"The cops showed up at the house and tried to arrest them?" Ava asked.
"No," Beth whispered. "The cops called the house and told them what she had done."
Chapter Twenty-Five
The clock said it was just seven. It didn't matter. Beth was exhausted.
She couldn't return to the compound. They had to know she'd been gone way too long for a simple trip to the market. It was only a matter of time before they found out Ella was gone too.
For the night, it was decided she would stay there. She offered no word of protest to the suggestion. Seemed relieved by it in fact.
Once it was mentioned, she nodded once and crawled into bed beside Ella. Even with the two of them sharing, the king sized bed swallowed them both.
Sage checked to make sure Ella was still sleeping and closed the bedroom door behind her. Kade muted the television.
All five sat in various positions around the room.
"What the hell do we do now?" Drake asked.
Nobody said anything. Ava and Sage both shook their heads.
"I mean, she just told us going to the police is what got the last girl killed," Drake said. He was thinking out loud.
The last statement by Beth had been a bombshell. Left everyone reeling.
Ajax and Kade both made faces from the couch.
"For reals?" Kade asked.
Ava nodded in response.
"What can you guys, as lawyers, do?" Sage asked.
Ava looked up at Drake. She didn't say anything, but the implication was clear.
"Not a lot," he said. "Most of what we can do is on the civil side. We can file a suit, but against who? The police? These mystery people down in the Bitterroot?"
"But they killed a girl," Sage said.
"True, but that's a criminal charge," Ava said. "And the only one that can file criminal charges is the government."
"And my guess is if the police are colluding here, so is the county attorney. You don't have one without the other, especially in a place like Montana," Drake added.
Ava smirked, shook her head. A Pavlovian response to the mention of Montana.
"So why not leapfrog the county?" Ajax said. "Go state."
Drake shook his head. "One in the same." He paused for a moment. Turned his attention to Ava. "But that's not a bad idea. Take it to the district attorney."
Ava pursed her lips. "Go to federal court with it. Interesting idea."
"Judge Denard was appointed by Clinton in '98. I find it hard to believe somebody could have gotten to him."
Everyone remained silent. Waited for him to continue.
Drake pondered the idea for another few moments. Shook himself back to the present.
"Ava, tomorrow we'll go see Lauer. Talk to him about getting us in front of the DA."
Ava checked her watch. "Why wait? It's only seven."
Drake snorted. "This is Missoula. Most of the town has been drinking since eight o'clock this morning. If he's still upright at this point, he's swaying."
Ava opened her mouth, closed it just as fast. Turned to the others. "Wait, he's serious isn't he?"
Ajax and Kade both grinned from the couch. Said nothing.
Sage made a non-committal gesture from her chair that said he wasn't wrong.
"Jesus, where the hell am I?" Ava whispered.
The rest of the room broke into a low chuckle.
Still smiling, Drake pushed forward. "That brings us to the next thing we have to consider."
"What's that?" Kade asked.
Drake motioned towards the closed bedroom door with his chin. "What do we do with them?"
"I told you, the room is taken care of," Ajax said. There was no inflection of any kind in his voice. A simple delivery of facts.
"I know," Drake said. "I mean, from what Beth was telling us, it sounds like we should have somebody around all the time. Just in case."
Kade cast a glance to Ajax. "There's three of us. We can do that."
Drake shook his head. "Again, I appreciate the offer, but we can't do that. You guys have lives. I have prosecutors to meet with."
"I know a guy," Ajax said.
"You know a guy?" Sage asked. Made a face.
"Okay, I don't really know him, but he's a friend of the family," Ajax said. He didn't elaborate any further. Didn't have to.
Everybody in the room, save Ava, knew the kind of wealth the Jackson family had. They also knew that didn't come without dealing with the occasional nefarious character.
"Thank you," Drake said, "but I was thinking someone a little less conspicuous. Problem is, he won't work for free."
All four stared back at him, faces blank.
"It's covered," Ajax said.
Once more, Drake shook his head. "I was thinking Rink."
Understanding spread across the faces of the Zoo Crew. Kade and Ajax both broke into broad grins.
"I retract my previous offer," Ajax said. "I don't think I can be of any help there."
Ava's face went from blank to confused. "What am I missing here? Who the hell is Rink?"
The Crew remained silent. Did their best to suppress chuckles.
"Who the hell is Rink?"
Unable to hold it back any longer, all four howled with laughter.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tension hung in the air.
Every person in the room knew each other. Nobody said a word. Nobody even made eye contact.
One by one they'd shuffled in and took seats. Started in the back and worked their way forward.
The call had gone out at midnight. That was the pre-determined timeframe Yelena had given Notch to find Ella. When nothing turned up, she made the calls.
Told Notch to forget about Ella. Find Beth.
A few minutes before eight a.m. they'd started to roll in. Any earlier would have looked suspicious. Any later, some of them would have missed church.
This was urgent, but so was staying off the radar.
Dr. Schievers was the first to arrive. He was dressed in scrubs, even though it was Sunday and he had no intention of going into the hospital.
Harken and Spore pulled in side by side, walked in together. Neither did more than nod to acknowledge the other. They both chose chairs on opposite sides of the room.
Judge Tanner came in next. Dressed in slacks and a black cable knit, headed on to church as soon as they were done. He, like the others, had a tight grimace on his face.
Bennett was the last to arrive. He wore suit pants and a white Oxford shirt minus the tie. Looked and smelled like Saturday night had not yet ended. Kept his bloodshot eyes aimed at the floor.
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Yelena waited for everyone to be seated. She stood with her arms folded in front of her at the front of the room, a frown on her face. Appeared every bit a school teacher standing over a class.
Beside her stood Mayor Sloan. Same frown and disposition.
"I think we all know why we're here this morning," Yelena said as means of an introduction.
A few heads nodded. Nobody spoke.
"And to answer your question, Notch hasn't found either of them yet."
A couple of other heads lowered themselves.
"What the hell is going on here people?" Yelena demanded.
Nobody said anything. A couple of sideways glances. Nothing more.
"Huh?" she spat. "Somebody answer me!"
Finally Bennett, in his alcohol-infused inhibition, spoke up. "Shouldn't we be asking you the same thing?"
Every head turned to him. Yelena and Mayor Sloan's eyes both bulged.
“You came to us each with a specific role,” he pressed. “Dr. Schievers delivers the kids. Patricia works the Child Services side. I handle the paper work. Judge Tanner rubber stamps the proceedings. Kirby cleans up your messes."
As he spoke, others raised their eyes from the floor. Started to exchange glances.
Yelena set her jaw. Cast a glance to her sister, sent a withering glare at Bennett. "You have got some nerve, you know that?"
Bennett raised his palms to her. "Hey, I'm just saying, you guys claimed to have housing and security taken care of. That's what seems to be the problem here."
"Maybe we need to show you all again just what our security is capable of," Mayor Sloan challenged.
Bennett opened his mouth to respond, but Judge Tanner beat him to it.
"I think what Riley is trying to say is, we're all on board here. For better or worse, we're a part of this. We all know that. You don't have to convince us of anything."
"But?" Yelena pressed.
"But we're not the problem," Judge Tanner said. "The girls are. We're not the ones you need to be shaking down this morning. We don't know where they are. We sure didn't help them."
The other heads nodded around the room.
"So I'm the problem, is that what you're all saying?"
Nobody in the room turned towards the voice. A few cringed involuntarily. The rest remained in stony silence.
The Zoo Crew (Zoo Crew series Book 1) Page 9