Drawing The Line (Mistaken Identity Series)

by Sylvia Hubbard

  "This still doesn't stop me from going over there and beating the shit out of him."

  "That's all nice and good, but you should know, he just purchased a rifle from Kmart this morning."

  "Did you call the police?"

  "I contacted the senator to see if he could obtain a search warrant faster than the slow ass police could muster, but I don't expect to see some results since Evan covered his ass and placed a stolen car report the day before the kidnapping and could easily come up with some lie regarding the fact that he didn't tell anyone."

  "So we need to find out proof before the lies?"

  Onyx nodded with a wink. "That's why we're going there tonight to watch the festivities." She went to another computer. "I've been keeping watch on all the bank accounts of her relatives. Early this morning, Cousin Trudy withdrew all the money from her savings account and transferred it to an account in her son's name. That's over a hundred thousand dollars, which she received from a death settlement for her other son."

  Andrew watched the screen change and examined the records. "She's been closing a lot of things, hasn't she?" He leaned very close to Onyx to take a closer look at the screen.

  Onyx looked to him and with his proximity so close, she was able to smell his masculinity. "Evan as well." There was no change in the inflection of her voice, but deep down inside she was wondering a lot about Andrew Watkins. It made more sense to Onyx for Shane to be attracted to him, despite his bad record on personal relationships and over look his mean distant demeanor.

  "So you think they planned this?" he asked now looking at her.

  "I think we should sit there and see if they are going to plan anything else."

  He looked deeply at her and squinted an eye as if he were trying to determine what she was thinking, then looked over at the video screen of the parking lot where Shane had sat in the Jeep talking with Evan.

  "Fine, I'll spend this evening in your company Ms. Heart, but don't push my buttons."

  "Call me Onyx." She put her hand out as if to say they would call a truce tonight.

  Warily he shook her hand, and said, "Call me Andrew."

  Chapter 41

  Picking up the dry sunflower seed, Shane bit it in half.

  Nuts! Evan had stuffed the vest full of unsalted peanuts and sunflower seeds and some bottles of water. She only took sips full of water because there was no determination as to when she could be found. The more she thought about it, the more she was convinced that she was in Evan's basement. The structure he had been making in the furnace area came close to the area she had to be in. No one would suspect a body to be in there, because the structure had partially been dug into the ground of the basement. If someone did investigate the matter, she wouldn't know if they were in the house or not unless they spoke loud. However it was built, she knew no one could hear her screams and with the air being stale she didn't know if she was on a separate air system that could run out at any minute.

  After so much time thinking, Shane knew all of this was her fault. She never told anyone about the plans that were the key to the whole thing and that probably would have alerted Paul if she had opened her big mouth.

  ‘You’re an idiot, Shane! You should have told them everything you could have thought of and everything that you found. This shouldn’t be happening to me! You’ve jeopardized your life and the life of your child all because of your stupidity and soft heart towards family.’

  Why did one have to learn a lesson when it was too late? Blood was not always good. People you cared about didn’t always care about you.

  ‘Paul and Andrew do. I know that. I have to believe that.’ She hit her hands against the prison walls. Sitting in the dark was even more frustrating.

  Just that morning, she caught wind of an argument, which she knew had been between Evan and Aunt Bethany.

  "I don't care if someone's going around asking questions, there's no way you'll be caught, Evan! Shut your fucking mouth and don't speak about it again. You don't know who could be listening. It's been over a week, do you really think she's alive, you idiot?"

  Evan was not yelling when he answered back, so Shane could not hear what he was saying. "No stupid woman is going to find out what is going on no matter how hard she looks. I made sure of that. We'll be in possession of the trust by the end of this week and we can leave here and there will be no trace of anything once we burn the house down, stupid!"

  Burning the house down would definitely kill her! 'Who the hell was looking for her?' she wondered. ‘Why weren’t Andrew and Paul looking for her? Didn’t they care? What about her father?’

  She forced herself to calm down. Maybe this woman was working for them. Of course! They cared and not just for the baby. They cared for her.

  Holding her belly protectively, she knew if she was to stay sane she had to believe they were out doing everything possible to help her out.

  Plus, there was her father. Senator Payne was a powerful man and he would make sure she was saved.

  The house had been quiet for the rest of the day and Shane couldn't sleep wondering when the house would be burned down. Knowing she was going to die was even worse than not knowing. This was probably the reason God never let anyone know. Who could possibly live like that?

  Paul could. He was much stronger than her.

  Speaking of Paul, she touched her stomach and prayed for her son. 'Don't let this baby die without knowing a very wonderful man seeing him,' she said.

  ***

  Andrew checked his watch noting the time was after ten p.m. No activity had occurred at either home since they had been there and he was glad he had brought his laptop to catch up on much needed issues that needed his attention at the office. He could immediately tell that Onyx used this vehicle as a moving office because she had a specially built table that came in the middle of the front passenger and driver's seat. There was a plug to charge laptops, and each front seat could swivel to make working on the laptop very comfortable. He kept the light on his screen low, but her windows were tinted and the light wasn't very noticeable from the outside of the vehicle.

  Onyx had earphones on, listening to various phone calls from a tapped line with her eyes closed. Nothing to really take notice of until Trudy made a call about ten-thirty across the street to Evan's phone. Onyx took the earplug from the listening device and turned up the volume a little.

  "Is it ready?" Trudy asked in a whisper.

  "Yeah, baby," he said, but his voice seemed strange. "Are you sure you can do it?"

  With great confidence, she said, "I'm sure."

  "Where's the boy?"

  "I gave him the medicine. I should be enough to help him through it all."

  "I'll put it in the bushes for you."

  The line clicked and Onyx looked over at Andrew to gather his opinion.

  Andrew eyes went over to the front door of Evan's house. The young man exited carrying a long object wrapped in towels. They watched as he went across the street and put the object in the bushes of where Trudy lived.

  A few minutes passed and Trudy came out of the house quickly, gathered the item that had been placed there and went back inside.

  "It’s a gun," Onyx determined.

  "So you think she's in there?" Andrew asked nervously. Just the thought that they were this close to finding Shane made his heartbeat fast.

  "I think she's somewhere close," Onyx said dialing a number on her cell phone. "Senator Payne, I think you should get that search warrant. I'm emailing an audio tape and notes to the judge right now."

  Andrew didn't know what the response was, but he prayed they could go in tonight before it was too late. He called Paul to give him an update.

  Even though the hospital had released Paul and allowed him to go home, the doctor insisted Paul continue resting, but Paul demanded to be notified of everything that was happening concerning Shane.

  When Onyx finished her phone call, she said, "They're in the process of getting a search warrant."


  "How long?" he demanded. “The damn tape from the parking lot should have incited it! Shouldn’t it?”

  “We’re talking about the Detroit Police. Wow Andrew, it sounds like you really love her.”

  He cut her a glare. “The search warrant? Are we getting it?”

  She checked her watch. "If they aren't here in thirty, I'll do a perimeter check," she assured him.

  The thirty minutes seemed like a lifetime for Andrew before an undercover vehicle pulled up with the senator in the back and Sergeant Tobias Avery. Andrew was familiar with Avery, who had originally taken the missing person report on Shane. He didn't look at all happy to see Onyx there and even though he looked as young as Andrew, he had this old man persona with the thickest black eye brows on his dark skin.

  "I told you we would take care of this matter, Ms. Heart," Avery growled.

  "I told you I don't give a damn what you do. I was hired for results which you don't get," Onyx shot back haughtily getting out the vehicle and facing Avery. She didn't have her jacket on or the regular heeled boots, but she still looked dangerous. "Listen here bitch, you're just here because your pussy ass commander riled your fat ass out of bed and told you to come down here and show some colors when I did all the damn work. That's alright, because you can take credit all you want to since I'll get a fat ass paycheck and you'll be squandering pennies from the bottom of your motherfucking couch tomorrow."

  Avery started to come towards Onyx in a threatening manner, but Andrew jumped between them.

  "This is not the time or the place to show who can kick whose ass," he said as the voice of reason for the first time. Andrew had a feeling Onyx wanted to stuff her black Timberland boot up Avery’s ass so far the man would be chewing leather for the rest of his life.

  "Bitch ass punk," Onyx taunted and walked to the back of her Expedition to no doubt load up on a weapon or two.

  "Do you have the warrant?" Andrew asked Avery to draw his attention away from Onyx.

  "Yeah, I got it and I'm going to slap them with it, look around, and when all this is done, I'll be looking to kick someone else’s ass."

  Andrew wasn't at all afraid for Onyx's life. Instead, he doubted the beer belly shaped detective could possibly get in two swings before Onyx took him down in some martial arts trick.

  Onyx only narrowed her eyes at him and snuffed her nose.

  "Let's get this underway as quickly as possible," Andrew insisted as other police units began to show up. "Ms. Heart and I would like to be there if you don't mind, Sergeant Avery. We will stay low if you want, but I would like you to know we believe they have a rifle in the house."

  "Thanks for the warning and the two of you can come in once we've secured everyone. I'll send a man out to let you know."

  Andrew moved next to the senator, who looked worried about the whole thing. They hadn't spoken lately, but Andrew knew the senator was a frazzled mess far from the image he portrayed on television when the press asked him about any updates on his daughter.

  "Does she really think Shane's in there?" Senator Payne asked quietly to Andrew.

  "All she said was she thinks Shane is close."

  "I'll stay here, Andrew. I'll also let them know to block off the streets so the media won't get in the way. They're going to do a perimeter search as well, so hopefully that will turn up something."

  An officer came out to get Andrew and Onyx. He briefed them while they were on the way in. "The family was on their way to bed. The only one not present is six year old nephew, but we've ascertained the child is a sound sleeper and that we can just work around him."

  "So we can look around the house?" Onyx asked.

  Avery heard her ask this, but address Andrew only. "You can look around, but this officer is going to keep you company to make sure you don't touch anything."

  "Have you questioned them yet," Andrew asked.

  "Same thing from before no doubt," Onyx ascertained before Avery could answer.

  Yet Avery confirmed this statement by saying, "They are saying they haven't heard anything from her. Their story is the same from when we first questioned them."

  Andrew was led to the living room where the family sat. He could see a little of Shane in the older woman's face who he knew to be Shane's Aunt Bethany. Her eyes were cold and Andrew could just imagine Shane's life being hard under this woman's guardianship. He wanted to go up to her and shake her to demand where Shane was, but he controlled his fury and looked to the face of Budrick Meadows. Trudy Meadows had a glassy eyed look on her face as if she were suffering some pain she didn't want anyone to know about.

  Bethany met Andrew's eyes and stood up. "Are you her husband?" she demanded to know.

  "No," Andrew said stiffly. Speaking with the woman left a bad taste in his mouth. "She's married to my brother."

  "You just want to blame us because y'all did something to her!" Bethany accused, turning to Avery. "Why ain't you asking him questions? Why ain't you waking him up in the middle of the night?"

  "Why don't you just calm down, Mrs. Meadows? We just want to be absolutely sure the cause of your niece's disappearance has nothing to do with you." Avery motioned for the officer to take Andrew and Onyx in the kitchen, while he tried to calm Bethany.

  Onyx remarked to Andrew once they were there, "If this is a farce, she's putting on a pretty good show."

  "Where's her bedroom?" Andrew asked the officer. "Can you show us?"

  The officer started to lead them down to the basement, but Andrew halted him to reiterate, "I said her room."

  "This was her room," Onyx said, standing at the bottom of the basement stairs. Andrew followed the officer over to a door in the corner by the furnace.

  "Wasn't this her home?" Andrew asked Onyx.

  Onyx nodded. "Yeah, but she wasn't treated like it was."

  While the officer waited at the bottom of the steps, they looked inside the small room, which looked like a walk in closet with a cot, a dilapidated pink and purple dresser practically falling apart from wear and tear, a table with a light duck taped to the wall above it, and a white chest that really looked a darkish gray.

  "This is a storage room," Andrew said with disgust and anger. "Are you telling me they had her sleeping here, when she owned this whole damn house?"

  "She owned the car as well, but no one ever saw her drive it," Onyx pointed out.

  Andrew couldn't believe his Shane had survived these conditions and what her own family had put her through to be the person she was. How could she not have been bitter and evil?

  Kneeling to the chest, he opened it to see various pictures and mementoes that belonged to Shane and her mother. "Ask if we can take this," he said to Onyx, tenderly touching a picture of Shane and Jeremiah at a school function not too long ago. She was smiling so brightly that if you didn't know her, you would immediately think she didn't have a care in the world.

  Having a moment alone, Andrew moved over to the bed and kneeled down. Burying his face in her pillow he could smell Shane's essence. Forgetting where he was, Andrew closed his eyes and took a deep breath remembering their time together - her tenderness, her wantonness, her smile of pleasure.

  Onyx cleared her throat at the doorway. Andrew immediately stood up, almost hitting his head against the basement ceiling pipes and a furnace tube.

  Being thrown off balance, he flustered, " What did they say?"

  "Yes, it's fine. They've checked out this room already and found nothing. I'll have someone take it out to my truck," She said and then moved away from the doorway.

  Andrew took one last look at the room before leaving out. Onyx was kneeling down at the sewer cover prying it open with a pocketknife. The officer was no longer at the bottom of the steps, because Onyx had sent him away to find another officer to assist in removing the trunk.

  Squatting down beside her, he pointed out, "I don't think Sergeant Avery would be happy in knowing you're tampering with a scene."

  She used a pair tweezers to extract a piece of pa
per from the plug. "Sergeant Avery can kiss my ass." Laying the paper on a napkin, she carefully spread out the wrinkles to determine what the item could be.

  "It's a drawing or schematic of some kind," she said. "Someone was building something." Onyx nodded over to the work area. "That place is too clean, don't you think?"

  Andrew agreed and went over to the area. Onyx was right beside him to make her observations.

  "These tools look like they've been used pretty strenuously lately."

  "They built something?" Andrew determined. Picking up a worn hammer, an epiphany came to him. "Something to hide her."

  “Budrick does have extensive knowledge and a lot of times that guy, Evan, helped him on projects.”

  Onyx didn't respond. "Let's get out of here. This place makes me depressed."

  Andrew wanted to ask more questions, but decided against it as they went back to her vehicle. Some officers followed them shortly with the chest and she drove away from the scene.

  "What about the kid across the street?" Andrew said as they passed by Evan's home.

  "We'll catch up with him tomorrow. Avery said he didn't find a gun in the house, but I bet your fine ass that's exactly what was hidden in that towel."

  Andrew didn't say anything about the rough compliment she had just doled out. "You aren't going to watch them tonight?" he asked.

  "They've marked my vehicle. After I drop you off, I'm going to grab a company car and get back to surveillance. If anything happens," she promised, "I'll call you."

  He didn't want to correct that matter by saying she should call Paul.

  "We can go visit Mr. Phillips at his internship in the English department tomorrow when he's not anywhere near those people," Onyx said. "I'll be at your office about eleven."

  Chapter 42

  With careful precision, she rolled on her other side. The baby wanted more to eat and was punching the hell out of her bladder. Just as she was halfway on her other side, the baby shifted and she gasped as she lost the urine she had been trying to hold.

  It smelled horrible in the prison because of laying in her filth and waste. She had take off her dress and used it to take whatever urine or waste, covered it and pushed it down to her feet so she didn’t have to smell the fumes.