by L. T. Ryan
“Running out on you after we visited that woman. Turns out she was helpful.”
I shrugged. “She might have just been lucky. Honestly, I should have noticed it before. Those bricks were on the floor the first time I was in there, and then they were stacked and mortared the second time. That shouldn’t have been the case. This place hasn’t been operational in years.”
“You had no way of knowing that.”
“I suppose.”
“I’ll go to bat for you, Mitch. If they try to press charges against you, I’ll be a witness and stand up for you.”
“Appreciate that.” We both said nothing for a few minutes. Finally, I broke the silence. “So, what’s next?”
She looked up at me with full eyes that began to water over. “I leave for Denver in two weeks.”
“I guess I should offer you my congratulations.”
This time she shrugged.
“What are your plans until then?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to be free.”
Bridget shook her head and took a step back. “I can’t, Mitch. I’m sorry. I just can’t do it.” She walked away.
Fortunately, Sam spotted me and headed my way, preventing me from chasing after her. He held up two bricks and nodded.
“A match?” I asked.
“You bet your life it is.”
“I guess we ought to go pay Lana a visit.”
Chapter 56
We managed to leave the water tower without anyone following us. The drive to Lana’s took only a few minutes. The windows of her house were dark and the shades still drawn. I knew she’d be up soon, though. I pulled into the driveway and parked behind her car. Though I didn’t think she’d run, I figured I’d make it hard on her if she decided to.
Sam made it to the front door before I did. He raised a large fist to knock.
“Don’t,” I said, waving my keys in the air. “I can get us in.”
Sam stepped aside to let me stick the key in the lock. The door opened with a creak. We stepped inside and stopped in the foyer. Envy the cat greeted us. I nudged him away with my foot. He stuck his tail in the air and walked off, perturbed, I presumed.
We walked through the entry hall toward the back of the house. Lana stood in the kitchen wearing a short silk nighty that barely covered her breasts and stopped several inches short of the cast that came up to her knee.
“Mitch?” she said. “What are you doing here?”
“We found the girl,” I said.
Her eyes widened and grew wet, and she smiled. “Debby? She’s okay?”
I nodded. Sam began walking toward the back door, cutting off the possible escape route.
“Where was she?”
“I have a few questions for you, Lana.”
She set down her coffee mug and placed her hands on the counter. “What is it?”
“What happened to the bricks?”
“Bricks?”
“From the chimney.” I nodded toward the back of the house. “There’s a stack of new bricks, but half of the old bricks are gone.”
“I don’t… I…”
“You what?”
She started looking around the room and her hands felt along the counter top. She seemed to wobble a bit. I couldn’t tell if she was going to make a break for it or pass out. Regardless, I could not relent.
“Why’d you do it, Lana?”
Her gaze focused on me and she steadied herself. “Why’d I do what?” Her voice was steady and calm. Had she rehearsed the line in anticipation of this?
“How much did they pay you to go along with it?”
“What? You don’t think—”
“Where’d you hide the money, Lana? Did they give you all of it for safe keeping, or just your share?” I mirrored every movement she made.
“Mitch, I had nothing to do with this.” Tears fell from her eyes. “Those kids mean everything to me.”
“Dammit, Lana.” I pulled my pistol and aimed it at her.
“Mitch,” Sam said from behind me.
I ignored him and took a few steps toward Lana. She tried to step backward and lost her footing, falling back and catching herself on the counter. “Tell me what you did!”
She couldn’t speak through her sobbing. Either she was guilty as hell, or scared to death. It’d be a few moments before she’d calm down enough to talk.
Sam came up behind me and grabbed my arm, pulling the pistol away. I’d already shot and killed one person tonight. I figured he worried that I’d do it again. Once he had my weapon, he pulled me back and said, “Get over there, Mitch.”
I took a few steps back, grabbed a chair and fell back into it. I found it difficult to watch Lana struggle to stand upright, tears falling across her cheeks. Though it had been based on a lie, we had spent four months together, and, at one time, I thought she have might been the one to ease the pain Ella and I shared.
“Lana,” Sam said. “I need you to look at me.” She wiped her eyes and met his stare. “Look, we took Roy Miller into custody an hour ago.”
Instinctively, my eyes darted to the side then back at her.
Sam continued, “He’s in a room right now spilling his guts out and telling us everything about how this went down. If you are in any way involved, he’s going to let us know. Now, if you tell me what I need to hear, we can work something out for you. But, if you decide to lie to me and he says something else, there’s nothing I can do for you. You understand that?”
Lana nodded while looking at me. I rose and walked over. I held out my hand to her and she took it. I helped her over to the chair I had been sitting in.
Sam walked over and said, “What role did you have in all this, Lana?”
She shook her head. “I had nothing to do with it. I swear, nothing. I’d never seen that man prior to the week before when he started as the janitor.”
“Okay.” Sam took a deep breath. “Tell me about the bricks.”
“What about them?”
“Why are the old one’s missing?”
She quickly looked up at me and then shifted her gaze away. “Ben came over one day and he took them.”
“Ben McCree?” Sam asked.
She nodded.
“Did he say why?”
“Um, he said something about needing to replace some at his house.”
“Lana, we found bricks that match those at the water tower,” I said. “They were used to cover up the opening to a room where Debby Walker was being kept.”
“Oh my God,” she said, a new wave of tears descending down the slope of her face.
“Again, Lana,” Sam said. “If you’ve got anything to tell us, the time is now.”
I marveled at how calm and convincing he sounded.
“A few weeks ago, when we were…” she paused and bit her bottom lip, looking at me. “When Ben and I were together, I mentioned that Bernard had told me his father had sold something to the government, and they were going to receive a lot of money. I mean, a lot, like ten or fifteen million. I thought it was a good thing, the boy could get all the treatment he needed and go to a school where he’d be accepted.” She used her palms to wipe the tears from her face. “Oh, Jesus. You don’t think Ben was involved do you?”
“Lana,” I said. “Roy Miller had an accomplice. That accomplice’s name is Brad McCree. Brad is Ben’s brother.”
“I thought he was an only child,” she said.
I stared at her and said nothing. She met my gaze for a few seconds, then closed her eyes. Tears lined her shut eyelids. Whether or not she’d physically taken part in what happened, she now realized she’d indirectly caused it. She planted the seed by telling Ben McCree about the Hollands’s windfall. The rest fell into place after that.
“We’re going to have a car come by and pick you up, Lana,” Sam said. “You’ll need to give a statement at the station. It’ll be up to them whether to hold you.”
Sam followed me outside where we waited for an officer to arrive and escort Lana.
�
��You think she’s innocent?” Sam asked.
I nodded. “Of some things.” I turned to face him. “I think the guilt of knowing that she helped initiate this, even indirectly, will eat at her enough to make up for the rest.”
“I’m sorry, man.” Sam placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed reassuringly.
I shrugged and looked up at the orange-tinted sky. The humidity had already kicked in and I felt sweat beading up on my forehead. “Not your fault, Sam. Hell, you probably warned me about her.”
Two officers showed up ten minutes later. They escorted Lana from the house. She refused to look at me. Her sobs were the only sound I heard. It went quiet after they shut the doors to the car and took off.
I drove Sam home. We stopped off for breakfast, but didn’t speak.
“Heading back to your place?” he asked as he opened the car door in front of his house.
I shook my head. “Heading west. Gonna pick up Ella.”
“They’re probably going to want to talk to you about what happened with Miller.”
“I suppose they will.”
“I know Dinapoli said she’s got your back. You know I do too.”
“I know.”
“All right.” Sam remained seated for a minute, door open, one foot in the car and one on the ground. He looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t. Finally, he got out without another word and slammed the door shut.
I shifted into first and made my way to I-76, heading west, toward Ella.
Chapter 57
I spent a week at the campground with Ella. We fished and swam, talked and sang, and just enjoyed each other’s company. Terrence spent his spare time with us accompanied by his own children, who were there a lot of the time anyway. I spent several hours on the phone with Huff, Townsend and Chief Warren. The latter two didn’t sound too happy to speak with me. Huff was surprisingly supportive. The interviews had the air of formality more than anything else. Both Bridget and Sam had gone to bat for me. A knife had been found in Miller-Lipsky’s possession, solidifying the story that had been told.
We left the campground amid a flurry of hugs and tears. Ella had had a great time there and made me promise that we would return for a few weeks next summer. I obliged. I figured I’d need it by then for one reason or another. From there we headed south to Williamsburg, Virginia. We spent a day wandering around Colonial Williamsburg, and then two days at Busch Gardens. A bit further up I-64, we stopped outside of Richmond and spent another few days at King’s Dominion. Turned out Ella was something of a daredevil. Although she wasn’t tall enough for all the rides, I managed to get her on them. Benefits of the badge.
Before heading home, we spent two days walking around D.C. It was Ella’s first trip. She wanted to go to the White House and play with the President’s daughters. I told her that might not happen. She didn’t believe me. As we drove away from D.C., she went so far as to blame me for not trying hard enough to set up a play date.
I mostly managed to keep my mind off everything that had happened. It was easy to do during the day. Ella kept me occupied. But at night, when my brain needed to shut down and go to sleep, I had a hard time. I thought about Lana and the lie that made up the crumbled foundation of our relationship. I thought about those two children and wondered what the rest of their lives would be like. They’d need a lot of therapy to cope. Bernard’s parents could afford it. Could Debby Walker’s mom do so? Perhaps we could arrange it through the city. I made a note on my phone to do just that when I got back on active duty.
Time and again, my thoughts turned to Bridget. What was it about this woman that I only knew for a short time, and only a few days romantically, that made her so hard to get out of my mind? As crazy as it sounded, there was a part of me that wanted to try and make a long distance relationship with her work. Thank goodness my rational side was the strong one, because it told me to let it go. Let it go, and let her go.
We got home mid-afternoon after stopping near Center City for a couple cheesesteaks. I wanted to head to my room and crash, but knew there’d be none of that. My mother showed up a half-hour later with a bag full of things for Ella. Toys and clothes, mostly. I headed out back and turned on the grill. The patio table was covered in a fresh layer of fallen leaves. I left them there for Ella. She enjoyed brushing them off and watching them fall in spirals to the ground.
I threw four ribeyes on the grill. One for each of us, plus Sam who was on his way over. Ella came outside. She climbed up on one of the patio chairs and proceeded to sweep the leaves off the table with her arms. Her face had a gleeful look as she watched them fall.
“Go ask your Grandma for some plates,” I said.
She smiled at me. I watched her run inside. I leaned back against the siding, enjoying the feeling of the wind as it blew in my face while the smoke from the grill wrapped around me. The smell of the seasoning I’d rubbed on the meat made my mouth water. The fire hissed each time fatty juice dripped off one of the grates.
Sam slid the back door open and stepped outside carrying a stack of plates and a six-pack of beer. We exchanged greetings while he opened two bottles. We all ate dinner quickly. Ella and my mother had plans for the evening. Sam and I waited for them to leave, and then he caught me up on the goings on of the past two weeks.
In the middle of him telling me that they had no leads on either of the McCree brothers, my cell phone rang.
“Bridget,” I said, showing him the phone.
“You going to answer it?”
I shook my head and set the cell phone on the table, face down. It rang again. And again.
“Just answer it,” he said.
I relented. “How’s Denver?” I said.
“How soon can you get down to St. Croix?”
“St. Croix? I just had two weeks of vacationing, Bridget. I’m thinking I’m good.”
“We just found the body of Brad McCree.”
“The body?”
Sam looked up and leaned forward, setting his beer bottle down on the table.
“Yes, Mitch. He was killed, neck slit, body dumped in a trash receptacle.”
“Fitting.”
“Isn’t it?” she said. “We think Ben is hiding out down here. If you want to be a part of this, get down here now.”
“Okay,” I said, and then I hung up. Looking at Sam, I asked, “Want to go to the Virgin Islands with me?”
Chapter 58
I quickly filled Sam in on what Bridget had told me. The timing was perfect, as he had a couple days off for a wedding that he was only mildly disappointed he wouldn’t have to attend now. At least, that’s the way he made it seem. I had the feeling he was elated. His family, maybe not so much.
We caught a red eye to Miami and a non-stop on a 737 from Miami to St. Croix. We both buzzed the entire trip, hardly sleeping. Bridget Dinapoli met us outside the airport. She had a government issued sedan that looked like it had been built in the early ‘90s. I let Sam take the front seat and I got in back.
“Glad you could make it,” Bridget said.
“No problem,” I said. “Aren’t we breaking a few laws here, though?”
She shrugged. “I’m responsible. That’s all that matters. Okay?”
Sam and I nodded.
“Okay, guys, here’s the deal. We tracked Ben McCree down. He slipped up and made a call to a known forger, some guy who’s an expert at making fakes. He’s trying to get a fake ID, passport, documents, and so forth. He’s also trying to exchange over five million dollars to rands.”
“Rands?” I said. “South Africa?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Not sure what his plans are from there. Maybe lay low for a while, then move on. To where, who knows. I can’t imagine him staying there, though, unless there is some kind of family connection.”
“What about the rest of the money?” My thoughts turned to Lana for a second or two.
“We don’t know. Hopefully we’ll find that out.”
“So what’s the plan?”<
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She didn’t answer, and any further attempts to find out were met with silence. We drove for another ten minutes and pulled into a hotel parking lot. Bridget kept going until we were behind the building. She pulled out her cell and made a quick call during which she said nothing more than yes or no. My stomach fluttered and I wondered if this were an elaborate set up not for McCree, but for us. What if Bridget had been involved the whole time? She subsequently put my mind at ease.
“Okay, we’re going to go in and observe. Once the exchange goes down, we move in and bust him.” She looked over her shoulder and smiled at me. “We’re going to put an end to this, Mitch.”
I relaxed momentarily while contemplating whether or not her words had double meaning. Earlier I couldn’t help but think that her inviting me down here meant she wanted to also discuss our possible future. Maybe it was all meant to end here, though.
The opening of the car doors brought me back to reality. I got out, and the three of us entered the hotel from the rear. We stopped at room 127. Special Agents Vinson and Braden greeted us. They’d ditched their suits and ties and were both dressed in t-shirts and cargo shorts. Sam and I were dressed the same. We looked like a beach bum quartet. A third man sat on the edge of the bed. He held a controller in his hand and a keyboard on his lap. He fixed his gaze on the television screen.
Bridget joined him in front of the TV. She pointed at the screen. “That’s him. He just entered the lobby. Follow him, Darrel.”
The guy on the bed hunched over his keyboard. His fingers struck at the individual keys delicately. He straightened up and grabbed the controller. With narrow eyes and a half-opened mouth, the guy tracked Ben McCree’s every movement.
“That’s great,” Bridget said. “He’s seated now. Can you zoom in?”
The four of us joined her in front of the television. It was cramped. I found myself pressed up against her. She smelled good, like tanning lotion. The picture on the screen changed. The focus was on the man wearing a hat, seated alone at a table near the front windows.
“Do we have any other angles?” Sam asked.
“Yup,” Darrel said, punching at keys with his fingertips. The screen went blank for a second before returning with a dead on shot of Ben McCree.