“Maybe he isn’t.”
“There’s a dead child in his backyard, Frost. Something happened.”
“I trust your gut, Fox. If you think he’s a good man, then let’s wait until all the evidence is in before we convict him.”
“We got a call going out from Newcomb,” Reefer yelled.
Alex glanced at Frost. “I think we’d better hear this before we leave. Hopefully, this one we can use for a warrant.”
“I told you not to call this number anymore,” Carissa hissed over the line.
“They’re dead.”
“Who’s dead?”
“Margaret and Ted. He must have shot her and then killed himself. I just got here to move the babies like you told me to, and they’re both dead.”
The line was silent, and Alex held her breath, expelling it sharply when Sabrina’s whiny voice came back on.
“Carissa, the babies are gone.”
“Ted must have told Nicholas where they were, and he took them. Go back to the house, and I’ll clean this mess up and meet you there.”
“What about the money?” Sabrina whined.
“I’ve got the money. Now do what you’re told, and don’t let Nicholas leave.”
The line went silent, and the group kicked into gear.
“The judge has been standing by. I’ll have a warrant in fifteen minutes,” Tamara said. “Reefer and I can meet you at the DuPonts’.”
Frost grabbed his cell. “I’ll send a car to Margaret Finley’s. Maybe they’ll get lucky and Anders will still be there.”
“No.” Alex stopped him. “You go with Tamara and Reefer. Crimshaw and I will take Finley’s residence.”
Frost frowned. “Why?”
“Nobody knows Anders like we do. She’s beautiful, conniving, manipulating, and deadly. If they hesitate for only a second, they’re dead.” Alex ripped the bandage off her hand, exposing the deep red marks Cinders had left the first time they’d hurt him. “I won’t hesitate.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Tamara wrapped an arm around Nobby’s shoulders as they watched the headlights disappear. “She’s gonna be okay, Matt. Crimshaw is a good officer. I can send a couple of our guys out there if it will make you feel better.”
“I ain’t worried about Alex. She don’t even need Crimshaw. Probably only took him to make him feel better.”
A black sedan pulled into the driveway. “That your warrants?” Nobby asked.
“Warrants are here, guys. Let’s get this show on the road,” Tamara called over her shoulder. “You going with us?”
“What about Mrs. DuPont?” Nobby asked. “Somebody’s gotta stay here with her.”
Gavin looked up from the equipment he was monitoring. “I’ll keep an eye on Mrs. DuPont and the kids.” He reached down, patted Dixie lying at his feet, and tickled Cinders’s ears. “Go have some fun.”
Nobby checked his pistol and pulled on a jacket before following Tamara out the door. “Fun, he calls it. Young people today sure got a strange sense of humor.”
~ ~ ~
Tamara turned around in the seat so she could address Frost, Matt, and Reefer, all at the same time. “Our guys will go through the gates and come in from the front. We’ll go around to the lake and come in the back. Hopefully, a show of force will back them down without gunfire.”
“And if you do have to shoot,” Frost said, “be careful. As far as we know, there are two babies in there with them.”
Nobby checked his gun again. “And if you see Anders, don’t hesitate.”
The group was silent as Frost once again weaved his way along the lake road to a clump of trees in the back. “It will take us about ten minutes to reach the shore. What’s the plan with your team?” Frost asked.
“They’re waiting outside the gates. As soon as we hit shore, I’ll give the command to move in.”
Frost opened his door. “Let’s get moving then, and keep your eyes open. Reefer, you and I will man the oars. Too risky to use the motor tonight.”
Ten minutes later, they pulled into a group of trees and stored the boat. “Call them in, Tamara.”
Tamara pulled a radio from her belt. “We’re in position. Move in with lights and sirens blazing.”
“Wouldn’t it have been better to move in quiet?” Nobby asked.
Tamara shook her head. “Fan out and wait. If we’re lucky, they’ll run this way and we can corner them outside, away from the babies.”
Minutes later, the back door burst open, and two black-clad stocky figures ran for the lake.
“Damn it, looks like the mob got here early,” Tamara said. “FBI! Freeze!”
Shots blazed across the backyard.
“Take them down,” Tamara yelled, dropping to one knee and squeezing off a shot.
It was over in seconds, and Tamara breathed a sigh of relief and stood. “Everybody okay?”
Reefer came up beside her. “I don’t think so.”
Tamara glanced at Frost, who was sitting on the ground, holding his shoulder, blood streaming through his fingers. It was the prone figure of Nobby that sent chills down her spine. “Oh, God.” She rushed to him and bent down, rolling him over. “You better not be dead, you old son of a bitch, or Alex will kill me.”
Nobby coughed. “I ain’t dead.” He sat up and glared at Frost. “What’d you do that for anyway?”
Frost chuckled then groaned. “I figured a bullet would be easier on me than Alex or Chief Brown would.”
Tamara grabbed her radio. “We need an ambulance out here. We have an officer down.”
The radio crackled. “On their way.”
“You two be okay if I leave you for a few minutes?” Tamara asked.
“Yeah. Go have fun,” Nobby grumbled as he made his way to Frost’s side. “Let me see that.”
“Let’s go see who we’ve got.” Tamara walked toward the bodies on the lawn. She nodded to the two agents bent over the bodies. “Recognize them?”
“Tommy Joe Tyler and Samuel Nat Begone. Better known as TJ and NB.”
“Big fish or little fish?” Reefer asked.
“Middle of the pond. Mob won’t consider it any great loss.”
Tamara stared at the back door. “What about inside?”
“Two dead. One male and one female. Nicholas DuPont and Sabrina Newcomb.”
“The babies?”
“Still looking, but no sign of the kids.”
The ambulance pulled up, and two EMTs ran around the back of the house. “What do you want to do?” Reefer asked.
“Let’s get Frost to the hospital and Nobby home, and then we’ll check on Alex and Crimshaw. Anders is still out there somewhere.”
~ ~ ~
“We’re almost there,” Crimshaw said. “You ready?”
“I’m ready.”
“Wonder how the others are doing.”
“Me, too, but we all agreed not to use the earbuds or make contact. I just hope they got the babies out without any trouble.”
“You ever get one of them gut feelings, Fox? You know the kind that says something really bad is about to happen?”
Alex turned and studied his face. “Yeah, I do. Have you got one?”
“Yeah, right in the center of my stomach.”
“Best to pay attention to it. Let’s do a drive-by first.”
Crimshaw nodded and turned down Shadow Lane. “Matt says she’s the last house on the right.”
Alex pulled her gun from the holster and rolled down her window. “You drive; I’ll keep a lookout.”
Crimshaw drove past the house and parked in the middle of the court. “See anything?”
“Nothing. No lights, no movement.”
“Guess we better check it out then.” Crimshaw pulled the car in gear.
“You still got that feeling?” Alex asked.
“Big time.”
“Park the car here, and let’s walk in. You take that side of the street, and I’ll take this one. Two targets are harder to hit tha
n one.”
Crimshaw put the car in park and climbed out. “Not very comforting, Fox, considering I’m twice the size of you.”
Alex shot him a grin and walked slowly up the sidewalk. “Lay off those pulled-pork sandwiches.”
“Alex?”
“What?”
“If it’s Anders, no matter what happens, don’t let her walk away from here.”
“I don’t intend to.”
Alex watched Crimshaw out of the corner of her eye, keeping their pace even as they both scanned the area. She stopped in front of Margaret Finley’s house, and Crimshaw jogged across the street to meet her. “Looks like I was worried about nothing. Your phone’s buzzing, by the way.”
She pulled out her cell and drew in a sharp breath. For just a moment, her heart stopped beating. “Don’t go in there, Foxy. It’s gonna go boom.”
“Get down!” Alex yelled as she grabbed Crimshaw’s arm and did a leg sweep to force him to the ground. A woman screamed somewhere in the distance as the house in front of them exploded.
Alex rolled off Crimshaw with a groan and sat up. “You okay?”
“Got a headache,” Crimshaw stated, sitting up beside her. “Your phone’s buzzing again.”
Alex swallowed hard and reached for the phone with trembling hands. A message blinked with video attached. Alex read the message, her heart pounding. “I’m gonna do this one for you, Foxy. I’ll make sure she dies real, real slow. Now you owe me one.” She played the video, biting down on her lip as the angry face of Carissa Anders stared up at her.
“Stop this van immediately!” Carissa spewed out. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
The video ended, and Alex tossed the phone on the ground and laid her head on her knees. Alex tried to find pity in her heart for Anders, knowing what the Escape Artist was going to do to the woman, but she couldn’t. The bastard must have been watching her all along, which meant every member of the team was now in danger.
Crimshaw got slowly to his feet and reached down to help her up. “You okay, Alex?”
She passed him the phone. “Let’s go find the others. I think it’s time I told everyone about Scarlet.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Alex passed her phone around, allowing everyone to see the message and video. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have told all of you this in the beginning. This is the man who killed my sister before I left England. I suspected he was here, but I didn’t know he was actually watching me.”
Nobby placed a fresh cup of tea in front of her. “Wasn’t any way you could know that, kid.”
Gabriella pulled out a seat across from Alex and glanced at Tamara. “We knew, Alex.” She waved at the group. “This is the life we chose, just like you did.”
“What do you mean, you knew?” Alex asked.
“Tamara, tell her,” Gabriella said. “If you don’t, I will.”
“We raided a house about a month ago. We thought it was a local mob hangout. We found pictures of you, Matt, and your animals someone had taken both here at the house and at work. We shared them with Chief Brown, and he told us about the guy you’re looking for that killed your sister.”
“Why didn’t anybody tell me?” Alex turned her eyes to Nobby. “Did you know?”
“No, I didn’t,” he said. “And that’s a damn good question. Why didn’t you tell us about this before?”
Tamara turned away from them and stared out the dining room window. “We were following orders. I’m sorry.”
“But you were sent here by Warden Sams and Morgan. Do they know?” Alex asked.
“No,” Gabriella said. “My father would kill me if he did.”
“So, what if they hadn’t asked you to help me? What were you going to do then?” Alex asked.
“The chief would have brought us in eventually, giving you pretty much the same excuse that you needed help,” Tamara said. “We were meant to be the trial run of the special investigations team.”
Alex turned to Frost and Crimshaw. “Did you know?”
“No,” Crimshaw said.
“Tamara told me last night,” Frost said.
“Anything else you haven’t told us?” Nobby asked.
“Carissa Anders is a mob boss. We’ve been trying to nab her for years for money laundering. She was the FBI’s real target.”
“So the babies were just a smokescreen for you guys?” Crimshaw asked, his voice tinged with anger.
“Never!” Gabriella exclaimed. “You can believe us or not. When we came here, the babies were our first priority. The unit might have been the higher-ups’ objective, but it was never ours.”
Alex sat back as the others threw accusations at each other. They weren’t arguing about jobs, but actually fighting about her. She stood up. “Bloody hell, will you all just stop it!”
The room became quiet as all eyes turned to her.
“A year ago, some arsehole killed my sister. She was the only family I had left in the world. He did it to punish me because I refused to back off the case. He took her from me, and there was nothing I could do to stop him.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them and continuing, “I didn’t realize until this week that he’d taken much more than Scarlet. He took my fucking life.”
Crimshaw stepped forward. “Alex—”
“No, Jacob, let me finish. I had no control over him taking Scarlet, but what happened after that was me. I closed myself off. I had no friends, no comrades, no partners, and I had no team who gave their heart to the things I gave mine to. And as long as I keep letting him do that to me, he wins.”
She stopped for a moment and allowed her gaze to drift around the room. “I’ve broken more laws this week than in my entire life. And you know what? I would do it again if it meant putting away the Anderses and Newcombs of the world. Whatever brought us together no longer matters.” She smiled at them. “It worked. We worked.”
Frost walked across the room and stopped in front of her. He held out his good arm, a twinkle in his eyes. “I think we need a group hug.”
Alex glared at him. “The hell you say, man? You touch me, and I’ll break your other bloody arm.”
The tension in the room broke, and everyone laughed as Alex flopped back into her chair, her voice turning serious. “Has anyone told Mrs. DuPont?”
Nobby shook his head. “Figured we wait a little bit and see if anything came over the wire. There’s an APB out on the Wilsons now.”
“We don’t even know when they left or how they left. We really don’t even know that they have the babies,” Alex said. “The Martins are both dead, Nicholas DuPont and Sabrina Newcomb are both dead, and by now, Carissa Anders is probably wishing she were dead. And all for what? Was it really just about money?”
“For DuPont, it was all about money. I think for the rest of them, it was probably all about power,” Nobby said.
Frost nudged her with his good arm. “The chief is going to stop by at nine.”
“Great,” Alex mumbled.
“Give him a chance to explain, Alex.”
“It isn’t his explanation I’m worried about. It’s ours. I don’t know how anyone is going to be able to explain it to the press.”
Emma DuPont walked into the room, holding unsteadily onto the wall. “I think I can help with that.”
Crimshaw rushed to her side and pulled out a chair. “Here, sit down. You shouldn’t be up and about.”
Her eyes locked on Alex. “You didn’t find her, did you?”
Alex shook her head, suddenly unable to speak past the lump in her throat.
Gabriella rushed to the kitchen and came back with a steaming cup of coffee. “We haven’t given up yet. Can you tell us what you know, Mrs. DuPont? It might help.”
Her hands shook as she set the cup on the table. “It’s a long story, and a lot of it, I only heard bits and pieces. Sabrina showed up about a month ago, saying she needed cash. I hadn’t seen her in years. Nicholas refused, so she went to
Carissa. Nicholas had been laundering money for the mob. Carissa had something to do with that. I don’t know what, but I think she was some bigwig in their organization.”
Emma took a sip of coffee. “Anyway, she threatened him, and he said he would only do it if he could get the money back from the insurance company. That’s when Wanda came into the picture. She came up with the idea to kidnap the babies and Nicholas could put up the ransom. They didn’t know I overheard their plans, and when I confronted Nicholas, Carissa threatened to kill Lilly, Jennifer, and Priscilla unless we all went along with them.”
“What happened to the Wilsons’ baby?” Alex asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I thought Carissa killed her to make Ted go along with helping them because he kept refusing.” She rolled up her sleeve and showed them the needle marks. “They kept pouring whiskey down me and shooting me up with something. Most of the time, I felt like I was in a daze. Actually, I still do. Nicholas kept screaming at me that it wasn’t wrong; it was just a minor deception. I’ll testify against him and all of them if you need me to. If you hadn’t rescued me, they would have killed me.”
A hush fell over the group as they realized she’d only overheard the last part of their conversation and didn’t know the others were all dead.
“Nicholas is dead, Mrs. DuPont. So are Sabrina, Margaret, Wanda, and Ted. We’re not sure where the Wilsons are, but we suspect they have the babies with them. I’m sorry,” Alex said.
“Carissa?” Emma asked in a horrified whisper. “Please tell me she didn’t get away?”
“She didn’t, and she doesn’t have the babies. She was kidnapped by a man we know as a serial killer. If she isn’t dead by now, she probably wishes she were.”
Emma stood up, and Crimshaw moved, wrapping an arm around her waist to support her. “Do you really think Ethan and Sophia have the babies?”
Alex nodded. “We believe they do.”
“I think I’ll lie back down then. If Lilly is with them, she’s safe.”
~ ~ ~
The group sat in silence after Emma left, until Tamara’s phone buzzed. “The lab report is back on the baby. It was Priscilla Wilson. She died from SIDS.”
“What’s SIDS?” Alex asked.
Tragic Deception (Deception Series Book 1) Page 16