Christmas Conspiracy

by Susan Sleeman

  “Maybe,” she said and fell silent.

  Jake knew the word maybe. Knew it well. Had lived it for years whenever he wondered if there was life beyond the guilt he felt over his family’s death.

  Well, no more. He would take his own advice starting right now, and he wouldn’t go with the maybes in his life anymore. He lifted his guilt to God in a silent prayer, and for the first time, left it with God.

  Jake would live each day new, as he’d told Pam to do. Take things as they came and stop thinking God should change his situation, but instead, live in the situation God placed him in.

  Like now. He’d talk to Rachael as soon as he could. Tell her that he cared about her and ask if she wanted to start dating after they jailed the intruder. Then if she said yes, Jake would let God take charge and deal with any lingering fears.

  Excited about the possibilities for their future, he turned onto the street for Pam’s apartment. She dug out her keys from her backpack. Her bright gold key chain grabbed Jake’s attention.

  He pointed the truck into a parking space and turned to her. “Can I see your key chain?”

  She shrugged and handed it to him. He ran his finger over the hard plastic and then dug out his phone to look at the plastic piece recovered from the vet’s office. They were a match.

  “Where’d you get this?” he asked.

  “My key chain?”

  He nodded.

  “It’s from CAR’s drug recovery program. The gold color signifies six months sober, and people in the program receive the key chain in an awards ceremony.”

  “So there are a bunch of people with the same one?”

  “Yes. Their six-month success rate is very high.”

  Thoughts and questions whirled through Jake’s mind. “How long have they been giving them out?”

  “I think they started handing them out about the time I got mine, but if it’s important to know the exact date, you could ask William or Ursula. They’d know.”

  Important? he thought. It could very well be the breakthrough they sought in the kidnapping investigation.

  FOURTEEN

  Rachael laid Kelly in her portable crib in Jake’s condo and patted her back until she drifted off to sleep. Usually caring for Kelly made Rachael happy, but even the precious child didn’t lift her spirits after Jake’s reaction to Skyler’s bombshell. Rachael wanted to talk with him privately, but he’d raced right out to pick up Pam from work.

  On the bright side, he’d taken the news far better than she’d expected, and she knew they could work things out if they just had some time alone.

  She turned on the baby monitor and stepped into the hall. She heard the front door open and rushed down the hallway. But Pam stepped inside alone and Rachael’s feet faltered on the landing before she jogged down the stairs. “I just put Kelly down for a nap.”

  Pam yawned. “Then I’m going to take a quick nap, too.”

  “Before you go up, can you tell me where Jake is?”

  “He said I should tell you that he has an errand to run and that Detective Hunter will stay here with you.” Pam trudged up the steps.

  Rachael found herself with nothing to do but dwell on her issue with Jake, and that wasn’t healthy. She needed to focus on something else. Someone else.

  Gloria. Rachael had promised to call and check up on her friend today, and now was the perfect time. She strode into the living room and settled on the sofa to dial.

  “’Lo,” Gloria answered.

  “It’s Rachael,” she replied. “William told me you weren’t feeling well, and I wanted to check on you.”

  “Nothing’s ’smatter with me. I’m fine.”

  Fine. Hardly. She was slurring her words and sounded out of it.

  “Gloria,” Rachael said. “Is William home with you?”

  “’Sworking. Bye.”

  “Gloria. Don’t go. Gloria, are you there?” Rachael asked, but her phone displayed a disconnected call. Gloria had hung up on her.

  Rachael quickly redialed, but the phone rang and rang until the voice mail picked up.

  “Gloria, please call me back,” Rachael said after the beep. “I’m worried about you.”

  She hung up and dialed William but got his voice mail. She left an urgent message asking him to call her back as soon as possible.

  She couldn’t sit by and do nothing, so she got up and paced the floor, anxiously waiting for a return call. Thirty minutes passed, but she didn’t hear from William or Gloria. She called him again. Got his voice mail again. Left a more urgent message. Tried Gloria. Same thing.

  “That settles it,” she mumbled, and headed for the office to talk to Detective Hunter.

  Sitting behind her computer, she looked up, her gaze a mix of questions and surprise.

  “I know I’m not on your list of favorite people right now, but I need a favor,” Rachael said bluntly.

  “What do you need?”

  She quickly told her about Gloria. “I’d call 911, but William is very protective of their privacy, and he would be mortified if their name made the news for no reason.”

  “So you want me to take you over there to check on her?”

  “Yes, please. Would you?”

  She seemed to war with the decision, and finally shrugged. “It’s safe enough, I suppose. There’s no way anyone would know where we were going, and I can make sure we’re not followed.”

  “Thank you.” Rachael stepped out the door before the detective changed her mind.

  At the front door, Detective Hunter shrugged into her coat. “I commend you on your passion and concern for helping your friend.”

  “Friend. Oh, no, Pam. We can’t leave her and Kelly alone here.”

  “Brady’s out back tinkering with his truck. I’ll get him to stand duty.”

  “And I’ll run up and tell Pam.” Rachael charged up the stairs and returned to the front door with her coat and purse in a few minutes.

  Detective Hunter met her in the entryway. “Same rules apply as when you leave the house with Jake. Stay close. Don’t dawdle, and listen to my every command. Got it?”

  Even with her intense questioning, Rachael had not seen this side of the detective, and the authority she carried impressed Rachael. “Got it.”

  They hurried to her vehicle, a white SUV with a sheriff decal on the side.

  “One of the perks of being an investigator,” she said, unlocking the door.

  They both hopped in, and even with the circuitous route the detective took to make sure they weren’t being followed, they arrived at Gloria’s house in fifteen minutes.

  “Wow.” The detective peered up at the two-story house in the West Hills of Portland, a very affluent area of town.

  “They may be quite wealthy, but they’re just regular people like you and me. And they have hearts the size of this house.”

  She swiveled to look at Rachael. “Are you saying I don’t have a big heart?”

  “No...what—”

  “Just kidding with you, Rachael.”

  “Oh, that’s you kidding. I’ve never seen it.” Or heard you call me Rachael.

  “Ouch.” Detective Hunter mocked pulling a knife from her chest. “But I deserve it after the way I pushed you so hard. It was just a strategy. I had to keep after you to see if you’d break. Nothing personal, you understand.”

  “Nothing personal? It was very personal to me, Detective. Especially when you brought up the miscarriage. You should know I would never—never!—put another mother through the pain of loss that I experienced.”

  “I believe you,” she said, sounding sincere. “I’ve pretty much believed you from day one.”

  “But you...you’ve declared my guilt all along.”

  “I was just doing my j
ob, which means whether I believe you or not, I have to keep investigating you until I find proof to back up your statements.”

  Rachael knew she was right, but it had still been painful, and all she could do was stare at the detective.

  “Look,” she said. “You wanted a detective who was good at her job to work this case, didn’t you? Well, I’m good at my job, and I’m very thorough.”

  Rachael nodded, but didn’t think it would be easy to forget the pain that the detective had caused. “Let’s check on Gloria.”

  Outside, the detective hustled to the front door, and Rachael kept up. She rang the doorbell and also knocked on the door. As time ticked by and Gloria didn’t answer, Rachael pounded harder and pressed the bell several times.

  Finally she heard footsteps crossing the foyer, and the door opened.

  “Rach!” Gloria exclaimed. Her eyes were unfocused, and she still wore silk pajamas and slippers. Her hair was a ratty mess, and circles of mascara hung under her eyes.

  “You sounded odd on the phone, so I came to check on you,” Rachael said.

  Gloria stepped back and made a big sweeping gesture with her arm. She lost her balance, and Rachael grabbed her friend’s elbow before she fell. That’s when Rachael smelled alcohol on her breath.

  She guided Gloria through the door and to the sofa. Rachael saw no sign of alcohol in the room, but Gloria acted inebriated. Detective Hunter mimicked taking a drink out of a bottle, and Rachael nodded her agreement.

  “Have you been celebrating?” Rachael asked.

  “C’brating.” Gloria shook her head hard and fell over on the sofa. She righted herself. “Lass thing I’d be doing.”

  “Has William called you?”

  “No. He’s too busy saving people,” she said scornfully.

  “I thought you liked working with CAR, too.”

  “I do. Juss don’t like the work he’s been doing.” A derisive scowl followed her words.

  “Seems like you might benefit from a nap,” Detective Hunter suggested.

  Gloria scratched her head. “I am sleepy.”

  “Why don’t we help you up to your bed?” Rachael offered and brought Gloria to her feet.

  She wobbled, and the detective took the other side to steady Gloria. They started for the stairs, but the color drained from Detective Hunter’s face.

  “Not you, too,” Rachael mumbled.

  “Can you handle this?” She clamped a hand over her mouth. “I’m gonna be sick.”

  “Bathroom’s just down the hall.” Rachael pointed at the first-floor bathroom she’d used many times when visiting Gloria.

  The detective ran for the bathroom, and Rachael managed to get Gloria into her bed. She was softly snoring within moments. Rachael stood watching her friend. As a refined and mannerly woman, she would never get sloppy drunk like this unless something terrible had upset her. She’d commented about William’s work, so maybe her binge was related to that. And it could also be the reason he didn’t answer his phone or call her back.

  Well, Rachael wasn’t leaving Gloria alone until she got some answers. She’d keep calling William until he either picked up or stepped through that door, whichever came first.

  * * *

  Jake approached the young woman with spiked purple hair sitting behind CAR’s reception desk.

  “Is William Franks in?” he asked.

  She shook her head, looking bored to death.

  “How about Ursula?”

  “Nah, they’re both meeting with potential donors.” She looked at her green nails as if they held more interest than he did.

  With William and Ursula both out of the office, this girl was the only one who could give Jake the information he needed. He feared she’d cite privacy rules and balk at his request.

  He was in no mood to be turned down, so he pulled out his badge and gave her a no-nonsense look. “I need a list of anyone who has received your gold key chains this past year.”

  “I—”

  He held up his hand. “Before you tell me you can’t give me a list, let me tell you a baby’s life is on the line if you don’t comply.”

  “A baby?”

  “Only three months old,” Jake added, not feeling the least bit guilty playing on her sympathies.

  Her eyes creased, and she nodded before turning to the computer screen.

  It seemed as if she really didn’t care much about her job, or maybe he’d actually scared her. Either way, the printer next to the monitor soon spit out a page, and she handed it to him.

  He ran his gaze down the paper. The name Thad Wofford caught his attention. William had mentioned that his assistant, Thad, was enrolled in their sobriety program. Maybe he could tell Jake about the others on the list.

  He looked at the receptionist. “Thad Wofford. He’s William’s assistant, right?”

  She nodded.

  “Can you point me to his office?”

  “Third door on the right—”

  “Thanks, I got it,” he said and took off before she could stop him.

  He stepped into the small office boasting little personality except for a picture perched on the credenza of a man receiving the key chain from William. Jake assumed Thad was the recipient, but he wasn’t in his office. Perhaps the receptionist had been about to tell him that Thad had gone to the meeting, too.

  Jake turned to leave, and the phone rang. An answering machine picked up on the third ring. “You have reached the office of William Franks. I’m unable to take your call right now, so please leave a detailed message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

  The machine beeped, and a woman’s voice came over the speaker.

  “Thad, my name’s Rachael Long.”

  Rachael?

  “I’m friends with Gloria and William. Gloria isn’t feeling well, and I’ve been trying to get ahold of William, but he’s not answering his cell or calling me back. So I thought I’d try this line, too, in case William’s phone is dead. If he’s there, please have him come straight home. I’ll stay at his house until he arrives.” She rattled off her phone number as Jake tried to come to grips with the fact that Rachael was at William’s house and not at the firehouse.

  He dialed Skyler. The phone rang five times, and she didn’t answer. He called Rachael next. She didn’t answer, either.

  “They could be taking care of Gloria and can’t answer right now,” he mumbled to calm his concern.

  Or maybe Rachael didn’t want to talk to him after he’d left without talking with her about the miscarriage. He didn’t blame her, and knew it would have bothered him if the situation was reversed.

  He called the firehouse to see if anyone could tell him what was going on.

  “Brady Owens,” Brady answered.

  “Rachael and Skyler. Where are they?”

  “They went over to check on some woman named Gloria.”

  Jake’s anxiety grew. “Neither one of them is answering the phone, and I want to check on them. Look up William or Gloria Frank’s address in the DMV database and text it to me.”

  “Roger that,” Brady replied, and they disconnected.

  Jake tapped his foot until his phone chimed with the text. Jake thanked him, then entered the address into his GPS.

  The answering machine beeped again, and he heard it play Rachael’s message, then the glowing red light that signaled a pending message went dark. Jake hadn’t worked an answering machine in years, but he believed that Thad or William had just remotely accessed the machine, listened to the message and deleted it.

  Jake exited the building and jumped into his car, then set out for the West Hills. He’d just made it through Portland’s heavy traffic when his phone chimed, indicating another text. At the stoplight, he glanced at the device mounted on his
dash.

  The text was from Cash. He’d attached a scanned copy of his sketch of the delivery driver. Jake thumbed to the picture, and his heart plummeted.

  Looking beyond the disguise, he could see the man’s eyes, nose and cheekbones. Jake had just seen that exact face on a picture in Thad’s office.

  Thad Wofford was the kidnapper.

  But why? What was his motive? Could he be Kelly’s father?

  Didn’t matter now, did it?

  Thad was the man who’d been trying to kill Rachael, and if he was the one who’d just accessed William’s messages, she’d given him her exact location.

  FIFTEEN

  Rachael stepped into the hallway to keep from waking Gloria and dialed William again. Her phone signaled another incoming call, but she ignored it. William didn’t answer, so Rachael left another message, then looked at the missed call on her phone.

  Jake. His second call. Something important must be happening. She didn’t bother listening to his message, but dialed him right back.

  “Rachael. Good. Good. You’re all right.” His words tumbled out and the tone of his voice verged on panic.

  She’d never heard him sound so unsettled.

  “Why wouldn’t I be okay?” she asked.

  “William’s assistant, Thad. He’s the kidnapper.”

  “What?” She laughed. “That’s crazy.”

  “I know it sounds crazy, but I just left his office. His picture is on the desk. I compared it to the sketch Cash had made. He might have been wearing a disguise as the driver, but it’s clearly him.”

  “Are you sure, or do you just want it to be him?”

  “I’m sure.”

  She still couldn’t believe it. Maybe Jake had mixed something up.

  “I’m on my way over there,” he continued, “but I need you to be careful until I arrive.”

  She heard the front door open. “I think William’s home.”

  “Good. If it is indeed William and not Thad,” he said. “Where’s Skyler?”