Witness Betrayed

by Linda Ladd

  Frank was just relieved that his daughter was alive and well. “Where did he take her, Lori?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Novak said, “Now you know she was okay then, Frank, you saw her yourself. She strong and still has the guts to fight back, even up against Stephen Locke. She’s going to keep fighting just like you taught her until she finds a way to escape. They didn’t beat her, even after she slugged that guy. Just that one slap was all they did. That means they can’t; it’s against the judge’s orders. That’s the best news you could get, Frank. What’s the date on that video cam, Lori?”

  “Four days ago.”

  “That doesn’t mean she’s alive now.” Frank could not be consoled, but he was right. Novak feared for her, too.

  “It means she was at the judge’s mansion at that point but taken somewhere else by his son. She’s being given the royal treatment, all right. They’re probably keeping her on the move from one location to another so we can’t get a bead on her. Chances are she’s still with him, wherever he is.”

  “Well, I know where he’s working out of.” Lori looked from one man to the other. “He’s doing an action movie called Trapped in Hell, as pathetic a title as that is. He was filming there when Judith contacted me, so he’s probably still out there.” She suddenly frowned. “I can’t believe Judith’s dead. I can’t wrap my head around it yet. I thought she was safe and stopped worrying about her. All of this is my fault.”

  Novak was still thinking about Lucy. “If he took her there, she wasn’t in that safe house with the other victims.”

  “I hope you’re right about that,” Lori said.

  The two men said nothing.

  Lori walked away from the table and over to the front window. She stared down at the boat, taking deep breaths to quell her emotions, and then she turned back and faced them. “I read that the film he’s on is having all sorts of trouble and is way behind schedule. That means he’ll be out in Scottsdale several more months, at least.”

  “You know him, Lori. You think he’d bother with taking Lucy to Arizona?”

  “He would if the judge told him to. When he comes home to Galveston, he flies in and drives that Mercedes you saw. Locke’s got a private jet. Sometimes Stephen uses it to fly back and forth. They might use it to move the girls they traffic, too, or drive them in all those panel vans. Either way, no one would be the wiser. Maybe they’ve got a private airstrip where the owners don’t ask questions or are too enamored with Stephen’s celebrity to thwart him. He’s got a ton of fans. Most of them are crazy young girls that think he’s a god.”

  Once he saw that Lucy was alive only a few days ago and listened to Novak and Lori’s optimism, Frank had calmed down considerably. His rage had dissipated into cold, hard determination. “Driving is safer, though. Put them inside one of those vans and nobody sees anything. They could stop at rest stops along the highway and buy them fast food. Either way, Lucy would be alive and unharmed.”

  “Yeah, and she’s still being treated well. Calvin Locke’s put her in Stephen’s hands. Why would he do that?” Novak considered what that meant. He looked at Lori. “Is she better off with him?”

  “He’s no angel, but I’d say that means she’s off limits to him, too. They’ve got something in mind for her, probably to barter her for the money, if they know Frank’s involved with you. But Judith’s dead and so are the FBI agents, so that means they’ve got the evidence they were going to use to hang them. I hope to hell they don’t have it.”

  “We’ve got no way of knowing that he took Lucy out of state,” Frank said. “She still could be right here in Houston or maybe down in Galveston.”

  Novak didn’t think so. “She’s their pawn to control you. It isn’t working right now, but she’s all they’ve got. I’d have moved her out of state a long time ago if I had you two coming after me. Locke didn’t want her on the estate in case a Federal search warrant came down.”

  They were quiet a moment, all probably thinking the same thing. They were all in big trouble. But Novak kept thinking about Leslie, about their past together, about how she’d died in such an awful way. He couldn’t shake the guilt and remorse that was eating at him. They had been close once, lovers and friends. He cared about her, and his actions had ended her life, one that was just beginning to bloom again. He couldn’t stand to think about what they’d done to her and how scared she must have been. The visual image made his stomach twist up in knots. And Judith, poor Judith, who had thought she was finally free to be with her children, only to be betrayed again.

  “What now?” Lori asked Novak.

  Novak tried to shake off his grief at what he’d done and think about what had to come next. “We go get Lucy. I got Judith out and Leslie involved, and now they’re both dead. That’s on me, not you,” Novak told her. “I don’t think the judge would have Susie and Sammi killed, but he could have ordered Judith’s death because she was betraying him to the FBI. This is what Calvin Locke wanted, Judith out of the picture and his complete control over her girls. Hennessey would kill them all for little reason. This is personal for me now. I handed Judith over to Leslie, and Leslie was a good friend. She trusted me. They both trusted me, and I failed them. I signed both their death warrants. Somebody’s going to pay for this....”

  After his admission of guilt, Novak’s voice thickened and faltered. He stopped speaking and looked away.

  Lori appeared to understand his pain and picked up where he’d left off. “There’s nothing else we can do here,” she told them. “It’s a hot zone now. If Stephen took Lucy to Phoenix to keep us from finding her, maybe Susie and Sammi are out there, too. Stephen’s their uncle, after all, and he’s got money and influence and probably his own little estate where he can stash them with a nanny until things cool off here.”

  “Yeah,” said Frank. “We’ve got dead Feds. This town’s going to be crawling with FBI agents, and they’ll step on us if we get in the way. Stephen does whatever his father tells him, just like Judith did until she wanted out. They’ll take Lucy out of state.”

  Novak realized that Frank was eager to do something, anything. “So let’s go out of state. If Stephen’s in Phoenix, he won’t be expecting us to come after him there. He’ll be hanging loose and overconfident, and that works to our advantage.”

  Frank had already made up his mind. “If Locke ordered his own daughter murdered, he’ll eventually get rid of Lucy. We need to go get her now. No more waiting, no more being patient. I’ll go by myself, if I have to. I’m not sitting around and doing nothing anymore.”

  “We’ve got a DVD with Lucy on Locke’s estate getting into a car with Stephen Locke. It came out of his safe so Locke knows we’ve got it. Killing her would finger him for her murder. He’s not that stupid.” Novak wasn’t sure about what he’d just said, because Locke was unpredictable. On the other hand, Frank needed something to hold on to. More likely a scenario was that Stephen meant to sell Lucy off to some sex trafficker. Besides her being a threat and eyewitness, Lucy was a valuable commodity because of her innocence and red hair and blue eyes, all traits valued in Asia and the Middle East. Lucy had to be his top priority right now. Hopefully, Judith’s children were alive and well somewhere in the hands of the FBI. Another option was that the judge had ordered the hits and had the little girls again, hidden away until the heat was off. That’s what Novak wanted to believe. He had to.

  Chapter 20

  Three hours later they were on the first plane out to Phoenix, which happened to be a red-eye deal on a no-name budget airline. The flight was uneventful and bumpy and crowded, especially for Novak’s bulk squeezed into the cramped seat. They put down at a small airport in Mesa that was about a twenty-minute drive into Scottsdale. Novak rented a nondescript black van, and they headed off to AZ-101 Loop N and drove through miles of sunny desert with shadowy purple mountains rising up in dark smudges against an amazing blue sky th
at domed over the vast desert basin. Businesses and corporate high-rises lined parts of the highway, but the traffic was light so they made good time.

  A few miles outside Scottsdale, they found a nondescript motel just off the highway. It was no Trump Tower or Ritz-Carlton. It wasn’t even up to Holiday Inn Express standards, but it did have beds and a complimentary breakfast. They checked into adjoining double-king rooms. They had no trouble digging out information on where Stephen Locke was filming his new movie. An angsty, black-uniformed teenager behind the check-in counter was obsessed with the guy. She had a tattoo of his face on her arm and said all her friends had matching ones. Then she said the actor was sick, and it was sweet he was in her town. Lori translated that slang-speak because she was on Twitter and used it sometimes, too. It turned out the girl meant Stephen Locke was just super great and she was excited he was filming in Scottsdale. Novak could’ve figured that out by himself. Too bad she didn’t just speak plain English. Her plastic nameplate identified a Ms. Delilah Percy, but she said they could call her Lah for short. She wore her hair in stiff fluorescent waves in a color that sort of resembled magenta. It hung straight to her shoulders in front in a blunt cut but all the way to her waist in back. There was a lot of hair involved. Novak hoped it was a wig, but the roots were black so he didn’t think so. She chewed the hell out of a stick of Juicy Fruit gum as they conversed. Her uniform smelled like marijuana, even from across the desk. Her eyes looked weed bleary, too. Novak was pretty sure she was almost as high as a Boeing 757. She was chock-full of information and excitement about Pretty Boy Locke, uttered in a slow, languorous voice.

  “Oh, dudes, it’s dope. He’s smokin’ hot and got that scruff goin’ on. He takes off that black T-shirt, all I see is that six-pack. Dayum.”

  Novak wasn’t certain her eyes were tracking the way they should. Neither were her brain synapses, it seemed. He worried about the millennials sometimes, couldn’t help but be concerned.

  “Holy hell, that dude’s lit as shit,” Lori told Lah.

  Novak turned and looked at her.

  Delilah beamed a thousand-watt smile back at Lori. They chatted a moment, after which the kid said that Lori could join her and her besties and watch the filming the next afternoon if she hung around that long. Even Novak could figure that meant best friends. Lori was pretty good at the schmoozing fangirl thing. Novak wasn’t surprised. He didn’t understand half the internet lingo that Lori came up with. He was glad she didn’t use it all the time. But they were wasting time.

  “So where’s he shooting today, Ms. Percy?”

  Ms. Percy looked up at him and then at Lori. They laughed at him, having a good time at his expense. Frank had been frowning through the whole conversation. The expression deepened. He wasn’t as cool as them, either.

  “I gotta see that hotness in person,” Lori told the girl, leaning up against the counter. “That jawline with that scruff. I’m with you, girl. I told these dudes I’d die if I didn’t get to scope him out while we were here. He’s just so freakin’ hot.” She leaned closer. So did Delilah. “You know how I can crash that set and see him up close?”

  Delilah lowered her voice some, looked around for the manager, real serious when it came to Locke. “Don’t tell nobody I told you, okay? He’s got some guys bodyguardin’ him so you can’t get in his space, but those dudes will let you go in and watch Stephen act sometimes. Better to go out on the night shoots, though. Stephen does lots of that night stuff. I got to watch him downtown a coupla nights ago, filmin’ up on a roof. It was awesome cause he was way up high, running and jumping over stuff and tackling all these bad dudes. He really didn’t do that big jump down to the next building, though. The producers won’t let him do stuff that messes him up, so he’s got this dude who does it for him.”

  “What? You mean a stunt double?” Novak asked.

  She glanced at him. “Sure, anybody knows that.” She dismissed him and turned back to Lori. “That stunt double, he’s hot as hell, too. He does the car chases and shit. That’s when they block off streets and it’s easy peasy to sneak in. Best bet, tell them you live behind those set barriers, and they’ll motion you right on in. Me and Aimee’s done that a bunch of times.”

  “Wow, awesome. You know where he’s at today?”

  Delilah rattled off an address and told them in way too much detail how to find it and where to sneak in and the best vantage point to glimpse her hero’s dimples and/or awesome abs. The girl came off as a borderline moron. Novak wouldn’t find that hard to believe, but she was young. Maybe she’d grow out of it. They took time to drop off their backpacks inside the rooms, and then stopped at McDonald’s for coffee and sausage egg biscuits that they ate on their way into Scottsdale. Lots of traffic once they got into the city. They took a left on E. Thomas Road and then a right onto N. Scottsdale Road. The shoot was being done at a steak house/sports bar kind of place called The Tavern. It was located off Via Linda, and its parking lot was taped off, with cops stationed everywhere to protect the star. It looked as if they were expecting the arrival of a presidential motorcade.

  Novak found the parking garage Delilah had recommended for a cool bird’s-eye view of the action. Once up on the top level, they figured out fairly fast that the action was currently filming inside the eatery so there was nothing yet to see. There were plenty of rubbernecking fans hanging around up there along the wall overlooking the place. A loitering group of teenagers informed Lori that the outside scene was slated to begin soon and that’s what they were waiting for. Below, all around the restaurant, throngs of overeager spectators had been herded behind rope lines along the street. Some pushy guy with a bullhorn was ordering them to keep quiet when the cast and crew showed up outside. The roof level was open air with a great vantage point, just like Delilah had promised, but it was also hot as hell and the sun wasn’t even high yet. More important to Novak, the parking garage wasn’t busy and they could get out fast if things went south.

  The world-famous movie star had still not shown up by eleven o’clock. They were standing under a scraggly tree that was crying out for water. The sun burned down on their heads and gleamed off cars in eye-blinding glare. The wind was warm and dry but better than nothing. There were other people up top with them, standing on either side of them, which made Novak distinctly nervous. They kept to themselves except for a few guys who tried to come on to Lori but went away when she ignored them. Finally, after what seemed like hours, a great din arose from below.

  Then, lo and behold, the great Stephen Locke decided to make his entrance by roaring up to the restaurant in a jazzy red Jaguar convertible, its top down, his Hollywood coiffure blowing in the wind. He drove with his right hand and held up two fingers in a casual peace sign. Cool, man, cool. He was full of himself, oh yeah. If his fans only knew what he did behind closed doors, this place would be deserted.

  Locke the Younger had been born into privilege, albeit with a disgusting pervert of a father and no mother. His fortunes had only gotten better as he jumped into sin and depravity with both feet. No one was in the car with him to steal his thunder at that triumphant entrance. He drove around to a reserved spot at the front of the restaurant, parked, and swung out of the car with easy athletic grace. Maybe the stunt man taught him how to do it without looking stupid. The teenage girls behind the rope instantly went berserk, crying and laughing and calling out his name. The big man grinned and swaggered over to the closest admirers. Novak watched him a moment and loathed him instantly.

  “His teeth are blinding me,” Frank muttered, sweating profusely in the heat. He wiped off his brow with a forearm.

  “They’re dental implants,” Lori informed them. “I remember the day he got them. He was sick in bed for a week. Cried and cried from the pain like a big baby. He’s nothing but quivering Jell-O under all those muscles and fake machismo.”

  Stephen was laughing at the hubbub he caused and the efforts to get close to him
. He proceeded to blind onlookers with those laser-bright teeth while he took about fifty selfies with pretty young girls. He pulled one lucky girl into his arms and bent her back, and he kissed her on the mouth. Then he posed with her, his chiseled jaw held in mirror-studied effect. Novak wondered how that jaw would look after Novak broke it. He wouldn’t feel like taking a selfie, Novak knew that much.

  “If that preening peacock bastard hurt my daughter, if he touched one hair on her head, I’m going to murder him with my bare hands. I’m going to break every tooth out of his jaw.” Frank’s voice promised Stephen Locke would go down with some serious suffering. Okay by Novak. He’d help.

  “Stephen’s a self-centered prick, and always has been. I haven’t told you this, but he sneaked into my bedroom one night at the mansion. I was asleep, but I had to fight him off.”

  Novak jerked his attention to Lori.

  “Don’t worry, he didn’t get anywhere. He’s so unbelievably phony, and he’s a misogynist of the worse kind, and Judith told me he’s mean and likes to hurt people.” She stopped, and they all thought about Lucy. “He seduced a fifteen-year-old babysitter and slapped her face when she struggled to get away.”

  “Did he hit you?”

  “Didn’t have the chance. I gave him a nice hard knee where it does the most damage. Funniest thing, once he limped out of my bedroom, he never came near me again. Hope to do that this time, too, or something worse. Yeah, something worse would be better.”

  “Take a number,” Novak told her. Lori’s self-defense technique was age-old and had worked for women since time eternal. Still did. “You’ll get payback for Judith.”

  “Yeah, I will. I hope her kids are okay.”

  “I think they are, and we’re going to find them.” They were too late for Judith and Leslie, though. Again, Novak’s heart twisted with grief for Leslie. She hadn’t deserved to die. Stephen and his father had to pay for those crimes, too. And Hennessey.