by Lexi Blake
“Ms. Williams, I thank you for meeting me. I appreciate that you’re willing to talk to me on such short notice.” She held her hand out.
Katja shook with her own perfectly manicured one. “Of course. I have to say I was curious when you called me. You’re an investigative reporter?”
“Yes. I specialize in crime reporting.”
“I pulled the files you asked about, but I didn’t see that there was anything interesting in them. It’s all notes on the cases and billing information. Though, I have to admit, when it came to my father-in-law, rest his soul, it could mean anything. My husband is practically a saint, but that man was the devil.”
She followed Katja back through the small office. It looked like they had three investigators working at desks and two private offices for the owners. “Some people say that about my boss, too.”
She didn’t mention her boss was also her boyfriend. Was he her boyfriend? That seemed like such a juvenile term to describe Drew. Lover. He was her lover.
“Oh, unless your boss was a horrible tool for the Russian mob, my father-in-law likely wins that battle.” Katja closed the door behind Shelby.
“Wow, I was wondering how I was going to broach that subject.” She’d been planning on tiptoeing around it. “I take it your husband isn’t on the payroll?”
She laughed. “My Kevin would never work for them. He saw how much trouble it caused his father, though I am thankful because it brought Kevin to Russia and allowed me to meet him. Luckily, times change and we didn’t feel much pressure to continue the relationship. The mob is much more interested in hackers these days than in investigators. I told my husband that if he marries me, there will be absolutely no ties to the Bratva. I came here to build a real business with him. When you are tied to the brothers, your business is not your own. My father-in-law made more money than we do, but our work is honest.”
“I’m particularly interested in some of the work your father-in-law did for a company owned by a man named Benedict Lawless.”
She picked up a folder that had been sitting on the edge of her desk. “Please have a seat. I researched some of the names you asked me to look up. Benedict Lawless was nowhere to be found in the old records.”
She should have known. It wasn’t like there would be a file marked assassinations. “So there’s no mention of the company, either?”
“Not at all. I’m in the middle of trying to digitize all the records so I have them available,” Katja explained. “Could you tell me a little more of what you’re looking for?”
“I spoke to the brother of a man named Yuri Volchenko a few days back.”
Katja sighed and sat back in her chair. “I worried that name would come up. The minute you mentioned Benedict Lawless, I had a feeling.”
“You’ve heard of the case?”
“Of course,” she replied. “I didn’t live here when the crime was committed, but there was certainly talk about it. When you called and mentioned you were looking for anything on Benedict Lawless, I couldn’t help but be curious. I did not find any of the names you asked me to look for. No Castalano, Stratton, or Cain. If my father-in-law did business with them, it was off the books.”
Another dead end. “Well, I knew it was a long shot.”
Katja held out a hand. “It still might be. I said my father-in-law didn’t do business with them, but there is some information I found. Let me start at the beginning. You know that Volchenko was an assassin the Gorev syndicate used from time to time. He also did freelance work. My father-in-law would help him with this. He would help transfer the money to offshore accounts, taking a small sum for himself, of course. When I couldn’t find the particular names you were looking for, I decided to look at files that were opened or closed six weeks before or after the murder. This would be when payments would show up.”
Shelby sat up, adrenaline starting to flow again. “You found the payments to Volchenko?”
She shook her head. “No. He was too careful. But I could find evidence of something else. Naturally my father-in-law would be paid for his aid, even if it was a nominal amount. I found four deposits into the company accounts during the time he would have been paid. They were marked miscellaneous investigative necessities. If anyone looked at his tax records, it would show these monies were paid by clients for expenses like getting reports or camera equipment. These in particular, though, do not have receipts attached to them, and they’re all the same amount. Five hundred dollars. Four of them within a week of the date you referred to. They add up to two thousand dollars.”
“One percent of what Volchenko charged for a risky assassination.” The money trail was interesting. “Do you have the files that were associated with the miscellaneous expenses?”
“I pulled them, but they’re seemingly random. Two are cases about missing persons. One was an insurance case. And the other was a man who wanted to make sure his lover wasn’t cheating on him. I don’t know that the cases actually have anything at all to do with the clients who would have paid him. My father-in-law would not have wanted anyone to be able to trace that money back to the clients or to connect it to Volchenko.”
“I understand.” At least she had confirmation that she was in the right place.
“Here are the files from the four cases the money was attached to. I’m going to allow you to look at them because there’s nothing particularly scandalous about them, but I would appreciate your discretion.”
“Of course. Do you mind if I take notes?”
She slid the files over. “Not at all.”
She reached out and took the folders from Katja, fanning them out so she could read the names. The room seemed to drop ten degrees, a chill covering her skin. It didn’t really have anything to do with the temperature. No. It had to do with the folders in her hand.
Collins. Varney Insurance. First Auto Insurance.
Hatchard.
“Your father-in-law worked for Bill Hatchard?” She pushed the other folders aside. She had the one she needed.
Katja leaned forward. “Yes, he did several jobs for someone by that name. He was a businessman of some sort.”
Her heart pounded in her chest as she looked at the file. “So he was a long-term client?”
“Mostly he was looking for background checks, but in that case, he had an investigator follow his lover. I’m not sure. It’s written in a sort of shorthand. The investigator tracked the woman who is known only as ‘I’ to a house in the Dallas suburbs. He describes her arguing with another man but no one is named, and even the address was marked through. There were supposed to be pictures attached, but it appears they were sent along with the film to the client. That happens sometimes when the client is paranoid about privacy. I believe the woman was married and he didn’t want her husband to know. The majority of the file was sent back to Hatchard, and then he never used the company again.”
She looked down at the date. The file had been sent to Bill Hatchard the day after the murders. No wonder he hadn’t needed another case. He’d gone into a hole shortly after the last one was done.
She opened the file in front of her. The one that might kill Drew’s soul. He would never forgive her for bringing this to him, for taking his last father figure away from him.
She looked down at the proof of Hatch’s lies, and tears began to fall.
• • •
Two hours later, Shelby sank into a seat at a small café and wished it was a bar. She needed a drink or five.
What the hell was she going to tell Drew?
She glanced down at her phone. She had an hour and a half to get to the airport. She could have met up with the family. They were probably making plans for having dinner later in Austin.
How was she going to get through that? She had no choice. She looked down at her coffee mug and promised herself that she would plaster a smile on her face and get through d
inner. The bad news could wait until after.
Tonight she would blow up Drew’s world and pray they survived the aftermath. It was the best she could do for him.
“Do you mind if I sit with you?”
Shelby looked up and a woman stood by her table. She was petite and slender, her hair wrapped in a scarf and her eyes hidden behind sunglasses. It was a weird request since there were only two other patrons in the café and plenty of tables left. “I’m sorry, but I would rather be alone.”
“I imagine, but this might be the only chance I get to talk to you,” she said quietly. “My son keeps a close eye on you. I wonder why he does that.”
The room seemed to go cold. “Iris?”
She settled into the seat across from Shelby, putting her cup in front of her. She eased the sunglasses off, and her eyes immediately reminded Shelby of Riley’s and Bran’s. Emerald green.
“I haven’t gone by that name in a long time,” she said quietly. “Please don’t call the police. I’ll have to run and I need a couple of minutes of your time. We’re in public. I would never do anything to hurt you. I’m here because I’m afraid for your safety.”
Sure she was. “Yes, I’m a bit afraid for my safety right now, given how many people you’ve murdered.”
Her eyes slid away, her mouth firming. “Well, I should have suspected he would tell you many stories about me. I will admit to hurting some people along the way, but everything I’ve done I did to survive.”
“Including shooting Bran a couple of months back?”
Her eyes came back up, shock plain on her face. “I didn’t shoot Bran. I would never harm him. I did pay someone to take out Patricia, but I had my reasons.”
“That’s not what Bran’s wife says.”
“She was mistaken. I hate what I did to Patricia, but she threatened to do the one thing I couldn’t allow.”
“What’s that?”
“Tell Andrew I’m alive. Somehow, she still managed it, didn’t she?” Tears glistened in the woman’s eyes, like perfect diamonds that clung to her, refusing to drop.
“Carly saw you that night. She was there when you turned a gun on your son.” Would the police even arrest her? Could she tackle the bitch and wait around only to be the one arrested, while Iris showed her probably well-faked ID and then disappeared at the end of the conversation?
According to all records the police had, the woman in front of her was dead, and the California police were no longer searching for her thanks to Drew. He’d wanted to deal with this himself, and it left Shelby with few options.
“I don’t know why she would say that, but it isn’t true,” Iris said evenly. “All of that said, I still have to protect myself. I need you to understand that if you call anyone or try to stop me, I’m not alone here. I don’t want to hurt you, but this is about more than just me.”
“Spoken like a truly innocent woman.”
“My innocence will be proven shortly, but until then I need you to look into this story. I know Drew hired you to gloss things over, but you’re smart and you can get to the truth.”
“And what’s the truth?”
She took a long breath. “I didn’t want to leave my children. I might have had issues with Ben, but I loved him once. I couldn’t have guessed that his cheating on me would be the thing to save my life. I would have been the one to die that night if Andrew had been more careful.”
Another chill went through Shelby. “What?”
“You heard me. I wasn’t the one who planned this out. It was Andrew. It was my own son and now he has Noah.”
It took everything Shelby had not to roll her eyes. “I know that you hired an assassin named Volchenko.”
Iris shook her head. “This is all Drew’s way of covering his tracks. Can’t you see that? Now that he’s finally gotten what he’s wanted all these years, he’s trying to clean up the family name. He hates scandal. He can’t stand it and he wants all the scrutiny off him because he knows if you scratch the surface too hard, they’ll discover his crimes.”
Shelby couldn’t imagine the audacity of the woman. “You honestly believe I’m going to buy any of this?”
“I understand how difficult it is to realize someone you love is capable of such evil. I don’t say any of this to hurt you, but you should know that he’s playing games with you.”
“I think you’re the one playing games. You can’t convince me that Drew is behind this. I’m not sure what you think it accomplishes.”
Iris looked behind her before turning back. “He doesn’t trust you. He’s got someone following you. I’m sure he’s taking pictures of us right now.”
Shelby glanced around. “Is it the dude who’s playing online games or the chick who’s flirting with the guy behind the counter?”
“He’s not in the café. He’s out in the parking lot. At first I thought perhaps you had a bodyguard, but he never got close to you. This is Drew’s way of keeping track of you. You won’t be allowed to go off Drew’s script. He’ll send you where he wants you to go. Has he insisted you do all your work at his office?”
“I work at 4L or at the house. Wait, I did some work at a Starbucks. Do you think he secretly owns all the Starbucks?” Drew’s sarcasm was rubbing off on her.
“It wouldn’t matter because the minute you plugged back into his network, he would have a copy of everything on your system.”
“How interesting that you would say that. I found some spyware on my system that I think came from you.”
One perfect brow rose on Iris’s face. “You found it? Or Andrew did? He’s manipulating you to reach his conclusion and to not trust anyone outside the family. He’s built that family like it’s a cult and he’s their priest. He makes all the rules. He’s cut you off from your resources. Anyone who could fight him is suddenly a member of the family, and they have something to lose. Stop thinking with your heart and look at it with your reporter’s mind. Ellie Stratton ended up married to Riley because she had no choice. If she wanted to stay out of jail, she needed Andrew and his family money. The only way he would give it to her was if she married Riley.”
“She loves Riley.”
A bitter huff came from Iris’s mouth. “I’m sure she does. The Lawless men are good at getting women to do what they want. Carly Fisher was the only person who could tell Patricia’s side of the story, and now she’s got the Lawless name, too.”
“Your children married because they were in love.”
Iris ignored her. “And then there’s you. You weren’t going to give up. You were going to continue on, and you might have figured out what really happened, but he brought you in, too. He ensured you couldn’t change the narrative. He set you on a path to find this mysterious assassin. I’m sure he discovered I survived that night and he started planning his revenge.”
“It’s not revenge. He was and is looking for justice.”
“If that’s what he’s doing, why hasn’t he brought the police in? I would think he would go to the press to denounce me.”
Shelby had heard enough. She reached for her cell phone. It was time to bring the police in if for no other reason than the fact that she felt uncomfortable talking to this woman.
The large man sitting at the table behind Iris stood up, his eyes finding Shelby’s.
“Please don’t make this ugly,” Iris requested. “I’ll be gone before you can do anything and if you try to hurt me, Warren will have to step in. He takes his job as a bodyguard seriously.”
Shelby believed her. She’d caught a glint of metal when Warren’s jacket opened slightly. She eased her hand back, placing them both flat where Warren could see them.
The big man sat down again though now he didn’t pretend he wasn’t watching them.
So she was stuck here until Iris let her go. If Iris let her go.
“What do you want from me?”
She hesitated for a moment. “I want to know if Drew is planning on hurting Noah.”
“The child you were carrying when you . . .” She almost said, When you killed his father and tried to take out all his siblings, but she was sitting here with a crazy person and the crazy person apparently had hired guns, so maybe irritating her wasn’t the way to go. “Left.”
“Yes, I’m talking about Noah. He believes I died, but once I realized that Andrew was onto me, I knew I had to protect Noah from his brother. Noah has none of Andrew’s selfishness and naked ambition. I don’t know how he came to find out the relationship between them, but it’s dangerous for him there. Can’t you see that?”
She could see a lot of things. Her head was spinning with a hundred different possibilities, but she had to figure out what Iris wanted out of this conversation. She had no doubt that this was a mind game and if she got emotional, Iris would win.
“I know someone in a black SUV has tried to run him down twice already.” Shelby watched carefully. The lies would be in the way she held herself, in forcing Iris to put herself in a corner and seeing how she tried to get out.
Her eyes came up, horror flaring. “I knew it. I knew he wouldn’t let my Noah live.”
She was good. Shelby would give her that, but then she had to be an excellent actress. It was all part of her line of work.
“Drew had nothing to do with it. In fact, he was with me during the second attempt and that time almost harmed Bran as well. Drew would never hurt Bran.”
Iris managed a sniffle. “Wouldn’t he? You don’t know him like you think you do. He’s a predator. And he would never do the job himself. He’s good at keeping his hands clean.”