by Beverly Long
“What things?” Royce said, already thinking he might know.
“That Joel had an affair with Linette White and Charity was conceived. I always believed that JC didn’t know but when I saw Charity at the session yesterday, I wasn’t so sure.”
“How do you know Charity?” Royce asked.
“I made it my business to keep track of her, especially after Lara’s death. You don’t seem surprised, which makes me think I was wrong all those years, that Juliana did know.”
Royce shook his head. “Lara Cambridge wrote it in her diary shortly before her accident. The diary wasn’t found by Jules until a couple months ago.”
“So many lies,” Eileen said. “So damn unnecessary. I’m sure Joel didn’t love Linette but he was so busy lying to himself.”
Royce looked at Barry.
“After Lara died, Joel dated many women. To cover his tracks. But—” he paused, shaking his head “—maybe it’s because he was my friend, but I always thought he loved Lara. Maybe he loved Linette White or maybe Eileen is right, she was just more of the same, an elaborate ruse. Her getting pregnant changed everything.”
Indeed. “I need to tell him about Jules,” Royce said. “Can you give me his number?” It was a bad conversation to have over the phone with someone he disliked, and the feeling was mutual. But that couldn’t be helped. He couldn’t afford the time to fly to New York.
Barry looked at his watch. “I can do better than that. Joel should be landing in about a half hour. I invited him to the awards dinner so that he could hear JC’s speech.”
Chapter 23
“Are the two of you alright?” JC asked, realizing immediately that it was a ridiculous question given that she, Charity and Lou had all been tied in place by a crazy woman.
“Yes,” Charity said. “But we’re hungry. This is Lou, the one I told you about.”
“Hello, Lou. I’m JC. Has she fed you anything since yesterday?”
They shook their heads. She heard a car engine start. Were they leaving?
But then she heard the television. Somebody was still here.
“We’re going to die here,” Lou said.
“No, we’re not,” JC said, with perhaps more confidence than she had a right to feel. The woman’s words were reverberating in her head.
The only one who knows anything for sure is Wayne. And he’s kept his mouth shut before. He can certainly do it again.
What did that mean? The woman had called Wayne by name when she’d come into the ballroom, like she knew him. But then, she’d also called JC by name. And there was something about her voice that felt vaguely familiar.
Wayne had simply capitulated to the woman. But that probably wasn’t the important thing now.
She had no doubt that Royce would turn Vegas upside down looking for her. But would he find them in time? Before this woman could carry through on whatever crazy scheme she was cooking up in her demented little mind?
But Royce was smart. And tenacious. He would do his very best.
And he would expect her to do the same. “She called the man with the gun Shane. Who is Striker?” she asked. The woman had said he was digging a hole.
“I think he’s Shane’s brother,” Lou said. “Nobody told us that but they look alike and I heard Striker tell Shane that he was going to check on Mom.” She emphasized the words.
Sons doing everyday things. Checking on their mother. Kidnapping women. Digging graves.
“Were they all here last night?” JC asked.
“I don’t think so,” Charity said. “At first we didn’t think there was anybody in the house. But then we heard the toilet flush and knew somebody was here. I think it was just her.”
She liked the sound of that. Fighting one person had to be easier than fighting three.
“I should never have left the pool with them,” Charity said, sounding very discouraged.
“Why did you?” JC asked.
“Because they told me that they had Lou, that if I didn’t come with them, they were going to kill her. They showed me her necklace. It’s very distinctive. I didn’t know what to do. I panicked. And then once I was in the car, I knew that I was in terrible trouble.” A fresh tear slid down her face. “They used my phone to text Lou, to lure her out of her house. Made her think she needed to meet me.”
“Bastards,” Lou said.
“How did they have your necklace?”
“I don’t know. The old lady I take care of doesn’t like it. She thinks it’s vulgar. Like anybody is offended by the word bitch anymore. But sometimes if I want to keep her happy, I put it in my purse. Maybe it got taken from there when I was out.”
It was certainly possible. Or they’d simply bought a lookalike one. She’d seen those kinds of necklaces in stores.
“That woman won’t tell us anything,” Charity added. “We don’t know who she is or what she wants from us.”
“I don’t know, either,” JC said. But that wasn’t exactly true. She knew a little. The woman had said something along the lines of she couldn’t leave well enough alone. And she had known that Charity was her sister.
This was not the way that sensitive news should be shared, but she was going to have to just say it. The three of them needed to be absolutely honest with each other if there was any hope of getting out of there alive.
“Charity,” she said, keeping her voice soft, her tone even. “What I’m going to tell you is going to be a big surprise to you and this is so not the right time or place to share this information.” She drew in a breath. “We’re sisters, Charity. My father is your father.”
JC waited for Charity’s expression to change. But all that happened was the woman lifted her eyes in Lou’s direction.
It wasn’t the response she’d expected. Maybe she hadn’t understood. “Charity, I want—”
“I know that,” Charity interrupted her. “I’ve known it for months, since right before my mother died. She told me.”
“But...” JC’s mind was scrambled. The stress of being forced at gunpoint from the hotel, the ride here, being tied to a hook in the wall. It was making it impossible to think. Charity had known. From the beginning. “When I called you, you didn’t say anything.”
Anger flashed in Charity’s dark eyes. “Hell, no. I didn’t know what to do.”
“I don’t understand, Charity.”
“My mother told me that Joel Cambridge was my father and that she’d gotten money from him for years, since I was a baby. But that the checks had stopped when I was twenty-one. My mom and her boyfriend got into some financial trouble and they decided to contact our daddy for one final payment. Hush money, she called it. I don’t know how much she asked for but it must have been too much because she told me that he’d refused. Had said that she could tell whoever she wanted.”
“So she told you?” JC asked.
“Yes. She was very angry. It wasn’t the answer she’d expected. She said she was going to tell everyone.”
“What did you think of that?”
“I didn’t know what to think. I’d just learned that I had a father when for my whole life, there hadn’t been one.”
“That screws a person up.” This from Lou.
“She and her boyfriend were going to his boat for the weekend. She said they were going to use the time to plan the best way to make this bad for...him.”
“For our father. For Joel Cambridge,” JC clarified.
“Yeah.” Charity again looked at Lou. “Their boat caught fire that weekend. They both died.”
Lou, who’d been sitting on the floor, stood up, her movements awkward. “Those things don’t just happen,” she said.
What Lou was suggesting hit her hard, literally taking her breath away. Don’t faint now, she told herself. “You think that
my father had something to do with that fire?”
“Seems to me that he didn’t like the choices he’d been given. He either needed to shell out some cash to keep his illegitimate kid a secret or the gig was up. I think he figured out a way to solve his problem.”
It was a horrific suggestion. Impossible. “Why didn’t you go to the police?” JC asked, her throat feeling tight.
“Because I told her,” Lou said, “that having him in jail wasn’t maybe the best thing that could happen to us. That maybe there was another way for us to get money from him. So we contacted him.”
It was perhaps good that she was being held upright by a rope and a hook because otherwise she might have collapsed. “You contacted my father?” she repeated.
“I did,” Charity said. “I told him that I knew who he was and if he didn’t keep paying me what he’d paid my mother, then I was going to tell everyone that he was my father and let the police know that I suspected he’d had something to do with the fire.”
She was almost overwhelmed with the sadness of the situation. Charity was Joel Cambridge’s blood. And it must have hurt him so to have her call him and be so callous.
At the same time she thought this, an equally strong voice said that Charity had been hurt so much, too. To not be acknowledged by her father. It was a horrible situation.
“What did he say?” she asked.
“Not much,” Charity said. “But the money started coming in. I thought it was over. And then you called, pretending that our mothers were friends and that you wanted to look me up. I didn’t know what your game was but Lou and I decided that the best thing for me to do was play along until we figured it out.”
And she played perfectly into their hands. It was a sobering thought that she’d been so stupid. “What were your plans?” she asked dully. This was all too much.
Charity looked at the floor. “We didn’t know. Thought maybe we might be able to get you to make payments, too. After all, you’re a big hotshot CEO. I figured you probably didn’t want a stray sister hanging around.” She lifted her head, looked at JC. “But then once I met you, you were so nice. I could tell you were a good person. I didn’t know what to do. It was kind of nice thinking that I had a sister.”
JC closed her eyes and swallowed hard. So many damaged relationships. So much distrust and hurt. So damn many wasted years. She drew in a deep breath, opened her eyes, and her glance took in both Charity and Lou.
“There’s certainly stuff to sort out. But our first priority has to be getting out of here. So let’s figure out how we’re going to do that.”
* * *
Royce was sitting on the Woods’ couch when Joel Cambridge knocked on the door. Barry had agreed not to give the man a heads-up. He’d been reluctant to go along with the plan but Eileen had insisted. This is Juliana, she kept saying.
The door opened, Barry and Joel shook hands, and then Joel looked over Barry’s shoulder and saw Royce. Immediate recognition flared in his eyes.
“What the hell is this?” he asked, turning to his friend.
Royce remained seated, his eyes steady on Joel Cambridge. For years he’d dreamed of seeing the man again, of throwing his success in the man’s face.
But none of that seemed important now. This was Jules’s father. Yes, he’d lied to her about being sick, which was horrible. But he’d probably done it with good intentions. A father desperate for his only daughter to make a good match. Jules had said that she still loved her father, even if she couldn’t forgive him. She would want Royce to treat him with care when he was about to hear very difficult news.
“Mr. Cambridge,” Royce said. He motioned to the chair across from him. “Would you have a seat, please?”
He could tell Joel Cambridge wanted to refuse, but then he looked at Barry, looked at Eileen, and was smart enough to realize that something was very, very wrong. “Where’s my daughter?” he asked.
Which one? Royce tamped the retort down. Nothing to be gained by that.
When nobody answered, Joel Cambridge walked farther into the room and took the seat Royce had offered. Royce sat forward in his chair.
“I am a partner in the Wingman Security firm. I was hired by Barry and Jules to provide security for Jules while she was in Las Vegas.”
“What does she need security for?” Cambridge demanded, again looking at Barry.
Barry declined to answer, simply turned his gaze toward Royce. The message was clear. This was Royce’s show.
“Your daughter had received three anonymous threats, in the form of four-line verses. While she was here, a fourth one was slipped underneath her hotel door.”
“Where’s Juliana?” Cambridge asked again, this time his eyes darting around the room as if he was a scared animal.
“She was abducted from this hotel about an hour ago, while she was with Wayne Isman.”
Now Cambridge lost all color in his face and he sagged back against the pillows. “Wayne?” he asked, his voice breaking.
“Not injured,” Royce said. “Our only witness.” He paused. “I know about your relationship with Wayne Isman.”
Cambridge’s eyes flicked toward Barry and Eileen. To their credit, their faces gave nothing away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You do,” Royce said. “We all do.” His voice was quiet. “And there are two other young women who are missing. Charity White and her friend Louisa Goodall.”
Cambridge said nothing.
Why the hell did the man have to make it so hard? “Charity White. Your daughter with Linette White,” Royce added.
Cambridge ran his hands through his silver hair. “What a damn mess,” he said.
A mess of your own making, thought Royce. “Your daughters—” he emphasized the plural “—are in jeopardy. Now you better stop hiding information and tell us anything that might be helpful.”
There was silence in the room. Finally, Cambridge spoke. “Charity White contacted me shortly after her mother died. She wanted money.”
“She knows that you’re her father?” Royce asked.
“Yes. Her mother told her.”
That meant that Charity had known all along that Jules was her half sister. But she’d pretended not to. What the hell had been her game?
“Did you tell anyone about this?”
Cambridge nodded. “I told Wayne. He’s always known about Charity. Knew that I gave Linette White money so that she wouldn’t disclose paternity.”
“Who else knew about Charity?” Royce asked. He knew that Lara Cambridge had known. She’d written it in her diary and told her best friend, Eileen Wood.
“My wife,” whispered Cambridge. He looked ten years older than he had when he’d entered the room five minutes earlier. “I wrote checks to Linette White from a separate checking account, one that only I knew about. Every two weeks, a portion of my paycheck went into that account. It went smoothly for years but then the company I worked for changed their payroll process and the direct deposit accounts got all mixed up. I was a good customer of the bank so they covered the check I’d written to Linette even though there was no money in the account. But, of course, they wanted me to make it right. They sent me emails but I didn’t get them because I’d dropped that email and hadn’t thought to tell the bank. When they were unsuccessful at reaching me, a bank employee decided to take the bull by the horns. She discovered I had other accounts at the bank and used that information to contact me.” He stopped, took a breath. “They reached Lara. She was a very smart person. She figured out what was going on.” He swallowed. “When she accused me, I didn’t deny it. I’d already failed her in so many ways.”
“She didn’t know about you and Wayne?” Royce asked.
“I don’t think so,” Cambridge said. “She never said anything.”
What had
he done to ensure his wife’s silence? “Did you run your wife off the road?” Royce asked.
Chapter 24
Now color popped on Cambridge’s face and neck. Vivid blotches of red. “I loved my wife,” he said, his tone defensive. “And I could have lost Juliana in that crash,” he said.
And Joel Cambridge loved Jules. Royce was sure of that. He would not have risked his daughter’s life to harm his wife.
But was there someone else who perhaps did not feel the same way about Lara Cambridge? “Did you tell Wayne that your wife knew?”
“Yes. But he had nothing to do with the accident. He was...with me that night.”
Royce closed his eyes, tried to think. He was missing something. His cell phone buzzed and he read the text. It was from Sonya. Annie Slip had arrived back at the hotel and was available in her office for questioning.
“I have to go,” he said to the group.
“What are you doing to find my daughter?” Cambridge asked, coming to his feet.
“Every damn thing I can,” Royce said as he walked out the door.
He entered Sonya’s office and her receptionist didn’t even bother to get up, just waved him back. He knocked once on the door and opened it.
Annie Slip was in the chair, bending down to retrieve something from her purse. He caught a solid look at her profile and stopped short.
“Pull up that video again,” he said to Sonya. “The one we just looked at, where Jules and the woman are leaving the hotel.”
Annie was now watching him, wariness in her eyes. He ignored her and went behind Sonya’s desk. “There,” he said, pointing at the screen. “Zoom in,” he said.
He studied the woman’s profile and he knew. Knew what he’d been missing.
He came back around the desk and took the chair next to Annie Slip. “Jules Cambridge was abducted from this hotel about an hour ago by a woman. The same woman who slipped an envelope under her door. I know that you were lying when you said earlier that you didn’t know this woman. I think you know her very well. You are now an accessory to kidnapping, which is a federal crime. So you better start talking or I’m going to make it my life’s mission to make sure you pay for your silence.”