Please be fine. I’m coming for you.
CHAPTER TEN
Jayden sent Dave in first, staying at the cafe one street over. He had explained to Dave about wanting them to try and get all the gossipers together so that he could put the questions to them.
“Leave it to me. I know just what to do,” Dave had said before leaving with his salesman smile firmly in place.
Jay glanced at his watch. The man had already been gone twenty minutes. Just as he was debating leaving immediately, Dave arrived at the cafe in the midst of a giggling group of middle-aged women, all prattling together as they went to the larger tables on the other side of the cafe.
Jay’s lips lifted in a half smile. He quickly paid his tab and left unnoticed. He entered The Bronze Rose and spotted Stan near the back repacking a display case.
“Good morning,” Jay greeted, his voice following the same amiable pattern as the day before.
Stan turned. “Oh, it’s you again. Is there something else that you wanted?”
Jay smiled. “I wanted to ask you a few questions if you have a moment?”
At Stan’s clear reluctance, he let his eyes travel pointedly over the empty store.
“Sure, sure.” Stan responded, shutting and locking the case before leading the way over to a small table and chairs beside the counter. “What do you want to know?”
Jay tilted his head to the side as if considering. “Are you and your wife the only ones that work here?”
His knowledge of the man’s personal life threw him off balance, and he went a little pale. “How’d you know Sue was my wife? Who are you exactly?”
Jay’s easy smile gained a slight hint of menace. “I’m asking today, not answering. Well?”
Stan looked all around him, as if seeking aid, and then shook his head. “Was that flashy blond man one of yours? What are you? Which news station? Newspaper?”
“Just answer my question or get dragged into a mess you won’t be able to climb out of.”
Stan paled further then shook his head. “No one else works here. Sue and I run the place alone.”
“That jewelry box. Was it really kept on layaway by Stella?”
Stan’s hands inched toward his pocket. Jay moved without thinking, pinning the man’s hands hard with one of his own. He drew out the little disk he had been reaching for. It was one of those silent alarm triggers.
“This is a private meeting, Stan. Let’s not involve others.”
“Get your hands off me! I’ll have you done in for assault!” Jay remained silent, watching him with steely eyes, and Stan’s bluster faltered. “Go easy, okay? I just did what I was told.”
“Told by whom?” Jay asked, still crushing the man’s wrists into the table and looming over him.
“I don’t know! He didn’t give a name. And he wore a mask, but he paid a lot. I wouldn’t even recognize his voice because he didn’t speak. Everything was written on a tablet.” Jay let go and retook his seat while Stan rubbed his wrists and muttered. “He didn’t say I had to keep it secret. So he can’t be mad I told you.”
Jay raised an eyebrow but didn’t speak, sensing that Stan was about to tell all without the need for prompts.
“He came in here not five minutes after she left. Asked if there’d been anything she liked. At first, I didn’t want to say. I thought he was some stalker.”
“But he offered a lot of money so you did anyway?” Jay’s voice had dipped into a near whisper that in no way hid his murderous anger.
“He just told me to keep the box she had picked safe, and said he’d be back. He came back two days later and put the bracelet in the box. He paid me again and said that if ever someone came here looking for her, and knew about the pending purchase, I could give it to them. If I did that, I’d never see him again and receive my final payment.”
Jay sat straighter. “Have you received your final payment?”
Stan nodded and Jay deflated. If he hadn’t, then he and Dave would have been able to set up a sting and trap him when he came. “When did he come? Did you contact him or—”
“I have no way to contact him. Look, I don’t know how he does it or what he really wants, but the money was just waiting for us in here this morning, with a screenshot photograph in the same handwriting, saying ‘Thanks’.”
“I want that photograph.”
Stan began to stand then winced as Jay stood too. Jay heaved a sigh. “I hadn’t intended to hurt you, but this is a time-sensitive situation.”
Stan muttered something Jay felt he was probably better off not having understood and then spoke louder. “You’re a fed, aren’t you? Jesus. I’ll get the photograph.”
Jay didn’t correct him, but let his face flash through a moment of chagrin, as if annoyed that his secret was out.
Stan moved behind the counter and pulled up the photograph. Jay heaved an irritated sigh. “Handwriting? That’s just a font type.”
“That’s what I meant.”
Jay shook his head, knowing the picture was nothing more than a dead end. He took a picture of it with his phone and pushed it back towards Stan. “Where’s that ledger? I want the page covering Stella’s transaction.”
Stan nodded and then seemed to suddenly think of something unpleasant as he pulled his ledger out. “Did you arrest my Sue?”
Jay bit back a laugh, hearing a mix of fear and relief in the man’s voice. “No. My partner will just be asking her some questions. She’ll be back soon.”
Stan nodded and flipped the ledger open then drew in a sharp breath. Jay followed his gaze and a foul curse reverberated around his mind. Where yesterday there had been a page with Stella’s name and then his own, there was now nothing but the ragged edges of a hastily torn out page.
Jay kept his emotions hidden and waited for Stan to meet his eyes. “I was never here, Stan, understood? Neither was your mysterious friend. If you and your wife value your freedom, you’ll make sure she doesn’t breathe a word either.”
Stan gave a whimper and Jay raced back to the cafe to give Dave the signal. He then caught a cab to Pemberton Historic Park while waiting for Dave to tie things off neatly with the gossipers before joining him there.
The thirty minutes that took were like slow torture. Someone was definitely playing some kind of game, or maybe it was merely an early warning system. He breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth, trying hard to stay calm. He focused on the hope that either option meant that Stella was likely alive. Stella had vanished here.
He let his mind run quickly through what someone might find out if they ran his name. If they were average, not much at all. They would get his birth and education in Natchitoches, his driver’s, and his arrest for murder. He felt a grim smile tug his lips. Perhaps that latter revelation would make them think twice about harming her. If the person was above average, then they might be able to realize that he had been a private investigator prior to his arrest, but they would have to be something extraordinary to get anything more than that.
Dave arrived with a huge smile on his face, but it faltered as he took in Jay’s expression.
“Was Stan not as helpful as his wife?”
Jay sighed. “I’ll fill you in later. I got nothing that requires us staying here. Did you get anything to change our previous plans?”
Dave grinned again. “Nope, but my darling crew of nattering, heartless women did give us a possible in to Miranda’s big old house without having to enter through the main gates.”
Jay perked up at once. If he was being watched, then entering through the main gates would have been problematic. Worse, it would give Ms. Williams and her assistant some time to prepare their story for his arrival. If anything, he wanted to give them no time at all. Something very odd was going on here, and surprise was his biggest weapon.
“Lead the way.”
Dave nodded and they began heading to the north edge of the park, but before they reached it, Dave abruptly pulled him into some thick bushes. “It�
��s through here. There’s one more thing I think you ought to know before we actually start trespassing.”
Jay felt a small tug on his lips at the ballsy way Dave had mentioned their intended illegal activity, but gestured for him to go on.
“One of the women is a part-time maid at the estate. She didn’t know much of anything, but she did say one thing that was interesting. Stella’s father is still there.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Stella felt her head spin. In the weeks she had been held in this lightless room, the food had always been sporadically given. At first, she had tried to save some, spread it out a bit, but that had backfired. Whenever food was given, the plate would be collected precisely twenty minutes later, whether it had anything on it or not.
She had no energy to stand and, with the waves of dizziness, was sure she would fall over if she tried. She shifted her weight, and the chains on her wrists and ankles clinked in the dark. Even though the cuffs were padded and her wrists had been neatly wrapped in gauze, she could already feel the damage every abrasive movement caused.
The room brightened slowly as the special lights along the ceiling lit up. In her time here, she had counted in her head and discovered that she got an average of six hours of light a day. Not that being able to see the doorless, windowless room was any help beyond marking days. Apart from her thin mattress, there was a toilet and sink. The entrance used by her captor was a sliding section of wall, with no way to access it from the inside. Twice, she had glimpsed a second door beyond the first and a trellis gate beyond that.
The room was also entirely sound-proofed, inside and out. She never had any warning of when her captor would appear. Though they were always heavily wrapped in a thick, black bodysuit with not an inch of skin showing from head to toe and never spoke, she felt fairly sure that the person was female.
She heard a click behind her and tried to rise obediently, fighting off the waves of nausea-inducing dizziness. Her chains, which fed into the wall beside her mattress, grew longer three times in what she believed was a day. The chains normally only allow her to sit or lie on the mattress. If she didn’t take the opportunity each time to use the toilet or drink some water from the sink, she would have to wait until the next time.
She drank the water sparingly despite the parched feeling in the back of her throat. She then stood and stretched for as long as she could until a second click sounded and she was inevitably dragged back toward the mattress.
She had just sat down when the door opened. They snatched Stella’s arm and expertly drew some blood. Stella didn’t fight. Other than her hard learned lesson that fighting would just cause more pain, this was not harmful to her. She watched as her siphoned blood was carefully added to various solutions and chemical test strips.
Her captor read the results and then pulled two filled syringes from their bag by the door and came over, injecting both into Stella. This, these syringes, were why Stella no longer fought. She recognized a couple of the tests used and knew that the person was checking her vitamin and sugar levels. The injections were to correct the deficiencies. She was fairly certain that this was what was keeping her alive. The person turned and left, leaving no food behind.
She laid down and fought back tears.
Please find me.
Her left hand slid along her right forearm where her bracelet had been stolen. Jay would never believe she was dead unless he saw her body for himself. All she had to do was survive until he found her.
***
Jayden and Dave crept along the edges of the manicured lawns spreading out before the large manor house. It was big, white-washed, and straight out of the colonial era.
He shook his head and looked to Dave, who seemed to be counting the artfully trimmed, conical trees.
“We need to move three trees farther down. We should be able to see the small servants’ entrance then.”
Jay arched an eyebrow as they crept farther through the dense trees that ringed the estate. “Your informant was very thorough.”
Dave grinned.
“Part of my job as a salesman was always to make people feel at ease. Those women… as soon as I had accidentally let slip that I was with their favorite news station, they tripped over themselves trying to be helpful.”
Jayden frowned at the mirth in the other man’s voice. It was one thing to be happy at successfully gaining a good lead and quite another to find tricking people so pleasurable. In the next moment, he had to bite back a self-deprecating chuckle. Had he not been exactly the same? He had. Especially when he had just begun to realize that his quick mind enabled him to gain the upper hand, a natural skill he then spent years refining. Dave was clearly talented. With time, this rush of triumph would fade.
“Is that it?” he asked as they stopped again. A plain, white-wood door stood barely visible between two false columns.
“It matches her description.”
“Incidentally, how did you know which news station was their favorite?” Jay asked as they took a pause to ascertain who was in the vicinity and whether a dash from their copse to the door was feasible.
Dave flashed a set of brilliant white teeth. “I asked a few questions and took the answer from whichever angle they seemed to be coming from.”
“Clever. Wait, does that mean you spent last night reading news articles?”
Dave nodded, his green-blue eyes silently following the progress of a gardener. “I figured that was the best and quickest in.”
Jay gave him a small smile as he looked back. “You know, I am very glad we bumped into each other.”
Dave chuckled then turned back to the door. “According to my source, that leads into one of the pantries. It has two possible exits, one into the main kitchen, which I don’t recommend as we are approaching a normal lunch time, and the other to a hallway. I know how to get from there to the stairs. She said that Miranda Williams spends most of her time on the veranda accessed through the upstairs study. Do you think we should start there?”
Jay glanced at all the windows. With the sun’s glare, it was impossible to say whether or not anyone was looking out at the gardens but they had come this far. He nodded to Dave. “Let’s go. We’ll aim for that study then.”
They left their hiding spot, not running as, if anyone was watching, this would look highly suspect. Instead, they walked at a normal enough speed, heads close and down as if chatting. The scents of many spices tickled their noses as soon as they stepped inside. Jay slipped behind Dave again, giving the man the lead so that they could move without need of conversation.
They entered the hall and both straightened as if they had every right to be there. A servant, coming from the other direction, looked them over once and moved on. They made their way up the grand stairs and through the elegant corridors.
Voices sounded ahead and Jay pulled Dave to a stop. The man looked back at him in confusion, pointing at the door and mouthing the word ‘study’. Jay nodded and placed a finger to his own lips, wanting silence.
A voice he knew well enough was filled with muted anger. “You can’t scare me off. I want answers and I want them now.”
“You need to leave, Mr. Haraby,” said the other voice, feminine but authoritative.
“You avoided me all of yesterday but didn’t have the guts to throw me out. Do you not care about your boss’s life? Why refuse my help?”
Silence fell as the woman, no doubt Bridgette Carmichael, Miranda Williams’ personal assistant, gave no reply.
Jay patted Dave’s shoulder then moved ahead to take the lead. They entered the room unnoticed by the two who were facing each other over a tea table. He leaned against the mantel, getting as close as he dared as Stella’s father spoke again.
“I want everything you know and I want it now so that my man can start working on it.”
She remained silent, and Jay cleared his throat, making them both jump and spin to face him. “I’d like all that information too, unless you want their blood on your han
ds.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Gregory Haraby and Bridgette Carmichael seemed to be sharing one mind for the first few moments following Jayden’s interruption. At last, their expressions diverged, Mr. Haraby’s face settling on a sneer of disapproval while Ms. Carmichael looked indignant.
Neither of them had so much as glanced at Dave, though the other man stood right beside him.
Jay flashed them both his usual, cocky smile. “Forgive the interruption, but my statement was not meant in jest. Time is of the essence after all.”
Bridgette Carmichael drew herself up but Jay forestalled her again.
“Don’t waste your breath trying to scare me into leaving, Ms. Carmichael. It won’t work any better than it did on Mr. Haraby here.”
She turned on Mr. Haraby. “Is this your man?”
Mr. Haraby shook his head at what he had clearly perceived as an insult. “He most certainly is not. The Haraby family will not consort with his kind.”
Jay rolled his eyes, feeling old anger rise. “Stella is missing, and you’re still going to play this game?” He shifted his gray eyes back to Ms. Carmichael. “I don’t pretend to know everything—”
“Don’t you?” Mr. Haraby sneered. “I thought that was pretty much your thing. Empty arrogance.”
Jayden continued as if the man had not spoken. “However, from what I do know, Ms. Haraby is not the only one to have gone missing. I am here to offer my help to find both Ms. Haraby and Ms. Williams.”
“Who are you?” Carmichael asked as Mr. Haraby muttered a profanity.
“I—”
“He’s a convicted murderer, is what he is. Just got out recently, I see.. I suggest you throw him out. Immediately.”
Jayden struggled to keep a grip on his rising anger. His face was descending into a mask that would frighten many. He knew he should stay calm, but Stella’s father seemed to know exactly how to hit his buttons.
Jayden Roe Mystery 02-The Final Lie Page 5