by Tracy Sharp
I looked at him, through a haze of dull, throbbing sinus pain. “You know all the cues of somebody who is lying,” I said. We both did. Jack had taught them to me. Taught me to pay attention. People usually say more with body language than they ever do with their voices. “If you say he isn’t responsible for her disappearance, then he isn’t. But who is?”
Jack ran his tongue along the inside of his lower lip. Something he does when he’s trying to figure something out. “I want to speak to this medical assistant of his. Vicky something.”
“Sounds good. When we get back.”
“I can do it, Leah. You need to rest.”
“I’ll rest now. I’ll be fine.”
He shook his head. “Jesus, you’re stubborn, you know ?”
“That is part of the reason you love me, Jack.”
He gave me a crooked grin and I thought a slight blush colored his cheeks for a second. “One of the reasons. But you drive me crazy.”
“You wouldn’t have it any other way.” I felt my own cheeks grow warmer. But then, I was sick. So it could’ve just been the bug I’d caught making me feverish.
I closed my eyes and dozed the rest of the way. When the car stopped, my head was killing me.
“Jesus Christ. I can barely see right now. This headache is brutal.”
“Just wait here. I’ll go talk to the brother.”
I kept my eyes closed. I heard the click as Jack turned on the power locks.
I wanted to protest but I knew he was right. I wouldn’t be much good right now. This had to be what migraine headaches felt like. I’d never had one before, but I could definitely sympathize with anyone who suffered with them now.
I had no drugs to take. I’d sell my soul right then and there for aspirin. A nice, hard bat to the head to knock me the hell out would be good. Anything to make the pain go away.
A knock on the window almost made me jump out of my skin.
I squinted against the bright day to see Hailey Jacobs standing outside the truck, giving me a little wave. She looked around her, her eyes shifting this way and that.
I reached over to the key, turning it in the ignition just a click to be able to get power to turn the window down.
“Hailey? What are you doing here?” I was in no shape for lucid conversation, but I really wanted to know. Her being outside this truck at this moment, in Philly, didn’t make sense to me, except that she must have information for us.
She leaned down, her face just outside the open window. “I need to talk to you.”
I opened the door for her. “Jump in.”
“Actually, can you come to my car? I don’t feel comfortable here.”
I frowned. “Why not?”
“I just need you to come to my car. Please.”
I looked back to see her indigo Lexus parked down the street. She had tinted windows. Maybe she didn’t want to be seen.
I pushed out a breath. I really wasn’t in the mood for these reindeer games. But, whatever. “Okay.”
Closing my eyes for a moment to get my bearings, I tried to will the pain away as I opened the door and climbed out of the truck.
She’d stepped back, and her hands tucked into the pockets of her long, cashmere coat.
She stood back, as if she wanted me to go first. This seemed a little odd to me, but because of the blinding headache, I couldn’t put my finger on why. As we approached her car, I caught her reflection, walking behind me, in the passenger window. Her face was taut as she continued looking around us, her eyes wide and slightly wild looking as she stayed behind me.
I saw my brows furrow in the reflection. Something was definitely not right here.
My hackles went up, and as I turned to confront her I saw her hand lift from her pocket, gripping a gun.
What the hell?
“You’re fucking kidding me, right?” I said. I really wasn’t in the mood for this shit.
“Does it look like I’m fucking kidding?” She said. The word ‘fucking’ didn’t sound right coming from her mouth and I almost laughed. She was all jacked up. I could almost see her nerves jumping under her skin.
I sighed. “What? You’re in with Adrian?”
Her gaze twitched this way and that. Nervous as a cat. “Look, I’m the one with the gun here. Just get in the car.”
I laughed, and the pain seemed to bloom larger behind my eyes. “Oh, Hailey, Hailey, Hailey. I’ve been held at gunpoint by pros. What are you going to do? Shoot me in the street? Judging from the way you’re holding that gun, I wouldn’t guess that you’re an Ace shot. So I don’t think you’ll get me in the head unless it’s by accident.”
Her hand shook as she tried to aim the gun at me.
“So my guess is that you’ll hit me in the arm or leg, after which time I’ll come after you, knock it out of your hand and kick your skinny ass. And this will all make the media, by the by. I’m sure you’ll look cute on the news when your country club friends see what you’ve been up to. Especially, when they see you being hauled away in cuffs.”
She blinked.
“Yeah,” I said, smiling. “Pretty image. I can’t wait.”
She shifted from one foot to the other. “Just get in the car.”
“Hell, no. I won’t get in the car.” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against her car door, getting comfortable. “So who is it? Adrian’s husband? Have you been doing the horizontal bop with him?”
She watched me, face panicked.
“I sure hope he’s worth it, sweetheart. Hope you had a really good time, because you’re going to spend a lot of time being big Cindy’s bitch behind bars. At”
Jack came out of the house, spotted us, and drew his .45, moving swiftly and quietly toward us.
“So was that all bullshit? The story about Adrian taking your baby? Did you borrow that story from some poor girl who actually experienced it?”
“No,” she said. “It was true.”
“Revenge? Get her back by stealing her husband?”
She shook her head, tears running over her cheeks. Her hand shook as she kept the gun somewhat trained on me. “He pursued me. Took care of me…after what she did.”
I barked out a laugh. “Hailey, he was a part of it. Don’t you know that?”
She was openly weeping now, little cough-like sounds coming from her, shaking her shoulders. “But he fell in love with me. Said we could start a life together.”
“But that never happened, did it?” I watched her, feeling only slightly sad for her. “Hailey, you know there are others, don’t you? He was with another woman just last night. Jack and I saw them.”
I saw pain in her eyes, and he shoulders slumped. Yes, she did know.
“So what are you doing?” I asked her. “Why are you willing to go to prison for him?”
Jack came up behind her and pressed the barrel of his gun to her back. “Same reason all those women fell for Gabriel’s horseshit.”
I knew Jack was right. Looking at the ruined, pathetic woman in front of me, it was obvious that she wanted to keep believing in Adrian’s husband because she’d invested so much of herself in him. She had no identity without him, and was still grasping at the dream. The carrot he dangled in front of her.
She didn’t want to admit that she’d given up her baby to the black market, when she might’ve had a fighting chance of getting him back and into a legitimate adoptive home. Might have. But she had never even tried.
I shuddered to think what else she might’ve done for him. What other deeds.
“Don’t you want to get him back for what he’s done to you all these years, Hailey?” I asked her.
She looked down at the ground, seemed to consider it, as if the thought had never entered her mind. Finally she nodded, swiping at fresh tears with her free hand. “Yeah. I do.”
“Then help us,” I said. “And we’ll help you. For real. No bullshit.”
She lowered her gun, the fight gone out of her. “Why should I believe you?”
***
After a short stop at a drugstore for painkillers, which I popped four of and swallowed down with the tar-like coffee they sold, we found a hole in the wall place that had a pub-like atmosphere. Despite the pain, I was hungry, and something about having a gun pointed at me had done something to dull the agony some. It must have been the adrenaline pumping through my veins.
I ordered a hot chocolate and a cheeseburger with fries. I needed the cocoa to make me feel better; I am a woman after all, and the fatty food for comfort. I’d been through the ringer with this case, and I was starting to feel like I’d stepped into the twilight zone.
“So,” I said to Hailey. “What’s the deal? What does Adrian’s husband want with me?”
She shrugged and shook her head. “I really don’t know, to tell you the truth. I don’t usually ask questions.”
“You just do what you’re told. How nice for him.” I sipped my hot cocoa, reveling in the heat.
She lifted her gaze to mine and her eyes narrowed. “What do you know about it? I bet you’ve never had a shitty thing happen to you in your entire life.”
I smiled at her. “Yeah. That’s me. Just skipping through life on hope and sunshine.”
Jack leaned forward, pinning her with his gaze. “Look, Hailey. You have to know something. He had to have told you something. Don’t bullshit us.”
Hailey sighed. “I think it was a scare tactic.” She looked at me. “I’m supposed to bring you to a house on the outskirts of town and leave. I don’t know exactly what they have planned, but I know that Mark isn’t a killer.”
I rolled my eyes. “Are you kidding me? Mark isn’t a killer? Okay assuming that he hasn’t been a killer up until now, how much further on the no-conscience scale do you think stealing babies is? From letting them languish in foster homes because they have a sniffle? From allowing the babies and children to die from neglect? How many notches down do you think shooting a pesky P.I is from kidnapping?”
She stared at me.
“How long do you think it’ll take good old Mark to decide you’re not useful to him anymore, and that maybe you know just a little too much? That maybe he’d be a whole hell of a lot safer if you were completely out of the picture?”
Her eyes widened slightly.
“And how many other grateful, helpful girlfriends does he have, who are willing to do just about anything for him?” Jack asked her. “Hailey, for Christ sake. Use your head.”
“What exactly has he done for you?” I asked her.
“He paid my rent.” She picked at the wooden table. “He put me through college.”
“He doesn’t give you money now?” I asked her.
“No.”
“So is this your way of working some of that money off?” Jack asked.
Hailey said nothing. Didn’t look at us.
“Look,” I said. “It doesn’t matter. The fact is, he’s pretty much done with you. He’s just using you to do his dirty work, and it’s only a matter of time before he has one of his other girlfriends cancel your ticket.”
She remained silent, kept her eyes on the table.
“Hailey,” I said, leaning forward and softening my tone.
She looked up at me.
“It’s time to stand on your own two feet. You don’t need him.”
She was silent for a long moment, then she said, “I…I don’t know how to do it without him.”
All this time she’d been thinking he was her rock. That he protected her, shielded her.
“Wow,” I said. “He performed one hell of a mind-fuck with you, you know that?”
Hailey nodded. “Yeah. I know that now.”
“I’m betting you knew it then,” Jack said. “But you thought you needed him.”
“I needed somebody,” she said, her face suddenly alive with intensity. “I had no one. I thought my life was over. I thought I was stupid and worthless.”
“And he knew it,” I said. “And he went in for the kill like a wolf sensing weakness.”
Just like Gabriel had done. Just like any cult leader does. Anyone who wants to exploit others for their own gain. And I could see how it could happen.
Just the night before I was feeling hopeless, weak and utterly lost. But I had Jack. What about people who had no support system? Somebody like Mark would be like a hand pulling them out of quicksand.
“You don’t need him anymore,” I told her. “And he doesn’t need you. He has others to do his dirty work for him now. Get out while you still can, Hailey.”
In her eyes I could see the reluctance to let go of the dream. But I could also see resignation. She knew we were right. She had known for some time that Mark Mandell was just using her. She just hadn’t had anyone else to throw her a life line.
After a long moment she lifted her gaze to mine. “Mark and Adrian have opened another adoption agency.”
“Do you know where it is?” Jack asked her.
“Yes. It’s in Clifton Park.”
Two spiders weaving a new web right in our part of town. How convenient.
And how unbelievably bad for them.
***
Vicky lived in a quaint apartment complex in Clifton Park. Her balcony afforded her a view of the frozen man-made pond which sat in front of the structure. In summer, a water fountain emerged from the pond and showered water into it. Ducks swam laps in the water and sat around, and old men sat on the edge of the water, fishing rods in hand.
“Are there actually fish in that pond?” I asked Jack.
“I don’t know.”
I frowned a little. Maybe it’s just the action of having a fishing rod in their hand. Like the way I carried one of my guns around the house, unloaded. Sometimes, just to feel the weight of it in my palm.
Vicky lived on the third floor. Apartment 301. Dr. Clemmons had given up the information pretty easily when Jack called. It seemed he was beyond hiding anything anymore. He just wanted his wife home. He said he just wanted her back. He wanted Emily back, his unborn daughter.
It was Jack’s impression that he wasn’t seeing Vicky any longer. It’s funny how priorities change when reality knocks you on your ass.
Vicky’s shadow darkened the peep hole as she peered through it. She opened the door without hesitation. She was a beautiful girl. Hair feathering her cheeks in a shoulder length shag, large green eyes which blinked innocently at us now. “Jack and Leah?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Garrett told me you’d be dropping by to speak with me.” She stepped aside to let us in. “Please come in”
“Thank you,” Jack said. “Just a few questions.”
“You’re not actual police, are you?” She said, her eyes round and naïve looking. But I knew better. Plenty of men bought this act, I was certain, including Garrett Clemmons. But Jack wouldn’t be one of them.
“No, we’re private investigators looking into the disappearance of Dr. Clemmons’ wife. Alexia.” Jack watched Vicky’s face closely.
Something dark seemed to move over her gaze like smoke, and then was gone. So fast that if someone weren’t paying attention, they would’ve missed it. But Jack and I always paid attention. Close attention.
“That’s just awful, isn’t it? What do you think happened? She was just there one day, then gone the next.” She shook her head and tilted her face to the floor while keeping her eyes on Jack.
If I weren’t in the room I was pretty sure she’d be the picture of coquettish seduction.
“We don’t know. That’s what we’re trying to find out,” I said.
She turned to me, her eyes narrowing a little and her lips turning down slightly. “Right.”
I was definitely cramping her style.
She placed a hand on her kitchen counter and pushed out one hip. This was all for Jack’s benefit. I glanced at him. He was watching her like he would some strange new species of bug.
Part analysis, part awe. She was a piece of work.
“I’m not sure how I can help you. I know Garrett told you that we’ve been…close.” She tilted her head and looked up at Jack from under her all but fluttering lashes.
I thought I was going to either laugh or be sick. Or both. Not necessarily in that order. “Yes, he did mention that.”
“I don’t know anything about his…wife…except for what he’s told me. I don’t know her personally.” Vicky ran a finger along the edge of the counter top.
“What has he told you?” Jack asked.
“He said that they weren’t getting along. He thought she was having an affair. They weren’t close anymore. They’d lost their connection. When that happens, it’s pretty much game over.” She looked up at Jack. “Don’t you think so?”
He shrugged. “I couldn’t say.”
She smiled at him, a secret, closed lipped grin.
“What have you been talking about all this time? You’ve been seeing each other for months. You’ve gone away with him quite a few times, haven’t you?” I asked her.
Her body stiffened a little and she ran the fingers of one hand through her hair. “We talk about work, mostly. Believe or not. I am his medical assistant.”
“You don’t make plans together?” I was pushing her and enjoying every second.
Her face hardened. “Sometimes.”
“I would hope so, if you’re his bed buddy. Unless that’s really all you are.” I tried not to smile. It was hard.
“We’re friends,” she said, a hard edge to her tone.
“How nice,” I said. “But not for Alexia. She’s still missing, along with their unborn baby girl. They’ve named her Emily. Did you know that?”
“She named her Emily,” Vicky said quietly.
“I beg your pardon?” I said, leaning in a slightly. “I didn’t get that.”
“Garrett said that she named her. Not him.” Vicky wouldn’t say Alexia’s name. She kept to she.
“You mean Alexia,” Jack said.
“Yes. Who else would I be talking about?” She lifted a hand up in the air. A harsh, wave like movement.