The Dangerous Woman Boxset

by Claire Perry

  He cleared his throat and nodded, looking at his feet.

  “Well, Alice, I’m going to get straight to business. Over the last two hellish weeks, I’ve been given strict orders from the San Francisco Police Department that we need to talk through our disagreements and mutually search for the person or persons that perpetrated Professor Erickson-Law’s murder.” He took an experimental sip of the beer.

  “Whew, buddy. There’s a story in there somewhere, yeah?” Alice folded her arms. He should have known this would come.

  “Ehem. It started when Anita thought that if we had a child, it would make you happy and let her into our family.”

  “Mm, I’d love to have a grandchild, but I don’t see how that makes us even or why I would let a deranged and abusive young woman into my household on account of pregnancy?” Alice bit her lip, forcing herself not to grill him on how she’d told him this woman was bad news. His face said everything she wanted to drill into him.

  “Joe… Is Anita…?”

  Joe started laughing, face turned a burning red. Alice swallowed. There were small cuts under his eyes.

  “What did she do to you?” Her voice was so tender. For an instant, Joe drew back the curtains and deigned to confide in her like a son would in his mother.

  “Well, I said no. To the baby. I don’t want to be a dad yet. I’m not ready… She… There was this bottle of liquor on the table that night and she... She broke it in my face.”

  “Then what? You’ve turned the color of a tomato. Might as well spill, kiddo.”

  “She forced me.”

  “Come again?”

  “She forced me, don’t you get it? Without protection. About a week or so ago. Tied me to our bed and… For hours. She’s been taking pregnancy tests ever since. It was almost like… Like she planned it or something. I don’t know. It’s all crazy. Only, she–ehem–she tested positive. She’s pregnant. She’s pregnant and on top of all of that… People have tried to kill her again.”

  “Okay, slow down. This crazy woman straight up raped you and now she’s expecting? After two months of dating and one month of marriage? With Journey’s killer on the loose?! Son…” Alice’s face pinched, and she failed to recognize the familial death.

  “How do you know that people are still?” Alice choked, appalled as Joe was fighting tears.

  “I fought the whole time to get free. She did some sadistic things to keep me tied down that hurt me. When I finally tore away from the bed, I climbed in her car thinking it was mine because I was kinda out of it.

  “Making a long story short, the brakes had been cut. That’s why the police got involved. This situation is so warped now that they decided we’ll have to work together outside of the civil authorities. It’s like a first line of defense to keep the people around us from getting blown to hell by the pissed ex-boyfriend she also abused and wants to kill her. We might know who already. There was this guy on the street that I bumped with the car. I tried to stop. The rest is evident. He ran when he thought I saw him. It’s kind of obvious he’s the one who did it. Here’s the police sketch.” He pulled a flier out of his coat of a professional drawing framed off his statement.

  “It’s… I figured that you and I had a common goal now. A kid that’s as much your grandchild as it will be my child, despite how he or she came to be… Then there’s Journey. Matt’s sister, Kenny’s wife, your colleague, Anita’s friend that got murdered in cold blood for being associated with my drama. This is bigger than all of this now, so if you and your guys don’t want to end up in body bags, I guess we’ll all have to pull weight together.” Joe nodded.

  “I never dreamed you’d actually admit that…” Alice was pale.

  Joe coughed, eyes twisting in pain.

  “I realized something on the way over. The one person I should have had a child with was the only person who ever loved me so tenderly and exclusively that she wanted to get married before she gave herself to me. That’s why I walked away from Claudia Nagant. Maybe my child would have had a chance in life if she had been his or her mother. Who knows? Don’t let anything happen to that girl, got it?”

  He stood up and without another word, he walked away, leaving Alice to clutch the forensic drawing in a stupor.

  Chapter 5

  If not for Riley Holloway’s counter-measures, the masses would have bled them dry and trampled every shred of evidence they might have had to stop the domino blitz.

  Alice woke up as her pager went into hysterics again. She was in a concert building somewhere in the inner city. Yet another press conference for tipping off the tabloids with false information to keep the public out of the firing line. These pseudo-conferences were a stroke of tactical genius on Matt’s part.

  “Oh, Alice. Here, let me re-do your makeup.” Claudia pressed to Alice’s side. It was only then that the middle-aged tycoon realized she’d fallen asleep with her head draped over a public toilet’s sink.

  “Oh God! I’m a mess. You look beautiful like always.” Alice looked up as Claudia took napkins to her face and tried to dab the effusion of mascara before it soiled her boss’ white pea coat. The pager buzzed again like it was damned. Claudia punched it and it flew across the room.

  “They’re like vultures. It’s so annoying!” She huffed and straightened Alice up.

  “There. A knockout, as always.” Claudia smiled, eyes dancing like the nightlife gypsies. Alice coughed.

  “What’s wrong?” Claudia shifted her shoulders awkwardly.

  “I just… If I’d ever had a daughter, I would have wanted one like you.” She looked at the floor. Claudia patted her shoulder.

  “If this is about… About that day when he came to the office… It’s okay. He’s right. That was a long time ago.”

  “I know, but I hate roping you into all of this crap. Living with PTSD is hell anyway, and you were doing so well in recovery before all the proverbial fecal matter hit the fan.”

  “It would be morally wrong for me to not use my military skills to help you and Matt find the killer, Alice. Regardless of my jaded feelings for Joe, I owe this to you. My own mother died in a car bombing when I was a little girl. I could never live with myself if my surrogate mother figure had the same thing happen to her.” They exchanged a wistful smile. Oh, to belong to another world where they could have peace and enjoy one another’s company instead of fighting for every breath!

  “Alright then, dear. Here’s today’s agenda. We’ll lie to the newspaper again, hang out in the city until the second round of press conferences where we lie to the newspaper a third time, and then meeting up with Officer Holloway and Matt to discuss our daily scavenger findings and what’s next in the world of crime-stopping and family-feuding. Ode to the sweet life!”

  Claudia’s phone vibrated. It was a text.

  “Ah, this one’s from Matt. Actually, I have to meet him. He might have a lead on the guy from the sketch. That’s heavy work, miss. No offense, but it’ll be better if we split up and you get a non-evasive assignment from Officer Holloway.” She nodded with a guilty smile.

  “Mm, look at you always watching my back, girl. I’m cool with that. Heck, I didn’t even want to get mixed up in this. Maybe Anders and I should have had a puppy instead of a boy. Oh my God! I’m a horrible person!” They both giggled wildly and the pager roared a third time. A voice spoke over the intercom, summoning Alice back to the stage.

  Alice clutched Claudia’s forearms. Why did it feel like she would never see her again?

  “Okay, as bad as I hate to let you go… Tonight, let’s go to that one café that stays open until three. I haven’t forgotten it’s almost your birthday, lady. We’ll have some of that marble ice cream cake I told you about.” Alice let go with anxious, shaking hands. Claudia nodded, choking down nerves of her own. They both could feel that something terrible was about to happen.

  “I’d love that, Alice. See you tonight.”

  Winking, she walked away, taking her summer-warm light with her. Alice c
ried as the world visibly dimmed with her absence. She didn’t know why, but she felt it would be many years before she saw that dear girl again.

  ---

  They had both been soldiers in their own right once. She could feel him moving down the streets without seeing or hearing him. It was just a shadow, a dull rhythm of his footsteps driven with like purpose in the not-so-great distance.

  She leaped into the face of the alley that he posed to leap out of, defensive. Both on the edge of madness, they had startled one another’s fighting reflexes. For reasons they couldn’t explain, they stood with their fists locked in an alley behind an old car wash.

  “Ah, it’s just you.” They said it at the same time. Matt smiled and let Claudia go.

  “Sorry. Didn’t hurt you, did I?” He licked his lips, feeling bad that he’d just attacked a girl.

  “Didn’t even break my stride, Matt. Now, what have you got on this pig?” She gently punched Matt’s shoulder.

  “Two words. Footage. Receipts.” Matt counted them off his fingers.

  “Eh?” Claudia rubbed the back of her neck, eyes crossing in confusion.

  “I’ve tapped into the security feeds and have been scanning the register systems of every major establishment within 30 blocks of the area where my sister lost her life. There’s an old bar, a royal dive. It’s called Deuce’s Place. Nothing fancy, but they had several frames last night of a dude that matches the sketch. To the lashes, Cee. I zeroed in on that punk, cleared the camera images. Even bugged the bartender’s phone. They had a lovely conversation about the price of milk and certain brands of cigarettes one might purchase in the bartender’s native Beijing. Then she rang him up and I printed a copy of the receipt from backlogging the system.”

  “I suppose I’m not allowed to ask how you can do all of this, Matt. What I will ask is what can you use the receipt for? I ran a register myself for a little while when I moved to the States. They don’t really say much about the person that paid.” Claudia raised a brow.

  “Well, not at first glance at the paper. But I didn’t just hack the receipt of sales. I hacked into the entire transaction process while the credit card he paid for was processing. My computer read the card’s ID number whilst the Deuce’s Place rang up his drinks. That plus the fact that some restaurants print the card owner’s name on the receipt at the bottom makes this a valuable bit of info for me. I’ve got a name and a card number, so I can track him through the paper trail every time he uses it. Assumed name is Hinton Draper. Here’s his financial report.” Matt pulled a wad of paper out of his coat.

  “Holy Lord. That’s a neat trick you’ve got there. If I ask for a bunny, can you pull one of those out of your coat?” Claudia ruffled her hair.

  “Not that good yet. But we’ve got to move fast to hunt this guy down. See, he spends money like a junkie on the munchies. There’s no guarantee he’ll head back to this dive, so we can’t stake him out. We’ve got to move through the papers, float like the butterfly, fly like the eagle…” Matt was smiling for the first time in ages. She could pull anyone out of the doldrums.

  “Basically, we need to walk like ninjas until we’ve bagged your clown.” Claudia spied Matt’s truck at the end of the street and started walking to it. He followed her, feeling relief rush through him. This was the first time he’d walked into the line of fire with a companion to watch his back.

  Chapter 6

  “Joe. Seriously! I know it wasn’t fun, but we’re going to have a baby! I want to go home and tell my mother I’m pregnant! My car is in the shop. You have to drive me. Please?” Anita stood in the doorway of their huge manor. The twilight was descending. Joe had taken Riley’s advice and was avoiding her altogether for days. He was still frightened by the idea that she might try to abuse him again. What if he lost his temper when she came for him and hit her? Couldn’t she loose the baby?

  “Drive me!” Anita hurled her keys onto the back patio by Joe’s feet. He rose slowly from the lawn chair and scooped them up, raising his hands in mock surrender.

  “Just calm down. Okay? See, we’ll just walk to the garage like regular couples do. You don’t have to force me.” He licked his lips.

  “Yeah, I do! I had to force you to have a baby! You haven’t touched me in three months! That can’t be healthy!” Anita howled and stamped her feet on the floor. Joe swallowed and closed his eyes. He was pleading to the heavens that this wouldn’t turn into another one of her episodes.

  “Baby, I don’t know any other way to say this. What you did to me that night damaged me body, mind, and soul. You’re pregnant and I’m healing. So, yeah, it’s not healthy, but that’s just the way it has to be…” He let out the breath he was holding as she began to soften.

  “Please. Take me to see my mother. Let’s tell her the good news.” She looked down at her belly and suddenly her eyes filled up with tears.

  “Joe. Promise me. Promise me that, you know, if something happens to me… If one of these people that work for your mother actually succeed in killing me–”

  “Hang on! Who said anything about it being my mother’s fault?” Joe bit his tongue. She swatted a massive potted plant off the patio table and it went sailing backward through the house’s back window. It continued rolling, shattered their new flat-screen TV, and knocked over the living room glass top table, breaking it all over the floor.

  “Damn it, Joe! Make up your mind, already! Do you want your mommy or do you want to help me live to raise this kid that you made! You forced me to do it, Joe! I love my body too much for pregnancy, but your Mom was never going to let us live in peace unless we brought a child into the situation. You did this by worshipping her. She’ll always want to hurt me and it’s your fault! You deserved for me to rape you!”

  “God! I don’t want to talk about this! Please, for God’s sakes… I’ll take you to your mother’s house, okay?”

  “Yeah, but if I don’t live much longer, promise you’ll take care of my family, Joe. They don’t have much. Please… The baby, too. If you’re not happy with me anymore, just… Please… Promise me you’ll give our child a home and a family he can be proud of. Make sure he knows my side of it and not just Alice’s.” She spat her name like it were acid.

  “Baby, you know I would.”

  “I want it in writing.”

  “What?”

  Anita pulled a piece of legal paper out of her blouse.

  “I’ve had a budget drawn up. A plan for money that goes to my family and my child in the event of my death. You won’t get stuck raising him that way. You just sign this and they’ll have everything they need to do it themselves.” She produced a pen she had hidden behind her ear.

  “Anita…”

  Anita suddenly slashed out with the pen, piercing it into his cheek and dragging it across his face. He howled and bowed over. She grappled him by his ears.

  “Sign it!” She shoved the pen into his trembling hand. Without thinking, he moved his wrist, watching his name trace to the paper against his will.

  “Now. We’re going to the car and you’re going to drive me to my mother’s so that we can tell them we’re expecting a beautiful new life in our family soon. Wipe your face off. You’re dribbling blood and snot everywhere and it’s disgusting!” She hurled a handkerchief at him. He rose from his knees, a single fist clenching. To save his pride, he decided he would go with her and show her that she couldn’t scare him.

  Chapter 7

  Alice sat in her car behind an old donut shop, dribbling her keys on her knee. Officer Holloway had given her orders. All she was supposed to do was sit here and stake out for the guy in the drawing. This club across the street was the last place that Matt had reportedly seen him frequenting. If there was any chance that he might return here, then she’d have to be ready to call it in.

  Something was wrong about all of this. The street was all too quiet for San Francisco. Alice felt hollow and cornered by her thoughts all at once.

  Had circumstances pushed her an
d her son together in the same way that they had driven them apart? Was it possible that their relationship could be saved through all of this? It was unlikely. Anita had turned on Joe, yes, and he would be loath to trust her anymore after what she’d done. Yet he had history with her that predated the six-month relationship he’d had with Anita White.

  She’d been too controlling of her son. Smiling wistfully, she reminded herself that she had meant well, but it was never the way to reach a willful child like Joe. He mistrusted and was still enamored with Anita. She knew this because if he hated her for what she’d done, he’d have left her in a heartbeat. Joe had always been the kind of man that found it all too easy to walk away. He was resentful of her. In the end, no matter what happened, Alice was certain that when all of this blew over, Joe would choose his wife and even the child he’d reluctantly sired over her.

  Alice sat up, jarred out of her deep contemplations. There were sirens and lights. Had Holloway and Matthew bagged the killer at last?

  “Get out of the car!” An officer leaped from the cab almost before the car had stopped rolling. It took Alice a moment to realize that he was aiming his SIG Sauer at her.

  She leaped from the cab, hands in the air, heart racing.

  “Wait, don’t shoot! There’s been a mistake!”

  “There’s not been any sort of mistake, Alice Cornwell. The guy confessed that you hired him. We’ve got a professor, a young pregnant woman, and an officer I had a very personal relationship with all dead because of you! Get on the ground before I pop you full of shot!”

  Alice dropped to the pavement, wondering what the hell had just happened.

  Chapter 8

  One Hour Earlier

  It seemed to be the hand of Fate that guided them all to that spot at that specific moment.

  “Holloway, get down here! I think we’ve finally got this cat daddy in the bag!” Matt had slapped the phone down, dancing in his seat with relief. The old truck bounced and Claudia rolled into the door, laughing. Before them, standing in the middle of the sidewalk smoking a cigarette, was none other than the infamous Hinton Draper.