Pursued

by Lisa Harris

  “Do you think she knows something?” Nikki asked.

  Dogs barked in the distance.

  “I don’t know, but something feels off,” Jack said.

  Nikki felt the hairs on her arms rise, and she picked up her step.

  She glanced around. Two Doberman pinschers were tearing around the corner of the house across the manicured lawn and were headed right toward them.

  “Jack …”

  He looked back. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  They were halfway toward the front gate that was still shut.

  “Maria!” Jack shouted.

  But the dogs were closing in on them. Nikki could hear their loud barks as they got closer. There was no time to call for backup. No time to even have Maria call them off.

  “Run!”

  Nikki sucked in a deep breath of air to fill her lungs, forcing every last ounce of energy into her legs. The gate was still closed and the dogs were closing in on them, barking ferociously. Lungs about to burst, she could hear them rustling through a narrow row of bushes as they raced across the side lawn and onto the driveway behind them.

  God, I’ve got nothing left here.

  Today had managed to zap every ounce of energy from her—both physically and emotionally.

  “Do you think they’re friendly?” Jack shouted, lengthening his stride beside her.

  “I’m not planning to find out.”

  The security gate loomed ahead of them. Nikki tried to yank back on the side door, but it was still locked. Why hadn’t Maria opened the gate for them? Glancing back one more time, she made her decision. The dogs would be at the end of the driveway in a matter of seconds. To the sides of the gate, the stone wall surrounding the property was too high. The only chance they had was to scale the front gate.

  Scrambling up the fencing, Nikki used her legs to push herself straight up, then over the top. Momentum carried her over the rest of the way. Seconds later, she dropped down on the other side of the fence and onto the sidewalk next to Jack.

  Heart racing, Nikki braced her hands against her thighs to catch her breath while the dogs barked frantically against the fence less than a yard away. She glanced back at the dogs, glad she hadn’t waited to find out if they were friendly.

  Today had already held too many close calls.

  “You okay?” Jack asked.

  “Yeah,” she said, trying to slow her breathing. “What about you?”

  Jack tugged on the side of his gray dress shirt. “Besides the hole in my brand-new shirt? I’ll live.”

  “You think we should bring in the maid for more questioning?”

  “I think she’s too scared to tell us whatever she knows.”

  Nikki slid into the driver’s seat of her car, heart still racing from the surge of adrenaline. She couldn’t shake the frustration. Justin Peters was dead, and they were no closer to finding Erika and Lily. They needed Brian Russell, and she was tired of playing games.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked, dangling the keys in her hands.

  “I’m wondering if the FBI knows about this house.”

  “Think we need to let Brinkley in on our discovery?”

  “Only if it helps us get a search warrant to let us in.”

  “What if it’s already too late? What if he’s already found Erika?”

  “We’ll get him, Nikki.”

  She banged the palm of her hand against the steering wheel. “If this isn’t just a witch hunt … if Brian Russell is guilty, then I’m not sure we will. You know these kinds of guys as well as I do. They surround themselves with lawyers and corrupt accountants who spend their time making sure the boss doesn’t get caught. They’re immune to the system.”

  “He might think he’s immune, but no one truly is.”

  She started the engine. A driver heading their direction turned on his blinker toward Russell’s driveway.

  “Wait a minute,” Nikki said as she pulled away from the curb. “That’s a BMW.”

  Jack leaned forward as the car made a U-turn in front of them, then headed back down the street. “I can’t tell who’s inside with the tinted windows.”

  Nikki pressed on the accelerator. “You’d think that at least one thing could happen today that didn’t involve a chase or a crash.”

  “Sorry,” Jack said, “but it’s not going to be this time.”

  Nikki sped down the street after the car, past winding acres of green trees and million-dollar estates. She took a sharp right turn behind the BMW, then slammed on her brakes to avoid another vehicle speeding around a corner toward them.

  A second later the black BMW they were following exploded in a ball of yellow and orange flames.

  19

  11:23 a.m.

  Near Brian Russell’s residence

  Nikki’s Mini Cooper skidded to a stop fifty yards from the burning car. Her mind scrambled to compute what she’d just seen. For one, this was no accident. Someone had just triggered a bomb and blown up what she was going to presume at the moment to be Brian Russell’s car. And if Russell was dead, another link to finding Erika and Lily had just disappeared.

  “What in the world just happened?” Jack jumped out of the car.

  “I don’t know.”

  Nikki followed him onto the sidewalk and quickly called for backup. Black plumes of smoke filled the air, along with yellow-and-orange flames and the acrid smell of burning oil. She took a hesitant step backward, wishing she could see inside the driver’s window. But no one could have survived the explosion. The front of the car was already a twisted metal shell, and even standing at a safe distance, she could feel the heat of the flames as the vehicle continued to burn.

  She punched in Gwen’s number.

  “I need you to do a title search on a black BMW as quickly as possible,” Nikki said as soon as Gwen picked up.

  “Okay. Go ahead.”

  Nikki gave her the Tennessee plate number, barely legible now at the back of the burning car.

  “Give me a second for the results. What’s going on?”

  “We’re near Brian Russell’s residence. A car just exploded.”

  “Exploded?”

  “We think it might have been Russell’s vehicle.”

  “Wait a second. I’ve got it,” Gwen said. “And you’re right. He purchased it just over a month ago here in Nashville. Was he in the car?”

  “No way to tell who was in the car at this point.”

  “Anything else I can do?” Gwen asked, her voice barely audible over the sirens now blaring in the background.

  “Yeah. Get a judge to sign a warrant for us to search the premises of Brian Russell’s Nashville home.”

  A minute later, first responders arrived at the scene—an ambulance and a fire truck. Twenty minutes later, the quiet upscale street had been marked off with yellow tape and turned into an official crime scene that partitioned off the tree-lined road. And official personnel weren’t the only ones on the scene. Neighbors gathered in the background, and the explosion had brought the media and their cameras into the swanky neighborhood.

  Nikki ignored the shouts of an over-eager journalist while she waited to speak to the assistant medical examiner, who was busy with his on-scene evaluation of the body.

  “Do you know him?” she asked Jack.

  “I worked with him a few times while running homicide. His name’s Dr. Torres. He’s good at what he does.”

  Dr. Torres and his assistant carefully removed the body from the burned-out car and placed it onto a stretcher. If they were going to talk first with the man, now was the time.

  “Is there any way to identify the body at this point?” Nikki asked, walking up to the ME and introducing herself. “There’s the possibility that this ties in with a critical missing persons case.”

  “Heard you were working missing persons now, Spencer,” he said, nodding at Jack. “I’m also going to assume you both realize that what’s left of the body is badly burned. The intensity from the explosi
on would have killed them immediately.”

  “What are you thinking?” Nikki asked. “Homemade bomb?”

  “Looks like shrapnel here,” he said, pointing to a sliver of metal. “But I’ll leave that side of the investigation up to you.”

  “Understood, but we really need to know who was in this car.”

  “You’re going to have to give me some time. Like I said, there isn’t much to go on, but judging from what’s left of the clothing and hair, my guess would be that it’s a woman.”

  “Wait a minute.” Nikki glanced at Jack. “A woman?”

  “I should be able to confirm the actual identity once I can do an official autopsy, but for now, I’d say yes. There’s a distinctive woman’s ring on the victim’s right hand.”

  “So if it isn’t Russell,” Jack said, “then who is it?”

  “Wait a minute,” Nikki said. “Can we see the ring?”

  She breathed in the strong scent of burning flesh and pressed the back of her hand against her mouth and nose.

  “Our victim’s right hand must have been somewhat protected against her body during the explosion.” Dr. Torres wiped off the smudged stone. “It’s a ring. Unique. I’d say a purple amethyst with diamonds in the center.”

  Nikki took a photo of the ring with her cell phone.

  “I’m sorry, but that’s all I’m going to be able to give you at this point. Touch base with my office in twenty-four hours, and I’ll try to have something for you.”

  Nikki frowned. Twenty-four hours was going to be too late.

  “It’s definitely not Brian,” Jack said, walking away.

  “Do you remember seeing that ring on his ex-wife when she came in?” Nikki asked.

  “No, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t wearing it. I might be a detective, but when it comes to women’s jewelry—”

  “Wait a minute.” Nikki pulled Jack away from the line of reporters while the ME loaded the victim into his van. “The housekeeper said there was some kind of mix-up with this car. She’s got to know something, and she might even be able to recognize the ring.”

  “We’ll need to let Brinkley know what’s going on,” Jack said as they headed for Nikki’s car.

  “Why?” Nikki held up her hand, avoiding the press’s request for a comment. “He has this annoying habit of showing up where the action is. I have a feeling it won’t take him long to find out about this.”

  “Maybe, but tell me this,” Jack said. “Who do you think might have wanted Russell dead? Assuming he’s the target.”

  “If the FBI’s right about what he’s involved in, it seems like a pretty long list to me,” she said, pulling out her keys. “For starters, Dimitry Petran.”

  “Silence is a powerful motivator.”

  “Exactly. If Russell is getting sloppy, why not just take him out?” Nikki looked back at the burnt-out BMW. “And whoever was in this car got caught up in the middle.”

  Maria met them at the gate this time.

  “We need to talk to you again.”

  “If this is about the dogs, I’m sorry. You have to believe me when I say it was an accident. I had no idea they’d gotten out. They are usually locked up except for at night, but today … I don’t know what happened.”

  “Someone let them out,” Nikki said, gauging her demeanor. The woman looked terrified. “Perhaps the owner of the car parked in your drive, or perhaps Mr. Russell himself.”

  “No … no, he would never do anything like that.”

  “Who else is here, Maria?” Jack asked.

  “Just Mr. Russell’s accountant, Mr. Olson. He dropped by to pick up some papers.”

  “And Mr. Russell. Have you heard from him yet?”

  “No. I’m sorry.”

  “When we were here earlier, you said there was a mix-up with Mr. Russell’s BMW. We need to know what you meant.”

  Maria’s gaze flickered to the driveway. “I already told you, it was nothing important.”

  “I think it is. In case you don’t know what just happened, a car exploded down the road from you. A black BMW with a license that matches your boss’s.”

  “No …” Maria’s shoulders heaved. “That’s not possible.”

  “Who was driving that car? Because we know it wasn’t Mr. Russell. Maybe a girlfriend—”

  “No.” Maria’s gaze dropped. “No, you must have made a mistake.”

  “A woman is dead,” Nikki said. “We need to know who was driving that car.”

  Maria kneaded her hands in front of her. “She wasn’t supposed to take the car. I shouldn’t have let her, but she can be so persuasive. She promised me he wouldn’t find out, so I gave her the keys.”

  “Who wasn’t supposed to drive the car, Maria?”

  “Mrs. Russell.”

  “Brian Russell’s ex-wife?”

  Maria nodded. “She came by to see me this morning. Told me she needed to take her car into the shop and needed to borrow Mr. Russell’s car. I told her she would have to talk to him, but I couldn’t get ahold of him and he was already gone for the day. She told me it would be our little secret. That she’d have it back before he returned. So I let her take it.”

  “When was she supposed to return it?”

  “Today. But she never came back.”

  “Do you recognize this?” Nikki held up the photo of the ring she’d taken at the crime scene. Purple amethyst with rose-cut diamonds in the center.

  “Sí. That was hers. Mrs. Russell’s. It was a family ring. Belonged to her great-grandmother, I think.” Maria looked up. “So you are telling me that Mrs. Russell is dead.”

  “I’m sorry, but yes.”

  “Why would someone try to kill her?” Tears welled in the woman’s eyes. “She wasn’t even supposed to be driving that car.”

  “Maybe they weren’t trying to kill her,” Jack said. “Maybe they were trying to kill Brian Russell.”

  “I don’t understand. Why would anyone want to kill him?”

  Nikki’s phone rang. She grabbed it on the second ring.

  “I’ve got your warrant,” Gwen said. “And a team is headed your direction right now to help you search.”

  Nikki hung up, then nodded at Jack. “Maria, do you know what a search warrant is?”

  “A search warrant … they talk about it on those cop shows.”

  “It gives us permission to search a residence. And we have one for Mr. Russell’s home.”

  “Mr. Russell isn’t going to like this.”

  “I’m sorry, but it’s the law.”

  Movement out of the corner of her eye caught Nikki’s attention. A middle-aged man, balding, heavyset, and with wire-rimmed glasses, headed for the silver Mercedes-Benz in the driveway. He was carrying a briefcase.

  “Who’s that?” she asked.

  “That’s Mr. Olson. Mr. Russell’s accountant.”

  Jack stayed with Maria while Nikki hurried down the driveway.

  “Where are you going in such a hurry, Mr. Olson?” Nikki held up her badge. “I’m Special Agent Nikki Boyd with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Would you mind stepping away from your car?”

  Mr. Olson set down his briefcase. “Is there a problem, Officer?”

  “We’re looking for Brian Russell. Do you know where he is?”

  “No.” Mr. Olson’s face reddened. “It’s been a few days since I’ve seen him.”

  “Were you supposed to meet him here?”

  “No. I just came to pick up some papers he left for me.”

  “That’s odd. Maria told us Russell had arranged to meet you today. And your car was here when we stopped by the first time. I’m wondering if you had anything to do with letting out the dogs.” Nikki nodded toward the side of the house. Jack and Maria had walked up to stand next to her.

  The man wiped his brow with the back of his hand. “No, of course not. Maria told me about the incident—I was in Brian’s office, collecting the paperwork.”

  “We have a warrant giving us permission to se
arch Mr. Russell’s house. Since you clearly have some of his papers, I’d like you to come inside with me for a chat while the house is searched so you can tell me exactly what Mr. Russell told you to pick up.”

  “I really don’t think that’s necessary. He just asked me to go through some paperwork in connection to one of the charities he works with—”

  “It wasn’t a suggestion, Mr. Olson. And Maria, if you’ll open the gate, please, for the other officers who have just arrived.”

  The inside of the house was as opulent as the outside. Hardwood floors, a stone fireplace, and modern kitchen open to the living room and dining room.

  Mr. Olson hesitated in the entryway.

  “Why don’t you have a seat?” Nikki pointed to one of the high-backed chairs in the dining room while officers in uniform began to search the residence under Jack’s direction. “You seem nervous. Is there something you want to tell me?”

  Mr. Olson looked around the room, his right hand gripping the handle of the briefcase, then finally took a seat.

  “You’re Mr. Russell’s financial advisor,” Nikki began, sitting down across from him.

  “Yes.”

  “Can I assume the two of you are pretty close?”

  “I’ve known him for a long time.” He pulled out his cell phone. “Which is why I need to contact his attorney. He’ll want to know what’s going on—”

  Nikki leaned forward. “Mr. Olson, an attorney isn’t going to change what happens next. And I’m going to need to give the briefcase you’re holding to my partner.”

  “You can’t do that.”

  “I can,” Nikki said. “Because the papers you have in your briefcase—papers you told us are Mr. Russell’s—fall under the search warrant we have.”

  The man’s grip on the case only tightened.

  “There isn’t a problem, is there, Mr. Olson? I mean, if your client has something to hide—”

  “No … of course not. Take the papers.” He dropped the case onto the table between them. “But you won’t find anything in them that incriminates Brian.”

  “We’ll let the FBI decide that, but in the meantime, I want to tell you what I think happened. Mr. Russell asked you to come by the house to pick up some of his files from his office. Files that had the possibility of being incriminating. Files that he didn’t want the police to find in a search. Is that what happened?”