Controversy

by Adrianne Byrd

  “Better hope that nothing happens to me.” He chuckled.

  Her eyes narrowed.

  “Look, I’m just going to go check out a few things. See if anyone else has seen this SUV you told me about, run the description of the kidnappers by Griff and my brother at his agency.”

  “Basically, you’re just going to go check out whether I told you the truth.”

  “All of it?”

  “Yes,” she lied.

  He shrugged with a lighthearted smile. “It is a strange story. It would’ve helped if you’d gotten a tag number or something. Who knows, maybe I’ll swing by Sunnyvale and talk to those Damon twins.”

  Michael sat up. “What? Why?”

  “Ah. That got your attention.” His smile disappeared. “If you’ve told the truth, what will it hurt?”

  “Kyson, uncuff me.”

  “I will,” he said. “When I return.” He headed toward the door. “Who knows? If your story checks out—” his eyes dragged over her covered body “—maybe we can see what we can do about lunch.”

  Chapter 26

  “Let me get this straight,” Detective Martinez said, staring incredulously at the Adams clan across the table. “You’re telling me that your sister, Michael Adams, had her ex-husband kidnapped?”

  “Inadvertently,” Sheldon corrected, glancing over at Frankie.

  “Yeah. It was more like she casually mentioned that she’d like to have her ex-husband killed,” Frankie said.

  “She hired hit men?” Martinez questioned, stunned.

  “No. No. Not at all,” the girls tried to backtrack.

  “Uh-huh.” Martinez’s gaze bounced between the two women. “So!” She drew a deep breath and tried to recap. “Michael Adams inadvertently let it slip that she wanted to…harm her ex. Is that better?”

  Sheldon straightened. “See. You have to understand that she was drunk at the time,” she offered the excuse again. “It was a bitter divorce and I guess you could say that she was still a little hurt.”

  “So she wanted to kill him.” Martinez kept leading the conversation back to murder.

  “Yes, but she didn’t really mean it.” Frankie laughed. “If anything, she was joking.”

  “Joking?” Griff cut in. “This joke sure does have a deadly punch line.”

  “That’s just how Michael is,” Sheldon explained. “I’m sure if you were to ask around the department, there are plenty of officers who’ve had dealings with my sister in the past. She’s a prankster.”

  “Oh, we’ve read her record,” Martinez said. “It’s definitely interesting reading.”

  “Right,” Flex said. “It’s never been anything serious. Hell, it’s been years since she’s been in here. She’s calmed down considerably.”

  “Actually—” Griff turned to a thick folder “—it says here she was arrested a year ago in Los Angeles for breaking and entering a prominent doctor’s residence and vandalizing the place.”

  Flex frowned. “She was?”

  “Her and a Joseph Adams—another sister, I take it?”

  “Well, yeah,” Sheldon said. “But that shouldn’t count. Joey was dating the doctor when he just up and dumped her on Valentine’s Day and then said he was marrying someone else.”

  “So you ladies tend to become criminals when men break up with you, is that it?” Martinez concluded.

  “Not hardened criminals,” Frankie said. “Just…you know, those things are just tactics women use all the time to get a little revenge. Surely you’ve been there before.” She tried smoothing her over with a smile. “You’re not going to tell me you’ve never keyed an ex-boyfriend’s car or added a little sugar in the tank or even bleached his clothes when one of them has done you wrong.”

  Martinez cleared her throat. “We’re not discussing me.”

  Griffin cast a sideways glance.

  “I can say, however, that it is unusual to set a couple of thugs out to kidnap an ex.”

  “Okay, I’ll give you that,” Sheldon said. “But to Ray and Scott’s defense they were also drinking that night. They weren’t thinking clearly. They were just helping out an old friend.”

  Flex finally jumped back into the conversation. “Girls, I don’t think you’re helping this situation.”

  “Oh. I’d say they are shedding quite a lot of light on this case,” Griff said, stretching his limbs beneath the table. “Basically what you’re saying is that when we talked to you about Phil Matthews six days ago, he was actually, at that moment, tied and gagged in your sister’s basement?”

  “Right.” Sheldon winced.

  “And you didn’t tell us that because…?”

  “You would have hauled us to jail,” Sheldon said, stating the obvious.

  “I’d like to go on record and say that I didn’t know he was down there until after you guys left.”

  “Frankie!” Sheldon elbowed her.

  “What? It’s the truth.”

  “Anyway—” Sheldon turned her attention back to the officers “—Michael didn’t even know he was down there until she went down to the basement for coffee.”

  Griff remembered the incident well. Michael had returned upstairs behaving strangely—not that she wasn’t odd beforehand. “The whole rat infestation,” he said.

  “Right!” Frankie perked up. “You remember.”

  “It’s sort of hard to forget.” He leaned back into his chair. “I have a feeling you ladies are going to be quite memorable for years to come.”

  “Anyway,” Sheldon said, “after you left, we went downstairs to untie him and explain to Phil that it had all been a huge mistake and misunderstanding.”

  “So you just released him and he went on his merry little way?” Martinez said.

  “Not exactly.” Frankie glanced at her sister. “See, Phil wasn’t exactly in the best of moods—”

  “Can’t blame him there,” Flex mumbled and then quieted when his sisters shot him a quelling look.

  “Anyway,” Frankie continued, “him being hot under the collar, he began shouting and threatening to have us arrested.”

  Griff and Martinez leaned over the table. “Go on,” they said.

  “Well, we tried to make him see reason, but he just remained belligerent until Michael came up with the idea that perhaps he’d calm down once he’d heard from the two horses’ mouths that it had all been a misunderstanding.” She shrugged. “So…we put him in the trunk of Michael’s car and drove him to our sister Peyton’s house.”

  “The trunk?”

  The girls nodded.

  They had successfully silenced the two officers.

  “I know this all sounds bad.”

  “A little,” Griff said.

  “Damn.” Martinez groaned. “How many sisters are there?”

  “Six,” Flex said flatly. “One is just a year old.”

  “You poor man,” Griff said, shaking his head.

  “Look, we were only trying to explain what happened,” Sheldon said.

  “By shoving a tied-and-gagged man into the trunk of a car?”

  “Well, when you say it like that.” Frankie rolled her eyes.

  “How do you prefer I say it?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Flex said, rubbing his forehead. “The point is that Phil was alive when the girls last saw him.”

  “According to them.”

  “And my brother-in-law, Lincoln Carver,” Flex said.

  “He’s involved in this, too?” Martinez asked, struggling to keep up.

  “Inadvertently,” Sheldon clarified.

  “Well, of course.”

  “Lincoln didn’t know what was going on,” Frankie said, “but he was the one to tell us that he saw Phil escaping the car.”

  “So you see, when we didn’t hear from Phil, we thought he’d simply calmed down and was willing to let the whole incident go.”

  “That would have been very big of him,” Griff commented.

  “It wasn’t until yesterday when his death was splashed
all over the news that we knew what really happened.”

  Griff rubbed his palms over his face and drew a deep breath. “Let’s say that we believe this story, why didn’t your sister tell us this yesterday?”

  “Yeah,” Martinez cut in. “Why stick to the lie that she hadn’t seen Matthews for weeks?”

  The family tossed a look around.

  “I’d imagine she was trying to protect us,” Sheldon said.

  “Plus,” Frankie added, “we probably frightened her into believing no one would believe our story.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Martinez said. “I still believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.”

  “Look, lady,” Frankie said, getting up. “The point of the matter is, Phil was alive when we last saw him. And now that Michael is missing and her house has been ransacked, we can’t help but feel her life may be in danger.”

  “Normally,” Griff said, “this would be the time we would ask whether your sister had any known enemies, but I’m almost afraid you’ll hand over the entire White Pages.”

  “Funny,” Sheldon said drily.

  “Thanks.”

  “My sister may have some enemies, but no one that would want her harmed—much. She really is a very lovable person—once you get to know her.”

  There was a knock on the door before Captain Harris poked his head inside and zeroed in on his two officers. “Can I see you two in my office for a moment?”

  “Right away,” Griff and Martinez chorused.

  Pushing his chair back and climbing to his feet, Griff said, “You guys make yourselves comfortable. We’ll be right back.”

  Griff and Martinez quickly marched out of the interrogation room.

  “Can you believe that family?” Martinez chuckled.

  “People like them keep the job interesting.”

  “Yo, Griff,” Richards shouted from across the room. “Need to talk to you.”

  “Can it keep? On my way to the captain’s office.”

  “It’s about the Matthews case.”

  He stopped. “What about it?”

  “Dispatch just took a call from a hysterical neighbor. Said they found a second body at the vic’s house.”

  “Don’t tell me this chick just upgraded to a serial killer,” Martinez said, awed.

  Griff shook his head. “At this point nothing surprises me.” He then shouted back to Richards. “Thanks for the 411.” He continued toward the captain’s office, when his cell phone buzzed against his hip. “Busy morning,” he mumbled. Retrieving the phone, he glanced at the ID screen and almost let it go to voice mail, when he had a change of heart. “Hey, buddy. Now is not a good time. It’s crazy around here.”

  “Tell me about it,” Kyson said. “I need a favor.”

  “It’s gonna have to wait. I’m working on the Matthews case.”

  “You got a break?”

  “Something like that.” He chuckled. “Michael Adams’s sisters are in here confessing to kidnapping the man. Can you believe it? The whole time we were talking to them about Matthews’s disappearance, the man was tied and gagged in the basement. Classic.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah.” Griff stopped. “Hey, buddy. You’re not still messing around with her, are you? Hello? Kyson, are you there? Hello?”

  Kyson disconnected the call and swore under his breath. She had done it again. She had played him a fool. He pulled the car over to the side of the road and roared up at its roof. He had the overwhelming urge to punch something.

  Anything.

  He allowed himself a private tirade when he’d laid into the car’s horn. He couldn’t believe it. He’d actually started to believe her.

  Damn it.

  After about ten minutes, he rolled down the car window and breathed in the thick California air. Finally, he calmed a bit.

  A mile from the Damon twins’ address, Kyson considered going back and confronting Michael. He debated awhile and then pulled his car back into traffic.

  Ray and Scott Damon were packing to get the hell out of Dodge. It worried them that Michael never showed yesterday, but it wasn’t until the breaking news of a body being discovered at Phil Matthews’s residence that the brothers decided that it was worth violating the terms of their probation to get out of California.

  “Do you think that she would drop dime on us?” Scott asked while he continued packing his bags.

  “Man, I don’t even know this chick anymore. What kind of stuff does she have us involved in?”

  “You were the one with the idea of helping her out.”

  “Yeah, but I’m thinking she knew we would help,” Ray said, convinced. “That was why she sidled up next to us that night. The nerve.”

  “I can’t believe she’d set us up. After all we’ve been through in the past.” He threw a couple of shirts into a bag, grabbed his favorite sneakers and looked around the place. “Think that’s enough. We don’t have time to pack everything.”

  The brothers couldn’t believe the situation they’d found themselves in as they raced out the apartment and toward their black SUV.

  Kyson pulled into the small apartment complex, immediately catching sight of the large twins jumping into a black Ford Explorer. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

  He whipped his car into a parking space and reached beneath the car seat for his private registered gun. It was time to get some answers.

  Naomi entered her brother’s home, anxious to see his surprised face when he saw her. Since his car wasn’t parked outside, she hoped it meant she had time to take a shower and grab a nap before he returned. She hated that she couldn’t arrive in time for his birthday, but she thought it was better late than never.

  Walking through the living room toward the staircase, she stopped when she caught sight of a woman’s bra sprawled across the carpet.

  “Celibate my ass.” She chuckled. “Boys will be boys.” As she climbed the staircase and past the master bedroom, a woman’s voice floated out to her.

  “Kyson?”

  Naomi stopped. Who on earth?

  “Uh, no. It’s Naomi,” she answered awkwardly. “I’m, uh, Kyson’s sister. I came in for a surprise visit. Uh, I’m sorry to disturb you. I’m just going to put my things in the guest room.”

  “Oh, please. Could you help me?”

  Naomi frowned and inched toward the door. “Is something wrong?”

  “Well, sort of,” the woman said.

  Curious, Naomi set her bags down and then pushed open the door. Whatever she was expecting, finding a barely covered woman handcuffed to the bed wasn’t it. “What on earth is going on in here?”

  Chapter 27

  Detectives Griffin and Martinez stormed through the interrogation room and barked orders to the Adams clan.

  “Up against the wall and place your hands behind your head.”

  “What?” Sheldon jumped from her seat and stared at the officers in disbelief. “You’re arresting us?”

  Martinez spun Frankie around to face the wall and gave the command again. “Hands behind your head.”

  “Mr. Adams, you’re free to go,” Griff said. “At this moment we don’t have anything to charge you with—at the moment. But don’t go far.”

  “Can you please explain what’s going on?” Flex thundered. “Why are you arresting my sisters?”

  “Ouch,” Sheldon complained when Martinez slapped the cuffs on her.

  “Hey, take it easy,” Flex demanded and then turned back toward Griff. “I don’t understand. We came to you guys.”

  “Yeah, confessing to kidnapping a murdered man,” Griff said.

  “Mr. Adams, I’m going have to ask you again to leave.”

  “Not until you tell me what’s going on. You guys are supposed to go out and look for my sister, Michael.”

  “Oh, we’re looking for her all right.”

  “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law,” Martinez recited to the women. “You h
ave the right to an attorney…”

  “This isn’t right,” Flex insisted.

  “Sir, your sisters are being charged with kidnapping and accessories to murder.”

  “We told you,” Frankie said, nearing hysterics. “We didn’t kill anybody. Hell, we didn’t really kidnap Phil.”

  “That’s for a jury to decide,” Griff said. “Sir, please leave.”

  “Sheldon, Frankie, don’t worry I’m going to get you out of here,” he assured, heading toward the door.

  “Call Billingsley,” Frankie pleaded. “Tell him to get his butt down here.”

  Flex nodded. “I’m on it.” He rushed out the interrogation room, but was delivered another shocker when he reached the waiting area.

  Right there in the front of the station, his extremely pregnant sister, Peyton, and her husband, Lincoln, were being arrested.

  Marlin looked near ready to have a stroke. “Someone tell me what the hell is going on! I want answers!” He saw his son approaching and he raced forward. “What’s happening? Where are Sheldon and Frankie?”

  “Pop, I’ll tell you later. Let’s get the kids out of here.”

  “No! You tell me what’s going on!”

  An officer cleared his throat. The two men whirled around.

  Griff stood with a terse look. “Mr. Adams,” he said to Flex. “If you know where your sister Michael is, I suggest you tell her to turn herself in.”

  “What in the hell do you mean ‘if we know’?” Marlin stepped before his son. “That’s the damn reason we came here. She’s missing, you idiot!”

  Unfazed, Griff continued, “We located Michael’s car parked at the Great Mall. Our crime techs have processed it and found blood that matches our vic, Phil Matthews.”

  Marlin paled and then clutched at his arm.

  “Sir.” Griff blinked. “Sir, are you all right?”

  Flex turned toward his father and noted how he struggled for breath. “Someone, call an ambulance,” Flex shouted. “I think he’s having a heart attack!”