Fatal Game

by Diane Capri

  “It was all we needed. In theory.” Palmer nodded. “I mean… I didn’t really know, but Lawson said he had done it before up in Chicago and it worked well. We could get in for relatively little upfront capital investment and reap big rewards when we sold the business.”

  “Only this time, it didn’t work out that way, did it?” Mercer said.

  Palmer straightened his back and shook his head again. “We closed down the company, and that was it.” He paused. “So, now that I’ve answered your questions, you answer mine. What’s all this about?”

  “Goldleaf Construction,” Jess said. “What can you tell me about them?”

  “I never met them, but they were the builders.” Palmer frowned. “Like I told you. Lawson had done this before. He was the one organizing everything. He was in charge. You should really be talking to Simon.”

  “How about David Warner? Did he have anything to do with the builders?” Jess asked.

  “You’d have to ask him.” Palmer shrugged. “Like I said, Lawson mostly kept us out of it. I looked at all the figures and the projections. It seemed like it would be a sound investment.”

  “So what happened? How did it go wrong?”

  “Simple accounting. We needed to keep raising financing, but the banks in Santa Irene wouldn’t loan forward like in Chicago.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Once you get one bank to loan on it, the others just follow. That’s what Lawson said. We tried, but we couldn’t get the first loan. So that was it. We chased the money for a while. Pushed on longer than we wanted to, trying to hold on. We got Goldleaf to do as much as they could. Lawson worked them pretty hard. Got them to invest a ton, and drove them to economize on everything.” He paused, shrugged. “But it wasn’t enough, and we all knew it. Some investments go bad. Win some, lose some. That’s just how it goes.”

  Jess looked around the expensively furnished room. “You’re not poor. You could have put more money into it.”

  Palmer shook his head. “We could have. All of us. But getting it up and running would have required a couple of million or more. That’s a lot of money and a bigger risk. We might not have been able to sell it for a profit if we invested that much. So we cut our losses after the banks rejected us.”

  “And wrote the loss off on your tax returns, huh?”

  He shrugged. “Our liability was limited. Argnot declared bankruptcy. Pretty easy really. We had a lawyer handle it.”

  Jess glared at Palmer. She breathed to calm her anger before she spoke. “It was easy for you because Goldleaf Construction was left holding the bag. Goldleaf lost everything.”

  He shrugged again. “Goldleaf was a construction company. They would have set up a separate company for that job, too. No great loss.”

  “Except Goldleaf wasn’t a separate company with limited liability. Goldleaf was owned by one man. With a family. Benny Kemp.”

  “Well, obviously I didn’t know.” Palmer shook his head, sorrowfully.

  “He went bankrupt,” Jess said.

  Palmer went a little green around the edges. “Well, I’m sorry… I really am, but that’s business.”

  “Benny was hurt building your emergency room. Probably because he was cutting corners to help your plan,” Mercer said. “In fact, it was Benny’s injury on the construction site that halted construction and caused local banks to deny your loan applications, wasn’t it?”

  “I didn’t know.” Palmer frowned. His hands gripped the arms of his chair, white-knuckled. His voice a whisper.

  “Benny Kemp lived the last couple of years in a wheelchair, with excruciating pain. He died two weeks ago, Dr. Palmer.” Mercer’s tone was cold, hard, unyielding. “His widow said Benny’s cause of death was a staph infection he contracted during that first surgery. Didn’t respond to antibiotics.”

  Palmer opened his mouth, but no words came out.

  “You probably know Benny’s brother, Norman Kemp?” Mercer smirked. “Professionally, he uses the name Hades.”

  Palmer’s eyes widened, and he shook his head. “The criminal? The leader of The Devil Kings gang?”

  “The one and only.” Jess nodded. “You remember Hades, don’t you? He killed Dr. Warner’s driver and kidnapped Dr. Warner’s wife.”

  Jess interpreted Palmer’s expression as sheer horror.

  “Hades is a ruthless killer, Dr. Palmer.” Mercer’s tone was laced with glee. “And you’re the reason his brother is dead. We don’t have to wonder how Hades plans to deal with you, do we?”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  Wednesday, May 24

  Santa Irene, Arizona

  Jess watched Palmer’s composure crack into splintered shards. “How did you fund this scheme? You didn’t have a spare hundred grand lying around, did you?”

  Palmer licked his lips. His mouth must have been dry as dust. “Warner and I referred patients to Lawson. It was completely legitimate. Doctors do that. Send patients to specialists when they need a specialist’s help.”

  There was a long silence.

  “Sending Lawson work wasn’t enough to make him rich, was it? Only so many patients he could see in a day,” Jess said. “So, he scammed money off the insurance. That’s how you and Warner and Lawson found the three hundred thousand startup capital.”

  Palmer pressed his lips tight together and looked at the ground.

  Jess shook her head. “Weren’t you scared when Karen Warner was kidnapped?”

  He screwed up his face and shook his head. “Do you really think Hades took Karen because we couldn’t get financing for that emergency room?”

  Palmer was in deep, and he knew it. His expression was pained. Jess hoped he felt that pain for a long time.

  But he had a point. She stood and gestured to Mercer.

  “We need to talk.” Without waiting for a reply, she left the room and walked outside to the cruiser.

  Mercer followed. “What the hell are you doing?” He gestured back to the house. “We need to keep the pressure on him.”

  “If Karen hasn’t been kidnapped and killed as everyone assumes then she has left Warner and joined Hades. But she wouldn’t have just decided to do that. Not simply because some building deal went wrong. She had been getting to know him for some time before.”

  Mercer nodded. “We know that. The calls to the salon.”

  “Right. But suppose the relationship starts before the emergency room deal goes south.”

  Mercer cocked his head and narrowed his eyes.

  “Lawson was pushing Goldleaf to get more done with less money, to cut corners.” She waved her hand toward the house. “But Hades probably wouldn’t even know about that, let alone be motivated to get involved with kidnapping and murder.”

  Mercer’s eyes widened. “He did it for Benny.”

  Jess nodded. “I think so. It makes sense. Benny gets hurt, and his company goes bankrupt while he’s lying in a hospital bed. It’s the last straw. And Hades has a direct line right into the people that made it all happen.”

  “So he frames Warner. But Warner wasn’t the main man on this deal or he wouldn’t be in prison. Palmer and Lawson are still living large. If Hades is settling scores, surely he would have dealt with them already. Guys like Hades have notoriously short attention spans.”

  “Maybe he has.” Jess nodded. “These people have plenty of secrets. Blackmail could be one more thing on the list.”

  Mercer unlocked the cruiser. “Like you said, it makes sense.”

  “How about we take Palmer’s story to Lawson, get his story, and then take everything we know to the FBI. They want Hades. Maybe we can give them something that will help.” Jess held up her phone. “I have Lawson’s address.”

  Mercer got in the car. “Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  Wednesday, May 24

  Santa Irene, Arizona

  Hades sat at Lawson’s computer. He refreshed the display for the thousandth time. The number hadn’t changed. The money hadn’
t been transferred.

  He walked the length of the living room and back. He hovered his hand over the refresh key, backed away, and walked the length of the living room again.

  Julia said, “I’m getting itchy staying here.”

  “It will happen, right?” Pony said.

  Hades nodded. “The brokers fell for it. If there was any trick or trap, they would have sprung it by now. We just have to be patient.”

  Hades pressed the refresh button.

  Pony grunted. “Very patient.”

  “It’s going to happen.” Hades sat on the sofa with a heavy thump.

  The house phone rang. Hades jumped up. The phone was on a tall table in the hallway. He reached it not having made his mind up whether to answer.

  It was a modern phone. The ring wasn’t a real bell. A speaker played a canned tune. He picked up the handset. He put his thumb on the on button, but he didn’t press it. The phone had an answering machine. If it was the broker, if there was any problem to deal with, he would be better off knowing what the broker had to say and having a plan before he spoke in person.

  He let the handset dangle at his side. The ringing was replaced by Lawson’s recorded voice apologizing that he couldn’t come to the phone. There was a bleep, and the caller spoke.

  It was a man. He sounded agitated. Out of breath.

  “Simon. Arthur. I just had a police officer and some woman journalist at my place. Digging into Argnot. Playing good cop, bad cop. Threatened to get a warrant and things. Then they just drove off.” Simon cleared his throat. “I didn’t tell them anything. So…well, if they turn up at your place? Call me.”

  Arthur hung up.

  Hades dropped the handset back onto its cradle. He could feel the adrenaline coursing through his blood.

  Police? Journalist? He laughed. An interesting addition to his “farewell to Arizona” plans.

  “Could be the woman from Bear Hill,” Pony said.

  “Could be.” Hades grinned and pulled his VBR from its holster. “Get ready for company.” He looked it over before tucking it away.

  “Get the gas. It’s time to break the news to our hosts.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  Wednesday, May 24

  Santa Irene, Arizona

  Pony and Shorty hustled. They carried two five-gallon gas cans each. It was a short trip, from the garage through the back door and into each room in the house. They laid the cans on beds and chairs before running back to the garage and repeating the cycle. It took six trips to bring all the cans into the house.

  Hades brought in a backpack. Inside were two-dozen small cans. He unscrewed the metal caps and pulled out a thick wick. Inside was a viscous liquid similar to Sterno. It was a slow burning compound that thinned with heat and soaked into the wick. Once lit, they were almost impossible to put out. He placed two of the cans in each room.

  He met Cora, Julia, and Pony at the entrance to the basement.

  Cora had a bundle of blankets. Pony had two cans of gasoline.

  “Shorty is keeping watch,” Cora said.

  Hades nodded. “Ready?”

  “Are we sure the money is going to transfer?” Cora asked.

  “As sure as we can be. Whether it’s transferred or not, the police are getting close. We need to move.”

  No one argued.

  Hades flipped on the lights to the basement, and they descended the steps, leaving Julia upstairs in the hallway.

  Pony set the gas cans down in a corner. Cora piled the blankets beside the cans.

  All three Lawsons were where they had been left. Simon and Natalie on the floor stretched between the tie-downs. Amanda taped to a chair secured to a pillar.

  Pony removed their blindfolds.

  “The transfer hasn’t gone through yet, but we’re preparing to leave,” Hades said.

  Lawson made no reply.

  “Sorry we had to put you through all this, but you must have been expecting something. Eh, Simon?”

  Lawson frowned.

  Natalie twisted to look at her husband.

  Hades smiled. “Didn’t he tell you?” He mocked astonishment. “Oh, perhaps he doesn’t know? Or perhaps he’s just being the same old Simon he’s always been, and he doesn’t care.”

  Natalie’s head twisted to look at Hades and her husband.

  Lawson shook his head and frowned.

  Hades walked a circle around Lawson, mocking. “A couple of years ago, Natalie, your husband here planned to build an emergency room. Good location. An area that needed medical facilities. A noble plan. Simon and his doctor friends helping the community. Giving back.”

  Simon raised himself a few inches on his elbows. “I don’t understand.”

  Hades turned to Natalie. “Did he tell you why he didn’t build the emergency room?”

  She didn’t reply.

  “We ran out of money,” Simon said.

  Hades tipped his head back and laughed. “Ran out of money!”

  He stretched his arms out to either side. “Ran out of money? You live in a house worth millions. You have spent your life making money. One scheme after the next. You had twenty-three million hidden in an offshore account.”

  Natalie looked bewildered. “Is that true, Simon? Twenty-three million?”

  “Oh, it’s true, Natalie.” Hades leaned toward Simon.

  Lawson shook his head, not yet panicked. “We ran out of money, and couldn’t finish it. We just couldn’t get the bank to loan more money.”

  Hades kicked Simon in the side. Viciously. Above the hips, below the ribs. A soft, fleshy, unprotected area.

  Lawson screamed and tried to curl up from the pain. He struggled against his bonds and the tie-downs that held him straight, cuffs cutting into his skin.

  “How much, Lawson? How much were you planning to make on the deal?”

  “It wasn’t like that,” Simon gasped. “It was…”

  “Oh, for the love of God, Simon. Man up.” Hades spat and kicked Simon again. Amanda screamed behind the duct tape covering her mouth. “You were in it for yourself. And when you thought the deal wasn’t working out for you, you decided it shouldn’t work out for anyone else, either.”

  Simon was crying now. “I-I-I don’t understand.”

  “You and your pals were okay. That’s all you cared about. What about the people working for you, huh? What about them, Simon?”

  Lawson whimpered. His wife stared at him, her eyes wide. He breathed hard. “I didn’t have a choice.”

  Hades’ fury unleashed itself. He kicked Simon again. “What choice did you give them, Simon?”

  Kick. “No choice at all.”

  And again. He’d have killed Simon right at that moment. Cheerfully. But there was more to do first. For Benny.

  Hades took a deep breath and managed to tamp down his fury. “Julia! Julia, come down here!”

  The basement door opened, and Julia descended. She glowered at Simon, whimpering on the floor, snot running from his nose. “You probably don’t remember me.”

  He shook his head slowly.

  “We met once. At the building site. Before the scaffolding fell.”

  Simon’s silent whimpers were his only reply.

  “You knew all about it!” Julia screamed, fists balled at her sides. “You sent Benny a hundred dollars in a cheap get well card. After you watched us lose everything.”

  There was a long silence.

  “You killed him, Simon. His children have no father now. You’re scum, Simon Lawson. You deserve whatever happens to you.” Julia took deep breaths. “One thing you didn’t know about Benny. Something important.”

  Hades peeled off his mask. “Take a good look, Simon.”

  “Meet Benny’s brother,” Julia said.

  “Hades?” Lawson whispered.

  Hades’ lopsided grin was grotesque. “In the flesh.”

  Natalie spun her head around and buried her face in her hands. “No, no, no, no.”

  Pony and Cora peeled off their
masks.

  Simon gasped. His breath caught in his throat. He inhaled in short bursts. “Karen Warner? You set this up? You put David in prison?” He shook his head violently, side to side, as he cried. “But why? Why?”

  “Think about it, Simon. You knew David well enough to know how he treated me. Controlling bastard. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” Karen smiled. She dropped the mask onto Simon’s crotch, turned, and walked upstairs.

  Julia reached up and kissed Hades on his scarred cheek. “Thank you for this, Norman. Benny would be so proud of you.”

  Julia followed Karen out of the basement while Simon and Natalie and Amanda pleaded. Their voices tumbled over each other. One after another. Begging, begging, begging.

  Hades shook his head in mock exasperation. “Goodbye, Simon.”

  He followed Karen and Julia up the steps and left Pony to pour ten gallons of gasoline over the blankets, the floor, and all three Lawsons.

  All three of them were miserable excuses for human beings. They would burn here and burn in hell.

  He would never waste an ounce of energy on them again.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  Wednesday, May 24

  Santa Irene, Arizona

  Mercer hustled the cruiser through the traffic. He reached for the siren on a couple of occasions, only to curse and take his hand from the switch.

  “I know this feels like an emergency, but remember that what Lawson, Palmer, and Warner did happened more than two years ago.” Jess ran her fingers through her hair and tried to get comfortable amid the cables and equipment crowding her seat. “Getting to Lawson quickly now won’t fix what they did back then. We have to be clever about this.”

  Mercer glanced across the console. “Lawson set Hades on the path that killed my son-in-law, and Ernie and Jackson this week, Jess.”

  “Did he? Palmer might have been lying. Covering his own ass.” Jess paused to gentle her tone. “And anyway, that situation is not your case. As much as you’d like it to be.”