by Harris, Lisa
Mason’s black, older-model Chevy pickup fit his personality. Rough around the edges. Solid. Reliable. He opened the passenger door and let her climb in. On any other day, she’d have been impressed by the chivalrous act, along with the fact that there were no fast-food wrappers lining the dashboard and no junk mail littering the floorboards. Add to that, the truck smelled like cinnamon and not Chinese takeout. She remembered Michael teasing Mason for being so clean. He’d countered that after dozens of undercover jobs and all-nighters with messy partners, having a clean car had become an obsession.
She stared out the window as they drove away from the school and squinted. Gray clouds, swirls of white snow, tree-lined streets … Everything seemed out of focus.
“Tell me what’s going on, Mason.”
“First of all, the officer sent to stay with Tess while your father spoke with the captain is missing.”
Emily felt a sick feeling sweep through her. “What else?”
“Tory found video footage of Mrs. Cerda being shoved into a van this morning, a half a mile from the hotel where she works.”
“Which proves what? That she was kidnapped? That Rafael really was innocent? If someone had been manipulating him, using his mother as a way to control him, then Rafael shouldn’t have died.”
“Emily—”
“They killed him, Mason. How could that have happened?” A sick feeling flooded through her. “He was being manipulated, they knew it, but still put him in a position where he was forced to defend himself.”
“The situation’s complicated.” Mason’s hands gripped the steering wheel as he made a left turn on a green light. “After talking to the captain, I believe that the person who manipulated Rafael—and is behind Tess’s abduction—is someone inside the department.”
“Wait a minute.” His answer took her by surprise. “You’re telling me a dirty cop has taken my niece?”
“We found a bug in Avery’s office. There’s a good chance that whoever planted the bug overheard my conversation with your sister this morning. Someone is sweeping her house for a second bug right now as well.”
Emily trembled. Four months ago, someone had broken into Avery’s house. How many nights had she spent time with her sister sharing from her heart since then? To think that some stranger had been listening in sickened her.
Mason stopped at a red light and flipped on his blinker. “While I was in the classroom with you, they were able to track down the radio transmitter on the ear bug Rafael was wearing. They found that same van two blocks east of the school. Someone was telling Rafael what to say. And that isn’t all they found.”
He paused, as if he were trying to give her time to process everything he was telling her.
“What else did they find?”
“Mrs. Cerda was in the van. She was bound and blindfolded so she can’t identify the man who had been in the van with her.”
“What happened to him?”
“He managed to slip away.”
Silence swept between them as he turned off onto a winding residential street where the branches of the trees met in the middle of the road. She glanced at the street sign, her frustration growing, as he pulled in parallel to the curb, turned off the motor, and turned toward her.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“It’s a safe house. This is where your father wanted you to go, but first there is one more thing you need to know. Rafael … he isn’t dead, Emily. He’s inside with two FBI agents.”
“What?” Emily tried to blink back the confusion. “Wait a minute. I heard the captain shoot him. Saw them carry him out in a body bag …”
“They faked his death for his own protection.”
“What?”
“I promise you I didn’t know anything about this while I was in the classroom with you, but the captain received information that convinced him that, one, Rafael was being manipulated, and two, if they let him walk out of that school alive, they would likely have been killed.”
She tried to let his words sink in. “So you’ve been lying to me this whole time.”
“I didn’t know about any of this until right before I came to get you. And the problem is, we still don’t know who all the key players are in this, which means the fewer people who know, the better. The captain agreed that you needed to know.”
She looked at him, wanting to beat her fists against his chest. “Who knows about all of this?”
“The captain. Your father. Jackson, Charlie, and one or two other officers.”
“It was a crazy plan.”
“I convinced the captain to let me tell you the truth.”
“And that’s supposed to help me feel better?” She regretted the bitterness in her voice, but the emotional roller coaster she’d been on the past few hours had spun her nerves on edge. She pressed her fingers against her temple. “I’m sorry.”
“Forget it. You’ve been through a lot today.”
“Which still doesn’t give me the excuse to be snippy.”
“You have every excuse to be snippy.” His smile helped break down some of her defenses. “But for the moment, I need your help.”
“How?”
“The captain is hoping we can get some information from Rafael. They thought your being with me when I talk to him would help since you’re close to him. And you’d be safe.”
“Why did they choose Tess?”
“We don’t know yet, beyond the two-million-dollar ransom they didn’t get the first time.”
Emily closed her eyes. The back of her head throbbed. She would do anything to help find Tess, but she couldn’t simply dismiss her skepticism. “Can I be honest?”
“Of course.”
“I keep reminding myself that Michael trusted you. Rafael trusted you, my father and even I trust you, but none of this makes sense. Why should they trust you? My sister has a paper trail of evidence that she intends to use to put you behind bars, and she’s never kept any of it a secret.”
“The captain has had me investigating Michael’s death since the funeral.”
“But Avery doesn’t know?”
He shook his head. “We have proof that someone has been feeding her false evidence—presumably our mole. If that person finds out we’re looking for him, we could lose any advantage we currently have.”
“But you don’t know who the mole is?”
“No, but for him to have risked such a payoff, I have to believe we’re getting close.”
“So he—or she—needs that ransom money before they can disappear?”
“I believe so. Yes.”
Which would make them desperate. “What can I do?”
“We need to find out what Rafael knows.”
She tried to push aside the lingering slivers of fear that kept resurfacing. This was why she’d chosen the career path she had. She had no desire to get caught up in a game with such dangerous stakes. But neither could she turn away and do nothing.
She felt Mason’s hand close around hers, looked up at him, and caught his gaze, wishing he could promise her everything would be okay. That they would find Tess and all of this would be over.
“Will you help?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “Let’s go talk to Rafael.”
21
Emily walked up the paved sidewalk toward the single-story house in one of the city’s quieter neighborhoods and tried to wrap her mind around everything Mason had just told her. She studied the mixed brick and siding on the exterior of the house, but all she could see was Rafael being carried out of the school in a body bag.
And none of it had been real.
“How do you think Rafael is?” she asked.
“Scared. Confused. Here you’ve got this quiet, straight-A student suddenly thrown into a situation he doesn’t know how to handle with some pretty serious consequences.”
She tightened her grip on her bag. “I’m happy he’s alive, but also so angry at whoever tried to manipulate him.”
“I’d s
ay being angry is right on par. I know I’m angry.”
“Especially knowing all of this happened over the love of money.” Emily stopped to face him along the sidewalk, winter chill slicing through her coat as she tugged at the top button. “And beyond what happened today, there will be emotional scars that linger long after all of this is over.”
“It’s one of the things I’ve had to deal with head-on over the past few months.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve come to believe that God hears our prayers and wants what is best for us, but I’ve seen enough to know that man’s choices often go against God. He doesn’t always stop people from making stupid choices that affect those around them.”
Like Rafael. Like Tess.
Mason stopped at the front door. “You know I can’t make any promises about the outcome, but I can promise you this: We’re going to do everything we can to find Tess. We’re going to take this one step at a time. And step one is talking with Rafael.”
Emily drew in a deep breath, then nodded and walked into the entryway of the house in front of Mason. The room smelled musty, as if no one had been living here recently.
“Emily, this is Agent Bradley and Agent Pierce, with the FBI. They’ve been brought in to help.”
Emily nodded at the officers and wondered who’d assigned them to the case. Knowing who to trust wasn’t going to be easy. “It’s nice to meet you both.”
“We’ve gone through some preliminary debriefing with Rafael,” Agent Pierce said, “but waited for you to get here, as the captain requested, for the official interview.”
“Thank you, Agent Pierce.”
Emily followed Mason into the living room and saw Rafael standing in the middle of the room, the normal smile on his face gone, his eyes vacant. Today had changed him forever. She threw aside any teacher-student protocol, crossed the room, and gave him a hug. “I can’t believe you’re alive.”
“I’m sorry … so sorry,” he began. “I never wanted to hurt anyone. I just … I didn’t know what to do.”
“I’m just glad to see you’re alive.”
“I am too.” Mason shot him a smile.
Rafael turned to Mason. “I told you about the threats to kill my brother this morning, but then they called and told me that they had my mother as well. They said I was taking too much time and they were convinced they weren’t going to get their money.”
“I know. She’s safe now.”
“And my brother?”
“The doctors still aren’t sure if he’s going to make it. The bullet did a lot of damage.”
“When can I see them?”
“I promise we’ll arrange something soon. At least for you to see your mother.”
Rafael leaned against the back of an overstuffed armchair and dropped his gaze. “Where were they keeping Eduardo?”
“Emily’s sister and her team found him in a funeral home not far from here. That’s where he was shot.”
“Has he been able to talk to someone? Explained that all of this was a mistake? He’s not involved in the cartel and selling drugs.”
“Not yet.” Mason motioned for Rafael to sit down in the chair while he took the couch beside Emily. “But our police dogs found drugs in your house hidden under the carpet in your room.”
“No.” Rafael shook his head. “That’s not possible.”
“And there was also a large amount of cash.”
“I don’t believe that.” Rafael’s voice rose a notch. “He had to have been set up somehow.”
“I know you care a lot about your brother, but you have to know that not only do we believe he was involved in selling, more than likely it was on a big scale.”
“No … not Eduardo.” Rafael chewed on his thumbnail. “I’ve worked hard to keep my family together. To make sure that my brother stayed off the streets … stayed off drugs.”
“No one’s blaming you, Rafael.”
“But they should.” Rafael pressed his fingers against his temples. “I keep thinking of all the things I said while I was in the classroom. I was so scared and didn’t know what to do. He kept telling me what to say. Telling me that they were going to kill Eduardo and my mother if I didn’t do what they wanted. And the whole time I heard my mother crying in the background.”
“I promise you’ll be able to see her, but in the meantime we need your help. Tess is missing.”
“Tess? I don’t understand.”
“We believe there’s a connection to what happened this morning with whoever is behind Tess’s disappearance. Someone didn’t get the ransom money, so they’re hoping for another way to collect.”
“So they took Tess?”
“Yes. Now I know you’ve already given your statement,” Mason continued, “but I want to walk through this morning’s timeline again and see if we’re missing something. Hopefully, we’ll find a clue that will help us find Tess.”
Rafael nodded. “You know I’ll do anything.”
Mason pulled a notebook from his pocket. “Some of these questions I’ve already asked you, but start with yesterday morning when they took Eduardo.”
“I was up late studying for a calculus test when they barged in through the front door. It all happened so fast.”
“Did you get a good look at the men who took him?”
“No. There were three of them, but they wore black masks.”
“Did you tell anyone about his abduction?”
“Only you.” Rafael shook his head. “They threatened to kill him if I said anything.”
“What happened this morning?”
“I couldn’t stop thinking about Eduardo. I searched our home and didn’t find anything. Maybe I only wanted to believe he was innocent, but Eduardo is smart and stays out of trouble. I thought everything was okay.”
Mason scribbled down a few notes before asking his next question. “Where did you go after you spoke to me this morning?”
“I took my mother to work. I drive her there every morning before school because we only have one car. Today I told her she should stay home. She was exhausted from not sleeping and worried about Eduardo, but she told me if she missed work she would lose her job, so I went ahead and took her. After that, I got the phone call that they had her too.”
“Did you talk to anyone else after that?”
“No.”
“Tell me about the phone call.”
“It was a blocked call, no number, and one of those … those garbled voices. They told me that they had my mother too. That plans had changed. That they no longer were interested in just two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. If I wanted my family to live, I had to do what they said.” His eyes filled with tears as he looked away. “I didn’t want to do it. You have to believe me. I didn’t know what to do. It was … is … like some awful nightmare.”
“I know.” Mason leaned forward. “Tell me what they told you to do.”
“They told me to go to the park across from our apartment building. There would be a blue backpack in the southeast trash with an ear bug, a hat, and a gun. I was to take what was inside and leave the bag in the trash.”
“Any markings on the bag, any identification?” He’d make sure officers searched the area, but more than likely it would just be another dead end.
Rafael shook his head. “No. Nothing.”
“Did you see anyone at the park? Maybe a car following you, or someone acting strange?”
“I don’t remember.” Rafael’s foot tapped against the carpet. “I was so scared. I knew I should call you back, but they told me they would be watching my every move, and if I didn’t do what they said they would kill my mother. I didn’t know what else to do. And shooting Philip … it was an accident. You gotta believe me. He came at me, grabbed the gun, and it went off.”
“No one is blaming you for what happened, Rafael.” The compassion in Emily’s voice was evident. “I’m not sure I would have made a different choice, given the same circumstances.”
“They kept putting my mother on the line. She was crying. They swore they were going to kill her if I didn’t say what they told me to say.”
Rafael’s love for his mother and brother struck a chord with Mason. Whether or not the boy had made the right decision to walk into a school with a weapon was a question a judge would have to answer at some point, but even with the extenuating circumstances, one fact remained clear: Rafael had been willing to sacrifice everything to ensure his family’s safety.
He couldn’t say that about his relationship with his own father.
“So while you were in the classroom, someone watched what you were seeing via the video camera in the hat, and talked to you through the ear bug.”
“Yes sir.”
“Did he ever use a name? Anything to identify who the other person might be?”
“No. He would just tell me how to respond, and if I didn’t do it right, he’d threaten my mother’s life.”
Mason leaned against the back of the couch. He’d prayed that Rafael could give them their next lead, but so far nothing he’d told them was particularly helpful. Before he finished, he did have one more question.
“You did well, Rafael. Mentioning the scholarship to Penn State was a clever move that convinced Miss Hunt you weren’t behind this.”
Mason’s phone rang. He checked the caller ID. It was his brother. He glanced at Rafael and Emily, wondering if it were possible that his day could get any more complicated. He should be here helping Rafael. He should be helping Emily find Tess. He should be halfway across the country with his brothers and father.
He excused himself and moved across the room to take the call. “Craig? Hey. How’s Dad?”
“Mason … Listen, I know you have a lot going on, but Dad’s going downhill fast. He’s running out of time.”
He’d checked the flights. The last one out tonight left for Denver at six forty. He’d never make it.
“There’s a five forty-five flight out in the morning,” Mason offered. “I’ll try to be on it.”
“And if that’s too late?”
He hated the guilt. Hated the bitterness that stood in the way of forgiving. “I’m doing the best I can.”