In Too Deep

by Lynn H. Blackburn

  “Ideally? Even with Mike helping, it will be at least a couple of weeks. Maybe longer because of the holidays. And I wouldn’t recommend trying to get warrants until we’ve gone through everything we currently have access to.”

  “But if it’s going to take that long to get all the data, why wait on the warrants?” Gabe asked. “Why not ask for them now?”

  “I know you want to be doing something, and I realize you may be under some pressure to show that the investigation is moving forward,” Sabrina said, “but what if we find evidence that a judge is involved and you’ve asked that judge for a warrant?”

  “That would be bad,” Gabe agreed, “but when we have enough evidence, I know exactly which judge I will trust with this.”

  “I’m glad,” Sabrina said, “but I’m still holding out hope for the forensics team searching through Lisa Palmer’s house to uncover something. A key to a safe deposit box. A fireproof box. Something.”

  Gabe scoffed. “Sabrina, the odds—”

  “Aren’t good. I get that. But so far we’ve found her laptop and her briefcase. She knew people were watching. She wrote a note to Adam on her body, for crying out loud.” Sabrina pointed to the photographs on her computer. “She laminated those photographs. Who does that? And then she threw them in the lake in broad daylight. Why would she do that unless she’d already thought through the fact that they wouldn’t be ruined in the water and the investigator she wanted to talk to was on the dive team? She was determined to get this information out, and I’m not convinced she didn’t leave more evidence for us to find.”

  Sabrina had to pause to take a breath. “Before we start trying to tap Barclay Campbell’s phone or trace his internet usage, I think we need to keep searching for what Lisa Palmer already put together for us. She died for this information, and regardless of how many bad decisions she made in her life, it looks like she was trying to set things right in the end. I would like to honor that.”

  No one spoke. Sabrina wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or not. Gabe, Anissa, and Ryan stared at the floor, but Adam caught her eye. The look on his face was indecipherable to her. Was he disappointed? Frustrated? Embarrassed by her little speech?

  “You’re amazing,” he said.

  So, not upset.

  Gabe cleared his throat. “Anyone else feel like they just got taken to the woodshed?” Four heads bobbed. “Dr. Fleming, when you get all rational and logical and passionate at the same time, you are a force to be reckoned with.”

  “That she is.” The look on Adam’s face had shifted to one she was beginning to recognize. It was the look that made her skin tingle.

  Ryan rubbed his hands together. “Okay. What’s the status of Lisa Palmer’s house?”

  “Still too hot to handle,” Gabe said. “But we may be able to start sifting through tomorrow. Definitely by Friday. I’ve warned forensics we’re going to need to look through everything. I’ll be out there when they get started.”

  “Who’s going to be in charge of that work?” Anissa asked.

  “Dante,” Gabe answered.

  “Good. He’s the best.” Ryan turned to Adam. “What’s the status of Lisa Palmer’s banking and financial accounts?”

  “The banks have been cooperative, but there’s no record of her having a safe deposit box, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Adam said. “I sent the forensic accountant all the banking records, and she’s looking through them for anything suspicious. She doesn’t know anything about the human trafficking angle—she’s just tackling it as she would any other potential homicide.”

  Ryan nodded at Gabe. “It’s your case, bro. Anissa and I don’t have anything else to add from the dive team aspect. We searched the entire area around the car and came up empty. Forensics has the car itself. Sabrina has the hard drive. And we have no reason to suspect Lisa Palmer threw anything else in the lake.” He glanced at Anissa. “I’m not trying to speak for Anissa, but I think I’m safe in saying this. We’ll help you any way we can.”

  “Definitely. Anything.” Anissa’s agreement came fast and firm.

  “Thanks.” Gabe cleared his throat. “I don’t know what we’ll run into in the weeks ahead, but I’m sure I’ll be calling on you for something. I just wish we could make it go faster.”

  “I have one suggestion,” Ryan said. “We need to think of ways to get ourselves in proximity to some of these victims. Maybe if we could talk to them, or at least start to get an idea of who they are, get some photographs, start trying to find out how they got here and what their status is, maybe we could get someone to trust us enough to talk to us.”

  “It’s a great idea, but I can’t afford to stay at The Porterhouse.” Gabe rubbed his thumb and fingers together in the universal sign for money. “Or eat at The Back Door. And the senator sure isn’t going to be inviting—”

  “The Back Door. That’s it.” Adam’s voice held a mixture of triumph and despair. “I can’t believe I missed this too.”

  “Missed what?” Three voices joined Sabrina’s.

  “The charity gala on Friday. I could be wrong, but I think there will be a whole bunch of victims present.”

  Sabrina saw nothing but confusion on everyone’s faces.

  Ryan found his voice first. “What makes you say that?”

  “The Back Door,” Adam said again.

  Gabe had circled around and flopped back onto the sofa beside Anissa. “You aren’t making sense, bro.”

  Adam shook his head like he was trying to clear his thoughts. “The Back Door is providing the food for the gala, and the gala is happening at The Porterhouse.”

  Anissa slid over to create some space between her and Gabe. “And you think if the workers at The Back Door are being trafficked, then they might be at the gala and it will take all of The Porterhouse staff—who may also be slaves—to accommodate the people for the gala?”

  Adam paused before he answered, and when he spoke there was sadness in his voice. “I do.”

  Gabe rubbed his hands together. “Now we’re getting somewhere. I’m going to need you to give me all the dirt you can on this gala.”

  Anissa elbowed Gabe. “Be nice.”

  “What did I do?” Gabe rubbed his rib cage. “That hurt.”

  “Adam’s mother started the Christmas Charity Gala years ago. It’s kind of a big deal.” Anissa spoke in a terse whisper.

  Gabe responded with a look of chagrin. “Sorry, man. I didn’t know it was your family’s thing. I wasn’t trying to be rude.”

  “I know. But Anissa’s right. The first Christmas Charity Gala was held thirty years ago.” Sabrina was tapping away on her laptop, and Adam tried to ignore her. Not that he ever could. But who knew what kind of rabbit trail she’d taken off down? Best to keep going with the story. “And my mother did start it. But over the years it’s taken on a life of its own.”

  “What do you mean? Your family doesn’t run it anymore?” Ryan walked toward the kitchen as he asked the question.

  “Not exactly. We’re still heavily involved, but when it was started, our family didn’t have a specific way in which we supported charities.”

  “But you do now?” Ryan returned with a two-liter bottle of Coke and a plate of cookies.

  Anissa slapped Gabe’s hand away as she helped herself to the first cookie. “Do you guys not pay any attention at all?”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Ryan went back toward the kitchen.

  “Nothing.” Anissa shrugged. “Sorry, Adam. This is your business, and it’s your business how much you want to tell.”

  “Thanks. But now you have me curious. I want to know what you were going to say.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Anissa asked.

  Sounds of ice falling into plastic cups came from the kitchen, and Adam used Ryan’s absence to try to gather his thoughts. He didn’t want to have this conversation. It had been ingrained in him from childhood—you didn’t talk about the family money or family politics with anyone
outside of the family.

  Ryan returned with his hands full of cups. “I don’t see what the big deal is. He’s with friends. His secrets are safe with us. We never ratted him out for being in love with Sabrina, did we?”

  Gabe laughed so hard he choked on his cookie. Anissa speared Ryan with her most disapproving look.

  Sabrina looked up from the laptop and shrugged. “You’ve already told me it was love at first sight, so this isn’t really new information.”

  Even Anissa laughed at that one.

  Adam wanted to be mad at them, but Ryan had made a solid point. What was he trying to protect anyway? Why did he care if they knew? It wasn’t anything to be ashamed of, and if anyone would understand, it was this group.

  “Fine,” he said.

  He gave Anissa a nod and she took the lead. “Adam is on the board of TCC—The Campbell Charities. The board manages the distribution of all of The Campbell Holdings Group’s charitable contributions. And they’re the presenting sponsor for the Christmas Charity Gala each year.”

  “When do you do all this? You help your dad run the family business and you’re on the board of TCC?” Gabe sounded impressed.

  “He’s been on the board since he turned twenty-one.”

  How on earth would Anissa know that?

  “Okay. Fine, Miss Know-It-All,” Gabe said. “I may not know much about high society, but I do know that being on the board of a charitable organization doesn’t mean you have access to the details of an event like this. There’s usually a special committee for something like that.” Gabe poured a Coke and handed it to Anissa, then poured one for himself.

  “You’re correct that I don’t have all the details, but the planning committee had to present their recommendations for this year’s event for board approval. And that’s how I know The Back Door offered to provide the catering this year. There was some discussion about using them. The food is excellent. No one is disputing that. But the concern was how it would work with the budget. But it turned out that The Back Door had volunteered to cover the costs of their staff. They’re providing the food and beverages at cost, and they said they were going to pay their staff and would offer the gala their services free of charge. They’re providing the waitstaff, the catering staff, the bartenders, and even the bathroom attendants.”

  And now he knew how they were able to afford it.

  “We typically use our own restaurants and hotels for the event, but they renovated The Porterhouse recently and it was a good chance to drive some business their way. They’ve struggled for the past few years, and it seemed like a way to be a good neighbor and give the gala a different feel this year. And it would have been crazy to pass up the proposal from The Back Door. I thought it was an extremely generous offer at the time, but it never occurred to me that they might be able to make such an offer because they had no intentions of paying their staff to begin with.”

  “The Back Door isn’t very big.” Anissa took a sip of her drink. “Do they have enough staff to cover an event as big as the Christmas Gala?”

  Adam considered her question. “Combined with The Porterhouse staff? Yes.”

  “Okay, let’s go back a little,” Gabe said. “Because I don’t exactly run in high-society kinds of circles and I didn’t grow up in Carrington. What’s the big deal about this gala?”

  “It’s the place to be,” Anissa said. “The tickets are twenty-five hundred dollars a person, and you have to be invited to be able to purchase them.”

  “You what?” Gabe turned from Anissa to Adam. “You invite people to this thing and then charge them to come? That’s . . .” Gabe’s mouth continued to move, but no words came out.

  Anissa raised her cup to Adam in a mock salute. “Congratulations, Adam. You’ve done what I thought was impossible. You’ve rendered Gabe speechless.”

  He acknowledged Anissa’s remark with a “You’re welcome” before responding to Gabe.

  “It didn’t start out that way,” Adam said. “But over the years as the demand grew, we had to start sending invitations and then each year we were able to raise the price. It keeps the event intentionally exclusive and extremely lucrative. Charities make pitches in June to try to be the featured charity for the gala because it’s guaranteed money.”

  “So you don’t put the money into your Campbell charity thing. This money all goes to a specific charity?” Gabe asked.

  “Not one dime goes into any Campbell account,” Adam said. “We’re the presenting sponsor, so we’re footing the bill for the majority of the event. We’ve found by contributing in that way, we’re actually able to raise far more money for the charities than we could have contributed on our own.”

  “It’s genius.” Ryan stifled a yawn. “How do we get our people in?”

  Leave it to Ryan to be at least three steps ahead.

  “Are you asking me out?” Gabe fanned himself in mock embarrassment.

  “Not me,” Ryan said. “Leigh’s working, and I’ve already committed to watching my niece and nephew. I’m helping my parents with the kids while my sister is out of town. She’s supposed to be home by nine on Friday, but there’s no way I can be available before ten.”

  “So you pay twenty-five hundred dollars to go to this? And then you have to pay another twenty-five hundred to take a date?” Gabe shook his head. “No way we can get the captain to sign off on that requisition.”

  “Adam’s going.” Sabrina’s quiet observation pulled everyone’s attention back to her and the TV screen, where a guest list appeared.

  “How did you get that?” Adam asked. “That list is supposed to be confidential.”

  She smiled. “It wasn’t hard to find.”

  “There’s no plus one listed for you,” Anissa said. “You aren’t taking a date?”

  “No.” He’d never taken a date.

  “Why not? You could take Anissa and we could have ourselves a little investigation.” Gabe turned to Anissa. “What do you think?”

  “I think you’re making a lot of assumptions about my free time. And you missed the part where Adam said he wasn’t taking a date. Besides, it would look very suspicious if he took me.”

  “Why?” Gabe asked. “You’re gorgeous. He’s the most eligible bachelor in town. What’s suspicious about that?”

  Anissa punched Gabe’s arm. “Maybe because he has a girlfriend, you moron.”

  “Not that anyone knows about yet.” Gabe grabbed her fist before she could hit him again.

  Ryan caught Adam’s eye. “If you don’t stop them, they’ll do this all night.”

  He was right. “Would you two hush? I am not taking anyone. If the two of you would like to go, I think I know how I can swing it.”

  “The two of us?” Gabe asked.

  “Why aren’t you taking anyone?” Anissa asked at the same time.

  Oh, good grief. They were going to make him say it out loud, weren’t they? “It’s complicated.”

  He tried to communicate to Anissa to drop it, but she either didn’t get the message or she chose to ignore it. “Doesn’t seem complicated to me.”

  “Fine. I need to talk to Sabrina for a few minutes,” Adam said.

  “There’s nothing you can’t say in front of us, man. I’m hurt.” Gabe pretended to pout.

  “There are a million things I wouldn’t say in front of you, so stuff it.” Adam turned and saw an ocean of pain in Sabrina’s eyes. “Please.” He led her through the French doors, and she followed him out onto the deck. He couldn’t help but notice that she didn’t take his hand or touch him in any way. He needed to explain himself. And fast.

  He closed the doors as she leaned against the rail of the deck, facing the water. Lake Porter stretched out before them in the inky blackness. The night air was cool on his arms. She had to be chilled, but her stiff posture warned him to keep some distance. He leaned against the rail beside her.

  “You don’t have to take me to the gala, Adam.”

  “I want to.”

  �
��Doesn’t seem like it.”

  How could he explain without making it worse? “I have a good reason.”

  “So you don’t want to.”

  “No! I do want to, but I have a good reason for not doing it. Unless you . . .” He stepped away from the railing and ran his hands through his hair.

  “You may be making this harder than it needs to be,” she said as she continued to look over the lake. “Try telling me the truth.”

  “I don’t think you’ll like it.”

  “Well, I certainly don’t like wondering why this is such a big deal, so I’m not sure how you could do much worse.”

  Awesome.

  “Fine. Here’s the deal.” She turned around. He kind of wished she would have stayed the other way. This was going to be harder to say to her face. “The Christmas Charity Gala is a big deal in my family. It’s not the kind of place you take a casual date. Not if you’re a Campbell. In fact, the only thing more off-limits than the gala is Sunday lunch.”

  His grandmother had a strict rule about Sunday lunch. No dates allowed until there was an engagement ring on her finger.

  He saw it on Sabrina’s face the moment the implications became clear.

  “I promised I wouldn’t rush you,” he said. “I told you I could show you being with a Campbell wasn’t such a horrible thing. That it might even be fun. But on Friday night it won’t matter if you’re there only for this case or not. The reality is, if you come to the gala with me, certain assumptions will be made and there’s nothing I can do to stop them.”

  “You could tell your family why I’m there,” she said.

  “Theoretically, yes. But under the circumstances, I think it would be best to keep my family as in the dark as possible. And the truth is, I want you there. And it would be okay with me if all the things people will assume are true . . . were actually true about us. But I can’t ask you to come with me knowing what kind of gossip you’ll be exposing yourself to. Not without warning you.”

  Sabrina considered his words. He wished he knew what was going on in that brilliant mind of hers. Was she mad? Did she understand why he was so conflicted about this?