25
A text from Clay came in just as Toni and Drake had called it quits for the day. They’d been looking for additional information on Sheila Sharkey but struck out. Drake was headed back to his room for the night.
She read the text aloud.
“Hibbard in custody. Confirmed Sharkey killed your dad and looks like Hibbard’s providing details. No info on Lisa yet.”
Drake met her gaze. “Just like that, we know who killed your dad. And with Sharkey and Hibbard both behind bars, you’re no longer in danger.”
“Right. I’m safe.”
He eyed her. “So why the frown?”
“I wanted to be at Hibbard’s arrest.”
“Ah, right. Yeah.” He shifted his laptop under his arm. “I would’ve wanted that too.”
“But you know what?” She forced a smile. “It doesn’t matter. He’s behind bars.”
“True that.” Drake smiled. “Any news on the girls?”
“Let me ask.” She thumbed a response to Clay. What about the girls?
Hibbard’s clammed up on that. Trent and Blake are working on him.
“Nothing yet.” She texted Clay to keep her updated.
I will and I’m so very sorry about earlier. I hope we can talk soon.
Maybe tomorrow.
He sent back a smiley emoji, which for some silly reason made her miss him more. She locked her phone and looked up at Drake. “I feel like I should celebrate, but all I want to do is go to sleep and wake up to hear everything’s been resolved.”
Drake nodded. “Maybe we’ll know by morning if Lisa’s been found too.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Toni said, but she was dreading that bit of news. She couldn’t imagine it would be good. “It’s probably time for me to face facts. If she was abducted in the eighties, the odds of her being alive are close to zero.”
“But there’s a chance.”
She smiled up at Drake, this one sincere. “Thanks for being here to cheer me up. Since no one’s out to get me anymore, you can go back to the beach house.”
“And miss a chance to sleep the night without snoring keeping me awake.” He grinned. “No way.”
“Then we’ll meet for breakfast as planned at eight.”
“I’ll text Clay to keep me updated too so you don’t have to. ’Night.”
“Good night. And thanks again, Drake.”
“My pleasure.” He strode to his room, the confidence in his walk like his brothers. Like Clay.
No, don’t think about him.
She closed and locked the door behind Drake and forced Clay out of her mind. She quickly took a shower and dropped into the bed after setting an alarm for seven. She fell asleep right away, dreaming of Lisa running on the beach, calling out for help, but no matter how fast Toni ran, Lisa remained out of reach.
A piercing alarm brought Toni awake, and she sat up. She blinked a few times to get her bearings and smelled smoke. The fire alarm. That was what woke her. And she didn’t think it was a false alarm.
She grabbed her phone, slid into some shoes, then fixed her gun at her waist. Tossing a jacket on, she opened the door to Drake’s room just as he was releasing his side.
He met her gaze, his eyes concerned. “Seems real enough.”
She nodded, fear starting to rise in the pit of her stomach. “Let’s go.”
He led her to his door and ran his fingers around it. “Not hot. Should be safe to exit.”
He opened the door, and smoke poured in. He tugged his shirt over his mouth. “Follow me.”
She put her arm over her mouth and plunged into the smoky hallway. They hurried toward the stairway at the end of the floor. An elderly woman with a cane trudged out of her room. Drake held the stairwell door open for her. Lungs starting to protest, Toni stood back to let the woman go first. They moved slowly down the steps behind her, the smoke growing and making it difficult to see. The woman stumbled.
Drake grabbed her arm to right her. “Let me help you, ma’am.”
She looked up at him. “Bless you, young man.”
He guided her down to the second floor landing just as the door flew open.
“Help!” A frantic woman’s high-pitched voice cut through the smoke. “My daughter. I can’t get her out.”
Drake glanced at Toni. “I’ll go.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Help this woman down. I’ll be fine.”
Toni didn’t want to leave Drake behind, but the older woman was coughing hard and had stopped moving. She needed guidance, or she wouldn’t make it out.
Toni pulled her shirt up over her nose and took the woman’s arm. “Here we go. Nice and slow.”
“Bless—” A coughing fit took her words.
Toni waited for the spasm to stop, and they inched down the stairs. The smoke deepened in color and grew thicker. A wave of panic hit Toni, but she swallowed it down and kept the woman moving through the exit and into cleaner outside air.
Toni gulped the fresh air, but the woman launched into a gut-wrenching coughing fit.
Joy rushed over to them. “Mrs. Draper. I’m so sorry. Please. Come with me. I called the fire department. They should be here soon.”
Joy flashed Toni a thankful look. “You should move back from the building.”
Toni waited until Joy got Mrs. Draper settled on a bench in a wide parking strip. Toni backed to the rear of the parking lot as Joy directed but kept her eyes trained on the exit.
What was taking Drake so long?
She started counting, reaching five minutes, but he didn’t come out. She closed her eyes in prayer, begging for Drake’s and the little girl’s safety.
Maybe he needed help, and she should head back inside.
She’d decided to do just that when a gun jabbed her in the ribs and her gun was jerked from the holster. She flashed her eyes open and tried to turn, but a hand clamped on her shoulder, stopping her.
“You’re not going anywhere,” the gruff female voice said. “Except with me.”
Clay curled his fingers into fists. He could barely stomach watching Blake and Trent grill Hibbard through a one-way window. Clay wanted to be in that room. Be across the table from Hibbard. Sure, fine, Clay should be thankful to see the interview at all, but Clay wanted more. Wanted to sit across the table and force the man to confess to his many crimes. He wanted Toni there too. By his side.
Why waste time wishing for those things? Neither of them would come to fruition. He’d have to settle for the observer role.
Blake slapped the photos found in Rader’s garage on the table, one at a time until all fifty-five had been laid out.
Clay watched Hibbard relax against the chair, smug and confident. All Clay could see when he looked at the guy was the man in the videos violating young women. A disgusting sight.
“Fifty-five counts of abduction, kidnapping, and statutory rape of these girls,” Trent said. “And if that’s not enough to put you away for the rest of your life, we have these.”
Blake slid the photos found in Sharkey’s place. “Five counts of first-degree murder should do it.”
“I didn’t do any of this.” Hibbard shoved the photos across the table. “I had nothing to do with any of it.”
“Then why did we find these pictures with your name on the envelope in Sheldon Sharkey’s home?” Blake asked.
“You’d have to ask him.”
“Don’t worry, we will,” Trent said. “And when he cuts a deal and rolls on you—and he will—you’ll be looking at very serious time.”
Hibbard puffed out his chest. “He’s not the kind of guy to snitch.”
“We’ll keep at him until he talks,” Trent said. “You can be sure of that.”
Hibbard sputtered.
“And of course we have all the souvenirs and clothing Rader took from the girls. Your DNA is bound to be on it.”
Hibbard shrugged, but his eyes were darkening with a hint of unease.
Trent woke up the screen of a tabl
et computer. He started a video of Hibbard with a young girl and turned the screen toward Hibbard. His fleshy face paled.
Trent paused the video. “It’s obvious you’re the star of this and seventy-six other videos. So we can add seventy-six counts of rape and start adding more as forensic evidence comes in.”
Hibbard crossed his arms and sunk down on his chair. “They weren’t all minors.”
Clay’s mouth fell open. The guy had all but admitted his role. Maybe he figured there was no way for him to get out of the charges.
“We’ll see once we ID all of them.” Blake sat back, looking relaxed as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “And then we’ll begin on the abduction, kidnapping, and murder charges.”
“I told you I didn’t do those things.” The color returned to Hibbard’s face, leaving it blotchy red.
“But you know about them,” Trent said. “And that makes you an accessory.”
Hibbard’s gaze traveled around the room at a frantic rate as if looking for a way out of the charges.
“Tell us who’s responsible,” Trent said. “And we’ll make sure the district attorney hears about your cooperation.”
Hibbard ran a hand over a little patch of hair remaining on his otherwise bald head. “Fine. It was her. Ursula. Ursula Rader.”
Ursula? Seriously?
Clay couldn’t look away from Hibbard on the far side of the glass, but Trent and Blake remained passive as good interviewers would do.
“Tell us about her,” Trent said.
“She’s something else.” Hibbard shook his head. “Her mother was a prostitute. Ursula vowed to do better in life and never prostituted herself, but she wasn’t above putting other women in that position. She started when she was married to a migrant worker. Conned female workers into having sex with the bosses for money. Built a good stable of girls. But then found out she could make more money with younger girls, but she’d need to quit traveling. She had her husband killed and hooked up with Fritz Rader.”
“Was he into the business, too?” Blake asked.
Hibbard shook his head, his fleshy jowls swinging. “But he found out a few years after their kid was born. He said she needed to quit, but she refused. Rader was obsessed with her, so he turned his back, but he also stored away souvenirs she’d taken to ensure she stayed with him. On the surface they were a perfectly normal, church going family. But when the kid got older and joined the youth group, she took a liking to the leader, and they had an affair.”
So that was what Wilshire was hiding. Clay blinked to try to make sense of the news. “Why didn’t she just kill Rader? I mean, she’d already killed once.”
“Don’t know.”
“Did the youth leader know about the girls?” Blake asked.
“Nah, but he did put her on to one of them.”
“Who?” Blake asked, but Clay already knew the name he would mention.
“The girl who went missing from her grandparents’ place.”
“Lisa Long,” Trent clarified, and Hibbard nodded. “And where is Lisa now?”
Hibbard shrugged, but a knowing look crossed his face.
“Come on, now,” Trent said. “You expect me to believe you don’t know the answer to that?”
“Don’t care what you believe. I don’t know.”
“So why did Ursula walk out on her son?” Blake asked, changing the topic, but Clay knew Blake would come back to Ursula’s location.
“Rader threatened to out her to the police if she tried to take him.”
“But wouldn’t he implicate himself if he did?”
“Yeah, sure, but he said he’d rather go to prison than let Ursula take the kid.” Hibbard got a smug grin on his face. “But she didn’t let it go. She secretly met with Jason. Problem was, he found out what she was doing. He wasn’t disgusted or anything. He wanted a cut. Just eighteen years old, and she let him work with her. Then he gets arrested.” Hibbard shook his head. “Rader has a fit. Says he’s got cancer and has only a few months to live, so he’s going to rat her out to the cops. So she had him killed too.”
“Why didn’t she take the things in the garage that implicated her?” Blake asked.
“You’ll have to ask her. All I know is she had him snuffed out before he could squeal, and she hired a high-priced lawyer for her kid.”
Trent rested his hands on the table and stared at them for a moment. He was going to change direction. Clay could feel it from Trent’s body language. Blake must have too, as he leaned back and looked like he was giving the floor to Trent.
“She the one who’s been trying to kill Agent Long and Clay Byrd?” Trent asked.
“Her boyfriend, yeah. Not her.”
“Boyfriend?”
“Sharkey. They been shacking up for years.”
So Sharkey had been trying to kill them. Clay curled his fingers. Thankfully he was in jail right now as this creep would be soon, and Toni was no longer in danger.
“Why did she want to kill them?” Trent asked.
“Another thing you’re gonna have to ask her.”
“Don’t worry, I will when we bring her in.”
Hibbard scoffed. “Like you’ll find her.”
“We will.” Trent sounded so confident, but locating Ursula would be a challenge. “Because you’re going to tell us exactly where she is.”
26
Toni drove the compact car while the woman rode in the backseat and held her gun to Toni’s neck. She wanted to slam on the brakes and force the woman forward, but she couldn’t. Not without taking the risk of getting her head blown off.
She glanced in the rearview mirror, trying to get a good look at the woman’s face. Impossible. A big floppy hat hid it in shadows. Toni had gotten a look at the woman’s wrinkled hand with age spots, suggesting she was older.
“Why won’t you tell me who you are?” Toni tried again.
“There’s plenty of time for that. Just keep your focus on the road.”
They wound along the Rogue River, the area mostly forested with very few residences or businesses.
“Where are we going?” Toni asked.
“If I have to tell you to shut up one more time, I’ll shut you up right on the spot.” She jabbed the cold steel of her gun into Toni’s neck. “Permanently.”
Toni doubted she’d actually fire right now as the car would crash, but Toni wouldn’t put it past this woman to hold a grudge and end her life the moment they stopped. Toni needed to quit wasting time on identifying the woman and figure out how to escape. But how? The woman had tossed Toni’s phone out the window as they’d driven off the hotel’s property. She doubted anyone had seen them leave. They were too busy looking at the burning hotel.
And even if they did, this was a rental car. No way this woman used her real name for the rental agreement, keeping her identity a secret.
“Make a right at the next corner,” she said.
Toni memorized the woman’s voice. Just in case Toni got away, and this woman was arrested, Toni could pick her out in a voice lineup.
She sounded a bit manly. Deep and gravelly. Hoarse sounding. And she had a hint of an accent. Just a hint. Russian maybe. Russian. Someone in the investigation was of Russian descent.
Wait. No. Couldn’t be.
Clay’s phone rang. He didn’t want to be disturbed, not when Hibbard was about to tell them where to find Ursula, but it was Drake. “What’s up?”
“You talk to Toni?”
“I thought she was with you.” Clay held his breath.
“There’s a fire at the hotel.”
“A fire.” Clay’s heart dropped. “Toni. Is she—?”
“We were separated during the evacuation. When I got outside, she was driving off in a car with a woman in the backseat. She had a gun to Toni’s head.”
Gun? No.
“A woman? Who?” Clay asked though he knew Drake wouldn’t have an answer for him.
“Don’t know, but I got the plates,” Drake said. “Erik’s
having someone at PPB run them, and he’s also pinging Toni’s phone.”
Clay gripped the edge of the table. Ursula. Had to be her. The woman who had no regard for life. The woman who’d sold out her fellow females. The woman who had people killed. Could she have taken Toni?
Dear God, no. Please, no.
Clay shared what they’d learned from Hibbard.
“Wow. Just wow.” Drake’s voice was unusually high. “Never figured she’d be behind this. I mean a female pimping out other females. That’s really low.”
“It tells us what kind of woman she is.” One who could easily kill Toni if she was the one holding her captive. “Hibbard says she’s the one behind trying to kill Toni and me, but she had Sharkey do her dirty work for her. Maybe with him behind bars, she had to take over.”
“There are security cameras on this side of the building, but to review the footage, I’ll have to wait for the fire department’s okay to enter the building.”
“Get in there as fast as you can.”
“Hang on,” Drake said. “My phone’s signaling a text.”
Clay’s gut churned as he waited for Drake to come back on the line. He couldn’t stand still, so he started pacing. Planning. Figuring out how to find Toni, but he hadn’t a clue where Ursula would have taken her.
Please let Hibbard give up Ursula’s location.
If, in fact, it even was Ursula who had Toni. Might not be her.
An icy chill settled over Clay, and he struggled to breathe.
“She’s driving a rental car,” Drake said. “Sharkey rented it three days ago.” He shared the vehicle’s make, model, and license plate.
Clay wrote down the info, his hands shaking so badly his writing was barely legible. “I’ll have Trent put out an alert, and Hibbard could always give up Ursula’s address. Hopefully that’s where she’s headed with Toni. If not, I have no idea how we’ll find them.”
“Not with her phone. Erik said it pinged at this location. I’ll look for it and let you know what I find. Erik also texted me Ursula’s photo so I can ask around to see if anyone saw her.”
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