Into the Dark (The Cincinnati Series Book 5) (Cincinnati 5)

by Karen Rose

  But Diesel knew that Deacon’s comments had really been aimed at Marcus and himself, because he cared about their safety. ‘Point taken,’ Diesel murmured. He gestured to their phones. ‘Does the list I sent you help?’

  ‘Absolutely,’ Deacon said with a wry smile. ‘We know where to start looking.’

  ‘And,’ Adam added, ‘it matches up. We’ve identified two more of the . . . recent bodies. They’re both on this list. One offered his underage niece. The other had admitted liking underage girls.’

  ‘Why did Cade Kaiser kill Richard Fischer when he did?’ Dani asked. ‘This poker game has been going on for a while.’

  ‘Maybe Joshua was the first time Cade knew that people were being trafficked,’ Diesel suggested.

  ‘Is . . .’ Grant faltered, then cleared his throat. ‘Is Laurel on that list?’

  ‘She is,’ Diesel said gently. ‘But Kaiser didn’t start working at the casino until a few months after she went missing. He had nothing to do with her disappearance.’

  ‘You mentioned a Clinton Stern as the . . .’ Grant swallowed. ‘The buyer. He’s on the list?’

  ‘He is,’ Diesel confirmed. ‘He’s also dead, killed in a home invasion.’

  ‘Wesley,’ Grant murmured. ‘I can’t say I’m sorry he did it.’

  ‘Neither can I,’ Dani told him in a whisper.

  Scarlett tapped the table to get their attention. ‘I agree that Kaiser didn’t kill Laurel. But you do assume that he killed Richard?’

  ‘Well, yeah,’ Dani said. ‘Don’t you?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Scarlett admitted. ‘Unfortunately, we don’t have Kaiser on the security vids from Richard’s house. The alarm system was turned off from eight twenty a.m. on Saturday through one p.m.’ She glanced at Grant. ‘You’re not a suspect. We traced your credit cards, and you were getting gas in Cleveland when the alarm system was reactivated.’

  ‘If Kaiser was Richard’s security manager at the riverboat, he may have had access to his home security as well,’ Diesel said. ‘He’d probably know how to deactivate Richard’s alarm.’ He rubbed his forehead. He was so tired. ‘That’s all I know except that I’m starving and my head is pounding like hell.’

  ‘I’ll take you back to the safe house,’ Adam said.

  ‘We’d like to search your brother’s apartment,’ Deacon told Grant. ‘We’ll also need to take your prints so we can eliminate them.’ He pulled on a pair of gloves and slipped the green leather book into an evidence bag. ‘Thank you. I’m so sorry about your sister and your brother. But we appreciate the light you’ve shed. Will you be returning to Cleveland?’

  ‘Soon,’ Grant murmured. ‘When will you release my brother’s body?’

  ‘As soon as the ME is finished with her exam,’ Deacon promised. ‘I’ll ask her to conduct Wesley’s autopsy next.’

  Diesel stood, feeling shaky from hunger and stress. He put his arm around Dani’s waist, relieved when she leaned into him.

  ‘There is one more thing,’ Marcus said as he helped Scarlett to her feet. ‘How did Wesley find out that Laurel was dead, or even where to start looking?’

  Everyone went still and looked at Grant.

  Grant shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I was hoping you did.’

  Diesel studied the man’s face. Grant knew something more that he wasn’t saying, but he had shut down. The man was done. At least for the moment. But then he’d just learned that his brother and sister were dead. A man was allowed to shut down for a little while after getting news like that.

  Grant dug a single key from his pants pocket. ‘This is the key to Wes’s apartment. I’ll sign whatever I need to so that you have permission to search. But if I don’t have to be there, I don’t want to be.’

  ‘You don’t have to be,’ Deacon said. ‘But we would like the opportunity to talk to you again before you go back to Cleveland – just in case we have more questions after searching your brother’s things.’

  Grant’s lips curved bitterly. ‘So in other words, don’t leave town. I won’t.’

  Cincinnati, Ohio

  Monday, 18 March, 10.40 P.M.

  ‘Here.’ Cade shoved a thermos full of warm water through the bars of the old pedo’s basement cell. ‘You can mix it with the formula.’

  He’d gone to the store and paid a loitering teenager a few bucks to buy him some more antibiotic cream, some rubbing alcohol, more painkillers, Epsom salts, a few cans of baby formula, and a bag of diapers. The teenager had been so happy to get a twenty for his troubles – in advance – that he hadn’t given Cade a second look.

  But he’d lingered in the store just a little too long, and when he’d come out, Cade had already second-guessed his own decision to keep the kid alive. He hadn’t been thorough with Stone O’Bannion – who according to the news hadn’t been a detective after all, the bastard – and look where it had gotten him.

  Here, a virtual prisoner in the old pedo’s house, with an infected leg and a fever that had climbed over a hundred and one. Cade wasn’t a doctor, but he sure as hell knew that a fever was bad. And that the greenish pus oozing out of the wounds on his leg was likely to blame.

  So he’d dragged the kid to the back of the store and put a bullet in the back of his head, listening with his stethoscope to make sure he was actually dead.

  ‘Thank you,’ Evelyn said quietly, taking the thermos. ‘Jimmy’s hungry.’

  Cade scowled. ‘I know. I could hear him screaming all the way upstairs. Lucky for me, my nearest neighbor is a mile away.’

  She looked down at the thermos. ‘What are you going to do with us?’

  It was a valid question and asked respectfully, so he answered it. ‘I’m going to use you to get out of here once my leg is healed. You’re going to tell the press that I’m not a bad person. That I was good to you and Junior and performed a vital service to the community.’ He looked around the basement. ‘This house? It belonged to an old pedo who’d drugged a kid and had him tied up in the back of his Toyota Sequoia.’

  ‘The same SUV that you blew up with a hand grenade?’ Evelyn asked, but it still wasn’t a disrespectful question, so he shrugged.

  ‘Seemed like a good idea at the time, but like all my plans for yesterday, it bombed abominably.’ He chuckled at his pun, but Evelyn wasn’t smiling. ‘That wasn’t supposed to happen. I wasn’t supposed to need your help, but I do. The way I see it, you can cooperate and you and Junior live, or you can play the judgmental hero and watch your kid die of starvation, because nobody knows you’re here.’

  She nodded once. ‘I have been cooperating.’

  ‘Yes, you have. Which is why I got the damn baby formula. Which you should give to your kid before he bursts a blood vessel crying.’

  She pulled an empty bottle from her diaper bag – which Cade had thoroughly searched – and scooped formula from the can, adding water from the thermos. ‘So this house belonged to a pedo?’ she asked, shaking it hard.

  ‘Yeah. I left the kid he’d snatched in the park for the cops to find, fed the pedo to the fishes, then came here. You know what I found?’

  She swallowed. ‘No.’

  ‘A body. A teenager. He was dead.’ Cade pointed to the airtight room next to the cell. ‘In there. Suffocated. I also left his body where the cops could find him. Gave his parents closure and saved the kids in this city from a pedophile. Does that seem like something a bad guy would do?’

  She shook her head. ‘That was decent of you.’

  ‘That’s what I’m sayin’. So when it comes time for me to run, I expect you to remember that I’m decent. I don’t hurt kids.’

  Unless they’d been an eyewitness to murder, but that was different. That was self-preservation. It would have allowed him to continue serving the community by eliminating pedos and abusive bastards. But Michael had given the cops his description.

  The kid
had ruined everything.

  And now I’m on the run. His face and real name on the news. Shit.

  ‘What about him?’ she asked, pointing to Andrew McNab, the interpreter.

  The guy I shouldn’t have let live. The guy Cade had drugged so that he and Evelyn couldn’t cook up an escape plan. ‘Depends. Has he woken up yet?’

  ‘No,’ she said, casting a worried look at the man, who still lay as Cade had left him. ‘I thought he was once, but he kind of moaned and fell back asleep. He’s been beaten badly.’ Her words were stiff and awkward, as if she feared making Cade angry by accusing him of doing the beating. Good. She should be afraid. ‘He could die.’

  ‘Then he does. He’s not your concern,’ Cade said, and meant it. ‘You worry about you and Junior. If the man dies, I’ll drag him out of there.’ He turned on his heel and grunted loudly when his knee buckled. He grabbed on to the cell bars to hold himself upright. Dammit, that hurt.

  ‘I think you’re going to need something stronger for your leg,’ Evelyn said softly. ‘Maybe an antibiotic injection.’

  ‘I know,’ he snapped, happy when she recoiled. They weren’t friends. She was his ticket out. Nothing more. ‘But unless you’re a doctor, you can’t help me.’

  He blinked. No . . . she wasn’t a doctor. But Dani Novak was, and she ran a free clinic. Places like that stocked medicines. Antibiotics and maybe even painkillers. And it wasn’t a twenty-four-hour operation. They had to close sometime. When the staff left for the night, he’d slip in, get a few handfuls of meds, and get out.

  That was a good plan. If he was still running a fever by tomorrow, he’d clean out Dani Novak’s pharmacy.

  Twenty-five

  Cincinnati, Ohio

  Monday, 18 March, 11.30 P.M.

  ‘That was good!’ Joshua exclaimed as the credits for The Incredibles rolled up the theater room’s TV screen, larger than the entire living room wall in Dani’s house. She’d held Joshua on her lap, her head on Diesel’s shoulder while they watched the movie, Michael sitting on the floor between their feet. Like a family.

  We could be a family. It was still a heady thought and she fought not to get her hopes up. But why not? The boys had no one else. She could keep them. Care for them. Make them happy. We could make them happy.

  She and the man at her side, who’d been lightly snoring for the last half-hour.

  ‘I’m glad you liked it,’ Dani said, laughing when Joshua bounced on her lap. The little boy had been stuck to either her or Diesel like glue ever since they’d returned from the meeting at the Ledger’s office.

  Michael had been quieter, reading a book while they watched the movie. He’d joined them physically in the theater room, but it was clear his mind was elsewhere. The only one he paid attention to was Hawkeye, who had only left his side when he’d been taken for walks outside by one of the agents on duty.

  Michael’s fingers had raked through Hawkeye’s soft fur almost constantly, stopping only to turn the pages of his book. Which didn’t happen often as Michael stared at the pages unseeingly.

  He’d had a therapy session with Meredith while they’d been gone and Dani figured that was the root of his preoccupation. The boy had lost his mother. Had suffered so much before that. She could remember the pain of losing her own mom. The grief that had clutched her insides, clawing until she’d wanted to die, too.

  Michael’s mother had been abusive to him, but kids still loved their parents, even through abuse. It didn’t make sense, but it was true nonetheless.

  For now they’d give him space and let him grieve. But not too much space. She leaned over and ran her hand over his hair, smiling when he looked up at her in question. ‘It’s late,’ she signed. ‘I’m going to put Joshua to bed. You should be going to bed, too.’

  Eventually she’d get these children on a proper schedule. But these were not normal days, so she cut them all a little slack.

  Michael shook his head. ‘I’m not tired,’ he signed back with one hand, choosing to put the book down rather than give up his hold on Hawkeye.

  ‘You can read in bed. Meredith brought your lamp from your room at home and put it on your nightstand.’ So he’d have a night light, but she didn’t add that part. It was enough that Michael knew what she meant.

  His eyes flashed gratitude and a little shame before he gathered his book and stood up. He put the book under one arm. ‘When this is over, I’ll walk Hawkeye at night.’ His chin lifted a little with the declaration, as if daring her to disagree.

  ‘I’d appreciate it,’ Dani said evenly. ‘He needs more walking than I have time to do. More grooming, too. He loves to be brushed. I’ll have to ask Merry or one of the others to bring a dog brush the next time they visit.’

  ‘And bathed?’ Michael asked. ‘I can bathe him, too.’

  Dani had to force herself to smile, because Evelyn Keys was still missing. Not your fault. And she knew that was true. But it was still hard not to feel responsible. The woman might be dead simply because she lived in Dani’s neighborhood.

  And Michael might have been dead had Kaiser been successful, simply because he’d been protecting Joshua and was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had witnessed Brewer’s murder.

  She hoped that Kaiser wasn’t hurting Evelyn and Jimmy. Part of her brain had been shouting all through the movie that she should be doing something, trying to find them. But she had been doing something. She’d been doing her job, taking care of two scared boys who’d just lost everything they’d ever known.

  ‘Hawk doesn’t like baths that much, but he’s good in the tub,’ she told Michael. ‘He just looks so sad when he’s all wet, like you stole his best bone.’

  Michael laughed out loud, and Diesel made a disgruntled sound, abruptly sitting up straighter. ‘I think I fell asleep during the last part of the movie.’

  ‘You snored,’ Joshua informed him. ‘But it’s okay. Dani put the captions on.’

  ‘You can read the captions?’ Diesel asked him, covering a yawn with his hand.

  Joshua nodded seriously. ‘Some of the words.’

  Michael ruffled his hair. ‘He’s smart,’ he said, making the little boy beam proudly. ‘He can read a lot of words.’

  Diesel stood up, all broad chest and hard muscles, and Dani felt a shiver of anticipation. They’d put off gratification earlier that day, saving it for when the boys were asleep.

  She hoped that the boys fell asleep quickly. ‘Time for bed, Joshua,’ she said.

  Joshua slid off her lap and turned to Diesel. ‘I picked a different story for tonight. It’s a chapter book about a little boy who’s really a mouse.’

  ‘Stuart Little,’ Diesel said knowingly. ‘I saw it next to your bed earlier. But just one chapter, okay?’ He lifted Joshua into his arms, parking him on his hip, then threw a wink at Dani. ‘They’re really short chapters,’ he mouthed.

  Dani bit back a grin. ‘Night, Joshua.’ She turned to Michael, who was watching Diesel with an unreadable expression. She touched his arm. ‘Michael?’

  He jerked, then relaxed. ‘Sorry. I was thinking.’

  ‘About?’

  Michael bit his lip. ‘Nothing.’

  Dani tilted her head, studying him. ‘You don’t have to tell me, but know that you can, okay?’

  He nodded, continuing to bite his lip, and then his hands were moving fast and intensely. ‘Coach said that you started the paperwork to keep us.’

  Dani nodded. ‘He’s right. Is that okay?’

  Michael let out a shaky breath. ‘Yeah. I know I wasn’t supposed to get Joshua’s hopes up, but he started crying when you and Coach left. I told him that you were trying to make it so we could live with you permanently. I’m sorry, but I didn’t know what else to say to make him stop crying. He was afraid we’d get separated.’

  Dani understood Michael’s need to soothe his broth
er, but if it didn’t work out, the little boy would be crushed. Then her spine straightened. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll be crushed. So I’m going to make it work out. She gave Michael an encouraging smile. ‘It was okay to tell him. I don’t want him to be afraid, ever.’

  ‘But what if the state says no? What if they make us leave?’

  There was something more to Michael’s fear, something she was missing. ‘Why are you afraid it won’t work out?’

  His eyes darted around, looking everywhere but at her. ‘I saw the medication in the bathroom. Your medication. I’m sorry. I wasn’t snooping, honest.’

  Ah. ‘You saw my antiretroviral drugs.’ She was impressed that he’d known what they were for. Michael was going to keep her on her toes. ‘I’m HIV positive, but my viral loads are undetectable. Do you know what that means?’

  ‘It means you can’t give it to anyone. I wasn’t afraid of that.’ He swallowed hard. ‘I . . . I asked Greg about it. On Skype. Agent Troy said it was okay. He let me use his laptop and I didn’t touch anything on it, I swear.’

  ‘It’s okay, Michael. I’m not upset and I’m sure Agent Troy knew you’d be respectful with his computer. I’m glad you asked Greg.’

  ‘Greg said you’d say that. He told me about transmission and stuff. I was freaked out,’ he admitted. ‘A little.’

  ‘Understandable. I was freaked out, too, at the beginning.’

  ‘He said your boyfriend gave it to you.’

  Dani nodded again. ‘That’s true.’

  He frowned, his cheeks growing red. ‘Coach knows? Greg said he did.’

  Dani smiled. ‘He knows. He’s okay with it.’ More than okay, which still blew her mind.

  Michael crossed his arms over his chest, then released the hold he had on himself to sign. ‘What if the state finds out? They won’t let you keep us.’

  ‘Oh,’ she breathed. ‘Oh, honey, they already know. I had to submit my health records to be approved for emergency foster care. They’re not allowed to discriminate against me for my positive status any more than they can discriminate against you and Greg because you’re deaf. That’s the law.’