But he wouldn’t kill anyone, would he? Even for him that was a step too far. It had to be. Then again, only seconds ago Liam would have thought framing his friend would be a step too far for David, so who knew?
Chris took this as his opportunity to move in on Rick.
“Where’s the ring?” Chris demanded, forcing Rick to look up to see his face.
Rick only did that for a second before his gaze shifted to the floor. “I don’t have it.”
“Where is it?”
“I sold it.”
“To who?” Chris said through clenched teeth.
“A dealer.” Then, with enthusiasm, he added, “But I can show you where. Tomorrow. When they open.” In other words, Please don’t kill me.
Chris nodded. He turned to Liam. “Do you need him anymore?”
Liam was so distracted he almost said no. He was sure Rick had told him everything he could. Anything else he wanted would have to come from David. But then he remembered the money.
Liam Parker
Rick had transferred all of Liam’s money to an account in Belarus.
Liam found the bank’s information online using his TracFone. Thanks to the time difference, it was open at this hour. He dialed the number, was connected to a banker who spoke English, and held the phone up to Rick’s ear.
Reading the account and routing numbers off a piece of paper, Rick set up a wire transfer to send all of it back to Liam’s personal checking account at Bank of America. The banker protested—Liam could hear him resisting the request in broken English—but finally gave in. Liam expected as many questions from his bank, probably even some from the FTC. But since the money was his, he was sure it would all work itself out.
When the transfer was complete, Liam cut Rick free, then Chris and Arkin took him away. Chris had used some of the remaining packing tape to bind Rick’s hands behind his back. Rick was terrified and sobbing, but as Liam watched him leave he felt nothing. He didn’t care any more about what happened to Rick than Rick had cared what happened to him. What mattered to Liam was confronting David.
Ava stood up. “You know even if he admits to killing her, he’ll never say it to the police.”
“I know.” Liam looked around, as if taking the place in one last time. “Rick is going to tell them about you when they get their hands on him.”
“They won’t believe him.”
“They might. You’re going to have to shut this place down for a while.”
Ava offered up a smile unlike any Liam had ever seen from her. She looked strangely happy. “It’s time. When I started, it was supposed to be fun. It’s not anymore.”
Liam understood. He began coming here to get away from his wife before the divorce. Then it became a distraction, a way of keeping himself busy so he could forget his children no longer lived with him. Then it became a habit. It would do him good to put this place behind him.
They hugged briefly. “Thank you,” Liam said.
Ava patted him on the back. “Good luck.”
Liam left, weaved his way through the suite for the last time. When he reached the elevators, he pulled out his cellphone and called Anita.
Liam Parker
Liam buzzed David’s condo several times before David came to the intercom and let him up. When he reached the unit, the door was partially open—a clear sign David had been using for years that there was no need to knock.
Liam opened the door the rest of the way. He irrationally feared Bash would be waiting for him. All the lights were on. Elise’s Pomeranian yapped from somewhere deep in the apartment. Dressed in wrinkled brown slacks and a white undershirt, David entered from the hall. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the arched doorway. “What happened to you earlier today?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Why didn’t you come to The Crown?”
“Why did you try to set me up?”
David rocked off the doorway. His arms fell to his sides. His gaze shifted left then right, as if he were trying to assess a new, hostile territory. “What are you talking about?”
“I know. I’ve had a talk with Rick.”
David said nothing.
“Just tell me. What does it matter now anyway?”
David went over to the fridge and got a beer. “You want one?”
“No.”
David popped the top off the Budweiser, took a sip, and returned to the living room. The two men stood in silence, watching each other as David drank the beer.
Liam could hardly believe where the journey had taken him. This man had once been his best friend. If he had denied knowing Rick—if he’d just asked “Who?”—would Liam have started to doubt Rick’s story? He didn’t know, and it didn’t matter, because David hadn’t denied it, hadn’t asked who. That meant everything Rick had told him was true.
Finally, David spoke. “What the hell? You’re right. What does it matter now? I mean—who are you going to tell? Even if you did, who’d believe you? But it’s not exactly like you think.”
More silence. Perhaps David was deciding what he wanted to say next. Liam waited.
“I didn’t set you up. Catherine did.”
His ex-wife. That must have been the woman Rick had referred to.
“She wanted you out of her life. She wanted to take the kids back to Mississippi and raise them without you around. But she needed a judge to rule on that and so she hired Elise to make sure a judge ruled in her favor.”
“But . . . how would they ever have met? They wouldn’t have exactly run in the same circles.”
“Catherine met Elise when she came to St. Ann’s looking to clean up.”
The church Catherine volunteers at, Liam thought. It seemed obvious now that David had told him.
“She didn’t stay on the wagon long. She got arrested trying to buy drugs immediately after an NA meeting outside the church. Catherine saw it. She told me the idea came to her a couple of days later. She suspected Elise would need money when she got out, and thought she might be the kind of person who would be willing to do what Catherine wanted.”
“Which was?”
“She wanted Elise to get you drunk, then convince you to drive her through Lincoln Park.”
Liam had a feeling he knew where this was going. Lincoln Park had a lot of bars and, because of that, a lot of cops.
“She told Elise to bump the wheel, start a fight. She wanted you to take your eyes off the road, swerve or have an accident, whatever it took to get a cop’s attention. She was convinced that if you were charged with a DUI she could make you out to be an unfit parent. Elise wanted more money than Catherine was offering, though, so Catherine came to me.”
David finished the beer in one long swig and placed the bottle on the coffee table without taking his eyes off Liam. More silence followed.
Eventually, Liam said, “David, tell me.”
“You know, I’m surprised you’re standing here in my living room right now after what you found out. That takes balls. Not exactly your strong suit, is it? And that was always the problem. There wouldn’t be a business without me. You were a workhorse and a dreamer, but that’s all you were. Do you remember how much you talked about starting your own firm? But it took me pushing you to make it happen. Then, once we did, you didn’t want to do anything. You wouldn’t take a single risk. I suggested we look at turning our firm into a full-fledged advertising agency and you said no. I said let’s at least try a couple radio spots with our smaller clients, test the waters, and you said no. You’d found your sweet spot publishing ads online and that’s all you wanted to do. It was intolerable. You wouldn’t even agree to take out a loan so we could expand our sales team. There was so much money to be made if you just took a risk and you didn’t care. I couldn’t understand it then, and I don’t understand it now. When Catherine came to me, I guess I saw an opportunity to get you out of my way too.
“Only for me, a DUI wasn’t going to do it. So when Catherine and I met with Elise
and Rick to hand over the money, I said it had to be drugs. Cocaine or heroin, preferably. Something serious enough to carry real jail time. I figured if anyone knew where to get their hands on something like that, she would. I thought it’d be a lot easier to pull off, too. Plant some drugs on you, tell a cop you’re carrying. I needed to create enough controversy that you wouldn’t have any choice but to step down for a while. Believe me, Liam, it would’ve been worth it. I would’ve made you so much money if I could’ve just gotten you out of my way.”
“But that’s not what happened.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Did you kill Elise?”
The Night of the Murder
Elise Watson
Elise watched Eric Ricci cash out his chips and then she did the same. Liam was still at Ava’s. So was Rick. But they didn’t need to know what she was up to. She bowed out, claiming a headache, and neither seemed suspicious.
She caught up with Eric in the parking lot, called his name to get his attention.
Eric turned around. He looked annoyed. He’d had a bad night and lost a lot of money.
“Where are you off to?” she said.
“Home.”
She smiled in a flirty way. “You want some company?”
“Aren’t you dating Liam?”
“He doesn’t have to know. So?” She was sure he’d say yes. She’d been watching him watch her, and even though she hated herself for what she was about to do, she convinced herself it was necessary. Rick had threatened to make sure Liam found out about her past if she didn’t do what she was supposed to. But as long as she could give him a new target, a way to justify all the trouble he went through to make this con work, she believed he’d leave her alone.
The whole thing was over quickly. Eric went to take a shower. Elise got out of bed, quietly dressed, and crept across the apartment to a small office, formerly a second bedroom. The entire apartment was a shrine to Eric’s career. Framed posters for movies he’d been in and baseball cards with his face on them hung on the walls. Talk about narcissism. Elise wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.
When they had arrived, she had asked if she could use his laptop for a couple of minutes to check her email. “We’ve got this big thing for work and . . . well, I don’t want to bore you with the details. It will only take a second.” She tried to keep the story simple and hoped he wouldn’t ask a lot of questions. He told her the password, urged her to hurry up, and kissed her neck. Her skin crawled, but she committed the password to memory and used it again to log in now.
She plugged the USB stick Rick gave her into the back of the laptop and the software began installing itself. A black box opened in the center of the screen and row after row of text appeared in it, too fast to read. Elise had no idea how long it would take and there was no progress bar to tell her how far she was from done. She paid close attention to the sound of the shower and from time to time glanced over her shoulder to see if she was alone. She worried she wasn’t going to get away with this, but then the installation finished. The word “Complete” appeared at the bottom of the black box and the box closed on its own.
Before she could pull the USB stick out of the back of the laptop, she heard Eric ask, “What are you doing?”
Elise spun around. He was standing in front of her with a towel wrapped around his waist. All her senses heightened and she went on red alert. Halos formed around the overhead light. The flowery smell of the Herbal Essences shampoo Eric used turned her stomach. The shower was still on, the water hitting the tile like a hard rain. She didn’t miss it. The cue she was listening for had failed her.
Elise stumbled over her words, desperately trying to come up with an answer. She fell back on the same lie she’d used before, only this time, Eric didn’t buy it.
“You weren’t checking your mail. What was that? What were you doing?”
Elise wanted to run, but Eric was blocking her path to the door, so she stayed completely still, watching him, ready to react to whatever he did next.
Eric moved in close. The smell of the shampoo grew stronger, almost making Elise gag. He pressed one hand down on the top of the laptop and closed it. The laptop automatically powered down. “I said, what were you doing?”
“It’s not what you think,” she said, and not just out of reflex. She was certain, no matter what he might imagine at this moment, it wasn’t as bad as what Rick had planned.
Eric was barely a foot away when he said, “Get out.”
Elise had expected this to go much worse and wasn’t about to stick around to press her luck. She hurried to the door, then the elevator, afraid that if she looked back Eric would change his mind about letting her leave.
When she got to the street, she found the nearest bus stop and took the first bus that came. The digital display above the driver read “22 Clark.” She was unfamiliar with the route, but she wanted to put as much distance between her and Eric as possible.
There were not a lot of passengers at this hour. Elise took an isolated seat at the back. She remembered the USB stick she’d plugged into Eric’s computer and frantically checked her purse and pockets twice. The purse was small. Her pockets were empty. This was not okay. She had to tell Liam the truth before Rick dropped him an anonymous email. Hopefully he’d understand. No, not her. Kate. Kate and that man she was with. They needed to tell Liam the truth. They were the ones who started all this.
Elise called Kate and said she needed to come over to her apartment, and bring the guy she came with.
“Yes, right now. It’s urgent.”
She hung up before she was forced to elaborate and called Liam. He didn’t answer, which probably meant he was still at Ava’s. Ava had a strict “no calls” policy when playing.
She switched buses, tried again. Still no answer. Back at her apartment, she started texting.
Present
Liam Parker
Did you kill Elise? Liam had asked.
David was as slow to answer that as he had been to answer every other question tonight. He ran both hands through his hair, down his face. He moved from the doorway to a chair. “Sit down.”
Liam didn’t.
“Elise was taking a long time to do what we wanted her to do. Catherine and I were starting to think she’d scammed us. Then, late one night Catherine gets a call. Elise says she needs us to come over to her apartment right away and gives Catherine her address. Of course, we went. We wanted to know what was taking so long.
“When we got there, Elise told us you were on your way over. She said either we could tell you what we were doing or she would. I told her she couldn’t do that. It’d be bad for me, you, her, Catherine, the business—everybody. Nobody would win from telling you the truth. But she wouldn’t budge. It got heated. After that, I don’t remember much. Somehow, I ended up on top of her. I had her pinned to the floor. My hands were around her neck, and she was gone. Catherine was standing by the door. She looked horrified. She was saying ‘What have you done?’ over and over.
“I didn’t know what to do. I tried to revive her but couldn’t. Even if I wanted to pull the brakes on everything it was too late. Somebody was going to jail, then, for sure. Not for drugs anymore either.”
Liam flushed with anger.
“I told Catherine to help me stage a suicide—it was us or you. So we cut her wrists and dumped her in the bathtub. Then I saw her phone sitting on the coffee table. It was unlocked and I could see the messages she sent you on the screen. I told Catherine to delete them while I cleaned up. I thought that would make it look to the police like you were trying to cover your tracks. Then it was mostly a matter of waiting and letting the wheels of justice do the work for us. The only close call came when we were leaving the apartment and a neighbor stepped out. Turns out anyone can be bought for the right price.”
Liam had heard enough. This wasn’t a fight he was going to run away from. He charged forward and, even as David was lifting himself out of the chair, punche
d him across the jaw.
David rolled with the blow, onto the floor, then leapt up and pushed Liam away. He glanced out the window. “Do it. I dare you.”
Liam took him up on the offer.
Even though David was bigger, Liam ended up on top of him. David fended off most of the blows, but did little to fight back. Liam kept firing one punch after another. It wasn’t until someone pulled him off that he understood David had wanted him to gain the upper hand.
Uniformed officers were everywhere. One pushed Liam to a wall and cuffed him. Bash entered Liam’s field of vision. “Good to see you again, Mr. Parker.”
David got to his feet slowly, moving as if he was in pain. He pressed the back of one hand to his lip to check for blood. “You should’ve known not to come here.”
Liam saw an iPhone on the floor at the same time David did and David went over and picked it up. An app was open and recording their conversation. Liam tried to say it was his phone, that it proved his innocence, but no one was listening.
The police pushed him out the door, led him to the elevator, and from there to a cop car parked along the curb. He walked right past a shattered iPhone on the sidewalk.
David could have smashed it with a hammer, but he wanted Liam to know it was gone.
Christopher Bell
Chris kept the real Richard Hawthorne locked up in his boat’s storage closet until morning. Then he had Rick lead him to the jeweler who had bought the ring only to find out it was already sold. Gone forever.
When he got home, Emma was awake and waiting for him. He told her what had happened and then said, ever so casually, “You want to get married?” Chris was pouring a cup of coffee from the pot she’d made an hour earlier when he asked the question and seemed to be directing it as much to the mug in his hand as to her. He stirred in a spoonful of sugar and waited.
A Reagan Keeter Box Set: Three page-turning thrillers that will leave you wondering who you can trust Page 44