“You got all of that after just talking to the women for a short time at the pool?”
“She knew we were a couple.”
“She’s observant.” Ford surmised, following me back down the stairs.
I shrugged. “Maybe Tammy picked up on it and told her.”
“Maybe,” Ford answered
Chapter 21
Ford wasn’t a heavy sleeper, and being in the same bed with him didn’t allow me to be one either. He’d been up and down all night.
I’d dreamed but not of stabbing anyone though the heart. Instead, I dreamed of a lonely woman. Not that I remembered much, just her face since it was one of the ones whose blood I shared.
I descended the stairs, leaving Ford to shower. Carson stood at the door, holding it open as a server pushed in a silver cart. The smell of maple syrup made my stomach rumble. The tease of fresh hot coffee made it growl even more so.
Carson signed for the food as I approached and lifted off one of the lids, stealing a piece of bacon.
“I’m starved,” I said and bit into the salty goodness.
“The phone is over there. Go order your own,” Carson said with a chuckle as he pushed the cart over to the dining room table.
“You’re serious?” I asked.
“Hell yeah. I didn’t know when you two were coming down, so I ordered this for me. But I might give you a biscuit until yours gets here.”
“I see how you want to be.” I grabbed the phone and dialed the kitchen and ordered enough food for Ford and me both.
I hung up.
“Catch,” Carson called out, and I turned just in time to see a biscuit sailing through the air toward my head.
I caught it and took a seat at the table, picking apart the biscuit. “What time are my meds arriving today?”
We needed to get this done so we could move on from this location and get back to Sam.
“It should be here within the next couple of hours. After you eat, you might want to start repacking your things for our departure.”
Ford jogged down the stairs dressed for the day in one of his annoying unwrinkled suits. I understood now after spending time in his hometown that his suits were like his armor.
Ford glanced around the table. “Where are the plates?”
Carson covered his food with his arm.
“He’s not sharing, but ours will be here in about fifteen minutes.”
Ford moved to stand in front of the window. “I haven’t played golf since I was a teenager.”
“That’s right. I’m sure your daddy, the Judge, had his choice of country club memberships.”
The air around him started to change from a cold breeze, solidifying into a ghostly spirit only I could see. My breath turned frosty in front of my mouth. Just for a second, I saw the teen standing next to him. His dead sister, Sabrina, whose murder I helped solve.
My breath hitched as she stared back at me and smiled. “Remind him of my golf ball collection.”
“Your sister had a golf ball collection?” I asked, unable to take my eyes off of Sabrina.
Ford slowly turned around, meeting my gaze. “What did you say…”
I gestured, ignoring the goosebumps. “She’s right there.”
“Tell him I love him and I’m not mad,” she said.
I repeated the words like I was a parrot, even as tears gathered in my eyes.
Ford reached out next to him as if trying to touch her. His hand went through her body. “Ask her where she hid my magazines.”
“You heard him,” I said to her.
Her lips twisted into a grin. “Under my dollhouse.”
“Under her dollhouse,” I repeated.
Ford dropped to his knees as if that was the answer he’d been looking for. “I love you, peanut.”
“Tell him I’m always watching over him.”
I nodded and repeated the words just as she vanished. “She’s gone.”
Ford shoved to his feet and crossed the room, planting a kiss on my lips with a fierceness, as if I’d just saved his life. “Thank you for that.”
I touched his hand holding my cheek. “She’s good, Ford. I swear it.”
“I believe you.” Ford’s gaze softened as he took my hand and led me out the patio doors. A slight breeze of fresh air tickled my skin. With the Florida heat came the Florida humidity. The chances of my hair not frizzing just dropped to zero.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He smiled and took my hand. “Better than okay.”
Conversation drifted up to the balcony, and I glanced down at the people below. The bellhop had hold of Tammy’s arm, and she was trying to brush him off before she gave up and covered her face with her hands.
The bellhop wrapped his arms around her and held her.
“That’s interesting,” I said more to myself than to Ford.
“What? That two workers might be a couple?”
“That Tammy is one of those people is interesting. She and Raul were an item.”
“Maybe the guy cares.”
She’s crying into the arms of another guy. “And maybe the hacker’s death wasn’t what we thought at all.”
A bird squawked from a balcony on the floor below us drawing Tammy’s attention. She spotted us and then shoved out of the guy’s arms. She spun on her heels and headed back into the hotel. The bellhop glanced up before he, too, stormed off in the opposite direction.
“You think it’s a love triangle gone wrong?” Ford asked.
“No. Not if the rappel gear was used. I still think we’re looking for a pro. Someone sent to bump off the kid.”
“Maybe it was staged.” Ford played the devil on my shoulder. “Maybe Ellie wants you to think that it was a pro because she’s covering up for her granddaughter.”
“We’ll find out in a couple hours,” Carson called out onto the balcony. “Who wants my last pancake?”
“Me,” I squealed and hurried to step inside. Shutting the balcony door, I locked Ford out and grinned while devouring the fluffy goodness.
“I was going to give it to you anyway,” Ford said, gesturing to the plate.
I unlocked the door and let him back in just as the doorbell rang again. Neither Carson nor I made any attempt to go answer.
“I guess I’ll get it.” Ford crossed the floor and pulled the door open.
“Uh…it’s not the food,” Ford said, pulling the door open further. Tammy stood just outside the door. Her red and blotchy face was evidence of her tears.
“Um…is Lucy here?” Tammy asked.
I shoved the last bite of pancake into my mouth trying to remember if my name had been listed on our reservation.
It wasn’t.
“You know my name?” I asked.
“My grandmother told me.” Tammy lowered her gaze to the floor. “She suggested that I speak with you…privately, please.”
“Sure,” I said.
Tammy stepped farther back into the hallway, making room for me to join her. Ford caught my hand as I passed. “We’ll be right in here.”
I nodded and slipped my hand free. Stepping out into the hallway, I closed the door behind me.
“Are you okay?” I asked, noting Tammy had her arms wrapped around her waist and her gaze on the tan hotel carpet.
“No.” She sighed. “Not by a long shot.”
Chapter 22
“I shouldn’t be here,” Tammy whispered.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Raul hated authority. He would be fuming if he knew I was talking to the feds,” she said, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Well, technically, I’m just a liaison, and if it makes you feel better, I work with one of Raul’s college buddies. They roomed together.”
“You work with Sam?” Tammy snapped her gaze to mine.
“Yeah, Sam wants to know how his friend died.”
“Wow. Raul never mentioned that Sam worked for the FBI. If he’d known that…”
“H
e’s a liaison, just like me,” I said, trying my best to keep the girl calm. “And Sam just wants answers. We all do.”
She nodded and gestured to Raul’s penthouse. “He and I were a thing. Well, we weren’t official or anything since his grandfather didn’t like him hanging out with the staff, much less dating a staff member, but we liked spending time together.”
“Your grandmother said Raul liked to party with you guys.”
Tammy’s cheeks tinted. “He does. He did.” She swallowed. “He’d wait until his grandfather wasn’t on the property. No one ratted him out, though.”
“Ah, okay,” I said, trying not to push the girl too hard.
“Raul wasn’t like the other rich guys who are forced to come into town to visit their grandparents. Raul didn’t really care about money or status. He just liked to be happy.”
“And you made him happy.”
She met my gaze. “I’d like to think so.”
“So, he told you about the hack?”
Her eyes widened. “You know about that?”
“Yeah, we think that might have gotten him killed. Did he tell you about it?”
“Not outright,” Tammy said. “I was in the penthouse while he was hacking into the medical company. He had almost found the Easter egg when he got a phone call from an unknown number.”
“He did?” I asked.
She nodded. “After he answered, he looked worried. He told me he needed to cancel our date. He practically pushed me out the door.”
“Did you ask him why?”
She pressed her lips together as if debating on answering my question.
“Any detail, no matter how small, might help us solve his murder,” I gently pushed.
She swallowed again and wrung her fingers together. “I did ask him who was on the phone, and he said someone named Janson.”
I knew that name. He was one of the dead hackers. “Did he tell you what Janson wanted?”
“Before Raul kicked me out, I overheard a portion of their conversation. Something about a code in the Easter egg that could kill people.”
The hair on my arms lifted and my heartbeat quickened. I hadn’t been expecting that. “How could code kill people?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know, and I never got the opportunity to ask him. He was scared, you know. I’ve known him for a long time, and I’ve never seen him that worried, not even when his grandfather finds out all the ways he screws up.”
“I don’t recall them finding a cell phone in the police report.”
Tammy dropped her gaze again. “You wouldn’t have, because I took it. I didn’t know what he had on it, and I didn’t want anyone else to get in trouble.”
She pulled it out of her pocket and held it out to me.
“You moved his body out of the closet?”
“When I got down to the reception desk, I forgot my hotel office keys, so I had to go back. I had to borrow one of the bus boy’s keys to get up on this level. I was only gone about twenty minutes at the most. Only when I walked in, the patio door was open and Raul wasn’t there. I looked through the apartment for him and couldn’t find him until I saw the blood in the bathroom. I followed it into the walk-in closet. He was dead.”
“You were worried he wasn’t going to be found, weren’t you?”
“After I freaked out, I moved him and ran out. I didn’t know what to do, so I called my grandmother, and she called the police.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said in the quiet of the hallway.
The elevator dinged, and a room service waiter stepped out. Tammy clammed up. “I’ve got to go. I’m sorry.”
She gave a wary look to the waiter as she passed and hurried down the hall. She pushed through the exit doors, bypassing the elevator in her rush to leave.
“That smells great,” I said with my gaze still on the exit.
I rang the doorbell since I was locked out, and Ford pulled it open before the first chime even finished.
“What?” The question died on his lips as he glanced around the hallway looking for Tammy. “I was starving and waiting for the food.”
“Yeah, sure you were,” I said in passing as Ford signed for our breakfast. It wasn’t until the door was shut and we were piling food on our plates that I explained what Tammy had to say.
Carson sipped coffee, watching us eat. “In just a few hours, we’ll be able to fill in that time gap.”
I was looking forward to it, as long as it was Raul I’d be tapping into. He was dead, which was good for me. It meant he wasn’t going to play house in my head.
I’m sure there was a limit on the number of people that could be in my head and not send me back to the psych ward where the team had found me. I wasn’t willing to push those limits.
Chapter 23
I’d been patiently waiting most of the day for my meds to arrive. As soon as the doorbell chimed, Carson flung the door open, signed for the package, and then ripped the bag open. The hard case I’d grown to know, which looked like it held sunglasses, was tucked neatly inside. Carson unzipped the case, checking the syringes and the medicine I’d need.
“We good?” I asked.
Carson lifted his gaze to mine. “You tell me, Lucy. Are we good? You have a ton of people in your head. Is one more going to make you explode?”
Sloan and Martin were watching me. Neither had sarcastic comments today, as if they knew exactly what was going to happen and were forbidden to tell me.
“Let’s get it over with,” I said with a shaky breath and headed for the door. The others were quick to follow.
Carson opened Raul’s penthouse, and we stepped inside.
It was the same as it had been the previous day. Nothing had changed other than the stuff I’d taken to send to Noah and Sam.
I walked straight into the bedroom and opened the closet door and knelt by the darkened stain.
I should be used to this by now. The dried blood was a means to an end. I just prayed it was Raul’s and not the killer’s.
My hand hovered over the stain, and I took a second to close my eyes and calm my nerves. With a soft exhalation, I touched the carpet. I held my breath at the first contact with the dried, crusty fibers. Air whooshed out of my lungs as the vision hit hard and fast.
“Raul is in the living room. He’s on the phone. Tammy is with him. He looks panicked,” I narrated the vision.
“What else, Lucy?” Carson prodded.
“I can’t hear them,” I said as panic slithered down my spine. Mine and Raul’s.
“That’s okay. Stay with them.”
“Their mouths are moving, but I don’t know what they’re saying.” My breath quickened seconds before I felt Ford’s comforting touch.
“Relax, Lucy, just observe.”
“Okay.” I let out a shaky breath and watched. “Raul escorted Tammy to the door and kissed her. She looks worried too, but he shut the door and put the phone back to his ear.”
I watched as he moved around the room, unable to hear what they were saying.
“What is he doing?” Carson asked.
“Judging by his gestures, I’d say he’s arguing with the guy on the phone, but Raul has the phone wedged between his ear and shoulder and has picked up his controller and opened his game.”
“Is he playing it?”
“No, I don’t think so,” I answered. “He opened it to the troll-looking guy and then clicked on the hammer like he was selecting his weapon. Only, while picking his weapon, he also picked up a coin, and he’s typing a message onto it.”
“What does it say?” Carson prodded.
“The hack isn’t on the up and up. There are other players involved they didn’t tell us about. Get out why you still can. You know what to do.”
“What else, Lucy?” Ford asked.
“He put the coin back in its place in the weapons room and left, going back into the main gaming play area before he put the controller down. Now he’s running to his room. He hung up and tossed his
phone on the bed before grabbing a bag from the top shelf of the closet. He dropped it at his feet. He’s pulling clothes off the hangers. An arm wrapped around his neck. Dark clothes with gloves. I can’t see who it is.”
“What are they saying?” Carson asked.
My heart raced again as I struggled to hear. “I…I don’t know.”
“Step out of his POV and tell me who killed him,” Carson guided.
I removed myself from Raul to see the man behind him. “A man, about six foot three. He’s wearing a black ski mask. Hazel eyes. Caucasian. He’s dressed in tactical gear and a harness. He has guns, but he’s holding a knife. His lips are moving, and he’s saying something. Raul is struggling to break the hold. The perp shoved the knife into Raul’s chest. It looks like a direct hit to the heart or his lungs or something.”
“Is Raul still alive?” Ford asked.
“Yeah, the guy dropped Raul to the ground with the knife still in him. Raul’s eyes are open, and he’s about to pull out the knife, but the guy starts talking again. His lips are moving, and Raul released the knife handle.”
“It would be helpful if we could hear what they’re saying,” Carson said.
“Give her a break,” Ford growled.
I let out a shaky breath and watched as the two exchanged more words I couldn’t hear. “The killer is standing again. He leaned over and pulled the knife out of Raul’s chest. There’s blood everywhere. The killer is leaving just as Raul’s eyes are closing. He’s dying. I’m losing my connection.”
“Let it go, Lucy. Open your eyes and come back,” Carson guided.
I slowly opened my eyes, and my shoulders deflated. “We know how he died, just none of the damn details.”
“You did good,” Ford offered.
“It wasn’t helpful at all. Not one damn bit,” Frustration slithered down my spine as I rose to my feet.
I didn’t wait around for them to try to convince me that I’d done my best. My best wasn’t good enough, and that stuck in my craw more than anything else.
“Lucy,” Carson called out after me.
I left the penthouse and went into ours. I walked out onto the balcony, breathing in the fresh air and the life that I should be thankful for.
Hacking Justice (Fractured Minds Series Book 5) Page 9