“Let’s do this at headquarters if you’re too fragile to talk now.”
The other man, a guy in his forties sporting a suit and tie, stepped between Lance and Kyle. “Mr. Bearcroft has been injured. Your questions can wait.”
“They can’t. Four women’s lives are at stake right this minute. He either answers our questions or we’ll haul him to the field office for a little less friendly conversation,” Lance said.
The man sighed. “I think you’d better talk to them, Kyle. We’ll make it short.”
The cold wind stung Lance’s face, and he saw Bearcroft’s ears were bright red and his nose was running. “My SUV is right there. We can talk in it.”
Chapter 35
Jason’s house was dark, and though he was probably asleep, Mac pressed the doorbell, then pounded on the door. “Jason! It’s Mac. I have to talk to you.” She rang it again and shouted out his name.
It seemed forever until the dead bolt clicked and the door swung open. Jason, dressed in jersey shorts and a T-shirt, stood blinking. His eyes were sleepy below his tousled brown hair. “Mac? What’s going on?”
She brushed past him into the foyer. “It’s Ellie.”
He shut the door and faced her. “What’s wrong with Ellie?”
She burst into tears and flung herself against his chest. He rocked on his heels and managed to stay on his feet, but he held himself stiffly with his arms hanging down until she wailed out the story of her sister’s kidnapping. Only then did he embrace her, and she burrowed as tightly as she could against his stalwart form.
He rubbed her back and murmured something she couldn’t hear past the wild pounding in her ears. “I feel so hopeless, like she’s dead. She can’t be dead, Jason, she just can’t!”
His grip tightened on her. “I’m sure they’ll find her. The FBI will know what to do. And you know how much Grayson loves her. He won’t stop until he finds her. Bailey and Shauna were taken too?”
She lifted her head and nodded. “Zach and Lance were both injured.”
When he dropped his arms, she stepped back and flipped on the hall light. “Let’s go to the living room. I’ll make coffee. I don’t think I can sleep.”
“Me neither. No matter what’s happened between us, Ellie will always be my sister.” He shuffled into the living room while Mac went to the kitchen.
The house was still neat. Bailey’s training must be working. Mac found a tub of guacamole and a bag of baby carrots in the fridge, so she set them on a plate with the cups, then blew her nose and washed her face while she waited for the coffee to brew.
She poured the coffee and carried the tray into the living room. Jason had started the gas log, and the remote was still in his hands. He sat staring toward the fire but turned his head at her approach.
The tray clanged when she set it on the coffee table. She carried a cup toward him. “Careful, it’s hot.”
His lips twisted as he reached for it. “Yes, Mom.”
Rage rattled her, and she slammed down the cup, sloshing coffee in the process. Grabbing him by the shoulders, she shook him until his dark hair flopped onto his forehead. “You idiot! Doesn’t it mean anything to you that when I’m worried or hurting I come straight for your arms? Doesn’t it matter to you at all that I’m sorry? I was stupid, okay? I threw away the best thing I had in life. I love you.”
Drained, she released her grip on his shoulders and stepped back, then burst into tears. “I can’t do this.” She ran for the door. He might have called out her name, but she couldn’t hear past the sobs tearing their way out of her throat.
He didn’t love her. She’d ruined everything.
Bearcroft sat in the middle of the SUV’s backseat with Daniel on one side and Lance on the other. Grayson and Bearcroft’s manager were in the front seat with the engine running and the heater on, and Zach was in a third-row seat. The vehicle rocked with every gust of wind as Lance and Daniel hammered Bearcroft with questions.
The man was cold. Even knowing women were in danger, he said nothing more than, “I don’t know,” for half an hour. Lance lost all patience. “Bailey is missing! I’m sure you know who has her. Do you want her blood on your hands?”
Bearcroft finally showed some emotion when his lids flickered and he looked down at his hands. “I really loved Bailey.”
Loved. Past tense. Lance clenched his fists. “If you cared anything at all about her, you’d tell us who has her. Don’t pretend you don’t know. We know it’s someone connected to Baker Holdings. And we know all about the fake marriage as well. You wouldn’t know the truth if it bit you in the rear end.”
Bearcroft spread out his fingers and shrugged. “I’ve never heard of that company.”
“You transferred the deed of the cabin to her from Baker Holdings, so you have to know about it.”
Bearcroft’s manager straightened. “I think we’re done here. Mr. Bearcroft has cooperated, and he’s clueless about this investigation.”
Zach slammed his fist down on the armrest. “He’s given us nothing!”
The manager shrugged and opened the front passenger door to step into the wind. “We’re leaving. Come on, Kyle.” He opened the back door on Lance’s side. “Let him out.”
Either he had to arrest the man or let him go. He had no time to deal with arresting the singer right now, but he could call it in and let one of the other agents leverage what they had on him. “We’ll be talking more, Bearcroft.”
The singer stepped past him and didn’t answer. A headache raging, Lance watched them head to their vehicle. He got back in the SUV. “Sorry, Grayson, you’ll need to drive. I’ve got a little double vision going on.”
Daniel gave him a worried glance. “Maybe you’d better go back inside.”
“No, I’ll be fine. I’m going to call in an arrest on Kyle. Maybe he’ll talk a bit when his head is on the line.” He pressed a throbbing spot on his temple and tried to think. Some line of questioning was just out of his reach. What was it?
He lifted his head. “What about those bones in the garden? Do we know anything about them?”
Daniel turned up the blower on the heater. “Yeah, we’ve got a DNA match to a missing persons from twenty-four years ago. The crime-scene guys had recovered blood from the scene and saved it. The vic’s name was Robert Colley.”
“That name sounds a little familiar. Let me think about it,” Zach said.
Lance snapped his fingers. “Bearcroft’s real wife, Amy Boone. Has anyone talked to her?”
“Not that I know of,” Daniel said. “I’ve got her number though. I thought maybe you’d want to call her.”
Lance pulled out his phone. “Give me the number, and I’ll call right now.”
“It’s nearly midnight,” Zach said. “If she doesn’t answer, leave a message and tell her it’s a matter of life and death.” He choked out the last few words.
Lance punched in the number, and it rang. His phone number would be tagged FBI, so maybe she’d answer it.
A groggy woman’s voice answered. “Hello?”
Lance enabled the speakerphone function so the other men could hear. “Mrs. Kyle Boone? Amy Boone?”
“That’s right. Is Kyle all right?” Her voice rose and grew clearer.
“Yes, he’s fine. This is Lance Phoenix with the FBI in Washington State, and I’m sorry for calling so late, but we’re investigating some missing women who are in imminent danger. I hoped you might help us.”
“Missing women? I don’t understand. I live in Idaho. I don’t think there’s anything I can tell you about women missing in Washington.”
“Have you ever heard your husband mention Baker Holdings?”
“Baker Holdings? Well, sure. It’s part of my family’s business.”
“Your family?”
“Yes, the Colley family. I was a Colley when we got married. What does Baker Holdings have to do with anything?”
Lance’s gaze linked with Daniel’s. The Colley family. Bearcroft was in this
up to his neck. “Do you know who runs the company?”
“My aunt’s husband. Well, really my great-grandfather is the head, but he’s old and infirm, so Uncle Harry takes care of it for him. Harry Whitewell.”
Zach made a strangled sound and stared at Lance. Know who that is? Lance mouthed and Zach nodded.
“Your uncle Harry? Where does he live?”
“In Lavender Tides. You can’t think he’d know anything about missing women. He’s a judge, for heaven’s sake.”
A judge. Lance glanced at Zach who was nodding vigorously. “What kinds of businesses does Baker Holdings have?”
“They do lots of things. Importing and exporting all kinds of manufacturing goods. I think they specialize in a lot of goods exported to China.”
Like women.
Lance clenched his jaw and bit back his anger so his voice would be calm. He didn’t want to shut off the flow of information. She sounded like an innocent in all this. “You live on a ranch in Idaho? Do you ever get over here to Washington?”
She laughed. “Not really. I let my uncle handle any family business. My horses don’t like me to be gone, and quite honestly, I-I suffer from agoraphobia. I literally can’t breathe when I leave the ranch.”
The perfect patsy for Kyle. Lance pressed his lips together and shook his head. “Anything else you can tell me about Baker Holdings?”
“I really think you’re looking in the wrong direction. It’s a perfectly legitimate company. Talk to my uncle, and you’ll see.”
“I intend to. Thank you for your time, Mrs. Boone.” He ended the call without telling her about Bailey. She’d learn about her husband’s faithlessness soon enough when this all exploded.
“Harry Whitewell is a friend of ours,” Zach said. “I can’t even believe this.”
“You know where he lives?”
“Of course. Let’s go there now.”
Shauna blinked at the smiling face holding the keys. “Harry? Thank goodness you’re here! You’ve got to call the FBI right away. The four of us were kidnapped. How did you find us?”
He wasn’t speaking and didn’t show any surprise.
She stared at him. “Harry?” The familiar scent of his cologne wafted toward her. That was the cologne she’d smelled in the viewing room.
His fingers curled around the keys and the knuckles in his fist whitened. “I’m sorry you got caught up in all this, Shauna. Really sorry. I’ve always liked you, and Taylor will be disappointed not to get her flight lessons.”
Aware her mouth was dangling, Shauna closed it, then reached out and held Bailey’s cold hand. “You’re the one behind this. B-But you’re a judge.” She saw the purse she’d had in the car on his desk. “A-And your own daughter was targeted.”
“I disposed of the idiot who let that happen. He’s supposed to keep a better eye on the men he hires.” His voice vibrated with outrage.
Bailey clutched her hand hard, and the two shuffled closer together for support. Lily huddled near Ellie, and Bailey reached out her other arm and pulled the other two in close to her side. A united front.
“A perfect cover, don’t you think?” A gun emerged in the hand he’d had in his pocket. He gestured with it. “Let’s go to the living room for now. This blizzard is delaying your transportation a bit, and we might as well be comfortable. Come along.”
When they stayed where they were in the foyer, his smile vanished, and his hazel eyes went flinty. “I’ll shoot the old lady first. No one will miss her.”
Shauna tugged Bailey toward the living room, and Ellie steered Lily that direction too. While there was life, there was hope. Somehow they had to defeat this man and his minions, snag the keys to the Suburban, and get out of here. A tall order, but she’d been in tight places before. They had to stay alert for their chance.
The living room was easily thirty by fifty, a huge space with high ceilings soaring to twenty feet. Pale wood covered the ceiling, and the walls were painted a light gray. The floor looked like heart pine, and the furniture was Italian leather. Harry always liked the best of everything. Had his love of money and power led him here? Poor Gina and the kids.
She and the other women sank onto the plush sofa. Perched on the edge, Shauna looked out of the corner of her eye for a weapon. Harry was the only one here right now. If they could overpower him and take his gun, they might have a chance.
There were several heavy vases, big tomes of hardback research books on the floor-to-ceiling shelves against one wall, and end tables that might serve as a weapon. If one of them got the opportunity to seize something and swing it at his head.
Bailey’s green eyes flashed, and she clenched her fists. “Why are you doing this? I signed over the deed. What more do you want?”
His gaze raked over her face and down her figure. “You’re very pretty. You look just like your sister. Some buyers in China or the Middle East will be very pleased to have either of you.” His gaze moved to Ellie. “And you’ll fetch a high price too.”
Bailey sprang to her feet. “You’re the trafficker? A judge? You should be ashamed.”
“It’s just business.” He shrugged. “A business that’s gotten a little too much attention lately, I might add. I plan to sell my current stable and get out of the country.” His finger wagged their direction. “If you hadn’t come to town, Bailey, I wouldn’t be faced with this.” He stared at Shauna. “Is it true the FBI found bones in the garden?”
She held his gaze. “Yes. The medical examiner was working hard on an ID, last I heard.”
His lips flattened and he scowled. “I’d hoped that was bravado, but it was too specific not to be true.”
“You know how good the FBI is though—they’re bound to figure it out. Did you kill him?”
“How do you know it was a male?”
“They figured out that much from a ring or something.”
He glared at Shauna. “This is all your fault. If you hadn’t started looking for your sister, it would have all stayed hidden.”
“You killed my mother?” Bailey whispered.
He shrugged. “I didn’t pull the trigger. Olivia agreed to stay quiet about what she’d seen as long as I didn’t say anything about her taking you. I sweetened the pot with a little money now and again to keep her quiet, but once Shauna tracked you down, I knew it would all come out. To be honest, I’d hoped Olivia would come back to me eventually, but she never did. Not unless I divorced my wife, and I couldn’t do that.”
Bailey struggled to assimilate what he’d said. He’d been behind everything, and he had to be the older man her mother was seeing in high school. He was the reason Bailey had never had a real home and had been yanked all over the country for years.
The judge stalked to the bar and poured himself a scotch, then tossed it back and sighed. While his back was turned, Shauna started to reach for a heavy paperweight on the table beside her, but Bailey was already on it. She picked up the round paperweight, hefted it in her hand like a softball, then threw it straight at the back of Harry’s head.
He made no sound and pitched over onto the polished bar. The scotch and the glass in his hand shattered as they hit the floor.
Bailey darted forward and dug the keys out of his pocket. “Hurry! His men are likely to come in here anytime.”
Shauna and Ellie had to lift Lily bodily from the sofa and hustle her toward the door to the foyer. There was no sound anywhere in the house, at least not at the moment. Lily was shaking, and her teeth chattered. Leaving Ellie to tend to Lily, Shauna went to the closet and pawed through the coats to snag four of them. There was a blanket on the shelf, and she took that too.
Bailey had the door open, and cold wind blew in snow before they could get their coats on. “We have to go now!”
Shauna’s heart sank as they stepped outside and into a drift that came up to her calves. “We can’t get anywhere in this.”
Bailey spoke past clenched teeth. “This is nothing. I’ve driven in snow up to the grill on my
SUV. I know how to drive in it. Get in.”
The doors beeped and the lights flashed as she unlocked the vehicle. She reached in and grabbed an ice scraper. “Everyone, get inside. Shauna, start the engine so the defroster is going. Seeing is crucial in this kind of weather.”
Shauna obeyed, but she kept peeking through the windshield at her little sister who had suddenly become a superhero. Maybe Bailey could get them out of this.
Chapter 36
A puzzled frown creased Gina’s brow as she stared at Lance’s badge, then at Zach as they stood in the entry of the house. Daniel as well as Grayson had joined them, and a tightly coiled tension rolled off Grayson in waves. They were all on edge.
Gina’s hair was mussed, and she wore a silk wrap over pajamas. “I don’t understand why the FBI would have questions about Harry, especially at this hour. Let’s go to the living room.”
Her slippers slapped on the marble tiles as she led them into a massive living room with ceilings that soared thirty feet high. The stone fireplace was the focal point, and the massive brickwork rose clear to the roof.
She gestured toward the leather sofas and chairs. “Have a seat. Can I get you come coffee? I’ll need some to wake up.” She went to the kitchen and started the pot, which must have been set up for morning.
Lance sat on the sofa. Grayson and Daniel each found an armchair, but Zach went to stand by the fireplace.
“None of us would say no to coffee.” Though he’d had no sleep, Lance felt as wired as if he’d already had a pot of coffee. His headache had finally subsided, which helped.
Zach couldn’t seem to sit down. He kept clenching and unclenching his fists, and Lance rose to put his hand on Zach’s shoulder. “We’ll find them.” He infused more confidence into his words than he felt.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Bailey’s green eyes. They all sensed the women were in imminent and grave danger.
Zach stared at Gina when she rejoined them. “We haven’t started telling people yet, but Shauna is pregnant. My wife and our child are at risk here. We have to find them.”
Secrets at Cedar Cabin Page 23