Текст книги "Alone in the Dark"

Автор книги: Karen Rose

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Текущая страница: 19 (всего у книги 49 страниц)

Marcus blocked Scarlett out of his head, focusing solely on the dogs in the ring. He immediately eliminated two of the females as being too big. The remaining three he watched running around the ring many times before slowly eliminating one of the others, leaving two.

He looked over his shoulder in time to see Scarlett straightening so that they didn’t bump noses. ‘I can’t tell the difference between these two dogs,’ he said, ‘but they’re both close to the dog I saw in the park.’

‘Numbers 121 and 130,’ Delores said. ‘I don’t remember them, but we can check their names and owners. Forward the video to twenty-one minutes, ten seconds,’ she instructed.

Marcus paused the video on the image of a booklet opened to pages listing all the dogs in the category, with their American Kennel Club names and owners.

‘You videoed the entries list,’ he said approvingly. ‘Very smart.’

‘Not so much,’ Delores chuckled. ‘I was never organized, even before . . . well, you know. I photographed the page after each class was shown because I knew I’d lose the program. But we can get the owners’ names from here. Past this, you two are on your own.’

Scarlett placed a hand on his shoulder, leaning closer to the screen. ‘Can you blow it up a little, Marcus? I can’t read the font.’

Marcus did so, then sighed. ‘Number 121’s owners live in Chicago.’

On the next page, however, they hit pay dirt, and Scarlett hummed deep in her throat, a satisfied growl. ‘But number 130’s owner is Ms Marlene Anders, Cincinnati, Ohio, and the dog’s name is Coco.’

‘Bingo,’ Marcus said grimly, then pushed back from the desk. ‘Can we take the video file with us, Delores?’

‘Sure. We can copy it to a flash drive.’ Delores opened a drawer and pawed through the junk inside until she found a drive, then handed it to Marcus. ‘Go for it.’

While Marcus copied the file, Scarlett called someone on her team to run a background check on Marlene Anders. When he was finished, Marcus rose from the chair and stooped down to hug Delores before she could hug him first. ‘Thank you,’ he whispered fiercely.

She hugged him back hard. ‘You’re welcome.’ She let him rise, but didn’t let him go, fisting a small hand in the fabric of his shirt. ‘I don’t know why you need this dog’s owner. But you look like you’re taking this very personally.’

He felt like he owed her an answer. ‘I am.’

‘Why?’ she pressed.

Marcus glanced at Scarlett and she shook her head.

‘You don’t need to know that, Delores,’ she murmured. ‘Trust me?’

Delores turned her head so that she met Scarlett’s eyes, her nod nearly imperceptible. Then she looked back up at Marcus, startling the hell out of him with her next words. ‘If this is about atonement, you don’t have anything to atone for in all that mess nine months ago. You were as much a victim as I was.’

He blinked at her. What the fuck? ‘Excuse me?’

‘You are riddled with guilt, Marcus O’Bannion. It’s coming off you in waves.’

Marcus glanced over at Scarlett again, a rebuke on the tip of his tongue until he saw that she was as surprised as he was.

Delores pushed on before either of them could say a word. ‘Detective Bishop has shared nothing with me about you. I don’t know anything other than that you lost your brother, Mikhail, and that you have a sister and a brother who also feel a helluva lot of survivor guilt.’

He opened his mouth to speak, but she gently patted his shoulder. ‘You do realize that they make bulletproof vests lighter than the one you’re wearing under this heavy shirt? I could feel it when I hugged you.’

He blinked again at her abrupt subject change. ‘Yes, ma’am. But my lighter one got a little . . . used this morning.’

Her smile faded. ‘I see. Well it seems you live your life very dangerously, Marcus. I was hoping you’d be a safer kind of guy so that Scarlett could relax when she wasn’t on the clock.’

He didn’t even have to glance at Scarlett to know her cheeks had flamed again. ‘I’ll take care of her,’ he promised Delores quietly. ‘And I’ll think about what you said.’

‘Thank you,’ she replied, then turned to envelop Scarlett in an equally huge hug. ‘He’s a handsome devil,’ she stage-whispered. ‘If you decide you don’t want him . . .’

‘You . . .’ Scarlett’s mouth worked helplessly much as Marcus’s had, but she finally gave up trying to find the words and laughed. ‘I have no comebacks. I am zinger-less.’

‘I know,’ Delores said, a satisfied grin lighting up her face, making her look like a leprechaun who’d found the pot of gold. ‘It’s my special gift.’ She started hustling them to the door. ‘I have to start the noon feedings now or I won’t be done till dinnertime. Next time you come, you need to bring Zat with you for a visit. Give him a kiss and this from me.’ From the pocket of her smock she pulled a plastic bag printed with dog bones and filled with treats.

‘Thank you. I will.’ Scarlett glanced over her shoulder at Marcus. ‘He has a dog too. She might also like some treats.’

‘Oh, I knew I liked him for a reason. He’s a dog person.’ Delores fished another bag of treats from her pocket and gave them to Scarlett. ‘You can kiss his dog for me too. But first you should kiss him. I felt really bad about interrupting you two out front earlier. Besides, Faith and Dani will never believe me without a photo. If you kiss him, I’ll just snap a fast one. Very discreet.’

Marcus wisely swallowed his snicker, because Scarlett was giving Delores an irritated glare, her face having lost all traces of humor. ‘Do you ever stop?’ she snapped.

Delores blinked, the picture of wide-eyed innocence. ‘No. I’m like a shark.’ She bared her teeth, causing Scarlett to roll her eyes.

‘Shark, my ass,’ Scarlett muttered. ‘More like a clownfish.’

Delores’s eyes flickered with a hint of hurt. ‘You’re probably right at that.’

‘Delores means,’ Marcus said with gentle reproach, ‘that if she stops, she dies.’

Delores met his eyes with a small, secret smile, and Scarlett instantly grew remorseful.

‘I’m sorry, Delores. I seem to have a case of foot-in-mouth.’

Delores patted Scarlett’s arm, then opened the front door. ‘Don’t worry. It’s not fatal. Besides, I know I come on a bit strong. I keep forgetting that even though you hang out with Dani and Faith, you’re not them.’

‘They are a lot more fun than I am,’ Scarlett agreed easily.

Too easily, Marcus thought, and that made him a little angry. He didn’t like the way Scarlett seemed to discount herself.

‘But,’ Scarlett added, ‘the thing about sharks dying if they stop swimming isn’t entirely true. There are a few sharks that are capable of breathing even while they’re still. Nurse sharks for one.’ She lifted his brows. ‘Bullheads are another. I’d say both are appropriate descriptors for you, Delores.’

Delores stared for a moment, then threw back her head and laughed. ‘Well played, Scarlett. Well played. That was a comeback.’

Scarlett grinned, pleased. ‘Now I’ll say goodbye while my foot is still out of my mouth. Thank you, Delores. I appreciate your help.’ She leaned forward. ‘No one will know where this video came from, so don’t worry about any reprisals from the person we’re looking for.’

‘I won’t.’ The huge dog at her side, Delores stood on her porch, waving as they turned around and headed back the way they’d come.

Cincinnati, Ohio

Tuesday 4 August, 12.45 P.M.

Ken paused at the foot of the basement stairs when his cell phone rang. He considered ignoring it, eager to get back to his session with the Anderses, but the caller ID said it was Decker.

‘Who was in the house?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know, sir. We have a problem. Someone must have called the cops, because there are at least a half-dozen cruisers in front of the house, along with a few unmarked cars and a CSU van. What do you want me to do?’

Ken’s exhale was an infuriated hiss. ‘Back off. It’s all you can do now. I’ll contact Sean and have him find out what’s going on there. You go to the office and listen to those audio files. I’ll get the Anderses to tell me what – or who – they’re hiding.’

He slowly put away his cell phone, staring coldly at Chip Anders’s overturned chair. The man was asleep. Snoring! That ended abruptly when Ken grabbed him, chair and all, and set him upright, slamming all four legs of the chair to the floor.

‘Wh-wh-what?’ Chip stammered, his eyes now open and glazed over.

‘Don’t hurt him!’ Stephanie cried, then whimpered when Ken grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked. ‘Stop. Please stop.’

‘You shut up if you want to stay alive,’ Ken warned, then let her go and slapped Chip across the face, hard enough to hurt but not enough to knock him over again. ‘You fucking idiot. Your little Rambo act brought the cops to your house.’

Marlene’s eyes flew open. Still the only one gagged, she shot daggers with her eyes.

‘Cops?’ Chip whispered. ‘At my house?’

‘Yeah. What’re they going to find there? Drugs? Porn? Illegal firearms? That person who will tell that you were taken? Will they find any connection to me?’

Chip said nothing, just closed his eyes. New fury bubbled up into Ken’s throat. ‘Fine. If that’s the way you want to play it . . .’ He took a short, sharp blade from his cart and moved behind Marlene, grabbing a handful of her hair and yanking her head back against him, exposing the curve of her throat. He removed the noose he’d placed around her neck and tossed it aside before positioning the tip of the blade beneath Marlene’s ear. ‘Open your eyes, Chip. Time to say bye-bye to your wife.’

Chip’s eyes flew open in alarm – just in time to see the blood spurting from his wife’s throat. The first spray hit him in the face, the second on his shoulder. Chip screamed like a woman as the third pulse simply flowed down the front of Marlene’s no-longer-expensive silk blouse.

‘You freak!’ Chip shouted. ‘You motherfucker!’ A horrified sob rattled his chest. ‘You killed her! You killed her.’ He quickly lost steam, whispering, ‘Goddamn you.’

Ignoring him, Ken turned Marlene’s chair so that Stephanie could see. Predictably, the girl’s eyes were clenched shut. Her face was sheet white, her whole body trembling.

‘Come on, Stephanie,’ Ken said cajolingly. ‘See Mama’s big new grin.’

Stephanie turned her head away from her mother and vomited. A tiny bit hit the floor. Most of it hit her shirt, smelling vile. Ken had never been able to stand the smell of vomit.

He left Marlene there, the blood seeping slowly now. Gripping the edges of Stephanie’s blouse front with his – thankfully – still gloved hands, he ripped it apart, sending buttons flying. He cut it from her shoulders, leaving her wearing only a tiny lacy bra that covered next to nothing. He dropped the blouse in the trashcan, tied the bag shut, then stripped his gloves off and laid them on top of the tied bag.

He went to the sink behind the bar and washed his hands, returning with a can of air freshener and a chair of his own. He sprayed the air, then turned the chair backwards and straddled it, folding his arms across the back of the chair calmly.

‘See, here’s the thing, Chip. You fucked with me. You have caused me a lot of trouble today. You have exposed me to the authorities.’

‘No,’ Chip gasped. ‘I didn’t. I swear I didn’t.’

Ken casually brushed a piece of lint from the lapel of his suit. ‘I really don’t care who did it. The point remains is that it was done. As the head of your family, you should have kept better track of your wife and daughter.’

Stephanie was hyperventilating and shivering. She still hadn’t opened her eyes.

‘Now,’ Ken continued, ‘there is no way you’re leaving here alive, Chip. No way. So put the thought out of your mind. You can, however, make your daughter’s life a little easier.’

Chip’s breaths were fast and shallow, his wife’s blood dripping down his face. ‘You’ll let her go?’

Ken threw back his head and laughed. ‘Good one, Chip.’ Then he sobered. ‘Not a fucking chance. But I won’t kill her.’

‘You’ll sell her. Like one of your whores.’

‘You should know. You bought enough of ’em.’ Ken shrugged. ‘I can make this hard or I can make it easy. Frankly, my business partner wants you to defy me. It means he’ll get to test-drive your daughter before I put her on the block. If that’s the case, I’ll make sure you have a front-row seat. My partner is not a nice man.’

Chip swallowed hard. ‘You piece of shit.’

Ken tsked. ‘That is inflammatory, pejorative language, Chip. And quite trashy, too. Really, I expected something a little more elegant from you. But I suppose I can see your point of view. What’s it gonna be? You talk to me, or I let my partner have your daughter?’

Chip’s eyes burned with helpless hate. ‘You sick son—’

‘Consider your answer carefully,’ Ken interrupted. ‘I have three men that were injured bringing you in. I’m sure they’d like some kind of compensation too. So tell me what I want to know. How did the girl get out this morning?’

‘I don’t know,’ Chip said through gritted teeth, his face now florid. ‘Stephanie said she took her out.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know!’ Chip shouted. ‘I don’t know!’

‘Stephanie?’ Ken prompted. ‘You can help yourself here. Why would you take your father’s property out to play?’

‘Because I needed her,’ Stephanie said coldly, her face still turned away.

‘Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. Say more,’ Ken directed pleasantly.

‘She bought coke for me.’

Chip’s eyes widened. ‘You said you weren’t using anymore.’

‘I lied,’ Stephanie spat. ‘So punish me, Daddy. Bastard,’ she added in a mutter. ‘You had to bring her into our house. You had to sleep with her. This is your fault. You caused this.’

‘I did it for you,’ Chip tossed back furiously. ‘I bought them for you and for your mother.’

‘And look where it got Mother.’ Stephanie’s face scrunched up as she squeezed her eyes more tightly shut. ‘Fuck you, Daddy. Just . . . fuck you.’

‘So charming,’ Ken said lightly. ‘You’re finally communicating with each other. Now try communicating with me. I take it, Stephanie, that last night’s drug run wasn’t an isolated event.’

‘No,’ Stephanie said shortly.

‘Why take the risk?’ he asked, genuinely curious.

‘Because if I got caught again, I’d get kicked out of school and lose my allowance.’

Ken actually believed that. ‘But why take the girl? If she was caught, she’d lead the police back to your house.’

‘She never got caught. Not until last night.’

‘Who killed her, Stephanie? Did you?’

‘No.’

‘Then who?’

‘I don’t know,’ the girl said sullenly. ‘Some piece of trash that wanted the cash I gave her to buy the coke, I guess. I don’t know.’

‘Oh I think you do, Stephanie.’ Ken stood up, took off his suit coat and hung it on a nearby hook, casually inspecting it for bloodstains, finding a few. Luckily Alice was a wizard at getting blood out of fabric. He folded his shirtsleeves to the middle of his forearms, glancing over to find Stephanie watching him, her expression wildly desperate.

‘What are you going to do?’ she whispered.

‘Well I need answers and you’ve been uncooperative. I know ways to make you very uncomfortable without leaving a single mark.’

‘I’ve told you the truth.’

‘No, dear. You have not.’ He started to pull on a pair of latex gloves, but hesitated. ‘You don’t have a latex allergy, do you?’

‘No,’ she said numbly. ‘What? Why?’

‘Because I don’t want you to break out in hives. It’s really unattractive.’ He finished pulling on the gloves, then stood behind her, feeling her shaking with fear. A good start.

‘Don’t kill me,’ she whispered hoarsely. ‘Please.’

‘Get your filthy hands off her,’ Chip growled.

Ken smiled at him. ‘Sorry, Chip. But you’re welcome to watch.’ He stood behind her and covered her mouth with one hand, pinching her nose closed with the other. And then he waited until she started to thrash. He waited another twenty seconds, then released her.

Stephanie sucked in air in rasping gulps. ‘Oh God, oh God, oh God,’ she panted.

He let her get her breath back, then leaned down to murmur in her ear. ‘Who shot the girl, Stephanie?’

She said nothing, and he had to admire her spirit. When the bidders saw the video he was recording, at this moment, her price would skyrocket. ‘One more time.’ He repeated the suffocation, satisfied when she started to whimper against his hand. He released her and let her gulp in a breath before he covered her nose and mouth a third time. ‘Tell me, Stephanie. Nod if you plan to tell me. Don’t fuck with me, my dear. That will make me angry, and you won’t like me angry. Who killed the girl? Was it you?’

She shook her head wildly.

‘Are you ready to tell me who it was?’ She nodded, and he released her but kept her nose pinched. ‘Who, Stephanie?’

‘Drake.’ She was heaving in air. ‘It was Drake.’

Ken was actually surprised. He stepped back and restraddled his chair. ‘Drake who?’

‘Sonofabitch,’ Chip spat. ‘I should have known that trailer trash was behind this.’

Ken glanced at Chip, then back at Stephanie, who was shaking like she had the palsy, the after-effect of her near-suffocation. ‘Who is Drake?’ he asked, enunciating each word.

‘My boyfriend,’ Stephanie said, still gasping for air. ‘Drake Connor. He killed her.’

‘Why?’

‘Because she was talking to a man.’

‘A man, huh? Sounds like Drake came prepared.’ Ken glanced at Chip again. ‘He shot the girl with a Ruger loaded with BTs.’

Chip’s face grew even redder.

‘He stole your gun?’ Ken guessed.

‘I’ll kill him,’ Chip said quietly, not answering the question. But then he didn’t have to. His expression said it all.

‘No you won’t, but don’t worry. I’ll kill him for you. Where is he, Stephanie dear?’

‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since this morning. Not since we came back from downtown.’

‘What does he drive?’ Ken asked.

‘He doesn’t have a car. We always used mine.’

‘We’ll track him down,’ Ken said, hoping that was true. Because he knew that if Drake was smart, he had already hightailed it out of town and had a three-hour head start by now, at least. ‘What was Drake’s role in all this?’

Stephanie shot a baleful glance at her father, paling when she looked down and saw her mother’s body. ‘Oh God,’ she whimpered. ‘Mama.’

‘Your mama’s worm food,’ Ken said flatly. ‘If you don’t want the same thing to happen to you, you’ll talk to me, Stephanie. Why was Drake with you this morning? Why did he bring your father’s gun in the first place?’

‘It was a bad part of town,’ she blurted out. ‘We were buying drugs. We did them together. When Tala didn’t come right back, he got upset.’

Upset. That was an interesting word choice. ‘You said he shot her because she was talking to a man. Who was the man? A cop?’

‘He didn’t think so. He thought the guy was someone trying to . . . buy Tala. Her services.’

‘Your boyfriend thought this mysterious guy was a john?’ That was rich. ‘But why not just tell the guy to fuck off? Why shoot them both? That doesn’t make sense, Stephanie.’

She bit her lip, and Ken could see the wheels turning as she tried to think of an answer to his question.

‘You might try the truth,’ he suggested mildly. ‘Just a thought.’

‘He was . . .’ Stephanie closed her eyes. ‘He was jealous.’

‘Really? Still not making sense, Stephanie.’

She blew out a helpless breath. ‘He thought she’d been sneaking off to meet the man. He thought they were . . . lovers. Drake got jealous because Tala was . . . his.’

‘She was fucking not his,’ Chip ground out.

‘Tala,’ Ken said. ‘That was the girl’s name? How was she Drake’s?’

Stephanie’s chin had come up at her father’s declaration. ‘He’d been fucking her for a while. She was his toy.’

Chip’s eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. ‘You ungrateful, spiteful little bitch.’

Ken cocked a brow. Interesting. ‘Didn’t it bother you that he was fucking the servant? He was your boyfriend.’

Eyes narrowing, Stephanie gave her father a satisfied sneer. ‘I was fucking her too. We did her together.’

‘I see,’ Ken murmured. And he really was starting to. Chip was breathing hard, fury evident in every charged line of his body. That Stephanie and Drake had fucked his servant was not welcome news. No, not at all. ‘Why did you look at your father like that?’

‘Like what?’ Stephanie asked harshly.

‘Like you’re thumbing it in his face.’

‘Because he wanted to keep her for himself,’ Stephanie spat. ‘He loved her.’

This was getting more interesting by the moment. ‘By loved, you mean exactly what?’

‘He had a baby with her,’ Stephanie said bitterly. ‘My daughter this and my daughter that. You’d think it was some kind of rocket scientist instead of a half-breed. Little brat cried all the damn time. I think Tala pinched it to make it cry, just so Mama would hear it.’ She kept her chin high, her gaze resolutely away from her mother’s body. ‘Flaunting the little bastard in Mama’s face.’

Ken rose, his heart grown grimly cold. ‘We didn’t find a baby.’

‘Because she took it,’ Stephanie said.

‘You mean Tala?’ Ken asked, and Stephanie shook her head with a cold smile. ‘The other two escaped women?’ he pressed.

Stephanie’s smile curled at the edges of her mouth, becoming predatory. ‘You wish.’

Cincinnati, Ohio

Tuesday 4 August, 12.45 P.M.

When they were out of sight of the house, both Marcus and Scarlett took their cell phones from their pockets. She placed hers on the dash of her car, put an earbud in her left ear, then used her hands-free to call Deacon Novak.

Marcus logged into the website he used for background searches and inputted Marlene Anders. Just in case Scarlett decided not to share everything she learned.

‘Hey, Deacon, it’s me. Did you get my text?’ She listened for a moment, then nodded. ‘Got it. Don’t wait for me, but don’t go in without backup.’ She made an impatient sound. ‘I know we don’t have a warrant. I thought you’d do your thing with the judge. You know, give ’em the eye . . . She is? Good. Lynda can push harder for a warrant than we can. She has more markers to call in, too. I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.’ She glanced at Marcus. ‘Go ahead and send it, but I have Marcus with me. I’m sure he’s already run a background on Anders in the time it’s taken us to get to the end of Delores’s driveway. I’ll get the info from him. Suit up, Novak. They’ve already shot two people today.’ She stopped at the end of Delores’s long driveway and pulled the earbud out. ‘Deacon’s sitting out front of the Anderses’ house. Can you hand me the flasher? It’s in the glove box.’

Marcus put the blue flashing light in her outstretched hand and watched as she fixed it to the roof of the car. ‘Hold on tight,’ she said as she floored the accelerator.

‘You all need to have turbo engines,’ Marcus said, although he was more than a little surprised that the department vehicle had as much pickup as it did.

‘We need a lot of things,’ she said glumly. ‘Like a warrant, for starters.’

‘That’s what you wanted Deacon to get by giving someone the eye?’

She shot him a quick glare. ‘Hey, jack, don’t knock it. It’s worked before.’

‘Really? That’s quite a secret weapon.’

‘You have no idea.’

‘Will he go in without a warrant?’

‘Deacon?’ She seemed genuinely surprised. ‘Probably not. He’s a straight shooter.’

Marcus settled into his seat. She was driving faster than he’d anticipated even with the flashing light, but she was in control of the vehicle so he could relax a little. ‘Would you?’

‘Enter without a warrant?’ She made a facial shrug. ‘It’s possible, I suppose. I’ve been known to bend the rules from time to time.’

‘Like trespassing on private property and listening at closed doors to private conversations?’ he asked, only half teasing.

She didn’t break a smile. ‘I don’t know who would do anything that boorish.’

His lips twitched. He didn’t care if she wasn’t as much fun as her friends. He liked her sarcastic sense of humor. ‘So terribly rude.’

One side of her mouth quirked up, then fell again. ‘Part of me wishes that Deacon could wait for me,’ she confessed, ‘but that’s not the best thing for the victims.’

Her use of ‘for me’ was like nails on a chalkboard, but he didn’t fight it because he wanted what was best for the victims too. ‘Especially the baby. She’s gotta be hungry by now.’

‘Since her mama’s dead in the morgue,’ Scarlett said grimly, then cast him a cautious sideways glance. ‘You know I can’t let you go in with me.’

He shrugged. ‘I’ll get the story one way or the other.’

She was quiet for a long moment, the only sound that of her tires as they ate up the interstate. ‘You’re not what I expected, Marcus.’

He turned in his seat to study her profile. ‘How so?’

She kept her eyes on the road. ‘You say you make your living digging up news. This is a big story. I thought you’d be on your phone to your office, having them send a reporter with a camera to the address that I know you’ve already looked up.’

‘How do you know I didn’t contact my office? I could have texted them.’

‘But you didn’t, did you?’

‘No,’ he said, and watched her shoulders relax a fraction. She’d been bluffing him, he thought, admiring the effort. But she’d really been hoping that he’d say no.

‘Why not?’ she asked. ‘Some other reporter with a police radio could follow Deacon and his backup to the Anders house and scoop your story.’

‘They wouldn’t have all the background,’ he said, ‘so I still have the exclusive. But sometimes it’s not about the story. Sometimes it’s about doing the right thing.’

A single nod. ‘I expected you to say that this morning when I asked you why you came back to the alley, but you didn’t. You said that you couldn’t leave her alone in the dark. Why?’

He’d known she was perceptive. He should have expected that she’d pick up on that nuance. ‘Scarlett,’ he drawled, ‘sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.’

‘Okay,’ she said with a shrug. ‘Don’t tell me. I understand the need to keep some things to yourself. Tell me about Marlene Anders instead.’