CHAPTER NINETEEN
Less than half an hour later, they were on the road heading to Pahrump, about an hour’s drive outside of Las Vegas. Zoe sat in the backseat of the car, quiet on the drive there while Nathan and Sean talked about mundane things to pass the time. Sean supposed Zoe was lost in thoughts of her father and the new amount of evidence Ray had provided during Caleb’s interrogation. None of it good, either.
The farther away from Vegas they drove, the more the glitz and glamour of the city segued into flat, dry desert, which eventually gave way to the small town of Pahrump. A mix of old and new businesses, along with a few modest casinos, lined Highway 160, which were quickly left behind as they followed the GPS directions to a more rural, sparsely populated area, where huge expanses of land separated each house they passed. As the GPS indicated, Nathan turned the vehicle onto an unpaved road, and a couple of minutes later they finally saw a lone house appear a half mile up the isolated road.
“That must be the place,” Sean said, his tone wry. Obviously, since there was nothing else around for miles.
Another turn led them directly to the house, a bumpy dirt road that forced Nathan to slow the car to keep the jostling and a trail of dust to a minimum. Dried brown weeds and more dirt landscaped the acreage surrounding the property, and two old trees flanked a run-down manufactured home in dire need of repair. The siding was peeling away from the structure, the metal roof was rusted out, and the screens covering the windows were torn and shredded from years of weathering.
Except for the dusty blue Toyota Camry parked in front of the trailer, the place looked abandoned.
“That’s Sheila’s car,” Zoe said from the backseat.
Nathan parked directly behind the Camry, deliberately blocking in the vehicle. “That’s a positive sign.”
But it also made for a potentially dangerous situation, Sean knew, depending on who was inside the house. Then again, this could have been just a dropping-off point for the car before Sheila and Russo used another form of transportation to leave the area.
As soon as Nathan and Sean stepped from the car, the back door opened and Zoe started to get out to join them. Sean caught Nathan’s quick shake of his head and knew exactly what the other man was thinking.
Sean put a hand up to stop her exit. “Zoe, you need to stay in the car until we check the place out and make sure everything’s safe.”
She frowned, and for a moment Sean thought she was going to insist on accompanying them. But then she either thought better of it or remembered her promise to Caleb to do as they asked and sat back down on the leather seat.
“Just sit tight, and we’ll be right back.” Sean shut car door and hit the remote to lock it, then met up with Nathan. Since he had the experience of being a cop on his side and had dealt with more complicated situations than this, Sean followed Nathan’s lead.
They walked up to the trailer’s entrance and knocked on the aged and deteriorating door. The panel of fabricated wood rattled on its loose hinges and provided no real protection against an intruder intent on breaking into the house. When no one answered, Nathan rapped on the door again, louder and harder this time.
Again, no reply.
Nathan nodded his head to the side to indicate he was going to inspect the trailer from the outside, and Sean fell into step behind the other man as he strolled around the perimeter of the small home. He tried to look into the windows, but curtains blocked their view. Just as they started to walk away from the trailer, Sean heard a distinct creak of sound from inside and out of the corner of his eye saw the fabric covering the window closest to the door flutter, as if someone had been peering outside.
A quick exchanged look with Nathan told Sean that his friend had heard and seen the same thing.
Nathan stepped back up to the window and thumped the glass pane with his knuckles. “We know someone is in there,” he announced in a deep voice. “We need to talk to you.”
Complete silence.
Nathan exhaled an impatient sigh and crossed the few steps to the door. “You can do this the easy way by opening the door and talking to us, or I can call in local law enforcement to handle things a bit more forcefully. What’s it going to be, Sheila?”
Sean wasn’t sure if Nathan’s threat was legitimate, but he sounded convincing and that’s all they needed right now to gain some ground with the woman.
The door unlatched from inside, then slowly opened about six inches. The part of the woman’s face that appeared in the crack matched the photo Caleb had acquired of Grant’s secretary, Sheila. She was an older woman, in her mid-fifties, with chin-length brunette hair and brown eyes and a medium frame. Even with a light application of makeup, her features were plain and ordinary, and she looked her age, if not older.
Her wary gaze flickered from Sean to Nathan. “Who are you and what do you want?”
“We just want to ask you some questions about your boss, Grant Russo,” Nathan said easily. “He’s gone missing and we’re investigating his case. We’re hoping you can help us out and give us some insight as to where he might be.”
Nathan played the part of good cop extremely well. Instead of making direct accusations, to gain Sheila’s trust he made it seem like Russo was his only focus. Except she wasn’t easily swayed.
“I don’t know anything, and you’re trespassing on private property.”
As soon as she tried to shut the door, Sean automatically used his shoe to keep the door wedged open. He and Nathan didn’t force their way in, but the move implied that they could.
Sheila glared at them.
“Do you really want to go the route of bringing the cops into this?” Nathan asked calmly. “Just a few minutes of your time is all we’re asking, and then we’ll be on our way.”
Nathan’s request was nonthreatening, asked in a way that would lead her to believe she could be rid of them quickly if she cooperated, rather than hindered, their investigation. And that’s exactly what she did.
Reluctantly, she opened the door and let them inside. Sean glanced back at Zoe, who was still waiting in the car, where he knew she’d be the safest. But even from a distance he could see her wondering what was going on and what he and Nathan were up to.
As soon as they stepped across the threshold, they were standing in a small living room that looked as though it had been decorated back in the seventies. Dark wood paneling lined the walls, and worn and matted shag carpeting in a gawd-awful burnt orange shade covered the floor. The couch was covered in a puke green slipcover with tassels along the edges, and judging by the stale smell in the air and the thick amount of dust covering everything, it appeared that it had been a while since anyone had truly occupied the trailer.
To Sean, it seemed like a sad place for anyone to live, much less for a young girl to grow up in, as Sheila probably had, since she had inherited the property from her deceased parents.
Sheila kept the door open and didn’t invite them farther into the trailer. “I doubt I can help you in any way.”
“You might be surprised,” Nathan said with a charming smile meant to put her at ease. “There’s some speculation that Grant Russo embezzled millions of dollars from his company and has taken off with the money.”
“So I’ve heard.” She crossed her arms over her chest, her posture slightly defensive. “All I know is that things started falling apart at the company. Contractors weren’t getting paid, payroll checks started bouncing, and the Meridian project came to a halt. Everyone was walking away, and since my payroll check bounced as well, I wasn’t about to stay and work for free.”
Her explanation sounded logical, except that Ray, her partner in crime, had already implicated her in the embezzlement. But Nathan and Sean didn’t have the power or authority to arrest her, so that was a moot point.
“What brought you out here to this place?” Sean asked, purposely keeping his tone neutral so she didn’t feel like she was being interrogated.
Her lips pursed in agitation. “Since I had time on my hands, I thought I’d clean this place up so I could put it on the market and sell it. How did you know where to find me?”
“You inherited the place,” Nathan interjected smoothly. “It’s a matter of public record.”
She shifted nervously, even as her annoyance increased. “And it was that important for you to come out all this way just to talk to me?”
Nathan shrugged. “We figured you knew Grant’s habits better than anyone, so it was worth a shot to see if you were here and find out if you might know anything.”
She gave a bitter laugh that was at odds with the situation. “Considering what Grant is being accused of, it seems I don’t know my boss at all.”
“Do you know where he might have gone?” Nathan continued questioning her, using the tactic to see if he could get anything in her demeanor to crack.
“No.” Her brown eyes flashed with impatience. “A few weeks ago he didn’t come into work, and he’s been gone ever since. That’s all I know.”
As Nathan kept asking questions, Sean looked everywhere he could see, searching for something, anything, that would indicate that Grant Russo had been there or still was—but found nothing to either confirm or deny his presence.
“We’d like to take a look around the place,” Nathan finally said.
“No.” Not only was Sheila’s tone brutally sharp, but Sean didn’t miss the panic that had flashed in her gaze before she regained her composure. “You don’t have a warrant, and you have no right to search the trailer. In fact, I think we’re done with this conversation and I’d like you to leave.”
Unfortunately, she was right. Legally, they were pushing their limits and they had no real jurisdiction to search the place without her permission. Just as they started to leave, a loud, distinct thump from the far end of the trailer reverberated all the way to the living room.
Every muscle in Sean’s body tensed, and a quick glance at Nathan told him his friend was just as alert. “Is somebody here with you?” he asked.
“No.” Unmistakable fear etched Sheila’s expression, and she shook her head, a bit more frantically than necessary. “That was…probably my cat, who’s always knocking down things.”
Sean didn’t believe Sheila’s story. Not for a second. And when the sound came again—thump, thump, thump—Nathan didn’t hesitate, or wait for permission, to find out the source of the heavy, pounding noise.
With a cop’s instinct, Nathan withdrew the gun he carried beneath his lightweight jacket and headed down the hallway toward the bedrooms. Not wanting Nathan to face the threat alone, Sean grabbed Sheila’s arm, giving her no choice but to come along—and felt her resistance every step of the way.
Thump, thump, thump.
“It’s coming from in here,” Nathan said, his voice low as he tried to turn the knob, only to realize that the door was locked—and bolted from the outside. Whoever or whatever was in this room had been deliberately secured inside.
Thump, thump, thump. The sound came quicker, harder, more urgent than before.
Nathan flipped the bolt, then pushed open the door. Gun at the ready, he rushed inside and came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the room. Behind him, Sean did the same, shocked, even a little horrified, at what they’d discovered.
“What the hell?” Sean said, trying to make sense of the disturbing scene they’d stumbled upon.
“Jesus Christ,” Nathan muttered, and lowered his gun to his side.
They’d found Grant Russo, but not as Sean had expected. The man had been tied up with twine, his hands secured to the metal railing of a bed frame while his ankles had been cinched together with the thin rope, and silver duct tape sealed his mouth shut. Obviously, having heard other strange voices in the trailer, he’d used his feet to kick the wall, which had worked to get their attention.
The white dress shirt he wore was dirty and wrinkled, as if he’d worn it for days, weeks even, and had been unbuttoned down the front so it lay open on either side of him. His bare chest and abdomen had brown burn marks seared onto the flesh, which looked to Sean like the probe marks of a high-voltage stun gun. Russo’s whiskered face was pale and gaunt, his dark hair a greasy, matted mess around his head, and dried, caked blood was encrusted on an open wound on his lower lip. As he was unable to speak, his gaze pleaded with them to help him.
Good God, he looked as though he’d been treated like a wild animal, or worse, and even Sean felt a twinge of pity for what the man had endured.
Taking advantage of Sean’s distraction, Sheila wrenched her arm from his grasp and ran back down the hallway. Sean swore and, knowing that Nathan would take care of Russo, bolted after Sheila before she could get away. In the living room, she shoved an old rocking chair at the end of the hallway, blocking his path and giving her just enough time to grab her purse and head out the door, slamming it shut behind her.
Letting loose a ripe curse, Sean tossed the chair out of his way and reached the door seconds after her. He turned the handle, only to realize that she’d somehow jimmied the lock, and it took him precious moments he didn’t have to spare to get the lock to finally release.
He wrenched open the door, his gaze searching the yard for Sheila. Instead, his worst fears were realized.
His heart slammed hard in his chest and he struggled to breathe. Zoe was out of the car and Sheila was standing behind her, holding her hostage and pointing a pistol at her head. And judging by the barbaric way Sheila had treated Grant, Sean suspected the crazy psycho woman wasn’t afraid to use the gun if provoked.
*
“What is taking them so long?” Zoe muttered to herself as she glanced at her watch for the tenth time in as many minutes.
As much as she was tempted to get out of the car to find out what was going on, she stayed put, which wasn’t an easy feat. She’d seen Sheila answer the door, then begrudgingly allow the guys to enter, and even though she’d left the trailer door open, Zoe couldn’t see a thing. Which left her to speculate on what might be happening inside.
Not knowing was driving her nuts. Making her anxious and antsy. But she wouldn’t break her word to Caleb, even if it was killing her to just sit there and do nothing.
A few minutes later Sheila came running out of the trailer. Slamming the door shut behind her, she dug into her purse and retrieved her keys and what appeared to be a gun. Her eyes were wild and wide and distraught as she headed toward her Camry.
Zoe gripped the backseat, attempting to watch Sheila while remaining out of the other woman’s sight.
As soon as Sheila realized that Nathan’s vehicle parked so close behind hers prevented any kind of easy escape, her expression grew furious…and then she started toward his car.
Before Zoe could think or formulate a plan, Sheila came up to the passenger window and pointed her gun at Zoe.
A malicious smile lifted the corners of Sheila’s mouth. “Get out of the car,” she ordered.
Since Sheila was holding a deadly weapon, Zoe knew it would be stupid to refuse. Slowly, she unlocked the door, opened it, and stepped out.
“Move over there,” Sheila demanded, indicating the open area in front of the house with a jerk of her gun.
Not wanting to agitate the other woman further, Zoe did as she was told, which left her facing the trailer with her father’s secretary right behind her. “What’s going on, Sheila?” Even though she was quaking inside, Zoe’s voice was surprisingly steady. “Why are you doing this?”
“You wouldn’t be in this position if your goddamn father would just give me what I want, and what is mine!” Sheila said angrily.
Zoe had no idea what the woman was talking about. The information that Ray had given Caleb indicated that Zoe’s father and Sheila had double-crossed Ray, that they’d taken the money and left him high and dry. So why was Sheila so enraged with Zoe’s father? And where was her dad?
The door to the trailer flung open and hit the outside of the fabricated house with a loud bang. Sean filled the doorway, and as soon as he saw the scene outside and realized the danger she was in his entire body went rigid. Despite the initial flicker of worry she saw in his eyes, his features hardened into a grim mask of determination.
“Whatever’s going on here, leave Zoe out of it,” Sean said in a level tone.
“Are you kidding me?” Sheila laughed, the crazy, maniacal sound making Zoe shiver deep inside. “Grant’s precious daughter is the only leverage I’ve got left. Her life for the pass code he refuses to give to me sounds like a fair exchange, don’t you think? Now tell that other guy you’re with that I want Grant out here now, or else Zoe is going to take a bullet straight to her heart for her father.”
Zoe felt the barrel of Sheila’s gun nudge the middle of her back, and said heart leapt in response. Sean must have seen her terror, because he didn’t waste another second following through on Sheila’s request.
“Nathan, we’ve got a situation out in the yard,” Sean said, loud enough that the other man would hear him. “And I need you and Grant out here right now.”
“Nicely done,” Sheila said, a sarcastic edge to her voice. “Now why don’t you come out here and join us and stand right there. Don’t make any sudden moves or try to be a hero, because you won’t like the consequences.”
Right there was a good ten feet away from where Zoe stood, too far away for Sean to do anything to diffuse the situation. She saw the helpless look in his eyes and could feel his frustration that Sheila had managed to get the upper hand.
A moment later Nathan and another man Zoe barely recognized as her father came out of the trailer. She gasped in shock at her father’s appearance. Along with red, raw marks on his chest and stomach, he had a swollen and bloodied lip, and his clothes looked wrinkled, unwashed, and torn. Her father stumbled beside Nathan, so weak and unstable that Nathan had to hold on to his arm to keep Grant upright and on his feet.
“Oh my God, Dad!” Zoe wanted to go to him in the worst way, but the muzzle of the gun grazing her back kept her from making any sudden moves.
Grant squinted against the bright sun. “Zoe?” he rasped. “What are you doing here?”
Before she could answer, Sheila spoke. “Gun on the ground,” she said to Nathan. “And move over there, closer to your buddy.”
Nathan hesitated, but obviously realizing that Zoe’s life was ultimately in jeopardy, he reluctantly relinquished his weapon. Setting the gun on the dirt, he then guided Grant over to Sean, so that the three of them were standing together and too far away from Zoe to help her in any way.
Zoe couldn’t stop staring at her father, stunned by the realization that Sheila had been holding him captive in her isolated trailer all this time. The man Zoe knew and loved looked like a shell of himself, and she couldn’t even begin to imagine the horrors he’d been through—all because Sheila wanted some kind of code from him.
“What have you done to my father?” Zoe spat at the woman.
“What have I done to him?” Sheila responded incredulously. “Your father is making my life hell. I should have been out of the country by now with millions of dollars, living the kind of life I’ve always dreamed about and deserve, but he refuses to give me a simple little code that I need.”
“So you can finally get your hands on the millions of dollars you and Ray embezzled from Russo’s company accounts?” Nathan said, playing the same game with Sheila as Caleb had with Ray. “He’s a little pissed off that you double-crossed him, you know.”
“He was nothing more than a means to an end, and he got too damn clingy for my liking. That money belongs to me,” Sheila said, her temper flaring. “I’ve planned this for years, ever since I realized that my boss had an interesting past as Elliott Cooke, a man who knew his way around Ponzi schemes and investment fraud. I realized what a perfect patsy he’d provide for my plan. And once the authorities discovered the missing money, he’d be the main suspect.”
Sheila’s idea had worked, because everyone had believed that Grant was the guilty party. Zoe couldn’t help but feel relief that her father was completely innocent, but she never would have imagined that Sheila was so sick and twisted as to use Zoe’s father to cover her own crimes.
“But the money is still sitting in an account,” Sheila ranted, her voice rising along with her anger. “And I can’t retrieve it because your father discovered what I was doing before I could transfer the funds into an offshore account, and changed the password.”
Grant narrowed his gaze at Sheila. “I’m not about to let you get away with this.”
“Are you willing to bet your daughter’s life on that?” Sheila asked, her tone far too smug. “No, I didn’t think so. In fact, you’d do anything for your darling daughter, wouldn’t you?” Sheila’s voice dripped with disgust as she glanced back at Zoe. “That’s all he talked about while he was here, how much you meant to him and how he didn’t want you to be disappointed to find out the kind of man he really is. That’s why he wouldn’t give me the code, because he refused to take the blame for something he didn’t do. Wasn’t that fucking noble of him?”
“I’m not that man anymore,” Grant said gruffly, seemingly still having a bit of fight left in him, despite his lack of physical strength.
Much to Zoe’s dismay, she felt her throat tighten with emotion. “I know, Dad,” she said, wanting to be sure he realized that his past didn’t matter to her. That she loved him, regardless.
Regret filled her father’s gaze. “I’m so sorry, Zoe. I never wanted you to find out about everything, or have it taint you in any way.”
She bit her bottom lip to keep herself from giving in to the tears burning the backs of her eyes. “You’re a good man, Dad. You made mistakes, but you changed, and that’s all I care about.”
She shifted her gaze to Sean, because her words were meant for him, too. But while his body was tense because of the standoff, his expression was unreadable.
“This is all so sweet and touching,” Sheila snapped impatiently, “but there’s only one thing I’m interested in. Give. Me. The code. The real one this time.”
“It’s over, Sheila,” Nathan said, a calm voice of reason. “We have a confession from Ray, along with evidence on your hard drive. I’m sure the Feds are already involved and it’s just a matter of time before you’re arrested for fraud. Don’t make things any worse than they already are.”
“It’s not over until I say it’s over!” she screamed hysterically.
Still holding her gun on Zoe, Sheila dug into her purse with her free hand and withdrew a long, black rectangular device. Only when she pressed the metal prongs against Zoe’s torso did she realize, too late, that the implement was a stun gun.
Zoe barely registered a loud crackling, popping sound before her entire body seized up and the air was sucked from her lungs. Shafts of white-hot electrical currents zapped her nerve endings, causing her muscles to convulse and intense pain to radiate through her. She felt as though she were being electrocuted by a live wire, and when Sheila finally pulled the device away Zoe could only moan and drop to the ground on her hands and knees, barely able to hold herself up even that much.
“Zoe, no!” her father shouted, his voice hoarse with anguish and worry.
Zoe couldn’t even lift her heavy head to acknowledge her dad, to let him know that despite the excruciating pain, she was okay. Her muscles continued to twitch, her heart raced, and she struggled to breathe through the burning sensation licking along her skin.
“Jesus Christ!” Zoe heard Sean yell, his voice sounding as though it were far, far away. “You’re a fucking lunatic!”
“Stay back!” Sheila screamed, letting Zoe know with that command that the men had tried to come to her aid. “That was to let you know how serious I am. I have no qualms about killing her, so give me the fucking code. Now!”
“Cupcake,” Zoe’s father said without hesitation. “The password is cupcake!”
Cupcake. The nickname Zoe’s father had given her when she’d been a little girl. If the situation weren’t so dire, she would have smiled at the sweet sentiment.
“Finally,” Sheila muttered irritably.
Fighting the nausea rolling through her, Zoe forced her head up and pried her eyes open. After a few blinks, her gaze focused in on the three men still standing too far away. Nathan’s expression was grim, her father was watching her, unable to conceal his fear, and Sean’s gaze blazed with fury. Sheila, her attention on the men, stood to the right of where Zoe was still crouched.
Sheila waved her gun at Nathan. “Now hand over the keys to the car that’s blocking mine so I can get the hell out of here.”
Nathan reached into his front pocket and in her general direction tossed the ring of keys, which landed in the dirt a few feet from Zoe. Sheila stepped in front of Zoe to pick them up.
“Do you really think you’re going to get away with this?” Nathan asked.
“Of course I am.” Sheila laughed, the demented sound making Zoe’s skin crawl. “Especially since I don’t plan on leaving any witnesses behind,” she said, and fired off a shot at Grant before anyone could stop her.
Zoe watched in horror as her father fell to the ground in a heap, then Sheila trained her gun on Sean. Refusing to let Sheila get away with murder along with her other crimes, Zoe gathered every last bit of strength she possessed and lunged at Sheila’s legs. With her muscles still spasming, agility wasn’t on Zoe’s side, and she clipped the back of Sheila’s knees with her shoulder, but it was enough to knock the other woman off balance.
Another shot rang out somewhere in the air as she flailed and tried to steady herself, and Sean seized the opportunity to take down Sheila in a full body tackle while Nathan went for his gun. Knowing that the men had Sheila under control, Zoe crawled across the dirt to her father, who lay unmoving on the ground.
Oh, God. She knelt beside him. There was so much blood on his chest she didn’t know where he’d been wounded. Cupping his face in her hands, she gently caressed the pads of her thumbs across his pale cheeks. “Dad,” she croaked, unable to stop the tears that spilled over her lashes.
He looked up at her and smiled. “Cupcake,” he whispered, and then he closed his eyes and his body went lax.
“We need to get him to a hospital right away,” she said in a panic, the thought of losing her father unbearable to her. “Hang on, Dad,” she told him, even though he was passed out cold. “You’re going to be okay.”
Even as she said the words, she prayed they were true.