Chapter Fourteen
Leo
Ramirez pulled up outside Lucy’s apartment block just after lunch. I crouched in the front seat of his SUV, my cap pulled low, oversized sunglasses hiding my face. If I’d tried, I couldn’t look more conspicuous. Schilling insisted on the disguise. He had a guy on the inside of the investigation into my escape. The feds weren’t watching Lucy, her dad might be.
Maria sat in the back, a giant Tupperware settled on her lap.
“You going in or what?” Ramirez spat.
“I guess so.”
My heart thumped, my palms slick, I reached for the door, vehemently wishing I’d taken up Ramirez’s offer of sourcing a gun for me.
“Keep your phone close, call me the first sign of any trouble,” he warned.
“Yes, Sir.”
I made it to the exclusive apartment undisturbed. The security guard at the front desk eyed me.
“Can I help you?”
Shit. We hadn’t counted on this. Schilling never mentioned a doorman. He must’ve known there’d be one, he’d been here, followed Lucy here. Was I supposed to go the back way?
“I’m here to see Lucy Attwood, penthouse apartment.”
Panic edged into my voice. My eyes darted around the building, scoping exits. There was only one way in or out and the suspicious guy behind the desk will have a way to block the electric sliding door.
“Miss Attwood never mentioned it.”
“I’m from out of town, wanted to surprise her.”
“Your name, please?”
Jesus. I guess her dad would be worse than the police, at least being arrested I might live long enough for Dani to prove my innocence.
“Leo,” I mumbled. Lucy wouldn’t let a stranger in. She was a smart, strong woman. That’s what attracted me to her. Our relationship started and ended in the bedroom. She’d have little incentive to help me. I had to pray she’d give me a chance to at least explain. She suspects her dad, she must know I’d never harm Maia.
The guard lifted the phone, dialling through to Lucy. He spoke in hushed tones. My nerves spiked. My pulse raced so hard, I was sure my heart was at risk of bursting. I sat in the corner, leaning back, hiding from the scrutinising glare of the guard behind a banana plant, waiting for the Police. At least my mother would finally gain peace, she’d know for certain I was alive and safe.
“Miss Attwood will see you,” the guard said. The chrome plated elevator slid open. The relief overwhelmed me. I struggled to stand on shaking legs, unsure whether to laugh or cry.
The elevator doors slid closed, hiding me from view, I sank to my knees, relief coursing through me. I’d made it this far, now I had to pray Lucy’s father wasn’t lying in wait for me.
When the doors opened, I was crouched in the corner, peeking up from under my arm, readying myself for the hail of bullets that I was certain would meet me.
“Leo, what the fuck?” Lucy hissed.
She stood at her apartment door, her long blonde hair piled on her head in a messy bun, dressed in yoga pants and a vest top, effortlessly gorgeous, not a patch on my Danica. She never had been.
“Are you outta your goddamn mind?” She hissed. “The whole fucking state is hunting you. The feds have a price on your head. You should be halfway to Cuba already.”
She cared. I pulled myself upright, squaring my shoulders. I shouldn’t have to run and hide, I’m innocent. I held onto that thought, stepping out of the elevator towards her.
“I can’t run, Luce, my mother would never survive it and Dani’s back. I found her, Lucy, I goddamn found her. She needs me. I’m innocent, I need your help to prove it.”
The fight dancing in her eyes drained away, her shoulders slumped. She fell against the doorway.
“Please, Leo, don’t ask me what I think you’re going to ask. He’s my father for Christ’s sake, he wouldn’t do those things, I know he wouldn’t.”
“And I would?”
She bit her lip, shrugging her slender shoulders at me.
“I mean, I don’t really know you, do I? I bet all murderers seem like nice guys, up until the time they stab you in the heart.”
“Please, Lucy, just let me talk. If you still don’t believe me, I’ll leave, you can call the cops, whatever, just hear me out. If you have even a sliver of doubt you owe me that much. I’m sentenced to die, Lucy. I’m thirty-one years old. I’ve lost a child I adored the bones of, her killer is walking free and I’m condemned to die for it.”
“You better come in,” she breathed, kicking the door open.
Lucy paced the solid wood floor, wringing her hands, chewing on her lip, her clear blue eyes clouded with tears. Her eyes roamed everywhere but my face as I spoke.
I started from the beginning, the unsafe buildings, my buried reports raising the issues, the offers of bonus’ to keep my mouth shut, the assertion that they could find Dani and what I had on Lucy herself. The Ferrari they paid her for getting close to me, the missing condom. It’s not the first time we’d been to bed, but I’d never been in her apartment, it was always a quickie in one of the new builds or my place while Maia was in school and Stacey was out getting high.
“There are children living in those buildings, Lucy, babies with their whole lives ahead of them and your father didn’t give a shit, what makes you think he’d care about the kid of a junkie?”
“Maybe you were wrong, maybe they were safe.”
“Then why don’t you live in one? Think about it Luce, they’re every bit as high-spec as this place if you believe the lies they printed in the sales leaflets, he’d get one half the price of this place, they’re closer to the hospital, yet he bought you somewhere built by his biggest competitor.”
“He got a good deal,” she sniffed.
“I don’t buy it, Luce, and neither do you. Maybe you can live with my death on your conscience, but what about all the people in those buildings? The babies, the innocent families, people’s grandparents?”
“My father would never hurt a child, ever,” she snapped squaring her shoulders. I was losing her.
“I never said he would. We don’t think he meant for Maia to get caught up in it. It was Stacey he was after, whose gonna miss a junkie whore? Maia tried to defend her momma. She died fighting to save her mother.”
Lucy collapsed on the white leather sofa, her head in her hands, her body trembling under the power of the heart wrenching sobbing coming from it.
I slid over to her, wrapping my arms around her, pulling her to my chest.
“I’m innocent, Lucy, so are all the people in those buildings. We need you to help us, Maia needs you to get justice for her. She wanted to be a doctor, just like you. She dreamed of helping people, fixing them when they were sick. You’re a good person, Luce, you’ll make the right choice, I know you will.”
“I’ll be alone,” she sobbed, “they’ll kill him, he’ll be sentenced to death like you and I’ll be alone.”
“They won’t kill him, Luce,” I soothed, stroking her hair away from her face, “I was sentenced to death because I wouldn’t admit my guilt or ask for forgiveness. He’ll have a better lawyer than me, he didn’t commit the act himself, he didn’t mean for Maia to be hurt.”
“They’ll lock him up for his whole life then and I’ll still be alone.”
“You’ll have me.”
“Dani has you.”
“As a friend, Lucy. Danica’ll be your friend too. You won’t be alone. If that building goes down in the night when everyone is sleeping how many families will be wiped out? How many parents will lose their children and grandchildren in one night?”
“What do you need me to do?”
“Do you think he’d confess to you if you confronted him?”
“Are you kidding?” Lucy scoffed, wiping a tear from her cheek, “he won’t even tell me when he has a date. I’ll try, but he won’t tell me jack, I can promise you that. I don’t think I can cope with this, Leo. How can my own father do such awful things?”
“I’m with you, Luce, every step of the way. If he won’t confess to you, do you think you could get access to his office? If you could find some files, order slips for substandard materials, anything like that, we might at least be able to get those buildings evacuated.”
“Maybe, if he’s not in. His receptionist sometimes lets me into wait for him.”
“Great, I’ll catch up with the people helping me and get in touch with you. They want you to wear a wire when you talk to him. We’ll be right there, Luce, listening to everything.”
“You don’t think… he’d hurt me, do you?”
“I hope not,” I whispered.
I left my number with Lucy, Schilling’s and Ramirez’s too. Danica’s involvement in this had to stay under wraps, no-one wanted her paying for this if went wrong.
The guilt at leaving her, processing this alone, tore me apart. She promised to catch up with a friend, go for coffee, watch a movie, anything but sit alone and replay all the nightmarish things I’d just told her.
“She going to help then?” Ramirez snapped the second I made it back to the car.
“She’s going to try. I have a favour to ask of you.”
“No.”
“You don’t know what I’m going to ask.”
“I’m not driving you home. That’s a one-way ticket back to the death house. For reasons I cannot fathom my daughter loves you. You stay alive. End of.”
“Maria could go. If anyone questioned her, she could tell them she’s a family friend.”
“No.”
“I’m a mother, Joey, what that woman must be going through, I can’t even imagine. Let me go.”
“Fine,” he sighed.
◆◆◆
I paced the cabin relentlessly. Ramirez sat at the table glowering at me. Maria was late back. By hours. Schilling and Dani would turn up any second. If Schilling learned what we’d had Maria do, the risk we’d taken, he’d call off the whole damn thing. Ramirez tried her phone again, hissing when it was sent to voicemail. The twenty-four news channel played in the background.
My parent's house wasn't shown. Since Theo soaked thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment, they’d been given a break. He’d escaped criminal damage charges because they’d been on our land at the time, trespassing. My face flashed up regularly, they’d scoured my friend’s social media, finding pictures from my youth to show alongside my mugshot. The mugshots taken in prison over the years were shown. Pictures of me dressed in the death row white jumpsuit.
Crime analysts and psychologists discussed the danger I posed to the public. Anti-death penalty charities protested my innocence. Suddenly every lawyer in the country wanted to defend me. My own attorney released a statement, denying any knowledge of my plans, assuring the public that I posed no threat to them, telling them she was convinced of my innocence.
Maria’s face never made it to the news. Not yet at least. That brought us little comfort. She might be under arrest, she might have told them everything. They could be on their way here. Armed feds could be surrounding the building without us knowing.
Finally, a car crunched over the drive. Ramirez raced to the window, peeling back the blind.
“It’s Maria,” he sighed, his well-built frame visibly shrinking with relief. Maria walked in seconds later, her face puffy and red, her eyes bloodshot.
“Did you talk to her?” I snapped.
“She knows you’re safe, Leo,” Maria smiled. “That poor, broken woman. I don’t know how much more she can take. She’s tiny, skin and bones. I made her a paella. What else could I do for her?”
“Does she understand why I did this?”
“She supports, Leo. She’d rather you run, live abroad, Theo has money for you but she understands why you need to do this. For Maia, that baby. She showed me her picture, that poor little chico. My heart aches for her. You must get them justice, Joey, you must.”
“I will.”
“Thank you, Maria.”
I pulled the short, matronly woman into my arms.
“You’re a good boy, Leo. Our Danielle is lucky to have you. If only her mother met a man like you and not him.”
“Her mother?” I glanced at Ramirez.
Of course, Dani had a mother. She never spoke of her. We’d only had eight carefree hours together before tragedy ripped us apart. Since meeting again our love affair has been one of heartache, separation and drama. The time for pillow talk would come later.
“My Theresa,” she sniffed.
Hers? Not ours like Dani, but hers.
“What’s the love in for?” Dani grinned, swinging open the door.
She had the same soft brown eyes as Maria, the same kind, forgiving heart.
“Oh nothing,” Maria huffed, straightening herself up, “just an old woman being silly.”
“You survived Lucy, then?” Schilling asked, following Dani into the cabin.
Maria rushed to the kitchen, determined she’d beat Schilling to making us dinner. Her nose had been firmly out of joint this morning when Schilling told her she didn’t need to pack him and Dani a lunch. His wife had made a frittata and potato salad for them.
Dani folded herself into my arms.