Chapter Sixteen
Some days were easier than others and this day was turning out to be a real bitch and a half. Seth had tried to listen as patiently as possible to this Stan Wallace, private eye for hire. The story was almost too wild to be believed. And yet…the guy was frightened for his life and at this point didn’t have much reason to lie. Knowing the man was no physical threat, Seth had untied him, although he kept him in the chair far away from where Presley was sitting on the couch watching the interrogation. He wasn’t stupid enough to think she didn’t want to join in or interrupt but to Seth’s surprise she sat back and let him do his job.
After emptying his pockets, the PI had shown him his driver’s license to prove he was telling the truth about his name. Then he’d shown him the text messages back and forth between him and Eric Harbaugh that appeared to back up his claims. Seth had quickly sent a text to Dare to check Wallace out as quickly as possible.
“He’s scared to death,” Stan declared. “The cartel wants their money and they don’t care how they get it. Danny dealt drugs for them while in prison and some of the merchandise disappeared and they didn’t get paid. They’re not happy about that. Since Danny is dead, they say that his brother is responsible for his debts and that he has to pay up.”
That part did make sense. Cartels believed that debt lived on after a person died and that their relatives took on the obligation. But there were still unanswered questions. A bunch of them.
Seth retrieved a bottle of water from the wet bar and handed it to Stan. The poor man had to have sweated out at least a quart.
“Now let’s start from the beginning again,” Seth instructed. “Eric Harbaugh called you a few days ago?”
Stan nodded as he gulped down half of the bottle in one go. “He did. Said he got my name from a friend who used me in their divorce. I specialize in finding cheaters and bringing in the evidence. I told him that this was out of my expertise but he was adamant that he wanted me to do it so I took the job. He offered me three grand. That’s a lot of pictures of philandering husbands and lying wives.”
“And you did what after he hired you?”
“I checked the newspaper accounts of the robbery and capture,” Stan said with some pride in his voice. “That’s where I found out about you. You arrested Danny Harbaugh but the money was never found. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that you probably took it, especially as Danny didn’t get the cash first thing when he left prison. I assumed he didn’t have the money no more because someone else did.”
That was one theory but there were others. Certainly Seth had been questioned by federal authorities but he’d been easily cleared. He’d never been out of sight of not one but two of his deputies, plus the reporters that had been chasing the story behind them in their news trucks. The whole situation had been a clusterfuck that could have managed to get several innocent people killed.
“Me?”
“Yep.” Stan nodded excitedly. “It all made sense. A small town cop sees more cheddar than he’s ever seen in his life at one time. It was a no brainer.”
It was like being trapped in a Philip Marlow novel. Cheddar? This guy really loved being a private eye.
But now Seth was pissed off again but for an entirely different reason. This man’s casual assumption that everyone was dirty and criminal didn’t sit right at all. Maybe it was his profession that made him cynical as hell but Seth was going to straighten him out quickly.
“No brainer, huh? If it was so fucking obvious, why didn’t Danny kill me and get the money on day one?”
From the slack look on Stan’s face, he hadn’t really thought all of this through to its obvious conclusion.
“I–I don’t know. Maybe he didn’t know you had it. Maybe he just knew it was gone.”
“But if it was obvious to you, shouldn’t Danny have figured it out?” Presley asked, from her perch on the couch. It was the first thing she’d said in quite awhile but there was a smugness in her tone that hadn’t been there before. “If Seth is the clear choice, why didn’t Danny come get the money? Especially with a cartel threatening him?”
“I–I don’t know.”
Criminals were dumb but sometimes regular citizens were, too.
“So let me get this straight,” Seth said, trying to keep his voice calm when he really wanted to smack some sense into this guy. “Danny gets out of prison and instead of killing me, Presley, and my two kids and getting the money he goes and hangs out with his loser meth cooking friends where he’s blown up by accident. In the meantime, I’m in a nearby town spending Danny’s ill-gotten gains on a trip to Vegas, not bothering to hide from the authorities or this cartel that I’ve stolen evidence from a crime scene. That was your hypothesis?”
Stan was sweating again despite the cranked air conditioning. “When you say it that way–”
“It doesn’t make a lick of sense,” Seth finished for him. “Just so we’re all clear here, I have no fucking clue where the bank robbery money is. None. It wasn’t with Danny when I arrested him. We searched for days and never found it. And Danny sure wasn’t saying anything. As far as I know he was the only one who knew where it was.”
Presley stood and walked over to where Seth was sitting across from Stan, placing her hand on his shoulder. “What do you think happened?”
Shrugging, he sighed. “We looked for quite awhile but never found anything. My theory was that he called someone while I was chasing him and gave the money to them for safekeeping. Probably one of his less than honest pals, although I doubt they set that cash aside for him for when he got released. My guess is that money is long gone, spent by his so-called friends.”
Stan wasn’t giving up without a fight. “He swore revenge on you. I saw it in the papers.”
“Because he thinks I killed his wife, which I didn’t. Not because I had his money. If he wanted money to pay the cartel he wouldn’t have bothered with the subtle threats he was sending me and Presley when he got out of prison. He was drawing it out and playing a game, enjoying the cat and mouse. If it was only money he wanted, he just would have come and shot me. I don’t think he gave a shit that he owed money to the cartel.”
Harbaugh was the kind of guy who thought he could always figure a way out of a situation. Too much self-confidence and not enough brains to go with it.
“This is bad. So bad.” Stan slumped forward with his head in his hands. “The cartel hasn’t given Eric much time to get the money.”
Seth guessed that they sounded scary but they’d waited this long. They’d probably wait a few more days. But from what Dare had been able to find Eric Harbaugh was a pretty straight-laced guy, almost boring, and a couple of enforcers from a drug cartel would have scared the shit out of him. Not surprising he’d hired some help.
But Stan? Jesus, Eric should have chosen better. This guy wouldn’t last five minutes with anyone from that cartel. He’d be spilling his bank and Facebook passwords along with his mother’s maiden name and the name of his favorite pet.
“Seth,” Presley said softly. “Can I talk to you over there for a minute?”
“Wait here,” Seth commanded Stan who just nodded, looking weathered and beaten. The man had had a crappy day, that’s for sure. “Do not move one inch.”
Following his wife over to the bar area, he kept one eye on their private investigator, still not trusting him. He believed Stan was telling the truth but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try and run away.
“If Stan believes we have the money, couldn’t the cartel think so too? If Eric doesn’t give them the money, could they come after you? Or us and the kids?”
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“It’s possible,” Seth replied carefully. “Not probable though. They’re going to put this on Eric Harbaugh and squeeze him hard. They won’t care where he gets the money as long as he gets it.”
“And if he doesn’t,” she pressed. “What will they do then?”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Seth groaned. “Honestly? They’ll probably kill him, after a period of torture, of course, just in case he’s holding out on them.”
Hell, they’d probably kill him whether he paid them off or not.
“Then what? Do they write off the debt or do they come after the bank money? And how many other people think we have the money?”
“I don’t know,” Seth confessed. “But no one has bothered us all these years so I don’t think there’s an army of people sniffing around for the cash. I think we’re safe, honey.”
“I don’t like this. Not at all.”
He didn’t like it much either but he had to be realistic. Most people were going to think that Danny Harbaugh had hidden that bank money.
Presley crossed her arms over her chest, her little chin lifted in determination. Fuck and double fuck. Seth knew from long experience that he wasn’t going to like what she had to say.
“You know what I think we need to do?”
“No,” he said heavily. “But I don’t think I can stop you from saying it.”
“We need to talk to this Eric Harbaugh and tell him we don’t have his money so he leaves us alone.”
That wasn’t the horrifying suggestion that he’d assumed it was going to be. From the dossier that Dare had put together and Seth had reviewed, Eric Harbaugh lived in Billings so it wouldn’t be a big deal to stop there when they flew back home tomorrow.
“And then we need to help him find that money.”
Now that…that was what Seth was afraid she was going to say.