Chapter 18: Alex

“Her car’s here.”

The day was quickly coming to an end, the sun setting behind us as I rolled the car to a stop in front of the house and looked at where Kelly was pointing. Sure enough, Jenni’s car was parked a bit down the road, almost out of view behind a large maple.

I had gone directly to the hospital after my disappointing encounter with Sheriff Blake, and although my nerves were wrecked and I had the urge to punch my fist through a wall, the fact that my father was awake immediately turned that all around.

They had rolled him out of the ICU into his own private room, and he had been flanked by nurses all day. Apparently, the old man still had his charm working for him, and he had become a bit of a celebrity around the hospital. Samuel Logan, standing up to the misfits of Kent and taking one for the team.

I only wished he could have earned his popularity through anything else.

After a flurry of questions, and my incessant questions to a doctor who had looked like he wanted nothing more than to run far, far away from me, I had finally been able to calm down and enjoy the fact that, yet again, I had Samuel and Kelly ganging up on me.

I had called Jenni and given her the good news, fully expecting her to show up after her shift. Needless to say, we were all just a little disappointed, and I had started to worry when she had stopped answering the phone.

“Maybe knowing grandpa’s alright made her go back to her life?”

Kelly had looked like she was begging me to disagree, but I hadn’t really known if I could. I still held onto the hope that we would come back home and find her, probably asleep with her phone silenced.

Which was why I let out a sigh of relief when I saw her car.

“That’s a good sign,” I said.

Kelly nodded, a smile creeping onto her face. She looked a lot gladder about Jenni being here than I was.

She met us at the front door, towel in her hand, hair flowing around her face. She looked pale, her eyes bloodshot as if she had just been crying, and her shoulders sagged a bit. Nothing like the woman who had cooked breakfast and shoved us out of the house this morning.

“You okay?” I asked, kissing her cheek as I shrugged out of my coat.

Kelly had already made her way upstairs after giving Jenni a quick hug and a concerned look. My daughter had the good sense not to ask, though. Whatever was wrong with Jenni, it didn’t seem like something she’d be openly willing to talk about. She already looked like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.

She attempted a smile, and it only made her look worse. “I’m fine,” she lied.

I kissed her again and let the matter slide, for now. There would be time to talk about it later, with the door closed behind us and her lying in my arms. I kept a close eye on her, though, as we went about emptying the groceries I had bought on my way back.

“How’s Sam?”

“He’s doing well,” I said, smiling. “Looks better, except for the bruises and all. Besides, I think he’s actually happy he’s in the hospital. The nurses are all over him.”

“I’m not surprised,” she said. “He’s always been a sweet talker.”

“We missed you at the hospital.”

She sighed and smiled weakly. “I’m feeling a bit under the weather, that’s all. Didn’t think it would make sense to show up and spread whatever it is that’s got me feeling like this.”

“Samuel would have loved to see you,” I said.

“I know. I’ll visit him as soon as I feel better.”

I didn’t push, knowing that if I did, I would either make her angry, or worse, scare her away. Right now, having her around made me feel a lot better, and I didn’t want to do anything that might risk endangering that.

“I’m sorry about what happened with Sheriff Blake,” she said, cutting through my thoughts.

I felt a small pang of anger at the memory of this morning’s waste of time. “Yeah, well, apparently Garth Liston has a lot more pull in this town than I thought.”

I felt her body stiffen at the mention of Garth’s name, and frowned. Before I could read any more into it, my cellphone began to buzz in my pocket, and I fished it out, Raul’s number flashing on the screen.

“Gotta take this,” I said, leaving the kitchen and walking all the way out the front door.

“Catch you at a bad time?” Raul asked when I answered.

“Nah, was just about to help with dinner,” I said. “What’s up?”

“For starters, I don’t know how you do it, but you hit a gold mine, man,” Raul said.

“What do you mean?”

“Hope Enterprises.”

I had completely forgotten I had asked Raul to look into that. “What did you find?”

“Their CEO, Alexis Hope, real pile of trouble that one.”

I leaned against the porch railing, glancing into the house to make sure I was out of earshot, and pressed Raul for more.

“Apparently, she’s on everybody’s radar. FBI, Interpol, even MI6 is interested in her,” Raul explained. “Hope Enterprises has its name associated with a bunch of crap all over the globe.”

“Really?” I asked. “Seemed pretty innocent.”

“That’s just it, no one’s proven anything yet,” Raul said. “I have a contact in the FBI that swears the company deals in everything from human trafficking to money laundry. It’s just, this woman’s so damn good, she really knows how to hide her tracks.”

I felt my stomach turn, suddenly feeling a lot worse about the company’s activities in Kent.

“And it doesn’t stop there,” Raul said. “Apparently, one of the big cash cows is drugs, cocaine specifically. Some say this Alexis woman has ties with some of the biggest drug lords in South America.”

“How the hell has this woman never popped up on our radar?”

“Because the business is so decentralized, it’s like she’s not even a part of it. You got layers upon layers of people. Crime families funded by her and giving her a cut, Big names scattered all over the country. In some cities, she’s supplying rival gangs as long as they keep the peace.”

“And no one’s been able to get anything to stick?”

“Not yet,” Raul replied. “A few have tried, and the ones who got closest usually ended up dead or missing. But listen, the fact that her company’s fooling around in Kent makes sense.”

“Why is that?”

“They invest in real estate, increase the population, and then set up their illegal activities using locals. I heard a community college is supposed to be opening up over there.”

“Yeah, they’re building one outside town, big money.”

“Sounds about right,” Raul said. “You want to know the kicker, though?”

“Shoot.”

“You obviously remember how you almost got us killed in that drug bust.”

“My leg doesn’t really let me forget,” I replied.

“That van we pulled in was registered to a local company here in Miami, right?”

“Small delivery store, I remember,” I said. “They had reported it stolen, didn’t they?”

“They did,” Raul chuckled. “I looked into them when I began to realize just how diluted Hope Enterprise’s operations is. Apparently, the delivery store is part of a group of delivery companies all owned by an Italian family. Ricci or Rossi, something like that.”

“So?”

“One of their kids, the eldest, major shareholder, moved out to Connecticut a decade or two ago. Built a small compound in Kent, married a local girl.”

I felt my body go numb. “Darlene Liston,” I whispered.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Raul said. “How did you know?”

I pushed away from the railing and made my way across the porch, looking into the house and watching Jenni move about the kitchen as she prepared dinner.

“Anyway, this guy writes off all his shares to his new wife and her son, and they inherit the whole business when he died a few years back. A year later, his wife dies, and everything goes to the kid. Hold on, I have his name here somewhere.”

“Garth.”

The phone went silent for a second before Raul asked, “Yeah, you know the guy?”

“We crossed paths.”

“Well, he runs the company now out of Connecticut, and there are enough connections between him and Hope Enterprises to make your head spin. I mean, it’s almost as if Alexis Hope is funding them personally.”

“You think he’s their drug player in Kent?”

“Looks pretty much like it,” Raul replied. “What’s going on over there? You need me to book a flight in?”

“No, that’s fine,” I said. “I got this handled. Thanks, Raul.”

“No problem,” Raul replied. “Just enjoy your vacation, alright. We need you back here. Office is kind of lonely without you.”

I thanked him and hung up, then walked back into the house. Jenni had some explaining to do.