A Loaded Question Page 17

  “What are you talking about?” Zoey asked. “What did Alexi do?”

  “He and Deborah Scot are having an affair. That might explain how this whole bonfire was set ablaze.” Even to his own ears, he sounded breathless.

  “Oh, I’m on it.” The phone went dead as Zoey hung up.

  Ah, Zoey, that beautiful, beautiful soul.

  Kate jogged so she was walking beside him as he strode back toward his car. “Where are you going?”

  “I don’t know.” He stopped. He was sure that her mother and her lover were long gone by now, thanks to his spotting them. Luckily, neither of them would have known him—the ghost. “Who is the beneficiary of your father’s will?”

  “I’m sure it’s my mother. Do you think she was behind his death?”

  He scrunched his face as he spoke, not wanting Kate to face the pain of her mother being involved in her father’s murder. “She might be guilty of something. She and this guy, this Alexi. But we are going to have to prove it. Do you think you could get me back into the ConFlux building?”

  “I’m sure, but what do you think you are going to find? So far, none of the people the police interviewed have had any information. And there hasn’t been a whisper of my mother...my mother having...you know...an affair.” She said the word like it was filled with worm guts. “Are you sure you saw what you saw?”

  “I’m sure.” He hated that he had to push this thing in her face, especially so soon after her father’s death, but there was no avoiding what he had seen. “Are you close with your mother?”

  She swallowed what must have been a lump in her throat, and even he could tell she was struggling to get past it.

  He reached out, hoping and praying that she would slip her hand into his. He needed to know that she would have faith in him, that she had put her suspicions about him aside. Especially with the new information.

  She didn’t move.

  He dropped his hand by his side. “Maybe your mother and Alexi are still there.” It was unlikely, but right now his word wasn’t going to make her believe him. In a case like this, with so much at stake, the only thing she would trust was going to be what she saw with her own two eyes. He couldn’t blame her. Doveryáy, no proveryáy.

  Instead of waiting for her to take his hand, he slipped his fingers into hers. He couldn’t make her feel anything, he couldn’t make her trust him, but he could prove himself to her. As they made their way to the alley, he peeked around the corner. The car was gone. He stopped.

  Crap.

  He’d taken a chance not following them, but it had been a calculated risk to keep them from knowing he was on their tail. He had to find them, to stop them from getting out of the city and the state. Once they did, it would be a hell of a lot harder to pin them down and bring them to justice.

  “This is where they were?” Kate asked, her voice flecked with annoyance.

  “Yeah, but don’t worry. They couldn’t have gone far. And Zoey is working on putting out a BOLO.” He reached over and took her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “I know how hard this must be for you, but I’ve got you. We are in this together.”

  “Just as long as we find them. That’s what matters now.”

  They stood there for a moment in tense silence as he dissected her words. He didn’t want to tell her that there were many things that mattered more—namely, the way he felt about her and what he wanted for their future—but thankfully she hadn’t let go of his hand. Maybe she was starting to forgive him for being the messenger.

  He wished he could open up and tell her that he loved her, but right now...it wasn’t right. When he finally let those words come out of his mouth, he wanted it to be perfect—if there was such a thing. She deserved to be told in a way that would create a memory she’d cherish. She was special and she deserved to be treated like the goddess that she was.

  “Let’s jump in and head toward the interstate,” she said, motioning toward his car. “Maybe we can catch them heading toward Idaho.”

  If he was trying to bug out, that would be his objective as well. More populous areas to get lost in, and no international border to cross. Though, he would never have been stupid enough to get onto the one interstate that ran nearly the entire length of the state. He would take the back roads, the logging roads that led to Idaho and would keep him far outside the sites of any law enforcement. The only thing a person would have to worry about on those roads would be a game warden. As luck had it, there were only two who worked in this county. The odds would ever be in his favor.

  Then again, Deborah and Alexi, a desk-jockey tech geek, didn’t seem like the types who would head out to the woods or anywhere that lacked high-end amenities. If anything, they seemed like the airport kind of people. They wouldn’t want to merely leave the state—they had assets that most didn’t, including a deep set of pockets.

  And with deep pockets came endless resources. A person could get anything for the right amount of money. In fact, he had once had a boss at the UN who had requested he do something nearly impossible that required several NDAs and a threat of death. When Troy had tried to tell the man no and that it couldn’t be done, the man had told him just to give him the number of zeros it would take on the check to make it happen.

  It had taken some work, but his mission had been accomplished. And, as luck had it, the perfect number of zeros on the check was seven. Immense requests required immense bank accounts—luckily, that was something his contact at the UN had in spades.

  Thinking back on it, he really didn’t miss those days.

  He opened the car door for Kate and she slipped into the passenger seat. And though she was safely tucked away with him, he hated having to stop touching her. As soon as he got in and was buckled, he put out his hand and waited until she slipped her fingers into his before he took to the road.

  Turning off Broadway, he took to the interstate in the direction of the airport, soon pulling off on the exit.

  “Where are we going?” she asked, surprised.

  “I bet you twenty bucks that she is at the airport. That or they are renting a private jet at Minuteman. Let’s start here.”

  Kate opened her mouth like she was thinking about arguing. She’d tried calling her mom but it had gone straight to voice mail. Either the woman didn’t have her phone or wasn’t picking up.

  “Besides, we are not going to stop them even if they are on the interstate. MHP will have to catch up to them if they are going that way. At the very least, if they are trying to cross over to Idaho, there is only one point they can do that from the interstate. If I was an officer, I would be sitting ten miles before that state line, waiting. We’re covered.”

  She gripped his hand tighter, and from her touch he could sense her frustration—he didn’t blame her. With so much riding on them finding her mom, it was hard not to feel like they had her father’s memory pressing down on them—not to mention the fate of her family’s company. A company that for all intents and purposes would likely belong to her once her mother was found and faced justice if she’d been involved in her husband’s murder.

  Luckily the airport was only a few minutes away—even less the way he drove. He pulled to a stop in front of the doors leading to the main terminal, not caring whether or not their car would be towed.

  As he was about to put the car in Park, his phone pinged with a message.

  Zoey’s text was simple: Targets just entered airport.

  “They’re trying to catch a flight,” Troy ordered, excited that his assumption had been spot-on. He would have liked to think he was just that good, but there was no doubt that half of this was luck.

  Getting out of the car, they rushed into the main body of the airport. An airport police officer was standing beside the boarding pass kiosks, his hands over his chest and a stoic look on his face. Troy hurried over to him. “Hey, there is a BOLO out on a man an
d woman, late fifties, early sixties, gray haired. Have you seen them?”

  The man dropped his arms from his chest and snorted a laugh. “You just described about half the people in this airport.”

  Kate flashed him her badge. “We need information on this couple as quickly as possible. They are involved in a murder investigation.” She lifted up her phone, showing him a picture of her mother. “This is the woman. Man has a mole on the left side of his face, near the temple.”

  The man took a close look at the woman. Grabbing his handset and turning away from them, he called the other officers on duty. It took a couple of minutes while the officer talked in a truncated, coded conversation before he turned back to them. “From our video feed, they were in the airport about five minutes ago. Then went back out to the long-term parking lot. We don’t have any record of them leaving the property.”

  They were still on the grounds. “Close down all the public exits. We need to make sure that they can’t escape. And we need you to call in to the locals, let them know what we have here.”

  The officer nodded. “We’re already on it. Unfortunately, there is only myself and another officer on duty, but we will work as efficiently as possible.”

  Kate gave him a tip of the head. “Great. We’ll start in long-term.”

  Troy gave him a clipped description of the car and the license plate number, though they were already a part of the BOLO. “You guys work short-term and the toll booth areas. If you come in contact, let us know.”

  They jogged out of the terminal. Their car was still running in front and they got back in. Hurrying around the loop, they entered the long-term parking lot. It wasn’t a huge area, but there were only a few open parking spaces. And, as they twisted through the lot, he noted three other sedans that matched the car he had seen in the alleyway, but not the license plate.

  As they rounded the second-to-last row, he spotted the car. It was still running. He parked in front of the nose of the vehicle, blocking them in, stopping them from escaping.

  Kate jumped out of the car, her gun at the ready, pointed in the direction of the driver’s seat. The man with the gray hair sat there, gesticulating wildly, almost as if the two were having some sort of fight.They didn’t even notice them bearing down.

  Her mother was in the passenger seat, and though Troy couldn’t hear what she was saying, he could tell she was yelling. As he and Kate approached the car, neither Deborah nor Alexi looked over. Whatever was going on was heated.

  He unholstered his SIG Sauer, readying himself just in case all of this went south. Though he hoped the two would see the futility of their situation, desperation led to desperate and often dangerous choices; choices a person wouldn’t normally make.

  Kate carefully approached the driver’s-side door and knocked on the window, pulling the man’s attention away from her mother and directly to her. The man jerked like he hadn’t noticed anything outside of the world that he had built with Deborah.

  Troy watched the man’s hands, his right moving toward his ankle as the left moved to roll down the window.

  “Put your hands where I can see them!” Troy ordered, pointing his gun at Alexi, backing Kate.

  The man jerked as the window rolled down. “Whoa. I just had an itch—don’t worry. There’s nothing going on here, at least nothing you need to worry about. Stand down.” He sneered over at Troy, his voice dismissive.

  “What are you doing here, Kate?” Deborah asked. Her hair was mussed, her lipstick smeared. Her makeup was streaked where tears had slipped down and disappeared.

  “I’m wondering the same thing about you, Mom.” Kate growled, nudging the barrel of her gun in the man’s direction. “Alexi, you need to step out of the vehicle.”

  The man’s hands moved to the steering wheel.

  “Put your hands up!” Troy yelled, afraid that if the man took the wheel, he would do something stupid.

  Kate stepped back, as if she too was worried that the man would punch the gas and ram their car.

  Alexi chuckled, raising his hands. “I know how this probably looks to you guys, but your mother and I were just talking. She’s been through a lot and—”

  “Stop right there,” Kate said, as she walked over and, leaning in through the car’s window, turned off the engine, removing the keys. She stuffed the keys into her pocket. “You can lie to some people, but I’m not one of them. I know exactly what you two are up to, and don’t think you can get away with it. Now, both of you need to step out of the damn car, or we will remove you from this vehicle.”

  Her mother reached down and touched the door handle, moving to get out.

  “No,” Alexi said. “Deborah, you stay exactly where you are. They have no right to tell us to do anything. And I don’t know where they’re getting off trying to order us around like we’re some kind of fugitives.”

  Kate laughed, the sound dangerous and low. “Really? You think you can play that game with me? If you don’t get out of this car right now, I’ll make sure I have every police officer from here to Seattle on your ass.”

  Alexi laughed. “For what?”

  There were a few moments in life that Troy hated. The worst was inarguably facing death. Then came moments like this... Moments in which two people who loved each other were forced to see the other for who they really were. Humans could be the ugliest, most despicable and cruel creatures in existence.

  Though he had no doubt that her mother loved her, Deborah was quite possibly a murderer. Regardless of the love that she held for her mother, Kate would have to do what her job dictated no matter how much it hurt. And what made it all worse was the fact that Kate held the cuffs, ones that could place her mother behind bars possibly until her dying day.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Kate could’ve been sick.

  Here she had been, completely convinced that Troy was her enemy. And now here she was, forced to face the fact that her enemy was the one person she thought she could trust. Sure, she and her mother had never been entirely close, but her mom had loved her. And she thought her mother and father had, for the most part, gotten along. Maybe they hadn’t had the strongest marriage that she’d ever seen, but in the lineup of corporate men and corporate wives, they seemed stable.

  She couldn’t imagine what had pushed her mother to have an affair. Troy had made it clear that he thought her mother was behind her father’s murder, but she wasn’t entirely sure. Not yet. There were any number of possibilities. One thing was certain, however: her mother hadn’t pulled the trigger. Though she hadn’t gotten the fingerprint analysis and ballistics tests back, she was almost certain that her mother’s prints wouldn’t be on any of the shell casings.

  “If you don’t get out of the car right now, we will drag your asses out.” She paused. “I just got my nails done and I really don’t want to get physical, but if you make me, Alexi, I’ll be more than happy to facilitate.”

  Alexi moved to say something, but her mother stopped him with a touch to his arm. “Just listen to her.”

  Alexi sighed.

  Her mother and Alexi slowly stepped out of the vehicle, closing the doors behind them.

  Troy visibly relaxed. Apparently, he had thought things were going to go haywire. Though she should’ve been focusing on her own emotional turmoil, finding her mother in such a compromising position, all she could feel was a little bit satisfied that she’d pegged her mother’s reaction right.

  Her mother wasn’t perfect—she was an adult, and she was human, but she wasn’t evil. Maybe she had just gotten herself in a situation that she couldn’t get out of. Maybe she had been forced to make a choice between something crappy and something crappier. That was how most crimes happened. Not that she was making excuses for her mother. She was only trying to understand.

  “I want you both to go and sit on the hood of this vehicle,” Kate ordered, reminding herself tha
t this was work and not merely some screwed-up family drama.

  Alexi and her mother walked to the front of the car and sat down. Troy strode over toward them. “You want me to pat them down?”

  She nodded. Though she knew she should go help him, there was something so very wrong about her going to look for weapons on her mother and her boyfriend. Instead, she took out her phone and set it on the top of the car, recording their conversation.

  “Mrs. Scot, can you please turn around and spread your legs?” Troy motioned toward the front of the car. “I’m going to pat you down now. Do you have anything in your pockets that could potentially stab or cut me? Do you have any sort of weapon that I need to know about?”

  Her mother shook her head.

  “Mom, do you want to tell me how Sal was involved in all of this?” she asked, hoping that her mother would answer her honestly while she was in such a compromising position. “It’s better for you if you do.” She proceeded to give her mother and Alexi the Miranda warning. Whatever info the two gave up could be used in a courtroom later.

  Her mother twitched and looked over at Alexi as Troy’s hands moved over her and up between her legs. “Can you please turn around?” Troy asked.

  She turned around, and as their gazes met, there were tears pooling in her mother’s eyes. “Baby,” her mother began, “I’m so sorry about everything that happened. I didn’t want anything to go this far.”

  The little flicker of hope Kate had been holding, that her mother was innocent and Troy was wrong in assuming the worst, died.

  Troy had been right.

  “How was Sal involved?” She tried to sound confident, like she knew exactly what had happened and was simply waiting for an admission before arresting her mother.

  “Your mother didn’t do anything wrong,” Alexi interrupted. “This was all my idea. Sal was on my payroll—he was working for me. But he was acting on his own in all of this. It wasn’t our plan for him to shoot anyone. He went rogue.”