Blood and Roses (Holly Jennings Thriller) (27 page)

“We believe that your fiancé is really Ted Ivy,” Jack said.

“No. No! The groom? From the fire? Tieg, Laugherty…that fire? That can’t be. Ted Ivy is still in prison. See! That’s not possible.” Leann was visibly shaken. “It just could not be him. I think you need to go now.”

“We’ve checked. Ted Ivy has been out of prison for two years. We believe he had extensive plastic surgery and is getting his revenge on the people who sent him to jail.”

Leann brought her hands to her face, visibly shaken. “Why? Why would he do this, and why would he get engaged to me?”

“To blend in. To get back into this culture,” Jack said. “You are a good alibi, but we think there is something even bigger going on with him. We need to see his office, and I need a current photo of him.”

She nodded. Holly felt for her. The poor woman. She went back into the family room and took the photo that Holly had seen of the two of them the other day. “This is the most recent picture. We took it the day we got engaged. Follow me.”

They followed her out to the barn. The office she led them to appeared to have been broken into. Leann looked ashamed. “I had to break in. I jimmied the lock. Dan has the keys. But I couldn’t let that horse suffer and it was too late to call the vet.”

Holly doubted her story, as Jack already had. A facility like this would have medicines readily available, and not in the one office that was kept locked up tighter than a drum. “Leann, did you break in because you needed meds for the horse, or because you had your own questions about your fiancé?”

Leann didn’t reply. She just sobbed and looked down.

Holly’s cell rang. Amar. “Holly, Jim Gershon was found murdered. In Saratoga. Looks like he was killed last night by our guy. Carrot, blowtorch. The whole deal.”

“Oh my God,” Holly replied.

“I got word that the feds are on this now,” Amar said.

“Hold tight, Detective. I have some information, too. I’ll be in touch soon. I’m looking into something right now.”

Holly hung up the phone. “He struck again. He killed Jim Gershon in Saratoga last night.”

65

O’Leary spotted Perez before he had a chance to think. Edwin Hodges, the host of this shindig, had invited anyone and everyone to his pre-race party—including O’Leary.

People were dressed to the nines, and champagne flowed.

Perez stood over by one of the bars laughing it up with none other than Geremiah Laugherty. Now
that
was interesting.

Perez’s eyes widened as he spotted O’Leary. O’Leary shoved him as hard as he could. Laugherty stepped back, shocked.

“What the fuck?” Perez yelled.

“What the fuck? What the fuck! I’ll tell you what the fuck, Perez! You fucker! Why would you tell Elena that the only reason I’m with her is to get the ride on the filly?”

Music played on with people out on the dance floor, but a few had noticed the brewing situation and stopped to watch and listen.

Perez started laughing. He blew his chest out. “Cuz it’s true, bro. Everyone knows your digging that because you want my horse. No way, man. Not gonna happen! Not taking my ride!”

O’Leary had had enough. He pulled his right arm back and clocked Perez in the face. Perez grabbed his nose as blood spurted everywhere.

“Hey, man!” Laugherty grabbed onto O’Leary.

O’Leary pulled out of the man’s hold. The group of onlookers stood stunned by the explosion between the jockeys.

“Pete!” It was Elena running toward them.

“The nose is for her.” He pointed at Elena. “Don’t ever disrespect her again, you fucker!”

Perez spat at him. “I will get even,” he growled.

“Go ahead. Just try it. I’d love to have another chance at you. And this time it’ll be for me. I’m not an underhanded piece of shit like you are.” O’Leary looked at Laugherty. “And for that matter, like you!” he yelled. “You’re both crooked as hell, and everyone knows it. You just got lucky that Elena has a good heart and doesn’t believe gossip. But I know. I know for a fact that the two of you are crooked motherfuckers who will do anything and everything to win a race, and one day…
one day
…it’s all going to come out. It will all come undone for you. So enjoy the limelight while you have it.” O’Leary turned and took two steps away.

“Hey, Pete. Watch your back,” Laugherty said.

“With guys like you around, I am always watching my back,
Geremiah
. Maybe you should do the same.”

Pete O’Leary left the party with a smile on his face. He might not have been riding in the Infinity, he might have lost his girl, but he wasn’t going down without a fight, or without exposing a couple of snakes in the grass.

66

“Pete! Pete!” Elena called from behind him. O’Leary was headed in the direction of his room. “Please stop! Please!”

O’Leary finally stopped. His head down, he turned to her. He looked as if he needed to cool off.

“Look at me,” Elena said.

“I’m sorry, El, but I had to do that. Perez is a liar, and if you want him on Karma that’s up to you. I told you that there is no way in hell I was trying to take the ride from Perez. I told you that he was full of shit. But you chose not to believe me.”

“I’m sorry, Pete. I was wrong. Natalie just came to see me. She told me the truth. Perez promised her a big chunk of money if she lied to me about overhearing you. He also threatened her, told her he would fix it so she wouldn’t ride on the track again if she didn’t do as he asked.”

“You believe me now.” He shook his head.

She didn’t respond.

“Funny, your first impulse was to believe Perez and the bug over me. Perez is the guy who wants to screw you over. Wait, he doesn’t just want to screw you over, he wants to keep screwing you!”

She took a step back.

“Yeah, that’s right. Mr. Ego-Slash-Testosterone back there only wants in your pants. He don’t care about your horse. He don’t even care so much about the money. He cares about what you have
between your legs! And that you could be a real nice meal ticket for him. You don’t think jocks talk shit? They talk, and I know you slept with him.”

Elena felt the tears sting her eyes. “That was before us.”

“I don’t care. One thing I would not do is lie to you.”

She straightened herself up to her full five feet. “Really? Because you lied to me before. And I’m supposed to believe you’ve changed just because you wine me and dine me, and say a couple of pretty things?”

O’Leary shook his head. “Believe what you want, El. I’m a different guy now. I suggest you go nurse your jock.”

O’Leary spun around and headed to his room, leaving Elena shocked, hurt, and knowing that he had told her the truth. He hadn’t lied to her about a damn thing.

She walked inside to where Perez now sat at a table, an ice pack on his nose. Laugherty handed him a towel. “Hey, man, I’ll see about getting a medic over here, make sure that thing isn’t broken.”

Perez nodded. He spotted Elena. “I am so sorry, Elena. I am terribly sorry you saw all of that.”

“Shut up, Juan. You’re fired.”

“What? You can’t fire me! We have a race! We have
the race
to run tomorrow! Calm down! You can’t fire me!”

She turned on her heels and yelled back, “I can. And I just did.”

67

It was nearing seven in the morning. They hadn’t slept at all and were running on the coffee and the food that Leann had supplied the night before. Holly had interviewed Leann, asking her every minute detail about her relationship with the man she knew as Dan Creswell, the guy that both Holly and Jack were convinced was Ted Ivy. She had also gone through the files in Ivy’s office, the couple’s bedroom, anything that might possibly give them insights into Ivy and where he might be at the moment. Leann tried calling him a couple of times and leaving messages. He didn’t answer.

Jack spent his time going through the man’s computer and working on cracking passwords. “Is this Dan’s only computer?” he asked Leann.

“No. He also has a laptop. It isn’t here.”

Jack frowned. “What I might be looking for, and I am not even sure what that is exactly, could be on that laptop only. But I might find something here.” He had been able to get through to the banking information. Holly didn’t know how he did it, and she didn’t ask. They could see that several deposits had been made into a private account in the Cayman Islands under the name of Dan Creswell. “At least there’s a money trail here. That’s something,” Jack said.

An hour later, just as Holly was feeling as if this was a wild goose chase, Jack exclaimed, “Oh bingo! Damn!”

“What?” She looked over his shoulder.

“I’m into his private e-mails. The correspondence is with someone going by the initials of BQ. I’m guessing he wasn’t real smart about this. He’s been using both the laptop and the desktop to access e-mails. I doubt this guy—this BQ who, from what I’m reading here, orchestrated everything—would be thrilled that he did this.” Jack shook his head and let out a sarcastic chuckle. “Guess you should be real careful who you hire to do your dirty work.” Jack’s expression changed abruptly. “Hang on. These e-mails from BQ detail a lot of stuff…” Jack grew quiet. “Oh no.”

“What is it?”

“I think I’ve got it. BQ is planning on having Ivy assassinate the sheikh at Infinity.”

“He’s giving orders like that over e-mail?” she asked.

“Not explicitly, no. But there are directions here telling Ivy that a plane would be waiting in New York to take him to Vegas. This is from a night ago, the night Gershon was murdered. From these other details, I’m positive that this guy has set Ivy up to take out the sheikh. BQ is a bigwig and a master manipulator. I have a feeling about him, Holly. I have a feeling I know exactly who he is. And if I’m right, he made one big mistake here.” He took a deep breath and met Holly’s gaze. “And if this guy is who I think he is, he’s trying to set up the beginning of the end. Listen, I’ll explain in flight. We have to get out to Las Vegas.”

68

Twenty calls. Twenty calls, and O’Leary hadn’t answered Elena. It was close to midnight. She finally sent a text:
I am only going to try one last time. Please answer. I am sorry.

He sighed.

His phone rang.

On the third ring, he picked up. “Yes, El.”

“Listen, Pete, I’m sorry. I am. I should have trusted you, I know that. I know that now, and if you were here…” She was crying. “If you were here, I’d throw my goddamned arms around you and show you how sorry I am. I love you, O’Leary. I never stopped loving you, and I should have listened to you.”

O’Leary didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Then finally he said, “I love you, too, El.”

She gasped and sucked back a sob. “Will you do it then?”

“What?”

“You know what.”

“I know. But I want to hear you ask me. I want to hear you say the words. Don’t you think you owe me that much?”

“Yes. I think I do.” She sighed. “Will you ride my girl tomorrow?”

“I think you know the answer,” he replied.

“But I want to hear you say it.” She laughed.

He laughed with her. “Yes. Yes, El, I will ride Karma to the finish line.”

“One more thing.”

“Okay,” he said. “What’s that?”

“Will you come over? Come to my room?”

“I’ll be there in five.”

69

Holly and Jack had boarded a chartered jet at ten-thirty that morning. They would be landing in Vegas at eleven Pacific time. They had photos of Ivy. They still did not have an ID on BQ, though Jack had his suspicions. Jack had people on his end trying to break the IP address that the e-mails had been sent from. So far they’d had no luck.

Jack was on the phone with another agent. “Listen to me, Paul. This is him. This is Darren Bradley. I know it. It reeks of him. Get me what you can.” He hung up the phone.

“Who is Darren Bradley, and why do you think he’s BQ?” Holly asked.

“Darren Bradley worked for the government, the same agency that I work for. He’s the one who was in charge of getting me out of the warehouse ten years ago. He brought me into this. Technically he saved my life and yours. But Bradley is a loose cannon. He holds extremist views of what the world should look like. As I worked closer with him, I learned that he didn’t have limits. He’s one of those guys who think that the end justifies the means. He did some horrendous stuff while we were in Afghanistan. Ultimately he was let go from the agency, and I helped send him on his way. I knew we could have a problem with him out in the world on his own.

“I told the people I work for that he needed to be watched. They didn’t pay attention, and he wasn’t watched closely enough.
He fell off the radar. My radar, too. This is a guy with some means. He took a lot of money from the Taliban. Money that he stole from them, which I guess I can’t really fault him for. But the point is that this guy has connections and vast sums of cash. Plus he is a genius and he knows how to utilize his brains. He used to spout apocalyptic shit to me all the time—part of the reason I know he’s dangerous. But he made a mistake.”

Holly’s mind began ticking at the apocalypse reference. “What?”

Jack shook his head. “Proves none of us are infallible. I did not find one e-mail instructing Ivy to delete all the other e-mails. They used encrypted addresses, but nothing is foolproof. Maybe Ivy was instructed to delete by a direct communication, but he decided not to. He was likely given the laptop by Bradley and told to e-mail only from that machine. Ivy isn’t all that sophisticated, from what we know. Maybe the fall guy isn’t as vulnerable as his boss is hoping for, or maybe he’s dumber than his boss assumed.”

“Why? I mean, what is this all about?” Holly asked. “Why does this Darren Bradley want to take out the sheikh?”

“Bradley is the one who brought us the original intel that the sheikh’s son, Muhammad Farooq, was working to supply money to the Taliban. He implied that the sheikh was somehow involved, but he had no real evidence. We couldn’t accept Bradley’s gut feelings as actionable intel. Sheikh Farooq helps maintain peace. We couldn’t just go in with guns blazing on a man who has helped create policy and who has done some very good things for the world. Bradley being who he was, he felt like we blew him off. I think he’s taken it into his own hands.”