Daddy's Little Killer (38 page)

I started searching the Social Security
Death Index.  There she was.  Gwen Bennett, declared dead
seven years after disappearing.  I pulled up the case.

Gwen Bennett had ridden the school bus home
to her family's farm one Friday afternoon like she always
did.  Between the bus stop and her home, she disappeared
without a trace.  There was no ransom call.  She simply
vanished. 

My eyes scanned the report.  Parents,
Frank Senior and Daisy Bennett.  Siblings, Frank Junior and
Dennis.  Where was the mysterious Eugene, the brother who
allegedly fathered Vinnie Bennett?  Had they been so bold to
fabricate a brother to keep the secret of what happened to the
second Gwen Bennett?  And was it a coincidence that three
Bennett girls were victims of nefarious deeds at the same age?

"My ass," I muttered.  "This guy hit
the Bennett family four times.  That's personal.  But
why?"  I needed to talk to the reluctant Harlan Hartley again,
but it was getting late.  I didn't want to miss my window of
opportunity at Datello's office.  Even if the keys I still
needed to retrieve from Forsythe opened nothing in Danny's office,
I knew that he too shared many secrets with the Bennett clan. 
I could find something important.  Or, I could find
incriminating evidence that would expose Rick's relationship to the
Datello family tree.  Sometimes it's hard to put personal
agendas aside when they converge into a convenient opportunity to
kill two birds with one stone.

I tucked the computer into a case and slid
it behind junk left in the closet of the room.  First stop
CSD.  I needed those keys.  Then I'd find a good vantage
point to observe the activity at Datello's corporate office and
wait for my moment to get inside.  It was a great plan.

Forsythe cautioned me about the keys. 
"The photographs can be used as evidence if you find the safe,
Eriksson, but we'll need the original keys back in evidence."

"I'm aware.  Thanks for doing this for
me, Forsythe.  When we catch the perp, I have no doubt we'll
find the keys."

The scenario my mind formulated chilled me
to the bone.  Whoever took those keys had unfettered access to
CSD's evidence room.  Mary, the keeper of the cage, identified
police officers being the only other people to enter evidence
storage before Forsythe and I found the keys were missing.  I
considered Myre's interest in the case, particularly those keys,
and his access to the Brighton Bennett evidence.  Could he be
the perp?  He certainly didn't strike me as a criminal
mastermind.  Then again, it could've been the performance of a
lifetime.  Bumbling cop by day, serial predator by
night.  Was Myre somehow responsible for my lost time Thursday
afternoon?  I wished I could remember …

The thoughts plagued me as I made my way
from Downey to Darkwater proper where Datello's office building was
located.

The physical presence of Datello Enterprises
didn't disappoint.  Nestled into a rundown neighborhood of
empty warehouses and long since abandoned businesses was a
glistening spire of the dark glass and metal high rise. 
Saturday night looked quiet enough on the surface.  I found my
perfect vantage point for surveillance from a low branch in a tree
that bordered the alley behind the building.  Several yards
away, my rental was hidden behind an overgrown hedge.

It was creeping up on nine.  Fog had
rolled through the neighborhood, a sentient specter to warn the
good people that it was time to get cozy inside shelter. 
Despite the fact that summer was only a couple of weeks away
officially, the temperature at night dipped low enough, combined
with the humidity, to make me uncomfortable.  I missed the
sweltering heat of the east coast, the balmy summer days and
pleasant nights where anything more than shorts and tank tops was
overdressed.

Datello's guards lazily assessed the
perimeter from the back of the building.  It amounted to
opening a door, shining a beam of light around the landscaped back
lot and heading off for parts unknown inside the building. 
Regular as clockwork, that door swung at the top of the hour. 
It would happen again at nine.  Ten minutes later, I'd make my
break for the entrance.  Hopefully, no one had thought to
deactivate Gwen's security card.

At the appointed moment, I shimmied down the
tree trunk, but before I could step foot near the building, someone
yanked me backward.  A fleshy prison clapped over my mouth,
and a second later, a rock flew over my head and onto Datello's
property.

Lights immediately flooded the area.

Two arms trapped me after the rock
sailed.

"Do you honestly think Danny Datello is
stupid enough to neglect installing a state of the art security
system at his office building?"  Words hissed into my ear.

Orion. 
Dammit
!

He released my mouth and half dragged, half
carried me quickly behind the same hedge that hid my car. 

"I need to get in there!"

"Then get a warrant, Doc.  What the
hell are you thinking?  As much as I hate Danny Datello, I
know he doesn't have a damn thing to do with what happened to
Gwen."

I shoved both hands into his chest. 
Orion didn't budge this time.  "Don't make me hurt you," I
warned.

"Good luck with the jujitsu this time,
Doc.  I'm ready."  He let go after letting me know it was
his choice and not my threat that convinced him to do so.

"How did you find me?"

"It wasn't difficult.  Charlie
Haverston is probably off having a stroke somewhere instead of
realizing that while you can't be tracked by the cell phones you
have conveniently dumped in the past two days, you made the mistake
of taking your rental car.  Tsk, Doc.  Do you really
think that Enterprise doesn't keep tabs on their vehicles in the
event that someone decides to break their rental contract?"

"You son of a bitch."

"Don't insult my mother."

I snorted.  "Screw you.  I'm
getting out of here.  If you know what's good for you, don't
follow me again, Orion."

"All this because I know your ex-husband
laundered money for Marcos?"

I froze.  How much did he know about
that?

"I didn't realize it was a closely guarded
secret, Doc.  If that's the case, someone should've issued a
gag order for the Washington Post."

My spine wilted.  "I don't want to
discuss this."

"Tough.  Why did you freak out when I
mentioned it last night at Central Division? Or was it because I
mentioned his boss at the same time?"

I needed a good convincing lie.  My
mind drew blank.

"Helen," his fingers curled over my shoulder
gently.  "It's okay to grieve for the man, even if you were
divorced when he died.  I understand that this is
complicated.  Your ex wasn't a very nice guy.  That
doesn't mean you had to hate him.  It doesn't erase the good
memory you have of your marriage."

"Shut up," I rasped. 

"I didn't bring it up to freak you
out.  I wanted you to understand how far this perp was willing
to go to get you engaged in his game."

"I get it just fine, thank you very
much.  I'm not an idiot."

Orion's fingers wandered, cupped my chin,
tilted my face upward.  "I don't think you're an idiot. 
Grief does weird shit to people."

"It didn't do anything to me.  I'm not
…"  I reined in the impulsive comment on the tip of my
tongue.  Orion handed me a gift-wrapped excuse.  "I'll be
fine.  Not dwelling on it is the best remedy."

"Would you have invited me to stay with you
Monday night?"

"What?"  Where the hell had that come
from?  Orion's timing baffled me.

"You told me I missed my chance, Doc. 
I was thinking about what you meant.  It was grief Monday
night, wasn't it?  You couldn't possibly be ready to move on
yet."

Move on – there was the hated phrase
again.  Still, Orion wasn't done handing me convenient
excuses.  "Probably not.  About Monday, I mean.  And
about being ready to move on."

"I wasn't lying you know."  His thumb
brushed my lower lip.  "I still want you."

Unbelievable.  I jerked away from the
light touch.  "You're not a patient man, Orion.  You'll
lose interest long before I'm ready for that nonsense."  Thank
God the fluttering in my belly was invisible or he'd have seen the
lie.

"I'm a very patient man.  I hate it
that you haven't figured that out yet.  Maybe you will in
time."

"Good luck."  I turned on my heel and
stalked off in the direction of my rental car.  The door was
open and I was about to climb in when Orion grabbed me from behind
again. 

"Charlie will eventually figure out how to
track you.  Wouldn't you rather be in a vehicle that isn't
linked to a satellite somewhere?"

"I can find one on my own, Orion."

"I've got one half a block away."

"What part of my communication with you has
been unclear?"

"None of it.  But if you're planning on
ditching Charlie Haverston so you can continue this investigation
under the radar before Rogers and Daltry fuck it up completely, you
need to ditch that car now.  Once Lowe's guys figure out that
you're AWOL, how long do you think it'll take them to figure out
what you're doing?"

I rolled my eyes.  "The case is still
mine, Orion.  Nobody took it from me.  I played you last
night, like a freakin' Stradivarius.  Don't think I won't hold
you to that agreement for full disclosure when all of this is
done."

"That's good information to know, Doc."

"Why is that?"  I wiggled free of his
grasp and made for the front seat a second time.

"Because now I won't feel guilty for doing
this." 

He had me over his shoulder in one fell
swoop.  My gut hit his shoulder with enough force to knock the
wind out of me, and when Orion started jogging down the alley,
catching my breath became next to impossible.  Around the
corner of the alley, his car came into view.  Upside down from
my vantage point.

Orion opened the passenger door and shoved
me inside.  He cuffed my wrist to the door handle in the
twenty year old sedan and slammed it shut. 

"Where are your keys?"

"To the rental?"

Orion nodded and thrust his hand through the
open window.

"I'm not giving them to you."

"Like hell."

"They're in my purse in the front seat of
the car."

"I'll be right back."

He disappeared into the bowels of the alley,
and I started jerking my arm against the restraint.  If I
started screaming for help, would anybody hear me?  Possibly
Datello's guards.  And wouldn't this be fun to explain if
somebody did hear and called the police?

I popped open the glove compartment instead
and started digging for the key to the handcuffs.  Orion
probably wasn't stupid enough to leave it lying around.  My
fingers brushed a leather case.

Or maybe he left something I could use as a
weapon.  What was it?  I pulled the flap out of the
lighted container.  It looked like … I flipped it open and
stared at the small shiny badge.  Through clear plastic on the
other side of the wallet was his identification. 

John F. Orion, Commander.  Office of
the Special Investigator.

I groaned.  Shit.  Orion was
undercover, working for Chris Darnell, a man I had quickly come to
despise after one brief meeting.  I was about to shove the ID
back into the glove compartment when an explosion shook the
ground. 

A plume of orange and
yellow leapt over the tree line. 
Orion
!  My jaw dropped.  I
grabbed the chain between the cuffs and struggled to free
myself.  No way could I be found detained in Orion's car when
the neighborhood started crawling with police and rescue
vehicles. 

Orion was dead.  He had to be. 
But why?  What had happened?

Another chill crept over me.  Had
someone planted a bomb in my car that Johnny accidentally set
off?  Jesus!  It was meant for me.

Chapter 36

A second later, Orion staggered out of the
alley.

"You're hurt.  Unlock my wrist and let
me drive.  You need medical attention."

"It knocked me down.  I'm not
hurt."

"What happened?"

"I don't know."  Johnny thrust my purse
at me and noticed that I was still holding his
identification.  "Just couldn't leave it alone, could you
Doc?"

I shoved the badge back into the glove
compartment and closed the door.  "It explains a few
things.  I don't know why you felt that you couldn't tell me
the truth from the beginning, Orion."

"It's not the nature of cops working under
cover to blow it, Helen.  Besides, I'm not inclined to share
information with people who lie to me.  Repeatedly."

I shook off the condemnation.  We both
told more than our fair share of lies anyway.  That some of
them had been to each other came as no shock.  "What happened
to my car?"

"I didn't want it to look
completely out of place, so I went back to shut the door.  I
grabbed your purse, got the keys and started down the alley." 
Orion shook off his haze and tore away from the curb with the
headlights off.  "I was about half way to the end of the alley
and realized that all your luggage was crammed into the back seat,
so I engaged the lock on the remote. 
Ka-boom
."

I hadn't locked the car since I picked it up
from central.  Someone had wired a bomb to explode the moment
the remote activated the locks.  "That makes no sense."

"Doesn't it?  Somebody wants you
dead."

"Were you lying when you said you believe
this perp wanted me out here, that he wanted to me to play his
game?"