Rocky Road (27 page)
The hours between the moment Sadie found herself lying face down in the dirt and when she was told she could return to the hotel felt like days. Upon reaching her hotel in St. George, Sadie went into the bathroom and stripped off her clothes. She stepped under the water that she hoped would wash away all the ugliness of the last few hours. She winced at the sting of the water on the minor cuts on her hands and face and the head injury that hadn’t yet healed.
Her brain was still reeling from the events of the evening, like a snow globe that was no longer being shaken but whose pieces of “snow” had not quite settled, either. She’d been able to speak with Officer Nielson on the phone. He’d been very gracious, and he regretted that things had become so intense. He said he’d had no idea when he asked for her help that he was asking for so much. She wondered if he’d really read her profile at all. For her part, Sadie would have been surprised if it hadn’t ended this way.
The warm water relaxed her so much that it wasn’t until Caro knocked on the hotel room door asking if she were all right that Sadie reoriented herself to where she was and finished her shower.
“You don’t need to hover,” Sadie said a few minutes later as Caro stood just behind her watching her comb her hair.
“You’re sure you’re okay?”
Sadie met Caro’s eyes in the mirror and smiled. “I’m sure.”
“I should have gone with you,” Caro said. Was that the reason for her pained expression?
“If you hadn’t called Officer Nielson, he’d have never been able to get the Rangers up there so quickly,” Sadie assured her. “I don’t know how I’d have gotten off that mountain if you hadn’t done your part.” By the time Sadie had arrived at the cabin clearing with her hands in cuffs behind her back and her mouth full of dirt, there were two SUVs and a truck there, Dr. Hendricks was being questioned, and Officer Nielson was on the phone with the ranger who was heading up the operation. It had wrapped up so quickly—that must be why she still felt unsettled.
“Do you mind if we pray before we go to bed?” Caro asked as Sadie pulled down the covers on her bed. “I prayed you’d be okay when I headed back to town, and then when I called Officer Nielson I prayed like crazy that he would know what to do. It seems like we should offer thanks for those prayers being answered.”
“Absolutely,” Sadie said. “Thanks are definitely in order.” She also hoped that a prayer might help settle her thoughts.
They knelt beside their beds, and Caro offered a sweet prayer of gratitude. Sadie had never heard her pray like this, and she was struck by the humility of it. “ ... and help us to know of anything else yet undone and feel thy holy comfort and grace as we sleep this night. Amen.”
They got into their beds, but Sadie kept thinking about the end of Caro’s prayer. “Caro,” she said after a full minute had passed.
Sadie could hear Caro sit up in the darkness. “Do you need something?”
“Why did you ask in your prayer for us to know of anything else that is still undone?”
Caro was quiet for a few seconds. “I’m sure it’s just that I haven’t dealt with this as often as you have.”
“Something feels undone to you?”
“More like I just ... feel unsettled. It’s normal to feel this way, though, right? I mean when something so awful happens, something so unlike anything a person is used to, it’s perfectly understandable that it would weigh on a person’s mind, right?”
“Right,” Sadie said, but she couldn’t help but wonder if the unsettled feeling that Caro had was similar to her own unsettled feeling. What if what they were feeling weren’t simply a result of the high emotions of the situation? What if it were more?
Though she was emotionally and physically exhausted, Sadie stared at the ceiling and tried to follow the threads of her thoughts and feelings to discover what, exactly, was causing such uneasiness.
“He ran right past me,” she said out loud after what must have been several minutes. Caro’s soft breathing had already given away the fact that she’d fallen asleep, so Sadie didn’t expect an answer. She thought back to that moment when she disarmed Lori. Sadie was on the ground, and she fully expected Dr. Hendricks to help her hold Lori down—but instead he ran past her, leaving her there to fight for her own life after she’d just saved his.
Was that all? she asked her heart. She followed the feeling like a thread once again, and this time it took her to Jacob Waters. When she’d spoken to him at the office, he’d said he was talking to Anita at the church because he’d received the tax reports. Reports that Dr. Hendricks had received in previous years. Yet Dr. Hendricks had said he wasn’t a business man, that doctors weren’t known for their business sense. Why would the tax reports come to him if he didn’t review them? Were they one more thing he simply signed without reading? He said that Anita took care of everything for the foundation—everything—so why would the tax documents come to him?
Sadie felt her heart rate increasing while she lay on the bed staring at the ceiling. Both trains of thought—Dr. Hendricks running past her in the mountains and Dr. Waters seeing mistakes that Dr. Hendricks apparently had not seen—fused together in Sadie’s mind into a conclusion she didn’t know exactly what to do with. Without Anita here to defend herself, would anyone consider any version of the story other than the version Dr. Hendricks told?
The lights in the lobby of the Pine Valley Motel were some of the only lights on in the tiny town at three a.m. Sadie had chugged not one but two Mountain Dews and was in serious need of a restroom.
“I hope they leave the door unlocked,” Caro said. She’d opted for coffee over soda, but she hadn’t given Sadie a lecture on her choice of caffeine, which Sadie appreciated.
“Me, too,” Sadie said. There were no other restrooms open, and she hadn’t ever liked the idea of using shrubs and bushes. Sadie pulled up to the front the motel, and they let themselves out of the car. They hadn’t passed any other traffic since a few miles before the Pine Valley turnoff—the entire town seemed to be asleep. Sadie pulled on the front door and let out a breath of relief when it opened. She was only seconds away from embarrassing herself as she hurried toward the lobby restroom. When she returned to the lobby a minute later, she noticed that the night clerk wasn’t at the desk. There was a sign on the counter that asked guests to ring a bell for service. The clerk must sleep at night. Sadie didn’t ring the bell.
Caro was already sitting at the computer. “I found the history folder,” Caro said, clicking the mouse. “And we should be able to look at daily histories ... Yep, here they are. I’ll open that first Wednesday.”
Sadie leaned forward and forgot to breathe as she looked over the links listed under the first Wednesday following Dr. Hendricks’s disappearance.
www.caymannationalbank.login/com
“Grand Cayman?” Caro read, sounding confused. “Maybe someone else was using this computer before he got on here.”
“Maybe not,” Sadie said. Her thoughts were swirling. “Isn’t Grand Cayman one of the hotbeds for private banking and offshore trusts?”
“I don’t know,” Caro said, clicking on the link to Cayman National Bank. It took them to the login page.
“Click on that rental link,” Sadie said, feeling increasingly anxious. That link took them to a rental house in Grand Cayman—a beautiful beach bungalow. What did that mean?
As they went through the entries for every Wednesday since Dr. Hendricks’s disappearance, finding a pattern was easy. Every single week, he accessed the Grand Cayman banking site, as well as other sites focused on things such as moving money, hiding assets, processes for federal investigations of fraud, and precedent cases of nonprofit owners facing persecution. He had accessed Facebook, too, and the website for the local paper, and two weeks before, he’d gone to delta.com. Sadie was sure he’d accessed that because the URL was listed among numerous articles about moving money. Other websites were accessed, likely from guests at the motel, but the ones listed between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. every Wednesday were similar to each other. The more she read, the heavier it all felt. Dr. Hendricks hadn’t been sitting at a campsite recovering from depression. Something else was going on here.
After reviewing sites that were accessed each Wednesday morning since Dr. Hendricks had disappeared, Sadie pulled out her phone. She considered calling Officer Nielson, but she didn’t think there was time to wait for the bureaucracy his help would automatically require. Instead, she called her son, Shawn. The call went to voice mail. She hung up and called again.
“He-hello?” answered a sleepy voice.
“I’m sorry to wake you up, sweetie,” Sadie said, “but I need an extra set of hands right now. Can you help me with something? It’s really important.”
“Um, okay,” he said, still not quite awake. Sadie felt terrible for interrupting his sleep, but she also knew he understood that investigative work didn’t always take place during regular office hours. “What do you need?”
“I’m involved in a situation here in southern Utah.”
“I’m so surprised to hear that,” he said, yawning. She could hear him rustling around, and she assumed he was sitting up.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Sadie said, waving off his joke. “There’s a man I think is hiding something, and I need you to do some fishing to make sure I’m on the right track before I take it to the police. You have better contacts than I do.” He also had a knack for accessing information she couldn’t dig into. She was careful not to ask him how he got this information, and he was careful not to tell her.
Sadie waited while Shawn yawned again. “Well, I love fishing at five o’clock in the morning. Where do I start?”
Sadie pulled up to Dr. Hendricks’s house around 10:00 a.m. and took a deep breath as her eyes scanned it side to side and up and down from the first to the third floor of the huge home. She couldn’t help but wonder how much of this house was paid for out of foundation profits.
She automatically felt for the Taser in her pocket before remembering she’d left it in the dirt at the campsite. That was unfortunate—knowing what she now knew about this man, she could certainly use the Taser on Dr. Hendricks if she needed to.
Sadie took another deep breath and glanced in her rearview mirror. A dark SUV was parked out of sight, and two patrol cars were parked a block away. Caro was in one of the police cars, which made Sadie feel better, too. Working with the police was a surreal experience, and she couldn’t deny that knowing they were there gave her more confidence. But the role she had to play for the next few minutes made her stomach tight and her head tingly. It was the best way to quickly resolve this case, and Sadie was the one who had suggested it, but Officer Nielson had told her what to say, how to act, and what kind of person she had to pretend to be. Even though whatever information Sadie collected wouldn’t be admissible in court, it would at least allow the police to detain Dr. Hendricks and keep him from skipping the country—which, according to Shawn’s research, seemed to be his plan.
Before getting out of the car, Sadie bowed her head over the steering wheel and waited until a sense of assurance settled upon her shoulders. Then she breathed deeply, let herself out of the car, and headed up the cobblestoned front walk. The Hendricks children had spent the night with their grandparents because both of their parents had been at the police station, each of them for a different reason. Sadie’s heart ached for the mess their father had made of their lives.
Before ringing the doorbell, she said another prayer and took another deep breath, pulling together all of her confidence and trying not to think about how the people who loved Dr. Hendricks were about to have their hearts broken all over again.
A man opened the door, and Sadie had to look twice before she recognized Dr. Hendricks. In the hours since she’d last seen him, he’d shaved off the beard and trimmed his hair. Dressed in normal clothes, he looked like a different person, which only added to Sadie’s understanding of the way he’d played her for a fool. All that vulnerability had been a ruse.
“Sadie,” he said, and he stepped forward to give her a hug. She returned it as though she meant it. She hated touching him. When he pulled back, he smiled widely. “I didn’t expect to see you again.”
Sadie smiled politely back at him. Even if she hadn’t known the truth, his comment and mood were completely inappropriate—his ex-wife was in jail right now, driven to the brink by his lies and manipulation, and his most recent wife was laid out on a slab in the medical examiner’s office in Salt Lake City. Had he even seen his children yet? Did he care? Being angry helped solidify Sadie’s determination. She could do this because it was the best way to ensure he got what he deserved.
“Um, could I talk to you for a few minutes?” she asked.
“Sure,” he said, pulling the door open and waving her inside.
“How about out here?” she suggested, not wanting to go inside. The police had assured her that her microphone would work indoors, but she still felt better if she stayed outside. “It’s such a nice day.” Such a hot day was more like it. The temperature gauge in her car registered eighty-six degrees already at ten o’clock in the morning.
“Okay.” He leaned back and grabbed the doorknob to pull the door shut. He motioned to one of the two wooden chairs on the porch—the same way he’d motioned to her to sit on a log the day before. He’d been anxious and unsure of himself back then. A completely different man from the confident doctor she was talking to now. And she’d fallen for that first act. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again. She took the chair closest to the stairs and was grateful the porch was shaded, even though she was sweating anyway. The places where tape held the microphone wire in place beneath her shirt were starting to itch.
“So what can I do you for?” he asked, leaning his elbows on his knees and facing her with a smile. He really thought he had everything under control, didn’t he? That was another boost for Sadie’s confidence. If he thought he’d already won, he might not watch himself quite as carefully.
“How did things go at the station last night?” Sadie asked. She hadn’t seen him after they were put in separate vehicles at the cabin.
“Boy,” he said, letting out a breath and shaking his head. He leaned back in his chair and put his hands on his thighs. “Longest day of my life, I can tell you that. My attorney told me what I could and couldn’t say, and I was home by one in the morning, so it all went pretty smoothly. They took the USB, and I’m hopeful things will work out. I can’t thank you enough for helping me like you did. This turned out more positively than I ever imagined it would.” He paused for a moment and then added, as though it were an afterthought, “And I’m so sorry for running like I did after you knocked Lori over—nice move, by the way. I’ve been operating on pure instinct for so long that I just went into ‘fight or flight’ mode. Apparently you can take care of yourself though—it was impressive.” He reached over and tapped her arm, offering a smile with his compliment. She wanted nothing more than to punch him in the face.
Sadie hoped her own smile looked sincere as she nodded her acceptance of the thanks she no longer wanted. “And what’s happening with Lori?” These questions weren’t part of what she and Officer Nielson had discussed, but she wanted these answers as well, and she couldn’t let the opportunity to get them pass her by.
“I hired the best attorney in the city to represent her,” Dr. Hendricks said, his expression turning appropriately serious. “Not sure I’ll ever get over all of that.”
“All of what?” Did he mean the guilt of having cheated on Lori? The guilt of knowing Lori confronted Anita and that it resulted in Anita’s death?
“It’s not every day you find yourself looking down the barrel of a gun,” he said. Of course, Sadie thought. He wouldn’t be thinking of anyone but himself. “And to think of how hard I worked to help her with school and everything—my attorney during the divorce had told me not to be so generous, that it would come back to bite me. I had no idea.” He paused to shake his head. “You just never really know people, do you?”
“I assume you’ll be posting bond for her, though,” Sadie said.
“Absolutely—it’s the right thing to do. I’ve got a meeting with my lawyer later today. He’ll advise me on the best way to go about that.”
“And will the kids stay with her?”
“I’m not sure she’s up to it right now, but I’m going to be so busy that I’m not sure I can put the time in at home that they would require from me. I need to determine what’s in the best interest of the kids, of course. They’ve got to come first.”
Every word grated on Sadie’s ears. “You’re going back to the clinic already?”
“Jake’s been on call for two months, you know. Ironically, I think I came back just in the nick of time. I’m not sure how much longer he could have run it on his own.”
“Especially with Anita gone.”
He frowned appropriately and nodded his head, staring at his hands clasped in his lap. “It’s overwhelming, to be sure. Hopefully I can keep us from losing any more ground. It’s going to be a battle, though.”
Sadie nodded and allowed the silence to stretch between them. She wondered how long he planned to stay before disappearing to Grand Cayman—a week? Two weeks? From the internet history she’d seen, she’d concluded that when he learned about the memorial service, he’d decided to leave the country. She wasn’t yet sure why he hadn’t left earlier, though, which was why she was here. The police needed more information to look for the proof they needed against him.
“You okay?” he said, gently touching her arm. She looked at him and took in the playful smile on his face. “You don’t seem like a woman who just saved a man’s life.”
“I’m fine,” Sadie said noncommittally as she sat up straighter, remembering the plan she and Officer Nielson had put together that morning. “I just had a couple of questions for you before I head home—I live out of state, ya know.”
“Answering a few questions is the least I can do,” he said with another charming smile.
“I’m curious as to where Anita put all that money she was taking from the foundation.”
He leaned back and shrugged slightly. “I have no idea. A secret account, I guess.”
“Offshore?”
He shrugged, but watched her closely.
“Three and a half million dollars is a lot of money. But I guess the feds will find it, huh?”
“I suppose,” he said, but she noted a subtle shift in his expression. “I don’t really know how that stuff works.”
Liar. “Hmmm, it’s a shame you don’t have any way to access it.”
She met his eyes and watched his expression as he tried to puzzle through her intent. She waited until he asked her a question she felt sure he couldn’t resist asking. “And why is it a shame?”
“Because if you had access to the money, you might be able to keep me quiet about the things I’ve learned that I bet you’d rather the police didn’t know.”
He pulled back slightly and raised his eyebrows. “Excuse me?”
Sadie reached into her bag and pulled out the manila envelope she and Officer Nielson had put together. “They didn’t take my statement last night,” she began. “I go in later this afternoon, but there were a few things that didn’t fit together.” She undid the clasp and pulled out the stack of papers. “I did a little research and learned about the account in Grand Cayman you’ve been moving money to every Wednesday for the last two months.”
His eyes widened ever so slightly, but Sadie continued as though she hadn’t noticed. She showed him a printout of the bank’s home page. Then she let him see a paper from the University of Utah. “I also learned that you minored in business as part of your undergraduate degree.”
“I think you better go.” He stood up, glaring at her while she carefully put the papers back into the envelope. She got to her feet as calmly as she could, keeping her expression neutral and her demeanor calm despite the way her heart was racing. She could feel the heat in her chest and hoped it wouldn’t spread to her neck and face too quickly and give her away.
“Sure,” she said with a shrug, tucking the envelope back into her bag. “I haven’t yet told them how you said that you’re such a poor businessman, or how ignorant you pretended to be about the money you’re now blaming Anita for having stolen—that’s why I’m here.” He continued to glare. “If I tell them some of the things you told me and then give them a few nudges in the right direction,” she patted her bag, “they’ll likely find the same things I’ve found. For instance, you’ve taken a few trips to Grand Cayman using your brother’s passport, and on at least one occasion, your brother’s wife posted pictures of him at his son’s birthday party the same day he was supposedly out of the country.”
She paused to let her words sink in, keeping a smile on her face the whole time. She gave him ample time to respond, but he remained quiet. “They don’t even know to look for those things—unless I tell them otherwise.”
Fear mixed with anger on the doctor’s face as she continued to hold his gaze. “You think you can blackmail me?” he said.
“You can’t afford for me to take what I know to the police,” Sadie reminded him. “Maybe Anita did set out to use the foundation to embezzle and scheme her way to wealth. Maybe you were a part of it, maybe you weren’t. Somewhere along the way, however, you decided to be the one that benefited from it instead of her, and it’s only fair that I get my share in order to protect your much larger portion, don’t you think?”
He regarded her for a minute, his jaw tightening as he formulated a response.
“You’re with the police,” he said, watching her. “You’re setting me up.”
Sadie snorted. “You really think the police would let someone like me do this kind of thing? I’m a private investigator, and I cater to the highest bidder.” She stopped to smile at him, not sure whether to be proud of herself, or disgusted, for playing this role so well. “For fifty thousand dollars, I’ll corroborate any story you want me to, and then I’ll go away. You won’t hear from me again, and you can continue with your plan—because you most certainly have a plan, don’t you, Dr. Hendricks?” She opened her purse again and removed an item wrapped in a plastic grocery sack. He tensed as she held it out to him, the bag falling to the sides of her hands as though it were a silk scarf.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“The hard drive from the motel computer you’ve been using.” Actually it was a hard drive from a fried computer stored in the back of the police department. The hard drive from the motel was currently being picked apart by a forensics team who expected to have Dr. Hendricks’s bank account numbers and login information by the end of the day. She continued to hold it out to him. “It’s yours right now if we can make an arrangement. Otherwise ... ”
His jaw tightened as he stared at the hard drive. She let him stare for nearly twenty seconds, and then she let out a disappointed breath as she rewrapped the hard drive and returned it to her purse. “Of course, if you’re not worried about covering your tracks, then I have no reason to protect them.” She turned toward the porch, trying not to panic at what seemed like the failure of their plan. Officer Nielson had told her that he’d have a plan B if this didn’t work, but they both knew this was their only shot at a confession. Had she botched it? Had she not played this out the way she should have? Was it a mistake for them to trust her to pull this off? She went down the first step. Then the second.
