“Could he con her into telling him where she’s located?” Joe asked.
Newell shook his head. “She’s inexperienced, but she’s not stupid. She’d see through him.” He added half beneath his breath, “I hope.”
“But you’re not sure?” Eve asked.
“How can I be sure? Look, Beth has had years of being told she’s a mental cripple and had to be cared for. They reinforced it with hypnosis and drugs. I’ve only had her for the last eighteen months. She’d grown accustomed to trusting everyone with whom she comes in contact. Do you know how hard it was for me to break that trust?”
“Tell us,” Eve said. “And while you’re at it, tell us why you bothered to do it.”
He didn’t answer for a moment. “I … like her. At first, I just felt sorry for her and pissed at those sons of bitches who were making her into a living corpse. She was like a little girl lying in that bed and smiling at me whenever I came into the room. She smiled at everyone, even Pierce’s whore, Stella Lenslow, who liked to come in and taunt her. The bitch was even cutting her medication during the last six months. She was hoping that Beth would suffer withdrawal from the drugs.” He shrugged. “She didn’t realize that I’d begun weaning her off them nine months before that. But Stella’s viciousness made Beth’s increasing alertness more plausible, and since she was Beth’s principal nurse, it worked into my plans. Toward the end, I had to make Beth pretend to be in pain a couple times when Stella was in the room to make Stella happy and not give away the fact that the decrease in dosage had little effect.”
“We’re on the freeway,” Joe said as he entered the ramp. “Now where are we going?”
“Seventeen Mile Drive. Near Carmel.”
“That’s where she is?” Eve asked.
He nodded. “I used to work for a man who has a house there. He always spends this time of year in the south of France, and the house is vacant. I knew it would be safe for Beth.”
“How? It’s too close to Pierce and the hospital. I would have thought it would be safer for her to get out of California entirely.”
“It was better if she was close enough so that I could help her if she needed me.” He paused. “Besides, she wasn’t ready.”
“What do you mean?”
“What do you think I mean?” he asked harshly. “Beth’s like someone from that fairy tale who’s been asleep in a tower while the whole world grew up around her. There were hazards out there that she couldn’t imagine. I tried to fill her in a little, but our time together was too damn limited, and my main objective had to be to get her out of that hospital. But I knew she had to catch up before she could fit in somewhere and hide out until we found a way to keep her safe.”
“You’ve gone to a lot of risk to save Beth,” Joe said. “Why? And don’t tell me it was just because she was appealing and helpless. How did you know she had anything beyond that sweet smile to save? Most orderlies would have assumed that the doctors were right, and Beth Avery was a lost cause. Why didn’t you? And why did you spend eighteen months as an orderly anyway? It’s not exactly the kind of job a Marine with your record would embrace on a long-term basis.”
Newell didn’t answer.
“I’m not going to go any farther until I know,” Joe said.
Newell shrugged. “Oh, what the hell, I guess it doesn’t matter any longer. My uncle sent me here to check out what was going on with Beth Avery. He thought that she might have been railroaded in there, and he asked me to snoop around and find out.”
“Your uncle?” Eve asked.
“Herman Dalker, he’s a private detective.”
“I know.” Eve recognized the name. Sandra’s “Hermie,” whom she’d hired to find her daughter.
Newell’s gaze shifted to narrow on her face. “How do you know?”
“Did your uncle tell you who hired him for the job? It was my mother, Sandra Duncan.”
“You’re really Beth’s sister? I didn’t know whether to believe you.” His lips twisted. “You’re a little late rushing to rescue her.”
“I’m not making excuses to you. I’m here now. My mother told me that the detective she’d hired had told her that he’d keep an eye on Beth for her. It sounds to me as if he was doing a good deal more than that.”
“He liked your mother. And he didn’t like what he knew about the Avery family. There wasn’t any evidence that they’d done anything wrong, but he didn’t like the setup. So he thought it wouldn’t hurt to send me out to look things over. I needed a break after my last deployment in Afghanistan, and it didn’t seem much of a challenge.”
She glanced at the wound on his neck. “Wrong.”
He shrugged. “Some of the most innocent-looking fields are where the IEDs are planted. I expected to go in and work for a few months, make a report, then go on my way. It didn’t work out that way. I didn’t like the setup. I wanted to see what was happening.”
“And did you?”
“Yes, but it took a hell of a long time. They watched Beth Avery as if she were a crown jewel. The people at the hospital had to get used to me and accept me as if I weren’t there. So while I was waiting, I concentrated on checking out Pierce’s computer records on her. My uncle had trained me on cyberespionage and I had plenty of opportunity to get to the records.”
And if they’d been able to contact Newell, they might never have had to steal those records themselves, Eve thought. “And what else did you find?”
“Nothing incriminating. But her treatment was damn weird. She was drugged, and yet she had plenty of physical exercise. She swam and worked out in the gym. Once they even tried to take her skiing, but that required too much attention, and they were afraid she’d be damaged.” He added bitterly, “That’s the way they put it, ‘damaged,’ as if she were a piece of property they had to keep in mint condition.”
“And not a person at all,” Eve said dully.
“She wasn’t a person to them,” Newell said. “But she was damn important. There were notes by Pierce on the reports congratulating the different doctors and therapists who kept her in the pink of health in spite of the necessary sedatives. He said that it was important to keep her from disintegrating in case the family ever came to check on her. It was of the utmost urgency that they strike a balance until the Averys decided about her disposition.”
“Do you mean whether they wanted her dead?” Joe asked bluntly.
“It was never spelled out, but the implication was there. I got the impression from those years of notes that there was some kind of conflict going on in the Avery family regarding Beth.”
“Because they didn’t just throw her into the hospital and forget about her?” Eve asked. “It seems to me that it came pretty damn close.”
“They definitely didn’t forget about her,” Newell said. “She was a thorn in their existence even though they kept her in that place and tried to make her a zombie. But during the last months, I began to notice a difference in Pierce’s attitude toward her. He cut out her exercise and made her stay in her room. It made me uneasy. I wondered if maybe the ‘disposition’ had been decided upon. I had to find out. So I had Uncle Hermie send me some hi-tech equipment and bugged Pierce’s office.”
“Did it work?”
“Partially. I never heard the call actually setting up the attack on Beth, so I didn’t know who was going to do it or when it was going to take place. He must have made that call somewhere else. But I monitored a call from Pierce to Nelda Avery, and it was oblique but enough to raise a red flag. He said that he’d made the arrangement, and it would be handled soon. He said that he expected her to show her gratitude for his loyalty over the years in a generous manner.”
“What did she say?”
“Nothing that would incriminate her. I believe she’s too smart to make any statement on the phone that would endanger her in any way. She said that she’d always be generous to people who made that poor girl ‘comfortable.’ She said to let her know. Then she hung up.”
&nbs
p; “Cool. Very cool,” Eve said thoughtfully. “So Nelda Avery is behind Drogan’s attempt?”
“Presumably. At least she’s the family member who’s pulling the strings. Pierce was almost groveling when he was speaking to her. He must have been dancing on hot coals when he had to tell her that Beth had flown the coop. No wonder that Drogan is so frantic about finding Beth. Pierce is probably applying pressure.” He frowned. “Or maybe it’s personal. Drogan was pretty intense, but it was anger at Beth that was coming through, not worry about what Pierce was going to do. He made a couple of ugly mentions of what he was going to do to Beth when he found her.”
Eve felt a chill. “And you think that he may have found her already?”
“I don’t know. It could have happened.” He looked at the GPS on the dashboard. “We should know soon. Another forty minutes.”
* * *
“DROGAN, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?” Pierce’s voice was shaking with anger as Drogan finally picked up. “I just had a call from the local police asking questions about Jessie Newell. I told you that any questioning had to be done discreetly. Just find out the information, then make the kill. You fumbled everything again.”
“No, you did it. Everything would have gone off just as I planned if that Detective Quinn hadn’t interfered. You were supposed to throw him off the trail.”
“I tried.” Pierce took a deep breath. “He’s a cop. I couldn’t just kick him out of the hospital. I thought that I might have convinced him that—” Why was he making excuses to this idiot, he thought impatiently. “Did you get a lead on Beth from Newell?”
“Yes, he’s the one who helped her get away from the hospital. I took Newell’s phone and talked to her on his cell.”
Yes. Pierce’s hand tightened on the phone. “So you know where she is?”
“No, she hung up on me before I could trace the call.”
“You bungled that, too?”
“I’m getting very tired of your insults, Pierce. Be careful.”
Pierce struggled to curb his tongue as well as his rage. Drogan was definitely unbalanced and unpredictable. Besides, the man was his only path to Beth at the moment. “You can hardly claim any great progress when you had a chance to trace her and lost her.”
“I didn’t lose her.”
“What?”
“I’m going after her right now. You should be grateful I didn’t kill Newell. He’s going to lead me right to her. After I hung up from talking to Beth Avery, I headed for the hospital where they’d taken Newell. I knew that if I hadn’t damaged him too much, he’d be on his way to her as soon as he could. He wouldn’t tell me anything even though I hurt him bad. If she meant that much to him, he wouldn’t stay in that hospital when he knew I’d be after her. So I staked out the hospital parking lot and waited.”
“And?”
“Newell was picked up by Quinn and whisked away from the hospital.”
“Quinn, again.”
“And the woman who was with him at Newell’s apartment. Find out who she is.”
“I will.” Quinn was displaying an odd intensity about Beth’s case that was surely out of all proportion. He was reluctant to have to tell Nelda how badly the situation had deteriorated, but he might need her to do some discreet investigation into Detective Joe Quinn. “You think that they’re going to Beth Avery now?”
“I’d bet on it. And I’m right behind them on the freeway. Quinn’s taillights are only four car-lengths ahead.” Drogan hung up.
“Drogan is following Jessie Newell. He thinks he may be on his way to Beth,” Pierce said to Stella as he pressed the disconnect. “But Joe Quinn is with Newell. It could be bad if there’s police interference.”
“Maybe.” She leaned on the corner of his desk. “But when I talked to the hospital inquiring about Newell’s condition, I found out that it was the emergency room who notified the local police.” She smiled. “Not Quinn, even though he was at the apartment. He seems to want to work alone. Now why would he want to do that? I think that we should find out.”
His gaze narrowed on her face. “You don’t like him.”
“He didn’t like me. He’s either gay or a very cold fish.”
Pierce chuckled. “He didn’t respond, and your nose is out of joint. You want to punish him. Poor Stella.”
“Shut up. I didn’t really try. I only brushed up against him.” She shrugged. “But that’s usually enough. He’s not normal.”
“I agree. But we’ve got to find out just what he is.” He grimaced. “And I have to call Nelda to help me do that. It won’t be pleasant.”
“But what comes afterward will be pleasant.” She opened the top three buttons of her uniform, took his hand, and rubbed it against her breasts. “I like pretending to be Nelda for you. I like the pain and the fierceness. I even like kneeling naked for you because I know it’s just a game and that I’m really the one in control. But if I was really Nelda, I’d be the one hurting you.”
“But you’re not Nelda.” His hand closed on the fullness of her breast, and he squeezed with all his strength. “You’re just a whore I use whenever it amuses me.” He watched her expression for pain or weakness.
She only smiled and leaned forward and ran her tongue over his lips. “Or do I use you? Who is really the whore, Harry?” She stood up and buttoned her uniform. “Ask Nelda, why don’t you?” She moved toward the door. “I’ll be waiting for you in the apartment. I’ll give you a particularly good time if you find a way to get her to take down that snooty Quinn.”
He watched the door close behind her. He was as hard as a rock just the way she’d wanted him to be. Why could she do this to him? He’d taken her because he’d wanted a woman who was the perfect sex toy, but her sexual dominance over him seemed to be getting stronger every day. Even at this moment, when the situation was getting tense, she’d made him forget everything but her for that brief moment.
Forget her. Take what he wanted as he usually did and go about his business. But those taunts about Nelda’s dominance had been particularly annoying when he knew that he was going to have to tell Nelda that he’d lied to her about Beth’s being found and brought back to the hospital.
Dammit, just get it over with.
He reached for his phone and punched in Nelda Avery’s number.
* * *
STUPID BASTARD.
Nelda hung up the phone and leaned back in her chair.
Keep calm. Smother the anger. She’d managed to maintain an icy control with Pierce, but it had been difficult. She’d let him make excuses and had assured him that she’d find about that troublesome police detective.
She hadn’t let him know the fury and disgust that was tearing through her. Nor that he had forced her to make a decision she hadn’t wanted to make.
“What’s wrong?” George had come into her bedroom from his own suite. “Who’s calling at this hour? It’s almost midnight.”
“Pierce.” She pushed back from her Louis XV desk. “He’s causing trouble. Nothing to bother you with. I’ll take care of it.”
“You don’t want to talk about it?” He shrugged. “I’m just as happy that you don’t. I’d rather stay out of your dealings with Pierce.”
“That’s the problem. I believe I’m going to have to stop dealing through Pierce and handle the matter myself.” She went to the closet and pulled out a Louis Vuitton suitcase. “I’m going out to the coast. I shouldn’t be more than a few days.”
He went still. “You’re going to the hospital?”
“Of course not. That would attract far too much attention. I just need to be nearby to be more effective.”
“My dear, you’re always effective.”
She glanced at him to see if he was being sarcastic, but he only looked very weary. “In this case, I have to be.” She added softly, “For Rick’s sake. There mustn’t be any publicity that might take away the focus on what a fine president he’ll be.” She opened the case, which she always efficiently kept packed except fo
r a few items she had to throw in at the last minute. “I’ll keep you informed of developments. Tell everyone I went to a spa to relax after the whirl of town meetings in the past few days.”
“I’ll tell them, but they may not believe me. Anyone who knows you would know that you thrive on pressure.” He paused. “What am I going to tell Rick?”
“Nothing more than you tell the others. I’m going to call Lisa on the way to the airport and tell her to get her butt on a plane out of Miami and come here and make some appearances with Rick. She’ll distract him enough to keep him from noticing that I’m not around.”
“Do you think she’ll come? She said when she left that she needed a long break.”
“She’ll come. She wants to be first lady, and its time she paid her dues.” She slammed her suitcase shut. “You’ve always felt sorry for her. She knew what the situation with Rick was before she married him. She was ambitious. She said she could work it out.”
“She didn’t know she was going to fall in love with him, Nelda,” he said quietly.
“That’s her problem. If she loves him, she should fall into line and do what’s necessary to give him what he wants.” She called for the car to be brought around. “Damn, I forgot my night cream.” She headed for the bathroom but paused at the door to glance at him over her shoulder. “I may need Spoder to come out to Santa Barbara if I find Pierce too difficult. It should be okay. Rick will behave himself if Lisa is with him.” She shrugged. “If she stays at his side and watches him close enough. He does care about her.”
“Which is very convenient considering they’re married,” he said dryly. “But you counted on that, too, didn’t you?”
“I knew it was a distinct possibility. Everyone loves Rick once they get to know him.” She went into the bathroom and closed the door. She quickly went to the jewelry armoire, unlocked the compartment above the drawers, and drew out a .22 revolver. She stared at it for a moment. She doubted if it would be necessary to use it, but she always believed in being prepared. So stop hesitating and get on the move. She slipped the gun into her tote. Then she relocked the compartment and shut the armoire.
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