Roadkill

by Cheryl Bradshaw

  Fine. Yes. Happy? Questionable.

  “I’ve been on my own for a long time too,” he said.

  I glanced at him. “Can we talk about something else?

  “Sure, why don’t you pick the topic this time?”

  “Has anyone talked to the people at Jonas’s workplace?”

  “Whitaker and I went there today after Kimberly Crosby went missing.”

  “What did you find out?”

  “We talked to Jonas’s boss, a guy named Max. He said he knew about Jonas’s condo, but not about any other women.”

  “Anna told me Jonas was a sniper for the military until he was dishonorably discharged for accidentally killing someone. She thought he might have killed the soldier on purpose, though. Apparently Jonas hated him.”

  He thumped his finger on the steering wheel. “Huh.”

  “What is it?”

  “Max had a military photo of himself on his desk. I asked him about it. He said he used to be a Special Operations commander. I’m pretty sure the Special Ops commander is over Special Forces.”

  It was a big coincidence. “Anna also said Jonas had no background working in investments prior to the military. It seems he landed the job out of nowhere.”

  We pulled off the freeway, drove a couple blocks, and then pulled the car over. He pointed skyward. “See the sign?”

  I looked up. “Yeah.”

  “This is the area he made the phone call from, and that sign matches the description he gave you over the phone.”

  The bar was closed, the streets deserted.

  “Where’s his car?” I asked. “It should be close by.”

  “Let’s find out.”

  We found Seth’s car one block up from the bar. It was unlocked. I hoped maybe Seth had found it and crawled inside like he said he might do, but it was empty. We drove around for the next half hour, perusing the streets and the alleyways, anywhere we thought he might have passed out for the night.

  If he had been in the area, he wasn’t now.

  CHAPTER 43

  Seth glanced around, finding himself on a leather couch in a dimly lit room. A lamp positioned on a small, round table offered the only light. He pushed himself into a sitting position, touched the side of his head, and winced. It felt bruised. The more he touched it, the more he realized the pain wasn’t coming from the outside. It was internal—possibly a migraine.

  Where am I?

  Why am I here?

  How did I get here?

  Did I pass out?

  The last thing he remembered was getting into a man’s car. He tried to remember the man’s name and couldn’t. He was sure it had started with an A. Alex? No. Aaron? It still didn’t sound right. And then his recall kicked in. Adam.

  Had he been brought to Adam’s house instead of his own? He stood up, walked to the double doors at the far end of the room, and grabbed both knobs. They were locked. He balled his hand into a fist and pounded on it. “Hello? Is anyone there? Can anyone hear me?”

  “It’s nice to finally meet you, Mr. Granger. I’ve thought about this day for a long time.”

  The voice was male and came from inside the room. Seth scanned his surroundings a second time. In a dark corner, sitting on a chair, was a man dressed in a fitted suit.

  “You’re not Adam.”

  “No, I am not.”

  “Then who are you, and why am I here? There was this guy, Adam. He’s an Uber driver. He picked me up from the bar and said he was taking me home. I remember getting in his car, but it’s all hazy after that. Do you know him?”

  “Adam works for me.”

  “Oh, he didn’t tell me he had a second job.”

  “He doesn’t.”

  Seth felt like the man was talking in circles—answering his questions but remaining vague at the same time. “I’d like to leave now.”

  “Why don’t I introduce myself? I know who you are. It’s only fair you know who I am too.”

  Seth shrugged. “I don’t see why it matters.”

  “My name is Maxwell Duran—you can call me Max—and you’re in my home.”

  Maxwell.

  It couldn’t be. And yet he was sure his suspicion would prove to be right. “Did you know my wife?”

  “I did. She was ... a special lady. We had a wonderful and close ... well, I was going to say friendship, but you must understand, she was much more than a friend.”

  The way Max referred to Juliette seemed to imply he’d known her intimately. The thought of it made him sick inside. He’d only just learned about her dalliance with Jonas, and now Max seemed to be laying claim on her too. How many more men were out there?

  Knowing he was locked in, Seth glanced around the room, looking for another way out. There wasn’t one. “I don’t understand how I ended up here, or why. What do you want?”

  “You were followed, Mr. Granger. Adam tailed you to the bar and then waited until you came back out again. I have to say, I had no idea it was going to be such a long wait. But it all worked out just right in the end. Adam picked you up because I asked him to bring you here.”

  “Why? So you can tell me you slept with my wife? Get in line.”

  “The reason your head is pounding isn’t from the alcohol. Not fully. It’s because the water Adam offered you contained a mild drug, a sedative.” Max extended his hand toward the leather couch. “Would you please sit back down?”

  “No, I won’t. Not until I know what’s going on.”

  “Normally, I wouldn’t even bring you here, but we’re short on options at the moment, and you won’t be staying long.”

  “I’d like a straight answer to my question this time. What do you want?”

  Max crossed one leg over the other. “To give you an opportunity.”

  “An opportunity for what?”

  “Is there anything you’d like to ask me?”

  He didn’t want to ask anything. He wanted to find a way to get the hell out of there. But at the moment, he didn’t know of a way to do it. Maybe if he bantered with the guy, he could butter him up enough to let him go. It was worth a try, even though Seth had never been any good at buttering anything.

  “Do you have any questions you’d like to ask me,” Max asked, “or don’t you?”

  “You say you knew my wife, but I’ve never heard a thing about you.”

  “You have heard about me, though. She said it one night in bed.”

  “Were the two of you involved with each other? Were you having sex?”

  “Yes, on both counts.”

  “For how long? When did it start?”

  “A few years ago. When you were away during the week, she was almost always with me.”

  “How did you meet?”

  “In a parking lot after we’d both finished playing tennis. On the way to my car, I noticed her leaning into hers, sliding her racket onto the seat. After she closed the car door, she turned toward me and smiled. When I looked into her eyes, I saw a bored, beautiful woman, a woman practically begging for a new life. And I decided to give it to her.”

  “You’re lying,” Seth said. “She wasn’t bored. She was happy. We were happy.”

  “If you believe that, you never knew your wife at all.”

  It was too much. “I don’t want to hear this.”

  “I’m trying to be honest with you. Isn’t that what you want?”

  “If Juliette cared for you so much, and if she cared for my neighbor, why did she stay married to me?”

  “Because she couldn’t have me full-time like she wanted. I have two additional offices, one in New York City and another in London. I coordinated my schedule so I’d be here when you were gone most of the time, but even then, I couldn’t see her every night. She said she wouldn’t give you up until I settled down in one place, a place we could be together. It bothered me that she wouldn’t leave you, but I loved her. I wanted the choice to be hers.”

  Seth had always considered himself to be a rational man—levelheaded, kind, and
understanding. In this moment, the only emotion he felt was rage. He imagined wrapping his hands around Max’s neck, squeezing until every last bit of life drained out. He lunged at Max.

  Max remained calm. He pulled a pistol from the inside of his suit jacket and aimed. Seth froze.

  “Do yourself a favor and sit down, Mr. Granger.”

  Seth sat. “I thought we were just talking. Why do you need a gun?”

  “You’re here because Juliette made a poor decision, and now everyone in her life is paying for it. Everyone, including Jonas.”

  “Jonas?”

  “You’ve had a shock. I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now. But this next part ... I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s about to get worse. Jonas was also employed by me.”

  “At the investment place?”

  Max nodded.

  All this time, Seth had thought Jonas was his friend. Now he started to wonder if he had been much more—Max’s spy, someone he used to keep an eye on Juliette.

  Juliette was dead. Jonas was dead. And sweet Nora ...? The pieces were coming together in Seth’s mind. He thought about what Ford had said the day before and Ford’s notion that Jonas may not have killed himself. If he was murdered, if Max had something to do with it, and if the note Raine found in Jonas’s house had been fake, it was possible Jonas never had an affair with his wife. “Was my wife’s death an accident? Did Jonas run her off the road?”

  “It was not an accident. She was killed on my orders, and Jonas was there, but he isn’t the one responsible for her death.”

  It took everything Seth had to remain seated, to suppress his anger, keeping it locked inside ... for now. “And Jonas, was he murdered too? How’s he involved in all of this?”

  “I understand your head is swirling with questions. But you need to ask yourself how important the truth is to you.”

  “I’m here, being held against my will, probably about to die. I want to hear it. I want to know why you killed my wife.”

  Max nodded. “All right, then. I’ll tell you. A couple of weeks ago, I hosted a party. After the event was over, I was in my office speaking with a man who works for me. The conversation took a bad turn. We didn’t see eye to eye, and I knew we never would. So I shot him.”

  “Shot him or killed him?”

  “He died. And the timing was unfortunate. It happened at the exact moment Juliette entered into the room. We’d said our goodbyes, and I thought she’d already left for the night, but she came back because she’d forgotten her cell phone. Since I was arguing with my employee, I didn’t hear her enter the house again. When she witnessed what I’d done, there was nothing I could say to make it right in her mind. She saw a different side of me, a side I’d hoped she’d never see, and things between us were never the same. I tried to make things right, believe me. I didn’t want to kill her.”

  Seth swallowed hard, fighting his emotions. “Then why did you?”

  “I worried she’d tell someone what she saw, or that she’d try to leave me. I warned her about what would happen if she talked, and I’ll admit I even went so far as to threaten her life, which only scared her and made things worse. At the time, I thought it was the best way to keep her quiet. I was wrong.”

  “You ordered her death?”

  Max rested a hand over the gun in his lap. “I asked Jonas to do it. The morning she left you, he went after her, but in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to do it, which is why I’m in the mess I’m in now, though I can’t say I blame him. I’ve had time to think about whether I would have been able to pull the trigger if it would have been up to me. I can’t say I could have done it.”

  Seth didn’t even know the guy, and he fully believed Max only had one priority in life—preservation of self. “And Nora?”

  “Ahh, yes. Nora. Of course you’re wondering about her. I should have begun the conversation by alleviating your concerns about her. She’s alive, of course, and she’s just fine.”

  “You’re being serious? She really is alive? Why did the note Jonas left say she was buried?”

  “I needed everyone to believe she was dead. I wanted to tie up loose ends so the cops would close the investigation.”

  “If she’s alive, where is she?”

  “She’s here, with me.”

  “You have her? Where? Why would you kill my wife and keep my daughter?”

  “I believe you mean my daughter.”

  Seth tried to suck up a breath of air and couldn’t. He had thought there would be nothing Max could say at this point to shock him. He was wrong. “Your daughter? She’s not your daughter. You can’t just take someone else’s child and make her your own.”

  Max raised the gun and aimed it at Seth’s head, his finger on the trigger. “You don’t seem to understand. I’m not making her my daughter; she is my daughter. You’re a nice man, Mr. Granger. I’m sorry things had to end this way.”

  CHAPTER 44

  Max puffed on his cigar and leaned over, snubbing it out on a silver tray beside him. The past was over. It was time to restore the present and move on. He glanced up, looking into the eye of the three men sitting across from him. “What in the hell happened with Kimberly Crosby?”

  “Nothing,” Adam said. “I got rid of her, just like you asked. Why?”

  “Two detectives came to my office yesterday. They’re looking for her. They seem to know Nora was at her condo.”

  “How is that possible?” Adam asked.

  “Well, Adam, you tell me. Did you leave anything behind?”

  “Anything like what?”

  “A stuffed animal belonging to Nora.”

  Adam thought about it. “I didn’t see anything in the room she was in, and I took the bags I came in with when I left. I’m guessing I missed something.”

  “You forgot to look under the bed.”

  Adam nodded. “Oh, I guess I assumed she didn’t have anything with her.”

  “If there’s anything else I need to know—anything you haven’t said? If there is, say it now.”

  Adam shook his head. “There isn’t. No one saw me enter the house, and no one saw me leave. It was a clean kill. Minimal blood. Once the cleaner showed up, I helped him put her body in the trunk, and then I went back for the kid. She was quiet. She didn’t make a peep. Those detectives have no idea what happened. They’re just trying to rattle you.”

  Max crossed one leg over the other. “Perhaps.”

  “I sat in the car while Adam took care of everything,” Mark said. “He’s right. No one saw a thing.”

  Dressed in a black leather jacket to match his black Mohawk hairstyle, Victor spoke up. “I have things to do. So if you could hurry up and tell us why we’re here, that would be great.”

  “You forget yourself, Victor,” Max said.

  Victor laughed. “I don’t forget nothin’.”

  Max decided to let it go. For now. He’d drive the point home later, when they had the chance to speak one on one. “I’ve brought you all here because I’ve made a decision. I’m halting all side business until everything blows over.”

  Victor grunted, spread his legs, and slumped back in his chair. “For how long?”

  “I don’t know yet. I’ve considered leaving for a while, but the two detectives who stopped by my office yesterday are still too involved in the case for me to step away without looking suspicious. We all need to lie low until I’m certain we’re no longer considered suspects, and no matter what happens, we all need to stick to the same story and keep pushing the blame on Jonas.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Victor said. “Do you know how much money we’ll all lose if we stop now?”

  “How much you’ll lose? You were nothing before you came to work for me, a drug addict making minimum wage. I made you who you are, and you’ve been rewarded handsomely for it. You’re not in charge, and this isn’t up for debate. All side business stops until I decide it’s back on again.”

  “What are we supposed to do in the m
eantime?”

  “Take some time off, go on a vacation. You could all use one.”

  “You expect us to sit around with no pay?” Victor asked. “Just because it works for you doesn’t mean it works for us.”

  “I get what you’re saying. This won’t last forever. For now, I’ll offer some compensation for your time.”

  “How much? Full pay? Because that’s what I want.”

  Max shook his head. “No, Victor. But I’ll give you enough to get through it, and then once things calm down, we’ll get back on track.”

  Victor swished a hand through the air, rejecting the offer. “Naw. I’m not interested in half pay. After all we’ve done for you, that’s bullshit, and you know it.”

  Max clenched his jaw. Victor was a loose cannon with no respect for authority. He blamed himself for not realizing it sooner. The kid had talent. He also had a severe case of PTSD. He was younger than the others. Still in his twenties. Max had thought he could help him work through it, like he’d done with Mark. It hadn’t worked with Victor, though, and Max had already bumped off Jonas ... and Trevor a few weeks earlier. If he did the same to Victor, he risked the loyalty of his remaining men. It was a risk he knew he shouldn’t take. “The reason we’re in this predicament is because of your screw-up with Juliette. I asked you two not to leave any evidence behind. You didn’t dispose of the body, and you didn’t dispose of the car. You just left it there, in plain sight, for the cops to find. It’s shitty work, nothing like the way you were trained. Everything that’s followed since is a result of the mess you made.”

  “My screw-up?” Victor said. “More like your stupid girlfriend deciding to leave on a whim and us busting our asses to stop it. You asked Jonas to take care of her. Not me. If he hadn’t wussed out, I wouldn’t have had to step in and do it myself. I did what I thought was best. She’s dead and you have the kid. Stop bitching.”

  A nerve on the side of Max’s temple began to pulse, something that occurred whenever he was about to lose control. He didn’t like it when he became this angry. He became rash, unable to keep himself under control.

  “Calm down, Victor,” Mark said. “Max is right. We all need to take a step back.”