by Kate White
I heard a door fling open and the sound of booted feet landing on the asphalt.
“Hold it right there,” a male voice shouted. But it wasn’t Blaine’s.
I twisted around far enough to see. Hank Coulter was standing in front of his pickup truck, legs astride and holding a gun himself. God, was he in on this, too?
“You’re working with them?” I called out, frozen in place.
“No, I’m not working with them,” he yelled back. “I’m here to save your butt.”
Chapter 23
THERE WAS NO WAY I COULD BE SURE, BUT SOMETHING told me to trust him. Besides, it wasn’t like I had a boatload of butt-saving options.
“Look out, she’s got a gun,” I shouted. “It’s Riley, Cody’s assistant. And he’s headed here.”
“What’s going on?”
“Cody killed Shannon. And Alice, too. Riley knows all about it.”
“Okay, jump in my truck. But stay low.”
I crouch-ran to the truck and flung myself into the passenger seat with Coulter covering me.
Once I was safely inside, he stepped backward, gun still raised, until he reached the driver’s side door and let himself into the cab of the truck.
“You okay?” he asked, flicking his gaze in my direction.
“Yeah, just rattled. They—”
“Hold that for now. You said Cody was nearby. Was he coming from Baker?”
“From around there. He should have been here by now.”
“I heard a car go by a second ago. He might have seen she wasn’t alone and driven past.”
Hank transferred the gun to his left hand and with his right, reached behind him and began patting. I twisted a little to see what he was up to. There was a very narrow seat behind us, wide enough for a dog but in this case cluttered with car parts, a stack of Missing flyers with Shannon’s photos on them—and a length of rope.
My breath froze. He’s going to tie me up.
But after a brief fumble, he grabbed an object I couldn’t make out and lifted it into the front seat.
Bless his heart; it was a bullhorn.
“Sit tight,” he commanded, and stepped cautiously from the vehicle again. Two seconds later, his booming voice cut through the night.
“Step out and away from the vehicle,” he commanded. “Keep your weapon lowered and lay it on the ground.” A bird, apparently roused from a nearby tree by the noise, responded with a startled shriek and flap of wings.
I peered through the windshield. No sign of movement from Riley’s Audi. I lowered the window a crack so I could hear.
“I said step out and away—” Hank barked, trying once more. Before he could finish this time, the driver’s door eased open. Riley slowly emerged with both arms by her side and the gun drooping from her right hand.
“All right, all right,” she shouted. Her voice was high-pitched and frantic by now. She set the gun on the ground, and I could see that she was shaking.
“Is that your only weapon?”
“Yes . . . I’m not responsible for what happened to Shannon. You have to know that.”
“Mrs. Hickok, law enforcement will be here shortly. I advise you to say nothing. Now toss your phone and car key on the ground along with your weapon and get back into your vehicle.”
Again, she did as instructed. Her phone and key hit the ground, one right after the other, and she stumbled back into the car.
Hank reentered the cab, tossed the bullhorn into the back, and made a phone call. I heard him request help, lots of it.
Once he was done, I quickly recounted what had happened to me at Baker and in the car with Riley.
“Good God,” Coulter said, his anger palpable.
“How in the world did you end up here?” I asked. It all seemed so improbable.
“It was because of your call last night. Asking about drugs.”
“Yeah?”
“I heard something weird this past winter. A rumor about Baker Beverage and drug trafficking. Cody’s always been a little slick for my liking, but I was glad Stan had found someone to entrust the business to and I didn’t want to believe it. Still, I made a few discreet inquiries . . .”
“And?”
“Nothing about drugs turned up, but I did hear that Baker might be struggling. Another distributor had been poaching their business and they hadn’t figured out how to rebound. Plus Cody is reportedly a big spender. When Shannon disappeared, I decided to stay close, keep an eye on Cody. Once the other bodies were found, it seemed like he was off the hook, but your question made me wonder again if something dirty was going on.”
“Did you follow me to Baker?”
“No, but I parked near there this morning and watched the trucks roll out with a pair of binoculars, not even sure what I was looking for. I went back again tonight, and saw your Jeep arrive, and then all of a sudden I saw you tear out of there and hop into that car. And a minute later Blaine comes barreling out and jumps in his, heads off in a different direction. It took me a minute to catch up to you guys, but I finally saw the Audi turn off the road. I knew you must be in some kind of trouble.”
“I can’t thank you enough, Chief. If you hadn’t come, I might be dead by now.”
“I’m just glad you called me last night.” There was little joy in his tone, and I suspected that he was beating himself up. If he’d been able to learn the truth about Baker when he’d snooped around several months ago and reported it to his contacts in law enforcement, Shannon might still be alive.
Before I could say another word, we heard vehicles pulling in behind us and saw the windshield dancing with the reflection of pulsing red and white lights.
Backup was here. I could only make out Riley’s silhouette in her car, but she appeared to have her head in her hands. Cody had taken everyone in, even her.
About thirty minutes later, after the police had assessed the scene and taken a brief statement from me, they drove me to the municipal center to make a fuller statement and to speak with Killian directly. When the sheriff finally arrived, along with a few state police colleagues, he handed me my purse—and a good news bulletin.
“Cody Blaine was apprehended north of here a few minutes ago,” Killian said. “It’s possible he was making his way to the Canadian border.”
I felt a rush of relief, but also a wave of sadness. Those poor Blaine kids. No amount of resiliency would help them handle what life had dealt to them.
“And what about this guy Sean? I told the police about him at the tennis club.”
“Yes, we’re on that. Now why don’t you start from the beginning about what happened tonight.”
I went through the story again for Killian. He seemed warmer than he had the first time I’d sat across from him, but I could sense he was irritated by my having taken matters into my own hands. He and the others pelleted me with questions, trying to be sure they had everything Riley had revealed to me.
When I’d finally been wrung dry of answers, Killian leaned back in his tan metal chair and exhaled deeply.
“You realize, don’t you, that you put yourself in tremendous danger tonight? And as far as you knew, you were thwarting our own efforts.”
“I know, I see that. But I’d only driven there with a quick question about Tom Nolan and then everything unfolded so quickly. . . . Had you begun to figure it out?”
“We had our suspicions. Blaine was one of the people Alice Hatfield had called the day she died.”
“Yeah, I feel dumb about that now. He told me she’d just called him with a question about Sunset Bay. And I was not initially suspicious of that.”
“He had a lot of people fooled, Bailey. I wouldn’t take it personally.”
“Do you have any idea how Alice put it all together? She knew—most likely from reading the same article I did—that Cody had an army friend who’d come from the area. I wonder how she figured out his name.”
“One of the other calls she made on Sunday was to a contact of hers with the county vet
erans’ affairs office. She asked him for the names of area men who’d served in Afghanistan just under ten years ago, and even though it was Sunday, he went through digital records for her and tracked down a list of names. He supplied us with that list, but since she’d never mentioned any suspicions to him, we assumed she simply wanted to interview people who served with Blaine.”
“She obviously saw Dirk’s name on the list and knew it was significant for some reason—and probably mentioned the guy to Blaine.”
“And then he figured she was close.”
Killian made a movement to suggest we were done.
“Once you sign your statement, you’re free to leave. We’ll have someone drop you off at your vehicle.”
“Are you going to call Ben Hatfield?” I asked as he started to rise.
“Yes. Please leave that to us.”
When I set foot in the Courtyard an hour later, the lobby and bar were both buzzing with press who’d clearly heard the news and were waiting for updates. Under other circumstances I might have wanted to revel in the moment, but I had a big post to churn out, and I wasn’t in the mood. Besides, now that I had my phone in hand, I could see that I still hadn’t heard from Beau. And it was making me nuts.
As soon as I was in my room I ordered food to pick up later from the café, updated Dodson via email, and dashed off my post. Due to mental fatigue, it was hardly my finest hour prosewise, but considering the news I was sharing, it didn’t matter much. Within minutes Dodson shot me an email congratulating me on my efforts.
A little while later, having picked up my meal, I sat at the desk, my mind churning. Once Alice had the list of names from the veterans’ office, she must have searched to see if one of them surfaced anyplace else. I popped open my laptop and began scrolling one more time through every article the Post Star had run about the campers. And then there it was, buried deep in a follow-up story about the disappearance: a quote from a guy named Dirk Hagen. Somehow Alice’s colleague Luke Orsini had learned that Hagen, a resident of Fort Ann, had been in Muller’s the night Page and Amy vanished and had cornered him for a quote.
“Those girls? They left around seven, I’d say,” were Hagen’s words. Alice must have realized that Hagen had been involved in the murders and had shared his story with Cody Blaine.
I immediately called Killian, alerting him to my discovery. He explained that they’d figured this out, too, having found Dirk on the list of veterans from Fort Ann. He also shared that a search of Cody’s car had turned up a voice adapter.
So it was the killer who’d called me.
I thanked him and said good night. Bone-tired, but still reeling, I flopped down on the bed, phone in hand, and stared at the dull white ceiling. Cody had been captured, the police were looking for Sean-whatever-the-monster’s-name-was, the pieces of truth were all coming together, and yet I still felt heavy with residual dread. If Blaine had caught up to me at Baker or arrived at the tennis and swim club before Coulter had, he would have killed me. With a gun. Or even his bare hands, as he’d done to Shannon and Alice.
The phone pinged in my hand.
I brought it to eye level, expecting to see a text from another reporter eager for details. But it was Beau. I moaned in relief.
Bailey, so sorry. On board flight home. Someone on crew was hit by car. Ok now but nightmare.
Can you talk?
Making me turn off phone. Tomorrow. Love you.
Thank God. Knowing finally that Beau was okay and hadn’t been abducted by a resurrected arm of the Cali cartel, I succumbed to the sleep of the dead. When I woke shortly before six, I was thrilled to see another text from Beau announcing that he’d landed safely at JFK and would call me later.
After racing through media coverage of the case and answering a few of the emails that had blown up my phone, I ate breakfast in the hotel café, grateful to be in public without having to constantly check over my shoulder.
At nine Dodson called me, over the moon about both my efforts and the traffic for last night’s post, and determined for me to tape another video with Keith. Natch, he wanted to shoot on the road in front of Baker Beverage.
Keith arrived several hours later. Returning to that location didn’t pack the same emotional wallop for me as being back at Alice’s house, but it still made my stomach flip. I couldn’t forget the rage in Cody’s eyes, and running so hard for my life that I’d thought my lungs would burst.
As soon as Keith and I finished, I took my phone off silent and was surprised to see a missed call from Kelly.
“I’d like to talk in person,” she said soberly when I reached her. “Do you have time today?”
“Of course. Where and when?”
“At my house, as soon as possible. Come around to the porch on the back.”
The only hitch: I would have to return to the hotel to retrieve my car, and then drive all the way back in this direction to meet with her.
“Do you have Uber around here?” I asked.
“What? Uh, yes.”
“Okay, I’ll be there in ten.”
I had Keith drop me off at the Claiborne house instead of the hotel, and I made my way around the side of the house, shuffling through the first drop of dried leaves from a big maple in the yard. Kelly was where she’d promised to be—the screened porch, leaning into a white wicker couch with lightly faded floral cushions.
“Thanks for coming,” Kelly said. She rose in greeting and indicated with an outreached arm that I should take the matching chair across from her. She was wearing a pair of dark jeans and the burgundy turtleneck I’d seen her in two days ago. “I hear I owe you another thank-you.”
“You don’t owe me anything, Kelly. I’m just glad we finally know the truth now.”
She nodded listlessly in response.
I settled onto the chair. “I’m curious. When your sister went missing, was your first instinct that Cody might be responsible?”
“Yes and no. The whole vanishing-into-thin-air thing seemed improbable to me, but I hadn’t noticed any red flags when it came to the marriage. Though I never warmed up to Cody, he seemed crazy about my sister, and unlike my loser husband, he reportedly kept it in his pants. Besides, once the other bodies were discovered, it let him off the hook. The fucking monster.”
“My sentiments exactly.”
“There’s another reason I called, though, something I need to ask you about.” I noticed her swallow hard. “Killian said that Shannon learned about the drugs because she went to work at Baker and started poking around there. Is that true?”
“According to Riley, yes. Shannon was helping with marketing initiatives. Quote, ‘restarting her career.’ You weren’t aware your sister was working there again?”
“One of her kids said something to me about her helping Daddy, and when I quizzed Shannon, she said she was lending a hand now and then. I figured it had to do with people on the administrative staff taking summer vacations.”
“She gave the same impression to J.J. I’ve been mulling it over and my guess is that she didn’t want to draw attention to what she was really up to. Maybe she would have restarted her career one day, but in this case it was mostly a front, I think, for getting in the door again at Baker.”
“So she could snoop?”
“Right. She probably knew if she offered to assist with paperwork or man the phones, Cody would have insisted they didn’t need the help. I’m sure he didn’t want her anywhere near the place. But when she suggested doing marketing work, it was hard for him to refuse.”
“And she came across evidence of the drug trafficking?”
“Yes, apparently.”
“How?”
“Riley never spelled it out to me, though Killian may be able to extract more from her. I also don’t know what aroused Shannon’s suspicions to begin with. I mean, she clearly thought something was up at Baker, but I don’t know what gave her that idea.”
Kelly pressed a fist against her mouth, appearing stricken. More so, I r
ealized, than she had at the press conference the day after Shannon’s body had been identified.
“What is it, Kelly?” I asked. “Do you know?”
“I think it was something I said.”
I held my breath, no idea what was coming next.
“It was the day after Christmas, right before Shannon and her family were leaving for Belize on vacation. Oh, sure, they had the condo in the Keys but they wanted an adventure this time. I made some fairly cutting comments to Shannon about how the Blaines seemed to be the beneficiaries of far more fruits from Baker Beverage than the rest of the family, particularly at a time when a competitor was eating our lunch. Shannon defended Cody, pointing out, per usual, that he also pulled down a salary as president, but—”
The fist was back against her mouth, smothering a sob this time.
“Are you thinking your comment began to weigh on her? And she decided to investigate.”
“Sure sounds that way. I should have looked into it myself or hired someone to do it. I was too busy trying to figure out who my husband was banging.”
“You can’t blame yourself, Kelly. Sooner or later, Shannon would have probably wondered why they were living so large and started prying without that prompt from you.”
“You think he killed her simply because she found out the truth?”
“No, not simply that. Riley said Cody tried to convince Shannon to stay quiet, and if she had, he wouldn’t have hurt her. But he realized she was going to turn him in. It must have been an agonizing decision for her, and it’s probably why she started going to mass again. She was searching for spiritual guidance.”
“She would never have tolerated Cody trafficking in drugs.”
“Because of your cousin?”
“That but also because of my father and what he built. Man, I can’t believe any of this. And those poor little kids.”
“Are you going to take them?”
“Yes. Though I’ll be raising them on my own. Doug and I are over.”
She collapsed against the back cushion, and I sensed that she needed time alone. She might not have been close to her sister—and she may have always envied her—but she had hardly wished her harm. I said goodbye softly and saw myself out.
