Deadly Ties

by Kate Allenton

  The line went dead, and I stared at my phone in shock. He’d hung up on me. “You never were a problem.”

  I stayed out on the porch longer than I’d expected. The moon was up in the night sky, the woods eerily silent as I scanned them. Did the killer already have this address? Thoughts like those plagued me as I pondered what I’d do if one actually showed up. I was plenty armed. I had knives and guns stashed around the house and in my bedroom. I’d just shoot; there was no question.

  I rose from my swing and headed inside to find West, Freddie, and Charlotte peering down onto the kitchen table. A map of the Lady Blue and its surrounding property was out on display. “Where did you find that old thing?”

  “In the basement,” Charlotte answered. “I saw it a year ago when I was looking for your Grammy’s old cake pan.”

  West glanced up at me, his gaze determined. “You need a safe room installed.”

  “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.” Not. I wasn’t going to be a prisoner in my own home. That just wasn’t the Blue way.

  West pointed to the map. “We need surveillance at least here and here.”

  Veronica picked that moment to walk in and stare down at where West was pointing. “Actually,” she said, “if it was me trying to sneak up to this house”—she glanced at me—“not that I would, but I’d come from this way. It provides more cover and it’s not an easy spot for any camera placements, but maybe you can try a tree cam or some type of warning alarm.”

  West looked from Veronica back down to where she pointed.

  “It makes sense,” Freddie said. “You and I would take a more direct route, easy in, easy out, but if he’s going for stealth, the trees would be the way to go.”

  “He might already be set up in one of those blinds,” Veronica added. “Or do they call them sniper nests?”

  Oh good Lord. Veronica was about to have Freddie and West on the verge of going mental if they for one minute thought someone might already be watching.

  “You know, I have a better idea than turning the Lady Blue into Fort Knox.”

  They ignored me and continued planning how they were going to neutralize anyone from approaching the house unseen or unheard.

  I pulled Faraday’s letter from my pocket and unfolded the paper inside. A single address was written on it, along with the numbers 4378 below it. Pulling out my phone, I mapped the address. It was on the other side of town, down in the old abandoned warehouse district. “I’m just going to go get my gun.”

  West just gave me a lazy gesture with his hand.

  “And go find the killer.”

  Charlotte was the only one to look up, my words finally sinking in.

  “All by myself,” I added. “Yep, just me and the killer….”

  Charlotte hit West’s arm. “She’s leaving to find the killer.”

  “Wait, what?” West abandoned the map and turned to stare at me.

  “I have a clue.” I grinned and held up the paper.

  West took it from me, read it, and then nudged Freddie. “Come on, let’s go check this out.”

  “You can’t both go,” I gasped. “West and I will go. Freddie, you’ll have to stay here to keep Charlotte and Veronica safe.”

  ‘I don’t need anyone protecting me.” Veronica huffed.

  “Yes, you do,” we all said at the same time.

  “Ugh.” Veronica crossed her arms over her chest. “Why can’t we all go? What if something happens to you and West? You won’t have anyone to watch your backs.”

  “Cree’s right,” West announced. “I’ll go by myself, and she can stay here too.”

  “Not on your life,” I announced, folding the paper and shoving it down my bra. It was a childish thing to do, but the people in harm’s way meant more to me than they did to West. I was in this one way or another.

  “Cree….” West argued.

  “West…” I countered. “What if you need a lock picked?”

  “I can do that,” Veronica said.

  We both turned to her. “You aren’t going.”

  “Besides, you don’t know what you’re looking for.”

  “And you do?” he asked.

  “I’ll know what has the strongest energy reading so we can try to use Insight. So yeah…I do.” Sort of. Not that I’d tell him.

  “Fine. Let me grab my gear. You get your gun, and we’ll go together.”

  I grinned. It wasn’t always about getting my way, but this time, it totally was. Did that make me neurotic?

  “Don’t worry, baby. I’ll let you do all the heavy lifting, fighting off creepy clowns, and slaying the flying spiders.”

  Chapter 11

  West kept his back to Cree as she picked the lock on the abandoned warehouse to protect her from detection. A homeless man was huddled down the alley with a blanket over him, sleeping next to his shopping cart. The stink from the big green trash bin was almost unbearable. It smelled of death, decay, and urine.

  “He looks lonely. Why don’t you go snuggle?” I chuckled.

  The only good thing about this alley was the cover it gave us while I worked my magic.

  “How’s it coming, luv?” West asked, glancing over his shoulder

  “Almost there,” I answered. “Just one tiny second.”

  West had his grip on the gun beneath his jacket.

  “Got it,” I whispered. I rose from my spot and turned the knob.

  West moved me behind him and glanced over his shoulder again. “We have no idea what we’re walking into. There could be alarms, booby traps, there’s no telling what Thomas has concocted inside.”

  “You’re missing your hat and whip,” I teased.

  West stared at me confused.

  “Indiana Jones.” I grinned.

  “Who is that?” he asked making my eyes widen.

  “Tell me you’re joking.”

  He kissed my cheek. “I’m joking. Stay close and follow my lead, and whatever you do, don’t touch anything.”

  “Right.” I nodded. “I’d hate to trigger the boulder falling down to crush us.”

  He held his finger to his mouth, pulled the gun from beneath his jacket, and eased the door open farther, stepping inside.

  The spacious run-down warehouse was empty if you didn’t count the painted walls, compliments of some bored vandals expressing their creativity.

  “Colorful. I think we should redecorate the master bathroom with the same design,” I said, stepping over the old office furniture that lay broken in pieces on the floor.

  A pile of black ashes sat in a circle. The smell of stale smoke lingered in the air. “Ohh…maybe we stumbled onto a ritual gone wrong. A sacrifice.”

  “Or maybe vagrants just had a fire because the squatters were trying to stay warm.”

  “No, I think it was a sacrifice,” I said, turning in place.

  “Are you sure this is the right address?” he asked.

  I pulled the paper out of my bra and shoved it against his chest before walking farther into the room, waiting for a clue to jump up and bite me.

  West checked the address again and shoved the paper into his pocket. This was it.

  “This place reeks of mystery.”

  “It reeks of something all right, but not a mystery,” he answered.

  I grinned and pointed to one of the painted walls. “Faraday’s brother is standing right there. I think we’re in the correct place.”

  “What’s he saying?” West asked, moving to the window and glancing outside to make sure we hadn’t been followed.

  “Nothing. I think he wants us to follow him.”

  West followed behind me through a door into what looked like a gutted kitchen.

  “What is this place?” he asked.

  “Creepy,” I whispered and gestured to the door. “He wants us to go in there.”

  “The handle’s broken. How are we supposed to open it?”

  I turned back to Thomas’s apparition. “What now?”

  He pointed to the breake
r box on the wall, and when I opened it, he pointed to the black lever.

  “You want me to pull it?”

  He nodded.

  I pulled down the black lever.

  The panel with the lever immediately popped open. Behind it was a modernized, expensive control panel.

  “What were the numbers under the address?”

  “4378.”

  I punched in the numbers, and we both spun around toward the click. The broken door across the room slid open and stood ajar.

  “What is it with you and secret rooms?” West asked and kissed my cheek. “Stay close. We don’t want a repeat of California.”

  “Don’t worry, we won’t.” I pulled out my gun and held it pointed to the ceiling. Any rodents we came across would be blown to smithereens.

  We eased down the concrete stairs. The air smelled remarkably cleaner than the warehouse above. There was no stink of mildew or urine. West stepped off the last stair when the lights above turned on.

  I spun around, aiming my gun at the top of the stairs as West stood stock-still.

  “Welcome home, Mr. Faraday,” A computer-generated soothing voice announced.

  The lights dimmed, and the sound of jazz music drifted to our ears. West and I exchanged a confused look.

  West and I walked into the best-furnished place in the entire city. The chandelier hanging over our heads could buy the Lady Blue Plantation five times over.

  Crystal vases and ashtrays sat on the antique tables. Italian marble covered the floor.

  “This is beautiful,” I whispered.

  “A little gaudy for my taste,” West said.

  I walked into the kitchen, and the overhead light activated with my steps. Oh, my, the room was a chef’s wet dream. The countertops and stainless steel were spectacular. “Is this how all of the bad guys live?”

  There was no reply. I walked back into the living area to find West nowhere in sight. “West?”

  “In here,” he called out.

  Following the sound of his voice led me down a hall. I peeked into each room as I passed. Only one had furniture, complete with bed and dresser.

  “West,” I called out again.

  “Last door on your right. Get in here. You’ve got to see this.”

  I walked into the room where West was standing in front of a complete floor-to-ceiling bank vault.

  West glanced at me. “Don’t suppose you know how to crack a safe?”

  I shook my head. Handcuffs and locked doors were one thing, but this… “Unfortunately I left my how-to-crack-a-safe book for dummies on the dresser at home. What about you? Have anything in your trunk we can blow it up with?”

  “Sorry, I left the C4 in my other suit.”

  My mouth parted. “You made a joke.”

  He grinned. “Who said I was joking?”

  I smacked his arm. “While you figure out how we’re going to get inside, I’m going to go check out the other rooms.”

  “Holler if you find anything.”

  I walked out, headed across the hall, and eased the door open. The light illuminated as I stepped into the room. I stood motionless, unable to believe my eyes.

  Pictures and newspaper clippings covered every square inch of wall space. Blue and red string draped from each wall going from one picture to another with handwritten notes.

  “What the hell?” I whispered. “Uh…West,” I called out.

  West appeared in the room within seconds. His gaze turned calculating as he stood beside me. He twisted one of the strands of yarn between his fingers. “I’ve seen this before.”

  “Really? Is this procedure in some bad guy manual I don’t know about?” I asked, following one of the red strands to a newspaper clipping of Faraday’s retirement. “What is it?”

  “It’s like a puzzle. He must have been trying to figure something out. Conspiracy theorist uses this technique to try and make sense of their delusions.”

  “Look, he had Faraday’s retirement article,” I said, turning and following the black string back in the other direction. It landed on a picture of Thomas. Four more red strings ran from him to various points around the room. “It leads back to his brother.”

  I grabbed another red strand and followed it to one of the walls. An article of Moreno’s release from jail was pinned to the wall. I slipped my phone out and snapped a picture and then went back to the beginning and followed the rest of the strands. The other ones weren’t as interesting. A candid photo of a woman wearing an evening gown. I leaned in closer. “Is that…”

  West walked up beside me. “That’s Jane Doe, the woman he killed.”

  “I thought so.” I followed another red string, which led to a man dressed in a business suit sitting on a park bench. “What do you suppose they mean?”

  West didn’t answer. He was standing at one of the opposite walls I’d yet to check out, staring at something. I moved to his side. A gasp left my lips as I covered my mouth. The picture in the center was the Lady Blue Plantation. The pictures around it were everyone who was associated with it, including me, Charlotte, Freddie, and there was even a picture of West from the first day he’d ever shown up. “What the hell?”

  West Archer

  Chapter 12

  Panic struck him hard and fast. The pictures of Cree and the property confirmed his worst suspicion. He’d let his guard down from the first day he’d shown up. He slowly made his way around the room, taking in each article, each picture. It was almost too much. The time it must have taken to have put this together… For a man presumed dead, Thomas Faraday had all the time in the world. What the heck had they walked into?

  “This is going to take us forever to work through.”

  She sighed. “I agree. Any one of these people could have possibly killed him. I don’t even know where we’d start.”

  “I do.” He ran his hands over his head and rested them on top. “You need to find something that was personal to him so we can use Insight. That’s the quickest way we’ll figure out who killed him. In the meantime, I’ll take pictures and send them to my guy.”

  “You have a guy?”

  “Let’s just say he’s good at puzzles.”

  “Is he like an international puzzle champion?”

  West chuckled. “He’s helped thwart rebel plans to overthrow my king.”

  “And here, all this time, I thought you were a lone Robin Hood and never knew you had a posse of merry men.” She grinned. “I’m going to go find something in his room I can use. I’ll call you if I find anything weird.”

  “What would be weirder than this?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe dresses and wigs in his closet.” She shivered.

  West pulled out his phone. “I’ll be in here. I’m going to record all of this and take pictures for my guy, and in case we need to reference this at some point.”

  “Good idea,” she whispered while walking out of the room.

  It seemed like they’d been there forever. He’d taken seventy-five photos, starting with the ones that had strings attached on one wall and working to where the string ended. Then he took more pictures, trying to make sure he got even the ones that didn’t have any strings. There must be a method to this madness that West could figure out.

  He was just finishing up the recording when Cree appeared in the doorway. “You should probably come take a look at what I found.”

  He followed her out and toward the bedroom. “I can only imagine.”

  “No…um. Well….”

  She walked into the room and into the closet. He glanced around at the expensive Armani suits. “Are you disappointed you didn’t find any pretty dresses?”

  “No.” She smirked, and shoving the suits aside, she revealed another door standing ajar. “Look for yourself.”

  West stepped inside the hidden room, and if he’d been surprised by the vault, this was a whole new level of crazy.

  Monitors hung on the walls. Security cameras were on, showing them a glimpse of the streets outsi
de and the surrounding area.

  “Wait for it…” she whispered.

  “Agent 1125, welcome back to the nest,” the computer announced.

  “Agent?” he asked, and Cree crossed the room to a plaque hanging on the wall. She gestured like a game show host.

  “He’s freakin CIA.” She stabbed the picture like she might the man’s chest if he wasn’t already dead. “Can you believe it?”

  “That could be doctored. We don’t know that.”

  She whipped out a jewelry box and flipped it open. Sitting inside was a badge with Thomas Faraday’s name. “No…this looks kind of real to me.”

  “This can’t be good,” West said, grabbing her hand and practically pulling her from the room. “We need to leave. NOW.”

  They jogged back up the stairs and out the door. West had his gun out as Cree pulled the door closed and waited for the click to make sure it was locked.

  He tossed some debris in front of the door to make it look like it hadn’t been disturbed. They walked out the front door, and he jiggled the handle to check if it was secure. He glanced up and down the alleyway. The homeless man was gone; only his cart remained.

  “We may have tripped his security,” he announced, taking her by the arm. He quickly headed down the street toward where they’d parked the car.

  “Don’t you think you're a little paranoid?” she asked while opening the car door.

  “No,” he answered, spotting the front grill of a strange SUV parked in the alleyway three streets up. “Get in the car.”

  She slid into the passenger side while he got behind the wheel and turned the ignition throwing the car into drive. Squealing the tires he made a U-turn in the middle of the road. “Put your seatbelt on. This might get dicey.”

  Chapter 13

  I buckled my belt and glanced out the back window of West’s sports car just in time to see a SUV ease out of an alleyway. West took the corner, throwing me against the door, and I glanced back again, waiting, watching for the SUV to either turn toward us or to keeping going. I smiled as I watched it keep on driving by.