In other words, it was a cheap piece of equipment no one should have made let alone purchased. I know I never did. Wait, was this a mistake, or was someone trying send me a message!
I checked the label on the outside of the box. My name and address, but there had to have been some kind of mistake. Well, I would get it sorted out in the morning. I repackaged the offensive gift and pushed the box to the corner of the room.
After gathering the lists together and setting them on my desk, I powered down the computer and emptied both wine glasses in the sink before placing them in the dishwasher. The wine bottle received its top and was stuffed into the refrigerator. I decided another shower was calling my name, so I hopped into a warm one, changed into some old jammies, and prepared to hunker down on my temporary bed.
The only other blanket I owned was an old one that I had intended to replace, so I pulled it from the closet and shut off the lights. As it turned out, the recliner was wonderful for sleeping in. As soon as my head hit the back of it, I was out.
Chapter Nineteen
I woke to a sunlit, quiet living room and looked around for a minute, confused as to where I was. Then the night before came back, explaining the slight headache. I stumbled to the bathroom and downed a couple pain meds then knocked on my bedroom door. No answer.
“David? Are you awake?” I listened at the panels and didn’t pick up any snoring, so I stuck my head around the door. The bed was empty. After a quick search of the entire apartment, I discovered that David had already left. He didn’t wake me or say good-bye.
Annoyed, I changed into jeans and a sweater and brushed my teeth. My stomach refused breakfast, so I had coffee instead and sat down at my desk. The lists were waiting. No sense in putting them off since my entire morning was free. I sighed, rifling through the sheets. For the second time, shock descended at a particular realization. I refused to believe it, so I went through my list again. Nope, it was true. One of my sheets was missing.
I searched the living room, unfolded, and refolded the recliner. I pushed fingers beneath it and turned over every scrap of paper on the desk. All the while, the truth stared me in the face. I hadn’t misplaced the sheet. Thieving hands—a killer’s hands—had taken it to hide the identity of—who?
Well, there were only two people in my apartment when the papers were all there, and that was David and Brandon. What neither of them knew was that my list was a printout, not something Spencer had handed to me. Brandon could have grabbed the sheet when I took David into the bedroom, and David could have taken the sheet before he left that morning.
Brandon made more sense, but David had been acting strangely even for him. He had gotten drunk super fast and seemed to want to stay at my place. While I didn’t mind because I wasn’t worried about him trying anything, I didn’t understand the odd behavior.
I booted up my laptop and waited with both impatience and trepidation. Whichever man took my sheet, and I didn’t want to point the finger at either, he did me a favor. The pages were numbered. I knew which was missing, so all I needed to do was scan the names on a single page to find the missing name.
Sick with dread and heartbreak on many levels, I brought up my email account and opened the file. A careful scan, then again. Then because I couldn’t wrap my mind around it, or my heart, I scanned a third time. The name I didn’t want to see on the list more than any other—Inna Brinlee.
After that, I cried and cried for a long while.
Her pictures hadn’t been on Dr. Bloomberg’s computer, but her name was on the list. She had been a patient of the doctor’s, and she or someone, Brandon, I assumed, had removed her name from the list before the police got to it. Maybe he had removed the pictures as well.
Brandon had obviously been protecting Inna, but did Inna herself know about his actions? I needed to talk to her before the news came out. Brandon might be a killer. There was still hope that he erased her name and pictures but that he didn’t kill the doctor. I couldn’t believe he would do something that drastic.
I stood from the desk and slid into my coat. I grabbed my keys and cell phone. Pausing, I considered calling Spencer and letting him know what I had found out. If I did, he might accuse Brandon or even Inna before I got the story out of either of them. Spencer was good at his job, but I didn’t want him to strong-arm Inna. She would be humiliated enough once it came out about her pictures and what Brandon had done.
After I spoke with her, I decided. As I left my apartment, I phoned Inna. Her phone rang several times and went to voice mail. I called again as I stepped out of the building and heard the ring tone she had set for me nearby.
Brandon stood at the end of the walk leaning on his car, hands in the pockets of his coat. The glare of the morning light reflected on the windshield, making it hard to see inside. Yet, I saw movement, and the pale, slender hand with plum nail polish on the fingertips told me Inna was inside. Why was she with him? Did she know he had done wrong but loved him still?
“Good morning, Makayla.” Brandon with a nonchalant attitude. He pulled one hand a little way from his pocket, and I spotted the barrel of a gun. My heart knocked against my ribs. Brandon smiled, not the gentle, shy smile I had always seen. “Get in the car.”
I took my time approaching, thinking hard about what to do. He moved to open the back door for me, and I slid in for want of a better plan. “This isn’t you, Inna. Why are you with him?”
My young friend said nothing. She didn’t move or turn around, and I couldn’t see her face to determine her mood. Brandon held out his hand, palm up. I looked up at him in confusion, and his jaw tightened.
“The phone. Hand it over.”
This was not the Brandon I knew either, but I was not foolish enough to lecture him. I did as he asked and let go of my cell phone, the only lifeline I had.
Brandon walked around to the other side of the car, calm and self-assured. I watched him in the rearview mirror and leaned forward quickly to touch Inna’s arm. “Please, talk to me, Inna. It’s not your fault he’s—”
“You’re stupid, Makayla,” Brandon said as he hopped into the driver seat. Amusement lit his gaze as he looked over his shoulder at me. There was a coldness in him I had also never seen nor suspected of existing. “Inna was the one who killed the doctor.”
“That’s a lie!” I screamed the words, and tears sprang to my eyes.
He tapped his lips to shush me, a warning in his expression. “You were looking for a jealous lover. You think I would be jealous over Inna?”
He laughed, and even after all I had learned in the last few minutes, he shocked me with his brashness. “You stole the list when I went to take care of David. Why do that when I would clearly know it was you?”
“Because obviously I wanted you to know. It was killing me for you not to know.” He laughed. “You were like a dog with a bone. You wouldn’t back off because of the camera pen thing, ’cause it was in your field.”
“Wrong,” I snapped. “I wanted to see justice for those ladies.”
“You keep telling yourself that.” He pointed to Inna. “The way you dote on our little Inna here, I knew if I exposed her, you would run right out to her rescue rather than to your boyfriend. Everybody knows you two have been having problems because of his wife.”
I didn’t bother saying ex-wife. Right now, it was petty and made no difference. Besides, he was right. Inna meant a lot to me.
I still wasn’t sure if she was a willing participant in Brandon’s plans and decided to keep him talking. Maybe if we sat in the parking lot long enough, someone would come along and notice. No such luck. The moment I had the thought, Brandon started the car and pulled out of the lot.
As we headed south along Main, I dug for more information. “So are you going to kill us both or just me?”
Oh yes, I was pretty good with soothing murderers and sidetracking them from their plans.
Brandon laughed.
“Poor Makayla. Are you worried? You know, I really was inter
ested in the photography bit.”
“Were you interested in what the doctor did too?”
To Brandon’s credit, he looked almost as sickened as I felt. “It didn’t do it for me, but I know there are people it does work for, people who would pay to see it.”
I gaped at him in disbelief. “What people?” Then I realized, people on the Internet.
“Have you ever heard of the Deep Web?” he asked.
“No. Should I have?” My answers were short with bite. My concentration was on checking our surroundings. We had left Briney Creek and were driving along a back road with miles of farmland, light poles, cows, and well, not much else.
“Invisible Web or Hidden Web, whatever you want to call it. The sites aren’t crawled by search engines, so they don’t know they’re there. I have access to some interesting places. It’s where I bought the camera pen.”
I gasped. “You bought it?”
“That’s right.” He sneered in the mirror, so proud of himself, and expecting me to be impressed. I tried not to look too horrified and disgusted in case he took it personally. “My proposal for making money was good. You see, I’ve got to have the latest of everything. I’m a techno junkie. I can’t get enough, and I work the jobs to pay for my habit. I saw a way to make a lot more using the doc, but he wouldn’t cooperate.”
“So that’s why you forced him to take those pictures and then killed him?”
Brandon burst out laughing. “Oh you think—”
For the first time, Inna spoke up. I still couldn’t see her face, but her voice was thick with emotion. “What do you mean the pictures didn’t do it for you?”
Brandon pulled out the gun and waved it about. I scooted down in my seat, frozen in fear. Inna fell silent. He flashed the weapon a moment longer and put it away. “Stupid, Inna, you’re just as bad as Makayla. Worse, I suppose. See, I’ll tell you a little secret. I’m gay.”
Neither Inna nor I said anything.
“I’ve been seeing David for two months now.”
Inna jerked forward, and this time I could see her face. Her eyes were red-rimmed and swollen. My heart ached for her, but for an instant, she sounded like her old self. “Like seeing, seeing? You’re telling me you were cheating the whole time?”
Brandon shrugged. “Not the whole time. I didn’t want to come out—ever—and David, well he’s weak. He wants love.” Brandon shivered as if love gave him the willies. “I made him promise to keep his mouth shut. Last night, he begged me to come out, to let everyone know and to break it off with you. I told him if he didn’t stop pushing me, I was going to quit seeing him. I told him to go hang out with Makayla, and you know what? He did. Isn’t that funny?”
“No, it’s not funny,” I whispered, folding my arms over my chest. “You used him, knowing how he felt. That’s why lately he’s been so unstable emotionally. And worse, you hurt Inna.”
“I told you,” Brandon growled, “your precious Inna isn’t so innocent!”
I pressed my lips together, seething.
“I might have taken care of that nosy Lissa Maxwell and tried to get the whole thing pinned on that idiot Paul Jacobs, but she killed the doctor.” He thumbed in Inna’s direction. “And you want to know why?”
Inna jumped across the seats straight into Brandon’s chest, screeching like a howler monkey. Brandon swerved, losing control of the car at the unexpected attack. I screamed. We weaved all over the road, coming close to a light pole and then veered to miss it.
Over and over, the scene played out as if in slow motion. Inna seemed driven by anger and pain. She attacked Brandon, yanking at his hair, hitting him with small, clenched fists.
Brandon gave a mighty shove to her chest, and she fell against her seat, his strong hold pinning her there. “Get back!”
We careened off the road straight for one of the poles, and the front end of the car caved. I was thrown forward into Inna’s headrest, smacking my forehead, and somewhere something thumped hard, and glass cracked. Everything went dark.
* * * *
I sat up and opened my eyes. My head felt like it wanted to pop, and I put a hand to it. Yup, a bump and maybe blood. By a miracle, my door opened, and I climbed out of the car. As soon as I did, sanity returned, and I rushed around to Inna’s side. She sat in her seat so still with her eyes closed. My heart skittered out of control.
“Inna?” Her window had been lowered, thank goodness, so I was able to reach in and touch her face. She was paler, but I didn’t spot any blood. “Wake up, sweetheart.”
She stirred, and I blew out a breath of relief. When her eyes opened, and she recognized me, the fear receded even further. She looked over to Brandon, who wasn’t moving at all. The gun had fallen out of his pocket, and she grabbed it.
“Maybe you should leave that there,” I suggested. She stuffed it into her jacket, and together we fought to get her door open. When it wouldn’t budge, she climbed out of the window and dropped to her feet.
She drew the gun from her pocket, and for a moment, I questioned whether she would turn it on me. Her hands wobbled, and the gun shook. “T-tie him up or something!”
“Good idea.” I scrabbled around in the car looking for anything that might work. Then Inna popped the trunk. I searched it and found a couple of dress shirts. Brandon had always been serious about his work.
I rolled one of the shirts until it formed a thick, twisted cord and managed to tie it around Brandon’s wrists and then secured the ends to the door handle.
“I have no idea if he can just wiggle his hands around and get loose. I hope not because I’m all out of strength here.”
Inna checked the knots and nodded. “I think it’s okay.”
She still had the gun, and I stood at the side of the road, rubbing my arms. Brandon had my phone, but I hesitated to dig for it in case I jogged him awake. That coldness in his eyes and manner were ingrained in my memory.
“We need to call the sheriff,” I suggested.
Inna paled. I didn’t think it were possible considering the way she looked right now. She swung her head side-to-side. I was about to ask what she searched for when she tossed the gun in the thicket. I screeched, grabbed for her, and dragged us both to the ground.
“Are you nuts?”
She frowned at me. “What?”
Slowly, we rose to our feet. My heart pounded so hard it hurt. “Just throwing it like that. I’ve seen in the movies, it can go off when it hits the ground. I don’t know if that’s real, but I don’t want to chance it.”
“Oh. I’m just not thinking straight. I…” Her hands covered her face. I drew her into my arms. So many questions ran through my mind, but I wasn’t sure where to start or if I should start. I didn’t know if I had the mental capacity to handle anything, given I had just had a gun pulled on me, and possibly several of the people I had trusted turned out not to be what I thought.
Then I regarded Inna. She looked so small and young. I knew she was eighteen, but at that moment, she appeared no older than twelve. She was all eyes and elbows, and knees since she’d made the unfortunate choice to wear black tights and torn a hole in both knees during the accident.
Inna folded her arms together and stared at the ground. I had the feeling she was just as lost as I was, and it was up to me to be the big sister. “Do you have your phone on you?” I asked her.
She hesitated and then handed it over. I dialed Spencer.
“Sheriff Norwood.” His voice held an edgy tone, like he hated interrupting whatever he’d been doing before he answered.
I swallowed. “It’s me.”
“Makayla.” The tone changed to low and concerned. “Why are you calling from this number?”
My throat swelled, but I pushed the words out. “Um, we… I caught the killer.”
Inna’s gaze flew to mine. Tears welled and spilled down her cheeks. I knew in that instant that Brandon had told me the truth, that Inna had killed the doctor, and it brought me to my knees there in the road. Inna sa
nk down with me, crying softly, clinging to me. I couldn’t help it. I hugged her close and laid my head atop hers.
After I had explained to Spencer where we were, I hung up, cutting off his demand for more details. I gave Inna the phone back and cupped her cheeks to make her lift her head. “So what happened, Inna?”
“Well…”
Chapter Twenty
“I liked Brandon, too much. For a while, all I could see was him. Everything he did and said was right even if it was wrong. So when we were at his place and he told me Dr. Bloomberg had my pictures, my…you know…not fit for anyone to see except maybe my husband like thirty years from now pictures. That kind. When Brandon said it so casually, I thought he was joking.”
I had heard how young people sometimes loved harder than us older ones, even if their emotions were often dismissed as puppy love. I could imagine the pain she felt when the object of her affection treated her feelings so cavalierly.
“He teased me, saying the whole town would end up seeing them. I told him he was a freakin’ liar. Then he said the police would see them.”
She hiccupped, and black mascara ran down her wet cheeks.
“I started feeling violated and hurt. I cried, and Brandon was cold. He said I should do something about it.
“That night, I left his place peeved at him and scared too. What would happen if he was right? What if my doc did have pictures of my private parts? I decided then and there to break into the office. So I gave my mom some excuse and went over there.”
Tension started in my belly. I knew her story would get worse before she ended it. Knowing the outcome didn’t ease my unrest.
“When I was fifteen, I hung with this kid who knew how to get into places, and he taught me a little. I left that stuff alone after I grew up, but I remembered how. So, Dr. Bloomberg’s office was nothing. I jimmied a lock on a side door of the building and got in that way.
“I was scared I would bump into something even though there were emergency lights illuminating the place a little bit. I moved from memory. I was sweating like a pig because I was petrified. All I kept thinking was no way that man was screwing me over. I was going to disappear from his files like I never existed.”
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