Expired Game (Last Chance County Book 5)

by Lisa Phillips

  Jess’s whole body flinched, even as she tried to hold it back. Didn’t matter. Everything inside cried out at that. Ellie let out a tiny moan.

  Jess wanted to do the same.

  Until she realized he’d known precisely what buttons to press to get a reaction out of her. Hurting her feelings was his intention.

  Mia stood back while Jess took a step toward him. “You know Pierce Cartwright. Not just know him,” Jess said. “You let him in while the place was quiet, and he not only attacked you, but he killed that woman in holding.”

  His stare hardened.

  “What reason do you have to keep quiet about this? Because if you do,” Jess said, “it only looks like you’re an accomplice of West. Maybe you’ve even been under his thumb this whole time.”

  “I don’t work for West.” He bit out the words. “And Pierce Cartwright knocked me out.”

  “You weren’t expecting him. But you can release the mechanism on the front door from your office, and there was no one on the desk.” She folded her arms across her front, cradling her injured arm in a way that was only slightly painful, but not so painful she would pass out. Right now, there was a fine line between the two. “You let him in the front door of this house. Why?”

  He just stared at her.

  “Where’s the duty officer? Is he dead too?”

  Mia spoke then. “Did you get one of us killed? Because that gets you life in prison.”

  “I didn’t hurt him.”

  “Where is he?”

  “How should I know?” Bill lifted his hands.

  He needed to be in cuffs. That, or they were risking him attacking one of them.

  “He knocked me out.”

  Jess said, “Convenient. I’ll give you that. Was it all part of the plan?”

  “What plan, Ridgeman?” Bill shook his head, as though inconvenienced by this whole experience.

  “Being belligerent isn’t going to help right now.” Mia looked worried, probably about the duty officer. Or about this whole thing.

  A death.

  A betrayal.

  An officer missing.

  Jess was done waiting. “How did West contact you? What was the arrangement?”

  “It wasn’t West. I don’t know him. I don’t work for him.” Bill looked to the side. “I got a text from Pierce.”

  “Ted’s father? The man the FBI is looking for?”

  “They’re on their way.” Bill shot her a look. “The minute Pierce contacted me, I told them. They have access to my phone and traced the number. Who knows if they got anything, but it could help.”

  Mia pulled her phone and walked away, making a call.

  Jess said, “You informed the FBI.”

  “And then he attacked me when he got here.”

  “But you didn’t tell any of us that Pierce was on his way here.”

  “He needed to succeed. Otherwise he would know I was only setting a trap for him, and I would be dead as well as Sally Peters.”

  Jess didn’t even know where to start with that.

  “How can you be so callous with someone else’s life?” Ellie wandered over.

  Oh, right. That was where Jess should have started. “Maybe two people’s lives. But not yours, is that right? So long as you’re okay, who cares what happens to everyone else?”

  “I’m not going to say ‘sorry’ like a little kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. I’m your elder, and as such I deserve your respect.”

  Jess shook her head. “You’ve been in contact with Ted’s father this whole time, and now someone is dead because of you. And you think you can demand our respect?”

  “I’ve earned it.”

  “Not with this.”

  Her grandfather had instilled in her the need to always prove herself. People got caught up in their own problems. They’d forget how useful she could be if she didn’t constantly remind them. Conroy. Mia. Even Basuto and the other officers she worked with. They shouldn’t forget that this was her career, and she was good at it.

  It was why she hadn’t wanted to be pigeonholed into undercover work and had started to chafe against what seemed to be a consensus about her with nearly everyone in the department.

  She’d decided it was time to change their opinion. Create a new culture. And yes, Bill was right that she wanted to be a detective. How he knew that she didn’t want to try to guess. Probably just reaching.

  Mia wandered back over. “The FBI is fifteen minutes out.” To Bill, she said, “How long have you been friends with Pierce Cartwright?”

  Bill closed his eyes. “For as long as I can remember.”

  “You know what he did to Ted.” It slipped out before Jess could snatch the comment back.

  He sighed. “I’ve helped Ted as much as I could. Tried to be a buffer between the two of them when Pierce got angry. And those times he needed more from Ted, but the kid would’ve been found out.” He opened his eyes.

  “So you’re the guardian angel. That’s the angle you’re gonna take?”

  Mia glanced at her. “Bill, I get you’ve been trying to do the right thing. And you’ve done good things for this town for as long as I can remember—”

  Jess was about to object, but she also wanted to know where her lieutenant was going with this line of conversation.

  “—This is your chance to do the best thing you’ve ever done. For Ted. For the duty officer...if he’s even still alive. And for yourself.”

  Jess wanted the book thrown at him. Bill was their dispatcher. How would Last Chance emergency services even run without him? It would be a disaster.

  “I can’t believe this.” Jess ran one hand down her face. “Everyone in this town trusted you, and all along you’ve been working for a man who destroys lives.” That list was so long she’d lost count. “And you don’t even care.”

  “The good always outweighed the bad.”

  She started to argue, but Mia raised her hand. “Bill, do you know how to contact Pierce Cartwright?”

  Jess saw it on his face. You do. All along they’d been looking for him. Especially after he’d been arrested. Now he was in the wind, and he’d committed a murder.

  Jess wasn’t waiting to find out. Bill needed to start talking, and whatever idea Mia had would be put into action. “Give me his number. Before he hurts someone else.”

  Twenty

  Firefighters still hung out at the house when they pulled up the driveway. Ted gathered his things from between his feet as Dean parked his SUV. They’d both been pretty quiet the drive over. Now that they were faced with the damage those two men had done, Ted figured the last thing they needed was to talk about what they might be about to do.

  His sense of denial was overblown. Ted already knew that he could pretty much convince himself red was blue, and blue was red if he wanted to. Reality didn’t need to factor into it. And it wasn’t the same as burying his head in the sand.

  Now he was double avoiding it, letting his brain mull over how it worked rather than thinking about what was going on around him.

  “Need help?”

  Ted shook his head. He looped the backpack strap over his good arm and pulled the door handle. Straightening out of the car hurt, but he ignored the aches and bruises all over his body. So far they hadn’t lost one of the good guys. He would like it to stay that way, which meant Ted needed to be on his A game. Not down for the count because of a few injuries.

  A man in dark gray slacks and a white shirt strode around from the barn. The insignia and bars on his shoulders said who he was as much as his lightly tanned features and perfectly styled hair. Authority was like a mantle he wore along with his tax bracket.

  Dean held his hand out. “Chief Hilden.”

  Ted realized then he hadn’t been exactly right. Dean’s sense of his own capabilities should be the same. He should wear authority as the fire chief did, commanding respect wherever he went.

  But he didn’t.

  Because Dean was naturally far more underst
ated than Steven Hilden? Or because Hilden needed the people around him to recognize his position in the community? This man was one of the founders in that photo from Vietnam. Here when the town of Last Chance first started.

  A contender for the position of West.

  “Ted.”

  He tried to smile and hoped Hilden figured he was just having a bad day. “Hilden.” He wasn’t going to call the man “Chief” since he already had a chief—Conroy. Ted motioned his chin in the direction of the barn. “How’s it look back there?”

  Hilden’s tidy eyebrows rose. “Some interesting stuff your friends have in that barn.”

  It was on the tip of Ted’s tongue to ask if they’d touched anything. As it was, Zander wouldn’t be super pleased when he got home from this latest mission and discovered his team’s training center was nothing but ash.

  Dean said, “We appreciate you getting it under control.”

  They made small talk about paperwork and insurance, things to look out for so they didn’t have further problems. Ted mostly tuned it out.

  Both he and Dean had agreed at the office that calling their father and asking for a meet, one where their dad revealed the identity of the person who was West, was the best and quickest way to end the threat.

  No more having to worry about this ongoing investigation that had enveloped the police department for months now.

  Done.

  Added bonus: Dean planned to capture their father at the same time.

  “I’ll let you guys go inside.” Hilden glanced at Ted and then walked away. The fire chief probably thought Ted was about to pass out or something.

  “I need lunch.”

  Dean chuckled and opened the front door for them.

  Inside smelled like smoke. “Did the house get burned?”

  “Apparently the siding outside, closest to the barn. There was some damage in here, but not from the smoke.”

  “They shot at us.”

  Dean took his backpack and set it on the breakfast bar. Ted hopped on a stool and started to tug open the zipper, his elbow holding the bag while he tugged on it. “Breakfast sandwich?”

  His brother knew how he felt about those. Any time of day was a good time for one of those, especially the way Dean made them. He would never tell Stuart, but Ted preferred that to anything their roommate and friend made for dinner.

  He opened his laptop and swiped his thumb print to log on.

  Dean straightened from having his head in the fridge, a carton of eggs in his arm. “What do you have running?”

  “Everything collected from the cell phones of everyone arrested in connection with West.”

  “That’s probably a lot of data.” Dean tugged the coffee pot to the edge of the counter and flipped the lid. He peered into the top and made a face.

  Ted studied the program. It was still working. “It’s populating a program designed by this guy I message with at Cal Tech. I’m testing it for him so I can give feedback about improvements he should make. When it’s done with this latest round, absorbing everything into the algorithm, it should refresh the list I have and give me a fresh round of names—or confirm what we already suspected.”

  “Which, so far, has been what?”

  “That one of the founders is West.”

  Dean nodded.

  Ted continued, “It’ll show highest probability based on frequency and duration of calls and even vocal tones depicted from voice messages and phone numbers who it thinks is the top dog. The one in charge.”

  West. The person behind so much of the crime in town.

  “We’re still calling Dad, right?”

  Ted made a face. He tried to brush off the lingering tension in the air about inviting their dad back into either of their lives. “And here I thought you might’ve forgotten about that.”

  Dean laughed. “So long as you don’t do it by yourself.”

  “Because you want to partake in the fun as well?”

  Dean glanced over, egg shell in one hand and the other resting on the edge of a glass measuring jug. “I just don’t want you doing this alone. That’s all.”

  Oh, that was all? “I’d be irritated, but I actually appreciate that.”

  Dean looked back at what he was doing. Ted caught the edge of a smile. “If we get a location for him, we’ll have to inform the FBI. Or they could argue we’re aiding and abetting him.”

  Ted made a face. “I’d rather just turn everything over to Conroy. Let him deal with it.”

  “So the Last Chance PD can make their case to convict West.”

  “I thought that was what we were doing.”

  “No, we’re getting Dad out of your life. West is a bonus.”

  Ted started to argue that he didn’t need his dad out of his life.

  Of course, Dean saw that and shot him a look.

  Ted closed his mouth. Then he said, “I never thought I’d be free of him.”

  “Now is the time to do it. To get him turned over to the FBI once and for all and hope they don’t lose him. Again.”

  Ted felt his lips twitch. “There’s actually an agent who lives in town here. He’s undercover. First as an investigator tailing Ed Summers, and then he moved his way up the ladder trying to get to the top.”

  “He hasn’t figured out who West is either?”

  “Conroy said that’s supposed to make us feel better, but I’m not exactly on board with that. You know?”

  Dean nodded. “Either way it means no one has a result.”

  Could they really get one by calling their dad? They would have to persuade him that rolling over on West was to his advantage. Not only that, but they’d have to trap him and bring him in after he told them the identity of the man they were after. Or get the FBI to capture him.

  It would be a double cross on top of a double cross. But worth it, if they pulled it off.

  “Let’s just get this over with.”

  Dean said, “Eat first,” and set a plated breakfast sandwich in front of him. It was so tall it almost toppled over.

  He took his brother’s suggestion and then decided he’d waited long enough.

  Ted pulled his phone from the front pocket of the backpack and returned the call from just a few days ago. Had it been so recent? In some ways it felt like weeks since he’d left that meeting with Basuto and Conroy. Now his dad was on the loose, and Ted might be able to get West.

  He put the call on speaker and Dean leaned against the counter while they both listened to it ring.

  “Took you long enough.” His dad’s voice was graveled, as it had been for years. He still smoked even now.

  “I’ve been busy running from goons sent by your buddy West.”

  His dad was silent for a moment, probably because Ted had never in his life talked to his father like that. Then he erupted with laugher and commented under his breath.

  “What is he giving you for killing Sally Peters?”

  “You tracing this call?”

  Ted said, “This isn’t a police operation. Dean is here, and he’s listening.”

  “Yeah?” Pierce Cartwright asked. “You listening, boy?”

  Ted’s jaw hardened. His brother didn’t look much happier. “Doesn’t matter. You’re running from the FBI. What do you need?”

  “You’re gonna give it to me?” Pierce paused. “Like I’m supposed to believe this isn’t a trap. Trying to convince them all you’ve gone straight. Wait till I tell all about who you really are.”

  “You don’t know the first thing about who I am.”

  “I don’t know all the things you’ve done?”

  “For you,” Ted pointed out. Just talking to his dad gave him a sick feeling in his stomach. Maybe that would always be the case, and Ted simply had to roll with it.

  Pierce chuckled.

  Ted said, “We want West. Tell us who he is, and we’ll give you whatever he promised.”

  “Maybe he already gave it to me.”

  “Did he?”

  Pierce grun
ted, audible through the phone speaker. “How do you know you can even pull it off?”

  “What is it?” Dean moved closer to the phone. “A new ID. Passport. Money. Transportation. What?”

  How West had the means to provide another identity, Ted didn’t know. Perhaps the money was Pierce’s in the first place—and killing Sally Peters was payment.

  “He’s been busy.”

  “Tell us,” Ted said. They knew West was busy. Pierce showing up demanding whatever he wanted probably didn’t help West stay under the police radar. It likely pointed more search lights in his direction.

  “He’s gonna fake my death.”

  “Done.” Dean didn’t look so amenable. At first glance, Ted thought he looked like he was volunteering to kill their father himself. To save anyone else the trouble.

  Ted mouthed, FBI.

  Dean shrugged.

  “You think I’ll put my life in your hands, boy? After you told me the next time you saw me you’d kill me yourself?”

  Dean had told their dad that? Ted never knew. “We can convince everyone. We’re legit, and we have no reason to help you. We tell the FBI, the police, and whoever else will listen that we saw you die. You think they won’t believe us?”

  Pierce grunted.

  “You know we’re right.” Ted glanced at his brother, who nodded his approval. This was a good plan. They could pull it off, double cross their dad back into FBI custody, and find West. Ted would have his father out of his life for good.

  And maybe, just maybe, everything they’d achieved would mean the FBI would go easy on him when they assessed the issue of filing charges. Convicting Ted of being an accessory to everything Pierce Cartwright had done.

  “Make a plan. If I like it, I’ll do it. If not, you’ll never hear from me again.”

  “Fine.” Dean’s jaw flexed.

  Pierce hung up.

  “You think he’ll go for it?”

  Dean tipped his head to the side. “Maybe. Depends on what we come up with.”

  “So, how should our father die?”

  Twenty-One

  Jess shivered. Last time she’d stood on Ted’s doorstep, things hadn’t exactly gone well. At least this time Ellie was with her.