by B. J Daniels
She stared at him, realizing something else about him that was different. “You aren’t gay.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Why would you...”
He laughed, a sound that was so familiar and yet alien, that it sent chills racing down her spine.
“As male-female relationship-phobic as you were it was the only way I could get close to you,” he said. “You wanted a pal, someone whose shoulder you could cry on, someone you could open up to.” His expression soured. “But you certainly didn’t have that problem with Cade Jackson, now, did you?”
“I trusted you.”
“Yes, you did. Now, start climbing, sweetie, before I have to get angry with you.”
She turned toward the stairs. “Why are you doing this?”
“Can’t you guess?”
She stumbled on one of the steps.
“Careful,” he said behind her.
“Tell me all this isn’t just about the money.”
“Don’t turn up your nose at three million dollars. Like you said, I’m the best researcher you’ve ever known. I researched you, found out who you were. Imagine my shock when I discovered that nasty news about your father.”
“You used that to manipulate me.” She felt anger well inside her. It was all she could do not to go for the rod in hopes of catching him off guard.
“And it was so easy. This obsession you have with the Calhouns...” He tsk-tsked. “I just did what was necessary to get a job at your station and get close to you. I had faith in you from the beginning that you would come through for me.”
She’d reached the top of the stairs and turned in shock to stare down at him as his words registered. “The researcher position... Alfred’s accident—” Alfred Fisher, the station’s former researcher, had been killed after a fall down his basement stairs.
“Wasn’t really an accident. I just had to open up the job. And Alfred did give me a glowing recommendation before he died, which really cinched it, don’t you think?”
She felt sick. Bradley was insane. He’d killed Alfred—after forcing the poor man to write him a recommendation and all so he could get to her? She could feel the metal rod digging into her back. But the barrel of the gun was pointed at her heart.
Bradley shook his head as if reading her expression. “Please don’t make me shoot you, but I will since your part is really over. Now it’s all up to Cade Jackson,” he said calmly as he motioned her toward the room she’d just escaped from. “And you did an excellent job of motivating him, though I was a little surprised when you slept with him.”
She clamped down on her anger. He was looking for an excuse to kill her. As he’d said, her part was over. She turned and walked slowly toward the room, mind racing, the pieces starting to finally fall into place.
“My stalker in Texas?” she asked.
“Me,” he said with a chuckle. “I was afraid you were starting to get suspicious, though. After all, what is the chance of you stumbling across a story like the Starr Calhoun disappearance? So I framed Rachel and her boyfriend. You never liked her, anyway.”
“And the job in Whitehorse?”
“That was just a lucky coincidence,” he said. “I happened to see it. I’ve been following the Whitehorse paper for years. I kept thinking someone would find the money.”
She had reached the doorway to the room and turned abruptly to face him. “You’ve known about the money for years?”
“You disappoint me, Andi. I really thought, as super an investigative reporter as you are, that you would have figured it out by now.” He made a sad face. “I think it was getting involved with Cade Jackson. It took the edge off your instincts.”
Her head still felt filled with fog from whatever drug he’d given her not to mention the shock. She shook her head, trying to take this all in and make sense of it. “You’re the one who’s been giving me the information. Not Lubbock.”
He smiled. “Truthfully, Andi, I had my doubts that you could find the money. But I thought it was worth a shot. I knew I didn’t have a lot of time with Lubbock getting out soon. After neither Houston nor Lubbock had managed to find out where Starr hid the money, I knew I wouldn’t stand a chance, a stranger in town. And Lubbock was bound to head for Montana and screw everything up like he did the last time.”
“The last time?” she echoed, although she knew what was coming.
“He killed Houston, then lost his temper and killed Starr when she wouldn’t tell him where the money was. If he hadn’t gotten arrested when he did, who knows what fool thing he would have done?”
Her breath caught in her throat. She remembered what Bradley had said about suspecting someone had dropped a dime on Lubbock and that’s why he’d been picked up in Glasgow just northeast of Whitehorse.
“Lubbock, as you know, leaned toward brute force,” Bradley said, eyeing her neck. “You should thank me for saving your life. If I hadn’t made that call from your apartment and taken care of Lubbock...”
She stared at him, wondering why it had taken her so long to put the pieces together and suspected Bradley was right. Cade Jackson had clouded more than her judgment.
“You know what’s always bothered me?” she said. “Is who taped Starr and Houston planning the robberies without them knowing it. It would have had to be someone close to them, someone really close.”
He grinned at her. “Like one of them?”
* * *
WITH A WAVE of relief, the GPS picked up a satellite and Cade pressed the page button to get a list that included waypoints, as Franklin had instructed him.
He scrolled down to waypoints, pressed Enter and scrolled down to New, pressed Enter, and eventually scrolled down to the coordinates.
After pressing Enter, he put in the letters and numbers Grace had left for him.
He followed the rest of the steps, climbing out of the pickup, shielding the screen on the GPS unit as he grabbed his shovel out of the back of the truck, and moved toward the outcropping of rocks that had been in Grace’s photo.
On the screen was a compass ring and arrow, just as Franklin had said he would eventually get.
He walked in the direction the arrow pointed. At first he moved too fast, not giving the compass time to move. Numbers came up on the screen telling him what direction the spot was from him and how far so he’d know which direction to walk in.
He hadn’t gone far when he spotted the cave-like hole back in the rocks. Pocketing the GPS, he stepped in out of the falling snow, imagining Grace doing the same. She would have hidden the money in the fall.
With the shovel, he pried up several rocks that obviously had been moved to the side of the opening, knowing on a warm fall day he would be able to see the cabin from here, as well as the reservoir.
The money had been stored in large plastic garbage bags and covered with rocks, too many packages for him to take them all. Taking the GPS out of his pocket, he deleted the coordinates he’d put in and put it back in his pocket.
He covered all but two bags, which he lugged back down to his pickup. There was no way anyone could have followed him. Or now be watching. Not in this storm.
Now that he had some of the money, all he had to do was wait for the call. He’d never been good at waiting. All he could think about was Andi. His fear for her had grown during the past twenty-four hours.
From the beginning, he’d known she was up to her neck in this mess. A more suspicious person might think she was involved the way she’d found out about Grace being Starr.
He drove down to the cabin, deciding to wait there rather than drive back to town in this storm. He checked his cell phone to make sure his battery hadn’t gone dead before he went inside to wait.
* * *
ANDI LOOKED INTO Bradley’s pale blue eyes. She’d known he wore contacts. S
he just hadn’t known he’d worn brown ones to cover up his blue eyes. Just as she hadn’t known that he had put a dark rinse in his hair. Or that he wasn’t gay. Or that he was a liar, a master manipulator, a Calhoun.
“You’re the missing brother, Worth Calhoun.”
“Or Worthless, as my siblings used to call me,” Bradley said with a laugh. “Being the youngest boy, I was adopted by a nice, normal family. But after college, Starr found me. She and the rest of them were always trying to involve me in their crimes. They really lacked imagination.”
He had backed her to the doorway of the room. She put her hands behind her, leaning into the doorjamb, waiting for the right moment.
One thing she knew. She wasn’t going back in that room. Not if she could help it.
“Why didn’t Starr just give Lubbock the money?” she asked, hoping to keep him talking. Clearly he was proud of what he’d managed to pull off and wanted her to know all of the details.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said, “Starr was crazy about Cade, but I guess she thought she could have it all, the money and the man.”
“Or maybe she knew that if her brother got caught with even one of those baited bills, he would rat her out,” Andi said. “Three million wouldn’t have done it, anyway. She had to know that the minute the bunch of you went through the money, you’d show up on her doorstep to blackmail whatever else you could out of her.”
“I’ve got to hand it to you, sweetie, you do have a feel for the Calhoun clan,” he said with an edge to his voice. “But in the end, I will be leaving here with enough money to take care of me for some time to come.”
“You’re that sure Cade will find the robbery money?” It was the only flawed part of his plan and he had to know that.
“Actually,” Bradley said with a smile, “I doubt he will ever find the money. But after the way you charmed him, he’ll do whatever he has to do to save you—including digging into his own pockets.”
“Cade doesn’t have any—”
“You don’t really think he makes a living off that bait and tackle shop?” Bradley laughed. “Cade Jackson invested his share of the money his father gave him from the sale of the family ranch south of Old Town. He’s loaded. So see, either way, I knew you would come through for me.”
“You really do resent me, don’t you? All those jabs about you being a lowly researcher while I got to be center stage in the spotlight.”
“No,” he cried, mimicking the voice he’d used in Texas. “Although it did help when it came to the stalking part of the plan. Me? I shun the limelight for obvious reasons. If you were willing, I’d take you with me.” He reached out to touch her face with the tips of his fingers.
She swung her head to the side, away from his touch, and reached under her shirt to pull the thin rod from the back waistband of her jeans, but made no move to use it yet.
“Come on,” he was saying, “We’d be great together. I’ve often thought about what it would be like to make love to you.”
She braced herself, ready to strike. “Over my dead body.”
He laughed. “That would be all right, too.”
“After you get the money, what then?” she asked, already knowing. He couldn’t let them go. So far, he was the one Calhoun without a record. Like he said, he shunned the limelight.
He didn’t answer as he glanced at his watch. “Time to call your boyfriend.”
He held the phone to his ear, listened, then shoved the cell at her. “Find out if he has the money. Otherwise, make it perfectly clear that he’d better get it or you are going to die.”
She took the phone with her free hand, but the moment she touched it, Bradley jammed the gun into her side, making her cry out as Cade answered.
He snatched the phone from her, catching her off guard as he shoved her into the room so hard that she fell. She scrambled to her feet, the rod in her hand, but he’d already grabbed the key and slammed the door and locked it.
* * *
CADE DIDN’T ANSWER on the first ring. He let it ring twice more, picking up only before it went to voice mail. He checked the calling number. Blocked. “Yeah?”
He’d expected to hear Starr’s taped voice again. What he wasn’t ready for was Andi’s cry of pain. “Andi?” Another cry of pain, then a male voice he’d never heard before.
“Mr. Jackson, do you have my money?”
Cade had to bite down on his fury. “As a matter of fact, I do, but I will burn every last bill if you touch her again.”
The man laughed. “I don’t think you’re in a position to make the rules.” The man had a Southern accent. He wasn’t sure why that surprised him.
“I have three million that says I am.”
Silence, then, “I see why Ms. Blake has taken a liking to you. So you found the money. Congratulations. You and Ms. Blake have more than met my expectations.”
“I want to speak to Andi.”
“She’s fine.”
“Not good enough. I talk to her or we’re done here,” Cade said, half scared the caller would hang up.
“Maybe we’re done here.”
Cade held his breath, terrified that the next sound he heard would be the click as the connection was broken. But then again, there were those three million reasons for the man to work with him.
He heard a key turn in a lock, the creak of a door and then Andi’s voice.
“Cade?”
He closed his eyes, squeezing the phone in his hand as he dropped onto the arm of the couch and put his head down. He cleared his voice, not wanting her to hear his fear.
“Andi. Are you all right?”
“I’m—”
A door slammed. Andi let out a cry, this one sounding more like frustration than pain.
“Okay, you heard her,” the man said. “She’s alive, but if you want her to stay that way, then you’d better get me the money.”
Cade had had plenty of time to think while he was waiting for the call. “Here’s the deal. You come to me. You bring Andi. Once I see that she’s all right, I give you the money. I’ll be waiting for you at my ice-fishing shack. I have a feeling you know where it is. You’ve got thirty minutes before I start burning the money.”
“I’ll kill her,” the man snapped.
“I lost my wife and baby because of this damned money,” Cade shot back. “Thirty minutes or it all goes up in smoke, every last damn dollar.” He snapped off his phone, his hands shaking so hard he dropped it.
When the cell phone rang a few seconds later, he kicked it away, afraid he’d break down and answer it.
Andi. Oh God, Andi.
He prayed his bluff would work and that it wouldn’t cost him not only his life, but also Andi’s.
As he stepped to the front door of his cabin, he picked up the two bags full of money and headed for his fishing shack.
Chapter Sixteen
ANDI HEARD BRADLEY go berserk on the other side of the door, yelling and cursing and hitting the walls.
She’d heard at least Bradley’s side of the conversation through the door including the last part. I’ll kill her.
Fear rose in her as she heard the scratch of the key in the lock. She backed up to the far wall as the door swung open.
She knew that Bradley’s fury could mean only one thing. Cade had found the robbery money. But apparently, he must have refused to pay Bradley to get her back.
Bradley’s plan hadn’t worked. She didn’t need to ask what would happen now. A part of her was glad Bradley wouldn’t get a dime. But she was now more than dispensable.
Bradley would have to get rid of her. She was the only person who knew of his involvement.
He stepped into the room, the gun dangling from the fingers of his right hand, his head bowed. He let out an exasperated sigh.
“I can’t imagine what my sister ever saw in that man,” he said and raised his gaze to her, “let alone what you see in him.”
She heard the jealousy in his voice. She said nothing as she swallowed the lump in her throat and waited.
Bradley seemed to brighten. “But the son of a bitch did find the robbery money—at least he says he did.” He shook his head. “God help him if he didn’t.”
Andi wondered what Bradley had been so furious about if Cade had the money and was willing to give it to him.
“Get your coat,” he said. “Your boyfriend is meeting us at his fishing shack.”
He picked up his cell phone from the hall floor where he’d thrown it but she knew he was watching her, probably expecting her to try to get away. She got the impression he wanted her to try. Not that he would kill her. Just hurt her.
If he was going to kill her, he would have already done it. No, he needed her. Cade must have demanded her in exchange for the money. She felt her heart soar.
Also she could tell, by the way Bradley said it, that the fishing shack hadn’t been his idea.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” she said, sounding as defeated as she could.
“Well, hurry it up then,” he snapped and checked something on his phone.
She stepped into the bathroom, making a show of turning her back to him. As she slipped behind the short wall, she hurriedly slid the thin metal rod into the top of her boot and pulled her jeans pant leg down over it. While it would be harder to get quickly, she knew there was less chance of it being discovered before she needed it.
She flushed, washed and came out to find him waiting for her. The look in his eyes told her as she pulled on her coat, hat and mittens that Bradley’s original plan had been that she would never leave this house alive.
* * *
AS CADE PREPARED for the worst possible outcome, he told himself he’d done the right thing.
He turned on the lantern, illuminating the inside of the fishing shack. With the door closed, though, whoever had Andi wouldn’t know for sure if he was inside or not.
