“All right…” She had no idea where he was headed with this.
“And McAlexandar and Dimitre must still be communicating or he wouldn’t have been so shaken by Bates’s murder. He knew that Dimitre didn’t order the hit.” Terry paused. “Now we figure the warden was bought by Dimitre, but it was the last message given to Bates that got him killed. Or so it would seem,” he added quickly as she opened her mouth to speak. “The warden could have reported to someone other than Dimitre. He could have passed on the contents of the message to this person, and maybe they weren’t too happy. This person could have simply wanted to intercept the message and Bates was the collateral. Of course, we’re still left with the question of who and why.”
Madison nodded. “We really need to get access to Jeremy’s financials, even his cell phone activity.”
“Yeah, but we don’t have anything concrete on him. The signature for Bates in the visitor log isn’t a match to the warden’s handwriting,” Terry said. “And he could have kept in touch with Bates through the prison landline, so his cell records might not matter.”
“But they could tell us who else he is in touch with on his cell.”
“We still don’t have enough for a warrant yet,” Terry said again.
“He’s responsible for what goes on in his prison,” she snapped, exasperated.
“Hey”—Terry held his hands up as if in surrender—“I agree, but I’m not sure if a judge would sign off…”
Madison sat up straighter. “We don’t need a judge.”
“Uh, to get a signed warrant we do.”
Madison was shaking her head. “We can go about it another way.”
“Is it a legal way?”
She pressed her lips together. “We use the one thing against him that we can.”
“Which is?”
“His family,” she said. “Dimitre’s not the only one who can play that game.”
“I don’t know. We should be armed with more intel before we talk to him,” Terry cautioned.
“If we’re assuming the warden’s working for this other power figure in the mob, he could lead us to whoever is giving the orders now, and possibly even to Constantine himself.”
“Yeah.” Terry was bobbing his head. “But if we show our hand too soon, we’ll lose Constantine altogether.”
She chewed on that for a moment. He was right: it was too high a risk to ignore.
“Fine, then. We take what we have to the DA’s office, see if we can persuade them to sign a warrant.”
Terry shrugged his shoulders. “I guess it doesn’t hurt to ask.”
“Nope. And I’d still like to know why the visitor log was falsified at all. Why did they want to place Bates there the day before his murder? Everything these people do is for a reason.”
“And the reason for this?”
She met Terry’s gaze and locked on. “Maybe it’s just to let us know that someone else is in charge of the Russian Mafia now.”
-
CHAPTER
27
MADISON MASSAGED THE BACK OF her neck. She and Terry had been pouring over the client list that came in from Berger & Stein Accounting and looking into the various backgrounds for hours. They’d also filled out warrant requests for the warden’s cell activity and his financials. It had yet to be approved.
“My back is killing me,” she groaned.
“Tell me about it.”
“I would, but we don’t have time.” She pointed to the clock. It was ten minutes to three.
They both jumped up, ran to the morgue, and were pushing the door open with barely a minute to spare.
Richards’s gaze went straight to the clock on the morgue wall. “I was just about to lock the door.”
“Well, we’re here so you’ll have to save that fun for next time.” She smiled at him, and the medical examiner returned it.
Yasmine’s body was under a sheet on the slab in front of Richards. He took a gloved finger and pointed to the bullet wound. “The bullet was a nine-millimeter, and I’ve passed it along to Sam for analysis.” He paused. “It’s safe to rule the cause of death as being the GSW to the head,” Richards said, confirming what he’d initially deduced. “Now, there’s no sign that she was bound or any indication she fought back.”
“So she was asleep when she was shot, after all.” Madison’s stomach soured.
“I’d say it’s quite likely.”
Madison’s gaze went down to Yasmine’s lifeless form, and her mind skipped to Constantine, aka Kevin Jones. It also went to McAlexandar. “There were condom wrappers found in her bathroom, but is there any physical evidence that she had sex not long before she died?”
“I already took a swab from her, and there wasn’t any sperm present. If she had intercourse, it would appear that it was consensual and not rough.”
Madison nodded. “Do you have anything else for us?”
“Not yet.”
“Okay,” Madison said. “Let us know if anything else comes up. You know how to reach me.”
Richards nodded. “That I do.”
Madison’s phone rang just as she and Terry were stepping out of the morgue. She answered after looking at the caller’s identity and took a deep breath when she noticed it was her parents’ number. “Mom?”
“Madison, it’s your mother.”
“Yes, that’s why I said Mom,” Madison couldn’t help but say. “Are you okay?”
“I…uh, I received a strange e-mail.” Her mother sounded confused and a little scared.
She obviously wasn’t calling about spam. “What was it?”
“There wasn’t a message, only an attachment. Maddy, it was a picture of Chelsea, the girls, and Jim. I don’t know the sender.”
Tingles ran over her entire body and turned her insides to jelly. “Forward me the e-mail.”
“I’m worried. You called the other day, told me that someone threatened you.” Her mother fell silent for a moment. “Did they do something to my girls?” She sniffled. “Should I be worried?”
Hell yeah, you should be worried! But she couldn’t say that to her mother. Somehow she had to respond calmly.
“I’ll look into this right away, Mom. We will figure it out.”
“Check on Chelsea, will you? I couldn’t reach her. I only get her voice mail.”
Chelsea’s comment from the day before echoed in Madison’s mind: I can’t have something happen to my phone. If the girls or Jim ever need to reach me… She swallowed. “I want you and Dad to pack some things and head to a hotel.”
“You still haven’t answered my question.”
“Just get you and Dad into a hotel. Let me know where,” Madison said forcibly. “I’ll call the local police and update them on the situation.”
Terry was studying her, and she could tell he was trying to get a read on her face, her body language, and the conversation. Based on his intent gaze, he had figured out the call wasn’t to relay good news.
“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” her mother started. “Your father and I are coming up there. I should have bought tickets yesterday. We could be there now.”
“No, Mom.” Madison paled, hating the thought of her entire family being in Stiles when Constantine was. “Don’t.”
“Why, Madison?” she asked at a high pitch. “My girls are in danger! Why else would I get this picture? And there’s a circle around Chelsea’s head.”
The feeling of dread became suffocating at the new piece of information. What if the e-mail was sent to lure her parents to Stiles, to get them all in one place? Even the fact that Constantine had gotten her mother’s e-mail address was disturbing. It wasn’t like she was on Facebook. It would likely have been more difficult to get her e-mail than it would be to get her parents’ physical address. Constantine was showing Madison that h
e had no bounds.
“I’ll call the locals. Just send me the picture,” Madison repeated.
“I already have.”
Madison held out her phone and saw the envelope in the top left-hand corner. “If you don’t want to go to a hotel, just stay put, though, okay? Please?”
“No!” her mother spat. “We’re coming.”
Before Madison could argue again, her mother hung up.
“Just great…”
“What is it?” Terry asked.
As it sank in that her parents were coming to Stiles, she tried to convince herself it might not be a bad thing, after all. She could make sure they were all safe. But right now, her primary concern was Chelsea and her family.
“Talk to me,” Terry pressed.
“I think Constantine has my sister or maybe my nieces… I’m not sure.”
His eyes widened. “Why do you think that?”
“My mom received an e-mail with a photo attachment of my sister and her family.” Madison was working to open the forwarded e-mail, the panic and fear rising and making her hands uncooperative. Eventually she scrolled down within the message to see the address associated with its sender. It was a free account anyone could have set up, and the e-mail had been sent at 8:03 AM. It had taken her mother pretty much all day to see this.
She opened the attachment, and it was a photograph of a family portrait. It showed Chelsea, Jim, and the three girls. And just as her mother had said, there was a circle around Chelsea’s head. What was worse was that Madison recognized the picture. It sat in a frame on a table in Chelsea’s living room. The bastard had been in her sister’s place!
She dialed Chelsea’s phone, and it went straight to voice mail, just like her mom had said.
“No.” Madison’s insides turned cold.
“Maybe her phone is dead,” Terry suggested, “or she doesn’t have it on or with her.”
Madison shook her head.
“She’s under surveillance,” Terry went on. “So are your nieces and your brother-in-law.”
“Chelsea lost her tail yesterday. And her phone is her lifeline to Jim and the girls. She keeps it with her and charged at all times.”
Silence fell between them.
She might as well have been free-falling from thousands of feet in the air. She met her partner’s eyes. “Constantine was in my sister’s house.”
“Let’s just take this one step at a—”
“I’m not in the mood for some bullshit, Terry. This is my sister. I can’t reach her, my mom can’t reach her, and Constantine was in her house.” She held her phone up for him to see the picture. “That is in a frame in her living room.”
“Let’s move.” Terry sped down the hall. “We’ll go over there right now.”
She kept up with him. “I’m going to kill him.” Ice-cold fear mingled with resolve, gripping her tightly.
They made it all the way to the parking lot when she realized she needed to tell Troy what was going on.
She called his on-call cell, and he answered on the first ring.
“Something’s wrong,” she blurted out.
“Where are you? I’ll be right there.”
“I think Constantine might have Chelsea. Maybe the girls, also.” She told him about her mom’s call, the e-mail, the attachment, not being able to reach her sister. “He had to have been in their house.”
“Where are you?” he pushed again, disclosing stress and urgency.
“At the station, just about to go over to her place.”
“Where specifically? I’m here, too.”
“We’re getting in a department car now,” she said. “I’m sorry. We can’t wait.”
“We? Who’s with—”
“Terry.”
“Fine, but I’m meeting you over there,” he said. “Be careful, Maddy. This could be a trap.”
She couldn’t bring herself to argue with him.
-
CHAPTER
28
MADISON MADE A CALL FOR backup from the passenger seat of the department car while Terry drove. The closest cruiser would be sent to Chelsea’s place immediately. She also contacted the officers watching her nieces and brother-in-law and confirmed they were all safe and accounted for. Brie, the youngest, was at daycare. Lacey had left school with a friend and her family, and the officer who was assigned to watch her had followed behind. Marissa was still at the school. Jim was at work.
“Who was assigned to watch the residence?” she asked Dispatch.
“Officer Tendum.”
Madison clenched her fists so tightly, her nails dug into her palms. Tendum was a rookie in Madison’s mind, even though he’d be driving without a training officer by this point. She’d just recently forgiven him for an incident from earlier this year, but God help him if something happened to her sister because of his negligence.
“Did he leave his post at any time?” she asked.
“Let me see…” The dispatcher’s voice trailed off. “At seven fifty this morning he called in that he was stepping away and was given the approval to do so.”
Madison clenched her teeth. “He didn’t wait for a replacement?”
The dispatcher was quiet on the other end of the line, and Madison drew her own conclusion. The surveillance was in place, but it wasn’t around the clock.
“Thanks,” Madison hissed and ended the call. “Officers are being routed to Chelsea’s as a Code Three,” she told Terry.
Lights and sirens…
“Good.” He kept his eyes on the road. “Why did I sense a darkness come over the car, though?”
“Don’t even get me started.” Her skin was probably hot enough to fry bacon.
He flicked a glance at her. “Come on. Tell me what’s going on.”
“Tendum was assigned to watch her,” she said. “He called in this morning that he was stepping away.”
“And it was cleared?”
She was seething and too angry to respond with more than a jerk of her head.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Terry said.
“I wish I were.”
Terry turned down Chelsea’s street, and a cruiser was already out front. Madison spotted Higgins behind the wheel.
Seeing Higgins brought her some comfort because around him, she didn’t need to keep up the tough front. But a part of her still feared letting it down. She had to keep a level head, try to detach. After all, she didn’t know for sure that her sister was abducted. She hoped she’d be laughing with Chelsea over a cell phone mishap in just a minute or two. But Madison had this horrible feeling…
Higgins got out of his cruiser while Terry parked.
A quick assessment of the house didn’t show that anything had happened here, but she was going to reserve optimism until she got inside.
“Do you have a key?” Higgins asked her, keeping to the business of the matter. She appreciated him refraining from emotional inquires.
She pulled out her key ring. “I do.” She looked over her shoulder at the sound of more cars pulling up in front of the house. One was a cruiser, but it wasn’t Tendum behind the wheel, and the other was Troy in a police-issued SUV.
The officer stayed in his car, but Troy came rushing toward them.
“Have you gone in yet?” he asked her.
“Getting ready to.” She led the way down the front walkway. After studying the lock, she wouldn’t say it had been tampered with, and for a moment, she imagined her sister opening the door to Constantine and him concocting a ruse to get inside. Her hand froze with the key in the lock. What if she found her sister—
She couldn’t even finish the thought. She swallowed roughly and unlocked the door. Before she opened it, though, she drew her gun. Troy and Terry did the same.
“I’ll stay posted here,” H
iggins said, and Madison nodded.
She took the first step inside, and dread buffeted her, chilling her to the core but also urging her forward. Madison went straight to the garage-access door. She opened it—no car. Nausea gripped her gut. And sure, maybe her sister was out, but her phone being off and the mysterious e-mail… Constantine’s threat…
“He’s got her.” Her mouth was dry with fear, and her skin was clammy.
“Let’s clear the rest of the place,” Troy said.
The three of them spread out and searched the house. Troy went up, Terry went down, and she stayed on the main level. She headed to the living room first and went directly to where she knew her sister displayed the picture Constantine had sent her mother. Once she reached it, she found the photograph still in its frame. So he must have just taken a picture of it. She’d still make sure that Cynthia dusted the frame for prints, though. Next, she looked over at the computer on the desk in the corner and noticed the CPU light was on. She put on gloves, and walked over to turn on the monitor. The computer was already logged on, and in the bottom of the screen, Madison noticed an e-mail program. This could explain how Constantine found her mother’s e-mail address. She should probably have the keyboard, mouse, and monitor dusted for prints, too.
Troy came back downstairs once he’d checked the second floor. “It’s all clear, and there’s no sign of your sister.”
Where the hell was she?
She pulled off her gloves. “We have to call Jim,” Madison said, already dialing her brother-in-law. She really hoped that he could take personal calls on the job. If not, they’d have to show up in person. The phone rang about six times, and when Jim answered, he sounded so robotic that she wasn’t sure if it was him or a voice mail greeting.
“Madison?”
“Thank God, I reached you,” she blurted out. Then she realized maybe she was still jumping to a conclusion here. No matter how the coincidences were stacking up, she still didn’t know anything. Maybe instead of scaring Jim, she’d approach it from another angle. “I’m trying to reach Chels,” she said, trying to sound as casual as possible.
Power Struggle Page 19
