Obsessed (The Lizzy Gardner Series)

by T. R. Ragan

  After using a combination of twine and rope to tie him to the beam, she locked and bolted the garage from the outside.

  By the time Hayley climbed to the top of the Dumpster and looked inside, the dog had eaten half of the neighborhood’s leftovers. He looked up at her, his tail thumping against some cardboard as he quickly swallowed a wrapper from an old Whopper. She jumped in and got him out before he could eat any more crap. “That’s not good for you. You’re going to be sick.”

  “What are you doing in there?”

  Hayley looked over the edge. “Here, take the dog.”

  Kitally took the animal, but quickly put him on the ground. “He stinks. That’s disgusting. Why didn’t you tell me you didn’t have enough money for food? I would have brought you something.”

  “I don’t need food. It’s a long story.” Hayley climbed to the top of the bin, jumped to the ground. Dog followed her back to the apartment. So did Kitally. “Let’s go inside,” she said. “It’s going to be a long night.”

  CHAPTER 56

  Madeline was upstairs changing when she heard the doorbell. She prayed it was the police coming to tell her that they’d found Cindy or Megan—anyone. Cindy had already been missing for over twenty-four hours. Madeline’s nerves were shot. But when she peeked out the window, it was Debra Westlake’s car parked in front of her house. She grabbed a sweater and pulled it over her head before making her way downstairs.

  The doorbell wouldn’t stop buzzing.

  She prayed Debra had news about David. Although it didn’t make sense that she would come all this way to give her the news.

  She looked through the peephole before opening the door.

  Debra barged right in.

  Madeline looked around outside before shutting the door and locking it.

  Red in the face, Debra held a crumpled piece of paper in her trembling hands. She slammed the paper on the dining room table. “I want you to read this and then I want the truth.”

  Madeline read the letter aloud. “ ‘Dear Debra, we have never met but I think you should know the truth about Dr. Blair. She had an affair with your husband’ ”—she was committed to reading the thing aloud now, but her throat was constricting nearly shut—“ ‘two days before you were married. In light of your husband’s disappearance, I thought it was important that you know the whole truth. Sincerely, Concerned.’ ”

  Debra was pacing the room with her hands jammed into the pockets of her thick parka—back and forth, head down. When she realized Madeline had finished reading, she stopped and looked at her. “Is it true? Did you sleep with David two days before our wedding?”

  “Debra, it wasn’t like that. We spent one night together long before you two ever met.”

  “It’s written all over your face. You’re lying.”

  “It’s the truth.”

  “David would have told me if you two had slept together years before we met, but he never would have told me if it happened two days before we took our wedding vows.”

  Madeline couldn’t believe this was happening. All this time had passed and nobody knew about their one night together. Nobody. “We had been drinking. We both regretted it the moment it was over. It never should have happened. We didn’t want it to ruin our friendship, so we put it behind us, pretended it never happened.”

  Debra pulled out a gun and aimed it at Madeline’s chest. “You are a terrible person. You know that, don’t you?”

  “What are you doing?”

  Madeline’s phone began to ring in the other room.

  “Stay right where you are,” Debra told her.

  “Debra, whoever gave you that letter is the same person who’s been trying to discredit me.”

  Debra groaned. “Oh, give me a break.”

  “You don’t want to use that gun. What about your children?”

  “Shut up and tell me what you did with David.”

  Madeline tried to stay calm as she tried to think. “I swear to you, Debra, I don’t know where David is. I want to find him as badly as you do.”

  “Are you still in love with him?”

  How had it come to this? “I was never in love with David. We’re friends. That’s all we’ve ever been.”

  “I truly don’t think you understand what you’ve done, Madeline. All of these years, it’s always been about you. Madeline, Madeline, Madeline. I’m so sick of hearing your name. You would do and say anything if it was to your benefit.”

  “That’s not true. I’ve always thought of you and the girls as family.”

  Debra let out a short, caustic laugh. “I don’t want to hear it. You’ve ruined my life and my children’s lives. You deserve to die.”

  CHAPTER 57

  Tommy, Hayley, and Kitally had been racking their brains for hours. According to his ID, the guy tied up in the garage below them went by the name of Frank Briggs.

  Tommy was in the process of going through the contacts on Frank’s cell phone, writing down names and numbers, anything that might lead them to Brian.

  “I’ve searched his car,” Hayley said. “There isn’t one damn thing in there that will help us find Brian, but the strange thing is that I think I’ve met this guy before.”

  Tommy frowned. “Does the name mean anything to you?”

  “No, that’s the weird part. But he was one of Mom’s drug connections, I’m sure of it.”

  “I can’t find anything on Frank Briggs,” Kitally said. “It’s as if the guy doesn’t exist.”

  “Shit,” Hayley blurted. “His name isn’t Frank.” She paced the room. “I remember him now. His real name is Pete.” She snapped her fingers. “Pete Lasko. Brian went to a lot of trouble to cover his tracks.”

  “I would too if I were wanted for murder,” Tommy said.

  “Whatever his name is,” Kitally said, “I don’t like having him beneath us. I feel like we’re sitting ducks.”

  “I’m not letting him go until he tells me where Brian is,” Hayley said. “If you have a better idea, I’m all ears.”

  “We could put a GPS tracker on his car and let him go,” Tommy offered.

  Hayley shook her head. “Too risky. There’s no way I’m letting him go at this point.”

  “Let’s think about this,” Kitally said. “We need to know Brian’s whereabouts, plain and simple. So I suggest we take turns interrogating the man. I’ll go first since the asshole stole my Pop-Tarts.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Hayley said. “I’ll stand outside the garage door and make sure nobody comes around. Don’t remove the tape from his mouth unless you turn up the music. There’s an old boom box inside the garage.”

  For the next few hours, the three of them took turns trying to wear the man down, but he wouldn’t talk, even after listening to Kitally badger and threaten him with her machete for at least an hour straight.

  Hayley went last. She would have shot the guy or given him the waterboard treatment if she thought it would mean getting a chance to see Brian face-to-face, but a gunshot would alert the neighbors and the last thing she needed was for the police to get involved.

  Tommy looked up from his laptop when she walked through the door. “You think Frank/Pete came here to take you out?” he asked.

  Hayley nodded. “I’m sure of it. As soon as I saw him pull up and climb out of his car, I knew he wasn’t here to beat me up. For some reason, Brian decided sending a message wasn’t enough . . . the ten-thousand-dollar reward must have scared him.”

  “If that’s true, then I think we can assume Brian is going to be calling his boy sooner rather than later to see what happened.”

  “That makes sense,” Hayley said. “So what do you have in mind?”

  “When Brian calls, I can use information from a mobile infrastructure to track him down. We’ll also be able to listen in on his voice-mail messages and calls.�
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  “I don’t care who he’s talking to,” Hayley said. “I just need his location.”

  “This is perfect,” Kitally chimed in. “I don’t know why we didn’t think of it hours ago. There are a couple of ways we can handle this, but I suggest cell-tower triangulation.”

  “How long would that take?” Hayley asked.

  “Not long if we had a connection with Verizon or AT&T,” Tommy said.

  Kitally smiled. “Ask and you shall receive. I’ve had access to both for years,” she said. “We’ll need to use the computer room at my parents’ home in El Dorado Hills.”

  “It won’t work,” Tommy said, “unless we have access to MMC, MNC, and LAC codes, not to mention unique cell-tower ID.”

  “Not a problem.”

  “How close will you be able to track Brian?” Hayley asked, desperate to keep them on the real subject and away from technobabble.

  “If Tommy is able to find the coordinates of the three closest towers, we can pin Brian’s location down to what side of the room he’s standing in.”

  “Unless he has a decent cell phone jammer,” Tommy added.

  It couldn’t be that easy. “What if his phone is turned off?”

  Kitally shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. We can still track him.”

  “Won’t he know he’s being tracked?”

  “Nope, his phone won’t even ring. Even if he’s on a call, there’s less than a ten percent chance he would hear something odd.”

  “We could call his phone with a spoofed caller ID,” Kitally added. “If he doesn’t answer, we just enter his voice mail without a PIN—”

  “How would you enter it without a PIN?”

  “Just getting in to the point where it asks for the PIN is far enough.”

  “Right,” Tommy chimed in. “It’s all about fundamental vulnerabilities in the way mobile providers interoperate over the GSM infrastructure. There’s a weakness in the cell phone network . . . it all has to do with how these companies connect. They literally reveal entire interfaces to one another, which leaves them exposed and open for attack.”

  “It’s like attacking the Internet at router level,” Kitally said.

  Tommy agreed.

  Hayley was beginning to get a headache, but as long as they could get Brian’s exact location, she didn’t care if they talked like this all night. “What do we need to make this happen?”

  “We need to get to the computers in my father’s data center.”

  “Won’t your parents wonder what we’re up to?” Tommy asked.

  “Nah,” Kitally said. “They’ll be thrilled I have new friends. Wait until you see this room. We have HD data projectors, servers, scanners—the equipment is sweet.”

  Tommy looked at Hayley. “What do you think?”

  “I think we need to make this happen before Brian discovers what we’re up to.”

  “Once we find Brian’s location,” Kitally asked, “are we ready to go?”

  “We have explosives, guns, and knives,” Tommy said. “But what we don’t have is manpower. Three of us, and who knows how many of them.”

  “Hopefully we’ll be enough,” Hayley said. “Let’s do this.”

  CHAPTER 58

  Lizzy rushed out of the elevator and walked at a good clip to the nurses’ station. She needed to find Seth Brown, wanted to meet the man face-to-face and see what he had to say about taking the drugs. Maybe Tim Hughes had lied to her, but before she could call the police about either man, she needed to know exactly whom and what she was dealing with. She didn’t have much on either man. There was no way Detective Chase would believe a word she said without solid proof.

  Not one nurse was to be found in the nurses’ area. She glanced in the three hospital rooms closest to the counter where the nurses could usually be found when they weren’t with a patient. Nobody was there, so she went to the break room where she knew Margery liked to hang out. There she was, talking to another nurse.

  Margery skittered over to the door and told Lizzy the break room was for hospital personnel only.

  “That’s fine, Margery, but I have a quick question and I figured you would be the one to ask.”

  “What is it, dear?”

  “Do you know where I can find Seth Brown?”

  “He called in sick today. His wife, Janelle, would know where he is, but she’ll be in surgery for another hour at least.”

  “You wouldn’t happen to know where they live, would you?”

  “Oh, yes, indeed, but I couldn’t give out private information like that. Maybe if you tell me what this is about, I can give Seth a call.”

  “No, that’s OK,” Lizzy said. “I’ll come back later.”

  “If you’re sure,” Margery said. “Everyone’s been enjoying the treats you dropped off.”

  “I’m glad.” Before Lizzy left, she thought of something else and called out Margery’s name before she returned to her seat.

  Margery looked at her and waited.

  “I realize this might sound like a strange question, but you wouldn’t happen to know what kind of car Seth Brown drives, would you?”

  Margery shook her head, but another nurse sitting at a different table nodded her head while she finished chewing. After she swallowed, she said, “He drives a Honda Civic. The only reason I know that is because he hung a picture of it on the corkboard.” She pointed to the wall where Help Wanted signs and other random notes and pictures were pinned.

  Lizzy walked that way. Sure enough, there was a picture of the same car Mr. Whitton had seen in his neighborhood. Also included on the piece of paper pinned to the corkboard were little paper tabs with Seth Brown’s name and telephone number. “Mind if I take one of these?” Lizzy asked.

  “Are you looking for a car?” Margery wanted to know, as though suddenly suspicious.

  Lizzy ripped off one of the tabs. “It’s not for me, but this might be the perfect car for my niece.”

  The other nurse smiled. “Seth will be thrilled. He just put that up yesterday.”

  “Kitally, this is Lizzy. Is Hayley around? She didn’t answer her phone.”

  “She’s around here somewhere. Is there something I can help you with?”

  “That would be great. I need an address for Janelle and Seth Brown. For some reason, they’re not coming up on my database.”

  “No problem. Just give me a minute.”

  Instead of taking the elevator, Lizzy walked up the stairway to the fifth level of the parking garage where she’d parked her car. She passed a couple on her way.

  “Here it is,” Kitally said. “The Browns live in Sacramento.”

  “Can you go ahead and text me their address?”

  “Sure.” After a short pause, she said, “Done.”

  Lizzy reached the top of the landing and looked around.

  “Does this have to do with Madeline Blair’s stalker?” Kitally asked.

  “Yes, it does. I might have identified the man. I’ll update you and Hayley later. I’ve gotta go.”

  “OK,” Kitally said. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  Lizzy thought about calling Detective Chase, but she didn’t trust him. Her next thought was to call Jared, but he was out of town, so she decided to call Jared’s old FBI friend Jimmy Martin. She told Jimmy everything she’d learned so far about Seth Brown. Although she didn’t have any proof yet that he was Madeline’s stalker and the person responsible for five missing persons, she felt the need to let someone in authority know what was going on.

  She hung up the phone just as she reached the floor where she’d parked her car. Because she’d been in a hurry when she’d first arrived at the hospital, she couldn’t remember where she parked.

  She walked down a long row of parked cars, peering around the poorly lit, deserted garage. Then she inwardly scolded he
rself when she realized she could use her key fob to find her car. She held her key in front of her and pushed the unlock button. A beep sounded not far ahead of her—she was headed in the right direction.

  The moment she wrapped her fingers around the door handle, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.

  But it was too late.

  Something jabbed the back of her arm. She reached over her shoulder, yanked out what had stabbed her—a syringe—and tossed it away, already spinning and cocking one leg, but before she could kick her attacker, her leg buckled.

  She held on to her car to keep from falling to the concrete. A woozy sensation enveloped her, causing her to stagger as her attacker came at her. With the last of her strength, she jammed the palm of her hand into his nose.

  Blood spurted. He cursed.

  It was no use. Both legs gave out. Her body felt weightless as he picked her up, her limbs numb as he carried her and dropped her into the trunk of a car. Before the lid of the trunk was slammed shut, she saw a glimpse of madness: unkempt hair, bulging eyes, and a smirk of satisfaction playing on his lips.

  CHAPTER 59

  Hayley and Tommy followed Kitally inside her parents’ home.

  The house was massive, all marble columns and stone floors. According to Kitally, if you stood in the backyard, you could see 270-degree views of Folsom Lake. Hayley half imagined she’d find a heliport out there.

  Kitally’s mom greeted them. She didn’t look anything like Kitally. She was taller and big boned. The only features tying them together were the brown eyes and the wide smile.

  People were talking in the other room.

  After making quick introductions, Kitally got right to the point of their visit. “We need to use the computer room. We won’t be too long.”

  “That’s fine, dear. Come closer, though, so I can take a closer look at your face. The injuries are much worse than you let on. I think you need to give up skateboarding.”