For the first time since she started throwing out theories Rowan actually wondered if she’d somehow missed a big piece of the puzzle. The Leighann sitting in front of her seemed like a different person from the one she’d met on the deck that first day. She seemed completely opposite from the woman Rowan interacted with multiple times during the duration of her stay.
Rowan’s distress only grew at the realization, although she did her best to hide it.
“If it’s not about a cheerleading competition, what is it about?”
“Oh, so many things.” Leighann’s chuckle was evil and deliberate. “You’re nowhere near as smart as you think you are. That’s what brought you to this lowly end.”
Rowan pursed her lips. “If this is my end, you have no reason not to tell me what you were up to. That only seems fair, right? I mean … if you didn’t take Gabby because of the competition, why did you take her?”
“Because she’s worth a lot of money.” When Rowan didn’t immediately respond, Leighann barreled forward. “I don’t personally get it either. The girl has terrible breeding and no pedigree. Still, she’s worth a lot in some circles.”
“And we’re back to trafficking,” Rowan muttered under her breath, flustered. “You took Gabby to sell her.”
“I certainly didn’t take her to spend time with her.”
“But … why? You’re rich.”
“And this is how I stay rich.” Leighann was matter-of-fact. “Don’t you understand? The financial collapse of 2008 decimated many portfolios, including mine. Bernie Madoff might have gotten the most attention but there were a number of people just like him and when they were finished, a lot of the people in upper-echelon financial circles found themselves in ruins.”
“So you decided to start stealing girls and selling them?” The story made no sense to Rowan. “How did you even find a group of sexual predators to sell to?”
“Not sexual predators.” Leighann’s mirth disappeared. “Don’t be gross.”
“Why else would you be stealing girls to sell?”
“Domestics, you ninny.” Leighann rolled her eyes as she shifted her legs. “People don’t have the money they used to have to spend on help. That’s on top of the fact that importing a domestic from another country has turned into a sticky situation. It’s better to get them locally and train them up.”
“But … .” Rowan had no idea where to start. “This clearly isn’t the first time you’ve done this.”
“Of course not.” Leighann was blasé as she leaned back in her chair, unbearably smug. “It started simple enough. I got together with a few friends and we discussed our predicament. One of the women had a nephew who floated an idea past us. Our part of the deal was that we would deliver girls – or at least tell the runners where to find them – and in exchange we received free help in our own homes.”
“So you have kidnapped girls living in your house?”
“Oh, no, that would be a stupid way to go about things. No, we contract with our … um, friend … and he brings a cleaning crew by every day. They split up the girls into teams and have people watch them.”
Things started to slip into place for Rowan and she felt even worse than she did at the beginning. “And you think all of these girls you helped the nephew grab are being turned into domestics, huh? Do you honestly believe that?”
“I was very clear when I said I didn’t want any perverts getting their hands on them.”
“Oh, well, I can see where kidnappers would adhere to a strict moral code,” Rowan drawled. “You clearly have nothing to worry about.”
“I don’t believe I do.”
“Well … .” Rowan broke off and ran the operation through her head. “It still doesn’t entirely make sense. Where is Gabby?”
“She’s around.”
“Where?”
“It doesn’t really matter as far as you’re concerned,” Leighann replied. “You can’t help her. She’s beyond your reach now. In fact, because of you, we’ve had to change our plans. We need a scapegoat, you see, and you’re our best option.”
“You think you’re going to blame this on me?”
“I think that you’ve shown an unnatural interest in Gabby from the start,” Leighann corrected. “She’s being transported to your room right now. You’ll get the blame and we will be able to walk away unscathed.”
“We?” Rowan wrinkled her forehead. “Who is we? I figured you weren’t doing this alone, but it’s very clear you’re here alone.”
“I hardly think it matters who I’m working with.”
“Let’s just say I’m curious.”
“And let’s just say I don’t care.” Leighann was firm. “You don’t understand the predicament you’re in, do you? If you’d just forgotten about that stupid girl we could’ve let this go. You refused … so here we are. This is really on you.”
“No, it’s on you.” Rowan refused to back down despite the way her heart hammered and her breathing became more ragged. “You’re moving Gabby to my room right now. That’s good for her and I’m glad. How do you expect to get away with all of this once she starts talking, though?”
“She’s been drugged for the duration. That’s the only way to keep them quiet. She hasn’t even opened her eyes since we moved her the first time.”
“You’ve kept her drugged with chloroform this entire time?” Rowan moved to stand, but one look at Leighann told her it was a bad idea so she forced herself to remain sitting. “You could damage her brain by doing that. We need to make sure she’s okay.”
“Oh, darling, you don’t seem to understand.” Leighann’s lips curved in amusement. “We don’t need you alive for your part of the story to play out.”
“I’ve already figured that out.” Rowan refused to show fear. “You can’t very well frame me if I’m alive to counter the argument.”
“Oh, so you are smarter than you look. Good.”
“There are a few problems with your plan, though.” Rowan forced a smile, hoping it would be enough to unsettle Leighann. All she had to do was keep the woman talking and wait for Quinn to read his text messages. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be long. Quinn wasn’t known for ignoring his texts. Of course, he was also in the middle of an interrogation and probably didn’t want to be interrupted. Rowan silently lambasted herself for not taking that into account.
“There are problems with my plan? I assure you, that’s not the case. This is my plan and I’ve thought everything through.”
“Except the part where Quinn and I spent every night together in my room since Gabby went missing and she very clearly wasn’t in there because there’s no place to hide her without anyone noticing.”
Leighann stilled. “No, that’s not right.”
“Oh, it’s right. It’s the truth.”
“No, that’s definitely not right.” Leighann’s lips pursed to the point where it looked as if she was sucking on something sour. “I have it on good authority that you have been sleeping in Mr. Davenport’s room. That’s why we picked you to frame in the first place.”
“And whose authority is that?”
“I … well … .”
Rowan figured it out on her own. “Your partner told you that.” She absently scratched at the back of her neck as she tried to muddle through the rest of the clues. “You’re working with someone who told you a lie and agreed you had a good plan to set me up even though it’s the weakest plan ever. I wonder why someone would do something like that.”
“I … that’s not what’s happening.” Leighann was befuddled. “It’s not. We agreed this was the best possible plan.”
“No, you agreed,” Rowan shot back. “You came up with this plan – which is as boneheaded as they come – and your partner encouraged you because he or she had a different plan.”
“What plan?” Leighann practically screeched the question. “What plan could be better than the one I came up with?”
“The one I came up with,” Claire announced, walking out
from behind one of the display walls with what looked to be a flare gun in her hand. Rowan audibly gasped when she realized exactly who Leighann was working with … and then she started to panic. Claire was a lot stronger and quicker than Leighann. She was also armed. That meant she was a real threat.
For her part, Leighann was still struggling to understand the twist in the tale. The look she shot Claire was right out of a daytime sudser from thirty years before and she planted her hands on her hips as she hopped to her feet. “I can’t believe you didn’t think I came up with a good plan!”
“And I can’t believe you’re still this stupid twenty-five years later,” Claire shot back. “It doesn’t matter, though. I have limited time and you’re one of the loose ends I have to tie up. I wish I could say I’m sorry that it ended this way ... but I’m not.”
Realizing what Claire was about to do, Rowan opened her mouth to draw the woman’s attention away from her prey. It was already too late, though. Claire fired the flare gun in such close proximity to Leighann’s head that all Rowan could make out was a sizzling sound before smoke started pouring from Leighann’s eyes as she toppled to the floor.
Claire watched her partner fall with a detached cynicism that threatened to make Rowan throw up. “That was kind of funny, huh? The noise was weird and the look on Leighann’s face when she realized I was about to win was hilarious. I could do without that smell, though.”
Claire waved a hand in front of her face and cleared the smoke before stepping over Leighann’s body and focusing on Rowan. “Now I guess you and I should probably talk, huh?”
QUINN HAD HIS MEN ready for Johnny and David as they meandered down the hallway leading to Leighann’s room. They pushed a room service cart between them, a sheet draped over it to cover the bottom shelf, and Quinn waited until they were right in front of Leighann’s door – backs turned – to pounce.
Neither man had time to draw a weapon and they recognized they were vastly outnumbered from one glance.
“Don’t even think about reaching into your pockets,” Quinn hissed, his eyes flashing as he pointed a gun toward Johnny. “Look under the sheet, Trevor.”
Trevor did as instructed, pulling his head back out and nodding after only two seconds. “She’s here and she’s alive. She’s unconscious, though. I think she’s been drugged.”
“We need to get her to the medical wing,” Quinn ordered. “Two of you can do that while the rest of us transport our new friends to the interrogation room. They have a few questions to answer.”
“I want a deal,” David announced, taking Quinn and Johnny by surprise.
“Keep your mouth shut,” Johnny snapped. “You know better than talking out of turn.”
“David ignored him. “I seriously want a deal. I have information that’s important to you.”
“What information could you possibly have that I care about?” Quinn scoffed.
“Your girlfriend. Claire is with her right now. Leighann was trying to set her up as a patsy, but Claire knew that would never work and was trying to set up Leighann instead. For the plan to work, your girlfriend needs to die so Claire can claim she killed Leighann while trying to save your girlfriend.”
Quinn struggled to stay on his feet. “Where? Where is this going down?”
“Some salon.”
Quinn knew exactly what salon David was referring to and instantly broke into a run. “Lock them up. Some of you come with me.”
“What about my deal?” David bellowed.
“You’d better hope nothing has happened to Rowan because, if it has, I’ll kill you myself and you won’t have to worry about a deal.”
ROWAN’S MIND WAS going a mile a minute and her heart rate matched the pace. She stared, agog, at the calm and collected Claire as she tried to put things together.
“You were working with Leighann.” It seemed like a stupid statement, but disbelief was the prevalent emotion – right next to fear – working its way through her trembling body.
“It does seem rather unlikely, doesn’t it?” Claire kept the flare gun clutched in her hand as she smoothed her suit. “How much did she tell you?”
“She said you were kidnapping girls to help with your financial difficulties.”
“It’s true. We’ve been doing it for years. We had enough to live on at first – and there was always the hope that we would get at least some of our lost money back – but six months ago it became apparent that wasn’t going to happen.”
“I never heard anything about you guys losing money.”
“That’s because we worked very hard to keep it on the down low,” Claire explained. “The circles we run in don’t care about misfortune. We would’ve been cut loose right away if the others found out.
“Trust me, working with Leighann was not my first choice,” she continued. “I honestly do hate her. She’s a terrible person. Everything I said to you was the truth. I hate her. I also find joy in messing with her.”
“You brought the girls you sponsored as cover, though,” Rowan argued. “You intended for all of them to go missing, didn’t you?”
“That was the plan, which Johnny screwed up when he grabbed Gabby far too early. I don’t know what he was thinking. He said the opportunity arose and he just took it. He didn’t think anyone would notice she was missing.”
“I noticed.”
“Which is why we’re in this predicament.”
Rowan swallowed hard. “Is Gabby still alive?”
“Of course. I have no interest in killing anyone.” Claire sounded so logical it was hard for Rowan to wrap her head around the woman’s dastardly deeds. “None of these girls were being used for the things you believe they were being used for. They were simply being turned out as cheap labor and being shipped out of the country.”
“Is that somehow better than what I’m imagining?”
“Probably not, at least in your book.”
“How do you know what your other partners were doing?” Rowan pressed. “How do you know they weren’t taking girls for other reasons and just not telling you what they planned to do with them?”
“I don’t. I choose to believe the better story because it’s the only way I can live with myself.”
“Can you? Live with yourself, I mean.”
“It hardly matters now. What’s done is done.” Claire heaved out a sigh as she stared at the ceiling. “Even now your boyfriend should be taking Johnny and David into custody. I ordered them to transport Gabby to Leighann’s room under the full knowledge that they would be caught.”
“We already searched that room. No one is going to believe Leighann had Gabby the entire time.”
“No one is going to believe any story we come up with,” Claire supplied. “I always knew that if one thread unraveled they all would. That’s what has happened now. I did my best to come up with the best outcome for all involved … and that is why we’re here.”
“So how do you plan on escaping? Are you going to kill me, lie and say Leighann did it, and then say you killed Leighann while trying to stop it?”
“No.”
Rowan was braced for a different answer. “No?”
“Johnny and David will try to make deals for themselves,” Claire explained. “I’m under no illusion that I can get out of this. It’s over. I will go to prison. I will cooperate with law enforcement – I kept records, after all – and hope for a deal. I’ve been prepared for this from the beginning, though. I’m hardly surprised this is where we ended up.”
Rowan remained baffled. “If you knew it would end like this, why do it in the first place?”
“That was the only life I knew. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I grew up poor and became rich. I was determined never to go back to that other life. I’m sure that’s not an acceptable explanation for you, but it’s all I’ve got.”
“So, what will you do now?”
Claire held up her hands when she heard the door open and Quinn’s voice fill the room as he desperately ca
lled for Rowan.
“Surrender. I have no interest in dying today.” She dropped the flare gun on the floor. “Make sure Gabby is okay for me, huh? She’ll never understand, but I truly am sorry.”
Rowan took a step back as the security team flooded the room, her eyes never leaving Claire’s face. “You’re only sorry you got caught.”
“True. I’m still sorry, though. It counts.”
“It doesn’t count.” Rowan shook her head as Quinn pulled her in for a bear hug, barely managing to hold back tears as he clutched her to him. “I’m okay.” She lamely patted his back.
“I was afraid when I realized what was happening,” Quinn said as he pulled back to study Rowan’s face. “Do you know everything that went down?”
“Yes.”
“Do you understand it?”
“I don’t think anyone could ever understand this.”
Quinn knew she was right. “It’s over now.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Yeah. It’s over. At least we have that going for us.”
20
Twenty
Rowan found Quinn working on his computer in her room shortly after they docked the next day. She’d spent the morning sitting with Gabby – and talking down the other girls who believed the world was ending now that Claire wasn’t around to serve as a chaperone for the competition – and she was exhausted when she kicked off her shoes and climbed onto the bed.
“You look tired, sweetheart.”
“I am tired.” Rowan covered her eyes with her forearm. “I think I still hear the whining echoing throughout my brain.”
Quinn snickered as he closed his computer and moved toward the bed. “They’re upset about not being able to compete, huh?”
“Oh, they’re competing.”
Quinn stilled. “They are?”
“They found someone willing to step in at the last minute and act as their coach. By the way, we’re expected at the venue to cheer them on in two hours so don’t let me fall asleep.”
Choppy Seas (A Rowan Gray Mystery Book 5) Page 19
