Dangerous Memories

by Intrigue Romance

  “I shouldn’t have left her.”

  “You were shot.”

  “Scratched.”

  “I don’t know why I’m trying to make you feel better. You’re the one that owes me eternal gratitude.” Lanning answered his phone on the second buzz. A few seconds in and he faced the door, lowering his voice.

  It didn’t take a great investigator to figure out the news wasn’t good. Levi rang for the nurse and swung his legs from under the blanket.

  “Can I help you?” a voice said through the speaker.

  “I need this IV out now.”

  “Mr. Cooper, the doctor wants to keep you overnight—”

  “Not happening.”

  “If you can’t walk, you aren’t leaving,” Lanning said.

  “I’m leaving.”

  “Then let’s get you out of here.” Lanning swung the door open and waved his arm at the nurse station. “We’re leaving. Get him some clothes.”

  Things happened at a swift pace when an FBI Agent made demands. Levi opened his mouth to ask about the phone call and Lanning shook his head.

  “No one saw her after I left?” Levi asked as soon as they were in Lanning’s truck. “You shrugged off that she’d heard a woman in the garage who seemed to be in charge.”

  “Blame me. Cuss me. Whatever. But do it later. Work with me. We’ll be at headquarters in a few minutes. They’ve assembled security footage, cameras from area buildings, along with footage we gathered from the event at the Arts Academy.” He raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I took her seriously. We were already cross-referencing to see if someone had anything to do with Miller or Phillips and came up with two possibles.”

  “Glad you’re on top of it.” That was as close to an apology as Lanning would get from him. “What about the GPS signal? She may still be transmitting.”

  “Barlow, Atkins still has the transmitter. Get its location.

  Levi removed his phone from the bagged items, cursed himself while it powered up, and keyed open the tracking site. “Turn around. She’s at the Frasiers’ old house.”

  “This is Special Agent Lanning and I need units dispatched to...”

  “Hang on just one more time, Jo.”

  * * *

  JO HAD NEVER had a serious hangover in her life, but if she had to imagine how one would feel...this was it. Groggy, she stayed on the passenger seat with no desire to move. Each time she did, pain shot through her skull in every direction.

  The door opened and she rolled her head to look straight into a gun barrel.

  “Wake up and walk. It’s time for us to...chat.”

  Jo sat forward with a little less discomfort than the first time she’d tried. The effects were wearing off, but she was still wobbly when she stood. Her wrists, on the other hand, were quite raw from the rope twisted on top of the cuts left from the handcuffs. They were inside a home garage with the outside door shut.

  “Who are you?”

  “You don’t remember me, dear? That would have been good to know several months ago. Before I began looking for you and your father.”

  “What do you want?”

  “Why, the carving, of course.” She pointed the pistol toward the door leading inside the house.

  “Your men handed it to you at the van.” This was her house. The surroundings were familiar even though she didn’t recognize anything specific. Stepping inside, she’d be near the kitchen. “I can’t go in there.”

  “Let me make things a little clearer for you.” The woman took a step closer and yanked Jo’s head back by the roots of her hair. “You will go in and have a seat at the kitchen table. You will tell me where you left the carving. I have no use for incompetents.”

  Jo twisted her head free from the woman’s grasp. She hurt more from the drug aftereffects and the loss of control to her runaway life. She faced the older woman, determined to get free and put an end to the madness.

  “I will shoot you,” the woman took a step back, bracing herself against the car.

  There wasn’t a way to knock the gun free. There was nowhere to run except through the house. She could feel the GPS locator still in the bottom of her jeans pocket and hoped the FBI knew she was missing. The door was unlocked and she slowly moved inside, unsure of what might be waiting.

  Each time she’d faced a dark memory from this place, she’d shut down and gone on auto-pilot. Time to confront her demons. Her parents’ murderers were dead or in jail. She could do this. She could conquer her fear of the unknown and her life would be different.

  Entering the kitchen, she was surprised it was so full of light. She immediately had a sense of fear, just like before with Levi. This time he wasn’t here to guide her through a blackout.

  There’s no reason to try to remember. You have answers. You found the murderer. Concentrate on the here and now...not the past. The gun stuck in her back kept the present very close.

  “Sit in the chair. I’m not in the mood to be toyed with girl. We both know there’s a second dog. I want to know what you’ve done with it.”

  “Who are you?” Jo asked. “Why did you kill my parents?”

  “Mrs. Albert Price-Reed, but Mrs. Price will do. Your parents were intent on destroying me.”

  Jo sat in a chair. Before she could focus her gaze, Mrs. Price whacked her across the temple with the butt of the gun.

  “A reminder that I’m asking the questions and expect answers.”

  It took Jo a second to get her head to stop spinning. “We both know you’re going to kill me...” Come on, Levi, you do the hero thing and make sure to save me. The sooner, the better.

  “I’ve been at this in real life for over thirty years.” Mrs. Price took a step back and laughed. “I’d like to fill you in, but I just don’t have time.”

  Jo looked closer at the woman. She wore heavy, thick makeup and although her silver hair was thinning it was puffed up on top of her head. With the lights behind her it appeared almost...blue.

  “You’re...you’re the Rainbow Man. Those men didn’t kill my mother, it was you!”

  “Are you still obsessing over rainbows like a child?”

  “Why didn’t you kill me back then?”

  Price’s lip turned up in a sneer. “An off day, I’m afraid. I didn’t verify that you or your father were actually dead. I left it to Tweetle Dumb and Tweetle Dumber. A mistake that’s been hanging over my head for twenty years. We found one statue but not the other.”

  “There’s nothing inside. The large one doesn’t have a secret compartment.”

  “How little you know. Where is it?” Price demanded.

  “I imagine the FBI has it by now.”

  “Then you’re of no use to me.” She turned her back on Jo and crossed to the corner table, picking up a long-bladed knife.

  Jo should have lied, told the old woman that she could take her to the carving. The answers to questions that had haunted her entire life were behind those thin lips.

  “You killed my parents for family carvings?”

  “Carvings? No. Your mother planned to expose me.” She set the gun down on the counter, selecting a knife, waving it next to her ear. “My father had been doing business with Elaine for years. When he...died, I took over with improvements. Everything was going fine until the digital era hit. Your mother hired someone to create a database and when the information came together, she discovered I had dummy corporations, et cetera, et cetera.”

  “It doesn’t sound like a reason she’d need witness protection.”

  “You do like to talk, don’t you?” She pulled knives from the wooden block, examining each tip and edge. “She discovered how we’d duped the government and then covered up the loose ends.”

  “You mean by killing more people?”

  Distract her. Keep her talking until Levi arrived. Or she could free herself. Honestly, the drug she’d been given had her skeptical of standing for long. All she had to do was wake up the next door neighbors. Surely she could outrun this blue-haired, heart
less killer to the next house. Keep her talking and distracted.

  “What do my father’s carvings have to do with any of this?”

  “Robert was very good with his hands.” She laughed, deep, almost hysterical. When she finished she dabbed at the corner of her heavily lidded eyes. “Your mother treasured those two carvings above everything else. One here, one at her office. When they were missing after your family’s deaths, I suspected that’s where she’d hidden the evidence. Then we found one in that birdhouse. But only one and nothing was inside. So where is it?”

  “Why kill my father? Or me? We didn’t know any of this.”

  “I didn’t know how to ask before recently.” She flipped the knife over and over, staring at the blade while the light reflected onto the wall. “You aren’t expecting a last-minute rescue, are you? Isn’t your boyfriend in the hospital?”

  The psycho was right. She’d been hoping and praying that Levi would follow the tracker. Without him, no one knows to look for her. That settled her inner debate. Even woozy, she should be able to defeat this frail sicko.

  “You won’t get away with killing me. You can’t walk into a room, commit murder and not leave evidence.” If she could just get the witch frassled, she could get out the garage door. “It’s the age of technology. Even if you wore gloves, your DNA is dropping clues everywhere you walk. They’re already on my clothes. They’ll find a connection and you’ll spend your last days on death row. Texas does have the death penalty, right?”

  “Impressive and exactly the reason I plan to destroy everything. It’s time I turned a profit on this property.” The woman captured the look of a calm, deadly killer. Her mother’s murder hadn’t been rage or an accident. This woman enjoyed killing.

  There wouldn’t be any mercy or change of heart from this geriatric psychopath. Jo would be murdered if she didn’t find a way out of the house. She jerked at the rope tying her hands.

  The click-clack of heels coming toward her across the bare floor drew her focus on escape. She braced one leg on the floor and got ready to kick. It had worked in the van to buy her time. Hopefully it would again. The woman approached, knife ready to slice. Jo lashed out. The woman screamed, and bent in half before falling to her knees.

  Jo jumped up and kicked again, running toward the counter where Price had laid the gun. It wasn’t there. She’d moved it. Where? Was the loud scream from her or the crazed woman running at her across the kitchen? Jo grabbed something off the counter, threw it using both hands. Then some type of figurine. And then a small dish while backing out of the room, holding off the advancing knife.

  Then she recognized the steel barrel in her grasp. She fumbled, twirling it to fit in her grip. She saw the blade out of the corner of her eye, headed toward her shoulder. She swung her arms that direction, heard the metal hit the tile floor. Price followed the knife.

  “Stay there,” she yelled. “I will shoot you!”

  “You can’t do it,” Price said from the floor.

  “It’s hard not to pull the trigger. You murdered my parents.”

  The woman reached again for the kitchen knife she’d planned to cut Jo’s throat with. Jo wasn’t threatened, but she tilted the gun to the ceiling and squeezed off three rounds.

  Price’s silvery, elderly skin froze in an astonished look of surprise. Jo aimed the gun once again at the murderer.

  “As much as I hate you, I’m going to let the neighbors call the cops. I’m going to answer all their questions. I’m going to testify. I’ll go back into witness protection if that’s what it takes to put you in prison for the rest of your miserable life. Sit tight or I’ll blow a hole in your arm, but I won’t kill you. I want you to rot.”

  Jo must have sounded a lot more competent than she felt. Or maybe Price was just waiting for her to keel over from the exertion. Minutes passed without Price moving a muscle or uttering a sound.

  “Plano PD. Drop the weapon.”

  “This woman drugged and kidnapped me,” Jo said. “George Lanning at the FBI will—”

  “I’m Judge Albert Price’s wife. Arrest that woman for assault.”

  Sirens. Someone cut her hands loose. She sat.

  Jo remained silent while Price jabbered about her abduction from a fundraising dinner. Everything was hazy. Jo drifted back to rainbows twirling around the kitchen. A dark-haired woman, laughing and smiling at her. A younger, happier dad swooping her into his arms and dancing with them both.

  That was the memory she’d keep and remember for the future. Price had tried to steal her family and failed.

  “You okay, Jo?” The voice she so desperately wanted to hear spoke close to her ear. Her hero, no matter how much he hated movie comparisons.

  The FBI had arrived along with a perfectly healthy Levi. She’d done it. Her parents could rest. So could she. Levi took her into his arms and got her outside. It might have been the impact of whatever drug was still in her system, the blow to her head or just the fact no one was trying to kill her any longer. But she was suddenly cold and shivering.

  “Hang on, Jo. We’ll leave as soon as the EMTs get you checked out.”

  There were questions and shouts. Raised voices. Blurs around her that she knew were law enforcement. She kept her face in Levi’s chest, unable to watch.

  “How’s she doing?” someone asked, maybe George.

  “She’s in shock. Where are the EMTs?”

  She wanted to reassure Levi she was okay. She was exhausted and just wanted to get out of there.

  “Stay with me, Jo. Lanning, I need your keys. We aren’t waiting.” He lifted her into his arms.

  Tight and secure she was able to look long enough into those dark eyes and see none of the chaos around her. “Don’t let go.”

  His lips lingered on her forehead for just a moment, then he smiled crookedly. “I won’t, Jo. Not ever.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “I thought I’d lost you,” Levi whispered into Jo’s hair and leaving another feather-light kiss.

  The doctors were finished. Her wrists had been cleaned and bandaged. Bruises on her temple and jaw were darkening. Levi sat in the hospital bed with her sleeping cradled in his arms. He could lift her into the second patient bed, but she seemed comfortable enough curled to his side, legs stretched across him, cheek resting on his chest. It was more for his benefit than her security, and it had helped her fall asleep.

  One of Lanning’s agents was at their room door. He could drift off, catch a nap, knowing she was safe. His witness—that wasn’t a witness—was finally under his protection.

  “Good morning.”

  “Lanning.” Levi opened his eyes. He must have really slept. Sunshine poured through the window. He squinted at the clock. “Ten o’clock?”

  Jo snuggled a bit more adding a little groan of protest when he shifted his arm.

  “Your phone’s off. Turn it on. Boss lady called to say she wants you on the first plane back to Denver. You’ve been reinstated.” Lanning made himself comfortable in the corner chair. “I think she wants to be awake for this.”

  “I’m awake. I was hoping you’d feel guilty and maybe leave.” She sat next to him on the bed.

  Levi moved his arm and meshed his fingers through hers to keep her next to him. That second bed could stay empty. She accepted his unspoken direction and tucked the blanket closer around her legs.

  “Docs said you can both leave the hospital soon. Question is...where do you go?” Lanning held up his hand. “Hold on. Before you go jumping down my throat, Cooper, I’ve arranged protective custody for your girl until the trial or we determine that no one else wants her out of the picture.”

  “Is that really necessary? I don’t even know why Price-Reed wanted my family dead or what it was about.”

  “That I do know. Carol Price-Reed was the wife of a Dallas County judge and daughter of a Texas real estate giant who was greedier than either of the men in her life.” Lanning tapped the thick file on his lap. “They’re having a field da
y discovering all the crooked business dealings she’s been associated with over the past thirty or forty years. So many illegal companies that they’re splitting up jurisdiction. The names inside the dog were the missing connection.”

  “Dad left a clue? Why didn’t you tell me?” She faced Levi, accusing him of withholding information.

  “Wait a minute. You sort of took off on your own before I found it and I’ve been a little busy rescuing you.”

  The bed that had barely been big enough to hold them suddenly had a lot more room as Jo pulled away to the edge.

  Lanning cleared his throat and they both turned back to him. “The names provided by your father, Miller and Phillips, appear to be as innocent as your mother. Connecting the banker, the appraiser and the title work your mother sometimes did, unraveled all the carefully twisted lies and layers of dummy corporations.”

  “Why didn’t anyone make the connection earlier and what stirred the pot for another investigation last year? Is Jo still at risk?”

  “Did the mute survive? And is Price-Reed talking yet?” Jo asked at the same time.

  “I knew you’d have questions.” Lanning smiled at Jo. “They both lawyered up as soon as the cuffs were on. The mute and his brother were ID’d from their prints and a long list of wrongs as Sonny and Tommy Smith. Seems Judge Price kept them out of prison more than once, probably had something to do with the investigation twenty years ago. Sonny’s lawyer says he has evidence to put Price-Reed away for the rest of her days. They’re talking to the DoJ.”

  “Then why do I need to go into hiding?” Jo’s body stiffened, her hands going to the edge of the blanket, ready to pull it back and stand.

  Levi shifted, holding her hand tighter, shaking his head to discourage her leaving his side. “After what you’ve been through, I’d think you’d welcome it.” He had to convince her to take the protection. No matter how much he wanted her next to him, this was the only way to assure her safety. She had to understand.

  “I think I’ve proven that I can take care of myself.”