True Deceit (Blindsided Book 1)

by A. J. Carella

  “That can’t be a coincidence.”

  “Of course not,” she grinned. “And guess what else?”

  “Go on.”

  “The HQ for the Dentico Group is just an hour’s drive away.”

  “Then what are we waiting for? Good job, Lexi.”

  ***

  “So what was that all about back in Jenkins’ office?” Lexi asked as they left town and pulled onto the highway.

  “What do you mean?” he knew exactly what she was talking about but had hoped that she’d forgotten about it.

  “About your old boss calling and arranging for you to have some time off?”

  He took a minute before answering, not sure how much he wanted to tell her. “It’s an old case of mine. He needs me back in Boston to testify.” He glanced over at her. “It’s nothing, really.”

  “So if it’s nothing, how come you haven’t mentioned it, seeing as I’m your partner and everything?”

  “It just didn’t seem important,” he gave her a smile, hoping his answer would satisfy her. “But now you know.”

  She was looking at him as if she didn’t believe him but he kept his eyes firmly on the road. He wasn’t ready to tell her more just yet.

  “Okay.” she said, but he knew that the subject was going to come up again.

  “So what’s the plan when we get to this place?” she asked instead.

  “We shake the tree and hope something falls out.”

  The rest of the drive passed in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. The time seemed to pass quickly and they were soon pulling into the Dentico parking lot.

  The building was not very big and appeared to be set over three floors, each floor surrounded by glass windows reflecting the sun that had made an appearance for the first time in what felt like days.

  “Hi, I’m Det. Mitchell,” Elliot introduced himself as he approached the desk. “And this is my colleague, Det. Constantinou.”

  The woman gave them a polite smile. “How may I help you today?”

  “We’d like to see whoever is in charge of your Human Resources Department, please.”

  “That would be Miss Dever, I’ll see if she’s available. Please take a seat.” she waved them over to a grouping of steel and leather chairs in the lobby before picking up her phone.

  “Miss Dever? I have some police officers here to see you,” they heard her say as they sat down. They didn’t have long to wait before the elevator opened and a woman strode over to them.

  “Officers?” she held out a perfectly manicured hand. “I’m Miss Dever. How can I help you?”

  Elliot explained why there were there.

  “Well, normally, our records would of course be confidential, but under the circumstances I’ll see what I can do. Please accompany me.”

  They stood and followed her to the elevator where she pressed the button for the third floor.

  She didn’t speak again until the elevator doors opened once more. “This way, please.” She led them to a large office and gestured at two comfortable chairs arranged across from her desk. “Take a seat. I’ll get those records up for you.”

  They sat in silence as she tapped some keys on her keyboard. “Ah, here we go.” She turned the screen around so they could all see. “So what exactly are you looking for?”

  “We’d like to know if anyone works at all of these locations,” Elliot said, handing her a piece of paper with the addresses of the dentists on it. “Obviously not at the same time,” he added unnecessarily, earning him a funny look from Lexi.

  “Obviously,” Miss Dever smiled. She tapped a few more keys.

  “No, sorry. There is no one who works at all these places,” she handed the piece of paper back to Elliot. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

  “Wait a minute,” Lexi said. “Just before we go, can you explain the process to me when a dentist gets a request for dental records? I mean one of your dentists.”

  “Yes, of course. All records for Dentico dentists are held centrally. So if an old x-ray or some such is needed, the dentist puts in a request and it is overnighted to them. When they are finished, they simply send them back. It’s much more efficient that way.”

  Lexi looked at him pointedly and the implication of what Miss Dever was saying hit him. “Miss Dever? Who sends out the dental records when they’re requested?” He felt a tingle go down his spine, it felt like they were about to hit on something.

  A few more taps and she gave them a name. “Kevin Longley.”

  “Thank you. And where would I find Mr Longley? Is he in the building?”

  “Oh yes. He works down on the second floor. Would you like me to take you to him?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Lexi looked just as excited as he was as they left the office and headed back to the elevator for the short trip downstairs.

  They passed several offices on the second floor before Miss Dever paused. "This is it." She raised a hand to knock but Elliot stopped her.

  "If you don't mind, I think we'll take it from here."

  She seemed slightly taken aback but nevertheless stepped out of the way. Elliot knocked and pushed open the door.

  "Excuse me,” a clearly unhappy man sputtered at them as they walked into the room. “It's polite to wait until you're invited in." His Harry Potter glasses had slid halfway down his thin nose and he had to push them back up. He was thin, almost to the point that he looked emaciated, and the too-large glasses only reinforced that impression.

  "Mr Longley? I'm Det. Mitchell. We’d just like to ask you a few questions."

  Immediately fear replaced the outrage on Longley's face. Before Elliot could react, he sprung to his feet and made a beeline for a second door that Elliot hadn’t seen when they first entered.

  "Shit, we've got a runner!" He shouted but Lexi reacted more quickly and was already after him. Taking off, Elliot followed Longley and Lexi through the door, following the sounds of screaming and panic coming from the other offices as they crashed through.

  "Okay, Kevin, calm down we just want to talk to you."

  He heard Lexi's voice just before he crashed into the back of her. She’d stopped facing an open window where Longley was now standing on a ledge. He held up his hands. "Kevin, it’s okay. Kevin, we just want to talk to you."

  "I didn't want to do it but they made me." He started sobbing. "I can't go to jail, I just can't."

  "Kevin, nobody said anything about jail. We just need your help with something," Elliot tried to calm him down.

  "It's over. I can't help you. If I do, the Kings will kill my sister. But if I don't, I'll go to jail." Kevin was trembling now, his face a mess of tears. "Just promise me one thing."

  "Kevin ..." Elliot was getting a bad feeling.

  "Just promise me you'll try and find my sister."

  Lexi was closer and made a grab for him but she was too late. He didn't make sound as he fell from the window, the only sound came when he hit the concrete below seconds later.

  "Oh my God! Oh my God!" a woman screamed.

  Elliot dragged his eyes away from the window to find Miss Dever behind him. “Miss Dever, you shouldn’t be here.” He’d been so focused on Longley that he hadn’t noticed her in the room.

  “Quick,” she continued as if she hadn’t heard him. “Someone needs to go and see if he’s okay.” She turned to leave the room as if that was exactly what she was going to do.

  “No,” Elliot grabbed her arm. “Miss Dever you need to leave this to us now.” He had dealt with jumpers before and he didn’t want her to see what he knew was waiting on the concrete outside. “What we need is for no one to leave the building. Can you deal with that for us?”

  She nodded, not taking her eyes off the window.

  "I need you to do that quickly. We don't want anyone going out there," he urged.

  "Yes, yes of course." She seemed to snap out of her daze. “I’ll see to it, don’t worry.” She turned and hurried from the room.

 
; "We'll have to get the locals up here." Elliot kicked the wall. "Dammit. He was the best lead we had." He looked over at Lexi who looked shaken. "Are you okay?"

  She nodded. "I'll be fine."

  “You couldn’t have stopped him, you know.”

  “I know,” she gave him a small smile. “Honestly, don’t worry I’m fine.”

  “Okay,” he smiled. “I’m not sure I will be, though, I think I’ve broken my toe.”

  “Idiot,” she laughed.

  They both felt the tension ease. “Okay then, we’d better get downstairs before our crime scene gets trampled.” He cocked his head, listening. “Seems that someone has helpfully already called reinforcements.” He heard sirens approaching the building.

  “Jenkins is going to love this,” Lexi grimaced.

  He didn’t care about Jenkins, all he cared about was where they went from here.

  ***

  “What the hell happened?” Jenkins was pacing back and forth behind his desk. “You were supposed to be investigating, not making our main suspect jump out of a window.”

  “There was nothing we could do.” Elliot had already explained to him what had happened, twice.

  Jenkins threw his hands up in the air in frustration before slumping down into his chair. “At least tell me you got something useful out of this mess?”

  “Well, the local police are going over Longley’s apartment and work computers and they’ve promised to contact us if they find anything,” Lexi spoke.

  “Anything else?”

  “He said something just before he jumped. He said that he didn’t want to do it and that some ‘Kings’ were holding his sister and that they’d kill her if he spoke to us.” It sounded strange to his own ears so he wasn’t surprised that Jenkins didn’t look convinced.

  “Kings? What kind of crap is that?” he exhaled loudly. “So you don’t think this was our guy after all?”

  They’d talked about this on the way back and Lexi agreed with him. “We think we’re looking at a team, a group working together.”

  “I know what a team is, Det. Mitchell,” he snapped. “Constantinou, you agree with this?”

  Lexi nodded. “I do boss. It makes sense. This is so widespread I can’t see how any one person could be doing this alone.”

  Jenkins looked thoughtful. “Okay, so where next? Have we got any more information on the website? Any ID’s on who the people in those cars really were?”

  Elliot shook his head. “No, I spoke to Sid this morning and he’s got nothing. Every time he thinks he’s getting close, he hits a wall. I’ve told him to keep on it.”

  “And the ID’s?”

  “The DNA has been run but unfortunately there are no matches in the system. Without an idea of where to look, we’re pretty much at a dead end there too,” Lexi answered.

  “So we’ve got nothing?”

  “Not unless we get something from the Longley scenes.”

  “Godammit.” Jenkins’ fist hitting the desk made them both jump. “Can’t go to the Chief with nothing. Get out there and find me something. Now!”

  ***

  “That went well,” Elliot muttered as they headed back to their desks.

  “Did you honestly think it would?” Lexi looked as miserable as he felt.

  “There’s got to be something we’re missing, Lexi.”

  “Well, if there is, I can’t think of it.”

  “Hey, Alexander, what are you doing here?” Elliot spotted Lexi’s brother at her desk as they walked through the door to the detectives’ room.

  “They let me up and said I could wait for you here. You guys got a minute?”

  “Sure.”

  “Er ... probably better if we could talk in private?”

  They knew immediately what he wanted to talk about and took him straight to an empty interview room.

  “Please tell us you’ve got good news, Alex,” Lexi said as soon as the door was closed.

  “Well, yes and no.”

  “Which is it?” Elliot was in no mood for games.

  “Well, as far as the website goes, nothing. I’ve spent hours on it, guys, and there’s just no way to track where it’s coming from. Whoever they are, they’ve got the best people I’ve ever come across working to keep them hidden.”

  “So what’s the ‘yes’ bit?” Lexi asked.

  “Here.” He handed them each some pictures.

  “What are these?” Elliot started looking through them.

  “They’re screen shots. In a couple of the images on the website I saw something that struck me so I had the pictures blown up.”

  Elliot looked at the pictures he held in his hand. He couldn’t see anything odd, if you didn’t count the fact that they were pictures of women being held prisoner, that is. “Are you going to tell me or do I have to guess?”

  “In each of those pictures you can see a man’s arm in the frame.”

  Elliot squinted. He was right, he hadn’t noticed. “I can’t see any tattoos or anything?”

  “No, not tattoos, look at the watch.”

  “Er ... okay,” he looked. “I just see a watch?” He was confused now.

  “Did I ever tell you about my hobby?”

  “What? Alexander, focus.”

  He held up his hand for Elliot to be quiet. “I collect watches. Old, new, rare, unusual, whatever I can afford. I have over 300 so far.”

  Elliot looked at Lexi who shrugged. “I never said he was normal.”

  Elliot rolled his eyes. “This is fascinating, how does that help us, exactly?”

  “The watch in that photo is incredibly rare. I’ve checked and double-checked.” He smiled, proud of himself. “That watch is a Rolex Daytona 6263 ‘Red’.”

  Elliot was really starting to lose his patience now.

  “Alex!” Lexi prompted before Elliot could bite his head off.

  “Only about ten of these were ever made and it’s worth about $350,000.”

  “Holy crap!” Elliot whistled. “For a watch?”

  “But if you can find out who owns that watch ...”

  “Then we’ve got our man.” Elliot finished for him. “Well, almost certainly anyway.”

  “Exactly.” Alexander smiled.

  “You’re a genius.” Elliot grinned and slapped him on the back. “Thank you!”

  “Here.” Alexander handed him a piece of paper. “This guy knows everything there is to know about watches. If anyone can help you, he can.”

  Elliot checked the time. “Damn, it’s too late to go now, he won’t be open.”

  “We can go first thing in the morning,” Lexi suggested before turning to her brother. “Thanks, Alex; you may just have saved these women.” Lexi hugged him. “You okay to find your way out?”

  “Yeah. You go and do what you gotta do, I’ll be fine.”

  “Shall we go and tell Jenkins?” Lexi asked as she followed Elliot out of the room.

  “No, let’s see if it pans out first.” He had a good feeling though. They were close, he just knew it.

  Twenty-Seven

  “I took your advice, I’ve invited my father round for dinner,” Mike told Sarah who had called to see if there was any news from the police.

  “I’m glad, Mike, I really think it’s the right thing to do.”

  “Thanks for listening to me yesterday.” He was getting quite used to having her around.

  “No problem, let me know how it goes, okay?”

  They said their goodbyes and Mike turned his attention to dinner. He really was a terrible cook so he’d bought take out and had it in the oven, warming.

  Checking his watch he saw that he had time for a quick shower before his father arrived.

  Standing under the hot water he allowed his mind to wander, to ponder the events of the last few days. It seemed like everything in his life was changing, and changing fast. He wasn’t sure how to feel. Was it right to be excited about his father when he had no idea if his wife was alive or dead? But then, how could he no
t be? He felt completely torn. One day at a time Mike, one day at a time, he thought as he towelled himself dry and got dressed.

  ***

  He was exactly on time and Mike’s stomach churned at the sound of the doorbell. His father didn’t attempt to hug him this time, settling for a firm handshake.

  “I’m so glad you called, Mike, how are you?” he asked as he followed him through to the kitchen.

  “I’m okay. I’m sorry about the other day, I just needed a bit of time.”

  “No apologies necessary, I completely understand. It’s a lot to take in.”

  “Yes, it is.” he took a deep breath. “But it’s not just that.” He took a bottle of red off the wine rack and opened it. “Drink?”

  “Yes, please.” Patrick replied. “Mike, is something bothering you?”

  “Let’s sit.” Mike led him to the table. “You remember I told you I was married?”

  Patrick nodded. “Yes. I was hoping I might be able to meet her tonight, actually.”

  “She’s not here.” Mike took a deep breath and jumped right in. No point beating around the bush. “We think she’s been kidnapped.”

  Patrick looked stunned. “What? Why didn’t you say something before?”

  “I don’t know,” Mike shrugged. “’Hey Dad, I’m your long lost son and by the way, my wife’s just been kidnapped’.” he gave a small half-hearted laugh. “Not exactly what I had in mind.”

  “Of course not but you should have told me.” He stood up and started pacing. “God Mike, I might have been able to help.”

  “I appreciate that, I really do, but what can you do?”

  “Well I’m lucky enough to be fairly comfortably off, I could have hired the best private investigator money could buy. In fact, I still can.”

  Mike shook his head. “Sarah and I tried dealing with things on our own and it didn’t go well. We decided it was best to let the police handle it from now on.”

  “Sarah?”

  “My sister-in-law.”

  “Ah. Okay, well, they probably are the best people to be dealing with it but now that I know, you have to tell me everything.”

  Mike was surprised at how easy it was once he’d started and by the time the end of the evening came, and it was time for Patrick to leave, he felt like he had a father.