“No, her case is much more complicated. And even if I could prove that the charges against her were fabricated, it’s up to the judge now.”
“Judge Blackwell.” Colt finished his doughnut and looked at Rio, a frown at odds with the delicious maple-glazed confection he’d just enjoyed. “Who is marrying into the Charbonneau clan.”
“I wouldn’t give them the credit of being a clan. More like a gang.” Rio didn’t hide his disgust for the politically driven family. “So. We have a mayor with a trophy wife. A wife who is having an affair with the mayor’s assistant, who appears to be playing both sides in this. He wants to keep Gloria distracted, so she doesn’t catch on to any of Tony’s illegal activities and possibly blackmail him. Meanwhile, the mayor’s daughter is a ball-buster who thinks she’s already running the state, not to mention Silver Valley.”
“You figured this all out in the past few days?”
“With the help of Kayla’s information, yes.”
Colt bunched up his napkin and tossed it easily into the wastebasket across his office. “Two points.” He nodded at Rio. “I know you don’t want her involved in this at all, except from a purely observational standpoint. I’m in agreement with Claudia on this, however. We don’t have the manpower or the luxury of planning time to get enough agents undercover at the wedding this weekend. We need her.”
“Speaking of planning, do we have a name for our op against the True Believers yet? We’re certain they’re here, and with the fallout from the Female Preacher Killer case and the fact that the lawyer working against Keith Paruso is a former cult member, it’s clear we need to bring them down.”
“We’re still in the prevention stage here, Rio. Once I name an op against members of a former cult that existed in upstate New York, it becomes interstate. The big guns will be here quicker than I ate that doughnut.”
“We already have the big guns, though.” Rio referred to the Trail Hikers, who were keeping tight tabs on the convicted cult members as they were released from prison in New York and sought probation in Pennsylvania. So far each and every former member had made their way into Silver Valley and taken up residence in the same trailer park.
“Right. And I’d like to keep it with the Trail Hikers for now. We’re lucky they’ve taken an interest in the cult and what it’s up to. It eases some of our workload, and the pain in the ass it’s going to be when the Feds need our work spaces.”
“Roger that, boss.”
Rio knew Colt never begrudged any work done with or for the FBI, Treasury Department, Homeland Security or other federal law enforcement. SVPD was a small operation compared to what was needed to take down a ring of cultists or crime syndicates and the last time they’d had help from federal entities, the SVPD police station had been shoulder to shoulder with officers and agents for almost a month straight.
“Your job is to find out who murdered Meredith Houseman and who took a shot at Kayla.”
“I’m headed over to the flower shop now.”
Colt held up his hand. “Hang on a minute, Rio.” Rio didn’t like where he thought this was going.
“You think it’s your job to protect Kayla, and whatever your personal relationship with her was or is, she’s been trained by the best in how to keep herself out of trouble. I know she hasn’t had the full-on training, but the Trail Hikers can do more in three days than other agencies do in three months. You don’t need to hover over her. She’ll take care of herself. Your time needs to go into finding the killer. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir.” Damn it, he didn’t disagree with his boss, but it still stung to be called out like an adolescent with his first crush.
“Have Kayla keep a low profile, collecting whatever info she can, and with any luck we’ll catch a killer by the wedding on Saturday.”
Colt stood up, indicating their meeting was finished. Rio stood, too, and nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“And, Rio?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Remember to keep yourself out of trouble, too.”
* * *
Kayla spent all of Thursday and most of Friday morning prepping for the weekend’s deliveries, leaving the rest of Friday and all of Saturday free to entirely focus on the rehearsal dinner and wedding.
“Are you sure you’re okay with handling the deliveries and the new orders? Plus showing up early on Saturday to help with the wedding?” she asked Jenny. Kayla had amended her shop hours to facilitate the wedding’s demands.
Jenny nodded with youthful enthusiasm. “I’ve got it. All my exams are essays or reports this semester, so it’s a lot easier for my time management.” Kayla looked at Jenny’s day planner, which had more Post-its and Japanese highlighter tape than blank space. “You are an expert at that. I could use some of your techniques.”
“You’re kidding, right? I don’t know how you manage this shop, keep the orders straight, make new arrangements and decorating ideas up, and handle the customers. Plus deliveries. Crazy!”
Kayla laughed at Jenny’s outburst. “It’s all part of the business. You could do it, too. At least all the chaos has finally convinced me to hire a delivery person and maybe another assistant.”
“Any idea when they’ll start?” Jenny looked so hopeful.
“Sorry, it won’t be until after this wedding is over.” And her first op with the Trail Hikers was finished. It would probably be her only op, but a small part of her hoped that all the work she’d done wasn’t for nothing.
“If you need any suggestions on who to hire, let me know. The delivery job would be perfect for some of my school friends.”
“I will. I’m sure we won’t have any trouble finding someone to do it. It’s the timing that’s critical. I’ll want the deliveries out and done before noon each day whenever possible. You and I can pick up the stragglers in the afternoons.”
“Sounds good. Do you mind if I leave now?” Jenny had asked earlier if she could take off early in light of the long hours she’d be putting in for the wedding. By tomorrow all they needed to do was get to the inn and set up the table arrangements for the reception, well ahead of the wedding party, which would need a couple of hours for official photographs. They’d have the flowers for the gazebo and the mayor’s home done by early tomorrow morning, as long as the weather held.
“No, go ahead. I’ve got the rehearsal dinner covered for tonight. Thanks again for all you’ve done, Jenny.”
“Do you want me to turn off the open sign? I know you still have a lot of paperwork to get done.”
“That’s okay, leave the door open. I’ll handle whoever might come in.”
As Jenny left, Kayla ignored the thought she couldn’t seem to shake. That she hoped Rio would stop by. They’d agreed that she’d stay at his place until the murderer was apprehended. Before she’d signed on to the Trail Hikers, she would have thought it was a crazy idea, but after learning about the vast resources they had, combined with her faith in Rio and SVPD, she was confident they’d catch the killer soon.
And then she’d go back to living alone.
The shop door chimed as a familiar figure walked in. At first Kayla couldn’t place the young woman, but then she realized why she knew her.
Meredith’s sister. She’d come in with her family after the murder to order flowers for Meredith’s funeral. The funeral had only been yesterday, as the body had to be released from the coroner before the family held the service.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes, I’m Mica. Mica Houseman?”
“Hello, Mica. I remember you, of course. How are you holding up? How are your parents?”
Tears welled in the girl’s eyes and Kayla walked around the counter to put a comforting arm around her. “I’m so sorry, Mica. I know this is an awful time for you and your family.”
Mica nodded, then wiped her tears.
“Yes, yes, it is. That’s why I’m here.”
How sweet. Here she was suffering and grieving, but wanted to get flowers for someone else. “What can I do for you, Mica?”
“I saw you with Detective Ortega.” Kayla froze. What did she mean?
“Oh?”
Mica sniffed. “I work at the Colonial Restaurant, in the gift shop. I saw you go in with him on Wednesday. I kept working my shifts until Meredith’s funeral. I had to stay busy.” She paused a long moment as if gathering courage. “Are you close? With Detective Ortega?”
Kayla wasn’t sure where this was going, but she felt she owed Meredith’s sister the truth.
“We were. We’re friends now.”
“You looked like a lot more than friends.” Kayla wished circumstances were different and that Mica’s observation was accurate, but she wasn’t going to try to explain the complicated bond she and Rio shared.
“We’ve known one another...awhile.”
“I’m only asking because I need to be able to trust that you can get him a message from me.”
Kayla’s instincts kicked in at the same time as her Trail Hikers training. Keep her talking. She stood back and looked at Mica directly. “Of course you can. We talk daily, and I can reach him at any moment. Would you feel more comfortable if he was here?”
“No!” Mica’s vehement reply belied the shaking woman who’d been weeping minutes earlier. “I can’t talk to him or see him. It’s too dangerous for my family. I can’t put them at risk, not after what happened to Meredith. But he needs to know.”
“Know what?”
“Do you have a catalogue or portfolio of your services?”
“Of course.” Kayla took a pamphlet from the acrylic holder on the counter and handed it to her.
“I’m acting like I’m reading this and picking out an arrangement in case anyone is watching me. I’m placing the flash drive that Meredith gave me a copy of two weeks ago into this. She told me not to ask questions and not to look at it. She said she needed a safe place to keep her file backup. After she died, I looked at it. I was afraid to tell anyone because I don’t want to put anyone else in my family in danger. I didn’t know if I could trust the police, since this was the mayor’s assistant. They’re always showing corruption on the news, you know. I knew this flash drive, what’s on it, was important to Meredith, but I had no idea it was something that could, could...get her killed.” She faltered and a tear fell onto the pamphlet Mica was pretending to read.
“It’s okay, Mica. No one’s coming in here and you’re safe. As a matter of fact, it’s time to close the shop.” Kayla went and locked the front door and turned off the open sign, then flipped off the overhead lighting. “Let’s go into the back area to talk, where no one can see us from the street.”
For the first time in her life, Kayla was carrying a weapon and couldn’t imagine how vulnerable she’d feel if she didn’t have a way to protect her and Mica in this moment. Because she had no doubt that Mica had whatever had given the killer motive to murder Meredith.
* * *
“Meredith was über-organized. When we were little, her side of the bedroom was always color-coded and her bed looked as though it had been made by a hotel maid. I was the messy one, with my dolls all over the place.” Mica’s eyes brightened at the happy memory and Kayla’s heart squeezed for the pain she was in.
“You said when she gave you this flash drive she didn’t say anything about what was on it?”
Mica shook her head. “No. I’m not sure she knew it was as dangerous as it obviously is. Of course, when I looked at it I immediately knew that someone else out there is aware of the numbers, of what it means.”
Indeed. They sat in the workshop, and Kayla had made sure the back door was locked and bolted before booting up her laptop, where she and Mica perused the spreadsheets and summary documents Meredith had saved to the drive.
“This isn’t just about the mayoral election being rigged. It’s clear the votes were fraudulent—look how many of the people who voted don’t actually reside in Silver Valley.”
“So they got fake IDs?” Kayla was stymied as statistics and political science weren’t her favorite subjects in college.
“Either that or when different locals voted, the votes registered more than once. And look at this.” Mica opened a text document titled Truth. Kayla quickly read it.
“Meredith’s saying that someone hacked into the voting system and allowed a substantial number of fake votes for Charbonneau.”
“Yes.”
“So it’s what we thought. The election was rigged. And the mayor is getting ready to pass some shady legislation that will be advantageous to the big businesses in town that support him, while crippling the little guys who don’t jump on his bandwagon.”
“That’s what I see. But I’m a physical-education teacher, not an accountant or systems expert. I have no idea how these things actually happen.”
Kayla didn’t, either, but knew who would. “I don’t understand why Meredith didn’t go directly to the authorities.”
Mica snorted. “The entire staff, if not the town and county seats, are corrupt. There’s at least one bad apple in each, if not more. Meredith knew she’d be run out of her job and ridiculed if she reported it too hastily, to the wrong person. She said that since Mayor Donner had been kicked out it was awful working for Silver Valley. No one knew who to trust. The new mayor kept Meredith as a sign of good faith, that she would provide continuity between the two administrations. When she realized what was really happening, though...” Mica sniffed, wiping her eyes. “She was going to call a friend in the FBI the next week. Before...”
“We’re going to make sure that whoever’s responsible for her death is caught, Mica.” At Mica’s puzzled expression, Kayla covered her tracks. “I mean SVPD and Detective Ortega. I’ll get this to him. If it’s the new mayor, he’s as good as caught.”
“I can’t believe such scum can get away with something like this. That they even think they can.”
“Even the mayor of an average town in America can let power go to his head.”
“Maybe he’s compensating for something...” Mica said, even as distraught as she was.
Kayla laughed. “You’ve got that right. Let me get this to Rio, Detective Ortega, and I’ll let you know what happens.”
“I don’t need to know how it happens, Kayla. I only need to know that he gets it and that they catch the bastard who murdered my sister.”
* * *
“Meredith had the goods on him, all right.” Claudia’s voice was quiet behind Rio and Kayla as they all huddled around a computer screen at Trail Hikers headquarters. After Kayla had called Rio about Mica’s visit, he’d told her to meet him at the TH headquarters with the flash drive.
“Are you going to arrest him tonight?” Kayla wished she could be there to see Tony Charbonneau’s usually overconfident smug expression change to horror when he realized the jig was up.
“No. We have this evidence, and it definitely incriminates the mayor and most likely his assistant, Mickey, in electoral fraud and a bucket load of other charges, but we still can’t tie them directly to the murder.” Rio’s reasonable tone indicated this wasn’t his first rodeo.
“Rio’s correct. We have to get the killers, and hard evidence on them.”
“But the longer we wait, the better chance that the mayor will know someone else has the goods on him. Don’t you worry about him taking off, disappearing overseas or something? And we know the mayor is at least peripherally involved. And then there’s Gloria. She’s in this somehow.”
“If we were certain he has a large sum of money stashed offshore, sure. But he doesn’t as far as we know, and his type is in it for the power and glory. He’ll never give up his office without a huge fight.” Claudia
spoke with certainty. “I’ve seen this time and again with political criminals. Mostly during my time in the military, granted. But military or civilian, it makes no difference when it comes to the bad guys who are power hungry. What slips them up is their greed. It looks like our mayor got too greedy after winning the election. Now he thinks he’s going to push through ugly legislation that could turn Silver Valley into a haven for people like him—sleazy, power-hungry criminals.”
“Gloria’s nothing more than an opportunist.” Rio’s voice was as assured as Claudia’s. “She married Charbonneau because she perceived him as the powerful, rich man she needed to take her places.”
“Agreed. Trail Hikers did a thorough background check on her and she’s from a seedy neighborhood in northern New Jersey. Her mother left her when she was very young, and her father had a string of women throughout her life. She moved out when she was seventeen, working as a shampoo girl in a strip mall. Gloria earned her cosmetology degree and met Tony when he regularly came into the barbershop she was working in. He was still legally married to Cynthia’s mother when they began their relationship. He’d never bothered to file for divorce when she took off years earlier. She was a drug addict with mental illness.”
“How do you get all of this information?” Kayla asked it as a question but it was more of an afterthought. “I thought it took ages to get this kind of detailed data.”
Claudia’s expression remained neutral. “It’s one of the advantages of being a government shadow agency. We have connections to intelligence that SVPD, with all due respect, doesn’t.”
“One of the many reasons I’m grateful for Trail Hikers. I wasn’t its biggest fan in the beginning but if it helps us bring these bastards to justice any sooner, saves one more life, it’s worth the extra effort having a second job takes.” Rio kept scrolling through the spreadsheet and Kayla had no doubt that he was absorbing every detail. Rio’s ability to multitask astounded Kayla, and while she felt comfortable creating an intricate floral arrangement while taking an order for a prom wristlet and watching the shop’s front door for new customers, her daily tasks didn’t involve saving lives.
Harlequin Romantic Suspense March 2016 Box Set Page 82
