by Elin Barnes
They started moving, with the sirens blasting. The paramedic was trying to control the bleeding as they sped through the streets.
Chapter 56
“Are you sure it’s a good idea?” Darcy asked, looking at Jon’s computer in Sorensen’s hand.
“He said he’s bored and needs something to do. I think he’ll be happier working”
“But you know he can’t work on his own case.”
“Oh, and you can?” Sorensen punched the G for garage, and the elevator started descending.
“It’s not the same,” Darcy said.
Sorensen didn’t bother to reply.
When they got to the hospital, Sorensen was surprised to find it fairly empty. There were probably less people around because Jon was no longer in a critical condition. He was relieved to find that not even Jon’s parents were in the room.
“Ah, thank you for saving me from a day of utter boredom,” Jon said when he saw them walking in.
“Don’t tell anybody.” Sorensen handed him the laptop.
“What are we looking for?” he asked while he lifted the lid and powered it on.
“How are you feeling?” Darcy interrupted, walking around Sorensen.
“Much better.” He pointed at his bandaged shoulder. “No broken bones, and I think my blood levels are back to normal. So I think I should be good to go in a few days. They just want to make sure nothing gets infected.”
“I’m so sorry, Jon. I never—”
“I know. We were pursuing bad guys. It was actually kind of cool until I got shot.”
He smiled that infectious smile of his, and the two detectives returned it. Sorensen brought him up to speed.
“We just got the subpoena signed, so we’ll get more details, but anything you can find on McKenzie & Shaw and what they’re all about would be great.”
“You got it.”
“Thanks, kid,” Sorensen said.
“We’ve missed you,” Darcy added.
Once they were back on the road, Sorensen took surface streets to get to the law firm.
Darcy’s phone rang.
“Officer Bush, what’s going on?”
“Detective, I wanted to let you know that we’ve just had a pretty bad assault case, and the victim seems to be a friend of Miss Meadows. I thought you would want to know.”
“Who is it?”
“A Constantine Howard.”
The name didn’t ring a bell. “Who is he?”
“I don’t have any information. We haven’t run him through the system yet.”
“Thanks, Bush, I appreciate the call. Where was he taken to?”
“Good Sam.”
“Is he going to make it?”
“Not sure.”
After he hung up, Darcy said to Sorensen, “We need to do a quick detour.”
“Why?” Sorensen looked at him, then asked, “Where to?”
Darcy shared what little he knew.
“I think I know that name,” Sorensen said.
“From where?”
“I’m not sure. He just sounds familiar. It’ll come back to me.”
They drove in silence the rest of the way until Sorensen pulled into the hospital’s garage. After they went into the emergency room, Darcy flashed his badge, and the receptionist told him Mr. Constantine Howard was in surgery.
They went to the waiting room and found Saffron sitting by herself. She was nursing a cup of coffee in her hands, with both elbows resting on her knees, her hair loose and long covering part of her face.
“What happened?” Darcy asked her from the entrance.
She jumped, almost dropping the coffee.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I heard. Bush called me.”
“Ah,” she said. She didn’t pull her hair back; it still covered part of her face, shading the skin.
“Who is he? How do you know him? You’ve known him for long?”
“What is this, twenty questions?” she spat.
He was taken aback, hurt by her reaction. She avoided his gaze and looked past him at Sorensen.
“I’m getting some coffee. Need a refill?” Sorensen asked her.
“I’m okay, thanks.”
When they were alone, Darcy just stood there.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
He remained silent, waiting for answers, not apologies. She couldn’t even look at him. He started to leave when nothing else came from her. “Okay, then. If you need anything, let me know.”
“Darcy, please,” she said, grabbing his arm.
He stopped but didn’t turn.
“It’s complicated.”
“I’m sure it is,” he said, and walked out, running into Sorensen in the hallway. “We’re done here,” Darcy said, walking past him.
Sorensen turned and followed him in silence. Darcy waited for a snarky comment that never came.
Chapter 57
When they got back to McKenzie & Shaw, Sorensen didn’t wait for the receptionist to page Brantley; he barged right in. Lynch followed him until they reached his office. Through the glass they could see the lawyer was inside.
Sorensen knocked, but without an invitation, opened the door and walked inside. “Here’s the subpoena you wanted,” he said, and threw it on the desk.
Brantley skimmed through it. “I think I have everything you need here.” He pointed to a couple boxes on the floor.
“Are you going to send us on another wild-goose chase, like you did with the threats?” Sorensen looked at the boxes but didn’t make a move to pick them up.
“I’m sorry?” Brantley asked.
“Have one of your minions take these to my car,” Sorensen said. “I hope whoever is targeting your company is not going to go after you next. Because with all the help you’ve given us, we may not catch him in time,” he said, then walked out of the spacious office.
Before they reached the reception area, a clerk caught up with them, pushing a dolly with the two boxes.
After the kid loaded the car, Sorensen said to Lynch, “I want to go back to see Jon, we could sure use his help.”
The hospital was a little busier than earlier, and Jon’s parents were in the room. Lynch paused for a second before going in.
“Good afternoon,” Sorensen said when he entered, and shook Jonathan’s hand.
Miranda got out of the chair, as if she was offering it to the large detective, but he didn’t take it. Sorensen saw Jonathan take Lynch’s hand for the first time. His resentment had probably subsided a little since it became clear Jon was going to make it.
“How are you feeling?” Lynch asked Jon.
“Better now that I’ll have something to do.” He smiled, checking out the boxes they’d set on the floor.
“You expect him to work?” Jonathan said, blocking Sorensen from getting closer to his son’s bed.
“Dad, stop. I asked for it.”
“But you need to get your strength back,” his mom said with a voice somewhere between a shriek and a whisper.
“Mom, seriously. I’m going to go crazy if I don’t have anything to do.” Looking back at Sorensen, he asked, “What do you need?”
Sorensen didn’t say anything, but, looking at Jon, he tilted his head toward his parents.
“Oh, right,” the intern said. “Mom, Dad, can you go and get me something to drink?”
“For God’s sakes,” the father said, and stormed out, followed by his wife.
“Well, we need two things. You tell me which one you feel up to doing, and we’ll take the other one,” Sorensen set one of the boxes at the feet of the bed. “Apparently our bank and Los Altos MIA victims were working on a bunch of cases together. We want to know if there’s anything that stands out. Anything big enough to get them hurt or killed.”
Jon looked at the other box, the one Darcy was holding.
“Two boxes of cases . . . Do you think I can get the digital files instead?”
Sorensen looked back at Lynch
. “Why didn’t we think of that?” he asked.
“We did, but you wanted Brantley’s minion to carry the boxes to your car just to make a point.”
“Oh, right.” Sorensen looked back at Jon, who was now smiling. “Damn, it’s good to have you back, kid.”
The warmth in Sorensen’s voice made Jon blush a little.
“We’ll get them to send you the digital files,” Lynch said.
“Thanks. That way I can cross-reference much faster.”
Sorensen took the box off the bed.
“What’s the other thing you need help with?” Jon asked.
“We need to find a connection between the Marines’ pranks, the crispy in the van, and the missing guy.”
“All those cases are related?”
“We think so, but we can’t prove it. That’s why we need you,” Sorensen said.
“Sorensen and I believe that Bishop knows at least something about the bank kidnapping. It’s also too much of a coincidence that Malik gets killed, and the same day the founder of this law firm disappears.”
Chapter 58
Saffron fumed the entire time she was waiting for X to come out of surgery. She knew she had to talk to Darcy, to tell him everything, but she needed to find the right time, the right way to do it. How do you tell your cop boyfriend that your sister is a prostitute? she wondered.
The worst thing about all of it was that she wasn’t any closer to finding her sister. It had been way too long since she got the message from Aislin and the bodies were discovered. She thought about Blake. He knew something. Maybe he was the one who had killed them. She really needed to tell Darcy everything.
She rubbed her eyes. They were dry, sandy. Saffron pulled her phone out of her purse and called Darcy. It went to voice mail.
“It’s me. Please call me back. I need to tell you something.”
She sighed and looked around. There was an old magazine on one of the side tables. She grabbed it and leafed through it. Gossip. Nothing juicy. She thought about Darcy and how much she needed him. She didn’t really understand why she hadn’t confided in him earlier. Probably because she was embarrassed. Probably because she wanted to fix this so dirty family secrets stayed secret.
“Miss Meadows?”
“Yes.” Saffron stood and walked toward the surgeon, who was waiting by the door.
“Mr. Howard is out of surgery. He’s still unconscious, but we expect he’ll make a full recovery as long as there aren’t any unexpected complications.”
“Oh, thank God,” she said, breathing deeply for the first time in what felt like hours.
“You can go and see him now, but he’ll be out for a while.”
She thanked the doctor and walked to X’s room. He looked so different. He was pale, even under that dark chocolate skin of his. Both of his eyes were still swollen and closed, but the gash on his cheek was now bandaged. A cast on his left arm covered everything from the shoulder to the fingertips.
Saffron pulled up a chair close to the bed and sat by him. “I’m so sorry, Constantine.”
He didn’t move. Saffron started to cry. She felt so hopeless, so vulnerable. But most of all, she felt guilty. She got him into this mess, and not even his goons were able to protect him. The salty tears started to roll down her cheeks. She wiped them away and made herself stop. She had to talk to Darcy. She needed him to help her.
Saffron left the room and looked for Constantine’s doctor. When she couldn’t find her, she asked the receptionist to page her. After a few moments the woman in the white lab coat and the green scrubs came back to meet her.
“Do you think he’ll wake up today?”
“He’s still under sedation, but he should wake up later today.”
Saffron checked her watch. “When do you think that’ll be?”
“A couple hours,” the doctor said.
Saffron thanked her and decided she had enough time to go see Darcy at the station. She took the elevator and left through the Emergency entrance. Searching the parking lot, she tried to recall where she’d parked, then remembered that she came in the ambulance.
She grabbed a taxi and asked the cabdriver to take her to Madam X’s house, where she’d left her car. It wasn’t too far, and traffic was light. After she paid the cabbie, the taxi drove off.
She unzipped her purse, but before she could fetch the keys, she heard steps and looked behind her. A closed fist hit her left eye so hard she felt as if it had popped. She was thrown backward by the impact and hit the side of her car. She looked up and saw a man, his face covered by a ski mask.
She ducked, avoiding another punch, then stomped on his boot as hard as she could. His boots had steel toes, so she was the only one who felt the impact.
“What are you doing?” she screamed at him.
“You need to let things go, or you’ll end up worse than your friend this morning.”
He punched her in the stomach.
The intense pain made her double over. Fighting a huge urge to throw up, Saffron dug into her purse and pulled out the can of pepper spray. Before he could hit her again, she aimed and pushed the button as hard and as long as she could. The spray got into her assailant’s eyes, and he started screaming. She pushed him. He stumbled a few feet back. She unlocked the car and opened the door. Before she could get in, he came behind her and wrapped his arm around her neck. Saffron tried to get away, but he was too strong. She managed to reach his head and pull off the ski mask. He let go, then shoved her against the car and ran away.
By the time Saffron managed to get on her feet, all she was able to see was her assailant’s back as he ran away. He had short black hair in a military-style buzz cut.
Chapter 59
Saffron was shaking so bad she felt as if the whole world vibrated around her. She gripped the steering wheel and only let go to wipe the tears of fear away. After she calmed down a little, she noticed that driving with one eye swollen shut was harder than she’d thought. She’d always assumed it wasn’t that bad, since Darcy did it so well. The hardest thing was judging distances, so she drove slowly. The tail of cars grew by the minute, and Saffron pulled over to let everybody pass her.
Once she got to the police station, she turned into the parking lot and killed the engine. She was curious but also didn’t want to look. Finally, she lowered the visor and checked her eye. It didn’t look as bad as X’s, but it was still pretty swollen. She fetched her sunglasses from her purse and put them on.
The officer at the reception area paged Darcy, but he wasn’t at his desk. She tried calling him, but it went to voice mail again.
“Do you want to wait inside?” the officer asked.
Saffron thought about it. She had no idea where Darcy was or how long he’d be gone. She also wanted to avoid a scene at the station. He was mad at her and would probably freak out as soon as he saw her eye.
“No, that’s okay. I’ll see him later,” she said, and turned away.
Her place was only a few blocks from the station. She pulled into the garage and made sure the gates closed behind her. When she got home, Cat greeted her with happy meows. Saffron sat on the sofa and powered up her laptop. She opened the browser and looked for NanoQ. She checked the company’s website, clicking through the different tabs, looking for an “About Us” or something similar. Sometimes Silicon Valley companies that began as tiny start-ups still had pictures of their founders on their websites. She hoped NanoQ was one of them.
Saffron finally saw it, buried on the footer with a lot of other innocuous links. She clicked it. The CEO’s photo and bio appeared. She scrolled down, and a new picture appeared on the screen. A professional headshot of Blake stared back at her. His full name was Blake Higgins. He was the CTO. This should be interesting, she thought.
The other piece of valuable information in the “About Us” section was the contact number. She fished her phone out of her purse and dialed.
“NanoQ, this is Marissa. How may I direct your call?”
&
nbsp; “I need to talk to Blake Higgins.” Saffron scratched Cat behind the ears, and the purring became so loud she wondered if Marissa could hear it.
“Who may I say is calling?”
She hadn’t thought about what to say. Blake didn’t know her real name and probably wouldn’t take a call from Cassandra, Belle, or Madam X either. In a moment of brilliance, she came up with the perfect caller. One Blake would never refuse to talk to.
“Jane Porter, on behalf of Jonah Boyer.”
She felt pleased with herself. Boyer was the hottest venture capitalist in the Valley.
“Jane, what a pleasure,” Blake said a few seconds later.
“Listen, asshole, you missed your chance to turn yourself in to the police.”
“Excuse me?” He sounded genuinely confused.
“X was very clear in his instructions: you were going to turn yourself in to the police. But no. Instead you sent a bunch of thugs to beat the shit out of Constantine and me. So now I’m going to tell my boyfriend everything I know about you, and he’s going to take you down, because he’s a homicide detective.”
She hung up. The exhilaration almost felt like a hot flash. She opened the balcony window and fanned herself. Her stomach still hurt, and her eye was getting worse, but the relief of knowing that very soon she was going to tell Darcy everything and he would help her was so great, nothing else mattered.
Saffron went back inside, fed Cat and decided to go back to the station and wait for Darcy there. But first she was going to take a long shower and change her clothes.
Chapter 60
A nurse came into Jon’s room without knocking on the door. Darcy watched her check his vitals, cross out a few things in his file and make some notes. After she left, they finished discussing the case.
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Darcy surveyed the boxes they needed to exchange for digital files.
“Yep, I’m okay, I swear. I’ll go crazy if I do nothing all day. Besides, I need an excuse to send my parents away for a minute or two.” He smiled.
