by Dale Mayer
“You didn’t care about the tickets?” Butler asked Midge.
“They did an office pool. I put in for it and forgot about it. It never even occurred to me until it came up yesterday or whenever that was.”
“And that’s when you remembered about the ticket?”
“Yes, when Taylor was asking details about the lottery we’d played. But you already know all that.”
“Okay, so an awful lot of people are involved,” Taylor said. “But really, the bottom line is, we need to find Bart, and I’m not ruling out this Jenny person who was fired.”
“Tell me again about her,” the detective said.
“Jenny used to work with us at the records department, and she was definitely a little off. She didn’t do a good job and was always on the edge of trouble. She ended up getting fired over six months ago and blamed me. She was quite friendly with everyone else though, particularly Bart.”
“Was she now?” the detective asked. “In that case, let’s pick her up as well.”
He walked a few steps away, and Midge wondered how much police work was actually just making phone calls. Because he didn’t seem to do a lot except be on the other end of a phone. It was frustrating for her to be sitting here on the sidelines, expecting something to happen, but, so far, it had just been boring stuff. Except they kept tripping over dead bodies.
She said, “I’ll walk the sidewalk here a little bit. I need to shake some of this off. It’s pretty damn depressing.” Taylor frowned at her, but she ran lightly down the few steps onto the sidewalk and then just paced back and forth as she tried to wear down some of that pent-up anguish inside. More cops arrived just then with a team. And while she was happy to see them, it was also difficult to be engulfed in the system once again. Questions were being answered, she was being brushed aside, only to be poked and brought forward again. Finally, she asked, “Are you guys done?”
“No,” Detective Butler said. “We might need to do some of it in the morning.”
She sat down on the bottom step, waiting for the chaos to end. When this was over, she wanted nothing to do with the police for at least another thirty years. As she sat here, she looked up and down the street and then saw a car like Debbie’s was down there. She hopped up and studied it, thinking maybe it was her coworker’s car.
Taylor came up to her and asked, “What are you doing?”
“I think that is Debbie’s car,” she said. “But maybe not.”
He looked at it and then called the detective over. They checked the ownership. Taylor shook his head. “No, it’s not.”
“Of course not. That would be too easy.” Midge shrugged. “It’s Bart car that we need to find.”
Just then came a shout from the house. Midge watched as Taylor walked back up to talk with Colton at the doorway. She leaned against the car, waiting for them to be done. A couple men walked by and then a woman. Everybody was curious about what was going on in the house.
When somebody clasped something over her mouth and grabbed her from behind, she tried to fight and kick but couldn’t shake them off. Chloroform. Made her weak and go quiet. She was tossed into the back of a car. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t even speak. The vehicle drove away slowly, but the hand over her mouth didn’t ease up, and she succumbed to the drugs.
*
“Okay, I’ll head back in and see if I can find out more,” Colton said.
Taylor ran down to the bottom of the steps and turned toward where he’d just left Midge. But there was no sign of her. He looked around, seeing a bunch of people standing there, and he asked, “Did you see that short redhead standing here somewhere?”
They looked at each other and back at the car, and one said, “I think so.”
Another said, “I think she was right there, leaning against the car.”
He looked at the car and then swore. It wasn’t the same car anymore. At least the one in front wasn’t. The car that looked like Debbie’s was still here, but now a truck was parked in front of it. He called out to the crowd, asking for whoever owned it. One of the guys walked over and said, “Yeah, it’s mine. Why? What’s the matter?”
“Did you see the car that was here before you pulled in?”
“It was pulling away, so I was just happy to get a spot.”
“Did you see a redhead?”
He frowned and said, “Yeah, I think somebody helped her get into the back of the car. But I don’t know for sure. I was too busy trying to get into the parking spot. With all this shit going on, no way I can even get into my own place.”
“Don’t suppose you caught sight of the license plate, did you?”
The guy shook his head.
Taylor ran to Colton and the detective to explain what the problem was.
Colton said, “I took some pictures of the parked vehicles on this street. Let me see if I’ve got the license plate.” He brought up the photos on his phone, and there was a corner of the license plate. “Okay, we’ve got the make and model and we’ve got one letter on the end.”
“Well, that will help some,” the detective said, “but not a lot.”
Taylor wanted to follow the kidnappers, but how was he supposed to know where they had gone? “What do you think he’ll do? Go back to Bart’s place? Or go to Jenny’s?”
Colton asked, “You’re still stuck on Jenny being involved?”
“Until I have a reason to believe otherwise, yeah,” Taylor said. “I can’t get it out of my mind. Particularly since a winning lottery ticket is involved, and Jenny knows the woman she hates is getting seventy-five million dollars. In that case, Jenny’s hate is growing.”
Colton said, “Come on. Let’s go.” With the two of them in separate vehicles, Taylor headed first to Bart’s place, where he did a quick search, then left for the only address they had for Jenny. He spoke to Colton on the phone as he drove. “Please tell me that the detective has an APB out on that vehicle.”
“Well, he does, but the place is pretty overrun. I think some festival is in town. The traffic here is just brutal.”
“We’ve got to find her,” Taylor demanded. “This doesn’t make any sense. Why didn’t they just shoot her, like the others?”
“Whatever the reasoning,” Colton said, “we can be grateful. We can’t walk back from a fatal bullet, but, if there’s any reason they want to talk to her or something, then we have some time to set up a rescue.”
“Says you,” Taylor replied with a snort. “We haven’t had any luck getting ahead of this. Everything we do is just playing catch-up.”
“This is our time to catch up. We’ve got a lot of people looking. Mason’s got half a dozen men out searching for that vehicle, and Butler issued the APB. Somebody will see it somewhere.”
“But will it be before they drop her dead body somewhere?” Taylor asked bitterly.
“She really got to you, didn’t she?”
“Yeah, she did,” he said. “And that’s got nothing to do with it. The fact of the matter is, I’d feel shitty if it was anybody. But it’s her, and she’s been targeted right from the beginning. I told her that I’d keep her safe, and instead I lost track of her. How the hell did they manage to sneak in and steal her away?”
“It was likely very easy,” Colton said. “Once all the onlookers gathered, it would have been just a quick jump and grab. She’s small enough that they could have picked her up, put chloroform over her face or injected her with a needle. She would have gone down in a heartbeat and would have been theirs from that moment on.” Colton paused and added, “I’ve got another call coming in. I’ll call you back.”
Taylor pulled over in front of Jenny’s condo. It was a weird set of condos, more like townhouses from the looks of it but maybe not. He wasn’t sure as he studied them and frowned. Whatever. He hopped out and walked up to the front of the building where Jenny’s number was. The door was open, with workmen inside. He checked the number again and then just walked right in, and nobody even questioned him. She lived on th
e main floor. Well, that was easy for a change. He walked over to the number 123 and pounded on the door. When there was no answer, he knocked again and then again.
A stranger walked up and asked, “Hey, what’s going on?”
“I’m looking for the person who lives here,” he said. “We need to talk to her regarding an investigation. We’ve got a young woman who’s been kidnapped, and we think Jenny has information on the woman’s whereabouts. Have you seen her lately?” Taylor asked.
He shook his head. “I’m the caretaker here. No. No, I haven’t. Not at all, probably for at least two days.”
“Seriously?”
The guy nodded.
“I suggest you use a master key so we can make a quick wellness check.”
At that, his jaw dropped open.
“Look. I’ve got five dead bodies. We need to know if she’s alive.”
That jump-started the caretaker, and he opened up the apartment. “I could get into a lot of trouble for this.”
“You could,” he said. “Or maybe you’ll get an award for being a hero.”
“I can’t let you in,” the caretaker said.
Taylor shrugged and said, “Go in and do a quick check. Make sure she’s not in the bedroom or bathroom. And be prepared in case it’s not a pleasant view.”
“I served over in Iraq,” he said. “I’ve seen plenty.” His voice dwindled as he disappeared into the kitchen, the living room and then over to the bedroom. He came back and said, “She’s not here.”
“She’s not in the bathroom?” Taylor asked.
He shook his head. “It’s empty.”
“Good,” Taylor said, and he bolted out the front. Then he stopped, turned and said, “Do you know what kind of vehicle she drives?”
“Yeah, a Pontiac Sunfire. After losing her job several months ago, she crashed her vehicle. The insurance didn’t cover much, and she ended up with an old beater. That girl has had a run of bad luck,” he said. “I sure hope she can turn that around to something good now.”
“She ever talk to you much?” Taylor asked. “Has she ever mentioned a girl named Midge?”
The caretaker’s face lit up. “Yeah, that’s the one she hated. Since she got her fired from her job and all.”
“Well, Midge is the woman who’s been kidnapped,” Taylor said. “She’s small, about five foot tall, with long red ringlets. She was taken not very long ago. But five other people in her sphere have all been murdered in the last couple days. I’m really terrified she’ll end up dead too.”
“I can’t remember the license plate,” the caretaker said. “We did have words over where she was parking a couple times. Because she isn’t too particular about following rules, so I’ve had multiple complaints about her.”
“Did they write down the license plate?”
He nodded, pulled out his phone and said, “Got another one here just the other day. Here it is.” As he rattled off the series of numbers, Taylor tapped them into his phone, encouraged when it ended with the letter he expected. Heart racing, he sent a message to Mason, Colton and Troy. “Okay, that might be the one we’re looking for.”
“She was pretty angry at that woman,” the caretaker said.
“Yeah, I hear that,” Taylor said. “Let’s hope she’s not so angry she does something stupid.”
“Did that woman really get her fired?”
Taylor looked up from his phone and shook his head. “No. Jenny did something wrong at work. That’s what got her fired.”
The caretaker shook his head. “Everyone likes to make up stories to minimize what they really did. If people would just be honest from the get-go, things would be easier.”
“True enough. We keep hoping, but humanity is in a messed-up state these days.” Taylor headed out. “Now we need to find a place where she would hang out,” he said out loud to nobody in particular.
The caretaker followed him outside. “You could go to her mom’s place and check there,” he said.
Taylor turned to look at him and frowned. “Why her mom’s place?”
“Her mom passed away, so the house is empty.”
“Do you have an address?”
He gave it to him. “It’s only a few minutes from here.” He pointed. “Go down to the end of the block, then take a right onto High Street. Go down about five blocks and take another right, so you’re just completing a square, and it’s in there. Her mom passed away about five or six months ago. It’s almost out of probate, and then she wants to sell the house. I think the For Sale sign is already up in the front yard.”
“Got it,” Taylor said. Then he opened his phone and called Colton and brought him up to speed.
“I’ll meet you there,” Colton said. “Troy is coming too, and I’ll tell Mason.”
“Good enough,” Taylor said. “Be there in five.”
Chapter 15
Midge woke up from whatever had happened, knowing she was in real trouble. Deep trouble. She rolled over, only to get a hard smack across the face. She cried out in pain and lay here, stunned for a long moment.
“Go ahead and try again,” a familiar voice invited. “I can keep doing this all day.”
“Why would you do this to me?” Midge asked, lifting a hand to hold her swelling cheek, surprised to see her hands and her feet were not bound.
“I’ve thought of nothing else,” Jenny said. “You got me fired. Then I lost my vehicle, and I’m about to lose my apartment too. All because of you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jenny. I didn’t get you fired.”
“Yes, you did,” she said. “You told them that I was hacking into the files and changing information for money, depending on who needed what. Somebody trying to get a mortgage may have needed their wages to be higher than what they actually were. No problem. I changed it. For a little extra money, I’d even arrange to call the lenders and give them proof positive these people were making what they needed. Maybe somebody else needed an extra degree in their background? No problem. I added it.” She scoffed. “It was a good gig. And you’re the one who screwed me out of it.”
Midge lay frozen in place. “I had no idea you were doing all that,” she said in bewilderment. “Why?”
“Why not? Our department is dead. Just full of dusty old files, and people they can’t move anywhere else. Like you. It’s not like you ever got promoted. You were completely ignored and overlooked.”
“I never tried to get promoted,” she said. “And I was happy there.”
The other woman laughed in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? No way.”
“And all of this is because you lost your cushy little job where you were cheating the system and lying for other people for a little extra money? Did they even find out about what you were doing?”
“Not from me,” she said carelessly. “But when I hacked into the files, I figured I could keep working, even though I wasn’t there anymore. I’d always had remote access anyway, and I knew several people’s logins, so I just kept doing it. And then somebody upgraded the system, and, when I tried to get back in again, it was much harder. But I got somebody in the office to give me a hand, and, of course, at that point, he got in a bit deep too. But it would be an easy out for all of us when we realized one of the office lottery tickets was a winner.”
Midge lay here, absorbing all this news. It had never occurred to her that somebody in staff records would be altering records for money. And, of course, she now knew who in the office had been helping Jenny.
“So this isn’t even about you getting fired. This is about that stupid lottery ticket, isn’t it?”
“Seventy-five million is hardly stupid,” Jenny said cheerfully. “No way you’ll be getting any of it. Sorry. Seventy-five million for two sounds a hell of a lot better than seventy-five million for three.”
“You weren’t even part of the office pool, were you?”
“I was,” she said. “Bart got a share for me, the same as bloody Shorts there bought a
share for his nephew.”
“So actually seven of us won?” she asked.
“Yeah. But we decided very quickly no way it would be big enough to share. So I arranged for you and the nephew to die. You were supposed to kill him and then turn the gun on yourself. It sure wasn’t hard to get into your Tinder account and set up a meet.” Jenny laughed. “It was supposed to look that way anyhow. Of course, I did the killing. Something I really was looking forward to. But you weren’t there. Of course you weren’t there. You’re never where you’re supposed to be on time.”
“Sorry if I messed up your plans,” Midge snapped. “How was I supposed to know you had all this murderous planning going on behind my back?”
“Well, you probably couldn’t know,” she said cheerfully. “It’s not like I give a shit anyway. This is much better. It will be much more personal, and I won’t have to worry about you ever getting out of it.”
“So you lured Gary to my place to make it look like a lover’s dispute and to get rid of two of us?”
“It did. Well, it should have. But it didn’t quite work out that way.”
“And the old couple?”
“Yeah, well, you see our boss and his nephew told them all about it. How they had all these tickets, and they were going to win.” She laughed. “Besides, I hated them anyway.”
“What are you even talking about? They were harmless.”
“No, they weren’t,” Jenny said. “I tried to live in that building a couple years ago. I was there for about three months and got my ass kicked out. So I was totally okay if they were gone. Besides, we couldn’t keep them around, knowing they knew about the winning tickets. We couldn’t allow anyone to know, or they’d tell the cops that people in the office pool were mysteriously dying. They would have just caused trouble. And come on. They were old. We should have been paid to do it really.”
Midge just stared straight ahead. She couldn’t even see the sick woman’s face. Her mind was too overwhelmed with how carelessly Jenny was talking about taking somebody’s life. “Is it so easy to kill then?”
