The woman wasn’t wearing her face covering, and a long braid of brown hair fell to her waist. She moved, and Stella’s breathing caught in her throat. The woman on the mattress looked like she had already been through hell, but, more importantly, Stella recognized her. Bridgette Carmichael.
The other woman had glanced back, but Stella looked at her too late to catch more than the corner of a smirk as she finished locking the new prisoner in.
“Fair warning,” she mentioned. “These chains will allow you both use of the toilet at separate times of the day. If either of you cross the line between your mattresses at that time, an electric current will be passed through the chains. Tell her when she wakes.”
Stella watched the woman go, having heard the warning, but not allowing her mind to focus on that just yet. Instead, she held onto that smirk, and the other memory it brought back with it of a wide, bright smile, just before her world had gone dark.
She had known that smile, recognized it, and now, once again, the memory returned. She had seen that smile before and just as it had then, it made her heart sink and her blood run cold.
She remembered her trips to Jay in prison, the new half-healed cuts or bandages he was likely to be sporting. Once, on her way into the prison, she thought she had seen that man too, that smile as he chatted to a woman with a long braid of coffee-brown hair.
The last memory in her mind, still stuck in some moment of painful clarity, was of a rolling lawn on a huge estate that belonged to a client she had taken on only to get her father off her back. She knew that if she could pay him enough, he might stop trying to force her to marry some wealthy stranger. There, she had been met by a servant who had claimed to be leading her to Miranda, but instead must have been in collusion with the kidnappers. She awoke once on the journey to these cells. The memory was fuzzy, tainted by the drugs they’d used to keep her under. Yet even so, she felt a deep certainty that she was right, that it was him again, the same man with the dimpled smile.
Stella felt tears begin to sting her eyes as the memories faded and her mind fell silent. If that were true, then coupled with the woman’s words earlier, Stella could come to only one conclusion that fit everything she knew. This was all aimed at Jayden.
Stella wondered that the whole of the USA wasn’t in an uproar. The Haraby name was well respected, both because of her grandparents and because of the reputation she had built herself. Surely someone had decided that her absence wasn’t normal? And then Miranda. The woman had been due to stand trial, and Carmichael was no less in the public consciousness. How could they disappear without causing a big hullabaloo?
Perhaps there is? You wouldn’t know, trapped down here, offered a feeble, but hopeful, part of her mind.
Stella swung her head. No. If there were any kind of heat, her captors wouldn’t sound so relaxed and confident. Even the new man who had smelled of cigarettes hadn’t sounded troubled.
The only answer was that this had all been carefully and meticulously planned with not a single point left to chance. Everything investigated and planned for a single person.
Her heart seized up painfully. All this time, Jay had been her ray of hope. His prowess in his field ensured that he would find her. Now she understood the truth. Just as he had always used background knowledge of his marks to bring them down, so the kidnapper was doing with him. Playing him every step of the way. When Jay would come, the final part of the trap would close and there’d be no one left to save her from drowning in that tank just like Miranda.
She waited for the panic, but instead, it was as if her senses were dulling. Stella shut her eyes and slipped into that space of numbness, where there was no thought, no fear and no hope.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Jay entered the gym and followed all his normal procedures. For the last three days, he had actually used the facilities the whole time he was here. Today, he would once again head up onto the roof. He needed solitude to contact Gary, to see if the man had managed to complete his mission.
Jay readied his drone and set up his square of safety after dead bolting the roof door behind him. Unless they could fly, no one was getting up here. Dave was at the bank dealing with some letter that had arrived yesterday to do with his previous employer over in Shreveport. Lloyd’s routine would put him at the little house just outside of town where he seemed to regularly meet up with the sheriff and others to help keep a serial killer under wraps.
Jay pulled the VR headset on, tested the microphone, then took off, feeling the swooping sensation in his gut although his feet never left the rooftop. The day was clear and bright, so Jay flew as high as he dared before setting off in the direction of the offices Gary had set up with Lloyd. As directed, Gary was meant to keep playing along and following all his usual habits. Jay knew it was far too risky for them to meet in person again, no matter where it was.
Jay hovered above the address for a full five minutes, watching all from his bird’s-eye-view. Right on cue, Gary left one of the small cottages at the back and headed into the small house that was his office and fronted the street. He waved to three people on his way, all of which Jay had already spotted. Satisfied that there were no more, Jay moved over to the window Gary had been instructed to leave open every time he was alone in the office.
The seconds dragged and then the window was open and latched. Jay held his breath. He counted to ten to give Gary time to get out of the way before swooping down out of the sky and carefully through the window.
He watched Gary’s head snap in the direction of the low buzz the propellers made and then jump badly enough to unsettle his mug of coffee.
Jay laughed and remembered belatedly that the microphone was on today. He landed on the desk and saw Gary’s eyes narrow.
Jay smiled, adjusting the camera angle as Gary sat, still looking sour. “I’d offer a long apology but—”
“But it isn’t your style.”
“—but we don’t have time,” Jay corrected. “Do you have an in?”
Gary stopped trying to mop coffee off his table and smirked. “Of course. I might not be you, but I do know my business.”
Jay’s lips twitched as he fought to hold in a laugh. “See the port on the left side? Plug the USB in there. I’ll do the rest.”
Gary nodded and drew the tiny USB Jay had given him from inside his pocket.
“You only used this with the tablet I gave you, right?” Jay asked as Gary made to plug it in.
“If you’re going to question me like I’m not seven years your senior in this business, I might reconsider our alliance.”
Jay’s field of vision was interrupted by a series of letters, asking him for passcodes. Once the download had begun, he shifted it to the side so he could have a clear view of Gary’s face.
“Do you have any suspicions of who might be behind this?”
Gary tilted his head. “Nothing specific. But with the news that’s followed your footsteps, I’d say they’ve been following closely and not just since your release.”
Jay nodded, feeling his chest tighten. He had come to the same conclusion. “I agree. They’ve been watching me since my prison days.”
“Maybe before,” Gary suggested. “Depends whether you think they already had a mole in your prison before you began your sentence.”
Jay froze on the rooftop. “You’re thinking that, to be effective, they’d need a well established role within the prison.”
“Yes.”
“Or maybe just a well respected role,” Jay said after a moment’s pause. “Listen, when this is done, your next task is to look at staff at the prison. Focus on those that left their employ soon after my term ended.”
Gary nodded then shook his head. “Talking like this is uncanny. You usually give a lot away in your face if the person watching knows what to look for.”
Jay felt another blow. “I’ll need to be careful with that then.”
The download finished and flashed back into the center of his field of visi
on. Jay used the controls in his hand to skim through the information before ordering it stored. He would look at it more closely at home.
“You can remove the drive,” Jay told Gary who had begun to doodle absently on the corner of a notepad.
Gary sighed and pulled the drive free. “Now what? Do we move on this? I can—”
“No. I know it is a long shot that Stella is still alive, but if she is, we need to be careful. Whoever this is has laid out every move. If we start ruining their careful work with careless abandon, they will get angry.”
Gary pocketed the drive and nodded. “Okay. So am I just looking into the prison then? Also, why can you not do that?”
Jay smirked. “I suppose if I can teach you to fish for yourself, then the reputation I will build you over the next three years will have a better chance of staying up.”
Gary evidently heard the smirk in his voice because he scowled. “Are you going to answer or not?”
“Sure. I don’t know yet how closely I am being monitored, but so far, with the exception of you, I have always been a step behind. As such, I must be careful that any work I do in my usual way is understandable. That way my watcher will believe that I am still playing their game. So anything that shows I might know more than I am letting on needs to be dealt with in secrecy.”
Gary suddenly nodded. “I see. And because you don’t know who your enemy is yet, you can’t be certain where would be safe. If you stay at the gym too often or for too long, they’d catch on. So instead, it is safer if you don’t do the leg work at all.”
Jay allowed himself a wide grin in place of the laugh that wanted out. Gary could not see the former, but he’d certainly hear the latter. Gary looked so desperately proud of himself.
“Exactly. So, you ready for your orders?”
Gary’s triumph vanished, and his face became sour once more.
“Don’t worry. Once this is all tied up, you’ll be the boss.”
Gary huffed then jerked his head once in a short nod. “Go on then. What’s my next job.”
“I’ll be giving your number to a friend. He’ll be in contact. All you need to do is help him out.”
Gary frowned. “I’m not you. I don’t deal with criminals. If I did, I would have just stuck with Lloyd.”
“How about upstanding law enforcers?” Jay asked, a hint of impatience in his voice.
“Who is it?”
“Hector Piers.”
Gary’s face shifted with comical speed from confused to surprised and then folded into his usual skeptical frown. “I heard he’s dead.”
“Of course you did.”
“That was you?”
Jay smiled, letting it be heard in his voice. “I knew my watcher had rules about outside help. Since Salisbury and the attack at Mr. Haraby’s, I realized that only leads they had left me were allowed. The rest would be punished.”
“So you brought them in knowing they’d be in danger?”
Jay chuckled. “I brought them in to see if my opponent could be duped. Turns out, he can. The whole world now believes that Hector and his wife died in a freak explosion.”
“But the bodies—”
“Dentals are easy enough to fake, and there will always be corpses if one knows who to ask.”
Gary made a choking noise in the back of his throat, waving his hands over the camera as if determined to shut Jay up.
Jay chuckled again. “So, can you work with Hector Piers?”
“Did he know about your plan?”
“No. It wouldn’t have worked if he had been forewarned. I have little doubt that a message like that would have been intercepted.”
Gary let out a rueful laugh. “Then I think he and I will find we have much in common. I’ll be waiting for the call.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Jay sat in front of his computer and smiled at his work. All of Gary’s finds had been turned into replica social or police records, a neat trail of Jay’s fake hacker skills showing how the great Roe had infiltrated lives to achieve his goals.
The person Gary Peters had secured as their in was safe, their identity hidden neatly behind a handful of Lloyd’s more trollish thugs. Jay didn’t believe that the person who had been planning all this would believe them capable of offering up such delicate information, but he was certain that it would wrong foot them for long enough. This whole thing was a ploy for them to reveal themself. He knew they had to be close often to be able to garner the amount of information they had. So all this needed to do was make them feel vulnerable for long enough that they would act impulsively.
The front door opened, and Jay straightened from the table in the lounge. He gave Dave a smile as the man came into the house grinning from ear to ear.
Dave half smiled, but remained silent, pouring himself a coffee before coming over. “What have you been doing while I was away?”
Jay waggled his eyebrows like a silent movie villain. “Exploring and expanding some of my less reputable talents.”
Dave laughed, but it sounded a little off. Jay’s hand automatically tensed even as he mentally shook himself. This would all be for nothing if he fell for his enemy’s tricks. The part of Jay’s mind that had been keeping tabs of little inconsistencies rolled its eyes. There was no rush. No need to be impatient. If Stella was alive, rash action would only get her killed anyway.
“Are you ok?”
Jay felt chagrin color his cheeks and tried to pass it off as embarrassment. “Sorry. Just every day that passes, I worry that I’m already too late.”
Dave gripped his shoulder. “I’ve explained this already. She’s the main pawn. He won’t kill her until the game is over.”
Jay nodded,then tilted his head towards the screen. “So? What do you think?”
Dave glanced back, and Jay just caught the flash of some other emotion behind his gaze. “You sure you got the sources right? I don’t think any of Lloyd’s men had the smarts to do something like this.”
Jay half smiled even as his heart jolted at Dave’s almost immediate jump to the truth. “I agree. But that doesn’t then mean that they wouldn’t act on the word of someone who was offering money.”
Dave’s eyes narrowed. “But who? He seems to be linked to everything in Salisbury. Or are you wrong about Gary Peters. Maybe he has changed enough to willingly side with the other side of the law.”
Jay let his eyes lose focus, looking for all the world like he was considering Dave’s words. “Maybe.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
“You’re right that Lloyd’s tied to Salisbury and to Mr. Haraby through Gary, but what about the rest?”
“The rest?”
“The person we saw in New Orleans, or the attack on Hector? Or even that damn forum.” Jay paused for effect, letting his eyes snap back into focus on Dave’s face as he said the next words. “Bloodangel_53. I think their identity will answer a lot of questions.”
Dave pointed back at the screen. “So, instead, you’re trying to get more details on the kills?”
“I feel like there’s a pattern here, or maybe I’m just grasping at straws.”
“Don’t worry. Something will turn up. The forensics report on Miranda is due in a few days. If it follows a similar time lapse to the previous victims,” he added as Jay raised a questioning eyebrow.
Jay nodded and stood, stretching. “I’m glad you’re here. You’ve helped keep me from doing anything foolish.”
“Oh?”
“You know, like slipping into a panic or offering a surrender to an unknown person.”
Dave laughed. “Not to mention saving your life, getting you leads, and doing the lion’s share of the boring report work.”
Jay joined in with the laughter, using it to hush his mind. He just had to stick to his plan. When Hector and Gary gave him the last pieces, he’d map it out. He glanced at Dave and decided he would reveal it to him first.
“I heard Lloyd was back. You want to try planting the tracker on
him tomorrow?”
Dave sighed then nodded. “Sure. Though I am beginning to doubt that it’ll do us much good.”
Jay’s phone beeped, and he frowned as he scooped it from the table. The message was coded. Apparently some old relative of Hector’s blaming him for the man’s death, but Jay recognized the encryption. It was from Elliot telling him that Hector had information to pass on and a request for when would be a good time to have that call.
Dave whistled out through his teeth. “That guy really hates you.”
Jay shrugged and easily brought up a rueful laugh. “This kind of thing has been pretty common.”
“Are you planning on attending the funeral?”
Jay barked a laugh. “And get lynched by people like this guy? Not a chance.”
“But he was your oldest friend, wasn’t he?”
Jay sighed heavily. “The best thing I can do for Hector is win this game. I’m going to grab us some shopping. The fridge and cupboards are bare. Any requests?”
Dave smiled. “I’ll come along.”
***
Jay had managed to shoot Elliot a message while Dave got accosted by a saleswoman offering up some new product for tasting. He lounged now on the rooftop of the gym again, two days later, waiting for the call.
“Hello, Elliot,” he answered the call. The big man’s laugh came through the line, but it sounded strained. “Everything alright?”
“If it were, would he have bothered to set up this call?” came Keira’s terse reply and Jay realized he was on speaker.
“Fair point,” he said after the other four greeted him too. It took Jay a moment to realize what he was feeling before deciding it was relief. For once, he was talking to people he was one hundred percent sure were on his side. He hadn’t noticed the stress building until their voices cleared it away.
“So what do you have for me, Hector?”
Hector called him a name but answered in the next breath. “Before the explosion, I had been working on something. I took it up again here with Ruby and Frank to help.”
Jayden Roe Mystery 02-The Final Lie Page 16
