“What do you want?” she barked.
Her charm was still intact. “Can we talk?” I opened the screen door myself.
Noah popped up just behind his mom. “Ozzie, what a surprise, man. Good to see you.”
“Hey.” I didn’t wait to be asked inside; I just walked in. I took a quick glance around and saw the usual cloudy haze lingering in the air with the overwhelming smell of smoke.
“Kind of a shit hole, huh?” Noah said.
I shrugged, not really in the mood to cut down Rhonda right in front of her face, which was rigid in expression. “What are you doing here so late?” I asked Noah.
He chuckled. “Found some rats eating wires in the attic. Need to make sure Mom doesn’t lose access to her favorite TV shows. Right, Mom?”
She shifted her eyes away from him—almost like a sneer. “Yeah” was all she said.
He put his arm on his mother’s shoulder, and she flinched. “Mom always has something going on around here. It could be my full-time job on top of my other full-time job.” He sighed. “Not everyone gets to make the big bucks like Franklin.”
He swung his head around and looked at his mother, but she stared straight ahead, an air of defiance about her. I also sensed some fear. He then turned to me. “So, did you have more questions for Mom regarding Franklin’s fucked-up life?” He chuckled, but it was forced.
“Actually, I had a few questions for you, Noah.”
He pointed at his chest, and his eyes got wide. “Me? Why me?”
I could feel my pulse hammering my neck. I had to keep my cool. As I pushed out a calming breath, Rhonda’s expression snagged my attention. Her eyes were darting back and forth.
“Ozzie, you should have called ahead, man. I’m a busy guy. I’ve got all sorts of projects going on here,” he said, backing up toward the only hallway in the house.
“Well, it shouldn’t take long.”
He kept talking as he turned down the hall. I couldn’t understand what he was saying. I started to follow him, but Rhonda put a hand on my shoulder. “Be careful.”
I stopped. “Why? What’s going on here, Rhonda?”
“Mom, can you help me back here, please?” Noah yelled out.
“You should just leave.” As fast as she could move, she shuffled away.
I waited a second—trying to make sense of this odd interaction. I made my way to the hall, turned the corner, and nearly ran right into Rhonda. Her lip was quivering.
“Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie,” Noah said.
I looked over Rhonda’s shoulder and saw Noah pressing something against his mother’s head. Beyond him, I saw a computer setup that would put NASA to shame. Lots of blinking lights, multiple monitors.
“What’s going on, Noah?”
“This is what’s fucking going on.” He yanked his mother’s head backward and showed me a gun.
It felt like an ice pick had just stabbed the top of my spine. “Noah, listen—there’s no need to get violent here. We can talk this out. Everything will be cool.”
“Cool, my ass.” He pushed his mom into me, but he didn’t let go of her. I stumbled back into the living room while searching for something to use as a weapon. All I saw were remote controls, ashtrays, and packs of cigarettes.
“Get your hands up, asshole.”
I did as he said while switching my eyes from him to his mom. Her entire body was now quaking.
“Why did you set up your brother, Noah?”
“Ha! So you figured it out. Damn. I thought you’d get yourself killed before that happened.”
“Are you going to tell me why?”
He laughed, but it was full of cynicism. “Because he’s a lying, cheating bastard. I thought the note was rather explanatory.”
“Because he cheated on his wife?”
“Because he cheated everyone. He fucked over my life, Mom’s life, everyone he acted like he cared about.” He paused, used his gun hand to rub his face. “Franklin thinks he’s the king of the fucking world who will never be dethroned. Well,” he said with a hearty laugh, “I’ve dethroned him.”
“Franklin is messed up, Noah, but he saved you from going to jail.”
His smile disappeared. “She was a skank. A whore.”
“Who was the skank?”
I swung my head to the left—Brook appeared from the kitchen, her gun drawn, her face a splotchy red.
Noah’s mouth dropped open.
“Tell me, Noah. Who was the skank, and what did you do to her?”
He said nothing.
She had to know, so I told her. “He kidnapped a girl a few years ago. Her name was Janet. Right, Noah?”
“She was a whore, dammit. She was a cheating whore.”
“Did she maybe smile at the grocery cashier?”
“Doesn’t matter. That’s still being a whore.”
“And for that, you kidnapped her, raped her, and held her hostage for a week. Until your brother found out. You begged him to help you. After you let her go, and she went to the cops, Franklin paid her off. Told her to go away for what, a million dollars?”
He squeezed his eyes shut; perspiration drenched his face.
“Who the hell are you?” Brook gulped in a breath, her gun trembling in her hands.
I wanted to reach out and calm Brook down. She hadn’t seen this coming. Many of us could see Noah was off, but not Brook. She’d had a blind spot, just like so many of us who are in love, at one time or another.
“I’m the same guy you fell in love with, Brook. This isn’t me, dammit. People are always trying to keep me down, to make me a nothing. I’m just trying to protect myself. You and I can still make it. We have what everyone else wants.”
Brook shook her head. “What everyone else wants? We’re not a couple, you fuckwad. You kidnapped a person? Raped her? Paid her off? You’re so fucked up…I don’t even have words.”
A single tear rolled down her cheek, but she used her shoulder to wipe it off. She calmed herself by taking a deep breath and then reset her grip on her gun. “Put down the gun, Noah.”
Another forced chuckle. “That’s not going to happen. But I’ll tell you what is going to happen. You guys are going to move out of the way, and I’m going to use Dear Old Mom as a shield while I walk out, get into my car, and drive off. Or, if you’d like, I can spray her brain all over your faces. You want that?” He shook his mom’s head so hard I thought he might break her neck.
I took a step toward him.
“Back off, Ozzie. This is all your fault anyway. If you would have just taken the fucking clues I gave you, then everything would be fine.”
“You hacked into the Four Seasons network and replaced that video clip with a fake one that had Franklin in it, didn’t you?”
Brook glanced at me for a split second. I knew she’d taken another gut punch, but I had to find out for certain.
He looked at Brook. “I told you I was taking courses at the community college. That IT stuff just started clicking for me. And then I came up with this idea. I gotta admit, I was rather proud for pulling that one off.”
I continued. “You killed Pamela Connor, didn’t you?”
He wiped sweat from his face. “She was a whore, just like most women.”
“And the text messages with Franklin’s journal?”
“Yep, that was me too. Franklin was so naïve—yeah, I know, hard to believe, huh? I convinced him about a month ago to get together with me for lunch, to talk about Mom’s health…blah, blah, blah. I knew he cherished his little black journal book more than his own wife, so when he went to the bathroom, I stole it. I ended up finding a reason to see him the next day, and I put it back—after I’d taken some interesting pictures. Of course, you’ve seen those. Little did I know it would open up this can of worms. Damn, that guy is a magnet to a lot of greedy sons o’ bitches.”
I was seething with anger. “Well, one of those sons o’ bitches almost killed my family tonight!” An overpowering rush of adrenaline inched me fo
rward. My hands curled into fists as I readied to launch myself at Noah. But something held me back—I knew if went after him, he would kill his mother before I could touch him.
We were at his mercy.
“Hey, man, shit happens,” Noah said with a shrug. “Franklin is spoiled and sick, and he needed to be taught a lesson he’d never forget.”
“All because he ignored you and your mother when you were a teenager?”
“It’s not just that, but yeah, I guess that started it. He’s so fucking selfish. He needs to suffer for the rest of his life.”
A few seconds passed. No one said a thing. Our eyes shifted to each other. I was trying to figure out how to end this without anyone else dying. I could think of nothing.
Then, a surprise statement from Rhonda. “He’s been beating me off and on for years.”
“Why, thank you, Mother,” Noah said. “Why don’t you tell them how much fun it was to be raised by you?”
“You justify everything you do, you sick bastard,” I said.
“I’m getting fucking tired of you judging me, Ozzie.” He lifted the gun above Rhonda’s shoulder and aimed it right at me. “Change of plans. I’ll kill your sorry ass and then walk out of here.”
“Noah, put your gun down, you piece of shit.” Brook’s voice was strong, but it was loaded with emotion.
Rhonda’s eyes caught mine. I could see her jaw muscles twitch. What the hell was she planning to do?
Noah snapped off a chuckle while staring at me. “Say goodbye to your daughter and wife, asshole.”
Rhonda rammed her head into Noah’s nose. He screamed out as Rhonda dropped to the floor. Brook fired a round, hitting Noah in the shoulder. He yelped, and his gun fell to the ground. I rushed over, grabbed the gun. He wobbled for a second, put a hand over his wound, but blood seeped through. He looked at Brook.
“You were my forever, Brook. You were the one.”
“In your fucking dreams,” she said.
36
For what I hoped would be the last time, Garrett ushered me down the hall toward Winston Palmer’s office. I hadn’t slept a wink, nor had I been able to down my first cup of coffee. I’d been up all night dealing with cops of all ranks and doing what I could to console Brook.
At first, she had held it all in, her body in a catatonic state. Then the floodgates opened. She’d bawled her eyes out, pounded her fists against the walls, gone out to the weedy backyard and unleashed a furious rant of cuss words, hurled both at Noah and herself. Once she’d drained her energy, she finally fell into my arms. I rubbed the back of her head and told her she deserved better. Told her, even if it didn’t seem possible at the moment, that she would heal over time.
The rug running down the LEAP hallway felt like it had extra padding this morning, as if a client might actually defy gravity and float into their offices, possibly in a delirious mindset where they wouldn’t notice the obscene fees they were paying.
Thankfully, I was no client.
Garrett smirked at me as he opened the door, as though he enjoyed his own smugness, relishing in how he made himself feel superior by turning his nose up at me.
Whatever. If I had a flyswatter handy, I would have squashed the pesky fly. But he disappeared once Winston and Franklin broke out in huge smiles.
“Ozzie, we’re so excited to see you,” Winston said, standing by a long table of breakfast food and drink. I smelled bacon right away, but I could also pick up wafts of syrup and some type of Mexican egg dish. “What can I get you?”
If he wanted to be my waiter, I wasn’t going to stop him. “Coffee, for starters.” He poured me a cup and handed it to me.
“So, Franklin filled me in on your discussion last night,” Winston said with a quick glance toward his client. Again, he couldn’t help but grin like a kid showing off his missing front tooth. “And we’ve read the basic story in the morning paper.”
“Is it as good as we think?” Franklin said, two hands on the table. He was practically frothing at the mouth.
“Depends on your definition of ‘good,’ I suppose.” I sipped my coffee and explained the whole exchange with Noah, how he’d admitted to just about everything that had started this game of dominos.
“Yes!” Franklin pumped his fist. He then gave an awkward high-five to Winston. “I knew my brother was low-life scum, but I had no idea he could stoop to this level.”
I stared at Franklin as he reveled in his little victory. Murder charges would be dropped, most certainly, since his brother had admitted to everything. And I knew that Franklin might be able to dodge any charges related to aiding his brother by bribing the girl Noah had kidnapped and raped—the statute of limitations had apparently passed. Yes, Franklin was back on top of his world. At least for the time being.
He came over and shook my hand. “I can’t thank you enough, Ozzie. I will recommend your services to everyone I know. You’ll be a rock star.”
Just my wish…to be endorsed by a conniving, cheating piece of shit. He shuffled over to the lavish display of food. “What can I get you, Ozzie? Some of everything?”
I heard a loud pop, which made me jump. Winston had just opened a bottle of champagne. “How about I pour everyone a mimosa, eh?”
“You know me…I’m into celebrating a great day,” Franklin said, taking a full glass from Winston.
“Ozzie, how about you?” Winston asked.
I pointed at my mug of coffee. “I’m good, thanks.”
I waited for a moment, then said, “So, this just about wraps up everything. I submitted my bill this morning through email.”
“Received and paid,” Winston said, dipping his head as if he were some sort of knight.
I was a bit shocked at the speed, but I wasn’t going to argue it. “So, Franklin, I know you must feel like your life has been given back to you.”
“It’s been the greatest stress of my life. Damn, what a relief.” He tipped his head back and swallowed more of his mimosa cocktail.
“You do know that there have been other crimes committed, very serious crimes. Riya was killed in the bombing…”
“I know. I feel quite bad for her.” He stopped drinking long enough to momentarily act like he was a somber pastor who’d just presided over her funeral.
“And then there’s Marco.” I stared at Winston.
He held up his arms and then put a hand to his heart. “Honest to God, put me under a lie detector, I had no idea he was also working for some other group. It’s just sick to think what some people will do for money.”
I tried not to upchuck my coffee. He’d apparently read about the Red Roof Inn story as well. Or had he heard it from another source?
“So you have no idea who he was working for?”
“God, no. We at Lockwood, Engle, Adams and Palmer would never do business with such a heathen. We do have scruples, you know.”
I sipped my coffee but didn’t respond right away.
“Look, Ozzie…” Franklin paced a few steps, then turned to me, a hand in his front pocket. I was about to be enthralled by his sage insight.
“It’s a true shame that Marco threatened your family. My boys…they mean the world to me. I understand your horror at what might have happened. Winston and I are both here for you. Anything we can do to help, please let us know.”
Winston smiled like a father who’d just watched his kid throw a no-hitter in the World Series.
“Do you have any ideas on who Marco might have worked for?” I asked.
“At first, I wondered if this murder setup was someone from my past, some client or some entity involved in one of my deals, someone who carried a grudge,” Franklin said. “As I thought more about it, I even wondered if Elaine was involved, especially with that hateful note.” He and Winston shuddered, as if they shared the same nervous system.
“Honestly…” He paused, lowered his voice a bit. I moved forward a couple of steps so I could hear him clearly. “And I know I can say this because of our little agreemen
t,” he said, wagging a finger between us. He was talking about the attorney-client privilege like it was perpetual.
It wasn’t. That had ended when I’d turned in my final hours early this morning. I had the backing of Alex and, most importantly, the US Attorney’s Office on that front.
He went on. “I think the culprit of this violence lies at the hand of this secret group that is aligned with Big Pharma. I actually wondered if someone was sending me a message to stay quiet about what I knew, or they thought I knew…you know, all the messy details of pushing that drug through the FDA for Calvin Drake. He was a psycho—we all know that now. I just did my best to find the weakest person on the FDA. I held up my end of the bargain, but then he had to go off and kill and kidnap people.”
I sipped my coffee, my eyes never leaving Franklin’s. “Is that so?”
“Of course, I can’t say anything publicly or to law-enforcement officials—that might get me killed. But this group is quite powerful. They don’t ask questions; they give orders. I’ve always wondered who exactly is behind this group, but I’ve heard rumors, like everyone else in the business.”
“Rumors like…?”
“For one, what they call themselves. It’s probably a joke, just because it sounds like a sneaker tagline—Just Win. Other than that, I really don’t know a great deal. But their violent response is like that of a Colombian drug cartel. No mercy.”
I sipped again, nodded, acting as though I were listening to a mindless Sunday morning talk show.
“And,” he said with a chuckle while glancing at Winston, “I think I’ll live a long life as long as I keep my mouth shut.”
“Amen to that.” Winston lifted his glass, and they toasted each other.
I excused myself to use the restroom, walked into the empty bathroom, and quickly poured water on my face. In the mirror, I watched as the water poured down my face. It felt refreshing. I looked down at my leather jacket. At Alex’s behest, local FBI agent Bruce Bowser—someone I knew back when my father had been killed and this whole Drake scandal came to light—and Rick Porter had set me up with a wire, hoping I’d be able to get some dirt on Franklin. I was pretty sure what he’d told me thus far would be enough to prosecute him.
ON Fire (An Ozzie Novak Thriller, Book 5) (Redemption Thriller Series 17) Page 19
