by Kristen Lamb
“Yes, take me to my dad’s.”
We continued to drive in maddening silence. Sawyer was clearly livid. That was good. Would make things easier. He eased into the drive, and I scooped up my purse and hopped out.
“Where are you going?” He came around after me.
“To finish this. Walk away.”
“I can’t do that.” He grabbed my arms.
I said nothing. My cheeks burned with anger and shame. I didn’t want to be right, but in my heart, I knew the truth was more horrible than any of us imagined. “You can’t love me. I’m not who you thought I was.” I yanked free of his grasp. I wished he’d leave. I missed the days that Phil and Verify were my biggest problems.
“Talk to me.” He came closer but I side-stepped out of his grasp.
“I practically tortured a guy today. Granted, I thought he was using my sister for a punching bag and expected him to confess, but…”
“But what?”
I lowered my voice, “But I got something entirely different. You said you loved me because of my character, then nothing you witnessed showed you a person who could be like Phil. Today I was worse. I was a monster to someone who didn’t even deserve it.”
“Romi—”
“You said it’s easy to get lost in the gray, to go to the dark side. Once we go there, though? Is there any coming back?” I couldn’t tell him I’d sold my soul to The Devils.
“Calm down. You’re being too hard on yourself. I would’ve done the same thing if I thought someone was beating on one of my sisters. If Meyerson was using Heath—”
I laughed cynically. “That’s the thing. He wasn’t. He wasn’t using her at all. She was using all of us.”
“You aren’t making any sense.”
“She’s marked me for death.”
“Aren’t you being a tad dramatic? Trailer parks aren’t that bad.”
I stared off at the distant glow of Bisby. “They aren’t coming for me now, but they will.” A sense of fate draped heavy across my shoulders. I was a condemned woman running out of time. “Soon.”
“Who?”
“Los Espectros. She’s made certain I’ll end up in pieces, my head a knife block.”
“How did you—?”
“The FBI wasn’t who blackballed me. Not completely. Heather did.”
He stroked my arms and drew me close. “Calm down. You’re talking crazy.”
I shoved him away. “Your knife, please.”
“What are you doing?” He hesitated then handed me his foldout blade.
“Proving I’m not crazy.” My father’s trailer was dark, save for the flicker of a television against the blinds. I could hear John Wayne’s voice tuned on high. I walked to the truck abandoned in the gloom. I set down my purse and unlocked the door, the formaldehyde aroma of new interior filling the air. In the feeble illumination of the old dome light, I could see that the doors, seats, and floors had all been completely redone. I jammed the knife into the fresh upholstery of the driver’s seat.
“What the hell are you—?”
I withdrew the blade and it was coated in white powder.
“Oh…damn,” he said.
“My guess is this is either premium cocaine or heroin.” I handed back the knife to search the bed of the truck for a tire iron. Using all my strength, I pried the panels free. Bags and bags of white powder had been neatly taped inside the metal frame. “No telling how many millions of dollars’ worth of drugs is planted on us. I’m guessing the new trailer Heather gifted us is loaded, too. One anonymous tip to Los Espectros and they get back their stolen goods and make me and my family a warning to anyone stupid enough to steal.” I tossed the tire iron on the seat.
“Holy shit,” he said and ran his hand through his hair.
I took some pictures on my phone then texted them to Ed.
“Who are you texting?”
“I have to go,” I said, but Sawyer yanked me back and I felt the cold metal of handcuffs.
“You’re arresting me?” I said, yanking on my cuffs. “Let me out of these,” I hissed low and kicked dirt on him.
“I’m detaining you. You aren’t going anywhere until you fill me in.”
“Let me go. Now.” I stomped my foot.
“Or what?” He cocked his head.
“You’re costing me time.”
“Then I suggest you give me the Cliff Notes version, because I’m not Cotton or Phil. I am not leaving you.”
“Fine.” My brain scrambled for a way to unravel the knotted web of years of lies, deception, and double-crosses. “Heather used Cunningham to make sure I’d get so desperate I’d have to return home. Cunningham was her eyes. He knew my routine that I always showed on the same days to search for jobs. Cunningham knew that telling me I couldn’t get me a job would likely send me back here. Heather wanted me here. She wanted me to think Daddy was insane, which was why she was doping him with an anti-psychotic that made him hallucinate.”
“Why?”
“Because Heather is greedy and vengeful. She wanted all of it. The money, the partnership with Los Espectros, and the money Daphne and Phil had stolen. They thought they’d played her, but she caught them in their own snare. She also wanted to get rid of any dead weight, namely her family.”
“I’m trying to follow, but slow down. How are you linking her to Cunningham and Verify ? ”
I checked to make sure we were still alone, then in a hushed voice, said, “We asked earlier. Why was Phil still alive? There was no reason Daphne needed him. If anything, he was bad baggage. Phil was alive because Daphne really did love him, but bigger still, he was key to using Heather to get them Bisby.”
“You lost me.”
“Once Kalista was cut from the will, I’m guessing she and Phil hatched the plan to use her computer skills. Create a software company that could fleece big customers. To do this, they went scouting, which is part of why Phil was working in Dallas.”
“With you so far.”
“But, Phil and Daphne knew they could only steal using Verify for so long and they needed to lay out an exit strategy. Imagine Phil’s luck when he ran into a graduating college student who looked a lot like his wife, who needed a job and even more, wanted someone to love.”
“I did ask why Phil chose you. Seems we have our answer.”
“Phil and his wife partnered with a couple shady people, stole a bunch of money, then offed the other players because they wanted it all and they wanted their secrets safe. But from the beginning, they knew they’d need a way to launder the money.”
“I know all this.”
“They partnered with Cunningham because they got greedy. Cunningham wasn’t sentenced to work at Unemployment. He chose to be there.”
“Why?”
“His father, Lonnie, started out as a government employee, and he wanted to make his father proud. But Lonnie’s are big shoes to fill, easier to fill using shortcuts. Phil met Mark Cunningham when I sold his father the software, and spotted opportunity.”
“I’m with you.”
“They hatched a way for Cunningham to use a virus to ghost the Unemployment information, meaning they’d be able to steal even more money and would also have a bigger window of time to steal as much as possible.”
“Again, know this.”
“Problem was, they couldn’t kill Cunningham so easily, and they made a huge mistake by not paying him. He couldn’t say anything unless he wanted to go to prison, but he was out a lot of money and a way out of Daddy’s shadow. Made him open to new opportunities and revenge.”
“I already know this,” he said, his voice laced with irritation.
“But what you don’t know is soon after Phil met me, he went to Bisby to find my sister and seduce her, which was easy because though I didn’t have pictures of my mom, I did have some of Heather. He’d have seen how we bear such a strong resemblance and known exactly where to find her because she was working at the grocery store when I called and tried to help her
get her GED.”
“Why did he want your sister?”
“She was being played. Liam, or rather, Phil was the long-distance boyfriend and is now her fiancé.”
“You think this because of her sudden change to brown hair? That’s a stretch.”
“No, that sudden change of appearance is all Heather. I know Liam is Phil because of the M.O. Give her gifts. Tell her she’s special, that he loves her and will rescue her, and she’s the sucker. But Heather’s no sucker. Not like me. She knew Phil was lying from the get-go.”
“How?”
“First of all, Phil picked the wrong cover. He told Heather he was in the oil business that Thoolen sent him to check for oil and gas before building.”
“How’s that a screw-up?”
“We grew up with a roughneck. Oil drilling is all my father talks about, other than Bonanza. Heather would’ve spotted Phil was full of shit pretty early, but probably sensed he’d lead to a way out. Phil assumed she was dumb trailer trash and she let him. I’m banking he let his guard down around her and that’s how she eventually figured out where the Verify money went and learned about the scam.”
“What did he want with your sister?”
“Let me back up.”
“Yes. Do that.”
“You said Kalista disappeared after a cruise to Jamaica. Fifty bucks tells me she’d already marked Thoolen and studied how he did business. Thoolen was their escape plan from Verify, a way to not only launder the stolen Verify money, but to also fleece growing businesses in a town desperate enough not to ask too many questions. She fakes her own death while on vacation so she can reinvent without being linked to a soon-to-be notorious con-man.”
“Completely plausible.”
“Kalista took care of the computer stuff and Phil’s job was to use me to rake in big clients to fleece while courting Heather. By leaving me to take the fall, the FBI would scope-lock on me, the only remaining lead, certain I’d lead to Phil, that we were still together.”
“One sister to take the heat and the other to continue the con,” he said.
“Yes. Part of all his trips were for business and to see his wife, but I guarantee you he was coming down here to seduce my sister.”
He scowled.
“Daphne marked Thoolen and Phil marked me then Bisby. He used Heather to manipulate Ferris and Thoolen. Ferris looks like a savior because he’s created a booming economy and becomes mayor. Thoolen has an ideal place to start a new resort. Also, they knew Thoolen’s business practices. Heather pitched the Bisby as the New Santa Fe idea, because Phil had gotten it from me and she likely even introduced them to her boyfriend’s accountant who probably sealed the deal.”
His eyes widened. “Daphne Idensloph. All right. Catching up.”
“Kalista was a top real estate agent and a computer whiz. She moves to town as new woman, Daphne, and opens Halcyon Financial Services. She capitalized on the fact that the sudden boom would overwhelm everyone, so she could take care of details while everyone else enjoyed getting rich. Steal less over a long period of time, but still make a killing and launder the stolen money.”
He frowned. “But they needed a way to convince Thoolen.”
“Someone somehow convinced my sister to go play S&M Barbie knowing Thoolen’s weakness was pretty women and super-kinky sex. Heather got favors in return, like immunity for Nana’s sticky fingers, probably a little money, and an inside way to score big.”
“You sure about this sex stuff?”
“Meyerson told me he’d caught them in the act. Leather, whips, handcuffs .” I waved my cuffed hands in front of him, but he was unfazed. “All hard-core.”
“Wow.”
“I also learned that Mayor Ferris and Cunningham…” I shivered and looked away.
“What?”
“They liked to be spectators. Daphne and Phil expected Ferris, but they never expected Mark Cunningham.”
“Apparently forgot that the world of the super-rich is very small.” He rubbed his jaw, taking in the information.
I nodded. “Cunningham was engaged to the heiress of a vineyard who ran in the same circles as Thoolen.”
“I’m with you. So Thoolen invites Claire’s boy down for some bondage fun with a local girl and to show him all the new opportunities in the area, maybe potential oil or…”
“A spot for a new vineyard, the biggest in Texas,” I said.
“Makes sense.”
“Heather manipulated Cunningham into buying the ideal place to put the new vineyard for his bride-to-be. Claire said her husband chose the land. Why him, though? He wasn’t in the wine business, yet he chose the land and it’s why he’s dead.”
“Why?”
“Heather wanted someone she could control owning it. But, unlike Phil, Cunningham really was an oilman. He would’ve had geologists on site before they bought anything.”
“Why’s that important?”
“Cunningham discovered what was below and wanted in on the bigger business, right after he arranged that bad rollover accident that killed all the geologists and engineers who’d performed the original site survey.”
“What’s below?”
“Let me go. Please.” I could feel the minutes slipping away, my deadline closing.
“Not until you finish.”
“Once Cunningham was officially married to Claire, he finalized the land purchase for the vineyard. Cunningham tells Heather he knows what’s underneath the land and demands a cut. She agrees, but he’d always been expendable but too dumb to know it. My sister had one of her new business associations kill him.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“The day I asked to come home, Heather told me about the coming vineyard. How did she know? That information wasn’t yet public. The deal hadn’t been signed. She had inside information. Where did that information come from?”
“How are you making this leap to your sister ordering Cunningham’s death?”
“Phil underestimated my sister. He and Daphne knew nothing of the bigger business in the area.”
“Drugs?”
“More than that. Los Espectros started with crack, but now? Probably planning to run billions of dollars of drugs, guns, and human slaves run right under the town.”
“Whoa.” He steadied himself against the truck door.
“Daphne and Phil, satisfied being white collar criminals, probably were just going to use the same tired plan to off Heather like they did the others. Daphne gets Phil to propose to his stupid trailer park pawn. Heather’s no longer any use now that they’re entrenched in Bisby where they can start anew and steal to their heart’s content. Heather has to go away or Phil can’t resurface in a new town with a new identity, courtesy of his wife.”
Sawyer leaned against the back panel of the truck and crossed his arms. “Phil, or Liam, takes Heather to get married in Grand Cayman, only she falls off the boat after being strangled,” he said.
I nodded. “But Phil shouldn’t have cheaped out. It’s part of what got them killed, though they were dead anyway.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m betting that rock on Heather’s hand is a fake. That boutique she was in today also sold diamonds. Guess what comes stock in all jewelry stores and usually sits out on the counter?”
“Hardness testers.”
“And that’s where he messed up. She might have actually cared enough to kill him quickly if the ring had been real. Daphne? She was always gonna die badly.”
“Why?”
“Because we were wrong. My sister didn’t trade lives with me.”
“Then who?”
“She traded lives with Daphne .”
“Oh, hell.”
“Since Kalista Delphinos is officially dead, and Daphne Idensloph technically doesn’t exist, all Heather has to do is—”
“Assume her identity and torture Kalista for access to all of her accounts with the stolen money.”
“There’s more.
It’s way bigger and this is why you need to go. Now. Unlock these,” I pleaded.
“Not yet.”
“Remember the diagram I texted you? The one I found in my mom’s purse?”
“Yes,” he said and brought up the image on his phone.
I pointed to the ERWW. “Eisler Ranch Water Well. This is a map of a vast underground network of tunnels and natural caves. The caves have been used for years to run guns, drugs, and God only knows what else. The problem was, they could only move small quantities. This is how Heather partnered with Los Espectros .”
“What better way to hide large shipments of illegal goods than through a vineyard?” he said, impressed.
“Could emulsify cocaine or heroin and pass it off as wine and bury them in bigger shipments. Vineyards would be hiring all kinds of people to work picking grapes, loading trucks, driving trucks, and Los Espectros could put key people in play right in plain sight…”
