“If it makes you feel any better, I’m going to beat the shit out of Brett when I see him.” He plopped onto the ground, hands on his knees. “I never expected this. He was always such an obnoxiously good kid, only tiptoed the line when it would rile his mom. But he always did the right thing.” Rand dragged out a cigarette and lit it, inhaling deeply. “I hated him.”
“I hate him too,” I whispered, letting my words get lost in the gulf breeze.
He smirked. “Watch out, or I might actually begin to like you.”
“I doubt I’ll ever like you,” I stated. “But, there’s some hope.”
He chuckled. “I don’t think anyone has ever held out any hope for me.”
“That’s not true. I know Lil does.”
He nodded. “Okay, so there’s one.”
Rand really wasn’t all that bad. He did go out of his way to prove that he was, but I had a feeling it was all for show. Behind the smoke and frowns was a kid still looking for acceptance. He had mine, whether or not he chose to acknowledge it.
“We have it,” Mrs. Janowski shouted. “We have the contract.”
“Ready?” Rand asked me. He stood, dusting the sand from his jeans.
“No.”
He held out his hand. “It won’t hurt any more than it already does.”
I grasped his hand. “It couldn’t.”
We walked together over to Mrs. Janowski; several bikers, including Hank and Jack, were standing with her. Hank patted my shoulder when I joined the circle. Even after a short rest, Jack still looked haggard.
“Is Jack okay?” I whispered to Hank.
He shrugged. “That jabber-mouthed girl has him all turned around. Doesn’t know if he’s coming or going.”
“Andrea?”
“That’s the one.”
Interesting. Before I could think more about Jack and Andrea, a welcomed diversion, Mrs. Janowski called for our attention.
She handed me the tablet. “This is what Aaron could find. I read a little, and it looks like the deal is between Brett and Carver, like Aaron had said.”
“Is there any info on Carver?” I asked, scrolling through the document.
“Nothing that I could see.”
I stopped when I saw Eve’s name. Scanning the few lines about her, I now understood a little bit more. “Someone claimed to have information as to Eve’s whereabouts, stating she’s still alive. Instead of taking money for a hit, Brett wants this information. Carver seems to have that information.”
“I can tell you where she is,” Rand said. “Buried at White Lawn Cemetery.”
I shook my head. “When I listened in on Brett, he mentioned her. It was as if he was trying to find her but conflicted as well because he knew she was dead. T and Brett had thought it might be a trap, but as far as I know, they were left alone.”
“Who is the hit?” Ida asked. “Maybe we can work backwards by starting with the target.”
“It just states Carver will forward the name once the information has been received and accepted,” I said.
“But Brett did get information,” Mrs. Janowski said. “He followed it to a house.”
“From Brett and T’s conversation, it also sounded like they were being toyed with, like there was more information to come,” I said.
“You had mentioned pictures,” Ida said. “There were pictures in the boxes with the victim. Why would Brett need information from Carver if he was following a lead from those pictures?”
“I had assumed those were the pictures he was following since it had to do with the Sledgehammer, but I could’ve been wrong,” I said. “I never saw the photos so I don’t really know for sure.”
Rand shook his head. “It seems an odd coincidence that Brett’s looking for information around the time that Annie was freed.”
“I agree,” Mrs. Janowski said. “Something just doesn’t seem right.”
“We need to find this Carver person, see what he’s about,” Ida said.
“How?” Rand asked. “There’s no information on him.”
“Brett received a text from him a couple of days ago,” I said. “Actually, I think it was close to the time he flew to Wisconsin.”
“That’s probably when he received the photos,” Mrs. Janowski said. “Maybe it is a separate case after all, but I still think it stinks like rotten fish. What if this Carver guy is the same one that butchered the body?”
“Carver would be an appropriate name for a butcher, don’t you think?” Ida asked.
We all looked at each other.
“It’s a perfect name,” I said. “I just don’t understand why he’d send a body and lead Brett on a wild-goose chase.”
“Rand, hand me that stick over there,” Mrs. Janowski said. “We’ll get this figured out.”
Rand walked the few yards to the stick and bent over to pick it up.
Sylvia cocked her head to the side, eyeing his rear. “What’s his story? Girlfriend?”
“Divorced,” I said.
Her eyes lit up. “My specialty.”
“Not now, Sylvia,” Mrs. Janowski scolded. “Let’s figure this out first.”
Rand returned with the stick, handing it to Mrs. Janowski.
“Thank you,” she said. “Now spread out so I have some room to work.”
We all stepped back, giving her a wide circle. With the stick, she wrote Brett, Carver, Annie, and Eve into the sand.
“Now, what do we know?” she asked.
“There were photos in the boxes,” Ida said.
Mrs. Janowski added it off to the side of the names. “What else?”
“Brett and Carver had a contract together regarding Eve,” I said.
She connected the names with a line. “What else?”
“Annie was freed,” Rand said. “Possibly with help from the copycat.”
“She also killed Eve,” Edna said.
“Well, it seems there’s some debate about that,” Ida replied.
Mrs. Janowski drew a line from Eve to Annie.
“Annie had a crush on Brett,” I said. “I would think she still does.”
“Which makes you a part of this,” Mrs. Janowski said, adding my name and making the lines connect everyone.
“It’s a giant circle,” Edna said.
We all studied the names in the sand and the lines attaching them. Edna was right; it was a giant circle. Everyone was somehow linked together. But how?
“Yes, it’s a circle. But where does it begin and end?” Rand asked.
“Here,” Mrs. Janowski said, pointing to the line between Annie and me.
I stared at that line as if it were a snake. I shook my head. This circle had to be wrong. But the more I thought about, the more real the possibility became.
“Why do you think it starts with them?” Rand asked.
“Not them. Annie,” Mrs. Janowski said. “It starts with Annie and ends with Mars.”
“Walk us through this,” Sylvia said.
“Annie,” Mrs. Janowski started, pointing the stick at her name, “has been in jail and needs to get out to kill again.” Mrs. Janowski eyes flickered to me. “She knows there’s no possible way unless there was doubt. So, she hires Carver to become her copycat.” Mrs. Janowski moved the stick along the circle. “Carver carries out her plan, but it’s not enough. The person that Annie wants to kill has a guard dog.” She dragged the stick to point at Brett. “His head does not easily turn.”
“Except for his weakness,” I said.
Rand looked up. “Eve?”
“Exactly,” Mrs. Janowski said, moving the stick along the path. “Brett was fed enough information that he thought it plausible that Eve was still alive and sent on a merry chase. He’d be temporarily blinded to what was happening to Mars.” The stick ended at my name.
“But nothing happened to me,” I said.
“Annie was freed, and you weren’t where she was expecting you to be. She didn’t know you were going to run.”
“I wouldn’t h
ave, had I not been warned and then overheard Brett’s conversation,” I said.
“Exactly,” Mrs. Janowski said smugly, tapping the stick on her hand. “It also means Brett might not know he’s being led around. He’ll come for you, and Annie will undoubtedly follow.”
“In terms of Annie’s plans, he might not be aware, but he’ll still be chasing the gatekeeper’s clock,” Ida said.
“Do you think he’ll kill Mars?” Edna squeaked.
“No, he loves her,” Sylvia said.
“He loves his family too,” Ida said.
“It’s either kill Mars or she and the entire family get bumped off,” Mrs. Janowski said. “Sorry, Mars, but you’d get wiped out for sure.”
Edna squeaked again.
“Unless we stop him and the gatekeeper,” Ida said.
“And Annie,” Mrs. Janowski added.
Rand pinched the bridge of his nose. “I did not sign up for this,” he muttered.
“No, but you’ll die if we don’t get to the bottom of it,” Ida said.
He glared at her. “The bottom of what? How do we know any of this is right? And if it is, do any of you know where to even begin?”
Mrs. Janowski tapped her finger to her lip. “No, but we’ll figure something out.”
“In less than five days?” he asked incredulously.
“We’ve had worse deadlines, right, girls?”
They nodded slowly, hesitantly.
“Shit,” Rand cursed. “I’m moving to Mexico.”
“A little too hot there for my blood,” Ida said. “Try Canada instead.”
“He’d freeze,” Sylvia said, scoping him. “I think a little Mexican heat to warm his blood is just what he needs.” She winked at him.
He cursed again and stalked away.
“Let’s get back to the point, ladies,” Mrs. Janowski ordered. “We have three problems. What do we tackle first?”
“The gatekeeper,” I said. “He’s the one that’s giving a deadline. With him out of the way, we’d only have to worry about Annie.”
“Good idea,” Mrs. Janowski said. “And if we’re lucky, Brett might just take care of Annie for us.”
“But then who will take care of Brett?” Ida asked.
They all looked at me.
I shook my head. “We’ll find the gatekeeper and then Annie, if necessary. But then I’m done.” When they didn’t look convinced, I added, “If I was the gatekeepers price, then Brett did love me. If we go after him, we’ll end up backing him into a corner. We leave him alone and move on with our lives. I want nothing to do with an assassin.”
Mrs. Janowski nodded. “You heard her. We’ll focus on the gatekeeper and keep a wide birth between us, Brett, and Annie.”
“So, where do we begin?” Ida asked. “How do we find the gatekeeper?”
Glances were exchanged. No one spoke for a few long minutes, each puzzling how to find someone in the deep web with no name or face. And then I thought of it.
“The warning messages,” I said. “The person who sent me the warning texts mentioned the gatekeeper. He also knew Brett was a hitman and that I was going to be in trouble. It was almost as if he knew the chess moves as soon as they happened. He must have access to the gatekeeper, or at least know something about him.”
Mrs. Janowski snapped her fingers. “That’s it! We’ll hunt this guy down first.”
“There’s a problem,” I said. “You can’t reply to the number. It bounces back.”
“Easy enough,” Mrs. Janowski said. “We’ll get Aaron on it.”
“No, we can’t,” I said. “He’s already in too deep, and Kym is worried. We have to find a different way.”
“Then who can we ask? It’s not like there are any computer geniuses here,” Ida said.
“True, but we can at least do a search on the number and see if it comes up with anything,” I said.
“Okay, we’ll try that and see where it leads,” Mrs. Janowski said. “Can you think of anything else that will help? Did Brett do anything that seemed odd?”
“There was one thing, but I thought he was just stressed.”
“What was it?” Ida asked.
“He had mentioned a cabin in Texas. He said he owns it and would take me there someday. When I had asked a couple of days ago, he said no.”
“That doesn’t seem too odd, knowing the trial was coming up,” Sylvia said.
“It’s not that he said no, it’s the way that he said it. I can’t describe it, but it felt like he was hiding something. I almost wanted to go there just to make sure there weren’t any girlfriends lurking about.”
“Interesting,” Mrs. Janowski said. “What if he set the place up as his hitman headquarters? Do you know where it is?”
I shook my head.
“I do,” Rand said, returning to the conversation.
“How far of a drive is it?” she asked.
“Four hours, maybe a little more.”
She tapped her finger on her lip, thinking. “Do you think you could break in?”
“I know I could.”
“I can’t drive another four hours!” Edna cried. “I can’t feel my . . . you know. And the bikers are sleepy.”
“Rand and Mars will go,” Mrs. Janowski said. “It’ll get them out of the area and us time to track the phone number. We’ll regroup at a rendezvous point.”
“Is it safe to separate?” Ida asked.
“Probably not,” Mrs. Janowski said. “But Mars and Rand will have to backtrack to Brett’s cabin. He’d never expect that. And where Brett goes, Annie is sure to follow. We’re more at risk than Mars.”
“Will you be able to get in?” Ida asked.
Rand nodded. “I built the house. I can get us in.”
“Excellent,” Mrs. Janowski said. “We’ll be in touch with a meet-up spot. Keep your burner phone on.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked Rand.
“It’s better than doing nothing at all,” he said. “And if I happen to leave a burning cigarette in his cabin, all the better.”
I smiled. “I might have to take up smoking.”
“Getting hooked on a bad habit just to burn down Brett’s house?” He returned the smile. “I think we might get along after all.”
Chapter 13
The sun was low in the sky when we reached Brett’s cabin. There were no cars; only nature surrounded us and the gulf. And a gigantic house.
“Are you kidding me?” I asked, sliding off the motorcycle. “This isn’t a cabin! It’s a palace!”
“Expecting something smaller?” he asked.
“He said it was a cabin. I was expecting a hunting shack in the woods.”
Rand’s lip curled. “I don’t design shacks.”
“You designed this?”
“What the hell do you think I do?”
“I don’t know . . . hit nails into wood. Brett said you and Mike had a construction business. I didn’t know designing was part of it.”
“Well, it is. At least for me.”
Scanning the two story “cabin,” I could see why they might label it as such. While it was huge, spread out like a ranch, it had an earthy feel to it. Many logs were used in its construction. Vaulted ceilings and windows stretched to the sky. One side of the house was thick with ivy.
“Why doesn’t he live here?” I asked. “Why live in a one-bedroom apartment?”
“I guess because it’s close to Mike and Lil.”
“They know about this place, right?”
He shook his head. “Actually, they don’t.”
“But Mike had to know about it. You own a company together.”
“Brett didn’t want Mike to build it for free. He knew his dad wouldn’t take payment from him.”
“But you would,” I surmised.
“It costs money to build. We set up a client file with a fake name so I could work on it without raising questions.”
I glanced at him, wondering. Not about how Brett funded const
ruction. That little mystery took a flying leap into the open. But now I was curious about the designer. “Did you build a house for Emily?”
“She wanted a plywood box in the suburbs like her friends had. One dog, three kids, with a square house and a square yard. She picked the wrong guy for that.”
“Did you ever show her this design?” I asked, pointing to Brett’s house.
“What’s the point?”
I cocked my head to the side, trying to figure him out. “Does she even know you’re a designer?”
“She doesn’t give a damn what I do as long as it brings in money.”
I frowned.
“What?” he asked, lighting a cigarette.
“You’re an idiot.”
He raised a brow. “Be careful who you call an idiot. You’re the one asking for my help.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter anyway. You’re divorced. But you should have built her a house.”
“All she had to do was ask.”
“I bet she did ask, but she asked for what she wanted, not what you wanted. You probably had a house already blueprinted and land picked out. You were just waiting for her.”
Silence.
“I’m right,” I said, looking at him in an ever-changing light.
“Not quite,” he said, letting out a plume of smoke. “It’s already built.”
“Does she know about it?”
“No, and that’s the way it’s going to stay,” he said, turning away.
“Then why don’t you live there instead of in Mike and Lil’s backyard?”
“It’s Emily’s house,” he said simply and walked away, up to Brett’s front door.
I shook my head. I couldn’t figure the guy out. On one side, he was an idiot. And on the other, he was jerk. Yet, there was a third, hidden side that had the potential of being very sweet. I wondered if Emily’s toxicity had forever barred that side of Rand from ever appearing.
“Are you coming?” he barked. “It’s getting late. I don’t want to be here longer than necessary.”
“Yes, coming.” When I neared him, I asked, “How are we going to get in?”
“With a key.”
“You have a key?”
“I built the house. I had to have a key.”
“But you’re supposed to relinquish your set once it’s built.”
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