“I think they’re gone,” Diane finally continued. Some relief was in her voice, still mixed with fear. “I remembered something else while I was waiting. There was a driver’s license clipped to the visor in the van, and I saw the man’s name. Joe Finley.”
Cassidy seriously doubted it was a coincidence that the surname matched the kidnapper they already had in custody, and several moments after she gave the name to Grayson, he confirmed it.
“Joe and Chester are brothers,” Grayson explained. She heard the click of computer keys. “And like Chester, he has a long criminal record. He has a fondness for working as hired muscle for loan sharks.”
And these were almost certainly the men who’d held Bennie and her. Men with violent criminal records, and now they had Diane.
“Why?” Cassidy hadn’t meant to say that aloud, but it grabbed Sawyer’s attention. He nodded, repeated it.
“Why would these men take you, Diane?” Sawyer came out and asked.
“I don’t know.” Diane’s breath broke again, and there was another sob. “Maybe because they think I know something about April. Something that will incriminate them in her murder.”
That was a good guess, and it might all lead back to April’s therapy sessions with the doctor. Or the diary. “Did April ever say anything about the Finleys?” Cassidy asked.
“Nothing that I remember. She mainly talked about Willy and how terrified she was of him.”
Sawyer’s gaze met hers, and Cassidy could see the same conclusion in his eyes. Had Willy hired the brothers to kidnap Bennie, April and her?
And now Dr. Blackwell?
Willy could have wanted Bennie and her for the ransom, but he could have had the doctor kidnapped to silence her.
Or for another reason.
“According to April’s diary, she thought you and Bennie were having an affair,” Sawyer said. “Maybe the Finleys took you in the hopes of still getting the ransom from Bennie and Cassidy.”
“No,” Diane practically shouted. Then she repeated it in a much lower voice. “I’m not having an affair with Bennie. Never have, never will. April was paranoid that way, always believing that her lovers were cheating on her with someone else.”
“But why did she think Bennie was cheating on her with you?” Cassidy asked.
“Who knows. The woman wasn’t mentally stable. Wait, I remember something else,” Diane said. “I heard this Joe Finley mention a debt that Bennie owes.”
Cassidy’s heart felt as if it skipped a beat. “Joe said Bennie owed him money?”
“No, only that Bennie was in debt,” Diane clarified. “Why, do you know anything about that?”
This time when Sawyer’s gaze came to hers, Cassidy saw the questions. And maybe some distrust. After all, she had already admitted that she would do pretty much anything to save her kid brother, and he might be thinking she was withholding something.
And she was. Though not intentionally.
“Bennie did owe some money,” Cassidy admitted. “But I don’t know the details. A couple of days before we were kidnapped, Bennie asked me for money to pay off some loan. But I refused. I wanted more information, and he wouldn’t give it to me. So I told him he’d have to wait until the first of the month when he got his allowance from his trust fund.”
Too bad they’d been kidnapped before then.
Cassidy shook her head, looked at Sawyer. “I swear, I forgot all about it until just now. Besides, it might not have anything to do with what Joe said.”
But that felt and sounded like an excuse, the same kind of outs she’d been giving her brother most of his life. The odds were that this was indeed connected to the kidnappings.
“Oh, mercy,” Cassidy mumbled. “They might have kidnapped us because of what Bennie owed them.”
Sawyer looked up at the ceiling, added some profanity under his breath. “And if so, then there’ll likely be a ransom demand for you, Diane. They probably think your husband will pay to get you released.”
“He would,” she immediately agreed. “If he knew my life was on the line, he’d pay, and that means these kidnappers won’t stop looking for me....” Diane’s words trailed off, and for several seconds, all Cassidy could hear was the woman’s suddenly heavy breathing. “I hear sirens. They’re in the distance, but I can hear them.”
“Good,” Grayson answered. “When the sirens get closer, let us know.”
“Oh, God,” Diane said. “I heard the kidnappers again, too. I think they just came into the warehouse. I’ll text you when the sirens are closer.”
And with that, she ended the call.
“She hung up,” Sawyer relayed to Grayson.
“Let me know when she calls back,” Grayson said.
Sawyer assured him that they would, and he turned to Cassidy. “Tell me everything about this money that Bennie owes.”
She was shaking her head before he’d fully asked the question. Except he didn’t just ask. He gave her a lawman’s order.
“I’ve already told you everything I know,” Cassidy insisted. “But I know where to get answers.”
Since she didn’t have her cell with her, she used the house phone to call her brother. Bennie answered on the first ring, and she put the call on speaker.
“What happened?” Bennie snapped, clearly on edge. “What’s wrong?”
Cassidy had a quick debate about how much to tell him and decided to focus on the money for now. There was no need to give the details of Diane’s abduction.
“Before we were kidnapped, you said you needed cash to pay off a loan. Who did you owe money?” she asked.
He made a huffing sound of surprise. “There’s a kidnapper still on the loose, and that’s what you want to talk about?”
Now Cassidy huffed. She knew her brother well enough to know when he was stonewalling her. “Yes, it’s what I want to talk about. Tell me about that loan.”
Bennie mumbled something she didn’t catch, and he hesitated so long that she wasn’t sure he would answer. “You wouldn’t recognize the man’s name,” Bennie finally said, “but he owns several bars. He loaned me some money to cover my gambling debts.”
She looked at Sawyer, expecting to see an I-told-you-so expression, but he only scowled. “How much did you borrow?” Sawyer pressed.
Again, a long hesitation. “A quarter of a million.”
Oh, mercy. Six months of his allowance wouldn’t have covered that. “Was this bar owner pressing you to pay him?”
“Yes, and that’s why I asked you for the money. I shouldn’t have to remind you that you refused.” Bennie made it sound as if this was somehow her fault.
It wasn’t. And even though this wasn’t the time to have a long talk with her brother, she still had some things to clear up.
“Were we kidnapped because of the money you owe?” Cassidy came out and asked.
“No.” There was zero hesitation this time. “How could you even ask that? I wouldn’t have put you in that kind of danger.”
Cassidy desperately wanted to believe him, but she wasn’t so sure. “Then why were we taken?”
“Probably for the money that you were going to pay the kidnappers for our release. Maybe money, too, from Sawyer for the baby if it turned out to be his. I think April could have set it up. She’s a gold digger, you know. Or maybe it was that psycho Willy.”
Both of them were good suspects, but April was dead, and Willy was pointing the finger at Bennie. Cassidy wasn’t sure who to believe.
“One more thing. Were you involved with Dr. Diane Blackwell?” she asked.
“What? No.” Another quick answer. “Why, is that what she said?”
“April did, in her diary.”
“Well, April was lying.” Bennie cursed and then made a sound of frustration. “Hell’s bel
ls, Cassidy, why would you believe her over me?” However, he didn’t wait for an answer. “April was angry because I ended things with her. She would have said anything to get back at me.”
“But why this?” Cassidy continued. “How would saying you’re involved with Diane get back at you?”
“Because it would have made it seem as if I was trying to manipulate April’s therapy by sleeping with her shrink. April could have probably used that to get herself moved to another doctor. She hated Diane.”
From all accounts, that was true. Of course, most of the information Cassidy had on that subject had come from Willy, a man she didn’t trust.
“I have to go,” her brother said, his voice edged with anger. “My pain meds are kicking in, and I’m getting sleepy. I suggest before you call me again with accusations, you get your facts straight first.”
“Facts are exactly what I want to get straight,” Sawyer said. “Come to the Silver Creek sheriff’s office tomorrow morning so you can answer some more questions.”
That brought on some more profanity, but Bennie issued a terse, “Fine. See you then.”
Bennie hung up, leaving Cassidy to stand there and stare at the phone. A dozen emotions were going through her, but first and foremost was anger. Bennie might truly have had something to do with the kidnapping.
“I’m sorry,” Sawyer said.
No scowl or glare. He was staring at her now, and all those previous emotions had been replaced with sympathy.
“How can I find out if Bennie had a connection to the Finley brothers?” Even though it hurt just to ask the question, Cassidy had to know.
“I can call my cousin Kade. He’s FBI, too, and he’ll be able to check Bennie’s phone records.” Sawyer waited until she gave him the nod before he took the house phone from her and made the call.
The part of her that had spent years protecting her brother hated that this had to be done, but she had to know the truth. Especially since April was dead, possibly because of the failed kidnapping attempt.
Sawyer finished his call with Kade, hung up the phone and pulled Cassidy to him. It wasn’t the heated kissing session like before. He held her for what turned out to be a few precious seconds before his phone rang again.
Cassidy glanced at the screen, expecting to see the unknown-caller ID that had popped up before. But it was Nate Ryland’s name, instead. She’d never met him but knew he was Sawyer’s cousin and that he was a lieutenant with the San Antonio P.D. She held her breath, hoping the cops had managed to find Diane and that she’d been rescued.
“Well?” Sawyer greeted the moment he answered.
“We spotted the two kidnappers running from one of the warehouses,” Nate started. “They got away. So we went inside, but the place was empty.”
“Maybe Diane got out ahead of the kidnappers?” Sawyer suggested.
“Maybe.” Nate paused, a long time. “But it doesn’t look good. The phone she was using is here. Crushed to bits. Some of the crates have been turned over. Looks like there was a struggle.”
Sawyer cursed. “Any sign of Diane?”
“None. But there’s blood on the floor.”
Chapter Twelve
Sawyer stared at the photos of the warehouse. The toppled crates. The crushed phone.
And the blood.
Since it had been more than twelve hours since they’d last heard from Diane, Sawyer figured one of two things had happened. The kidnappers had injured her when they’d taken her captive again. Or it was worse than that.
Maybe they had killed her.
They already had one unsolved murder on their hands, and he hated that they might have another. Especially when those murders could be connected right back to Cassidy, Emma and him.
Cassidy finished her phone call and peered at him from over the top of a coffee mug that Grayson had scrounged up for her. “The nanny said Emma was fine.”
Good. That was something at least.
Sawyer had hated to leave the baby, but she was in good hands with the nanny-bodyguard and the two agents. He wished he could say the same for Cassidy. Sawyer had wanted her to stay at the safe house, too, while he drove into town to question her brother. But she had insisted on coming along.
And he couldn’t blame her.
If it were his brother in the hot seat, Sawyer would have done the same. The trouble was, he wasn’t sure Cassidy could handle much more stress, and here he was about to add what would be a tense interrogation.
He heard the footsteps in the hall, and seconds later his cousin Mason appeared in the doorway. “Just got the test results back. It was Diane’s blood in the warehouse.”
Even though it was exactly what Sawyer had expected, he still cursed. He’d held out some hope that the woman had managed to injure one of her kidnappers, but no such luck.
“It’s not much blood,” Mason went on. “Not nearly enough to indicate a fatal wound.”
No, but they both knew she could have been taken elsewhere to bleed out.
“Kade faxed this to you,” Mason added, dropping several pages onto the desk that Sawyer was using as his makeshift office. “Bennie’s phone records.” And he shot Cassidy a look that almost seemed to say brace yourself before he strolled away.
The phone records got Cassidy’s attention, because she hurried around to his side of the desk. “Rex Ross,” Sawyer said when he saw the name. According to the note Kade had made, Ross was the bar owner who Bennie had mentioned the night before. The one he owed money to.
“Bennie called him at least a dozen times,” Cassidy pointed out. Looking over his shoulder, she leaned closer. Too close. Until her breasts touched his back. “Sorry,” she mumbled.
Sawyer looked up at her. “If we start apologizing for every little touch, we’re not going to be doing much else than saying I’m sorry.”
Of course, that didn’t stop him from reacting to that accidental touch. And despite everything else going on, he was reminded again of the heat. Reminded too of the stupid kissing session. Stupid because he’d done it and equally stupid because he wanted to do it again.
Sawyer was still trying to push those kissing thoughts aside when he saw Cassidy’s eyes widen. He followed her gaze to another name on the list.
Chester Finley.
Cassidy made a soft gasp and put her hand over her throat. “Why would Bennie have contacted him?”
“It was an incoming call,” Sawyer pointed out. “Made about four days ago. It doesn’t look as if Bennie answered it.” Still, it didn’t answer the question of why Chester had called Bennie in the first place.
Cassidy stepped away, and he could see her fighting to hang on to her composure. Fighting to make sense of this, too. “Chester was on that landscaping crew,” she said. “So maybe he called Bennie under the pretense of that, when he really wanted to get some information that would help him with the kidnapping.”
That was a good theory, but if he wanted to give Bennie the benefit of the doubt—and he would for Cassidy’s sake—then Sawyer could see a different angle. “Chester might have called Bennie to make him look guilty of participating in the kidnappings. It could have all been a setup.”
Cassidy thought about that a moment. Nodded. And looked way more relieved than she should have. It was a thin theory at best. Especially when Sawyer turned to the second page of calls. Again, one name immediately snagged his attention.
Dr. Diane Blackwell.
There were at least a dozen calls, both incoming and outgoing, and unlike the unanswered one from Chester, Bennie had most definitely answered these. Some of the phone conversations had lasted more than a half hour.
Funny that neither Diane nor Bennie had mentioned it.
Did that mean April’s allegations were true, that Bennie had indeed had an affair with Diane? And if
he had, then why the heck had he denied it? Bennie already looked guilty enough without adding lies that could easily be traced.
Sawyer took out his phone and called Grayson, who was working from home. “What’s the latest on Chester Finley?” Because if Bennie and Diane weren’t offering up the truth, maybe Chester would.
“He’s still not answering questions, but he said if we could prove his brother was safe, then he’d cooperate.”
Interesting. And Sawyer wasn’t sure what to make of it. “Is Chester worried the cops will find and kill his brother, or is this about something else? Maybe Chester doesn’t trust the other kidnapper involved?”
“Sounds that way to me. We’re beefing up our efforts to find Diane and his brother. Once we have Joe in custody, I figure Chester will try to work out a plea deal to save his brother and his own butt.”
That would be a best-case scenario—the brothers talking and handing over the person who’d orchestrated all of this. And Sawyer didn’t think either Chester or his brother had been the mastermind. No, they weren’t the sort for that. They were hired muscle, and that meant someone had done the hiring.
Sawyer was about to ask Grayson if there were any other updates, but he heard the bell jangle over the front door. Cassidy peered out from the door.
“It’s Bennie,” she said softly.
There was plenty of dread in her voice, and Sawyer knew how she felt. Even though he’d investigated Bennie with the hopes of making an arrest, he was no longer that anxious to put Cassidy’s brother behind bars.
Another side effect of that kissing session.
And his feelings for her.
Yeah, he had them, all right, and they’d come at a damn inconvenient time. He’d lost his objectivity. His focus. Heck, maybe his mind.
Cassidy stared at him. “You look angry.”
“I am,” Sawyer admitted, and he gathered up the phone records and stepped around her so he could face Bennie. Her brother didn’t look any happier to see Sawyer than Sawyer was to see him.
For that matter, neither did Cassidy.
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