Deadly Deception

by Marissa Garner

  “I can get them if you want.”

  Sean scowled at him. “Have you no respect for someone’s privacy?”

  “Now you’re talking like a cop, not a private investigator. Make up your mind which you are today. If it helps your conscience, this might be enough. There’s a note that Nate was diagnosed as suffering from severe depression and should seek treatment.”

  “No psychosis, neurosis, disorder, or syndrome?” Sean asked.

  “Nope, straight depression. But the notes say it could be related to a childhood trauma.”

  “A drunk driver killing your dad when you’re four would probably qualify.”

  “Most likely.”

  “Sounds like I need to have a heart-to-heart with Nate. Jess is gonna be pissed.”

  “Most likely.”

  Leaning back in the chair, Sean sighed, scratched the stubble on his chin, and frowned at the computer screen.

  “Something wrong?” Jake asked.

  “Not sure. Hal Freeman comes up in general searches, but when I look for anything official, there’s no Hal. Although I’ve never heard him called anything else, it must be short for something.”

  “What’re your choices?”

  “Apparently, it’s been a nickname for Henry, Harry, and Harold. But that use seems more historical and British.”

  “Don’t forget HAL was the evil computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey,” Jake quipped.

  Sean shot him an annoyed, sideways glance. “I don’t think there’s a connection. This Hal was born way before that movie.”

  “Any other possibilities?”

  “So far I’ve got a Halliburton, Halston, Halroy, and would you believe…Hallelujah? I was just going to cross-reference those names with his Ramona address.”

  “Logical next step.”

  Both men returned to their computers. More clicking. More swearing.

  “You gotta be kidding me,” Sean exclaimed.

  “What?” Jake walked up beside his chair.

  “The guy’s name is Hallelujah Ima Freeman. Freakin’ weird.”

  Jake stared at the screen and didn’t respond.

  Chuckling, Sean peered up at him. “You don’t think that’s a weird-ass name?”

  Jake didn’t crack a smile. “Say it again, syllable by syllable, and don’t say ‘Emma.’ Use a long I like ice.”

  “Hal-le-lu-jah Im-a Free-man.” Sean paused. “Fuck.”

  * * *

  “Hello,” Jessie answered the kitchen phone Saturday morning, saying a silent prayer it was her mother.

  “Jessie? We need to talk,” her ex-husband said without greeting.

  “I have nothing to say to you. Talk to my lawyer.”

  “Look, I flew all the way out here. Can’t you at least spare me a few minutes?” Drake paused. “It’s about Callie.”

  Here? He’s here? Oh God, no. The back of Jessie’s neck prickled with distrust. “What about her?”

  “I’d rather discuss it in person. I drove out to your place yesterday afternoon to see you.”

  “You were here yesterday?” Her stomach clenched. Mom hated Drake for how he’d treated her and Callie. If he’d come to the house, she would’ve killed him. Or tried to. If Drake had fought back… Jessie gulped. “D-did you talk to Mom?”

  “Didn’t talk to anyone. No one was home.”

  “No one? Dad and Callie weren’t here?”

  “No one answered the door when I rang the bell, okay? I checked around back but didn’t see anyone. Before I drove off, I honked the horn a few times in case someone was in the garden or down at the creek. I waited, but no one showed up.”

  “What time was it?” Jessie asked.

  “Huh? What does it matter?”

  She didn’t respond.

  “Fine. Around four, four-thirty, I guess. I don’t know exactly.”

  “Was Mom’s Buick parked on Wheaton?”

  “Jesus, Jessie. What’s with the twenty questions?”

  “Answer me.”

  He hesitated. “Maybe. There was a car parked on the side of the road, but I didn’t look at it close enough to recognize it as hers. Damn, Jessie, what’s going on?”

  She drew a halting breath. “None of your business. Now tell me what you want or you can just catch the next plane back to Chicago.”

  Drake cursed under his breath. “I got screwed on the custody issue in the divorce settlement. I’ve hired a new big-shot Chicago lawyer to file the papers to renegotiate. I’m willing to pay all the past-due alimony and child support if you’ll agree to let me take Callie home to live with me for the next six months.”

  “This is Callie’s home. Go to hell!”

  Chapter 5

  Oh, Karla, what am I going to do?” Jessie cried when her BFF answered the phone.

  “Calm down. I can barely understand you. What’s wrong?” Luke’s sister asked.

  “Everything.” Jessie forced a deep breath and exhaled slowly. How could she be calm when her world was falling apart? “First Mom and now Drake,” she finished.

  “What about your mom? She was fine yesterday.”

  Jessie sniffed. “She came for her hair appointment?”

  “Yeah. At one, as usual. Why?” Concern crept into Karla’s voice.

  “I guess you haven’t talked to Luke since last night.”

  “He texted me to call him, but things were getting hot with Troy so I—”

  “Mom’s missing,” Jessie interrupted. She didn’t have time to hear the latest about hottie Troy.

  “Missing? What do you mean ‘missing’?”

  “Just what it sounds like. She never came home after running errands. She left the Buick on the side of the road and disappeared. Vanished.”

  “You’re freakin’ me out, Jessie. No way would your mother go off without—”

  “I don’t think she did. I think someone…took her.”

  “Oh my God. You’re serious. Is Luke…? Are the deputies looking for her?”

  A sob tore free, and tears filled her eyes. “No. Dad won’t file a missing person report.”

  “He what? Why the hell not?” Karla asked.

  “Honestly, I can’t accept his stupid reasons.”

  “Then you do it.”

  “I know. I know. Last night I let him bully me into not doing it. But since Mom still isn’t home this morning, I’m going to talk to Luke without Dad.”

  “Good. The sooner the better. And did you say ‘Drake’?”

  “He’s here.” Her throat tightened at the thought.

  “You let him in the house?”

  “No, of course not. I mean here in San Diego. He wants to change the custody terms and take Callie back to Chicago with him. Over my dead body…”

  “And mine. And Luke’s. Hell, girlfriend, half of Ramona will beat that bastard to a pulp if he tries anything.”

  “Thanks, Karla. It may take that. He’s hired some new high-powered Chicago lawyer to handle his case.”

  “Sounds like you need ice cream. I’ll be right over.”

  “It’s only ten—” Jessie objected, but Karla was already gone. Bless her best friend. She’d probably been up half the night with Troy, and yet she jumped into action when friendship called. Unfortunately, ice cream wouldn’t fix any of Jessie’s problems, including the one she hadn’t mentioned: Sean Burke.

  “Mommy, Mommy,” Callie called, barreling through the back door. “Looks what I picked. It’s the biggest ’mato in the world. Grandpa said so.” She held up a fiery red tomato that was almost as big as a grapefruit. She plopped it on the kitchen table and then peered up into her mother’s face, her expression growing serious. “Why’s you crying, Mommy?”

  Jessie swiped at the remnants of her tears and sniffed. “I-I’m not crying. I just smelled something bad, and it made my eyes water.”

  “Oh, like Grandpa’s ’nure. It stinks. I don’t likes it.”

  Jessie thankfully grabbed on to the change of subject like a lifeline. She had no idea how sh
e was going to tell Callie that her grandmother was missing. When the little girl had asked earlier about her grandmother’s absence, she’d accepted a simple explanation that Molly was “out.” The easy answer wouldn’t suffice for long. “Didn’t you help him spread the manure with the tractor yesterday?” Jessie asked.

  Callie frowned and shook her index finger for emphasis. “I told him after I gots in trouble for getting ’nure in my hair last time that I don’t never wants to do it again. ’Sides, Grandpa didn’t do the ’nure ’terday.”

  Jessie smiled at her daughter’s speech. “Maybe he did it while you took a nap after going to the creek.”

  Callie cocked her head. “We didn’t feeds the ducks. I’d ’member that for sure ’cause I likes them.”

  She tousled her daughter’s blond curls and laughed. “Sweetie, your brain must still be asleep. Go wash up. You smell like tomato plants.”

  Callie sniffed her hands. “Ugh. At least it’s not bad as ’nure.”

  The phone rang as she skipped off to the bathroom, holding her hands straight out in front of her.

  “Hello?” Jessie said hesitantly, hoping it wasn’t Drake and was her mom.

  “Jess, it’s me.”

  After the cruel way Sean had ended their encounter last night, her first impulse was to hang up. But she needed to keep him interested in her mother’s disappearance. That didn’t mean she couldn’t set some boundaries. “Good morning, Detective Burke. How’re you feeling?”

  He hesitated as though he couldn’t decide whether she was greeting him as friend or foe. Good, because it was a little of both.

  “Uh, good morning. I’m doing okay. Considering you ran me down.”

  Guilt pinched her. “Did you go to the ER to see if you have a concussion?”

  “Real men don’t go to the ER.” He cleared his throat. “Any word from your mom?”

  She swallowed hard. “No.”

  “Did you get Mr. and Mrs. Turner’s full names for me? And their address?”

  “Hold on. Let me grab Mom’s address book.” She opened a kitchen drawer and pulled it out. After reading him the information, she said, “I’m going to talk to Luke about me signing a missing person report.”

  “Good idea.” Sean paused and cleared his throat again. “Do you know your stepdad’s full name?”

  “Huh?”

  “Hal. What’s his full name?”

  “Sean, you’re wasting your time suspecting him or Nate.”

  “Humor me.”

  “Hal Freeman. That’s it.”

  “No middle name or initial?”

  She thought a moment. “Maybe I’ve seen a T or an I a couple times.”

  “Okay. What’s ‘Hal’ short for?”

  “Nothing. It’s just Hal.”

  Sean paused again. “How long have Hal and Molly been married?”

  “They recently celebrated their twenty-sixth anniversary.”

  “Interesting. Did you know Nate’s been arrested several times?”

  Her breath caught in her throat. “No way.”

  “I didn’t think so. Thanks. Talk to ya later.”

  “Wait just a damn minute,” she snapped. “Don’t ask me those kinds of questions and then not tell me what you’re doing. Spill it.”

  “Well, hell,” he mumbled. “You’re not gonna like it. Just let it go.”

  Instead of sparking more anger, his words spawned a sense of foreboding. She dropped onto a chair at the kitchen table and rested her forehead in her hand. “Tell me. Please.”

  “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “Fine.”

  “Your stepdad’s name is Hallelujah Ima Freeman.”

  Jessie blinked. Had she entered the Twilight Zone? “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope. And even weirder, I can’t find any evidence he existed more than twenty-seven years ago, a year before he married your mother.”

  She groaned. “What does that mean?”

  “Well, since he’s in his sixties, it could mean he changed his name at that time. But I can’t find any legal record of it.”

  “Changed it from what?”

  “Who you talking to?” Hal asked from behind her.

  She whipped her head around, and her heart thumped hard. “Jesus Christ, Dad, you startled me.”

  “You talking to that goddamn deputy? I told you those people are not buttin’ into our family’s business.” He grabbed the phone from her hand. “Stay out of it, Deputy Johnson,” he shouted, and ended the call. Glaring at her, he slammed the phone on the table.

  “Dad, we have to do something. Mom’s been gone almost twenty hours. She doesn’t have her car and—”

  “Listen to me, Jessie. I didn’t want to say this in front of Callie, but Molly was damn pissed I wouldn’t let her pay for those lessons. And Nate really got her riled up asking for money to buy a video game console. From the shouting I overheard from his end, he would’ve strangled her through the phone if he could’ve.” He sighed dramatically. “Your mother had a real tough day.”

  “But, Dad, why would she—”

  He huffed with frustration. “When the Buick broke down, it must’ve been the last straw. She didn’t want to call me for help because she was so pissed about the money thing. Instead, she phoned one of her friends to come pick her up.”

  “But we called—”

  “One of ’em is lying through her teeth to hide your mother. Molly needs a break. Let her have it.”

  “I can’t believe Mom would worry us like—”

  “Well, believe this. She’ll be so damned embarrassed if her behavior hits the gossip mill that she’ll never get over it. Do you want to do that to her on top of all the trouble you’ve already caused by moving home?”

  His words hit like a sucker punch. She floundered for a response.

  “I didn’t think so,” he said with a slight sneer. He started to leave, but then stopped and turned back. “Did you borrow the earrings that were lying on Molly’s dresser?”

  Still dazed and hurt, she was puzzled by the sudden change of subject. “Earrings?”

  “You know, the heavy gold ones I gave her when we got married. They’ve been sitting there since last weekend and now they’re gone.”

  * * *

  “Jess? Jess!” The hairs on the back of Sean’s neck rose. Anxiety slithered down his spine. Slowly, he set Jake’s phone on the table.

  “Well?” Jake asked.

  “Huh?”

  “Did she know?”

  Sean shook his head. “No. Not about Hal or Nate.”

  “Figures. What’re you going to do?”

  Standing up, he jammed his hands in his pockets and paced across the safe room. “I don’t know yet, but I have a bad feeling about this.”

  “Me too.”

  “Who the hell is Hal Freeman? Why did he change his name, other than to celebrate getting out of prison? And what was his crime?”

  “Great questions. Got any answers?”

  “Not a one.” Sean pounded his fist on the wall. “And then there’s Nate, who’s actually attacked one of his parents before. Maybe after Molly refused to give him money, he took it a little further this time.”

  “Possible.”

  “If it’s either of them, then Jess could be in danger.”

  “True. So, I repeat, what’re you gonna do, Burke?”

  He shoved his fingers through his hair. “I have to protect Jess.”

  Jake studied him. “You two aren’t really ancient history, are you?”

  “What?”

  “You’ve still got the hots for Jessica Hargrove.”

  Sean narrowed his eyes. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Stone. If Hal or Nate have abducted…or killed…Molly, Jess could be next. She poses a threat by insisting on looking for her mother.”

  “Good point.” Jake stroked his chin. “Nate’s motive is easy, but what would Hal’s motive be? You think Molly found out something about his past and confronted him with it?”r />
  “Exactly. Now we just need to figure out what was in his past that would set him off.”

  “You’re running with Hal as the perp?”

  Sean ran his hand over his eyes. “Nope. They’re both suspects at this point. But we might be able to eliminate Hal if we can’t find anything incriminating in his past.”

  “Changing his John Hancock to some weird-ass name doesn’t count?”

  “Changing your name isn’t normally a motive for murder.”

  Jake arched his eyebrows. “Murder?”

  “I told you I have a bad feeling about this.”

  “I haven’t known you very long, Burke. Are your feelings usually right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Mine too.”

  * * *

  “I’ve already walked to where the Buick was left and back twice this morning looking for any clues to what happened,” Jessie said. “And I called Nate, Uncle Chad, and all Mom’s friends to see if anyone’s heard from her. No one has.” The memory of Hal’s accusation about one of them lying made her hesitate a beat. “They’re going to spread the word and start looking, too. I also called Luke and told him I want to come in and file the missing person report today after Dad leaves for LA. Despite all that, I just feel so helpless.” She sniffled as she sucked ice cream from a spoon.

  Karla patted her shoulder. “Sounds to me like you’re doing everything you can. When I get back to the shop, I’ll alert all my peeps, and we’ll tell our customers, too. All of Ramona will be looking for her.”

  Jessie blinked back tears. “What if it’s…not enough?”

  Her friend swallowed hard. “You’ll find her. You gotta have faith.”

  “I’m trying, but I’m so scared. And this crap with Drake. He couldn’t have pulled this at a worse time.”

  “I understand, but you really should talk to your lawyer.”

  Jessie rubbed her temples. “My divorce lawyer is in Chicago. She doesn’t work Saturdays, and I can’t afford another minute of her time.”

  “Well, you need to be prepared before Drake strikes.”

  “I agree. I’d like to find out if I can get a restraining order against him so he can’t come near Callie or me. But I don’t know if I have grounds.”