by Jada Ryker
The man lying in the bed was bony and wasted. His cheekbones jutted. His hair was lank, and full of white flakes. His face was blotchy and peeling.
As Tara and Dreamus approached, he tracked them with his eyes.
“This is Tony. He’s in a coma.”
“His eyes are moving. How can he watch us if he’s in coma?
Dreamus’ face filled with pain. “People in a coma aren’t necessarily unconscious. They may have periods of wakefulness, with their eyes open. They can make some very basic sounds, such as grunting or groaning.”
Dreamus stood next to the bed. “The night of Tony’s junior prom, when he was only seventeen years old, he was returning from the high school with his date. It was late at night and raining. Tony never even saw the drunk driver who hit him in a head-on collision. Tony is now twenty-five years old. He has lived in this limbo ever since that night. Day after day, year after year. He is fed through a tube. He is bathed and washed by attendants. He wears a diaper, which must be changed for him. He doesn’t recognize his family or friends. His date fared a little better. She was paralyzed from the waist down, and will never walk again. But at least she’s able to wipe her own ass.”
Dreamus walked over to the bed, and turned to face Tara. “Do you know what happened to the driver?”
Tara turned away from the hurt and fury in Dreamus’ face.
“He walked away from the crash without a scratch. His blood alcohol was far above the legal limit. He was tried for manslaughter. Because of the financial backing of his prominent family, he had a high-powered defense team. They managed to get the charge reduced, and asked for shock probation. The judge, whom I suspect was paid off by the family but I could never prove it, granted the request.
“Tony’s life ended that night. The person responsible walked away, unscathed and unpunished.”
Dreamus reached down and stroked the hair back from the man’s blank face. “Tony is my little brother.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Marisa winced when Anna prodded her in the back with the gun. She knew it was a real firearm, and not the tranquilizer gun.
“Get in the house, Marisa, before someone sees us.”
They were at Anna’s former home. It was now the home of Anna’s ex-husband, who was also Marisa’s former boyfriend.
Marisa used the key Anna handed to her, and unlocked the door. She looked around the familiar home, with its clutter and disorder.
Anna poked her again with the gun. “In the basement, Marisa.”
Marisa turned to face her. “If you’re going to kill me, do it here and now.”
Anna’s curly hair bounced as she shook her head. “I have no intention of killing you, Marisa. I want answers, that’s all. Now get in that basement. I have a friend of yours down there, just waiting to talk to you.”
Marisa walked down the stairs. If she could find an opportunity to overpower Anna, she’d get the gun away from her and escape.
The basement was a pool of thick darkness. Anna flicked a switch, and it flooded with light. Anna ordered Marisa to walk around the old furniture and boxes. Marisa wound her way through the clutter. The only clean object appeared to be the huge safe near the middle of the basement. The size of a refrigerator, it was shiny black and free of dust.
Marisa stopped in shock. A man was tied to a chair. Ropes snaked around his wrists and ankles and through the rungs of the chair, and up the round, iron pole behind him like a candy cane. A dirty rag was tied around his mouth. He squirmed and grunted.
“Bracken!”
“Yes. My ex-husband and your former lover. Marisa, you sit in the chair next to him. I’m going to ask questions and you’re going to answer them.” She waved her gun toward the vacant chair.
Afraid to make any sudden movements, Marisa eased herself into the chair. It was hard and cold beneath her.
“There were so many nights he was out late or didn’t come home at all. He claimed he was at his second job. Yet he was so distant to me and our daughters. When he asked me for a divorce, I was so sure there was someone else. But during mediation in family court, Bracken swore under oath he was not having an affair. Now, tell me the truth. Were you having an affair with my husband while we were married?” Anna’s chin wobbled and her eyes filled with tears.
“Anna. I’m sorry. I did have a relationship with your husband. But can’t you see he’s not worth all of this? He told me he began having affairs soon after you and he married. He continued to be unfaithful to you all along.” Marisa leaned forward in her chair. “He told me when I started seeing him that he didn’t think he could ever be faithful to any woman. I foolishly thought that if he loved me, he’d be faithful to me. I was wrong, Anna. I caught him with his supposedly platonic friend.”
“Do you mean Valerie? He went to school with her husband. I thought he was Bracken’s best friend. I never dreamed he and Valerie....I should have suspected.” Anna spoke as if she and Marisa were alone. “He transferred from the bank near our home to a branch in a town about forty-five minutes away. Soon after, Valerie was transferred to the same branch.” Anna shook her head. “I never even made the connection.”
“Whatever is wrong with Bracken, Anna, is nothing to do with us. We were both victimized by him, you definitely worse than I was. He’s a cheater and a liar, and we’re both better off without him.” Marisa glared at the bound man next to her.
“And to make it worse,” Anna sniffed, “he’s behind on the child support payments. I am facing foreclosure because of him.”
“Why don’t you get a lawyer to garnish his wages? Wait a minute, Anna, how can he be in arrears on his child support payments? When I was seeing him, he always had wads of cash on him.”
Anna’s mouth dropped open. “Wads of cash?” she repeated. “He’s a loan officer in a bank, for goodness sake. Where would he get wads of cash?”
As if they were both connected to an invisible string, they turned to the safe.
Bracken stopped grunting.
“He bought that safe years ago. He said he needed to keep his hunting rifles and his handgun locked up, safe from the children.”
“Before we went out, he always went into the basement first.” Marisa shrugged. “I thought he was just checking locks or windows.”
Both women turned to the man tied to the chair. Above the rag tied around his mouth and jaw, his dark eyes were wide.
“What if he’s been embezzling from the bank for years?” Marisa looked up at Anna. “He brings home cash, and stashes it in his safe. He holds out paying you what he owes in child support, not because he doesn’t have the money...”
“He doesn’t give me what he owes me because it gives him a thrill to hurt me.” Anna kicked the bound man’s shin.
He grunted in pain.
“Do you know the combination of the safe? If we can get it open, we can see if it’s truly holding firearms or if it’s stuffed with stolen money.” Marisa stood up and walked over to the safe.
Anna was regretful. “I never knew the combination.”
“Do you think he’ll tell us?” Marisa nodded toward Bracken.
He was straining against his bonds, and his face was furious.
“Looks like he really doesn’t want us to get into the safe. Maybe we can figure out the combination.”
“It would be impossible. The possible combinations of numbers would put our odds of guessing it at a million to one.” Anna joined her by the safe, the gun dangling at her side.
“What if he used numbers that were familiar to him? Like a birth date? Let’s try some combinations.”
The two women tried every combination they could think of. Bracken’s birth date. The children’s birth dates. The divorce date. Even Marisa’s birth date.
“I bet his mother knows the combination. He’s such a mama’s boy, he tells her everything.” Anna pushed at her short hair.
“You’re exactly right. He’s the youngest of six children, and she still coddles him.”
Bracken was rocking his chair so hard, it banged against the steel pole.
Anna’s face fell. “But I don’t know her birth date.”
Marisa grabbed her arm and shook her. “I bet you do know it! You must have celebrated her birthday with Bracken many times! Think! What was the day?”
“It was in October. Let me see. The date was the thirteenth, because when it fell on a Friday, I made a joke about it.”
“Good, Anna! Now the year! How old was she?”
They tried 10 and 13 with various combinations for the year.
The safe clicked open.
From top to bottom, it was fitted with shelves. The shelves were stuffed with stacks of paper. Marisa drew out a stack and rifled it. She gasped. It was hundred dollar bills. Anna pulled out a stack of twenties.
Bracken was frantically fighting his bonds and trying to scream against his gag.
Marisa smiled at Anna. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Anna smiled back. “We leave him down here like this, with the safe door open. We make anonymous calls to the police and to the bank corporation. They will find him with all of this cash, audit the bank’s books, and arrest him. And do you want to know the best part of all? Valerie is the accountant for the branch. I bet she was in on it with him all along.”
The door to the basement crashed open. The sounds of running feet and excited voices echoed.
“Police! Don’t move!”
Alex hurtled down the stairs and hit Anna with a flying leap. They landed in a heap at the feet of the bound man. Alex gazed at the bound man in surprise. He twisted his head. “Marisa! What is going on down here?”
Marisa thought furiously. “It’s a bit of a long story…”
Police officers filled the area, and milled around among the cluttered junk.
Lieutenant Camden surveyed the scene with interest. “I for one can’t wait to hear it.”
Alex pulled himself up off Anna, and rushed to Marisa. “Are you OK? I went to Dreamus. We tried your house and her house, but no luck. I thought it was possible she may have brought you here. Dreamus managed to track down the ex-husband’s name and address.”
One of the police officers removed Bracken’s gag. Furious, he screamed at the top of his lungs. “My crazy ex-wife broke in here and tied me up. She was going to kill me! And my even crazier ex-girlfriend showed up, and those two started plotting against me—”
Lieutenant Camden gently shook his head. “I’d probably get into trouble if I ordered the officer to put the gag back.” He turned courteously to Anna. “The psycho bitch ex-wife stalker, I presume. It would appear you tied up your ex-husband in his own home, brought Ms. Adair here, and you broke into the safe, perhaps to rob your former husband.”
Marisa bit her lip. “It’s not quite like that, Lieutenant.”
Lieutenant Camden smiled slightly. “I had a feeling you were going to say that.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The lonely hoot of an owl caused Marisa to jump.
Alex patted her arm comfortingly.
The park was quiet except for the chirping of the crickets. Darkness reigned in the early hours between night and dawn. The inky branches of the trees loomed over them.
Marisa smiled slightly to herself. Bracken was under arrest for suspected embezzlement. She was sure Dreamus didn’t believe her account of events. She had stated when Anna approached her and Alex at the funeral, Alex had stumbled and hit his head. Marisa had thought he was fine, and left with Anna.
The blow to his head must have been worse than she thought, she told Dreamus, since Alex was convinced Anna had drugged him and kidnapped her. Marisa had explained she and Anna had gone to Bracken’s house to ask him to pay his child support. They had arrived to find the door open. When they investigated, they found him tied up downstairs, with the safe door hanging open.
Marisa had speculated his partner in the embezzlement had tied him up, intending to take his share of the money. Then, when his partner had heard Anna and Marisa in the house, the other embezzler had fled.
Marisa also explained Anna’s apparent stalking of her. She theorized Bracken’s partner had posed as Anna and stalked Marisa. If Bracken could have engineered Anna’s arrest, then he’d have full custody of the children and no more child support worries.
Marisa wondered idly if she’d go to hell for hoping Bracken’s partner in crime was indeed Valerie.
Alex fidgeted next to Marisa.
She whispered, “I never suspected the identity of the porn dealer.”
From their shelter under the trees, Alex scanned the open area. A single, lone security light softly illuminated the quiet fountain, turned off for the night, and the benches scattered around it.
“Can you see Dreamus?” Marisa looked for the lawman. She couldn’t see anything in the darkness of the park.
Alex turned to her and breathed in her ear, “He’s hiding on the other side of the fountain. He’s in the shadow cast by the security light.”
Marisa peered around the area. “It’s difficult to believe several policemen are stationed out there.”
Alex’s white teeth flashed in the weak light. “Given his resistance to our help, we are lucky Dreamus let us within miles of his operation.”
“He’s got us so far from the action it’s a wonder we can see anything at all,” Marisa grumped in a whisper.
“There’s William! He’s skulking across the park. Now he’s sitting on the bench nearest the fountain.”
“All he has to do is accept the pictures, and hand over the money.” In her nervousness, Marisa squeezed Alex’s arm.
Alex flinched. “I don’t understand why they didn’t just use email. Send the pictures through the internet. Set up the payment as completely anonymous. This in-person drop seems hopelessly old school.” He pried Marisa’s painfully clutching fingers off his arm.
“Think about all the well-publicized cases, Alex. The police force has caught so many buyers and sellers of child porn online that they’ve learned to be wary of the internet. We also hear of cases in which deleted files, such as pictures, are recovered from computers. They must believe this method is less risky.”
“Shhhh.” Alex shushed Marisa as another figure glided to the bench and settled next to William. In the dim light, Marisa saw the exchange of envelopes.
Harsh lights flashed on. Dreamus jumped up from his hiding place. “Police! You’re under arrest!”
Several uniformed officers joined him.
Dreamus took out his handcuffs. “Marina Poole Waters, aka Empress of the Endless Seas, you’re under arrest for selling and distributing child pornography.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
In the darkness of the deserted lane, the electronic gate of the domestic violence shelter swung open in front of Marisa’s car. She had finished her regularly scheduled workshop, intended to help battered women find viable employment. Although she could feel the tug of fatigue due to the previous night’s excitement and subsequent lack of sleep, she enjoyed teaching the women job seeking skills.
Marisa patted her dash, happy to get back her Miata. She had the top down, and she loved the feeling of the night wind in her hair.
Marisa felt an intense sense of satisfaction.
Marina Poole Waters had been arrested. When Dreamus started digging, he’d found the link between her and Jake, Sarah’s boyfriend. The two of them had grown up together.
Dreamus theorized Marina Poole and Jake had worked together on the child pornography scheme. Marina Poole had used the cover of the online group to scope out registered sex offenders. Sarah must have found out what Jake was up to, and threatened to go to the authorities. He hadn’t yet placed either Marina Poole or Jake at the club the night Sarah had died, but he was persistently seeking the final piece of the puzzle.
Marisa frowned. When Marina Poole had been arrested, she’d ins
isted a third person had been involved in the scheme. She claimed she didn’t know who he was and she’d never seen him. Marina Poole wasn’t even sure if the person was male or female. She stated he’d been the one to supply her and Jake with the actual pictures. She insisted he must have murdered both Sarah and Jake.
Dreamus had been frankly disbelieving. He’d ordered Marina Poole hauled off to the police station.
Marisa swerved around the hairpin turn in the one-lane road leading from the shelter. She glanced in her mirror. The building was no longer visible and she was completely surrounded by trees.
She sighed. Poor Tara. Dreamus had taken drastic action with her. Marisa wondered if he’d gone too far. She remembered her own feelings of despair when she’d hit bottom. She shook her head. No. If it saved Tara and other lives, it hadn’t been going too far.
Taking another sharp turn, she was startled to see a car blocking the road. She slammed on her brakes, and fishtailed to a stop mere inches from the tan compact car.
A familiar figure was standing next to the car. He turned, his features shadowed and the fading light catching his thinning brown hair.
“Macon?” Marisa leaned out of her car. “What are you doing here? Are you visiting one of the clients? Did your car break down?”
Marisa walked over.
Although he smiled at her, his eyes were hard and cold.
She frowned. He’d never looked at her with anything other than kindness and sympathy on his face. She faltered.
He brought up his hand. It held a gun.
Marisa’s mouth fell open.
His smile widened, while his eyes remained expressionless. “You think you’re so smart, Marisa. Yet you never figured out what was happening right under your very nose. First, we’ll drive my car off into the woods. There’s a dirt road right there. Get in.”
Marisa’s mind was reeling with kaleidoscopic images. Sarah was a patient of Macon’s. Several times, Marisa had run into someone tall and thin, and familiar to her. “You killed Sarah, and then her boyfriend. You’re the silent partner Marina Poole talked about.”
