Deceptive Practices

by Simon Wood

  “Now you’re in a nasty predicament. Your husband has been murdered, and you’re the person who commissioned the hit.”

  “Don’t twist the truth.”

  “I’m not. I’m telling you how it will look to the cops. Your husband was killed. You paid money for it to happen.”

  “I didn’t order his death.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Olivia. They won’t believe you. A prosecutor will be able to prove premeditation. A good defense lawyer might be able to knock it down to second-degree murder, but at the end of the day, the facts are the facts.”

  “These aren’t facts.”

  “They are whatever I say they are. Evidence can be interpreted in a number of ways. It’s just a matter of what information is fed to the police. You withdrew money that you can’t account for, and your husband subsequently died a violent death. That doesn’t look good for you. It wouldn’t take much for these details to be forwarded to the cops.”

  Olivia felt a sense of dread settle over her like a damp blanket. It forced a shiver from her. “What is it you want?”

  Roy smiled. “Don’t be like that.”

  Roy was revealing his true self now. A coldhearted killer had replaced the big-fisted thug with a heart of gold she’d first met.

  “The important thing is that I can help you get out of this situation, but it is going to be expensive.”

  She contained her contempt. “How expensive?”

  “One hundred thousand expensive.”

  So this had been the scheme all along—to extort money out of her. It was a despicable plan, and it would fail. Maybe the threat of going to jail frightened most people, but it didn’t frighten her. She kept her wits about her, and she saw a big hole in Roy’s business model. Incriminating her was incriminating himself.

  “Why should I give you the money?” she demanded. “If I go down for Richard’s murder, you go down with me.”

  “Really? How?”

  “You killed him. His blood is on your hands.”

  “Is it? Are you sure? Prove it.” He cut her off before she could answer. “Who am I, Olivia? Where do I live? Where do I do business? How do we contact each other? You have an untraceable cell phone number. That won’t help you find me. If you want to see how ridiculous the whole idea of Infidelity Limited is, just try telling the cops about it. Even if they do believe you and try to investigate, they won’t find anything. I’m a ghost. And no one believes in ghosts. Especially cops.”

  During Roy’s initial pitch, he’d sold her on the virtue that Infidelity Limited’s quasi existence protected her. If they couldn’t be found, she couldn’t be blamed. Really, that feature only protected him and his organization.

  Olivia tried her best not to appear alarmed by the revelation. Roy was trying to scare her. If she kept calm, she stood a chance of escaping this. “There’ll be physical evidence. There’s no such thing as a perfect crime.”

  “I keep telling you that I didn’t kill Richard.”

  “Okay, you sent someone to kill Richard. It doesn’t matter. When the cops catch him, he’ll roll over on Infidelity Limited to save his own neck.”

  Roy shook his head. “You’re still not getting it, Olivia. There is no team of killers working on my behalf. I’ve never once taken a life. Maybe I should explain how all this works. I want more than just your money. I need you to do something for me. For Infidelity Limited to operate cleanly, for me that is, I have to be the middleman, taking no part in the procedure. I can’t have a tangible connection to the killer, the same way I can’t have a tangible connection to you. You wanted to beat some sense into your husband and wanted some plausible deniability. That’s great. I arranged for someone to be your fists. What happens when the next person comes to me and wants the same done to their spouse? I’m going to need someone to beat that spouse’s head in. That’s where you come in, Olivia. This is where you get your hands dirty.”

  Olivia tasted bile at the back of her throat. “You want me to kill someone for you?”

  “Yes. It’s the way this works. If you kill your husband, the cops will catch you. If you kill someone else’s spouse or loved one, there’s no connection. Where’s the logic? There is none, and an investigation falls apart. It’s a system of bait and switch.”

  “Oh my God.”

  “I know it’s hard to accept, but think of all this as a murderous version of pay it forward. You won’t know when I’ll need you, but one day you’ll receive a call, and I will give you a name, a place, a time, and a date, and you will kill the target. You won’t know the person, and you won’t know why, but you will kill them. If you don’t, vital information will get back to the cops about Richard’s murder. Have I made myself clear?”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Roy left Olivia in the parking lot. She traipsed up the road back to her car and fell into the driver’s seat, leaving the door open. She struggled to see a way out. Instead of solutions, she saw her ruin. If she confessed everything to Finz, she would incriminate herself. If she followed Roy’s instructions, she would become a murderer. And then what? If she went through with it, she was bound to screw up and get arrested. Coming up with the $100,000 for Roy was going to draw attention. It would look exactly like what it was—a payoff. She was screwed. She was going down for this one way or another.

  “How did you get yourself into this?” she murmured.

  Clare. That was how. Her sister knew how these people operated. Roy had no doubt put her through the same treatment. How could her own flesh and blood have done this to her, knowing how Infidelity Limited worked?

  A second thought crashed into the back of that one. If Clare was one of Infidelity Limited’s clients, did that mean she had killed someone for them?

  “Are you okay?”

  A hiker peered in at her. She hadn’t noticed him approach.

  “Yes. Yes, I’m fine.” She smiled a brittle smile. “Just thinking, that’s all.”

  The hiker didn’t appear convinced. “As long as you’re okay.”

  “I am. Thanks,” she said with a better smile.

  She closed the door and eased out of her parking stall, then accelerated away, with the hiker still watching her. The second she was out of sight, she pulled out her cell phone and punched in Clare’s number.

  “Where are you?” she asked as soon as Clare picked up.

  “And hello to you too.”

  “I don’t have time for this, Clare. Where are you?”

  “At work, where do you think?”

  Clare worked at a Target in Pleasant Hill. “Tell them you’ve got a family emergency. I need to see you now.”

  “I can’t just cut and run.”

  “Do it, Clare. I helped you. Now it’s your turn to help me.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Roy.”

  Silence followed for a second. “Okay. Where?”

  “Your place.”

  Clare’s Honda was parked in front of the trailer when Olivia rolled up. Olivia didn’t bother knocking and let herself in. Clare spun around, a glass filled with vodka in her hand. That glass all but admitted her part in Roy’s scheme. Olivia closed in on her sister.

  “I suppose Roy pulled back the curtain to show you what you’ve really won,” Clare said.

  Olivia nodded.

  “How much did he ask for to keep this quiet?”

  Quiet wasn’t how Olivia would have described it, seeing as Richard’s murder was in the hands of the police. “A hundred thousand.”

  Clare whistled. “Roy’s prices have gone up. He only took me for five grand.”

  Olivia had wondered how much he’d strong-armed out of Clare. Clare hadn’t come begging for money when Nick went missing, so it had to have been something manageable.

  “Business must be good if he’s tagging you for six figures.”

  The big payout told her something about Roy. Either he knew his clients’ ability to pay or he’d sought out bigger fish over the years. The latter seemed
the most likely. Big risks deserved big rewards. So in the six years since Clare had hired Infidelity Limited, the business model had developed into something more complex. That meant it was an organization bigger than just Roy and Dolores. A sinking feeling pulled at Olivia. Infidelity Limited had her outgunned and outmanned. Ideas of escaping this mess looked remote.

  “It’s a trip, isn’t it?” Clare said.

  “So you knew this would happen?”

  Clare dipped her finger in the vodka glass, then rubbed it around the ring until the glass sang. “Oh, yeah.”

  It hurt to hear her admit this. “If you knew the score, why’d you do it to me, Clare? After all I’ve done for you, how could you screw me like this?”

  The words slapped Clare across the face. She straightened up. “After all you’ve done for me? What have you done? You throw me a bone when I need one because it makes you feel superior. That’s about it. You’ve never really helped me.”

  “It’s not my job to support you. You’re a grown woman.”

  “It’s not easy, y’know. Not everyone lands on their feet or is as lucky as you. It would have been nice if you’d shared that luck with your sister. I’m not looking for you to support me, but if you’d set me up with a home, a car, and a little self-respect, I could have turned my life around. But that didn’t work for you. You needed the poor relation to make you feel good.”

  “You know that isn’t true.”

  “Do I?”

  Is that how Clare really sees things between us? It wasn’t Clare’s hurtful words that saddened her. It was the simplistic view of her life and the naive belief that it could magically work out if only someone else would pay for it. To Clare, Olivia had achieved all she had through dumb luck. She saw none of the work and discipline it had taken Olivia to get the things she wanted out of life. He sister’s opinions were those of a child and not a grown woman, and that was the saddest part of all.

  “What happens now?” Olivia asked.

  “Nothing—for the moment. Infidelity Limited plays the long game. You might not hear from them for years. Then one day they’ll have a job for you, and they’ll expect you to do it.”

  “Is that what happened to you?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Clare, the time for being coy is over. You have to be up-front with me.”

  “No, I don’t. Roy’s number one rule is you don’t talk. You keep your mouth shut, bury it deep, and pretend it never happened.”

  That worked for Clare and probably for most of Infidelity Limited’s clientele, but not for Olivia. She needed the truth. It was the only way of finding the edges of this mess. “Have they called you?”

  Clare’s grip on her glass intensified until her knuckles turned white. “Olivia, I’m not telling you. Move on. Ask me something else.”

  “Have you killed for them?”

  “No!”

  Clare barked the answer. It hung in the air, seemingly taking form between them. Neither of them spoke until it dissipated.

  “I haven’t killed anyone. Not yet. I’ve been lucky. Roy hasn’t called.”

  “Jesus.”

  “It’s why I recommended them to you, because they never follow through. It was just a stick he used to keep people in line.”

  Olivia couldn’t decide if Clare was monumentally naive or crazy. “What are you talking about? They killed Richard. They killed Nick. What makes you think they aren’t going to get you to kill someone for them?”

  “That’s not true. Nick isn’t dead.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I don’t know for sure that Nick is dead. His body was never found. I just had Roy’s word for it. It was a scare tactic to keep me quiet.”

  “But Richard is dead. Doesn’t that tell you something?”

  Clare shook her head slowly, as if her neck were turning on a rusted joint. She could delude herself about past events, but not now, not with Richard’s murder.

  “Nick’s dead, isn’t he?” Olivia prodded.

  “Olivia, just because your husband is dead doesn’t mean mine is.”

  Olivia couldn’t trust her sister. If Clare could lie to herself on this point, then she wasn’t reliable on any point. It was time to get help.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Olivia stopped behind Andrew’s pickup in front of the San Pablo address he’d given her when she’d called him. The street looked cramped, consisting of small homes on small lots. The two-story house he had built was a fresh addition in size and architecture, but it overwhelmed the tiny lot it sat upon.

  The front door was open, and she walked inside. She expected a construction site, but the place looked finished. Walls were painted. Plastic sheeting protected new carpeting.

  “Andrew, it’s me, Olivia.”

  “In the kitchen.”

  She found him hunched over a countertop, filling out paperwork.

  “You work alone?”

  “No. This one is done and sold. My crew is working on another project. I just came here to do the final walk-through with city inspectors.” He held up a sheet of paper. “I have my certificate of occupancy so I should be able to close the sale now. So what do you think?”

  As new homes went, it was nothing fancy, but it pleased her. She liked the smell of fresh paint and new carpets. She felt the potential from the never-occupied rooms. A family would turn this house into a home when they moved in. “I like it. Think you’ll end up building developments?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t need the stress. I make a good living from doing this, so I’m happy.”

  Olivia couldn’t remember the last time she’d been happy. Work and commitments had taken priority over the last few years, at the expense of enjoying life.

  He looked up from his paperwork and pushed it to one side. “But you’re not here to talk about my business.”

  “No.”

  “What’s up?”

  “I need your help.”

  “Sure. What do you need?”

  “I need you to promise you won’t breathe a word of this to anyone.”

  Andrew put down his pen and rounded the countertop. “Liv, what’s happened?”

  She backed up a step, putting her hands out. “Promise, Andrew.”

  “I promise,” he said. “Just tell me what’s going on.”

  Stay or go. Stay or go. Those were her only choices. So much was at risk that walking out made sense, but out of everyone she ever knew, she trusted Andrew. He’d done some stupid things when they were kids, but he always stood by his friends. She was gambling on that trait. Still, it was a big risk. Sure, they’d been close twenty years ago, but now they were just strangers with a past. He wouldn’t be the person he was back then. Lord knew she wasn’t. That was the gamble. She was out of options, so she rolled the dice.

  “I’m in trouble with the police.”

  “Why?” he said with trepidation in his voice.

  “It has to do with Richard’s murder. I’m involved.”

  There was no sudden rush to hug her this time. Instead, Andrew just stood there. “What did you do?”

  She saw the shock and panic in his eyes. Bombshells had that effect on people. She did her best to allay his fears. “Richard was cheating on me. I wanted to strike out, so I hired some people to work him over. They killed him instead. It’s a scam, and now they’re framing me.”

  “Look,” Andrew said after a long pause, “I don’t really see how I can help you.”

  “I need a friend and a sounding board.”

  “As your friend, I’d recommend that you go to the police.”

  “I need more than that.”

  “Liv, I don’t know.”

  She felt him backing away. “Let me tell you what’s going on. You can go to the police if you want to, but please hear me out.”

  She watched his emotions play over his face as he debated with himself. Eventually, he shook his head and went to the front door. She thought he was going
to tell her to get out, but instead, he closed and locked the door. He sat down in the middle of the living room floor and pointed to a spot opposite him. “I’ll listen, but you’d better tell me before I change my mind.”

  She sat down and told him the entire story this time, leaving nothing out. This wasn’t a time to hold back. If Andrew was going to help her, he needed all the facts. It felt good to unburden herself of everything that had happened since she’d discovered Richard’s infidelity.

  When she was finished, he took her hand and held it in his. “Wow, I don’t know what to say.”

  “I know. It’s a train wreck.”

  “I don’t think it could be any worse if you tried. It’s good to see that Clare still has a talent for sucking people into mayhem. What do you think I can do to help?”

  “You were in the army. I thought you’d be able to help me track these people down.”

  “I think you have me confused with Special Forces. I was just an army grunt. Look, like I said before, the best advice I can give you is to go to the police.”

  “If I do that, I’ll take the fall for Richard’s murder. These people have set me up, and I need to prove it.”

  “Then find a good lawyer who’ll negotiate you a deal. There’s no way you’re coming out of this clean, Liv. You hired them to assault Richard.”

  “I know and I accept that, but Infidelity Limited is preying on people. That’s why I need your help. I can’t do this alone. This is how they win. They have numbers. Their victims don’t.”

  “What do you want to happen?”

  “I want to expose them, find out who killed Richard, and set the cops on them.”

  Andrew was silent for a long moment. “You realize Richard’s killer is someone in your position, right? Someone who had their arm twisted into killing for Infidelity Limited.”

  She did. She didn’t like it, but this had to be done. She was in a predicament where it was either her or them. “Richard’s killer had the chance to break the cycle, and he didn’t. I feel sorry for him, but not for what he did.”

  “He might not have had a choice.”