The Missing Piece (The Jigsaw Files)

by Sharon Sala

  There was a long moment of silence, and then Charlie cleared his throat.

  “I identify the guilty party and you give me a million dollars?” he asked.

  “Yes, but if that’s not enough I—”

  “It’s enough,” Charlie said. “I’ll need a detailed account of all the incidents you believe were attempts on your life.”

  “Done. And I’ll need your email address,” Carter said.

  “I’ll have Rom text it to you. I have one more question. Are you going to stay hidden or are you coming home?”

  “My instinct is to stay where I am,” Carter said.

  “Then there’s another aspect to consider. Everyone is going to know you’re alive now. And this could trigger your attacker to get serious and search you out. When the family finds out Rom helped you, will that give away where you are?” Charlie asked.

  Rom had been completely silent until now, but the moment Charlie said that, he jumped up.

  “Yes, it could,” Rom said.

  Carter heard him. “Rom’s right. It could.”

  Charlie sighed. He’d taken this job because of Ted. He owed Dr. Dunleavy more than money. Ted was keeping Annie safe. The least he could do was keep Ted’s brother safe until the guilty party was caught.

  “I have a suggestion, if you’re up for it,” Charlie said.

  “I’m open to anything,” Carter told him. “I don’t want to die.”

  “I’ll take you to Dallas with me. I have a large apartment in a building with great security, and I have even more security in my apartment.”

  There was a long moment of silence before Carter asked, “Why would you do this?”

  “Your brother. He’s taking care of my Annie, so I’ll take care of his brother until it’s safe for you to go home.”

  Carter was silent again, obviously thinking, and then he spoke.

  “So you live in Dallas?”

  “Yes, but I flew here, and we can’t fly back without giving you away. I’ll have my assistant pick us up. She’s a licensed pilot.”

  “She?” Carter said.

  Charlie sighed. “Yes, and she’s hell on wheels. And right now, my apartment is also my office, and she’ll be there every day working. The building downtown where my office was located blew up due to a gas leak. The explosion took out a city block.”

  “I heard that on the news!” Rom said.

  “What will she think about me in hiding at your place? Will she be frightened in any way?”

  “Wyrick fears nothing,” Charlie said.

  “Wyrick? You call her by her last name,” Carter said.

  “Only because she refuses to answer to anything else. Look, you’ll understand when you see her, but I’m telling you now, if you make even one joke about her appearance, I will toss you out of the chopper without a second thought.”

  Carter had to be wondering what he was getting himself into, but he must have decided it didn’t matter if it kept him alive.

  “It’s a deal,” he said.

  “Is there room for a chopper to land where you are?” Charlie asked.

  Rom tapped his shoulder. “Even better, there’s a helipad, a hangar and a refueling station.”

  “Okay, Mr. Dunleavy, as soon as I coordinate a time with Wyrick, I’ll let you know when to expect us,” Charlie said. “You’ll be off that mountain before sunset tomorrow.”

  “I can’t thank you enough for this,” Carter said.

  “You’re already thanking me to the tune of a million dollars. That’s enough to satisfy me and take care of Annie. I’m going to tell Jason I found you as soon as we disconnect, then it will be up to you to call and say what you want to say. Just don’t let on that you’re leaving the state. Tell him you’re in hiding and not coming back until I find out who’s after you. I’ll be in touch.”

  Charlie ended the call. “Now, Mr. Delgado, I’ll need the address to find Carter on a map, so Wyrick can get a GPS location.”

  “Absolutely,” Rom said. “It’s on top of a mountain above Colorado Springs. I’ll write it down for you.”

  They went back into the library, where Rom gave Charlie the info he needed, including Carter’s phone number, and Charlie gave Rom his email address to pass on to Carter.

  “This should do it,” Charlie said. “And thank you.”

  “I was happy to be of service,” Rom said. “I’ll walk you to the door.” As soon as they reached the front door, he shook Charlie’s hand. “Thank you for helping my friend.”

  “It’s what I was hired to do,” Charlie said, and was back in his car within moments. As he was driving away, he called Jason, who answered on the second ring.

  “Hello?”

  “This is Charlie. I found your uncle.”

  Jason gasped. “Are you serious? Already! Where is he? Is he okay? What happened to him?”

  “I’m going to let him fill you in on everything later. I told him I was calling you, and that it’s up to him to tell you what he wants you to know. But he’s safe and well.”

  “Oh, thank God!” Jason said. “I can’t wait to share this with the family.”

  “Don’t do that until after you talk to Carter.”

  “Why not?”

  “You’ll understand after you talk to him. I’ll send you a final bill via email. Pleasure doing business with you,” Charlie said and disconnected.

  He glanced at the time. It was an hour later in Dallas, so it wouldn’t be long before Wyrick would be leaving the office. He dug the address Delgado had just given him out of his shirt pocket and picked up his phone.

  Eight

  Wyrick had logged out of the computer and was closing down the office for the day, which also meant carrying the dishes she’d used to the dishwasher and starting it up. She was thinking about a long soak in the old claw-foot tub in her apartment when her cell phone rang. When she saw it was Charlie, she wiped her hands and answered.

  “Dodge Investigations.”

  “It’s me,” Charlie said.

  “I know. Caller ID. I’m simply being professional,” Wyrick said, grinning to herself. She could just see Charlie rolling his eyes.

  “Whatever. I found Carter Dunleavy. He was hiding out. Someone’s trying to kill him. He thinks it’s someone in his house,” Charlie said.

  “Whoa. That’s cold,” Wyrick said. “What are you going to do?”

  “It’s become necessary to move him from where he’s hiding to a different location, so he’s going to be staying at my place until we find out who’s after him and why,” Charlie said.

  Wyrick was stunned, and the tone of her voice showed it. “Your place...as in here?”

  “Yes. Is that a problem?” Charlie asked.

  “No, nope, not at all. Just wondering why you suddenly decided to become a caretaker for your clients?”

  “Carter’s brother Ted is Annie’s doctor. I owe him,” Charlie said shortly. “I need to get Carter out of Colorado, but we can’t use regular transportation without leaving a trail. I need you to—”

  Wyrick interrupted. “Where do I pick you up?”

  “I was about to tell you when you interrupted,” Charlie said. “You’ll need a chopper. Pick me up at the Denver airport. I’ll turn in my rental car there. Then we’re going to a place in the mountains above Colorado Springs to pick up Carter—”

  “I have a chopper and you know it. I don’t suppose you have coordinates...or a GPS location?” Wyrick said and then heard Charlie sigh.

  “If you’d let me tell my story, you’d already have the address I was about to give you. I know you’re perfectly capable of getting the GPS location to it yourself.”

  Wyrick didn’t answer. She knew Charlie was pissed off at God, and pretty much the whole world for what had happened to Annie, but he never talked about it. So she was purposefully obstinate now and then just so he could let off a little steam.

  “Are you still there?” Charlie asked.

  “Obviously. I’m waiting for that address.
”

  Charlie read it off to her, then listened to her read it back.

  “Yes, that’s it. Oh, there’s a helipad and a refueling station where Carter’s staying. When you have a time frame for picking me up at the airport, let me know.”

  “That was an unnecessary request,” she said, and thought she heard a curse word a second before she hung up.

  Since there would be company here tomorrow, she headed down the hall to the spare bedroom to check it out. The bed was made. There were clean towels in the guest bath, soap in the shower and an assortment of guest items in one of the drawers, including a new toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. He was good to go.

  She went back through the apartment, turning off lights, then grabbed her things and set the security alarm as she hurried out the door.

  She glanced over her shoulder as she walked to the parking garage. She hated how this made her feel, and tried not to run.

  When she finally stepped out into the garage, the heat from the wind slapped her in the face.

  Texas in the summer never let a sun worshipper down.

  Once she was inside the car with the cool air moving, she searched Spotify for music and went through her playlist for anything by Carrie Underwood to sing her home.

  Humming under her breath, she took an on-ramp to get on the I-35 freeway and wasted no time melding with the speeding cars. She was thinking about what she needed to do regarding the flight tomorrow when she looked in the rearview mirror. The same gray sedan that had pulled onto the on-ramp behind her was still there. She frowned, then sped up and moved into a passing lane, shooting past six cars before getting back into one of the central lanes. She looked into the rearview mirror just as the same gray sedan pulled in behind her again.

  “Damn it!” Wyrick muttered. “I am not in the mood for this. What do they think they’re trying to prove? I know they’re watching me. I know they’re following me, and they know I know it. So is this a scare tactic, or are they waiting to see what it takes to really piss me off?”

  She wasn’t about to lead them to Merlin’s, so she began signaling to get off at the next exit. She stayed far enough ahead to make the driver think she didn’t realize he was there, then drove down the exit ramp to the stop sign and took a left.

  Just as she suspected, the gray sedan exited, too. She kept driving, looking for a large parking lot or a mall. A few blocks farther, she noticed a large strip mall in the distance and gunned the engine, putting some distance between them as she whipped into the entrance. She took the first empty parking place she saw, which happened to be in front of a bakery, then got out, running over to a group of large shrubs a few feet away.

  Within a few minutes, the same gray sedan pulled into the parking lot. She could see it going up and down the aisles looking for her car. She knew when he saw it because he sped up, then drove right past where she was standing, pulled up a few feet away from her bumper and got out. She watched him get down on one knee behind her bumper and put something beneath it, and as soon as his back was turned, she stepped out from behind the bushes and got a perfect shot of his car and the license plate. She ducked out of sight just before he got back in the car and drove away.

  She watched him leave the parking lot first and came out of hiding, then went straight to her bumper and found a GPS tracker. She pulled it off and began looking for a place to plant it.

  When a delivery van with a big happy face on the side parked in front of the Happy Face Florist, she considered it a sign. Her Happy the Clown game... Happy Face Florist. The moment the driver got out of the van and went inside, she ducked behind it, put the GPS tracker beneath the bumper and then went back to her car and drove home.

  * * *

  Mack Doolin was patting himself on the back for finally outsmarting Jade Wyrick. Cyrus Parks had been breathing down his neck because he’d been unable to find her after the explosion. Giving Parks this news was going to buy himself some breathing room. He made the call. The phone rang a couple of times, and then Parks answered.

  “You better have good news for me,” Cyrus said.

  Mack laughed. “I do. I got a tracker on her car. She won’t be so jumpy if she can’t spot me in the traffic, plus I can follow her all the way to work and home without her knowing it.”

  “That is exceedingly good news,” Cyrus said. “Well done. Your fee will be transferred in the morning. Stay on her. I want you to find out where she’s living now.”

  “Will do. Have a great evening,” he said.

  Parks hung up without comment.

  Mack frowned and then blew it off. He didn’t want the man for a friend. It was all about the money.

  * * *

  Once Wyrick knew the jerk was off her tail for the evening, she drove straight to Merlin’s. But it wasn’t until she drove through the gate on her way to the house that she finally relaxed.

  Merlin was outside puttering around a large flower garden as she pulled up and parked. She sat for a moment, watching him deadheading roses, and wondered if it was just coincidence that he looked like a Disney version of Merlin the magician. Maybe it was simply the long gray hair and the chin-length beard. Then she gathered the bag with her things and got out.

  Merlin heard her slam the car door, looked up and waved. She waved back. Moments later, she was inside.

  She turned the dead bolt, dumped her bags by her workstation and sat down at her computer. She logged in to get the GPS location for the address Charlie had given her, then got the flight coordinates.

  “Child’s play for a genetically modified genius,” she murmured and picked up her phone to call her flight mechanic. After a couple of rings, he picked up.

  “Hello.”

  “Benny, it’s me. How long would it take you to get the Ranger ready for a flight out tomorrow morning?”

  “Not long. I just finished a thorough overhaul yesterday. The engine is clean as a whistle. I refitted some seals, so all she’ll need is fuel and the usual preflight check. How early do you plan to leave?”

  “I’m going to say 8:00 a.m., and I’m flying to Colorado Springs. As soon as I’ve picked up passengers, I’ll do a turnaround. Without any incidents, we should be back at the hangar shortly after noon.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I’ll have it ready to go.”

  “Thanks, Benny. See you in the morning.”

  Having crossed that off her to-do list, she headed for her bedroom. Dinner would come later. She couldn’t wait to get her makeup off and her clothes changed.

  * * *

  Jason didn’t have long to wait for his uncle’s call. Less than thirty minutes after his conversation with Charlie, his cell rang again. He didn’t recognize the number.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, Jason.”

  “Uncle Carter? Is this really you?”

  “Yes, it’s me. I owe you an explanation for scaring the family like this, but there was a reason, and at the time, disappearing was the only thing I could do until I had a chance to think.”

  “Oh, my God. I am so grateful to hear your voice. We’ve all been sick with worry. What the hell happened?”

  “You know all those incidents I’ve been having...thinking I had food poisoning, slipping on that water at the top of the stairs, then having my brakes fail coming back from Ian Siegrid’s after the wake?”

  “Yes, but... Wait! What do you mean, thinking you had food poisoning?” Jason asked.

  “Remember when they decided to keep me in the ER overnight, so I sent you home?”

  “Yes, I remember, but you were released the next day and caught an Uber home without even calling us for a ride,” Jason said.

  “Only I didn’t have food poisoning. When the tests finally came back, there were traces of arsenic in my system.”

  Jason gasped again. “Oh, my God! Are you serious? I can’t believe this is happening. I would have sworn our employees were loyal to the bone.”

  “So would I, and later, after the car I wrecked was hauled away
, I got a call telling me my brakes failed because someone had made a tiny cut in the brake line. I’ve also had that same car try to wreck me twice on the freeway. My home is no longer safe. Someone under my roof is trying to kill me.”

  Jason gasped. “No! I don’t believe it! We would never—”

  “I didn’t mean to imply it was family. I said someone under my roof. There are ten to fifteen people there daily. Some on the grounds and some inside. I don’t know who it is, but I just hired Charlie Dodge to find out.”

  Jason’s voice was shaking. “Okay. But what do I tell the family? And what do I tell the police?”

  “I’ll call the police, and you can tell the family and staff the truth. Maybe it will trigger the guilty party to reveal himself. And tell the family I won’t be taking calls. I can’t use my cell phone without giving my location away.”

  “This is a nightmare, Uncle Carter. I’m sorry, so sorry this is happening. I’ll make an announcement to the press tomorrow. At least this should settle the unrest in the corporation.”

  “You’ve done a fine job of holding down the fort. If you’ll bear with me a bit longer, this should soon be over.”

  “We’ve got your back, Uncle Carter. Just stay safe.”

  The call ended. Jason was in shock. As he glanced up, he caught sight of himself in a mirror. He looked like he’d seen a ghost and he’d run his hand through his hair so many times during their conversation, that the cowlick at the crown of his head was standing at attention. He checked his watch, then called his secretary.

  “Gloria, do I have any appointments?”

  “No, sir. Your next appointment is at noon tomorrow. It’s the charity luncheon at your golf club, remember?”

  “Yes, right! Then I’m going home. I won’t be back in the office until after the luncheon tomorrow.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said. “Will that be all?”

  “Yes, and thank you,” he said.

  Jason logged out of his computer, pocketed his phone and locked his daily planner in the desk. It was all part of his normal routine, but there was nothing normal about this day. They’d gotten their miracle, but at quite a price. Who the hell was responsible for this? Charlie Dodge was good—damn good. Maybe he’d pull off another coup and catch the sorry bastard who was doing this.