by Sharon Sala
Bruner nodded. “Understood. Now, let me gather all this up and I’ll walk you out.”
A few minutes later, Charlie and Wyrick were in the car, waiting for it to cool off.
“So do we go to lunch on our own or go back to the house?” Charlie asked.
“Lunch on our own,” Wyrick said. “The food at the estate is impeccable in looks and taste, but I want a burger and fries.”
Charlie grinned. “You read my mind.” Then he paused, frowning. “You can’t really do that, can you? Read minds, I mean.”
“I’m going to pretend you did not ask me such an asinine question. Just drive.”
Charlie pulled out of the parking lot and back into street traffic.
Wyrick sat in silence beside him, but it was a comfortable silence, and when he spotted a Red Robin Restaurant, turned in and parked, she smiled.
“Best burgers ever!” she said. “In my opinion, anyway.”
“Agreed.”
They got out, but as they were walking inside, Wyrick began to tense. Public places were not her friend, but she wanted the food badly enough to deal with the stares.
Charlie was immediately aware of the diners’ reactions to seeing her. Some laughed. Some just stared. He saw the tension on her face and felt so indignant on her behalf, it was all he could do not to react. But he was determined that this meal would not be more of the same for her, so when they were seated, he leaned across the table and lowered his voice.
“Yes, people were watching every step we took, and I can’t help it. No matter where I go, people stare. I can’t decide if it’s because of how good-looking I am or the way I dress, but when a guy has it going on, it’s hard to ignore.”
Damn. He’s being thoughtful again. “You are so full of shit, and I’m fine. I’m ten years into this life.”
“You doubt me? I never saw that coming.” Then he reached for the menus and handed one to her.
As Wyrick took the menu, she saw him glare at a man sitting at the nearest table and wanted to cry. She didn’t know how to feel about someone who had her back, but he deserved an acknowledgment.
“I’m going to deny I ever said this, but you are a good man, Charlie Dodge.”
“I’m better than good. I am stupendous,” he muttered.
She grinned.
Moments later, a waiter showed up to take their drink orders. When he brought them over, he asked if they were ready to order.
“I am,” Wyrick said. “I want the Chophouse Burger with fries, and some mayo on the side.”
“I’ll have the Burnin’ Love Burger with onion rings,” Charlie said.
The waiter left. Wyrick had a slight smirk on her face.
There was a moment of silence between them.
“When do you tell the Dunleavys?” she asked.
“When we get back, I guess. Carter is going to want to know what we were doing at the PD, and Jason is going to be there, too,” Charlie said. “We accomplished what we came here to do. They’ll have some tough adjustments to make, but on the plus side, they’re all still alive.”
“No one could’ve seen this coming.”
Charlie nodded, and they went silent again. A few minutes later their food arrived. He reached for an onion ring and took a big bite, while Wyrick took her burger apart, spread mayo on both sides of the bread, then put it back together again. After that, they ate in mutual silence and passed on dessert.
Wyrick went to wash up while Charlie was paying, and when she returned, they drove back to the estate. Their meal was the most normal thing they’d ever done together and neither quite knew how to handle the quiet aftermath during the ride.
* * *
Jason was so glad to be out of the hospital that he couldn’t stop talking. The ride home had been a little harder than expected, but he breathed easier as they wheeled him in the front door.
Because the residence was so large, Jason’s doctor had insisted he go home in a wheelchair. Walking was good for healing, but not in hallways so long that walking up and down them amounted to miles every day. And since they had the elevator, there’d be no problem getting him up and down the stairs to his room.
Charlie and Wyrick’s absence was duly noted at lunch, and when they learned Charlie was meeting with Detective Bruner because he had information to share, they were even more excited. They were still at the table having coffee together when Charlie and Wyrick returned.
“Hey, Jason! Good to see you!” Charlie said.
Jason smiled. “It’s good to be home. I hear you have news. We can’t wait to hear it.”
Charlie glanced at Wyrick. Her face was expressionless again, but there was a faint tic at the corner of her left eye. He knew she was anxious, and so was he. Jason’s health was a concern.
“Jason, are you up to this now? If you need to rest for a while, I’ll hold off, because when I tell this, you all need to be together.”
“I’m not exerting myself at all,” Jason said. “As soon as you’ve finished, I’ll go up to my room and rest.”
“Then how about we go to the library? It’s a little quieter there, and we won’t be disturbed,” Charlie suggested.
The Dunleavys filed out of the dining room, chattering among themselves and talking about Jason getting well so he could walk his mother down the aisle.
Wyrick dreaded the revelations, especially for Edward, whom she’d come to adore. “I hate what’s about to happen,” she whispered.
“It’s okay. I’ve got this,” he said.
She tensed as they entered the library, and Charlie could relate to what she was feeling. They were about to drop a bomb on this family that would change them forever.
Carter seated Edward on the sofa and then sat down beside him.
Kenneth pushed Jason’s wheelchair between the two wingback chairs in which he and Dina had chosen to sit, and now they were all looking at Charlie, who was standing in front of them.
The time of questioning was over. Charlie felt like a judge delivering a bad verdict to people he knew were innocent.
“I’m going to ask you to hear me out without a lot of questions right now. Wyrick will back me up with details if I forget any. And I need to tell you one last thing before I start. You’re not to take on any guilt whatsoever after you’ve heard me out, because not one of you carries any blame.”
“You’re scaring me,” Dina said.
“Yes, ma’am, and I’m sorry. I hardly know where to start, but I guess the best place is to let you know the police have everything we collected and are working toward getting it documented in their own way so it won’t be thrown out in court. Right now, what I’m going to tell you is not to be discussed anywhere, with anyone, because there’s been no arrest. But the person behind the attacks on both Carter and Jason is Miranda Deutsch.”
“What the hell?” Jason shouted as everyone began talking at once.
“You’re sure?” Carter asked.
“As a heart attack,” Charlie said. “We’re just not sure why she did it, but here’s what we do know. Some months back, Miranda bought a DNA kit from one of those ancestor sites. I already had Wyrick running background on her once I found out she was Jason’s girlfriend, but when he was shot, the timing of that, directly after their breakup, was too odd to ignore. So I had Wyrick dig deeper. She initially thought the kit was an odd expenditure for Miranda and followed up, but this is where it’s going to get hairy. Miranda found out Johannes is not her birth father. She followed the DNA trail on the ancestor site and linked up to an older woman in Ireland who was distant kin. Then she discovered who the old woman was linked to and found herself a much closer relative named Dillon Dunleavy.”
“Oh, my God! That’s Dad!” Carter cried.
Charlie nodded. “At that point, she bought two more DNA kits, which she sent to a private facility for results. One was for her and one kit was Jason’s.”
Dina gasped. “Why would—”
“The tests revealed that she and Jason are fi
rst cousins,” Charlie said.
Jason moaned, “I’m gonna be sick,” and covered his face.
Charlie went on a moment later. “And once she discovered that—I’m so sorry to say this, Jason—she aborted the baby she was carrying.”
Jason’s voice broke. “She killed a baby we made? Before we broke up?”
“Months before,” Charlie said. “And the reason you were targeted, Carter, was just a stab in the dark. She didn’t know which one of Dillon’s sons was her father, but since you were closest to her mother in age, you got tagged.”
Carter frowned. “I don’t even know who her mother was.”
Jason was shaking, but he pulled himself together enough to answer. “Her name was Vivian Morrow.”
Carter shrugged. “I still don’t know who—”
Charlie shook his head. “It’s not you, Carter. It’s Edward. He told us himself at dinner last night. About Vivie—Vivian. That’s when Wyrick and I knew Edward was the father.”
Edward was ashen and still, so still.
Carter reached for his brother’s hand. “It’s not your fault, Eddie. None of this madness is our fault.”
Tears were rolling down Edward’s face, but he couldn’t speak.
“I’m so sorry,” Charlie said. “This has been the worst case we’ve ever worked, and it’s our first brush with a psychopath. There’s no explaining how they think, no point in trying to rationalize their actions. But once we knew all that, Wyrick began looking for a way to connect her to the people she’d taken out, the ones who’d failed to deliver. We found Jason’s shooter when his body was recovered. His name was Rey Garza. His car, and the gun inside it, matched up with witness testimony and the evidence they already had.
“When Garza’s body showed up for autopsy, the coroner caught something else. He linked Garza’s body with another murder victim named Buddy Pierce. Their wounds were identical, and the bullets he removed from each body were from the same gun.
“Buddy Pierce and Wilma Short had been married when they were young. Buddy was the one who kept trying to wreck Carter on the freeway, and Miranda went to high school with Garza. Miranda was paying for the hits with money taken from her trust fund. Bottom line, Carter, once she’s arrested, the danger to your life is over.
Carter was too emotional to speak. All he could manage was a quiet “Thank you.”
“Again, I caution all of you. Tell no one. You wouldn’t want her to get out of the country before she’s arrested,” Charlie said.
Carter wrapped his arms around Eddie and hugged him.
Jason was obviously gutted and too weak to process this new reality.
“I’d suggest Jason be taken to his room now, and if they sent him home with pain meds, use them,” Wyrick said.
Dina and Kenneth quickly wheeled him away, commiserating as they went.
“I’m going to take Eddie up and stay with him until he falls asleep,” Carter said.
“I’m sorry,” Charlie murmured.
Carter shook his head. “No! Never be sorry for finding the truth. None of this was easy to hear, but thanks to the both of you, we’ll all live to see another day. If none of this had come to light, and she kept picking us off one by one, according to how our family estate is set up, she could have come forward as the only surviving member and inherited it all—if she’d escaped being a suspect.”
“That’s it! That’s what we couldn’t figure out!” Wyrick said. “But she’s already rich. Why would any of this matter?”
“She’s almost thirty years old and has never been married or even engaged. She grew up as a butcher’s daughter—granted, a butcher who became a wealthy entrepreneur—but it’s a whole other thing to be the heiress to the Dunleavy fortune and live in a castle,” Charlie said.
“There’s one other victim in this mess,” Carter said in a quiet voice. “This is going to destroy Johannes.”
* * *
Two days later, the Denver PD arrived at the Deutsch residence with a search warrant for everything on the property, and an arrest warrant for Miranda Deutsch. A half-dozen police cars with lights flashing immediately blocked off the drive and both ends of the street. Someone had tipped off the media, because they were right behind them all the way. They were stopped a block back, where police were already setting up barricades. Once they could go no closer, they piled out of the vans with cameras aimed at the residence, while journalists began getting ready to broadcast live.
Detective Bruner finished the text he was sending, and then dropped his phone in his pocket and picked up his warrants as he got out of the car. He and a half-dozen officers moved toward the door, while two search teams stood at the ready. He glanced back once to make sure everyone was in place, then turned around and rang the bell.
A moment later, a woman answered the door, then gasped at the sight of all the police.
Detective Bruner and his men pushed their way into the foyer.
“Ma’am, we have a search warrant for the property, and an arrest warrant for Miranda Deutsch. Where is she?”
The woman stared at him. “I’m sorry, but there must be some mis—”
Detective Bruner raised his voice. “Ma’am, where is Miranda Deutsch?”
The woman pointed behind her. “She and her father are in the breakfast room.”
“Lead the way,” Bruner said.
She led them directly into the room.
“I’m sorry, sir. I’m so sorry. They made me,” she said, then threw her apron over her face and ran away.
Johannes stood abruptly. “What is the meaning of this? How dare you storm into my house without—”
“I’m Detective Bruner from the homicide division. We have a search warrant for this property, and an arrest warrant for Miranda Deutsch,” he announced and put them both in Johannes’s hand.
Miranda leaped up from her chair with the obvious intent to run, but was quickly subdued and cuffed.
“Stop, stop. You’ve made a mistake!” she said, then started weeping. “Father, do something!”
But Johannes was still standing there, staring at the warrants in his hand, so she turned the tears on for the detective. “Please, sir! Let me go, please let me go. I didn’t do anything wrong. You have to believe me.”
When Bruner didn’t even bother to answer her, she screamed, “Father, for the love of God, do something!”
Johannes was in shock. “Miranda, I don’t understand. It says you killed three people. What is happening? Why are they saying these things?”
“She’s being arrested for the murders of Wilma Short, Buddy Pierce and Rey Garza,” Bruner said and began to read Miranda her rights.
“Who are they?” Johannes asked. “We don’t even know these people. Why would you say she did this?”
“Miranda knows them. She hired them to kill Carter Dunleavy and then Jason Dunleavy. When they failed, she killed them to keep them silent.”
Miranda’s heart skipped. They knew all that? But how? Panic was setting in. This couldn’t be happening. “I didn’t do it!” Miranda screamed. “You’ve got the wrong person.”
“Then why did you try to run?” Bruner asked.
Miranda let out a scream of such rage it took all of them aback.
“Is this the father who raised me? Where is your anger? Where is the love you profess you have for me? Is talk all you’ve got, Sausage King? Now, in my time of greatest need, you let me down? To hell with you! It doesn’t matter! You’re not even my father. My father is Carter Dunleavy.”
“No, Carter isn’t your father. Edward is. You guessed wrong.”
Tears dried up within seconds. “The blind one? It was the blind one? Why the hell would she fuck a blind man?”
Johannes gasped, suddenly seeing the monster she was behind the mask she’d presented to the world.
“Take her out,” Bruner said.
Miranda walked with her head down, her shoulders slumped, completely ignoring the fact that her father was behind her, stil
l in shock, still begging for answers.
* * *
Charlie was getting out of the shower when his cell signaled a text. He grabbed a towel, wrapped it around himself like a sarong and dashed to answer. It was Bruner.
We’re serving the arrest warrant. Media got wind so it’s probably going to be on TV. Chief Forsythe asked me to personally thank both of you for closing this case.
Charlie ran toward their adjoining door and knocked.
“Turn on the TV. The arrest is going down!” he yelled and then called Carter as he ran back to turn on his TV.
“Good morning, Charlie, what’s up?” Carter asked.
“Just got a text from Bruner. They’re serving the arrest warrant now. He said to turn on the TV.”
Charlie was scanning for local news stations as Carter hung up. He was adjusting the sound when Wyrick opened the door.
“What were you—” she began, then took a deep breath. “Look!” Charlie said. “They’re making the arrest as we speak. Ah, damn it. Her father just collapsed!”
Wyrick stepped up beside him. “Look at her. She saw him fall and just kept walking. That’s one cold bitch, and I’m going to pack.” She hurried out of the room.
It took a couple of seconds for that to register, and then Charlie realized she was leaving.
“Pack. Right. This is over. We get to go home.”
At the same time, he noticed that the towel was all he had on. He was as close to naked as the law would allow, and she’d been standing right beside him.
“Well, hell,” he muttered. “The flight back to Dallas should be interesting.”
* * *
The entire Dunleavy family was waiting for them when they exited the elevator with their gear.
Jason was in his wheelchair, and as Charlie and Wyrick stopped for their goodbyes, he reached out to shake Charlie’s hand.
“Charlie Dodge, it took an act of God and the mention of my uncle’s name to make you call me back, but I am forever grateful that you did. You found Uncle Carter when no one else could, and you and Wyrick saved us all. Now I’m going to owe Ted a favor, and he’s a total ass about collecting.”
