23 Miles

by Renee Mackenzie

  Once inside Talia’s apartment, it really hit Shay. She had put them both at risk by asking Talia to go to the parkway, and especially by getting out of the car to confront Jeffrey Gardner. What if he’d had a gun? He could have killed them both.

  Talia grabbed two beers out of the fridge, then put them back and pulled out two sodas.

  “Talia, that was a really dumb move on my part. I am so sorry. That could have turned ugly very fast.”

  “It’s okay. It is. I just want to figure this out because I want to know what he thinks I have of his.”

  Shay nodded. “What’s in your car that he would want?”

  “I have cleaned that car a million times and as far as I know there is nothing in there.”

  “Do you have anything else of your brother’s?”

  “Not really. Some clothes in the closet and his albums. It’s got to be in his car, like Jeffrey said.”

  “We should do a thorough search inside it, but it’ll be hard to see much at night though.”

  “Like I said, I’ve cleaned that car so many times, inside and out, and if there is anything in there it has to be well hidden.”

  “Grab a flashlight and let me take a quick look.”

  Talia got one from the kitchen and followed her out. They looked all through the car and found nothing except for a few pot seeds that they immediately flushed down the toilet when they went back inside.

  They went through Brian’s things in the closet and found nothing that they felt Jeffrey would be after. Talia picked through pockets and Shay felt around the liners of his jackets and coats, and looked in his shoes.

  They pulled every album out of its sleeve and checked the jackets. There was nothing.

  Talia went to the La-Z-Boy chair. “My mom left this behind. Maybe Brian hid something in here before he left.” She ran her fingers along the cushions.

  Shay could tell Talia was frustrated and frantic. She watched as Talia got a knife out of the kitchen and sliced open the backing material on the chair.

  “Can you grab the flashlight?” Talia asked her. “I put it back in the kitchen.”

  Shay shined the light into the back of the chair. They didn’t see anything. Talia reached under the chair with the knife and sliced the bottom lining. She shoved her hand in and a spring jammed her finger, making her cry out. When she straightened up, she held the knife firm in her grip, as if preparing to hack open the cushions.

  Shay grabbed her by her arm. “Put the knife down, Talia. There’s nothing in this chair.”

  “But there has to be. Where else could it be? Oh.” She stopped and looked toward the door. “The seats. Maybe it’s hidden in the car’s seats.”

  “You aren’t taking a knife to the car,” Shay said. “Why don’t you call your brother and ask him what’s going on?”

  “He’ll just lie. He’ll think he’s doing me a favor and lie about it.” She started crying.

  “Give me the knife,” Shay said, her voice gentle.

  “I don’t want to keep looking over my shoulder. Everyone has been so on edge since the murders. I can’t take this fear of Jeffrey on top of the stress of the other stuff going on.” She let Shay take the knife out of her hand.

  When she started to shake Shay hugged her. “I know, I know,” Shay whispered.

  All Shay wanted to do was to make Talia feel better. She forced the thought of how wonderful Talia felt from her mind. This was not the time or the place to have those kinds of thoughts about her.

  Talia sobbed and Shay held her tighter. “It’s okay, we’ll figure this out.”

  “Where else could it be?”

  Shay stepped away from the embrace. “Maybe we should take a closer look at your car.” She glanced at the knife she’d set on the coffee table. “But let’s do it gently.”

  “What do you have in mind?” Talia asked.

  “I have a friend who’s really good with this sort of thing. Let me see about enlisting her help. Why don’t you pack a bag and stay at my house tonight?”

  Talia followed Shay to her house, where she again parked in the backyard.

  †

  The next morning Talia called in sick even though she knew Dr. Bennett frowned on her taking Fridays off. He always thought it was just to make a long weekend. Shay drove Talia’s car to her friend’s garage. Mindy was a mechanic and the police department often used her when they needed help finding evidence in cars.

  Talia would have liked the short, stocky woman in the coveralls even if she hadn’t overheard her whisper to Shay, “Your girlfriend is a real cutie.”

  When Shay’s response was a blush and no correction of Mindy’s word choice, Talia felt a flutter in her belly. That was her first sign since their brief kiss that maybe there was hope in them transcending friendship one day after all.

  Wearing latex gloves, Mindy searched the trunk. She removed parts of the flooring, searched around the spare tire, and pulled out the jack to examine it. She was gentle, just like Shay promised. An hour later, the mechanic moved to the glove box with a screw driver. “Bingo,” she called out only moments later.

  As she removed the false back to the glove box, Talia and Shay leaned closer to see what was there. “Whoa,” Mindy said.

  They all stared at a bundle of cash, a leather wallet-like holder, and a revolver.

  “Holy crap,” Shay said. “That’s for a badge.” She motioned toward the leather item.

  Talia closed her eyes tight. “Oh Brian, what have you done?”

  Mindy splayed the stash across the passenger seat. “What now?”

  “We have to turn it in.” Shay looked at Talia as she spoke.

  “Yes we do,” Talia agreed.

  No one moved.

  “They’ll keep your car as evidence,” Mindy said.

  “Forever?” Talia asked.

  “Not forever,” Shay said. “Although it might feel like it, but we’ll get you hooked up with something in the meantime.”

  Shay called Parker to come make the first report. Then she called a few people she knew who had spare vehicles.

  Two hours later, after talking to Officer Parker and a detective, Talia drove home in Dee’s Mazda pickup, bumper stickers announcing to the world that she loved rock and roll, desired world peace, and wanted to save the whales.

  †

  Talia spent the next morning cleaning her apartment. She was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and jeans when she heard a knock on her door. She looked through the peephole and saw two people, a man and a woman, each in a dark suit. She knew it wasn’t someone selling vacuum cleaners on this Saturday morning, not dressed like that. She kept the door’s security chain engaged and opened it two inches.

  “Talia Lisher?”

  “Yes,” she croaked out.

  “I am FBI Special Agent Angela Gish and this is Agent Nathan Jackson. May we come in, please?” The female agent flashed her badge quickly and the male held his up for several moments.

  Talia closed the door to disengage the door chain. She glanced behind her as panic swept through her. She then remembered she hadn’t had any drugs in her apartment for some time and they probably didn’t give a crap about that anyway.

  She opened the door and stepped aside as the agents came in. “Are you alone?” Agent Jackson asked, his voice low.

  Talia grew scared at the way his hand rested on his gun as he looked around.

  “Yes, I’m alone.”

  “Sit down,” he said.

  She did as she was told and he started methodically going through her rooms. The female agent waited with her.

  “Clear,” he said as he rejoined them.

  “As I said before, I’m Agent Gish and this is Agent Jackson.” The woman nodded toward the other agent.

  “When’s the last time you saw Brian Lisher?” Agent Jackson asked.

  “I went to visit him the other—” she couldn’t remember when that had been “—the other day.”

  “At the prison?” Jackson asked.
r />   “Of course at the prison. Where else would I have—” She stopped short. “Oh, my God, where’s my brother?”

  “You don’t know?” Gish asked.

  “He’s not in Brookeville at the prison, is he?” She started to shake.

  “No, he is not. Do you know where he is?” Jackson asked.

  “No.”

  “Has he been in touch with you since he left the facility?”

  “Of course not.” She hugged her arms to herself. “I’m going to get a soda, if that’s okay,” Talia said.

  The agents exchanged glances and Agent Jackson nodded. When Talia came out of the kitchen she popped the top of her Coke and took a long swallow as tears coursed down her face.

  “We need to ask you a couple more questions,” Jackson said, almost apologetically.

  “Okay,” Talia sputtered.

  “Do you know where the money and gun came from?”

  “No.”

  “The car was originally your brother’s?”

  “Yes. Maybe Brian didn’t know it was there. He wanted me to have something nice since he was leaving me all alone. Maybe he—”

  “Miss Lisher, please,” Agent Gish said as she leaned slightly forward in her chair. “Just let us ask you a few more questions, okay?”

  Talia pulled her legs up onto the La-Z-Boy and wrapped her arms around them. She wished Shay was with her because she would feel so much safer if she were there. Then she thought, what if Shay was going to distance herself now? She couldn’t really blame her if she did, not with all the drama Talia had brought into her life since she started stalking her.

  “Miss Lisher, did you hear the question?” Jackson asked.

  “No. Sorry.”

  “How do you know Jeffrey Gardner?”

  She didn’t know how to answer. If she told the truth, would she get Shay in trouble? If she lied… well then she would lose Shay for sure. “I don’t actually know him. I’d never even seen him before he started following me. Then when—when I did talk to him he said my brother had something that belonged to him.”

  Agent Gish maintained eye contact with Talia for several moments. “You never spoke to Jeffrey before the time you and Shay Eliot confronted him on the parkway about following you?”

  Talia instinctively knew she was telling her that Shay had told them everything already, and that she was free to talk. She opened up to them then, reliving every moment of every encounter she’d had with Jeffrey Gardner.

  “Do you have any idea where your brother might be?”

  She racked her brain. There was no place in particular she could think of. “No, not really.”

  “Is there somewhere you would rather stay for a while?” Gish asked her.

  Talia rocked back and forth. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Talia, are you afraid of your brother?” Jackson asked.

  She couldn’t answer. All she could think of was how he didn’t protect her from Timmy Hall that day all those years ago when she changed her story about riding his bicycle.

  “We’ll keep your apartment under surveillance in case your brother comes here looking for you,” Jackson said. “Also, with your permission, we would like to put a tracer on your phone.”

  “Do you need to call someone now? Maybe Shay Eliot?” Agent Gish asked.

  Talia thought about Shay and wished she was here with her. She didn’t want to call Shay, not until after she taught her self-defense class that afternoon, the class Talia would now be missing for the second week in a row.

  Chapter Ten

  Talia looked around at all the equipment on her kitchen counter. She didn’t even know how most of it worked. Electronic boxes covered the counter and wires stretched across the floor, all to trace and record her incoming calls. The agents and technicians had promised they would not record calls Talia made to other people, but Talia wasn’t sure she believed that.

  She always had at least two officers and/or agents inside the apartment with her and the technician. There was another person watching her Honda from the far corner of the parking lot.

  Talia wondered if Maybe Lesbian had figured out something odd was going on. She hadn’t seen her in a while, but then again Talia wasn’t following her usual routine at the moment either.

  Agent Jackson gestured toward the sofa when he addressed Talia. She sat on the edge, too keyed up to sit back.

  “Does the name Robert Sanford mean anything to you?”

  Talia looked from Agent Jackson to Agent Gish and shook her head.

  Agent Jackson showed Talia a picture. “This is Robert Sanford.”

  “Oh, yeah. I met him when I was visiting Brian. He was in the room next to Brian’s, I believe.” She thought about the discomfort he showed when Brian watched him, and then how he and his sister-in-law wouldn’t look over in Talia and Brian’s direction at Thanksgiving dinner. “Why?”

  “His statement to authorities would indicate you are in danger from Jeffrey Gardner.”

  “That’s nothing new, right?”

  “It is in that Jeffrey has said things to your brother indicating that. We think those threats might be behind the timing of Brian’s disappearance.”

  “How did he do that?” Talia asked. She still couldn’t believe he had just walked right out of a federal penitentiary.

  “We are still investigating. It seems he may have gotten a hold of some forged release papers.”

  “But you think he left to protect me from Jeffrey?” That should make her feel a little better about it, right?

  “We cannot assume anything with someone like Brian Lisher.”

  The way Agent Jackson said that made Talia’s skin crawl. “What exactly did Jeffrey say to Brian about me?”

  The agents exchanged glances then Agent Gish spoke. “That he would hurt you if he didn’t get what he wanted.”

  “The gun and the money?”

  “We believe so.”

  “Where does Robert Sanford fit into this?”

  “He overheard the threat.”

  “And you believe someone who would kill his own wife for the insurance money?” Talia asked.

  “What?” Agent Gish looked at Talia. “He’s in for tax fraud. His wife is alive and well and we hear visits him every week.”

  “Oh.” Talia swallowed the disappointment that her brother lied about that to her. Once upon a time they lied to everyone else, not each other. Except me, when it came to the day Dad died.

  †

  Talia leaned against the kitchen counter as she talked to Shay on the phone.

  “You sure you want to go in to work?” Shay asked.

  “I need to because I can’t continue to hide. Besides, Agent Gish said they’d have someone on me around the clock,” Talia said.

  “Stay vigilant.”

  “I will.” After disconnecting, she clutched the phone to her chest until she caught Agent Gish watching her with a knowing smile. She smiled back, then headed out the door.

  Talia pretended not to notice the unmarked car parked two buildings down. She felt compelled to do the speed limit since law enforcement officers were following her. She wondered if they were FBI or local cops and how they felt being stuck keeping an eye on her.

  She made it to work with plenty of time to spare. Since Dr. Bennett hadn’t entrusted her with keys to the office, she had to wait until someone else arrived to go in. The receptionist, Sally, looked at Talia, then at the only other car in the parking lot. Talia was sure that even someone whose world was as narrow as Sally’s could figure out the other car had two cops in it and why they were there.

  Talia gave Sally time to get in and get settled. Maybe they wouldn’t have to fake small talk niceties before the first patient arrived.

  Dr. Bennett came in and spoke in low tones with Sally, then asked Talia to join them in his office. “I see we have company in the parking lot,” Dr. Bennett said.

  “Yeah. Sorry about that. It’s just a precaution, they really don’t e
xpect—”

  “Talia, I have to ask you to leave and don’t come back. When I gave you the job here I was trying to show you my faith in your ability to overcome your family’s…issues.”

  Talia started to zone out but forced herself to listen. When she thought back on this and hated him for his words, she wanted to do so accurately. She stared at a stone model on the dentist’s desk recognizing it as one she’d poured. She’d know that crooked lateral incisor anywhere after working on the patient for months.

  “But obviously your family problems are going to follow you. I can’t have you here and have escaped criminals coming around here causing problems. Your people might not think an escaped embezzler is a big deal, but I do, and our patients do as well. So please, gather your things and leave. Sally will see to it that your final paycheck is mailed to you.”

  “My people? Seriously?” She stopped herself from telling him to cram his condescending attitude up his ass. It crossed her mind to snatch the stone model off his desk and leave with it. She’d gotten really good at pouring the stone mixture and would miss that aspect of the job.

  Talia turned and marched out of his office. Lacey was in the break room and started to say something to Talia, but must have thought twice because of the expression on Talia’s face. Lacey looked from Talia to Dr. Bennett standing behind her and back to Talia.

  “It’s been nice knowing you, Lacey. You are the only person in this place I’ll miss.” Then Talia grabbed her coat and car keys and left the office.

  She tapped on the passenger side window of the police car still in the parking lot. “You can go do something more exciting now. I’ve been fired and I’m leaving. I’ll be at home if you need me.”

  On the way home, Talia fantasized about telling Dr. Bennett and Sally that she was going to tell her brother they were mean to her and he would make them pay for it.

  Then she worried what would happen if he did show up looking for her there. Obviously, Dr. Bennett and everyone else out of the loop still thought Brian was a simple embezzler. Even if she didn’t know the scope of it yet, she knew better than to think anything to do with Brian was at all simple or benign.