Girl Undone (TJ Peacock & Lisa Rayburn Mysteries Book 3)

by Marla Madison

  The stack of presents between the tree and the sofa had become the area reserved for gifts for JR and had reached incredible proportions. TJ hoped the coming Christmas wouldn’t set a precedent for his gifts that she and Richard wouldn’t want to continue. The situation was probably hopeless, as the boy had so many indulgent people in his life. She knew the stack would only get higher the next day when more friends arrived for dinner.

  She left the group to study the whiteboards again for at least the twelfth time. After a minute she put in a call to Craig, Rina’s security guard who was watching Patricia.

  “What’s she doin’?” TJ asked.

  “Hi to you, too. She’s at church. That’s it.”

  “Then you’re at the church?”

  “No, I said the Felhaber woman is at church.”

  “Thought you were s’posed to be followin’ her.”

  “I am if she’s doing something suspicious. What’s gonna happen at a Christmas Eve church service?”

  TJ couldn’t believe the idiocy of Rina’s guys. She needed to talk to Rina and explain that security wasn’t all about muscle. “If you aren’t followin’ her, how do you know where she went?”

  “Got a GPS on her car.”

  Rina hadn’t mentioned that little nugget, but TJ wasn’t about to let him off easy. “Who the fuck told you it was up to your pea-brain to decide what’s suspicious? A fuckin’ GPS just says where the bitch’s car is, you moron, not where she might have gone to.”

  “I don’t get paid to put up with your crap.”

  “An’ you don’t get paid to sit on your ass. Where’s this church she’s at?” She was going to have to go watch the woman herself.

  “It’s a mass or somethin’ at the basilica.”

  “Which one?”

  “That one with the big park out past The Falls.”

  “Past the falls? You mean Menomonee Falls?”

  “That would be it.”

  “You talkin’ about Holy Hill? That’s a hell of a lot farther out of town than The Falls.” TJ couldn’t believe the dumb ass didn’t think it important to follow Patricia out there. She hung up on him when he started whining about Rina letting him use his own judgment.

  His own judgment, my ass, TJ thought. That moron probably couldn’t spell the word, judgment. She turned to see Lisa next to her.

  “What is it?” Lisa asked.

  TJ explained what she’d just heard from Rina’s security guard. “Not comfortable with it. He’d only watchin’ the tracker on her car. If she pulls somethin’ tricky, then what? No one’s there to stop her.”

  “I think I’m on the same page as the guard. What’s she going to do at a church? You said all the airlines had her name on a watch list and she has no passport. And it is Christmas Eve.”

  “Guess you’re right,” TJ said, but still felt uneasy about an unwatched Patricia.

  They joined the others back in the living room. Bart and Eric were bickering about how to put together one of JR’s toys from Santa. TJ sat watching them construct the thing, still in an unidentifiable stage. Something mechanical, it had a control panel awaiting the finished product. The toy had to be from Eric. Men loved giving the kind of toys they wanted to play with themselves. Lisa left the room to make tea, while TJ stayed put, mesmerized by the object coming to life in front of her.

  It looked like some kind of a drone or futuristic airplane. After they installed batteries, the next beef was over who got to launch its first flight. Eric claimed first rights since he’d purchased the thing.

  He moved buttons on the black box. The drone thing rose from the floor.

  TJ, her eyes at half-mast, lazily watched its ascent. Then she leapt up. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

  Bart said, “What’s the matter? It didn’t come anywhere near you.”

  Eric laughed. “And we haven’t even broken anything yet.”

  TJ headed to the nearest computer. It took only a minute to find an aerial view of Holy Hill. The grounds covered more than four hundred acres of rural countryside and part of it was the highest elevation in the area. She picked up the phone and called Richard. He answered and said, “I’ll be out there in about an hour.”

  “Not why I’m callin’.”

  “What is it?”

  “That cop handlin’ the Felhaber case—can you call him?”

  “I can, but I won’t. This is Christmas Eve, remember.”

  “I know. Mrs. Felhaber is at a service out at Holy Hill.”

  “What about it?”

  “Are you by a computer?”

  “I am.”

  She gave him the URL of the picture she was looking at.

  “Okay, I’m looking at an aerial view of the Holy Hill grounds. What am I supposed to be seeing?”

  “We thought Felhaber couldn’t leave the country because all the private airlines and charters have her name, right?”

  “You think she has another escape route?”

  “Take a look at that parking area farthest from the church. It remind you of anything?”

  “No, not really.”

  “Opening scene of your favorite TV series of all time.”

  A few seconds passed. “Okay, I see what you’re getting at. MASH. That lot would be a perfect landing pad for a helicopter.”

  “I’m goin’ out there. Can’t let this broad take off with Kelsey’s kid.”

  “I thought the girl didn’t care about the child.”

  “She didn’t—that was last week. This week she’s fightin’ for her parental rights.”

  After she hung up the phone, TJ went back to join the others. “I gotta go out there,” she announced.

  “Why?” Lisa asked.

  “Guess I just gotta feelin’ about Felhaber takin’ off. And I don’t trust Kelsey from one day to the next. Who knows what she’s not tellin’ us? ”

  “I’ve been seeing her twice a week. I think I’d know if she’s still holding back.”

  “Not like you can tell me anythin’ about it, right? Oh, yeah, let me guess. Cause you’re quiet, you’re sayin’ you think she’s sincere now with her latest version of the truth.”

  “I can tell you this much. Kelsey is in a very different frame of mind than she was when we first met her. You said it yourself; she’s done a total turnaround on wanting the child. She’s had time to wake up and get her feelings about Lyle Felhaber sorted out. She’s no longer romanticizing their affair.”

  “So?”

  “She doesn’t have anything to hide from us anymore.”

  “All the more reason the Felhaber woman shouldn’t be out of our sight. Not enough to just follow one of those frickin’ GPS things. I’m goin’.”

  Lisa walked to the kitchen and dumped what was left of her tea. “Then I’m going with you.”

  TJ opened her mouth to object then changed her mind. Stakeouts sucked if you were by yourself.

  After they made amazing time getting to Holy Hill—TJ, over Lisa’s protests had insisted on taking the Mini Cooper—they pulled into the drive and entered a parking lot jammed with cars. TJ drove around the lot until she spotted Patricia’s Mercedes. “The woman’s got it all lined up so she can be sittin’ in it waitin’ for a fast getaway.”

  “What makes you so sure she has a helicopter coming to pick her up?”

  TJ parked behind the last car parked in a drive leading into the lot. “I’m not sure. Just gotta strong gut feelin,’ but it adds up. She’s got the means to finance a getaway, her marriage sucked so she coulda had some kinda escape plan in place for years, and now she’s got the kid she’s always wanted. She just found out that her husband is even stickin’ it to her from his grave by dumping one last betrayal on her—the kid didn’t come from a paid donor. And even worse, it’s a kid someone’s gonna fight for, from a woman hubbie had an affair with.”

  “All right, it makes sense she’d want to flee. But why a helicopter?”

  “She hasn’t got her own jet. Rentin’ aircraft is something she does
, maybe even uses copters now and then. There’s no time to check it out for sure so I’m flyin’ by the seat of my pants here. This is the perfect setup for her. She was scheduled to be here for the service, so her bein’ here waves no red flags. We’re in the middle of nowhere, on a hill, and the parking lot is just right for landing a copter. Not many people live here on the grounds and if they hear the chopper comin’ in it’ll be too late for them to raise any alarms. Besides, they wouldn’t know if they should, wouldn’t have a clue what was happenin’. Maybe they’d run out and look, not call anybody about it. She’ll probably wait for a while after the service to leave, so I figure it’s more likely they’ll roll over and go back to sleep.”

  Lisa thought for a second. “Do you know when the service ends?”

  “Usually lasts about two hours, so should be over in about twenty minutes.”

  “You don’t think there’s someone helping her? A lover maybe?”

  “No lover. Been havin’ Turner check her out. If there’s a lover, she doesn’t email, text or talk to him on the phone, and ain’t seen the guy in at least a week.”

  “Maybe it isn’t a him.”

  “Now there’s a thought. But I haven’t got any feedback about her spendin’ lot of time with anyone in particular, even a woman.”

  “If there was a woman she was in love with, maybe they kept their relationship hidden.”

  “Possible, but doesn’t change anything.”

  “It could. If she’s escaping the country tonight, the lover would be going with her, don’t you think?”

  “Or would join her later wherever she’s goin’ to be on the safe side.”

  “Not if their affair had a chance of being revealed after she left. Once it was public knowledge, the lover would be under suspicion by the police for Lyle’s death right along with Patricia.”

  TJ opened her phone and dialed Rina. “Got a question about Patricia Felhaber. When you were at events she was at, did you ever notice that she had a female friend that she spent a lot of time with?”

  A pause. “I did not. The woman was always the last one to arrive, like her business couldn’t spare her for even a minute. Like I said, she was always trying to cozy up to me. She seemed intense, for lack of a better description. I have friends that usually work on the same events and I spend my time with them. I did one with Patricia last year but I cannot tell you much more based on that. I’ve never seen her with another woman. She has made several lets-do-lunch-or-dinner-sometime suggestions, but I always put her off. Why all the questions?”

  “Got a feelin’ she might try to take off tonight.’

  “Christmas Eve? Hmm. I suppose that could be perfect for her. No one would expect it and everyone is busy with their own plans.”

  “Well, I’m out here at Holy Hill. If she is gonna run, I got her covered.”

  “Should I send you some help?”

  TJ didn’t think it was the time to lecture Rina about the quality of her “help.”

  “Nah. If it looks like it’s gonna happen, I’ll call the locals.”

  63

  Forty-five minutes later, the only car remaining in the lot after the exodus of churchgoers was the Mercedes. TJ figured Patricia was probably socializing with someone who worked for the church and lived on the property. She’d moved the Mini to a spot where it wouldn’t be visible to someone walking out but positioned so they could still see the Mercedes and most of the parking lot.

  After the lights went off in the church, a lone figure walked out wearing a white jacket over a full-length dress. TJ picked up her night-vision binoculars; it was her. Patricia hurried to her car and opened the trunk. She pulled out a large duffel and set it on the pavement. After taking a quick look around to be sure no one was watching, she pulled off her coat and then her long dress. She was wearing a pair of knee-length yoga pants under the dress and a black sports bra. Over them, she pulled on a pair of jeans, a bulky sweater, and a short, black wool jacket. She closed the trunk, got into the car and moved it to the far side of the parking lot.

  “Fuck. Now we can’t see her from here,” TJ grumbled.

  “Does it matter? If she stays here, then she’s either waiting for someone to meet her here, or you’re right and she’s waiting for a helicopter.”

  “Makes me jumpy if I can’t see her. Can’t move the car now, cause she might notice.”

  “I guess we just have to wait it out.”

  They killed time by talking about the plans for Christmas dinner, the upcoming wedding/New Year’s Eve party, and their past. TJ said, “Wonder if we’ll ever find out about Jeff’s wife, what happened to her. I know Jeff didn’t do nothin’ to her.”

  Lisa squirmed in her seat and exhaled.

  “Don’t tell me you know somethin’.”

  After a long pause, Lisa said, “There might be something I can’t tell you.”

  “You’re gonna pull that crap about somethin’ that important? You know how much it means to me to clear Jeff’s name so everyone knows he didn’t get rid of her.”

  In the dim light, TJ could see that Lisa’s face screwed up with anxiety.

  “TJ, you don’t understand. I’m required to maintain confidentiality no matter what. Believe me, as your friend this is difficult for me.”

  “Knock off the bullshit. Yeah, I thought we were friends. Now I find out you knew somethin’ and were keepin’ it from me? You knew how torn up I was that everyone thought Jeff killed Jamie.”

  “The reason I didn’t tell you is that if I had broken confidentiality and told you about Jamie, I would have had to make you promise to keep it to yourself. You couldn’t have told the police, and besides, there would have been no proof.”

  “If that’s all it was, tell me now.”

  “I don’t believe you could keep a promise to not to tell anyone.”

  “Believe it. Now tell me.”

  “Jamie’s alive,” Lisa whispered.

  TJ fought the urge to scream at her friend. “Can’t believe you kept that from me.”

  “I had to. Jamie was my patient, remember.”

  “How did you find out?”

  “She called me. She needed to tell someone how bad she felt about Jeff.”

  “If she felt so frickin’ bad, where was she when he got killed? Where the fuck is she now?”

  Lisa took TJ’s hand. “She was in Dubai. I have no idea if she’s still there. And that’s really all I know.”

  TJ pulled her hand away, forgetting all about Jamie. “You hear that?”

  There was definitely the sound of a helicopter in the distance. TJ instincts went on red alert. “I’m gonna get out of the car, see where she is.” TJ crept out of the Mini and edged to a spot where she could see the Mercedes. Since she had no doubt what was going to happen, she put in a call to the local police. She had to hope they got there in time. If not, she’d have to stop Patricia by herself and pray that the pilot wasn’t armed. TJ had her gun in its harness under her arm and planned on threatening Patricia with it if she tried to get in the chopper.

  Then everything happened too fast. The chopper landed, and Patricia hurried over to it, crouching, before the rotors stopped. TJ ran back to the car and jumped in.

  “What are you doing?” Lisa asked.

  “Gotta stop that damn thing. Put on your seatbelt!”

  TJ put the car into gear and gunned the little car toward the aircraft while Lisa looked on

  in horror.

  This has to work, TJ thought. If not, Patricia Felhaber would vanish into the night sky.

  The pilot had already opened the door and was reaching a hand toward Patricia. She passed him her duffel first, giving TJ the critical seconds she needed.

  The headlights of the Mini were off. If TJ had it figured right, they wouldn’t see her

  coming until it was too late. She stomped on the gas pedal. The car raced in the direction of the helicopter, then wedged its front end between the rear body and the landing skids with a sickening crunc
h.

  “Stay where you are,” TJ warned Lisa. She pushed out of the Mini and drew her gun.

  “You can’t do this!” Patricia screamed.

  “Tough. Already did it. The cops are on their way. They’re gonna arrest you for violating a court order not to leave the country.”

  Patricia sank to the ground. She landed on the duffel and broke into tears. She was babbling about her baby, and something about her husband tricking her.

  TJ wasn’t interested.

  The pilot turned off the chopper’s engine and swung down to the parking lot,

  swearing about the Mini crammed onto his Robinson’s skids. He ceased his tirade when the sound of sirens drew near.

  “Yeah, asshole,” TJ said. “They’re coming for her. Better think twice next time you decide to help out a murder suspect.”

  “Lady, I just provide the ride. I don’t ask questions. She wanted me to take her to New York. That’s not a crime.”

  “Oh yeah? Tell it to the cops.” TJ knew New York wouldn’t have been Patricia’s final destination. She would have bribed another pilot to fly her to a country with no extradition policy. TJ had to deal with the local police and get the situation sorted out, then make sure Patricia ended up in a holding cell. Talking to Lisa about Jamie Denison would have to wait. She just hoped they could get out of here in time to be back at Eric’s when JR woke up, looking for Santa’s bounty.

  The pilot’s voice, still ranting, was cut off by the sound of sirens coming up the drive.

  Reinforcements had arrived.

  The gift exchange the next morning had been interrupted more than once by a discussion of the events of the night before. Richard explained that Patricia was being held until her attorney could plead her case in front of a judge. Being a holiday weekend, her arraignment wasn’t scheduled until Tuesday. Rina and Kelsey had their lawyer preparing for a showdown when their case finally hit the courts.