DRAGON SECURITY: Volume 2: The Complete 6 Books Series

by Glenna Sinclair

  I glanced at Hayden, expecting him to make a face or some comment at the idea. But he just glanced in the mirror at Randy before asking, “You’re sure he was there?”

  “Pretty sure.”

  “Did she ever mention her brother-in-law?”

  “A few times. She talked about him that night, said that he tried to convince her sister that she was okay on her own the last time she disappeared like that. She knew her sister worried about her when she went off on her investigations and that’s why she was thinking of calling her even though she knew Rita would get upset that she was off her meds. She was hoping Adam would be able to keep her calm.”

  Hayden just nodded, not asking any more questions as we drove near the police station on Coronado.

  “They’re going to arrest me and charge me for the credit card thefts,” Randy said as we neared the building.

  “They probably will.”

  “I’ll go to jail. I can’t go to jail.”

  I turned and looked at him. “You know what I told you this morning?”

  Randy nodded, that spark of fear coming into his eyes again.

  “That goes double now. You tell them about Karma, tell them where they can find her, and I will find you.”

  “I won’t let them hurt her.”

  “That’s hard to believe, Randy.”

  He stared down at his hands. “I spent three years trying to keep the gang together to keep the money coming in. And then I spent a year being pissed at Erin for leaving and screwing everything up. I was determined to find her to make her pay for what I thought she’d done to us.” He grew quiet for a moment, picking at dry skin on his fingers. “And then I meet Rosalie and began to see what Erin had found on the outside. I’d pretty much decided to leave her alone when Rosalie disappeared. I panicked, ran ...”

  He sat back, bouncing his knees again, nervous energy exploding out of him in half a dozen different ways.

  “I thought she’d scared Rosalie away and had made her leave me. And then I heard what they thought happened, that Erin was pushing the police to work the damn case. I took off because I was afraid she’d told them that I was behind it. I thought she’d gone to the police and told them everything about me, that she’d walked me off the plank, if you know what I mean. I had to go back and get my stuff and I saw her with you. I thought she’d turned on me. I lost it.”

  He leaned forward again, touching my shoulder again.

  “I won’t ever touch her again.”

  “You’re the one that gave her that broken nose?” Hayden asked.

  “Yeah.”

  Hayden glanced at me. “You have more control than I would ever have.”

  I was pretty sure it was meant to be a compliment. I wasn’t sure if it was all that flattering.

  Chapter 18

  Hayden

  We walked into the police station—Kasey, this Myers-King guy, and me—only to be confronted by a recalcitrant desk sergeant who refused to take us seriously. I told him three times that we were there to turn in a guy who’d run from the scene of a murder just that afternoon, but he took one look at Randy and declared him useless.

  So I went over his head.

  One of the advantages of being a former Navy SEAL was the connections that that life had left intact. I knew a guy who’d been on my squad during Hell Week who had become a cop not long after he left the service. He’d always loved Coronado and said he would make his home here. And he had, working homicide on one of the most beautiful beaches in all the world.

  “Scott Waterman,” I said into the phone, causing the sergeant’s head to jerk up. It’s been a long time, my friend.”

  “It has,” he agreed. “What are you up to these days, Hayden? Still working for Luke’s old lady?”

  “I am. And you? Still on the police force in Coronado?”

  “In fact, I’m at the office right now.”

  “What a coincidence. So am I.”

  “You are? What the hell for?”

  “That double murder at the motel today? I have a client who might have some information.”

  There was a brief silence. “Well, fuck! You’re in the front lobby?”

  “I am.”

  “I’ll be there in a second.”

  I disconnected the call and winked at the sergeant. Kasey was watching me from a corner of the room, his hand firmly on Randy’s upper arm. He was worried about this girlfriend, worried what would happen if this fool volunteered more information than he should. I didn’t think he would. I’d met a lot of guys like that in my time in security. He knew what he could lose if he did.

  If Kasey didn’t take care of it, I would.

  Scott came out the door and we did that thing men do when they once meant a lot to one another. We hugged in a rough, manly sort of way. Then Scott stood back and assessed me, his eyes more knowledgeable than they should have been.

  “I talked to Luke a few weeks ago. He’s worried about you, man.”

  “Luke needs to mind his own business.”

  “He thinks you’ve gotten involved in something that’s going to bite back. Something about a woman?”

  I shook my head, glancing at Kasey. He was pretending not to listen, but I knew he was.

  “It’s nothing. Just hooking up.”

  Scott smiled. “I remember those days. Sometimes I miss them, but not often. Abby keeps me far too occupied.” He slapped my shoulder again. “Where’s this guy you mentioned?”

  I pointed to Randy.

  “He says he overheard the cops talking about some security footage of him and the victims. He’s here to tell what he knows about it.”

  “Great.”

  Scott walked over to Randy and assessed him with one quick look. He gestured for him to lead the way to the door that would take us to the interrogation rooms.

  “I’d like to stay with him,” Kasey announced.

  Scott looked over a time. I offered a slight nod.

  “Very well.”

  The four of us headed back, with Scott getting Randy and Kasey settled in an interrogation room before taking me to his office. We stood there for a few minutes, shooting bullshit about the past.

  “You and Abby, still going strong, I guess.”

  “We are. She’s pregnant again.”

  “How many is that? Four?”

  “Five.”

  I smiled. “Always knew you were virile. You didn’t have to prove it.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, well, Abby’s old fashioned Catholic. Won’t use birth control.”

  “In this day and age? I heard even the pope said it was okay.”

  “Tell that to Abby.”

  The phone on the desk rang. Scott picked it up and listened for a moment, then turned to me.

  “I’m going to talk to your friend. You okay with waiting here?”

  “Sure.”

  He left and I immediately moved around his desk, searching through the deep pile of files there to find the one dealing with this case. It didn’t take long. Scott had never been a careful man.

  John and Elizabeth Keen. Married thirty years. Three children, including the youngest child who was currently undergoing SEAL training at Coronado. The couple were in town for his graduation this weekend.

  Elizabeth Keen had been beaten and raped multiple times. The coroner had not, at this point, determined how many rapists had been in the room or the extent of the damage to her body. However, he did note that Mrs. Keen was tortured for hours before she was finally put out of her misery with a bullet to the head.

  A flash of memory rushed through my mind: my mother lying on the floor of the living room of our hotel suite, those men taking turns touching her, hurting her in ways my six-year-old mind couldn’t comprehend. My mom trying not to scream because she knew I was watching from my hiding spot in the cabinet. My father, sick with grief, unable to respond any longer.

  John Keen’s eyes were bloody, as if he’d scratched them himself. His mouth was bruised and bloody, his wr
ists broken. He’d been beaten horribly, worse than the victims in the previous murders. The killer must have been angered by John’s attempts to avoid seeing what was happening.

  I found myself reading through Scott’s rough notes, the notes compiled by the other detectives at the scene. They were all horrified by, by the viciousness of it all. It made me wonder about the cops who’d come and investigated my parents’ murders. Had they been equally as horrified? They were tough New York City detectives. But this had been thirty years ago, during a time when that sort of thing was not an everyday occurrence.

  Was that why they looked at me the way they did, why there was always this sort of horrified pity in their eyes?

  Even my own grandparents couldn’t look at me the same after they realized everything I’d seen that night. I always imagined it was because they blamed me in a way for not stopping it. Now, however, I realized it was because they couldn’t reconcile the idea of having to live with seeing that sort of evil, let alone the idea that a six-year-old child had survived it and lived with it every day.

  That was one thing about these murders that this killer hadn’t repeated: there was never a witness, never a child left behind to identify the killer as I had been. It was something to be grateful for, no matter how thin a thing it was.

  I took pictures of the items I thought I would need to reference again, then put the file back where I’d found it, moving back around to the other side of the desk.

  Whoever had done this was connected to the Rosalie Matthias disappearance and murder and had committed the same crimes in two Louisiana cities. Whoever had done this was trying to get my attention.

  Why? The men who killed my parents were gone. One was dead, murdered in prison while awaiting trial in the death of my beloved Sam Wagner. The other was still locked away in Sing Sing, reportedly attending religious meetings three times a week and living as a model prisoner, though he was unlikely to get parole because of what his partner had done upon his release. Neither had family on the outside that I was aware of.

  Who was doing this? What did he want from me?

  I would find out before anyone else had to die.

  Chapter 19

  Kasey

  I stood against the wall watching as Randy worked himself into a tizzy of fear. The detective walked in and Randy’s shaking increased. I wanted to walk over there and slap him on the back of his head, tell him to chill the hell out.

  “Mr. Meyers-King,” the detective said, consulting a file in his hands, “I understand you’ve delivered yourself for questioning in the double homicide case at your motel.”

  “Yes,” Randy said almost incoherently.

  The detective took a seat at the table across from Randy. “Could you tell me what you know about Mr. and Mrs. John Keen?”

  Randy bit his nail again, spitting it out before focusing on the detective.

  “Not much. I ran into them in the lobby and we had a conversation about the island. They wanted to know if I’d been there before, if I was familiar with the beaches. I told them I hadn’t. They asked if I was there for the Hell Week graduation. I said no.”

  “And then you liberated them of their credit cards.”

  Randy shrugged. “I saw the man put the credit card in his pocket. I just bumped into him and slipped it back out. I needed travel money.”

  “Have you used the card yet?”

  “No.”

  “Do you realize we have you on security footage, stealing the card?”

  “No.”

  The detective’s eyebrows rose. “We do. We could charge you right now for petty theft.”

  Randy suddenly grew very still. “I never used the cards.”

  “But there were others. You spent less than an hour in that lobby, but you managed to take five cards off of five different people.”

  Randy smiled, pride dancing across his face. I wanted to smack him yet again. Now was not the time for professional pride. Not that kind, at least.

  “I needed travel money.”

  “And then you used one of the cards to buy yourself dinner in the hotel restaurant.”

  “Just a burger.”

  “It doesn’t matter if it was a dime piece of gum. You used a stolen credit card. That’s theft.”

  The detective dropped the file on the table and stood up. “I’m going to discuss this with my captain. I suggest you make the most of your time with your lawyer.”

  “My lawyer.”

  “Mr. Jacob O’Dell. He’s standing out in the hallway.”

  The cop and a man, clearly wealthy, dressed in a tailored suit, took his place. He opened the file and glanced through it, reading the evidence the cops had on Randy.

  “We can get these charges thrown out.” He looked at Randy. “You didn’t admit to anything, did you?”

  “Nothing.”

  “He admitted to taking the cards and to buying a burger with one,” I said.

  The lawyer made a sound with his tongue against his teeth.

  “You can’t lie to me. I’m the only friend you have here.”

  Randy stared at him. “I don’t know who you are, but I can’t afford you.”

  “You aren’t paying my bill.” The lawyer closed the file and looked Randy over. “Say nothing else. I’ll have you out of here by morning.”

  The man stood and left the room, leaving us—Randy, in particular—in something of a tailspin. I followed him, curious myself what the hell was going on. I found him down the hall, talking with the detective. But they weren’t talking about Randy. They were discussing the baseball game that had been on television the night before.

  “What’s going on?” I demanded.

  The lawyer looked me over like a scientist looking at a common housefly under a microscope.

  “Who are you?”

  “He’s here with Hayden Dubois.”

  The lawyer’s eyebrows rose. “Didn’t Hayden tell you, then?”

  “Tell me what?”

  The lawyer just shook his head. “Your friend is leaving here tonight, no charges. They only wanted to know what he knew about the murdered coupled.”

  “You’re not going to charge him for the cards?”

  “They were recovered and returned to the victims. No one felt the need to press charges.”

  “You knew all this before?” I asked the cop—Scott something.

  “I did.”

  “Why didn’t you tell him that?”

  “Because he’s a thief,” the lawyer said. “He deserves to be a little nervous, don’t you think?”

  I started to argue, but there was clearly no point.

  “You know who he is.”

  “I do. And I know that he has powerful friends working to keep him on the straight and narrow. So, unless you want his sister brought in, too, I’d stay out of it, friend.”

  He knew more than he should have. That made me nervous. But I wasn’t about to argue with him over it.

  “You’re done with him, then?”

  “Yeah. You can take him home.”

  I went back down the hall and grabbed Randy by the upper arm. I dragged him to the door and made a big show of looking both ways before gesturing to him to follow me quietly. He was nervous again, picking at his fingers and biting his lip. I paused at a corner and waited for a couple of secretaries to go on down the corridor before dragging him down a set of back stairs to a side door.

  “Take this,” I said, shoving some cash into his hands. “Go find a taxi and take it to the airport. There should be enough money there to get you pretty far out of town. Disappear. Don’t look back.”

  “Thanks, man,” he said, oozing gratitude out of every pore of his body. “I can’t begin to tell you what this means.”

  “Just go. And leave Erin alone. Understand?”

  “Yeah, man. We’re good.”

  He took the money and ran, disappearing around a far corner. I watched to make sure he didn’t double back or do anything stupid. Then I slipped back inside
and began to laugh, unable to believe how easily he’d fallen for that.

  He thought I’d just broken him out of jail. Did he not realize there were surveillance cameras everywhere?

  He might have been the mastermind of Karma’s theft ring, but he knew nothing about the real world.

  ***

  Hayden was oddly silent as we drove back to San Diego sometime later. He dropped me at the front of the hotel before driving around to the side to find a place to park. I watched from a spot on the second floor as he checked into the hotel and made his way to the elevators. There was something strange about Hayden today. I’d never thought much about this man who was my superior. He was well respected and well liked at Dragon. And he was a damn fine leader. But I’d never seen him quite this distracted.

  I was distracted myself when I let myself into the room I shared with Karma. She was immediately in my arms, her hands exploring my face, my chest, as though looking for injuries. I pushed her back, my own hands moving over her hips, her jaw, loving the quickly growing familiarity that existed there.

  “Hayden’s arranged for the jet to take you back to Houston in the morning,” I said, as I pushed her against the wall, my eyes moving slowly over her face. “There’s a hotel there that Dragon keeps a suite in, a safe house of sorts. I want you to go there and wait for me.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Back to Smyer. Hayden wants to talk to the cops there and he wants me with him.”

  “What about Randy? What happened?”

  “He’s gone. They didn’t charge him.”

  “Why not?”

  That was a question that plagued me a little. But I pretended it didn’t, caressing her face again.

  “They returned the cards to their rightful owners. And, since he hadn’t had a chance to use any of them, there really wasn’t much to charge him with.”

  “What about all that other stuff? Didn’t that come up on their background check?”

  “I’m not even sure they did one.” I kissed the center of her forehead. “Like I said, all they wanted was any information he had on the murdered couple. Since he didn’t know anything and no harm was done, they let him go.”