Broken Trust (Missing in Action Trilogy Book 1)

by H. B. Rae

  She already knew that answer and he wasn’t even sure why she was asking in the first place. “Can you come in?”

  Sheila opened the door entirely and seemed somewhat nervous. Whenever he was angry, she seemed to be afraid to go near him. John was somewhat violent, but he would never hurt a human being; just inanimate objects.

  “I know you’ve found something.”

  “Yes, and I’m not too thrilled by it. – Would you be able to do your own thing to get me the information that I need to proceed?”

  “I won’t be able to gain access to that database,” she said. She was moving away from him as if she was afraid of his reaction. “That is the only one I will never go into.”

  “Do you mind giving me a reason?”

  Sheila bit her lower lip and she nodded. “They are in witness protection for a reason and if we go ahead and poke into it, we can easily be impeding on something going on that we shouldn’t be involved in. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be a target.”

  “I never thought you could be scared.”

  “It isn’t that I’m scared. I just don’t hack into something I know I’ll be caught hacking into.”

  “Great, now we have to see if they’d even allow us to get any information about this so we can even proceed. I hate damn politics!”

  Sheila was looking at him and he could tell she was indeed worried about him. She finally spoke. “I know someone who would be able to help get me what I need from those files. If you don’t mind, I can go ahead and step out for a little while.”

  “If you are able to get me the information I need that would be perfect.”

  He realized she hadn’t moved. She was watching him and took a step towards him. “Boss, I hope you know that everything is going to work itself out. I know it’s frustrating trying to work with someone who isn’t forthcoming about the real situation, but we have to think that there’s a reason for it.”

  He couldn’t deny she was right and all he was able to do was nod. Sheila took another step forward and he noticed how she hesitated. It was as if she wanted to comfort him in such a way that would make everything awkward and she finally took a step back. “I will be back,” she said as she left.

  ***

  She walked down to the elevator and stepped inside. It was cramped because the janitor was in here. He wore ratty clothing, but despite that, he was clean shaven and he stood tall and proud. She had noticed him several times and she knew that there was something more to this man than what met the eye.

  As they were riding down, he got off at the floor above her own and she headed into the lobby. Tom was not there today and she knew what had happened. It was a sad thought and it was one that she had to immediately push to the back of her mind.

  Stepping outside she was looking around the building. She knew where all the cameras were for the next two blocks and she walked down to one of the phone booths. Putting her hands in her pockets she was feeling around for loose change and finally found some.

  She dialed a number she had memorized back when she was twenty and now she was finally making the call.

  “This is Benjamin Kingsley,” he said into the phone. He had a deep voice and she had only met him in person once before. He was one of those men you would see on the street and you knew you had to avoid him. It was just the way he carried himself, but he had to do as such and she knew that.

  “This is Sheila Awret,” she said into the line. “I have a favor to ask you. Would you be able to meet me?”

  “Of course Miss Awret. I will see you within the hour.”

  She heard as he disconnected the line and began walking. Benjamin Kingsley had proven himself more than useful and she knew she could trust him with everything. He had after all protected her back when the accident happened. However, he knew it was not an accident.

  She made it to the building down the street. It was an old post office that had been around since the town had first originated. She knew this place had been designed as a fortress and it being a post office was just its own façade. It did double as something else and it was something no one else thought it would be.

  Walking inside, she went to the post office boxes. She made her way down to where the door was. On her key ring was the only key she needed and she inserted it into the door. She heard a click as it unlocked and pushed the door open. For the moment she was alone and she knew that she had to sit and wait.

  It didn’t take him long to arrive and he took a seat as well. This room was used for other post office boxes and only a few people had access to it. Most of the people that used this room had something to do with witness protection and the reason they used a room that looked to be like a storage closet was to protect others.

  “What do I owe the pleasure?”

  Sheila felt as if her throat was dry but she spoke. “I need to know who Olivia and James Shapiro are along with Marissa Hughes.”

  Her eyes were studying his face and she was not surprised when he did not show any form of emotion or recognition. That was his job after all and she was waiting for him to speak. He needed to give her some information.

  “How do you know them?”

  “Mrs. Shapiro and Marissa contacted my employer the other day and they are wanting to go ahead and find out where Mr. Shapiro disappeared to. Everything is sealed and we are unable to obtain the information we need to do a proper investigation.”

  He moved around uncomfortably for a moment and nodded. “I do not like divulging this information to you, or to anyone else for that matter, especially not without the proper clearance, but I trust you Miss Awret. I will help you, but I will limit your knowledge.”

  Sheila nodded. Any bit of information would be able to help at this point. He began to tell her the story.

  Chapter 9

  John was sitting in the office alone, it had been about two hours since Sheila had disappeared. He wondered where she had gone, but it was probably best that he didn’t ask her too many questions. She respected his privacy and he had to do the same for her. He heard someone knock on the main office door.

  Getting up, he walked over and opened the door. Standing there was Marissa Hughes with a forced smile on her face. It was obvious that something was wrong.

  “I know you are going to find out eventually,” she said. She was beginning to pace and he could tell she was somewhat uncomfortable. “But there are a few things that my sister and I are hiding.”

  He was not able to respond right away, but he looked at her with wonder. Why was she telling him this? Why couldn’t they have told him the day before?

  “Olivia is my older sister,” she began. “We changed our names and we moved away so we could get away from what had been haunting us when we were younger. Olivia is paranoid that someone from our past has come back.”

  “And the reason neither of you felt the need to tell me beforehand was because?”

  “It was her decision not to tell you. Olivia is very paranoid and it takes a lot for her to trust someone. She has to analyze every situation and she makes a guess to the outcome. I don’t think she trusted you, but I know that the more you know, the better it would be for us.”

  John nodded and looked to Marissa. “What are your real names?”

  “Olivia’s name is Teresa and mine is Samantha Anderson. Our mother was Daniella and she was murdered when we were rather young. Teresa investigated it and she stumbled upon something that made us have to go into hiding.”

  He was watching her face and he was attempting to tell whether or not she was lying, but he was sure she was telling him the truth. He nodded. “Thank you for the information. So do you think whoever is behind this had something to do with what you had stumbled upon?”

  “I doubt it, but at least by knowing about us you will be able to eliminate a few people off of the list.”

  John could hear how anxious she was. It was as if she was needing to go. “Is there somewhere you need to go?”

  “Yes,” she
admitted. “I work across town and I need to leave to get back there.”

  “Then by all means,” he said. “And if there is anything else you will be able to provide you can call me.”

  She nodded as she was beginning to walk out. As the door shut behind her, John was in deep thought. He wondered what that was all about and he didn’t seem to like it all too much. The way she was acting was rather odd and even if she was attempting to be somewhere on time she could have been different. He couldn’t shake the feeling that she was hiding something from him and the information she’d given him was supposed to point him in one direction and not any other.

  ***

  Sheila was stepping back into the office and saw John had his door open and he was lying down on his couch. He seemed to be deep in thought and she knew there was something on his mind. He wanted to get everything resolved and the information she had compiled would be able to help, or at least she was hoping so.

  Knocking on his open door lightly, he motioned for her to come in. “I have some information that you might find useful.”

  “If it is just their real names Marissa, a.k.a. Samantha was just here not too long ago telling me they had different names before.”

  “I have more than just their real names,” she began. “I have the reason why they needed to go into witness protection and there is a reason they are still part of it.”

  Sitting up, he was experiencing vertigo for a moment but he was able to focus on Sheila. “And what reason might there be?”

  “Meet Daniella Anderson. She was forty-two when she was murdered and no one had any leads as to who was responsible. She had been one of three women to die that way and the police were never able to make a connection. Not until Olivia a.k.a. Teresa had found that connection and that was Carlisle Castro.”

  “You mean to tell me the CEO of Castro Industries is the connection between the deaths of several women? Why?”

  “Yes. You see, the two women who died before Daniella all had worked with Carlisle as his assistants. Daniella was the only one who was not one of his employees.”

  “Then who was she?”

  “She was the mother to his children.”

  John felt as if someone had knocked him down. What would possess a man to kill the mother of his children? He was beginning to think about all the divorce cases he had been handling; he could see what could motivate someone to do that. Regardless, it still didn’t make any sense.

  “Did they find any evidence proving that Castro was the murderer?”

  “He didn’t have an alibi for any of their murders and he was romantically involved with Kathleen Winters. She was the first victim.”

  “I just don’t understand,” he said as he took the file.

  “That is the thing, none of it makes sense. See, when Olivia began poking around into everything, she had found out who her father was. She had confronted him and was gunned down shortly thereafter. She was left in the streets for dead.”

  “I don’t think a CEO would have his own children gunned down. I don’t think he would even go and murder women he was romantically involved with.”

  “And that is what witness protection thinks as well. See, they went ahead and they put the girls into the program so they would be able to launch their own investigation to ensure that they would be safe. They found evidence of him being at all three crime scenes, but he denied it.”

  “None of this is making sense Sheila,” John said, becoming irritable.

  “I know and that is why they gave me this information. We are going to need to talk to Carlisle Castro. We need to figure out who was responsible for the deaths of these three women in order to know where James is.”

  John felt as if his head was spinning but nodded. “I am going to need coffee.”

  Sheila smiled. “Boss, I think it would be best if you came to my place so we can figure everything out there. I have more resources, but only if it’s alright with you.”

  He took in a deep breath and nodded. Looking at Sheila he knew he couldn’t do this without her.

  ***

  Sitting on one of her sofas, he couldn’t help but feel comfortable here. He was looking through the hard copies of the file and he couldn’t help but wonder where she had gotten all of this information. He looked up at her.

  “All three women had another connection other than Castro,” he said as he was looking at each of their documents.

  “And what connection would that be?”

  Looking up at her, he shrugged. He wasn’t sure, but he knew there had to be another connection between them. It seemed to him as if Castro was being set up and he wondered why? People were greedy and their motives weren’t always clear. Sheila got up from her chair and sat down next to him.

  John noticed how close she was and couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable. He had been attempting to get these thoughts of her out of his mind but they weren’t going anywhere. It was as if she had been embedded into his brain. He could feel her body as she leaned against him. She had her tablet in hand and she was showing him something on the screen.

  “We could see about doing a web-chat tomorrow. All I would need to do is make the arrangements so we can do it.”

  “It sounds like a great idea,” he said. “Do you think we should interview Mrs. Shapiro on her own? She might be able to reveal more information that we don’t have currently.”

  Sheila thought on it for a moment. “I don’t think she’d be much help, but it never hurts to try. I also think we should go to the police station and see about talking to one of his buddies there. Maybe they could help as well.”

  John turned his attention away from her lost in thought as well. He moved to the floor and put all four of the manila folders on the ground. Taking Carlisle Castro’s he set it on the side and grabbed the file that had Kathleen Winters information.

  Opening it up he began reading through her file and he was acting as though he didn’t know anything about her. She was the youngest of the victims at the age of twenty-four and there was very little information about her in here. He looked at Sheila and she seemed to be curious as to what he was doing.

  “Is it alright with you if I use one of the computers?”

  She nodded and he got up from the floor. He was overwhelmed when he got to the main page. Her computer wasn’t traditional and he wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing. Sheila got up and grabbed one of the rolling chairs and moved in besides him.

  Taking over the keyboard, he watched as the screen changed, but she hadn’t clicked on anything. He looked at her and was curious how her computer worked.

  “What are you looking for Boss?”

  “I want all of the information about Kathleen Winters up. No one has this little information on file.”

  Her fingers were as quick as lightning and soon he saw an online profile of her, but instead of it being on just the main monitor it was also on the other ones as well. Sheila looked at him. “What do you want to find out first?”

  “I’m not looking for just one thing,” he began. “I am looking for everything.”

  It was about an hour later and they had finally gone through everything they had on file. There should have been more information on file for her, but there was nothing. It was as if she knew how to live a transparent life. The only thing remotely helpful was she had given birth about a year and a half before she was murdered. Her son, Emilio, was adopted to the Patrillo family and from what they saw, there had been no contact between The Patrillo family and Kathleen.

  Sheila had pulled up her medical records as well but there was nothing on file that stood out. She had only gone to the hospital to deliver her son, but she had never gone to a doctor for check-ups during her pregnancy.

  “Do we know who the father of Emilio is?”

  “Well,” she hesitated. “Her personal accounts are still around and she has shared correspondence to a man known as Jason Geerdes, but all contact stops two weeks after Emilio was born.”


  “What was there last e-mail?”

  Sheila pulled it up and they both looked at it. Jason Geerdes was not too happy that his son had been put up for adoption and he didn’t understand why she wouldn’t sign custody over to him. John wondered about that too and he realized that Sheila was a step ahead of him.

  One of the other monitors now had the information about Jason Geerdes. He was forty-six and had a record for domestic violence and other felonies that were thrown into the mix. John moved closer to the monitor and looked at Sheila. “How does he even know her?”

  “I am not too sure. That is not something I can find on here, but I can tell you this. Jason Geerdes knows Carlisle Castro. The two of them were friends,” she said as she pulled up a photograph. “It looks as if their families knew one another.”

  “Do you think Jason is responsible for the death of Kathleen?”

  Sheila shook her head. “I don’t have enough information. Besides I’m sure you aren’t making that assumption either. All three women were killed the same way, which isn’t a coincidence. They were all killed by the same person.”

  There was no denying that she was correct on that. Even if Jason was angry with Kathleen it didn’t mean that he had a connection to the other two, but they probably should still question him. It was possible he had more information than what they were able to find from some computer.

  >

  Chapter 10

  It had been another three days and they hadn’t found out anything on their end. This case was becoming frustrating and John was becoming irritable. Yes, this was the sort of thing he wanted to be doing, but he didn’t realize so many people would be hiding the truth from him in order to save face. It was becoming ridiculous, he just wanted a straight answer from someone and so far he wasn’t getting anywhere.

  “Boss,” he heard Sheila say. She was standing in the doorway and she appeared tired. He wondered if she’d been getting any sleep because he could see the dark half-moons underneath her eyes. “I have some information for you.”