The Milburn Big Box Set

by Nancy McGovern

  “Never mind that. All we need now is for Stanley to take the bait, and if he does…”

  “…Davis will be free.” Nora smiled. “I’ll owe you, Harvey.”

  *****

  Chapter 29

  No Good Deed

  Stanley arrived at 8:05am.

  In those 5 minutes, Nora, who was sitting with Mason in his office, had already visualized the whole scene several times. She’d gone from absolute certainty that the whole idea would never work, to a reasonable hope that it might. Mason had agreed to play along with the charade.

  Harvey was waiting in the lounge outside. He’d picked her up in the morning from Mrs. Mullally’s, and they’d both talked the plan over several times.

  “He’s here,” Harvey hissed, peeking in through the door, and then rushing back out. Nora and Mason both adjusted themselves, and nodded to each other.

  Stanley walked in, alone.

  Nora felt a rush of disappointment. She had been so sure…

  “Stanley.” She stood up. “Where’s Davis?”

  “I talked it over with my own lawyer,” Stanley said. “He reassured me there was no need for Davis to be present.”

  Nora felt sick. “There’s no deal unless Davis is here,” she said.

  “All right, then there’s no deal at all,” Stanley said, staring her down.

  So it hadn’t worked. Nora should have known it couldn’t be so simple. If only…

  “My lawyer said you might be difficult.” Stanley sighed.

  Nora perked up.

  “Davis is in the car,” Stanley said. “I’ll have Jonah bring him up. Get the papers ready. I don’t want him hanging around too much.”

  In minutes, Jonah was at the door, and Davis with him. Nora’s heart twisted as she saw his face. The poor man looked as though he’d not slept in days. Once more, Nora wondered how Jolene could be so callous. Davis needed people who cared for him, and the horrible cult he’d fallen into certainly didn’t.

  “Sit here, Davis. Nora will give you some papers to sign.” Stanley pointed to a chair, and Davis meekly sat down.

  “Now, the papers.” Stanley rolled up his sleeves.

  Nora and Mason looked at each other uncertainly. She had thought that perhaps once she was out of the ranch, Davis would start talking. However, he was sitting mute and miserable. Just the presence of Stanley was enough to inspire fear in him.

  Nora had very nearly given up on the thought of rescuing Davis, when the door burst open, and Harvey tumbled in. “Stanley! Stanley Staten! Just the man I wanted to see.”

  “Excuse me?” Stanley looked confused.

  “Here, look, you’ve done a deal or two with my partner Donovan, haven’t you? He helped you buy that ranch, didn’t he? Well I had a really nice parcel of land come in, and I wanted to talk to you about it.” Effortlessly, Harvey led Stanley outside, trying to propel him out of the room.

  “Hey! Let go of me, man, what are you, crazy?” Stanley tried to shake him off, but Harvey persevered, keeping a grip on Stanley’s shoulder.

  “Come on, it’s a fantastic deal, a deal of a lifetime.”

  “Let go of my—”

  Jonah, who had been watching, suddenly sprang between them, and punched Harvey square in the jaw. Harvey stumbled back, blinked, and sighed, “Now why did you have to do that? Then again, maybe I should thank you.”

  In the split second before he began throwing his own punches, Harvey looked at Nora, and then at a side door. There was almost a mad triumph in his eyes. Then, there was an all out brawl, and Stanley, Jonah and Harvey were a blur of flying ties and screams and punches.

  “Davis, quick!” Nora pushed him through the side door, into an anteroom attached to Mason’s office. Once inside, she locked the door, and leaned against it with a sigh.

  “What’s going on?” Davis looked bewildered.

  “I’m not sure myself,” Nora said. But she was. Harvey, like a madman, was creating a distraction so that she’d have time to talk to Davis alone.

  Davis looked out of the window. “A police car just pulled up. It’s the sheriff.” He sounded panicked.

  “Mason must have called him.”

  “We should go out there.” Davis was trembling. “Stanley—”

  “Stanley will be fine,” Nora said. “Forget about Stanley for a minute. Davis, how are you?”

  “Me?” Davis sounded as if nobody had asked him that question in a long time.

  “I told you once before, I’d do everything I could to help you out,” Nora said. “Here I am. Please, for your own sake, leave that cult. It’s what Raquel always wanted you to do.”

  At the mention of his daughter, Davis’ eyes filled with tears. “Stanley said Raquel never cared about me. She never even visited me.”

  “That’s not true!” Nora said. “She visited you on every one of your birthdays, Stanley just refused to let her meet you. She used to stand outside the gate for hours, hoping to see you.”

  Davis raised his head up, and looked at her. “That’s not true,” he said. “Is it?”

  “It is,” Nora said. “Of course it is. Your daughter thought the world of you, Davis.”

  “And all this time, I thought...” Davis shook his head. “No, no. That can’t be. Stanley wouldn’t lie to me. He’s our leader. Why would he lie?”

  “He isolates you from those who truly care about you, so that you stay with him,” Nora said. “But are you really happy anymore, Davis? Or are you just living that life because it’s all you know to do?”

  Davis trembled. “I’m too old to get a job. I have no money. I couldn’t survive if it weren’t for Stanley’s mercy.”

  “He didn’t even tell you about Raquel’s money, did he?” Nora sounded disgusted.

  “He told me Raquel left behind $500,” Davis said.

  Nora laughed, and shook her head. “Multiply that a hundred times. Raquel left you enough to keep you happy for the rest of your life, Davis.”

  “Did she really come to meet me?” Davis asked. “On my birthday? We hadn’t spoken in so long because she fought with Jolene and wouldn’t accept Stanley as her leader. I thought it was my duty to side with my wife… but maybe that was a mistake.”

  “There’s plenty of time for you to make it right,” Nora said. “For one, that black eye. Did you really walk into a door?”

  Davis shook his head.

  “How did you get it?”

  “I…” Davis trembled again.

  “What, Davis?”

  “I was outside, weeding the garden, and I saw someone… in the window.” Davis was trembling. “A man was talking to Stanley. I didn’t mean to overhear anything, but…”

  “But you did.”

  Davis nodded. “I asked Jonah later, what the man was doing in our ranch, whether he was a new member, and Jonah punched me, asked me never to repeat what I’d said.”

  “And the power of attorney?” Nora asked. “Did Stanley force you to sign it?”

  “He didn’t exactly force me.” Davis sighed. “I don’t know how to explain this to you, Nora. Stanley is a scary man.”

  “I know that,” Nora said. “I’m scared of him myself.”

  “He never forced me to sign it, but… Raquel had just died, and I was feeling empty inside, and Stanley came and talked and talked and talked. He kept telling me how I was useless and unfit and how I clearly needed to be taken care of. In the end… I just signed the paper so that he’d stop talking.”

  “You’re not useless and unfit!” Nora said indignantly. “Davis, you’re a young man! You’re maybe a few years older than Mason, if that.”

  “Actually, I’m a year younger than him,” Davis said, giving her a rueful smile. “But look at me…” He shook his head. “I made so many mistakes in life.”

  “Then start undoing them,” Nora said. “Think of this as a chance to start over. There’s nothing keeping you back here. That is, unless… Jolene…”

  “Jolene.” Davis sighed. “I don’t thi
nk she loves me. I don’t think she loves anybody but Stanley, and maybe the drugs he gives her. He gives me things too, things that calm me down.”

  Nora was horrified, but didn’t show it. So that was how Stanley kept a grip on his followers. “What do you want to do, Davis?”

  “Truthfully?” Davis sighed. “If I could, I’d like to run far away. Far away from Stanley and his cult and my soon to be ex wife. I think it’s the only way I’ll ever be able to build a new life.”

  “Maybe it’s the right thing to do, then,” Nora said.

  “I have a brother in Florida,” Davis said. “But I don’t know… I don’t know if he’ll want me near him. It’s been so long since we talked.”

  “For now, you’re welcome to stay with me,” Nora said.

  *****

  Chapter 30

  Davis’ Regrets

  Triumphant, exulting in having successfully extracted Davis from Stanley’s grip, Nora opened the door and ventured out into Mason’s office. Mason was sitting on the desk with a hand massaging his forehead.

  His office was in shambles.

  Books had been pulled from the shelves, the rug was askew, and an entire sofa lay on its back.

  “What… what happened?” Nora asked.

  “Your boyfriend is a rather enthusiastic fighter,” Mason said. “You should have seen the trouncing he gave Stanley and Jonah.”

  A big smile spread over Nora’s face, only to be replaced in seconds by a worried frown. “Where are they all, now?”

  “Where would they be? Sean hauled them all off to jail. He looked mighty displeased, too.”

  Nora fidgeted, feeling guilty. “I suppose I better head down there.”

  *****

  Sean was at his desk, his hand massaging his forehead rather like Mason had been, when Davis and Nora burst into his office. After a few confused minutes, Sean swung into action. He led Davis away into a side room, and began to gently question him about all the activities in the cult’s compound.

  Nora, meanwhile, went to the holding cell to see a pleased looking Harvey sitting with his sleeves rolled up and a little blood trickling down the side of his lip.

  “Nora.” He jumped up when she entered.

  “You have five minutes,” the deputy warned, as he locked her inside with Harvey.

  “Harvey you complete… idiot.” Nora shook her head. “What on earth?”

  “I could tell Davis wouldn’t talk unless you had a chance to be alone.” Harvey shrugged. “I improvised.”

  “You gave Sean an excuse to lock you up, that’s what you did!” Nora exclaimed.

  “Oh, he would have done it sooner or later. I just gave him an early Christmas present.” Harvey grinned. “Don’t worry. It’s just a skirmish. My lawyer will have me out of here soon. Jonah threw the first punch, after all. I was lucky, that way. If he decides to sue me, I’ll be fine.”

  “He’s not going to sue anyone,” Nora said. Briefly, she told him everything Davis had told her, and ended with, “I’ve got a feeling that Sean is going to conduct a raid on that horrible ranch soon, and maybe Jonah and Stanley will have a lot to worry about other than you.”

  But Harvey’s eyes were shining. “Nora, this man Davis saw… did he tell you how he looked?”

  Nora shrugged. “Tall, blonde and slightly crooked.”

  “Yes!” Harvey pumped his fist in the air. “That’s Donovan. It’s got to be. That’s how he vanished into thin air. He was simply hiding out in Stanley’s ranch, because that’s the one place Santino’s men couldn’t enter.”

  “That’s great news for you, isn’t it?” Nora was delighted. “So now, your name will be cleared and Santino won’t come after you.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure.”

  Harvey and Nora turned around. Sean had entered the basement, his hat cocked to one side.

  “Sean. Don’t you have a raid you need to make?”

  “No need for it,” Sean said. “I sent my deputies by, and they’ve already got Donovan in custody. He’ll be here before long.”

  “So you can let me go now.” Harvey smiled.

  “Let you go? But you just got here.” Sean’s smile was thin, and harsh. “Donovan’s confessed to taking illegal money from Santino. Looks like your business is going to be ruined.”

  “I’m telling you, my business had nothing to do with it.”

  “Donovan is your business partner,” Sean said. “Unless you’ve got papers proving otherwise, as far as we’re concerned, you are both equally culpable.”

  “I can prove it,” Harvey said. “Raquel was helping me. She took care of our finances, and a month ago, she’d pointed out some irregularities.”

  “Did you kill her soon after?” Sean asked with a smile.

  Shaken, Harvey shouted, “I never touched her! Sean, why would I kill Raquel when she would have helped me prove my innocence?”

  “So you claim,” Sean said. “As far as I know, you’re making that up. I think that she was preparing a case against you, and you killed her.”

  “If you’ll just go through her laptop!” Harvey protested.

  “We did. She sent an email to the IRS about fraud.” Sean nodded. “But here’s the thing, Harvey, that USB drive is missing. It was probably in her purse, which was taken away when she was murdered. So how about you tell me where you buried it?”

  “I didn’t kill her!” Harvey exclaimed. “Maybe it wasn’t in the purse. Maybe it’s somewhere else. Have you checked her house thoroughly? Maybe she had a hiding place or something...”

  Sean laughed. “It’s nice to see you come unraveled this way, Harvey. Nice to see that cool guy demeanor finally come off. I always knew you were a scumbag, and pretty soon, I’m going to prove it. You’re in hot water now.”

  Harvey seemed to deflate. He pushed himself away from the bars, and stalked to the metal bunk bed at the end of the cell. “I want my lawyer,” he said. “I’m done talking to you.”

  Sean only laughed.

  Nora tried to put a hand on Harvey’s shoulders, but his head was bent, defeated.

  “I’m close to being ruined,” he said, his voice a whisper. “I don’t know what to do.”

  She didn’t know what to do either. “The truth will win, in the end,” she said. “It always does, doesn’t it?”

  “That’s cold comfort,” Harvey said. “But I’ll take it.”

  *****

  Chapter 31

  Back Home

  Nora was back where she started.

  Mrs. Mullally was preparing her a cup of cocoa, and Maynard was busy jumping around the house, as he greeted Davis.

  A sea change had come over Davis. He seemed a new man. It was as if the blinds had fallen from his eyes and he had finally seen Stanley for what he was.

  “All this time, I was so afraid,” Davis said, “But now, I feel like there’s a new energy coursing through me. All thanks to you, Nora. All thanks to Raquel too. I only wish I could have seen sense before, when she was still alive.”

  His eyes filled with tears, but he blinked them away. “I tell you, though, I’m going to live the rest of my life in a way that would have made her proud. I’m going to enjoy every second of it, and I’m never going to be sucked into believing lies or following false prophets.”

  “I’m very glad to hear that.” Nora smiled. But her heart wasn’t in it. Harvey’s stricken face was all she could see. They said that no good deed went unpunished, and it was certainly true for Harvey. He’d put himself at risk to save Davis, and in the process, he’d ended up paying a heavy price. If Donovan had never been found, Sean wouldn’t have had reason to hold him in that jail cell.

  As for Sean, Nora was sure she’d been right. He was so blinded by his hate for Harvey, or perhaps, he was so sure that he’d caught the right person, that he simply wouldn’t consider an alternative.

  The thing was, there was no viable alternative. Stanley did have a strong alibi. There was no denying it.

  As for Santino, No
ra remembered the conviction with which he’d denied killing Raquel.

  But who could it be?

  She shut her eyes, and went through all of the events since Raquel had been found dead. It was so confusing.

  Donovan, hiding from Santino, had decided to seek refuge with Stanley. Stanley had been trying to steal Raquel’s money. Donovan himself, had stolen Santino’s money. Harvey claimed that he had nothing to do with Santino, and that Raquel had proof.

  Only the proof had vanished.

  Where could she have kept it, if it wasn’t in her purse? Could it be…

  Nora brightened suddenly. She was such an idiot. The cave! She had to go look in the cave!

  Without saying a word, she jumped up and shot out of the house, grabbing her coat on the way out. She drove her car at a near breakneck speed, then, parking it on the side of the road, she ran through thick hedges and thin paths obscured by leaves and grass, until she’d finally reached the cave.

  Raquel’s cave. Her refuge.

  If ever she needed to hide something, this is where she would have hidden it.

  Nora turned on the flashlight she’d brought along, and shone it around her.

  The cave was large, about the size of a small room, with a ceiling that was twice as high. The ground was strewn with rocks, and small mushrooms grew in a damp patch at one end. On the walls were scratches, all made by Raquel, over the years that she’d been there. As Nora’s torch roved over them, she smiled at the bittersweet memories they evoked.

  Here was one with Nora’s name on it. Raquel + Nora = BFF. Here was another- short, succinct, but telling of Raquel’s broken heart: “Jeremy is a jerk”. Still, it was thanks to Jeremy that Raquel had found this cave, in a way. When he broke up with her, she channeled her energies into hikes, and on one such hike, found the cave.

  Refusing to let herself get distracted by memories, Nora searched fruitlessly for some sign, a place where she could have placed the USB.

  There were no markings on the ground that indicated she’d dug here recently. There were no rocks that looked as though they had been overturned. Nora spent close to two hours searching around…