A Body to Spare (The Odelia Grey Mysteries) (24 page)

My mother started crying, and then I heard something dripping. Looking down, I saw that my mother had lost control of her bladder. Urine was running from her chair onto the concrete.

“I’m so sorry, Odelia,” Mom said between quiet sobs. “I should have stayed put.”

“Is the old lady pissing herself?” Swayze asked with disgust.

“What do you expect?” Mom shot at him through her tears. “I’m old, and I asked to use the bathroom ages ago. I asked
twice
.” It was nice to know that even in the face of death and with wet drawers, Mom was still a pistol.

“Let’s move this along,” Lisa said with annoyance. “Call Elaine and tell her to meet you here.”

“I can’t call her,” I said. “I don’t know how.”

“Don’t play any dumber than you already are, Odelia,” Lisa said, her voice getting edgy. “I know Elaine gave you a burner phone so you could keep in touch.”

“I don’t have it,” I told her. I showed her my hand. “This is my personal cell phone. Swayze said to bring the phone. He didn’t say which one.” I wasn’t about to tell Lisa that the police had the burner.

“What about you?” she asked Greg.

“Elaine gave us only one,” he answered. “I brought my own cell with me.”

She turned back to me. “Where’s your purse?”

“In the van,” I said. “Swayze said to leave it there.”

Lisa rolled her eyes—not at me but at her cousin. “Go back out and get the phone,” she ordered him. “I can watch them.”

He backed away as if afraid she would shoot him in the back for his transgressions.

“And shut the damn door this time,” Lisa barked. “It’s getting cold out.”

Once at the door, Swayze made his way out and closed it behind him.

“When he gets back,” Lisa explained, “you will call Elaine and let her know where you are. Tell her Zach’s killer grabbed you, and you managed to sneak a call.” She aimed the gun at my mother. “Make it convincing or else.”

Mom shut her eyes tight. “Don’t do what she says, Odelia. She’s going to kill us all anyway.”

“Won’t she be looking for you to come here with her?” I asked Lisa.

Lisa shook her head and smiled. “She thinks I’m off running down a lead on Zach’s killer, like she told me to do.” She paused and listened. “What in the hell is taking that moron so long?”

“It’s probably at the bottom of my purse,” I offered. “It’s a big bag. Greg calls it my luggage.”

“Wheel on over to the door,” she said to Greg, “and tell the idiot to just bring the whole bag in.”

Greg didn’t move. Nor did he take his eyes off of Lisa for a second. He was still in his cobra stance. Hot, high tension was coming off of him like a cut electrical wire, but I wasn’t sure Lisa could feel it or noticed.

When Greg didn’t move, she said, “Never mind.” Keeping the gun on us, she sidestepped to the door. As she did, Greg gently nudged me, pushing me toward the nose end of the truck. I immediately understood what he meant. He wanted us to take cover behind the front of the truck. We were just inches from turning the corner, but I wasn’t sure we could all make it before Lisa noticed.

Bending down to Mom’s ear, I whispered, “Keep your mouth shut no matter what happens.” Slowly I wheeled Mom around the end of the bumper, getting her to cover first. She’d buttoned her lip as I had asked.

Lisa was at the door. When she looked back, Greg and I hadn’t moved, and the edge of Mom’s chair was barely noticeable. “Quit wasting time and bring in the whole damn purse,” Lisa yelled at the closed door.

I took the opportunity to edge closer toward the bumper myself. Not that it would do us any good once Lisa returned, but doing something was better than doing nothing. Maybe Greg had a plan to rush them, although I wasn’t sure what he could do against two pistols. Hand to hand, he could definitely hold his own.

Greg nudged me again toward cover. “Something’s wrong,” he whispered.

Then I understood what he meant. Swayze should have been back by now or at least he should have answered Lisa. Somebody outside might have grabbed Swayze and was now waiting for Lisa to show her face. I wasn’t sure who it would be, though. We hadn’t made the call to Elaine, and the police didn’t know where we were. But one thing was for certain: if there was a gun battle, it would come from the direction of the small door with the yellow outside light, and it could happen at any second.

I rounded the corner of the truck myself and saw Mom straining to see over the hood. Her neck was extended so much I thought her head might pop off. Gently I turned Mom and eased her, chair and all, down to the concrete. If I wasn’t afraid of the truck falling off its blocks, I would have shoved her under it for safety. She moaned and tried to protest. “Shh,” I said and turned her gently on her side so that the chair faced out, giving her at least some protection against flying bullets. Then I hunkered down next to her and poked my own head over the hood to see what was going on. Greg rolled himself behind the truck with us and kept watch.

Preoccupied with trying to decide what to do, Lisa had stopped paying attention to us just long enough for us to take cover. But now she was turned our way, gun aimed, and it was clear what she intended to do. We were now her hostages. Without knowing what was going on outside and what had happened with Swayze, Lisa was hedging her bets. If she needed a hostage, she had three. If she didn’t and Swayze was just delayed because he was taking a leak, what was the harm?

With the gun pointed at me, she waved me over. “Come here, Odelia. Make yourself useful.” When I hesitated, she aimed the gun at Greg. That changed everything. “I’ll shoot him, then your mother. Or you can come here like a good girl. Which will it be?”

I stood up and slowly started for her.

“Take me instead,” Greg said to Lisa.

“How gallant of you, Greg, but no,” Lisa told him, coming closer and keeping the gun on him. “Odelia would make a much better shield.” She waved her free hand at me. “Come on, Odelia. Get that fat ass of yours over here.”

Slowly, I made my way toward her. When I was within a couple feet of her, she indicated for me to walk toward the door. As soon as I got in front of her, she grabbed a fistfull of my hair and poked the gun into my back. Together we shuffled forward. I glanced over my shoulder at Greg. He was slowly wheeling out from behind the truck, anxiously watching, worry etched deep on his face. Lisa jerked my hair to straighten my head forward. I called out in pain.

When we got to the door, she called out again, “John, where are you?” There was no answer. “Whoever is out there,” she called from behind me at the door, “I have three hostages, and I won’t hesitate to put a bullet in all of them, with Odelia first in line.”

Putting me squarely in front of her, Lisa jerked my hair again like I was a disobedient horse she was riding. “Open the door,” she told me.

“What?” I asked. Mom wasn’t the only one who might experience a bladder issue. Who knew who or what was out there?

“I said, open the door,” she repeated. “Turn the knob, then give it a hard kick. It opens out.” She pressed the gun deeper into my back.

I reached out and slightly turned the knob, unlatching the door. Using my hair, Lisa guided me back a few steps. “Now,” she said in a low, demanding growl like a junkyard dog about to bite.

Balancing on my left leg, I shut my eyes tight, raised my right foot, and kicked the door open, expecting a spray of bullets to hit me full-on. Behind us I heard Greg scream, “
No
!
”

twenty-seven

Silence. No hail of
gunfire. No yelling or shouting, just silence. Lisa still had a grip on my hair and was walking backward, pulling me along with her. I opened my eyes and scooted back, trying to backpedal faster than she was ripping out my hair.

The first thing to come through the door was a surprise. It wasn’t the end of a gun, it was a person—Nathan Glick. He was in a dirty dress shirt and trousers, and his arms were secured behind him. His face was battered, and his lips were sealed with tape.

“Let Odelia go,” a familiar voice behind Glick called out. “She’s not a part of this.”

“Part of what?” Lisa said, not loosening her grip on my hair. She backed up as Elaine Powers stepped into the building using Glick as a shield and took several slow steps toward us.

“What’s going on?” The question came from my mother. “I can’t see a thing.” I was glad I’d put her on the ground. The last thing Mom needed was to see her only daughter used as a human shield in a gunfight. She’d already lost one child to violence.

“Shh, Grace,” Greg said. He wheeled forward, slowly coming closer. Lisa must have seen him out of the corner of her eye because she shifted us so that her back was against one of the workbenches and she could watch both Greg and Elaine on either side of her.

“I know you used Odelia to get me here to ambush me. John just told me everything about your plans,” Elaine said to Lisa, keeping her gun trained on Lisa from behind Glick. “You didn’t have to do that, Lisa. You could have come to me and said you wanted to go solo. I would have supported you. I’m tired and sick and getting out of the business.”

“Sick?” Lisa asked with surprise. My eyes shot open at the news too.

“Yes,” Elaine confirmed. “I have liver cancer, and it’s spread. According to the doctor, I only have a few months to live. That’s why I’ve been helping the girls who wanted to leave the crew start over. I would have done the same for you, if you’d asked.” Elaine took another step forward. “Let Odelia go, and I’ll turn all the business over to you now. You had to have known that I was grooming you for this.”

I felt the grip on my hair loosen and started to get hopeful. Then it tightened again.

“Where’s John?” Lisa asked. “Did you kill him?” The gun went from my back to the back of my head, and I thought I would faint.

“He’s outside,” Elaine answered, “and quite alive.”

“I don’t believe you,” Lisa said with a snarl.

“It’s true,” Elaine said calmly. “I promised Odelia here that I wouldn’t kill him.” Without taking her eyes off of Lisa, Elaine asked me, “Didn’t I, Odelia?”

I nodded and managed to squeak out a feeble yes.

“I would have walked right into your trap unprepared if not for my gal here,” Elaine told Lisa. “But when she told me the creepy guy at the press conference yelling her name was named John Swayze, I knew something was up.”

“There’s no way you could have connected John to me,” Lisa shouted at Elaine. “You didn’t know about him.”

“You know what your problem is, Lisa,” Elaine asked with a tired half-smirk, “and always has been? You underestimate people. You always think you’re the smartest one in the room, but you’re not.” Elaine paused, taking a deep breath while her comment hit its mark. “I always run background checks on the people who work for me—
and
their families. And I rerun them every so often. I knew that your parents raised your cousin and that his name was John Swayze, and I knew that John Swayze had moved to California a few years back. When Odelia mentioned his name, I knew you were up to something.” Elaine laughed, then winced. “You might not be the smartest person in this room, but you’re certainly smarter than your cousin.”

Again my hair was jerked, but at least the gun barrel wasn’t against my skull. From the corner of my eye, I saw Greg inching forward again. There was only a couple of yards separating all of us but it felt like miles, especially between Greg and me.

“So you did call Elaine and tell her you were coming here?” Lisa asked me. “You knew it was me on the phone? How?”

I nodded slowly. Snot was running from my nose down over my lips. I lifted a hand to wipe it away, but Lisa yanked my hair again. “Don’t even think about moving.”

Instead, I sniffed and said, “You called me dumber than a box of rocks. Only you call me that. And I knew Elaine would never take Mom.” I coughed. “But I never called Elaine. I don’t have the phone anymore. It’s not in my purse, like I said.”

“Then how did you know to come here, Elaine?” Lisa asked. “Even if you did know about John?”

“Call it a hunch,” Elaine answered. “That and I slipped a tracker into Odelia’s bag when I last saw her at her mother’s.”

“You what?” asked Greg, inching closer still.

“Oh, please,” Elaine said with a smirk. “I knew you two wouldn’t stay put, and I wanted to keep an eye on you. She has so much junk in that bag, I knew she wouldn’t notice it.” She steadied the gun. “Now come on, Lisa, let these good people go, and you and I can iron out our issues in private.”

“And what about him?” Lisa asked, indicating Glick. “You should have used John as a shield. I don’t care a damn about this loser. I’ll shoot through him to get to you.”

“I brought him here as evidence,” Elaine answered. With her free hand she ripped the tape off of Glick’s mouth. He let out a short shriek of pain. “Tell them what you told me,” she demanded of Glick. When he didn’t respond, Elaine belted the side of his head with the gun, as Swayze had done to Greg. He cried out again. “Tell them who kidnapped Zach Finch,” she demanded. “If Odelia and Greg are going to die, they at least should know the truth first.”

Through sore, torn lips, Glick said, “We kidnapped him. Zach was in on it.”

“Zach set up his own kidnapping?” I asked right before Lisa yanked my hair again. “Ow!”

Glick nodded. “He hated his father.” He spat on the ground, and I could see blood in the spittle. “We planned the whole thing. After the game, we dropped Zach at home. Then, later, Ben and I went back and picked him up. He only pretended to go into the house. ”

“What about Chris Cook?” Greg asked. “He told the police he saw Zach go into the house.”

Glick shook his head back and forth slowly. “Zach only acted like he was going in. We used Chris to set that up. He’s not that bright, so we didn’t trust him to be in on it.”

Greg rolled his wheelchair back and forth in a nervous gesture. “So you guys made the ransom call and, after the money was delivered, split it, then Zach took off?”

Glick nodded. “Pretty much, but Zach took most of the money because he needed to lay low and start over. But we did okay with our shares.”

“And you’ve known where Zach’s been all this time?”

Glick shook his head again. “Only during the first few years.”

“But why kill him now? And why kill Jean?” I asked.

“After a couple of years, Zach was spotted just outside Las Vegas.”

“So that sighting of Zach was real?” I asked.

“Yeah, he was living there.” Glick cleared his throat. “Then Zach’s mom died, and everything changed. I hadn’t been at Aztec very long when that happened. Jean met me one night and said she was leaving and meeting up with Zach. She did it without any notice to anyone but me, probably because of Zach.”

“Was Jean in on the kidnapping too?” Greg asked.

Glick nodded. “Yeah, from the beginning. Her plan was to work at Aztec after college, get some good experience in the international market, then leave for someplace else. I was surprised when she up and moved so quickly. She claimed it was because Zach was all she had now, and she wanted to be with him. She said he needed her. After she left, they both disappeared, and I never heard from them again.”

“So why did you hunt them down in California after all these years?” I asked Glick.

“I didn’t; Alec did. He told me he found out Jean was living in LA. I think he hired some PI to find her after he thought he saw her on TV one night. The PI not only found her but discovered that Zach was alive.”

“So you tried to hire me to take them out,” Elaine stated. “Instead you got her.” Elaine indicated Lisa. “Were you afraid the Finch kids would spill their guts to daddy and land you in jail?”

“I didn’t hire the hit,” Glick quickly said. “I mean, I made the connection and paid the money, but the hit was made on Alec’s orders.”

My mouth fell open. “Do you expect us to believe that?”

“It’s true,” Glick said quickly. “I swear. I didn’t think either would go to the cops about what we did. After all, both Jean and Zach would be in as much trouble as I would, but when Alec found out both of his kids were living in LA and figured out that it was Zach who had scammed him, he went berserk.”

“He never knew you were in on it?” Greg asked.

Another shake of the head from Glick. “No. With Zach gone, Alec approached me and offered to help me out with school and groom me for a place at Aztec, like he would have done for Zach. He may not have been a great father, but Alec really missed Zach. I had the money from the kidnapping but knew that wouldn’t last forever, not with college and everything. Alec offered me a great opportunity and future. I didn’t want it to go away, so when he said his kids had betrayed him and he wanted them taken out, I made the call to have it done.”

“What about Jean?” asked Lisa. “You killed her when I refused, didn’t you?”

He nodded. “I snuck into her building and surprised her after you two left.” He indicated Greg and me before sniffing back snot. “I didn’t mean to kill her, but we started arguing. I told her she needed to leave and disappear again, that Alec knew where she was and wanted her dead, but she refused. She said she was going to stick around to see her father hanged for what he’d done.”

“So she didn’t know you were the one who actually contracted for the killing?” I asked.

“No, I told Jean I only knew about it because I overheard Alec make the call.” He looked from me to Greg and even at Lisa, looking for understanding. He found none. “I begged her to get somewhere safe, and that’s when she dropped a bomb. She said her mother didn’t commit suicide, but that Alec had killed her and set it up as suicide. That’s why she left so suddenly, because she knew he might come after her too.”

“And he did,” I said.

“Yeah, now it made sense why Alec was so hell-bent on getting rid of both Zach and Jean.” He took a deep breath. “And I also knew that if Jean went to the police about Alec, the truth would come out about my involvement in both the kidnapping and Zach’s death, and I’d go to prison.” He let out a wet sob. “So I knocked her unconscious, threw her off the balcony, and slipped out the back service gate during all the hysteria.”

When Glick was done, a silence fell over the building broken only by the sound of heavy rain hitting the roof high above us. When it had started raining hard was anyone’s guess. We’d been too wrapped up in Glick’s confession to pay attention.

“Very pretty story,” Lisa said. “Are you done?”

Glick, contrite and miserable, nodded. Before his chin came down a second time, a shot rang out from just behind me, and through my heart-stopping fright I saw Glick go limp and fall to the floor.