BREAKING STEELE (A Sarah Steele Thriller) (8 page)

The guard stood up and rubbed his jaw as he thought. “Hmm, you could try to talk to Heather Dade”

“Heather Dade?” I straightened up at the familiar name. She was the one who had filed the abuse claim on Hank Williams. “Who is she?Is she related?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. She stops by here every now and again. I feel bad for her. Lives over in the—” He suddenly looked around, as if realizing how much he’d told me. “G’luck,” he said quietly. He tipped his head to me. I got the hint and drove on.

The Williams family was larger than I’d thought. How much did they have to do with Hank, and were any of them following in his footsteps? I’d have to find out.

Chapter 20

WILLIAMS, INC. SPANNED OVER fifty acres of white buildings; they were so white that the nickname for the place was The White City. I had to go through one more guard booth and, after I parked, three more sets of security. I was directed to the top story office where Hannah Williams resided. It reminded me of the Evil Queen in her tower in Snow White, looking out over her kingdom.

“Miss Steele.” A tall woman with brown hair and a slim figure greeted me. I recognized her voice from the phone call.

“Yes?”

“Come this way. Miss Williams will see you now.”

I followed the secretary back to a tall, smooth, white door. She opened it and let me pass. The room beyond was huge, white, and blinding. Tall floor-to-ceiling windows were on one end and a simple glass desk sat in the middle of the near-empty room. Sitting behind the desk was a tall, blonde woman; she stood up and held out her hand.

“Miss Steele?”

“Miss Williams.” We shook hands. Her fingers were as soft as rose petals.

I sat in a high backed chair and tried to keep my hands from shaking. She had pure skin; big brown eyes; a lithe, athletic figure; and hair that fell in glistening curls around her shoulders. Her outfit was unique, a pencil skirt with an asymmetrical hem and a jacket with curious blue buttons. It fit her like a glove. It looked as if it had been made for her. After gauging her appearance, I had to concede, she really was the fairest in all the land.

“I want to start off by saying that I can in no way discuss my father’s case without my lawyers present.”

“I understand,” I said. Taking out a notepad I pretended to take a note. There had to be something in this glass house I could throw at her;something I could learn that would help me. I decided to shoot for the moon and make a fool of myself. People did not take fools as a threat, and might say more than usual. “We are not interested in him so much as his brother. Glen, is it?”

Hannah grinned but it was not a nice smile. “I am not sure where you got your information, but my father was an only child.He does not have a brother.”

I didn’t say anything, just waited. Staying perfectly still, I just looked at her with a clear expression. Most people can’t handle it. She couldn’t, and spoke again.

“So this visit has nothing to do with my father?”

“No, it has to do with Glen and you.”

“Me? What does any of this have to do with me?”

“Because no one can work as closely with someone as you have with your father and not recognize something is off.” I kept my voice steady. “Now I know you don’t want to testify against your parent, no child does.” Color rose in her cheeks at the word child. “But can you tell me anything about his lifestyle that will give us a stronger case?”

“No,” she said.

“Why are you keeping his secrets?” I prodded.

“I’m not keeping secrets,” she said, and the lie was evident in her voice.

“Then give me all the information on the employee who filed an abuse claim against him,” I said.

She broke my gaze, and picked up her pen. She doodled a figure eight on a note. My gaze shifted to the words on the note. I read it upside down. It looked like RuSat 11. It didn’t make any sense to me.

Hannah finally spoke. “I was betrayed. In the most personal of ways. Everything I knew about my father, about my life, about the world … is a lie.” She looked at me, her eyes sad. “There’s no recovery from something like this. My foundation is crumbling. When people look at me, they don’t see me. They see the spawn of a monster. So I’d like to get what normalcy I can back in my life.”

I nodded in understanding. I knew quite a bit about betrayal. And about parental units being criminals. But I couldn’t leave with nothing.

“So who is Heather Dade?”

Hannah stood up and said curtly. “This meeting is over.”

“Miss Williams, a good way to bring peace into your life is to help others along—”

“This meeting is over, Miss Steele!” Hannah pushed a button on her desk and a moment later two guards walked in and I stood. Guards? She must be more jumpy than she let on.

“Very well. If you change your mind, here’s my card.” I left one on the table. “Hope you find the normalcy you’re looking for.”

Chapter 21

ON MY WAY THROUGH the reception area, I stopped at the front desk. A young woman clicked away at a keyboard and looked up at me when I cleared my throat.

“Hello, I have to run some documents out to a—” I paused and looked at my notepad and pretended to read. “Heather Dade, I was told to get her address from you.”

The brown-eyed receptionist smiled and started typing again. I made sure to cover my visitor badge with my purse and waited. Without a word she wrote something on a sticky note and handed it to me.

Taking it, I thanked the woman and hurried out the front door.

Heather Dade

610 Mockingbird Lane

Eagle, ID 83713

It was a long shot but her name had come up too many times not to follow up, and Joshua ran into a dead end trying to find her.

I frowned as my mind reeled with questions. Taking out a pen and notebook, I jotted down a few of the questions right away before I forgot. There was only one thing on my mind now: find this person and see what she had to say about Hank Williams.

As I walked to my car, I rolled my neck from one way to the other and closed my eyes. The restless nights were getting to me. I was going to have to learn how to tame that nocturnal side, or I might break.

I typed in the address on the GPS in my phone. It was on the other side of town. I wanted Joshua with me on this one. We could combine our information on the way there.

And he had a face anyone would trust—those round cheeks and big brown eyes—most people were putty in his hands. No one suspected that he usually had multiple schemes and motivations behind each of his questions.

Chapter 22

WILLIAMS HAD MONEY, HE had power, and this afforded him the means to hire out. But like his father used to say, “If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.” Hunting was a solo job, it was a sport really—and one he enjoyed, but the mess, cleaning up and doing the dirty work, that’s what he paid others to do.

“You see, Marco, if you would’ve done your job, if you’d just once done what I told you to do, this would not be happening.” Marco squirmed, but Williams held him down with a knee in the chest.

“I’m sorry, you said fix it, so I did.” Blood trickled from his nose and his eyes darted to Williams and to the eight-inch knife Williams was holding.

“No, Marco, you didn’t fix it, you fixed nothing. If you fixed it then why is she still snooping around, hmm? Tell me, Marco, why is she still alive if you fixed it?”

In a way he was glad Marco misunderstood him. He needed this, needed to feel again, to see the fear. It fed him like a drug. He was addicted.

“No, boss, you said fix it, not fix them.” Williams hit Marco in the neck with the palm of his hand. Marco gagged and tried to get free, but Williams was a strong man.

“Don’t tell me what I said.You failed me and now I have to do it. I have to do your job, Marco. How do you think that makes me feel?”

Marco couldn’t speak. He spit out more blood and Williams pressed harder into his chest, feeling a rib snap. This felt almost as good as a good scotch …

“Marco, Marco, Marco …” He lowered his tone as if calming a child. “You made a mistake, it is okay.” Marco stopped struggling and looked up at Williams. A new hope filled his eyes. This was the best part, giving them hope, making them think that they might live.

“Just tell me, Marco, did you do your job? All I want is the truth and this will all be over, you will be free.Just tell me the truth.”

Marco was crying now and the sight filled Williams with glee. “No, I didn’t, I failed you.”

“Lie!” Williams screamed and thrust the blade into Marco’s side. “You weak little man, you did just what I told you and now you are lying to me?” Pulling the knife out, he stabbed him three more times, once in the left side and two in the right. Blood pooled out of Marco’s mouth and Williams stood to watch. His lungs would fill up and he would drown, it was not a fast way to die. Which made it one if his favorites.

“You should have told me the truth, Marco. Not let me push you around. But you were weak, and the weak deserve to suffer.”

Chapter 23

“SO WHAT ARE WE hoping to find out from Heather?” Joshua asked. He rolled down the window and set his arm on the sill to feel the breeze.

“I don’t know, just want to talk to her, see what we can find out. I want to see what happened that made her file that ambiguous abuse claim. And if it’s anything, maybe get her to testify about him.”

“So we are fishing?”

“Pretty much.”

“Got it.”

“Have we got anything back from the evidence in the barn yet?” I asked, needing something concrete to hope in.

“Nope, not yet,” he replied. “It is a long shot, not sure the judge will even let us use it.It has been in that barn a long time and it’ll look to the other side like it has been planted.”

“I know, I need it more for my own motivation then anything else, proof in my own head.”

The whole case from start to finish didn’t make sense. The more I thought about it the more messed up it seemed. From the paid jurors, my kidnapping scare, the forensic cokehead, the witness flaking out, the way Hank Williams was so calm through the trial, the flowers and threats, Hannah’s reticence, and it went on and on.

“What is going on in that head of yours?” Joshua broke into my thoughts and I snapped back to reality.

“Oh, just thinking about this case, the trial, and all of it.”

“Kind of messed up.”

“Yeah.”

Joshua looked out the window. “I think he is just a spoiled man who has a lot of money and has some guys on his payroll that do his dirty work. I think he gets off on it.”

“I agree. I just feel like I am missing something big, like he is playing this game and I only have half the rules.”

“I feel the opposite,” Joshua said. “I feel like we’re searching for rules that aren’t there. Does he seem like the kind of man who plays by rules to you?”

“No.” I sighed. “No, he doesn’t.”

Chapter 24

HEATHER DADE LIVED IN the not-so-expensive part of Eagle. The whole town had been remade down to the cobblestone streets, but the old Eagle still had trailers and older homes from when all the stoners lived there twenty years ago before the housing boom.

I parked behind a beat-up Nova and walked to the door of the single-wide trailer. I could smell something funky coming from inside, and when a skinny girl with dark rings around her eyes opened the door, the smell hit me in the face, almost taking my breath away.

“What do you want?” Her voice was gruff and it sounded like she just woke up. She eyed me suspiciously, but her gaze softened when she saw Joshua. He was like a big teddy bear.

“Heather?” I asked in my kindest voice. Joshua smiled tentatively.

“Who wants to know?Are you reporters?”

“No, I’m with the DA’s office. I need to ask you a few questions.”

“Not interested.” She started to shut the door but I held up my hand. I know it was a bluff, but I banked on the fact that most of her information on law enforcement came from CSI Miami.

“We can come back with a court order if you like, but then you will have to talk to me down at the courthouse.”

Two court order threats in one day. I was getting my money’s worth out of that one.

Heather stopped and looked at me through faded blue eyes. She was in her mid-twenties but looked forty. I was guessing meth.

“Fine, what do you want?” she asked, opening the door a smidge.

“Can we come in?”

She opened the door all the way and we walked into her trailer. I couldn’t believe the mess; beer cans, cigarette butts, rotting food, animal feces, and trash littered every surface. My stomach churned. How could someone live like this? She lit a joint and I was about to protest until I realized the scent helped, so I decided not to say anything.

“This is my associate, Joshua.” I motioned toward Joshua, who stood with a fake smile on his face. His eyes were watering and I had a feeling he was dealing with the smell a lot worse than I was.

“Sorry about the mess. I don’t get many visitors.” Heather cleared a spot on the flowered couch and I sat down. She slouched on the arm of the couch and peered over at me. She looked like a crow perched on the edge of a headstone.

“Heather, I first want to ask you about the abuse claim you filed against Hank Williams—”

“I never filed an abuse claim,” she mumbled and took another toke.

“There was one on file for ten days at Williams, Inc. From July 7
to the 17
. And then it was dismissed. It had your name on it.”

She tilted her head. “Don’t even remember.”

So this is the way it was going to go. She wasn’t going to sing so easily for me. Well, I could pull a song from just about anyone if you gave me enough time, bribed or not.

“Why’d you quit at Williams, Inc.?” Joshua asked. I stiffened. If he ruined this for me, so help me.

The question clearly agitated her. She flushed, and her hands trembled so hard the ash crumbled from her smoke.

She wasn’t going to answer. Joshua looked at me, and shifted uncomfortably. Taking out his handkerchief, he wiped the sweat from his brow.