Broken (14 page)

I crept
slowly down the hall toward the first bedroom. It turned out to be entirely empty,
without so much as carpet on the floor. One down, one to go.

The
second bedroom was similarly devoid of furniture and carpet, but when I saw
what was inside I was glad I’d thrown up earlier so I wouldn’t feel the need to
do so again. A girl of about ten was sitting in the middle of the floor. I
recognized Anna Davies from her photos. She was disheveled and dirty and I
could see tracks on her face from where she’d been crying. But when she looked
up at me her eyes were lifeless, much the way my own appeared to me whenever I
looked in the mirror.

Next to
Anna on the floor lay the body of her mother. Anna’s right wrist had been
handcuffed to Heather’s ankle, her mother’s dead weight keeping her from
escaping. Even if Anna managed to move while locked to her mother’s body, she
wouldn’t get very far as long as she had to drag it along with her.

Anna looked
down at her mother, then back at me, and I knew there was no way I was going to
leave her to call for help. I knelt down in front of her. “It’s all right,” I
whispered. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

I
fingered the handcuffs. They weren’t police grade; they looked like something
that might have been picked up in a sex shop or novelty store. I could probably
pop them open with a paperclip or a hairpin, if I could find one. I looked
around the room. I didn’t need much to work with. Was there anything here I
could use?

Anna
watched me without curiosity, then her eyes left me and focused on something
over my shoulder. I turned around and wasn’t entirely surprised to see Chandler
Emerson there, pointing a gun at me.

Chapter 21

Emerson
kept his gun leveled at my head as I stood up slowly, keeping my hands in view.
“Nevada James,” he hissed.

“You
sick fuck,” I said.

He
frowned, clearly having expected to hear something else out of me. “What?”

“You
left her in here with her mother’s dead body?” I asked. One of the Mexicans
entered the bedroom and stood just behind Emerson. He’d brought along the shotgun
I’d seen earlier. “Just
handcuffed
like this?”

“I…”
Emerson started.

“You
left her handcuffed to her mother’s dead body?” I took a step toward him. “What
in the
fuck
is wrong with you?”

“Stop
right there,” he said. I watched his gun hand, hoping to spot a tremor, but it
was as steady as a rock. Chandler Emerson wasn’t the small man I’d sized him up
as before. He
did
have the steel to pull this off. And more than that,
judging from what he’d done to Anna. It wasn’t the worst thing I’d ever seen,
but it certainly made the list.

“I can’t
help but notice you’re not in Switzerland.”

“No,” he
said. “I’m not.”

“And the
guys you were supposed to be taking with you?” I nodded at the shotgun-toting
Mexican. “These two?”

“No. Those
two had an unfortunate accident on the way to the airport.” His eyes burned as
he glared at me. “You really fouled this up for me, you stupid bitch.”

That kind
of language hardly seemed necessary. “So it was you all along,” I said.

“Quite
frankly? I’m surprised it took you this long to figure it out,” he said.

“Me,
too,” I admitted. “But then I’ve got a pretty serious drinking problem.”

“Pity I
wasted poor Todd on you,” he scoffed. “I’d been saving him for a rainy day, and
somehow I got it into my head that you might actually be a threat. If I’d
realized how hopeless you really were I’d never have bothered.”

“Why
kill Heather?” I asked. “Did she try to escape?”

Emerson
glanced back at the shotgun-toting Mexican, who managed to look just slightly
ashamed of himself. “She tried to fight,” the lawyer said. “But it was just
delaying the inevitable. They were always going to die.”

“But
why?” I asked. “Because you helped get them out of the condo? There were easier
ways you could have kidnapped them and they’d never have seen your face,” I said.
“Send this guy to grab them in a parking lot, or…”

Emerson
smirked at me condescendingly. I’d missed something.

“Oh,” I
said. “But you could never have spent the ransom as long as Davies was still
alive. ‘Where did you get that new Ferrari, Chandler?’ ‘Oh, I won the lottery.’
So he has to die, too.”

“Quite
right,” he said. His hand tightened on the gun. “Goodbye, Ms. James.”

“Who are
you framing for it?”

He
lowered the gun slightly. “What?”

“Who are
you setting Davies up against?
Los Zetas? La Familia
?”

“Why
would you possibly care about that?”

“I don’t
know,” I shrugged. “I just love mysteries so much.”

Emerson
lowered the gun to his side. It hardly mattered when his friend had a shotgun
in his hands. I wasn’t going to have a chance to rush him. “My god, you’re
drunk
right now
, aren’t you?”

“A
little,” I admitted. “Not nearly enough.”

Emerson
shared a disgusted glance with the Mexican, who rolled his eyes at me. Asshole.
“
Sinaloa
,” Emerson said.

I
nodded. “Makes sense.”

“Oh, I’m
so glad you approve.”

“Davies
doesn’t have the resources to fight the
Sinaloa
Cartel,” I said. “They’re
way out of his league. They’d get to him in…what, a day? Two?” I laughed. “My
god, it really would be the end of
Scarface
up there.”

“He’d
die in a blaze of glory,” Emerson said. “And I’d be on a plane to Fiji, with
nobody the wiser.”

I
snickered and Emerson scowled at me. “What? What did I miss?”

“It’s
not that,” I said. “You said, ‘the wiser.’ I haven’t heard anybody say that
since…” I thought about it. “I’ve never actually heard anyone say that.”

“Well,
I’m glad you got some amusement out of this before your death. Unfortunately,
little Anna is going to be stuck in here with two bodies now, but not for much
longer. She’ll be good for one more phone call, I think, and then this will all
be over.”

“You’re
an even bigger asshole than I thought you were,” I said. “And don’t get me
wrong, I thought you were a pretty serious asshole in the first place.”

He
raised the pistol. “And you’re a stupid dead bitch.”

“No,” I
said. “Bad idea.”

“Really?
And why is that?”

“Because
you’ve only got one murder on you now,” I said. “Heather. Those two other guys
that you killed, somehow I doubt they’re ever going to be found. You might get
charged with accessory for Todd’s death, but I doubt it’ll stick. So one
murder. You’ll get life for that. But you kill an ex-cop and a kid, the
prosecutor is going to ask for the death penalty, and he’ll get it. The jury
won’t even need to leave the room to deliberate.”

Emerson
rolled his eyes. “You seem to have forgotten the part where I’m on a plane to
Fiji.”

“You’ll
never make it to the airport,” I said. He frowned in confusion. “You mind?” I
pointed at my jacket, and when he nodded reached into it slowly. The Mexican
raised his shotgun at me. “Hey, hey!” I said. “Nice and slow. Don’t shoot.” I
took my cell phone out of my pocket and showed it to them.

Emerson’s
brow wrinkled. “So? Do you think I’m really going to stand here while you call
911?”

“You’re
kidding right?” I asked. “Do you really think I’d be stupid enough to walk in
here without calling the cops
first
?” I grinned. “I called SDPD the
minute I stepped onto your property.”

The
Mexican spun on his heel and darted out of the room. Emerson turned his head to
watch the other man leave. I heard raised voices shouting at each other in
Spanish, and then the front door banged open. They were gone.

“Yeah,”
I said. “That just happened. You might want to go with them.”

Emerson
looked back at me, eyes wide. His plan was falling apart right in front of him.
“They’ll be here any minute,” I said. “
Go
!”

He
raised the pistol. “Bitch!”

“Ah,
ah,” I said. “Death penalty. Is it really worth it just to kill me?”

Murder
in his eyes, Emerson turned and fled.

I waited
until I was sure he was gone, then allowed myself a sigh of relief. My cell phone
was still in my hand. Out of curiosity, I hit the power button. Somehow the
battery had held up and the phone switched on, but there was no service. I
hadn’t paid the bill in months. At some point Verizon had cut me off. Luckily
for me and Anna, Emerson had fallen for my bluff. That had just saved our
lives.

At some
point during his escape Emerson might well notice that police cars were not
racing toward his house. I didn’t know how long that might take, but I needed
to find a phone in case it did. Odds were he’d hooked up phone service here
when he’d had the power turned on. If not, I’d go to a neighbor.

I knelt
down in front of Anna. “I’ll be right back, okay?” I wanted to take her with
me, but I didn’t have a way to get the handcuffs off of her and I was afraid to
take the time to look. I’d find a way to do that after I’d called for help.

A single
tear rolled down the girl’s cheek. I sighed. This poor kid was going to be in
therapy for the rest of her life. If I’d had any social skills at all I’d have
been able to say something comforting, but what was there to say? “Sorry you’ve
been handcuffed here next to your mother’s corpse?” There was nothing I could
ever say that would make her feel better.

Except
maybe this. “I’m going to make a phone call, and then I’ll take you home,” I
told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Your dad is waiting for you.”

Chapter 22

I found a
phone in the living room and made the call. The Oceanside cops showed up five
minutes later. If Emerson had ever figured out I was bluffing, he didn’t show
up at the house to check. I doubted I’d ever see him again.

I’d lied
about taking Anna home. The cops got her out of the handcuffs, and then the
EMTs put her in an ambulance and drove her away. I had to stay behind to give a
statement to the cops. Then I got one of them to tell me where Anna was going,
and I got on my bike and went after them.

Anna was
in an examination room when I got to the hospital. I went to the nurse’s
station and told them I was her stepmother. One of the nurses told me my
husband was already in the room with her. I thanked her and took a seat in the
waiting area out front.

After a
time Alan Davies came out and spotted me. He crossed over to where I was
sitting. “I thought you’d be here,” he said.

“How is
she?”

“No
physical trauma,” Davies said, sitting down. “She’s dehydrated and they didn’t
give her much to eat. Tell me what happened.”

I told
him. He took it fairly well. At one point he got up and punched a vending
machine hard enough that it probably registered on the Richter scale, but I
hadn’t liked that vending machine much anyway.

“Find
Chandler for me,” he said, sitting down again.

“No,” I
said. “Find him yourself.”

“I’ll
pay you…”

“You’re
going to pay me anyway,” I said. “You got your daughter back.”

Davies
sighed. “Yes,” he said. “Yes, I did. Fine. I’ll find him myself. There is
nowhere he can run that I won’t find him.”

“That’s
secondary,” I said.

“What?”

“Your
priority right now needs to be your daughter.”

“I know
my daughter is a priority!”

“You
don’t understand,” I said. “You saw that look she was giving you before?”

He
frowned. “She didn’t look at me much at all.”

“You
don’t recognize it,” I said, “but I’ve been there and I know what’s happening
to her. She is going to need serious therapy. Starting tomorrow. I know someone
in San Diego who is good. If she doesn’t work with kids, she’ll know who does.”
I couldn’t remember if Molly was practicing at all anymore, but she’d be the
first person I called in the morning.

“Okay.”

“Eventually
she’s going to need to talk to you. You probably won’t like what she says.
Listen anyway.”

“I
will.”

“She’s
young. Kids are resilient. But what she’s been through, it was bad. You need to
understand this is a process, and it will probably be a long one.” I looked up
and saw someone I knew coming toward us. “And you better go back in her room right
now.”

Davies
looked up. Dan Evans was marching up the hall. He didn’t look like he was
coming to tell us a new joke he’d just heard.

“Go,” I
said.

Davies
got up and went back into Anna’s room, nodding once at Dan as he passed. Dan
didn’t nod back. He came to stand directly in front of me, hands at his sides.

“Hi,
boss,” I said.

“Hi.”

“What’s
up?”

“I had a
really interesting call from Oceanside PD,” he said. “They told me…”

“Not
now.”

“
What
?”

“I can’t
do this now. I just can’t, Dan. Can we talk about it later?” I looked up at
him. “Please?”

He hesitated.
“We
will
talk about it later. At length.”

“Fine,”
I said. “Sit down.”

He sat.
For a while we didn’t say anything. I really wanted him to hold my hand, but
there was no way I was ever going to reach out, and if he had tried I’d
probably have just pulled away.

For a
while we watched people go back and forth, into rooms and out of them, up and
down the halls. “Are you okay?” Dan asked finally.

“No,” I
said. “I’m really not.”