Death Vetoes The Chairman (Lizzie Crenshaw Mysteries Book 7) (31 page)

Hopkins looked at T.J. and Owen. “We believe that someone has leaked Ethan’s location to certain people who would like to see him dead,” T.J. replied. “We don’t know that for sure, but after what happened last night, we have to go on the assumption that it’s true.”

“A leak? From what agency? Us or them?” Dillard asked, glancing at Owen.

“I resent the implication,” Owen said indignantly as he stood up.

“Well, it certainly didn’t come from the FBI,” Dillard snapped, standing toe to toe with Owen. He pointed at me. “And what she’s doing here? Since when we allow civilians to sit on operational meetings?”

“She has an interest in seeing this situation come to an end,” Owen said.

“Is that so? In what way?”

“That information is part of a different, ongoing investigation,” Hopkins replied, “and not relevant to the current situation.” Not entirely true, but that wasn’t any of Dillard’s business.

“In that case,” Dillard said, yanking me out of my chair and pulling me toward the door, “you need to leave.”

I jerked my arm away from him. “You don’t get to tell me what to do, Mr. Dillard. I’m staying, and the reason I’m staying is because
you
couldn’t do your job last night, which was to protect your witness. He ended up under lock and key at my house.”

“Who authorized that stupid idea?”

“Hopkins asked me, and I reluctantly agreed. If I were you, I’d be more concerned about keeping my job.”

“All right, that’s enough!” T.J. said. “She’s here, and she’s staying here because we need her help to carry out our plan. Now, if you can’t handle that, Dillard, I’m sure that Hopkins can find you a new assignment.”

“I think Juneau, Alaska has a new opening,” Hopkins added.

“Whatever,” Dillard said. He sat down in his chair and crossed his arms across his chest.

“What we want to do,” Hopkins began, “is use both Ethan and Ms. Crenshaw as bait. One of them obviously will be a decoy. We’ve received information that Edward Winthrop could be behind the attack at the safe house.”

“If the intended target last night was Ethan, then why use her?”

“Because she’s also been a target of Edward’s, and he’s been asking around town about her today,” T.J. replied. “And he’s not the only one. There’s also a couple of women possibly involved as well. Several people told us that a woman was asking about her today.”

“We think that they believe wherever she is, Ethan will be close by,” Hopkins said.

“Is she the new love of his life?” Dillard said. “I thought he preferred blondes.”

“He prefers anything that breathes,” I retorted.

“How do you know he prefers blondes?” T.J. asked suspiciously. “I thought you just got into town not long ago.”

“I did spend time with him at the safe house. He likes to brag about his conquests.” Dillard looked me up and down. “She is definitely not his type.”

For the second day in a row, I was rubbing my knuckles, and Owen was helping another guy up off the ground. “Would you stop doing that?” T.J. said. “You’re going to break your hand.”

“Dillard, I think you need to go back to Dallas,” Hopkins said.

“I’ll be fine,” he replied. “She didn’t hurt me. She hits like a girl.”

“I know for a fact she doesn’t hit like a girl,” Owen laughed. “And you’re not fine. You’ve got blood running down the side of your mouth.”

Dillard wiped it away with his finger. “Let’s get on with it,” he muttered. “Where is this set up going to happen?”

“I didn’t suggest that you leave to get treatment, Brice,” Hopkins said. “You’re intentionally being antagonistic toward Ms. Crenshaw. Granted, she isn’t always the easiest person to get along with, but we need her help to do this. If I have to choose someone to work with, I’d rather it was her than you. At least I know she’ll have my back if things get rough.”

“I see,” Dillard replied, glaring at me. “That is your prerogative, of course, as the senior agent. I will be filing a formal complaint.”

“Feel free to,” Hopkins told him, “but given what I know about your previous field assignments, it probably won’t get you very far. I take that back. It might get you that assignment in Juneau.”

Dillard angrily grabbed his jacket and stormed out, slamming the door behind him. “That is not a happy man,” Owen said.

“I’m sure I’m going to get an earful from my boss when this is all over,” Hopkins sighed. “But I’m not going to worry about it right now. Okay, I’ve drawn up a plan, and this is how things are going to go tonight.”

For the next two hours, we went over the plan, trying to account for every contingency that might happen.

But apparently, we didn’t plan for a rat in the woodpile.

Chapter 40

“Hey, Ellen, let’s run that piece on the special election at the top of page one instead of the acquisition of land by that Fort Worth company,” I said. “Push it to the bottom of the same page.”

“I agree. Do you really think Roger Tinsley is going to win?” Ellen said, writing down the changes.

“Who knows?” I shrugged. “Better him that Gladys Norwell.”

“Lord help us if they elect her to the city council,” she said, shaking her head. “She’ll make our lives miserable.”

“How much worse can it get?”

“Let’s not find out. Anything else?”

“I don’t think so. We can make those changes in the morning. Go on home.”

“What about you?”

“I’ve got some research to do for an article I’m thinking about writing.”

“Sounds serious.”

“It is. I don’t want to get into too many details right now. I’d like to check my facts first, make a few calls.”

“You’re learning,” Ellen smiled. “When you first started here, I didn’t think you were going to be a very good journalist. Frankly, I didn’t think you were going to last the week.”

“That’s encouraging.”

“Sorry about that. But you always jumped every time Dale said hello. My first thought was ‘there is no way this little mouse of a girl is going to make a hard nosed reporter’.”

“It’s not like we get a lot of big news around here, you know.”

“Ever since you moved back home, our crime rate has gone through the roof. I’m getting calls from Dallas and Ft. Worth once a week just to find out what’s going on around here.”

“Not the way to put Brookdale on the map,” I pointed out. “No town wants to be known as the murder capital of the county or state.”

“That’s true.”

Ellen pulled open the right bottom drawer of her desk, took out her purse, and closed the drawer. “Well, Dale must have seen something in you,” she said, standing up. “He always had good instincts about people.”

“Ellen, I’ve always wanted to ask you this. You aren’t mad that Dale left me in charge, are you? I mean, you’ve been here longer, and certainly more experienced than I am…”

“Stop right there. I never wanted to run this place. I saw what it was doing to Dale. That man should have invested money in an antacid company! He went through two bottles a day sometimes. No, thank you. I didn’t want that happening to me.”

“I don’t like the taste of antacids.”

She laughed. “You better get used to them, or start drinking something stronger than Dr Pepper.”

“I hate Mountain Dew.”

“Well, I’ve got a hot date with my favorite TV program. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I locked the door behind her, and went back to my temporary desk. After our meeting had ended this afternoon, I went back to the café to let Maddie know my “plans” for the evening, which included picking up something for dinner before going home. We figured Edward and Barbara would go back there at some point today, asking for me again. Hopkins and Ethan were in my house, waiting for Edward, Barbara or whoever to show up. Frankly, I was hoping no one would, but I knew I wouldn’t get that lucky.

Someone knocked on the front door. For a brief moment, an image from an old movie flashed through my mind: the unsuspecting person answers a knock at the front door, and gets taken by surprise by the bad guy. Pulling out my phone, I quickly called T.J.

“Where are you?” he said when he answered.

“I’m still at the newspaper. Are you outside knocking on the door?”

“No, I’m near the top of your block as a lookout.”

“What about Owen?”

“He in that field behind your house. Can you tell who’s out there?”

“I haven’t gone to look yet.”

“Don’t go to the door. See if you can find something to use as a weapon. Lock yourself in your office. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything around the desk area to use for a weapon, and I really didn’t want to lock myself in my office. That was a totally different nightmare I didn’t want to deal with right now. My only option was the back door that led into the alley. I could go down that way, and cut over to the sheriff’s station.

Grabbing my bag, I worked my way toward the back, involuntarily flinching as I passed my closed office. I opened the door…and came face to face with the barrel of a .38. “Hello, Lizzie,” Sage Kingsley said.

I had to admit I didn’t see this one coming. “Sage, this is an unexpected surprise. What are you doing here?”

“Tying up a few loose ends,” she replied. “Back inside, please. I’d hate to use this out in the open.”

We went back inside, and Sage locked the back door behind us. “Was that you at the front door?”

“Nope.”

“Kassandra?”

“I’m not going to spoil the surprise. Why don’t you go find out?”

Sighing, I unlocked the front door to find Barbara Stephenson standing there. “About damn time,” she told Sage. “She made a phone call while I was pounding on the door, probably to that boyfriend cop of hers. We need to get out of here.”

“And go where?” Sage replied. “Cops are crawling all over her house.”

“Then we’ll go to Jake’s house,” Barbara said. “They won’t expect that, especially after last night.”

“You mean it was you two that tried to kill Ethan last night?”

“Not us personally, but we know who it was,” Barbara said. “Too bad he failed.”

“I guess Brice Dillard didn’t follow his instructions too well,” I said.

“Never can depend on a man to do what he’s told,” Sage said bitterly. “Moron.”

“So what’s the plan tonight?”

“Someone is going to call in a false alarm, which will draw the cops away from your place. Then you’re going to call that agent who is in the house with Ethan, and convince him to come over to Jake’s place. We’ll handle the rest from there,” Barbara replied.

“And you really think they’re going to fall for all this?”

“Small town cops, honey,” Barbara said, “can’t afford to ignore cries for help or security alarms. It makes them look bad and keeps them from being re-elected. No sheriff is going to risk losing their job. Where are your car keys?”

“In my bag.”

“Well, get them out. You’re driving.”

“Why?” I said. “Can’t you drive and hold a gun at the same time?”

Sage smacked me on the back of the head with the butt of her gun. “Don’t get smart. I don’t want to kill you yet.”

Wasn’t that a warm, comforting thought?

Barbara shoved me toward the front door. “Turn on the lights in that back office and leave the door cracked. We’ll lock the front door. He’ll think she’s in there, and it will buy us a couple of minutes. I’ll meet you at her car in a minute.”

Sage and I got into my car while Barbara disappeared down the side of the building. “Where’s she going?”

“Don’t worry about her; I’d worry about yourself if I were you,” Sage replied, getting into the back seat behind me.

“What happened to the meek woman I met last week?”

“Pretty good act, wasn’t it? I’ve had lots of practice. When you play dumb, people are more inclined to say things around you they normally wouldn’t say. I learned a lot of interesting things that way. For instance, a certain dinner meeting with Edward Winthrop one night. It’s a shame Sims didn’t finish the job. I would be with my kids in Florida right now.”

“Gee, I’ll try harder to die next time.”

“Oh, you won’t have to try next time. I’ll make sure of it this time. It takes a woman to do the job right, doesn’t it?”

Barbara got into the front passenger seat. “Let’s go.”

I drove to the end of the street and turned right. Glancing down the alley, I noticed flames coming from a dumpster, and I slammed on the brakes. “Did you start a fire?”

“Just a small one,” she said. “It shouldn’t go any further than the bin. It will be just enough to keep the cops and the fire department busy.”

“You don’t know that for sure,” I said angrily. “People’s lives are tied up in those businesses back there. I’m one of them.”

“Oh, get off it,” Sage scoffed. “I know for a fact you’re loaded. If it burns down, you can afford to rebuild.”

“But other people can’t!”

Barbara shoved her gun against my right side. “I’d worry about bleeding to death before the night is over, not your precious paper burning down. Now drive over to Jake’s house.”

I started to slow down as I came to the corner of Elm and Main. I noticed T.J.’s truck sitting at the stop sign to my left. Making a snap decision, I floored it and ran the sign, hoping he would see us. “What are you doing?” Sage said. “Didn’t we tell you not to do anything stupid?”

“I figured you didn’t want to be anywhere near the area when the sirens went off, so I thought I’d better hurry.”

“Good idea, but don’t do anything else stupid, got it?” Barbara told me.

I didn’t say anything, just kept driving. I looked in my side mirror, and noticed T.J. had turned off his lights and was following me at a safe distance. I just prayed he knew where I was going.

Ten minutes later, I parked in front of Jake’s house. “This place looks like a dump,” Sage said as we got out. “He lives here?”

“He bought the place from my former boss,” I told them. “He likes the simplicity.”

“And yet, he still drives that flashy car of his,” Barbara said, shaking her head. “I think you’ve warped his mind with all this small town living.”

“He came from a small town, Barbara,” I said, unlocking the front door. “Or have you forgotten that?”

“I’ve been trying to forget it for years,” she snapped.

I turned on a couple of lamps as we went inside. “Can I get you something to eat or drink?”

“What is this, Texas hospitality?” Sage said, flopping down on the couch.

“It’s the way I was raised. Forget I asked,” I replied, heading toward the kitchen.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Barbara said.

“You two might not be hungry or thirsty, but I am. If you’re worried about me running out the back door, come with me.” I shook my head. “Paranoid much?”

“Stop worrying about your stomach and call that agent,” she told me. “We’re booked on the midnight flight out of here.”

“Really?” I opened the fridge and grabbed some water. “You’re expecting everything to go according to plan then, I take it?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t it?” She reached over and grabbed the water from me.

“Please, help yourself.” I took another bottle out. “Just what exactly is your plan once they get over here?”

“Well, we’ll shoot you and the agent, then we’ll make it look like Ethan killed the two of you, and then himself.”

I took a drink of water. “Not the most original plan I’ve ever heard, but effective, I suppose.”

“I’m so glad you approve,” Barbara said sarcastically.

“What about Edward?”

“What about him?”

“Well, surely you have something in mind for him,” I said. “Surely you haven’t been waiting to get revenge on just Ethan. I mean, all these years, Edward’s been covering for him.”

Barbara looked at her watch. “Well, right about now, Kassandra and Edward should be nice and cozy in a hotel room in Dallas. They’re having a nice dinner with some brandy. Soon, he’ll start complaining of chest pains, and then…”

“Then?”

“He’ll be dead before the paramedics can get there to save his life.”

“You wish,” a male voice said. We turned around to find Edward standing there pointing Sage’s gun at us. “You are such a fool, Marie.”

“It’s Barbara now.”

“Marie, Barbara, who cares?” he said. “Drop your gun, please.”

“Where’s Sage?”

“She’s a bit tied up at the moment.”

“And Kassandra?”

“On her way to the morgue. Must have been something she drank.”

Was it just me, or was this the most cold-blooded, callous group of people on the face of the Earth? “Edward, nice to see you.”

“Ms. Crenshaw, I didn’t really expect to see you again at all. But once I found out what these three and Dillard were up to, well, I just had to change their plans up a bit.”

“I appreciate you coming to my rescue.”

He laughed. “My dear girl, whatever gave you that idea?”

My heart sank. “Well, if you aren’t here to save me, then what are you here for?”

“Well, I do have to agree with part of her plan. You’re going to call Hopkins and get him to bring Ethan over here.”

“And after that?”

“We’ll play it by ear.”

I didn’t believe him for a minute. “I see. And you’re very sure I’m going to go along with this because why?”

“Because if you don’t, I’ll go back out there and shoot Sage. You wouldn’t want her children to be motherless, now would you?”

“Wow, emotional blackmail. Why am I not surprised?” I took my phone out of my bag and called Hopkins. “It’s Lizzie.”