Killer Love (14 page)

“You betcha. She’s like a daughter to me. Clever little thing, too. Why, she can run a scam like nobody you ever saw.” Sal cackled and shook his head. “Bats those pretty eyes at a man and he doesn’t know which way’s up.”

Luke didn’t want to believe the old man, but his comments, combined with what they’d already learned about Jade DiMarco were starting to cast her in a bad light. The agency’s investigation had revealed Jade had an account in the Cayman Island’s with a balance of five million dollars. Jade had worked for Bryce’s accounting firm before they’d married. How could she be that involved in his finances and not know, at least a little, about his activities?

Was it possible that Jade had been more aware of Bryce’s crimes than she’d led them to believe? If that were true, then why had Bryce tried to kill her? Had she threatened to turn him in? Maybe Delia’s murder was further than she was willing to go. Who knew? But one thing Luke did know. The more he learned about innocent little Jade, the less innocent she seemed to be.

His gut twisted with the realization that he’d been duped. Maybe if he’d thought like a cop instead of a hard dick, he would’ve seen beyond her attributes and figured out she was hiding something. The mistake knifed at him.

“Do you have any idea where Bryce is right now?” Luke asked, although he knew it was useless to question the old guy. He obviously wasn’t in his right mind. But it was possible he had some valid information inside that feeble brain of his. And, he might be just crazy enough to tell Luke something he shouldn’t.

“Do you think I’d tell you if I did?” Sal snarled as if reading Luke’s mind. “You bastards’ll never find him. Him and Tracy have a plan. They always do.”

“Tracy?”

“His wife, dammit.” Sal picked up the photo. He ran his hands lovingly over the image of Bryce and Jade. His fingernails made a clicking noise as they traveled across the glass. “Yep, they’ve got it all worked out. But I’ll never tell you a thing. You can’t make me talk no matter how much you sons a bitches beat me.”

Luke shook his head. What the hell was he talking about now? Could it be that Tracy was the one he’d meant when he mentioned the scams? It seemed that he was confusing Bryce’s two wives. Did Jade know about Tracy? If she’d been to visit Sal she almost had to. The way he rambled on about Bryce’s first wife, he must have mentioned Tracy in front of Jade. DiMarco obviously wasn’t worried that Sal would reveal the information to Jade or he wouldn’t have brought her here to visit.

Maybe he hadn’t been worried because Jade had known about Tracy all along.

****

Jade arrived home from her jujitsu lesson just before dark. Cal had asked her to stay after class so he could show her a few specialized skills to fend off an attacker. He was still concerned about her abusive boyfriend. He didn’t bring up the ‘dim mak’ move again but she knew if she asked, he would be happy to show her the technique.

No thanks.
What he’d shown her tonight had been enough to freak her out a little. She couldn’t imagine actually
doing
any of those things to another human being.

Sure, she’d taken shooting lessons. She was learning how to kill with a weapon but this was different. To use Cal’s methods, she would have to be very close to her target. She shuddered. Could she really do that? If the time came did she have what it took to put the lessons to use and actually
kill
another person? If that person were Bryce, then yes, she thought she could do it. After everything he’d done, if it came down to his life or hers, she was pretty certain she could kill him.

As she walked by Ashley’s apartment on the way to hers, she heard a crash so loud it made her jump. Then she heard a man’s voice raised in anger. The words were muffled but the message was clear. Once again, Dennis was on a rampage.

She started to pass by, then she heard a noise like flesh hitting flesh. Hard. Followed by a woman’s cry. Then the shrill voice of a child and this time the words were clear.

“Leave her alone, shitball.” It was Jon. “Leave my momma alone!”

“Get out of here, you fuckin’ brat.” Dennis’ unmistakable bellow carried into the hallway. “Unless you want to be next.”

Jade cringed and her steps faltered. She thought about calling the police but discarded the idea. It wouldn’t be wise to bring attention to herself, not in a town this small, not while she was in hiding. No, this was something she should ignore or handle on her own. Hesitating for a moment, she sighed and rapped on the door. “Hey,” she shouted. “Open up.”

“Get the fuck away,” Dennis growled through the closed door.

Jade tried the knob and the door swung open. The sight that greeted her was like a scene from a nightmare. Or from her own past.

Ashley sat in the corner, holding her little brother in her arms, tears streaming down her face. Jon’s hair was matted to his head with sweat and his chubby cheeks were scarlet.

In the center of the room, Dennis held Deb by her hair, his fist raised, ready to strike. Blood streaked the woman’s face and ran in a fresh pool from her nose.

“Let her go!” Jade shouted as she rocketed into the room.

The man whirled toward her. “You’d better get the fuck out, bitch, if you know what’s good for you.”

Jade’s entire body shook and blood drummed through her ears. Enraged past the point of coherency, she advanced towards Dennis, her finger pointed at his chest.

“Let her go, you piece of shit.”

He released the woman and she slumped to the floor. He hadn’t done it because she told him to. He was simply shocked. Or maybe it was because she was next.

She soon found out it was the latter.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” He advanced toward her, swaying unsteadily, his fists balled at his sides.

Jade’s first instinct was to step back, but she didn’t want him to realize she was afraid of him. But she was. Petrified, in fact.

“Do you have any idea how despicable you are? Beating up on women and children.” She shook her head, her voice quivering with rage and fear. “Does it make you feel like a tough guy or like the pathetic weakling you are?”

As she spoke, he’d gotten closer. A look of incredulity came over his features. His face turned so red, she thought he might explode.

He reached for her with both arms outstretched. In his drunken fury, he was slightly off balance. She quickly ducked to the floor and shot a leg out, taking his feet out from under him. He crashed to the floor but didn’t stay down long. With a roar, he rose to his feet.

Behind him, Deb came to a sitting position. She watched as if she were a spectator, as if the tableau unfolding in front of her eyes had nothing to do with her. She didn’t seem inclined to help.

Dennis came at her again. His hand shot out and with bone jarring force, he backhanded her across the face. Her teeth slammed against the inside of her cheek and she tasted blood, just before agonizing pain pounded through her head. She heard one of the children scream, she wasn’t sure which. Maybe it was both of them. And then she went down.

She rose to her feet and Dennis was there, filling her vision. She wasn’t sure why she no longer felt fear, but she didn’t. Only a white-hot anger. And a desperate need to defeat this piece of shit.

He came toward her again, arms swinging wildly at his sides, a satisfied grin spread across his face. As soon as he came close enough, Jade reached up and grabbed his ears, twisting them as hard as she could. The grin disappeared quickly. He growled like a wounded bear and bent over, trying to break her hold. She brought her knee up into his solar plexus, hard and fast. She felt him grow heavy in her grip and when she released him, he once more went to the ground.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was amazed that the moves she’d learned from Cal had worked. But she knew it was temporary. Against a man Dennis’ size, and as angry as he was, her domination of him wouldn’t last long.

She glanced around quickly, looking for something to use as a weapon. Jon climbed from his sister’s lap and ran to Jade, handing her a baseball bat.

She took it from him and turned back toward her opponent. Dennis was still on the ground, hunched over on all fours, breathing like a bull.

From behind her, she felt Jon reach for the cell phone hooked to her jeans. Although reluctant to get the police involved, after all that had taken place, Jade knew she no longer had a choice. Jon called 911 from her cell phone while she kept an eye on Dennis. After a few moments, he seemed to recover and rose slowly to his feet.

She lifted the bat over her shoulder, ready to knock a homerun in the sonofabitch’s head. He hesitated, obviously having second thoughts about tangling with her
and
the baseball bat. He dropped his arms in defeat.

Flicking a glance back and forth between Dennis and the children, Jade saw Jon and Ashley run to their mother’s side and help her to one of the kitchen chairs. Ashley wet a washcloth and began cleaning the blood from Deb’s face.

The police and an ambulance arrived in less than five minutes. The EMT’s treated Deb’s injuries. She assured them she didn’t need to go to the hospital and they left.

One of the officers, an attractive black man with a nice smile, took all their names. Looking around the room, he said, “I’m not sure exactly who the victims are here. Would someone mind telling me what happened?”

Jade explained everything that had taken place, realizing for the first time that
she
could be the one in trouble. She was the only person here who wasn’t supposed to be.

The officer nodded. His partner, a tall, red-haired man, placed handcuffs on Dennis and read him his rights.

“What the hell?” Dennis sputtered. “She assaulted me in my own home.”

“Is she the one that beat up Ms. Strickland?” he asked, nodding toward Deb.

Dennis lips clamped shut and he glared at Jade. Deb stood to her feet.

“Wait. I don’t want to press charges, officer,” she said.

“Sorry, Miss, it’s out of your hands. Domestic violence is a crime punishable by law.” He gave a brief, satisfied grin. “With or without the assistance of the victim.”

“Ok, then,” Dennis shouted. “I want to press charges against her.” He nodded toward Jade.

The two officers looked at one another and chuckled. “I tell you what, partner,” the red-haired one said. “You file a report when we get downtown. How about that?”

“You motherfuckers.” Dennis jerked against his handcuffs as they led him out. When he passed Jade, he muttered under his breath. “I’ll get you, bitch. Just wait and see.”

Once they were gone, Jade went over to Deb. The woman’s lip was busted and a large red mound was starting to swell under her eye. “Are you okay?” Jade asked.

Deb shook her head. Tears streamed down her puffy cheeks. “Why did you do it? Why?”

“What do you mean?”

“You should have minded your own business. You’ve made things worse.”

“Worse? Worse than what he was doing to you?”

The woman smiled as if Jade were too simple to understand. “Yeah. Worse than that.”

Jade shrugged. Not sure what to say. “Well, at least he’s gone.”

“He’ll be back.” Deb said quietly. Her face seemed to age ten years in an instant. “They always come back.”

Chapter Nine

Luke walked into Supervisory Special Agent Madsen’s office and dropped into the chair across from his desk.

“We need to set up an interview with Jade DiMarco,” he told his superior.

“I’m glad you’re here, Agent Butler. I need to speak with you and since you’ve been running around like some modern day Lone Ranger, doing your own thing, it’s been kind of difficult to catch up with you.”

Luke shrugged. “I followed some leads. There wasn’t time to call in.” This wasn’t entirely true. There’d been time but Luke hadn’t wanted to wait for Wayne before going to see Tracy Lyons. Yeah, sure, that had ended badly. But he’d done what he felt he had to do.

“Yeah. Well you doing that, not following protocol, makes what I’m about to tell you a little easier.” Madsen leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers beneath his chin. “You’re off the case.”

“What the hell do you mean? Things are starting to break. I’ve got new information that might lead to DiMarco.” Luke had always gotten along with Madsen, although they’d had a few minor disagreements. Luke had a history of skating just on the edge of disciplinary action. Because of his success record, most of his faux pas had been overlooked. Apparently, this wasn’t to be one of those times.

“Your partner was killed. You know that should automatically cause you to be removed from the case. But before we could make that happen, you go off like a crazy man, breaking every rule in the book.”

Luke stood and began to pace. “Look, I understand where you’re coming from and normally, I’d agree with you.” Madsen snorted. Luke pretended not to notice. “I guarantee you, I’m fine over Agent Grimes’ death. I’m thinking with a clear head and I’m starting to get some leads that need to be followed up on. I need to interview Jade DiMarco. I think she may know more about her husband’s activities than we thought.”

“Why would you think that?”

“First of all, she worked for his accounting firm until they were married. How could she not know anything about his business? And, that five million dollar account in her name in the Cayman Islands. You know that’s got to be a cushion for him just in case he got into this kind of trouble. That way his loving wife could get her soft little hands on some quick cash.”

SSA Madsen shook his head. “We’ve been over this before. As far as her job in the accounting firm, she only dealt with legitimate accounts. The account in Cayman Islands, she’s never touched a penny of that money. We’ve kept an eye on it since we discovered it existed. Not one cent has been moved. Maybe she knows about it and maybe she doesn’t. Either way, it’s not a crime to have a lot of money.”

“Ok, how about this? I went to see Sal Giammati. He went on and on about how DiMarco’s wife wasn’t as innocent as she seemed. She used to run scams for them. She was on the visitor’s log. How could she be innocent if she associates with Sal Giammati?”