No One Left to Tell (67 page)

‘You’re okay? You’re both okay?’ Grayson demanded.

‘Knocked the breath out me.’ Paige ran to Lippman, who, although unconscious, also still breathed. She picked up both of his guns, put them in her pocket. ‘Peabody, release.’ The dog obeyed, sitting up, waiting for his next command. ‘Good dog. Very good dog.’

Grayson lifted Holly into his arms. ‘Are you hurt? Where are you hurt?’

‘Judy,’ she cried. ‘The lady has Judy. She’ll kill her. I tried to run. She’ll kill her.’

Grayson and Paige’s eyes met, stricken. ‘Which lady?’ Grayson demanded.

‘She said she was a policeman. She had a badge. She said you were hurt and we should come. Then she tied us up. Made Judy get in the trunk. Then the man came. He said they would kill Judy if I tried to run. She’s gonna kill her. It’s all my fault.’

Grayson’s heart stopped again. ‘Morton.’

‘Probably.’ Paige knelt beside Holly, caressed her face gently. ‘Honey, this is not your fault. It’s not. But there’s no one in the trunk of Judy’s car. We looked.’

Holly shook her head. ‘Not Judy’s car. A blue car. The policelady’s car. Over th—’

Another shot cracked the air, had them flattening to the ground once more. Grayson hovered, trying not to crush Holly. He turned his head, saw Paige’s irate glare.

‘Sonofabitch,’ she hissed. ‘What the hell?’

Grayson sat up, his fury intense. ‘Fuck. Goddamn fuck. Morton did it again.’

Lippman no longer breathed, a new bullet in his head. Grayson could hear someone running through the woods and he and Paige surged to their feet, ready to start to chase.

But the roar of an engine had them stopping, looking at the road where they’d parked the Escalade behind Judy’s abandoned car. A little black Mercedes appeared from the opposite direction. It paused by their parked vehicles and four more shots rang out before it took off in the direction they’d come.

Grayson looked over at Holly. ‘Did you say the police lady’s car was blue?’

She nodded unsteadily. ‘Blue. W-with white stripes.’

The black Mercedes must have belonged to Lippman then.

Paige had run up to the Escalade. ‘She shot out our tires,’ she called. ‘Two on our car and two on your mom’s.’

‘The Mercedes is Lippman’s car,’ he called back. ‘Morton left her car here.’ Hope sprang up in his chest. ‘Holly says my mother is in the trunk of Morton’s blue car.’

‘I’ll go look for it. You call for help.’

Grayson took out his cell, his hands shaking. He called 911, then Joseph. ‘I have Holly. My mother’s still missing. A black Mercedes coupé is headed your way. Stop the car. Detective Morton’s driving.’

‘The cop that shot Silas?’ Joseph asked.

‘Yeah. She was here, helping Stuart Lippman.’

‘The broker. You got him.’

‘Yeah, but Morton killed him, too. Do we have Violet?’

‘No.’

‘Dammit. Get here as soon as you can. I’m going to look for my mom.’ He hung up, then looked at Holly who was very pale. He made himself smile, made his voice positive. For Holly. ‘We’ll find my mom. She’s tougher than you think.’

Holly shuddered. ‘The police lady said she wouldn’t kill us. And then
he
came.’

‘I know.’ He carried her to where she couldn’t see Lippman’s body. ‘I’m going to leave you for just a few minutes, to look for my mom. I don’t have a knife to cut you free but Paige will.’ He looked over his shoulder. Paige was nowhere to be seen.

‘Grayson!’ The shout came from over the hill.
Paige
.

He stood, his knees going weak when he saw her coming through the trees. On her right was Peabody, guarding her. Leaning against her left was a tall woman with red hair, walking stiffly, waving wearily.

Grayson had never seen a more beautiful sight than the two of them. He ran to his mother and she grabbed him in a hard embrace that had him grunting in pain. If Lippman’s shot hadn’t cracked his ribs, his mother just had.

She’d started to cry, her body shaking. ‘You said it was over,’ she accused.

‘Actually I said there were loose ends,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’

‘She was in Morton’s trunk, just like you said, Holly,’ Paige said, kneeling next to Holly, sawing at her ropes with a wicked-looking folding blade. ‘I pried open the trunk with this knife.’

Holly nodded, still deathly pale. ‘That’s a really big knife, Paige.’

Paige folded it, handed it to her. ‘It’s yours. I’ll teach you how to use it.’

Holly’s nod was unsteady. ‘Okay. But I never want to have to use it. Ever.’

Paige hugged her closely. ‘That’s the plan, Holly. That’s always the plan.’

The cavalry had descended, Paige thought a few minutes later. Squad cars and ambulances. Cops in SWAT gear. And finally Hyatt himself. ‘Everyone unharmed?’

Judy sat on the ground, Holly in her arms. ‘Bumps and bruises,’ Judy said.

Grayson slid his arm around Paige, wincing. ‘Bruises all around.’

Hyatt looked down at Lippman. ‘Who shot him?’

‘The chest shots are mine,’ Grayson said.

‘Nice grouping,’ Hyatt said.

‘He shot me and Paige first.’ Grayson fingered the hole in his shirt, giving his mother an encouraging smile when she made a distressed noise.

‘He got me in the back,’ Paige said. ‘And it hurts like a damn bitch.’

Hyatt’s lips curved. ‘I know. But it hurts a whole lot more without the Kevlar.’

Paige rolled her shoulder. ‘Yeah, I know that too. Head shot was Morton’s.’

Hyatt’s smile disappeared. ‘I see. We have Detective Morton in custody. Mr Maynard and Mr Carter had apparently arrived at about the same time and parked their cars across the road. They held Detective Morton until we arrived. She had Dandridge’s daughter in the trunk of her car. The child is alive. Doped up, but alive. She appears unharmed.’

Paige’s shoulders slumped. ‘Thank God.’

‘The Mercedes was Lippman’s car,’ Grayson said. ‘Morton may not have known Violet was even there.’

‘But she’s still a bitch,’ Holly said stubbornly.

‘Indeed,’ Hyatt agreed. ‘Come with me, please. All of you. I’ll make sure you get medical attention for those bumps and bruises.’

He put them in the back seats of two cruisers, Paige, Peabody, and Grayson in one, Judy and Holly in the other. Peabody took up most of the seat so Paige found herself almost on Grayson’s lap. She leaned her head on his shoulder, let herself relax.

‘Nothing upstairs, huh?’ she asked teasingly. ‘I should be offended.’

He laughed softly. ‘I panicked. Picked the most outrageous lie I could think of.’

She leaned up, whispered in his ear. ‘So the great in the sack was a lie, too?’

‘That was true.’ He let out a pained breath. ‘My heart stopped when he shot you.’

‘Mine too’, she confessed. ‘It happened too fast for me and Peabody to stop him from shooting you.’

‘It’s okay. You saved Holly’s life. Thank you,’ he said fiercely.

They came to a bend in the road where the little black Mercedes was parked along with Joseph’s and Clay’s vehicles, three ambulances, and a half dozen cruisers.

The morgue rig hadn’t yet arrived. Paige was relieved that they needed only one.

‘Check them out,’ Hyatt told the medics when they’d piled out of the squad cars. ‘Make sure they’re okay.’ He turned to Grayson and Paige. ‘We found Mrs Shaffer.’

‘Adele?’ Grayson asked. ‘Where is she?’

‘In the hospital. A Dr Burke called the hotline after seeing her photo. She’d treated her for massive stab wounds as a Jane Doe this morning. The first responding officer reported the stabbing occurred just before nine. A witness saw a car driving away and discovered Mrs Shaffer in an alley near Patterson Park.’

‘Senator McCloud,’ Paige said grimly. ‘He’s hunted all the MAC women.’

‘He’ll be questioned,’ Hyatt said, ‘but he unfortunately has an airtight alibi. He gave the keynote address at a Rotary Club breakfast this morning.’

‘Lippman might have done it,’ Grayson mused, ‘but it would be close. He’d have been hard pressed to make it from Patterson Park to the airport, then fly to Toronto to kidnap Violet, even if he had a private plane. Adele hasn’t given a description?’

‘She hasn’t regained consciousness. We have an officer at her door, so that when whoever tried to kill her realizes they have failed, they will not be able to try again. Mr Smith, your home is no longer a crime scene. Your window is repaired. Once you have received medical attention, you may go home. We’ll take your statements tomorrow.’ Hyatt nodded formally, then strode to the squad car where Morton was being held.

Grayson skimmed his fingers over Paige’s back lightly, frowning when she flinched. ‘You need to be checked out by the medics.’

‘I’m fine,’ Paige insisted. ‘What I need is a long soak in a hot tub.’

‘Then that’s what you’ll have. Hopefully somebody can give us a ride.’ They walked to where the others stood, Joseph and Clay having joined Judy and Holly. ‘Joseph, Morton shot out your tires. We need a lift.’

‘I’ll drive you anywhere you want to go,’ Joseph said. He looked at Paige, his expression profoundly intense as he held his sister tight. ‘Holly told us what happened. That you threw yourself on top of her when Lippman fired. You saved her life. We won’t ever forget that.’

Judy wrapped her arms around Paige. ‘Thank you.’

Paige patted her back, embarrassed. ‘Grayson saved me. I had to even the score.’

‘So is it really over?’ Judy asked. ‘Please say yes.’

‘Not quite.’ Grayson said. ‘We still have some bad guys to round up. And importantly, I need to get Ramon’s conviction overturned. I’ll file first thing in the morning.’

‘After you sleep,’ Joseph said. ‘For now, let me take you two home.’

‘And Peabody?’ Paige asked.

‘He saved Holly too. If he growls at me forever, I won’t mind.’

Chapter Twenty-Five

Friday, April 8, 8.15
A.M
.

G
rayson woke with a soft warm woman looking up at him and wondered if it got much better than this. He’d had her once during the night, hard and fast and desperate. He wanted her again, but slow this time. He wanted to linger. Savor. ‘Good morning.’

She lay half on him, half off, her chin propped on his shoulder. ‘How’re you feeling?’

‘Sore, but I’ll live. How long have you been awake?’

‘For about an hour. I’ve been thinking.’

‘Oh no,’ he teased, then sobered when she didn’t smile. ‘About what?’

‘It’s going to be hard to prove the senator is guilty of sexual assault and murder, all these years later. He’ll have an alibi and it’ll be a good one. He can afford it.’

‘Possibly. But I’ve worked cold cases with Hyatt’s team before. Don’t give up yet.’

‘You’ll need motive for a murder charge and you’ll only have that if you can prove what he did to all those little girls. If Adele doesn’t live, you won’t even have a complainant. And even if she does file a complaint, it’s her word against his.’

‘The rape of a minor charges are going to be hard to prosecute,’ he admitted. ‘The evidence in the Crystal Jones murder is circumstantial at best. The murders of the other women even more so. But I won’t stop trying.’

‘I know.’ She kissed his jaw, sighed. ‘I started on something last night while you were picking up dinner. I’ve been working it in my mind this morning.’

He sat up and shoved a pillow behind his head. ‘All right. Let’s hear it.’

‘The MAC program ran for sixteen years. That’s a long time to get away with having a little girl go missing from the ice-cream a party for long enough to be molested, every year.’

‘You assume it happened every year.’

‘They’re all dead,’ she said.

‘True.’

‘We know the McClouds’ driver knew. He took the kids home. He probably took the victim home last. If the kids were being driven in groups, nobody would have known where all the others were at any given time. Plus, they were twelve. And Dianna McCloud simply had to have known. She chaperoned, every year.’

‘I find it easier to believe that she did know than that she didn’t.’

‘I worked a timeline based on all I’ve read on the McClouds,’ Paige said. ‘Dianna married the senator when Claire, Rex’s mother, was a little girl – nine or so. Claire moved out when she got married and had Rex. That was in 1984.’

‘The first year of the MAC program.’

‘It ended in ’99, the year Reba went to the Peace Corps in Cameroon.’

She left the statement to hang and he frowned down at her. ‘Surely you’re not suggesting Dianna brought the girls there . . . on purpose?’

‘Think about what Rex said his mother’s response was when he told her what he’d seen. Claire said it never happened. That if he told she’d say he was delusional and send him away. That’s an odd response, don’t you think? Unless she’d learned to deny that it had happened to her.’

‘I did wonder about that,’ Grayson admitted, ‘when Rex said his grandfather took the girls to his mother’s old bedroom, which he’d kept exactly the same as when Claire slept there. Pink, like a little girl’s dream.’

‘Exactly. So if we assume the senator molested one daughter, what was to stop him from molesting the other, when she was old enough, especially once the oldest moved out?’

‘That’s the usual pattern . . . So you’re saying to keep the senator from touching Reba, Dianna brings him other little girls? Like as a sacrifice?’

‘It’s possible,’ Paige said defensively.

‘It’s a lot of conjecture,’ he said gently. ‘It might have happened that way, but the McClouds are just as likely to claim we’re spinning tales from thin air.’

‘If we knew what the senator did, we could work the family against each other.’

‘It only works that way on TV,’ he said. ‘But there is one thing that bothers me.’

She lifted her head, brows arched. ‘Just one?’

He smiled briefly. ‘Brittany Jones. We never would have known about the MAC connection if she hadn’t given us that medallion.’

‘She wanted us to know. Maybe she wanted justice for Crystal?’

‘Then why not just tell us? Why give us the bankbooks? She made it clear that Crystal was a thief, looking to score. Why did Brittany call Lippman, who I assume is the one who paid Kapansky to blow us up?’