The Bodyguard (14 page)

Chapter Fourteen

“You don’t have to do this.” Luke paused in front of the Mustang and put his hand on Carol’s arm to stop her from going inside the law offices of Wiley & Harrison. “We can wait until Cornell gets all the papers cataloged and back at the station to look at them.”

She glanced down at his hand on her arm and arched her brow.

He sighed and dropped his hand.

Without a word, she went with Cornell into the law office.

Luke didn’t bother to follow. The place was buzzing with cops, so she was safe, and Carol didn’t want him with her anyway. He leaned back against the Mustang and stretched his legs out in front of him to wait.

“Aren’t you supposed to be guarding someone?” Alex stepped around the end of the car and leaned back against it beside him.

“I’m not her favorite person right now. She hasn’t fired me yet, but it’s probably only a matter of time.”

“The video card?”

“Congratulations. You’re a genius.”

Alex laughed and handed an envelope to him, the same one Luke had left for him hidden in the car yesterday.

Luke shoved it in his shirt pocket.

“You do realize that video card ate up the last of any favors I’d be inclined to do for you, right?” Alex said.

“Yeah, I figured. Guess I should have warned you. But I was afraid you wouldn’t do it if I told you.”

“You tricked me.”

“Yeah. I did. But only because I trust you. I knew if you were the one to review the video, nothing would leak to the press or the internet. That would destroy Carol.”

Alex was silent for a moment, then he gave him a crisp nod. Apparently Luke was forgiven.

“Speaking of your client, why is she inside? Isn’t that where they found Leslie Harrison?”

“The coroner already removed the body. There are papers all over her office that have to do with Ashton Enterprises, so Cornell asked Carol to take a look and see if she saw anything unusual. My turn to ask you a question. What are you doing here? And how did you even know about Leslie’s murder? It only happened a couple of hours ago.”

Alex smiled in greeting to a couple of police officers he knew as the cops walked around the Mustang and headed inside the building. “Cornell called me. He gave me a briefing of what happened and asked me to meet him here so we could discuss my client.”

“Carol?”

“No. Grant.”

Luke waited, but Alex didn’t seem inclined to say anything else. “Come on. What gives?”

Alex sighed. “Grant posted bail this morning.”

Luke’s gaze flicked to the law office. “What
time
did he post bail?”

“Three hours ago.”

“That’s what Cornell wants to talk to you about. He thinks Grant killed Leslie.”

“I’m sure that’s how Cornell sees it. Grant did go on and on complaining about his brother’s will, accusing the lawyer of filing the wrong one. That’s public record, by the way, not a client confidence. Grant screamed about the will back at the police station to anyone who would listen.”

Luke swore. “He’s obviously the killer.”

“Innocent until proven guilty.”

“You really believe Grant’s innocent?”

Alex’s lips compressed into a hard line but he didn’t answer.

“Screw this.” Luke shoved away from the car.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting
our
client out of here before
your
client figures out where she is and tries to kill her, too.”

* * *

L
UKE
GLARED
AT
the police officer blocking his way into the lobby of Wiley & Harrison. “I’m telling you, I’m a bodyguard and my client is inside. I need to see her.”

“And I’m telling you, sir, that this is a crime scene and no one goes inside without a badge.”

Luke’s fingers twitched at his side. He had to remind himself that getting arrested wouldn’t help Carol. He resisted the urge to shove the scrawny cop out of his way, just barely.

“You need to leave, sir. You’re blocking the doorway.”

Luke ignored him and looked over the top of the cop’s head. Cornell stood with a group of officers around a young, distraught-looking woman who was dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.

“Cornell,” Luke called out. “Call off your Chihuahua and let me inside.”

The detective glanced over and rolled his eyes. “Let him in.” He waved Luke forward.

The officer grudgingly stepped out of Luke’s way.

Luke made a straight line toward Cornell, glancing around the room as he did so, but there was no sign of Carol.

“What’s so important you had to bust in here?” Cornell demanded when Luke stopped beside him.

“You didn’t tell me Grant Ashton was out of jail when you called this morning.”

“I didn’t
know
he was out of jail when I called. I found that out on the way here. You might as well wait outside until Mrs. Ashton is finished inventorying the office. There’s nothing you can do in here.”

“Where is she?”

Cornell jerked his hand over his shoulder. “The middle door on that back wall, Leslie Harrison’s office. If you have to go inside, go, but don’t touch anything. You know the drill.”

Luke frowned. “Why is the door shut?”

Cornell turned around. His brows drew down. “It wasn’t shut earlier. Maybe we were too noisy out here for her.”

They both headed toward the door.

Luke grabbed the knob, but it didn’t turn. “Why is the door locked?” He banged on the wood. “Carol, open the door. It’s Luke.”

Cornell motioned at the group of police officers he’d just left. “Get the admin to give me the key to the—”

Luke rammed his body against the door. The doorjamb splintered and the door crashed open against the far wall.

Cornell cursed and followed Luke into the room.

Papers were scattered all over the desk and the floor. But there was no sign of Carol. Luke ran to the only exit, the window behind the desk. He tried to open it, but it was sealed shut. Layers of paint around the frame acted like glue.

“She must have come back out and I didn’t notice,” Cornell said. He headed into the lobby.

Luke saw an open door on one side of the office. He ran in there. A bathroom, empty, no window, just a skylight, at least twelve feet up.

He ran back into the office just as Cornell rushed inside.

“No one saw her come out of this room,” he said. “And the officer at the door to the lobby said she didn’t come out that way, either.”

Luke continued his search of the room. He felt along the exterior wall, beside the window.

“I’ll lock down the parking lot,” Cornell said. “I’ll get every officer to search the building and all the cars.”

Luke stood back and kicked one of the panels in the wall. It flew open, a hidden door, swinging back on hinges to bounce against the exterior wall of the building. Sunshine flooded into the room.

A sick feeling settled in the pit of Luke’s stomach. “Too late. She’s already gone.”

* * *

C
AROL
TWISTED
AGAINST
her restraints in the backseat of the patrol car, straining her neck to look behind her as the car swung out onto the highway.

She caught a glimpse of the back of the building. Luke’s tall, muscular form filled the doorway where she’d been taken just minutes earlier. Carol would have cried out, but her mouth was covered with duct tape. Instead, she renewed her struggles, bouncing on the backseat, trying to get Luke to notice her. But without her hands free to wave, she couldn’t do much.

I’m right here, Luke. Look at me. I’m right here.

But he didn’t glance her way, and the building disappeared as the car careened around a curve.

She strained against the tape around her wrists, thankful they were at least in front of her and not behind her.

Her brother-in-law glanced in the rearview mirror. “You might as well settle down and stop trying to get the tape off. You’re just going to hurt yourself.”

She put every ounce of contempt and loathing she could into her expression as she looked at him through the wire partition that separated them.

He sighed heavily. “I’m sorry, Caroline. I didn’t want to do this.”

He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead and made another turn. They were heading out of town on a two-lane rural road. Where were they? She should have been paying more attention to his driving instead of wasting her efforts glaring at him.

The trees seemed to fly by as they headed deeper and deeper into the woods. They hadn’t passed any houses in the past few minutes. He was taking her somewhere isolated. She’d never come down this road before. She was certain of it. A sense of panic started gathering inside her.

Her nose twitched. The smell of...manure...seeped into the car. Were they near a farm? Another smell, thick and heavy, made her gag. The unfamiliar, rancid odor was cloying and sickeningly sweet. What
was
that?

The trees fell away and they emerged from the forest. A line of concrete buildings squatted in the middle of a field a few hundred yards in front of them. There weren’t any other cars. No signs of any people around, probably because it was late and anyone who worked here would have already gone home for the day. Up ahead, hanging on the side of the first building, a wooden sign announced the building’s purpose. Carol’s insides went cold as she read the words: Matheson’s Beef Packing Plant.

Chapter Fifteen

Every detective in the Chatham County P.D. had been called in to brainstorm where Grant may have taken Carol. They were assuming Grant was the culprit, but it wasn’t much of a stretch. Beat cops canvassed the area near the Wiley & Harrison law office, but still there were no concrete clues about what had happened.

The conference room was practically busting at the seams, with every seat around the center table taken and officers lining the walls. Luke didn’t care that he blocked the view of the shorter men around him. He crowded up to the table so he could hear what Cornell said and see the video playing on the laptop.

“Okay, people, everybody be quiet so we can hear the audio,” Cornell ordered. “The part we’re most interested in should be coming up soon.”

The view was from a security camera in the alley behind the law office. It was black-and-white, grainy, poor quality. Apparently, the law firm had the camera for an insurance discount, but they’d gotten the cheapest equipment money could buy, just enough to satisfy the requirements of their policy. And it showed. The picture wasn’t even in focus, but it was better than nothing. Or, at least, Luke sure hoped so. If they could at least get a picture of the car, and if all the stars aligned, a license plate, the police could put out a BOLO to tell every law-enforcement agency in a hundred-mile radius to be on the lookout for the car that had taken Carol away.

They already theorized a car had approached from the woods behind the building, as evidenced by crushed grass, broken branches and tire tracks the techs were examining. But other than seeing that the road led to the highway, they had nothing. And gaining any useful data from the crude tire tracks would take time—time they didn’t have.

The seconds ticked by in the lower-right-hand corner of the screen. Something metallic flashed in the trees behind the building. A car drove out of the trees, the metal rack on its front grille mowing down small saplings and making a road where there hadn’t been one before.

“I’ll be damned,” Cornell said. “It’s a police car. One of ours.” He snapped his fingers. “Quick, someone look up the numbers on the side. Tell me whose car that is.”

The car parked behind the building.

“It belongs to Officer Jennings,” one of the detectives called out.

“Where is he?” Cornell demanded.

“Vacation. He’s been out of town for over a week. He took his personal car. The perp must have stolen his patrol car out of his driveway.”

The car door opened on the video and a tall figure stepped out, wearing a ski mask—a very familiar ski mask.

“He’s tall, over six foot,” Cornell said. “And he’s got some muscle to him. That’s Grant Ashton.”

“We can’t be sure without seeing his face.” Luke leaned in close to the screen. He shook his head. “It could be Grant or his brother, Daniel. They both have the same build.” He straightened in disgust. “It could be anyone.”

Cornell flashed him an irritated glance. “How many men do you know that size?”

“Including me?”

Cornell rolled his eyes and studied the screen again.

“He has a key,” Luke said. “That’s why there weren’t any scratches on the lock. He’s someone who knew Leslie Harrison, or at least someone at the law office.”

The rest of the video went by quickly. It only took Grant, or perhaps Daniel, less than a minute to rush inside and come out with Carol. Her mouth was covered with duct tape and her hands were bound in more of the shiny silver tape. Her abductor shoved her into the backseat of the patrol car, then took off into the same woods from where he’d just emerged.

Moments later, the car appeared off in the corner of the camera’s view, coming out of the trees a hundred yards away and turning onto the blacktop highway. In the center of the camera, the door to the building flew open again, and Luke stood in the entrance, looking around.

He cursed as every eye looked at him. He’d been standing there like a fool, looking at the trees and the back of the building. But he hadn’t noticed the patrol car driving away with Carol bouncing in the backseat, obviously trying to get his attention.

Cornell stopped the video. “We’ve got a car and a direction, and a rough description of the doer.” He pointed at one of the detectives. “Put a BOLO out and send some uniforms to Officer Jennings’s place. See if he’s got a security system that might have caught this guy on camera when he stole the car. If not, let’s hope he has some nosy neighbors who saw something. And get Jennings on the phone. See if he saw anyone hanging around his place before he went on vacation.”

The detective hurried out of the room.

Cornell glanced around the table. “Now, quickly, let’s go down the list and see if something pops. What do we have on the Richard Ashton murder?” He pointed at the detective directly across from him. “You, run it down for us.”

The detective flipped through the electronic tablet on the table in front of him. “Two gunshots, fired close-range, about five feet away. Bullet was .45-caliber. The only fingerprints at the scene were from the vic, the landlord, the vic’s wife and Luke Dawson. The vic’s wife and Dawson’s prints were limited to the front door. Their alibis checked out.”

Luke crossed his arms. “Get on with it,” he urged.

“Grant Ashton owns a .45, but it was allegedly stolen last month. He filled out a police report.”

“Convenient,” Cornell grumbled.

“Gas receipt at a nearby station traced to Grant Ashton,” the detective continued. “Surveillance footage showed him gassing up his SUV right around the estimated time of death. He’s our prime suspect.”

“Put the footage up on the laptop,” Luke ordered.

The detective next to Cornell looked to him for permission.

“Do it.”

Soon the video was playing and everyone was trying to crowd around the table to see it. The quality was much better than the earlier video. The license plate was clearly visible. No question that it was Grant’s car. But the SUV was parked on the far side of the pump and the driver was only a vague image on the camera.

Cornell squinted at the screen. “Could be Grant Ashton. The size fits.”

“It could also be his brother,” Luke offered. “Or me. All you know from that video is that someone drove Grant Ashton’s SUV to that station and filled the tank. Period.”

“All right, what’s your theory, then? We’re just reviewing the evidence here. If you’ve got something to add, by all means, jump in.” Cornell leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

“I don’t know why Ashton was killed, or Mitch, or the lawyer. And I don’t know why Carol was abducted. All I know for sure is that I can link all those people together with only two other people—Grant and Daniel Ashton. They were Richard’s brothers. They both attended the funeral where Mitch was killed. They both knew Leslie Harrison through their brother. And we all know the link with Carol—they’re her brothers-in-law. It just makes sense one of them is behind all this. What I want to know is what you’re doing to find
both
of them.”

One of the detectives across from Cornell spoke up. “Every available beat cop is out looking for Grant Ashton, canvassing everywhere he would go. No one has seen him anywhere.”

“What about his house, his family?”

“They’re not home. Left yesterday to get away from the reporters that have been hounding them since Grant’s arrest.”

“What about the other brother, Daniel?” Luke asked.

Cornell looked to his left. “You were in charge of that this morning. What have you got?”

The detective shook his head. “He’s not our guy. He’s been at work since seven this morning. He’s still there, with plenty of witnesses. He’s the CEO of his own company. He’s been in meetings this whole time. He couldn’t have abducted Mrs. Ashton.”

“Then we focus on Grant,” Luke said. “He’s a wealthy guy, just like the rest of his family. What properties does he own? Is there anything like a warehouse or abandoned building somewhere he might take her?”

Cornell frowned. “We’re not exactly amateurs here. We’ve been checking that out since the abduction. No dice so far.”

Luke raked his hand through his hair. Carol had been gone for over two hours. What was happening to her? He couldn’t even let himself think the worst—that it was already too late. No, she was strong. She’d proved how strong she was by surviving living with her abusive husband for so long. She couldn’t have survived that hell only to die now.

He’d promised to protect her. He’d already broken one promise. He wasn’t about to break another. He
had
to find her.

“What about Stellar Security?” Luke asked.

Cornell’s brows rose. “What about them?”

“They’re a common thread. They’re linked with everything the Ashtons do. I had an investigator look into them, but he didn’t find anything.”

“What did you expect him to find? You think one of the security guards is behind the murders and Mrs. Ashton’s abduction?”

“No, I think Grant abducted her. But he may have had help. As amazing as Stellar Security is supposed to be, Grant was able to break into the mansion and attack Mrs. Ashton a few nights ago even though they were supposedly guarding the place. And in all the time Mrs. Ashton lived in the mansion, and Stellar Security was there, it seems rather odd they never realized the abuse that was going on. They turned a blind eye to it.”

“You think they turned a blind eye to murder, too?”

Luke clenched his fists. “I don’t know. I don’t have anything to go on except a gut feeling. Carol didn’t trust them. That’s why she hired me.”

“Looks like she bet on the wrong pony in that race.”

Luke didn’t bother to glare in the direction of the detective who’d issued that statement in a loud stage whisper. How could he be mad when the detective was telling the truth? Maybe his distrust of Stellar Security was influenced too much by Carol’s own fears instead of facts. Maybe if he’d told her to stick with the much larger security firm, she’d be okay instead of out there suffering at the hands of another Ashton man.

He shoved his way through the crowd and opened the door.

“What are you going to do, Dawson?” Cornell called out.

Luke shook his head. For the first time in his career, he had no clue what to do.

* * *

L
UKE
SPENT
THE
next few hours driving his car every place he knew of that the Ashton family owned—from Carol’s mansion in town, to Grantʼs and Daniel’s houses, and even out to the country house where he and Carol had been a few days ago. So far, no luck spotting anything that even hinted that Carol might have been there recently.

He made dozens of calls to everyone he knew in law enforcement. He called the private investigator that Alex had hired and spoke to him about what had happened. He asked the investigator to focus again on Stellar Security, because the more he thought about it, the more their bumbling incompetence seemed glaring, as if it had been on purpose.

When he was at the police station earlier, he couldn’t very well have told Cornell that Stellar Security hadn’t noticed Leslie Harrison going upstairs and getting into Richard Ashton’s safe. He couldn’t do that without mentioning the video card, and he certainly wasn’t going to do that again.

He winced.

Please, God, don’t let me breaking a promise and betraying Carol be the last memory she has of me.

A call to a friend at the courthouse landed him an email with a list of every piece of property the Ashtons owned. The list was extensive, over ten pages, and half of the places were within driving distance of Savannah. He forwarded the list to Cornell.

Somehow, there had to be a better way to narrow down where to look for Carol.

He called Cornell and checked in with him frequently, but even though the detective was doing everything Luke would have done in his place, the results were still that the sun was about to set and Carol was nowhere to be found.

A visit to Grant Ashton’s house yielded nothing but an aggravated butler who had already been grilled by Cornell’s detectives. He emphatically told Luke he didn’t know where any of the Ashtons were and the next time someone asked him he was going to fill out a harassment complaint.

Luke drove around with no particular destination in mind anymore. He wasn’t surprised when he again ended up outside the office building that Daniel Ashton owned and where he was working today. There weren’t that many cars still in the lot since it was so late. Finding Ashton’s car wasn’t difficult. But even if the lot had been full, he’d know which car was Daniel’s. Luke had cashed in just about every favor anyone owed him today trying to get as much information about the Ashtons as he could find. As a result, he knew exactly which car in the parking lot was Daniel’s—the forest-green BMW sedan.

Surprisingly, he didn’t park in a reserved spot with his name on it as Luke had expected. Instead, he parked way out at the end, near the street. Why? So he could get away quickly if he needed to?

Luke scrubbed his face and rested his head against his seat. He would search every place on the list of Ashton holdings if he had to, but without a starting point, something to help him narrow the list down, it was like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. It would take days, maybe weeks, to thoroughly search all those possible hiding places.

Carol didn’t have days. She sure as hell didn’t have weeks.

He checked his gun at his hip and his backup in an ankle holster. If he thought going into Ashton’s building right now and holding a gun to his head would yield any useful information, he wouldn’t hesitate. But Cornell’s men had already questioned him earlier, and Daniel had been coldly polite, insisting he knew nothing. Luke’s hope was that if he followed the man he’d lead Luke to Carol.

Two men emerged from the exit at the back of the building. Luke straightened in his seat. Daniel Ashton was easy to pick out. He towered over the much shorter man walking beside him. The other man talked with his hands as he apparently said something funny. Daniel laughed and shook his head, then waved as the man headed to his car on the opposite side of the lot.