The Pawnbroker (17 page)

“So what's the real story on Ruth and her kid?” Gordon asked.

“Don't know yet, but we should be getting the details tonight. We're taking turns bodyguarding the two of them.”

“When was that decided?”

“Nancy volunteered us. It might be her way of keeping us as part of the investigation. DuPree certainly wouldn't have thought of it. I'm surprised he went along with the idea.”

“He probably isn't that worried, and it'll save him a lot of paperwork and manpower. I'm not really that sure APD would have provided an officer anyway. Suppose she's somebody really important?” Gordon asked, shutting the trunk.

Five minutes later, en route to Nancy and Gina's townhouse in Albuquerque's Northeast Heights, Charlie checked his phone.

“Got a text from DuPree here, that's odd. Whoa, not just a text—it's a report on the prints lifted from Nancy's ID.”

“Since when does the detective send us police reports?”

“He doesn't. But he gave Nancy his phone for a while to read this.”

“And she forwarded it to us. Smart girl … woman. So what does it say?”

“Give me a minute, and I'll try to give you the short list,” Charlie said, reading down the screen.

“Okay, here are the highlights. Ruth Adams, based upon her prints, is really Sarah Brooks, the twenty-eight-year-old wife of Lawrence L. Brooks, an investment firm multimillionaire living in the Pittsburgh area. Besides playing with his money, the guy buys companies that are in financial trouble, then fires the employees, shuts them down, and liquidates the assets. He's apparently very low profile, a one-percenter with a herd of lawyers and private security. The guy donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to those Super PACs, so he has big political connections. Sarah and Lawrence have a son, five years old, named Lawrence Rene Brooks Jr.”

“So, it's a kidnapping or child-custody issue, right? She split with the kid?”

“Interestingly enough, Lawrence hasn't reported a crime or filed a missing-person report. According to local society gossip and newspaper reports, Sarah is living in seclusion at the Brooks's country home, suffering from postpartum depression after the birth of their son, and under constant care. She hasn't been seen in public for three years, apparently.”

“And we're sure Ruth is really Sarah?”

“The fingerprints are a perfect match.”

“Then what about her family? Parents, brothers or sisters? What do they have to say about this?”

“Sarah Westerfield is an only child, and her parents died while she was in college. She earned an MBA, then worked for an accounting firm until she met Lawrence Brooks. Nobody has said a word about her being missing—at least not to law enforcement,” Charlie said, looking at the last of the message. The last three words were “erase after reading.”

“So if the wife took off with the kid, the husband should be uncovering every rock to find her. Why isn't he? Sounds like he has the money to hire an army, including Eddie Henderson?”

Charlie shrugged. “Could be he's got a bounty out on her. She's hiding out, that's clear, and yet her husband is pretending she's still around. Pride, bad publicity, his image? Until we know the answer to that…”

 

Chapter Thirteen

Ruth, Charlie, Detective DuPree, and Nancy sat at Nancy and Gina's kitchen table. Gordon was in the living room with Rene, watching TV and keeping him out of earshot.

“Yes, I took Rene and left home three years ago. We've been living pretty much in hiding ever since,” Ruth explained.

“Was your husband abusive, or is there another reason for what you've been doing?” DuPree asked point-blank.

“Lawrence is an obsessive, abusive control freak. He gave me no other choice but to run for my life. He beat me, but never where it would leave a mark that showed in public. He'd spank me with a paddle he made precisely for that purpose, like I was some misbehaving child, or he'd hit me with a rubber hose in the shins.” Tears formed in her eyes, and she wiped them away angrily.

“What else did he do?” Nancy asked, reaching over and taking her hand. “You're safe here.”

“I tried to use sex to keep him from being angry, and it worked for a while, but then he started getting really rough. It was more like rape after that,” she managed, ending in a whisper and refusing to look up.

“Why didn't you report him to the police?” DuPree asked.

“He told me if I told anyone, or any of the staff, or people we knew, he'd take Rene away from me, then throw me out. He'd make sure I could never work anywhere again. Or he said he'd have some of his crew take me somewhere, rape and torture me, then burn my body into ash.”

“And how would he get away with that?” DuPree asked, sounding skeptical.

“He told me he'd set it up to look like a kidnapping. He's wealthy, it would be believable. Nobody would ever find me, and he'd benefit from the sympathy, maybe make even more money. He could find another wife in a week,” Ruth said.

Charlie shook his head, wanting to believe her story. “Sooner or later, he'd get caught,” he said.

“But I'd be dead. He's crazy, but he's not stupid. I believed—I believe him.”

“If you've never documented what he did to you, why didn't he report you missing, or tell the authorities that you ran away with Rene?” Nancy asked.

“I don't know,” Ruth said, looking down at her clenched hands on the tabletop.

It was an easy read, and disappointing to see.
You're lying,
Charlie almost said aloud, then looked over at Nancy, who was shaking her head slightly. She also knew Ruth was hiding something. But what?

“You suppose he's worried about the boy?” DuPree offered. “You maybe threatened to harm his son if he came after you?” he added, whispering and looking toward the doorway. “Not that you'd really do it,” he added.

Ruth looked up, surprised. “I would never harm Rene, or even threaten to do so in any way. He's my life—I'd do anything to protect him.”

“Rene knows you two are hiding, doesn't he? I've seen how he looks at you first for approval before he says anything to us,” Charlie said.

Ruth nodded. “I've been so worried, though. He's been very healthy, but once he reaches school age, what can I do? I can't use his birth certificate—Lawrence has his men out looking for me, and with his money, he can buy the information he needs, legally or not. If it hadn't been for Diego, taking care of me these past months, I'd have been lost. I was almost ready to give up. Now I'm at the end of my rope.”

“You're afraid that your husband knows where you are now and that he'll come after you?” Nancy asked.

“I don't know what he knows right now, but whatever he does, he'll send some of his private security first. They'll harass me, make threats, or maybe try and take Rene back to his father. He knows I'll never leave my son.”

“Brooks is the legal birth father, correct?” DuPree asked.

“In states where rape is legal for a spouse,” Ruth said. “If there are any. But that hasn't kept me from loving my son. Lawrence doesn't love anyone but himself—and his money.”

“Well, Mrs. Brooks, you're still a material witness in the homicide investigation, so the district attorney will need you to be available, and you've not been charged with any crime—not yet. And for the moment, we'll maintain your identity as Ruth Adams. But I'm reluctant to just walk away, and I can't let you have the Town Car. The system will have to decide who gets the fifty thousand dollars in cash you had in your purse.”

“Diego gave it to me, to use for my son and myself. I'd get a job, but I can't use my real identity. My husband has people who can find me. For all I know, they've already picked up the trail. Can you tell me for sure Lawrence wasn't responsible for Diego Baza's death?”

“Can you prove he was?”

“No.”

“Then, until we have more information, evidence, and a suspect, you'll just have to sit tight,” DuPree said. “You'll be protected—by Sergeant Medina when she's off duty, and by her associates when she's not. These two men are decorated soldiers with combat experience, so that means they have the skills needed to keep you safe.”

Charlie noted that DuPree kept from making eye contact with anyone during that last statement. It probably left a foul taste in his mouth.

“I'd trust my safety to Charlie and Gordon, Ruth. You and your son can do the same,” Nancy said.

*   *   *

Charlie left Nancy's townhouse around four-thirty in Gina's car, having lost (or won) the coin flip on who had tonight's shift with Ruth and Rene. The only surprises he'd picked up within the past few hours was that Ruth was lying about why her husband hadn't made her disappearance public. What did she have on him, anyway?

Charlie walked in through the front entrance to Three Balls about a half hour before posted closing time. No customers were visible, though he'd seen a man carrying a big cardboard box leaving as he approached the store.

Jake looked up from one of the displays, where he was arranging some computer monitors. “Welcome back, stranger. I assume your last mission has been accomplished.”

“Wish you could have visited with our guest. We'll try to schedule in some time the next few days. You know we have to keep all this to ourselves?”

“Just glad to see it's all okay,” Jake said, nodding toward the office. “Your computer guy, Rick, is here.”

“Great. He's been working on our computer for about a week.”

“He came in with a smile, so it's probably good news. Looks like you're on a roll today.”

“It's about time. Speaking of on a roll, did the auto shop call about my Charger?” Charlie said, walking back toward the office

“Not yet.”

Charlie looked at his watch. “Damn. Maybe tomorrow.”

“Yo, Charlie,” Rick said, stepping into the main room from the hall. The man was in his fifties and had worked for many years at one of the pioneering computer companies. He lived on his investments, but ran his own one-man IT company. He only took on jobs when he was bored. “I finally caught a break. Looks like you're getting almost everything back, including that last six-month gap in the records.”

“I thought all the files had been erased.”

“They were, but they hadn't been overwritten, so once I broke the user encryption I was able to run a restore program. We lost some image files, possibly including graphs and charts, but the data and numbers all appear to be there. Of course it's possible that Mr. Baza had another computer off the network and there's something still missing.”

“If he did, it's not here anymore, and if there's anything on the laptop found in his apartment, it'll be a while before I'll find out. Just show me what you've got, then I'll get Jake in here. He worked for Baza and is better equipped to recognize the system and spot if anything's missing.”

“Okay then,” Rick looked up, a confident look in his pale blue eyes. “Come in and have a seat. I've got the software up on both monitors, and you can access the old data too—the files you found in the safe.”

Ten minutes later, Rick sat back in his chair and looked up at Jake and Charlie. “There's a complete employee file for Jake, and Baza too, but all I can find in the system for Ruth Adams is her name, address, and phone number. This is all stuff from her original job application. No payroll schedule is here, no employee number, and no Social Security number. If it had been entered into the system, it would be here. Of course it may have been deleted and overwritten already.”

Neither Ruth's address nor phone number were accurate, which was no surprise. Charlie suspected that Baza had done an initial background check on Ruth, found nothing, and confronted her. She must have convinced him to pay in cash and keep it off the books, which suggested that her charisma factor had been even more effective with Baza. Eventually, he fell for her—hard.

“Find any mention of someone named Edward or Eddie Henderson?” Charlie asked.

“Let me do a search,” Rick said, clicking the mouse a few times, then entering both names in a box on the screen.

Less than ten seconds went by before “a not found” message appeared on Rick's computer screen, followed by a list of near hits. “Nope,” Rick said, looking up. “A couple of Hendersons, and four Eddies and two Edwards, but that's it.”

“That's not unexpected, I guess. But least we have what we need to confirm our inventory, clients, and transactions,” Charlie finally replied. “Look that way to you, Jake?”

“It's just like I remember. There was a lot of merchandise sold just before Mr. Baza walked away, though,” Jake said. “If these records had been available at the time of the foreclosure, I'm sure the bank would have gone after him.”

“One of the reasons Gordon and I got such a good price on the business was because of that situation. The bank didn't want to throw good money after bad. By then, Baza had gone underground and would have been hard to find,” Charlie said.

“Well, at least now you don't have to sort those paper copies anymore to make sense of things,” Rick said.

“You made backups of the restored data?”

“There is an automatic backup on a second hard drive, and another going to an online site in the cloud. I've also got all the old stuff on these flash drives.” He pointed to three devices sitting on the desk beside a mouse.

“Those are going into a safe-deposit box,” Charlie said.

“If you need anything else or have any problems, let me know,” Rick said. “I've also noticed that you're missing a surveillance system. Did the former owner sell that too?”

“Yeah,” Charlie said. “Do you handle that setup?”

“No, but I have a guy I can recommend. His card is here somewhere.” Rick dug into a leather notebook containing his business forms and brought out a card. “Here's his number. If you mention I recommended him, he'll give you a good discount.”