26. Sinclair

We zip-tied Tony's feet together this time, then threw him, completely bound, into the backseat again.

Matt was driving because he knew the way to Isla's house. There was no stopping him. He was bound to confront her and, this time, determined to turn Tony in to the police once we'd gotten Isla's confession.

I wasn't so sure Isla would be that cooperative, but we were going to do our best to get the truth out of her. While Matt drove, I continued to interrogate Tony.

I turned to see him better. "How did you meet Isla?"

"I met her at Tuttle's Gastro Pub on Magazine."

Matt made a little grunt in his throat. "Kind of an upscale place for a guy like you."

"I bartend there, all right?" Tony said. "Tuttle's is one of her customers. She's an industrial cleaning supply rep. You know, degreaser, stuff like that. Anyway, I got to know her. We were her last stop, so she'd usually sit at the bar and have a drink or two. We got to be friends."

Matt interjected again. "Did Charlie, the woman you supposedly love, know about this?"

"Not that kind of friends," Tony shot back. "Just friends. Trust me that Isla, Eileen, she wasn't interested in me. She wanted a man with money."

"How did the blackmail come about?" I asked.

Tony took a breath. "Isla told me about all the lowlifes she met through her job. Told me she had a way of making some easy money while also doing a good deed for society. A little social justice, I think she called it. Who wouldn't want to make some extra money? I said yes. We pulled off a few without a hitch and split the money. It was easy."

"When did you get Matt's photo?"

"About a week ago."

Matt muttered a word my mother would not have been pleased with.

"Did you ask her how she got that picture?"

"Yeah, I did. She said it had been given to her."

"Did she also give you Matt's name and address?"

"Yeah, all of that."

Was he really a dim bulb? Or was the money all he'd seen? "And you never put two and two together that Matt was also one of Charlie's clients?"

He made a face at me, like I was the dumb one. "You think I go to any of Charlie's jobs with her? How was I supposed to know?"

Matt shook his head. "Are you telling me this had nothing to do with Charlie?"

"No," I said. "I think it might have had everything to do with Charlie. If Isla knew you liked Charlie and wanted Charlie out of the picture, what better way to do it than make it seem like Charlie was involved in blackmailing you? She obviously had access to your house when you weren't home. It would be easy to blame her for taking the photo."

"Except I knew Charlie wouldn't do something like that."

"Then maybe Isla's idea was to put you in a bad spot so that she could swoop in and make it go away, thereby making herself invaluable to you."

"Either way," Matt said, "she's psycho."

"Agreed. And by having Tony blackmail a few other people, she could easily set him up to take the blame if things went wrong."

"Unbelievable." Matt turned in to a circular driveway. Ahead of us was a medium-size two-story house that had been divided into two townhouses. Matt shook his head. "Her car isn't here."

"Could she have gone to your house?" I asked. "If she thinks she's going to save you from this blackmail, she must know the money was due by tonight." I looked at Tony again. "Does she?"

"Only that I was sending the letter this week," he answered.

Matt pulled out his phone. "I don't have any texts or missed calls from her, but it's worth checking."

We pulled into his driveway a few minutes later. Isla's car wasn't there. The light was still on in the RV, though, and I could see the television playing. Jayne had probably fallen asleep on the couch.

"Try calling her while I run in and check on Jayne."

"Okay." Matt put the car in Park, then got his phone out.

I checked on Tony, who didn't seem to be going anywhere, then left the car and headed toward the RV. I was coming around the front of it when I kicked something. With only the light of Matt's landscaping to see by, I couldn't tell what it was.

I bent down and picked the object up. It was one of Jayne's flipflops. How had she lost that? And outside, too? A little worry crept in. I hoped the cats hadn't snuck out. I looked around. Could she be out here chasing after them?

Not something she needed to be doing in her condition.

Flipflop in hand, I went straight into the RV, noting that Jayne had forgotten to lock the door. I expected to see her on the couch, but she wasn't there. Her other flipflop lay on the floor.

Spider and Sugar were there, however. They came running out of the bedroom, crying at me.

"Dad, Dad, Dad," Sugar said. "Bad lady?—"

"Bad lady took Mama," Spider said in the most panicky voice I'd ever heard.

"Bad lady? What bad lady?"

"Bad lady," they both repeated.

My spine went icy with dread. I had a feeling I knew who they were talking about. I leaned out the door. "Matt. Matt! "

Stupid soundproof Jaguar. "Stay here," I told the cats. "I'll be right back."

I ran to the driver's side of the car.

Matt rolled down his window. "I couldn't get ahold of her?—"

"Do you have a picture of Isla on your phone?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I need you in the RV now. I think Isla took Jayne. Come on." I went back to the RV without waiting.

"What the—" He jumped out and followed me.

When he was in, I shut the door. "Pull her picture up on your phone."

He did as I asked. I grabbed it from him and held it down so the cats could see it. "Is this her?"

Both Spider and Sugar looked at me, then looked at Matt. They weren't supposed to talk in front of other people. Spider nodded.

"Did your cat just nod?" Matt laughed. "I mean, that's a nice party trick but?—"

"Spider, Sugar, use your words."

"Bad lady," Spider said softly, like speaking in front of Matt made him suddenly shy.

"Yeah," Sugar said. "Bad lady."

Matt let out another word my mother would have disapproved of. "Your cats talk ."

I shoved his phone back into his hands. "Yeah, I'll explain later. Isla took Jayne. We need to find her. If she's not home and she's not here, where would she be?"

Matt shook his head, the seriousness of the situation obviously settling over him. "I don't know."

"Does she have an office? What's the name of the company she works for?"

"ChemSafe. As far as I know, she works out of her home office."

I whipped out my phone and called the only person I could think of. The phone rang four times before Birdie picked up.

"Hello, Sinclair." She sounded sleepy.

"Hi, Birdie. I'm sorry to call you so late. Jayne's been taken. I need?—"

"What? By who?"

"A woman known as Isla—" I looked at Matt.

"Larson."

I repeated that name to Birdie. "Her real name could be Eileen Toussaint, but that could be another alias."

"Hang on. Let me get to my computer. I have a back door that lets me tap into the department's database."

"I love you."

She chuckled. "I know." I heard tapping and the clicking of keys. "This the same Isla Larson who works for a company called ChemSafe?"

"That's her."

"Hmm." More clacking followed, then Birdie let out a soft, worried noise. "This Eileen Toussaint is bad news."

"In what way?"

"Well, she's considered a person of interest in the deaths of her last two husbands. Wealthy men who left her everything."

I glanced at Matt. "So she's a black widow?"

"That's my guess. Never charged with anything."

"How'd they die?"

"First one apparently drank himself to death. Second one fell overboard while they were out on his boat. Both deaths were initially ruled as suspicious, but no other cause could be found, so…"

"She walked." The click click clack of the keyboard continued as we talked.

"Pretty much."

"We've got to find out where she took Jayne. I don't know if she sees her as a threat or what, but?—"

"I'm on it. I have her home address, if you need that?"

"No, we tried her house. Her car wasn't there. And she works out of her house, so there's no office that we know of."

"ChemSafe has three distribution warehouses in the area."

"Give me the closest one to the Garden District."

"There are two about the same distance. I'll text you the addresses. In the meantime, I'm going to dive into Isla and see what else I can find out about her. Make sure she doesn't have another property somewhere. I'm also going to start triangulating Jayne's cell phone. If you think she has it on her."

I looked around. "I don't see it here. Can't hurt."

"Go find our princess, Sinclair. I'll be up until you do."

"Thanks, Birdie. You'll be the first one I contact when she's safe." We hung up, and a second later, my phone vibrated with the incoming addresses. "Birdie sent me the locations of ChemSafe's two closest warehouses."

Matt nodded. "That has to be where Isla's holding her. Unless she's got another house somewhere."

"Birdie's checking on that."

"I wonder if we could get Tony to help us search the warehouses. If they have shipping containers in them?—"

"I have a better idea." At least I hoped it was a better idea. I'd soon find out.