Chapter 29

TWENTY-NINE

TAVISH

I set the phone down before looking over at Ellis. Leland has just filled us in on everything he’d found out at the prison, which just leaves us with more questions. “Well… that’s interesting.”

“You think he killed his own daughter?” Ellis asks, looking absolutely horrified. “No, he couldn’t do that, right?”

I shrug. “People do awful shit all the time. Am I positive he did? No. Honestly, I have no damn idea what he did. Can you try to get ahold of your mom?”

Ellis shrugs as he pets “Jolene”—who is definitely not stealing him from me. “I can try. Which phone should I use?”

“The one Leland gave you. It’s untraceable, so they won’t be able to figure out where you are, if they even care enough to do so.”

“Okay,” he says as he calls this Ward woman’s number before putting it on speaker so I can hear.

“This is Ward.”

“This is Ellis. Can I please speak with my mother?”

“Ellis, where are you?” she asks. “Your mother and sister are sick with worry about you.”

“I told you to tell them I was fine and safe,” he says, looking upset over the idea that they’re worried about him.

“Claiming you’re safe and being safe are two completely different things. Please, Ellis, let us deal with it.” She sounds quite convincing, but I think Ellis is beginning to realize that she might not have the answers he’s searching for. If she did, why wouldn’t anyone have dealt with it years ago? This is the closest he’s ever come to finding answers and it was with no help from them.

“Can I speak with my mother, please?”

“Okay. I’ll have her call you. What’s your number?”

“I can write her number down and call her,” Ellis says.

“It’s just too hard to do that. She doesn’t have a phone on her at the moment,” she responds.

I reach out and set a hand on Ellis’s before giving it a squeeze. “She can have the number,” I say, confident she can’t track it no matter how hard she tries. Cassel’s not that sloppy. And it’s not like they care that much. Ellis isn’t someone they’re breaking their neck to find since he doesn’t pose any threat.

Ellis gives her the number before hanging up. “I’m weirdly anxious.”

“About talking to your mother?”

“About everything. Not just talking to her, although I’m confident she’s going to be pissed. I’ve never pissed my mother off before, Tavish! I’m a good boy.”

That makes me laugh, especially because he sounded so comically pitiful at the end.

Ellis starts laughing as well, startling his half-asleep bird. “Aw, sorry, Jolene. I didn’t mean to wake you. Tavish’s meanness made me laugh.”

“Meanness?” I give him a look of surprise. “I didn’t say a damn thing!”

“You were thinking it!”

“Maybe…”

We wait about five minutes before a call comes through that Ellis answers immediately.

“Hello?”

“Ellis!” a woman says with a soft Spanish accent.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Where the fuck are you? This isn’t funny. You don’t tell me all this shit is happening and then run off and refuse to go somewhere safe. You get your ass here right this damn minute, you hear me!”

Ellis is all smiles, looking quite happy about hearing his mother’s voice, all worry immediately wiped away. “I hear you. I hear you loud and clear.”

“Then you better be trotting your ass on over here,” she says.

“I saw Dad.”

She falls quiet. “Your father’s alive?”

“Sure is,” Ellis mutters.

“You… don’t sound very happy about it,” she says. “Ellis, what happened?”

“What happened is…” He hesitates, like he realizes that if he says anything more, he’s just going to end up giving his mother more to worry about. I can’t help but wonder what it’d feel like to care that much about a family member. “Uh… he just… he sure didn’t make it seem like he gave a shit about me. Let’s just leave it at that.”

“No, honey, I’m sure that’s not the case,” his mom says.

Ellis doesn’t seem so sure. He just bites his lip and looks the other way. “Yeah. Um… Mom, there’s a guy here who… is helping me, and we wanted to ask you some questions.”

“What do you mean ‘a guy’? Honey, are you getting caught up in something shady? Please, I really want you to come in with Sienna and me. You don’t need help from shady men. Let the police handle it.”

“He’s not shady,” Ellis says as he looks over at me. “Not super shady, at least. Maybe a little shady.”

I grin at him as he gives me a smile and a wink.

“Mom, you remember the case he was on some time before he disappeared? That Jasmine lady who got hit and killed in a hit-and-run? At the time, I guess he was buddies or something with her father Arthur, although I don’t remember that.”

“What about it?”

“Mom, if you know anything, please tell me,” Ellis begs. “Please. You don’t have to protect him or whatever you think you’re doing.”

She’s quiet for a moment, like she’s thinking about it. “I didn’t want you to look down on your father,” she says.

“Um… I think that ship has sailed. That ship’s like… not even in the fucking ocean anymore. It’s just gone. So please tell me.”

She takes a deep breath. “Your father started sneaking around… he’d tell me he’d be working late, and of course, I believed him. He constantly had so much shit going on, but one night I called the office since I couldn’t get ahold of him, and they told me he was off at his regular time. When I asked him where he’d gone, he said he went to the bar… just needed a break because work was so ‘rough.’ I wanted to ignore it. I really wanted to believe it was work driving him to this, but I snooped around enough that I found him out with Arthur’s daughter. That Jasmine. I just… I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that he was having an affair.”

“You caught him in the act?” I ask, breaking into the conversation before I can think better of it.

She seems startled by my voice. “Sorry, I didn’t know I was on speaker.”

“My apologies,” I say. “Would have been nice to meet on better terms. But the reason I’m asking is… I’m wondering if your husband wasn’t cheating.”

“You think he was just… gallivanting with some beautiful woman in her twenties for fun?” she asks. “No, I didn’t catch them in the act. But what the hell else do you think they were doing?”

“Dealing with drugs,” I say.

Ellis looks startled. “You think my dad was selling drugs?”

“No… I think your dad was stealing them. He was smuggling drugs out of the department… I bet if Cassel looks into it, at some point in the years following your father’s disappearance, it came to light that some drugs were not accounted for. Maybe it was more than just your father involved. Maybe there was a whole string of people getting a cut. Or maybe it was his own idea. But that’s what I’m thinking.”

Ellis and his mother both seem confused.

“Why would…” She hesitates. “He wouldn’t have done that.”

“Was there an increase in money before his disappearance?” I ask. “Maybe he’d splurge a bit even when he wouldn’t have before?”

“Let me think. It was so long ago… I… I told him I caught him out with that woman, and he promised me nothing was happening. Some lie about Arthur telling him she’d had a stalker or something and he was just making sure she was alright. He took me out to dinner and promised me over and over that he wasn’t cheating, but that wasn’t splurging. I… I really don’t think he did.”

“Were there any banking or financial accounts you didn’t know about before his disappearance that you learned about after?” I ask.

“I don’t know. After he disappeared… I don’t know what I thought. I mean… I guess if he’s been alive all this time, he’s had to have some money to live off. But why the fuck would he just go into hiding? If he was stealing drugs, and the woman he was selling them to died… why would he run or go into hiding?”

“Maybe he was afraid whoever killed her would kill him?” Ellis asks.

“Ellis, do you know where he is?” his mom asks.

“No. Last I saw, he was running off and leaving me… again,” Ellis says, but it was so much more than that. Zachary wasn’t just leaving him… he was literally choosing his own life over his son’s. But maybe that’s what he did the first time too.

“He’s… proven that he’s willing to pick his own life over anyone else’s… even his own son,” I say, hating how harsh it sounds and the way Ellis’s eyes drop. “But that could be why he left in the first place. He left because he wanted to protect himself. So anything you have, even if it’s just speculation, could help us protect Ellis.”

“Why did Arthur help us back then if my dad was off stealing drugs and he was paying off some woman to pretend to have killed his daughter?” Ellis asks.

“Maybe he didn’t know about Zachary’s involvement. But now that he does… maybe he wants someone to answer for it.”

“Do… do you think my dad killed her? Killed Jasmine?”

“It doesn’t make sense. Unless your dad was working for Arthur, why would Arthur then cover it up?” I ask.

“I don’t fucking know,” Ellis says before slumping his head down on the table. “Mom, can you think of anywhere he could be? Anywhere at all?”

“You said he’s in town here?” she asks.

“Yeah. Did he know we were being transferred here and follow us?” Ellis asks.

“I really don’t know, Ellis; I just want you safe and I don’t understand why you wouldn’t just come here with me and Sienna.”

Ellis looks discouraged, but I’m not. “Don’t worry, he’s with me. I’m a private investigator. I’ll keep Ellis out of it,” I lie to her. I’m sure it isn’t the best tactic to lie to the mother of the man you’re interested in, but I need to end this to protect him.

“Ellis, you promise me you’re being safe?” his mom asks. “Please. Just let the police handle this.”

“I promise. I’m being very safe. And I’ve met a lot of people who are extremely nice and doing so much to keep me safe and help us end this. And I met… Tavish, who is… really wonderful and you’ll really like him.” Ellis looks a bit flustered about this, but when he notices me looking at him, he immediately smiles.

“Is that who I’m talking to?”

“It is. He’s like… super nice. And he’s done so much for me. And risked… uh… things… for me?”

His mom hesitates at that. “Were you going to say ‘risked his life’? Because if there is any life risking going on, I’m going to personally break out of here and find your ass, Ellis. Where the hell are you? You’re never getting any Christmas presents ever again. And don’t even think about getting home-cooked meals again. Or love . I will withhold all the love.”

Ellis is laughing now, and I find it ridiculously sweet. “No! Don’t withhold the love.”

“I’m going to have to if you keep doing this nonsense.”

“I’m not! I promise,” Ellis says.

“Well… maybe I’ll invite you and this Tavish for dinner when this is all over. Or maybe I won’t. Depends on how mad at you I still am.”

“You know you can’t ever stay mad at me for long.”

“That’s because you’re the strangest, most well-behaved child. You never did a single thing to even make me mad. You were eerily good. And then we have Sienna… she found every way to get into everything when she was a teenager.”

“Make sure you let her know I’m the favorite.”

“Ellis!”

“Make sure to tell her.”

“You know I don’t like lying to your sister,” she says, which makes him laugh and makes me realize that I kind of want to meet her. I’ve never wanted to meet any family member of anyone I’ve ever come across before. “I love you so much, Ellis. You can’t even fathom how much I love you. So please… please be careful.”

“I promise.”

She seems choked up as she tells him she loves him again and the call ends.

“Your mom is suspiciously nice,” I inform him.

He’d looked pretty close to tears until I said that and now he’s back to all smiles. “Suspiciously?”

“Very much.”

Ellis laughs as he sets the phone down. “She’s not suspicious. You guys need to work on what you think is suspicious.”

My phone beeps, and I glance down at it as I realize that during the conversation, I must have missed a message from Leland.

Leland: Will you two check this apartment out? Cassel found the address in Nate Stewart’s recent GPS locations. It’s the only place he’s gone to recently that didn’t match up with anything I looked through.

Tavish: Yeah, you think something’s going on there?

Leland: I wonder if maybe it’s where his dad is staying.

After relaying this to Ellis, I say, “While we wander off to check out this apartment, how about you tell me all about how you were the perfect child. Never even got in trouble?”

“No! I got grounded once! I forgot to pick up some stuff my mom asked me to clean up because I was way too invested in this video game. She grounded me until I cleaned things up. Like I literally just had to clean it up and I was ungrounded, and I bawled and begged for her forgiveness.”

“How old were you?”

“Too old, Tavish. Far too old.”

I start laughing. “So you weren’t upset you were grounded, you were devastated that you upset her?”

“One hundred percent. I thought my life was ending just because she was ‘disappointed in me.’ I really don’t think she even cared. She was probably embarrassed.”

“Probably.”

“Then there was Sienna, who my mom had to fetch out of jail because she went to a party and was caught bashing some girl’s mailbox in.”

“Bet she didn’t cry.”

“Oh hell, no. She was proud of herself. She strutted around like a peacock, proudly wearing that ‘you’re grounded for a month’ badge.”

“You’re too fucking cute,” I realize as I grab him by the back of the head and pull him in for a kiss. “Go put Jolene—who is not stealing you from me—away and we’ll head out.”

“I will,” he says, rousing the bird from where she’d fallen asleep. She starts in about The Fence as he carries her off to her cage.

The apartment complex is fairly easy to find, but it appears to have at least twenty or so units, if the mailbox near the entrance is anything to go by. There’s no saying how quickly we’ll figure out which one is his… if it even is Zachary’s apartment like Leland suspects. At the very least, someone might have seen him or even know where he is.

“Don’t wander from my sight,” I tell Ellis.

“I won’t,” he promises.

“Even if there’s a cute bird or cat or anything else.”

“Definitely won’t. There’s a cute man. That’s enough for me.”

I glance back at him as he grins.

He’s right on my ass as we head toward the building. So on my ass that I feel like it’d be suspicious if anyone chose to look out at this moment.

“Maybe not this close? You’re so close that I feel a bit sad having clothes between us,” I say as I toss another look back at him.

“Oh? I mean…” He glances down to my ass. “There doesn’t have to be. I’m… pretty sure that can be easily fixed.”

“Don’t tempt me. That’s the first rule to our mission. Temptations need to be left at home.”

He’s grinning now, which is just adding to my temptations.

“Fine, fine, I’ll give your ass some space. I didn’t know your ass was so picky,” he says as he comes up to my side instead.

Before we get too close to the building, an older man comes out and scurries right over to us, eyes fixated on us from the second he left the building.

“Can I help you?” The man had to have been peering out his window in anticipation of an opportunity like this.

“Sure! That would be amazing. I’m hoping to surprise my…” I hesitate as my eyes snap up a moment before I see the barrel of a gun. It would have been unnoticeable if the sunlight hadn’t hit the metal just right. The issue is… the gun isn’t pointed at me. While I know they won’t shoot Ellis, they’ll likely use it to threaten him.

Playing it off like I don’t notice, I give the man a smile. “My uncle. I’m here for a short visit from Scotland and my uncle has no idea I’m coming,” I say as I pull out a phone and flash him a picture of Ellis’s dad. “I just… he’s going to lose his mind when he sees me.”

The man hesitates a bit too long before smiling. “Haven’t seen him. You sure he lives here?”

“Well… I guess I could have gotten the address wrong. I don’t come to America much… I might have messed up the address?”

Clearly, he knows he’s here and is likely getting paid to pretend he’s not. But why would Zachary choose an apartment to hide in when it would lead to people seeing his face day after day? And why the hell are Arthur’s men here? Did they find this place days ago and were waiting to ambush Zachary, and instead, we’ve walked right into the trap they’d laid for him? But traps aren’t always bad if I can get the upper hand.

The first thing I need to do is to get Ellis safe, though.

“How about you call my uncle, then, and tell him that if he wants to ever see his son again, he’d best stop hiding and fucking do something about it. I’m assuming you have his number if you let him know about the others who came asking about him the other day,” I say, knowing that’s probably what led to Zachary not returning while they waited for him. “Do that and then when you’re done, I’ll see about getting the man with the gun off your property.”

“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says, looking nervous. “T-There’s someone with a gun?”

“Another gun?” Ellis asks, looking exasperated. “Why can’t they ever have like… kittens or puppies? Just one time… bring kittens or puppies.”

“Ellis, do you trust me?”

“Yes. Of course I do.”

“So this tactic is simple. They’re up there and might have someone else down here with us. But what we need to do is draw them out. In the position we’re in, if you head toward the door and out of their line of sight, they’re going to try to follow you, and I’ll swoop in and snag them. Simple as that. They’re not going to shoot you. They gain absolutely nothing from shooting you. They need you alive.”

“Doesn’t sound overly simple,” Ellis mutters.

“It really can’t get much simpler. You trust me, right?”

“I do trust you, but I also am not naive enough to believe you’re not stretching the truth,” he says as he fixes me with a look. He’s so fucking cute. “Just tell it to me straight. What are you planning?”

“The gun is pointed at you. They’re going to try to scare you into complying with them, or possibly use you against Zachary. I’m going to send you inside with this man and you’re going to lock the door and not make a fucking peep. Then I’m going to convince them that if they look away from you, I’ll tell them everything.”

“But you don’t know everything,” Ellis says as the older man rushes through the door but only goes far enough that he can watch us through it, too nosy to duck for cover. “And why the fuck would you put yourself in danger?”

“The only thing I need to do is get to Arthur.”

“What if he’s back on the island?”

“Then I’ll simply go back to the island. Ellis, do you trust me?”

“I’m trying to, but it seems too hard!” he protests, sounding panicked. “I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want to leave you.”

“Trust me.”

“You couldn’t deal with them on the island the first time, why do you think you can now?” he asks, sounding so desperate. “Please. Just take me with you.”

“Because this time I’m not alone. You’re going to let Leland and Cassel know, and if they’re feeling overly kind today, they might even come help.”

“I don’t want to do this.”

“If you do it, I’ll let you do whatever you want to me,” I say. “You can fondle corn in front of me. Anything you want.”

Ellis gapes at me. “WHAT? I’m pretty sure you would anyway, and no, I’m not putting your life at risk for that!”

I grin at him. “Ellis. We’re going to have some fun when we get back.” I see a car pulling onto the street. “Now you don’t get a choice. Remember how I said if we were to get together, you’d have to trust me? You’d have to believe that I know what I’m doing enough to come home to you every night. Now go.”

“Fuck,” he says as he steps back. “I’ll get the others.”

“Perfect.”

“Please be careful,” he begs.

“I will be. Stay pressed against the apartment, you’ll break their line of sight.”

He nods and rushes for it, slipping through the door and disappearing with the guy who’d been watching through the window in the door. I don’t pull my gun out because I’m not interested in a gunfight… just yet. Instead, I just stand there with my hands up as the woman who I believe was named Danielle gets out of the car.

“Ummm… is this just like some cute act of heroism or something?” she asks. I hadn’t dealt with her on the island much, but from what Ellis said about her, she seemed somewhat reasonable.

“No, this is me being pissed I never got paid by Arthur.”

“I’m pretty sure Arthur wants you dead,” she says.

“He won’t when he hears what I found on Nate Stewart’s computer. Or that I have it set to be released to the public if I happen to disappear. But I’m willing to negotiate. I’m a man who loves money, after all.”

She watches me for a moment then pulls out her phone and makes a call. “Your buddy Tavish wants a word with you.”

When she hands me the phone, it’s like I can feel Arthur’s fury radiating through it.

“What now?” he growls, evidently not overly pleased to talk to me when he’s spent so much time trying to harass me. Like… clearly, I deserve to be the more annoyed one.

“I found what you were looking for on Nate’s computer.”

“And what was that, exactly?” he asks.

“I have a couple of stipulations before I talk.”

“You don’t fucking get a say in whether or not you’ll talk.”

“You wouldn’t want me releasing the footage to the public, would you? The footage of an innocent woman being murdered so you could fake your daughter’s death.”

He’s quiet for a bit as I hold tight and just wait. “What do you want?” he finally asks.

Holy shit… that worked. I’m over here just fucking guessing my way through it, and it worked? How the fuck did that work? So Jasmine really is alive? I’d started to question it after finding out that the woman in prison was being paid off. If Arthur really had no reason to kill his own daughter… the only other answer is that he was trying to protect her. And he’s trying to protect her even now.

“I want you to leave Ellis out of it.”

“How about we talk face to face. All of us.”

“Not Ellis. He knows nothing. I’ve told you again and again, he knows nothing. You can ask the man aiming a gun at my head at this very instant what Zachary did when his son’s life was threatened. He’ll tell you that Zachary didn’t even hesitate before running off to save his sorry ass. Zachary only cares about his own life. He did back then and he does now. There is nothing you have to gain by pulling Ellis into this. You want your information, then come meet me. If I end up dead along the way, everything I know about the cover-up and all of that will be released. And… let’s just say I’m none too happy about Zachary leaving Ellis’s life in danger. If you need someone to make sure Zachary is dead, you don’t need to look much further.”

“Why don’t I invite you to my wonderful private island for a talk?”

“That would be lovely. I’m assuming your daughter is there and maybe we could all talk and figure out how to make this nasty nonsense with the drugs just… disappear. We definitely don’t want me to release all of this to the public. It would look horrible, both for you and your daughter. I would have to assume your company, everything you worked for, would just… go under.”

Arthur laughs, but it’s a cold sound. I really don’t know what he has planned, but I’m pretty confident he believes he has the upper hand. What he doesn’t know is just how fucking far Leland and Cassel will go… not necessarily to save my life… but to be entertained.