Covert Alliance (25 page)

“I figure you’ll want to take a look at it, won’t you?” His expression had turned as wry as an adult’s, and Kelly grinned as she nodded.

“And the tablet?” she asked. “Where was it? And where is it now?”

“It wasn’t in her things under the stairs, so it’s not your old family stuff.” Eli’s voice was chilly now. “The thing is...well, she’d hidden it in the bureau in my room, in a padded envelope in a drawer that had some clothes I hadn’t grown into yet...then.”

Smart lady, Kelly thought. But then, her sister had always been smart. Except the bit about marrying Stan.

“So now that you’re a little older, and bigger, you found it,” she stated to her nephew, not making it a question.

“Yep. With all that had happened, I wanted to look at it without my dad knowing, so I went through it on afternoons when I got home early. It was mostly boring real estate stuff in those computer files, but—” Eli stood up and was suddenly right in front of Kelly. “She was scared, Aunt Shereen. She didn’t tell anyone, I don’t think, but those files...they were almost like a diary, and she kept notes about how my dad was against her in some real estate stuff and was going to kill her if she didn’t let him get his own way. She also...she bought a cabin way up in the mountains, it said, where she was going to take me and run away if things got any worse.”

Well, they’d gotten a whole lot worse, Kelly thought, also standing and hugging Eli close against her as the boy began to cry. Tears came to her eyes, too.

Could Andi have run away to that cabin?

If so, why had no one seen her since then? Was she like Shereen, undercover with a new identity?

Where was Andi now?

“Did you tell your dad about the tablet?” she asked, assuming he had, since his father had started abusing him.

“No, but—well, I got scared and yelled at him about the way he’d acted with my mom, and he asked me what I found. I just said it was something important.”

Then Stan had made an assumption, and Eli hadn’t denied finding something. Even if Stan didn’t know what it was, he would undoubtedly do a lot to retrieve it—even hurt his own son.

“We need to turn that tablet over to the authorities, Eli,” Kelly said firmly.

“No.”

“But—”

“They’ll just destroy it. All the cops and everyone here in town are my dad’s friends, or at least they want to impress him.”

She knew Eli was a smart kid, but this observation was not only very true, it was also something an adult might not even recognize.

There was an answer, though. A perfect answer. “Eli, you’ve met that nice security guy Alan. He has a different agenda from the regular police and others.” Not that she could explain what it was, or how she knew... “You can give him the tablet, and—”

“You can give me the tablet,” a gruff male voice said suddenly.

Eli cried “No!” and ran to the far side of the room. As Kelly gasped, she turned to the door into the living room, expecting to see Stan there. Instead, it was Paul Tirths.

Kelly swallowed hard, struggling to come up with a story that she could sell to Paul—about who she was now, not who she used to be. “Oh, hello,” she said. “I met Eli at Government Plaza, and he called the Haven Restaurant where I worked and asked me to bring him a sandwich. He’s such a nice young man that I—”

“Shove it, Shereen.” Paul was staring straight at her. “I don’t know why you look that way, but I was listening for a while.” He turned to Eli. “Your school called your dad and said you left without permission. He sent me to find you. Good thing I did. Now, give me that tablet.”

Walking toward the entrance to the room, Kelly planted herself in front of Paul. “Please, Paul,” she said, using her old voice, the one from before the coaching she had undergone. “You used to be on my side. You understood. We may have a way to learn the truth now, even have evidence. You—”

“You don’t need to know my reasons, Shereen, but I’m on Stan’s side now. In fact, he’s on his way here.” He sidestepped her and faced the cowering Eli. “Give me that tablet, kid. I’m going to tell your dad about it anyway, and he’ll get it from you no matter what. If you volunteer it, things will be a lot easier on you.”

“You can’t promise that!” Kelly yelled. “Eli, don’t listen to him.”

“I won’t.” The boy sounded firm and belligerent. “I’m not telling you where it is.”

Paul moved suddenly, and Kelly felt his arm go tightly around her throat.

“If you want your aunt to live, kid, go get that tablet.”

Chapter 21

A
lan had been across the room listening to Councilwoman Arviss promote her student internship program to a couple of other council members—and keeping an eye on the rest of the room—when he noticed Stan pull his phone from his pocket and look at it, presumably reading a text message.

His eyes widened, then narrowed, or at least that was what Alan thought he saw from this distance.

Stan said something to the group of business executives around him, smiled, waved—and started toward the restaurant door.

He was leaving? This was his event...or maybe he just needed to go outside for something.

Alan had to find out.

It was his turn to smile and nod as he headed through the crowded restaurant, between the filled seats at the tables and the groups of people that had formed in areas between those tables. Fortunately, he spotted Dodd in the direction he was going. Dodd had also gotten one of the plum assignments of the afternoon—to stay inside the restaurant and ensure the crowd’s security. Alan headed toward him first.

“Sorry, got a personal matter to attend to,” he told his more senior colleague. “Not sure what my timing will be, but I’ll try to come back as soon as possible.”

“Personal—as in that luscious Kelly?” Dodd’s suggestive smile would have made Alan want to slug him—if he’d had the time.

The other problem was that he was afraid the situation did involve Kelly. That was just a hunch. Or maybe it was really a fear, since she wasn’t with him. Whatever Stan was doing surely had nothing to do with her. It couldn’t.

But he had to find out for sure, and learn what Stan Grodon might be up to.

“That’s my business,” Alan said, but he made himself smile back at Dodd and stick a suggestive leer on his face just so his friend wouldn’t ask more questions.

Then he made his way out the door—just in time to see a valet turn Stan’s expensive silver sedan over to him.

Alan’s own car wasn’t far from the restaurant entry, but he was concerned he’d lose Stan before he could start to follow him. He ran to his car and, once inside, began heading down the narrow mountainous road after him.

But Stan was already too far away. By the time Alan reached the bottom of the hill, he could not tell where Stan’s car had gone.

Alan knew of a couple of possibilities, at least. He first drove in the direction of downtown, toward Government Plaza. He took shortcuts that should have led him to Stan’s car before he arrived...assuming that was where the man was headed.

In the meantime, he tried calling Kelly...just because. Her phone went straight to voice mail.

Did that mean Alan’s ridiculous initial concern was valid—that this had something to do with her after all?

He hoped not, yet his instincts told him she was in trouble.

He didn’t see Stan’s car on his way to the plaza, nor did he see it in the parking facilities there. He slammed the steering wheel with his hand.

He had to find Stan. Better yet, he had to find Kelly and make sure she was all right.

After parking along the street outside the plaza, he again tried calling her—and again was directed straight to voice mail. What was he going to do now?

His phone rang, and he quickly looked at it. Could it be Kelly? No, it was a strange phone number.

“Hello?” he said, hating to take the time to answer. He intended to head to Stan’s home, in case he could find the councilman there.

“Hello, is this Alan?” said a young-sounding male voice. “This is Eli Grodon.”

Alan’s heart pounded as questions surged through his mind. “Yes,” he said. “This is Alan Correy. How are you, Eli?”

Why would Eli be calling him? How had he gotten Alan’s phone number?

Where was Kelly? Was she all right?

“I’m not doing great,” Eli said. “Can you come to my house now? I really need to talk to you.”

* * *

“Where are we going?” Kelly asked again as loudly as she could, hating how her voice sounded so raspy and scared.

But she had been tied up and tossed onto the floor of the backseat of the luxurious sedan Stan drove—another sign of his ill-gotten wealth.

“I told you before,” Stan snapped from the front seat. He turned the wheel fast enough that Kelly’s head hit the floor. Her neck, and much of the rest of her body, were already sore from lying at this angle. But she’d had no choice except to let him truss her up this way and toss her into his car, which he had parked in his garage. He had a gun. He had threatened her—and Eli.

No one had seen what he had done to her. No neighbor, at least.

Paul had, of course. And so had Eli.

Eli. He was the reason Kelly hadn’t tried—much—to fight Stan. Paul was now in charge of him.

Stan had said he would be home soon, without Eli’s aunt. If Eli was a good boy and listened to Paul, he could be sure that Kelly would remain okay. If he didn’t...well, Stan didn’t tell his son what might happen.

Kelly knew that the chances she would come out of this alive were slim to none. But Stan had intimated that Shereen was going to go visit Eli’s mother.

Would he take her to wherever he had hidden Andi’s body?

If so, and if Kelly died, too, she would at least gain that little bit of knowledge. But she wanted so badly to let other people know...

Stan turned his radio on and began listening to some shrieking operatic music, obviously not wanting to talk to Kelly, or even listen if she tried again to say something.

Fortunately, the ride had mostly been smooth so far. Kelly struggled some more with the ropes that bound her arms, but again it was to no avail.

If only she could talk to Alan, communicate with him some way, but that was impossible. One of the first things Stan had done when he entered his home and aimed that gun at her was to have Paul grab her purse, which held her cell phone.

She wanted to tell Alan where she was so he could save her.

And if that was impossible, she at least wanted to tell him goodbye...

The smoothness of the ride suddenly changed. The engine grew louder, its sound less masked by the shrieking radio music.

Kelly was pressed against the backseat. The road was clearly sloping upward.

Into the mountains?

To Andi’s cabin?

Kelly had realized, after Eli had mentioned it, that the cabin could have become a refuge for Andi—or her last resting place, if Stan had learned about it.

Was he driving her there now so she would join her sister in life...or death? All Stan had told her before about their destination was that it would answer some of Kelly’s questions so that maybe, at last, she would shut up.

* * *

Alan parked at the curb several houses away from Stan Grodon’s home. He wasn’t sure what he would find there, why Eli had called him. How he had called him—how he’d gotten his phone number.

Without answers to these questions, he had to treat this situation like an operation in which he would be using all of his official training and intuition to help the kid.

And Kelly? She had to be involved in this, too, at least in some manner.

He could only hope that she was still okay.

He exited his car, then stayed close to the fences at the outer perimeters of the neighbors’ property, in case Stan had come home and Eli had called Alan because he was in danger.

He didn’t see Stan’s car, but there was an alleyway behind the place lined with tall fences, and presumably a driveway there leading into a garage.

Another tall wooden fence ran along the sidewalk, but Alan could see the upper story of the large, attractive beige home that was Stan’s and his son’s—and that was also once his missing wife’s.

Alan kept his cell phone in his left hand, leaving his right hand free to reach toward the holster hidden beneath his shirt if he needed to draw his weapon. When he got to the gate in the critical fence, he assumed it would be locked, but was surprised when it opened for him with no trouble.

His mind had already devised a premise for showing up here if he was confronted by Stan. As part of the security team for the city council, he wanted to make sure that the important member who’d left the big party was okay. It was a bit flimsy, yes, but it was the best thing he could come up with.

Since he was going to use that story if he had to, he decided not to walk around the house to scope it out first. Besides, getting inside quickly might be imperative.

He walked up the path to the porch steps, climbed them and rang the doorbell.

He listened but heard nothing inside. Had Stan come here, retrieved his son, then left?

Was young Eli all right?

Alan thought he discerned some shuffling footsteps, then the ornate front door opened. Eli stood there.

“I’m glad you’re here.” The kid’s face was ashen. “Come in, okay?”

“Of course.” Alan crossed the threshold, following Eli into the entry hall.

The kid closed the door behind them. He wore a black T-shirt over jeans, plus athletic shoes—the outfit he had worn to school?

Why was he here instead of there?

“Eli, I’d really like to know—”

“Please, come in here.” The kid’s tone sounded urgent, so Alan obeyed. Eli led him into the kitchen.

No one else was there. Where was his father?

Alan started to ask, but Eli, standing right in front of him by a long tile counter, turned and looked up at him with scared brown eyes, light eyebrows drawn into a stricken curve. “My aunt said I could trust you,” he said in a soft, scared voice.

His aunt? Then Kelly/Shereen had identified herself to him? When? Where?

Once again Alan opened his mouth to start asking questions, but Eli continued talking, looking down at his feet. “I don’t understand it all. But my dad—I think he did something to my mom. My aunt ran away, and then she came back looking different but said she wanted to help me.”