The Path of the Crooked (Hope Street Church Mysteries Book 1) (30 page)

“This view!” Cooper breathed and then turned away from the window in an effort to break the apartment’s spell. It was easy to forget about the outside world in such a lush and hedonistic setting.

Nathan also tore his eyes from the enchanting view. “Where are your kids?”

Cindi’s face immediately grew guarded. “With their father. Why?”

“Just trying to be friendly,” Nathan said kindly. “I know they must mean the world to you.”

Cooper reflected on how Cindi’s neighbor had said,
If they are her progeny . . .

Making an obvious show of shifting back and forth on her feet as though she was in a state of discomfort, Cooper cleared her throat in embarrassment. “Ma’am, I had an awful lot of sweet tea for lunch. Would you mind if I used your bathroom?”

After hesitating for a moment, Cindi waved at her. “This way.” Walking ahead of Cooper, Cindi hastily closed the doors leading to two of the three rooms off the hallway. One of the doors had a sign reading
Kid Zone: Stay Out!
hanging from the knob. Gesturing to the only open door, Cindi stepped aside.

Cooper waited several seconds and then flushed the toilet. Afterward, she washed her hands and then opened the door a crack. No one was in the hall, and she could hear Nathan’s voice in the other room. As quietly as possible, Cooper eased open the door across from the bathroom.

A speedy glance confirmed that the room was a media center. A large flat-screen television dominated one wall while a U-shaped sofa in black leather took up the remaining space. The only accents in the room were the square red pillows on the sofa and the black-and-white photographs on the wall. Cooper looked at the closest image and gasped. It was a nude photograph of Cindi, lying on her stomach with one of the square pillows propped beneath her arms. There were a dozen shots altogether, each showing Cindi revealing parts of her body that should only be seen by a doctor or a lover.

Cooper closed the door and dashed back into the bathroom, where she turned on the faucet and splashed her face with cold water.

“Are you okay in there?” Cindi’s voice echoed down the short hall.

“Yes, thank you!” Cooper struggled to control her astonishment. “I’ll be right out.”

She wiped her hands and face on a black hand towel embroidered with the letter
C
in gold thread. Then, turning on the tap once again, she snuck out of the bathroom and opened the door with the sign hanging from the knob. Having already spent far too long pretending to be using the facilities, Cooper only peeked at a single object in the bedroom. One look inside the family album was all she needed to cause her heart to skip several beats. She ducked into the bathroom, turned off the water, and reentered the living room.

“Sorry,” she said, avoiding Cindi’s gaze. Instead, she locked eyes with Nathan, taking comfort in his kind, familiar face. “My lunch doesn’t seem to be settling too well.”

“Let me get you some ginger ale,” Cindi offered and walked into the kitchen.

Nathan got up from where he’d sunk into the cushions of a white sofa and took Cooper’s elbow. “You don’t look so good.”

Cooper gestured in the direction of the kitchen and then made a pair of horns on either side of her temple using her pointer fingers. Nathan frowned and shrugged.

“She and Vance—” Cooper began in an agitated whisper. She stopped when she saw Cindi reenter the room carrying a glass filled with ice in one hand and a gun in the other.

“Sit down,” she commanded with a flick of the gun. Appearing completely relaxed, Cindi poured herself a drink from the crystal carafe. “I’d offer you all some whiskey, but it’s the good stuff.”

“You don’t have kids, do you?” Cooper blurted.

Cindi drank a slug of whiskey and licked her lips. “Nope. Never had one and never will. There’s something wrong with my plumbing.” She put a hand on her flat stomach and grinned wickedly. “My job was to seduce Reed Newcombe and convince him to create a computer program to steal money from Capital City customers. Well, Reed loves kids, and I knew he wouldn’t want to be with me unless I put on the helpless little mommy act, so I borrowed my sister’s kids a couple of times.” She looked up, her eyes dark and defiant. “I’ve been good to those snotty brats too! Bought them all kinds of stuff, even though they never thanked me.”

Nathan looked around wildly, clearly searching for a way to distract Cindi and buy them some precious time. “Reed has four kids of his own. How could he afford this place?”

Cindi polished off the whiskey. “Once our scam was in full swing, Reed got plenty of cash. Imagine my surprise when I found out he didn’t plan to share it with me after all.” She poured herself another splash of whiskey and smirked. “He actually wanted to patch things up with his cow of a wife. Of course he didn’t get a chance to tell her that before he took his late-night swim.”

Cooper thought back to the brief exchange between Reed and Vance on the pitcher’s mound. “Is that what Reed told Vance at the Little League game? That he was planning on quitting his job? Vance looked angry, and then he wiped the emotion from his face and pretended to be supportive.”

“Reed wasn’t supposed to quit. He was supposed to get caught, but he let Vance down by turning into a Boy Scout at the last second.” Cindi sank into the sofa’s plump cushions. “I was going to get rid of Reed sooner or later. Vance and I just needed someone to pin the blame on, so that Newcombe’s days were numbered from our first kiss. He made it easier by making both me and Vance mad. Can you believe he actually broke up with me?” She uttered a deranged giggle.

“We thought Vance pushed him off the bridge, but it was you, wasn’t it?” Cooper tried to control her shaking hands. “I saw all the pictures of the two of you in the so-called kids’
bedroom. Vance has been your boyfriend for years, right?”

Cindi pretended to clap using her free hand against her glass. “Vance has the brains and I’ve got the guts to do whatever it takes to get rich. I borrowed Vance’s SUV, helped myself to his dead wife’s morphine, and gave Reed a little push. Whoopsie!” She giggled, and the sound echoed eerily in the large room. “Brooke was first, then came Reed, and I’d hunt down that weasel accountant if I had the time, but I don’t. Now it looks like I’ll have to deal with you two. How annoying.”

Her face slowly transformed. Gone was her expression of smug pride. A cruel and calculating mask fell over her features like a curtain. Pushing a strand of black hair off her forehead, Cindi stood and waved the gun at Cooper and Nathan. “Enough chitchat. I won’t sit here and tell you all the hows and whys. Vance and I wanted money. Loads of it. Vance came up with a way for us to get a boatload. Just think of us as Bonnie and Clyde, but with nicer clothes.”

“Did you send Brooke those threatening faxes?” Nathan couldn’t tear his eyes from the gun.

“No. Reed did that. Went to some mailing place south of the river so he couldn’t be traced.” For a moment, she looked at him as though hoping to be entertained. “How did you find out about those?”

“We found them in Brooke’s home office. The woman who owns the mailing place remembers that the man who sent the faxes had light-colored dog hair all over the sleeve of his coat. When we saw the Newcombe family dog at the Little League game—”

“You must have thought you had it all figured out, eh?” she said with a sneer. She moved to a side table and picked up a voluminous black leather purse. After placing the pistol inside the bag, she said, “I can shoot through this bag. The leather’s paper-thin. Now stand up.”

As Cooper and Nathan rose from their seated positions, Cindi stepped directly in front of them. “Don’t even think of acting like heroes. Vance is on his way. I called him when I was pretending to fetch your ginger ale.” She gave Cooper a snide smile and opened her apartment door. “He’ll decide what to do with you both, but I have no problem blowing your brains out before he gets here. Now get in that elevator.”

Inside the elevator, Nathan put his arm around Cooper’s shoulder. “Hit the garage button and then keep your hands out in front of you, Xerox boy!” Cindi snapped from behind them.

“Hazel Wharton was right.” Nathan’s voice was filled with ire. “You three tried to get rich by ripping off Capital City clients. Did you stop to think that every penny mattered to some of those people?”

Cindi snorted. “Poor folks shouldn’t charge stuff they can’t pay for. I grew up in a trailer park, so I know all about that. My daddy drank away every dime he got, but the one thing he did right was teach me how to shoot.” The elevator paused at the lobby level. Seconds before the doors slid open, Cindi rammed her purse against Cooper’s back. “Don’t say a word,” she hissed.

An elderly gentleman in a seersucker suit put a single shiny loafer inside the elevator and then immediately stepped back out. “Goodness, I forgot my glasses again,” he said. “My apologies for delaying you.”

Cooper longed to grab the man by the sleeve, and though she prayed with all her might he’d turn around and notice the terror in their faces, the brass doors slid closed and the elevator resumed its downward journey.

“You should put some meat on your bones,” Cindi said to Cooper, still pressing the gun against her back.

Anger surged through Cooper. This was twice in a matter of weeks that someone had jabbed a gun barrel into her flesh, and she didn’t enjoy the feeling.

Cooper’s fury swelled as an image of the Hughes family photographs came into her mind. “I can’t believe you shot Brooke Hughes!” she suddenly yelled. “She kept you on as her assistant because she felt sorry for you, and you repaid her by showing up at her house and shooting her point-blank! What kind of person does that?”

The elevator stopped at the garage level. Cindi pushed Cooper forward and then slid behind Nathan, her right hand inside her bag and her free arm draped possessively on his left arm. “I
told
her I’d handle Hazel, but Brooke wouldn’t trust me with one of her precious clients—especially an old, upset black lady. If my saint of a boss hadn’t hired that nosy accountant, she’d still be alive.” Cindi’s eyes darted around the dim parking lot. “Reed could have lived too, but he got too greedy. After all, he just wrote a computer program. Vance is the one who thought of the whole penny-stealing scheme.”

“Reed isn’t dead. He could wake up any moment and tell the cops everything,” Cooper said. She knew it was unwise to taunt a woman who held a gun and had already committed murder with no signs of remorse, but she expected the news to give Cindi pause.

It didn’t. Cindi shrugged nonchalantly. “He’s better off dead. If he wakes up, he’ll take the fall for the whole scam. Vance has made arrangements for the finger to point right at Reed. He’s left a paper trail even you two morons could follow.” She laughed, delighted by this notion. “That old bat Hazel and that dumb accountant don’t know how lucky they are. We won’t waste time trying to find them. Once you two are taken care of, Vance and I are leaving the country. Ah,” she cackled zealously, “here’s my ticket to the good life now.”

A dark-colored SUV pulled to an abrupt stop in front of them and Cooper went weak in the knees. She darted a desperate look at Nathan, whose face was grim and fearful. “If we get in that car, we’re going to die,” she whispered urgently to him.

Overhearing, Cindi laughed with mirth and then opened the back door of the SUV. She pulled the gun from her bag and her finger rested on the trigger. Smiling crookedly, her dark eyes flashed. “You’re going to die either way.” She trained the gun on Cooper but stared at Nathan, her expression filled with a crazed elation. “Get in, copy boy, or I shoot her right here and now.”

Nathan hesitated, looking around for anything that would serve as a weapon, but there was nothing. With a defeated slump to his shoulders, he climbed into the SUV.

“You with the freaky eyes.” Cindi came so close that Cooper could feel Cindi’s breath on her face. “Your turn. Since you and Brooke went to church together, you must be a good Christian girl. So let’s see if your faith can save you now. Go on,” she commanded viciously. “Start praying.”

Cooper closed her eyes. She sank to her knees and prayed with everything she had in her. Eyes squeezed shut, she heard shouts all around the garage. There were men’s voices and then Cindi was yelling—her high-pitched screams reverberating with surprise and rage. The chaos of shrieks and shouts escalated until the boom of a gunshot eclipsed all other sound.

19

“Do you need a drink of water?” Investigator McNamara asked patiently.

Cooper sat up straighter in bed, wincing at the pain that flared along the length of her left arm. “No, thanks. I don’t have anything else to add to my statement. Cindi told me to pray and that’s exactly what I did.” She looked at the police officer. “I heard you yell ‘Put your hands in the air’ to Cindi and ‘Get down’ to me.”

“That’s exactly right. I was trying to get you out of the line of fire.” His steely eyes softened. “But you were already on your knees when I yelled.”

From where she sat in the corner of the hospital room, Trish clamped her hand on Quinton’s forearm. “This sounds like a movie scene.”

“Yeah, except in the movies, the cops are wearing bulletproof vests and get to shoot people without fair warning. The real good guys have to practically recite the Gettysburg Address before they’re allowed to take down a wacko like Cindi Rolfing.” Jake bit into a Snickers bar. “I need to quit eating this junk. May as well go back to smoking. Least I was skinnier.”

Looking tired but amused, McNamara turned his attention to Nathan, who sat in a chair next to Cooper’s bed. “At what point did Vance Maynard pull a gun on you?”

“Right after Cindi shot at you and your men. One of the bullets from the return fire grazed Cooper just below the shoulder. That’s when Maynard decided to bolt.” His eyes fell on Cooper’s bandaged arm. “I wish I’d been standing in that spot,” he said mournfully.

“What was Mr. Maynard’s reaction?” the lawman prompted. “Would you mind telling me again, for the record?”

Nathan nodded, his face etched with shame. “He pointed a gun at my head and told me to get out of the car. As soon as I did, he sped away.” He glanced at Cooper again. “He could have run you over.”