Chapter Seventeen
“They are going to wonder where we are,” Brooke said, trying to keep her voice calm. She was groggy from whatever Mark had used to drug her, which helped her keep her composure, but it also made it hard for her to think her way out of her predicament.
“Only you. I’ll be back at the courthouse in a flash,” Mark said as he fastened her hands together with zip ties. He stepped back to examine his work while she tried without success to see something, anything, but the blindfold covering her eyes was firmly fixed in place. She smelled something vaguely familiar, lavender maybe, but other than that she didn’t have a clue as to her location.
“What’s your plan?” she asked, half hoping he was egotistical enough to brag about what he was up to. Her bet paid off.
“You didn’t get the hints I gave you about what to do on the jury, so I decided a little mistrial is in order.” He paused for a moment and then the singsong voice was back. “It was so odd. Juror number twelve went to lunch and never came back. I’ve never heard of anything like it.”
She grew cold at his laugh and quietly wrestled against her bonds while she struggled to come up with something to say to get out of this situation. “Wait, there’s an alternate. If I don’t show up, they’ll just substitute him in for me. The trial will go on and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
He laughed again. “Nope. Mr. Alternate has dropped out. Word is he met the same fate as dear old Mr. Rodriguez.”
Brooke swallowed a gasp as she remembered Rodriguez, the juror whose dramatic collapse in the courtroom had sealed her fate as one of the twelve. Whoever was behind the attempt to rig this trial had enormous reach. Much bigger than she or even Reggie had anticipated.
Thinking of Reggie caused her to wonder what she was doing right now. Was she at the courthouse, finishing up a sandwich at the cafeteria in the basement or was she with her friends who worked there, sharing a meal, maybe even laughing about the woman who couldn’t even commit to a simple date?
No, Reggie wasn’t the kind of person to kiss and tell or make fun. Reggie was kind and loyal. She’d pushed Reggie away for no good reason. If she got out of her current situation alive, she vowed to make it right, which made her even more determined to escape whatever this was. “Are you seriously going to keep me here until the trial is over?”
His laugh sounded patronizing this time and before he could answer, her mind filled in the blanks. She knew who’d abducted her and knew his motive. He wasn’t just going to keep her here until the trial was over—he couldn’t risk leaving her alive.
But if that was the case, why didn’t he simply kill her now and get it over with? Maybe, there was someone else charged with doing the real dirty work and Mark was merely a cog in the machine of Benton’s evil enterprise.
As if in answer to her question, Mark gagged her. “I have to go since two missing jurors would be super suspicious. Don’t worry, someone will be by to look in on you soon. It was nice knowing you, Brooke.”
She heard his footsteps and the sound of the door closing. She counted to thirty before struggling against her bonds, full force, but she succeeded in doing nothing more than cutting her wrists against the hard plastic of the zip ties. She screamed, but only muffled sounds emerged, and it was unlikely any neighbors were home in the middle of the day to hear her distress. After a few minutes of sustained effort, she took a deep breath and considered her plight. She was stuck here until help came or she came up with a solid idea for escape, and all she could hope was that Ben was okay, and that when she didn’t turn up at the courthouse, someone, hopefully Reggie, would realize that she wasn’t flaking out, but was in real danger. After what seemed like forever, despair settled in with the lingering effects of whatever drug Mark had used, and against her will, her eyes fluttered closed and she surrendered to a dream of Reggie bursting through the door to save the day.
* * *
Reggie pushed through the door and walked down the hall behind the courtroom, ignoring the instructions about staying in the jury room. Brooke wasn’t back from lunch and no one professed to have seen her during the break. Mark hadn’t shown back up either and she couldn’t help but wonder if Brooke was with him.
“Hey, Reggie,” Leroy said as he walked toward her on the opposite side of the hallway. “You’re not supposed to be out here.”
“We’re also supposed to start back up at one o’clock and it’s almost two. What’s going on?”
He looked at the floor. “You know I can’t talk to you about stuff that goes on in chambers.”
“Leroy, if it isn’t about the facts of the case, I don’t understand why you can’t tell me. Brooke Dawson hasn’t shown up yet. Can you at least tell me if she’s okay?”
He stared at her for a moment, and then his shoulders sagged to signal he couldn’t resist her plea. “I don’t know. No one can reach her. Could be she checked out due to all the stuff that’s been happening, but we’ve got another one missing too. Judge Hunt is trying to reach the alternate, but he’s gone AWOL too. Bad coincidence.”
Unless it wasn’t. Reggie’s mind whirred with the possibilities. She’d had a weird feeling about Mark from the moment they’d met, but she’d written it off to the clash between his busybody nature and her desire for privacy. But what if her instincts were signaling more than that? Could Benton have influenced someone else on the jury to shore up his plan?
While she digested the distasteful idea, she composed a text to Brooke. Just checking to make sure you’re okay. Not like you to be this late. She added a zany face emoji to soften any accusatory tone in the last phrase and hit send before she could overthink the message. She stared at the screen, hoping for a quick response, but nothing appeared. While she continued to stare, the door opened, and Mark walked into the room. He nodded to Leroy and murmured that he’d run home for lunch and when he started to head back, his car wouldn’t start, and he’d had to call for a ride. Reggie watched the exchange, noting the relief on Leroy’s face that at least one of the wayward jurors had shown up, but the churning in her gut only accelerated. She fired off a quick text to Lennox.
Brooke is missing. Who is Mark Landon—juror? Need to know ASAP.
She didn’t wait for a response and instead started googling on her own. It didn’t take long to find a Mark Landon who lived in Oak Cliff and worked for a local IT company. According to his LinkedIn page, he had worked there for about five years. The house he lived in previously belonged to a woman who shared his last name—probably his mother based on the date of purchase and her best guess about Mark’s age. She ran another search and confirmed Dorothy Landon, resident of Oak Cliff, had died last year and was survived by her sons, including Mark.
She stared at the screen and realized she’d found out a bunch of facts, but not a single one implied Mark would have anything to do with Brooke being a no-show. She was being overly dramatic. Anything could’ve made Brooke late and the simplest explanation was probably spot-on. She started to shove her phone into her pocket when it buzzed with a new text. She scanned the screen hoping it was Brooke, but it was Lennox instead.
Come see me. Now.
She looked across the room at Leroy who was still frowning, likely because Brooke hadn’t turned up yet. Ducking out now would only sour his mood further, but she had no choice. She lied and told him she was going to the bathroom, but when the door shut behind her, she jogged down the back hallway and out the door on the far side that spilled into the seventh-floor hallway. Lennox’s office was on the twelfth floor and she risked the elevator rather than the stairs since her heart was already racing. When she finally reached the reception desk for the DA’s office, Lennox was waiting for her, car keys in hand.
“Where are you going? You told me to come see you,” Reggie said, knowing she sounded annoyed, but not caring.
“Change in plans,” Lennox said, already on the move. “Come on.”
Reggie followed her to the back elevator that no one except the DA and judges and anyone accompanying them used. The doors opened right after Lennox pushed the button, and Reggie barely waited until the doors closed before launching in. “Tell me what’s going on or I’m going to come unhinged.”
Lennox stared hard at her for a moment. “You like this woman.”
Reggie wanted to scream. “Are you really going to tease me right now?”
“No, but I want to warn you that I think Mark Landon is Benton’s inside source and people saw Brooke leave with him at the lunch break.”
Reggie’s racing heart slammed still at Lennox’s words. She replayed them a few times in her head, trying to make sense of the revelation. “Wait, what? Who saw Brooke leave with him? And he just came back, late, with some excuse about how he went home for lunch and then his car wouldn’t start.”
The elevator stopped and Lennox stepped out. “It must’ve started just fine because it’s in the parking garage right now. Are you coming?”
Reggie followed Lennox out of the elevator, but she wasn’t done asking questions. “Again, how do you know this?”
“Because Sarah has undercover agents watching all of the jurors right now.”
“Including me?”
“Of course, including you. Mostly for protection, but also in case anyone started acting weird. There aren’t enough agents for continuous surveillance, but they’re keeping tabs on things. I figured Benton isn’t the type of guy to put all his trust in one intimidated juror.”
Reggie blew past dwelling on the fact she’d likely been followed and focused on Lennox’s last sentence. “I don’t get it. Was Mark being threatened too?” She turned the idea over in her mind, but couldn’t make it work. “Wait, you think he’s working for Benton.”
“Bingo. His brother is a programmer who works for one of Benton’s companies. Mark works freelance in IT, but Sarah did a little digging and guess where most of his contracts come from?”
“Benton Enterprises.”
“You’re brilliant.” Lennox stopped at her car and motioned for Reggie to get in.
Reggie started to ask why nobody had caught that Mark did work for Benton during jury selection, but she knew better. The attorneys for each side only had a few minutes to review the cursory questionnaire completed by each juror and she was willing to bet Mark listed his profession, but there would’ve been no reason to ask about his clientele unless his work had direct bearing on the case. Add in the fact he wasn’t on Benton’s jury and there’d been no reason to connect Benton with the charges against Mitchell and it was easy to see how the oversight had happened.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”
Lennox took the bridge toward Oak Cliff. “Guess.”
She didn’t have to guess. “Benton’s house. Do you think Brooke is there? Do you really think he would be that stupid?” she asked, while praying it was true because if Brooke wasn’t there, then where was she?
“I don’t know, but I need you to promise me you won’t be. I shouldn’t be bringing you with me, so do me a favor and hang back and let Sarah and her team do their job. She’ll take care of your girl. I promise.”
Reggie started to protest Lennox’s characterization of Brooke, but every response she replayed in her head fell flat. Brooke might not be hers, but she couldn’t deny that she wanted her to be. What would Brooke think about her showing up at Landon’s, riding shotgun with the cavalry sent to save the day? Would it change her mind about whether they could have something more or would she be annoyed that Reggie kept showing up when she’d asked her for some space?
Reggie shook her head. All that mattered right now was making sure Brooke was safe. Once she was certain she was out of danger, she’d walk away, if that’s what Brooke wanted, but if she was willing to try for more, she’d be ready for that too.
“Here we go,” Lennox said as she pulled up to a small yellow house. “I’ll go see what I can find out. Promise you’ll stay in the car.”
“Sure,” Reggie said, secretly crossing her fingers, not wanting to fully commit. If there were clear signs Brooke was in danger, a promise to Lennox wasn’t going to stop her from going in that house, FBI be damned.
At that moment, Sarah appeared and knocked on the driver’s side window. Lennox lowered the window and asked, “What’s up?”
“No one’s here,” Sarah said, her face grim.
“What do you mean?” Reggie asked. “Then where is she?”
“I mean no one’s here.” Sarah sighed. “Brooke was with him when he stopped by here, but Landon lost my guy on his way back to the courthouse. We assumed he’d left her here since she wasn’t with him when he showed up in the parking garage, but I guess it’s possible he took her somewhere else on the way.”
Reggie came out of her seat. “You assume? You guess?” She turned to Lennox. “What the hell? She could be anywhere. He could have…”
She couldn’t allow herself to speak the words for fear saying them might create a reality she couldn’t face. A moment ago, she’d been ready to charge the house if there were signs Brooke was in trouble, but now she knew she was and she had no idea where to go or what to do to make it right. All she knew for sure was finding Brooke was the most important thing she could do and if these people couldn’t do it, she would take matters into her own hands.