Chapter 9 Point of No Return #3
Uncle Cary squinted back at them with heavily dilated, glazed-over eyes.
He was sweating profusely through the white blanket that was wrapped around him like a mummy.
Ropes and cords were holding him upright.
He’d aged since the last time they’d seen him, appearing much older than his fifty-one years.
His features were shriveled from dehydration.
But he was alive. Aaron and A.J. quickly clawed him loose and laid him on the floor to check his vitals. His pulse was faint and growing weaker.
“He needs an ambulance,” Aaron shouted hoarsely.
“On it!” Aurora was already dialing 9-1-1.
Paramedics and FBI agents were soon crawling like ants through the office. Aurora and Aaron were allowed to accompany him to the hospital in an ambulance. A.J. followed in a cab. It was several hours and I.V. bags later before Uncle Cary revived enough to communicate with them.
The first time he tried to speak, he wheezed and fumbled with the oxygen cord clipped to his nose.
“Nurse! We need a nurse in here!” Aaron shot to his feet and leaned over the bed.
“Wait!” Uncle Cary gasped out the word, looking wild-eyed and feverish. His color was finally returning. “She’s…in on it.” His hand clamped weakly around Aaron’s wrist as he dissolved into a coughing fit.
“Who? Elise?” Aurora hastily poured him a glass of water and held it to his lips. He choked on the first sip, spewing water droplets everywhere, but he got the second sip down and the third.
“Yes!” His voice grew stronger. “She…” He stopped and loudly cleared his throat. “She returned…after you fired her.”
“How?” Sounding incensed, Aurora helped him sit up. They’d changed the key code on the locks, debugged the office, and installed new firewalls and safeguards. Elise shouldn’t have been able to step foot inside the office.
“I don’t know.” Uncle Cary frowned in confusion. “She must have…overridden the system…somehow.” He sagged against the pillows as he recounted what had happened in a halting voice. She’d held him at gunpoint and then knocked him unconscious with a paperweight.
Their uncle looked ashamed at having been outmaneuvered so easily. In his defense, he shouldn’t have had to be looking over his shoulder. The home office should’ve been secure. “When I woke up,” he rasped, “it was dark…and I couldn’t move.”
Aaron couldn’t imagine the horror he must have felt, sandwiched inside what was intended to be a pitch-black tomb.
Aurora made a sound of disgust. “While you were out, the doctor came and talked to us. They ran some blood tests and determined you were dosed with a paralytic. One of the slower onset, longer-acting ones.”
It wasn’t an act of mercy, though. Aaron could all but guarantee its sole purpose had been to subdue the man while he was enshrouded and sealed behind the wall.
“The construction alone would’ve taken a couple of hours.” He met his sister’s gaze, struggling to wrap his head around what their uncle had endured. “We’re talking drywall, paint…”
Aurora blinked back tears. “Not to be overly morbid, but why not just put a bullet through him?”
Nobody answered, because the answer was staring them in the face. Elise had wanted him to suffer. It wasn’t just attempted homicide. It was something else. Something more.
“What do we know about her?” A.J.’s voice was brisk. “Other than the obvious stuff, of course.” He spread his hands. “Ex-girlfriend. Personal assistant. Yada yada. But what about before all of that?”
All eyes turned toward Aaron. “She’s the daughter of a JSA board member.
Dropped out of Harvard and Yale. It was rumored she switched college towns every time she got bored with the shopping.
Typical spoiled, indulged rich kid.” Self-loathing flooded him as he struggled to remember what he’d ever seen in her.
“She was adopted,” Uncle Cary chimed in.
His breathing was less labored than before, and he was able to speak with more clarity.
“Your parents were friends of her parents. They adopted children at the same time. Not because your moms couldn’t have children.
They just didn’t want to. I remember Helen saying years ago…
” He adjusted the oxygen cord and drew a few deep breaths.
“…that giving birth naturally was inconvenient.”
“Inconvenient!” Aurora sounded forlorn.
Aaron’s gaze narrowed on his uncle. “Since we probably don’t have much time before the FBI gets here—”
“Here?” Uncle Cary looked astonished. “Why would they come to the hospital instead of going after her?”
“Uh…” Aaron exchanged a troubled look with his sister. “Maybe because of the life insurance payouts you received for our parents?”
Uncle Cary frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Millions of dollars, Uncle Cary, not that we care about the money.” Aurora made a sad sound that tore at Aaron’s heart. “What we don’t get is why you hid the death certificates from us.”
His blank look was telling. “I’m lost.” He yanked his oxygen cord from his nose, scowling in pure agitation at them. “If you’re accusing me of something, just get on with it!”
“He doesn’t know,” Aaron said suddenly. Relief flooded him so powerfully that he felt like weeping. “Because he’s innocent.”
“Innocent of what?” their uncle howled. “I don’t even know what I’m being accused of!”
Laughter and tears followed his complaint.
The FBI arrived, and more questions flew back-and-forth. The Feds started digging into Elise’s background. Before nightfall, they were able to piece together a chilling story about a previously unknown side of Aaron’s ex-girlfriend.
She wasn’t simply a college dropout. She was a dangerous con artist, who’d infiltrated the JSA through her adoptive parents.
No one was certain how she’d gotten her hands on the Collector’s list of missing treasures, but an investigation into her life of crime was underway.
A warrant was issued, and an award was posted for any information leading to her arrest.
Aaron, Aurora, and A.J. remained at Uncle Cary’s bedside long past visiting hours, but no one asked them to leave. It probably helped that FBI agents were stationed outside the door of his room.
They returned early the next morning to talk through all the mixed signals and miscommunication that had been piling up between them.
“I should’ve never said anything yesterday about your mother’s reasons for adopting.” Their uncle’s voice was beseeching. “She loved you. That’s all that matters.”
His words brought on another round of tears now that the FBI had verified the death certificates for Helen and James Cannon were real. Uncle Cary wasn’t the one who’d collected their life insurance proceeds, however. Elise was.
“You kids were never an inconvenience to them or me,” he continued gruffly. “Why else do you think I dragged my reclusive carcass into the office?”
It had been an act of love. They could see that now.
Aurora sat on the edge of his bed, cradling his hand between hers. “While we’re apologizing, I’m sorry for treating you like such an oddball.”
He gave a dry cackle. “I am an oddball.”
“An honest one that stole our hearts years ago.” She squeezed his hand affectionately. “Don’t even think of fading back into the woodwork, because we’ll simply drag you out again. You’re all the family we have left.”
He reddened with appreciation. “Maybe we can strike a compromise, because CEO material I am not.” Remorse infused his voice. “All the bad stuff happened under my watch.”
“Not true.” Aaron snorted. “Elise was working there before you showed up.” He was never going to forgive himself for dating such a horrible person.
One week later
Aaron’s phone vibrated with an incoming call. He turned off the vacuum and scanned the caller ID. It was his boss.
“Elise Hathaway was spotted on a traffic camera.” He described the location.
She’s back in town? Aaron’s shoulders tensed. “When?”
“Twenty minutes ago, give or take.” Luke sounded harried. “We’ve notified the FBI and are calling everyone into the station. We need all boots on the ground for roadblocks, checkpoints, you name it.”
“What can I do to help?” Aaron had been vacuuming out his truck, since it was his day off and he was bored out of his mind. It was a relief to have something to do again.
Luke huffed out a breath. “Why don’t you head out to the roadblock they’re setting up at the main entrance into town? And take A.J. with you. If he hasn’t gotten a call yet from Lonestar, he’ll be getting one shortly.”
A clattering sound made Aaron glance toward the metal stairs leading up to A.J.’s apartment. A.J. was jogging down them two at a time.
“Looks like he got the call.” Aaron ended his call with the sheriff to intercept the scowling private investigator.
“Wonder what Elise Hathaway is doing in town,” A.J. growled.
“I know, right?” Being caught on camera felt careless.
It was equally possible that it was deliberate.
Elise was bold. So far, she’d proven to be adept at staying one step ahead of the authorities.
“What are you thinking?” he asked as they climbed into A.J.
’s truck. “One last smash and grab of stolen gems before she takes off for good?”
“Hard to tell.” A.J. yanked on his seatbelt. “She showed her face for a reason, though.”
“Yep,” Aaron concurred, “which got the FBI, police, and Lonestar Security scrambling.”
“All over town,” A.J. pointed out dryly. “Spreading us thin while she does what?”
Aaron chewed his way through the possibilities as A.J.
drove toward the main checkpoint. “Maybe we need to quit looking at things like police officers and start thinking like a criminal.” He knew firsthand what a skilled actress his ex was was.
“As far as she knows, Uncle Cary is as good as dead. What’s next for a woman on a murderous rampage?
” He snapped his fingers as the most logical answer occurred to him.
“Maybe she’s back to take another shot at me. ”
“Or both of you,” A.J. agreed.
They exchanged a worried look. “Aurora!” They said her name in unison, and A.J. dialed her number.
She didn’t pick up, so he tried again. “No answer,” he said grimly.
Though they were expected at the roadblock, A.J. did a U-turn and gunned the motor. They sped back to the apartment and sprinted up the stairs.
The door was unlocked, even though A.J. swore he hadn’t left it unlocked. It took less than a minute to determine she wasn’t present, which was crazy. They’d only been gone a few minutes.
Aaron tried calling her again and again, but she didn’t pick up. He wanted to throw his phone across the room and howl at the ceiling, but it wouldn’t bring her back.
They’d been sent on a wild goose chase, and now Aurora was missing.