Chapter Seventeen
“Gilbert Jacquin?” The words flew from Lexi’s mouth like hot air as she sized up the man who was currently pointing a handgun with a sound suppressor at her. “What are you doing with that gun?” she questioned, alarm ringing in her voice.
Gilbert’s thick brows drew together. “At the moment, I’m using it to make sure you do exactly as I say, so that I don’t have to shoot you here and now.”
Almost as a reflex, Lexi’s hands raised while trying to come to terms with why the special projects administrator for the City of Phoenix should be gunning for her, literally.
Then things began to add up quickly as she thought about the two home invaders now in custody—Lonnie Saldana and Darren Fonseca—and Cooper implicating them in the carjacking murders of Horace and Neal.
All that seemed to be missing was the alleged mastermind behind the plot.
Someone who apparently had something to gain by having them killed without dirtying his own hands, per se, while able to fly under the radar.
Gilbert Jacquin.
Lexi peered at him, contemplating this unexpected moment, and demanded as if clueless, “What do you want with me, Gilbert?”
He grinned crookedly. “I’ll explain it all. But for starters, you can hand over your cell phone.”
Lexi hesitated as she pondered being surveilled by the home invaders, presumably at the behest of their employer: Gilbert Jacquin.
It was obvious that he hoped to cut off her line of communication.
Or to prevent Cooper—or anyone else who could help her out of this predicament—from coming to her rescue.
But she was hardly in a position to be defiant.
Not with Gilbert holding her at gunpoint.
She removed the cell phone from the back pocket of her knit trousers and passed it to him. “Now are you going to tell me what this is all about?” she asked point-blank. “Or do I have to guess?”
Gilbert slammed the phone onto the bamboo flooring and stomped on it with his dark brown hiking boots, causing the cell phone to shatter.
He glared at Lexi with satisfaction. “We’ll talk,” he told her brusquely.
“Not here. We’re going to take a little drive—in your car.
I’m afraid my car is likely being sought after by the authorities.
” After forcing her to grab her textured leather handbag containing her car’s key fob, he motioned toward the door with the barrel of his gun. “Let’s go—”
Lexi scowled at him. Under the circumstances, she had little choice but to capitulate to his demands, while buying precious time with her life evidently on the line.
They left the studio, and Lexi recognized in the small parking lot the silver Lincoln Nautilus SUV that he drove.
Bypassing that, they went to her Infiniti QX50 and Gilbert spat not so unexpectedly, “You drive!”
Lexi got behind the wheel, not knowing if she would ever be able to escape from the clutches of the special projects administrator, as Gilbert slid into the passenger seat and ordered her to start driving to an unknown destination.
A BOLO ALERT was put out for Gilbert Jacquin’s Lincoln Nautilus SUV and an arrest warrant issued for the special projects administrator himself, suspected of masterminding the public corruption probe-related carjacking murders of Horace Eckhart and Neal Zapponi.
Jacquin was considered armed and dangerous.
Most troubling to Cooper was Jacquin’s apparent fixation on Lexi.
At least that was what he read from interrogating Lonnie Saldana.
I have no reason at this point to think that Saldana was lying in pointing the finger at Jacquin as the ringleader in the carjackings, Cooper told himself, as well as the one calling the shots in Saldana’s and Fonseca’s surveillance of Lexi.
Bolstering Saldana’s assertions were recorded phone calls and texts made by him, retrieved through a search warrant, of conversations with Jacquin.
Though he used a burner phone to communicate with his hired killers, the Bureau had been able to access call detail records and track the location of the calls—placing Gilbert Jacquin’s use of his own cell phone within proximity and the timeline of calls made to and from both Lonnie Saldana and Darren Fonseca.
As far as Cooper was concerned, they had Jacquin dead to rights as the one in position of authority in commanding his underlings. But the special projects administrator was now left on his own to wheel and deal in criminality—making him all the more treacherous.
Would Jacquin go after Lexi himself, with Fonseca and Saldana no longer able to do his dirty work for him?
Cooper tried again to reach Lexi on her cell phone, but it went straight to her voicemail. He texted her for what was usually a quick response. Not this time. Did that mean she was in trouble? Had a desperate Jacquin managed to get to her?
I can’t lose Lexi now that I’ve found her and fallen for her in the best ways possible, Cooper thought, as he drove to the De La Garza Architects studio.
Like him, she had experienced enough tragedy in her life.
He wouldn’t allow Gilbert Jacquin to add to this and ruin any chance they had for a lifetime together of love and fulfillment.
Just as he was deep in thought and counting the ways that he could and would make Lexi happy, Cooper got a call, informing him that an automated license plate reader had picked up Jacquin’s silver Lincoln Nautilus on West Campbell Avenue. It was headed in the direction of Lexi’s studio.
Cooper’s heart skipped a beat. He thought with trepidation, Jacquin must have figured out they were onto him with the arrests of his cronies.
Now he needed Lexi as perhaps a bargaining chip at best. And to kidnap and maybe kill her—just to satisfy any such urges he may have possessed toward Lexi—at worst.
Even while alerting other law enforcement to head in that direction, Cooper pressed down on the accelerator, knowing he was nearby and sure that every second counted in finding Lexi alive and making sure she stayed that way.
WHILE DRIVING DOWN West Campbell Avenue, Lexi peered at her abductor and asked sharply, “Why have you kidnapped me, Gilbert?” I’d love to get a confession out of him that I can use against him if I can manage to survive this, she thought.
“Does this have anything to do with the carjackings and murders of Horace Eckhart and Neal Zapponi? The home invasion of my elderly neighbor? Or even my being strangely stalked by someone?” She frowned at him. “Or all of the above?”
“It’s everything you mentioned—by and large.
” Gilbert sighed loudly. “As you know, in my role with the City of Phoenix, it’s all about mixing and matching commercial and residential developers with particular locations and developments.
The competition is fierce, and navigating through these entities successfully is challenging, to say the least. Finding weak links like Horace Eckhart always makes my job a little easier—until circumstances made it harder.
” Gilbert faced Lexi. “Eckhart, with his financial difficulties, was the perfect mark to bribe. Didn’t take much in the form of cash payments to get him to do my bidding in expediting permits, stepping up on approvals, looking the other way, when necessary, on inspections or verifications of construction or renovation projects—basically, anything I needed from Eckhart in cutting corners to keep things going expeditiously and only slightly aboveboard… or not.”
Lexi glanced at the special projects administrator. “So, when did Horace’s cooperation with you turn to murder?”
Gilbert had an edge to his voice when he answered coldly, “When Eckhart got greedy and made demands that I flatly rejected. After he threatened to spill his guts to the Feds, he left me no choice but to have him taken out of the equation. I hired Darren Fonseca and Lonnie Saldana, two lowlifes I’d met at a club, to end Eckhart’s life—and they did. ”
“What about Neal Zapponi?” Lexi asked, outraged at just how indifferent Gilbert seemed in regard to conspiracy to commit murder.
“Was he on the take, too?” She doubted that, based on Neal being Cooper’s confidential informant, but wanted to ferret out whatever she could from the special projects administrator while continuing to buy time.
“Zapponi managed to stick his nose where he shouldn’t have,” Gilbert hissed. “When he overheard me talking with Fonseca and Saldana, Zapponi became a dead man walking. They finished him off at a construction site.”
I’m so sorry that happened to you, Neal, Lexi thought sadly, as she knew Cooper felt the same as well regarding the innocent contractor, who was only trying to do the right thing and made the ultimate sacrifice.
He directed her to drive onto Interstate 17 North, after turning onto West Camelback Road. Lexi cast her gaze at her kidnapper, who kept the gun pointed at her side, and asked him, “When did your hired guns decide to commit a home invasion at my neighbor’s, Eleanor Palakiko, residence?”
Gilbert’s brow furrowed. “That wasn’t my call,” he snorted. “They did that on the side…seizing on a foolish opportunity for a perceived easy score. It’s cost both of them. Such idiots…”
Look who’s talking, Lexi thought snidely, but asked, “So, was it your idea to have them follow me around in their SUV? If so, why?” I may as well get to the root of this one way or the other, she told herself, ill at ease.
“I take full credit for that,” Gilbert bragged callously.
“Started off by my wanting to make sure that, as an architect who had worked closely with Eckhart, he hadn’t passed along any info that may have exposed me as being behind the bribery.
They were supposed to keep their distance and you from ever knowing what was going on.
Clearly, that failed once they latched on to your neighbor and decided to rob her…