Chapter 23
This was definitely not who Everett expected.
Sitting in one of the chairs with his legs propped on the desk, Hunter Quaid looked more than at home in Everett’s office.
“I was beginning to think you weren’t going to show up,” Hunter said, looking bored out of his mind.
“How was I supposed to know you were waiting for me here?”
“You wouldn’t.” He turned to look over his shoulder at Everett. “But you should’ve found out that the heat from the cops had turned into a fucking inferno, and if you didn’t show your face soon, there would be an island-wide manhunt for you … along with Remi.”
Island-wide manhunt for him?
Damn it.
That could only mean one thing.
The cops had settled on Remington as Bobby’s murderer.
And the only way they would’ve done that is if they’d found the machete she’d used to stab her husband.
Everett wanted to kick his own ass for not sticking around longer to find it.
But with the sirens getting louder, he knew the chance of Adonis and his team beating the cops to the house to wipe the murder scene had narrowed to impossible.
The only move he could make was to get Remington out of that house.
But he should’ve gone back after he got her settled in the Tango Lowlands.
Found a way to keep searching for the weapon.
Maybe approached Kane to beg him to steal it from police custody.
As much as Kane probably wanted Remington to pay for murdering Bobby, Everett had a few cards to play to get his friend to see things his way.
The problem was, he hadn’t done any of that.
He was too damn mesmerized by being so close to Remington again. Basking in her presence and soaking up every ounce of the woman he’d wanted to be with from the moment he came back to the islands … the second time.
He had to get his head on straight if he was going to follow through on the promise he’d made to her.
“Or you could’ve texted me.” Everett walked past Hunter and sat behind his desk. “What can I do for you?”
“This is about what I can do for you,” Hunter said, lowering his feet from the desk.
“You see, Britt is very worried about Remi. She doesn’t care if she murdered Bobby or not.
She wanted to be her lawyer and help her fight this, but Britt wasn’t sure whether their shared ties to two of the most powerful cartels in the Palmchat Islands would help or hurt her.
So she backed off on that angle. It didn’t matter anyway because Remi is missing.
But she is prepared to ensure that Remi has whatever support she needs to get out of her predicament. ”
Everett raised an eyebrow. “I see …”
“And the way I see things,” Hunter leaned forward. “The one person on the Stingray Security team with the ability to make Remi disappear is … dead.”
Narrowing his eyes, Everett leaned back in his seat regarding the former bodyguard of Titus Freeman.
If anyone had access to the kind of connections that could help him and Remi vanish, it was Hunter through Britt.
As much as Everett hated relying on help from the very kind of men he’d spent his career trying to put in prison, he didn’t have a choice right now.
Hunter was right.
Not that Everett wasn’t well-connected. He could maneuver better than most … with law enforcement types. But those were all people committed to legal justice, going through the appropriate channels and doing things the right way.
None would lift a finger to help him make a murder suspect disappear.
But Britt would.
And she’d assign Hunter to the job.
There was no other choice.
Hunter continued, “In a few days, everything will be set up to make Remi Spade disappear, along with anyone who’d want to go with her. Chartered plane. New identities. A location where no one will ever be able to find them.”
“I can imagine that something like that would be a comfort to her, given the situation she’s in.”
“Exactly,” Hunter said, leaning forward. “There’s one little problem.”
“What’s that?”
“I can’t find her.” Hunter looked genuinely perplexed by this. “I’ve had the best of the best looking. Nothing.”
“You’re not alone,” Everett said, hedging.
Hunter leveled him with an intense stare that made it clear he didn’t believe him.
“That’s why Britt wanted me to come see you,” Hunter explained. “She figured that if anyone could find Remi, you could.”
Everett didn’t react.
“And if anyone already knew where Remi was, it would be … “ A smile curved Hunter’s lips. “You.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
Everett sucked in a sharp breath as he looked past Hunter to the pretty woman with a dark pixie cut standing in his doorway. The silver police badge clipped to her hip caught the light. But this wasn’t an ordinary beat cop or a detective.
This was the St. Felipe Chief of Police in his office—Simone Brown.
“To what do I owe the pleasure, Simone?” Everett asked. Now he understood the texts from Rocco and Adonis. The cops had squarely turned their attention to Everett as the way to find Remington.
“I’m here on official business.” She strutted into the office like a runway model, stopping where she had a clear view of both Hunter and Everett. “Surprised to see you here, Mr. Quaid. What business do you have with Mr. Gilliam?”
Her formality was laughable considering the number of times they’d thrown back shots of rum as they worked late into the night, unraveling one of the department’s complex cases.
As a private investigator with experience at the DEA, she frequently sought his help with cases she believed were beyond her detectives’ skill set.
“Goat Scout field trip to the Genesis Gallery in St. Killian. Britt and Lachlan want extra protection for their daughter, considering the heavy Quattro presence there,” Hunter said, rising from his chair. “I’ll have the details delivered to you in a few days.”
Everett nodded. “That works.”
He was more than relieved that Britt had stepped in to do the heavy lifting in getting new identities for him and Remington.
All he had to do was keep her off the cops’ radar for the next few days, and then she’d be free.
And he’d face the biggest challenge of his life—stopping himself from reclaiming his place in her life.
He hadn’t lied when he told her nothing had changed.
The past couldn’t be forgotten, and his actions had consequences that couldn’t be ignored.
Simone watched as Hunter exited the office, closing the door behind him. She turned and pressed her palms on the edge of his desk, leaning in close to him.
“Where is she?” she demanded. “Don’t pretend like you don’t know. You look like hell, and that could only be for one reason.”
Everett dragged a hand down his face. “So I’m not looking devilishly handsome anymore?”
She bit back a smile. “You’re gorgeous, and you know it. Doesn’t change the fact that you’re clearly hiding a killer.”
He shook his head. “No, I’m not.”
“Where have you been for the past three days?” She changed tactics. “You haven’t been to the Braganza, and you haven’t moved into your parents’ house on the private island. So where were you?”
“You already know the answer to that?—”
“You are hiding her!” She threw her hands in the air. “Everett! Tiago’s brother, Desmond, is down here with a warrant to search every property you’re associated with until they find Remi. You will be an accessory after the fact to every crime that woman committed.”
“The Francois detectives won’t find a damn thing.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Simone, you know how I feel about Remington.” He exhaled, thinking of all the times he’d let his feelings slip to the Chief. She was more than a colleague. They’d become friends. “Do you think that if I knew where she was, you would’ve found me?”
A look of understanding flashed across her face as she sank down into the chair across from him. He had to be very careful to ensure she left believing what he needed her to believe.
“I look like hell because I’ve spent the last three days trying to find her. I’d give anything to help her in whatever way she wanted, but she didn’t reach out to me.” The lie slipped easily from his lips. He would do and say anything to protect Remington.
Simone groaned, then banged her palm against the desk once, then twice. “You’re lucky she didn’t. You’d be throwing your life away for a woman who doesn’t deserve you.”
“There’s so much you don’t know, Simone,” Everett said, leaning back in the chair.
“I don’t doubt it,” she countered. “But here’s what I do know. This woman that you’re still in love with, no matter how hard you pretend otherwise, is a cold-blooded killer like her father.”
“I don’t believe that?—”
“Let me run through the evidence for you. Remi Spade received texts from family, friends, and strangers, with photos proving that her husband was cheating on her. She has three years of these texts saved on her cell phone.”
“You found her phone,” Everett said, kicking himself for not taking it with them and destroying it.
“It was covered in blood, not far from her husband’s dead body,” Simone said, pressing her hands on her hips.
“In addition to the texts, we have video surveillance footage from Pourciau Square the night before she killed him. Bobby was having an orgy with three PC-5 hookers. Guess who was at his office at the same time. She watched him fuck around on her with three women, then left looking distraught and upset.”
Everett knew all about the cameras around Pourciau Market. He’d gotten footage from them on several occasions to assist with investigations for his clients. “You saw that on the camera. She was upset?”
“Left by the back alley where management had recently installed new high-def cameras.” Simone shook her head. “I almost felt sorry for her, if I didn’t know that was the impetus for her plans to murder her husband.”
“That’s a lot of circumstantial evidence. What makes you think it was premeditated?”
“Her car was parked on the dirt road used by the grounds crew. She’d requested that they come that morning to clear away overgrown bushes and trees from their trails.
The head gardener told us the project would take his team a week to complete.
He made Remi aware of this and that they would be leaving their equipment on the property. She assured him that it was fine.”
Simone had no intel about that night that he hadn’t already found out from Remington. But he couldn’t let her know that. He kept his face passively dismissive as she continued.
“That gave her ample weapons to choose from to end Bobby Zaniewski’s life. But here’s the real kicker.”
“What?”
“Bobby wasn’t alone. He was cheating on her in their bedroom that very night. She grabbed a machete, stabbed him to death, then went upstairs and murdered his side chick, too.”
Killed his side chick? What the hell was she talking about? Remington never mentioned a damn thing about someone else being in the house. Someone else that she murdered.
“Yeah, you weren’t thinking about the other life she took, were you?” Simone’s face softened. “A married woman who’d relocated recently to the islands from France for a better job opportunity. Her husband is devastated to find out his wife is dead. Two lives destroyed by the woman you love.”
Everett laced his fingers behind his neck, massaging the knots as his mind worked through this unexpected information.
Killing Bobby was one thing.
He didn’t like it, but he could see how Remi could’ve snapped and taken her husband’s life. But then to turn her wrath on another woman? It didn’t seem possible. Not the Remington he knew. Not the woman he loved.
Finding his voice, he said, “With all that and the murder weapon, I can see why you’re convinced she did it.”
“We’re still looking for the bloody machete, but we don’t need it. We have enough to secure a conviction. We just need to find her.”
Relief flooded him. Without the murder weapon, there was a chance an excellent lawyer could weave enough reasonable doubt, but it was a slim one. The evidence against Remi was damning.
He shouldn’t be surprised.
Hadn’t she admitted to killing Bobby? He didn’t understand why she hadn’t told him about the woman she killed. Why had she kept that part from him? Did she think it would stop him from helping her?
Probably. If she only knew.
Everett stood. “I don’t know where Remi is, and yes, I am looking for her damn near day and night. The St. Basil P.D. is welcome to search any of my properties as long as they have a valid warrant. But they’re not going to find her there or with me.”
A flicker of shock flashed in Simone’s eyes. She was expecting resistance, and he’d given her none.
“Do I need to be there for the search?”
She shook her head. “But they want to question you. Can you come down to the station now?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Let’s get it over with.”
After that was done, he’d need to do some questioning of his own.
And Remington better have answers.