Chapter Fifteen
T elfer lay on his back, fully dressed, and stared at the wavery reflection of himself in the polished tin ceiling.
He wished Laodice had let him accompany her, at least as far as the foyer. Realistically, he couldn’t be of much assistance, and Laodice seemed confident she could get what she needed to know out of Sarah and then make an excuse to get away without difficulty, but he wasn’t sure. Sarah had proved to be unpredictable and emotional.
It felt strange that he’d previously applied those labels to Laodice. Who was, of course, still unpredictable and emotional, but in a way he’d come to appreciate.
Laodice would be in the office by now, talking to Sarah. If they’d got her wrong, or if she had an accomplice…
Telfer got up. For once, he was going to listen to his own instincts.
He opened the door, and blinked. Yvette and Xavier were in the hallway outside their door, looking exhausted, and Samuel was with them.
“What are you doing here?” he said, without thinking.
Samuel glared at him. “I’m out on bail,” he said, biting off the words. “Since I’m only an accessory . Xavier and Yvette have kindly offered me the use of their shower and a change of clothes, and then I’m heading back to the station.”
Telfer’s instincts spoke again. “You didn’t move the body.”
“Don’t answer that,” Xavier said quickly, but Samuel was already snapping, “Of course I didn’t.”
Telfer believed him.
There was no logical reason to do so. He didn’t trust the police, but Bernard seemed to be an intelligent, careful man who wouldn’t make an arrest without at least some evidence. Jesse’s shoe had been in Patrick’s room. The police had whatever physical evidence had made it clear that one person had moved the body.
But Patrick almost certainly couldn’t have moved the body by himself, and Samuel was the only person he’d ask for help in that situation. If Samuel hadn’t dumped Jesse in the woods, then Patrick hadn’t murdered him.
It was a tenuous, emotion-based, totally irrational chain of beliefs, and yet Telfer was sure it was true.
“Wait a second,” he said, and went back to his room to retrieve the laptop, barging into Xaiver and Yvette’s room without knocking. “This is Jesse’s,” he said. “Laodice and I found it in the kitchen.”
“Who’s Laodice?” Xavier asked.
“Elle, of course,” Yvette said. “Is that really her name? I’d go by a nickname too.”
Samuel was staring at the laptop, hope rising in his face. “Are you saying… We have to tell the police!”
“You can do whatever you need to do with it,” Telfer said. “I hope it helps. But we found some encrypted data on there, and I wondered if you might be able to crack it.”
“I advise that you don’t interfere with—” Yvette began, but Samuel had already opened the device and started typing, his fingers dancing over the keys. She sighed, and sat down on the edge of the bed. After a minute, Xavier sat beside her and looped his arm around her waist.
“Huh,” Samuel said. “Jesse had already got into the hotel wi-fi. That’s interesting.”
“The encrypted data is in Pics (4), and the encryption program is—oh, you found it.”
Samuel spared him a single, withering glance, and returned his focus to the screen.
“Why are you looking up Jesse’s social media?” Telfer asked.
“Because regardless of what you see in the movies, brute-forcing 2048-bit RSA keys is effectively impossible. I can try a remote connection to my office for a dictionary-style attack with key names and dates. This is a third-party encryption program, so I can keep guessing.” He paused. “Actually, wait. Jesse was lazy.”
“Yes, he was,” Telfer said, remembering Britt’s revelation that Jesse had tried to cheat his way through the LSATs.
“I wonder if…” Samuel opened the downloads folder and scrolled down, eyes moving rapidly. Then he stopped. “Oh, man.”
“What?”
“This is the first time I’ve ever been grateful for sloppy security. Those are the keys. He used them, and he didn’t delete the file after. Let’s see what we’ve got.” Samuel apparently liked to talk through his work. “Notes. Numbers. Names. Lots of audio here, some video… It seems like blackmail and extortion are things he’d been doing for a while.” He looked up at Telfer, moisture sheening his eyes. “This is going to give the cops any number of people with motive. Thank you.”
“Except that you, a suspect, are interfering with that evidence, making it harder for them to convict,” Yvette put in.
“That will be the police’s problem,” Samuel said sharply. “I only care about Patrick.”
Oh shit. There was probably something about Carrick in those files, and Britt had been very clear that looking into it further wasn’t something he and Laodice should be doing. She was going to be pissed if Samuel accidentally stumbled across some pieces of the puzzle.
“Let me check the most recent files,” Telfer suggested. “Then we can both swear under oath that you didn’t even look at that evidence.”
Samuel hesitated, then thrust the laptop at him.
Telfer could feel Samuel judging his typing speed, but he brought up the files with the most recent dates.
“Where’s Elle?” Yvette asked suddenly.
“Um, looking into something,” Telfer said. Yes, there was the file on Carrick, which he closed before he could make out much more than the name. And there was a file about Halcyon. A complaint, noting interference in the bugs he’d tried to set up, and then a cryptic note: “AH c.f. CB.”
CB might be Carrick Balshaw, he supposed. The bug interference was apparently from something else operating on a similar frequency. Did that mean a similar device?
Had they been bugged by someone else , this whole time?
A shiver ran down Telfer’s spine. He looked at the corner of the ceiling, where the small speaker was innocuously mounted.
“What?” Samuel said.
“When you checked for bugs, did you check that?” Telfer asked, pointing.
Samuel spun and stared at it. “No,” he said, and dragged the dressing table chair over.
“What bugs?” Xavier asked.
“Surveillance,” Samuel said, and twisted the casing open. “We thought Jesse had—oh, fuck. This is the real deal.”
“Not like Jesse’s?”
Samuel craned, poking at something. “No, this is serious equipment. It’s hooked into the power system and transmitting to something. Possibly a black box server.”
“A server,” Telfer said, and jumped to his feet. “Laodice.”
“What the hell?”
“It’s Sarah,” he said, panic jolting through his body. “It’s Sarah and Kyle, and Laodice went to meet them .” And before anyone could ask questions or delay him any longer, he raced out the door and down the hall, pausing only to thump twice, very hard, on Carrick and Britt’s door.
***
Laodice felt as if every cell in her body was tensing as she strained to see through the narrow crack in the door. There was more than one set of footprints approaching, and she stifled a whimper when she heard Kyle’s voice.
But he sounded alarmed, not murderous, and he bit off several curses. “Oh shit,” Kyle said. “Oh shit, what happened?”
Laodice half-expected the next voice by now, but it was still a shock to hear it.
“She slipped,” Danielle said, every word drenched in sarcasm.
“You killed her!”
“Wow, check out Sherlock Holmes. Yes, Kyle. Come on, keep up. This isn’t the first body you’ve helped me get rid of.”
“You said Jesse attacked you,” Kyle said, his voice strangled. Laodice shifted, and caught a glimpse of his face, staring at Danielle in abject horror. “You said he’d attacked you! You said you’d pushed him away in self-defense…You were crying .”
“Yeah, well, don’t think I’m happy about it,” Danielle said. “Men are always so patronizing when you cry at them. It works, though. If it makes you feel any better, he did grab my arm and make some threats. He was walking away when I hit him with that wrench.”
“You said he fell down the stairs and hit his head!”
“Oops,” Danielle said cheerfully. “Guess I lied.”
Kyle made a strange noise, part gulp and part sob. “But why did you drag me into it?”
“Because I couldn’t move the body myself,” she said impatiently. “A missing person causes way less fuss than a murder victim. And I was really hoping scavengers would have enough time to take him apart, but you couldn’t even hide a body properly, could you?”
“Why Sarah?”
“Because she was too fucking nosy , Kyle,” Danielle said. “You two were so embarrassing, with your stupid invisible employees bullshit. You have absolutely no idea what’s really going on here, and you were going to get me caught.” She poked Sarah with the tip of her shoe. “And that would piss off my bosses. They don’t like people poking into things that are none of their business, and they really don’t like cops asking questions.”
“Who are your bosses?”
“Kyle, I literally just told you Sarah was too nosy, take a hint. Are you done with the shock yet? We’re going to get rid of Sarah, and tidy up a few loose ends, and then we can get out of here. I’ve got the go-ahead to cut and run.”
Kyle made a snuffling sound. “You’re going to kill me too.”
“Aw, no,” Danielle said, her voice soothing. “I won’t do that unless I have to. I like you, Kyle. You’ve always been nice to me. You helped me out with Jesse, and you didn’t say a word. I know I can trust you. Do what I say and everything will be okay.”
“Really?” Kyle said, sounding hopeful.
“You bet. I’ll bring you in to my bosses, explain that you helped me in a tight spot. They’re serious people. They know how to reward loyalty.”
“But Sarah—”
“Sarah was not a serious person,” Danielle said firmly. “You’re better off without her. Now, we’re going to do it right, this time. There are gloves and black trash bags in the pantry. Go and get them.”
Laodice moved backwards, as stealthily as she could. She couldn’t hide anywhere. All she could do was get deeper inside, out of Danielle’s view, and hope that Kyle wouldn’t give her away. She clutched her laptop, with the vague thought of using it as a shield. Did Danielle have a gun? Did laptops stop bullets?
Kyle opened the door.
Laodice made immediate eye contact, putting all her pleading wish to live in her gaze.
For a moment, Kyle didn’t even seem to recognize the fact of her presence. His face was blotchy with tears, his mouth slack. Then he blinked twice and stared at her.
Laodice held her finger to her lips and shook her head. She could feel tears prickling in her own eyes. Was this how scared Cassie had been, when Manny’s uncle held that gun on them? Was she ever going to see her sisters again, or trade stupid memes with her brother, or play Scrabble with her parents after Sunday night dinner? Would she drink too many cocktails with Diana again, or pitch a story to Miriam?
Or kiss Telfer?
Surely, that brief moment upstairs couldn’t be the last time she’d kiss Telfer.
The thoughts ran through her head in a moment that seemed to last an eternity, as comprehension and fear flashed across Kyle’s face.
“Kyle!” Danielle said, her voice harsh, but still quiet.
“Found them,” Kyle said, sounding almost normal. He reached right past Laodice’s head to the shelf behind her, grabbing a box of gloves. “Um, trash bags?”
“Bottom shelf,” Danielle said, and Kyle’s eyes dropped to Laodice, who scrabbled behind her. She felt a cardboard box that had the right weight and yanked it out. She was handing the box to Kyle when Danielle appeared in the doorway.
“It’s not that—” she said, and then her mouth fell open as she registered Laodice, crouched at Kyle’s feet.
Danielle did have a gun, a small, deadly-looking thing with a long tube on the front—a silencer?—but she was holding it at her side, a latent rather than a present threat for Kyle. Laodice had been picturing her dressed in tight pants and a black leather jacket, typical assassin chic from the movies, but in fact she was wearing what she normally did; a knee-length black skirt and a plain button-up blouse.
The air seemed to thicken around them, Danielle’s eyes narrowing, her mouth opening, her gun hand rising, all in slow motion.
Laodice threw the box at her head.
It was clumsy: a left-handed throw and the angle awkward, and it didn’t even make contact. The box flew right by Danielle’s head.
But she flinched, and Laodice used that moment to surge forward. She didn’t try to get up. She dropped her laptop, launched herself across the pantry floor, and took Danielle out at the knees.
Danielle had a gun, but Laodice had mass, momentum, and the adrenaline of terror zinging through her body. Danielle hit the ground hard, and Laodice lunged up her body and grabbed her wrist. She was vaguely aware of Kyle scrambling out of the way in the close confines, but every other part of her was focused on Danielle and the gun in her hand. She banged Danielle’s hand on the ground twice, elbowing her in the face for good measure, but the other woman hung on grimly.
And Laodice was bigger and stronger, but she didn’t know how to fight. Danielle abruptly slid both hands along the floor, above her head, and Laodice’s center of balance went with them. There was some kind of motion of Danielle’s legs, and then Laodice was hurtling forward, tumbling helplessly across the floor and crashing into the kitchen island. There was something cold and sticky on her leg, and she refused to think about Sarah’s blood, because she had to move .
But her head hurt and she couldn’t figure out which way to go.
There was a bang—silencers apparently weren’t all that silent—and a thump, and then Danielle appeared above her, gun muzzle pointed at her head.
Laodice looked up, defiant.
“What are you even doing here?” Danielle demanded. “Why is this place such a clusterfuck? This was supposed to be an easy job!”
“It’ll take a little while to explain,” Laodice said, proud that her voice didn’t tremble too much. For a moment, she thought she might actually get away with the delay. Telfer had said he would come for her in thirty minutes, and he’d be true to her word. Danielle looked frustrated and curious. If Laodice could only fill a few more minutes…
But apparently Danielle wasn’t going to let curiosity get in the way of pragmatism. She grimaced. “I don’t have time for this.”
Laodice said something she didn’t remember afterwards: “wait!” or “stop!” or “no!” A one-word denial of the death hurtling towards her.
The sound of her protest was swallowed up by Telfer’s urgent yell as he ran into the kitchen.
Danielle, without hesitating, swung her gun towards him, and Laodice kicked out, a convulsive action without any aim that managed to connect with Danielle’s shin. Danielle staggered, and the gun went off again. She stepped away. “You fucking—”
There were more voices, more shouting. The lights in the kitchen all came on at once. Yvette was yelling, “I’m calling the police!” and Samuel bellowed, “You framed Patrick!” Laodice, looking right at Danielle’s face, saw the moment where she registered that the situation had gone irredeemably to hell.
Even then, she didn’t panic. “Stay back!” she said, moving the gun in a smooth arc across the room. She was stepping backwards, towards the staff bedrooms, holding them off with the threat of the weapon. “No one needs to get hurt.”
“No one else , you mean,” Telfer said. He sounded furious, wild in a way Laodice had never heard before. “Laodice!”
“I’m all right,” Laodice said, finding her voice with difficulty. “But she killed Jesse and Sarah. And Kyle, she shot Kyle.”
There was a groan from the pantry.
“And if you don’t want to get shot, you’ll stay back,” Danielle said. “I’m leaving. No need for heroics.” She reached for the door behind her.
Or the space where that door had been.
Britt, with neat efficiency and theatrical timing, snapped one handcuff around the wrist of her reaching hand, slammed the gun hand into the door jamb, got the other cuff around that wrist, and kicked Danielle in the back of the knee. That put the other woman on the ground, both cuffed hands wrenched up behind her back and effectively immobilized. It took no more than two seconds.
“Danielle Harris, I am arresting you on suspicion of murder, attempted murder, assault, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice,” Britt said conversationally. “And this isn’t a charge, but I’m personally pissed that you’ve fucked up my day, so don’t try anything stupid.”
“You are a cop!” Samuel said, and Britt spared him a tight eyeroll as she read Danielle the rest of her rights.
Laodice crawled out from behind the island, and found herself being hauled to her feet and fervently hugged.
“I’m all gross with blood,” she said, half-sobbing.
Telfer kissed her hair, her cheek, and ran his hands frantically over her arms, apparently not sure whether he should be hugging her or checking for injuries. “I don’t care. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“Not really,” Laodice said, for a moment unsure about which question she was answering. She was doing her own share of frantic motion, touching his face and shoulders. “I can’t believe you ran in like that!”
“Of course I did.”
“So irrational,” she said, and her voice wobbled.
Telfer embraced her. “I don’t care,” he said, and his voice shook too. “You’re safe. I don’t care about anything else.”
She pulled back a little to stare at his face. Kyle was groaning on the floor while Yvette and Xavier applied pressure, Britt was instructing Carrick what to say to the police on the phone she’d handed him, and Samuel was stalking around the kitchen, his face livid with rage. It was the worst possible time for Laodice to have an emotional epiphany, but that seemed to be what was happening.
“Will somebody please explain to me what’s going on and why my fiancé is still in jail?” Samuel said.
“Ambulance,” Kyle said, his voice weak.
“The ambulance is coming,” Carrick assured him.
“He moved Jesse’s body,” Laodice said. “But Danielle told him it was an accident, and she’d really hit Jesse with a wrench .” She wriggled loose of Telfer, who showed no inclination to let her go, and knelt down beside Sarah. “I’m sorry,” she told the dead woman. “I didn’t like you, but I’m sorry you’re dead.”
“Carrick, tell Bernard we need two ambulances,” Britt said.
Laodice blinked at her. “I’m fine,” she said, wondering why her tongue was so heavy. “I just need to rest.”
Telfer caught her before she hit the ground.
***
Laodice came around before the ambulances arrived, but Telfer and the EMTs both insisted she get checked out at the hospital, and after some frankly adorable grumbling, she agreed.
Telfer didn’t even ask if he could go with her. He swung into the back of the ambulance and held Laodice’s hand. Kyle’s gunshot wound had rated an ambulance of his own, which took off with sirens blaring, lights flashing, and a police escort, but Telfer and Laodice got to travel more sedately.
“Did I tell Britt about Kyle hiding the body?” Laodice said anxiously.
“Yes.”
“Did I tell her about the server?”
“No, but I did that. Britt took it with her when she and Bernard took Danielle off to the station.”
“Britt went too? I guess her cover was already blown.”
“That and she really didn’t want Danielle talking to anyone. Not that Danielle looked like she was going to. She didn’t say a word after the arrest.”
“I can’t believe we never considered Danielle. She was just always there .”
“We’re not very good detectives,” Telfer agreed. “Good thing we’re writers instead.”
“Does everyone know that now?”
“Oh yes. Yvette threatened to sue us, but I think it was mostly affectionate.”
The EMT riding with them in the back wasn’t even pretending not to listen. Telfer glanced at her bright and interested face and decided to keep some of the other information he’d gleaned to himself for now. If he was right, it was definitely something for limited exposure.
The ambulance slowed, then pulled over.
“That was fast,” Laodice said.
The EMT frowned. “Unscheduled stop, folks. Sit tight.” She jumped out of the back, and left the door swinging.
A few minutes later, a swearing Britt, limping heavily, was helped into the car. She stared at the two of them, and then closed her eyes as she sank back against the bench seat. “Why?” she demanded of the air.
“What happened to you ?”
“Squad car was sideswiped. Two gunmen. Shot Danielle and took the server.”
“She’s dead ?”
“Extremely dead,” Britt said grimly. “And I would be too, if Bernard hadn’t been quick with his piece. He winged one, I think. Anyway, they took off, my cover is blown, and this is the worst fucking night of my life.”
She lapsed into a baleful silence and refused to say anything else on the way to the Hippocampus hospital. Laodice and Telfer held hands all the way down the hill.