Chapter 46
Zane
This was taking too long, then it came to me.
I jumped to my feet. “Jordy. She doesn’t have her phone, but one of her AirPods got stuck in the lining of her jacket.”
“That’s brilliant,” Jordy screeched, holding his hand skyward. “Thank you, Apple gods.” He sat back down. “Give me a minute, I’ve got her phone data.”
“You can track one of those things?” Pete asked.
Jordy was too busy with his typing to answer that. “Got her. Forty-one hundred block of Industrial Boulevard.”
“Jordy, you’re here,” Lucas commanded.
“I know,” he whined. “I’ll get a drone in the air so I can save all your asses.”
“Send us the layout.” Lucas patted him on the shoulder as we left the room. “Handguns, Tasers, vests. Constance, you’re with me. Joe, you ride with Zane.”
In less than a minute, we grabbed our gear and the two Cayennes turned right out of the garage to blast down the boulevard.
“I’ve programmed the fastest path in your navs,” Jordy said over coms.
I punched up the map screen and followed Lucas.
“Jordy,” Lucas said. “Give the location to Wellbourne and tell him we’re going in.”
“Roger that. Building layout going to all your phones now,” Jordy added. “Unfortunately, the building has four doors, one on each side.”
“We hit all the doors at the same time,” Lucas decided.
“Which side did the detective park on?” I asked Jordy.
“That’ll be a minute,” our techie replied. It took two minutes. “He parked at the back, next to two other cars.”
“I’ve got the back door,” I said before Lucas could give out a different assignment.
“Joe, you’re east,” the boss added. “Constance will take west, and I’ve got the front.”
I could tell from his voice that he didn’t like us splitting up like this given that there could be three or more bad guys inside.
Peyton
The blood pooling on the floor and the acrid smell of gun smoke in the stagnant air made me want to puke. I’d been wrong to think that Buzzcut was the dangerous one.
I had to keep O’Connor talking long enough that Zane could find me. He’d done it before. “You said you caught him before?”
O’Connor turned back to me, totally okay with the fact that his son had just killed a man. “I did, and I made a deal with him.”
I leaned forward listening intently, since it was clear he wanted an audience for the tale he hadn’t been able to brag about to anybody except his son.
“You see, my ex was bleeding me dry with the alimony. So, I made him a deal. I let him go if he took care of my wife and then limited himself to the bitches I pointed him at, the ones who deserved it.”
This could get tricky, but I had to take a chance. “The divorce courts can be so unfair to men. My father had to downsize his apartment and sell his car.”
“Exactly.”
I nodded. “Uh-huh. It broke my dad. He was never the same.”
“That was the deal, but the fucker stole my watch and said if anything happened to him, it would get mailed into the FBI.”
When I didn’t say anything, Simon, spoke up. “She doesn’t get it, Pops.”
O’Connor held up the watch. “He put some of Nancy’s blood, and also the next girl’s on this band.
The watch is registered to me. He altered his M-O for those two, and made sure I’d be take the fall if the watch was found.
I couldn’t make a move on him and those other women paid the price. I couldn’t save them.”
The pieces finally fell into place. “He threatened to frame you with the watch.”
“Yeah,” Simon grinned. “But then my pops is so smart he made lemons out of the lemonade.”
I didn’t dare correct him.
Simon giggled. “This is the good part. Tell her Pops. Tell her how smart you are.”
“My cousin is a divorce lawyer. He had two rich dudes, really rich, who were being fucked over in their divorces. Real simple deal. Halligan does them, and these dudes pay me a mill each for private investigative services after the fact to look for the killer.” He laughed. “The easiest money I ever made.”
“And then the others,” Simon prodded.
“Over the years, I gave him three other bitches who deserved it. But he broke our deal and kept killing innocent women as well. As long as he had the watch.” He fingered the Rolex. “I couldn’t stop him.”
I wanted to scratch his eyes out. It was repugnant the way he separated the victims into those he said deserved it and those who didn’t.
“I told you I regretted that, didn’t I?”
I nodded. Like hell he did. He was a pig.
He fastened the watch onto his wrist, then came closer and yanked me to my feet. “Time to go.”
“You’ve done the world a service by getting rid of him.”
“I helped,” Simon blurted. “Tassium chlorine.”
“Chloride,” O’Connor corrected him before pulling me away from the couch. “He’s going to Taser you and me on the street, and he’s going to take you up to a pretty spot in the mountains.”
Simon’s evil grin telegraphed his plan. “We are gonna have some fun. Then, I’ll make it quick.” He giggled. “Hey, Pops, I gotta pee.”
“Make it quick.”
Simon disappeared around a corner.
“We should talk,” I pleaded. “I know a super-rich guy in Hollywood who’s having trouble with his wife.” Anything was worth a try to slow him down.
“Spare me.” He yanked me toward the door.