Chapter 17 #2
“Or maybe he just didn’t tell you?” I suggested.
She shook her head. “He would have told me. He would have wanted to help. To send money, or to bring them here. If she really is his daughter.”
“So you think it’s possible that she might be?”
“Anything’s possible,” Diana said. “But I guess we won’t really know until we find them.”
No. And maybe not even then. “Any more thoughts on where they could be?”
“I’ll call the family again,” Diana said.
“Maybe one of them has heard from him by now. But no. Other than that, I can’t think of anywhere they might have gone.
Although if they were hoping to get a hundred thousand dollars yesterday, and they didn’t, they’re probably still around Nashville somewhere. ”
Probably. “Did you freeze your accounts? Or Steven’s accounts?”
“Jaime did,” Diana said. “Yesterday. And they aren’t frozen. But they’re flagged, so that if Steven shows up, they’ll call 911 and delay him long enough for the police to show up.”
“But so far, he hasn’t tried to get any money?”
Diana shook her head. “I’ll guess we’ll just wait. Sooner or later he’ll need money.”
Sooner rather than later, probably. There are only so many places someone can stay for free. “I don’t suppose you guys own camping gear?”
“No,” Diana said. “My idea of roughing it is a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. With a hot tub.”
There’d been a photograph like that in their house the other day, of the two of them at a mountain cabin. “Do you own something like that? Could he have gone there?”
Diana shook her head. “Not without spending money. And his credit card is flagged, too.”
So probably not. “Let me know if you hear anything,” I said.
She nodded. “Thanks for all your help, Gina.”
Oh, sure. Big help I’d been. “This wasn’t what you signed up for when you gave me this job. It got really complicated really fast.” Kidnapping and human trafficking and murder…
“No,” Diana agreed. “But at least it doesn’t look as if he’s cheating.”
It didn’t. And probably a positive sign that she could see the silver lining.
I let her out and waved her off, and went back inside to Edwina. And no sooner had I sat down at the desk, than my phone rang.
“It’s me,” Rachel’s voice said. “Get me out of here.”
I blinked. “The hospital? Are you in the hospital?”
“Yes! And I want to go home.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea…” Especially if she had a concussion. She lived alone, didn’t she? “Will they let you leave?”
“If I have someone who’ll stay with me,” Rachel said. “I’ll come to the office. We can stay together.”
Oh, sure. Like I’d let her sit here all day, when she should probably be in bed.
On the other hand, if I didn’t go there and pick her up, she’d probably just get someone else to do it. She must have other friends. I guess I should be flattered that she’d called me first. “Just hang on. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be there.”
We could update Zachary, too, while we were at it.
So I loaded Edwina back into the car, and took her with me.
She wasn’t allowed inside the hospital, of course, but the weather was cool enough even in the middle of the day that she’d be OK in the car for a bit.
I cracked a window to make sure she had enough air, and trusted that she’d bite anyone who stuck a hand in. “I’ll be right back. I promise.”
This situation was untenable. I didn’t dare leave the dog alone in David’s penthouse—my penthouse now, but with all his fancy purchases in it; fancy purchases she could poop on and chew to bits—but I couldn’t keep dragging her around with me, either.
She hardly ever felt grass under her paws, poor thing.
She just went from car to office to car to apartment. It wasn’t fair to her.
And then there was Rachel. And Zachary, who couldn’t stay with Rachel if Rachel had a concussion.
She’d offered to take him, but now that she was injured too, she was in no position to take care of him as well as herself.
And there wasn’t enough room in the penthouse for even one of them (in addition to me and Edwina), let alone both.
“Here’s what we’ll do,” I told Rachel when I’d found her. “We’ll go see Zachary and update him on what happened yesterday. And see when they’ll let him leave the hospital.”
It probably wouldn’t be today, but maybe tomorrow.
“Then I’ll take you home so you can pack a bag. And then we’ll all move into the house in Hillwood together.”
There was plenty of room there, as well as grass for the dog.
And I should probably check up on the renovations, anyway, and put some pressure on the construction crew to finish the job.
I hadn’t made it out there much while I’d been cramming for my PI license, and of course the past few days had been full of Steven and all his doings.
“I thought your house in Hillwood was under construction,” Rachel said.
“Yes and no. The fire last month took out the ceiling in the family room and the floor in the master bedroom, and part of the exterior wall in both. That’s all been fixed, even if the drywall hasn’t been painted and the new wood floors aren’t in.
” At least those details hadn’t been done the last time I was out there to check on progress.
“The master bedroom isn’t habitable. But there are plenty of other bedrooms. Enough for all of us. ”
Rachel looked unconvinced.
“It’ll be good for Edwina, too,” I added. “I can’t leave her alone in David’s penthouse. And I’m sure she’d like a yard. She used to have one.” And the house in Hillwood had a yard that put Griselda Grimshaw’s to shame.
“You don’t have to stay long,” I added. “But it makes more sense than anything else. As soon as you feel well enough, you can go home to your own house.”
“I feel well enough now,” Rachel grumbled.
Her pupils were the same size again. That was probably a good sign.
But a bit smaller than they ought to be.
I deduced she was probably riding high on some sort of heavy duty pain killer, and once it wore off she’d feel a lot worse than she did right now.
“Just give it a day or two. Zachary will probably be more likely to agree if you’re there, and it isn’t just me. ”
Rachel sighed. “Fine. If you’re sure it isn’t an imposition.”
I said I was sure. And I was. I enjoyed the penthouse, but taking on the responsibility for Edwina had made things more difficult. Not that apartment-dwellers can’t have dogs. But if the last couple of days were any indication of what life together would be like, she might be happier in Hillwood.
Or with someone other than me. But we weren’t going to go there.
The discharge nurse insisted on getting Rachel into a wheelchair. “Procedure,” she explained while she expertly hefted Rachel from the bed into the chair.
“We’re going to visit someone in another room,” I explained.
“Take the chair.”
Fine. We took the chair. I pushed it into the elevator, and pushed it down the hall to Zachary’s room.
He was alone, and awake, watching something on TV. It had lots of explosions and people running. When we walked—and rolled—in, he turned the sound down. “What happened to you?”
“Concussion,” Rachel said.
“One of the Russian guys who beat you up hit her over the head,” I added.
Zachary’s eyes widened.
He actually looked worse today than yesterday, if that was possible.
The cuts and bruises had reached maximum color by now, and his face looked like a boxer’s after a title match.
But he seemed more alert, and more able to follow what we were saying.
He also talked more. And the whooshing machine that had been helping him breathe yesterday was gone, and he was managing on his own.
I went over the whole thing, the way I’d done with Diana earlier, and with Mendoza before that. By now, I was really getting the telling of it down to a science. It made for an exciting narrative.
When I finished, the first words out of Zachary’s mouth were, “What’ll happen to the girls?”
I told him I had no idea. “ICE took them. For debriefing, I’m sure. I don’t know whether they’ll be sent back to Russia or what will happen.”
They were here on some sort of student visa, Mendoza had said, so maybe they’d actually be allowed to stay if they wanted to. “You should ask him,” I told Zachary. “He’s down there with the detectives from vice, who were also part of the sting. Mendoza’s everybody’s hero at the moment.”
Zachary nodded.
“He’ll probably stop by later, to talk to you about it.” In fact, I’d give him a call and make sure he did. “Meanwhile, I’m taking Rachel back to the house in Hillwood for a day or two. Until she’s OK to be on her own again. We thought maybe, when you’re released, you’d like to join us.”
The parts of Zachary’s face that weren’t scabby or bruised, flushed red. “I guess Detective Mendoza told you about my mother, huh?”
“Just that you’re not living with her anymore,” I said. “It’s none of my business.”
He pleated a corner of the sheet between his thumb and forefinger. “She got angry when I quit my job at the Apex to work for you. She said I shouldn’t quit a real job to play detective.”
“You’re not playing detective,” I said. “You were instrumental in stopping a human trafficking operation and saving three Russian women from a life of prostitution. You put your own life and health at risk for someone else. That makes you a hero.”
He flushed again, but shook his head. “I don’t think my mom’s gonna see it that way. And anyway, you were the one who told me what to do.”
“But you were the one who did it. You’re the one who got beat up for it. But you don’t have to take my word for it. When Mendoza stops by, he’ll tell you the same thing. So would the guys from ICE and vice, I’m sure.”
He didn’t answer, but he looked a little more cheerful.
“So would you like to come stay in the house in Hillwood until we can figure something else out? At least until you feel better physically?”
Zachary allowed as how he might see his way clear to doing that.
“Good.” I got to my feet. “I’ll go get Rachel settled. Any idea when they’re likely to let you out of here?”
“They said tomorrow morning,” Zachary said.
“Then I’ll be back later today to see you. And tomorrow we’ll get you out of here.”
He nodded. “Thanks, Gina.”
“No problem,” I said and wheeled Rachel out of there. You lose a husband; you gain a whole, makeshift family, dog included.