Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Sienna saw the flash of recognition in the bartender’s eyes a split second before he ducked through the door to get away from her. So much for her plan to convince him to talk.
Of course, Zeke vaulted the bar to follow him.
“Stay inside!” Raelyn darted out the main entrance without waiting for her to answer. She understood both Zeke and Raelyn wanted her out of the way.
“Who are you?” one of the two older men sitting at the end of the bar asked. He had white hair surrounding a bald spot that topped his head.
“Yeah, what’s up?” his cohort added with a scowl. “How are we supposed to get another drink now that you’ve scared off our bartender?”
She pasted a smile on her face. “I’m sorry for your troubles. I’m sure your bartender Ken will be back soon.” It was a blatant lie, and the two men knew it. If she had any money on her, she’d offer to pay for their drinks. But she didn’t. Besides, since Ken had taken off, she felt certain these two wouldn’t have to pay for the drinks they’d already downed.
“You someone famous?” the older white-haired guy asked, squinting at her. “You look familiar.”
“No, I’m not famous.” She suspected he may have seen the billboard sign her PR firm had sprung for, but there was no point in disclosing that after this. She eyed the bar with a frown, expecting Zeke to reappear at any moment.
“Must be a model.” The younger of the two men smirked. “Bet she’s in one of those girlie magazines.”
“Nope. I would never do something like that.” Where was Zeke? It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle these two old guys, but she was hoping Zeke would have returned by now with Ken Holt in custody.
“Make yourself useful and pour us another beer.” The older guy held up his empty glass.
“I don’t work here.” She waved a hand at the empty bar. “Either help yourself or get out.”
At that moment, Zeke emerged from the doorway behind the bar. The resigned expression in his eyes wasn’t reassuring. “Is Raelyn out front?”
“Yes.” She didn’t have to ask if Ken got away; it was clear the bartender was gone. Zeke crossed over to where the two men sat.
“We’re closed,” Zeke said. “Time to move on.”
The two men looked as if they might argue but must have decided to take advantage of the free drinks instead. They slid off their stools and stumbled to the doorway. Sienna moved out of the way, then followed them outside. Zeke spent a few minutes behind the bar, maybe locking things up for the owner, then joined her.
“He got away?” Raelyn asked.
“Yeah, I lost him.” Zeke did not look happy. “I should have anticipated this and had you covering the back.”
“It’s my fault,” Sienna said, guilt weighing heavily on her shoulders. She had insisted on coming along, only to have lost their best chance of bringing this nightmare to an end. “He bolted the second he recognized me.”
“It’s fine. I’ll update the BOLO.” Zeke turned and scanned the small parking lot. “I don’t see his vehicle, but let’s run the plates of each car here in case he borrowed a car or has obtained a rental.”
“Where did the two old guys go?” Sienna glanced at Raelyn. “I hope they weren’t driving.”
“They walked that way,” Raelyn gestured to the south. “I wouldn’t have let them drive, but I’m sure they’re looking for another bar.”
With a nod, she listened as Zeke called in the plate numbers to the dispatcher. The process of verifying the car owners took several minutes. When Zeke finished, he looked dejected. “I should have gotten the IDs for the two old guys. Pretty sure two of the cars belong to them. A Larry Bellows and Edward Jenkins. The third car belongs to a guy by the name of Timothy Iverson. I don’t know if Ken Holt borrowed Iverson’s car or if the vehicle owner was smart enough to leave the car here to take a rideshare home.”
“Call Flynn, see if he can dig into Iverson,” Sienna suggested. “Maybe we can head over to Iverson’s residence. Maybe Ken lives with him or rents a room from him or something like that.”
Zeke took her advice on calling Flynn but didn’t look interested in heading out to the address associated with the Iverson vehicle. “Hey, Flynn, check this guy out. See what you can come up with.” There was a long pause, then Zeke spoke again. “Nope. Holt took off when we showed up. Bolted out the back of the bar as if the place was on fire. It’s my fault. I should have had Raelyn stationed back there.”
Sienna knew Zeke was blaming himself to take the pressure off her. But it didn’t work. The truth was, if Zeke and Raelyn had been here alone, they would have been able to talk to Ken Holt before he knew what was happening.
The only good news was that Ken had likely run away because he was responsible for taking those shots at her. He was the gunman hired by Josh to stalk her.
Now they just had to find him. Again.
“Thanks, Flynn. Keep me updated.” Zeke pocketed his phone and took her arm. “Let’s get back to the SUV.”
“You want me to stick around?” Raelyn asked. “Maybe your guy will return.”
Zeke considered that for a moment. The way he glanced at her made Sienna realize how much he wished he could stay instead. “Maybe just for an hour or two. I know you have a family at home.”
“No problem. I’ll let Isaiah and Leon know.” Raelyn smiled. “I doubt your guy Holt will come back; he must realize we’re cops. But if he does, I’ll grab him.”
“Thanks, Rae.” Zeke subtly drew her toward the SUV. Sienna didn’t protest, she’d done enough damage for one evening.
A long silence stretched between them as Zeke started the car and pulled away from the curb. To her surprise, he drove slowly around the block, raking his gaze over the area as if searching for Ken.
“I’m sorry.” She couldn’t take the silence for another moment. “I know Ken’s getting away is my fault. I honestly didn’t expect him to bolt like that.”
“It’s not your fault, it’s mine.” Zeke’s tone was clipped. “I should have anticipated his reaction. Don’t worry, he escaped tonight, but we’ll get him.”
She bit her lower lip, wishing things were different. Obviously, she wasn’t a cop and needed to stop pretending she was. Finding and arresting Ken was Zeke’s job, not hers.
Wallowing in guilt wasn’t going to help. Ignoring the rumbling in her stomach, she searched their surroundings, too, hoping and praying that Ken was hiding nearby.
He wasn’t.
“Do you have the address for Tim Iverson?” She glanced at Zeke’s solemn profile. “It wouldn’t hurt to swing by the place.”
He scowled but nodded. “It’s not that far away, and it’s in a nicer neighborhood. But it’s not like we have any evidence he’s associated with Holt.”
“I understand, but maybe we’ll spot Ken hanging out there.” She was doing her best to salvage the situation. “It can’t hurt to look, right?”
He sighed. “Fine. We’ll drive past on our way back to the safe house.”
“Okay.” Maybe it was a fool’s errand, but she knew Zeke didn’t want to return to the safe house without having anything to show for their excursion.
As Zeke navigated the streets, it was obvious they were going from a somewhat sketchy neighborhood to a nicely maintained one. The houses were larger and sported lawns that were well cared for.
“It’s the third from the corner,” Zeke said with a nod to the right. “The tan brick house with brown and white trim.”
“I see it.” The home was larger than she expected. She was so focused on the house that she was startled when Zeke’s phone rang.
“Hey, Flynn, did you find something?” Zeke hit the brake and pulled over to the side of the street mere feet from the house owned by Timothy Iverson. “I’m at the guy’s residence now. Doesn’t seem to be the type that would rent rooms to guys like Holt.”
She strained to listen to Flynn’s side of the conversation. She only caught a couple of words, but it soon became clear that Iverson was the bar owner.
“Interesting that he owns the bar, but I wonder where he is?” Zeke stared up at the house. “I’d think he’d be at the bar if his car was there.”
“Not if he drank too much to drive,” she said in a whisper. “Maybe you should knock at the door to let him know his bartender took off.”
Zeke’s scowl deepened, but then he nodded. “Stay here. If the owner was drinking, he could be irritable.”
“I will.” As Zeke slid out of the driver’s seat, she hoped Tim Iverson was a nice and amicable drunk.
She’d given up drinking even before she’d gotten pregnant. Josh turned mean when he drank, and initially his abuse had been verbal. That should have been her cue to leave, but she’d foolishly hoped that if he’d only stop drinking, he’d be better.
Instead, the situation had gotten worse.
Shaking off the memories, she watched as Zeke stood at the front door waiting for someone to respond to his knock. Eventually, the front door opened, revealing a small woman. She and Zeke spoke for a few minutes, then Zeke headed back to the car.
“He wasn’t home?” she asked.
“Apparently, he was sleeping,” Zeke said with a shrug. “Sleeping off his overindulgence, I’m sure. That was his wife, Nancy. She appreciated hearing about the bartender but came across as eager to get rid of me.”
“She’s probably embarrassed by her husband’s drinking.” At least, she had always felt like Josh’s bad habits were somehow her fault. It took time for her to understand he was responsible for his own decisions.
Especially when he’d started hitting her.
“At least we know Holt isn’t living there.” Zeke pulled away from the curb and followed the signs to the interstate. “Time to get back to the safe house.”
She sat back in her seat, knowing there was nothing more to be done here. Causing Ken to take off was not the outcome they’d been hoping for. Maybe the cops would find Ken sometime tonight. But if they didn’t?
A sense of unease washed over her. The deadline she’d given Zeke was ticking by faster than she’d expected. Two days sounded like a lot. But it wasn’t.
Especially since they were no closer to getting to the bottom of these attacks.
Zeke tried to shake off the sense of failure as he drove to the safe house. He hated knowing he let Ken Holt slip through his fingers.
And he had no one to blame but himself.
Yet he needed to let it go. To regroup and go back to investigating the guy on social media. He’d found Holt at the Wooden Nickel, maybe he could find something else to link to the guy.
If the cops didn’t pick him up first.
Digging out his phone, he called Flynn. “We’re on our way back. Would you mind tossing the pizzas into the oven?”
“Will do,” Flynn agreed. “Sorry things didn’t work out.”
“Yeah, thanks.” He dropped the phone into the cupholder. “I’ll keep digging into Holt’s background after we eat.”
“I can help,” Sienna offered.
He glanced at her. “I’m not angry or upset. Losing Holt was my fault, not yours. I’m confident we’ll find him.”
“It’s nice of you to take the blame, but I know this would have gone down differently if I hadn’t insisted on coming along,” Sienna said.
“He did react rather unexpectedly to seeing you.” Zeke replayed those moments in his head. Holt’s gaze had widened with shocked recognition seconds before he disappeared through the door behind the bar. “He never anticipated we’d show up at his place of employment.”
“I wonder if he’ll call Josh to let him know,” Sienna said, her tone thoughtful. “If so, that might be enough for Josh to call off additional attacks.”
“That’s possible.” Now that they had the safe house, he doubted there would be any more attacks. Allenton would have to find them first. “Regardless of what Josh does from this point forward, we’ll keep working the case. No matter what, I plan to hold your ex-husband accountable for his actions.”
“All I want is for him to leave me and Bailey alone,” she said with a sigh. “I don’t understand why he can’t just move forward with his life, leaving us out of it.”
“I don’t know.” In his job, he saw all kinds of people. Some were good people who’d gotten themselves into a bad situation. Some were intent on doing evil no matter what.
He suspected Josh Allenton fell into the latter category.
They rode the rest of the way to the safe house in silence. He called Flynn to ask him to open the garage door. Once they were parked, he followed Sienna inside. The spicy scent of pepperoni and cheese made his stomach growl.
“The pizzas will be ready shortly,” Flynn said. Glancing into the living room, he took note of Taylor playing with Bailey. Bailey lit up when she saw her mother and toddled toward Sienna. She lifted the little girl into her arms, hugging and kissing her before setting her back on her feet. Bailey didn’t hesitate to go back to playing with the building blocks Taylor had spread out on the floor.
He cocked an eyebrow at Flynn who shrugged as if to say nothing untoward had happened with Taylor and Bailey while they were gone.
He knew Taylor hadn’t called ahead to warn Ken Holt. For one thing, he hadn’t given her a disposable phone yet. For another, it was obvious Holt had been caught completely off guard by their unexpected arrival.
Sienna stepped into the kitchen, drew on the oven mitts, and peeked inside the oven. “They look great,” she said, closing the door. “Five minutes should do it.”
“Thanks.” He dropped into the chair beside Flynn. “I stopped by to see Iverson, but he was sleeping it off.”
“Not surprised.” Flynn gestured to the screen. “His bar isn’t doing well, probably because he’s spending all his time drinking his profits. Looks like there are several financial judgments against Iverson. He probably owes more than what the place is worth.”
Money could be a powerful motivator to turn criminal, but Iverson had been home sleeping while Holt had been the one to take off upon seeing Sienna. He didn’t see how Iverson could be involved. “Thanks for checking him out. Looks like we should stay focused on finding Ken Holt.”
“I agree. I’ve been digging through his social media—nice catch on the T-shirt logo by the way—but so far haven’t found anything else.” Flynn rubbed the back of his neck. “We can start over after we eat.”
“It’s my problem, I can take over from here,” Zeke said. “You look like you could use some rest.”
“Hey, this is a cakewalk compared to my usual shift,” Flynn joked. “It was nice of Rhy to assign me here to guard duty.”
Zeke knew he owed Rhy and Joe big time for their support.
“Dinner’s ready,” Sienna announced a few minutes later. “Taylor, did you and Bailey eat already?”
“We did,” Taylor called back. “Flynn wanted to wait for you, so there’s half a cold pizza in the fridge.”
“Okay, then I’ll portion these out for us, then.” As she spoke, Sienna used the pizza cutter to slice the pies into triangles. Then she placed several slices on plates and carried them to the table.
“I’d like to say grace.” Sienna glanced between him and Flynn once they were seated around the table. When he nodded and bowed his head, Flynn mirroring his actions, she said, “Dear Lord Jesus. We thank You for this food we are blessed to eat. We ask You to continue keeping us all safe in Your care. Amen.”
“Amen,” he and Flynn echoed. Then Flynn added Roscoe’s line. “Dig in.”
“It’s not the same without a Texas drawl,” Zeke protested.
“Hey, speaking of Roscoe, I forgot to tell you, he texted me earlier. Libby is in labor.” Flynn grinned. “Hard to believe Roscoe is going to be a father.”
“Wow, I’m really happy for him.” Zeke knew Roscoe was head over heels in love with Libby. “I can’t lie, I’m really glad he agreed to stick around here rather than moving back to Texas.”
“Same,” Flynn agreed.
“Roscoe and Libby?” Sienna looked confused. “Are they both part of your team?”
“Just Roscoe,” he said. “There are nine members total, and of those, we have three female officers: Raelyn, Jina, and Cassidy. Libby’s a schoolteacher and recently married Roscoe.”
“I see.” She nodded. “It’s nice that you are all so friendly.”
He was blessed to be a part of this closely knit team. “Yeah. It’s nice to know that we can count on each other no matter what is going down.”
“That reminds me, did Raelyn stay at the bar to keep an eye on things?” Flynn asked.
“She did. But I’m sure Holt is smart enough not to go back.” He grimaced and reached for his phone. “I’ll call and tell her to head home.”
“Let her know about Libby,” Flynn said.
He nodded. When Raelyn answered, he said, “I take it there’s been no sign of Holt?”
“Nothing. A few of the regulars stopped by, though. They seemed confused to find the place shut down.” There was a hint of humor in her tone. “The two old guys haven’t come back, though.”
“Flynn heard that Libby’s in labor,” he said. “Which means Roscoe’s paternity leave starts tomorrow. I’m calling to tell you to head home. I stopped by to chat with the bar owner, but he was already sleeping. I doubt Holt is worried about losing his job. Sounds like his boss spends most of his days drinking anyway.”
“I was planning to head home. Isaiah just let me know that he has dinner ready,” she admitted. “I feel bad how this went down. If you need more support, let me know. I’m here to help if needed.”
“Thanks, Rae. Enjoy your evening.” He ended the call with a sense of defeat. He’d royally botched their best lead.
It burned to know Holt was in the wind.
He took another bite of his pepperoni pizza, trying to come up with another lead. From the very beginning, they’d been reacting to threats—the threatening notes, the brick through the window of the rental house in White Gull Bay, and the gunfire on the road and within the Sinatra Music Center.
They needed to do a better job of investigating this thing. Where would Holt go if he needed to disappear? Would he really call Josh and tell him that Sienna showed up at the bar? Or would he see that as a failure that he’d rather keep hidden from his boss?
Probably the latter. Especially if Josh promised some money up front with more to follow once the job was complete.
And what was the job exactly? The attacks had gone well beyond an attempt to get the threats on record.
Did Josh want to scare Sienna into canceling her show? Or did he plan to set Ken Holt up to kill her?
Killing Sienna would not necessarily lead to his obtaining custody of Bailey. And why did he want joint custody so badly?
He couldn’t help feeling as if they were missing something.
“You mentioned you’re not getting any child support from Allenton, right?” he asked.
“I agreed to forfeit that in exchange for full custody, yes,” Sienna said. “Josh has no financial reason to seek joint custody.”
“Yeah, I keep coming back to that,” he admitted. “I can understand his wanting some sort of revenge, but normally in those cases, the satisfaction comes from doing the deed directly. Not usually by paying someone else to do the dirty work.”
“Maybe not, but once Josh’s parents became rich, he began paying people to do everything for him.” She shook her head. “He enjoyed directing others to do his bidding.”
Was that really what was driving Josh? “What happens if he gets joint custody, though? Does he get child support from you?”
“No, why would he?” Sienna looked confused. “He has more money than I do.”
“His parents have more money than you do,” he corrected, warming to the theory. “Josh doesn’t make any of his own money, does he?”
She frowned. “I don’t know if he’s still in the music industry. I haven’t paid any attention to his career since I’m on a completely different path now.”
“Okay, hear me out. If Josh can get joint custody of Bailey, maybe he’ll ask for child support payments as well.”
“I guess he could,” Sienna admitted. “But I’m not sure why he’d bother. His parents give him whatever he wants. A car, a house, you name it, they’ve given it to him.”
He frowned, realizing she was right. Based on what she was describing, it made more sense for her ex-husband to move on with his life. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “I just can’t see the end game here.”
Bailey began to fuss, causing Sienna to jump up from her seat, leaving her half-eaten pizza behind. “I’ll take her.”
“No, finish eating,” Taylor insisted. “Let me give her a bath. You can put her to bed.”
“I—okay.” Sienna sank back into her chair. “Thanks.”
“Of course.” Taylor carried Bailey to the bathroom, promising her fun in the tub.
“I guess I’m not used to having a nanny,” Sienna admitted. “I know I need someone to watch Bailey while I’m performing, and it seemed like a good idea to have someone here full time.” Her gaze followed Taylor and Bailey down the hall. “Now I’m second-guessing myself.”
“I’m sure it’s not easy being a single parent,” he said. He finished his pizza and stood to get seconds. It was plain as far as toppings went, but it hit the spot.
“Well, she won’t be a single parent for long once you two get married,” Flynn pointed out as he rose for seconds too. “I’m sure you can work out your schedules so that you won’t need a full-time nanny for much longer.”
Sienna hesitated, then nodded. “Yes, of course, you’re right.” She smiled brightly as she took his hand. “Zeke will be an amazing dad.”
He had no idea what to say to that. Thankfully, his disposable phone rang. Praying the cops had picked up Ken Holt, he quickly answered. “Hawthorne.”
“Zeke? It’s Steele. I’m afraid I have bad news.”
It took him a moment to understand why he was hearing from Steele. Until he remembered Steele lived in White Gull Bay. His stomach sank. “What is it?”
“I happened to be driving past the rental house your fiancée was using. It’s surrounded by police cars, so I stopped in, explaining I lived in the area and was concerned about what was going on.” There was a pause, before Steele continued. “The local police got an anonymous tip regarding a burglar. They found a dead body in the house. He’s your BOLO, Ken Holt.”
“No way.” Zeke had not expected that. He glanced at Sienna, then at Flynn. “How did Holt die?”
“Gunshot wound to the chest,” Steele said. “From what I saw, the shooter was up close and personal when he killed him.”
He sighed, knowing that not only would this end up in the newspapers, but their only lead on the shooter was dead.
Taken out by yet another shooter.
What on earth was going on?