Chapter 26
Connor bounced his knee up and down as he sat trapped in the damn passenger’s seat of Mark’s car as they barreled toward Hoboken.
Mark had sent officers from the local precinct to knock on Simon’s door, but no one had answered.
A warrant was coming through to search the apartment, and Connor wanted to be there the second they were given clearance to enter.
“Turn left at the light,” Connor said into the tense silence.
“Detective Anderson called and had no recollection of Gabriel ever being connected to Lynette Nelson. No way that would have gone uncovered if Simon told his parents and the police what he told me. I wonder how much shit this guy fed me.”
“Seems like Simon’s been lying to you the whole time,” Mark said.
He took the corner without slowing down, and Connor tipped to the side of the seat, keeping a firm grasp on the door handle.
He glanced at the clock on the dash. Dinnertime had come and gone.
He shifted his gaze to the mostly bare sidewalks.
A few homeless people loitered in doorways, and pedestrians hurried down the street.
One man’s brisk pace and large backpack caught his attention. The man jogged along the sidewalk, his head down and shoulders bent forward from the weight of his pack. Red hair spiked out from an oval face.
“Holy shit. Stop the car,” Connor shouted. “That’s Simon.”
Mark slammed on the brakes, and he jumped out. He took off at a dead sprint toward Simon. Simon twisted to face him, and his eyes widened. He ran, his backpack bouncing, slowing him down. He slipped the pack off his shoulders and shot forward.
Connor lengthened his stride. Only guilty people ran.
Simon dodged between people and weaved into the busy street, crossing to the other side like his life depended on it. Connor followed, closing in with every step. Beads of sweat slid down his face, and his lungs burned.
He pushed his muscles harder, faster, until he reached out and grabbed hold of the back of Simon’s jacket.
He closed his fist around the fleece and yanked him backward, the momentum causing Simon to slip forward and stumble onto his ass.
Connor kept his grip on the back of his jacket, pulled him back to his feet, then spun him around.
Connor pinned him to the building beside them, fisting the collar of his shirt and yanking Simon to his toes. “Where’s Gabriel?”
Simon clawed at Connor’s hand, but his bony fingers were useless against Connor’s viselike grip. “Why do you keep asking me that? What the hell’s your problem? Just leave me alone.”
Connor leaned in closer, allowing venom to coat his words as he continued.
“Don’t lie to me. I know you never told anyone Gabriel dated Lynette.
Was anything you told me true? What about the fucking birdhouses?
Was everything a story to make me feel sorry for you?
” He pushed harder against the brick wall, his fist pressing against the weasel’s windpipe.
Mark put a heavy hand on Connor’s shoulder. “He can’t answer any questions if you suffocate him, and I don’t need another murder on my caseload.”
Simon locked his nervous gaze on Mark. “Please, help me. This guy’s been harassing me. He’s crazy.”
Mark chuckled. “Nice try. You didn’t answer his question.”
Connor relaxed his arm enough to lower Simon to his feet but kept him firmly rooted in his spot.
Simon shifted his dilated pupils from Mark to Connor and back again. “I...I don’t understand what’s going on.”
“What about your cousin? You lied about telling your parents she dated Gabriel. You didn’t tell the police. Don’t say you did. I had an informative chat with the detective who’d been in charge of Lynette’s case. He’d never heard the name Gabriel Wilson.”
All the air seemed to leave Simon’s body. “I...you don’t...it’s not what you think.” Simon sighed, defeat etching lines in the corners of his eyes.
“I suggest you explain it to us,” Mark said, his voice hard and unrelenting.
Tears glimmered in the shafts of light beating down from the streetlamp. “It was my fault Lynette died.”
Shock loosened Connor’s grip. A million scenarios had played in his mind, but Simon being responsible for his cousin’s disappearance wasn’t one of them. “What happened?”
Simon bent at the waist and shook his head. “It was an accident. I never meant to hurt her. She was my best friend.” He glanced at Connor. “I didn’t lie about that. She was like the sister I never had.”
A beat of silence passed, and Connor wanted to jump out of his skin. “What did you do?” He spoke each word through clenched teeth.
“I went to see her. I’d found a picture of her and Gabriel together, and I didn’t like it.
He might have been my friend, but I didn’t trust him with her.
I’d seen his temper—heard how he talked about other girls.
We were at the top of the stairs. I tried to get her to talk to me, if she’d just listen to what I had to tell her.
I grabbed her purse to keep her there, but she pulled away and lost her footing... ”
Connor ran a hand over his head. If Simon was telling the truth, Lynette’s death was an accident. “Why lie? Why not tell the police what happened?”
“Gabriel walked in at some point during our argument. He screamed, told me I’d killed her. He said he’d seen the whole thing, and I’d pushed her down the stairs. I denied it, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He said he loved her, and I had to pay.”
“What happened to Lynette?” Mark voiced the question in Connor’s mind.
Simon bit his bottom lip. “Gabriel and I took her somewhere. He said he didn’t want anyone else to take her away like I had. He needed to keep her safe. From that moment on, I’ve done whatever he’s asked me to do.”
Fierce anger spiked Connor’s heart rate. “You let a teenager boss you around and get you to do his dirty work because of an accident? Even now, as an adult, you’ve continued to let him just tell you what to do? Are you kidding?’
Simon locked eyes with Connor. “I tried to stop—tried to get help. But then I was pushed into traffic, and my dog would die, and my parents ended up in a fatal car accident. I knew who did those things. I knew what would happen to me if I refused him. So I stopped trying to fight him a long time ago.”
“Sonofabitch,” Mark whispered.
Connor let the cool air chase away the rage boiling inside him. “Did you kidnap my sister?”
Simon closed his eyes and dropped his head, hunching his slim shoulders forward. “Yes.”
Connor screamed out his anger and slammed the palm of his hand against the wall beside Simon’s head.
“Dude, take it easy,” Mark said. “Simon, you can’t make up for all the messed-up shit you’ve done, but you can help us now.”
“How? I don’t know where Gabriel is. I take the girls he tells me to, then I drop them off at his house. I don’t know where he goes from there. He’s never told me.”
Connor fixed his gaze on Simon and fought to control the beast brewing inside him. “Show us where you took Lynette.”
Graffiti-stained warehouses clustered together along the quiet street three blocks from bustling Bedford Avenue.
Smashed glass and empty beer bottles littered the cracked sidewalk.
A broken streetlamp loomed over Connor and Mark, but no shadows danced across the bar-lined windows.
According to Simon, this was the location he and Gabriel had taken Lynette’s body eleven years ago.
He’d hoped to find Gabriel and Evelyn here, but there was no sign of anyone inside.
Connor ran to a warehouse door. “He couldn’t have put a padlock on the door from the inside.”
“Maybe there’s another way in?” Mark gripped his weapon and scanned the front of the building. “Looks like there’s an alley on the side.”
Connor grabbed his gun and sprinted to the end of the sidewalk. He turned the corner and spotted a few steps that led down from the darkened alley. He ran toward them, loose gravel crunching under his shoes. This could be it.
He jumped down the three steps onto a concrete landing. A rusted steel door loomed in front of him. He grabbed the handle just as Mark joined him.
“Stay low and keep quiet,” Mark whispered.
Adrenaline pumped from his chest, sparking his limbs to life with nervous energy. He turned the knob and pulled the door open. Silence greeted them. The moonlight shone through the now-open door, and the smell of urine smacked his face.
Connor covered his nose with one hand and took a step inside. Holes gaped in the ceiling, and random blankets and grocery carts lined the far wall.
“Squatters,” Mark said.
Connor scanned the filthy room, keeping his weapon trained in front of him. “Gabriel wouldn’t bring women here. Too risky.”
A loud snore broke the silence of the room. A man with a scruffy beard covering his face curled in a ball in the corner. Connor nudged the man with his toe.
The man snorted awake. His gaze settled on the gun, and his pupils dilated. “I don’t want no trouble. Just wanted a warm place to sleep for the night.”
“Did a man bring a woman in here tonight?” Connor hurled the question. This was supposed to be the break he needed, but instead it was like another sick game.
“No one’s in here but me.”
“How do you know?” Mark asked
“Most people don’t come in here. The holes all over don’t keep the cold air out.”
Connor glanced around. Gabriel needed a private spot, someplace others wouldn’t easily venture in and out. And he definitely needed something soundproof. This didn’t fit the bill at all.
Frustration vibrated through his every nerve ending. It was another fucking dead end. He had nothing. No other leads, no information... Gabriel was going to escape and he’d do God-knew-what to Evelyn.
“Let’s walk the perimeter and make damn certain no one else is here before we leave. And where the hell’s Lynette Nelson’s body?”
Mark stayed close to his back as they cleared the building, verifying the homeless man’s claim no one else was inside.
The ringing of his phone sliced into the room. “Mitchel.”