Chapter Eleven
Vacant Duplex
Bradley Street
Outside the house they sat in the car. The silence had thickened to the point Ben wanted to reach out to her.
She hadn’t spoken since reading the message on the wall.
Ben didn’t ask if she was okay. Of course she wasn’t.
Every damned thing that happened only opened up more questions.
There just didn’t appear to be any answers.
He had a feeling this was someone’s twisted idea of a game.
He had his doubts about whether the cartel would play around this way.
This felt more and more like someone who got burned or shortchanged by Devers and now that person wanted to find whatever was missing.
Maybe before the cartel learned of the situation.
Ben turned to his passenger. “Let’s consider our timeline for a moment.”
She looked to him. Blinked. He couldn’t decide based on the deadpan expression on her face if she was scared, angry or numb. Maybe a little of all three.
“The intruder came into your home very early this morning. He left you that note on the garage door. Then, this afternoon, in our follow-up search, we find the address in the dollhouse.”
Another slow blink and vague nod.
“My question is, how difficult was it to remove the Barbie elevator and then to put it back?” Sounded completely ridiculous but he had a point.
She considered the question for a moment.
“It doesn’t take long. Detaching it makes a couple of snapping noises, as does pushing it into place.
But it was loose when I checked so it was even easier than usual.
I may not have told you, but I believe Scott left the message there because he knew that was the sort of place I would look. ”
He had expected as much. “So you don’t think the intruder left the message there and that maybe his gloves prevented him from popping the elevator back into place properly. You said he was wearing gloves, right?”
She nodded. “He was. For sure.”
She rubbed at her arms, and he wrestled with the need to reach out and touch her, give her hand a reassuring squeeze…something to underscore she wasn’t alone in this.
“Then it’s reasonable to assume,” he went on, pushing past the idea of touching her, “that the intruder who left the message in your garage could have left this message as well. The gloves and his haste left it loose, as you say. You never noticed it being loose before, did you?”
She thought about it for a moment, her expression shifting as if some realization had just dawned.
“You’re right… If it had been loose before, Janey would have noticed and wanted me to fix it.
So it had to be him—the intruder.” Shock flared in her eyes.
“Oh. My. God.” Her head moved slowly from side to side.
“That means the intruder had to be him. Son of a…”
“Scott,” Ben said. It wasn’t a guess…it was a given.
She laughed out loud. “I can’t believe I didn’t consider that. The height was about right…the eye color. But it happened so quickly I didn’t get a really good look. He shoved me against the wall, which sent me tumbling to the floor.” She swore under her breath. “You must think I’m such a fool.”
“You are not a fool, Brenda,” he urged. “You had no reason to suspect it was him.”
“But it had to be.” She shook her head again.
“It’s a possibility we can’t rule out,” he agreed. “Now the question is, why play this game? Obviously you and the bad guys both know he’s still alive. It’s not like he pulled that one off.”
“He wasn’t wearing the cologne he always wears,” she said, uncertainty obviously poking its way into her thoughts.
“Then it’s possible,” Ben felt the need to say, “it wasn’t him. But someone with whom he has shared details about you. Or maybe someone he hired and provided specific directions.”
She lifted her gaze to his. “Maybe the blonde I saw him with at LAX.”
“Maybe.” He opted not to point out that she’d insisted the intruder was a man.
She made a face. “No. It was definitely a man.” She turned fully to Ben. “I want to go to his house. I want to see inside. If there’s something else the police aren’t telling me, I need to know. I have a right to know. Maybe someone has been leaving messages there too.”
“We’re both aware that his home is a secondary crime scene and most likely sealed.” Ben felt compelled to offer the warning.
“I don’t care. Legally I’m still married to him so that gives me the right to go into his home in his absence—at least in my mind.”
He didn’t argue. On a level the law wouldn’t recognize, she considered herself entitled to this opportunity. She needed to be able to protect herself. She couldn’t do that as long as she was left in the dark. “Point me in the right direction.”
“Go back out to Triana Boulevard and take a right.” As he drove, she said, “Tell me about this Jalisco cartel.”
None of the information she’d just requested was going to make her feel better, but it wasn’t as if she couldn’t google it.
“Extremely violent. Truly the worst of the worst. They have built a reputation as a new generation–style operation. Very diverse in their activities. Drugs. Human trafficking. Assassinations.”
“Dear God. What was he thinking?” She shivered at the images his words no doubt prompted. “You need to take a left at the next intersection.”
He slowed for the turn. “Not that I’m cutting him any slack,” Ben pointed out before saying more, “but I doubt a lot of rational thought went into the decision. These kinds of moves typically happen just before things are about to fall apart. Desperation drives the decision.”
“Whatever his motive,” she contended, “his decision to leave us with this nightmare is unforgivable.”
“Absolutely.” There was no way to disagree with that conclusion.
While she simmered about the man’s bad decisions, Ben focused on navigating the heavier traffic in the retail area along Airport Road.
All those emotions she had attempted to keep under control the past couple of days were getting the better of her.
Understandably so. It was the ultimate betrayal.
Her husband had cheated repeatedly, then he’d left her in a dangerous situation with seemingly no way out.
His one good deed was calling the Colby Agency.
“I want you to know,” she spoke up after a couple of minutes of silence, “that all these emotions I’m dealing with aren’t about me and certainly not about what Scott and I once had.
All of what I’m feeling is because I’m worried about my little girl.
One way or the other she has lost her father.
I’m not seeing a way clear of it, and I’m terrified for her future. ”
He braked for a traffic signal and looked directly at her. “You don’t need to worry about a way out of this, Brenda. That’s my job, and you have my word you will get through this and safely to the other side of this nightmare.”
She tried to smile but it didn’t happen. Rather, she stared straight ahead. “Just promise me if there’s no way to the other side for me that you’ll keep my daughter safe.”
This time he put his hand over hers and squeezed. “You and Janey will both be safe.”
The light changed to green and he rolled forward.
“Ah…you should go…” She cleared her throat, swiped at her eyes with her free hand. “Left at the next light. You’ll have to stop at the guard shack. I’ll show my ID.”
The next left took them onto Ledges Drive. At the guard shack, Ben stopped and powered down his window.
Brenda leaned toward him so that the guard could see her. “Hi. I’m Brenda Devers.” She passed her driver’s license to the man. “I’m going to my husband Scott Devers’s house on Ledge View Drive.”
“One moment.” The man in the uniform returned her license, stepped back into the guard shack and checked whatever he needed to, then raised the gate and motioned for them to drive through.
Brenda relaxed into her seat once more.
Ben focused on the road as it wound up the mountainside, rising to the top and rolling into an elite housing development.
“Do you have a key?”
“Yes. I’ve only been here a couple of times, but he gave me one. For Janey, I guess. Just keep following Ledges Drive until you reach Ledge View, then turn right. After that it’s the first house on the left.”
The houses were large, the lots estate sized. Ben wasn’t surprised. Scott Devers had a history of living large. He liked excessively expensive sports cars and, clearly, elegant mansions surrounded by other elegant mansions. The contrast between him and Brenda was stunning.
“Turn into the driveway and I’ll get out and open the garage door.”
Ben followed her instructions, waiting with the engine running as she entered the code for one of three garage doors. When it opened, she stepped aside and motioned for him to pull inside. Smart decision. It was better to avoid being noticed if possible.
Once he was inside, he shifted into Park and shut off the engine.
The door closed behind him. As he emerged, he noted the workout area in one of the other bays.
All state-of-the-art equipment. In the third bay was a vintage Porsche.
Again, Ben noted the astounding difference between Scott and Brenda.
Brenda waited at the entrance door to the house.
“I assume you have the security code in case the alarm is activated.”
She nodded. “I do.” She unlocked the door and walked in.
Ben stayed close behind her. The house was dark save for lights from appliances and electronics and the meager remaining daylight filtering through the plantation shutters. Quiet too. No signal the alarm required a code.
“I guess the police called for the alarm to be turned off,” she said. “They certainly didn’t call me asking for a code.”
“That’s the usual protocol,” Ben offered. “I should go first as we walk through.”
She waited for him to walk past her. He used the flashlight app on his phone as he went. Just enough extra light to see clearly. No need to alert the neighbors.
The kitchen was large, modern. Lots of gleaming white and polished stainless steel. High-end commercial-grade appliances the man likely never used. Rich hardwood floors. Posh furniture.
They moved beyond the dining room into the massive great room with its view looking out over the infinity pool and the cliffs behind the house. The sun was fading, sending long shadows across the treetops.
“Any place in particular you believe we should look?” Signs the police had done their work were everywhere. They had taken the place and everything inside it apart.
She surveyed the chaos. “You mean someplace they haven’t already looked?”
He laughed, or attempted to. “If such a place exists, yes.”
“I suppose we can just keep going from room to room and maybe something will pop out at me.”
Room by room, they plowed through the mess left by the official search.
Then up the grand staircase to the bedrooms, where they did the same there.
They checked for hidden places in souvenirs Scott had purchased in South America on one of his many trips.
But none had secret openings or false bottoms.
If the man had any evidence hidden here, it was long gone. They found nothing. No messages written on the walls. Not one thing.
Outside on the rear patio, Brenda stared out over the lights below.
Darkness had fallen, so the lights from the city in the valley beneath them were all there was to see, other than a few stars overhead.
Gas streetlamps flickered along Ledge View Drive, but their glow was dim.
He suspected not diminishing the starlight was the point.
“We should go,” he suggested. There was nothing more to do here.
She had to be exhausted, emotionally and physically.
“This was what he always wanted.” She turned to Ben. “This glamorous lifestyle. Bragging rights.”
Scott Devers had grown up a poor kid on a farm in the tiny community of Princeton, Alabama. He’d done well for himself…until a couple of years ago.
But money hadn’t been his only obsession.
Ben’s attention settled on the woman standing so close. Her husband hadn’t appreciated her…hadn’t respected her. That, in Ben’s opinion, was where his long line of bad choices had begun.
She gazed out over the valley below once more. “I hope for Janey’s sake he doesn’t end up dead again. I don’t want to have to explain that to her.”
“What’s going on here?”
He and Brenda turned simultaneously at the firm demand.
Special Agent Cummings, flanked by two uniformed Huntsville PD officers, stood in the expansive open space created by the foldaway glass wall of doors.
“Ms. Devers,” he said, “Mr. Clark, perhaps you’re unaware that this is a secondary crime scene. The front door was sealed. Did you not see the seal?”
Brenda stepped forward before Ben could respond. “We came in through the garage. That’s the way I’ve always come into my husband’s home.”
“Then I suppose we can let this misstep go, but I’m sure Detective Shelton will be speaking with you about the rules related to crime scenes.”
“Why are you here, Agent Cummings?” She surveyed the three men.
She was angry now. Ben didn’t blame her. She’d been through enough to be outraged.
“Huntsville PD received a call from a neighbor that lights had come on in the house,” Cummings explained. “I’m staying nearby and came right away, but I waited for the officers to arrive before entering the house.”
“Nearby?” A frown tugged at Brenda’s face. “Where? I know the area well.”
“With a friend.” He looked to Ben. “We should get the house locked up.”
Ben recognized his cue to act. He touched Brenda’s arm.
“We’ll be on our way then.” Inside, he hesitated.
“I’m assuming you have no news about the case.
” When the other man failed to answer immediately, Ben tacked on, “I’m confident you’re keeping Ms. Devers fully and promptly informed since her safety is involved. ”
“Of course.” Cummings smiled, but it was as false as his answer. “There is no news to report.”
Ben smiled back and then he and Brenda walked away.
He wondered though why the agent had chosen to lie.