Against the Night (38 page)

“He wasn’t worried about getting caught?”

“I asked him that. He said he had it covered, said the guy who was paying him had connections so he didn’t have to think about that.”

“What did you say?”

“I said if I’d had any doubt he wasn’t my type, I didn’t anymore and then I hung up.”

Johnnie pressed a twenty into her hand along with a business card. “Thanks, Patty. If you think of anything else, give me a call.”

She smiled, stuffed the twenty and the card into the pocket of the smock she wore over her jeans. “Call me when you’re ready for that mani.”

He smiled back. “Yeah, I’ll do that.”

Johnnie was halfway home when his cell phone started ringing. He recognized Amy’s number and pressed the phone against his ear.

“We’ve got Rachael’s cell!” Excitement rang in her voice. “Little Jimmy found it on the floor at Mrs. Zimmer’s. We’re charging it in the truck on the way back to the house.”

“Oh, baby, that’s good news. I’ll meet you there.” Johnnie closed the phone and stepped on the gas.

They all poured into the house together. They went straight to the kitchen, pulled out the chairs and sat down around the table.

“It should be charged enough to use. Where do we start?” Amy handed Johnnie the phone.

“We could look at the calls Rachael made the night she was abducted,” Ty suggested. “Vega should be able to track down who they went to.”

Johnnie flipped open Rachael’s phone. “First, let’s take a look at her address book. Most call lists go by first names. Let’s see if we can find a Dan listed in there.”

“Great idea!” Amy said excitedly. “Maybe he’s right there in her phone book.” Jumping up from her chair, she came around to lean over Johnnie’s shoulder as he brought up Rachael’s address book and started looking through it.

All of a sudden the name appeared.
Danny Turner.

“Oh, my God, there he is!”

“Only one number listed,” Johnnie said. “Probably his cell.”

“Jesus,” Ty said. “You think this is the Danny we’ve been looking for? Can’t be that easy.”

“Call him, Johnnie! If Rachael’s number is in his cell, he’ll think she’s the one who’s calling.”

“I guess we’ll find out.” Johnnie pressed the send button and the phone started ringing. When a man answered, he handed the phone to Amy, then leaned close so that both of them could hear.

Amy took a deep breath. “Hello…Danny?”

A long pause, the tension on the other end of the line seemed almost tangible. “Who…who is this? Who’s calling?”

“This is Rachael. I’ve missed you, Danny.”

“Rachael?” The man’s voice rose a notch. “You don’t…don’t sound like yourself. Is this…is this really you?”

Amy looked up at Johnnie. He nodded for her to continue.

“Why did you do it, Danny? You knew the way I felt, how much I cared about you.”

“I…I can explain everything…sweetheart.” His voice firmed. “Why don’t we meet someplace and talk things over? We’ll straighten everything out.”

When Amy paused, Johnnie reached over and took the phone from her hand, broke the connection.

“He’s our guy. He didn’t come forward when Rachael disappeared, now he figures she’s got her memory back and he’s screwed.”

Johnnie pulled out his phone and called Rick Vega at the safe house. “We found Rachael’s cell. The name of the guy she was seeing is Danny Turner. We need a GPS location for the call he just received.” Johnnie rattled off the number.

“I’m on it,” Vega said. “I’ll call you right back.” The line went dead.

“It may be a disposable,” Ty warned.

Johnnie shook his head. “She was just a girl he was dating. At the time, she wasn’t a threat. Until he got that call, he probably didn’t even remember he was in her address book.”

“He knows we’re on to him now,” Amy said. “What if he tries to run?”

“He might,” Johnnie said. “But if he’s the link to Ortega, he’s high enough on the food chain he’s got a lot to lose. I think he’ll make a last-ditch effort to get rid of the problem.”

The minutes ticked past. When everyone began to fidget waiting for Rick’s call, Amy got up and grabbed some soft drinks out of the refrigerator. Pop tops cracked open all around.

Then Johnnie’s phone rang.

“The call went to 210 North Figueroa,” Rick said. “That’s the D.A.’s office, my friend. Organized Crimes Division. Daniel Turner’s a deputy D.A.”

“You don’t fucking say?” Johnnie blew out a breath. “That’s it then. Turner was in Ortega’s pocket. Rachael found out something she wasn’t supposed to know and Turner handed her over to Ortega.

“We’ve got to be careful with this,” Vega warned. Ortega’s dead but his reach may go a whole lot deeper than Turner. If that’s the case, anyone involved will be trying to save his ass.”

“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but your partner just blew away the one guy who might have been able to lead us to Turner.”

“Lansky? Damn. It’s possible he’s involved, I guess. We’ve only been working together a couple of months. I know his wife left him for another guy. He was always talking about winning her back. Maybe he figured the money he made from Ortega would do the trick.”

Johnnie’s jaw hardened. “I want Turner.” He flicked a glance at Amy, thought of all she and Rachael had suffered. “I want him bad.”

Vega’s voice roughened. “We both do. But the evidence just isn’t there. Let me talk to Rachael. Her memory’s been coming back in bits and pieces. Let’s see if Turner’s name rings any bells.”

Johnnie’s fingers tightened around the phone. “Do it.”

Thirty-Four

Rachael sat on the sofa, staring at a game show on TV. Rick didn’t think she was actually watching. Hannah was in the kitchen, busy chopping onions and tomatoes—some of the groceries she had convinced one of the agents to get for the lasagna she wanted to make.

Rick had called Johnnie from the bedroom so Rachael wouldn’t hear. Afterward, he had used his iPad to dig up as much information as he could on Daniel Turner. He wasn’t looking forward to the task ahead. He just prayed it would work.

“Rachael?”

Her gaze swung to his and for the first time seemed to actually focus. “Yes?”

“I need to talk to you a minute. It’d be better if we could speak in private.”

She flicked a glance at her mother, who was busy working away, and walked over to where he stood in the entry. Rick took her hand and led her down the hall into the bedroom he was using.

She stopped and looked up at him. “What is it? You look worried.”

He urged her to sit down on the bed then picked his iPad up off the dresser and sat down beside her. “Actually, I’m hopeful. I think we may have found something that will help us end all of this, and there may be a way you can help.”

Her eyes found his. She had the loveliest pale green eyes he’d ever seen. “What can I do?”

He set the iPad in his lap. “You’ve been remembering things. This morning you remembered a little about being on Ortega’s plane. It was just a glimpse, you said. So far you haven’t remembered anything that happened before your abduction.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“I think maybe it’s just too painful for you to recall. But the thing is, we need to know why Ortega took you to that island.” He turned the iPad so that she could see the photograph on the screen, a picture of Deputy District Attorney Daniel Turner in a newspaper article he found on the internet.

“Do you know who that is?”

She studied the photo and her breathing grew shallow. “I—I’m not sure.”

“Does the name Daniel Turner mean anything to you? You called him Danny.”

The color leached out of her face. Her lips trembled. She ran her tongue across them. “Danny?” She looked back down at the screen. “Danny. Oh, my God, Danny.” And then she burst into tears.

Great sobs shook her and a keening sound broke from her throat. Rick’s chest clamped down so hard he could barely breathe. He reached for her, eased her into his arms.

“Rachael…honey, it’s all right. Everything’s going to be okay.” He held her, let her weep against his shoulder, made no effort to stop her, just tried to absorb the shaking of her body and lend her the comfort of his own.

They sat that way for several minutes, until her crying began to ease, then finally subsided. She took the handkerchief he pulled out of his pocket, wiped her eyes and blew her nose. A few moments later, she started talking.

“I remember. I was in love with him,” Rachael said. “At least I thought I was. I thought he loved me, too.” She swallowed. “We were going away together. He had a friend, he said, a man who owned a villa in Belize. It was beautiful, he said, and I was so excited. But Danny… Danny worked in the district attorney’s office and I was an exotic dancer. I was going to quit my job at the club, but until I found something more respectable, we had to keep our relationship secret.”

She paused, wiped away fresh tears and dragged in a shaky breath.

“Go on, honey,” Rick softly urged.

“I used to stay the night at his house whenever we could make our schedules work, but I always left early so no one would know I was there. Then one night…it was late and something woke me, and Danny…Danny wasn’t in bed. I could…I could see a light under the door coming from down the hall so I put on one of his shirts and wandered down the hall toward the study. When I realized he wasn’t alone, I…I stopped just outside the study door.”

Rick took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, urging her to continue.

“There was a mirror on the wall inside the room and I could see two men inside. Danny was talking to them. It took a minute for me to realize they were discussing a shipment of drugs that would be coming into the harbor. They were worried about…about the DEA.” Her throat moved up and down. “They said they needed to know if there was a raid coming down. They needed Danny to warn them so they could make adjustments. That’s what they called them. Adjustments.”

“What did Danny say?”

She looked up at him and those beautiful green eyes flooded with tears. “He said they didn’t have to worry. He’d make sure to get them the information they needed. When he told them it would cost them extra, they just…they laughed. One of them said money wasn’t a problem.”

The tears spilled over onto her cheeks. She mopped them up with his handkerchief. “That’s when I knew…I knew the truth about him. I must have made some kind of sound because the next thing I knew, the men were grabbing me, dragging me into the study and telling Danny they would have to kill me.”

“But they didn’t,” Rick said, his jaw clenched so tight it was hard to speak.

“Danny didn’t want them to kill me. They talked about it, decided what to do. Danny gave me to Ortega, instead.” She leaned toward Rick, slid her arms around his neck. “I would rather have been dead.”

Rick wrapped her in his arms and just held her, his heart aching for all she had suffered.

He knew if he got the chance, he would kill Dan Turner with his own bare hands.

As soon as the call came from Vega relaying his conversation with Rachael, Johnnie called Kent Wheeler.

“I’ve got what you need. Where can we meet?”

“You’re at home?”

“That’s right.”

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

The lanky agent arrived right on time and Johnnie led him into the kitchen. Amy made a pitcher of iced tea and poured glasses for Wheeler, Johnnie, Ty and herself. They sat back down around the table.

“So what have you got?” Wheeler asked, taking a drink of tea.

Johnnie told him about finding Rachael’s phone and making the call to Turner, repeated Vega’s conversation with Rachael, explained that her memory was returning. He told Wheeler the reason for her abduction, who was behind it and why.

“Sounds like we’ve got more than enough for search warrants for Turner’s home and office,” Wheeler said. “If we’re lucky, we’ll find enough to link Danny boy to Rachael’s abduction. We’ve been looking for a leak for weeks. We never thought it would be so close to the top. I’ll talk to the district attorney, myself.”

“It doesn’t stop with Turner,” Johnnie said. “I think Mitch Lansky’s involved.”

“I heard about the shooting. Lansky’s been on our radar since before he was transferred out of missing persons. He always seemed to be in the wrong place at just the right time.”

“I wonder how Lansky hooked up with Turner? Seems an unlikely partnership.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Wheeler turned to Amy. “I don’t want you to worry about Rachael. We’ll keep her in protective custody till all of this is straightened out.”

Amy smiled with relief. “Thank you. You’ve been wonderful about everything.”

Johnnie caught Amy’s hand, brought her fingers to his lips. “It’s almost over, baby.”

Wheeler drained his iced tea and set the glass down on the table. “I’ve got lots to do. I’ll keep you posted.”

“Thanks, Kent.”

“I’ve gotta run, too,” Ty said, finishing his tea and carrying the glass over to the sink. Johnnie walked the men out the front door. By the time he returned, his phone was ringing again.

Jake Cantrell’s deep voice boomed over the line. “Sol got into that police file, got the info you wanted on Dickie Talbot.”

“Talbot’s dead. Police shooting. Detective named Mitch Lansky. Claims Talbot resisted arrest.”

“Pretty convenient.”

“Too convenient. Good chance Lansky’s involved.”

“I’ll take a chunk of that wager.”

“We found Rachael’s connection to Ortega. A deputy D.A. she was dating named Daniel Turner.”

“So we were right…Rachael overheard something she shouldn’t have, and Turner got rid of her.”

“Yeah. Turner was in love so he wouldn’t let them outright kill her.”

“Nice guy. You might be interested to know there’s nothing in Talbot’s file that connects him to Ortega. He was arrested a half-dozen times, drug dealing mostly, served time for that. Once for assault, once for attempted kidnapping. Charges were dropped.”

“Kidnapping?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Missing Persons would have been involved in that. Lansky was transferred to Homicide out of Missing Persons. That must be how he knew Talbot.”

“Actually—” Johnnie could hear paper shuffling “—a lieutenant named Meeks was in charge of the investigation.”