Aiden, page 17
Aiden gave Pia the detective’s name.
“Why would I want to do that?” Pia asked in disgust.
Aiden explained, “Because he’s holding all Moscow’s blackmail files and his little black book with all of it in there.”
At that, Pia snapped back in anger. “What?”
“Yeah,” Toby added, “so go ahead. Try and tell me that you didn’t know anything about it because I saw emails in those files where you and Moscow talked all about it. So, if I were you, I would be thinking more about what you want to save of your reputation and maybe thinking to relocate somewhere else,” she suggested, “before the charges start flying that you were in cahoots with your son’s blackmailing scheme.”
He stared at her and replied with a note of fury in his voice, “What the hell are you talking about?”
But she wouldn’t be stopped. “I know exactly what I’m talking about.” She glared at him. “You’re despicable. All you ever do is live on threats and hunt people down and make their lives miserable.” She stared at him with such fury that he backed up a step. “As far as I’m concerned, the cops can take you down and throw away the key for all the times that you’ve hurt other people in this town. Your son was a rapist and a lowlife slug who preyed on vulnerable people. So don’t go talking to me about your best son ever bullshit!” she snapped. “I’m totally okay if his reputation comes out, and people finally know exactly what he was like and that you’re okay with that, that you were grooming him to do more and more of the same.”
He took another step back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, but his face was pale, as if he only now started to realize that he could be in jeopardy himself.
“Oh, yeah, you do,” she called his bluff. “Now get the hell off my property, before I file trespassing charges against you. Then go ahead and try to again manipulate the local law enforcement against me,” she snapped. “I am no longer without friends and support, and your brand of bullying persuasion is over at the DA’s office, and now the DOJ will deal with you,” she stated in a harsh voice. “Honestly I hope they throw the book at you for everything.”
He took several more steps back, shaking his head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, I do. Moscow left detailed notes,” she shared. “We haven’t even gotten through everything yet.”
He stared at her and took a deep breath. “Moscow wouldn’t have done that.”
“Yes, he would have. Believe me. As long as he was alive and well, it was fine. He could control things. However, the minute he died, that all changed. And I got curious about all the stuff he left behind with me.” She continued. “After you had me charged for a crime I didn’t commit, you can bet I found somebody trustworthy in the police system that you can’t bribe or threaten, just so that I get a fair shake. The murder charges against me have been dropped, by the way,” she added. “Stay tuned for charges against you now.” She continued glaring at him.
“I just wanted Moscow to be happy,” he said, staring at her.
“No, you didn’t. You wanted him to control me, and you wanted to control Moscow. However, he was a wild card, who abused even his poor sister, Michelle.”
He waved a hand. “That’s BS. She’s been spouting all that crap forever. There’s no proof of it.”
“Yes, there is,” she argued. “And now Moscow won’t be abusing anybody anymore, and, for that, I’m glad. The fact that you can live with the knowledge that your son abused his half sister all these years?” She shook her head. “Of course, for a manipulating bully like you, that’s nothing, right? I mean, in your patriarchal mind-set, that’s how women are supposed to be treated, right?” With a disgusted look, she added, “You’re nothing, but guess what? Your day of reckoning is here,” she vowed.
He took several more steps away. “You’re lying,” he said, obviously shaken.
“No, I’m not lying,” she countered, “but you can bet, by the time I sell everything of Moscow’s and clean out his apartment and do everything else that needs to be done, I’ll find more and more pieces that need to come out into the light, into the public’s purview.”
He shook his head. “No, you can’t do that.”
“Why not?” She shrugged, with a sneer. “It’s not like you can stop me.”
“I wanted to keep his apartment,” he said painfully. “There’s very little I have of my son to keep.”
“You can buy it from me then,” she stated sarcastically. He glared at her, and she shook her head. “No, he insisted I marry him, so I’ll make sure I end up with something out of this deal, so I can move and start somewhere else.”
“And where will you move to?” he asked, dazed.
“What do you care?” she snapped. “I just want to make sure that I’m nowhere close to you.”
He shook his head. “It’s all just a lie, isn’t it?” He turned, looking at the men. “What she just said, it’s a lie. Right?”
At that, Aiden shook his head. “No, it isn’t. Unfortunately it’s all very true. And we have evidence to back up everything Toby just told you. Moscow sexually abused Michelle in the group home, and he has made Toby’s life here an absolute nightmare.”
Pia’s face turned gray, and he shuddered. “I didn’t know,” he murmured.
“You defended every depraved thing that Moscow ever did,” she snapped. “And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you weren’t charged over all this blackmail too.”
Immediately Pia shook his head. “My lawyers will work on that in no time,” he murmured, regaining some strength in his voice.
“An awful lot of evidence was turned over to the detective, then to the DOJ,” she noted, with a headshake. “So I wouldn’t count on it.”
He nodded slowly, and, in a much more haggard frame of mind, Pia slowly made his way back to his vehicle. Once there, he turned to Toby and said, “I’ll have my lawyers contact you.”
She waited—not sure what for.
When he saw the confusion on her face, he added, “The apartment. I do want it.”
She nodded. “You’re welcome to it, for the right price. Do you want his personal stuff left as is inside?”
He looked at her and then nodded. “Yes, please.”
“Fine. Make the arrangements,” Toby replied.
And, with that, Pia got in his vehicle and drove away.
She looked over at the guys and asked, “Was that wrong?”
“No, not at all,” Aiden noted. “Legally you seem entitled to it.”
“It just feels wrong,” she explained, still in a confused state.
Mountain shook his head. “You need a fresh start. He’s got tons of money. He wants to keep the apartment, when it is legally yours. Let the lawyers handle it, take the best offer possible, and then you can set up someplace new.”
“And where will you go?” Aiden asked, eyeing her carefully.
She smiled. “I have no idea.”
“Good,” Aiden said. “In that case, you might as well come back to my place for a while, until you figure it out.” She stared at him, her mouth agape. He shrugged. “Hey, don’t tell me that we haven’t been dancing around the same tune,” he noted. “You obviously just need some time, and I’m giving you time.”
“Oh, yeah? How much time are you giving me?” she asked in a mocking tone. “Doesn’t sound like very much time at all.”
“I’ll give you as much time as you need,” he stated, with a big smile.
“Besides, I don’t even know where you live,” she replied, frowning at him.
“California.”
“Oh, … I was considering California.”
He now gave her a beaming smile. “So, I’m not kidding. You can come stay with me for a while.”
“And I might take you up on that,” she murmured. “But we’re not past all this mess, are we?”
“Nope, not yet,” he agreed. “There is one thing I do want to know.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Where does this girlfriend of yours live?”
“Which one?”
“Annabel, the one who took the picture of your bruised body.”
“She’s not far from here. She lives close to the casino. She’s got a single bedroom apartment with her boyfriend.”
“What’s her boyfriend like?” he asked.
“He’s a bouncer at the casino,” she noted absentmindedly.
“So he’s big?”
“Yeah, big and strong, one of those heavily muscled guys,” she said. “He’s kind of nosy though. He’s always got his nose sticking into other people’s business.”
“As in, he might have been able to keep track of who made big wins in the casino?”
“Sure,” she agreed. “I’m certain he did. Lots of people do there.” He nodded and searched her face. And then she frowned at him, as if suddenly understanding what he was getting at. “You can’t be serious?”
“Why not?” he asked.
“Sure, she bought a car, but that’s it.”
“What kind of car?”
“I don’t know, just a car.”
“A fancy car, a sports car?” he asked anxiously.
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask. I couldn’t care less. We were having a conversation. I was happy she managed to buy a vehicle—something that most of us still struggle with. And, if she got one, then good for her.”
“And you know what her vehicle looks like?”
She shook her head. “Never saw it. Not the old one and not this new one.”
Still not satisfied, he asked, “Do you know what her boyfriend’s name is?”
She gave Aiden the bouncer’s full name and Annabel’s last name. He quickly sent both to Corbin and asked for identification on the vehicle newly purchased. When that intel came back almost immediately, Aiden stared down at it and said, “We may want to go inside.”
“Why is that?” she asked, but she was already unlocking her front door and going in. “God, it has been a strange day. I’m still in shock over Michelle.”
“And we need to take that over to the detective too,” Aiden noted.
“What?” She looked at him.
“Yeah, the recording Mountain made of your telephone conversation with Michelle,” Aiden explained. “It saves you the time to remember all the details. It’s also much more powerful, hearing Michelle’s own voice share the facts.”
Toby winced at what they were talking about. “No, you’re right. It’s just heartbreaking.”
“It is, indeed, but that’s also why it’s very important that we have a record of Michelle’s statement.”
As Toby stepped into the living room and dropped her purse on the side table, she asked, “Now what are you talking about with the vehicle?”
“So, the bouncer didn’t buy a sports car, but he got a very high-end Escalade,” Aiden shared with both of them. “So that was a $120,000 vehicle.”
“Or maybe they took a loan out?” she asked, her jaw still dropping.
“I doubt it. According to Corbin’s research, it was bought at a dealership, but I’m waiting to hear how it was paid for.” His phone beeped again. “And look at that. It was paid for in cash.”
She shook her head. “That’s not exactly the vehicle that I would have thought she’d buy.”
“No, and, unless they can justify where that cash money came from, believe me. There’ll be an awful lot of raised eyebrows.”
“Not really though,” she argued. “I never saw it once.”
“Are they staying in town?”
“No, I don’t think so,” she said. “They were planning on leaving soon. She always wanted to go west.”
“Of course,” Aiden quipped. “And, with a vehicle like that, they would have a nice trip.”
She sagged into the nearest chair. “Do you think she’s killing those guys?”
“How badly do they want or need cash?”
“Badly, from what I hear. Annabel has definitely got a money problem and has a real attitude about it. She hates people with money,” she muttered. “It’s one of the reasons that we got along, okay? I didn’t have any either.”
“How much does she hate rich people?”
She winced in realization. “Oh my God. That would be terrible.”
Just then Aiden’s phone rang. He checked the screen and said, “It’s the detective. Now maybe we can get some real answers.”
Chapter 14
“Hey,” Aiden answered the phone. “I was about to contact you. I have a recording of a discussion with Michelle, where she admits to sexual abuse from Moscow and to killing him.” He nodded and glanced at Mountain, who, as they shared a knowing look, sent the recording from Mountain’s phone over to Aiden’s cell.
“Send that to me,” the detective noted. “And we’ve just checked into Annabel. She does have an alibi for the might of the murders. Her boyfriend.”
“Interesting,” Aiden said in a low voice, looking at Toby. “Because we found out from the DMV that the vehicle she just bought was an Escalade.” The detective whistled at the other end. Aiden continued. “Annabel’s boyfriend is a bouncer who also works at the same casino.” He handed over their names and added, “I’ll email you this recording of Michelle. It was self-defense though.”
“I’m glad to hear that. We’ll do a review, and I’ll get back to you on it. And what are you doing about Annabel?” the detective asked.
“We’ll question her. I understand the local cops already have picked her up for an interview with them. I’ll go down and talk to her.”
“Anything else happening on the rest of this?” he asked.
“Lots,” he replied cheerfully. “Toby’s father-in-law was here, waiting for us. So he knows we know he was in on the blackmailing scheme. However, he didn’t seem to know about his son sexually attacking Michelle.”
“But you know a lot of it will entail internal investigations,” the detective reminded Aiden.
“And a lot of it shouldn’t be internal, given the dirty cops and the dirty DA.”
“No, but I’m sure it’ll come out soon enough,” the detective shared. “However, we need to keep it under wraps for the moment.”
“But for the moment you can,” Aiden agreed. “Yet no way we’re letting this get pushed under the rug for long, not when Toby was charged so quickly with no evidence for something that she had nothing to do with.”
“Yeah, I figured you guys wouldn’t like that much.”
“No, we sure don’t,” Aiden snapped. “There will be justice.”
“You bet,” the detective added. With that, he hung up.
Aiden looked over at the others. “That was Henry. Annabel does have an alibi for those nights that the six other gamblers were murdered. Get this though. The alibi is her bouncer boyfriend. Supposedly they were at home each of those nights.”
“Of course,” Toby said. “That makes sense to me.” She frowned as she studied Aiden’s expression. “Yet I can’t believe you’re thinking that she might have done these killings just for the money.”
“I’m not necessarily thinking she did,” Aiden corrected her. “I’m just saying that, using the exact same logic the cops used on you, it applies to her too.”
“Oh no,” she muttered. “Her motive would be money, with the evidence being her brand-new Escalade, and her accomplice is her boyfriend. So, you’re right there.” She slowly turned her head. “This is a fine mess, isn’t it?”
“It is.” He quickly sent the tape recording he had from his phone to Henry’s. “And I just sent him the conversation with Michelle and told him it was clear-cut case of self-defense.”
“If anything is clear-cut with her,” she muttered. “I just hope that there aren’t repercussions that we’ll struggle with here.”
“We’ll always struggle with a certain amount of it,” her cousin noted.
She nodded. “I just don’t want any more of that shit to come down.”
“Well, first off,” Aiden suggested, “let’s make plans for a late-night snack or something that completely takes some of this off your mind.”
She shook her head. “Not possible.” She gave him a wry look. “Just too much going on.”
“Fine, but let us still plan something at home for tonight, where we can all relax, because you know that there is a chance we’ll lose Mountain here very quickly.”
“A big chance at that,” Mountain admitted.
“Have you heard more?” Toby asked him.
He nodded. “Just nothing confirmed yet,” he said, but his tone was dark.
“Is your brother mixed up in something ugly?”
“Well, he went there to investigate something that was ugly. Yes. Two of his friends are there, and they’re the ones who raised the alarm, so we managed to get him inside the training center, where this is all happening, but it could be that it has turned on him.”
“That’s not good,” Toby said.
“I know, but the whole investigation could be a long process. It’s a joint task force up north in the Arctic. They resurrected an old encampment and multiple compound buildings for this big training facility,” Mountain explained. “We’ve got representatives from Norway, Germany, Poland, and other nations up there.”
She stared at her cousin, her eyes huge. “And who’s in the wrong there?”
“Not sure anybody is,” he stated. “That’s the problem.”
“And you haven’t heard back from your brother?”
“No, not at the moment,” he replied. “So far, nobody on the ground up there has heard from him.”
“Oh, shit,” she said, staring at him. “I don’t like the sound of that at all.”
“He went out on a reconnaissance mission, as part of a training program. Everybody else came back, but he didn’t. The search party is out there now.”
She shook her head. “Dear God, in those temperatures? No way to survive for long in those severe conditions.”
“You’d be surprised,” Mountain argued, with a quiet tone. “Surviving is one thing, but doing it well is a different story. Other people are around up there. A small town is nearby, so my brother could be anywhere.”
“Why would I want to do that?” Pia asked in disgust.
Aiden explained, “Because he’s holding all Moscow’s blackmail files and his little black book with all of it in there.”
At that, Pia snapped back in anger. “What?”
“Yeah,” Toby added, “so go ahead. Try and tell me that you didn’t know anything about it because I saw emails in those files where you and Moscow talked all about it. So, if I were you, I would be thinking more about what you want to save of your reputation and maybe thinking to relocate somewhere else,” she suggested, “before the charges start flying that you were in cahoots with your son’s blackmailing scheme.”
He stared at her and replied with a note of fury in his voice, “What the hell are you talking about?”
But she wouldn’t be stopped. “I know exactly what I’m talking about.” She glared at him. “You’re despicable. All you ever do is live on threats and hunt people down and make their lives miserable.” She stared at him with such fury that he backed up a step. “As far as I’m concerned, the cops can take you down and throw away the key for all the times that you’ve hurt other people in this town. Your son was a rapist and a lowlife slug who preyed on vulnerable people. So don’t go talking to me about your best son ever bullshit!” she snapped. “I’m totally okay if his reputation comes out, and people finally know exactly what he was like and that you’re okay with that, that you were grooming him to do more and more of the same.”
He took another step back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, but his face was pale, as if he only now started to realize that he could be in jeopardy himself.
“Oh, yeah, you do,” she called his bluff. “Now get the hell off my property, before I file trespassing charges against you. Then go ahead and try to again manipulate the local law enforcement against me,” she snapped. “I am no longer without friends and support, and your brand of bullying persuasion is over at the DA’s office, and now the DOJ will deal with you,” she stated in a harsh voice. “Honestly I hope they throw the book at you for everything.”
He took several more steps back, shaking his head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, I do. Moscow left detailed notes,” she shared. “We haven’t even gotten through everything yet.”
He stared at her and took a deep breath. “Moscow wouldn’t have done that.”
“Yes, he would have. Believe me. As long as he was alive and well, it was fine. He could control things. However, the minute he died, that all changed. And I got curious about all the stuff he left behind with me.” She continued. “After you had me charged for a crime I didn’t commit, you can bet I found somebody trustworthy in the police system that you can’t bribe or threaten, just so that I get a fair shake. The murder charges against me have been dropped, by the way,” she added. “Stay tuned for charges against you now.” She continued glaring at him.
“I just wanted Moscow to be happy,” he said, staring at her.
“No, you didn’t. You wanted him to control me, and you wanted to control Moscow. However, he was a wild card, who abused even his poor sister, Michelle.”
He waved a hand. “That’s BS. She’s been spouting all that crap forever. There’s no proof of it.”
“Yes, there is,” she argued. “And now Moscow won’t be abusing anybody anymore, and, for that, I’m glad. The fact that you can live with the knowledge that your son abused his half sister all these years?” She shook her head. “Of course, for a manipulating bully like you, that’s nothing, right? I mean, in your patriarchal mind-set, that’s how women are supposed to be treated, right?” With a disgusted look, she added, “You’re nothing, but guess what? Your day of reckoning is here,” she vowed.
He took several more steps away. “You’re lying,” he said, obviously shaken.
“No, I’m not lying,” she countered, “but you can bet, by the time I sell everything of Moscow’s and clean out his apartment and do everything else that needs to be done, I’ll find more and more pieces that need to come out into the light, into the public’s purview.”
He shook his head. “No, you can’t do that.”
“Why not?” She shrugged, with a sneer. “It’s not like you can stop me.”
“I wanted to keep his apartment,” he said painfully. “There’s very little I have of my son to keep.”
“You can buy it from me then,” she stated sarcastically. He glared at her, and she shook her head. “No, he insisted I marry him, so I’ll make sure I end up with something out of this deal, so I can move and start somewhere else.”
“And where will you move to?” he asked, dazed.
“What do you care?” she snapped. “I just want to make sure that I’m nowhere close to you.”
He shook his head. “It’s all just a lie, isn’t it?” He turned, looking at the men. “What she just said, it’s a lie. Right?”
At that, Aiden shook his head. “No, it isn’t. Unfortunately it’s all very true. And we have evidence to back up everything Toby just told you. Moscow sexually abused Michelle in the group home, and he has made Toby’s life here an absolute nightmare.”
Pia’s face turned gray, and he shuddered. “I didn’t know,” he murmured.
“You defended every depraved thing that Moscow ever did,” she snapped. “And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you weren’t charged over all this blackmail too.”
Immediately Pia shook his head. “My lawyers will work on that in no time,” he murmured, regaining some strength in his voice.
“An awful lot of evidence was turned over to the detective, then to the DOJ,” she noted, with a headshake. “So I wouldn’t count on it.”
He nodded slowly, and, in a much more haggard frame of mind, Pia slowly made his way back to his vehicle. Once there, he turned to Toby and said, “I’ll have my lawyers contact you.”
She waited—not sure what for.
When he saw the confusion on her face, he added, “The apartment. I do want it.”
She nodded. “You’re welcome to it, for the right price. Do you want his personal stuff left as is inside?”
He looked at her and then nodded. “Yes, please.”
“Fine. Make the arrangements,” Toby replied.
And, with that, Pia got in his vehicle and drove away.
She looked over at the guys and asked, “Was that wrong?”
“No, not at all,” Aiden noted. “Legally you seem entitled to it.”
“It just feels wrong,” she explained, still in a confused state.
Mountain shook his head. “You need a fresh start. He’s got tons of money. He wants to keep the apartment, when it is legally yours. Let the lawyers handle it, take the best offer possible, and then you can set up someplace new.”
“And where will you go?” Aiden asked, eyeing her carefully.
She smiled. “I have no idea.”
“Good,” Aiden said. “In that case, you might as well come back to my place for a while, until you figure it out.” She stared at him, her mouth agape. He shrugged. “Hey, don’t tell me that we haven’t been dancing around the same tune,” he noted. “You obviously just need some time, and I’m giving you time.”
“Oh, yeah? How much time are you giving me?” she asked in a mocking tone. “Doesn’t sound like very much time at all.”
“I’ll give you as much time as you need,” he stated, with a big smile.
“Besides, I don’t even know where you live,” she replied, frowning at him.
“California.”
“Oh, … I was considering California.”
He now gave her a beaming smile. “So, I’m not kidding. You can come stay with me for a while.”
“And I might take you up on that,” she murmured. “But we’re not past all this mess, are we?”
“Nope, not yet,” he agreed. “There is one thing I do want to know.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Where does this girlfriend of yours live?”
“Which one?”
“Annabel, the one who took the picture of your bruised body.”
“She’s not far from here. She lives close to the casino. She’s got a single bedroom apartment with her boyfriend.”
“What’s her boyfriend like?” he asked.
“He’s a bouncer at the casino,” she noted absentmindedly.
“So he’s big?”
“Yeah, big and strong, one of those heavily muscled guys,” she said. “He’s kind of nosy though. He’s always got his nose sticking into other people’s business.”
“As in, he might have been able to keep track of who made big wins in the casino?”
“Sure,” she agreed. “I’m certain he did. Lots of people do there.” He nodded and searched her face. And then she frowned at him, as if suddenly understanding what he was getting at. “You can’t be serious?”
“Why not?” he asked.
“Sure, she bought a car, but that’s it.”
“What kind of car?”
“I don’t know, just a car.”
“A fancy car, a sports car?” he asked anxiously.
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask. I couldn’t care less. We were having a conversation. I was happy she managed to buy a vehicle—something that most of us still struggle with. And, if she got one, then good for her.”
“And you know what her vehicle looks like?”
She shook her head. “Never saw it. Not the old one and not this new one.”
Still not satisfied, he asked, “Do you know what her boyfriend’s name is?”
She gave Aiden the bouncer’s full name and Annabel’s last name. He quickly sent both to Corbin and asked for identification on the vehicle newly purchased. When that intel came back almost immediately, Aiden stared down at it and said, “We may want to go inside.”
“Why is that?” she asked, but she was already unlocking her front door and going in. “God, it has been a strange day. I’m still in shock over Michelle.”
“And we need to take that over to the detective too,” Aiden noted.
“What?” She looked at him.
“Yeah, the recording Mountain made of your telephone conversation with Michelle,” Aiden explained. “It saves you the time to remember all the details. It’s also much more powerful, hearing Michelle’s own voice share the facts.”
Toby winced at what they were talking about. “No, you’re right. It’s just heartbreaking.”
“It is, indeed, but that’s also why it’s very important that we have a record of Michelle’s statement.”
As Toby stepped into the living room and dropped her purse on the side table, she asked, “Now what are you talking about with the vehicle?”
“So, the bouncer didn’t buy a sports car, but he got a very high-end Escalade,” Aiden shared with both of them. “So that was a $120,000 vehicle.”
“Or maybe they took a loan out?” she asked, her jaw still dropping.
“I doubt it. According to Corbin’s research, it was bought at a dealership, but I’m waiting to hear how it was paid for.” His phone beeped again. “And look at that. It was paid for in cash.”
She shook her head. “That’s not exactly the vehicle that I would have thought she’d buy.”
“No, and, unless they can justify where that cash money came from, believe me. There’ll be an awful lot of raised eyebrows.”
“Not really though,” she argued. “I never saw it once.”
“Are they staying in town?”
“No, I don’t think so,” she said. “They were planning on leaving soon. She always wanted to go west.”
“Of course,” Aiden quipped. “And, with a vehicle like that, they would have a nice trip.”
She sagged into the nearest chair. “Do you think she’s killing those guys?”
“How badly do they want or need cash?”
“Badly, from what I hear. Annabel has definitely got a money problem and has a real attitude about it. She hates people with money,” she muttered. “It’s one of the reasons that we got along, okay? I didn’t have any either.”
“How much does she hate rich people?”
She winced in realization. “Oh my God. That would be terrible.”
Just then Aiden’s phone rang. He checked the screen and said, “It’s the detective. Now maybe we can get some real answers.”
Chapter 14
“Hey,” Aiden answered the phone. “I was about to contact you. I have a recording of a discussion with Michelle, where she admits to sexual abuse from Moscow and to killing him.” He nodded and glanced at Mountain, who, as they shared a knowing look, sent the recording from Mountain’s phone over to Aiden’s cell.
“Send that to me,” the detective noted. “And we’ve just checked into Annabel. She does have an alibi for the might of the murders. Her boyfriend.”
“Interesting,” Aiden said in a low voice, looking at Toby. “Because we found out from the DMV that the vehicle she just bought was an Escalade.” The detective whistled at the other end. Aiden continued. “Annabel’s boyfriend is a bouncer who also works at the same casino.” He handed over their names and added, “I’ll email you this recording of Michelle. It was self-defense though.”
“I’m glad to hear that. We’ll do a review, and I’ll get back to you on it. And what are you doing about Annabel?” the detective asked.
“We’ll question her. I understand the local cops already have picked her up for an interview with them. I’ll go down and talk to her.”
“Anything else happening on the rest of this?” he asked.
“Lots,” he replied cheerfully. “Toby’s father-in-law was here, waiting for us. So he knows we know he was in on the blackmailing scheme. However, he didn’t seem to know about his son sexually attacking Michelle.”
“But you know a lot of it will entail internal investigations,” the detective reminded Aiden.
“And a lot of it shouldn’t be internal, given the dirty cops and the dirty DA.”
“No, but I’m sure it’ll come out soon enough,” the detective shared. “However, we need to keep it under wraps for the moment.”
“But for the moment you can,” Aiden agreed. “Yet no way we’re letting this get pushed under the rug for long, not when Toby was charged so quickly with no evidence for something that she had nothing to do with.”
“Yeah, I figured you guys wouldn’t like that much.”
“No, we sure don’t,” Aiden snapped. “There will be justice.”
“You bet,” the detective added. With that, he hung up.
Aiden looked over at the others. “That was Henry. Annabel does have an alibi for those nights that the six other gamblers were murdered. Get this though. The alibi is her bouncer boyfriend. Supposedly they were at home each of those nights.”
“Of course,” Toby said. “That makes sense to me.” She frowned as she studied Aiden’s expression. “Yet I can’t believe you’re thinking that she might have done these killings just for the money.”
“I’m not necessarily thinking she did,” Aiden corrected her. “I’m just saying that, using the exact same logic the cops used on you, it applies to her too.”
“Oh no,” she muttered. “Her motive would be money, with the evidence being her brand-new Escalade, and her accomplice is her boyfriend. So, you’re right there.” She slowly turned her head. “This is a fine mess, isn’t it?”
“It is.” He quickly sent the tape recording he had from his phone to Henry’s. “And I just sent him the conversation with Michelle and told him it was clear-cut case of self-defense.”
“If anything is clear-cut with her,” she muttered. “I just hope that there aren’t repercussions that we’ll struggle with here.”
“We’ll always struggle with a certain amount of it,” her cousin noted.
She nodded. “I just don’t want any more of that shit to come down.”
“Well, first off,” Aiden suggested, “let’s make plans for a late-night snack or something that completely takes some of this off your mind.”
She shook her head. “Not possible.” She gave him a wry look. “Just too much going on.”
“Fine, but let us still plan something at home for tonight, where we can all relax, because you know that there is a chance we’ll lose Mountain here very quickly.”
“A big chance at that,” Mountain admitted.
“Have you heard more?” Toby asked him.
He nodded. “Just nothing confirmed yet,” he said, but his tone was dark.
“Is your brother mixed up in something ugly?”
“Well, he went there to investigate something that was ugly. Yes. Two of his friends are there, and they’re the ones who raised the alarm, so we managed to get him inside the training center, where this is all happening, but it could be that it has turned on him.”
“That’s not good,” Toby said.
“I know, but the whole investigation could be a long process. It’s a joint task force up north in the Arctic. They resurrected an old encampment and multiple compound buildings for this big training facility,” Mountain explained. “We’ve got representatives from Norway, Germany, Poland, and other nations up there.”
She stared at her cousin, her eyes huge. “And who’s in the wrong there?”
“Not sure anybody is,” he stated. “That’s the problem.”
“And you haven’t heard back from your brother?”
“No, not at the moment,” he replied. “So far, nobody on the ground up there has heard from him.”
“Oh, shit,” she said, staring at him. “I don’t like the sound of that at all.”
“He went out on a reconnaissance mission, as part of a training program. Everybody else came back, but he didn’t. The search party is out there now.”
She shook her head. “Dear God, in those temperatures? No way to survive for long in those severe conditions.”
“You’d be surprised,” Mountain argued, with a quiet tone. “Surviving is one thing, but doing it well is a different story. Other people are around up there. A small town is nearby, so my brother could be anywhere.”
