Virgin in Disguise Read online

  The scene of the burned-out warehouse looked straight out of a nightmare. The roof sagged in some sections; broken windows glittered in the pale moonlight. The stench of soot and burned chemicals hung in the air.

  No streetlights functioned in the immediate vicinity. The moon barely gave off enough light for them to pick their way through the debris scattered around the pavement. As they neared the building, he could make out an indistinct blob that could be a car.

  The flashlight came to life. Elf swept its beam across the shape. A side mirror reflected and magnified the light as it bounced away.

  “Cheyenne.” Elf’s soft oath came to him in the stillness.

  “So it’s the worst-case scenario. Maryam’s wandering somewhere inside?”

  “Worse than the worst-case. She’s not alone.” She threaded her fingers through his and pulled him to the side. The flashlight shone on a black Lincoln Town Car.

  “Any idea whose car that is?”

  “It belongs to Dex.”

  Chapter 17

  Angel forced herself to take even breaths, and pushed back the nausea rolling up her throat. She tried to make sense of the evidence in front of her, but nothing came.

  Why here? Why now? In spite of everything she had learned, some small part of her still insisted on finding alternative explanations. She wanted to believe Dex had joined their search for Maryam, and somehow tracked her down first.

  Except the position of the two cars made it clear he’d arrived first.

  She approached the Town Car and peered inside. Neat, orderly, not a scrap of paper, nothing to indicate if he’d been in a rush to get to the site.

  Cabrini caught her arm as he walked past. He pulled her to the building entrance. The door, barricaded by several boards, hung open just enough to let an adult squeeze through. Yellow crime-scene tape fluttered from the charred door frame like party streamers.

  He wrapped one hand in the tape and pushed the door farther open.

  They stopped just inside the building. The beam of her flashlight danced off broken glass and soot-darkened walls. Water still pooled beside collapsed shelves. Piles of debris lay everywhere.

  Some creature scuttled through the darkness. She swung the flashlight in a wild arc, trying to spot the source.

  Cabrini motioned for silence as he eased the flashlight from her death grip. She shook the blood back into her fingers. He crouched to study the floor around them. When he stood, she caught the glint of his Beretta in his hand.

  He pulled her back to the door and outside. She wanted to protest, but the grim expression on his face changed her mind. “What’s the matter?”

  “Call your friend.” He pressed her cell phone into her hand. When had he taken it from her? “Tell him a SWAT team might be a good idea.”

  That snapped her attention into sharp focus. “What did you see?”

  “More footprints than I can account for. There are at least two people other than Dex and Maryam in there. Maybe more. I’m going to see if I can find anything else out. You call McDonough.”

  He disappeared around the corner of the building. His absence chilled her. For the first time in her professional career, she admitted what an advantage there was in having a partner.

  She made the call. Cabrini returned as she finished. “He can’t guarantee a SWAT team, but units are on their way. We’re supposed to stay out here until they arrive.”

  “Right.” He turned and headed back into the building.

  If you didn’t already own it, you just won my heart. She followed him.

  They didn’t use the flashlight this time, not wanting to reveal their position before they were ready. Cabrini led the way through the building, guided by some faint path he seemed able to discern. All she could see was dark. All she could hear was the pounding of her heart.

  She eased her gun out of her waistband as they approached a large, open space. Indistinct voices echoed in the air, unanchored in any reality she could identify.

  An eerie tableau unfolded ahead of them. Cloud-chased moonlight filtered in from the collapsed roof. Two figures stood in the center of the open area.

  Dex, his hands in the air, faced her mother. She clutched a revolver with both hands and held an unwavering aim on his chest.

  Angel tried to step forward, but Cabrini held her back. He leaned close and whispered in her ear. “Patience, Elf. I’ll check on the other footprints, see if I can neutralize them. You stay here, find out as much as you can.”

  She wanted to protest, wanted to go to her mother and stop her before the nightmare took a turn for the worse. But Cabrini was right. They needed to eliminate as many variables as possible before making their move.

  He disappeared into the unlit expanse of the warehouse. She sidled as close as possible while staying hidden in the deep shadows.

  “If only you had married me.” Dex’s voice carried to her. “You should have. Then none of this would have happened.”

  “Marry you?” The disbelief in her mother’s voice echoed her own.

  “Is it really so hard to imagine? Maryam, I could have given you so much more than Patrick. I would have given you everything.” He held out one hand as he stepped toward her. “I loved you.”

  “Loved? No. You coveted.” Her mother took a step back. “You saw what Patrick and I had and you wanted it for yourself.”

  “Maryam, please.” Dex’s voice changed, his tones calming and conciliatory. “Think about what you’re doing.”

  “I’ve done nothing but think for the last twenty years.”

  “You’ve been ill—”

  “No, I haven’t, and you know it. My ‘fragile mental state’ was all your doing. You and the kindly Dr. Sanders.”

  Angel’s breath caught. What…?

  “You’re imagining things.” Dex tried to reason with her. “That’s what prompted Sanders to put you on the medication. Your new doctor should have talked to me. I could have explained it to her.”

  “I’m sure you would have. Just like you explained to Sanders the importance of keeping me in a drugged fog. Robbing me of my husband wasn’t enough, Marvin? You had to steal my life, as well?”

  Angel swallowed a sob. Her mother had known all these years, and had been powerless to do anything.

  “I know you blame me for Patrick’s death. I blame myself.”

  “If I thought you had a conscience, I might believe you.”

  “Things could have been different. Patrick didn’t even have to participate. All he had to do was turn a blind eye.”

  “To your corruption and blackmail? How could you ever think he’d go along with that? He was a cop. He took pride in everything that meant. You were never anything like him.”

  Dex stiffened. He clenched his hands and took a step toward her mother.

  Angel tensed, slipped her finger onto her gun’s trigger and held her breath.

  Maryam backed up, maintaining her distance from Dex. “Patrick considered you his best friend. When he realized what you were doing, it nearly destroyed him.”

  “It didn’t have to be that way.” Dex slid his hands into his pants pockets.

  “True, you could have turned yourself in. Instead, you killed your partner.” Her mother took a deep breath and steadied the gun, aiming at Dex’s chest. “It’s fitting, don’t you think, that now you face his gun.”

  “You don’t want to do this.”

  “What are my alternatives? Let you walk?”

  “There’s always the private investigator you hired.”

  Some of the determination left Maryam’s face. “How did you find out about him?”

  “You forget how connected everything is in life. Of course I know about him. I sent Angela after him. It’s only a matter of time before she brings him to me. Like her father, she’s very good at what she does.”

  The compliment, had it come from anyone else, would have thrilled Angel. Now, in this place, under these circumstances, it bore the taint of betrayal, and she wanted
nothing to do with it.

  “My daughter is a very determined woman. Since the day she understood about Patrick’s death, she’s been driven to find his killer. It’s the one thought I managed to hold all these years, the one thing I was able to pass on to her. Have you any idea what a horrible legacy that is?” She cocked the gun. “I won’t see her destroyed by you.”

  Angel couldn’t wait any longer. Where was Cabrini? With a prayer that he would come through and watch her back, she stepped from the shadows. “Mom, don’t.”

  Frank found the first of Dexter’s men within a minute of leaving Elf. He took him down, and had him bound and gagged without making a sound.

  The need to get back to Elf drove him. She’d taken some big emotional hits over the last few days. He couldn’t do anything to lessen the impact, but he wanted to be there to help her hold the pieces together.

  He’d nearly reached the entrance of the building before he found their second shadow watching the door they’d come through.

  In a matter of seconds, the man was no longer a concern. Frank stood over him, adrenaline buzzing through his veins, sensitizing every nerve ending, magnifying every reaction.

  A shuffling noise alerted him to the presence of someone else, an instant before a hand clamped on his shoulder. He spun around, trapped the attacker’s arms between their bodies and pulled back his fist.

  Dex moved, and Angel swung her gun up to aim at his heart. “If you so much as twitch an eyelid, I will shoot, and damn the consequences.”

  He froze in place. Angel lowered her gun and faced her mother. “Mom, please. Don’t do this.”

  Maryam shook her head. “You don’t know what he did.”

  “I opened the safe-deposit box. We know enough.”

  “He deserves to die.”

  “You won’t get an argument from me on that one.”

  “Then why shouldn’t I?”

  She understood the question in her soul. Looking in her mother’s eyes, she knew the answer, as well. “Because that’s not how Dad would have done it. He trusted the system to work.” She hadn’t wanted to listen to Cabrini. Now, saying the words herself, she realized the truth in them. “It’s not how he’d want us to handle it.”

  Her mother took a shaky breath. “I miss him so much.”

  “I know. Me, too.” She slipped her gun into her waistband and eased a step closer to her mother.

  “I know your father wanted to see justice. I’m not willing to risk it failing him again.”

  “It won’t fail. We won’t let it.”

  Maryam studied her gun. “It would be so easy. A simple squeeze of the trigger. I’m close enough—he’s an easy target.”

  “If you do, you’ll be no better than he is. You lose. And I lose. He stole my father. I don’t want to lose my mother. Not again.” She edged closer and held out her hand. “Please, Mom.”

  Tears spilled down her mother’s cheeks. She handed the service revolver to Angel.

  Relief sapped her muscles, leaving her knees shaking. She tucked the gun into the back of her waistband and hugged her mother.

  “Well done, Elf.” Cabrini’s voice triggered a cascade of emotions.

  She hadn’t wanted to believe his assertion that they were stronger together. But he’d been right. Because she knew he was covering the perimeter and keeping them safe, she’d been able to focus on her mother and getting that portion of the situation under control.

  He stepped out of the shadows on the opposite side of the clearing and joined them in the moonlight. His presence energized her confidence that they could handle anything, as long as they were together.

  She released her mother, but stayed by her side.

  “Let’s see how these fit the councilman.” Cabrini held out his set of handcuffs.

  “I have a better idea.” A woman’s voice came from the darkness behind them.

  Angel searched the inky shadows of the warehouse, but couldn’t see anyone. Then a figure moved and separated from the deeper black.

  “Corie?” The lighting had to be playing tricks on her. What would her mother’s companion be doing here?

  The figure stepped farther into the open. The semi-automatic pistol in her hand gleamed in the dull light. “None other.”

  “What are you doing here? What’s with the gun?”

  “I thought there might be a little trouble, so I came to lend a hand.”

  “We’ve got everything under control.”

  “Correction. You had control. Now you don’t, I do.”

  “What are you doing?” True fear traced cold fingers down Angel’s back.

  “Exactly what I was hired to do—watch out for Dex’s investments.” Corie pointed to Angel’s waist. “Let’s start with the guns, shall we? Put them both on the floor and push them over here.”

  For a heartbeat, she calculated her chances of getting off a clean shot at Corie. But her mother stood too close, and Corie had her gun aimed at Maryam. Angel laid both guns on the ground and gave them a weak nudge.

  “You, too, lover-boy.” Corie didn’t shift her aim.

  Cabrini laid his gun on the floor and pushed it in Corie’s direction. It stopped close to the revolvers.

  “Very good. Now. About those handcuffs. Why don’t you go ahead and slip one on.”

  When Cabrini closed the manacle on his right wrist, Corie nodded. “Your turn, Angel. Put the other cuff on your right wrist.”

  Angel hesitated. Cuffing their right wrists together limited their range of motion. Neither could move effectively without being taken off balance by the other. But it would leave Cabrini’s dominant hand free.

  “That wasn’t a request,” Corie said.

  The cuff ratcheted closed. Angela and Cabrini stood facing each other. “Good thing we have practice,” he said, for her ears only.

  The warmth of his hand, so close to hers, calmed her. She wasn’t alone. They could do this together.

  “There now. Isn’t this cozy? Everyone together, at last.” Corie turned to Dex. “Now we can finally finish the plan.”

  “What plan?” Angel twisted around to look at Dex. Cabrini moved with her.

  Corie answered for Dex. “There’s really only one obstacle to Dex’s campaign—an investigation too far into the past might turn up some less than exemplary behavior. Those who benefited wouldn’t say anything. But there were a couple who couldn’t be controlled that way.”

  Cabrini snorted. “Yeah, I can see where murder, arson, insurance fraud and blackmail might hang a shadow over a political career.”

  “Exactly. The best way to eliminate a problem is to go straight to the root. In this case, those who might have proof of such behavior but weren’t vulnerable to control.”

  “So he engineered a connection between you and Mom and me.” Angel looked at Dex. “All these years, you’ve just been waiting for the right opportunity?”

  “It wasn’t particularly hard.” Again, Dex left the answering to Corie.

  “Interesting.” Cabrini glanced between Corie and Dex, then turned to Angel. “Don’t you think?”

  “Now that you mention it, yes.” She followed his lead, hoping they were on the same train of thought.

  “What?” Corie demanded.

  “You know what he’s doing, don’t you?” Cabrini asked her.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The councilman is letting you do all the talking.” His answer echoed what she’d noticed.

  He shifted his position to face Corie. In the process, he got a step closer to the guns, and his body became a shield between her gun and Angel.

  “So? We’re partners. We’ve been working toward this moment for years now. Why shouldn’t I talk?”

  “It’s not so much that you shouldn’t talk.” Angel took a turn to do a little maneuvering and draw Corie’s attention. She twisted around and nudged Cabrini over a step. He now stood between her mother and Corie. “It’s that he isn’t talking at all. A suspicious person might think
he had a reason for that.”

  Corie tried to brush off their tactic. “Neither of you is making any sense.”

  “It’s like this.” Cabrini picked up the thread and continued. “You spill the plans, talk about the conspiracy, the years of planning, everything.”

  “And then something happens.” Angel said.

  “Like, we got word to the police before we came in here, and they show up.” His right hand jerked, tugged their cuffed wrists.

  “Only, Councilman Dexter never actually said anything.” Angel infused her voice with mock sympathy to cover the hope flickering to life. “It was all just the ravings of a crazy person.”

  “He’s as much of a victim as everyone else.”

  Angel nodded. “Poor Dex. The victim of a stalker who went too far.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  “Really?”

  “Tell them, Marvin. Tell them how you promised this would finish everything.” Corie stalked to his side. “How, once these three were eliminated, there’d be no one left who knew about the past.”

  He remained silent.

  Corie spun and paced back to them. “This doesn’t prove anything.”

  “No, of course it doesn’t.” Angel spoke in a soft tone. “Besides, he failed to consider a few other details.”

  Cabrini answered Corie’s questioning look. “There’s the evidence we found. Pictures and audiotape from twenty years ago that prove just how dirty a cop Marvin Dexter was.”

  “And let’s not forget our ace in the hole.”

  Angel’s statement got a rise from Dex. He still didn’t say anything, but he did snap to attention.

  “Right.” Cabrini smiled. “Your buddy working in the cold case division.”

  She nodded. “Who heard the rumors, but could never prove anything.”

  “There’s someone else?” Corie stalked back to Dex. “You promised. You said these three, and then it would be done.”

  “He was right about one thing.” A man’s voice came from the shadows to their left. Corie and Dex swung around as a man stepped into the light. “It is done.”

  “No!” Corie raised her gun.