The Country Guesthouse (Sullivan's Crossing #5)(85)

“What kind of favor?”

“She won’t tell me till I get there but I know her—it has something to do with the kid. She wants custody for my sister’s insurance money or whatever is left to the kid. If she wants me involved, she plans to do something not good. She’ll want me to do it because she doesn’t like to get her hands dirty. Maybe I can keep something bad from happening to my nephew. That would make my amends with my sister.”

Bruce Wilhelm folded his hands on his desk and looked directly at Roger. “I’ll be honest with you—I want your mother for fraud in the guardianship scam. I think she got away with some serious money and she can witness against the others. I can’t arrest her for what she might want to do.”

“Well, I could go to Colorado like she wants. I could find out what she wants me to do.”

“You know you can’t leave the state under your parole conditions. Unless,” he said, drawing out the word. “You talking about a sting?”

“I’m not going to testify against my mother. I can’t, that’s all. But if I have a chance to stop her from robbing my dead sister’s kid... That’s another story. It would be the first time I did anything for my sister.” His eyes grew moist.

Bruce Wilhelm was quiet for a long moment. “Give me a few hours to think about this. Can you hang around?”

“Here? Come on, man. This place gives me hives. How about the Starbucks down the street?”

Bruce looked at his watch. “Four o’clock.”

  One of Cal’s favorite PI’s from the Twin Cities called him. “Something popped. We have an extraditable warrant, which means they might be looking to arrest Victoria Addison and extradite her back to Minneapolis. I have the name of a detective in the fraud unit. You might want to speak to him.”

“I might want to, yes,” Cal said.

  Victoria wasn’t surprised when Roger agreed to come to Colorado. She gave him her address and asked him to meet her at her little rental.

She gave him the details of her plan as soon as he sat down. “I need your help on a project and then I will never ask you for anything again. And you’ll be paid very well. I have been observing my grandson and his new family so that I know their habits well, and the schedule they keep is very routine. You’re going to snatch him.”

“What?” he said, shooting to his feet.

“Oh, relax, we’re not going to hurt him. Just borrow him for a little while. He goes to school every day, has regular trips to the physical therapist, likes to visit a little campground across the lake, but the best part is—he lives in a large house in the woods on the lake. There is a long drive around the edge of the lake that runs through the woods. The best time and place to catch him alone is when he’s playing after school in the big yard. He plays with a dog—big dog, but very friendly. You should have some hamburger or something for the dog to lure him. The boy will follow. You can just scoop him into the car. A rented van would be better.”

“You have completely lost your mind,” he said. “This is too much. You get twenty to life for something like this.”

“Well, I have to. But that’s just part of the story. I admit, that’s the hard part. But when that’s done, you take him to Colorado Springs, call my cell phone and I will go to them—Hannah and her artist boyfriend—I will be stricken, but I’ll tell them I know where the boy is and that I can safely retrieve him for five hundred thousand as long as there are no police. I’ll explain you just want some money to get away and you’ll never be back. I’ll give you a hundred.”

Roger just smirked. “They’ll never go for it. They’ll call the police before you even get there.”

“If it doesn’t work, we’ll both make tracks out of here. But I think they’ll go for it. See, the man—Owen is his name—he had a son who was kidnapped years ago, and he didn’t get him back. I have a feeling he’d like a second chance.”

Roger shook his head. “I think you’ve finally lost your mind. You do know the police want to talk to you about the guardian thing you were involved in...?”

“Ach, I had very little to do with that.”

“That’s not what the other people are telling the police.”

“I knew I should have talked first. I should have known they’d say it was me. I had that one case. That woman lawyer in charge must have had twenty cases. Well, I’ll be out of that business for good. But I do have to get out with a little money.”

“I can’t believe you’re broke,” he said.

“I have a little stashed away. Not enough to retire on. I’m thinking Florida. I’ve always had good luck in Florida.”

“Fleecing old people?” he asked.

She didn’t answer. “Are you going to do this for me, Roger? I swear it’s the last thing I’ll ever ask of you.”

“You say that a lot. I could get three years just for being here. I have a program back in Minneapolis, one that puts me on the right track.”

“You’re using again, aren’t you?”

He just shook his head. “I don’t know if I can do this. I’ll have to think about it.”

“Listen, I’ll give you directions to the place on the lake. You can drive out there and look it over, see how isolated it is. This is like taking candy from a baby and I promise you, I’d never hurt anyone. I’ll come and get the boy and you’ll take off, never to be seen again. You can go somewhere, find a new program, ditch parole and change your name. It’s easy. At least look at the place before you say no.”