Touch & Go (Tessa Leoni, #2)(123)

Chapter 43


IT TOOK WYATT THREE TRIES to reach Tessa Leoni. By then, it was 4:00 A.M., but it hardly mattered. Buzzed on adrenaline and the knowledge of who, what, when, where, why and how, he was already in his cruiser, over state lines, heading for Boston.

“Chris Lopez didn’t do it,” he stated without preamble, when Tessa finally answered her cell.

“No shit. I put a gun to the man’s head—hang on, you never heard that from me—and he still pled innocent.”

“I never heard anything, and he didn’t do it.”

“He was sleeping with Ashlyn,” Tessa supplied. “Though he wants the record to show she was using him—”

“Is this the part where you don’t tell me that you shot him?”

“Please, bullets are much too expensive to waste on the likes of him.”

“Good point.”

“However, we had an interesting conversation on who would have enough access to Justin Denbe, to plot against him and his family.”

“Funny, Kevin and I just had the same conversation.”

“For the record, while you and Kevin and me and Lopez were all conversing, someone else was doing. One of the kidnappers returned, broke into the Denbes’ home and attacked Libby and Ashlyn, apparently intent on finishing some unfinished business.”

Wyatt was just taking the exit onto 93 southbound. He pulled his steering wheel sharply right. “What?”

“Exactly. Libby identified him as Mick; the Boston PD are running his prints now to get his real identity. Apparently, he’d taken a special interest in her during incarceration, but had been held off by the ringleader, Z. Well, assignment over, Z gone, Mick decided to make good on some earlier promises. He used a special override code to access the home—having timed the Boston patrol cars, FYI—then surprised Libby in the master bath. She took evasive maneuvers, Ashlyn entered the fray and the two women managed to lead him on a pretty good chase through the home until Libby finally grabbed a loaded twenty-two she’d left next to the sofa—”

“She had a loaded gun in her family room?” Wyatt wasn’t sure whether to be surprised or impressed. He remembered the accounts of the Denbes’ shooting prowess. Still, to leave a loaded gun lying around a family home was a fairly aggressive act.

“Considering what they had been through,” Tessa supplied, “not to mention Special Agent Adams’ multiple lectures on how the three men were still out there…”

“Fair enough.”

“Libby shot Mick dead. Three times, left temple, up close and personal. Professional-grade work.”

The way Tessa said it struck Wyatt as odd.

“Meaning?”

“Meaning her fingerprints are all over the gun, but interestingly enough, no GSR is on her fingers.”

“She fired a gun three times without getting any gunshot residue on her hands?”

“She claims she washed her hands before calling the police.”

“You can’t remove all traces that easily.”

“You’re singing to the choir. But she’s not budging from her story.”

“Did they check Ashlyn’s hands? Maybe she’s covering for her daughter.”

“Her daughter was slammed into a granite countertop and is still recovering from a concussion. But, yes, Boston PD swabbed Ashlyn’s hands. Nada.”

“There were just the two women in the house?” Wyatt asked.

“Exactly.”

The tone of Tessa’s voice said it all. Odds were, Libby had not shot commando Mick. But she felt a need to cover for whoever did. Which, if it wasn’t her daughter…

Wyatt took a deep breath and declared, “I think Justin Denbe might have been embezzling from his own company. An In Case of Divorce fund. Except sixteen years later, he also started talking about it. I think he told his lover, Kathryn Chapman, who saw Ruth Chan’s travel itinerary. She took the steps to wire out the funds before Chan ever landed in the Bahamas. Then ordered Justin and his family kidnapped, in order to keep the eleven million for herself.”

“I think you’re part right,” Tessa Leoni said. “I think Justin Denbe definitely embezzled from his own firm. I think he’s also very much alive.”


“WHO ELSE HAD ENOUGH ACCESS?” Tessa quizzed shortly. “We’re looking for someone who worked for Denbe Construction for at least sixteen years, who knew intimate details of the Denbes’ home life, including security code, interior layout, family schedule. A person who might know former special forces, current guns for hire—which we’ve established are part and parcel of the construction trades. Not to mention someone brilliant enough to devise such a scheme, and ballsy enough to pull it off. I say, Justin Denbe, Justin Denbe, Justin Denbe.”

Wyatt wasn’t arguing with her. Hearing the words out loud only fit the lightbulb already going off in his head. “The kidnappers weren’t supposed to harm Libby and Ashlyn,” he muttered by phone. “Hence Mick was Tased for attacking Libby. Most likely, instructions from Justin himself. He had nothing against traumatizing his wife and daughter. He just didn’t want them hurt.”

“But he needed them,” Tessa countered. “If he just faked his own kidnapping, his own death, it would be suspicious. Hence, for his Embark on a New Life plan, he needed them all abducted from their home and held against their will. Libby and Ashlyn became his witnesses, two people who could swear under oath they saw him die before their very eyes.”