Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 133531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 534(@250wpm)___ 445(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 534(@250wpm)___ 445(@300wpm)
Westlake was intelligent. What no one had realized at first was that he had partners. After they began to suspect Leo Carver might be in league with him, it hadn’t occurred to them that anyone else from the department might be involved. There was nothing to point in that direction. There was no way of knowing that Westlake had managed to recruit two retired and disillusioned cops until they had Ramsey’s notebook.
* * *
The small flock of sparrows sat in the apple tree in the backyard of Bill Morris’s home, watching him with their beady eyes. Judging. Morris wanted to throw something at them. Take out his gun and shoot them, one by one, right out of the tree. He had the feeling they knew what he’d done. He hadn’t been able to sleep, and for the last two nights, he’d sat at the kitchen table with his service revolver in his lap.
The grill was hot, and he opened the lid. His wife, Deana, sat in a chair by the pool, talking to Jerome Michigan’s wife, Nikki.
Deana looked up and smiled at him. “Babe, you want a beer?”
She never failed to ask him if he wanted something. She’d always been that way throughout their marriage. The way she looked at him—that never failed to move him. He never wanted her to look at him any differently.
“I’m good, Deana.”
He could never give her children. He could never give her anything that she deserved. She’d always wanted to travel, but he’d always been working, and they really didn’t have the money. She didn’t shop or buy things. She gardened. She wasn’t someone who wanted jewels or fancy clothes. She didn’t care about cars. She didn’t complain. He’d told her when he retired that they could travel, but that hadn’t worked out the way he wanted. His investments had done poorly, and her multiple sclerosis had gotten a firm foothold. She didn’t say one word about how he’d invested their money. She just told him she loved their home and was happy being in it with him.
His phone vibrated over and over. He took it out and glanced down. Westlake. Always Westlake and his demands. Each request was worse than the last. It was bad enough that Westlake had insisted on kidnapping the Chappel woman, but he had tortured her. He wanted them all to torture her. When Morris had refused to participate in hitting her, Westlake had become so incensed, he took out a knife and began slicing her up. Morris had been sick after that. He knew once he left, he wouldn’t go back.
“You get the message from Westlake? He wants us to meet him at the apartments. We have to snatch another one of those women. One of them has the notebook.” Jerome came up behind him. “We don’t have any other choice. Ramsey had to have given it to one of them.”
Gideon was able to pick up the conversation through the number of birds facing the two men.
“That’s what he said about Chappel. He was positive she had it, and she had no idea what he was talking about. Did you see what he did to her? I couldn’t get him to stop. He went insane, Jerome. Was that okay with you? Is that who you are?”
“Better her dead than us.”
Morris shook his head. “I can’t even look Deana in the eye. You want to help him, you go, but I’m not going near him.”
“He’ll kill you.”
“Let him. I was dead the minute he started torturing that poor woman.”
Jerome swore at him. “We’ve been friends a hell of a long time, Bill. You’d better not throw me under the bus.” He turned toward the two women. “Nikki, I have to go into town. You stay right here with Deana and Bill until I get back.” He didn’t wait for his wife to reply; he just hurried around the house to his truck.
How the hell did they miss the notebook in the trunk of Rory’s car? Mack asked.
When Larrsen questioned her, Janice said the tote had been thrown into a corner of the parking garage after someone ripped it with a knife. They must have seen the junk mail and then thrown it. The mail fell everywhere when the tote was thrown, and the notebook landed in the corner in the dark, Gideon told Mack.
“Wilson, I think if you go visit Bill Morris personally right now, he’ll either turn witness for you or commit suicide before you get a chance to talk to him,” Gideon advised. “He didn’t want to go along with what they did to Rory. They’re apparently setting up to try to get one of the other women right now.”
I’ll volunteer to be Lydia or Sally, Rose said. You know I can change my image.
I can be one of the other women, Jaimie added.