Both Ends Burning (Whistleblower Trilogy Book 3) (3 page)

I sat up when the front door opened.

“It’s Janine,” Grace said.

“I’ll go talk to her,” I said, and jumped out of bed.

My wife’s sister Janine had never been my biggest fan. When she came back from her walk, I got a stark reminder of this in the way she flashed her eyes at me while I was standing at the top of the stairs. She stamped her boots on the carpet square in front of the door to shake off some snow.

“Hi Janine,” I said. “You’re looking well.”

In response, she crossed her arms and said nothing, then leaned down and flicked off her boots. Classic Janine. I’m sure she wasn’t happy about me going on a trip to Texas just two weeks after Grace had been kidnapped. That was understandable. Probably the whole world that knew us felt that way, but they hadn’t been there afterward; they hadn’t seen how Grace and I had come to the decision of me leaving together.

“Hey, we need to talk,” I said. “There’s been a new development.”

Grace came down the stairs, dragging suitcases behind her.

“Where are you going, sis?” Janine said.

“Actually, we’re all going,” I said as I joined Grace and put an arm around her. “Janine, it’s not safe here. We need to take a little vacation while I sort some things out.”

Janine pointed at Grace’s baby bump. “Are you crazy? She’s seven months pregnant and is less than a month away from the most traumatic ordeal anyone could possibly imagine going through. You go tramping off through Texas, and now you want to go on a vacation?”

Grace dropped the suitcases. “I’m okay, Janine. This is what has to happen. You need to trust me for now, and we can explain everything on the way.”

“Where are we going?” Janine said. “Will there be a washer and dryer there? I only brought a few days’ worth of clothes, so—”

“Keystone,” I said.

“We’re going skiing? My skis are back in Aspen. What—”

“It’s not that kind of trip,” I said.

A car pulled into the driveway. A few seconds later, a knock on the door. I opened it to find Rodrick standing on the other side. A hesitant smile rested on his lips, and he dipped his head at me. “Hey, Candle.”

“Rodrick. Glad you could make it.”

He forced a smile. The guy was probably terrified of me because the last time he’d seen me, I’d been covered with the blood of least three different people.

CHAPTER FOUR

I sent Rodrick and Janine out to pick up some supplies. Mostly, cash from ATMs and a few prepaid cell phones for all of us to use. I made Grace understand the importance of not using her own cell phone anymore. Not even having it turned on. She agreed to leave the smartphone world of Facebook and casual games behind for a few days.

I’d have to explain the reasoning to Janine on the way. Or, maybe I’d let her sister do that.

Grace and I sat in the living room and I told her everything that had happened in Texas: about searching for Omar, driving him south, the visit in the motel room from IntelliCraft’s CEO, about the crazy house full of gun-toting rednecks in Three Rivers, about the shootout near the border, about my dad still being alive. Omar dying a pointless death and floating along the Rio Grande River. About me snapping Glenning’s neck in a rage-induced mental haze.

When I was done with my story, Grace breathed for several seconds, her head bobbing a bit with each inhale. Her hands rested on her belly, which seemed to have grown again in the week since I’d last seen her.

Dog jumped up next to her on the couch and nuzzled against her neck. I could see where I was in Dog’s order of importance, but we’d have time to reconnect later. I had access to dog treats, my irresistable loyalty-gaining weapon.

“So all of your baggage and the things you took to Texas are at that house in Three Rivers?” she said.

“Yes.”

“And they know your cell phone and laptop are at that house?”

I nodded.

“Do you know if the police know about that yet?”

“I’m not sure, but I would think they would have contacted me by now if they did. Thomason made it seem like no one might have to know. He said they could clean it up and remove any trace of me being there, as long as I turned over the memory card.”

“But you don’t have the memory card. You gave it to your dad. Why didn’t you tell them about him still being alive?”

I sat back in the chair, staring out the window at a gray December Colorado day. “I don’t know. I didn’t have much time to think about it. Maybe I can use that information as leverage somehow, if they think I still have it.”

Grace pushed Dog back as he was trying to lick her face. “No, that’s not it. I know why you did it.”

“You do?”

“Yes,” she said. “It’s because there’s some part of you that thinks your dad may be telling the truth. That Kareem was the bad guy in all this, and maybe smashing that memory card was the right thing to do. Part of you wants to stay loyal and protect him.”

I didn’t answer at first, just kept staring out the window. Grace has a habit of knowing me better than I know myself, but her theory sounded ludicrous. Why would I unconsciously put trust in my asshole absentee dad? What possible reason had he ever given me that he was trustworthy?

“I don’t know. Maybe you’re right, maybe not. It doesn’t matter now, though, because they think I have it.”

Her lip quivered as her eyes wetted. “What’s it going to take for this to be over?”

“They’re going to have to be exposed. The whole company. Whatever it is they’re doing that all these people are dying for, it’s going to have to come out and get media attention.”

Grace nodded. “And how do we do that?”

“
We
don’t do anything. You are going to hide in the mountains, where I can know you’re safe and protected.”

She shook her head. “No. I can’t have you running off into danger again. I can’t risk losing you after everything we’ve been through.”

I crossed the room and knelt in front of her. I took her hand, ran my fingers over the wedding band on her ring finger. “We’ll never be safe unless I demand justice for what they’ve done. My first priority is putting you somewhere no one can get to you. Then, I need to find out what was on that card. If I find that, I can bust the whole thing wide open. I need to end these people, once and for all. If I do that, then we can be sure it’s over.”

***

Me, Grace, Janine, Rodrick, and Dog all piled into Rodrick’s car and drove out of Denver, along I-70 into the mountains. Rodrick was a good sport, and I couldn’t stop thanking him.

I’d put out a heaping bowl of dry food for Kitty, and she’d looked at me like she knew what it meant. Not happy about it.

Janine sat in the back of the car and pouted. Kept trying to push Dog off of her, who seemed intent to deposit as much of his drool on her as possible. Good boy.

Grace didn’t want to speak to me, and I understood why. She couldn’t accept why I had to be the one to wrestle with this megalithic company. I almost agreed with her. But I saw it as a means to an end. I couldn’t call up the cops or channel 9 news and spill my guts, because I didn’t have concrete evidence. And IntelliCraft had managed to point enough fingers at me that I needed hard evidence before I could make some waves.

I knew people were dying, and the company was involved in more than web design software sales. I knew my dad and Kareem founded the company more than twenty years ago, but they’d been pushed out by the board of directors. And I knew Dad and Kareem had gone to war with each other, for some unexplained reason. Maybe if I uncovered the contents of the memory card, I might find the answer to that question as well.

We made it through the Eisenhower tunnel without encountering too much traffic, but an ice storm on the other side slowed us to a stop-and-go crawl. Was late in the evening by the time we exited I-70 and drove through the little cities of Dillon and Silverthorne to find the tiny resort town of Keystone. Was it even a town? I wasn’t sure. I think maybe you called these little non-incorporated collections of housing
villages
. It was close to Breckenridge, just a smattering of outrageously priced and trendy-looking condos and shops nestled next to a ski resort. A constructed faux-town lining the valley, not more than two or three city blocks long.

Rodrick’s ex-wife’s condo was close to the main gondola lift at the bottom of the skiing area. When we parked, I made a fifteen-minute sweep of the surrounding buildings, examining anyone with a suspicious appearance. Up and down the main icy street, ducking through people swishing along in ski pants to head up for night skiing, clacking their expensive plastic boots on the ground.

Not that I’d proven myself any good at spotting a tail, but I had to try. I had to tell myself that I’d brought them here in secret so I could leave in peace to do what I needed to do without constantly worrying about them. After I was satisfied that nothing funny was happening, I rejoined my group.

As Janine and Rodrick lugged everyone’s possessions up into the condo, Grace and I sat in the back seat of the car, holding hands and staring at each other. Like a couple of teenagers, except without the messy lusting. Just tension. Running my thumb back and forth across the palm of her hand, trying to think of the right thing to say.

“When you went to Texas again,” she said, “I tried to understand. I knew it was important to you, so I pretended like I wanted that for you.”

I knew she’d been too generous before I left to help Omar. She’d practically forced me to go. I’d believed that I was doing the right thing and that I could succeed against IntelliCraft.

Why did I think it would be any different this time?

“But you can’t keep running off like this, okay?”

I nodded and gripped her hand. “This is the last time. I can’t stay here with you. They’ll be watching me, and you’ll be safer if you’re not where I am. Does that make sense?”

She was on the verge of tears. “You need to check in with me, several times a day, okay? And not texts. I want real phone calls.”

“Actual phone calls? That’s not like you.”

“This is a special occasion. Just do it, please?”

“Okay. Make sure you only answer phone calls from one of the prepaids. Any numbers you don’t recognize, let it go to voicemail.”

She took the list of phone numbers I’d scrawled on a notebook sheet and showed it to me. “I will. But you need to tell me the whole truth about what’s going on this time, okay? No keeping me out of the loop because you think I might be worried. I’m a big girl, and I can handle it.”

“Okay. I promise. Constant checking in. You’re going to be sick of hearing my voice.”

I tried to smile, and she tried to smile, but neither of us pulled it off well. If ever I could think of the perfect words to say, that would have been the time. But nothing brilliant tumbled out of my mouth. Just dead air.

“Did you check in with that detective who was looking for you? Cross?”

“No, I still need to do that. I’ll call him when I get back.”

Janine came down the stairs and shot me a cold look as she picked up another suitcase, before going back upstairs.

“I’d call it déjà vu,” Grace said, “but it’s exactly what’s happened before. I’m sitting here, telling you to come back to me, and to be safe. Can you do that? Please don’t do anything to put yourself in danger.”

“I won’t.”

“Use your head. If you’re not sure, don’t do anything.”

I nodded. “I’m going to come back to you. I’m going to end all this, and get them out of our lives. Forever, this time.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Rodrick drove me back to Denver, and I told him most of the story, carefully excluding some details, like how I’d snapped Glenning’s neck. And that Omar’s death was because of my interference. I couldn’t face up to that fact myself, so I didn’t want to open it up for discussion.

“None of this makes sense,” Rodrick was saying. “Maybe they’re drug smugglers. You know, being based in Texas. Maybe it’s all a cover for moving stuff in and out across the border.”

“That seems reasonable,” I said as we sped along the highway. “I can see them doing all these terrible things for heroin or cocaine.”

But I couldn’t imagine Kareem and my dad being involved in that. Or maybe that was why they’d been forced out of the company. Start making software, but the board decides that heroin might improve their profit margins.

But if so, why would the two of them war over that? Could Kareem have been in favor of striking out with his own drug side business, and my dad had wanted to stop it? But if Dad wasn’t involved any longer, why would he care about what Kareem did or didn’t do?

Unless it was the opposite, and Kareem had been still inside IntelliCraft, and Dad was working to expose the truth about the company. Or maybe it wasn’t about drugs at all. I didn’t understand what could have been on that memory card if it were drugs. I couldn’t imagine that Mexican drug cartels emailed invoices.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I can’t find a line of logic that gets me there. I need more information before I come to any conclusions.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I have no idea. Maybe I can contact my dad and Susan and get them talking.” I should have taken the opportunity to get answers when I had them in front of me, but that was before Thomason’s intervention. I’d had the foolish notion I could leave all that behind in Texas.

He slipped on the cruise control and looked at me. “I want to help.”

I wasn’t sure what to say, but he kept staring. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“The timing is perfect, buddy. I’m off work all week long. You say this could be dangerous, well, I want to help. I’ve known Grace for a long time, and she’s not just my employee. She’s my friend. You’re my friend too.”

Seemed a little strange for him to be so forward and so willing to put himself in danger. He
said
we were friends, but it’s not as if we were close. He still seemed afraid of me.