Covert Alliance (24 page)

And now she heard footsteps. She wasn’t alone. Surely Stan hadn’t come back here now, instead of attending his party. But who—

Kelly wasn’t about to hurry that way to find out. Instead, she planted herself between the tall refrigerator and the door to the basement. If she’d had time, she would have hurried down the basement steps, but for now she just waited.

For whom?

And what was going to happen next?

Chapter 20

W
hoever it was had headed in her direction. Kelly could hear the footsteps coming down the hall toward the kitchen.

Had she been seen after all? She still held the bag with food in it, but that would have really only worked if she was outside. She could hardly claim she had broken into the house to leave sandwiches in the kitchen.

She wanted to laugh at the absurdity of that excuse, at the same time as she felt an urge to cry.

What if it was Stan here after all? He would have no scruples at all about killing her the way he had undoubtedly done to Andi, and no one knew she was here.

She should have told Alan what she was up to. She—

The person entered the kitchen. The footsteps sounded different on the tile floor here from how they’d sounded on the wood outside.

Maybe whoever it was wouldn’t come this far. Maybe she could—

“Hey!” It was Eli’s voice. Kelly almost breathed a sigh of relief. Almost. She was a stranger to him, not his aunt. And whoever she was, she shouldn’t be here. “Is someone here?”

How would he know? She’d closed the door behind her. But he must have heard her come in.

Then she saw that a dish towel hung limply from the indoor sill of the window right by the door, nearly ready to fall. It was fairly large. Had it been hooked partly over the doorknob?

If so, why?

Maybe young Eli played this trick so he would know if he was alone when he played hooky from school. Because that was apparently what he was doing.

What should she do?

He would most likely come this way soon. She didn’t want to scare him, but simply staying still was just as likely to frighten him as waiting till he spotted her here. So she took a step out from behind the fridge. “Hello, Eli,” she said in a tone that had once been natural to her, before she’d had her identity changed. Or she hoped it sounded natural. It had been a while since she had spoken in that voice.

Her nephew was dressed in a black T-shirt over jeans. He looked so much like his mother, with straight brown hair, deep brown eyes that glowered even as his mouth edged open in apparent fear, soft yet attractive facial features and a lean body.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” As Kelly opened her mouth, hoping that a great way to tell him who she was would suddenly come to her, he started looking her up and down. “You...you don’t look like my aunt Shereen, but you just sounded like her. And there’s something... Who are you?” he repeated. He looked both terrified and intrigued.

“You’re right,” she said quietly. “I’m Aunt Shereen. I had to leave here to protect myself after...after your mother disappeared. I had to make myself look different. But I’m back because I was worried about you.”

“Yeah, sure.” His tone was harsh. “Are you a friend of my father’s? What are you trying to do?”

Kelly had known this wouldn’t be easy, but she pressed on. “I came here because I saw you on some social media sites looking...well, looking sad again. And more. And I couldn’t let...” She stopped, but only for a moment. “Look, let’s go sit down and I’ll tell you about it.”

* * *

The affair at the Blue View was huge. Alan hadn’t been in town long enough to meet, or even see, most of Blue Haven’s muckety-mucks, but he expected that everyone he saw here in their big smiles and expensive finery was among them—either them or their minions.

Many milled around with drinks in their hands, since the meal had yet to be served. Some stood near the large windows, looking out at the gorgeous and vast view.

Alan stood near the door to the kitchen, watching the crowd. He wished Kelly were here with him, and not as a server. But it was probably better that she not be present. She almost certainly wouldn’t be recognized, but why waste her time, too?

Alan couldn’t get near enough to Stan, who stood among the tables, to eavesdrop on his conversations with Jerome Baranka and Dora Shallner, whom he was hanging out with, but he doubted anything they were saying would be of much assistance to reaching his goal anyway.

So, for now, he just watched.

And he became very interested when Stan apparently got a call, since he reached into his coat pocket and extracted his phone. He looked at the screen first, then moved toward the window to talk.

His expression turned dark. In moments, after hanging up, he made his way through the crowd, headed not back to those he had been speaking with, but toward where Paul Tirths stood with some other assistants from Government Plaza.

They talked for only a moment. Paul nodded, and he headed for the door as Stan, still appearing miffed, returned to Baranka and Dora.

The whole thing left Alan wondering what that was about.

And boy, did he have an urge to follow Paul.

* * *

They were sitting on the plush antique sofa in the living room. Eli still looked at Kelly as if she was a stranger he didn’t trust.

She understood that. Even if a tiny part of him thought she was his aunt, she had betrayed him before by running away. And now, no matter what she said, he might have a hard time believing she had come back to help him.

She sat back on the sofa with her right leg crossed over the left one. It was a pose that she had struck often back when she was only Shereen. She had changed all of those habits when she had assumed her new identity. Eli still looked dubious but, unless it was her imagination, maybe a little less so than before.

“Here’s the thing.”

That was a phrase she had also used often as Shereen, one that, when she started using it around the ID Division at first, she had been told to drop. Eli’s light eyebrows lifted at that.

The ID Division. Should she tell her nephew about that? Not now. She’d already betrayed them by coming here—as Alan never let her forget. But describing their existence and what they were? No, she wouldn’t do that.

If nothing else, she would protect those who had protected her—and she would do nothing to jeopardize Alan. If only he were with her now...well, if she succeeded in this mission, he would be the third to know about it, after Eli and herself.

She continued. “I didn’t think anyone would be home today, and I know where your mom used to keep some of the documents and things that we inherited when our parents, your grandparents, passed away. She’d told me not only their location, but that she kept some other important stuff there, as well. When the police were looking into your mother’s disappearance, I told the investigators, but I heard that your dad and his lawyer followed them around, and—well, with your dad being such an important personality around here, maybe the authorities were intimidated enough to take shortcuts, and never checked the places I mentioned. I just figured that while I was in town I’d check them out.”

“Like that hidden area under the steps upstairs?” A sardonic look appeared on Eli’s young face.

“Yes.” But Kelly felt her insides fall. If he knew about it, then Stan would, too. That was where Kelly had assumed Andi had hidden the concerns about her personal and professional life that she’d hinted about documenting. The detectives, promising they would reveal nothing to the man they were investigating, had claimed they hadn’t found anything, but Kelly had wanted to look anyway. She had to ask, “Is there anything there?”

“No. Not now. But—” Now Eli’s expression grew triumphant, if Kelly was reading him correctly. “I found something that tells what she was thinking. That’s why my dad has been mad at me.”

“Really?” Kelly found herself standing, grinning down at her nephew. But then she realized there could be problems. “Does your dad have it?”

“No. I’ve been able to hide it, and it’s driving him crazy.”

Crazy enough to strike his son, Kelly thought, and possibly more.

That suggested that, whatever it was, it might be the answer to bringing Stan down.

* * *

He had to be realistic. Alan knew that. He had a job to do here, at the Blue View. Two jobs. His cover was to stay here and make sure all went smoothly from a security perspective with all of the town’s top politicians.

Then there was his real job—and he was in the presence of his main target.

So for the moment he remained in the restaurant. He had gotten the assignment to patrol inside, which was not too bad considering the posh facilities and the people who were there.

Yes, there was a police presence, too, but their assignment was to keep an eye on the whole place and make sure nothing went wrong from a regular police patrol perspective.

Private security here was to blend in and also make sure nothing went wrong and nothing happened to make the attending city council members and their business associates unhappy.

Theoretically, that would gave Alan more opportunity to stake out Stan Grodon and his cronies, eavesdrop on them, hopefully learn something new.

That hadn’t happened yet.

And he hadn’t been close enough to hear Stan talking with the now-absent Paul. This remained on Alan’s mind, even as he smiled and maneuvered through the crowd of people holding glasses of alcoholic beverages and chattering about inanities, from all he could tell.

Where was Paul?

Should he have followed him?

What was he up to?

* * *

“So tell me about this mysterious thing your dad is after.” Kelly tried to keep her voice light as she sat back on the couch holding a glass of water. Eli had insisted on getting them something to drink before they talked. She knew it was just procrastination, but that had been fine with her...temporarily.

Still, would this revelation from Eli be the key to what had happened to Andi?

Why else would Stan brutalize his son over it? Although it could just be the SOB’s excuse...

“It’s Mom’s tablet.” Eli’s young face suddenly seemed a lot older as it assumed a dual look of both guilt and defiance. He, too, remained seated on the sofa, but his posture appeared stiff, as if he held himself there to keep from fleeing.

Which only made Kelly feel worse. But she had to press, especially because she was suddenly filled with an optimism she hadn’t felt since...well, since Andi had disappeared.

Andi’s tablet could be a really big clue. She had used one in her real estate transactions, for one thing. Nothing she’d included about her deals was likely to provide any indication of what had happened to her, but maybe some more detail about the dispute between her company and Baranka’s, and Stan’s interference in it, could shed a light on it.

And the fact that it hadn’t been found during the investigation into her disappearance? That made Kelly even more curious about its contents, and Stan apparently felt the same way.

“I see,” Kelly said to Eli in a normal conversational tone, her mind scrambling to determine how best to play this. She had to reassure him she was on his side. And yet she sought possible possession of something he clearly considered important. “Any idea why your dad wants it so much?”

“Yeah.” Eli glared at her as if challenging her to push him—figuratively and literally, as his father had undoubtedly done.

Kelly leaned forward. “I understand that you have good reason not to trust me,” she said quietly, not taking her eyes from his. “I disappeared when you needed me most. But I think you were old enough even then to understand that I felt...well, threatened. Things kept happening to me after your mother disappeared, and even so, I didn’t stop looking for her, and pushing the authorities to find her, too. I didn’t want to give up, but getting killed wouldn’t help me to learn the truth, nor would it allow me to help you.”

“You thought my dad was trying to kill you.” His tone didn’t sound accusatory, just realistic. “I figured that at the time. And I wasn’t much younger than I am now, so don’t try to play that card on me. That’s one thing my dad does, and he knows I hate it.”

There was so much in what he had just said that she wanted him to elaborate on—and that made her ache to scoot over to his side of the couch and hug him.

“Okay,” she said. “You’re a teenager now, but you weren’t then.” She hadn’t been around for his thirteenth birthday...and she also hadn’t been sure she would ever be with him again for any other birthdays.

She still wasn’t.

“You were smart beyond your years even then. And if I could have found a way to bring you with me and keep you safe, I would have. But I figured that, even if your dad had killed your mom, he loved you and wouldn’t hurt you, no matter what he thought of me.”

“Yeah, when we first couldn’t find Mom, he kept acting all sad around me, said she’d run away, that kind of thing. And anyone who thought he’d done something to her—like you—well, you were all wrong. That’s what he said.” Eli’s voice was low and practically a monotone, and he looked down at his hands clasped together in his lap. “I wanted to believe him. I did believe him. Until...well, I started worrying when he cleaned out all of Mom’s things, although when I mentioned it to Cal’s mom she just said it was probably because my dad was grieving so much that he wanted to try to put everything behind him.” Eli looked up at Kelly as if searching for her opinion on her face.

“Some people do that,” she agreed, without stating the reasons Stan had probably wanted to get rid of all of Andi’s belongings—even those that had belonged to her family, those that should now be Shereen’s.

“I got it, even tried to help him, but he didn’t want my help, which made me feel even worse. And then...well, I started removing some stuff right after school, before Dad got home. I took it over to Cal’s, and he didn’t tell his mom but helped me hide it in a big box he kept under his bed.”

The idea excited Kelly. What was there? Anything that might lead to answers about what had happened to her sister? But she knew she had to play this cool and not upset Eli. “That was a good idea,” she said simply.