Losing Ladd (21 page)

Chapter Eighteen

The knock on Jeremiah’s motel door
sounded like a jackhammer to his skull. Lying prostrate across his
bed, he was nursing a hangover of epic proportions and wanted no
visitors. None. “Go away!” he yelled

“
We ain’t going anywhere
until you give us our money!” came the angry reply through the
cheap metal door, followed by another round of pounding.

Jeremiah groaned. Gripping his
forehead, he squeezed his temples to ward off the noise. He was in
no mood for a confrontation. Not after a night of drinking at
Bucky’s. Running into one of his old pals at the cell phone store,
they’d gone over to the bar for a few drinks, a few drinks that
turned into a night full. The last thing he wanted to do was get up
and answer the door.

The incessant pounding continued,
followed by, “You’d better answer this door ‘fore I kick it in,
Jeremiah!”

“
Dammit!” Jeremiah
exclaimed, rolling halfway off the cheap mattress. He glanced at
the digital clock. Eleven-thirty. Oh,
jeez
. He’d only slept six hours? His
head throbbed. His stomach felt like rot-gut. The room rolled and
tipped.

“
Hurry up! I ain’t waitin’
all day!”

Pushing to a standing position,
Jeremiah swayed a bit, his brain a soupy mess of pain. Suddenly, he
felt the need to hit the toilet. Unfortunately, the physiological
detour might send his dimwitted cohorts over the edge causing them
to knock in the door!

Idiots
. Shuffling toward the door, Jeremiah fought the stabbing
pain in his head and unlocked the door. Within seconds the brothers
pushed their way in, a blinding flood of sunlight spilling in
behind them. “Why ain’t you answering our calls?”

“
I lost my phone,”
Jeremiah replied, squinting against the invasion of daylight as he
headed for the bathroom.

“
You don’t expect me to
fall for that lame excuse, do you?”

“
Yeah,” the second one
pitched in. “Sure you lost it all right.” He pointed to the
nightstand with a sneer. “What’s that over there? A
walkie-talkie?”

Ignoring them, he unzipped his jeans
and relieved himself.

“
We want our money,” Rob
warned in a gravelly voice.

“
So you said,” Jeremiah
replied through the open door.

“
We want it
now.”

Zipping his fly closed, Jeremiah
flushed the toilet and walked back into the room. The air smelled
like stale cigarettes, much like his clothes. Outside the confines
of a bar, the scent grated on him. Made him sick, actually.
Fighting a tide of nausea, he pulled the brothers into focus. Drawn
with lines of displeasure, Rob’s face was tanned, his long hair
greasy and thin, his chin hair a scruffy excuse for a beard. His
brother was no different, only rounder, chubbier, his hair line
receding before that of his older brother’s. Both wore jeans and
T-shirts, the grubby status-quo since they’d been here. Jeremiah
doubted they did laundry. Too much effort.

“
Well?” Rob
demanded.

Irritation curdled in his stomach. “I
told you I’d get it to you.”

“
Yeah, and I ain’t seen
none of it.”

“
What about them
pendants?” the younger asked.

“
I gave you half of them,”
Jeremiah exclaimed. “What more do you want?”

“
We want all of
them.”

Jeremiah glared at the older brother.
Greedy bastard. If he thought Jeremiah was gonna hand over the
entire heist he was crazy. Wasn’t gonna happen. The goods were
staying with him. But Jeremiah knew better than to ignite the man’s
temper by revealing as much. The guy was crazy as a coon dog on the
hunt and nastier than a rattler. It was a lesson he’d learned the
hard way back in high school and had the scars to prove it. But
that didn’t mean he couldn’t outsmart him. “I’ve made a plan to get
more.”

“
There ain’t no
more.”

“
There’s always more
money,” Jeremiah snickered.

“
What plan you talkin’
about?”

“
Hotel Ladd has a safe and
where there’s a safe, there’s more money.”

“
I already checked that
last night and there ain’t no gold in it. Nothin’ but a
pistol.”

The younger’s eyes lit up. “A right
nice one, too!”

“
You stole it?” Jeremiah
asked incredulously.

“
Yep! They had a fire over
there and made it real easy to get in and out,” he said, fanning
his feathers like a peacock.

Jeremiah smacked a hand to his head
before he realized the painful effect. Groaning loudly, he wanted
to slug him. “Why didn’t you leave it be? Guns are easy to get
around here!”

The fool brightened. “So was this
one,” he said, pulling it from the waist of his dirty
jeans.

Flat and black, the weapon snared his
complete attention. Steal a firearm and you’ve entered a new level
of criminal charges. “Great. Just great.”

“
What are you worried
about?”

“
My connection to you,
moron. They find you, they find me!”

“
But you didn’t take it,”
the younger added, wondering what all the fuss was
about.

Jeremiah fired into him, “It’s called
‘accessory to the crime’, you idiot. You stole the
pendants—pendants I have in my possession.” Something that was
going to have to change and quick. He was going to have to pawn
them sooner rather than later, which would drive down his price.
Any pawn shop owner worth his salt could sniff out
desperation.

“
So what’s that got to do
with the gun?”

“
It has everything to do
with it, you imbecile!” Jeremiah wanted to crawl out of his skin,
he was so itchin’ mad.

“
Hey, watch who you’re
talkin’ to.” Rob stepped in. “Forget the gun. We helped you. Now
it’s time for you to help us. We want our money. You got
twenty-four hours to deliver.”

Giving a shove to his younger brother,
he directed him out the door.

Watching them walk out of his motel
room, Jeremiah slammed the door closed, instantly regretting the
motion as his head swelled with pain. His two allies had just
changed sides. Now what was he going to do?

Malcolm paused at the
doorway of the private room. The sight of Delaney’s unconscious
body lying in a hospital body cut deep. This was a woman who never
stopped, never slowed down, ran on eight cylinders at a hundred
miles an hour. To see her incapacitated was unnatural, much like
the tubes connected to her body, the monitors lit up overhead,
their red lights blinking, blue lights glowing. Looking at her was
almost as bad as the sight of his best friend sitting vigil at her
bedside. Nick Harris was a dynamic figure, imposing in both vigor
and strength. This was a guy who powered through life. He didn’t
doubt his own ability. He didn’t accept no for answer.
Can’t
wasn’t a word in
his vocabulary. He moved like a freight train, steamrolling over
obstacles. He didn’t get derailed by trouble. Actually, he usually
caused it. To see Nick Harris rendered helpless was
unsettling.

Understandable but
unsettling.

Rapping lightly at the open door,
Malcolm waited for Nick to acknowledge him. Slowly, he turned. It
was a jolt to the system. Black eyes were gouged of life,
underscored by dark circles. The lines in his face were carved
deep, his expression that of a walking waxed man.

“
Hey.”

At the single utterance, Malcolm
second-guessed his decision to discuss business. Nick was in no
shape for it. But since he was here, the least he could do was pay
his respects. “Hey,” Malcolm returned quietly. “How is
she?”

“
No change.”

“
No change has its
positives,” Malcolm offered, walking into the room. If the swelling
didn’t worsen, he thought, that was a good thing, right?

“
Any word on the cause of
the fire?”

Malcolm sighed. Straight to the point
despite the circumstances. “No, nothing yet. The forensic people
were back this morning combing over the site. Hopefully we’ll know
something soon.”

Nick nodded, returned his focus to
Delaney. “Did you locate Jillian?”

“
She strolled into the
restaurant this morning. Cal asked her about her whereabouts last
night and she says she has an alibi.”

Nick stared at his wife and said,
“She’s behind it. I’m sure of it.”

“
Then we’ll be able to
prove it. Until then...” Malcolm ventured a peek at the monitors.
Picking up on an increase in rhythm, he finished reluctantly, “we
wait for the investigators.” Aware that coma patients could hear
what was being said around them, he didn’t want to upset Delaney’s
recovery by discussing the fire that sent her here. Debating
whether or not to reveal what he’d learned from Travis, Malcolm
lingered near the foot of Delaney’s bed. They could always discuss
matters in the hall.

“
What is it?” Nick asked,
staring at him as though seeing him for the first time. “What
aren’t you telling me?”

Casting a wary gaze toward Delaney,
Malcolm hitched his head toward the door.

Nick was up instantly. Patting
Delaney’s hand, he told her, “I’ll be right back, sweetheart.” With
a kiss to her forehead, he joined Malcolm out in the hallway.
“What’s up?”

Malcolm took a deep breath, glanced in
either direction and said, “Travis came to me last night with some
information. Seems he’s been digging into Jeremiah’s situation and
learned the same thing we learned, the money came from
here.”

“
So?”

“
So, he followed Jeremiah
to a house downtown and caught him meeting with two men. The same
two men Troy saw in the forest with Jeremiah.”

Visibly turning the information over
in his mind, Nick looked to Malcolm for explanation. “What’s the
connection?”

“
One of the men he met
with is responsible for our gift shop robbery.”

“
Well, we suspected that
much.”

“
What I didn’t tell Travis
is that our office was broken into last night.”

“
What
? When?”

“
During the commotion
after the fire. Someone snuck in somehow and broke into the
safe.”

Nick raked a hand through his hair,
the lines in his face deepening. Tunneling in on Malcolm’s eyes, he
asked, “They took the gun?”

Malcolm nodded.

“
Damn
it, things keep turning for the worse.”

“
But there’s good news.”
Nick froze and locked onto Malcolm as he said, “They found
fingerprints. They’re running them now.”

“
Good. It’ll be our first
take-down, followed by Jillian and Jeremiah.”

“
There’s another twist,”
Malcolm added calmly.

“
What?”

“
Jack and Jillian seem to
have hooked up.”

“
You’re kidding
me.”

“
Wish I were. Felicity saw
the two of them together outside his hotel. Apparently there was no
mistaking the relationship.” Malcolm wondered if he should have
revealed the fact sooner but didn’t think it important at the time.
Nick had seen them together the last time she was in town. Would he
care they were back at it?

Nick swung his head away, muttering,
“Now what has she got up her sleeve?”

“
I don’t know, but as to
the fire, I’m not entirely sure it was her.”

“
It was her,” Nick smacked
back. “It’s her specialty.”

“
Except for the fact that
Cal ran into Jeremiah at a gas station yesterday and said he had
several gas cans in the back of his pickup truck.”

Nick’s gaze sharpened to a laser fine
point. “You think he’s in on it with her?”

“
Or with his two friends.”
Malcolm wasn’t sure. “How’d they know to hit the hotel safe while
the fire took everyone’s attention?”

“
Dumb luck?”

“
Maybe. Jeremiah's debt
was paid anonymously and in cash from a local bank. The two he’s
running with could have paid it,” he said, despite the fact they
didn’t look like they had a nickel between them. “Besides, if
Jillian was involved, she had to have a local connection, someone
who could be tracked.” Malcolm planned to discuss the issue with
Cal.

“
Keep checking,” Nick said
as he glanced through the open doorway. “I still think Jillian is
behind this, but whoever put Delaney in this hospital bed is going
to answer to me.”

Malcolm turned to go, startled to see
Felicity standing in the hallway. “You think Jillian had something
to do with this?”

“
We don’t know anything,”
Malcolm returned, backing off quickly. “It’s too soon. But you can
be sure we’re checking all avenues. We’ll find out who’s
responsible, don’t worry.”

Felicity cleared her throat. “Yes,
please do.” Checking with Nick, she asked, “Any change?”