No Escape (6 page)

Los Angeles, California

Sunday morning, February 28

T
wo people with the last name Jacobi contacting him in the same week could not be a coincidence.

Luke Novak turned the wheel of his vintage Mustang to enter the long driveway leading to Paul Jacobi’s house. He’d received an urgent call from the man last night after eleven, requesting a meeting at his Bel Air home on Sunday morning. Anything that had the former director of the FBI worried had to be big.

Luke was willing to bet a year’s worth of profits that it had to do with Tessa Jacobi.

Considering that he’d deliberately antagonized Tessa during their last meeting—and essentially talked her out of hiring him—Luke was more than curious about why he’d received a summons to meet with her father.

He parked the car and walked up the stairs, then rang the doorbell. He stepped back in surprise when Paul Jacobi himself opened the door. The man had aged extremely well. He knew Paul was approaching seventy, but his body was still lean and strong, his hair an attractive salt-and-pepper color.
The dark blue eyes that swept over Luke hadn’t lost any of their sharpness over the years.

Paul stepped back and motioned for Luke to precede him into his private study. Walking behind the man gave Paul an opportunity to size him up—and it was plain that Luke Novak didn’t make a habit of turning his back on anyone he didn’t know. As soon as they entered the room, Luke took the seat that would give him an optimal view of the room and put his back up against a wall.

“Tell me about your company, Mr. Novak. And your qualifications.” Paul took a seat behind a broad mahogany desk and offered coffee, which was politely refused.

Luke knew when he was being asked for a sales pitch, and this wasn’t one of those times. The guy wanted to check him out—fair enough. “My company provides private investigation, corporate and personal security, and family reunification services.”

Paul frowned. “You mean like custody disputes?”

“We handle a variety of situations which can pull a family apart. Custody disputes, kidnapping and ransom, runaways. We do whatever the client needs.”

“And you were with the OCSD for how long before you left?”

“Twelve years. Then I took early retirement after being shot.”

“In the line of duty?” Paul asked.

“I was off-duty depositing my paycheck when the bank was robbed. The resulting hostage standoff went bad. SWAT stormed the building, and I was caught in the cross fire trying to get civilians to safety.”

“I think I remember now. If I recall, you made yourself the liaison with the bank robbers, negotiating for the release of some of the hostages and sending coded messages to your SWAT buddies. You were on the team, yourself, right?”

Luke shifted in his chair. “I had trained with most of the guys who were waiting to storm the building. We had a private
communication system, so I was in a unique position of being able to help out.”

“And for your trouble, you got shot. Then you were yanked off active duty and parked in front of a desk, if the sheriff’s department’s procedure is anything like the FBI’s,” Paul said.

“Yes, sir.” It had been one of the reasons he’d left the force.

“Call me Paul. I can see from your face you didn’t like being stuck in an administrative role. But it’s standard procedure, not a case of being screwed over by the system.”

Luke looked him right in the eye. “In my opinion, Paul, the question of whether I’m being screwed or not can only be answered by
me.
And I felt like I was getting fucked without getting kissed first.”

Paul laughed, relaxing for the first time since the night before. “Speaking of the proverbial kiss-off, I hear you met my daughter, Tessa.”

“Yes, sir. Paul,” Luke corrected himself. “I don’t think she liked me.”

“I’m not worried about that. I’m more concerned about why you didn’t take her case.”

“She didn’t want me to. Not really. I told her that part of my job is to look through the bullshit to see what’s really going on. Tessa is in full ostrich mode with respect to some unanswered questions about the victim, so she wasn’t interested in the way I work,” Luke said.

“Well I am. I don’t have the full details of the case, but I think Tessa is going to need an unorthodox partner for the investigation. Any time you mix celebrities, money, sex, and D.A. politics in a criminal investigation, I think there is an advantage to be had in going outside the system.”

“I agree. But your daughter has made a career of defending the system. Does Tessa really want to hear that it’s not going to help out this Kelly, but instead is going to stand by
while her rights are trampled, all the while protecting the rich and powerful?”

“Tessa has always needed to learn things the hard way. But once she does, she never forgets. I need you to look out for her and make sure the lesson isn’t any harder than it has to be.”

“Sounds like the job of a parent,” Luke said, with a raised eyebrow.

Paul leaned back in his chair. “Normally, it would be.”

“You’re not interested in that role?”

“More than anything.” Paul hesitated. “I’m not in the habit of publicizing family issues, but I get the feeling that you will work better if you understand exactly what’s going on. I was never much good at being a parent—I was always doing work at the FBI that I thought was more important.”

Luke nodded. “I understand that—thinking that you’re upholding the law and helping to save the world. Then realizing you have no personal life to fall back on when the system kicks you out of the inner circle.”

“Very good, Novak. I didn’t learn that until I was sixty. By then the political winds in Washington were changing. I left the Bureau to focus on family, but the damage was done with Tessa, to my everlasting regret. When I took steps to ensure that I didn’t make the same mistake with my second child, I’m afraid I hurt Tessa even more. I ended up growing closer to my son, but forcing Tessa into the periphery of the family I was trying to create.”

“I see why Tessa values order and loyalty so much,” Luke said.

“Ouch.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say—”

“The truth?” Paul asked. “That’s all right. Tessa’s world fell apart when she was eight. That’s when my first wife—her mother—drowned while sailing. I didn’t handle things well, I’m afraid. Within a few weeks of that, Tessa was shipped off
to boarding school, and I was dating a young woman barely out of high school. I married her not long after that. Tessa has never forgiven either one of us.”

“Sounds like she holds a mean grudge,” Luke said.

“Only because the betrayal was so profound. I utterly failed my child because I couldn’t handle being alone after my first wife died. I remarried, then buried myself in work while Lana traveled internationally on one assignment after another. Sending Tessa to boarding school was the only way I could think of to protect her from coming home to an empty house every night, but she saw it as a rejection of her value as a human being.”

“Kids are tough, though. And Tessa strikes me as a decent and honorable person—that much was clear after meeting her. Why didn’t you ever patch things up?” Luke asked.

He didn’t normally get involved in the family lives of his clients unless it directly impacted the case. In this situation, he had a feeling that Tessa’s decisions today were being shaped by events that had happened to her decades ago. It was important for him to know the truth.

“When Tessa was sixteen, Kevin came along. She told me she was moving back home to take care of him. Since she was mature for her age, no one saw any problems with this. On the contrary, it allowed me and my wife to continue working more than eighty hours a week with a clean conscience.”

“Until your careers began to go a different direction,” Luke guessed.

“Yes. I eventually left my job to spend more time being a parent, and Lana quit modeling as well. That meant Kevin no longer needed Tessa’s care full-time. There was quite a power struggle between her and Lana for six-year-old Kevin’s affections. I’m afraid that I sided with my wife, believing it was best for Kevin to be raised by his mother.”

Luke raised his eyebrows as he thought about the damage that kind of family infighting could cause, especially to a teenage girl.

“I know.” Paul sighed, catching Luke’s look. “Everything I did just reinforced Tessa’s feelings of inadequacy and betrayal. But of all of us, she made the adult decision and put Kevin’s needs ahead of her own. She saw the potential for emotional damage to Kevin and bowed out of the fight. She even moved into the dorms on campus at the University of Virginia to ensure a smooth transition, though I know it killed her to be away from Kevin. Tessa did it all in such a way that Kevin never felt abandoned, and Lana and I picked up the job of raising him from there. But our relationship with Tessa never recovered. It’s like she’s always waiting to see how we’ll hurt her next.”

“It sounds like you’ve done a lot of analysis of the situation,” Luke said.

“Oh yes,” Paul said bitterly. “I can tell you exactly what went wrong. I’m following the Alcoholics Anonymous method of patching up family relationships, first admitting what I did wrong and then making amends. That’s part of the reason you’re here.”

“Have you two made any progress?” Luke asked.

“None. I just don’t know how to fix it. The only thing I can do is give her time. I have faith in Tessa’s goodness, in her love of family, and in her decency as a human being. If I can prove to her that I’ll never hurt her like that again, maybe she can forgive me.”

Luke heard the naked pain in Paul’s voice. Looking beneath that, he realized how much it cost the man to admit to a perfect stranger how he’d messed up his relationship with his daughter. It almost seemed like he was doing penance.

It also explained a hell of a lot about Tessa Jacobi and her approach to the current case.

“I’ll tell you, Paul. I think you’re on the right track here. I didn’t see any pettiness or evidence of a mean spirit in your daughter. If you honestly want to heal the breach, I’m sure she’ll forgive you someday.”

“That’s why I need you to help her with this investigation.
Recent events have led me to believe it may be dangerous,” Paul said, then cleared his throat as the somber words echoed in the quiet study. “I can’t have something happen to my only daughter before we get to the point that she actually calls me ‘Dad’ again.”

“What makes you believe that Tessa is in physical danger?” Luke asked, leaning forward.

Paul was interrupted by a knock on the door. Lana Olson swept in, a stunning blond goddess in a gold silk robe. A cloud of Chanel followed her across the room as she went to Paul. At just under six feet tall, she had a powerful combination of slender curves and a youthful face that could stop traffic.

“Good morning.” She kissed Paul lightly on the mouth, then perched on the arm of his chair. Luke smiled to himself at the look of both awe and adoration Paul gave his wife. It was as if he couldn’t believe the exquisite creature settled next to him was really his wife.

However their relationship had started, it was clear there were deep feelings of love and affection between the two now.

“I came to see when you would be able to help me make lists,” Lana said. She reached out to drink Paul’s coffee, then made a face and added more cream to the cup.

“I’m just finishing up a meeting. This is Luke Novak. He owns a company that I may hire to upgrade the house security system while we’re gone,” Paul said. His warning look dared Luke to say otherwise.

“We’ve had the same system for three years with no problems.” Lana shook her head. “I don’t understand why we have to change now.”

“Thieves update their techniques and technology every six months or so,” Luke said. “It’s a full-time job to stay ahead of them.”

“Hmmm. Don’t take too long, Paul. Once we finish sorting things to be packed and making lists, we still need to shop for outdoor gear and binoculars,” Lana said. She turned
to Luke. “After years of pestering, all of a sudden he wants to take us on a cruise of the Antarctic. We’re going to see penguins nesting, glaciers, whales, everything. I’m so excited.”

She leaned forward to give Paul Jacobi another smacking kiss. Then she swept out of the room, the scent of expensive perfume trailing behind her.

Once the door closed, the silence in the room grew thick. Finally, Luke broke it.

“Antarctica? What the hell kind of trouble is your daughter in?”

Downtown Los Angeles, California

Monday evening, March 1

T
essa knew it was cowardly, but she’d deliberately spent Monday morning working from home so she wouldn’t run into her boss. It was only after Carmen Ramirez had left the D.A.’s office for a day of off-site meetings that Tessa went in to work. She hadn’t wanted to show the paperwork for Aiken’s restraining order to her boss before it went to the judge—because she was sure Carmen would veto the whole thing. This way, Tessa could honestly say she hadn’t been able to get approval because Carmen had been gone for the day.

Never let it be said she didn’t know how to massage the system.

Not that it had done her much good. Tessa had submitted the paperwork to the judge’s clerk at lunchtime. By late afternoon, she had been called into the judge’s chambers and chided for putting forward an “ill-conceived and inflammatory motion.” The judge was concerned that the name of the accuser be protected in the same way that the alleged victim’s was.

In other words, there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed
with a request for a restraining order, let alone the filing of sexual assault charges against Sledge Aiken.

Tessa wasn’t all that surprised, though she was disappointed. But she had closely followed legal trends over the last few years and realized that the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case had changed the way states carried out rape investigations involving high-profile suspects. In a situation where the basis of the allegation was a victim’s word alone, the current tendency was to go forward cautiously and protect the accuser’s name and reputation as zealously as the courts had once protected the victim’s.

But even knowing that, Tessa still clenched her teeth when she thought about her discussion in chambers. Even with recent trends in protecting the privacy of celebrities, she thought that the judge had gone too far in turning down her requests and cautioning her to be careful in the investigation to ensure that the rights of all parties were protected.

She had been around long enough to wonder whether a call had been made to the judge by Sledge Aiken’s attorney before Tessa’s request for an order of protection was denied.

Deep breath, nice and slow. It’s not like the restraining order would have done much good. The police actually have to respond to a call for help first, not put you on hold after you dial 911.

She checked the time on her desk clock, then scrubbed her hands over her face. She hadn’t slept well since she’d received the threatening phone call two days ago, but at least now she wouldn’t have to worry about her brother. He and his mother were headed off to Buenos Aires for a week, then were hopping a ship to Antarctica for an ecocruise. Paul Jacobi would join them in a few days.

Kevin had urged Tessa to come with them, but the thought of being trapped on a small vessel with her stepmonster for ten days was enough to bring on a cold sweat.

Frankly, she’d rather be stripped naked and thrown into a Turkish prison. But there was no need to say that to Kevin.

Feeling much better for her wicked thoughts, she decided to have dinner at a Chinese buffet restaurant down the street. It was a popular place for after-work action, so she walked down the hall to see if anyone else was interested in going. But it was after seven, and a Monday as well, so her colleagues were gone for the day. As the work week went on, people started piling up the overtime, so most employees went home at a reasonable time on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Tessa gathered some files she wanted to review at home, locked her office door, and went to the restaurant. She nursed a dry Chinese beer while making her way slowly through the steaming buffet dishes. During the meal, she flipped through her files and began consolidating information in her notebook so she would be able to give Ed and Ronnie a more coherent update the next time they met.

Two hours, three plates, and two beers later, Tessa realized she’d forgotten some important files in her office. One held Kelly’s medical records and photos, including the Polaroids taken to document her facial bruises after arriving in the women’s shelter. It was locked in a recessed drawer in Tessa’s credenza, which was why she hadn’t thought to pick it up with her other files.

She scooped up her things, paid the tab, then made her way back to the District Attorney’s office. Her car was in the parking garage beneath the same building, so it wouldn’t be any trouble to pick up the files on her way home. She took the elevator to the correct floor, then paused as she stepped off to search for her keys. After a moment muttering and shaking to resettle the contents of her oversized purse, she finally found the keys at the bottom.

But when she got to her office door, it wasn’t locked. In fact, it wasn’t even closed all the way. Curious, Tessa looked around. She spotted the night janitor cleaning an office across the hall from her own. The man was working in the dim illumination provided by the emergency lighting system.

“Excuse me, did you already clean my office across the way?” Tessa asked.

“Not yet. You want me to do it now?” The janitor barely looked up from the surface he was dusting.

“No, that’s okay. Whenever you get to it.”

She went back to her office and locked the door behind her. On approaching the desk, she immediately noticed that something didn’t seem right.

It was too neat, for one thing. The files were stacked, but not in the haphazard way she normally kept them. And two files from the “old cases” group on the left side of her desk were now sitting on top of the “new cases” file on the right. A note that had been on the stack was now stuck to the base of her lamp, and the stapler had been moved from its position as paperweight to some loose documents in the middle of the piles.

Someone had gone through her desk in the last two hours.

Tessa froze, then told herself it was a little late for panic. Whoever had done this was gone. Besides, it could have been one of her colleagues looking for a file on a joint case. Maybe the person in her office had been spotted by the janitor.

She opened her door again and went looking for the man to put her mind at ease. He was nowhere to be found—which was strange, as it was obvious he hadn’t finished cleaning the floor. She shook her head and told herself the guy was probably taking a cigarette break.

She spent the next half hour organizing her files and locking information from inactive cases in the drawer of her credenza. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find the photocopied sheet with the names and numbers of the credit cards found in Kelly’s possession, which she was pretty sure had been in the stack of loose papers. Clenching her jaw, Tessa decided that Kelly’s files would be coming home with her from now on, at least until she had a chance to get the information duplicated.

But Aiken’s earlier taunt about files going missing was
giving her a major case of the heebie-jeebies. She knew that someone had gone through her office, just as she knew she’d never be able to prove that Aiken had anything to do with it.

After stalling as long as she could, Tessa checked again for the janitor. The floor was dark and quiet, with no activity in any of the rooms. She locked her office door and took the elevator to the lobby. Once there she asked the security guard where the night cleaning staff was at that moment.

“They don’t come on duty until after midnight, ma’am,” the security guard told her.

“Are you sure? No one comes in earlier?” Tessa asked.

“No, ma’am. The D.A.’s office and some of the others complained about being disturbed by the cleaning crews when the employees were working late, so now none of the janitors comes in until after midnight.”

Tessa clenched her hands around her black leather briefcase, which now held her only copies of the information pertaining to Kelly Martin’s rape investigation.

As she walked to her car, she tried to imagine if Sledge Aiken would have the guts to pay a man to dress in a janitor’s uniform and go through her desk. And what he hoped to achieve by that act.

Because all he’d really done was put Tessa on alert. And make her more determined than before to see Aiken in an orange prison jumpsuit.