The Advocate (The Advocate Series) (29 page)

“Amen,” he said. “Let’s eat.”

30

Due to the holiday, it was particularly quiet at the office when Joe arrived on Friday morning. Since he didn’t have a family demanding his attention, he had offered to work for someone who did. Many of the officers came to him, shook his hand, apologizing for his or her behavior.

He was anxious to reach Sabre. It was nearly ten now, which made it almost seven on the west coast. He couldn’t wait any longer. Sabre needed to know who the phone number belonged to and about the note he had found in Elizabeth Murdock’s locker. He also wanted to inform her of the latest on the investigation on Honey.

He tried calling her cell phone, only to get her voice mail again. The only connections he had to her were Marla, the social worker, and Gregory Nelson, the detective who had handled the bat incident. He decided to try Marla first.

“Marla, it’s Joe Carriage from Atlanta. Got a minute?”

“Sure, Joe. Do you have some information on Honey Stone?”

“Actually, I do, but I called to see if you knew how I could reach Sabre. I’ve been trying to call her for two days. I keep getting her voice mail. And she hasn’t returned any of my calls. That’s not like her.”

“Joe, Sabre’s missing.”

“What do you mean, missing? What happened?”

“On her way out of town to visit her mother, she stopped to see Alexis at Jordan Receiving Home. Gaylord Murdock came in and sweet-talked one of the attendants into letting him into the room with Sabre and Alexis.”

“Oh, no! Did Murdock kidnap them?”

“Well, we think so. No one saw any of them leave the building, but Murdock’s car was gone and Sabre’s was still in the parking lot. Someone at Jordan reported them missing when Alexis didn’t return to her room. Some kid from teen housing who had sneaked out to have a cigarette said he saw a man, a woman, and a young girl get into a car fitting the description of Murdock’s. The kid couldn’t tell us much because the lighting is terrible there, so it’s hard to tell if he saw them or not.”

“Marla, I have some information that may shed some light on this. You know I’ve been doing a little investigating on the Elizabeth Sterling-Murdock case, right?”

“Yes, Sabre told me they investigated a police officer in conjunction with the case.”

“Yes, Bill Davis. My best friend, Steve Parker, partnered with him on the force. Steve got too close to exposing him, and Davis killed him before he could talk. They arrested Bill Davis today and charged him with Steve’s murder. Anyway, in the process of snooping around, I came across a note in Elizabeth’s locker at the gym – a riddle about a red bat.”

“A red bat? You mean like the one that attacked Sabre in her office?”

“Yes, that’s what started me looking, because I remembered something Steve had told me about the case and a puzzle he couldn’t solve.”

“So you think there’s a connection between what happened to Sabre and the Elizabeth Sterling case?” Marla sounded a little confused.

“Oh, there’s definitely a connection, all right. I found a Dallas phone number indented in the note. I had an FBI friend of mine check it out for me. Five years ago it belonged to Ronald Adrian Brown, Sabre’s brother.”

“Oh, my God!” Marla gasped. “Do you think Murdock knew Sabre’s brother?”

“It looks like it. I have no idea what Murdock is up to, but I think he has an agenda far beyond anything we know about yet. I think Sabre is in serious danger. We have to find her.”

“The police are looking for her. They’ve been searching since Wednesday evening. Since Alexis is a minor, they didn’t have to wait twenty-four hours to begin their search. At first, they thought maybe Alexis had run away, but they realized Sabre hadn’t checked Alexis back into Jordan. Sabre would never have left without checking her in. And then Murdock showed up. It’s the only thing that makes any sense. But why would he kidnap Sabre?”

“Maybe she got too close to something, like what happened to Honey Stone, perhaps. By the way, Adelle’s story checks out. It appears Honey never made it back to Adelle’s from Peggy’s. Adelle and her husband, Harry, both passed their lie detector tests. I don’t know if Murdock had anything to do with Honey’s disappearance, but at the very least, Peggy must know something. Have you learned anything new?”

“No, my immediate concern has been Alexis and Sabre, so I haven’t had a chance to do much else. I know Detective Nelson is working on it, though. You may want to talk to him.”

“I’ll give him a call. By the way, things are heating up back here.”

“How?”

“Adelle decided to go to the press, and she stirred up quite a bee’s nest. Honey’s picture has been plastered in the paper and on the local news, which is good in a way because someone might see her and report it. It is especially newsworthy here because of the Murdocks’ political connections. But the phones have been ringing like crazy with false reports, and it has us all jumping.” Joe thought about Sabre again. “I wonder where they are. I sure hope she’s all right.”

“She’s a survivor, Joe. If anyone can get through it, Sabre can.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Just keep us informed, and I’ll do the same.”

“Thanks, I’d appreciate it.”

Joe couldn’t keep his mind off Sabre. If he had just known this information sooner, maybe she could have avoided Murdock. Joe checked his messages and saw he had a call from Howard. He called him back.

“Sabre, Alexis, and Murdock are all missing,” Joe told him when Howard answered the phone. Joe gave him the details.

“Do you think Murdock has them? Or maybe one of the thugs you’re trying to round up has them all?”

“Well, we’ve stirred up a lot of commotion here with the arrests we’ve made, but the timing wouldn’t be right. They were already abducted before we arrested anyone. So, unless something leaked out, Murdock’s taking them is the most likely scenario, but why would he?”

“Based on the information I’ve gathered here, I think it has to do with the connection between Ron Brown and the Murdocks. When Elizabeth and Gaylord moved to Dallas, Elizabeth joined a gym, the same one Ron Brown used. They became friends, and shortly thereafter she introduced him to Gaylord. The three of them socialized some. They took a weekend trip together to Atlanta once, but other than that, they usually just went to the local races. Gaylord loved the ponies and anything else he could bet on. He gambled pretty heavy and sank deeper and deeper into debt.”

“And Ron, did he gamble?”

“No. He bet occasionally, but he didn’t have the sickness. He went to the races just because Elizabeth asked him to. They’d gotten pretty close.”

“Were they lovers? Ron and Elizabeth?”

“I don’t think so, but they were real tight. They saw each other almost every day at the gym and often had coffee together. She confided in him, told him things no one else knew.”

“Was Gaylord jealous of Ron?”

“It appears so, but he never confronted either of them. Instead, Gaylord found a way to use Ron to his own benefit,” Howard said.

“How?”

“Our theory is he knew enough about Ron to know he was a rescuer and he cared about Elizabeth, so he set him up. Gaylord was in debt to two different crime bosses, one from Atlanta and one in the Dallas area. The Dallas group had been trying for some time to spread their territory and wanted to take over the Atlanta area, but in order to do so, they had to get rid of the leadership there. Because of Gaylord’s family connections and his own dealings underground, he had a lot of information on the Atlanta group.”

“Was his family involved or aware of any of this?”

“No, they’re as clean as a whistle. They did know he gambled, but I think they just looked the other way. They didn’t disown him or anything, but they saw a lot less of him.”

“I’m sorry; I interrupted you. So how did he use his information against Ron?”

“Well, Gaylord couldn’t do anything himself because he knew the Atlanta group would take him out. So, he leaked the information to Ron through Elizabeth. The weekend trip to Atlanta took place so Ron could meet some of the guys and later be able to identify them. Of course, Ron didn’t realize it at the time.”

“What purpose did that serve?”

“As I said, Gaylord had Ron pegged as a rescuer and he turned out to be right. He knew Ron would try to save Elizabeth if something happened to her. Gaylord had some thug nab Elizabeth and force her to call Ron. As she had been instructed, she told him she was being held hostage by the Atlanta guys and to go to the police and tell them everything he knew about them.”

“And he did?”

“Exactly. As a result, we had enough information to cease the operation in Atlanta, which in turn gave Dallas a chance to take over.”

“It all seems so hopeless sometimes, doesn’t it? You work so hard to get rid of one criminal element and another just takes up where they left off.”

“Yes, it does. In this case, they moved in there before the convictions came down. We were their pawns, too, just like Ronald Brown.”

“So why wasn’t Gaylord ever arrested?”

“We could never pin anything on him. He knew a lot of people, but he had no involvement in their operation. We couldn’t prove he had his wife held hostage. He made it look like the Dallas bunch kidnapped her. It probably was their thugs, but we’re pretty sure Gaylord planned the operation. We tried to force him to testify against Dallas, but he couldn’t see any advantage to it. I expect the Dallas group would’ve killed him if he had. I’m sure it also helped clear up his gambling debts.”

“So he cashed in his wife for some gambling debts?”

“Not exactly; I think he just used her to help wipe out Atlanta. He had become pretty jealous of Elizabeth’s and Ron’s relationship by then, and he blamed Ron for the problems in their marriage. By setting Ron up to squeal on Atlanta, he evened the score with Ron, and at the same time, taught Elizabeth a lesson.”

“Some lesson, getting rid of your wife,” Joe said.

“I don’t think he initially planned to get rid of her. We’re not sure what happened there. But it got real messy, mostly because Steve had figured out too much, I think. So they had to get rid of him and probably her as well.”

“So with Steve and Elizabeth gone, and with Murdock and Davis in their pocket, Ron could testify against the Atlanta leaders, Dallas could swoop in and take over, and no one would be the wiser.”

“Exactly.”

“So what happened to Ron?”

“Keep in mind, I wasn’t a part of this operation. I’m receiving all the information secondhand, but from a reliable source. The file reads he was on his way to Montana to go fishing. They found his car at the airport with his fishing gear still in it. Nothing further is reported.”

“So what does it mean?”

“It means he’s either dead or in the witness protection program, but at this point I don’t know which. That kind of information isn’t easy for even us to get into, but I do have a way, and I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.”

“Thanks, Howard. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your efforts.”

“Hey, it doesn’t come close to what I owe you. I’ll be in touch.”

31

Sabre spent another night with virtually no sleep. She woke so exhausted she couldn’t think clearly, and her wrists and ankles felt like someone had sliced them with razor blades. At first she’d been terrified, but her fear turned to anger. She sat in the armchair near the fire as Alexis fed her oatmeal. She didn’t feel like eating, but forced herself in order to keep her strength up. She put her head against the fold at the top of the chair attempting to get comfortable, not an easy task with her hands tied behind her back. Her body wanted to sleep, but her mind rebelled. She replayed everything she could remember from the moment Murdock walked into the room at Jordan. Maybe it would help her to understand what he wanted and, in turn, somehow help her escape.

Sabre sat straight up in her chair and gasped. Murdock had said yesterday she “lived in a new condo.” How would he know? She had never told him or Alexis. She remembered something else he had said, and it took her breath away. When he gave the blessing, he’d said, “Bless Alexis’ mother and Sabre’s brother, wherever they may be.” Terror returned and she gasped. How did he know she had a missing brother?

She looked up; through tired, blurred eyes she saw Murdock and Alexis cleaning the kitchen. They did everything together. She thought what a good father he appeared to be in so many ways. What a shame he insisted on destroying his life, a life he’d likely have been sharing with his daughter in a few short weeks. Why would he be willing to risk it all at this point? Nothing made any sense to Sabre.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Murdock’s voice. “Alexis, I’m going to go outside and gather some more firewood. You keep an eye on Ms. Brown. You know the rules.”

“Yes, Father.”

As soon as Murdock went out the door, Sabre said, “Alexis, we need to get out of here. We need to get away. Please help me.”

“I wish I could, Ms. Sabre, but I can’t. Father would be very angry. Besides, he’ll let you go soon. He promised me.”