Redemption Lost Read online

  She swerved into the right lane, avoiding the one car that hadn’t moved to the side and cruised through the light. One more to go. Driving evasively was not her strong point, and she prayed this maneuver would free her of her tail.

  Flashing lights shone in the opposite lane, coming right toward her. Sweat dripped down into her eyes, but she didn’t dare brush it away—the light was coming fast. She caught up with another four cars in her lane and two pulled toward the side, but two blocked her way. The light turned yellow. The cop car behind her was closing in and showed no signs of stopping.

  She was too close to have this fail now. When she was only a few car lengths from the car in front of her, the car braked for the light. She slammed on her brakes, but swerved to the left into the lanes of oncoming traffic. The only car headed that way was the police car—heading straight for her. If she got caught right now, she’d lose the phone, and they’d be set back precious time. She focused on Leo’s mellifluous voice, and did her best to follow his instructions.

  The cross traffic pulled into the intersection right as Christy did and right as the cop car did. She slammed on the brakes again and turned her wheel to the left, narrowly avoiding the first car and sliding between the two cars in the lane next to it. The cop behind her gave up the fight, but the other followed her onto the cross street. She turned left as instructed.

  She turned left again, then right. The cop car was still on her tail but a little ways off. At least the others who were most certainly looking for her hadn’t caught up. There were no right turns. He was gaining on her. If only she had a Mercedes or BMW, she’d have lost them already. “He’s gaining.”

  “We have eyes on you.” That meant she shouldn’t worry, even though her heart was racing like a charging bull.

  Next thing she knew, a car pulled out of a drive as she passed. The cop car’s tires squealed as he slammed on the brakes. Christy heard the crunch of metal on metal as she took a right and then pulled into a garage on the left. She let out a loud breath of relief and turned the car off.

  Her hands shook as she lowered them from the steering wheel. “Thank you, Leo.”

  “All in a day’s work.

  Chapter 7

  MARYBETH

  “Is mommy sad?” Harold asked his mom as they sat at the shiny kitchen table in the Alvarez home.

  “Yes. I need to tell you boys something sad.”

  Marybeth could barely hold her tears back. These boys were about to be very sad. They loved their “Uncle” Bradley.

  “Mommy,” Mitchell said. “When we’re sad, we need ice cream.”

  Mrs. Alvarez looked at Marybeth, pleading for a way out of telling the boys Bradley was gone.

  “I can tell them,” she said.

  “No,” Mrs. Alvarez said after a pause and then looked at the boys. “You’re right. We need ice cream. It makes everything better.”

  She got up and got ice cream from the freezer while Marybeth got bowls and spoons.

  “Looks like cookies and cream today, boys,” she said, putting on a brave face.

  “Yay!” they yelled.

  Only moments later, she brought them bowls stacked high with ice cream. They all dug in, but the mood remained sober.

  Then a call came from the front of the house, “Maria.”

  She stood, gave a sad, conquered look to the boys and then rushed to her husband in the foyer. The boys stared after their mother then looked at Marybeth in question. Should they follow her?

  Marybeth nodded and the boys raced past her. She got off her chair and walked to the foyer. She watched as Mr. Alvarez melted into his wife’s arms and the two boys latched on to their daddy’s legs in the opulent foyer at the foot of the grand staircase. She was struck with the leveling power of death, that no matter one’s riches, intelligence, or good looks, it brought everyone to great sorrow. Senator Alvarez sobbed, leaning on his wife. Marybeth, not wanting to witness their pain, her own too great at the moment, hurried upstairs to unpack. At the top of the stairs, she looked back to see the two boys at their dad’s side hugging him also. They may not have understood what exactly was going on, but they knew their dad was hurting.

  “Does Daddy need ice cream, too?” Mitchell asked.

  “No. Sweetie.”

  “Does Uncle Bradley?”

  Marybeth’s eyes filled with renewed tears.

  “No,” his mama said. “Uncle Bradley is in heaven now. He gets all the ice cream he wants.”

  “You mean Uncle Bradley won’t be coming anymore?”

  Alvarez couldn’t answer, but his wife spoke for him. “Yes, sweetie. Uncle Bradley has gone to heaven.” Both boys started to cry. Tears fell freely now from Marybeth’s eyes, rolling over her cheeks and dripping off her chin. She wanted to pick the boys up and hug them. She needed those hugs too, but though she needed comfort, she would not take it from them. This was a private moment for the family. While she’d only known Bradley for less than a year, he’d been a part of their family for many. She was more determined now than ever to find Bradley’s killer. Anyone who hurt her family like this would be brought to justice. She would see to it.

  She forced herself to work, to rid her of her sadness. As she put away the boys’ things from their backpacks, she continued to let the tears fall. Once down the hall and in her own large room, she put away her things, trying to stay busy and not think about what happened. Then Christy called.

  “Can you talk?”

  “Yes.” She tried hard to keep her voice steady so that Christy wouldn’t know how upset she was.

  “Alvarez made it back home?”

  “Yes.” She couldn’t say more.

  “I know this is hard, Marybeth, do you think you could meet me?” That sound in Christy’s voice was back. What was it? What did it mean?

  She swallowed hard. “Yes. We’ve got to get whoever did this. Everyone here is full of grief and sadness. I want to make whoever did this pay.”

  “Okay. Come as soon as you can.”

  Maybe it was just concern she’d heard. Marybeth contemplated not finishing putting away all her things but decided to quickly do it before she asked the family if she could leave. It would give them a bit more time to grieve uninterrupted.

  Marybeth trudged up to the door and before she could knock, Christy opened it and pulled her in to a soft hug. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It was awful. I mean I’d only known him for six months and totally adored him. I can’t imagine what it’s like for the Alvarezes. He was like one of their sons. They were all just holding each other crying, even Senator Alvarez.”

  Marybeth thought she saw shock on Christy’s face, but it could’ve just been the shadows. “Come in,” she said and pulled Marybeth over to sit on one of the stiff couches.

  “Listen, Marybeth. I’m going to tell you something, and it’s going to be hard to hear.”

  Marybeth’s brow furrowed. What else could there be? The worst had already happened. “Mikelle has implicated Senator Alvarez in Bradley’s death.”

  Marybeth gasped. “No—that’s impossible. I was just with him. He’s racked with grief. You can’t fake that.”

  “I know it’s hard to believe, but Mikelle said Bradley had some evidence against Alvarez, something he’d kill to keep out of the public eye.”

  “She never said anything like that to me,” Marybeth said, shaking her head. This was ludicrous.

  “She wouldn’t—you work for Alvarez. She couldn’t know if you’d have her back.”

  Marybeth crossed her arms. “Did she have any of this supposed evidence?”

  “She had his phone—I managed to get it right before I was made. Ace is working on bypassing the security right now.”

  “Well, I’m sure he won’t find anything. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”

  Christy gave Marybeth a concerned look. “If we discovered that Alvarez is involved with this mess, will you help bring him down?”

  Marybeth spoke quickly, “Of course. I
f he was guilty—but he’s not. He doesn’t have the capacity to do such a thing. He’s gentle and nurturing and kind. He’s not a killer. He would never kill Bradley. He loved him and treated him like a son. I wish you could’ve seen them together.” She had to make Christy see that any suspicion on Alvarez was silly and going after him would be a waste of time.

  She looked into Christy’s questioning and concerned eyes, and Marybeth wondered at her own words. Could she really go after Senator Alvarez? He was a sweet man. Could she actually do that? He’d never done anything to make her believe he wasn’t trustworthy. No. She wouldn’t have to worry about helping them bring him down. She shook away the thought. Very soon they would discover they had it all wrong.

  * * *

  CHRISTY

  Christy hated to corner Marybeth like this, but she had to make sure Marybeth understood what might be coming. She shifted on the couch as Marybeth smiled at her, seeming more determined than ever to prove Senator Alvarez’s innocence. She searched for the right words to tell Marybeth what Alvarez had been up to.

  “Hey everyone,” Jeremy’s voice cut over the silence. “Pow wow in the kitchen.”

  Christy put her hand on Marybeth’s knee. “Last night, Alvarez snuck into the hotel after one.”

  She flinched. “Why? He snuck in? What does that mean?”

  “He hid in the back of one of his guard’s cars and with a hoodie over his head and face—he entered through a side door.” She bit her lip. This next part would be harder. “He was meeting a girl there.”

  Marybeth’s brow furrowed. “What does that mean?”

  “Come on, Marybeth,” Christy said softly. “I know you admired the guy, but you have to see what’s going on here.”

  “So he met with someone—she could have been anyone. Everything doesn’t have to be so dark all the time, Christy. She could have just been a consultant.”

  “In the middle of the night? Meeting clandestinely in a hotel?”

  Jeremy’s head popped around the corner. “The food’s getting cold. Snap to it.”

  “Come on. We can talk more about it after lunch.”

  Jeremy had brought Italian, and was pulling it out of the sacks as they entered the room. He looked up. “Marybeth. Glad you’re here.” Just seeing him eased Christy’s nerves. Ace walked in from the cave, and Jeremy introduced him. “This is Ace, oh, and Halluis.” Halluis was right on his tail.

  “Nice to meet you,” she said, offering them both a hand.

  “Dig in everyone. I’ll fill you in on the latest while we eat.” Everyone grabbed a plate and filled it with what he or she wanted. Once everyone was sitting, eating, Jeremy said, “Ace, show us what you found on the phone.”

  Ace produced Bradley’s phone and opened the camera app. Christy watched Marybeth carefully. Her face was red and she’d stopped eating, arms crossed tightly across her chest. She sighed. This was going to be hard.

  “It looks like Bradley had photo evidence of Alvarez’s trysts.” He placed the phone on the table and swiped through the photo gallery. The pictures told a vivid story—Alvarez meeting with various girls, all young. In each one, they were in front of a hotel, and Alvarez was helping the girls into a black sedan.

  Marybeth shrugged defensively. “This doesn’t mean anything. So he’s meeting with people. There’s nothing on there that shows he’s having an affair—or multiple affairs.” There was a bit of a growl in her voice.

  Christy reached out to touch her arm, but Marybeth shook her off. “It’s not conclusive, no. But you have to admit, it doesn’t look good.”

  Marybeth’s mouth pressed into a thin line.

  Jeremy cleared his throat. “There’s something else. Another senator has been targeted.”

  That was news to Christy. She raised an eyebrow at Jeremy. “Who?”

  “McClintock. His guard was killed preventing his death.”

  Halluis turned to Marybeth. “McClintock wasn’t one of the senators on your list of enemies of Alvarez.” She frowned.

  “That’s because they aren’t enemies.”

  Christy broke in. “What can you tell us about McClintock?”

  “Not much besides that he’s shallow. Not many senators like him, but I didn’t think anyone hated him enough to go after him. He’s the annoying show-off that always wants to be in the spotlight, but doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Honestly, I think Alvarez is one of his only friends. They didn’t hang out all the time or anything like that, but they were civil. McClintock always supported all of Alvarez’s bills and I think vice versa. If you gave me a little bit of time, I could research that.”

  “That won’t be necessary. I’ll have Ace get all of that information.”

  “Yeah. They were friends,” she continued. “I think they even used each other’s personal guards when their guards were sick or couldn’t work. I guess they trusted each other. Who was the guard?” She stared at Jeremy, her face drawn.

  “Holland.”

  “No. Alvarez used him all the time. He’ll be devastated.” The dark circles under Marybeth’s eyes suddenly seemed darker.

  Ace got more food then said, “Give me a minute, and I’ll find out more about Holland.” He disappeared out the door, his food getting cold.

  “Perhaps,” Halluis said after taking a drink of his water, “this particular personal guard would easily turn a blind eye when it came to their little trysts.” Christy gave Halluis a warning look. Marybeth obviously wasn’t ready to face the fact that her hero had turned out to be a villain. Halluis could show a little more sensitivity.

  Marybeth’s face darkened, but just as she opened her mouth to speak, Ace burst into the room. “It looks like there are at least four deaths where Holland was close enough to be asked for a witness statement.” He took a seat.

  An idea formed in Christy’s mind. “Ace, could you go back in and look at Alvarez’s phone records?”

  “Actually, I have them up right now.”

  “Could you check them against Holland’s? See if there’s any activity around Bradley’s disappearance.”

  “Sure.” He was gone in a flash and returned only minutes later. Christy could feel Marybeth’s hard gaze on the side of her head. It was like Marybeth was trying to drill into her brain and figure out what the heck she was thinking, asking questions about phone records for Alvarez. Christy refused to look at her. “Looks like Alvarez called Holland three times the night before Bradley Durham disappeared.”

  “I told you he used him all the time. It’s just a coincidence,” Marybeth said.

  Christy ignored her. The pieces were starting to fall together.

  “So, Bradley found out that Alvarez was having affairs, and he threatened to expose him. Alvarez could have had McClintock’s guard kill Bradley, and then he panicked realizing that someone would make the connection between the two and he had the guard killed. It happened last night, right? Before one?”

  Jeremy nodded.

  Halluis spoke up. “Seems like a flimsy reason to have Bradley killed. It doesn’t seem like having an affair poses any kind of threat to any political position these days.”

  “True, for the most part, but he ran on a clean, family values platform.”

  Marybeth’s head lifted. “It’s true that almost all his support came from the public image that he was a clean and wholesome candidate. But—he would never, never kill Bradley.”

  “I’m so sorry, Marybeth, we have to look into this.” Marybeth didn’t respond.

  “But you’re right, Halluis. It isn’t enough. There must be something bigger, I just don’t know what yet.”

  “So, Senator Alvarez didn’t have anything to do with it after all?” Marybeth brightened.

  “I didn’t say that. We’re a long way from saying that. There has to be something bigger going on than exposing infidelity. And we can’t forget that Alvarez lied to the police about his whereabouts that night.”

  “He was with a prostitute. That’s why,” Halluis sa
id wryly.

  “No. This was before. He got back right after one, and the girl came later by about fifteen minutes or so.”

  “Looks like we need to talk to McClintock,” Jeremy said. “And find out the circumstances of what happened and find out where Alvarez was during his time he was pretending to be at the resort hotel.”

  Everyone but Marybeth was nodding.

  “We need an in. Why would he talk to us?” Jeremy said.

  Ace was busy on his phone. “Give me a little bit, and I’ll have a way.”

  Jeremy filled up a plate with food and dug in. Marybeth pushed her plate to the middle of the table and put her head down. Christy exchanged a look with Jeremy. He held up a hand, indicating she should be patient. Christy pursed her lips. She knew Marybeth would have a hard time with this, but she never expected her to be so shaken.

  About thirty minutes later, Ace presented the information he’d found out about McClintock. From what he said, McClintock was a weasel and womanizer. He fed off others’ misfortunes, did only what was in his best interest, fighting only for what would garner him the most publicity. He was known for his bad behavior, and many on Twitter and Facebook bemoaned the fact that his guard took the bullet intended for him. The chatter was that he would never be re-elected.

  “Basically,” Ace said, “he’s one hated man. The list of his enemies goes on for days.” He pulled up a video of the squirrely man giving an interview to a sensationalist TV program, which he was most assuredly paid for. It was ugly to say the least. He called on all his supporters to weed out the devil who would dare attack him.

  Christy got a little sick listening to his whiny voice and wondered how in the world he ever got elected in the first place.