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The more Dela stewed about the number of casino employees who seemed to be connected with the kidnapping and murder, her anger grew.
The man hadn’t even offered them anything to eat. It wasn’t as if she’d eat anything the man prepared but she wanted him either out of the room or with his back to them so she could get out of her ties.
“I need to use the bathroom,” she said, in the middle of the man’s story about a fishing trip he’d taken on the Rogue River.
“I can’t let you do that,” the man said, glaring at her.
“Then I guess you’ll have to tell the boss how his floor and chair smell like pee because you wouldn’t let me go to the bathroom.” She wiggled on the seat and pressed her thighs together as if she were trying to hold it in.
“That does look like a real expensive rug,” Heath muttered.
“What did you say?” the man asked, pointing the gun at Heath.
“I said the rug looks expensive. It would be a shame for you to have to either replace it or pay for it to get cleaned.” Heath brushed the toe of his shoe back and forth what distance the restraints on his ankles would let him.
Dela whined. “I really gotta go.”
The man pulled out a knife and switched it open. He cut her feet loose and helped her stand. “You’re gonna have to figure out how to get your pants down with your hands behind your back.” He held her arm, shoving her toward a small hallway.
He pushed her into a lavish powder room decorated in forest tones. “No funny business,” he said, closing the door.
The man stood outside the door. His breathing and the sound of boards creaking gave him away. She stood with her back to the door and clicked the lock.
“Hey! What are you doing in there?”
“I want to make sure you don’t come barging in here when I’m struggling to get my pants down,” she called. Then she walked into the toilet, making the seat clank.
The man chuckled.
Dela bent down and stepped back over her tied wrists. Now her hands were in front of her. Turning on the faucet at a slow trickle, she quietly looked through the drawers for something to either grease her hands or cut the ties. She found a tube of lip balm. Holding the tube in her hands, she pulled the cap off with her teeth then grasped the tube in her mouth and rubbed it on her hands below the plastic tie.
Turning off the water, she flushed the toilet and worked her hands out of the zip tie. Then she made a couple of stomping sounds, which brought another chuckle from the man outside the door.
She washed her hands, turning the water on full force. After drying her hands, she held the towel in her hand behind her back and unlocked the door.
“I’m done,” she called and waited for him to open the door.
When he did, she tossed the towel on his head and grabbed the hand with the weapon, twisting his arm up behind his back. She shoved him against the wall, keeping upward pressure on his arm. The weapon clattered to the floor. She couldn’t release her pressure on him to get the gun. A good kick with her prosthetic foot sent it far enough down the hall that she’d have time to get him under control before he’d get his hands on it.
Dela forced him down the hall ahead of her at the same time the front door and a door behind her flew open.
“FBI!” two voices shouted at once.
“Don’t shoot!” Heath shouted.
Dela didn’t release the man. “This man and another one abducted us,” she said to the man in the FBI-emblazoned protective vest.
“Are you Dela Alvaro?” the agent asked, as another agent came up behind her and snapped handcuffs on the man she’d captured.
“Yes.” She moved to Heath and used the knife she’d taken off the captured man to cut his zip ties. “And this is Heath Seaver.”
“How did you know where to find us?” Heath asked, rubbing his wrists.
Dela could see the lines in his skin where he’d been trying to break the ties while the man was keeping guard outside the bathroom. “Yes, how did you know we were here?”
The agent shook his head. “You’ll have to ask Special Agent Pierce. He told us to come here and see what was going on. When we spotted Seaver tied to the chair and heard a toilet flush, we figured it was a good time to make our presence known.”
Dela leaned into Heath when he put his arm around her. She was happy they’d both made it out of this mess alive. But it bugged her that Quinn had known where they were.
“We’ll give you a lift. Where do you want to go?” The agent asked as they walked out of the house and a group dressed in forensic outfits walked in.
“Who owns this house?” Dela asked.
“On the tax roll it belongs to Felicity Carter,” the agent said, holding the door to a silver SUV open.
The agent who had taken charge of their captor deposited him in another SUV and walked toward them.
“As in Felicity Carter Benedict?” Dela said. Was Felicity the mastermind behind all of this? That house might have been well furnished but it had the scent and feel of a man’s house. Who was living in her house? Her lover, Jude West?
“I believe so,” the second agent said, sliding into the driver’s seat. “Where to?” he asked.
“Wherever Special Agent Pierce is. I have questions and answers for him.” She leaned back in the seat, tucking her shoulder under Heath’s arm. The drive time back to Lincoln City would give her time to collect her thoughts.
“Are you okay?” Heath whispered, touching her hair with his lips.
“Fine. Just confused,” she whispered back. “I know who the driver was. Everything is so messed up. I don’t know who the bad guys are and who the good guys are, other than us.” She sighed.
Heath hugged her to his side. “I knew you had a plan when you asked to use the bathroom, but I was trying my hardest to get my hands loose while he was waiting for you.”
She picked up his hand and gently touched the welts at his wrist. “I knew you would be trying to get loose. Lucky for me someone in that house likes lip balm.” She leaned closer to whisper even quieter. “Did you get the feeling a man stays there and not a woman?”
“It wasn’t a bachelor pad,” he whispered back.
“No, but it smelled of masculine scents. And the bathroom had cedar air freshener, the towels were brown and dark green. Colors a man would pick. And the toilet seat was up.”
Heath chuckled. “Then it must have been a man who used it last.”
She punched him softly in the chest. “I’m serious. If that belongs to Felicity then I would bet Jude West has been living there.”
The vehicle entered the south end of Lincoln City. Not to her surprise, the agents parked the SUV in front of the Starfish building.
“Is Agent Pierce still in the Benedicts’ suite?” she asked.
“He and Swanson have set up a command post in the suite,” the driver answered.
“I bet Hugo loves that,” Dela said sarcastically.
“He disappeared after tying his wife up. No one can find him,” said the other agent, opening the door for them.
Dela slid out taking this information in. Hugo was missing. His son was missing. Who was covering up the loose ends?
She and Heath followed the agents into the building, stood in the elevator with them, and then walked down the hall and waited as the driver knocked on the door.
Swanson opened the door and ushered only she and Heath into the room.
“Dela, Heath, good to see you’re all right,” Quinn said, walking toward them.
“How the hell did you know where we were? If you had an agent following us, why didn’t they intervene sooner?” Dela stood in front of Quinn, her hands bunched to keep from punching him.
“If I tell you how I know where you were, you’ll never work with me again. Let’s just be happy that the agents made it to the cabin before anyone was hurt.” Quinn handed Heath a cup of coffee. “Would you like one?”
“You know damn well I don’t want a cup of coffee. For once in your egotistical, self-righteous life tell the truth. How did you know where we were?” Her palms hurt from her fingernails digging into them.
Heath put a hand on her shoulder. “Relax. Getting mad at Quinn isn’t going to find Rowena’s killer or the boy.”
She drew in a breath and released it slowly. Her fists began to unclench.
Heath continued massaging her shoulder. “Tell Pierce what you saw.”
Dela shook, releasing all the tension and focusing on what they were doing before they were abducted. “We were at Jude West’s place.”
“I told you he has nothing—”
“Shut up and listen.” Dela glared at him. “We looked over the back fence and saw Ferris take a tray of food out to the changing shed by the pool. That is where Ferris has been hiding out. With his friend West.” She raised an eyebrow as Quinn ran a hand over his face.
“You’re sure?” Quinn asked.
“I have seen Ferris enough to know it was him. We were on our way back to the car—the car is still parked two blocks from his house.” She spun toward Heath.
“An agent can take Heath to pick it up,” Quinn said. “Tell me about what happened.”
“As I said, we were headed back to the car when a guy flashed a light in our eyes and said we were to get into an SUV. The guy who was with us got out of the car and frisked us then shoved us in the back. The man driving was Reuben, a security officer here at the casino.”
Quinn whistled. “Another one of the employees is involved. This is starting to look like there will be a huge shakedown when this is all over with.”
Dela agreed. “Reuben drove off to get the boss. With all of your people crawling around the house, they won’t go back.” She scanned the room. “Where’s Felicity?”
“An agent drove her to her house in Portland. Why?” Quinn asked, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
“The house we were taken to is owned by her. I’m sure you knew that when you sent your agents to save us.” Dela took the cup of coffee that Swanson offered her. It was going to be a long night. She wanted answers. “You should be on the phone getting people over to pick up Ferris at Jude West’s...Oh by the way, what is his real name? Stedman and I know that until eight months ago, he didn’t exist.” She sipped the coffee and watched Quinn and Swanson exchange glances.
Heath sat in one of the stuffed chairs in the seating area. “We’re not going anywhere until you start giving us some straight answers.”
Dela grinned, walked over to the chair not far from Heath, and sat. She smiled and said, “You should invite Detective Stedman here for coffee as well. He has three people in custody to keep them safe from the man who is staying at the house you are renting for an informant.”
Quinn stared at them for several minutes, his jaw twitching.
Dela liked seeing him squirm. She and Heath knew more about the kidnapping and murder than the FBI. Or at least she thought she did. That prompted her to throw out another thing she knew. “The night Rowena died she received a call from Jude West to meet him at Mt. Hood. That he’d be there for three days.” She sipped her coffee and furrowed her brow. “Didn’t you tell me he had fallen for Felicity? Why would he make a call that sounded like he was setting up a tryst with Rowena? And why didn’t she just tell me that rather than she had to go to Mt. Hood to take photos?”
Quinn rubbed the back of his neck with a hand and studied her.
“Tell her. She’s dug up more information than you said she would. Hell, she is a better agent than everyone we have working on this case,” Swanson said.
Quinn glared at the other agent.
“If you’re not going to tell her, I will.” Swanson sat down on the small sofa across from Dela and Heath. “Your friend was an FBI agent. She was commissioned by the casino to take photos by our urging. We needed someone Benedict and his people didn’t know who could move around taking photos no one would pay attention to. It wasn’t West who made that call to tell her to get out, she’d been compromised. It was our man who was staying in the house with West to keep an eye on him. When your friend left the photos she’d taken for you, we thought maybe it was because you weren’t connected to the agency and no one would suspect anything. Now we think it was because she knew someone in the agency was working for Benedict.”
Dela set the cup of coffee on the table and leaned back. Her stomach was churning from the acid and the information. Rowena had worked for the FBI. She hadn’t said a thing. “Was her running into me in the restaurant a coincidence or did you tell her I was here and to keep an eye on me?”
“That was a coincidence. We didn’t know you two knew each other until after your dinner and we asked her how she came to sit with you,” Quinn said.
“You were watching her or me?” Dela accused.
“You. I wondered at the fact you were here when the kidnapping had been set up,” Quinn added.
Dela shot out of the chair. “You have been part of the kidnapping, haven’t you? I can’t believe this. And you screwed it up, didn’t you? Hugo found out and outsmarted you and now he and the boy are missing. I bet Felicity isn’t about to help you get the goods on her husband now.” Dela dropped into the chair. “Rowena lost her life for nothing. Nothing!” She glared at the two FBI agents. “I think I’m going to be sick.” She shot out of the chair and into the bathroom.
Never in her life had she felt so gutted as right now. Leaning over the toilet, she let her empty stomach heave out the acidic coffee she’d drank. It was nearly midnight and she was tired. As tired as she’d felt after long shifts in Iraq. But her body was buzzing with adrenaline from getting the better of the abductor to learning the Feds had set in motion the murder of her friend.
“Are you okay?” Heath’s soft voice asked behind her.
She sat on the floor with her back against the wall peering up at him. “I don’t think I’ll ever be okay again.”
He knelt in front of her and took her into his arms. “Betrayal is the hardest emotion to deal with.”
She wasn’t sure what he meant, but she was drained and only wanted to be held.