The urgency in Sam’s voice weighed on me as I considered the delay I’d incur if I went all the way home for my old phone charger. Then I remembered my father kept a phone charger in his car. We’d kept his car parked at the office, so I swung by our office lot and grabbed his car charger before heading north on the freeway to the condo site.
About halfway there, Ashley called me. “Got your message about your father’s phone. That’s wild.”
“Yeah, I’m charging it right now. I’m on my way to meet Sam. He called and said he has something to show me to prove his innocence.”
“Like what?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
“I don’t like the sound of that one bit. Did you tell Adrian?”
“Left a message about the phone, not the meet-up. But I did run into Ernie and he has a warrant for Sam’s arrest for all three murders.”
“No way. Well, at least you and your uncle are off the hook.”
“I know. Exactly what I thought.”
“Well, I have news too. My public defender colleagues did more digging on George. Years ago his cellmate was Todd Keaton, a.k.a. Jo’s former stepson, who was in jail for assault, armed robbery, and arson.”
“Hmm. I wonder what they talked about.”
“Exactly. How each of them came this close to the Benning fortune.”
“Hardly a fortune now after someone stole a big chunk of it. Luckily my father and uncle Bob were smart enough not to put all their eggs in one basket.”
“Anyway, I have them digging on Todd Keaton right now. I’ll let you know if they find anything else.”
After we hung up, I reflected on Todd Keaton, which triggered something in my mind, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.
Before I knew it, I’d arrived at the site. Sam wasn’t there yet, so I parked, happy I finally had a chance to take a look at my father’s phone. I was so excited and anxious to finally read the texts that I didn’t bother to turn off my engine. My father had text messages from Sam, Milo, Uncle Bob, Aunt Veronica, Jed Barnes, and myself. He also had some with no name attached, just a number.
As I started to read the texts between my father and Sam, my heart revved up with each passing word. I swallowed hard as I learned my father had set up the meeting with Sam that night to discuss Sam’s involvement in the area fires and the logistics of turning himself in to the authorities.
Oh, my God! I paused for a second to consider the new revelation and stared blankly out the window in a daze. Wow! No wonder Sam had seemed terrified. He was facing heavy-duty criminal charges for arson.
The text also cautioned Sam not to let “him,” whoever that was, know they were meeting. A wave of nausea rippled through my stomach, and my whole body felt sick in an instant. Clamminess, lightheadedness, and heart pounding took over. The thought of my father and Sam plotting to avoid the ire of someone nefarious was chilling in light of my father’s fate. But I told myself to stay angry, not afraid, and to breathe deeply to regain my strength.
Next I read the texts from Milo. It was surreal to read texts between the two men I’d loved so much. They revealed that my father and Milo had also planned to meet on the pier the night my father died. They wanted to discuss “the money issue” and how to keep Sam safe. My dad and Milo were both being good guys, trying to help Sam out of some fix. Again a wave of weakness threatened my consciousness, and deep breathing banished the feeling as I braced myself and squeezed the edge of my bucket seat. Why didn’t my father want “him” to know? Was he afraid the mystery man would tell others about Sam’s arson? Or was the mystery man involved in some way?
I looked at a text from a phone number without an ID. It was threatening and I felt fearful just reading the menacing words. My father accused the person of embezzling. So my dad knew! My father suggested a meeting to settle the debt or he’d go to the police. The person texted back, Over my dead body. You owe me this money. I’m family. The anonymous texter told my father to back off or he’d tell the cops about the “kid’s” involvement in the fires or worse. It went on to say, You’ve got such a smart, beautiful daughter. I’d hate to see her lose her dad, or something happen to her and her boyfriend.
A loud breath escaped my lips as I leaned back in my seat in shock. The sound of a car pulling up interrupted my daze. It parked facing me head-on.
Sam was driving Uncle George’s old sedan. That totally threw me. How did Uncle George figure into this?
As soon as I saw Sam’s face, I knew something was wrong. In that same instant, I realized I’d been lured here as a trap. How could I have been so naïve? It all made sense now. George had spent time in prison for embezzlement.
A head popped up in the backseat, and an arm reached from the back to the driver’s seat and fumbled behind Sam’s back. Then the arm unlatched the driver’s door and Sam stepped out, with his hands handcuffed behind his back. The person in the backseat emerged. It wasn’t Uncle George—it was Jed Barnes. He was holding a gun.
I watched Jed and Sam as if they were on a screen in a drive-in movie. When my phone rang through my car’s Bluetooth, I hit the green telephone icon on my steering wheel.
Ashley’s voice came through breathless with excitement. “I think Todd Keaton and Jed Barnes are one in the same person.”
“I was just in the process of figuring that out. Jed’s here with Sam right now and—”
Jed barked at me as he pointed the gun at Sam’s head. “Shut off your car and give me your phone.”
Jed was at my door, trying my locked door handle. I didn’t have a plan other than to stall for time, hoping I’d come up with one or help would arrive.
I shouted through my closed window, “Move away so I can open the door.”
I was shaking as I dug my phone out of my purse and held it up for him to see. Petrified, I hoped Ashley was still on the Bluetooth connection, hearing my interactions with Jed since I’d never hung up. I prayed she’d figure out what was going on and get help. I feared I’d lose our call if I shut off my car, so I opened my window after Jed had stepped back a few feet and lobbed my phone like a baseball toward Jed.
Still seated in my car, I hid my father’s phone under my thigh. As Jed scrambled for the phone I’d thrown at him, I reached for my father’s phone to call 911 and somehow hit the call button of the open text from the unknown number I’d been reading. Jed’s phone rang. My face flashed with the heat of recognition as I realized the unknown number was Jed’s number.
He ignored his ringing phone and, thankfully, didn’t realize it came from me on my father’s phone. “Get out of the car!”
I reluctantly shut off my engine. As I opened my car door, I grasped the full meaning of Jed’s phone being the unknown number. Jed was the menacing “him” who’d threatened my father and was the killer we’d been searching for. I tried to stand up, but my knees buckled. The wave of nausea returned. This time it delivered the contents of my stomach and I puked right outside my car door. Clammy, I draped myself against my car like a wet washcloth.
Jed relaxed, seeming to assume I was no longer a threat, and ordered Sam to stand next to my car so he could keep an eye on both of us. Sam and I exchanged panicked glances across my car’s hood.
Jed waved the gun at me and told me not to move or he’d shoot Sam. Then Jed rested his gun on top of Uncle George’s car as he opened the trunk and hauled out a gasoline can. He started to sprinkle gasoline around the vacant strip mall and surrounding brush. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what he was plotting. It was clear he planned to kill Sam and me and cover up our murders with a fire.
I felt better after I threw up, even energized. It was a now-or-never moment. With Jed’s back to me, I picked up a rock and hurled it at Jed’s head, at the same time yelling at Sam to get in my car. The good news was the rock hit its target. The bad news was the rock hit its target—with an effect akin to poking a hornets’ nest. Jed bellowed cusswords. I ducked into my car and opened the passenger door for Sam, since he was still in handcuffs. Sam rolled into the passenger seat and I locked the doors. Jed caught up to the car as I turned over the engine, glaring at me as a thin rivulet of blood dribbled down his neck from the wound on the back of his head. He pounded the driver’s side window with the gasoline can, instantly causing a web of cracks. He moved in front of my car and pounded my hood. I flinched, flooring the accelerator. We jerked forward. He jumped back out of the way and hurled the can at the windshield. It landed with a heavy thump, causing the glass to craze. I could relate. I was feeling pretty crazed myself right now. I automatically hit the brake from the impact, pausing long enough for Jed to lunge at the hood. I swore and stepped on the accelerator pedal so hard I thought my foot would push through the floor. Jed tumbled back and we sped away as I heard the sound of sirens in the distance get increasingly louder—the most glorious sound I’d ever heard. Jed dashed back to Uncle George’s car and grabbed his gun, but it was too late. The next second, in a blur of lights and sirens, four cop cars whizzed into the lot and cornered Jed.
I parked, trembling, and cast a look at Sam. “It’s over.”
He nodded, tears streaming down his face in relief.
Jake pulled up in his car and parked next to me. Adrian ran over to make sure we were okay.
I gingerly opened my door, afraid my cracked window would cave in. “How’d you get here so fast?”
Adrian flashed me a smile. “Your aunt Veronica called because she sensed something was wrong with Sam when she called him. She said he sounded terrified. She was concerned for his safety. We tracked his phone to the condo site. We were nearly here when Ashley called to let me know you were in trouble.” He opened Sam’s door and went to work getting him out of the handcuffs.
Jake ran over to me as I stumbled out of my car.
He threw an arm over my shoulders. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, still trembling. “I am now. Thank goodness for my family and friends and the guardian angels watching over me.”