CHAPTER 25
Julia gave the cabdriver twenty dollars, since Sarah didn’t have any money, as he let them off in front of the parking garage across from the Renaissance House.
“What level are you parked on?” Julia asked.
“The sixth floor.”
“Let’s take the stairs. The police are looking for Ahote, so I’m guessing he’s going underground, but I’d rather not be fighting for my life and be boxed in with him in a tight space if he comes around, so no elevator.”
Julia panned the first-floor stairwell, which smelled like urine, and started to run up the stairs.
“Slow down, you’re going to kill me,” Sarah said, panting from behind.
“You’ve got to push yourself,” Julia said, not slowing her pace.
When they reached the sixth-floor stairwell, Sarah grabbed Julia’s arm.
“Hold on. Just in case,” Sarah said. She pulled out Duke’s gun from the duffel bag she had brought along and then covered the gun with the vinyl bag and held the gun close to her stomach.
Julia opened the door to the sixth-floor parking level and quickly scanned the space, but on first blush, it appeared to be empty of people. Julia followed Sarah until her sister stopped in front of a faded, old Nissan with a dent in the bumper.
“Hey, it’s paid for,” Sarah said as she moved toward the driver-side door.
“One second first,” Julia said, and looked underneath the car. “Pop the trunk.”
Julia did a quick inspection and saw nothing more than a spare tire and a carton of cigarettes.
“Thanks for the ride. I think we’re good,” Julia said.
Sarah unlocked the Nissan and the two sisters climbed inside.
“Why’d you let Phoenix go?” Sarah asked as she started the car.
“Because he’s a jailhouse snitch, and he’ll say anything to help himself. Everything he told me was a lie and a manipulation. No use wasting my time with him. People like that from my beat, they’ll tell you anything you want to hear in order to get out of the trouble they’re in.”
“If Phoenix is a liar, how did he get your charm bracelet that Ben gave you?” Sarah asked.
“It was probably a replica. People can fake items, but they can’t fake memories. Someone told him about how Ben gave me the bracelet for my birthday. I need to talk to Agent Kenny. He’s the one pulling the strings.”
The older Nissan almost stalled as it made its way toward the exit, where Julia handed the attendant a credit card to pay for the two-day and overnight charge.
“You don’t have to pay for everything. I’m trying to get on my feet,” Sarah said. She hit the gas hard and maneuvered around the light, early-evening traffic until they reached the highway to Rochester Hills and Julia’s house.
“This isn’t the life I want anymore, you know?” Sarah asked. “Did you ever wonder what our lives would’ve been like if we had different parents?”
“Ben would still be here. I know that. I’ll be honest with you. Through the years, I met a lot of people who had worse situations than we did. It wasn’t good growing up, but I know it could’ve been worse.”
“You were the lucky one, always were. A purebred. You stood out, even in the shit we were in when you were little. Me, I’ve never been lucky. Some people are born with a dark cloud over their head, like you’re cursed even before you’re born. People like me, we’re the dregs, black dogs in the sun, mutts tied up and chained in the heat. You can’t escape from who you really are.”
“If you believe that, then you’re destined to stay down. No one is lucky. You fight your way out of your situation. When you went into foster care and I was with Aunt Carol, I knew she didn’t really want me. I know it was better than where you ended up, but growing up in a place where you’re a nuisance, that didn’t feel good. I held on to Ben and that got me through.”
“I know you don’t want to hear this, but I can’t see any way that Ben’s alive. That FBI protection claim Phoenix swore was true, that sounded like bullshit to me. You really think if Ben had been alive all this time, he wouldn’t have come back for you?”
“If he thought it would protect me, yes.”
Julia watched the city pass by and the sun made its last appearance of the day as it slowly slipped down on the horizon; the signs for Rochester Hills appeared against the backdrop of its glorious orange-and-yellow brilliant finale.
Julia navigated Sarah to her address and felt uncomfortable when Sarah turned the car off in front of Julia’s house. Helen’s old Volvo was parked in the driveway, and Julia knew Logan and Will would be inside.
“Thanks for the ride and for sticking around back there. I can’t invite you in. My kids are home.”
A flicker of hurt passed across Sarah’s eyes for a second, but then it was gone. “Sure. I’m no good with kids anyway. It’s lucky I never had one. The kid and me, we’d both be miserable.”
“I’ll see you around, Sarah,” Julia said. She reached across the seat and was surprised when at the last second, she found herself squeezing Sarah’s hand.
* * *
Julia got out of the car and watched until the old Nissan pulled out of sight. She then headed into her house, where Helen, who was wearing bright red lipstick and had her hair pulled away from her face, was forming dough into bow tie shapes on a cookie sheet.
“You’re always cooking,” Julia said.
“Just cookies this time. It is late,” Helen scolded. “You said you’d be home an hour ago. I wait to make dinner. But maybe the new officer who just got here would like to stay. By the time I feed everyone, it will be after ten.”
“Don’t worry about dinner. We’ll just get takeout,” Julia said. “You look really pretty. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear makeup.”
“It’s nothing really,” Helen said, brushing off the compliment. “The new police officer who just came, he’s a very interesting man. He hasn’t been over here for a shift before. We had a nice talk.”
“You like him?” Julia asked.
“No, of course not. That would be a disrespect to my Alek. I just enjoyed our conversation.”
“What happened to Scarborough?”
“He was here earlier, but had another call about a robbery and had to leave, but the new officer arrived right after Scarborough left. The police, they’ve been keeping a good eye on us. The new officer, his name is Kirk Fleming, and he used to live in South America. Such stories he had.”
Julia felt a warning bell go off inside her.
“Where are Logan and Will?” Julia snapped.
“They’re outside with Officer Fleming. They’re playing baseball.”
Julia ran out of the house and to the back deck. She felt a black fury move through her as she spotted her father with her boys.
Duke had his suit coat slung over the bottom rung of Logan’s tree house, and he was throwing a baseball in Logan’s direction. Will clapped his hands as Logan’s bat connected with the ball and it sailed across the yard until it hit the fence.
Julia raced across the yard, scooped Will up in her arms, and then positioned her body between Logan and Duke.
“What are you doing in my house?” Julia demanded.
“Hey, Mom, what are you doing? I just hit a home run,” Logan said. “This is Officer Fleming. He’s really nice.”
“Go inside and take your brother with you,” Julia said to her son.
“He was playing with us,” Logan answered. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Logan, go in the house. Now!” Julia said.
Logan gave his mother a stunned, hurt look, which pierced Julia’s heart. Julia knew she had startled him with her harsh tone, but she couldn’t help it. After all Duke had done to her as a child, she knew deep down to her primal core that Duke should be nowhere near her children. She quickly put Will down and then walked both boys to the rear deck to their safe passage inside and as far away from Duke as possible.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound harsh,” Julia said to Logan.
But it was too late. Logan had already started to cry. Julia reached for his hand, but Logan pulled it away and ran inside the house, with Will following closely behind him.
“Logan,” Julia called out, but her oldest son had already closed the door.
“He’ll get over it. He just sees you being mean and controlling, but I know you were trying to protect him from me. I see you didn’t get jammed up with the FBI. How did it go with Phoenix?” Duke asked.
“Don’t you dare come near my children ever again. I want you gone, out of my house.”
“Your boys, they’re nice kids. Logan’s got a hell of a swing. When I first got here, I’ll tell you the truth, I felt like I was seeing a ghost. Your oldest boy’s a dead ringer for Ben. I’ve got good-looking grandsons.”
“They don’t belong to you. You can’t try and interject yourself into my life like this, not with my children.”
Julia heard the back door open and looked up to see Helen waving her hand to get Julia’s attention.
“A woman named Sarah is here to see you. She said you left something in her car she wants to return. I’m going into town with Will to pick up dinner at the Silver Spoon. Logan is in his room and won’t come out.”
Julia shot Duke a look. “I’m not through with you yet.”
Julia left Duke, who was whistling casually and throwing the baseball up in the air, and walked through her house to the front door, where she saw Sarah standing on the property’s edge, just inside the fence line.
“Are you going to let her in?” Helen called from behind. Will was standing at Helen’s side as the two headed out to pick up dinner. Julia gave Will a kiss on his forehead and waited until Helen and her son got inside the Volvo. She then went to greet her sister after her family was safely out of earshot.
“You came back?” Julia asked Sarah. “What’s going on?”
“Cute kid you got. I’m not trying to crash your party. I just stopped by to give you your phone. It must’ve fallen out of your pocket when you were in my car earlier.”
“Thanks,” Julia said. “Duke showed up here unannounced. But he’s about to leave.”
A blue Crown Victoria turned the corner and parked at the end of Julia’s street. Julia squinted against the light to see Chief Linderman get out of the vehicle and walk in Julia’s direction. Julia felt a strange feeling move through her, as her first instinct was to go warn her father that the police were here.
Linderman had a look of concern etched across his face as he looked at Julia and then turned to assess Sarah, the unknown commodity in the equation.
“Are you a friend of Julia’s?” he asked.
“Something like that,” Sarah answered.
“I need you to give Julia and me a minute. Can you go in the house?” Linderman asked.
“Go ahead,” Julia told her sister. “It’s okay.”
Sarah shrugged her shoulders and went inside. As soon as she passed through the entryway, Linderman reached for the front door and closed it tightly, so he and Julia were alone on the front porch.
“The FBI is two minutes out. They know your dad is here. They’re going to arrest him. I’m not here to help your father, but I’ve known you for a lot of years and I’m doing you a tremendous favor. Are your kids home?”
“Only Logan,” Julia answered.
“Get him out. And do it quick. Have him go out back. I don’t want your boy in the cross fire if things go bad,” Linderman said. “I have to leave before Kenny gets here. I’ll catch hell if the FBI knows I tipped you off. But Agent Kenny gave me his word that he wasn’t going to arrest you, as long as he got Duke. Still, be smart. Now get your son out of here before it’s too late.”
Linderman returned to his car, and Julia didn’t wait to see him drive away.
She ran into the house and sprinted down the hallway to Logan’s room. She threw the door open and looked on at Logan, who was sitting cross-legged on his bed, with his baseball bat at his feet.
“Listen, baby, you need to get out of the house right now. I can’t explain, but I need you to get out as fast as you can. Do you still sneak into the Davises’ backyard by jumping from the big tree, where your tree house is?”
“No, I don’t do that anymore,” Logan said.
“It’s okay. Just do it. I need you to run. Now! Stay at the Davises’ house and don’t come back until I tell you it’s all right.”
“I knew it,” Logan said as his eyes grew wide. “I’ll stay here and take care of you.”
“Not a chance. Let’s go.”
Logan snatched up his baseball bat, and Julia grabbed his hand as the two raced to the backyard.
Duke watched their fast approach with an expression of caution and let Logan’s baseball slip from his fingers.
“What’s going on?” Duke asked.
“I’ll tell you in a minute,” Julia answered.
Julia waited until Logan skimmed up to the top of the tree with his baseball bat still firmly clutched in one hand. Once he reached the branch he needed, Logan lay flat on the log, with his arms and legs wrapped around it, and crawled along the length of the thick branch until he made it past the fence line. Julia watched her son drop from the branch and then let herself breathe again when she heard her boy land safely on the other side of the fence.
“What the hell is going on?” Duke asked.
“The FBI. They’re coming for you,” Julia said as she turned toward her father. “They know you’re here, and they’re a minute away.”
Duke’s eyes quickly scanned for the best escape route as Agent Kenny appeared on the rear deck from inside the house.
“Back away from me, Julia. As far away as you can,” Duke said.
“I’m impressed, Duke. I figured you’d use your daughter as a shield. A guy who left his kids and family and didn’t do enough to save his own son after he was kidnapped, I’d say you’ve changed,” Kenny said.
Duke’s right hand began to dart behind his back as Kenny pulled out his gun and trained it at Duke.
“You’re not going to kill me,” Duke said, and gave Kenny his broadest smile. “You’ll never know where the painting is.”
“The painting?” Kenny said, and laughed. “It’d be a darn shame if one of your kids got caught up in the cross fire. I can’t guarantee it won’t happen.”
“Are you armed, Julia? See, we don’t know that. If you think a person may have a gun, you need to subdue them,” another male voice called out from behind the other side of her house.
“I’m not armed,” Julia said. She raised her hands up above her head and turned toward the man’s voice as Phoenix Pontiac turned the corner with a gun pointed at her.
“These situations, they can spiral out of control in seconds. You think someone’s got a gun and they’re about to reach for it, you’ve got to shoot first,” Phoenix said. “What’s it going to be, Duke?”
“You’re not an informant. What are you? FBI?” Julia asked.
“I’m your very own man of a thousand faces,” Phoenix said. “Which one did you like the best? The photographer? The poor kid who was held captive with your brother? The informant? You’re not that smart, after all. I found your weakness and you were so easy to work.”
“You get one more warning, Duke. Put the gun down on the ground and back away from it, or I can’t guarantee what will happen to your daughter,” Kenny said.
“Just do it, Dad,” Julia said.
Duke, his smile intact, looked at Kenny and slowly put his gun down on the ground.
Kenny moved quickly to Duke’s side, slammed Duke against the fence, and patted him down. Once he was finished, he handcuffed Duke and spun him around. “We have a lot to talk about, Mr. Gooden, or would you prefer me to call you Kirk Fleming?”
“I want a lawyer,” Duke said. “I got information you need, but I won’t say a word unless I have an attorney present. And my daughters had nothing to do with this. Julia didn’t know I was here. I just showed up and she told me to leave. I picked up both my kids so Liam Mueller wouldn’t get them.”
“Liam Mueller is dead. He killed himself about two hours ago. He must’ve known we were closing in. We recovered twenty stolen paintings already from a secret stash he had hidden at his consignment store in Birmingham. But not as big as what you took, Duke,” Kenny said.
Agent Kenny pushed Duke forward toward the side of Julia’s house in the direction of the street. As Duke passed Julia, he leaned into her and said, “Be smart, like I know you are. Just tell them the truth.”
“Shut up,” Kenny said.
“The sister, the friggin’ one who cut me earlier, I found her in the house and she was packing. I got her weapon and stuck her in my car,” Phoenix said.
“Good. Take Julia, too. Both of them. I’ve got Duke.”
Phoenix moved to Julia’s side and stuck his gun in her back. “Ready, sweetheart?” Phoenix asked.
“You played me. You’ll pay for this,” Julia said as Phoenix led her through the side gate of her property and to his car, a black Ford sedan, which was parked across the street from Julia’s house, instead of his former Subaru.
“Don’t worry. Your boyfriend will be waiting for you downtown,” Kenny said. “We have a pit stop to make first, up north in Macomb.”
Julia watched as Agent Kenny put Duke in the back of his unmarked car and then he approached Phoenix. “Put her in the car. We need to talk for a second,” Kenny told Phoenix.
Phoenix unlocked his car and pushed Julia inside, where Sarah was waiting and looked on anxiously at her sister.
“What the hell is going on?” Sarah asked. “That Pontiac guy is an agent?”
“I don’t know. Something’s not right. A cop wouldn’t threaten to accidentally shoot me to get Duke to drop his gun.”
Julia felt her phone buzzing on silencer in her pocket and remembered how she had stuck the phone there when Sarah had returned it when she came back to the house.
Julia shot a glance over to Kenny and Phoenix, who were standing facing their cars near her front porch. Julia turned away from the two men so they couldn’t see her face and pulled her phone out and put it on speaker.
“Julia, what the hell? Where are you?” Navarro asked.
“I can only talk for a minute. Agent Kenny and Phoenix Pontiac just arrested Duke. He showed up at my house. Sarah and I are being taken in for questioning.”
“You’re in trouble. I tried to reach Kenny and my calls kept going to his voice mail. I called the FBI station down on Michigan Avenue to see if he was there. I told the receptionist who I was, and I was transferred to Kenny’s supervisor. His supervisor wouldn’t tell me much, only that Kenny is on administrative leave pending an internal investigation because of possible misconduct charges. Whatever Kenny is doing, he’s acting alone.”
“Kenny’s dirty,” Julia said.
“You need to get out of there.”
“I’m locked in the back of Phoenix’s car right now with Sarah. Max Mueller used to have an old place up in Macomb County. It’s in the middle of nowhere. That’s where he ran his old human-trafficking business. You should be able to find it if you check tax or property records. I don’t know if that’s where they’re going to take us, but I know we aren’t going to FBI headquarters, and Kenny said something about going to Macomb.”
“I’m downtown at the station. I’m calling the sheriff’s.”
“Call Linderman, too. He was just here.”
“I’ve got to hang up now. I’m going to get you out of this.”
“He’s coming, Julia. Hide the phone!” Sarah warned.
Julia ended the call with Navarro just as the car door opened behind her.
Julia tried to hide the phone, but Phoenix was already there with his hands on her shoulders as he pulled her out of the car.
“Give me your friggin’ phone,” Phoenix said, and grabbed it out of Julia’s hands.
“You didn’t frisk her, you idiot?” Kenny asked.
“Doesn’t matter. The Gooden family is about to be terminated,” Phoenix said.