Finley placed her hand on her weapon when the truck stopped and the engine cut off. She was glad all three children had decided to ride with Abigail, since it freed her up in case she had to make a move because of any nasty surprises.
“You sure about this?” the truck driver asked when he slid the back door open. Judging from Abigail’s expression, she agreed with him. The address she’d given the guy was a mini-storage facility.
“This is the place,” she said as she helped Abigail and the kids out. When she’d rented a unit she’d purposely picked the largest of its kind in the area. Eventually someone could work through the list of renters, but it’d take them months to trace it back to her from the dummy corporation she’d set up. It wasn’t impossible, but whoever tried it had to be good.
“If you say so,” the driver said, not looking at what she’d pressed into his hand. “You were serious about the parking tickets?”
“I’ll take care of you. Let me see your driver’s license.” She took a picture of his license and the truck’s plates. “You can take off. We’ll be fine from here.”
She punched in the fence code and walked them through the yard to the back corner that wasn’t visible from the street. There she punched in another code and walked another block to another massive storage building. The one she’d rented wasn’t visible from the street either, for a reason. The truck driver had been helpful, but she didn’t trust what the next guy offered him. A big payout was often enough to make people lose perspective.
“Can you give me a hint as to where we’re going and what we’re doing?” Abigail asked.
The three kids were being especially quiet, and when Finley finished punching in the security code to let them into the large facility next door, they seemed still shocked from the morning’s craziness. “Give me a minute.” She unlocked the large area and flipped on the lights. The space was pricey, but today made the investment totally worth it. She ushered them all inside and closed the door. “We need to finish our talk so we can figure out what’s happened and why.”
Abigail turned in a circle, taking in what Finley liked to think of as her secret space that let her decompress when she needed to. “You’re a cop?” Abigail asked, gazing at her with an expression of what she guessed was suspicion. “It must pay more here than back home.”
“I’ll give you my life history as soon as we get through my questions, but I want to help you, and you’ll be safe with me.”
“I believe you, but I’m reaching my limit of strange things happening to me. If you’re not who you say you are, I’m going to lose it and take you out with my nail file.” Abigail started laughing and didn’t stop until she was crying, which caused all three kids to join her.
“Okay,” she said, shocking them into silence, “sit.”
The large room held two vehicles as well as an ample couch, and a few computers in one corner. It had everything she needed to either work or run if she had to. Her gut told her it was time to run with this woman, if she and her family were going to survive.
“What are you doing in the city besides eating pizza and going to cool toy stores?” she asked, figuring an easy start was best.
“We come once a year so the kids can visit their grandparents,” Abigail said and told her the story of Nicola and Frederick’s deaths after Finley had gotten the kids interested in a computer game. “They want their grandkids to know the place where their children grew up.”
“But you live in Louisiana?”
Abigail nodded. “Nicola was there working for her family, like Frederick was in Miami. David, their father, didn’t trust the expansion of their business to anyone but family, and from what I understood it was going well before their plane went down.”
“What’s their family business?” she asked as she took notes. She’d never heard of David Eaton.
“International shipping. New Orleans, Miami, and New York are ideal locations because of the ports.”
“What exactly do they ship?”
“Nicola never got into that since she said I’d be bored out of my mind, but from her explanations it sounded like they were shooting to be the next FedEx of the seas.” Abigail combed her hair back with the hand on her uninjured side and blew out a stream of air.
“Yesterday you were going to meet your in-laws?”
“We were headed to Sarabeth’s to meet them, but the shooting sent us running in the opposite direction.”
She nodded again, and the earlier conversation with Sadie popped into her head about her grandmother calling her. Shouldn’t the woman have called Abigail to check on their well-being? “Are you from New Orleans?”
“Born and raised,” Abigail said, staring at her as if trying to read her mind. “My family’s there as well, and I’m anxious to get back to them and the routine of my life.”
“I want that too, and my job is to make sure none of this follows you home. Right now, though, I can’t leave you exposed and let someone take another shot at you.” She wrote down a few more things and gazed back up at Abigail. “Did you tell anyone aside from the cab driver where you were headed?”
“No. Sadie loves that place, and I’d promised we’d go after brunch.”
“So this was part of your routine while you’re in the city?”
“My partner passed away, Detective, but it’s my opinion that the things she enjoyed sharing with the children shouldn’t die with her.”
Abigail obviously wasn’t the kind of person who liked to answer one question straight out, but it was time to lose the attitude. “So it was part of your routine while you were in the city?”
“Yes, but I sincerely doubt someone has been trailing me for the last couple of years because I stole a cab from them or something that trivial. I’m the most boring person in the world. Just tell me exactly what you want so I can get us all back to our lives.” Abigail had leaned forward and was whispering, but Finley could tell she was truly pissed.
“If you want,” she whispered as she swiveled around so her back was to the children, “I can put you on a plane right now, but I’ll have someone meet you there. Think about everything that’s happened to you and then think about your children.”
“All I think about is my children, so don’t preach to me. As for the rest, considering all the trouble you’ve gone to, it won’t be that simple to ditch you.”
“Witnessing one shooting could be bad luck or a bizarre situation you usually see only in an action movie, but the toy store blows coincidence out of the water. What that means is, I can send you home to what you say is a boring life, and I doubt you’ll live out the week.” She placed her hand on Abigail’s knee to keep her in her seat. “You wanted blunt and honest, so that’s what I’m giving you. Someone for some weird reason wants you dead, but I want to help you. Your children deserve to grow up with at least one parent.”
“I’m sorry, you’re right.” Abigail gazed at her children as she spoke, and her bottom lip trembled. “What do you need?”
“Like my boss says, the bread crumbs that’ll lead us to the truth.”
*
Valerie glanced up from her paperwork when her assistant Catherine returned from the errand she’d sent her on. So far she’d called Sadie and Abigail over five times, but the calls went immediately to voice mail. None of her messages had been returned, even though she’d stated how worried she was.
“Are you going to make me beg?” she said as she went back to her paperwork.
“Their room at the first place was empty, and so far there’s no information from the airlines that they went back. It’s like they disappeared from the city, so my guess is she had help.”
She closed her eyes and mentally slowly counted to five to dull the anger that being in the dark always caused in her. This time her grandchildren were at stake, so being clueless was unacceptable. “So they’re no longer at the Plaza? That’s where Sadie said they were.”
“The entire building is under security lockdown since this morning, so I have no information yet. My best guess is they’re still in the building but have gone silent for some reason.” Catherine stayed on her feet and peered down at her with a hopeful expression. No one on their staff enjoyed being on their version of the hot seat.
“You do realize how much I like any type of guessing, right?”
“Yes, ma’am, but we’ve got all the exits covered, and as of five minutes ago none of them have been spotted. She’s got to still be in there.”
“My suggestion is to go back and don’t return until you know something.”
Catherine left with only a nod. Valerie liked that she wasn’t one to fill the air with useless chatter, but even that wasn’t relaxing the tension in her shoulders. Abigail’s sudden change in the routine she followed religiously was only half the equation, so she looked over at her phone to see if there was any communication from another aggravation. David had left early and hadn’t answered his phone since.
Their relationship wasn’t like any in the Eatons’ history, and she wasn’t about to go back to the norm of the trophy wife that was seen but never heard. David probably wouldn’t mind her acting more like his mother, but not even his mother had done as much as she had for David to assure his success and position. Even if her husband was willing to forget, she wasn’t in a forgetful mood.
She stared at her phone, willing it to ring, and it finally did. “Did you fall down a manhole?”
“I’ve been busy all day so don’t start, okay?” David sounded exhausted and breathy.
“You should’ve had only one thing on your to-do list.” She glanced down at her nails and made a mental note to get an appointment for a manicure. “We’re in the dark right now, and darkness is where nightmares are born.”
“Thank you for the lecture,” he said, his words like darts hitting a board. “I would’ve never figured that out on my own.”
“Save the macho bravado for the weaklings it works on. I’m ready for results on this deal.”
“Do you suddenly think I’m incompetent?” David said, his voice rising.
“We want the same things, so please be more civil. I’m as upset about all this as you are, but I’m not screaming at you. The thing is, I’m here doing something about it.” She ran her finger over the picture closest to her—of their wedding thirty-one years before. Those idealistic young people captured in the shot were long gone. “Since you don’t want to say where you were, all I can imagine is that you’re starting to find something or someone new to take your mind off things.”
“Stop, Valerie, before you make a fool of yourself trying to think beyond your capability.”
She was mad enough to have hit him had he been in the room, so she gave herself the satisfaction of hanging up on him. “You’re playing with fire, David,” she said, staring at the picture, “and I’m just the woman to burn you.”