Chicken Caccia-Killer (A Jordan McAllister Mystery) (30 page)

“He said he was going to do that to make it look like a robbery gone bad.”

Alex grimaced again as he tried to reposition himself in the seat and look directly at Jordan. “Who said he would do that?”

“That bastard Hamilton,” Ginny said. “If I ever get my hands on him, I’m gonna kill him.”

“Are you talking about Jeff Hamilton, Emilio’s lawyer?” Alex asked.

“Yes,” Jordan responded. “He’s the one who left us both out here to die.”

Alex squirmed around in the seat trying to find his phone. “Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s the one who killed Marco,” Jordan answered as Ray turned off the gravel road onto the road that led to Plainville.

Alex looked down at his phone and punched in a number. For the next few minutes, he relayed what had happened, and the information about Jeff Hamilton, to Captain Darnell.

When he hung up, he turned to Jordan again, “Darnell’s going to pick him up and have him brought to the station. He’s also sending one of his officers over to the ER to take your statements.” A puzzled look crossed his face. “I still find it hard to believe he killed Marco. Did he ever say why?”

“He was furious that after all the years he’d given to the Calabrese Empire, Emilio disregarded his loyalty and allowed Marco Petrone, a man he’d known for only a year, to stroll right in and become the heir apparent.” Jordan paused before she said anything more about Emilio. “Did your mother mention our visit to Emilio’s hotel room?”

“Only that you and she went to console him as a friend. Why?”

Apparently, Natalie was honoring Emilio’s request to keep his ALS a secret. “No reason. I just thought she might’ve told you that Emilio had recently changed his will and was leaving his entire business operation to the man who married his daughter.”

“This is getting good,” Ray said, shaking his head in disgust. “So, Jeff killed Marco and then what? Was he going to try to hook up with Tina?”

“Jeff didn’t intend to kill anyone that night. He was only upstairs to use Marco’s laptop to sabotage the liquor shipment for the festival. He’d already messed up the initial shipment and saw how upset Emilio had been. He was trying to put the finishing touches on a plan to totally discredit Marco in Emilio’s eyes. When he heard Marco come into his room unexpectedly, he hid on the patio.”

“He was out there the entire time Kate and Marco had their fight?” Ray asked.

“Yes. After Kate ran into the bathroom, Marco poured a drink and walked out there. When he spotted him, Jeff knew he’d run right to Emilio. He also knew if Emilio found out he was the one who had deliberately screwed up the liquor shipment, he would’ve tossed him out on his butt. So he saw it as the perfect opportunity to solve both his problems.”

“So Frankie O’Brien had nothing to do with it?” Ray asked.

“No,” Jordan said. “Jeff stayed hidden until everyone came up the stairs, then just slipped out of the bedroom and blended in with the crowd hovering around Kate. Emilio doesn’t believe his stepson had anything to do with Georgette’s death. He was on his way to the police station with a security tape taken from Frankie’s room before Jeff abducted me.”

“Why would Jeff feel the need to get you out of the picture?” Alex asked.

“Because I figured out that he was the one responsible for Ginny’s disappearance, but I had no idea he was the one who pushed Marco over the balcony wall.”

Alex narrowed his eyes. “I don’t even want to know how you were able to come to that conclusion. I have a feeling I would have to give you that snooping-is-dangerous-to-your-health lecture, and right now, all I want to do is wrap my arms around you.” He face contorted in pain when he tried. “Unfortunately, that will have to wait until I get some pain medicine on board?”

A short time later, Ray pulled up to the ER and jumped out as soon as the vehicle was parked. He raced around and opened Ginny’s door before lifting her out and carrying her to the door, turning to make sure that Jordan and Alex were right behind him.

“I’m not hurt, Ray. Honestly,” she reassured him. “Take care of Ginny, and I’ll help Alex. We’ll see you inside.”

He held her stare for a moment before he nodded and turned around to take Ginny inside. The ER nurse met them at the door with a wheelchair and led Ginny back to an examining room. Jordan got Alex settled in a chair and approached the desk where she informed the receptionist that he needed to be seen as well.

While Jordan and Ray waited for the nursing staff to let them back to see Ginny and Alex, Jordan called Natalie and Kate and then realized that no one had called Carlita.

After getting the number from the ER unit secretary, she called the hotel. When the operator put the call through, she tapped her fingers nervously on the side of the chair, waiting for Carlita to pick up, anxious to tell her the good news.

“Carlita,” she said when she heard her voice. “This is Jordan. I’m in the emergency room with Ginny. She’s badly dehydrated, but she’s going to be fine.”

“Oh my God!”

“I’m going to call the Plainville Police Station and have them send an officer over to your hotel to bring you here right now. Be waiting in the lobby.”

When Carlita began to cry, Jordan tried to comfort her. “You’ll see her soon, Carlita. I promise.”

She hung up and was about to ask Ray to make the call, but he was way ahead of her and already had Alex’s phone up to his ear.

Ray called Darnell and asked him to send a black and white over to the Dream Weaver Hotel in order to bring Carlita Bruno to the Plainville Hospital ER. After hanging up, he gave Jordan a thumbs up as she went to check on Alex.

As soon as Jordan approached Alex’s emergency room bed, he grabbed her hand and squeezed. “I would ask how you always manage to get yourself into hot water like this, but I already know the answer. I can’t seem to stop you from nosing around dangerous people.” His voice softened. “I’m not sure I’d want you any other way, though, and I hate to admit it, but this time, your incredible knack for sniffing out the bad guys probably saved Ginny Bruno’s life.”

“And as much as I’d love to bask in the glow of that compliment, I have to confess that I had no idea Jeff was a bad guy. He fooled me just like he did the rest of you. I’m only glad we found Ginny and that she’s okay, because I was right all along about why she went missing. Jeff heard me say she’d seen everyone who had gone up the steps that night, and he wanted to make sure that she didn’t mention his name.” She lowered her head. “I’m not sure I’d have been able to live with myself if she’d been killed because of me.”

“She wasn’t, so quit beating yourself up.”

She leaned over and pressed her lips lightly against his.

“Now tell me how you managed to keep the bull at bay until we got there.”

For the next fifteen minutes, she told him about their adventures with the humongous black bull and the white dog who’d saved their lives.

“What happened to the dog?” she asked when she finished. “I feel like I should take him a T-bone or something.”

“I don’t know. I can’t remember seeing him again after the bull threw me.”

“He was like a pit bull guarding a junk yard, challenging that bull like he thought he had superpowers or something,” Jordan said, remembering how brave the dog had been.

Just then, a nurse came in and asked Jordan to wait out in the waiting room while they took Alex to get Xrays.

Jordan walked back to the waiting room and started to sit down beside Ray when the door swung open and Carlita was escorted in by a Plainville policemen. As soon as she spotted Jordan, she rushed over. “Have you heard anything yet?”

Jordan shook her head and patted the seat next to her. “She’s been back there almost an hour already. I have no idea how much longer it will take. In the meantime, I’ll tell you the whole story about how I found her.”

Carlita sat down and listened intently while Jordan related the story once again. Tears glistened in her eyes when she heard the part about the rescue.

Well over an hour later, the ER doctor emerged from the back room and walked over. “I was told Ms. Bruno’s sister is here.” When Jordan pointed to Carlita, he stepped to his left and stood directly in front of her. “Your sister spent three of the hottest days this month out in this heat. It should’ve killed her, but she’s a strong woman. Other than being badly sunburned and severely dehydrated, she’s fine. We’ve given her fluids, so she’s perking up nicely. But we’ll need to keep her overnight as a precautionary measure just to make sure she can keep the food and liquids down.”

Carlita covered her mouth with her hand, unable to hold back the tears. “Thank you. I don’t know what I would’ve done if the news was bad. Ginny can be a pain in the neck sometimes, but she’s my only sister.”

It seemed like they waited for another hour or so before being allowed to walk back to the examining room to see for themselves that Ginny looked much better than when she’d arrived. Her blistered cheeks were slathered in a cream of some kind, and her eyes lit up when she saw Carlita. After hugging her sister, she embraced Jordan. “Thank you for everything. You and I will be telling the bull story for a long time to come.”

Jordan smiled at her. “You can count on that.”

A nurse came into the room and informed the group that Ginny would soon be moved up to a med-surg floor where she would be more comfortable. Jordan and Ray said their goodbyes and went back out to the waiting room.

Not able to sit still any longer, Jordan paced the floor after checking with the charge nurse multiple times. It seemed like an eternity by the time a nurse brought Alex out into the waiting room in a wheelchair. With his arm now in a sling, he didn’t act like he was feeling much pain.

“Apparently, that old bull isn’t nearly the badass that he thinks he is,” Alex said with a grin. “One broken rib and a dislocated shoulder was all the damage he could do.” He showed them a prescription bottle. “These will be my friends for a few days.”

Jordan leaned down and kissed him. In that moment she knew that she couldn’t live without this man.

After being officially discharged, Ray wheeled Alex outside where they all piled back into Ray’s SUV. There was little conversation between them on the thirty-minute drive back to Ranchero, and Jordan used that time to say a prayer of thanks.

When Ray pulled into the parking lot at Empire Apartments, she glanced over at Alex, her eyes questioning. “Don’t you want to spend tonight with your family, since they’re leaving in the morning for Houston?”

He looked into her eyes and smiled. “You are my family, Jordan, and right now there’s no where else I’d rather be.”

She felt all her fears slowly slipping away. This man loved her. “That’s just what I wanted to hear.”

* * * * *

The next morning, she and Alex awoke before seven, and she went with him to say goodbye to his mother and sister. Afterwards, he called Captain Darnell to find out about Jeff Hamilton.

When he hung up, he shook his head. “Turns out the police think he’s responsible for Georgette’s death as well as Marco’s.”

“What? Why would they think that?”

He sat down at the kitchen table and motioned for her to do the same. “After talking with Ginny, they found out that Georgette had called under some false pretense about the festival, but what she really wanted to know was if Ginny had seen Frankie go up the steps to Marco’s room that night.”

“Frankie? Why would he go up there?”

“She knew her son hated Marco because of the way he’d treated him. When Frankie’s first business partner died in a carjacking, he was the one who’d introduced Marco to Emilio. Then when Marco started undercutting Frankie, especially after Frankie had helped him, Frankie was livid. And more recently, Marco had been seriously screwing Frankie in their joint drug smuggling venture. Georgette may have known about Frankie’s extracurricular activities.”

“Probably not or she would have intervened,” Jordan said, remembering her conversation with Emilio about his stepson. “She’d already forced him to go to two different rehab facilities, but he always went right back to drinking and drugging as soon as he was released. He was a thorn in Emilio’s side, but because he loved Georgette, he tolerated her son.”

“Anyway, according to Ginny, Georgette was so relieved to hear that Frankie had indeed gone up there earlier but he’d come back down long before Marco went up, that she’d almost kissed her.”

“I still don’t get why that would make them think Jeff would kill her, too. He must have known the police would find everything out when they questioned her, once they saw her on the hotel security tapes the day Ginny went missing.”

“The police found a text message from her when they seized Frankie’s cell phone. She said she was at the hotel and ended the message by saying she’d just found a way for him to take over Emilio’s company.”

“Holy cow! Do you think she saw Jeff walk out with Ginny and was planning to use it somehow to force him out of Emilio’s life?”

“We’ll never know, because Jeff certainly isn’t taking.”

She wrinkled her brow in deep concentration. “Even if that were true, how would they make the connection between Jeff and the heroine overdose?”

His eyes lit up. “Forgot to tell you. Those surveillance tapes, Emilio took to the station after Frankie was arrested, showed that he’d been so high the night of his mother’s murder that he’d collapsed at the hotel and stayed in bed the entire night. There’s no way he could have killed her.” He arched his eyebrows. “But that isn’t all. The tapes also showed Jeff rummaging through the drawers and leaving with some of Frankie’s personal supply and a couple of syringes, apparently unaware the room was being monitored. Even though the DA won’t be able to convict with that alone, they’re satisfied with putting Emilio’s lawyer away for a long time for Marco’s murder and your and Ginny’s kidnappings and attempted murder.”