Jailhouse Glock (22 page)

“I know she would if she could. Say what you want about the Garcia girls, but we stick together, no matter how much we fight.” Deena turned to the sink. “I love you, Tessa.”

Don’t bother telling her I’m right next to her
,
Tessa said.
So what are we doing today?

“Going to Dallas to confront a possible killer.”

That’s just the kind of thing I need to do to make me forget how dead I really am.

_____

The ride to Dallas took longer than Maddy expected due to construction in the canyon near downtown. It was already after ten when they
pulled up to the curb at the address Francis Montero’s wife had given them the day before.

I’m wondering why anyone could possibly believe this guy has enough money to pay a blackmailer,
Tessa said.
This house is a dump.

“Don’t be so quick to judge,” Maddy said, before repeating Tessa’s words to Deena.

“She’s right. It is pretty bad,” Deena said, glancing around as she got out of the car in front of the house. “Are you sure this is the right address?”

Maddy checked the card with the address once again. “Yep. Like
I said, this doesn’t mean Montero doesn’t have money. His wife kicked
him out, remember? This is his mother’s house, and I’ll bet she’s lived here all her life.”

“Was his house in any better shape?”

Maddy thought for a moment. “Not much. Tessa may have a
point.”

Walking up the porch steps, Maddy nearly tripped over a loose board. After the second knock, the door swung open, and they were greeted by the shortest Hispanic woman Maddy had ever seen.

“Are you Mrs. Montero?” Maddy began, checking out the woman as she spoke. Standing about five feet tall with dark hair pulled back into a bun, the overweight woman looked off-balance as she held onto the doorjamb.

“Yes. And who might you be?”

“I’m Madelyn Castillo, and this is my sister Deena. We work for the Census Bureau, and we need to speak to your son Francis.”

A look of surprise, then anguish, crossed the woman’s face. “Junior isn’t here right now.”

“Junior is Francis Montero?”

The woman nodded. “His daddy was Francis Senior.” She sighed. “I’m sorry I can’t help you, but I have no idea when he’ll be back.”

She was about to close the door when Maddy stuck her foot inside to stop her. “You can answer the questions for him. May we come in?”

When the woman hesitated, Maddy added, “It’s urgent that we get your son’s records completed as soon as possible. It may affect his income tax return this year.” She crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping that lying to this woman wouldn’t be judged too harshly up above.

Mrs. Montero opened the door and motioned for them to come in. Once inside, she directed them to the small living room off to the right. Both Maddy and Deena took a seat on what looked to be a brand-new leather couch.

Tessa flopped down between them.
So, it’s true. You should
never
judge a book by its cover
,
she said, putting her nose next to the leather
and sniffing.
This is the good stuff.

“How can I help you?” the woman asked, sitting down in the matching leather chair opposite them.

“Mrs. Montero, do you—”

“Call me Alicia,” she interrupted.

Maddy smiled. This might be easier than she thought. “Alicia, do you know if your son was having financial problems lately?” She held her breath. No way a Census Bureau employee would be asking that kind of question. She hoped Alicia didn’t know this.

The woman never blinked. “Junior was always having money problems of some kind.”

“Is that why he lives with you?” Deena asked, scooting forward on the couch.

Alicia looked surprised by the question. “That’s part of the reason. He and his wife separated awhile back, and Junior’s been here with me ever since.”

“When do you expect him back? I’d really like to talk to him,” Maddy said.

The older woman’s eyes turned sad, and she swallowed before speaking. “I don’t know.”

The detective in Maddy immediately made note of the way the woman had lowered her eyes and picked at her fingernails. Alicia Montero was lying, but why?

She decided to be blunt. “Was your son being blackmailed, Alicia?”

You always
were
as subtle as a jackhammer
,
Tessa teased.
I used to … Oh my God!

“What?” Maddy said, before she remembered that no one else could hear Tessa.

Look over there.
Tessa pointed to the mantle above the fireplace.

There in the center was a colorful insulated lunch bag, exactly like the one Mike had used to bring Thanksgiving leftovers to the police station the night Agostinelli was killed. The one that was nowhere to be found when they’d looked for it a few days ago.

Was it a coincidence there was an identical one in the house of a man who very well might be Agostinelli’s killer?

Before Maddy had a chance to ask about it, the front door opened and a well-dressed Hispanic man walked in.

“Hello, Mrs. Castillo,” he said with a look so evil that Maddy shuddered.

Maddy looked confused. If she had met the attractive man be
fore, surely she would have remembered. “I’m sorry. Do I know you?
”

Although he was still smiling, there was no glee in his eyes. “Not personally, but I’m sure you’ll remember Greta.”

A woman stepped from behind him and walked into the living
room. Dressed in a pair of jeans so tight they could have been sprayed
on and a sweater that showed off her generous assets, the attractive redhead smiled.

“She knows me as Jezebel.”

For the first time since Agostinelli’s murder, Maddy felt a ripple of fear course through her body, and she cursed herself for not heeding Colt’s warning to stay out of the investigation.

She wracked her brain to come up with a reason why the woman she’d seen having lunch with Mike yesterday, just hours before his death, would be standing in front of her right now.

The only thing that popped into her brain was a red flag, and she gripped her purse with the weapon.

She and her sister were in big trouble.

twenty-three

“Eduardo, do you know
these women from the Census Bureau?” Alicia Montero asked her son.

His eyes turned cold. “Is that what they told you, Mama?” When she nodded, he huffed. “They lied to you so you’d let them into your house. They’re here to rob you—or worse.”

“That’s not true.” Maddy attempted to get up from the couch before the redhead shoved her back down with enough force to jar her entire body. She turned to Alicia. “It’s true. We’re not from the Census Bureau, but we didn’t come to steal from you. I’m a cop, and this
is my sister Deena. We came to see Francis—Junior—to find out if he
was being blackmailed by a man who was killed in a jail cell under my watch last week.”

Alicia’s eyes widened. “Why would you think Junior was being blackmailed? He left over two weeks ago, and I haven’t heard from him since.” The sadness in Alicia’s eyes was hard to miss.

Maddy blew out a frustrated breath. If what Junior’s mother said was true, there was no way the man could’ve killed Agostinelli. She was back to square one again.

“What makes you think Junior was being squeezed?” Eddie Mon
tero asked, before moving to the chair beside his mother and sitting down.

Maddy debated whether to tell him about the picture, then decided if she could get this man to understand why she and her sister has shown up on his mother’s doorstep asking questions, maybe he’d let them leave without an incident. She promised herself if she and Deena made it back to Vineyard, she’d give up nosing around in the investigation and leave it up to Colt and her buddies at the police station to clear her name.

When she picked up her purse to show him the picture, both Eddie and the redhead reacted. Greta reached her first and snatched it from her hands. Quickly, she opened it and searched. A smile spread across her face when she pulled out Robbie’s forty-five.

“And what do we have here?” Greta twirled the gun in her fingers before pointing it at Maddy’s head. After a minute she lowered it and stepped closer to Alicia to show her the weapon. “Eddie was right, Alicia. They were going to rob you.”

“No, we weren’t,” Maddy argued. “They’re the ones lying to you.”

Greta spun around and slammed the gun into the side of Maddy’s face, causing her to fall sideways into Deena. She moaned as the pain made her lightheaded. Deena immediately wrapped her arm around her to keep her from falling any farther.

“Greta, what in the hell do you think you’re doing?” Alicia shouted
. “Put that gun down now.”

Greta made eye contact with Eddie. When he nodded she walked over to the fireplace and laid the weapon on the mantle next to the lunch bag.

Maddy knew right then that the older woman had at least some influence over both her son and the woman. She decided to use that
to her advantage. “Alicia, Deena and I are convinced that Junior
didn’t
have anything to do with killing the man in Vineyard last week. So, if it’s okay with you, we’ll just get out of your way and let you visit with your son.”

“Not so fast,” Eddie said, jumping up from the chair. “You still
haven’t told me why you thought my brother was being blackmailed.”

“I tried to do that, but your girlfriend grabbed my purse, remember? I have a picture of him in there.”

Eddie scowled. “That’s impossible.”

Maddy forced herself to stay calm. There was a very real possibility that either Eddie or Greta—or both—had murdered her brother-in-law. But if she and Deena were going to get out of this house alive, she’d have to pretend that thought had never entered her mind.

Eddie reached for the purse Greta still held in her hands and rifled through it before handing it back to Maddy. “Show me.”

She dug for her cell phone, wondering if she could hit the speed dial number and call the Vineyard Police Station before she pulled it out of her purse. But Eddie must have been thinking the same thing. He reached in and ripped it from her hand before she had a chance to do anything with it.

“Where is it?” he asked, impatiently.

“Click on the photo icon,” she answered, bummed that he’d thwarted
her attempt to call for help. She didn’t have a backup plan.

Quickly, he scrolled through the pictures until he found the one he was looking for. After studying it for a few minutes, he looked up. “Where did you get this? I have the originals and all the negatives.”

A shiver ran up Maddy’s spine as she realized the meaning of what he had just said. The only way he could have them in his possession was if he had stolen them from Chrissy Rockford’s purse. It
also meant he’d probably killed her. She shifted nervously on the couch
. The situation was dire and growing more critical by the second. She had to think of some way to get out of there with Deena, but at the moment, she was coming up blank.

She decided to be honest with the man. “I found these in the purse
of the woman having sex with your brother. I took a snapshot with my phone.”

“And when exactly was that?”

She wondered why that was important. “The day before she was murdered.”

He stood directly in front of her. “There was a small notebook in the woman’s purse along with these pictures. Did you take that, too?”

So it was his book she’d found. That’s probably why he’d torn Chrissy’s apartment to pieces after he’d killed her. Maddy shuddered, thinking if she hadn’t taken the book, if Chrissy could have handed it over to Montero, she
would still be alive today. Then she realized that Chrissy had been a dead woman from the very moment Eddie walked into her apartment, just like she and Deena would be if she told them where she’d stashed the book. It was her only leverage with him.

“I never saw a notebook,” she lied.

He studied her eyes, and then suddenly belted her across the face, sending her once again to the back of the couch.

Alicia jumped up and slapped her son’s face. “You will not hurt this woman in my house. Do you hear me?” Before he had a chance to respond, she lashed out at him again. “You were always cruel, es
pecially to your older brother. I tried so many times to get your worth
less father to take you with him when he left, but even he didn’t want you. I spent my whole life protecting Junior from becoming just like you.”

Maddy watched Montero’s eyes turn sad at hearing his mother degrade him like that. Then they reflected a rage so intense, she shivered.

He must have forgotten about her for a moment because he turned
to his mother. “You never tried to love me, no matter what I said or did. No matter how many times I saved Junior’s sorry ass from one situation or another. He was the one who was worthless. Not me.”

“Don’t say that about him,” she shouted. “I don’t know what I did to deserve an evil child like you. When Junior comes home, we never want to see you again. Do you hear me?”

Eddie threw his head back and laughed out loud. “I hear you, Mama, but don’t hold your breath waiting for Junior to come home anytime soon. I made sure that wouldn’t happen.”

Alicia screamed. “What did you do, Eddie?” Tears were already forming in her eyes.

He smirked. “Let’s just say he’s with the fishes, and leave it at that.”

“Oh God, tell me you didn’t kill him. What did he ever do to you except love you no matter what?” Her voice pleaded with him to tell her he was lying.

Eddie cocked his head and smirked. “The lady cop’s right. Junior was being blackmailed. Seems he was caught on film in a compromising position with a hooker.” He tsked. “You remember how hard he was trying to talk Ronda into taking him back after she’d thrown him out the last time? He was afraid if he didn’t pay up, they’d send the picture to her like they’d threatened. She would never have allowed him back in her house after that.”

“He should have come to me. I would have found a way to give him the money,” Alicia said, now sobbing.

Eddie shook his head. “And where would you have gotten it, Mama?
What little you get from Social Security doesn’t even pay your bills. You would’ve come to me, and I would’ve rescued him like I always did.”

“Why didn’t he go to you for the money?”

Eddie stared down at the floor, almost like a little boy who had to confess to his mother what he’d done. “He did, but only after I caught him trying to steal a huge shipment of drugs from me. When I confronted him and told him I was cutting him off, he lashed out at me. That’s when I discovered that somehow he had found my notebook and used it to pay off the blackmailers.”

It was all becoming very clear to Maddy. The names she’d seen in the small book were either drug users or people Eddie had on his payroll. Big-time names that, had they been made public, would have ruined a lot of careers. Eddie must have guarded that list like a Rottweiler. No wonder he went berserk when he found out the book was in the hands of someone like Agostinelli.

Eddie noticed that she was deep in concentration. “If you have any idea where that book is, I’d advise you to tell me right now.”

Regardless of his menacing attitude, she was positive the book was her ticket out of this jam. If he wanted it badly enough, and he acted like he did, he wouldn’t kill them until he had it back in his possession. It gave her a little leeway and more time to try to find a way to escape.

“It might have been in Chrissy’s purse when I searched it. But I don’t have it with me now.”

“She’s lying,” Greta chimed in from behind the couch. “She’s trying to save her ass.”

Maddy had almost forgotten the redhead was still there. She turned
to look her in the eye. “You should know all about lying. You’re a freaking expert at it.” Still glaring at her, she said, “Did you know your girlfriend was having an affair with Deena’s husband, Eddie?”

Finally she broke eye contact with Greta and looked back at Eddie to see how he had reacted to the news that his girlfriend had cheated on him.

His eyes crinkled with laughter. “For being a cop, you’re not very smart. Who do you think put her up to it?”

When Maddy didn’t respond he turned to Deena. “Getting your husband to believe a woman like Greta would actually fall for him was like taking candy from a baby. It was even easier to persuade him to drop off Thanksgiving leftovers for you at the police station.” He pointed to the lunch container on the mantel, the one Maddy had noticed right before he’d walked in his mother’s house. “Say cheese for the camera.”

Holy hell! No wonder he’d known every move she’d made the night Agostinelli was killed. Her brother-in-law was not only a womanizer. He may have been an accessory to murder, as well.

“How’d you get the other phone in my desk drawer?” Maddy asked.

“That was the easy part. When you weren’t looking, he just
slipped
it in.”

“Was my husband in on the murder, too?” Deena asked leaning forward now.

“He had no idea why I asked him to bring the leftovers or to plant the phone,” Greta said, smiling at Deena as if to taunt her. “Your husband was so horny, he would’ve done anything I asked, plus I slipped him a couple grand. Unfortunately for him, he put two and two together and figured it all out when Bernardi was killed. Then he made the fatal mistake of demanding more money for his silence.”

“You’re a whore and always will be,” Deena said defiantly, before she turned back to Alicia. “I’m so sorry for the loss of your son. I can’t even imagine how you must feel right now. I wish I could hug you and wipe away your tears.”

Alicia nodded as the tears continued to streak down her face. Maddy could see her heart was breaking, knowing that the son she despised had killed the one she’d adored. But it was just like Deena with her heart of gold to empathize with the woman whose son had also had a part in her own husband’s death.

“How long did it take you to plan the murder so that it would fall on me?” Maddy asked.

She had to keep him talking until she figured out how to save
their lives. Her eyes wandered toward the mantel, and she pretended to look at the lunch container. Her gun was at the other end of the wooden shelf, closer to Eddie and his mother than to her. If she went for it, she’d never make it.

Eddie followed her eyes before responding. “I couldn’t believe
how everything just fell into place. We set Foxworthy up to be a black
mail victim and paid him to start the fight at the bar that night. We knew Bernardi was a hothead and would take the bait. With Greta
masquerading as you in a uniform and a dark wig and Foxworthy positively identifying you, you looked guilty as hell. It was genius, don’t you think?”

Maddy thought about this for a minute. “How did you know I’d be on duty that night instead of Flanagan?” Things would have been very different if he’d been there. Or would they have shown up at his house instead of hers, with a gun to his kid’s head?

“You underestimate me, my dear. Who do you think arranged for
Flanagan’s ex to win a three-day trip to Bermuda for that weekend only?”

Maddy bit her lower lip. He had thought of everything, including getting Flanagan’s wife out of town. He’d obviously done his homework on all of them and knew how it would play out. Their only chance of surviving now was to convince him that she indeed had the book he wanted so badly. But she still had unanswered questions. “Why did you kill Foxworthy if he was in on it with you?”

He smiled at Greta. “My girl here got a little too aggressive with
your gun. She was supposed to aim higher and only nick him, not put a hole in his gut. The asshole demanded more money because of it.” He waved his hand in the air. “He found out the hard way that nobody threatens Eddie Montero.”

Maddy stopped listening after the first sentence, and her mind
raced. She swiveled to face the redhead. “So it really was you who
killed Bernardi? And by the way, his real name was Joey Agostinelli. He was in Vineyard after he slipped away from protective custody in New Jersey. Seems he was a mob informant and pissed off a lot of bad guys. Had you waited a few more days, they probably would’ve taken care of him for you.”