Lynn Osterkamp - Cleo Sims 03 - Too Many Secrets (13 page)

I was in the kitchen still trying to decide how I felt about
Lark’s critique of the medical treatment of Alzheimer’s patients when I heard
loud knocking on my front door. Figuring Lark had forgotten something, I ran in
to the living room and pulled the door open without looking out to see who was
there.

My heart jumped into my throat when I saw Brandi and Erik
Vaughn. I would have guessed he had a gun in her back, except he was in front
of her. And they were both smiling.

I tried to slam the door in their faces and lock it so they
couldn’t get in. But Erik was too fast for me. He stuck his foot in the doorway
so I couldn’t shut it. Then he pushed the door open and walked in. Brandi
followed. Why would she be with him after I’d told her how dangerous he is?
“I called you six times,” she said. “But you never picked
up.”

“Oops, my phone’s turned off,” I said. I realized
it was still sitting on my kitchen table and headed out to get it. But Erik
went around me and blocked my way.

“Hey, Cleo. Good to see you,” he said, coming
toward me grinning, his arms stretched out for a hug.

I backed off like I’d seen a snake. Which I had. A snake in
the grass. The usual Erik, all glib and charming on the outside, but evil and
manipulative on the inside.

Why would he be so friendly when the last thing he said to me
last summer was that he’d come back and make me pay for exposing his scams? He
must want something. But what?

I gave him my fiercest glare. “I know it’s too much to
expect that you came back to Boulder to make restitution to victims of your
herb-growing scam. So, what do you want?”

He grinned. “Whoa! Ease up there lady. Why do you always
see the worst in people? Investments go south all the time. That doesn’t make
them scams. Investors take risks. That’s life. I don’t owe anyone anything. I
came here out of the goodness of my heart to help Brandi find her sister.”

Brandi sat on the couch, uncharacteristically silent,
smirking at us like we were a reality show devised for her entertainment.

I took a step toward Erik, shoulders back, spine straight,
trying to make myself look bigger. “Do you know where Sabrina is? Did you
take her somewhere and do something to her?”

He shook his head slowly like I was a two-year-old throwing a
tantrum. “There you are with the negative again. No, I didn’t take her
somewhere. I haven’t seen her since last summer. I haven’t even been in Boulder
since last summer.”

“Why would I believe that?” I folded my arms across
my chest. “As I recall, you have very little regard for the truth.”

“Believe what you want. I am telling you the
truth.” His cold eyes belied the innocent expression on his face.

“Brandi said you called her when Sabrina was going up to
the mountains with her friends and you said you had a surprise for Sabrina, so
she told you where to find her.”

Brandi squirmed in her seat and looked down at the floor.

Erik laughed. “I didn’t call Brandi. I haven’t talked to
Brandi since Sabrina broke up with me last summer,” he said.

Omigod! Who do I believe? Is anyone telling the truth here?
They both strike me as antisocial personalities—impulsive, manipulative,
and lacking concern or remorse for people they mistreat. Erik is an
accomplished scammer who has been lying to anyone and everyone since he learned
to talk. Brandi is impulsive and irresponsible, but I don’t have direct
experience of her lying. If I have to choose one of them to believe, I’ll
choose Brandi.

I turned to face her. “Brandi, why is Erik saying he
didn’t call you about Sabrina?” I asked.

She looked up at me, rolling her eyes. “Because he
didn’t call me.” She raised her eyebrows as if to say “duh.”

“I made up the phone call. Okay? Everyone was so sure
Sabrina was dead. But I knew she was still alive. I knew she’d be back. But no
one would listen to me.” She shrugged with a cocky little tilt of her
head. “I didn’t want Ian to think she was dead. I made up the phone call
to help him believe Sabrina could still be alive.”

“You say you knew she was still alive.” I speak
slowly and deliberately, as though that will eke the truth out of Brandi.
“How did you know?”

Brandi crossed her arms and looked away. “I just
knew,” she told the wall. “I felt it. Even now, I can feel her
presence out there in the world. I just don’t know exactly where.”

I could see that line of inquiry was going nowhere, so I
turned back to Erik. “If you didn’t call Brandi and you haven’t seen
Sabrina, what do you know about the situation? In fact, how did you even know
she’s missing?”

“I have a Google alert set up for my name,” he
said. “It notifies me when my name appears somewhere on the web. Last week
it took me to Brandi’s YouTube video.”

“What YouTube video?” I asked.

“After I put Sabrina up on the missing persons’ website,
I made a YouTube video,” Brandi jumped up and went to my computer in the
far corner of the living room. “Boot up your computer. I’ll show
you.”

I sat at my desk and they stood behind me as we watched the
two-minute video. Brandi, wearing a clingy white sweater, faced the camera holding
a picture of Sabrina. “I need your help,” she said in a teary voice.
“My sweet sister Sabrina has been missing for a month. The police have no
leads. I’m pretty sure they think she’s dead. But I believe she’s still alive.
I believe she went off with a man named Erik Vaughn. He may be dangerous. My
sister is a beautiful, caring person. I need your help to find her. Look
carefully at this picture of Sabrina. If you’ve seen her, send me information
at the website www.FindSabrinaLarson.com. I’m offering a $5,000 reward for
information that leads to finding her. And Sabrina, if you see this, I want you
to know that I miss you very much. Please call and let me know you’re
okay.”

I swiveled around in my desk chair so I faced the room.
Brandi went back to the couch. Erik backed away from my desk but remained
standing.

I stared at Brandi. She showed no embarrassment at all at
being caught in her lie, which she even put in her video. Apparently the end
always justifies the means in her world. I could hear Gayle’s voice ringing in
my head. Brandi, with only a high-school diploma and no responsible work
experience, is ill equipped to take care of herself. Brandi desperately needs
people to believe Sabrina is only missing, not dead, so she can stay on in
Sabrina’s house, controlling Sabrina’s property.

I pushed harder. “If you made up the phone call from
Erik, why did you say in the video that Sabrina may have gone off with
him?” I asked.

“Because I really thought Sabrina might have gone off
with him. She’d keep it a secret because her Moxie friends don’t like
him,” Brandi said. “But then, after what you told me about him, I was
worried about what might have happened to her if she was with him.”

Erik pointed at me, his hand mimicing a gun. “We need to
talk, Cleo. Why are you telling malicious lies about me to Brandi and Ian and
anyone else who will listen?”

I ignored him. “So you came to collect the $5,000
reward?” I asked him.

“Maybe. Even if I haven’t seen her, I might know
something about where she is,” Erik admitted.

“See, I told you she’s still alive,” Brandi said.
“And Erik can help us find her.”

“How can Erik help?” I stood up, pushing my chair
out from behind me. “And why are you both here at my house?” I wanted
them gone. “If you know where she is, why aren’t you out finding her or
giving your information to the police?”

“You know I don’t want to have anything to do with the
police,” Erik lowered his head and dropped his voice an octave. “The
reason I’m here is to get some help calling off Sabrina’s feminazi friends.
Those bitches never liked me. They’re the reason she broke up with me last
summer. Then this fall, someone hacked into my online accounts. I know it was
them. I know about their website. I got it out of Sabrina when we were
together.”

Brandi nodded like a jackhammer. “Erik says those Moxie
women are stealing money from his bank accounts and credit cards,” she
said. Her eyes darted to Erik, then back to me. “He’s willing to help us
find Sabrina once you get them to give back his money. That’s why we came.”
Her voice softened to a pleading tone. “Cleo, you know I don’t have any
influence with those women. But they like you. You can convince them that they
need to give back Erik’s money to help Sabrina. Please say you’ll try.”
She sounded like a puppy begging for a treat. “If they care about Sabrina
as much as they say they do, they’ll cooperate.”

My head was spinning. I decided to play dumb. “I have no
idea what you’re talking about,” I said. “And I have no reason to
believe Erik knows where Sabrina is. Why do you believe him?”

“Because he …” Brandi began, but she stopped as the
front door swung open, letting in a blast of frigid air, and Pablo loaded down
with a backpack and a suitcase.

A shot of energy exploded in my chest. I squealed, sprinted
across the room and leaped into his arms. “Hey babe,” he said,
dropping the luggage and enveloping me in a bear hug. “I got a last-minute
standby seat. Tried to call you from DIA when we got in, but you never picked
up.”

I was still locked in Pablo’s embrace when Erik and Brandi
grabbed their coats and scurried past us out the front door like the rats they
were.

“Why didn’t you arrest Erik last night?” I asked
Pablo the next morning. We were snuggled under my cozy down quilt as winter
winds howled outside. We were finally ready to talk. The night before pent-up
passion had pushed us to the bedroom, bypassing the all the catching up and
explaining I had planned.

We had a lot to talk about.

“I will call Boulder PD to let them know Erik’s in
town,” Pablo said, “but I couldn’t arrest him. As far as I know,
there aren’t any outstanding warrants for his arrest.”

“What about how he never bought back those starter herb
kits he sold people? The whole thing was a scam. He promised the investors big
profits and then skipped town.”

“The Boulder PD did want to question him about that, but
they never had enough evidence to show probable cause that he had committed a
crime. Investment scams require a lot of investigation. Maybe some of his
investors have filed civil suits against him, but I don’t know anything about
that.”

I pulled back and raised up on one elbow so I could look him
directly in the face. “How about the fact that three women he married died
or disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and he ended up with their
money?”

“Come on, Cleo. We don’t even have evidence that those
women’s deaths were homicides.” Pablo pulled me back down into his arms.
“Now it’s your turn to answer questions. What was Erik doing here at your
house? And who was that woman with him?”

I told him about Brandi and how she’d lied by telling us that
Erik had called her right before Sabrina disappeared. I told him about Brandi’s
YouTube video and how it got Erik’s attention and brought him to town. I told
him about Erik’s claim that he can help find Sabrina, and how excited Brandi is
about that.

The only thing I left out was how the Moxie women had hacked
into Erik’s accounts and how he wanted me to get his money back from them. I
didn’t want to turn Hana and Diana in to the police. I was very clear that what
they were doing was illegal. But I wasn’t so clear it was
wrong
. If Moxie could punish an evil guy like Erik who had very
likely gotten away with murdering several wives for their money, how could that
be wrong? He’s a callous, cold-blooded, conscienceless criminal who is clever
enough to avoid getting caught. If vigilantism is the only way to effect
justice and get some small measure of revenge for the women he’s hurt, I’m good
with that.

“So how did you get involved with Brandi?’ Pablo asked.

“Remember I told you that Sabrina Larson’s son Ian is
the boyfriend of Elisa’s daughter Maria? Brandi is Ian’s closest relative now
and she’s living in Sabrina’s house and taking care of him. Elisa and Maria
were stuck in town during the blizzard and came over here to stay. Ian came
over to see Maria, and Brandi came along for dinner.”

“So you’ve ended up in the middle of trying to find this
missing woman—Sabrina Larson? Does this have something to do with your
Contact project? Are you planning to go into your apparition chamber, contact
her, and find out what happened?”

“Of course not. The apparition chamber is for contacting
the spirits of people who are dead. We don’t know that Sabrina is dead. Plus, I
don’t know Sabrina personally, so why would she show up to contact me?”

“Is Brandi going to try and contact her?”

“Definitely not. Brandi believes Sabrina is still
alive.”

Pablo squeezed me tighter. “Enough, Cleo.” He
laughed. “I know you too well. There’s more to this than you helping
Elisa’s daughter’s boyfriend. You’re hiding something and I’m not going to let
you go until you tell.”

I struggled, pretending to try to get loose from his muscular
arms. Then I joined his laughter. “Okay, Mr. Policeman. I surrender.
Here’s the truth. I do have another connection to Sabrina. It turns out that
her best friend, Gayle, is the sister of Bruce—the guy who funds my
Contact Project. He asked me to help.”

“Help how? Does this involve your apparition
chamber?”

“Yes, Gayle has gone in twice trying to contact Sabrina.
The first time she didn’t reach her. The second time, she says she did talk to
Sabrina, but I’m not totally sure that really happened. She may not be telling
the truth.”

Pablo groaned, let me loose, and rolled away. “Good
grief, Cleo. Now you have clients lying about seeing spirits? This whole
missing person thing looks like a mess you’d be better off out of.”

“I’ll admit I’ve thought that myself lately,” I
said. “But what about Bruce? He wants me to do this. I owe him, and he’s
never asked me for anything. And to be perfectly honest, I need his funding.
His money not only keeps me going in this town full of therapists, it makes it
possible for me to help people through the Contact project.”

“If he believes in your work, he won’t take away your
funding just because you can’t find his sister’s friend,” Pablo said.
“Most likely he’ll respect your choice.”

“Bruce is a results guy,” I said. “His way of
dealing with issues is to get the facts and find a fast solution. He wants me
to solve this for Gayle. He’s willing to pay whatever it costs. He’s made that
clear. But I don’t think he’s going to accept me dropping out.”

“Okay, let’s consider the worst outcome. Say he does
withdraw his funding. You can still help people without his money. And you
won’t be able to work as much anyway after the baby comes. I know that. And I’m
expecting to contribute more than you do to our expenses and the baby’s
expenses.”

Oops. Our expenses? I didn’t want to get into the living
together or marriage conversation right then, so I steered him back on topic.
“What about Maria? She’s like my own daughter. She loves Ian. I can’t just
back away from helping them find his mother. It would hurt Elisa as well and
she’s done so much for me. I have to stay involved.”

He threw off the quilt. “It’s getting late. I’m going to
jump in the shower. We can talk about this more over breakfast.”

But we didn’t. In fact we didn’t even have breakfast. When I
got out of the shower, Pablo had the TV on to the local news and he was talking
on his cell. Newscasters were showing shocking pictures of a twenty-five-car
pileup last night caused by what they called a “wall of blowing snow”
on U.S. 36 east of Boulder. Three people were killed and thirteen others were
injured. Police closed the highway in both directions for four hours. The
Colorado State Patrol blamed “ground blizzards,” which occur when
fresh snow and high winds create blizzard conditions under clear skies.

I sat mesmerized watching video of smashed cars, vans, and
trucks being towed from the pileup. “And this was only the start of
accidents and congestion last night in Boulder County,” the TV anchor
announced. “Wind gusts that reached 115 miles-an-hour washed blinding
waves of snow over other Boulder County roadways, icing streets and creating
whiteout conditions. Ground blizzards caused multiple accidents; gusts swept
trucks off the road and knocked trees into power lines.”

“Wow, that was some accident on highway 36,” I
said. “I’m sure glad you got back from the airport before it got so
bad.”

“Me too.” Pablo clicked off his phone. “But
here’s a shocker. I just called Boulder PD to tell them that Erik Vaughn is
back in Boulder. But—get this—turns out Erik was one of the people
who died in that pileup.”

I was stunned. “No way! What was Erik doing out on the
highway in that weather?”

“Probably on his way to the airport,” Pablo said.
“I’m guessing that after he ran into me, he decided to get his ass out of
town ASAP. We’ll probably find out more about that later. But I’ve got to
go.” He laced up his boots and grabbed his jacket. “Sorry, no time
for breakfast. I have to get out to Longmont, turn in that car I rented last
night to drive in from the airport, and get to work. They’re calling everyone
in because of all the accidents.” He gave me a sweet goodbye kiss and was
off.

As soon as he shut the door behind him, I grabbed my phone
and called Brandi. “Have you heard about Erik?” I asked.

“Heard what?” she asked.

I gave her the news. “Are you sure it was him?” she
asked.

“Pablo got the news from the Boulder PD,” I said,
“which I’d say is a reliable source. So unless someone else was carrying
his ID, it was him.”

Silence on Brandi’s end.

“Did Erik tell you where he thinks Sabrina is or what he
knows about her disappearance?” I asked.

“He told me one thing, but he said the rest would have
to wait until the Moxie women give him back his money.”

Another long silence. I could almost hear the wheels turning
in Brandi’s head. Finally words came gushing out. “Wait a minute! He
doesn’t need the money now.” The words gushed out of her mouth. “So
why wouldn’t he tell me what he knows? I think he would. I’ll go in your
apparition chamber and contact his spirit and he’ll tell me everything. How
soon can I try it? I can be right over.”

Omigod. Of course she’d ask for this. And of course I’d
refuse. “Stop, Brandi,” I said firmly. “No one is going to try
to contact Erik in my apparition chamber. Not you, not anyone. It was bad
enough having Erik around when he was alive. There’s no way I want to try to
bring back his spirit.”