Shadow of Death (31 page)

“Yeah. It's the guy who helped me escape at the gym. He's going to make sure Natalie gets to safety.”

“Cool. How you know him?”

“I don't really. He's the ex-husband of the lady I'm accused of murdering.”

“Shoot!
I forgot to tell my friend 'dat we on our way. Let me text her real quick.” Shay pulled out her phone. “So you think 'dese people really gon' let your wife go?”

“Like I told you on the phone, if they want to kill her, they'll do it broke.”

“I hurd 'dat! 'Dey betta do whatchu said 'den 'cuz five hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. If I had 'dat much cash, 'da first thing I would do is take a trip somewhere I've never been. What aboutchu?”

“How'd you know how much money there is?”

“You told me. When you was tellin' me about 'da chick 'dat lives across 'da street, you said she killed her sister for the insurance money and 'dat it was a half million dollars.”

“Hmph…” There were two things about Shay's statement that bothered Troy. When he spoke of Ann, he could have sworn that he referred to her as his neighbor, never specifying where she lived. He knew without a doubt that he never mentioned the amount of the insurance policy to
anyone
except Charlie. So Shay was in on this, too!
Danggit!
Now they all knew about Lloyd. Luckily, Troy still had an ace in his pocket; no one knew that he didn't really have the money. As long as he kept it that way, Natalie had a chance of surviving.

Natalie…
Troy thought about his last conversation with his wife.
“Tell her I tasted it and everyone was right; it was delicious,”
Natalie had requested he relay these words to Lisa who was certain that his wife hadn't had any cake. Yet, Natalie was insistent that he deliver the message. She'd even repeated it when Charlie snatched the phone from her. Troy eyed Shay who was still in her own world, reciting her bucket list of all the things she'd do if she had that kind of money. Her overly exposed breasts sat high with the help of a push-up bra for all of creation to see the word she had branded on her chest, and that's when Natalie's message started to make sense.
“It was delicious.”
Natalie had been trying to warn him of Shay's involvement!

The cell phone rang urgently and he answered, hoping to God that he hadn't been tricked by Lloyd, too! “What's up?”

“I had a buddy of mine run the license plates. Dude, that vehicle is registered to Chyanne Donovan! You're in the car with Cheryl's sister!”

As the newest bombshell exploded, Troy looked over and saw Chyanne smiling and pointing a gun in his direction. He hung up the phone being sure to hit the outside button so that anything Chyanne said to him in the car would be recorded.

“Y
ou might not believe this, but I actually like you.” Magically, Chyanne's urban accent faded instantly and out came the smooth sounding voice of the woman who'd answered “Shay's” phone yesterday when Troy had called. “I can see why my sister had a thing for you. It was so hard to talk her into this plan at first. She really thought that you still held a spark for her.” Chyanne sighed. “She could be so dumb when it came to men. I tried to tell her that you would never love her the way you love Natalie. I mean, for real, you and Natalie withstood some tests. Your marriage survived us hacking into your home computer and deleting her work files, the hotel pictures, taking your money, and being accused of murder. I'm impressed!”

“Shay's” absence of urban diction was replaced by lack of couth, in general. Troy wanted nothing more at that moment than to lodge a bullet in her throat, but his gun was tucked in his hip on the right side. There was no way he could get to it without her seeing and shooting him first. “So, who'd you really text a few moments ago? Charlie?”

“Yep. I had to tell him about our friend back there so he could be prepared. Having Lloyd trail you was an awesome idea. I didn't see it coming though I suspected he might have been the one to help you when Heidi described the man she saw. Now, I wish I would have gotten him arrested for child porn when I had the chance instead of only having Cheryl find it. The plan you and Lloyd had was brilliant. I have to give it to you, Southie. I can still call you that, right? I mean, we do have this love-hate thing going, but hopefully you understand that it's nothing personal. It's all about the money.”

“Then why don't y'all let Natalie and Charla go? You have me now, and I meant what I said earlier; I'm not giving up the money until I know my wife is safe. There's no negotiating that. Let Lloyd get her and I'll give you every dime I have.”

“How do I know Lloyd won't get to the money before we do?”

“He doesn't know where it is. Seriously, Chyanne, do you think I'd risk telling him where I hid five hundred thousand dollars? He'd get it and take off. The only reason I got him to help me is because I promised to cut him in. This was before I knew you'd taken my wife as a hostage, of course.”

Chyanne contemplated for a moment. “Okay. You have a deal,” she said reluctantly and pulled out her phone. “Hey, we have to let them go…
because
Troy won't give up the money if we don't… I don't like it either, but we have to. Harming her will only piss him off and now that people are on to us, we need to get out of town a-sap.
Yes,
I'm sure. Now get out of there. Lloyd's on his way and the police might be as well.”

While Chyanne was distracted by arguing with Charlie about whether or not freeing their hostages was a smart move, Troy took the opportunity to try and get his gun. He kept his right hand on the steering wheel and crept his left one across his lap. He managed to touch the tip of the magazine when Chyanne caught him.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you!” He grimaced when she jammed the barrel of her gun into his rib before ripping his piece from his waist. Chyanne gave Charlie instructions to hide out somewhere until he heard from her and then had Troy call Lloyd and he could go get “the hostages.” Soon Lloyd veered from behind them and Troy was ordered to drive to another location where they switched into a different vehicle in case Lloyd tried anything funny like sending the cops after them.

“So where are Ann and Will?” Troy asked while driving around aimlessly waiting to hear that his wife was okay before taking Chyanne to the money.

“Will's dead, honey. We killed him when he started playing detective on his own.” According to Chyanne, Will had seen Cheryl get into the back of Troy's truck the day she drugged him and took those staged photographs with Charlie's assistance. Will confronted Cheryl about being in Troy's vehicle and she claimed it was part of her investigation and made him leave. Dissatisfied with her explanation, he came back later that night and started going through the records and questioning Shay about the use of Troy's credit card being billed for an excessive amount of personal training services for a different member. She played it off as a billing error, but Will still had his suspicions. “He started asking too many questions,” Chyanne complained. “Then, we saw that text he sent to you about wanting to talk and we knew he had to go. He and ‘Will Do' are resting peacefully at the bottom of a lake.” Troy learned that Will had never been involved in the scheme to set him up. Will had been tricked into letting Chyanne work at the gym by believing he was part of an undercover FBI sting operation into the unethical corporate dealings of the gym franchise. Charlie, who'd been a member of the athletic facility for years, was well aware of Will's extracurricular activities involving marijuana. Though she'd already lost her job at the FBI, Cheryl pretended to bust him in the middle of a transaction and made a deal that, if he helped with her investigation, she'd see to it that charges were not officially filed against him. Thus, the plan was set in motion.

“Shay” was introduced as an FBI agent whom Will “hired” as the administrative assistant, giving her access to confidential client information. Her position also afforded her the opportunity to plant a cloning chip in Troy's cell phone that he stored during workouts in the lockers for which she had a master key. Upon learning that Ann was Troy's neighbor, Charlie hooked up with her and made frequent visits to her place so he could keep an eye on the comings and goings at Troy's house. Ann being at the gym the other day was a mere coincidence. In actuality, Charlie and Chyanne were a couple and the sole masterminds behind this entire scheme.

“I can't tell you how tired I was of pretending to be Will's dumb girlfriend. First of all, he is
so
not my type. I like my men to be edgier. Will was too soft. He cried like a little punk when he thought Cheryl was going to arrest him.” She took a heavy breath. “I'm so glad that's over. I see the years I studied acting in college paid off, though, because I fooled you. In case you're wondering, the tattoo
is
real. It was Charlie's idea,” she added like Troy really cared. He was busy processing her revelation about Will's murder. That news was going to be detrimental to Will's mother and especially his young nephew who already lacked positive male role models in his life.

“Why'd you kill Cheryl? I know you wanted the money, but why not fake her death and all of y'all live happily ever after off of her insurance.”

“That was the plan, but she was too wishy-washy. One day she'd be all like ‘yeah, I'm gonna make him pay for ruining my life,' and the next she'd be feeling bad. I didn't have time for her to keep taking me through all of those emotions. I knew she would blow the whole thing when Charlie discovered that she didn't leave the diary like she was supposed to do. The diary was supposed to incriminate you because of the lack of other physical evidence, but she chickened out and messed up everything. I had to sneak into her house and leave it for the police to find. When we saw your text that you were going over there, we thought about calling the cops and having them bust you going through her things. But we'd already decided to get rid of Cheryl by that time and we thought planting the knife in your truck would hold more weight than you being discovered at her house. But, I did call Donald Nugent the next morning pretending to be a neighbor who saw you at Cheryl's house the night before.”

That explained the questions Nugent asked during the last interrogation. “You set me up to go in the gym so you could hide the murder weapon in my truck, huh?”

“Yep. I knew jacking up your alarm would work in our favor. Charlie is an expert mechanic and knows how to do all that stuff. At first, we were going to plant hairs and drops of blood, but when Cheryl started acting crazy and we were forced to kill her, the knife seemed more logical. Cheryl could still be alive right now if she would've listened. I kept trying to tell her that things were going much better than we'd planned. You helped us without even knowing it. We knew you would flip after she met with Natalie, but when you came over to her house and went off the way you did, oh, that was perfect! We had to seize the moment! You were so mad that you didn't even know I was there. She had an attitude because I didn't come out to help. I hid in the closet until after you left and then staged the scene a little and coaxed her into calling nine-one-one like we'd planned. Charlie did a great job impersonating you in the background, don't you think?”

Shut up!
Troy wanted to say as he remembered the maroon car parked on the side of the street that he'd almost sideswiped that day. It was the same car that Chyanne had picked him up in. He also recalled Charla's words about a purple car. “So it was you who drove Cheryl to my house?”

“Yeah, we did that to mess with you. It was Cheryl's idea. I thought it was too risky, but she thought it would be funny. See what I mean about her being wishy-washy?”

“How'd you get Ann to go along with tricking Natalie?”

“Now that was easy! We had her and that googly-eyed daughter of hers chained up in the same room opposite one another and we put a bunch of food near Charla. As I'm sure you know, she has Prader-Willi Syndrome. It only took a few minutes of Ann watching her daughter eat like there was no tomorrow and she caved like the twin towers on nine-eleven. You should have seen the way Charla stuffed her face.” Chyanne let out a screeching laugh. “It was so funny!”

This woman is sick!
Troy thought to himself as he answered the ringing cell phone.

“Troy!
Baby, I'm okay!” Hearing those words from Natalie was as soothing as a cold Popsicle on a hot summer day. “The police are here and this man is telling them everything he knows. Ann is too! And I hear that they caught the man who was holding us hostage a few blocks away. His car had run out of gas! You're going to be cleared, baby. Where are you? Are you on your way?”

“No. I still have some unfinished business to handle. I'm glad you're safe, babe. If I…,” Troy found himself getting choked up and paused for a moment to clear his throat, “I may not make it home to celebrate our anniversary this weekend. Please never forget how much I love you.” It pained him to hear her wail, begging him to come home. The only comfort he had was knowing that she was finally safe and when Lloyd got on the phone, Troy thanked him for all that he had done. “Do me a favor, please, and continue to look out for my family. I'm about to take Chyanne to the money and we both know she's going to kill me.”

Chyanne squealed. Troy wasn't sure if it was a result of him mentioning the money or his death.

“Don't worry. As Michael told Leigh Anne in
The Blind Side
when she was a little scared about being in an unfamiliar neighborhood, ‘I got your back.' You take care of yourself and try your best to get to a safe place.”