Tahoe Blues (29 page)

~~~**~~~

Hunter Henderson picked his daughter up at the Crandall residence a few hours earlier. He dropped Dakota off at their house, grabbed a quick shower, and went directly back to the office Martin Langley was letting them use. He knew there had to be more on Brett Boden’s phone than just a few incriminating pictures.

He scrolled through the apps and scanned all the recent files. On a hunch
, he pulled up the voice to text feature. One relatively large file sat in the Draft folder. He read intently for several minutes before he swore under his breath, “Holy hell. I did not see that coming.”

He instantly picked up his phone and called his partner.

Chapter Fourteen

The phone rang as David Crandall, super dad, was mopping up a glass of spilled orange juice. Feeling a bit on the guilty side for letting the Greene case take up so much of his time, David decided a family breakfast was in order.

The bunny eared pancakes he whipped up
especially for the two most precious commodities in his life took one look at them and promptly turned up their noses.

Jack
complained that he was far too old to eat such babyish looking fodder.

The boy
actually used the word,
fodder
. David smiled when he recognized one of last year’s vocabulary words and gave the public school system a mental high-five.

Sandy didn’t have a problem with the pancakes, but she believed bacon needed to be served with them. That wasn’t surprising. Sandy would eat bacon morning, noon
, and night if it was up to her. David had to admit he’d been serving it far too often lately, just to get his picky little daughter to eat.

He smiled knowing
when Marissa rejoined the family she was going to have her work cut out for her breaking all the bad habits, David had allowed their children to develop in her absence. David also knew he would relish every single moment, whether he was in the dog house or not, of Marissa’s presence. The daily phone calls were not enough. He missed his wife more than he thought possible. The faster Cara’s case wrapped up, the better.

The first moment
they could, he planned on packing up the kids and driving south for a few days of mommy/wife time. He looked around their new home and knew he had thrown in the towel. He had planned on surprising Marissa by having the house in order by the time she arrived, but he knew Marissa would probably undo all his hard work and rearrange everything, so he saw no reason to continue.

At least that was the excuse he was using today. Unpacking an entire household was a lot of work
.

David picked up the phone
and saw Hunter was on the line. “Have you found anything?” he barked a bit more harshly than he intended.

“Chill
, dude. You are not going to believe what I found on Brett Boden’s phone.”

David never
heard his partner’s voice sound so joyful. The man was practically singing. “I’m guessing something good.”

“The proof was not all
in pictures. Brett must have stumbled onto the plan to frame Cara accidentally. When you see who’s at the heart of this, you’ll understand exactly why that self-assured internationally known artist turned chicken and skedaddled out of town. I would have too. I don’t think he understood exactly what he witnessed until after his house was searched. We are very lucky Brett hid his phone inside that sculpture. This goes deep.”

“Who is it?”

Hunter chuckled, but the tone of his voice turned deadly serious. “I ain’t saying anything more over a phone line that might not be secure. The moment I hang up, I’m changing my location and making multiple copies of this. Then I’m sending it out to every news agency I can think of. Pack up your kids right now. I don’t want them used against you, then run over and pick up Dakota. Don’t take
no
for an answer. I’m not going to lie. You’re going to have trouble with her. It’s still summer vacation, and that girl does not like to wake up before noon.”

“You better not be jerking my chain
, Hunter.” Dread had inched its way into what had been a relatively nice morning. One thing David knew for certain, absolutely nothing was going to happen to his kids.

“Hang up and get going. I
don’t have time to argue with―”

David was way ahead of him. The phone was already shoved back into his pocket
, and the lock box holding his spare weapon was pulled out from the cabinet over the refrigerator and he was busily spinning the combination. “Grab your shoes and get in the car kids.” He didn’t want to scare them, but that was better than the alternative. “Move it. NOW!”

Jack and Sandy’s eyes went wide, but they knew better than to argue when their father used that tone
of voice. They were shoed-up and seat belted in the car in less than thirty seconds.

When David pulled into the driveway of Dakota Henderson’s residence, he already had a game plan. Rousting Dakota out of bed was going to be difficult and time consuming, so he decided it was better not to ask. He opened his car door and turned back to his frightened children. He pitched Jack the keys. “Do not unlock the doors for anyone but me. When you see me coming out with Dakota, unlock it for us and shove the keys in the ignition. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible.” He took a deep breath and patted the driver’s seat. “Jack, if anything suspicious happens, you’ll need to get your sister to safety. This car is an automatic, just like the car you drove when we were out on Grandpa’s farm a few months ago. You can do this. You are not to hesitate. You are to act. Got it?”

Wide-eyed,
Jack nodded gravely and scrambled into the driver’s seat. The moment David shut the door, Jack immediately clicked the lock.

David moved quickly up the steps and with every ounce of his strength he kicked the door. His entire body was jarred by the motion
, but the door remained intact. Hunter was a security conscious dad and had installed a steel framed door which housed multiple locks.

David pulled his gun
out and fired. One by one the locks were dismantled and David moved inside.

He found Dakota in the hallway. She looked
terribly young standing there in her ducky pajamas without any makeup, but she scared the hell out of him. She had a rifle locked, loaded, and pointed directly at his forehead.

“Did your dad call?” he asked
, praying to God that he had.

Dakota lowered her weapon
and ran past him. “You could’ve just honked.”

David
would have smiled if he had time. Dakota was tough, and she didn’t crack under pressure. Just like her father.

Sandy saw them running and swung open the door to the backseat.

The sound of squealing wheels behind them made both Dakota and David spin around. Before David had his weapon raised, Dakota had already shot out the scary black van’s tires. They both dove into the backseat and Jack peeled out across the grass. David looked up in time to see Nate Waters peeking out over the dashboard.

For no other reason than the fact that David couldn’t let Dakota show him up in front of his kids,
David raised his gun. In cold blood, he murdered the van’s radiator.

Jack drove seven miles before his father recuperated enough to take the wheel from his twelve year old son.

Two hours and three counties later, David pulled into a campground. They were totally off the grid. Before they left Cascade Bay, David let Dakota call her father and let him know they were okay. No details, just that they were safe. Then every passenger of David’s brand new all-wheel drive, high tech SUV, pulled the batteries from their phones while David disconnected the GPS, the Bluetooth, and a few other things he felt a little unsure about in the SUV’s electrical panel. David counted himself lucky when he turned the engine over and it was still able to function.

The moment Jack was out of the car, he threw his arms up in the air touchdown style and yelled, “That was totally awesome!”

Sandy
looked up at Dakota who still held her rifle by her side and inquired sweetly, “Can you teach me how to shoot?”

David’s only thought was that Marissa was going to be pissed.

~~~**~~~

Unsure if he could trust the long arm of local law enforcement, Hunter crossed the state line into Washoe County and turned his wheels towards ‘The Biggest Little City in the World.’ He chose Reno for two reasons. First and foremost was because if anyone happened to be following him, he wanted to lead them as far away from David and the kids as possible. Secondly, because Hunter had done some work for the manager of the most prestigious gaming establishment in town, and the guy owed him big time.

The
Lucky Seven of Hearts was a private gambling club which catered to the uber-rich, and was in direct competition with the Cascade Bay Resort and Casino. Weston Alexander had managed the Seven before he met and married Inga Hanson. Behind the owner’s back, Weston managed to convince a large portion of the membership that exclusivity wasn’t worth the yearly dues, and that they could get the same amenities at the Cascade Bay for far less. When Weston left, he had taken half their clientele with him.

The information on Brett Boden’s phone had
the potential to destroy the Alexander’s casino, and Hunter figured revenge would taste mighty sweet to the people who had once trusted Duncan’s father.

In addition, the
Seven of Hearts was a security safe haven. It would provide a protected place for him to copy the material on Boden’s phone and since the Lucky Seven had a massive media department, Hunter figured he would be able to broadcast the article he was already composing in his mind, easily.

The hot story would surely be
picked up by the Associated Press, and with any luck, the Feds would rain their special agent hospitality down upon the Alexanders within a few days.

~~~**~~~

Hunter watched Nate Waters being handcuffed and shoved in the back of a police car. The local PD did not take kindly to impersonators, and Nate was not being treated gently. A few moments later he saw Nate’s nephew, Matt Finley, being handled in much the same manner.

Cara’s favorite student thought he could throw his
lovely professor under the bus in exchange for having his student loans paid off. Now his future looked just as bleak as the uncle who had coerced him into throwing his life away.

David
checked in from one of the few remaining pay phones left on the planet, and Hunter had finally been able to give him the all clear.

All charges against Cara had been dropped
and Inga Alexander, Duncan’s mother, had been indicted on so many charges it was hard to keep track. The fraud concerning the gala had been just the tip of the iceberg. The photos and recordings on Brett Boden’s phone enabled the district attorney’s office to gain a blanket search warrant for the Alexander family home, the casino, and every office associated with any aspect of the resort’s operation.

Evidence found during the investigation led to four elected officials being forced out of office and the chief o
f police being asked to resign.

According to the local newspapers
, criminal charges were imminent.

None of
that mattered to Hunter. He hadn’t seen his baby in six days, and he had taken just about all he could from the forceful woman David Crandall had married. Marissa had come up from San Diego the moment she was unable to contact her family, and Martin Langley had been kind enough to dump the high-powered attorney in his lap.

Marissa was a looker
, but boy was she pushy. She’d been instrumental in getting the FBI involved in the investigation. No doubt about it, David’s lovely lady knew exactly which avenues to explore and whose panties to twist.

Martin Langley could have been just as effective
, but he was happy to stand back and let Marissa take the lead. He had known the Crandall family for a long time and loved watching Marissa in action. He was also smart enough not to stand in the way of a mama lion protecting her cubs.

Since Dakota fell within the scope of her protection, Hunter would be forever in Marissa’s debt.

Not that he was about to tell her that. He crossed his arms over his chest and silently watched Marissa order the entire police force about. He couldn’t help snickering to himself when he imagined her reaction when the bill to have his front door repaired arrived in her mailbox.

“What are you laughing at?” Marissa asked as she bulldozed her way towards him.

“Nothing at all, little sis,” he snickered unable to contain his mirth. “Are you done here?”

Marissa looked around at the scene being efficiently mopped up. “I can’t think of anything else. Can you?”

Hunter burst out laughing. “I’ve been out of ideas for about three days. This is all you. You should be pleased with yourself.”

Marissa stood up a little straighter and smiled proudl
y. “You know what, Mr. Henderson? I kind of am.”

Hunter
sighed and turned serious. “I know what happened in San Diego.”

Marissa sucked in a breath and pursed her lips together and waited for him to continue.

“I gave David a hard time for making me do all the leg work and for not speaking directly with the client. I understand the reasons now. If it’s any consolation, I think this case was good for him. When things went south, I knew he would die before letting anything happen to our kids.” He chucked Marissa lightly on her shoulder. “And I think it’s high time you called me Hunter.”