Kill and Run (A Thorny Rose Mystery Book 1) (31 page)

Chapter Thirty-Four

Murphy was horrified when he saw the van careen over to the side of the road and sideswipe an SUV, which swerved onto the shoulder trying to escape
. Jessica must have found her bitch button.
Lurching forward on the bike, Murphy gave the bike all the gas he could.

Inside the van, the force of the van swerving to hit the SUV knocked Sidewalls to the floor. The gun fell out of his hand and slid under the front passenger seat.

Seeing another opening, Jessica sprang over on top of him and rammed her knee into his groin. When he sat up to clutch his privates, she spotted the front seatbelt hanging nearby. Grabbing it, she wrapped it around his neck and pulled down on it with all her weight.

Sidewalls was gasping and groaning. Jessica allowed herself to grin at her success—until the van swerved to the other side of the road, knocking her onto her back.

Recovering enough to go on the offensive, Sidewalls tore at the seatbelt around his neck. “You little bitch! I should have killed you when I had the chance.” He grabbed her ankle and pulled her to him. The rough floor of the van tore through her t-shirt to scratch her back.

Keeping his legs together to protect his privates as best he could in the vehicle that was swerving back and forth across the road, he tried to grab her other foot. “No way, Bucko!” she yelled before kicking him in the kneecap.

Uttering a curse, Sidewalls dropped forward to grasp his wounded knee.

With everything she had, Jessica turned her foot to the side to kick him right in the throat.

When the van swerved to the other side, she went with the flow to grab him by the shoulders and deliver a head butt between the eyes.

Sidewalls collapsed onto the seat.

Damn that hurts!
She grasped her forehead.
Why don’t head butts hurt in the movies?
Fighting the stars dancing before her eyes, Jessica crawled over Sidewalls to throw open the side door.

With the wind whipping around her, blowing up her oversized navy t-shirt to expose her blue silk panties, she paused to take in the road rushing by her. There was no mistaking the black motorcycle and its rider weaving in unison with the out of control van.

Murphy held out his hand to her.

The joy at seeing the possible escape on the bike turned to fear. Clutching the door, Jessica took in her bare feet and legs and the pavement rushing beneath them.

Is this how it looked to Felicia right before she hit the pavement?

The van was easing off the road. Eventually, Murphy would run out of pavement and be on gravel, which would give way to a grassy side embankment.

No rules!

Bracing herself, Jessica reached for Murphy’s hand only to find it suddenly gone. To her horror, he snatched his gun out of the holster, aimed it at the van, and fired.

Oh, no! It’s not Murphy! I imagined—

The shot whizzed past her. Sidewalls fell against her back. Clinging to the door, she scrambled back inside. Collapsing, Sidewalls and the gun he had aimed at her back tumbled out of the moving van and dropped onto the gravel racing by them.

With a sigh of relief, she saw that Murphy had re-holstered his gun and eased the bike closer to the open door. Holding out his hand, he screamed, “Jump, Buttercup! Now!”

Seeing that they were quickly running out of road, Jessica grabbed his arm and leapt toward the speeding motorcycle. Grabbing his shoulders, she dropped down onto the seat behind him and encased his chest with both arms.

“Hold on!” she heard him yell before screeching the bike to a halt, throwing gravel everywhere to prick her bare legs.

Murphy turned the handlebars and gunned the engine to go around to the other side of the van, which sped across the gravel and into the embankment. Hitting the grassy patch at top speed, the van rolled nose over end, then side over side before it came to a halt. The gasoline from the punctured gas tank quickly caught fire.

Weaving through the traffic, the bike was speeding up the road when they heard the explosion.

Murphy pulled over into a gas station further up the road. Even after he turned off the engine, Jessica didn’t want to let go of her hold on him. After taking off his helmet, he gently freed himself from her grip to turn around to kiss her. “Are you okay?”

All she could do was nod her head while clinging to him.

“Did they hurt you?” He examined the bruise forming on her forehead from the head butt she had delivered to Sidewalls. Grateful that it was her only injury, he pressed his lips against it.

Upon hearing police sirens, they both looked up to see two police cars, lights and sirens blaring, race by them in response to calls about a van on fire.

“Remind me never to push your bitch button,” he said.

With a laugh, she replied, “Copy that, Thornton.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

While Murphy was able to offer Jessica his leather jacket for the ride home, there was nothing he could do for her bare feet and legs. They would just have to deal with her being his sexy riding partner for the ride back to their brownstone, which they found surrounded by police, federal agents, and a black moving truck.

“What’s going on?” Jessica asked Murphy about the moving truck with the open back. Men in black overalls were wheeling a trolley down the loading ramp.

Spotting Major Ford gingerly making his way down the front steps with Monique’s tank, Murphy jumped off the bike and went over to where Joshua was talking to Cameron, who was seated in the front seat of Murphy’s SUV. She held Irving in her lap. Spencer and Newman were loaded in the back seat.

Izzy opened up the back of the SUV to help Major Ford load the tarantula inside. “Don’t forget her food?” she said.

“Food?” the major asked.

“Crickets,” Izzy said. “I’ll get them.”

Cameron reached through the open window to grab Jessica’s hand. “We were so worried. Are you okay?”

Aware of her scantily clad state in front of the many male agents and neighbors watching from their yards, Jessica hugged Murphy’s jacket closer. “I’m fine. Murphy saved me. … of course.”

“She’s being modest,” Murphy said. “Dad, what’s with the moving van?”

“We have to talk.” Taking Murphy by the arm, Joshua led him away from the SUV and listening ears.

“What’s—”

“You’re moving,” Joshua said.

“No!” Murphy shook his head.

“Your home has been compromised,” Joshua said. “Paige Graham brought the leader of the Russian mob here. A band of hitmen know where you live. There’s no telling who in the organization still has that information and is willing to sell it to anyone who wants it. In your line of work, if you get on anyone’s radar like you did with this case, not only will you be at risk, but so will Jessica.”

“This is our home,” Murphy said angrily.

“You’ll find a new one,” Joshua said. “Right now, we’re going to a safe house where you and Jessica can stay until you find a new home. You can stay there as long as you want—rent free. You’re too valuable to the Joint Chiefs to take any chances with your safety.”

Joshua’s firm expression communicated that there was no more conversation about the matter. As a Phantom, Murphy had no choice … and neither did Jessica.

“I’m sorry,” Joshua said. “It has to be done.”

Murphy grit his teeth. “Remember your first goal in this case?”

“To make you hate me?” Joshua said.

“You’ve obtained it.”

“I’d rather you be safe and hate me,” Joshua said with a slight grin, “than dead.”

As soon as Joshua stepped away, Jessica was by Murphy’s side. Her eyes were pools of violet. “What’s going on?”

“We have to move.” Murphy hugged her while whispering into her ear, “Now. Today,”

“But—”

“Our home has been compromised. Because I’m a Phantom, it’s too risky for us to stay here.” Pulling away, he held both of her hands in his. “I am so sorry, Buttercup. I know how much you love this house. It was our first home together and now because of me. . .”

“My home is where you are.” She brushed her hand across his cheek.

He kissed the inside of her palm before pulling her in to kiss her tenderly on the lips. Together, they turned to where the movers were hauling yet to be unpacked moving boxes from the rec room.

“Look on the bright side, Buttercup,” Murphy said. “Since we still haven’t finished unpacking from our last move, we don’t have much packing to do.”

By noon, the Phantoms had enough evidence to nail Dolly Scanlon, aka Maya Fedorov, for Donna Crenshaw’s and Francine Baxter’s murders.

While ballistics was unable to match the bullets from her gun with the shattered bullets taken from the victim’s bodies, an elementary school security camera had photographed not only Maya Fedorov’s car parked in the school parking lot, but Maya Fedorov herself leaving the parking lot on foot—heading in the direction of Francine Baxter’s home, two blocks away, shortly before her murder. The camera also caught her returning to her car that evening—after Donna Crenshaw’s murder.

Between the security video and Fedorov’s confession in Sebastian Graham’s apartment, the Attorney General had all he needed for a multiple murder conviction.

With Adrian Kalashov dead, his brother was stepping up to take the reins of the Russian crime family, which sent the FBI knocking on Maya Fedorov’s cell door in hopes of her becoming a witness against the Kalashov family. The FBI had big hopes that Maya Fedorov, who had grown up in the crime organization, could provide the break needed to shut it down—in exchange for a sweet deal.

The safe house Murphy and Jessica had been sent to was nicer than most people’s homes. The four bedroom ranch-style home even had an in-ground swimming pool, in which Izzy and Spencer had fun splashing.

Still, it was not their brownstone—the newlywed’s first home together.

Murphy’s CO sent word to Tristan about their new location for after his weekend getaway.

It wasn’t until the end of the day, while the sun was setting, and the shock of what everyone had been through was gradually wearing off, that exhaustion set in.

Over a dinner of Oriental take-out at the dining room table that looked out on the pool where Izzy was playing with Spencer, who was now answering to the name Blue, Jessica expressed surprise upon learning of General Sebastian Graham’s suicide and that Paige Graham was, in fact, behind the murders that helped him climb up the ladder to the top.

“I’ve never met him,” she said, “but from what you told me about the rapes, I thought these attacks were about control. He was a narcissist. Those types don’t usually commit suicide.”

“The man I met in Kuwait all those years ago was a great soldier,” Joshua said. “There’s no denying that there was something in him that made him save his men in that ambush.”

“But he was also a rapist,” Cameron said. “He was a rapist before he went over to the Middle East and saved his team—after raping a female colleague.”

“Don’t you believe that it’s possible for a bad person to have good qualities?” Joshua asked the two women sitting at the dining room table with him.

“The man actually managed to convince himself that every one of his victims seduced him,” Murphy said with sarcasm from where he was keeping a vigil on Izzy in the swimming pool. He didn’t like the idea of her being alone in the pool.

“He believed his own press releases,” Jessica said. “Felt entitled to those women. When one would say no, then that pressed a button inside him—enraged him even. Then, afterwards, since he truly believed he was entitled because he was a great man, then he would convince himself that it wasn’t rape.”

“But I think Murphy struck a cord inside him.” Joshua pushed his paper plate away. “When he confronted Graham with many of the irrefutable facts—including the pattern of sudden deaths of his assistants—he couldn’t remain in denial any longer.”

“Like an intervention,” Jessica got up from the table to gather the used paper plates and plastic utensils for the trash.

“But Sebastian didn’t arrange those murders,” Murphy said. “His wife had.”

“And I believe deep down, Graham knew it all along,” Joshua said. “He had to. There were so many. He had to have at least suspected it. When you laid out the facts, Murphy, he knew what was happening and who was behind it.”

After mouthing a thank you to Jessica who took his plate, Joshua continued, “Graham realized that the woman behind the man, Paige, was covering up his messes and killing his way to the top. She turned him into a monster. Faced with the facts of what he had become, the great man I once knew came to the surface and he knew what he had to do for the sake of his country.”

“Kill the monster before he did any more damage,” Murphy said in a quiet voice. “With his death, he would not be able to prey on any more women and Paige and her mobster friends would no longer have to kill to cover up his messes.”

Folding her hands, Cameron turned to Jessica, who had returned to take her seat at the table. “Now this is what I don’t understand. How can a woman, a supposedly smart woman, like Paige Graham, rationalize that her husband was a great man entitled to raping women? She couldn’t have honestly believed, with all these accusations that crept up throughout the years and the cover ups she had engineered, that he was not a sexual predator.” When Jessica opened her mouth to respond, Cameron interjected, “Don’t tell me it was denial.”

“Why do women who marry pedophiles stay with them, even when they’re violating their own children?” Jessica asked. “They rationalize that he’s a good husband, a great provider, and that they would be worse off without him.”

“Paige Graham said that General Graham was a brilliant man who could do great things for our country,” Cameron recalled with a nod of her head. “She was planning to get him to the White House.”

“There you have it,” Jessica said. “Using that rationalization, one could argue that if Charles Manson was a gifted and charismatic politician that our country should elect him president.” With a roll of her eyes, she shrugged her shoulders. “So he’s a mass murderer? Hey, nobody’s perfect. As long as unemployment is down and the economy is up …”

After enjoying a hearty chuckle at Jessica’s sarcasm, Murphy pointed out, “Don’t laugh. If this case hadn’t landed in my lap, it could have happened.”

“No wonder Kalashov was so angry when Graham ended up dead,” Joshua said. “With all the murders the mob had committed on his behalf, with all they had on Graham, if he had made it to the White House …” He shook his head. “Think of all the potential political favors that went down the tube when Graham plunged that pen into his neck.”

“Still …” Cameron shook her head with a sigh, “Paige not only simply stayed with that animal, she actually went to the trouble of having people killed to protect him. That’s not normal.”

“What’s normal to you?” Jessica shot back.

In thought, Cameron narrowed her eyes and cocked her head.

“Based on Paige’s background,” Jessica said, “her father was a dock worker who had ties to the mob. That means she grew up in and around that environment.”

“Complete with their ethics or lack thereof,” Joshua said.

“She lived with Adrian Kalashov for a while,” Jessica said, “who was being groomed to take over the Kalashov operation—whose businesses included prostitution and pornography.”

“So she was surrounded by people who believed women were property to be used for profit,” Murphy said. “Then she took up with Graham, who viewed them as prey.”

“Funny how that happens,” Jessica said.

“What happens?” Murphy asked.

“That people like that,” Jessica said, “a serial predator like Graham and a psychopath like Paige find each other. That actually happens a lot. I don’t know if it’s a signal they send out to each other or what, but somehow …” With a shake of her head, she shrugged her shoulders. “People are weird.”

“Well,” Joshua said, “we were able to put a stop to both of them.”

“Score one for the good guys,” Murphy said while opening the door to allow Izzy and Spencer, both draped in wet towels to run inside.

“Do we have ice cream?” Izzy asked. “Blue and I are starving!” Without waiting for a response, they ran down the hallway to the bedroom she had claimed for her own.

“What about dinner?” Murphy called after her.

“If we have room after dessert, then we’ll eat dinner,” she replied before slamming the bedroom door.

With a chuckle, Joshua told Murphy, “Reminds me of you when you were that age.”