As he turned to leave, Makay drew out the second envelope. “Here’s the rest of your money.”
Cooper stopped and stared. “I thought your friend had it.”
“He does. This money is mine.”
His lips twisted. “You didn’t steal it, did you? I don’t want the police breathing down my neck.”
“No. I didn’t steal it.” Makay rose and pushed past him. She’d repaid his money, but she wasn’t about to waste any more of her inheritance on the Japanese tea he’d ordered—and that meant leaving the restaurant before he did. She didn’t look back.
“Okay, so it was a long shot,” she said aloud as she reached her car. More like a ridiculous, stupid, outlandish, long shot, but who was keeping track? She’d made so many foolish mistakes. This one meant spending half the money Sally had given her on a creep like Cooper. Even so, her heart felt lighter. She couldn’t repay everyone she’d cheated, but she could be free of guilt at least where Cooper was concerned. That felt good.
Besides, she wasn’t out of ideas yet. She knew where Lenny lived.
After another thirty-minute drive and a stop at a hardware store, she arrived outside Lenny’s apartment building in the northern part of Phoenix, not even two miles from Harrison’s place. She dialed his number. “Hey, Lenny, it’s me,” she said when he answered.
“Makay? How you feeling, babe?”
Babe?
“Not so great. Look where are you? Can we talk?”
“Now’s not good. I’m at a friend’s. Unless it’s really important.”
“Not really. I just wanted to make sure you aren’t going to need me this weekend. I’m hurting pretty badly.”
“Monday then.” His voice was tighter now, as if he expected her to protest further.
“Okay.” She hung up.
If he was telling the truth, he wasn’t home, and she didn’t think he’d have any reason to lie. But it wouldn’t hurt to move the Sebring around the block so it wouldn’t be noticed if he did come home. By the time she walked back to Lenny’s apartment, she had it all worked out. Bribing the manager, supposing she could find him, wouldn’t probably work, and she wasn’t that good at picking locks. Using a credit card to get in had never worked for her either. That left a window.
One of the reasons she didn’t mind owning Snoop was because for all his uselessness as a guard dog, he made enough ruckus that they’d never had any break-ins at the apartment, even during rashes of burglaries in the area. Thankfully, Lenny didn’t own a dog. The place also had more trees, and if she was fast enough, she might not be noticed by the neighbors. But first that meant getting up to his third-story window, or at least to his balcony.
Makay felt her pocket for her gun before remembering that Lenny had never given it back in Colorado Springs. It was just as well. If her plan went wrong and the police arrested her for breaking and entering, the gun would only complicate matters.
She knocked on seven doors before she found a man who knew of someone with a ladder that was tall enough. The man—named Rodriguez—was happy to take her to his friend’s truck and help her carry the ladder. “Good thing you left the balcony door open,” he said, hefting the ladder over one wide shoulder. “A locksmith would cost a lot of money. Or a new window. You should make a copy of your key and leave it with a friend in case you lock yourself out again.”
“I will first thing tomorrow,” she said, smiling at him as he put the ladder next to Lenny’s balcony.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to your face and your arm?” He shook his head. “Bet it was a man, if I had my guess.”
“Yeah.” She sighed.
“And I bet that’s why you don’t have an extra key handy. Hopefully that jerk won’t come back. Maybe you should change the lock.”
Makay nodded, silently depressed at the growing number of lies and misdirections filling her life. It had to stop. All of it. “Thank you, Rodriguez. I really appreciate your help.”
“You sure you don’t want me to climb up? It’ll be hard with that broken arm.”
“No, I can do it. But thanks.”
He sighed but didn’t insist. “I don’t blame you for not trusting me. Not after what you’ve been through. I’ll wait to see if you get in. Just to make sure you left it open.”
“Oh, I did.” She shifted her backpack as she climbed over the balcony railing, glad the man looked politely away instead of up her skirt. She wished she had more neighbors like him back at her old apartment, instead of the kind who didn’t have jobs but sat around smoking all day and making catcalls at any woman who passed. Only the old people and a few others there had gained her respect.
Getting to the balcony was easier than expected. Once there, she pretended to check the glass door before waving down at Rodriguez. She’d been lucky finding him, and maybe that luck would hold out. She pretended to watch Rodriguez as he started away with the ladder, but really she was scanning the area to see if anyone from the opposite building was watching her. One woman walked out on her balcony, but she only cast a casual glance at Makay before picking up something and disappearing again inside.
Makay stepped close to the sliding door and took out the glass cutter she’d bought at the hardware store. The hole didn’t need to be large. Just enough for her to open the lock. She worked as fast as the cumbersome cast allowed, taking another break after the circle was made to look for watching eyes before she wrapped her jacket around her left palm and slammed it against the glass. A perfect circle fell inside Lenny’s apartment. Seconds later, she was inside, breathing a sigh of relief when Lenny didn’t rush out and tackle her. He’d been telling the truth about not being home.
Now to find the information. She’d only been in this apartment two other times, and she had to look around a moment to orientate herself. Much nicer than she remembered, though not nearly on the scale of Harrison’s apartment. Where would he keep his important documents? In the early days when he’d been training her on research, he’d had a large filing cabinet in his kitchen, but it was nowhere in sight. She began a methodic search of the apartment—cupboards, closets, and even behind pictures. Finally she found what she was looking for in a corner of the master bedroom’s long, narrow walk-in closet. But the safe stood as tall as her chest and at least a foot deep. Solid steel. No way was she walking out of here with that.
The locking mechanism had both a key and a push combination lock. She tried a few number sequences, parts of passwords Lenny had used on computer sites in the past, but nothing worked. So that meant finding a key, if he didn’t carry it with him. She had searched all the drawers in his bedroom and the kitchen when she heard the front door shut.
She sprinted for the kitchen closet, but even as her hand closed over the knob, she heard Lenny’s voice. “Well, well, well. How did you get in here?”
In his hand he held a gun. Her gun.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“O
h, good, you’re home,” she said lightly.
His pointed face reddened, and he didn’t put away the gun, though it was no longer aiming at her. “I asked how you got in.”
“The manager, okay?”
“You’re lying.”
She wasn’t about to tell him she’d cut a hole in his sliding glass door. He could discover that tidbit of information for himself—hopefully when she was long gone. “Look,” she said, “I came to beg you to leave Harrison and his mother alone.”
“Harrison?” he asked, but almost immediately he understood. “How’d you find out his name?”
“Because of you, actually. You asked his mother for cash, and she came to drop it off at Albertsons at the same time I went there to give you the pickup money. What, were you trying to kill two birds with one stone? Save yourself a return trip?” When he didn’t respond, she continued. “She called her son to meet her there. He and I talked and then we started dating.”
Lenny gaped at her. “He’s dating
you?
” He shook his head with an utter disbelief that was offensive, but at least he returned her gun to the pocket of his tan pants. “What a joke. Makay, you really know how to pick ’em.”
Probably not a good time to ask for her gun back. “He likes me, and I like him. I have a real chance here, Lenny. Leave Harrison’s family alone. Please.”
Lenny’s eyes narrowed. “How much have you told him?”
Makay opened her mouth to say, “Everything,” but the unusual glint in his eyes stopped her. “They plan to pay,” she said instead. “I’m asking you to call it off.”
He crossed the space between them, his face coming too close. She could see the rot in his teeth and smell the mint on his breath. “Next you’ll be wanting me to spare your mother and then the next target after that.” His head jerked back and forth. “No freaking way. That fifty thousand dollars is part of my ticket to a better life. That’s ten of my regular deals and your mother will be worth at least two hundred thou. It’s easy street from here on out, babe.”
Makay shoved past him. “Then you’ll do it without me. I mean it this time.”
The sound of the gun racking made her turn around. “No, you’ll do what I say.”
“What, you going to shoot me?”
“If I have to.” He rifled through a drawer and came up with some black shoe laces. “Tie that around your wrist without the cast. Do it!”
All at once she felt she didn’t know Lenny at all. She considered refusing, but his expression was odd and his gun hand was shaking badly. If she didn’t have Nate to consider, she might rush him. “Okay.” She struggled to make a knot around her wrist.
“Now put your hands behind your back.” Lenny rushed around and tied her casted arm tightly to the one with the shoelace.
“Lenny,” she protested.
He stepped back. “It’s just for a minute. I want to show you something.” Pushing her ahead of him, he led her to the master bedroom where he shoved her unceremoniously onto the tall bed. Makay stifled a protest as the ick factor of being there sank in. Lenny disappeared into the closet. She jumped off the bed but had only made it halfway to the door when she heard him opening the safe. She turned as he appeared with one of his hateful manila folders.
“You’d better look at this before you leave.” The calmness in his voice and the fact that her gun had once again been put away made her fear crank down a notch.
She turned, and he motioned her back to the bed where he spread out the contents, his hand no longer shaking. This close, she could see a bit of white powder dusting his nose.
Drugs,
she thought.
He’s using drugs.
The folder contained what seemed like all of their past scams, including details she’d never known. There were pictures of her accepting envelopes full of money. Most were from years ago in her teens, when he’d gone with her on every pickup, but there was one from last year. She hadn’t known he’d followed her. There was also a lot of personal information, including her address, phone, and social security number. Pictures of her picking up Nate from school and even a list of her friends, including Lily, Tessa, and Janice.
“This proves you’ve been scamming people a long time,” he said. “The beauty of it is that not one of those people can identify me. You are the face of this operation. I even use a login with your name for my computer research.” Lenny waited until she met his eyes. “You will do the pickups or I’ll give this to the police. I mean, if you aren’t going to help me, you’re worthless to me. I can always start over, so it’s no skin off my teeth, but you’ll go to jail. What happens to your little brother then?”
“If you can start over, just do it and leave me alone. I want out!”
“Maybe. We’ll see. But your mother left me a message saying she does want DNA proof, so for now, you’re my partner. That means you and me are bosom buddies for the next week or two. Good thing I have a guest room.”
Horror seized Makay. “What about Nate? No way am I bringing him here!”
“I’m sure you have him tucked up somewhere nice and neat. He’ll be fine.”
Lily would take care of Nate, but Makay didn’t want to traumatize him further, and her not showing up without explanation would certainly do that. Her mind worked to find a solution. “I’ll do it,” she said. “Like before. Now that I know you have this.” She jerked her chin toward the papers on the bed. “But I need to be home with Nate.”
“Unfortunately, I can no longer trust you.” His mouth twisted in a smile that chilled her. “You broke into my apartment, obviously looking for this folder. And now I’m thinking you might just decide to take off. No, I think you’re better off right here until we finish this first deal with your dear birth mother and the pickup from Harrison’s family. Then we’ll see if we can work something out.”
Makay shook her head. Working something out Lenny’s way would mean making sure she did exactly what he said. What was next? Threatening Janice or some of the other old folks? Or Lily? Makay felt sick. “Harrison knows,” she blurted. “I told him and his mother everything. Everything!”
Lenny’s hand shot out, closing around her neck. He forced her backwards onto the bed, choking her as he pinned her with his body. Her feet dangled above the carpet, and her ribs screamed with agony. The edges of her cast dug into the soft flesh just below her elbow as it strained against the shoelaces. “You told them, huh?” His crotch pushed hard against her leg. “Well, I don’t care. The mother won’t come forward. She’s too scared of her husband, too wrapped up in her rich little kingdom.” He smiled as Makay began to struggle for breath. “All this means is that I won’t need to wait any longer to get their money. Or you to pick it up for me.”
“Please,” Makay tried to say, but his grip was too tight. Her vision was beginning to darken. Was he going to kill her right then and there? A sinking feeling in her chest told her that she’d suspected it might come down to something like this with him. Maybe that was the real reason she’d left Nate with Lily, and why she hadn’t been able to tell him if they’d ever return to Harrison’s.
Lenny rotated his hips, rubbing against her leg with a lurid grin before letting her go. She gasped for breath, watching him back away. She was such an idiot for coming here.
I’m sorry, Nate.
“At least let me call Nate,” she said, struggling off the bed. “Please. Colorado Springs was bad for him. I don’t want him to wonder if I’m okay. I’ll do all the pickups. Just let me talk to him.” Her voice sounded rough and her throat burned with every word. “Besides, Lily will call the police if I don’t show up to get him.”