Grudges and vendettas, p.20
Grudges & Vendettas, page 20
“Well, then what’s wrong, man? Cause you look frazzled. Sid and the babies okay?”
Isaac took a breath, hoping to calm himself down. “For now. But I just got some very disturbing information and I’m here to try and get to the bottom of it.”
“What information is that, Ike?” Gavin asked, looking annoyed.
“Amon Barclay from the garage called about an hour or so ago to tell me that Sid’s brake line had been deliberately cut.”
“What?” Pete asked, sounding shocked.
“Yeah. That’s what caused her accident,” Isaac explained. “In all the emotional aftermath of the event with Sid nearly hemorrhaging to death and the babies coming early, we hadn’t even gotten around to discussing the actual accident yet. But after the call from Amon, Sid confirmed it for me. She went to brake for that curve on the decline on South Planter and nothing happened. Her brakes were just gone.”
“Who the hell would want to cut Sid’s brake lines?” Pete asked.
“That’s what I want to know. I’ve already called in and had an Evidence Response Team sent to the garage to go over Sid’s Bronco. Now I’m here to make another phone call.”
“To who?” Gavin asked.
“Sidney only has one true enemy that I know of, so I’m here to find a number for the prison to make sure that nut job is still behind bars where she belongs.”
He didn’t need to explain to these two who he meant. They all knew he was referring to Natalie Bains — former sergeant of their narcotics division who had ruined her career by getting into bed with a local mobster and getting sent away as part of the Fed’s RICO case against him. But before that, she had also spent a good deal of time terrorizing Ike and Sidney and trying to kill her.
Isaac sat down at his desk and started thumbing through his rolodex for the number.
“I can’t believe this,” Pete said as Isaac picked up his desk extension and started dialing.
When the call was answered, he wasted no time on pleasantries.
“Yes, this is Detective Sgt. Isaac Taylor with the Cleveland PD. Who am I speaking with, please?”
The voice on the other end was male and efficient. “This is Corrections Officer Saab. How can I help you, Detective Sergeant?”
“I need to check on the status of an inmate.”
“What’s the name?”
“Natalie Bains.”
“Do you have an inmate number?”
“I do. Inmate number W148-596.” It was a number that Isaac had memorized when the psycho had finally been put away.
“One moment.”
He was put on hold while the guard went in search of the information. Isaac glanced up at Gavin and over at Pete, both of whom were now fully invested in the outcome of this exercise.
Gavin shook his head. “With all the shit they had on her, there’s no way she’s out already.”
“Yeah, but even if she’s not, she still has friends on the outside,” Pete pointed out.
“I just don’t understand why she keeps coming after Sidney and not me,” Isaac griped.
“Jealousy,” Gavin stated. “Plus, going after Sidney is the best way to get to you.”
Isaac was about to respond to that when Saab returned to the line.
“Sorry for the hold, Detective Sergeant.”
“No problem.”
“Inmate number W148-596 is still currently a guest here, serving out her 25-year sentence. Can I give you any other information today?”
“Yes,” Isaac replied. “Has she had any visitors? Say in the last six months or so?”
“Let me see here.”
Isaac could hear the click clack of the computer keys over the phone.
“Mmm. I don’t see a single visitor in the last six months,” Saab finally answered. “In fact, I see only one visitor in the whole time she’s been here and that was shortly after her arrival. The visitor’s name is Leona Bains, listed as the inmate’s mother.”
“All right. Thank you very much. You’ve been most helpful.” Isaac hung up the phone with a heavy relieved sigh. But it didn’t make him feel any better.
“Well?” Pete asked.
“She’s still there. No visitors at all since she’s been there except her mother right after her arrival.”
The three of them stared at each other for a charged moment.
“I hate to be dire, but… inmates make phone calls all the time,” Pete said. “Not to mention writing letters.”
“Yeah, but those calls and letters are monitored,” Gavin pointed out. “If Natalie Bains had told someone to cut her victim’s brake line during a call or a letter, we would have been notified about it.”
“While I’m comforted by the fact that she’s still stewing behind bars, this news doesn’t make me feel any better,” Isaac stated. “Someone out there deliberately caused my very pregnant wife to crash her car. Luckily, all Sid hit was a guardrail and she and the twins came out of it alive. But who the hell would do this?”
His voice had risen with each sentence, but he couldn’t seem to help it. His fear was quickly turning to rage.
“Calm down, Sgt.,” Gavin’s tone was steady and soothing. “We will get to the bottom of this. Now is there anyone else that has a beef against your wife? What about the husbands of one of those women she’s helped at the shelter?”
“Yeah,” Pete said, pointing a finger. “Especially the women she’s helped get away from their abusers. What about one of them?”
Isaac nodded. “I suppose that’s worth a look. I’ll go over to Hope House and talk to Sid’s boss about it. Maybe she can give me a list of names or something.”
“Why don’t you let your partner handle that, Ike? You should get back to your family,” Gavin said.
Isaac looked his boss in the eyes. “If you think I’m going to go back to my family and chill while there’s someone out there trying to hurt Sid, then you don’t know me at all, Lieu.”
“Actually, I know you quite well, Ike. And I have no doubt that you feel like you have to do this yourself in order to keep them safe. I get it. I just thought I’d try.”
“Good. Because there’s another person I want to look into at Hope House. One that I don’t think would be properly intimidated by Pete.”
Pete grinned. “Dr. Lips?”
Gavin frowned. “Who the hell is Dr. Lips?”
“A doctor who volunteers his free time at the women’s shelter and once made the mistake of planting an unsolicited kiss on Ike’s woman before they were married.”
Gavin’s eyebrows reached for the sky. “Oh. Well, yes, by all means go see about Dr. Lips.”
Isaac grinned and then stood. “Lieu, I’d like your permission to treat this like a case. Like I said, I’ve already sent an ERT over to the garage to do their thing, and I realize that technically I’m off duty this week, but—”
“Technically, you should be on a two-week paternity leave right now,” Gavin interrupted.
Isaac sighed and glanced down to the floor for a second. “And I promise you that I’ll take it, Lieu. Just as soon as I get to the bottom of this.”
“All right, Ike. Permission to treat this like a case is granted.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Hey, you want me to roll with you, man?” Pete asked.
“With somebody taking shots at you? No. I think it’s best if you stay right here for now.”
38
Isaac left the police station and headed straight for Hope House.
It was one of the more decent women’s shelters in the city. It had a great reputation among the cops because they only took in women who had been referred to them by a doctor or a police officer, and they absolutely did not tolerate drug use.
The only bad mark against them, in Isaac’s eyes, was the occasional violence they attracted from irate husbands. But thankfully, since Isaac had helped them install cameras at the front and back doors, and they had hired a part time security guard in Detective Lynn Driscoll, the incidents of violence had diminished quite a bit.
Still, Isaac would be happy when the new second location opened up in Sandusky and Sidney would be working from home managing both shelters. If nothing else, it would be safer.
He pulled up outside the shelter and practically ran up to the door. Sidney’s boss, Zoe Ridley answered with a smile.
“Isaac!”
“Hey, Mrs. Ridley—”
“Zoe,” she corrected.
Isaac tried to smile, but he wasn’t sure he’d pulled it off. “Zoe, I’m not sure if you know this or not, but Sid was in a single car accident two days ago that landed her in the hospital.”
Zoe’s face was immediately tortured. “Yes. Lynn Driscoll told me about it yesterday afternoon. I couldn’t believe it. Everything seemed fine when she came to pick up those files the other day. Lynn didn’t know any of the details though. I want to get out to see her, but things have been so busy here. Are she and the twins all right?”
Isaac nodded. “They are now. Listen, Zoe… we recently discovered that Sidney’s brake line was cut. That’s what caused the accident.”
Zoe’s eyes grew round as saucers. “Oh, my God.”
“Now, since she got here safely that day it leads me to believe that whoever cut the brake line did it while she was inside Hope House. I was wondering if maybe you knew of any irate husbands that might want to harm Sid somehow?”
“Oh, my. We haven’t had any trouble from anyone like that in a good while.”
“Maybe someone from before,” Isaac offered. “Someone who’s holding a grudge?”
Zoe shook her head. “Honestly, Isaac, I can’t think of a single person.”
“And what about Dr. Tobey? Is he here today?”
Dr. Lips, as Pete had called him. The man who had come on like a Mack Truck with Sidney and made her uncomfortable with the way he would stare at her. Sidney had told him everything, and Isaac had even given the Doc a piece of his mind almost a year ago at Christmastime.
“Actually, Lance is due here any minute,” Zoe replied. “But you can’t think he would do something like this?”
“I’m not ruling anybody out,” Isaac said.
Lance Tobey pulled up while they were still talking, and they watched him get out of his car and approach the shelter.
Isaac stared him down and he could see the tension tighten up Tobey’s face with each step the man took.
“Hi Zoe,” Lance said when he reached the porch.
“Lance,” she smiled at him.
“Detective Taylor,” Lance said. “Is everything all right?”
“No, it’s not. Sid’s in the hospital,” Isaac said, still staring the man in his eyes.
“Oh no. What happened?”
“Someone cut her brake line, causing her to crash. Which caused a double placental abruption, which resulted in our twins being born five weeks early and Sidney hemorrhaging on the operating table.”
Lance looked stunned.
“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about how that brake line got cut, would you?”
“Me?” Lance sounded shocked at the question. He pointed at his own chest and gaped at Isaac.
Isaac didn’t respond.
He simply stared at him.
“Look, Detective… I know you see me as the villain, and I completely understand why. I acted like a jerk to Sidney back when we first met and I’m eternally sorry about that. But I promise you I would never seek to hurt her, or any woman, in any way.”
Isaac stared at him for a moment longer. He could feel the man’s sincerity. “Can you think of anyone who would?”
Lance and Zoe both looked at each other, and Isaac could see them wracking their brains. When they couldn’t give him a single lead, he thanked them both and left.
He got back into his car, low key fuming, like the rage was sitting at a slow simmer. His mind was running through all the people in Sidney’s life when it snagged on a name.
Isaac started his car and took off, heading straight for Ronan O’Dwyer’s pawn shop on the bad end of downtown.
O’Dwyer was the shady Irishman who dealt in making believable false documents that Sidney would use whenever they needed to help a battered woman run away and start a new life. Since the fraud detectives’ bust several months ago, Sid had promised him that neither she nor Hope House would be linked with O’Dwyer anymore.
However, Isaac had long suspected that other arrangements had been made. They simply didn’t talk about the details. And really, as long as she was being safe, he was okay with that.
O’Dwyer’s Pawn Shop was a seedy joint in the crappiest part of town. The part of town most likely to get a person killed.
But Isaac wasn’t worried.
Even though he was technically off duty he was still strapped. Like most cops, it was rare that he went anywhere without his gun.
He got out of the car and walked into the pawn shop, scanning his surroundings as he went.
He had never had any direct interaction with O’Dwyer before, but he recognized the man as soon as he stepped inside. And he liked the fact that he had the advantage because O’Dwyer had no clue who he was.
He spent a few minutes strolling the dusty aisles and looking over the assembled castoffs and other discarded items people had hocked for cash while O’Dwyer finished up with a customer. When the other man finally left, Isaac meandered to the front of the store, toward the counter.
“Anything special I can help ya find, mate?” O’Dwyer said, his thick Irish brogue on full display.
Isaac stared at him. “Just you.”
Those words and the intimidating glare that Isaac had perfected over the years clearly took the man aback. When Isaac flashed his detectives shield at him, the startled look in O’Dwyer’s eyes gave him a small sense of satisfaction.
“I’m Detective Sgt. Isaac Taylor. I know you’re friendly with my wife, Sidney. I believe you call her The Social Worker.”
That startled look morphed immediately into nervousness, and O’Dwyer took a step back.
That made Isaac suspicious.
O’Dwyer took another step back, inching closer to the open door of the back room.
Isaac stepped around the counter before the man could make a dash for it.
O’Dwyer raised both his hands. “Okay, okay. Now I don’t know what the lass has told ya, but our association is strictly professional.”
“I know that.”
“Well, our business association is in good standin’ too. We’ve got no beef with each other. In fact, s-she told me once that the only reason she came to me was because you pointed her in my direction!”
“Shut up and listen!” Isaac snapped, to which O’Dwyer complied. “I am not here to trip you up in any way. I just want to know what kind of trouble you’ve gotten my wife into.”
That statement seemed to shock O’Dwyer.
“I haven’t!”
“So you don’t know anything about somebody cutting the brake line in her car?” Isaac demanded.
And those words appeared to truly shake him.
“Sid’s brakes were cut? Well, is she all right, mate? The wee ones?”
Ronan O’Dwyer’s genuine reaction to the news and the concern in both his voice and his expression took all the wind out of Isaac’s sails. His own voice was much less fierce when he responded.
“They’re all alive,” Isaac said. “The babies are five weeks early. They’re in incubators.”
O’Dwyer groaned and glanced at the floor before meeting Ike’s gaze again. “I am so so sorry, mate. Truly. I-I like Sid. She’s real good people. Is there anything that I can do fer either one of ya?”
Isaac hesitated for a beat, caught off guard. He hadn’t been expecting that incredibly heartfelt question from this supposedly untrustworthy man.
“Yeah. Do me a favor. Keep your ears open. Let me know if you hear anything about who might have done this.” He pulled a card from his pocket and left it on the counter.
O’Dwyer nodded. “I will. Would ya tell Sid the Social Worker that I’m happy she and the wee babes are okay? Yer family will be in me prayers.”
Isaac nodded, then he turned and left the shop.
39
Back in his car Isaac tried to swallow past the lump rising in his throat. Then he started up the car and pointed it toward the hospital. He needed to get back there and check on Sidney.
Honestly, he simply needed to see her.
To be close to her.
Maybe his boss was right. Maybe he should turn this investigation over to his partner. Let Pete handle it while he planted himself at Sidney’s side and watched over his family for the next two weeks.
He instructed Siri to call Pete.
“Hey partner. You having any luck?” Pete asked as he answered the call.
“No. Not a single lead. I’ve questioned three people who work closely with Sid, but so far my efforts have yielded nothing.”
“Yeah, well I was thinking… what are the odds that someone would be coming after me and after Sidney at the same time?”
Isaac thought about that for a moment. “Are you suggesting that this is a coordinated effort? That the same person who’s taking shots at you is the same person who sabotaged Sidney’s car?”
“Yeah, I guess that is a bit of a stretch, huh?” Pete said. “I mean, someone taking shots at me is totally different than cutting the brake line of a car.”
“I don’t know, man,” Isaac sighed. “You could be right. My brain is just mush right now.”
“I completely understand. You’ve been through a lot in the last few days. You’ve got to be fried. You just get yourself back to your family and try not to worry too much. We will get to the bottom of this, man.”
“Thanks, Pete.”
“Yep.”
He was still thinking about all of it when he entered the hospital and journeyed up to the maternity ward to Sidney’s room. He needed to just spend some time with the woman he loved and their twins.
When he reached Sidney’s room, the first thing that registered in his mind was that Sidney was sleeping.
Then he saw the man.
