Page 28

“We already got our cuts.” Teague sat immobile, staring at her, unexpectedly telling her about his complicity. He looked just as surprised to realize he had done it, pulling his hands out of his pockets and running them through his hair. “I mean?—”

“So, how much did you get?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Okay, look, I want a deal.” He kept talking before she could tell him it would be up to the district attorney. “I got five thousand dollars.”

“How much was paid in total?”

“We all got five thousand.”

At least, she was sure that’s what Denny told them. But she was also certain that he would have had the lion’s share and wouldn’t have told his minions how much he was actually getting from the deal.

“Where would Denny and Eloise have gone, and why did you and Lionel head out the back door while they were driving off in their car?”

“I have no idea where that bastard took off to. We’re all in on this together, and then suddenly, it’s every man and woman for himself. Eloise goes along with everything he says or does. She’s like a cult follower.”

“But you?”

“Hell, the two took off while I was in the bathroom, and Lionel was out on the back deck smoking. That’s when I heard Dennis and Eloise leave quickly and knew Lionel and I were in trouble. They just left us to take the fall!”

That’s what Monica liked to hear. No loyalty among criminals.

“When I saw Lionel running down the hill, I followed him.”

“You weren’t after me?” She raised her brows. She knew he had planned to take her down. Maybe not kill her, but stop her from going after Lionel and him, had he reached her in the snowdrifts.

Teague said nothing; he stared at the table and tapped his foot on the floor.

“I don’t understand why Eloise was with Denny when he and Helen were together.”

Teague frowned at Monica. “Eloise is with Denny. He and Helen are old news.”

“But…” That’s certainly not what she saw when Helen was with Denny at the cabin before they took them into custody. Had she made the mistake of thinking Helen was in on the faux kidnapping scheme when she was a kidnapped victim? But it sure didn’t look like it.

Teague was eyeing her, waiting for her to finish what she had to say.

“Where are Helen and Wendell?”

“Hell, if I know. Listen, I’m not the boss of this thing, get that? I was just one of the deliverymen.”

“Why did you go to Pierre’s house instead of arranging to pick up the money at some other location? Somewhere that no one could identify you?”

“He disabled his security cameras.”

“At Wendell’s request?”

“Hell, no. He didn’t want to be caught in this whole thing.” Teague looked at her like he thought she was an idiot.

“Because Pierre was behind the whole kidnapping?” She was sure she looked shocked.

“Bingo, lady. You get the prize.”

“Why?”

“Because you figured it out. Hell, I thought you already knew all this.”

“No, why would Pierre want to do this?”

“The money? Maybe? Come on, I thought you had figured out this whole thing. Wait, you thought Denny oversaw the operation?” Teague laughed. “That would be the day.”

“How did you know to cut my brake lines, but just enough so that I would be out in the wilderness and in danger?”

Teague didn’t say anything for a moment.

“Someone had to tell you to do it. You wouldn’t have known I would go after Helen and Denny otherwise. So who did?” She leaned forward again, getting closer to him, demanding he tell her what she had to know.

Teague looked at the floor.

“Unless you’re just a maniacal sadist.”

He frowned at her. “Helen told me, all right?”

“Helen?”

“Yeah. On the news, she saw you had rescued a kidnapped victim, and even the vehicle you were driving as you left the scene. We were nearby because we were going to grab Pierre's money. The others stayed in the vehicle. I was a car mechanic, so I knew how to handle it.”

That finally sounded plausible.

“She said Pierre had the hots for you, which really bothered her. He knew Helen had been with Denny at his grandparents’ cabin.

Helen bet any amount of money that he would call you up since you were in the area, his old girlfriend, who solved kidnapping cases, and ask you to go to her rescue because he was still hung up on you.

So she told me to make it impossible for that to happen just in case she was right. ”

“Wow.” Helen the bitch . “Okay, well, I’ll be right back.” Monica needed to talk with Lionel and Andy.

When she left the interview room, Andy joined her. “You know damn well he planned to take you down when he was chasing after you.”

“Yeah, and I was lucky to have you as my backup, or Teague might have. He had much longer legs, but I was waiting for just the right moment to cold cock him with my gun. But I might not have knocked him out all the way, so I was glad you zip-tied his wrists right away. I hate to ask, was the gun Lionel had on him yours?”

Andy’s ears were tinged a little red. “Yeah.”

“Good. Then you’ve got it back, though it will be used as evidence in the upcoming trial. At least we know he’s no longer able to use it in the commission of a crime. So from what Teague says, Pierre oversaw the kidnapping.”

“And Helen was responsible for having your brake lines cut.”

“Yeah, that was a surprise and a half.” Monica got on her phone, called her boss, and told him what she’d learned from Teague. “I will speak to Lionel next to see if he verifies what Teague said.”

“Let me know as soon as possible so that I can relay the word to the other agents in the field.”

“I will, sir.” They ended the call, and she hugged Andy. “This case is a nightmare and a half.”

“But at least we have two villains locked up, including Harvey, though he hadn’t been in on the kidnapping case.”

“We just need to get the rest of them.” Then, they walked to the next interview room, where she went in to talk to Lionel, and Andy watched through the viewing window.

Lionel was leaning back in the chair, arms folded across his chest, looking nonchalant.

She sat opposite him, started the recording, and read Lionel his rights. “Okay, so Teague told me about everyone’s involvement in the case.”

“Shit,” Lionel said, his indifference changing immediately to one of concern.

“We’ve got Trooper MacMathan’s gun back; we have a body cam of your involvement at the cabin and how you tried to kill him. We have a body cam of you trying to kill us with his gun just an hour ago behind Eloise’s house.”

“If you know so much, why question me?” Lionel lifted his hands as if punctuating the question.

“Denny said you were the mastermind of the whole operation.”

“No way in hell. Pierre was.”

She didn’t know what to think. “How much money did you get?”

“Five thousand. I’m sure Teague already told you that.”

“He did, but they didn’t split the money equally. Two million dollars? Not a very equitable share, I wouldn’t think.”

“Two million, no way.”

“I don’t get why Eloise and Denny were hooking up at her house when he was hooking up with Helen at the cabin.”

“What?”

“Having sex. I mean, if she were a hostage. Helen, that is.”

“Of course, she was a hostage. As mad as Denny was that you handcuffed us and we couldn’t get free until I managed to lift the couch, he was even madder that you thought she was a liar and in on the whole scheme. That was until he thought he could use it to his advantage.”

“Aww, but she told Teague to cut my brake lines, so why would she do that? I’m sure you and Wendell watched him while he did it. He said both of you stayed in the vehicle.”

“Damn it, Teague,” Lionel said under his breath.

“Why would Helen have consensual sex with Denny?” Monica asked, shifting gears and not understanding the dynamics between them.

“She loved the bastard even if she didn’t mean anything to him. She was just a means to an end when he learned she was dating Moneybags Pierre. And Pierre went along with the plan. Pierre didn’t care about Helen either. But he needed money, and the scheme was perfect.”

“Pierre did?” Since Helen was in on the whole scheme, she couldn’t feel sorry for her.

But she really couldn’t believe that Pierre would be in on it.

Maybe his investments had soured, and he was looking at bankruptcy, and this was a way to dig himself out of the hole. “Where did Pierre get the money from?”

“How would I know that?”

“Where are Wendell and Helen?”

“I have no idea. My mistake was in going to Eloise’s house. We were going to split up, but we planned to eat pizzas first, since Eloise was buying them, and then leave. But that weasel, Denny, lit out of there with Eloise and stranded Teague and me.”

“Six pizzas?”

“Yeah. We would have taken anything that was left over with us to have as a snack.”

So no one else had been there then. “You said that Pierre went along with the kidnapping plan. But you also said Pierre was the mastermind in charge of it.”

“Well, he was. Denny learned from Helen that Pierre had tons of money. She wanted to get back with Denny. She thought if they did this scheme, she would pretend to be kidnapped, they would have accomplices get the money from Pierre, and then we would all go our merry way.”

“Wait, so Helen was in charge of the plan?” Man, this was hard to keep up with.

“Yeah, Helen thought up the plan first. I was there when she was seeing Denny and suggested it. She was all excited about how wealthy Pierre was. But when Denny went to Pierre’s house to ‘grab’ Helen, Pierre talked him into a new scheme.

He couldn’t access the money unless he did a con, and then he would split the money with Denny and his cohorts. ”

“All right. I’ll talk to you more later.” Monica left the room and joined Andy.

“It started out with Helen wanting to get the money and be with Denny, and somehow, Pierre took over the plan. But why involve you?” Andy asked.