Читать книгу Colby Rebuilt - Debra Webb - Страница 7

Chapter One

Mary Jane Brooks understood the news was bad the moment she opened her door and saw the resigned slump of the detective’s shoulders.

“We’ve confirmed that the—” Detective Brandon Bailen, Chicago PD, cleared his throat “—the remains are Rebecca’s.”

Mary Jane’s heart plummeted and her knees weakened. Holding on to the doorframe was all that kept her vertical. “You’re certain there’s no mistake.” She moistened her trembling lips and struggled to hold back the tears. “Labs do make mistakes. I read about—”

“There’s no mistake, Ms. Brooks.”

Rebecca was dead.

On some level Mary Jane had known for a while now that her sister was gone, but hearing the words somehow made it new…made it hurt so badly.

“Thank you, Detective.” Mary Jane managed to draw in a deep, shuddering breath. “Do you know what happened? Was she—” working up the courage to say the word took monumental effort “—murdered?”

Sympathy softened Bailen’s usually firm expression. He was a tall, thin man with stark features, yet he was the kindest cop she had met during this awful ordeal. “Yes, ma’am, we have reason to believe so.”

Mary Jane closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the details, but how else could she ever know the whole truth? She opened her eyes and looked directly into the detective’s. “How?”

“Massive head trauma.”

The image of a broken and battered skull flashed in her mind. She tightened her hold on the doorframe, her fingers ice cold. “I see.”

But she didn’t see. Her sister hadn’t been in trouble. She had been guilty of nothing more than doing the right thing. Rebecca had told her weeks before she disappeared that she was going to have to take a stand against her employer. She hadn’t elaborated on the specifics, only that the company or the CEO or maybe both were up to something illegal. Rebecca had known she had to do something…the right thing.

Mary Jane had known the situation was far more serious than her sister had related when the federal authorities—FBI as well as the Marshals Service—had called to inquire as to Rebecca’s whereabouts less than forty-eight hours after she had vanished. Now, eleven months later, Mary Jane’s worst fears were confirmed.

There was nothing she could do but bury her only sibling just as she had buried both her parents in the past three months.

Mary Jane was alone. The realization crashed in around her, leaving her shaking in spite of her best efforts to remain stoic.

Her whole family was gone.

“When can I claim her remains?” Mary Jane forced the question past her lips. Seeing that Rebecca had a proper service and burial was the one remaining detail she could attend to for her sister. In all these months one would think that she would have been better prepared for this moment. But she wasn’t. It felt impossible…surreal.

“That may take some time,” Bailen warned, his tone careful. “The FBI is launching a new investigation and, of course, we’ll be coordinating our own with theirs in an effort to get to the bottom of what really happened.”

Mary Jane understood. “You’ll keep me posted?” That seemed like the proper question to ask next in light of the circumstances. She had no idea how this sort of business was handled. Her only experience with criminal investigations was watching television. Surely the authorities kept the family informed.

Dear God. Her sister was dead.

Mary Jane was alone.

“As soon as we know any details,” Bailen promised, “I’ll pass along what I can.”

Her head moved up and down in a motion of agreement, but Mary Jane’s thoughts were churning on the horror evolving in her head. Rebecca running away from her killer…or maybe struggling with him. Him bashing her over the head…once, twice and then again.

“Where?” Mary Jane hadn’t even realized the inquiry had taken shape in her brain until she heard the word echo in the corridor outside her apartment. She should have asked the detective in, she realized belatedly. Instead, she’d stood here in the doorway and listened to the news no one ever wanted to hear.

Bailen looked confused. “Where?”

“Where did you find her…remains?”

With that question, the full implications collapsed around her with new, brutal impact. She had another funeral to plan. It seemed unbelievable. So much death in so little time.

“That’s part of the puzzle,” Bailen said wearily. “Her remains were found amid the rubble of the building downtown that once housed the Colby Agency.”

Colby Agency?

“What sort of business is that?” Mary Jane wasn’t familiar with the name. Insurance? Staffing?

“The Colby Agency is a private investigation agency,” Bailen explained. “Been a prominent Chicago fixture for more than a quarter of a century. The building was blown up last Christmas Eve by thugs attempting to cover up fraud at an investment firm located at the same address. For a while there was some question as to whether the Colby Agency or the investment firm was the target, but that investigation is closed now.”

“Why would my sister have been at a private investigation agency?” That didn’t make sense to Mary Jane. Why wouldn’t Rebecca have told her about that kind of thing? But then, she hadn’t told her everything about the trouble with her employer. Did the Colby Agency have something to do with her testimony against Horizon Software?

There was no way for Rebecca to even guess. Her sister would have kept things from her in an effort to protect her. It was part of the “older sibling” mentality. She hadn’t told Mary Jane the gritty truth about her employer for that very reason. Sure Mary Jane had known there were problems and that Rebecca was going to blow the whistle, but, as Mary Jane had learned over the past few months, those details had only scratched the surface. Mary Jane doubted she would ever know everything that had happened between her sister, Horizon Software and the federal authorities.

“I can’t answer that question, Ms. Brooks,” the detective admitted, drawing her from her painful thoughts. “But I can tell you that we’re going to find out. That’s a promise.”

Mary Jane thanked the detective and then watched him go. The thought of going back into her apartment was almost unbearable. She knew what would happen.

She would go inside and close the door. And then she would break down. The idea of being in public, if only in the deserted corridor of her apartment building, helped to keep her unsteady composure in place. She had to be the strong one when it came to situations like this. She’d always been the one everyone counted on to handle the routine things life threw in her path…the one who took care of things no one else had the time or inclination to. Rebecca had been too busy making her mark in the business world to bother with the everyday trivialities.

Now she was alone. Completely alone.

Mary Jane straightened away from the door, squared her shoulders in defiance of the trembling rampant in her body. Yes, she would cry. And then she would pull herself together and notify the distant relatives; and then she would make the memorial service arrangements—with or without the remains.

Then, when those necessary arrangements were out of the way, there was one other thing she decided she had to do.

She had to know for certain why Rebecca was dead.

Rebecca Brooks had been a good person. A wonderful woman, barely thirty-two, with her entire life ahead of her. She had gone to church most Sundays and had provided significant financial support for her elderly parents. Rebecca’s help was the reason Mary Jane had been able to take an extended leave of absence from her teaching and stay home to care for their ailing parents rather than putting them in a nursing home.

Someone had murdered Rebecca for attempting to do the right thing—that had to be it, there simply was no other possible reason—and Mary Jane intended to see that whoever did this horrible thing was punished to the fullest extent of the law.

She had no idea how a murder investigation was conducted, but she did know where to start.

The Colby Agency.

The last place her sister had been before she was murdered. The place where she’d taken her final breath.

THE COLBY AGENCY HAD A NEW HOME. The tenth floor of a daring high-rise that gleamed against the Chicago skyline, displaying the same elegance and domination the world had come to expect of the prestigious agency.

Victoria Colby-Camp smiled as she looked out over the city she loved. The view was somewhat different, but the pulse of the thriving metropolis stretching out before her was exactly the same. Thanksgiving was only a couple of weeks away, and Victoria had a great deal to be thankful for.

A soft rap on her door pulled Victoria’s attention from her thoughts and the view. Ben Haygood, the agency’s software and hardware expert, hovered at the door of her office.

“Yes, Ben?”

Now that, to his way of thinking, permission to enter had been granted, he burst into the room like the lean mass of vibrant energy he was. “Ma’am, we’ve encountered a slight glitch in the backup files we retrieved from the cyber storage system.”

All had been lost in the explosion that had brought down the agency’s former home. Ben had worked tirelessly for weeks since the opening of the new building to get everything in order. While working from their temporary quarters, minimal files had been pulled from cyber storage. Now that they were settled in their new home, hard copies of all electronically stored files were to be retrieved and reorganized.

“What sort of problem?” Victoria asked as she moved to the chair behind her desk. It wasn’t the one she had used for so very many years—the one that James, her first husband and the founder of the Colby Agency had used—but it was quite comfortable and unquestionably elegant.

“The download has stopped midstream, and a secondary password has been requested.” Ben pulled at the tie that already hung loosely at his throat. “I…ah…can’t remember the secondary password we selected.”

That didn’t sound like Ben at all. He never forgot anything, much less a password. And even when there was a glitch, he generally took care of it and then told her about it. Evidently settling into the new building had disrupted his usually unshakable sangfroid. “Is that going to be a major problem?” she inquired cautiously, not wanting to make him more uncomfortable but needing clarification.

He shook his head enthusiastically. “I just need your authorization to override the password.”

Now she got the picture. “Of course.” Victoria settled into her chair and opened the laptop on her desk. “Walk me through the steps, Ben.”

Ten seconds later Ben had his authorization.

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Victoria gifted him with a smile she hoped relieved his obvious embarrassment. “Thank you, Ben, for taking such good care of our files.”

He nodded as he backed out of her office, then he wheeled around and promptly bumped into Elaine Younger. Victoria smothered a laugh as Ben went overboard to offer his apologies. She sincerely hoped that one of these days he found someone who would truly appreciate him for all his many endearing assets. He could certainly do with a little grounding.

When Ben stepped aside, Elaine and Darla White, the agency’s new receptionist, entered Victoria’s office. Victoria didn’t miss the way Ben stared, quite dreamily, after Darla before heading off to attend to the files. A secret smile tugged at the corners of Victoria’s mouth. So maybe this was the reason Ben was so out of sorts lately. She would definitely have to look into the idea of a match between Ben and Darla.

“Do you have a moment, Victoria?”

“Certainly.” Victoria indicated the chairs in front of her desk. “What can I do for you?”

Elaine gestured to the younger woman beside her and said, “I believe Darla is ready to take over on Monday, if that’s agreeable.”

Today was Friday the tenth, and Darla had worked a full two months under Elaine’s tutelage to learn the ropes of being the receptionist for the Colby Agency, a job that entailed far more than merely answering the telephone and greeting visitors.

“You’re absolutely right,” Victoria concurred. “I’ve been very impressed with your progress, Darla.”

The agency’s newest employee blushed. Only twenty-two, this was Darla’s first job since graduating college. Her father was a longtime friend, who owned one of Victoria’s favorite restaurants. Victoria was more than glad to bring his lovely daughter on board. Darla, who wanted no part of the family business, made a fine addition to the agency’s staff. In the past seven months, since getting business back up to full steam, they had gone through three trainees. Two had realized, within a week of starting, that the job was more then they could handle. The third, very promising candidate had been forced to leave after her fiancé had been reassigned to his company’s Tokyo office.

Darla, however, had proven unshakable. She rolled with the punches and didn’t let anything undermine her confidence. Now that Victoria thought about it, the nice young lady would be the perfect match for Ben.

“I’ll be moving on to research…” Elaine went on, prodding Victoria back to the business at hand, “as soon as I’m back from my honeymoon.”

More romance in bloom. A definite cause for celebration. Elaine and Brad Gibson were getting married next week. She would be working alongside her new husband in the agency’s research group. This wasn’t the first married couple to be employed by the Colby Agency. Nicole Reed and Ian Michaels had been successfully working together for years. In actuality the entire agency was like one big family. A feat that was a matter of pride to Victoria.

“Excellent.” Victoria thought of her own husband, Lucas Camp, who was out of town yet again on business. She missed him when he was gone. Thankfully, he would be home this evening.

Mildred Ballard, Victoria’s personal assistant and dear friend, stuck her head through the open doorway. “Detective Brandon Bailen is here to see you, Victoria.”

“Thank you, Mildred. Tell Detective Bailen I’ll be right with him.” Victoria shifted her attention back to Elaine and Darla. “Why don’t you take the rest of the day off, Elaine? Darla can manage without you, and I’m certain you have a million and one things to do.”

Elaine’s face lit up. “Thank you, Victoria.”

The two hurried away and Victoria couldn’t help feeling a bit nostalgic. Where had the years gone? She was a grandmother. Her son was happy with his lovely wife and beautiful baby girl. Another grandchild was on the way. Victoria sighed. Everything was changing, maybe a little too fast, but all for the good.

She rose as her visitor from the Chicago Police Department reached her door.

“Detective Bailen, this is an unexpected pleasure.”

Bailen strode straight to Victoria’s desk and took the hand she offered. “It’s very good to see you, Victoria. The new place—” he glanced around her office “—is very elegant. It suits you.”

“Thank you. We’re still settling in.” But she sensed this was not a social call, so she got straight down to business. “How may I help you this afternoon?”

“I have some rather belated and unsettling details from the lab regarding your former business address.”

“Please—” Victoria gestured to a chair “—make yourself comfortable, Detective.”

When Victoria had taken her seat, Bailen settled into his. From his weary expression she surmised that whatever he had come to report was not something he looked forward to passing along.

“We’ve just learned that the human remains discovered in the rubble of the Colby Agency building belonged to two different people.”

His revelation sent a shock wave through Victoria. “Two? Was there another perpetrator involved that we didn’t know about?” Elaine and Brad had barely survived that final night in the Colby Agency’s former home. One of the perps who had tried to kill them had been murdered by his own people and left in the building. Additionally, the three musicians the agency had hired had been murdered in their van in the parking lot. But, so far as they knew, no one else had died inside the building except the one man. This revelation didn’t quite add up.

Bailen’s expression showed his own frustration. “According to the three convicted perps sitting in prison, there was only the four of them. The remains of their dead partner, as you know, were recovered a few weeks after the explosion.”

Victoria didn’t understand. “So, if there was no one else in the building, how could there be remains from two people?”

“I wish I knew. All I can tell you is that there were two distinct sets of remains. Unfortunately, the second set of remains was separated from the first due to a simple human error, which caused the lab initially to report on only the one. Apparently, a recent inventory uncovered the glitch, and additional testing was done to confirm the error.”

“You’re certain—” Victoria hated to broach the idea but there was certainly just cause to be skeptical “—that the lab didn’t make a mistake in where these particular remains came from?” After all, nearly a year had passed.

“We’re certain,” he assured her. “The trace evidence on the remains conclusively confirms where they were discovered.”

“Do we have any idea who this person was?” The idea that remains were discovered in the rubble didn’t guarantee that the individual had been in the building to visit the Colby Agency. A number of other businesses had been housed at that location, as well.

“Rebecca Brooks. Dental records confirmed her identity.” Bailen seemed to consider the name before he continued. “We have reason to believe she was in the building to see someone in the Colby Agency. Part of the basis for that conclusion is related to several calls to your agency that showed up on the cellular records of her boyfriend. The calls were made during times that FBI surveillance puts the two of them together. But the primary rationale is that she was about to go into the Witness Security Program related to the Horizon Software case. We feel she may have felt the need for the kind of support you provide your clients.”

Victoria was vaguely familiar with the Horizon Software case. Considering Ms. Brooks’s situation prior to her death, Victoria could see how the detective had come to the conclusion that she had contacted the Colby Agency. Someone about to go into Witness Security wouldn’t likely be making investments or purchasing insurance. None of the other businesses housed in the building that was the agency’s former home would offer much to anyone in that position…except for the Colby Agency. Using her boyfriend’s phone would certainly have provided some anonymity in her efforts to reach out under the circumstances.

Still, the conclusion was more hunch than fact. “I’d like the name of her boyfriend, if possible.”

“Jason Mackey.”

Recognition nudged Victoria. Jason Mackey was one of the musicians murdered in the parking lot only hours before the explosion. Victoria hadn’t known him personally as she had the other two members of the trio. Mackey had been a last-minute stand-in with the group Mildred had hired to provide entertainment for the annual Colby Agency Christmas party. The idea that Mackey wasn’t a regular member of the band and that his girlfriend had been about to testify in a federal court case hardly seemed a chance occurrence, but wasn’t totally outside the realm of possibility.

“Since no one at your agency,” Bailen went on, “knew Jason Mackey or coordinated the entertainment for your office Christmas party directly with him, there’s no apparent reason for him to have made those calls. On the other hand, Rebecca Brooks was in a prime position to be in search of exactly the sort of assistance your agency provides. Perhaps someone here spoke with her,” he suggested, “maybe even met with her that day.”

Speculation, sheer speculation. Or, as she had already considered, coincidence. Still, Victoria had never been one to believe in coincidences. The only question that remained was, What did the woman’s death have to do with the Colby Agency?

Victoria needed an idea of where this was going. “Will you be heading an investigation, or is the Bureau going to handle this?” She was relatively certain the Bureau would have priority.

“I’ll be coordinating with the Justice Department,” Bailen confirmed her conclusion. “Both the Bureau and the Marshals have a vested interest in this case, though the Bureau will certainly be lead. I wanted to give you a heads-up. You could have information that would help us solve this mystery. If there is any record of her speaking with or coming to see one of your investigators, anything she might have said could be useful to our investigation. Ascertaining what might have been going on in her life that she may have kept hidden from her Bureau contact could prove pivotal.”

“The name isn’t familiar,” Victoria told him, even as she turned the name over in her mind a second time, “but we’ll double-check our records just to be sure. Under the circumstances, she may have used an alias to protect her identity.”

“I’ll e-mail a photo and a few other pertinent details for your use in discussing Ms. Brooks with your staff.” Bailen stood. “Thank you, Victoria. I knew we could count on your agency for cooperation.”

Victoria rose and offered her hand once more. “Of course, Detective. We’re always pleased to assist Chicago PD any way we can. Please pass that sentiment along to your Bureau counterpart.”

“Will do.” Bailen gave her hand a final shake and made his exit.

Victoria felt certain Chicago PD and the Bureau would get to the bottom of this mystery, but the one thing she never did was leave anything to chance, especially if it involved her agency on any level. The Colby Agency would launch its own investigation.

And she knew just the man for the job, considering Witness Security had been involved.

Former U.S. Marshal Shane Allen.

Whoever Rebecca Brooks had been and whatever her reasons for becoming a homicide victim, the Colby Agency would find the truth.