Lisa Jackson's Bentz And Montoya Bundle Part 263

Jada looked from Bentz to Montoya before focusing on the gun still trained on her. "Oh, c.r.a.p," she said, biting her lip and obviously struggling with her decision.

"It'll go much easier on you if you tell us about your boyfriend," Montoya urged.

"Boyfriend? Fernando?"

"He's the mastermind."

She laughed. "He couldn't mastermind his way out of a open bag. He's not behind it," she said with a sneer.

"Then who?"

Her eyes narrowed a bit. Calculating. Then she tossed more guilt Fernando's way and let out a long-suffering sigh. "It was someone he knew, okay? A woman."

"What woman?" Bentz asked.

Jada sent Montoya a go-screw-yourself glare. "You can put that down now."

He holstered his weapon, then stripped the keys to the SUV that Jada still had clutched in her fingers.

"Someone paid you to mess with my mind."

"I guess." She lifted a shoulder, showed some more of her att.i.tude.

"You know!" know!" G.o.d, he wanted to shake the truth from her. "Listen, you're in big trouble." How could she not get it? "People are dead." He yanked out the picture of Olivia being held captive, looking scared out of her mind, and stuck it under Jada's nose. "Meet my wife. The one who's missing. Your friend, the person who hired you, abducted her." There was a tremor of rage in his voice and his hands, holding the picture, shook. G.o.d, he wanted to shake the truth from her. "Listen, you're in big trouble." How could she not get it? "People are dead." He yanked out the picture of Olivia being held captive, looking scared out of her mind, and stuck it under Jada's nose. "Meet my wife. The one who's missing. Your friend, the person who hired you, abducted her." There was a tremor of rage in his voice and his hands, holding the picture, shook.

"She's not not my friend." Jada's face paled as she stared at the copy of the picture. She cringed as he noticed the terror in Olivia's eyes, the raw skin around Olivia's mouth. my friend." Jada's face paled as she stared at the copy of the picture. She cringed as he noticed the terror in Olivia's eyes, the raw skin around Olivia's mouth.

"We have other pictures," Bentz said, his voice low and threatening. "Of the corpses. Maybe you'd like to see Shana McIntyre in her pool, or Lorraine Newell with her brains blown out, or Fortuna Esperanzo-"

"Enough!" she said, tears welling in her eyes. "For the love of G.o.d, I don't know anything about any murders, okay? I mean...I did get involved with this freak of a woman who wanted me to play someone. An acting role, that's all. She claimed that if I dyed my hair darker, curled it, wore some green-colored contacts, and put in some cheek prostheses, I would be a dead ringer for this Jennifer woman." To prove her point, she took out her contacts, her eye turning a pale blue, then she extracted false teeth and cheek prostheses, changing her appearance. "She had a vial of perfume she wanted me to wear and so...so I did. You have to trust me. No one was supposed to get hurt."

"Like h.e.l.l."

"Really. She said it was just an elaborate prank. She wanted to scare an old boyfriend. And she was going to pay me big money."

"How big?"

"Twenty-five grand. Thirty if I'd do the jump into Devil's Caldron. She thought of that after she heard I used to high dive."

"Thirty thousand dollars," Bentz spat out, disgusted. "What is that, about eight thousand a life?"

"I told you I didn't know anything about anyone getting killed!" she said emphatically. Suddenly she was serious as she started to finally see how dire her situation was. "I tried to get out of it, but she wouldn't let me. I really thought it was a joke, one of those elaborate pranks you see on TV. I figured I might get some exposure out of it, jump-start my career. She gave me a script and coached me over the phone, and I got a couple of free trips to New Orleans out of it. Her one rule was that I not not get caught. I guess I blew that." She parted, looking ruefully at the oil-stained concrete floor. Bentz decided she was sorrier for the loss of her fee, as opposed to the loss of life. What a piece of work! get caught. I guess I blew that." She parted, looking ruefully at the oil-stained concrete floor. Bentz decided she was sorrier for the loss of her fee, as opposed to the loss of life. What a piece of work!

"Who is she?" Bentz demanded. "Who hired you?"

"I don't know. I never saw her. We just talked on the phone."

"How did you get paid?"

"Cash..." Jada reluctantly gave it up. "She said she'd been saving it for years. She left it for me in a locker at my gym in Santa Monica, not far from the Third Street Promenade."

"You got the money already?"

"Part of it. Only five thousand, to help me pay my rent..." Her voice faded as she finally understood the gravity of her situation, and it was finally hitting hard.

"I'll want the address of the gym where she left the money. You're a member?"

"Yeah. It was...a perk. I had to look good, be in shape, be able to swim, you know."

Bentz wanted to throttle the selfish b.i.t.c.h, but he controlled the urge by reminding himself of Olivia. He had to save his wife.

"And we'll need the script," Montoya added.

"Yeah, yeah."

Montoya asked, "How does Fernando Valdez fit into this?"

"He doesn't," she said with a shrug. "I was supposed to use him, get to know him, pay him some attention, get him to do things for me."

"Like loan you the car."

She rolled her eyes and sighed.

"A smoke screen," Bentz said, "so I wouldn't be looking in the right direction."

Jada said, "I guess. She didn't want me to have anything to do with the police department, either. And I was told to avoid somebody named Hayes. He was totally off limits."

"Hayes?" Bentz said barely able to draw a breath.

"Yeah. I thought maybe he was in on it with her."

Jonas Hayes? A bad cop? No way.

"You think?" Montoya said, as if reading Bentz's mind.

Bentz shook his head. "No. Couldn't be him."

"I'm just sayin'." Jada shrugged as if she didn't have a care in the world, her bad att.i.tude returning. "She said something once, like, I don't know, when I asked about what was going on, she told me not to worry, that she had it handled that Jonas would take care of things, or tell her about it."

"Pillow talk?" Bentz said with mind-numbing certainty.

"I don't know." Jada rolled her now-blue eyes. "Maybe."

Not just maybe. It made sense. Bentz had suspected a cop. And if it was a cop with access to police intelligence, someone with a position at Parker Center, someone who could learn through Hayes how the investigation was going, he or she could be one step ahead.

Someone like Corrine O'Donnell.

A woman he'd dumped twice. For Jennifer. Bentz cringed inside, not willing to believe...then he remembered Corrine's overly concerned smile and words of encouragement when he'd filed the Missing Person's report on Olivia. How could he have missed it? Corrine, involved with Jonas, Bentz's link to the LAPD.

It explained how Jada had antic.i.p.ated Bentz's every move. Bentz's throat went dry as his mind sped through the past week, the images of dead women, car chases, "Jennifer" sightings.

Was it really possible?

Was Corrine the one behind all this?

And Hayes, holy Mother of G.o.d, how did he fit in?

Jonas Hayes had known everything Bentz was doing, had insisted they play it by the book. The wail of sirens split the night air, reverberating through the parking garage, snapping Bentz back to the moment. The LAPD was on its way. "You'd better not be bulls.h.i.tting me," he warned Jada.

"I just want to get paid." She eyed him expectantly.

Montoya sent her a look of pure disgust. "Yeah, well, I wouldn't bet on it. I want to be Brad Pitt, you know, but sometimes things don't work out the way we plan."

Her lip curled. "Yeah, well, too bad about the Brad Pitt thing," she said and Bentz could almost see the wheels turning in her mind. "And by the way, I want my lawyer. I'm not saying another word until we have some kind of deal."

Martinez stopped by Hayes's desk and handed him blowups of the picture of Olivia. "This is the hard copy of what they came up with in the lab."

Technicians in the lab had a.n.a.lyzed the shot, which they'd enlarged and enhanced in an attempt to bring out every detail of the picture, even images that were hidden.

"They sent it to you via e-mail, too."

"Got it," Hayes said, bone tired. He compared the images, on the screen, on paper.

"It's a boat, obviously," Martinez said. Sliding her finger a bit, she touched the corner of the picture over Olivia's head. "These puffy things stuffed in here? Life jackets. And take a look at those curved lines on the walls. Seems to be painted with stripes." She pointed to a detail in another blowup. "They make that out to be the handle of an oar."

"A boat. So she's being held on the water somewhere?" Jonas touched the knot of his tie, thinking about that. "So in a marina probably? Or private boat slip? Or...even dry-docked?" He eyed each shot, looking for more details.

"Or out to sea."

"d.a.m.n." Something about the blowup nagged at him, tugged at his mind.

"We might have to coordinate a search effort with the Coast Guard." Martinez brought him back to reality as she tapped another shot. "There's an image that isn't visible to the naked eye in this one. The lab thinks it's a script, probably the name of the vessel on a life preserver. It ends in n, n, e. n, n, e."

Hayes closed his eyes for a second, then looked again. She was right. The image resembled a life preserver. With the letters n, n, e n, n, e stenciled on faintly. stenciled on faintly.

The end of a boat's name?

He blinked again, feeling a sense of dread crashing over him as he studied the original photo. It couldn't be.

No way.

No f.u.c.kin' way.

But the boat looked so d.a.m.ned familiar.

He'd seen those preservers, those oars. His insides turned to ice...no, it couldn't be...but the proof was right in front of his eyes. Those letters on the life preserver, they were the last letters of the Merry Anne Merry Anne, the boat he and Corrine had used a couple of times...

Panic swept through him as his mind turned back to all the cancelled dates, the cell phone calls from G.o.d-only-knew where, the hot s.e.x that never really became warm affection, the understanding of his job and the questions about his cases, and her keen interest in his work.

"It is a boat," he said finally and the realization cut to his very soul. How could he have been so stupid? So blind? "It's the Merry Anne. Merry Anne. It was named after Corrine O'Donnell's mother, Merry, by her father." It was named after Corrine O'Donnell's mother, Merry, by her father."

"Corrine?" Martinez repeated, looking at him as if he'd gone around the bend. "But, she-"

"Is my girlfriend. I know." Bile crawled up his throat, bitter with betrayal.

"I was going to say she's a cop."

"Which makes it worse, because she's our killer, Martinez, and she's got Olivia Bentz held captive in the hold of the G.o.dd.a.m.ned Merry Anne Merry Anne." His eyes held hers for a second before he picked up the phone. "I'll call the marina, make sure the boat is still in her slip."

"And if it isn't?"

He didn't want to think about that, how far Corrine, an excellent sailor, could be out to sea. "Then we'll call the Coast Guard."

CHAPTER 39.

"The way I figure it, you've got two choices," Montoya said as he followed the flashing lights of the police cruiser hauling Jada Hollister to Parker Center. "One, you can tell Hayes straight out that his girlfriend is a freakin' killer. Or two, you do an end run around him and tell someone else in the squad about it, just in case Hayes is involved."

Bentz tapped his finger on the window ledge of Montoya's rented Mustang. "My gut tells me Hayes isn't in on it. How could he be? With all the hours he put in with me trying to crack this case? A guy can't be two places at once."

"So go with your gut." Montoya nodded as he took a corner a little too fast and the tires chirped. He slowed for a second, then punched it again as he hit the freeway. "It's worked for you so far. But we've got to cut through the c.r.a.p fast and get to this Corrine. If she's the one who's got Olivia, we need to find her now."

Bentz nodded, unable to clear the image of his wife, peering through the bars of her prison, from his mind. All because of him.

Hang on, he willed her. he willed her. Just keep it together. We'll be there soon. Just keep it together. We'll be there soon.

"What really gets my goat is thinking that another cop is behind all this," Montoya said, staring ahead to the dark road. "Someone from the inside. That'll be a black eye on the department."

Another cop. That burned Bentz the most. A woman he'd once cared about, made love to. Corrine. She was behind all the death and destruction. She'd kidnapped Olivia and was planning no doubt to kill her, if she hadn't already. That burned Bentz the most. A woman he'd once cared about, made love to. Corrine. She was behind all the death and destruction. She'd kidnapped Olivia and was planning no doubt to kill her, if she hadn't already.

To h.e.l.l with playing by the book.

They planned to follow the squad car to Parker Center, blow the whistle on this cop gone bad, and enlist every hand they could to help them find Corrine O'Donnell.

"We'll get her," Montoya said, his face grim in the lights of the dash. "We'll find Olivia and we'll nail O'Donnell's hide to the wall."

No backing off.

No excuses.