Tragically Flawed Read online

  “Is that her?”

  “The one and only. Here’s the address in Chicago you need to deliver her to. The guy’s name is Jasper Mossberg. If he’s not home, wait until he gets there. He will be very interested in this package, I guarantee it. He works out at a gym called Muscles. If you can’t find him at home, you’ll find him there. Make sure you wait until dark to make your delivery. I’ve deposited five thousand dollars into your account. You’ll get the other five once you send me pictures of your delivery confirmation. I want a picture of her body at the address with Jasper. I know what he looks like, so if you try to dupe me, you won’t get paid. Are we clear?”

  “Completely.”

  “One other thing. Jasper isn’t a nice guy, so don’t try to fuck with him.”

  “Gotcha.”

  “The drive should take you about sixteen hours. The drug I gave her should keep her out for about twelve. Here’s another dose that will knock her out for another six, give or take an hour or two. This is all I could get my hands on. If I were you, I’d check on her in about eleven hours, just to make sure she’s not awake. But don’t give her this until right at twelve hours from now. You understand this?”

  “Yep, I’m down.”

  “Good. You don’t want to fuck this up. Whatever you do, pull off onto a deserted road when you check on her. She’s street smart and resourceful. I wouldn’t put anything past her.”

  “Listen, lady, I want this money. I ain’t gonna let her get away.”

  “You better not. Now go pull your car around back so we can load her in your trunk. Then you gotta help me dump her car somewhere.”

  “Sure thing.”

  They took the Highlander up to an area called Piney Lake and removed the license plates. Marsha Sue stuck Riviera’s purse and all her paint supplies in it, along with her cell phone, which she had already destroyed the SIM card. The phone was now completely dead and untraceable.

  When they got back to the house, Marsha Sue and her accomplice parted ways.

  *****

  Shan started calling Riviera at seven and her phone went straight to voice mail. At eight he went to the house and all was dark. Her car was nowhere around, so he drove back home.

  An hour later, after not hearing anything from her, he called Amie. When she said she hadn’t talked to Riviera since the day before, he knew in his gut something was terribly wrong. He called Geordie and Sarah and they both said when they left her at five, everything was fine. She was wrapping everything up and heading home.

  Shan called the police, but they said they couldn’t do anything for another twenty hours. The only other person he knew to call was his brother.

  “Gray, I need your help. Riviera is missing.”

  “Okay, calm down and tell me what's happened.”

  Shan explained the situation and Gray tried to dismiss his concerns with explanations for her absence.

  After going back and forth with Gray, Shan finally convinced him that something had happened to her.

  “Gray, we’re going to St. Lucia in five days. I love the hell out of her. I want to be with her all the time. I would know if we were having issues and she decided to take off for a few days. Something’s happened. You have to believe me!”

  “Damn, Shan. Okay. Have you driven the route she would’ve taken home?”

  “Yes and nothing. Her phone goes straight to voicemail too.”

  “Give me her number and let me see what I can do. I might know someone who may be able to help. Hang tight and stay close to your phone.”

  “I will. And thanks.”

  Ten minutes later Shan’s father called and said he and Patsy were on their way. Shan didn’t even try to talk them out of it because he needed them there.

  At eleven thirty, Mike and Patsy pulled into Shan’s driveway. When they walked into the house, they knew Shan suspected something really bad.

  “Do you think he has her?”

  “Yeah, I do,” Shan said, as he ripped his hands through his hair. “She always worried something like this might happen.”

  “Okay, son, let’s just sit tight and wait until we hear from Gray.”

  “Mom, Dad, I love her so much. We were going to St. Lucia to spend some alone time together. She’s been working so hard … really killing herself to make a go of her business. I just wanted to treat her to some fun and relaxation.”

  “Oh, Shan,” Patsy said, hugging him. “You’ll get her back safe and sound. I know you will, son.”

  “I hope so. You don’t know what he’s like, though. He’s done some awful things to her … really terrible things. She always worried he’d kill her and when she left him, she handcuffed him to a post because he had passed out drunk. That was after he’d raped and beaten her. God knows how many times.”

  “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry. But you’re going to get her back. I promise. We’ll do everything we can.”

  Shan’s cell phone rang. It was Gray.

  “Okay, I found someone who can find her. I’m on the way right now.”

  “Who is it?”

  “I’ll tell you when I get there. I don’t want to talk about it over the phone.”

  “See you in a bit.”

  Shan paced and his parents watched helplessly. All sorts of scenarios flitted threw Shan’s brain, like a movie on fast-forward. Images of Riviera being beaten, tortured, and raped slashed his guts open and left them hanging out, burning and bleeding. His sweet, innocent Riviera was in trouble and he had failed her. He hadn’t been there to protect her like he’d promised.

  “Ahhhh,” he screamed.

  Mike went to his son and said in a firm voice, “Son, you have to get a hold of yourself. Right now, you’re the only one who has a connection to Riviera. We need you to stay levelheaded. Do you understand me?”

  Shan looked at his dad and all he wanted to do was curl up and die. “Yeah, Dad, I understand,” he said, his voice defeated.

  “My God, Shan, you’re acting as though you don’t stand a chance.” Shan whipped around and locked eyes with his father. “You heard me correctly. The Shan I know wouldn’t be taking this crap for anything.”

  “But Dad, I love her and I failed her.”

  “How so?”

  “By not protecting her.”

  “You’re not omniscient, Shan. You protected her as best you could. Now you need to fight to find her.”

  “Come on, let me fix you a drink to calm you down. You’re wound so tight you’re going to snap.”

  A little while later, Gray walked in the door.

  “So the phone company said her chip was deactivated at this address. Is this familiar?”

  Shan looked at the slip of paper Gray handed him and said, “Yeah, that’s where she was working.”

  “So whatever happened, happened there.”

  “I guess so.”

  “Did you go inside the house to look around?”

  “No. When I didn’t see her car, I knew she was gone.”

  “Okay. We have to pick up Drexel Wolfe in thirty minutes from the Eagle-Vail airport so let’s go. We can talk on the way.”

  “How’s he getting here?”

  “He’s flying a helicopter in from Denver.”

  “Who is this guy?” Shan asked incredulously.

  Gray chuckled and said, “He’s an expensive PI who used to be a Navy Seal. I was told he was actually a black ops guy.”

  “Are you serious?”

  Patsy asked from the back seat, “What’s a black ops?”

  “The super undercover guys who go on covert missions, the one’s the government claims they know nothing about so if they get caught, the government has no knowledge of their affairs,” Gray explained.

  “Drexel Wolfe?” Shan asked. “What the hell kind of name is that?”

  “Well, he goes by The Wolfe.”

  “Jeez, Gray, what have you gotten me into.”

  “Saving your fiancée.”

  Shan closed his mouth. Fiancée! Is that wha
t she was? That’s what I hoped she would be one day, but now …

  They arrived at the airport and out walked a man who looked like something from a Tom Clancy novel. Dressed in solid black and carrying a black backpack, he got in the back seat.

  “We set?”

  “Yes,” Gray said.

  “You have pictures?”

  Gray looked at Shan. “I have my phone. The others are back at the house,” Shan said.

  “And you didn’t bring them?”

  “I didn’t know I was supposed to. By the way, I’m Shan and these are …”

  Drexel shook his head and said, “I know who you are.”

  Slammed. That’s what Shan felt like … like he’d been slammed shut.

  “Let’s go back to the house.”

  “Are you serious, Shan?”

  “Well, yeah. If you need pictures.”

  “Do you ever watch TV?”

  “No, why?”

  “Because if you did, you’d realize that the first forty-eight hours is critical. So no, we don’t have time to go back to the house.”

  “Shit.”

  “That about sums it up. Let’s go to the last place you know for a fact that she was.”

  Shan directed Gray to the mansion Riviera had been working in. They pulled up and as Gray got ready to pull into the huge circular driveway, Drexel told him to stop.

  “There may be evidence up there and driving on it may destroy it. I’m going up on foot. Park on the road.”

  Gray followed Drexel’s instructions and parked the car. They got out and Drexel moved with military precision, pulling things out of his backpack and then shrugging it back into place.

  Shan pulled out his keys and hunted the master.

  “Who else, besides you, has keys to this place?”

  “Riviera, my foreman, Phil, and Geordie the designer.”

  “Do any of them have anything against her?”

  “No, not a thing.”

  “Is there anyone else around here who does?”

  “No, not after I fired …” Shan’s voice trailed off after he remembered firing Marsha Sue and the oath of vengeance she swore.

  “I did fire my previous designer and she is a mean, spiteful woman. Now I’m wondering if she had anything to do with it.”

  “Well, let me take a look inside and we’ll go from here. After I do a thorough walk-through over the driveway and the interior, I’ll call you—you can come in then. I just want to caution everyone in this car. When you get inside, do not touch a thing. Understand?”

  Everyone agreed. Drexel put on his night-vision goggles, which had multiple lenses, and slowly walked up the driveway, focused on the ground. He stopped several times and picked things up, but then moved forward. They watched him until he disappeared inside.

  Shan looked at Gray and asked, “Where did you find this dude?”

  “You don’t want to know. All you need to worry about is he’s as good as they get. And Shan?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Don’t question anything he does, okay?”

  Shan nodded. He sat in the front seat, staring at the driveway, fists clenched as his knees thumped up and down. After about fifteen minutes, Gray said, “Dude, you’re gonna rock this car off its axel.”

  Shan’s eyes shot darts at Gray.

  “Back off, Gray. I’m dealing the best I can. I don’t need someone giving me shit right now.”

  “I was only trying to lighten things up.”

  “I don’t need light. I need Riviera. She’s the only light I need.”

  “Enough said,” Gray told him. He didn’t say another word until he saw Drexel walking toward the car. An hour had gone by.

  Shan flew out of the car.

  “I have some things that can tell us a few stories. But let’s go inside.” Drexel had taken off his goggles. Gray pulled the car into the driveway when Drexel gave him the okay. Inside, Drexel took them to the place where he was sure Riviera’s abduction had taken place.

  “It looks like this was the scene of the crime.” They were in the dining room and Patsy marveled over the trompe l’oeil.

  “Good lord, Shan. Is this the kind of work she does all the time?”

  “Yeah, Mom. She’s really something.”

  “This is what I think may have happened. These paint smears on the floor—my guess is that she would’ve had drop cloths underneath all this, right?”

  “Yeah, she was just doing the final touches. But she never worked without them,” Shan explained.

  “So, she probably finished …”

  “Yeah, she did. That’s what Geordie and Sarah said.”

  “Okay, so she finished and cleaned everything up.”

  “Yeah.”

  “But what about her paints and brushes? What did she do with them?” Drexel asked.

  “She was pretty meticulous about that because the brushes she uses are really expensive. She’d put them in mineral spirits and take her time cleaning them.”

  Drexel smiled and said, “That’s what I thought. Come here.”

  They followed him to several smears on the floor. It was light-colored paint, so faint you could barely see it. “Get down next to it and take a whiff. Tell me what you smell.”

  Shan dropped to his knees and immediately said, “Riviera. It smells like her. Or mineral spirits. I kid her about that.”

  “Precisely. She must’ve smeared her brushes on the floor or maybe she had some paint and mineral spirits on her hands when whoever it was came in.”

  Frustration nailed Shan. He bit out, “But how in the hell is this going to help us?”

  “Give me a minute,” Drexel bit back in return. “Not only did I find that but I also found this.”

  “What’s that?” Shan asked.

  “It’s the cap to a syringe. She was drugged.”

  “Oh fuck,” Shan said.

  “Now what?” Gray asked.

  “I need every last bit of information on her you can give me and on Marsha Sue. I need pictures and anything else on both of them. And then I need for you to get me information on her ex-boyfriend. I think there’s a tie somewhere in all of this.”

  The last stop in the house was the garage where they found a roll of duct tape. Drexel bagged that, for he was sure it was used on Riviera. They left and went back to Shan’s.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  The Search

  Shan called Amie and asked her to come over, as well as Dr. Ashworth. They needed as much information on Jasper as they could get. Shan was barely functioning by this time. Gray had to give him orders any time Drexel asked for anything.

  “Pictures, Shan. Drexel needs pictures.”

  Shan told Gray where his computer was. Drexel downloaded all the photos of her onto his own notebook. Then he sent them to his connection with the FBI and they, in turn, contacted the local police agency. Shan’s doorbell was ringing within the hour. There was a massive manhunt on for Riviera now.

  Gray pulled Drexel aside. “What do you think her chances are?”

  He shrugged. “Can’t say. I don’t know the profile of this Marsha Sue. She doesn’t have a record, but that doesn’t mean anything. It sounds like no one can say anything good about her, so that doesn’t bode well for Riviera. And if this Jasper is involved and if what you told me about his past with Riviera is solid, then we are under the gun as far as time is concerned.”

  “Shit. I don’t want Shan to know this.”

  “I won’t lie to him about it.”

  Gray looked at Drexel and nodded.

  “The other problem we have right now is we have no photos of Jasper. We have no last name. We have no address. The only thing we know about him is that he’s a gym rat. So we’re blindly hunting him.”

  “What about the Chicago police?”

  “The police have their methods and I have mine. Mine are a bit underhanded and not exactly legal, but they’re a hell of a lot more effective. If we wait on the police, it could be a week o
r longer. Do you want that?”

  “Fuck no! That’s why I hired you.”

  “I have a few connections that may come through, especially if this Jasper has done anything to the left of the law. So let’s be patient. The other thing is I want to pay a little visit to Marsha Sue. I want to work some of my magic on her. Shan knows where she lives, right?”

  “Yeah. He used her exclusively for a couple of years.”

  “Good.”

  *****

  Dr. Ashworth and Amie were both at Shan’s trying to reconstruct everything they knew about Jasper.

  “So we still don’t know his last name,” Shan said.

  “No, but we know he works out at a gym called Muscles. There can’t be too many guys named Jasper who work out there.”

  “Riv always said he was huge. Like six foot three or something. But really bulky. She called him creepy bulky. Like he used steroids,” Amie said.

  Drexel was taking notes. “Good. Keep going. Coloring?”

  “She never said, but I got the feeling he was a blond.”

  “Why?”

  “Any time we ever saw any blond guy, she would sort of freeze up.”

  Dr. Ashworth said, “He was very sadistic with her. Everything Amie is saying I can substantiate. He was a body builder and competed in strength contests. She said that’s why his beatings would be so brutal.”

  Shan had been drinking a glass of ice water and flung it against the rock fireplace, startling everyone. He stood and stormed outside.

  Dr. Ashworth said, “It’s best he doesn’t hear all of this. He’s not going to like what I have to say. Jasper’s profile isn’t good. From what Riviera told me, there’s a good chance he’ll kill her if he gets his hands on her.”

  Drexel looked at her. “Then you need to give us as much information as you can.”

  “I’m trying. I never focused on his appearance with her. I was always trying to get her to overcome her issues, so I focused on what he did and how she could override her feelings of insecurity.”

  “I understand. But there may be things she said or hinted at that can help. Do you know where she worked?”

  Amie piped in. “A diner near her home. I know that because sometimes she had to walk to and from work.”

  “Name?”

  “No. She just called it the diner.”