Page 55 of Out of the Shadows
“It’s really his partner’s fault for not being more thorough before packing up the office,” Jack said. “Laura wants him to give it to the family, and maybe they’d pay him whatever he spent on the unit. But we’ll deal with that after Laura and the kids are safe.”
“It’s going to take me thirty-five minutes to get to Aberdeen’s hotel. I hate downtown traffic.”
“I’ll meet you there.”
“Did you call Logan?”
“No, there’s a lot going on here right now.”
“I’ll call and fill him in. Do you think Luisa can handle the four of them?”
“Luisa can handle anything,” Jack said, “but I’ll lay down the law and explain the danger. Looks like we’re putting Charlie under our protective wing.”
Margo ended the call, then called Logan and told him what they knew.
“I’m going over there.”
“No need. Luisa is holding down the fort while Jack and I track down Aberdeen.”
“I didn’t ask for permission. Charlie betrayed my trust, and he put my sister in danger. He never sees the error of his ways; he will this time.”
She wouldn’t be able to talk him out of it, so she didn’t try. “Jack’s telling everyone to stay inside, doors locked, until he returns. Luisa is there, she’s well-trained and a Marine. She knows what she’s doing.”
“I have no doubt that she is as competent and capable as you and your brother. Let me know when you arrest Aberdeen.”
“Logan, I’m not a cop. We can’t arrest anyone. But if we see a damaged truck that matches the one that hit Laura, we can call the police to investigate.”
He paused. “Oh. Right. I’ll talk to you later.”
He ended the call. She wanted to tell him about Brittney and the congresswoman’s son, but she should probably tell him in person. It might not matter, but Margo didn’t trust the woman, and Logan needed to know.
“There’s his truck,” Margo said to Jack, who she had on speaker. He was right behind her as they circled the lot of the hotel.
It was a black Dodge Ram pickup with damage to its passenger side-bumper. Luisa hadn’t been able to enhance the video enough to get all the numbers on the plate, but the last three were 733—and these matched.
And California plates. Bingo.
“I’ll call the officer who investigated the hit-and-run,” Jack said. “If he doesn’t jump on it, I’ll call Rick.”
“I’ll park behind the truck so he can’t get out.”
“Stay alert.”
Jack ended the call and Margo put her Jeep in Park behind Aberdeen’s truck. He had a partner—but was it someone he knew or someone he’d hired? He had no close family and he wasn’t from Phoenix.
But he was a criminal, and probably had connections in that world.
She’d been piecing together the puzzle, and figured the most likely scenario was that Aberdeen had gotten Charlie’s name from the storage center during bidding. Except how did he know where Charlie lived? If he followed him, wouldn’t he have jumped him to get the jewels? Or known that he went to Los Angeles? He would have no reason to go after Laura if he knew how to get to Charlie.
Charlie hadn’t answered his phone and had told Jack and Laura that he’d lost it. What if Aberdeen had grabbed the phone and paperwork from the U-Haul truck at the facility? It would have Charlie’s personal information on it. Except Charlie had called his friend Greg and his friend Bob on Friday and didn’t drop the boxes off in Bob’s garage until Saturday morning, and Bishop Securities hadn’t seen the two men entering Charlie’s condo until Saturday night.
Something didn’t quite fit, Margo thought. Aberdeen saw Charlie on Friday... could he have bribed the U-Haul manager? Or the Storage Spot? Maybe he didn’t have to bribe anyone; the manager at the Storage Spot said they’d had a break-in the night before the auction. Could Aberdeen have broken into the facility a second time to access Charlie’s contact information?
The break-in at Charlie’s had been Saturday night. Aberdeen hadn’t found the jewels, maybe waited around to see if Charlie would come home... When he hadn’t, or when he’d seen the Bishop Security team, he’d left—with Charlie’s computer and information about Laura. Followed her, maybe to see if she’d lead him to Charlie. When she didn’t, they ran her off the road and searched her house.
It fit, but not perfectly, and Margo hoped she’d have the opportunity to ask Aberdeen. She considered how lucky Charlie had been to avoid running into Jerry Aberdeen every step of the way. And then Charlie went to Los Angeles to meet with the lawyer who’d sent the jewelry to John Thornton and no one knew where he was or what he was doing.
Jack called her. “I don’t know when the police are going to get here, but they are aware of the situation. They already have nine calls holding, and this isn’t an active crime in progress.”
