Adam sat back in his chair. “But they needed a third person driving the getaway car.”
“Yeah, that would have been Lonnie, but Burt said they couldn’t get ahold of him. I think Dover assumed I was wired at the jail, and that’s why he asked me twice why I was there. It would have been better to have sent Burt to see him. He has been visiting him since Dover went to jail.”
“Well, thanks, Kinney. You gave it your best shot.”
“I feel better knowing Dover didn’t try to kill me, if I’m right in my assumption. I just hope you found enough evidence to put Victor and Phyllis away for a long time.”
“We hope so too. Thanks again, Kinney.”
Kinney left and Adam went to talk to Sierra. He’d barely had a chance all day.
She smiled at him and kissed him. “So what’s next on the agenda?”
“Tori and I have to speak to Victor in the hospital as soon as—”
“He’s out of surgery and now is awake. The bullet went through his hand,” Tori said, hurrying to join them with her phone in hand.
“Okay, good luck, you two. If I don’t see you before I leave, I’ll be going to my house to begin packing up all the rest of my clothes and food to take to your house, Adam.”
“Our house. They both are now.”
“And remember, I’m helping you both after all the help you were with me,” Tori said.
Actually, everyone who had helped Tori had offered to help Adam and Sierra move too.
“As soon as I’m done with the interrogation of Victor at the hospital, I’ll meet you at your house,” Adam said.
“Okay, see you there.” She gave him a hug and kiss, some other officers smiling and shaking their heads.
Then Adam and Tori took off for the hospital.
“So who gets to question him?” Tori asked.
“You can, if you want. Or we can feel him out and see which of us he might be more willing to talk to. That’s how Josh and I did it. Sometimes someone was more hostile toward him and other times toward me, so we just feel the situation out and then go with whoever we believe can get the most out of the perp.”
“Okay, sounds good to me.”
They finally parked at the hospital and went up to the room where Victor was recuperating before they took him to jail.
Adam and Tori spoke to the guard, then went inside the room where Victor was lying in a bed, his head partly elevated while he watched TV.
Tori turned off the TV, and though Victor had been read his rights, she gave them to him again. She glanced at Adam, but he motioned with his head to let her question Victor first.
She began going through the list of charges against him and ended with the boat they had found in the storage unit. “Dover’s not happy that you and Phyllis hooked up. He wants a word with you when you join him.”
“Who told him that?” Victor asked.
“She wasn’t seeing him or taking his calls. Then Dover learned for sure that you and Phyllis have been an item. He says it was your idea to do the kidnapping of the girl and frame Ms. Redding.”
“Like hell it was. Dover tasked us to do it. He gave the order. He wanted revenge. We had no reason to do it otherwise.”
“So why do it?” Tori asked.
“Phyllis was feeling guilty about not seeing him. And she worried he would do something about it if she didn’t do the one thing he wanted her to do.”
“Why did you order the hit on Kinney?”
Victor ran his good hand over his arm.
“Phyllis is testifying against you.”
Victor’s eyes widened. “I don’t believe you.”
Adam brought out the recorder and played the part where Phyllis had given up Victor’s location and promised to testify against him.
“Hell. She’s the one who ordered the hit on Kinney. She was so angry he wouldn’t do the kidnapping so she wouldn’t have to be involved and risk her pretty neck, and we couldn’t find Lonnie, so she had to do it.”
Adam just sat back while Tori questioned him and he gave all the same answers that the others had given, except that Phyllis had ordered the hit on Kinney. They’d have to verify that with the others to see if it was true, if the others knew the truth.
Once they had gotten as much out of Victor as they could, Adam said to Tori on the way to the vehicle, “I’d say the den of thieves are all turning on each other.”
“Just the way we like it.” Tori smiled at him.
He got a call from Sierra and answered it on Bluetooth. “Hey, what’s up, honey?”
“You know the hotel where Dover broke into my room? They have a seafood restaurant that has the best shrimp scampi. Only this time, I’m eating with you in the restaurant. Ask Tori to join us too.”
He smiled at Tori and she was smiling and nodding. “We’ll meet you there.” But he dropped by the bureau so that Tori could follow him in her own car.
He hoped that all the perps would be tried and convicted. And that would be the end of the harassment Sierra had been getting.
Before long, he was sitting down to eat with Sierra and Tori, and they all had shrimp scampi, since Sierra so highly recommended it.
With glasses of champagne, they toasted each other. “To crime solving and selling my house,” Sierra said.
“Hear, hear!” Tori and Adam said.
Then they discussed what had happened today, from witness sketches to interrogation and searches they’d conducted.
They were halfway through their meal when Sierra got a text. She answered it, then gave her phone to Adam. “What about this place bordering Forest Park? One of the bedrooms could even be my art studio.”
He looked at all the pictures of the spacious living area, island counter and seating, the large deck out back, huge kitchen for large parties, a large den, fenced-in yard, five bedrooms, and three baths, and he smiled. “Is this the one you want?”
“Yeah. I saw it with the Realtor this morning after I sold my house. I just walked in and it felt like home.”
They clinked champagne glasses again.
“To your first home together,” Tori said.
“Yes!” Sierra said.
But Adam was already on the phone, making an offer. A home for the two of them. He couldn’t be more thrilled than to make his mate happy. And tonight, after they finished dinner, he was all for making her happy all over again.
* * *
Sierra adored Adam. She had thought he would want to see the house first before committing to it, but she was thrilled when he went ahead and made an offer. This summer had been the best—what with working at the bureau and mating Adam. Just the best.