J. Jance - Hand of Evil

Ali knew someone needed to beard Richard Masters in his den, but Dave Holman was exactly the wrong person for the job.

Ali emerged from the shower and dressed. She returned to the kitchen, where Chris was just finishing frying bacon and eggs and Athena was setting the table. “You said you wanted to do some thinking, so we’re having protein with our sweet rolls.”

“Well?” Athena asked.

“How would the two of you like to take a day trip up to Vegas?”

“Cool,” Athena said. “Sounds like fun.”

“Great,” Chris said. “Athena’s never ridden in a Porsche.”

“There’s one problem,” Ali said. “Since I don’t have my driver’s license back, one of you will have to drive.”

Chris burst out laughing. “We’ll manage,” he said.

As they prepared to leave for Vegas, Ali was waylaid for twenty minutes while she searched for the scrap of paper-the back of a gas station receipt actually-on which she had jotted Crystal’s cell phone number all those nights earlier. If she’d had her cell phone, it would have been simple to look up the information in her call history. And she could, she supposed, call Detective Marsh and have him look it up for her, but doing that would put her at risk of having to endure another “insert” lecture. Since she was obviously doing it again-not minding her own business-she didn’t want to hear it. She was thrilled when she finally found the missing note in the bottom of her bathroom trash can.

But even though she had the number, she didn’t want to call it. She didn’t want to talk to Crystal until she was good and ready-until she and Chris and Athena had all their ducks in a row.

While Ali searched for the missing phone number, Chris downloaded the video and the file of photo enhancements onto a CD. Well after noon when they finally set out, Chris was at the wheel of the Cayenne and Athena rode shotgun. Ali, sitting in the backseat, mostly wanted to close her eyes and doze, but Chris had other ideas.

“Okay, Mom,” he said. “It’s a long drive from here to there. I want you to tell us about last night. All of it.”

“It’s not just last night,” Ali said. Over the course of the next hour or so, Ali told Chris and Athena about her dealings with Arabella Ashcroft and how what had happened to her as a child led inevitably to what was going on with Crystal Holman. Athena got it with no problem.

“After Arabella’s brother molested Arabella and when nobody believed her, she ended up taking the law into her own hands, and that screwed up her entire life.”

“That’s it in a nutshell,” Ali agreed. “And that’s why we’re going to Vegas.”

“To take the law into our own hands?” Chris asked.

“No, silly,” Athena said. “To make sure Crystal doesn’t take it into hers and wreck her life, and to make sure Dave Holman doesn’t, either.”

“Oh,” Chris said.

Yes, Ali thought. This girl is growing on me by the minute.

“So what’s the plan?” Athena asked.

“I’ve been thinking about that. Once we’re there, I’ll talk to Crystal. I’m hoping I’ll be able to make her see that she needs to go to the cops and turn this dirtbag in. I’m worried about calling her in advance because I don’t want to give her a lot of time to think it over. She took off more than once already this week, and it wouldn’t surprise me if she did it again.”

“What about this?” Chris said. “Don’t give Crystal any advance warning at all. Why don’t we bring the cops to her instead of having her go to them?”

“That might work,” Ali said. “But the cops are another problem. What if they give us the runaround? The diploma on the wall is the one piece of solid evidence we have that ties Richard Masters to all this. But what if he tumbles to what’s happening and while we’re trying to convince the cops to get a search warrant and move on him, he takes off or has brains enough to ditch the diploma? I wish there was some way of verifying that the diploma is still there.”

“How about trying for a photo op?” Athena asked brightly.

“What kind of a photo op?” Ali asked.

“We have the address of the church,” Athena said. “What say we program it into the GPS. We can stop by there and see if the good pastor happens to be in. Maybe I can talk my way into his office. If the diploma’s there, I’ll take a photo of it with my cell phone. That way we can document that it was there at some other time besides just when the video was being filmed. With any luck I might even be able to get pictures of his computer equipment.”

“That’s taking a bit of a risk, isn’t it?” Ali asked.

Athena laughed outright at that. “Riding in a Humvee in Iraq is taking a risk,” she said. “Besides, I know the type. I may be a little too old to qualify for a youth ministry, but I’m betting Pastor Masters will turn out to be one of those smarmy goody-two-shoes guys who won’t be able to see anything about me except what he thinks is a hopeless cripple. He’ll fall all over himself trying to help me.”

“As long as his help doesn’t include anything more than talking,” Chris said with a laugh. “You may be short an arm and a leg, but I’m guessing you’d still be able to clean his clock.”

Ali fell asleep shortly after that and didn’t wake up again until Chris slowed to exit the freeway. “Where are we?” she asked.

“Headed up Civic Center Drive toward North Las Vegas.”

“Time to call Crystal,” Ali said. “Let me use your phone.”

Chris passed his to the backseat. “When are you going to get your own phone back?”

“Good question,” Ali said.

She put in Crystal’s number, pressed SEND, and was dismayed when a male voice answered.

“Is Crystal there?” Ali asked.

“She’s busy. Who’s asking?”

Ali wasn’t eager to reveal her name. “A friend of hers,” she said.

“Oh, yeah? Call back when you have a name.” With that the man hung up.

Ali pressed REDIAL.

“Do you have a name now?” the same voice asked. He sounded surly and argumentative.

“My name is Alison Reynolds,” Ali said. “I’m a friend of Crystal’s and of her dad’s.”

“Oh,” the man said. “Why didn’t you say so? This is Gary Whitman, Crystal’s stepdad. After what we’ve been through this week, no calls go through this phone without being screened first.”

A little late, Ali thought. But better than nothing.

“Can I talk to her? I’m in town and would like to see her.”

“We’re at soccer practice right now,” Whitman said. “It’ll be over in about an hour. Is Dave with you?”

“No,” Ali said. “Just my son and his girlfriend.”

“Do you want to stop by the house then?” Gary sounded relieved, as though having Dave in tow might have been a problem. “Roxie’s still at work,” he added. “She won’t be home until after five.”

Good, Ali thought. By then, maybe we’ll be ready.

“Do you have our address?” Whitman asked. “We live in Jackpot Dunes. It’s a trailer park just south of Nellis.”

“We’ll find it,” Ali said.

When they found the strip mall location of Back Door Apostles, Ali was a little surprised to see that, on a Saturday afternoon, it was a very busy place. There were several cars in the parking lot and a whole group of teens and preteens hanging around outside a door marked YOUTH MINISTRY.

When Athena started to get out of the car, Chris did, too. “We’ll both go in,” he said. “You can talk to the pastor, if he’s in. I’ll see what else is going on.”

After the better part of an hour, Chris was the first to emerge. “You wouldn’t believe it, Mom. This place is a regular kid magnet. They’ve got everything in there-a pool table, video games, computers, comics. My guess is that Masters uses the place to bring in all kinds of kids, then he finds the most vulnerable one and cuts her from the herd.”