Caught Off Guard Read online

  Leo hopped in, and I peeled away. We talked about the case on the drive over.

  “You don’t think it’s Lil’ Megalodon?” he asked.

  “Could be,” I said. “Maybe he’s been playing us all along. I asked Toby to look into him, and yeah, he went to Stanford on a music scholarship, but he also minored in sound engineering. I know that’s a stretch into being a tech wizard, but maybe it’s not all that hard.”

  At McVay’s, I told Leo to wait outside because he was a cop and I was about to trespass.

  “Nope,” he said. “I’m sticking to you like glue.”

  “Are you sure? I wanted you along to keep an eye out for me. Watch my back, so to speak. I know asking you look away while I enter McVay’s house is an issue for you. Going in… Well, Leo, if we get caught, you’ll be in more trouble than me.”

  He shook his head. “Last time I left you alone here, a man tried to drown you and stabbed me. I’ll take my chances. Your safety is more important.”

  “Good,” I said. “The basement gives me the creeps.”

  Like before, the doors were unlocked. We had maybe an hour of daylight left. From my backpack I took out a notepad and pencil. I needed to log any bugs like Mrs. Wright said, so I quickly drew a layout of the first floor then donned the headphones and started scanning. Leo signaled that he was going to look around.

  The bug detector began beeping seconds later. A camera was connected to his TV. So whoever had planted it was likely getting a notification that someone was in McVay’s house right then and was watching me sweep it.

  Anger coursed through me. I wondered if the person watching me right then was the one who’d watched my family and niece and used that to intimidate me. I walked close to the TV and stared directly at the black screen. I lifted a hand and extended my middle finger and held it there for several beats, not blinking, not wavering. That was the only thing I could think of to do to a nameless, faceless voyeur.

  I lifted my nose, turned my back to the camera, and continued to log the numerous audio and video bugs.

  No wonder McVay had been complaining of lack of privacy. I had to believe he knew his life had been invaded. I wondered if he’d known the extent of it. Questionable. But that was very likely, given his strong desire to get out of town. That made me think McVay believed the privacy invasion wouldn’t follow him, that it was isolated to his home. With the right spin, that could be used against AJ. The prosecution could say he was trying to spook McVay to get him off the team so that AJ could take his spot.

  I stood in the kitchen and was looking at my drawing with all the bugs when Leo joined me. I showed him a note telling him we were likely being watched and listened to.

  He leaned in and whispered in my ear. “I noticed something strange about the butler’s pantry. If you stand in the living room, it looks longer than it is. I checked all around it, and there’s no closet or anything to explain the size difference.”

  I gave him a puzzled look. He nodded for me to go stand in the living room and look toward the kitchen.

  From there, I could see what he meant. The end of the kitchen opened to the butler’s pantry, our entry point into the house. From my viewpoint, the wall ran over ten feet. But inside the pantry, that wall looked no longer than six feet.

  I walked around like Leo had and found no other room or closet that could explain what that four feet of space was. When I returned to the kitchen, Leo was standing in the pantry, looking at the ceiling. He pointed at the far wall, which was floor-to-ceiling shelves, and moved his finger toward the ceiling.

  In my ear, he said, “It looks like a poor fit, where the top of the shelving meets the ceiling. See the large gap?”

  I nodded and cut my eyes to him, knowing he could read my mind. My husband had had a secret room at his security business. Toby had shown it to me and Leo when I’d gone out there because the business had been burglarized.

  I looked under the shelves and moved appliances, looking for a secret handle or switch or something. I found it tucked under the fold of the middle shelf, right at waist level, a tiny one no bigger than a light switch. I gave it a click. Leo tugged at my elbow and gestured for me to step aside, which I did. He then tugged at one end of the shelving unit, which popped away from the wall.

  Behind the shelving unit was a steel door. Leo grasped its handle and turned. I held my breath, scared of what we might find.

  23

  Friday

  “It’s a panic room,” Leo said. “A panic room with a secret exit.”

  One wall had several monitors and a control panel. A second door was on the other side of the room. Leo opened it to reveal a dark landing.

  “Dare we explore?” he asked.

  I didn’t want to but nodded instead. I stepped inside the panic room and pulled the shelving unit closed. Then Leo closed the steel door.

  Claustrophobia slammed into me, and I took several breaths, trying to act all cool like I wasn’t worried. I wasn’t a fan of small spaces even if they had monitors.

  Leo gestured toward the other door and the dark landing. He used his phone’s flashlight and led the way into the darkness. A balcony ran from the door along the right side of the house. We were above the basement yet in the in-between. The air was damp, and the musty smell of poorly circulated stale air mixed with the lack of light was a disturbing sensation. That was probably what being buried alive felt like. Or maybe that was my claustrophobia kicking in.

  The space between the walls had been expanded to allow an average-size person to move between them. Behind the wall on my left and below me was the basement, where we’d come in. To my right was the kitchen wall. The narrow balcony ended at a stairwell on our right. Leo had to turn at a slight angle to fit down the corridor. We were moving away from the backyard and going toward the front of the house. As we descended, I guessed at our position and believed us to be tucked between the exterior garage wall and interior of the garage. Like rats moving inside the walls, we scurried to the bottom of the stairs, which ended at a larger opening.

  I put my hand on Leo’s shoulder to ground myself. “Is that a hallway?”

  “My best guess is it runs the length of the property and comes out across the street. This hallway runs under the driveway, but I’m not sure where it ends. Considering it’s an escape room, I can’t see it depositing the people who are trying to escape in the driveway. Likely somewhere off the property.”

  “Do you think McVay had this built?”

  Leo shrugged. “Hard to say.” He took my hand and led me down the long hallway. Standing water made the concrete slippery, and the walls were damp. I learned that when I accidentally put out a hand to keep myself from bumping one. My hand came away wet and grimy. At the end of the tunnel was a ladder up.

  “You want to go first?” Leo offered.

  “No, you go ahead. I’ll be right behind you.”

  He climbed, and I let him get a few rungs ahead before I began my ascent.

  “There’s a door like you'd find to an attic. It’s locked.”

  I groaned. “Please tell me we don’t have to go back the way we came.” I was done with this adventure.

  “No, it’s a dead bolt. The turn assembly is on this side, but to enter from the other side, a person would need a key.”

  At that point, I didn’t care. The lock clicked, and Leo pushed against the trapdoor, which opened easily.

  “That’s odd,” he said, sweeping his phone light around the area.

  “What’s odd?”

  “I think this has been used recently. It’s dusty up here but not around the opening.” He shined the light near himself. “I do think we need to go back. What if we’re disrupting evidence?”

  I rested my head against the rung and closed my eyes.

  “Sam?”

  “Give me a second. I’m working up my courage. I have the heebie-jeebies something awful, and I’m ready to go home.”

  Leo chuckled. “Yeah, it is kinda creepy. But preferab
le to being held underwater in the lake.”

  “True.” I climbed down and stood as close to the wall as possible without touching it to allow him room.

  He closed the trap, jumped down next to me, and took my hand. “Come on, it’ll be much faster going back.”

  And he was right. Getting back into the pantry took only minutes. When we exited the escape room, the house was dark as the sun was almost gone. We exited through the basement door and were back at LC in less than five minutes.

  Leo stood outside LC and looked around. Without pointing, he said, “See that green utility box across the street?”

  I glanced in that direction then back to Leo. “Yeah.”

  “I think that’s where we would have come out.”

  I gestured for him to get into LC. Once in the driver’s seat, I asked, “Where does a person go once they get out to here? If someone’s inside your house and looking for you, they’re bound to look outside too.”

  “Maybe you run to a neighbor for help. Or maybe you hope they never find you in the panic room. Maybe the exit is the last resort.”

  I looked at McVay’s house. “If someone entered from the utility box, that would explain why no one else was caught on the cameras. No camera points in this direction.” I looked at the neighboring houses, but from where we were sitting in LC, my view was limited. “I’ll come back tomorrow and see if anyone has cameras pointed in that direction.” I turned LC’s engine over and let him idle. “What makes a man put in an panic room with a secret escape?”

  “Paranoia?” Leo said. “But is he paranoid because that’s his mental state or paranoid because he has a reason to be? That’s the question.”

  “Meaning someone’s come at him before. Or maybe he knows things about people?” I picked up my phone, ignored fourteen missed text messages, and went to Toby’s contact information. “Where did McVay keep his secrets? His house is almost minimalist in personal touches. I think about Carson and the secrets he was keeping. When it came to safeguarding them he had stored his secrets in one place. Where’s that place for McVay? Because it’s not here.”

  I pressed Call and put the phone on speaker.

  “Superspy, what’s up?” Toby said into the phone.

  A glance at the clock told me this was his private-driver time.

  “You out on a call, or are you free?” I asked.

  “Free. Lady M and I had a playdate with another sugar glider earlier, and now we’re chilling. Wasn’t feeling the car today.”

  “I need you to dig more into Keith McVay. See if he has a safety deposit box somewhere. Or rents a storage unit or something. Maybe he has property elsewhere. Let your imagination go nuts. Find anything and everything you can on McVay. Please.”

  “Sorry, I’m eating Doritos,” he said, crunching in my ear. “You should be stoked. I’ve been hopping down a McVay rabbit hole all day. I found some smack talk between him and a linebacker named Roman Castillo.”

  Leo said, “Castillo plays for New York. They’re out here this weekend to play the Seahawks.”

  “Yep,” Toby said. “You know this Castillo guy, Sam. He’s the long-haired player who does the shampoo commercials.”

  “Oh yeah. He’s very pretty.”

  Precious and I had admired his shining locks and physique for quite some time. The commercial did show him in the shower after all—waist up, of course.

  Leo cleared his throat.

  Toby continued, “Apparently, Castillo went to Stanford for two years. Then transferred to Wisconsin and stayed three. He entered the draft a year after McVay.”

  I looked at Leo. “That’s odd. Most of the time, players leave earlier.”

  Toby said, “I asked your dad about it because I couldn’t find many articles about it. Your dad said that rumor has it the Pioneers were looking to take a quarterback and a linebacker, and Castillo was on their list. He waited a year because he didn’t want to go to the Pioneers.”

  I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “What was the trash talk about?”

  “I’d call it a Twitter fight. Someone called out McVay for his intention to leave after the season was over. McVay tweeted that while he’d loved his time in Portland, he thought it would be best if he started a new season with a different team. He got razzed by fans, and he promised them a good and honest run for the Super Bowl, pledging that he was dedicated to the Pioneers until the season was over; however, that season may end.”

  “Which is stupid,” I interjected. “Who’s going to believe that?”

  Toby crunched some more. “Fans told him to go now. They were lining up to hate him.”

  I gave Leo a look, wondering if that could’ve contributed to McVay’s paranoia. A new question came to mind. “And how did word get out that McVay wanted to leave? That hurts him and the team.” To Toby I said, “Tobe, see if you can find the first article to mention McVay considering other contracts. Let’s see if we can find out who leaked it.”

  Leo asked, “What did Castillo say?”

  Toby chuckled. “He said, ‘You don’t deserve a fat payout. You deserve a fat lip.’”

  I said, “That’s not too threatening.”

  “He amps up the smack talk. Says McVay’s a dirtbag who should be in jail, not on a football field. Said being with the Pioneers is exactly where McVay should be. Said he’s not surprised McVay failed his drug test and that he probably did it to tank the team. Said it wouldn’t be the first time McVay threw a game.”

  “Wait, what? I never heard about this,” I said, totally caught off guard.

  Toby continued, “I asked your dad about that too. He said a rumor that McVay threw a game back in his second year at college floated around for a while. But there wasn’t any proof, and the source was someone from the other team, so in your pop’s words, ‘It was unsubstantiated.’”

  I said, “But it might explain why Castillo left. Maybe he didn’t want to take the risk of being on a team with a bad rep.”

  Leo asked, “Has Castillo tweeted since McVay was killed?”

  Crunch, crunch. “Only to say he’d contribute to AJ’s defense fund if needed.”

  “Thanks, Toby. Where would I be without you?”

  “Dunno. But it’s a good question.”

  I laughed and hung up then opened my messages. I’d prioritized Toby because I wanted to not get distracted from what was right in front of me. All but three were from Lockett. The remainder were from Precious.

  Lockett: Where are you?

  Precious: I’ll save U a seat

  Lockett: AJ’s asking for you

  Lockett: Hello

  Lockett: Hello

  Lockett: I’m getting worried

  They continued in this vein.

  “Is today Friday?” I asked, slapping a hand against my forehead.

  Leo nodded.

  “Poop. AJ was arraigned today.” I dialed Lockett’s number.

  He answered, saying, “I was getting worried.”

  “I’m sorry. I’ll explain when I see you. Where is AJ now? Did he get bail?”

  “You bet your sweet butt he did. I’m awesome at what I do.”

  “I know you are.” I laughed.

  He said, “Precious is taking us both to your place. The press were swarming his house.”

  “Okay, we’ll meet you there. I’ll grab takeout.”

  “Deal,” Lockett said.

  I was relieved to have AJ out of jail. However, I wasn’t under any illusion that the case would become easier or life safer. The contrary was more likely.

  We picked up Italian food, foregoing our traditional preference for Indian or Thai, afraid to remind AJ of the night McVay had died.

  At my place, AJ was sitting on the couch, Simon at his feet. Lockett was in the chair next to him.

  I rushed in and gave AJ a hug, nearly flinging myself onto the couch next to him in the process. “I’ll be honest,” I said. “I was worried you were gonna get shivved or something while behind bars.”

 
Lockett sighed. “You watch too much crime TV.”

  “Maybe.” I squeezed AJ’s hand.

  He looked tired, bags under his eyes, his mouth pulled down. “I was worried about the same thing. I barely slept while I was in there.”

  “There’s a duffel with some of your clothes in the guest room,” I said. “I packed it when I picked up Simon.”

  AJ closed his eyes and sighed. “You’re the best, Sam.”

  Precious said, “We decided AJ would stay with me, and you can keep Simon for the time being. Sound good?”

  I gave her a thumbs-up and returned my focus to AJ. “I’m sorry, but I need to ask you a few questions.”

  AJ opened his eyes and gave me a wary look.

  Precious groaned. “Can we just celebrate tonight?”

  I shook my head. “No, this is important.” I glanced at Leo, who nodded for me to continue. “What do you know about McVay potentially throwing a game? Is it even possible that McVay spiked his own drink?”

  AJ reared back and swiped a hand down his face before answering. “Keith wouldn’t throw a game. He was a competitor. He wanted to win.”

  “You don’t think he’d make himself sick to get out of playing?”

  AJ looked at me like I was crazy. “To do that would sabotage any chance Keith had at getting a contract from any other team aside from the Pioneers. Because he didn’t make himself sick. He popped positive for an illegal substance. There’s no way he’d tarnish his reputation that way or ding his star power.”

  “And can you think of anyone who might want McVay to fail, to not get a contract, or maybe they were mad because he wanted to leave?”

  AJ shook his head. “Outside of the Pioneers? No. And even then, front office was overheard saying they should let him go if he didn’t want to stay. It would make for a tense locker room.”

  “What about Brad Jenson? Could he have wanted McVay dead?” I hated not knowing how all the dots connected.

  “I don’t know anything about Brad,” AJ said. “He wasn’t the head trainer, and he was quiet and kept to himself. He worked the workout room mostly, setting guys up with reps and helping them adjust when they needed it.”