A Reagan Keeter Box Set: Three page-turning thrillers that will leave you wondering who you can trus by Reagan Keeter (fiction novels to read txt) 📗

“He gave it to me. He acted like he wanted to help me. But he was just trying to get me out of my condo . . .” Liam trailed off. He realized the only way out of this was to tell Chris everything. The story wouldn’t make sense otherwise.

He told them in brief about the night he found Elise’s body, the arrest, the search for the killer, how he ended up at Ellison Trust, and Rick’s help with the fake ID and hotel room. Chris listened silently. His friend scoffed here and there.

“I don’t know why you’re looking for Rick,” Liam said when he was done. “But I need to find him too. I think he might know what happened to Elise. At least he’ll know something—it just seems like he has to—and I know someone who might be able to help.”

Chris and his friend exchanged a glance.

“He’s full of shit,” the friend said.

Chris pulled a cellphone out of his pocket and, after poking the screen several times, turned it around so his friend could see what he was looking at. Then he threw the phone to Liam. Liam recognized it as his burner and on the screen he saw an article about his escape.

“Call whoever you need to call to help your daughter,” Chris said. “Then we’ll deal with Rick.”

Liam minimized the browser and was confronted with a message from Anita.

What are u doing? Call me.

Instead, he dialed the main number for his condo building. The concierge answered with a sleepy, “Hello?”

Liam knew everyone who worked the desk. He could tell from the voice that this was the man who had complimented Elise’s dog. “It’s Liam,” he said, talking fast.

“Mr. Liam. What’s up? What can I do for you?” He sounded surprised, but it didn’t seem like he knew Liam was on the run.

“Have you seen Alice tonight?”

“Came through with a guy a couple hours ago. Didn’t look too happy. She all right?”

“Are they still there?”

“The guy she was with left some time ago. As far as I saw, she didn’t go with him.”

Liam couldn’t decide if that was good or bad. If the concierge was right, she wasn’t a hostage anymore. But she would have called Liam and left a message if she was free, so she was either tied up or—

“Can you go up there and check on her?” Liam said, refusing to consider the alternative.

“Yeah, I guess so. What’s going on?”

“I need someone to check on her.”

“You want me to call you back?”

“I’ll wait.”

“All right. I won’t be long.” There was a click and then soft jazz cut in mid-song.

“I lied to you when you came by my office,” Chris said, and Liam wondered if he could hear the hold music. “I met Elise once. It was years ago. Summertime. I was crossing through the park and saw her pacing around a fountain. When I asked what she was doing, she said she’d dropped her keys in the water and was trying to figure out how to get them out without getting too wet. So I played the hero and, as I’m sure she expected, asked her out. Anyway, when we went for dinner, she showed me a ring she said belonged to her grandmother. It was expensive, she said. A family heirloom, irreplaceable. I had my doubts. It didn’t look expensive. But I played along. Then, halfway through the dinner she went to the bathroom. She was gone a while, and when she came back she was in tears. Said she’d lost the ring. It didn’t feel right—losing a ring between her seat and the bathroom. Of course, when she went back to the bathroom once more to look for it, a guy came up to me and told me he’d found it, but he wasn’t about to give it to me out of the kindness of his heart. He said he wanted money for it, and I’d better be quick about it because once my date came back from the bathroom, he was gone. I told him I didn’t have any cash and he said lucky for me there was an ATM right around the corner. He just happened to know that, right? I went with him. We weren’t two steps outside the door when I beat the crap out of him. And, lo and behold, who should come running out the door seconds later but Elise. ‘What are you doing?’ she shouted and tried to pull me off him and, right then, I knew for sure this was all one big scam. The whole fountain thing was a way to look for suckers. If you’d wade into the water for a girl’s keys, you’d pay money to get her treasured family heirloom back, wouldn’t you? Wonder how many times they used that.”

Liam knew this must be the real story of how Elise had gotten the black eye. He didn’t need Chris to tell him that when Elise came out of the restaurant he’d hit her too.

“Now I’m thinking that guy who helped her must’ve been Rick. I guess when he saw me on the street, he remembered me. Maybe he stole my wallet as some sort of payback. He should’ve stopped there. But he conned his way into my safety deposit box and took a ring that really was worth a lot of money.” Chris’s face softened. “Ironic, isn’t it?”

That’s what Chris must be after, Liam thought. The ring. No matter how much it was worth, it seemed to Liam like a petty thing to be concerned about. But he decided to keep his opinion to himself.

The phone line clicked, and Alice said, “Daddy?” She sounded like she was shaking, but at least she was alive.

“Honey, are you all right? Did he hurt you?”

“No, I’m okay. He tied me up and left me on the floor. He said he had somebody watching the building and if I tried to escape he’d kill me. I was so scared nobody