Up Against the Wall

This one is for me.

Because some years are harder than others.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Prologue

Three years ago

Reuben Page knelt over the bloody corpse of his informant and cursed. “Damn, Dani.”

His stomach soured. Maybe he was getting too old for this type of investigative reporting. The kid had just started her Master’s degree. Couldn’t be more than a year or two older than Reuben’s own daughter. Danielle Ballard was still a government intern, filing papers for Kansas City’s economic development task force.

The symbolism of the young woman’s throat being slashed wasn’t lost on Reuben.

Keep her from talking.

Nor was the fact that he was alone near the rundown docks on the Missouri River just north of Kansas City’s City Market, long after midnight, hovering over a dead body. If Dani had been made, most likely Reuben’s investigation had, too.

“Sorry, kiddo. Has to be done.” Disturbing a crime scene went against years of training as a crime reporter, but Reuben needed the disk that Dani had promised to deliver tonight. It held names, numbers, bank accounts. Clear evidence of bribes. Enough information to turn Reuben’s suspicions into facts.

He bit down on his conscience and leaned over the body.

Even though Dani didn’t smoke, the scent of fine tobacco clung to her clothes, mixing with the salty, dank smells of blood and flesh. The night was dull, the autumn air chilled by a heavy dampness in the air that wasn’t quite rain. The wash of the river was a lonely sound as it swept past in the darkness beneath the empty docks. He should be calling the cops. Calling Dani’s family. Putting a blanket over her.

Instead, Reuben turned out Dani’s pockets and discovered he wasn’t the first to search the corpse that night. Even her raincoat had been ripped open—with the same bloody knife that had slashed her throat, judging by the dampness of the dark red traces at the seams. The only item on her was a ring of keys in her fist. Her open purse lay in a puddle beside her. Either the disk had been taken by the killer, or Dani never had it in the first place.

But on the phone that morning, Dani had sworn that she’d found evidence to prove a new breed of organized crime had come to Kansas City. Reuben had already pieced together a pattern—a rise in intimidation crimes, suspect investments that mimicked the money laundering schemes he’d written about on the police beat in Chicago, select, ruthless murders like this one. Dani’s insider evidence would connect the dots, and Reuben could expose the problem and win a second Pulitzer in the process.

“It has to be here,” he muttered. If the killer had it, then Reuben’s story was dead.

If the killer had the disk, then so was he.

His heart beat faster and Reuben hurried his search, silently apologizing as he ran his fingers over the body, nudging it from one side to the other with the same speed and determination with which he typed out his columns on the keyboard.

When he saw the bulge in Dani’s purse, he turned it inside out and dumped the contents at his feet. Though it wasn’t the right shape for a disk, he might find a note, or a clue to lead him to the disk’s location. “Tell me you were a smart kid.” Reuben froze. “What the hell?”

Money. Not just a couple of twenties, but hundreds, no…Reuben caught the bills before the misted breeze off the river blew them away. “There has to be ten thousand dollars here.” A plant. Had to be. Idealistic kids fresh out of college didn’t carry that kind of cash. “What’s this?”

Reuben held the tiny plastic bag up to the dim circle of light hanging over the rusted door of the warehouse behind him. He recognized the crack from his research into numerous drug-related crimes.

“A setup.” One look at her dewy skin and straight white teeth, and anyone who knew the signs could tell Dani didn’t use. A crusader like her wouldn’t sell, either. So why…?

Reuben peered over his shoulder into the night, trusting his reporter’s nose. He was being watched. But by human eyes? Or by whatever was scurrying beneath the trash bin beside him?

He breathed a measured sigh of relief when a rat darted past and disappeared through a hole in the building’s foundation. But it was warning enough for him to get his butt into gear and get out of there.

Reuben pushed to his feet, pocketing the cash, the drugs and the keys. The kid was a hero in Reuben’s book, and would earn a deserving mention in his next Kansas City Journal column. He wouldn’t let the thug who’d silenced her tarnish her reputation.

Reuben’s crepe-soled shoes squeaked on the damp pavement as he hurried toward the vintage Cadillac he’d parked on the street side of the warehouse. He emptied the drugs into the river, dropped the plastic bag into a trash bin, and stuffed the wad of cash into his jacket pocket. Then he sped away into the heart of downtown K.C., planning to dump the money in a foreign location where it wouldn’t be traced back to Dani Ballard. Maybe he’d donate it to a shelter, or leave it in a church’s mailbox. Maybe he’d head on south of the city and toss it into one of the landfills.

Reuben Page did none of those things.

One of the keys in the passenger seat winked at him as he passed beneath a street lamp. The game was still on. “Brilliant, kiddo.”

The rush of discovery fueled the story composing itself inside his head as Reuben swung the car toward the city bus terminal. He reached for the key to a bus-station storage locker and tucked it into his pocket. In the same motion, he retrieved a pen and notepad, turned to a fresh page and jotted a cryptic note.

Balancing the pad on his knee and writing as he drove couldn’t make his handwriting any worse. There was only one person left in the world who could decipher his illegible scrawl, one person who looked forward to reading his notes, one person he loved and trusted enough to share them with.

Dear Rebecca, he began.

Since his wife’s death a decade earlier, Reuben had started sending his story notes to his daughter. Once upon a time, his wife had translated them and typed them up for him. But now that Rebecca was away at the University of Missouri’s journalism school in Columbia, following in his footsteps as a reporter, she seemed to enjoy reading them as though she was keeping up with a journal of his activities. He supposed they replaced the letters he always intended to write, but never could quite get onto paper or into an e-mail. His scribbles connected them in a way that the dangers and demands of his job rarely allowed them to. Besides, with the number of computers he’d sent to their makers, it never hurt to have a backup copy of his current work in someone else’s hands.

As he sped through the fog-shrouded streets, Reuben briefly detailed Dani’s murder, skipping the more graphic elements. He wrote about the disk, listed abbreviations of the names he thought would be linked to the murder. He sent his love and promised to visit Mizzou for homecoming in a couple of weeks. He pulled an envelope from his briefcase, tucked the notepad inside and addressed the package. He stuck a wad of stamps onto one corner and dropped it into a mailbox en route.

The bus terminal was a surprising hive of activity at one in the morning. Parked cars lined the street and Reuben had to squeeze his long sedan into a tiny space nearly a block away. The street lamps barely cut a path through the fog, but still he looked—peering up and down the sidewalk as he turned up his collar and checked for familiar cars. Then, when he felt certain enough that nothing beyond leaving the scene of a murder was out of the ordinary for the night, he crossed the street. Two buses were loading and unloading passengers beneath the driveway canopy on the west side of the building, and he jogged up to lose himself in the parade of travelers entering the terminal.

Inside, Reuben separated himself from the crowd and made a beeline across the lobby to the rows of storage lockers. He found number 280 easily enough and inserted the key.

The square, squat locker could have held an entire computer, but there was only one small item inside. A padded envelope with his name on it. Hunching over the open doorway to hide his prize, he slipped the disk inside his jacket. He couldn’t resist a satisfied smile. “You’re gonna be more famous than Deep Throat, kiddo.”

When he closed the door and saw the man in the tailored suit at the coffee counter, cradling a plastic cup between his well-manicured hands, Reuben’s temporary rush of victory chilled in his veins. Dani had never stood a chance. That smug son of a bitch. Publicly claiming to be a friend of the press. A friend to Kansas City. A friend to all.

The eyes that met Reuben’s gaze said he was no man’s friend but his own.

And the evidence to prove it was burning a hole inside Reuben’s pocket.

His story wouldn’t get written. Not tonight. Not by him. Maybe not ever.

Then he became aware of the bruiser with a mustache standing at the exit, watching him without blinking. Another overbuilt guard dog waited with the passengers lining up for St. Louis. Obliquely, Reuben wondered which one of them had Dani Ballard’s blood on his hands. Maybe they both did. Their boss, still sipping his coffee, certainly wouldn’t dirty his hands that way.

Reuben cursed beneath his breath and slowly walked toward the heart of the lobby. How had he been followed? When had he missed the car that must have been waiting for him to leave the docks? Or had they tailed him some other way? A tracking chip, maybe? He swallowed hard and gathered his thoughts. Whys and hows no longer mattered.

Justice did.

Survival seemed a mighty distant second.

He could be bold and approach the man at the counter, disk in hand, and dare him to deny the truth. Or he could take a chance.

The same chance Danielle Ballard had taken.

With a firm resolution, Reuben Page pulled his shoulders back and exhaled a steadying breath. With his gaze darting from one threat to the next, he strode with purpose to the center of the crowded waiting area.

And tossed the ten grand of cash into the air.

As the passengers converged and chaos erupted, Reuben shoved his way past them and ran. Once-weary citizens attacked the free money with a frenzy that blocked the two thugs and gave Reuben a clear path to the door. He shot outside, never sparing a glance behind him until he reached his car.

There was no finesse to slamming the bumper of the car in front of him, no apology for scratching a strip of paint from headlamp to taillight. He jerked the wheel, floored the accelerator and sped into the street. He turned two corners and ran one stop sign before daring to turn on his lights. Hopefully, he’d gotten enough of a lead that the three men couldn’t follow him.

No such luck.

Now he was painfully aware of the screech of tires and blare of horns behind him as the men who wanted to silence him closed the gap between them. Though little more than a pair of lights in the fog behind him, they closed in with an ominous intent. His own low-slung Caddy bottomed out over a pothole as he barreled through town. The base of skyscrapers gave way to empty parks, then tiny homes. The sleek black car chasing him took shape and color as it rammed his rear bumper. He skidded on the pavement made slick by the drippy fog and careened into a narrow alley. A gunshot cracked his rear window and a telephone pole tore off his side mirror as he whipped past.

Reuben couldn’t remember breathing, much less turning toward the decaying isolation of the warehouses that lined the river. Another gunshot shattered the rear window and debris slammed into the back of his neck and scalp. The lacerations burned, startled. The steering wheel lurched in his grip.

He thought of his daughter as the sedan flew off the end of the dock and plunged into the river. The water was a cold shock that slapped him in the face and sharpened his senses. The heavy car sank quickly, but as the murky water pooled around him, Reuben had the presence of mind to unhook his seat belt and swim up through the empty rear window.

He kicked to the surface as the current carried him downstream. Reuben coughed up water and gasped for breath. But bright car lights from the street that ran the length of the docks caught him in their glare. Shouts and bullets followed, and he dove beneath the water again.

Rebecca would love an adventure like this one. She’d inherited her mother’s beauty, but she had his tenacity. His reckless determination to know.

Reuben slammed into the rusting steel hull of the abandoned Commodore riverboat, permanently anchored and left to be sold for scrap metal. As his breath whooshed from his chest and he sank beneath the water, Reuben thought like a father, not a reporter. He didn’t want Rebecca risking her life for a news story. He didn’t want her to wind up like Dani Ballard.

As he swallowed a lungful of dense green-brown water, he wished his daughter could content herself with marrying a nice young man and filling a sweet suburban home with babies. Reuben knew Rebecca would love her children just as fiercely as he loved her. Maybe he should have showed her better what was in his heart.

The chance to meet those grandchildren, the chance to tell Rebecca the things he should have told her long ago, gave Reuben the strength to kick to the surface one last time. He hoisted himself up over the edge of the boat and rolled onto the deck. Sapped of strength, he crawled to the nearest opening and tumbled between the rotting floorboards, crashing down to the lower deck.

Shaking his vision clear, he staggered to his feet. The grandeur of what had once been a row of staterooms was lost on him. He saw only two-by-fours and steel joists and a rickety ladder descending into the pit of the engine room. Hearing footsteps running along the dock, he slid down into the bowels of the ship. Reuben slipped the disk from his pocket and hid the envelope inside the first cubbyhole he could find. Then, limping to the nearest exit, he pulled a marker from his pocket and scribbled a crude code of symbols on his hand in a shorthand that only Rebecca would understand.

“Mightier than the sword,” he rasped. He hoped. He prayed.

Reuben was lightheaded and weak when muscular arms pulled him back to the Commodore’s deck and propped him up against the bulkhead.

“Well, if it isn’t the legendary Reuben Page. You wouldn’t be planning another exposé now, would you? Where’s the disk Dani gave you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The voice laughed without amusement. “I’m afraid the truth is going to die with you, Mr. Page.”

Reuben blinked the face and suit into focus and stood as tall as his battered body would let him. “The truth never dies.”

“It does tonight.”

Chapter One

“W.I.” Rebecca Page read the acronym out loud. “That has to be Wolfe International.”

She gently turned the tattered page and read the names and information enclosed there.

TW,Sr/TW,Jr/DK/AC

Don’t worry. Will dec. gibberish at earl.con. unless you get it done first.

DB dead. Removed plant. Kid clean.

Execution confirms suspicions. KCPD will need different kind of proof, however.

Pursue lead to bus locker. DB promised disk. Should name names. Someone on Econ Dev Comm in it up to his eyeballs. Influence certain. Too much money floating around KC. It’s here at the docks. My nose can smell a rat—and he’s a big one. They’re watching me, so I know I’m onto something.

Stay away from this one, kiddo. Just play bookkeeper for me.

Will copy you as soon as able. See you at Mizzou.

XXOO,

Dad

“Love you, too.” Rebecca turned to the back of the small notebook and looked at the boxes and letters she’d copied herself. It was the last cryptic message her father had left for her. DBD->COM.

As always, the answer toyed with her thoughts but escaped her.

She tenderly closed the notebook and lifted it to her nose, inhaling deeply. If she closed her eyes and imagined hard enough, she could still detect her father’s familiar scent on the soft, well-worn leather. She could hear his throaty laugh and feel his arms wrapping her up in a warm hug.

But she was long past sitting on the sidelines and playing bookkeeper. Rebecca wasn’t a woman given to fanciful notions, nor did she waste her time when there was a story to pursue. She had big footsteps to fill as a reporter for the Kansas City Journal. This wasn’t just about living up to her father’s reputation and making a name for herself in her chosen career. This was about living up to her father’s love. This was about proving his faith in her hadn’t been misplaced.

Her artificially long lashes tickled her cheeks as she opened her eyes and steeled herself for the task at hand. The only thing that warmed her tonight was the muggy summer heat. The only scents were the faint, seaweedy smell of the Missouri River and her own spicier perfume. The only laughter she heard belonged to a few of the lucky customers outside the Riverboat Casino complex, waiting for a cab or valet service. The players who’d been less fortunate filled the night air with damning curses and desperate ramblings.

Rebecca watched them all from the front seat of her cherry-red Mustang. Was he the one? Was she?

Who were the big guns with money-laundering and murder on their minds? And who were the innocent bystanders, unaware of the big money, big influence and big cover-up hidden beneath the Riverboat Casino’s polished-steel facade and glitzy excitement? They’d all come to the shiny steamship that had once been the rusted wreck of the Commodore riverboat. Renovation and expansion could only mask the Commodore’s secrets. A new name and facelift didn’t change the fact that her father’s life had ended here.

And where the trail of clues he’d left for her ended, her investigation would begin. If she could unlock the details of that last exposé her father had been working on, she just might be able to piece together the rest of the puzzle and find out who’d murdered him. Which was a hell of a lot more than those pathetic all-talk, no-action bozos at KCPD had been able to do over the past three years. They’d relegated Reuben Page’s murder to their unsolved cold-case files.

Rebecca had no intention of giving up on her father.

His memory was all she had left.

With her nerve firmly set into place, Rebecca locked the precious notebook inside the glove compartment and inhaled a deep, fortifying breath. Squeezing the university class ring that hung from a white-gold chain around her neck, she whispered, “This one’s for you, Dad.”

She bussed the man-sized ring with a quick kiss and tucked it inside the décolletage of her little black dress. Once out of the car, she paused for a moment to adjust the swingy hemline that stopped several inches above her knees. Any day of the week she preferred the practicality of jeans and khakis over a dress and three-inch heels. But what was the point of standing five-foot-ten if a girl couldn’t show off a little leg when the occasion called for it?

Tonight’s game plan definitely called for it.

As did the free fall of curly brunette hair that tickled the bare skin between her shoulder blades. Rebecca paused to open her tiny purse and pull out her compact, ostensibly to check the subtle pout of her ruby-tinted lips. In reality, she was verifying that the miniature recorder she carried would be ready at the push of a button should she need it. Tonight was more about identifying the players she’d been researching rather than finding any meaningful facts. If she could ingratiate herself into the casino crowd, get the layout of the place and the faces memorized, then she’d be in position to start digging beneath the surface. Deck by deck. Suspect by suspect. Clue by clue.

The Journal hadn’t sanctioned this assignment. Her editor had no idea of the personal nature of this investigation. He probably wouldn’t have granted her vacation if he’d known what she was really up to. But blessing or no, she intended to approach this job with the same diligence she’d use on any other story she was reporting. She intended to be just as prepared, just as thorough.

Rebecca snapped her bag shut and let the masquerade begin.

She curved her mouth into a subtle pout at the appreciative glances and outright stares that followed her across the wide, fixed gangplank leading over the water to the Riverboat’s light-studded entryway. Good. She didn’t have the money to throw around at the gaming tables necessary to garner the attention of the men she was here to investigate. And she couldn’t exactly flash her press pass or use her real name, in case someone connected her to her father or the paper.

But there was more than one way to get herself invited into the back rooms and private offices on board. And though it stuck in her feminist craw, Rebecca Page was relying on the long legs she’d inherited from her father and the dramatic sculpt of cheekbones she’d inherited from her mother to get her inside that inner circle to the secrets hidden there.

The noise of bells and whistles, chatter and music assaulting her ears nearly sent Rebecca back out the sliding glass doors. But, seeing the wine-red carpet and refined appointments of an Old South cruise ship as some sort of surreal memorial to her father, she curled her toes inside her stilettos and refused to retreat. Bright lights and false fronts aside, this was where her father had died. It was where he might have hidden a disk or notebook before taking a bullet and plunging into the river.

His killer worked here. Or played here. Had rebuilt the place from below the waterline on up to the bright-red smokestacks. Someone here knew something or somebody. The money that had created this gambling mecca was tainted. Her father had known that and had been silenced for that knowledge.

If she couldn’t find the actual killer, then Rebecca was certain this place would provide the clues to lead her to him.

“WELCOME to the Riverboat.” A young woman wearing a mini version of a dance-hall girl’s costume pressed a brass coin into Rebecca’s hand. “We’re giving a token to every new player who comes in tonight. It’s good for one game at the quarter slots, or a free drink at the Cotton Blossom bar.”

Rebecca glanced at the token in her palm, arching an eyebrow with skepticism. “How do you know I’m a new player? You’ve been open since the Memorial Day weekend, haven’t you? Maybe I’ve been in here before.”

The hostess’s blank expression told Rebecca she’d interrupted the girl’s memorized spiel. Then the young woman laughed.

“Okay.” Rebecca waited for a “like, totally” to pop out of the blonde’s giggly mouth. “So we’re really giving a token to every customer who comes through our doors all summer long, whether it’s your first time or not. We want you to play the games and feel at home.”

In the enemy’s camp? Not likely. Rebecca returned a smile to the two men who entered behind her and who walked past before she dropped the token into her purse. Her questions had only just begun. She scanned the bubbly golden girl’s nametag. “Who’s ‘we’, Dawn? You and the other dance-hall girls?”