Page 46 of Deserving Cora
But now that they were listening to the new information Tex had dug up, he knew without a doubt that going to Arizona and getting Lara back, if she was still alive, wouldn’t be easy.
Peter Ridge Michaels was the son of John Michaels, a man who’d made his money inventing a new painkiller and who now lived in California. Pipe didn’t understand all the ins and outs of the drug, but apparently it was very strong, and he’d done a lot of lobbying to get it into the mainstream doctor and drug networks.
But a decade after the drug was approved by the FDA, and subsequently prescribed to millions of people, questions were being raised about the ethical responsibility of doctors who prescribed the drug to their patients because of its highly addictive nature.
All of that was practically a moot point, because John Michaels had long-since ridden the wave of his drug’s popularity, making millions of dollars before selling the formula—whichreallymade him some serious cash. Despite the price of the drug plummeting, and anyone who prescribed it now being raked over the coals, the Michaels family was enjoying the benefits of the painkiller’s early successful years.
“What does Ridge have to do with the drug?” Owl asked. They’d decided to use the name Lara and Cora knew the man as, because it was less confusing for everyone.
“Nothing, as far as I can tell,” Tex said through the phone in the middle of the table. “He benefited from his dad being the creator and has more money than most people know what to do with at his disposal.”
“So why would he risk all that by kidnapping Lara?” Cora asked.
“Don’t take this the wrong way…but we don’t know that he did,” Tex said.
Pipe felt Cora stiffen next to him.
“I hear what you guys are saying,” she said quietly. “I’m willing to concede that maybe Lara did move to Arizona with Ridge voluntarily. Sheisa romantic. She could’ve been so enamored with the idea of love and marriage that she went with him. Maybe she expected it to be a short leave of absence, as she told our workplace. Maybe she actually found her prince charming. But I still want to hear from her own lips that she’s there of her own free will.”
Pipe’s admiration for Cora rose. She’d been insisting over and over that her friend had been kidnapped, but she was still at least willing to consider that maybe she was wrong.
“The Michaels family has a twenty-four-room mansion in the Phoenix area. Michaels Senior employs a dozen people who are regularly in and out of the house, day and night. Ridge has two bodyguards, one of whom is with him at all times. He was seen at a charity fundraiser in the last week, by himself, and nothing seems amiss with his schedule,” Tex went on.
“Has anyone seen Lara?” Stone asked.
“Yes. Ridge took her out to eat a couple weeks ago…rented out the entire restaurant so they could have privacy.”
“That doesn’t prove she’s there of her own free will,” Cora said. “He could’ve rented out that restaurant so she couldn’t make a scene or ask anyone for help. He’s isolated her completely, both in his home and now seemingly even in public.”
“Which is a good point,” Tex conceded. “I’ve uncovered satellite images of her in the gardens on the estate, always with Michaels at her side. Granted, those pictures were from when they first arrived.”
“Has she made any phone calls? Talked to anyone outside Ridge’s bubble?” Brick asked.
“Not that I’ve been able to find.”
Pipe looked over at Cora and found her staring at her hands, which were clenched together in her lap. He hated this for her.
“Is she using any of her credit cards?” Tiny asked.
“Actually, yes. Quite regularly. The Osler family is also very well off. Lara has a trust fund that’s quite generous, and she’ll be the sole inheritor of their estate when her parents pass, currently estimated at around twenty million dollars.”
Cora’s head came up and her brows furrowed as she stared at the phone.
“What are you thinking, Cora?” Tonka asked.
She glanced at him. “I knew Lara’s parents had money, but she’s the last person you’d ever think was rich. She works hard, but doesn’t make a ton of money as the executive director of a preschool. She’s also very frugal. Doesn’t like to go out to eat a lot, doesn’t buy a lot of stuff. So it’s weird that she’s using her credit cards so much. Every now and then she’ll go to a function with her parents, but she’s always been more of a jeans-and-T-shirt kind of girl.”
“Where’s she been spending money? And how much?” Spike asked Tex.
They heard the other man clicking on a keyboard before he spoke once more. “Looks like in the last three weeks, she’s spent almost a hundred thousand. Ralph Lauren, Saks Fifth Avenue, a couple jewelry stores, lots of high-end restaurants, and…Oh. Well, shit.”
“What? What’s wrong?” Brick asked.
“A large chunk of the money went to the Blue Moon,” Tex answered.
“What’s that?” Owl asked.
“A high-end gentlemen’s club.”
