Crossing Danger: A Shelby Nichols Adventure (18 page)

That startled a laugh out of him, and he let go of my hand and inclined his head. He turned to Uncle Joey. “Joe...maybe when this is over, we can spend some time talking about the good old days. We had some fun times, didn’t we? I’ll never forget that stunt we pulled on Professor Blackwell and his T.A. Remember that?”

“Of course,” Uncle Joey answered. “It was brilliant, and the best part was that we got away with it.”

Blake smiled and nodded. “Goodbye old friend. Let’s chat tomorrow.”  He walked out of the room, thinking that he didn’t want Joe to die, and he sincerely hoped Joe wouldn’t be hard-headed about taking his offer of help. Then he turned the corner and was gone.

Uncle Joey glanced at Ramos, who made sure we were alone, then turned to me. “Well? Is he telling the truth?”

“Yes, believe it or not, he is. He doesn’t want you killed by this assassin. So that part is true. But there’s also something he’s hiding about that company. Unfortunately, I can’t tell what it is...just that he needs your cooperation; and he’s hoping by sharing this, it will enhance his odds of getting it.”

“So the assassin is real?”

“Yes. Blake wants him captured in the worst way. The assassin’s killed a lot of innocent people. So...I think you can trust him on that point.”

“All right,” he said. “Did you pick up anything else?”

“Well...the only thing that really stood out to me was when he was talking about you needing his help in the future. He was thinking it might be sooner than you think...but I have no idea what that’s about.”

Uncle Joey’s eyes narrowed. “Hmm...Well, I guess we’ll have to ride this one out and see what happens.”

“There is one more thing,” I said. “He’s done some research on me. I guess the FBI and maybe even the CIA have files on me, and he’s convinced that I must be a real psychic. He’s hoping to bargain for my services in the future.”

“Then that might be his ulterior motive.”

“I don’t think so. I wasn’t on his radar until this morning when Ramos and I talked to him at breakfast. He heard me talking about how I helped the police, and I think that’s what got his attention. So we know that besides you, there’s another reason he’s here in town that probably has to do with that company he mentioned, but since he didn’t think about it, I don’t know what it is.”

Uncle Joey nodded, thinking that this was one hell of a challenge. Not only did he have the assassin to worry about, there was me and whatever else Blake was hiding. But instead of feeling intimidated, it made him feel young again. It surprised him that he actually looked forward to sparring with Blake. Just like the good old days.

“That’s totally twisted,” I said. “Blake has ulterior motives we know nothing about. You should stay away from him...uh...once you get the assassin.”

Uncle Joey glanced at me, not liking that I’d read his mind. His forceful gaze trapped mine with such displeasure that my stomach twisted into knots. Yikes! “Or not,” I added, “totally your call.”

“Shelby,” he said. “You shouldn’t worry about me. I’ve always been the one to best him, not the other way around.” Except for that one time when Blake so utterly betrayed him. But something like that would never happen again.

He glanced at me, thinking I’d probably just heard that, but he hoped I had the smarts to keep my mouth shut this time.

I raised my brows, but that was the only response he got from me. I was proud that I didn’t roll my eyes or ask what the heck Blake had done. I kept it to myself for once...yay me. I hoped maybe someday I’d find out all the juicy details, just so I’d have some leverage against Blake for future references. But now was not the time to ask.

“All righty then,” I said. “If that’s all you need me for, I guess I should go home.”

“Wait Shelby...I don’t like to talk about it, but you should probably know what happened with Blake. You need to know what kind of man he is, especially if he ever asks you to help him.”

“Okay,” I said, a bead of apprehension running down my spine.

“As you know, we were roommates in college. I had my own money, but he was there on a scholarship. He wasn’t a privileged, spoiled brat like most of my friends, and when they bullied him for it, I stood up to them. It wasn’t long before we became fast friends, and I invited him home for the holidays and other special occasions.

“My father had expectations of me taking over the business at some point, but I wasn’t sure that was what I wanted to do. I made the mistake of confiding this to Blake, and he pushed me to stand up to my father and tell him what I really wanted.

“The only problem with that was I didn’t know what I really wanted. I was good at the business, and I enjoyed it. I was just going through a rebellious stage. Anyway, my confession to Blake got him thinking of how to bring my father down. I guess he didn’t want me to follow in his footsteps.

“In the end, he used our friendship to spy on me and my family. My father’s number-one guy went down for something Blake told the cops, and he died in prison.”

Uncle Joey sat back in his chair and inhaled deeply. “Right before it happened, Blake warned me, or it would have been my father in prison. I think Blake must have felt guilty.” He was also thinking that he’d held a gun to Blake’s head when he’d found out, but let him go. To this day he didn’t know if sparing his life had been the right thing. “So you can see why I wanted to know why he was here.”

“So is he really an undercover agent or something?”

Uncle Joey nodded. “I think they recruited him in college because we were roommates. I’ve tried to keep track of him, but it’s been a while.” He was thinking that his contact in the FBI had retired a few years back, and the fact that Blake knew about his exploits in Mexico suggested he was still involved.

“Okay...uh...thanks for telling me.” I wasn’t sure how much to tell Uncle Joey, but I decided to go for it. “Blake was thinking that you and he were a lot alike. The things he’d done were on the side of the law, but he wasn’t sure that made him any different. I don’t know if that helps, but there it is...”

“Thanks for telling me.”

“Although I’m totally with you on the not-trusting-him part, I don’t think he means you any harm. But who’s to say...it could change.”

“No doubt,” Uncle Joey agreed. “Well...let’s get you home.”

Now that Ramos knew there was a real threat to Uncle Joey’s life, he wasn’t taking any chances. His initial surprise that Uncle Joey had told me that story was eclipsed by his desire to protect him at all costs. He made us wait while he called in his men and coordinated our movements with precision timing.

A different man drove the car with another riding in the front seat beside him, and Ramos sat in the back with us, watchful and alert. I also picked up a few thoughts that this reminded him of the first time he’d met Uncle Joey, and how he’d saved his life from a killer.

Wow...that sounded interesting. I hoped someday I’d hear the whole story, but his thoughts had already moved on to getting Uncle Joey home safely, and then how to keep him safe through the night. It was nearly eleven p.m. when we pulled into my driveway, and Uncle Joey thanked me for my help.

“I’ll be in touch,” he said.

“Okay...be careful.” The man in the front passenger seat opened my door and walked me to the house. At the door, I thanked him and hurried inside.

I locked and bolted the door, flipping off the lights Chris had left on, and headed to my bedroom. Everyone was in bed, including Chris. He’d left my bedside lamp on, and I could tell he’d tried to stay awake but had lost the battle. I changed and washed my face, then climbed into bed and turned out the light. Chris stirred and turned toward me.

“Glad you’re home,” he mumbled. “How did it go?”

“Good. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.”

“No way...you’re telling me tonight. Even if I am half asleep, I want to hear it.” He was thinking that he didn’t want me to think I could ‘forget’ to tell him things and get away with it. “So start talking.”

He didn’t interrupt while I gave him the basics, but was sound asleep before I finished, so I quit mid-sentence.

“You’re not done are you?” he asked, surprising me.

“Oh...I thought you were asleep.”

“Not a chance...well maybe a little. Come here.” He pulled me into his arms. “I’m glad you’re home.”

I rested my head on his shoulder and let out a deep sigh. Feeling safe in his strong arms, the weariness of the day overcame me, and I promptly fell asleep.

Chapter 10

The ringtone on my cell phone woke me from a deep sleep, and I felt for it on my nightstand. I found it by the fifth ring and, with my eyes half-shut, managed to say a raspy hello.

“Shelby? This is Harris. Did I wake you?”

“Um...yeah. What time is it?”

“Oh...uh...it’s about six-fifteen. I’m sorry I woke you, but we found Pete, and I thought you should know.”

“Oh...that’s good. I’d like to talk to him. Should I come down to the station?”

“Well...that’s just it. You can’t talk to him. He’s dead.”

“What?” That news jolted me awake, and I sat up. “Did you just say he’s dead?”

“Yes.”

I pushed the hair out of my face and blinked the sleep from my eyes. “How? When?”

“He was shot in the chest, close range. From what we can tell, the Medical Examiner says it happened between midnight and three a.m.”

“Do you have any suspects?”

“Not right now, but there’s more. Can you come down to the crime scene? I want you to take a look at something.”

“Really? Are you sure I can get past the crime scene tape?” I did not want to see another dead body, so I hoped this was a good reason to stay away.

“Sure. Just wear your ID badge. But don’t take too long, we’re almost done here.”

“Okay,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll be there soon...wait...where is there?”

“I’ll send you a text with the address.” He disconnected and, almost immediately, the text came through.

“Who’s dead?” Chris asked, pushing to sit up next to me.

“Pete.”

“Whoa, that was unexpected.”

“Yeah, and Dimples wants me to meet him at the crime scene, so I’d better get going.”

Just then Chris’ alarm went off. He groaned before reaching to switch it off. “Want to shower with me?”

I chuckled and got out of bed. “I wish...but I don’t have time. I’ll just throw something on and go. Can you make sure the kids get off to school?”

“All right,” he agreed. “But be careful.”

A few minutes later, I put the address into the GPS in my car and started driving. As I got closer to the scene, something kept niggling at me, but I didn’t know what it was. Then it hit me. I’d seen this address before, but I had no idea where.

As I followed the directions, worry tightened my stomach. Instead of a house like I was expecting, the road took me back under the freeway into a bad part of town. It wasn’t far from the homeless shelter, and garbage and shopping carts littered the street. Mounds of clothing were heaped up in doorways and, with dawning horror, I realized they were people either asleep or trying to stay warm.

Further down the road, I caught sight of red and blue flashing lights and sighed with relief. I’d never been to this part of town, although it did remind me of the house where Chloe was taken. What was Pete doing down here? Had he met with someone from the narcotics unit? It had to have something to do with Chloe, but what?

I parked close to the police cars and hurried over to the group of cops near the huge round pillars beneath the freeway. Two police officers talked near the crime scene tape, but quit when I got close. I held up my ID card, and one of them waved me through.

About thirty feet away, Dimples stood with several other officers surrounding the body and I hesitated. As far as I was concerned, I was as close to the dead body as I wanted to get. I waited for Dimples to notice me, but he was too involved to look up. Still, I couldn’t seem to get my legs to move any closer.

“What’s the matter Nichols? Afraid of a little blood?”

I sucked in my breath to hear Bates’ voice. He’d come up from behind and now stood at my side. I glanced at him and decided to be honest. “Yes I am. It’s hard for me to see anyone like that. Especially someone I know.”

He was thinking that it was hard for everyone, but you just had to get over it, otherwise you couldn’t do your job...and... what the hell was I doing there anyway? I shouldn’t be looking at dead bodies. I wasn’t one of them. I shouldn’t be here...seeing this.

“Dimp...uh...Harris asked me to come,” I explained. Oops...I hoped saying that out loud didn’t seem suspicious.

Thankfully, Bates didn’t think anything of it, although he couldn’t understand why Harris would do that. “Harris!” he yelled, taking pity on me, and motioning Dimples over. “Shelby’s here.”

While I marveled that Bates had called me Shelby instead of Nichols, Dimples hurried to my side. “Sorry! I didn’t see you. Thanks for coming.”

“Sure. What did you want me to see?”

“The body,” he said. “I need you to take a look and tell me what you think.”

Damn! I was going to have to go over there after all. Dimples didn’t wait for me, so after taking a deep breath for courage, I followed him over. Bates trailed behind, hoping I wasn’t going to puke, or worse, faint, and wondered what Dimples was up to.

I kept my gaze down until Dimples stopped in front of me. “Do you see it?” he asked.

I finally raised my gaze to the body, and my breath caught. “Oh my gosh! He’s sitting there just like Tom...the cold case you gave me.”

“Exactly,” Dimples said, nodding with grim satisfaction.

“But...so does this mean he was killed by the same person?”

“I believe so, yes. They’re too much alike to be a coincidence.” He was thinking that whoever did this got away with it once, and figured he could do it again. 

“I see what you mean,” I said.

“Uh...yeah.” Dimples didn’t know if I was answering his thoughts or what he’d said, but figured it didn’t matter...as long as it made sense.

I glanced at him and smiled. He smiled back thinking this was totally cool.

“I obviously missed something,” Bates said. “Tell me about the cold case.”

“There’s not much to tell,” Dimples began. “But a man helping at the food kitchen ended up dead right here about a year ago. The remarkable thing is that he was positioned exactly like Pete...against this same pillar. It makes me think that if we can find a link between that man and Pete, we’ll find our killer.”

Bates shrugged, thinking it might be better to focus on Pete and let the chips fall where they may. “I get that,” he said. “But let’s focus on what we know about Pete for now.”

As they discussed his death and what could have happened, I glanced at Pete’s body. Thankfully, someone had closed his eyes, but seeing him like that still got to me. I’d just talked to him yesterday and now he was gone. I turned away, glancing at the view of bare concrete slabs and piles of garbage. Sadness flowed over me to think that this was the last thing both he and Tom had seen before they died. 

A soft breeze blew into my face, surprising me with its warmth on this chilly November day. I caught the faint scent of Irish Spring and fresh cut grass. What in the world? Puzzled, I looked for a house or laundromat, anything that would explain the smell, but there was nothing like that anywhere.

It came again, and this time I closed my eyes and deeply inhaled. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, recognition burst to the surface and my pulse raced. Was it real? I inhaled again and caught the elusive scent I hadn’t smelled since high school and the last time I’d seen Tom.

My eyes flew open and I swallowed. This was just like that other case. It had to be him. I licked my lips, trying not to panic and, in my mind, asked,
Tom, is that you? Can you hear me? Help me figure out what happened.

The breeze tugged a few strands of my hair back toward the body, and my eyes widened. Oh boy...this was real. Taking tentative steps, I let the breeze direct me around the body to a few feet beyond the other side of the pillar. All at once, my hair fell and the breeze was gone, taking the mysterious scent with it.

Okay...that was freaky. I took a few deep breaths to get under control and glanced around. Some clue had to be here, right? I bent down and went over every inch of the ground, finding only a few rusty nails and bolts, along with plastic water bottles and bags.

I turned my attention to the pillar and examined it, but nothing stood out. I glanced up at the underside of the freeway, taking in the vast expanse of concrete, but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. The loud chatter on a police radio cut through my concentration, and I glanced back to find the crime scene unit putting Pete’s body into a body bag.

I could hear Dimples and the other officers still talking, but I knew they were ready to wrap it up, and I didn’t have much time. Heaving a sigh, I stepped back to the spot where the breeze had stopped and faced forward, looking beyond my immediate vicinity.

A chain-link fence separated this side of the freeway from several buildings on the other side of the road. A large, square building sat directly across from where I stood. I stared at it, taking in the surrounding area, and hoped for something...anything, to make sense.

Maybe I needed to find out who owned that building? The only other thing I could see was a billboard. I could barely make out what it said, but it had a picture of a newer looking home with a for sale sign on it, so I struggled to make out the logo.

“Shelby?” Dimples asked, touching my shoulder.

I nearly jumped a foot. “Sheesh! You scared me to death!”

“Sorry.” His brows drew together, and he was thinking I looked kind of pale and frazzled, like something had spooked me. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“Yeah...I’m fine. I was just looking for clues.”

“Back here?” His brows rose, and he wondered if the shock was getting to me.

“Uh...can you see that billboard over there?” I pointed at it, hoping to distract him.

“Sure.”

“What’s the name of the realtor company? I can’t make it out.”

“Uh...it’s...Countrywide Homes.”

“Oh, right. Thanks.” I had no idea if that meant anything or not, so I pointed out the buildings across the way. “I think we should check out those buildings. I have a feeling that something over there will tie into the case.”

Dimples’ face went blank, then he barked out a laugh. “Shelby...you don’t have to pretend with the premonitions thing. Nobody can hear us over here. Just tell me what you heard.”

Oh crap! Now what? I laughed and he joined in with me, mostly to be polite. He stopped first and looked at me expectantly, sending me into another fit of laughter. I finally calmed down enough to talk. “Um...can I tell you later?”

That was not what Dimples expected, and he glanced around to see if someone was listening. Finding no one nearby, he decided I must know something he didn’t, and he’d just better go with it. “Sure...I guess.”

“Great, thanks. I think I’ll go home and get cleaned up...since I didn’t have time to get ready this morning. I can come into the precinct after that if you like. Maybe we can go over a few things then.”

“Okay.” He didn’t know if the chief wanted me involved, but he figured he could run interference if he had to. “Bring the file I gave you on that other case too. Maybe we’ll find someone, or something, that both victims have in common.”

“I will for sure,” I agreed. “See you soon.”

I hurried to my car and gratefully sank into the seat. My stomach growled, and weakness washed over my entire body. What was going on? I’d just had another psychic experience...and it was totally freaking me out. I thought after the last one I was done, and now this? I didn’t think I could take it.

Of course, if I hadn’t picked up that scent, I never would have known it was coming from my old flame, right? I would have thought someone was just doing their laundry and the breeze was blowing the smell my way. In fact...maybe that’s what really happened, and I was reading too much into it.

Besides, where was the clue? Did I even have one? Maybe the wind was just blowing my hair that way, and that explained it. If it weren’t for that special scent, I might believe it. That scent was different from anything I’d ever smelled before or since...so it had to be him.

The only thing I could do now was check out those clues. If neither of them panned out, I’d just have to come back here and look again. Maybe I’d missed it? 

I started up the car and decided that I might as well drive over to those buildings across the way and at least get an address. They might even have an owner’s name on the outside. Wouldn’t it be great if it was the name of the killer? Ha! Even I knew it couldn’t be that easy.

Several minutes later, I pulled my car to the side of the road and glanced at the buildings. From this side I could see that the buildings housed several businesses. One was a plumbing supply store, another looked like a window business, and the third was a garage door place.

I found some paper in my purse and wrote down their names so I could check them out on the Internet. Maybe one of the owners knew Tom? But how would that link them to his murder? Or Pete’s? Maybe one of the employees was the killer and would recognize his name when I asked about him.

I glanced at the clock. It was close to eight in the morning, but it didn’t look like any of the businesses were open yet. I might as well go home and come back later with Tom’s picture. Besides...I was starving and needed to take a shower.

Taking one last look at the building, I noticed an alleyway between the businesses. Looking straight down the alley, a well-used path led to the fence I’d seen on the other side of the freeway. Curious, I got out of my car and walked to the entrance.