Crossing Danger: A Shelby Nichols Adventure (22 page)

“I’ll walk you out,” Uncle Joey said. Once we were out of earshot, he continued. “I talked with Blake. I don’t know what he’s up to, but he said he’d be in touch. When I know more, I’ll call you.” He was thinking that Blake had specifically asked if I’d be involved, like he wanted me there or he wouldn’t agree, and it bothered him.

“He did?” I asked. “What does he want with me?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it.”

“Me neither.”

“Don’t worry, Shelby. We might not need him after all and, even if we do, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Okay,” I said. We got to the elevators, and I hesitated. “Is it safe to go back down there?”

He was thinking that with all the surveillance cameras I’d just seen, how could I ask that? But then he thought of how the assassin had nearly jumped onto the elevator with me. “You’d better wait, and I’ll have Ramos go with you.” I opened my mouth to proclaim that I could take care of myself, but then I remembered the assassin’s hard, cold eyes and snapped it shut. Just then, Ramos joined us.

“Oh good, you haven’t left yet,” he said. “I’ll walk Shelby to her car.” He was thinking that even though they had lost the assassin’s trail, that didn’t mean he wasn’t hiding out somewhere in the building, and he didn’t want to take any chances with my safety.

“Really? You think he might be down there somewhere?” I asked.

“It’s a possibility,” he said. “But not likely.”

Uncle Joey said goodbye, and we got on the elevator. Still feeling bad, I apologized to Ramos again. “I’m sorry I messed things up for you.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll think of another way to catch him.”

The bell dinged, and the doors opened into the parking garage. Without thinking, I immediately stepped behind Ramos and held my breath. Finding the garage empty, it was still hard to step out of the elevator into the unknown.

Ramos chuckled. “Don’t worry. It’s not you he wants to kill. But you can walk behind me if you want.”

“Okay,” I said. He was half-joking, but I thought it was a good idea.

We made it to my car without mishap, and I heaved a sigh of relief. “Thanks Ramos. Don’t let him shoot you, okay?”

“I won’t,” he said. Then his brows drew together. “Did you steal a donut?”

“What?” My gaze flew to his. How did he know?

“Frosting...right there...” He pointed to a spot above my lip. I licked it with my tongue, but he shook his head. “Here...” He rubbed his thumb gently across my lip. “There. Got it.”

“Uh...thanks.” My breath hitched, and I seemed frozen in place.

“Maple bars.”

“Huh?”

“Are they your favorite?” he asked.

“Yeah...well...no, but I like them a lot.” Ramos chuckled and stepped back, giving me the room I needed to breathe again. “Uh...see you. Be careful.”

“Count on it.” He closed the door and watched while I backed out of my parking space. I waved once more and drove out of the parking lot, shaking my head to clear it, and get my breathing under control. Sheesh! Get a grip Shelby. I turned up the radio and started singing along, “radio-active...radio-active.” Yup, that definitely fit.

A few minutes later, I hurried into the precinct to find Dimples waiting for me at his desk. “Sorry. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting long.”

“No...it’s fine. I’ve got them in separate interrogation rooms. Let’s talk to Kramer first.”

“Sounds good,” I agreed.

I followed Dimples into the room and got my first look at Kramer. He wore jeans and a tee shirt, and looked kind of scruffy with long straggly hair and a beard. His glance held defiance, and in his thoughts, he was madder than hell that the police had picked him up. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

“I’m sure you’re wondering what you’re doing here,” Dimples began. “But we just have a few questions for you, and you’ll be free to go.”

Kramer shook his head and huffed out a breath, thinking he wasn’t going to get bulldozed into anything this time.

“Where were you last Tuesday night?”

His brows shot up in surprise. How did we know about that? “Tuesday? That’s easy. I was helping my mom move some furniture. What’s this all about?”

“And can she verify that?”

“Yes,” he said. “I was there all night.”

“Do you know Jason Haws?” Dimples asked.

“Yeah, sure,” Kramer said. “But I haven’t seen him for a while.”

“Did you see him Tuesday night?”

“No. I told you I haven’t seen him.” Kramer was starting to sweat. He didn’t know how we could think he was involved, but there was no way we could tie him to that break-in. They’d done everything by the book, and he was sure they’d left nothing behind.

If that broad hadn’t surprised them, he could have been more thorough, but he knew there was nothing to tie him or Haws to that fiasco. They wore masks and gloves. No one could identify them, coming or going. They were professionals. So what happened? Haws would cut his tongue out before he’d roll. So who else would talk?

“We just want to know who hired you,” I said.

He stilled, and his gaze cut to mine. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, and that’s all I’m going to say.”

“Fine,” Dimples said. “We’ll be back.”

I followed Dimples out to the hall. “Did you get anything?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure it was him and Haws, but proving it might be difficult. I don’t think he’ll admit to anything. We need to find out who they’re working for.”

“Maybe we’ll have more luck with Haws.”

Dimples opened the door to the next interrogation room, and I followed him in, catching my breath at the sight of the big man seated at the table. He wasn’t someone I wanted to meet in a dark alley. His hair was cut military short, and his tee shirt showed off his muscles and tattoos. He reminded me of the men I’d met in Uncle Joey’s office earlier, and my pulse raced. Had I seen him before? My heart sank. I didn’t think he’d ever worked for Uncle Joey, but how did I know?

Dimples began with the same questions he’d asked Kramer, but Haws didn’t even blink. He wasn’t worried about anything. He was good at his job, and nothing could tie him to that break-in. Unless Kramer talked, but Kramer was smarter than that.

“So, are you like a paid mercenary?” I asked. “Or maybe I should call it security, like a bodyguard or something.”

He glanced at me with speculation, since I was right on the money. “I’m a bouncer...among other things.”

“So if I wanted to hire you, I could?”

“As long as it was nothing illegal,” he said, his lips turning sideways in a smirk.

“So who hired you to break into that apartment and steal the thumb-drive?” I asked.

A thin smile of respect spread over his lips. Asking about the thumb-drive could easily throw someone off their game. But not him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Dismissing me, he glanced at Dimples. “Are you going to charge me with anything?”

“Uh...” Dimples glanced at me and raised his brows. “Are you done?”

“Yes.”

He nodded and turned back to Haws. “I guess we’re done here.”

Haws pushed his chair back and, without a backward glance, walked out the door.

“Do we need to talk to Kramer again?” Dimples asked.

“No. Cut him loose. I got the name. It was Anthony Kerby.”

“I knew it,” Dimples said.

“Yeah, but knowing it and proving it are two different things. There is absolutely no evidence to link them to Billie’s apartment. So what do we do now?”

Dimples sighed. “I don’t know. We can’t bring charges, so I guess nothing’s changed.”

“Maybe, but since Anthony hired them, where did he find them? From cases he’s found in his office? Is he working with someone else? Maybe we need to go back and talk to him, only with different questions this time.”

Dimples nodded, but his heart wasn’t in it. “You sure you don’t want to talk to Kramer again?”

“Yeah, I’m sure, but I’d like to take a look at their files one more time.”

While he took care of Kramer, I hurried to his desk and opened both files side-by-side. I shuffled through each page and looked at the officers involved in making the arrests, but none of them were Pete like I was hoping. That’s when I noticed that both files had several pages missing. That was it...the link had to be in those missing pages.

“Shelby?”

I glanced up to find Chief Winder motioning me to his office. Puzzled, I hurried toward him, noticing that the blinds over his windows were shut. Who was he hiding in there?

“There’s someone who’d like to meet you,” he said, moving to usher me inside.

Curious, I stepped through the door and stopped short in surprise.

“Shelby,” the chief said, closing the door behind me. “This is Special Agent Blake Beauchaine.”

Chapter 12

“Nice to meet you.” Blake stood and offered his hand, hoping I’d follow his lead.

“Yeah. You too,” I said.

“Blake is the lead investigator on Pete Royce’s death,” Chief Winder explained. “He wanted to compare notes with you.” 

“Oh...he’s with the FBI? The one you were telling us about?”

“Yes,” he said, frowning at me. He turned to Blake. “Do you need to talk to Harris and Bates too?”

“In a moment,” Blake answered. “I’d like to talk with Shelby first.” He turned his gaze to the chief and smiled. “Thanks for letting me use your office.”

“No problem.” It soon became evident that Blake was not going to continue until the chief left. “Uh...I’ll leave you to it.”

“Thank you,” Blake said again. As soon as the door shut, Blake let out a breath and smiled. “Thanks for not giving me away.”

“Sure,” I said, regaining my composure. “So you’re the big shot with the FBI?”

He chuckled. “Right now I am.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I go where I’m needed, and right now it’s here, with this investigation, although to be honest, I didn’t expect to find you in the middle of it.” He didn’t think my involvement with the police was all for Joe’s benefit, but it certainly didn’t hurt Joe to have me snooping around the department either.

“I work as a consultant for the police, and it has nothing to do with Uncle Joey,” I said. “In fact, I don’t think he likes it much.”

Blake nodded. “I’m beginning to see that. I just can’t figure out why you help Joe in the first place. He’s not really your uncle, so there must be another reason.”

“That’s no concern of yours,” I said, wanting to put him in his place. “So is this why you’re really here...I mean...besides this business with the assassin? To investigate the police department?”

“It’s a little more complicated than that, but, yes...that’s part of it.” Thoughts about the attorney general’s office popped into his mind, but he pushed them away. “Could you tell me about Chloe Peterson?”

Whoa...was he investigating the attorney general’s office? Was that why he was here?

“Shelby?”

“Um...right. Chloe Peterson. She’s my client. She saw a cop at a drug house and heard him talking on the phone making a deal with someone. She managed to get away, but he saw her. We kept her in hiding until we figured out who the cop was. It turned out to be Pete, but before we could question him, he turned up dead.”

Blake nodded. “Do you have any ideas about who killed him?”

“Yeah...logically it’s his partner in crime. Since Chloe could identify Pete, I think the partner got rid of him. Does that sound about right to you?”

“Yes. But there’s more to it than that,” he said. “I think Pete was supposed to kill Chloe and couldn’t go through with it. I know this because my office got a call from him last night. He told one of my agents that he wanted to turn state’s evidence against the man running this drug ring. The agent told him to come in and we’d talk but, for some reason, Pete refused. Next thing I know, he’s dead.” He shook his head. “We were so close.”

“That’s too bad,” I agreed. “Your agent really messed up, huh?” Since he was thinking about firing him, I knew it was a good guess. His sharp gaze caught mine, and I shrugged. “So what do you need from me?”

“I’d like to know what you and Detective Harris have been up to,” he said, leaning forward.

“Well...we’ve been trying to figure out who Pete was working with.”

“No,” Blake interrupted. “Not that. You visited the attorney general’s office this morning and talked with Anthony Kerby. What was that about?”

“You mean...why did we talk to him?”

“Yes,” Blake said. “And not just Anthony, but his intern and the two men you just finished questioning.”

Crap! How did he know all that? Had he been watching me? Did he also know I’d been to Uncle Joey’s office? What should I tell him? Blake was the good guy, right? So I should probably tell him everything. But could I trust him? I thought he had it in for Uncle Joey, but with all this going on, did it matter? Still, I couldn’t be too careful.

Blake cleared his throat. “Uh...anytime now.”

“Okay...fine. I’ll tell you what I know, and maybe we can work together on this. Sound good?”

He sat back. Why was I making a deal with him? What did I want in return?

“I just want to know what’s going on with the investigation. Once you tell me everything, there’s a good chance that I can help you.”

Blake’s eyes narrowed. He knew he had a great poker face, but I’d read him like a book. Maybe there was something to those reports that I had psychic abilities...or I was just good at reading people.

“Sure,” he agreed. He suddenly wanted to work with me in the worst way, so he could see for himself if I was anything like the reports said. If it was true, it certainly made sense that Joe would want to keep me around. The only problem with that was why would I work with a mob-boss? Joe must have some kind of hold over me. That’s the only thing that made sense. But whatever it was, he hoped to find out. Maybe he could do something about it.

What the freak! Maybe I should stay out of this. But now it was too late. Why did I do stuff like this? Now I had to be careful with what I said and, with all the stress, I was bound to break out in hives at any moment.

“So...go ahead,” he prompted. “Tell me what’s going on.”

I blinked. “Right. Okay. I think it all started when my friend Billy Jo Payne started looking into the Attorney General’s Office.” I started at the beginning, then told him about the thumb-drive and how it had been stolen from her desk. “But of course, she made a copy.” That caught Blake’s interest especially when I told him that her apartment had been ransacked and she’d been shot.

“Did they take it?” he asked.

“No. I went back later and found it.”

His brows lifted, and he thought
that was you?
“You did?” he said.

“Uh...yeah.” So he was the person I’d seen in the parking lot? The one who’d watched me leave Billie’s apartment? “What were you doing there?” Oops. That just kind of slipped out. I held my breath, hoping he’d think I saw him and that’s why I’d asked.

“What makes you say that?” He thought there was no way I could have known it was him. We hadn’t even met yet.

“Oh, well...there was someone there. As I was leaving, I spotted him, and went down the other staircase to avoid him. There was something familiar about him, and now it just clicked in my mind that it was you.”

“You put it together just now?” he asked, astounded. He could hardly believe it. How could I tell it was him from that moment to now? He’d stayed in the shadows and worn a hat and bulky jacket. Even if I’d spotted him, there was no way in hell I should have recognized him.

“Well...um...not really. It was just a hunch.” I shrugged. “Guess I was right.”

He let out a breath, dropping all pretense. “Is this your psychic powers at work?”

“Uh...yeah.”

“Hmm...” He studied me, thinking I wasn’t being entirely truthful. He was good at spotting lies, so what was I hiding?

“Anyway,” I continued. “I gave the thumb-drive to Dimp... uh...Harris.”

“Did you look at it?” he asked, wondering what I’d seen. I nodded, and he continued. “Did it have anything incriminating on it?

“I think so, but I didn’t understand it very well.”

“This is good, Shelby. This could be the break we need. I need that thumb-drive.”

“Well...I’m sure Harris will be happy to turn it over. You might need to keep him in the loop though. So, is there anything else?”

He let out a sigh and glanced down at his notes. “Yes. You haven’t finished telling me about Anthony.”

“Right.” I gave him the shortened version of events, telling him that we thought Anthony hired the two thugs to get the thumb-drive from Billie’s apartment. “But without proof, we can’t tie any of them together.”

“We may not need to. That thumb-drive might have everything we need on it.”

“So what does this have to do with Pete and the drugs?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. But I think there’s a connection to the A.G.’s office somewhere, I just don’t know where.”

“I checked out those files on Kramer and Haws. There are pages missing. Maybe finding the missing pages will tell us what we want to know.”

Blake wrote something down on a piece of paper. “I’ll check into it.”

“Good. So are we done here?” I worried that I’d said too much and also that I’d missed something...mostly that this was all somehow connected to Uncle Joey, and I’d just sentenced him to his doom.

“Yes...but there is one more thing. I got a call from Joe about the assassin. Did you see him?”

“Yeah, I did. I took his picture with my phone.”

“Let me see.”

I showed him the blurry snapshots, and he was relieved that I hadn’t gotten a good look at his face. “Okay, good. I’ll see what I can do to help Joe. Thanks Shelby, I’ll be in touch. Will you send Harris in now?”

“Yeah...uh...sure.” My heart raced with sudden fear from what I’d just picked up, but I managed to walk out of the office and shut the door behind me. I found my way to Dimples’ desk and sat down heavily.

“Hey Shelby...what’s going on?” Dimples asked.

“The FBI guy wants to talk to you in the chief’s office,” I told him.

“Are you okay?” Dimples asked, thinking I looked a little pale.

“Oh...sure,” I said. He didn’t believe me, but he kept his mouth shut and hurried into the chief’s office.

I took a deep breath and tried to swallow past the sudden dryness in my mouth. Blake was thinking I might be in a lot of trouble, but it was lots worse than that. He’d been thinking that the assassin usually wore a disguise, since he didn’t like anyone to see his face. Those that did were marked for death. The ‘chameleon’ lived by certain rules. Anyone who’d seen his face as the assassin...never lived to tell about it.

He wasn’t wearing a disguise when I saw him. I’d seen his face under the hoodie. Did that mean he’d come after me now? Damn! I was in so much trouble. What was I going to do? I took a deep breath and tried to think things through.

First of all, he didn’t know my name or anything about me. So...it would take time for him to find me, and I should be safe for now. There was also the fact that he was getting paid to kill Uncle Joey, so naturally he’d go after him first. I was just an afterthought, and he could deal with me later, right? And since Uncle Joey was bound to kill him before he got to me, I had nothing to worry about.

I let out a breath and relaxed my shoulders, but my stomach refused to cooperate and tightened into a queasy knot. I glanced around the precinct and took in the activities around me. It was business as usual. I was safe here. Now I just needed to figure out how to tell Blake that I’d seen the assassin’s face without letting on that I’d heard the dire consequences in his thoughts.

As soon as Dimples came out, I’d go back in there and ask him if he needed a description of the assassin. That should work. My stomach settled down, and I sighed with relief. My chair faced the right direction to watch the chief’s office, so I kept my eye on the door.

“Hey Nichols,” Bates said, coming up behind me.

I cringed at the sound of his voice, but managed to smooth the grimace off my face before I turned to look at him. “What?”

His brows drew together. He’d seen me cringe, and it bothered him. What was my problem? He was just trying to be friendly. For a woman with premonitions, I certainly didn’t seem to have any. “I was just wondering if you brought that file on the other homicide at the underpass. I wanted to take a look at it.”

“Oh, sure. It’s here on the desk somewhere.” I closed the files on Kramer and Haws and found Tom’s underneath.

“What do you have these files out for?” Bates asked, motioning to the two I’d set aside.

“Um...we think they might have been involved in a burglary.”

“I remember these two,” he went on as if I hadn’t said a word. “Never could get any charges to stick.”

“Well...that certainly makes sense. Here...” I handed him Tom’s file. “Take a look, and let me know if you see anything.”

“It was like they had help from someone on the inside, you know?” He continued. “Someone pulling the strings and cutting them loose. Maybe it was Pete?”

“I couldn’t find anything, but there are some pages missing. Who would do that?”

“Someone trying to cover their tracks,” he said. “They should have copies of these files on the computer down in the archives. I’ll bet we’ll find all the pages there.”

“Great. Why don’t you go check it out? I’d come, but I’m waiting for Dim...uh...Harris. He’s in the chief’s office talking to someone.”

Bates shook his head. “No he’s not. He already left. I saw them leave right after you came out.”

“Are you serious?” I hurried over to the office and knocked on the door. A second later, the chief pulled it open. I glanced inside, but Bates was right. They were gone.

“What’s going on?” the chief asked.