Crossing Danger: A Shelby Nichols Adventure (26 page)

Besides, what could he do to her in the short time before lunch?  I didn’t think he’d kill her. Plus, she didn’t know anything, so it was a dead end anyway.

I got in my car and locked all the doors, then slowly exhaled and tried to think straight. I pulled out my phone to call Dimples, relieved more than I could say that he knew my secret and I could just be upfront about what I’d heard.

“I talked to Matt,” I blurted, after Dimples answered. “It’s definitely him. What should I do?”

“Wow! That’s huge. Why don’t you come down to the station, and we’ll figure it out.”

“Okay, I’m on my way.”

Well...that was quick. I started up the car and began the short drive, arriving at the station a few minutes later. After slipping on my ID badge, I left my car and hurried inside, grateful to find Dimples waiting for me.

“Good job, Shelby,” he said with a smile. “We’re meeting in the chief’s office.” He ushered me down the hall, thinking this was the break we needed and he was so proud of me.

That lifted my spirits, and my lips turned up in a smile. It lasted until I stepped inside the office and found the chief, Bates, and Blake, all waiting with bated breath to hear my story. I had hoped to tell Dimples what I’d heard from Matt, but how was I supposed to do that with all of them here?

After greeting everyone, I sat down and tried to figure out where to start. “Okay...so, I believe Matt is our prime suspect. He’s the only one who knew where Chloe was staying...because Kira told him...and he must have told Pete, and that’s why he showed up at Holly’s house.”

They pretty much knew that part already, so what else did I have? I licked my lips and told them about the tie clip. “After he examined it, he said it was his, but I had to let him have it. I hope that’s all right.”

Blake was the only one who agreed with me, where the others were having heart attacks that I’d given it away. “What did he say to make you believe it was him?” Blake asked.

Now I had to come up with something quick. “He didn’t really say anything, but I got lots of good premonitions about him. When I mentioned that I’d found the tie clip under the freeway, I got a flash of a dead body propped up against the pillar, just how we found Pete...and the same with that other guy, Tom. He said he lost the tie clip about a year ago...which is when Tom was murdered there. See? It’s got to be him.”

Blake raised a brow. “So that’s it?” He was thinking that, without evidence, even if it looked like he was the killer, it still added up to absolutely nothing.

“No,” I said. “From our conversation, I think he has an idea that I know something. He’s probably assuming that I’m going to use it as leverage to get him to pay for my silence. He invited me to lunch, and I think he hopes to find out how much I know and what my terms are. So I’m meeting him at noon today.”

I had decided to leave the realty company part out, but had totally forgotten about his consulting work. “I also found out that he’s a consultant for an investment firm. Does that help?”

This time Blake’s gaze sharpened, and excitement buzzed over him. He was thinking that could be the missing link. “What’s the name of the firm?”

“Plum Fidelity. Ever heard of them?”

“No...but it sounds familiar. I’ll have to check my notes and see.” He glanced at me, then at the others in the room. “Since this is my investigation, I’ll call the shots.” The other men nodded their agreement, but I just shrugged. I mean, seriously, what did it matter?

“We don’t have a lot of time to get things set up, so here’s the plan. I have a bug Shelby can wear on her sweater. It looks like a pin, so he won’t notice it.” Blake turned his gaze to me. “You’ll try and get him to talk about Pete. Maybe get him to say something incriminating. Say you have evidence even though you don’t, or something like that. Do you think you can do that? I don’t have a lot of time to train you, but I might be able to give you some pointers once things are ready to go.”

I opened my mouth to agree, but Dimples broke in. “Sir, that won’t be necessary. Shelby is a natural at getting people to talk. We’ve seen it a lot here, right chief? She’s the best. You don’t have to worry about training her. She’ll know what to say.”

Blake’s brows lifted in surprise at the praise Dimples heaped on me, then he nodded and held back a smile, clearly understanding that Dimples had a lot of admiration for me...kind of like Manetto. I must have some real talent to impress both of them.

“Good,” he agreed. “We’ll have a surveillance van parked nearby, and we’ll be listening to everything Shelby says. To be on the safe side, I’d also like to have one of you...” he nodded toward Dimples and Bates, “in the restaurant for back up.”

“I’ll do it,” Bates said, standing and pulling his pants up around his waist. “I know that place. I can sit at the end of the bar and see everything from there.”

My heart sank. Why did he have to volunteer? I’d much rather have Dimples inside.

“All right,” Blake agreed. He glanced at me to see if I’d object, so I kept my mouth shut. “Let’s get started.”

We had a little over an hour to get the van ready, the bug on my sweater, and Bates inside the restaurant. Before they put the bug on me, I gave Chris a call to let him know what was going on. Happy that I wasn’t going to be alone, he begged me to ask Blake if he could sit in the van and listen to the whole thing. Thankfully, Blake turned down that request pretty quick, and I was glad he did. I hoped that didn’t make me a bad wife, but I was nervous enough as it was and didn’t want to be distracted by my husband.

The time passed quickly and, since they had to leave early to get into place, I was left behind to twiddle my thumbs. I thought about using the restroom but nixed that idea. With the bug on my sweater, I knew they’d pick up every little sound. Just thinking about it tightened my stomach, and I tried to calm down before I made myself sick and had to use it for real.

I also couldn’t hear anything from their end of things, so I felt like I was in the dark, but at least I had backup, and I took comfort in that.

I drove to the restaurant with my stomach a bundle of nerves. Even though I was grateful Dimples had such confidence in me, I wasn’t so sure I could pull it off. I mean, talking to Matt earlier didn’t seem nearly as scary as it did this time.

Now it was like both my job and my reputation were on the line, and the pressure was killing me. Turning on the radio and singing along usually worked to calm me down, but with this damn bug, I couldn’t even do that.

Parking was limited on the street, so I pulled into the public parking plaza near the restaurant and parked on the upper level. Before opening the car door, I took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. Talking to Matt wasn’t that big of a deal. I could do this. What was the worst that could happen anyway? At least I didn’t have to worry about getting shot, or killed, right?

With renewed confidence, I hurried to the elevator and rode it to the street level. I pushed through the parking plaza doors onto the sidewalk and began my short trek to the restaurant. Without trying to be too obvious, I glanced up and down the street for signs of the van but couldn’t see it anywhere. Before letting the flutter of panic take root, I reasoned that it was probably just around the corner out of sight, and tried to quit worrying.

I hesitated at the restaurant doors, then swallowed my fear and pulled the door open. I smiled at the hostess and told her I was meeting someone. She looked over me with interest. From Matt’s description of me, she knew I was the one meeting him and wondered who I was, especially since he’d asked for the table in the back corner that was more private.

“Right this way,” she said.

As I followed her through the restaurant, I glanced toward the bar near the back and found Bates sitting in the corner with a drink in his hand. He ignored me, but I knew from his thoughts that he’d seen me come in. I listened to his thoughts pretty hard, needing to know if he was ready to protect me with his life.

Since I knew how he felt about me most of the time, I figured he’d probably just as soon have me dead but, from what I could pick up, he seemed to take his role seriously. That came as kind of a shock, but it also relieved some of my nervous tension.

I knew it the minute Matt caught sight of me. His thoughts hit me with enough animosity to send emotional daggers through my heart. He was pissed. I caught that he’d tried to get Kira to open up about me, but she had refused to talk to him. That brought a smile to my lips and, all at once, I wanted to nail this sucker flat.

Matt smiled back, thinking I looked too smug for my own good, and he couldn’t wait to take me down a notch or two. He stood while I took my seat. “Thanks for joining me,” he said, pouring on the charm. “I still can’t get over it.”

“What?” I asked.

“All the work you did to give me back that tie-clip.”

“Oh...well, like I said, I’m pretty good at finding things. I sort of have a natural talent for it.”

“I believe it,” he agreed. He was thinking he needed to keep his cool, no matter what I said, and try and get under my skin so I’d tell him where all of this was coming from.

The waiter filled our glasses with water and asked for our drink order. After he left, I glanced through the menu, hardly seeing what was listed. I found my favorite, Chicken Marsala, and set the menu down. I’d order it but, with my stomach a bundle of nerves, I wasn’t sure how much of it I could eat.

Matt set his menu down as well, thinking he’d order the lasagna, and turned his attention to me. “So tell me about yourself. You said you had your own consulting agency. What do you do?”

“Well...let’s see. One of my first clients was a bank manager. The bank had been robbed, and he hired me to find the missing money. Even though the bank robber was captured, he wouldn’t disclose where he’d hidden the money. Then he was killed during his trial, and the trail went cold.”

“So...did you find it?”

“Yes I did,” I said, proudly. “After that, I got a lot of cases, some big, some not so big. I’ve also helped the police as a consultant from time to time.”

“Anything you’re working on now?” he asked.

“Yes, but I don’t think I’m allowed to talk about it. So...tell me about yourself.”

The waiter came back to take our orders, then left with the menus, and Matt told me about his realty business and how he got started. By the time he’d finished, our food orders had arrived. I actually ate some of it, realizing that, as much as I didn’t want to be with him, he’d managed to put me at ease. That ended once he came back to the reason he’d asked me there.

“So Shelby,” he began. “Tell me...how did you find my tie clip? I’d like to hear that story.”

“Sure.” My stomach tensed, and I couldn’t take another bite. I blotted my lips with my napkin and took a sip of water to calm my sudden bout of nerves. “I was actually there the other day. One of the detectives I’ve worked with was murdered there, and the chief called me in. After they took the body away, I was scouring the area for clues and found your clip in a crack in the concrete.”

Matt’s brows rose. “That’s nuts. I wonder how it got there.”

This was my chance, so I went for the jugular. “I think it was probably when you killed Tom Souvall there a year ago. He must have pulled the clip off of your tie in the struggle before you shot him.”

Shock ran through his body, but he hid it well, then scrunched his brows together in confusion and managed to straighten in his chair like he was offended. “Wow. That’s quite an accusation. You don’t waste any time do you? But just so you know, I’ve never heard of anyone by that name.”

“Oh, I think you have,” I countered. “But what I don’t get is why you killed Pete in the same place. Was it some kind of arrogance on your part? Or did it have something to do with the drugs.”

This time Matt’s eyes narrowed, and worry stopped his breath. How in the hell did I know that? “I don’t know where you’re getting your information Shelby, but you couldn’t be more wrong.”

“Hmm...I don’t think so. What I think is that you and Pete had a nice drug ring going, but he got cold feet when you ordered him to kill Chloe. After that, you were afraid he’d turn on you, so you killed him. See? That wasn’t so hard to figure out.”

Matt tightened his lips into a thin line, thinking I could make all the accusations I wanted, but that didn’t mean I had any proof. He was safe from me. Still, he couldn’t figure out where my information had come from. Most of his crew had no idea he was the big boss. That left only one person. Anthony Kerby. Had he let something slip? Sometimes he was too cocky for his own good.

He caught my gaze and sneered. “You talk a lot,” he said. “But talk is cheap. Where’s your proof?”

I smiled and raised my brow. “Oh, I have proof. If you don’t believe me, just call my bluff, and I’ll take it straight to the police.” He shook his head, thinking I was a piece of work, so I pushed him a little harder. “I know where the gun is.”

“That’s impossible,” he gasped, but sweat popped out on his upper lip. He should have gotten rid of the damn thing instead of locking it up in his safe at work, but he never thought Pete’s death would be traced back to him. Not in a million years.

“No it’s not,” I said, knowing I should probably relay that information to Blake as soon as possible so they could get it first. “It’s in your safe at your realty office. Not too bright of you, but you had no idea I’d find out, did you?”