Thirty-Four and a Half Predicaments: Rose Gardner Mystery #7 (18 page)

“Jed,” I said. “I think Mr. Humphrey and I will be fine on our own for a few minutes.”

He stood in the doorway, hesitating. I knew I was putting him in a difficult situation. I was sure Skeeter had made it very clear he was to protect me at all cost. Leaving me alone could get him into trouble.

I moved closer to him and rested my hand on his arm, leaning in toward his ear. “Give me ten minutes,” I whispered. “I need to do this.”

His gaze shot to Humphrey, anger filling his eyes. “I don’t like it and neither will Skeeter.”

“Y’all are gonna have to trust me or this is never gonna work.”

He took two breaths in and out, his arm tense, before he said, “Five minutes. Then I’m coming in.”

“Fine.” I’d just have to work fast.

Jed lifted his chin and addressed Humphrey. “I’ll be right outside this door.”

Humphrey laughed. “What do you think’s gonna happen?”

I didn’t want to know where either of their imaginations were going. Jed backed out of the room and I shut the door in his face, then turned to face the possible Benedict Arnold.

“How about a drink, Mr. Humphrey?” I asked as I walked over to Skeeter’s whiskey stash.

The office was Skeeter’s, though it was much more opulently appointed than the bare bones quarters he kept in the pool hall. This room was richly decorated with a sofa, two leather chairs in one corner, and a large mahogany desk in the opposite corner. Next to the desk was a doorway that led to a very nice private bath. But it was the console by the leather chairs where I was headed.

“If you’re drinking with me.” He sat down in one of the leather chairs, and I almost cursed. The chairs were several feet apart, too far for me to purposely have a vision. I’d have to get up and touch him.

“Of course.” I picked up the bottle and poured some into two glass tumblers. After handing one to Humphrey, I sat in a leather chair across from his. I’d already wasted thirty seconds, but I figured I needed to butter him up before diving right into my questions.

We both sipped our drinks, an easier task for me this time than it had been the last. I’d gotten a new hat online as well as a couple of dresses. While it was still black and the veil was heavy enough to make seeing my eyes difficult, it was shorter, coming only to the top of my mouth.

“Why the mystery?” he asked, resting his glass on the arm in his chair. “Why wear a hat with a veil that covers your face?”

“I had an unfortunate accident that left me with a scar. I prefer to keep it covered.”

“That ugly, huh?”

There wasn’t an answer to that, so I sipped my whiskey. All too conscious of the time ticking down, I decided to take the offensive. “You impressed me tonight.”

He leaned back and grinned. “Is that so?”

The way he stretched his legs implied he thought I was impressed with what he might possess under his belt. I planned to clear
that
up straight away. “You’re a man who seems to be willing to admit when he’s wrong.”

His eyes widened slightly and he looked amused. “What makes you say that?”

“I was impressed with how quickly you changed your opinion, especially since I pegged you as someone who’s not a team player.”

His grin froze. “What are you accusing me of?”

I gave him a half-shrug and took a sip of my whiskey. “Nothing, I’m only confessing my first impression.”

He grinned again. “And here I thought we were in here putting our differences to bed.” He lifted his drink. “Or we can put other things to bed if you’d prefer.”

“After I told you earlier that I don’t mix business and…pleasure?” I asked.

Still grinning, he said, “You’re the one who told me that I think with my…hormones.”

I tilted my head to study him. “You seem like a smart man, Mr. Humphrey, the kind who hedges his bets. What has Gentry offered you?”

“Who says I’ve negotiated with him?”

“You seem a little too knowledgeable about his plan to bring in the Columbia County men.” I paused. “Not to mention comfortable with it.”

“It doesn’t make a difference to me,” he said. “No matter what you say, you’re no different than them. Except you’re a lot better looking—” he waved to my face, then swept lower, “—at least from the neck down.”

“When are you meeting with Gentry?”

“Who says I am?”

“Come now, Mr. Humphrey. I know you’re playing both sides, attempting to determine who has the better offer. And since you’re so familiar with Mick Gentry’s plans, it means you took a meeting with him first. Now you have to contact Gentry and accept or reject allegiance to him.”

His mouth twisted into a ghost of a smile. “Aren’t you the clever one?”

“Are you going to deny it?” When he didn’t answer, I said, “I’d like you to set up a meeting with Mick Gentry myself.” It was a somewhat impulsive move, but it made sense. Gentry was probably the one who wanted Mason dead, and if not, he’d likely be able to identify the culprit. Why not go straight to the source? But cold sweat prickled the back of my neck when I thought about actually going through with it.

His surprise was evident in his eyes. “Why? You wantin’ to take him to task for wanting a split off the Fenton County crime world?”

I paused, hoping I was taking the right course. “I’d like to discuss a negotiation.”

He chortled. “Gentry ain’t the negotiatin’ type.” Then his eyes hardened. “And neither is Skeeter Malcolm. Does he know what you’re suggesting?”

It was tricky. To say yes would probably close the door to a meeting. To say no insinuated I was double-crossing Skeeter. “Mr. Malcolm has given me a free hand in strengthening his empire. Animosity with Mr. Gentry is obviously bad for business.”

A sly grin curled his lips. “I’ll let him know you’re interested.”

My five minutes were almost up and I was still reeling from my impulsive request, but I needed to have a vision before Jed busted in. I stood and slowly walked behind him, then rested my hand on his shoulder. I considered giving him some excuse, but he didn’t pull away from me, so I decided to get right to it.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on Mick Gentry and how Scott Humphrey tied in with him. The tingling in my head started immediately and the vision swept over me. I was sitting at a bar, a beer bottle in my hand. Mick Gentry sat next to me, a ball cap pulled low over his forehead.

“How’d it go?” Gentry asked.

“That woman was there. You’re right. She’s more involved than I expected.”

“What’s her end game?”

“She insists she’s not screwing Malcolm and I didn’t feel any chemistry between them. At least on her end.”

“Again, what’s her end game?”

“She says it’s an investment for her. She wants to meet with you.”

His eyebrows rose in surprise. “You don’t say.” He glanced across the room, then back toward me. “She seems pretty involved for it to be a simple investment.”

I shrugged. “Your call. I can’t imagine Malcolm would go for it, but she says he’s given her free rein. She can do whatever she sees fit to strengthen his empire.”

Gentry’s mouth pursed and he looked deep in thought for several seconds. “What have you learned about Malcolm’s schedule and his men?”

“He had Jed keeping an eye on Lady, but Malcolm was on his own.”

“So he might be easy to take out?”

“Time it right, and yeah.” I leaned against the bar. “So you gonna meet with her?”

“Timing is everything. Let’s deal with Malcolm, then we’ll deal with her. And we haven’t gotten the green light to snuff him yet.”

“Who hired you for the hit?” I asked.

“You don’t need to worry about that part. All you need to know is that we take care of Malcolm first…then we move onto the next name on the list.”

“You show me the money and I’ll wipe out the whole damned town.”

The vision ended abruptly. My head cleared and I blurted out, “You’d take out the town.”

Humphrey glanced over his shoulder as I pulled my hand away. “What?”

My vision scared the living daylights out of me and left me with a sharp headache. I walked over to Skeeter’s desk as though I had a purpose to do so, trying to hide my shaking hands. I had to cover for my post-vision word-vomit. “I asked if you were from out of town.”

He turned in his seat to watch me, confusion in his eyes. “No. Born and raised in Fenton County.”

Yet he had no qualms about killing its citizens if it turned him a tidy profit. I scratched a fake phone number onto a small notepad on Skeeter’s desk. I wasn’t about to give my real number. Based on what I’d seen in the vision, Gentry wouldn’t meet with me until after Skeeter was dead, and I had no intention of letting that happen. I ripped off the paper and walked toward the door. “This has been enlightening, Mr. Humphrey.” I held out the slip of paper. “Tell Mr. Gentry to contact me if he wishes to meet. Thank you for your time.”

He stood and approached me, then took the fake number. “We’re done?”

“We’re done.” I opened the door and found myself face to face with Jed. “Could you take Mr. Humphrey back to Mr. Malcolm? I need to see to something.”

Jed gave me a quizzical glance. I was sure he was confused by my request, but I wasn’t ready to face the other criminals hanging out with Skeeter. The shock of what I’d just seen through Humphrey’s eyes had me feeling uneasy and then some.

I shut the door and locked it, then sat on the edge of Skeeter’s desk. Maybe I shouldn’t have sent Humphrey back to join Skeeter. What if he decided to kill him now instead of waiting? I took in a deep breath. We’d all known Gentry had it in for Skeeter, but apparently that wasn’t the extent of his interests. He had a hit list, and the big question was who was on it? Skeeter was first, but there were more. Mason was likely on the list. After what happened at Gems, I was sure of it.

Several minutes passed before the doorknob jiggled, then the door opened seconds later. Skeeter entered, stuffing his keys into his pocket, with a contrite-looking Jed following behind him. “What the hell were you thinking?” Skeeter’s voice boomed.

“Are they all gone?”

“Yeah.”

Pushing out a sigh of relief, I pulled the pins out of my hair and tossed the hat next to me. “I was trying to do my job.”

He stopped in front of me, looming over me. “You were supposed to tell me if something was off and let
me
put things into motion.”

I looked up at him and rolled my eyes. “And if I’d said something about him made me suspicious, you would have asked me to bring him in here and question him. Why not just get right to it?”

Anger filled his eyes. “Why the hell would you come in here alone with him? Do you have any idea what Scott Humphrey is capable of?”

“After my vision, I have a fairly good idea.”

Some of the anger left his face. “So you got something.”

I nodded. “He’s definitely working with Mick Gentry, in spite of his little performance out there.”

He walked over to his whiskey decanter and poured himself a glass, then saw the two glasses on the table between the chairs. “You gave that snake my good whiskey?”

“I had to.” When he started to protest, I said, “Do you want to know what I found out or not?”

He downed the liquor in his glass and slammed it down on the console table. “What did you find out?”

“Gentry has a hit list and you’re on the top.”

“Who else is on it?”

“I don’t know, but I suspect Mason’s next. Gentry’s not ready to kill you yet. He’s waiting for orders to set things in motion. Humphrey’s going to carry them out.”

Irritation wrinkled his brow. “What the hell’s he waiting for?”

“Orders. Someone’s hired him to take out the people on the list.”

“And you have no idea who’s calling the shots?”

I shook my head. “Humphrey asked who it was, and Gentry refused to tell him. He only said he was being paid well.”

He started to pace.

“Skeeter, you have to be careful. Part of the reason Humphrey’s working with you is to study your security situation. He told Gentry you only had Jed around and it would be an easy job.”

“Good.”

I sat upright. “
Good?
What part of that is good?”

He shot me a grin. “I wanted him to think I’d be easy to catch off guard.”

“So you suspected him? Why didn’t you or Jed tell me that?”

“I didn’t want you to be influenced. I wanted your totally unbiased opinion.”

“He’s guilty as hell, but I knew that before I even brought him back here.”

He studied me for a moment. “You’ve got instinct, and while I applaud you for it, you need to follow my orders.” Grinning now, he shook his head. “I might have even enjoyed watching you tell Humphrey off if I hadn’t been so pissed.”

“Well, I’m sorry,” I said, sounding miffed even to my own ears. Then I shook my head. “Wait. No, I’m not. You want me to be part of these meetings, but those men are curious about why I’m there. If I continue to sit back and wait for permission to speak, they’ll have every reason to believe I’m sleepin’ with you.”

He held up his hand in surrender. “Okay, okay. Calm down. We’ll work on that, but first we need to sort out Gentry. What else did you see?”

“In my vision, Humphrey met Mick in a bar. I suspect he’s going to leave here and run right to him. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a vision of something that’s gonna happen later tonight.”

“You’re probably right. Did you recognize the place?”

“No, but I don’t frequent bars much.”

“You worked at a strip club last month.”

I lifted my chin. “I was undercover.”

He shrugged. “Give up the good girl act. You’ve got too much dirt under your nails to call yourself clean.”

His words floored me, mostly because he was right. Shame washed over me, as form-fitting as my new dress.

He must have sensed the change in my attitude because he moved closer to me and lowered his voice. “Rose.”

I sucked in a breath and looked down at my feet.

“Rose.” He was more insistent, so I lifted my gaze to his. “I’m a self-centered son-of-a-bitch, but that’s what got me here today. You have to know that you’re a natural at this business.”

That was what scared me. I was falling into this Lady in Black role like a duck took to water. Maybe it was in my DNA. Evidence was piling up to suggest that my birth parents might have been involved in some sort of criminal activity before I was born. What if the apple didn’t fall far from the tree? But I couldn’t forget that I was here because I’d made a deal with the devil. And while the devil might don his manners and fool me with his charming ways, he was the devil nonetheless.