Be Careful What You Wish For (9 page)

I shoved my mountain of washing in the machine and eased into a hot bath, feeling the warmth and lavender seeping into my tired muscles. I closed my eyes. Luscious. I was just thinking that a foot massage would be nice idea right about then when my wish was granted. Well, almost. Marmalade sat on the edge of the bath, licking my foot that was sticking out of the soapy suds.

‘Ew!’ I slid it under the water out of licking reach. ‘You are so gross. Is that your answer to everything? Licking body parts?’

Marmalade just blinked huge yellow eyes at me. I took that as a “yes”.

My mobile rang as Marmalade started licking his paw. I reached over the bath and retrieved it from the floor. ‘Hi, Brad.’

‘What are you doing?’

‘I’m in the bath, being licked. You should try it sometime, it’s fab!’ OK, the wicked, playful side of me was coming out now I was actually far enough away from him so he couldn’t be a dangerous influence on me.

I heard him breathe in hard. ‘Are you back with Romeo?’

‘Nope. Marmalade is my new boyfriend. It’s much less complicated. All he wants is food, sleep, and a stroke, and he’s happy.’

‘I’d settle for a stroke,’ he said, his tone lighter now. ‘Although, I have to say, I wouldn’t trust you to feed me. I’ve tasted your attempts at cooking and it’s enough to poison someone.’

‘That’s why I don’t cook. I knew there was a reason!’

‘How was your day?’ he asked.

I filled him in on everything I’d found out so far.

‘The plot thickens,’ he said. ‘Hacker checked out Carl Thomas. He was in the middle of getting a divorce from Deborah. It was particularly acrimonious, apparently.’

‘Who initiated the divorce?’

‘She did.’

‘Hmm. That could be a possible motive for her killing him.’ I swirled the now cooling water around with my foot. ‘Getting rid of Carl before they could split their assets?’

‘No. In the event of Carl’s death, his share of their personal estate went to his niece, Amy, not Deborah. Most of their assets were in Carl’s name.’

‘So Amy might have a motive,’ I said.

‘It’s certainly a possibility.’ Brad paused.

‘How old is Amy?’

‘Eighteen. She’s a university student.’

I thought about the way Carl had died. It seemed a bit of a gruesome attack to be carried out by a young woman, but then there were plenty of gruesome murders where young killers murdered members of their family for money. If the prize was high enough, there was no telling what people might do.

‘Carl had a few offshore accounts in South Africa with big bucks in them. Hacker said he had five million pounds stashed there. No doubt he’s got other funds hidden away somewhere that we haven’t found yet.’

 I let out a slow whistle. ‘Lucky banker! Carl had his passport out on his bedside cabinet when I checked around his house. I don’t know about you, but I don’t normally leave mine lying about if I’m not using it. There was a half-filled suitcase out, too. Maybe he was getting ready to do a runner to South Africa.’

‘Maybe. Hacker’s going to dig around in the computers at Kinghorn Thomas and see if he can find anything of use.’

‘Cool.’ I climbed out of the bath and grabbed a towel. ‘Maybe Carl was dipping his fingers in the till.’

‘Want me to come and wash your back?’

I grinned to myself. Tempting. Way too tempting. ‘Too late.’

Chapter 5

I sat in Brad’s office the next morning munching on a bacon sandwich.

‘That stuff will kill you.’ Brad eyed my sandwich as he munched on a bowl of fruit.

‘So will fruit.’ I grinned as I carried on chewing. ‘Mmm. This is so yummy.’

Brad set his empty bowl aside. ‘And how will fruit kill you, exactly?’

‘When I was at the hospital, waiting for Levi’s doctor, I read all this stuff about how good fruit and veg are for you, so I decided to Google it. I found an article online about someone who did an experiment of only eating fruit for a month and their stomach eroded.’ I pulled a face.

‘Is that your reason not to be healthy?’ He gave me a look of disbelief.

‘Well, what if I started eating fruit and I became addicted to it and ate nothing else? Then I’d end up with an eroded stomach, too.’ That was my story, and I was sticking to it.

Tia knocked on Brad’s open door and smiled. A tall, stocky black man who seemed to fill the doorway with his presence stood next to her. I recognized him from the photos in Levi’s house.

Brad grinned and rounded his desk. ‘EJ.’

They did some kind of ritualistic handshake as Tia disappeared and I stood up to greet him.

‘The insurance business must agree with you.’ EJ stood back and examined Brad with a fond smile.

‘Hi, I’m Amber.’ I held out my hand and EJ shook it with a firm grasp.

‘Nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard all about you.’ EJ glanced in Brad’s direction.

I raised an eyebrow at Brad.

Brad waved a hand at one of the chairs. ‘Have a seat, EJ.’ When we were all seated, he said, ‘It’s been a long time.’

‘That it has. I’m just sorry we’re not meeting again in better circumstances.’ A grave frown forced his eyebrows together. ‘Do you have any news about what kind of trouble Levi’s in?’

I brought EJ up to speed on everything so far.

‘I’ll kill Vinnie if I find out he’s been messing with Levi.’ EJ’s eyes burned with anger. ‘You really think he blackmailed Levi into signing his contract and throwing his fight?’

I nodded. ‘That’s how it seems at the moment.’

‘I went to see him in the hospital on Saturday night,’ EJ said. ‘I tried talking with Levi to find out what was going on with him. Obviously he was down because he lost the fight, but he was just being offish, and he didn’t really want to know. He asked what the point was in me turning up now since I was never around when he was a kid when he needed me.’ He glanced between Brad and me, looking sad. ‘Things have been strained between Levi and me for a long time. I’m sure Brad probably told you that after me and my wife split, she made it difficult for me to see Levi. Half the stuff that went on between Levi’s mum and me, he doesn’t even know about, and I didn’t feel it was ever right to tell him. But I think she poisoned him against me. Then, of course, Vinnie came on the scene and Levi seemed to look up to him instead of me.’ EJ gave a small shake of his head and he seemed to drift off somewhere in his memories.

‘Teenagers are easily influenced. Maybe it would’ve happened even if you were around when he was growing up,’ I said.

‘Maybe.’ His face hardened with resolve. ‘You know, kids don’t come with a set of instructions. Everything you try and do for your family always comes with some sort of sacrifice. I did what I felt was right at the time for our situation. I did the best I could to provide an income for Levi and my ex-wife.’ He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. ‘I love him. I don’t want anything to happen to him. If he’s in some kind of trouble, I want to help him.’

‘We’ll let you know as soon as we find out anything concrete,’ Brad said.

EJ Stood. ‘If you need any help, Brad, let me know.’

His voice oozed pain and anger and there was no doubt exactly what he meant. Maybe Vinnie would get his comeuppance at the hands of EJ.

They did another funny handshake and Hacker bounded in, all skinny arms and legs. Today he had a hoodie on with a huge gold dollar sign on the front.

‘EJ!’ Hacker hugged him.

EJ broke into a grin. ‘Hacker. You never look any older.’

‘Are you leaving?’ Hacker said.

EJ Nodded. ‘I’m on my way to work. I just popped in to see how things were going.’

‘We’ll all have to catch up soon,’ Hacker said to EJ and then glanced at Brad, meaning he was included in any future SAS reunion.

‘For sure.’ EJ nodded at us all and left.

Hacker sat on the edge of Brad’s desk. ‘I’ve got an update for you. I’m still trying to get into the computers at the bank to see what was going on there. As you’d expect, the security is pretty high, so it may take me a while. Don’t worry, though. I haven’t met a computer system I couldn’t crack yet.’ He grinned and a gold tooth shone back at me. ‘Now, since the Kinghorn Thomas Bank wasn’t insured with us, I checked out their insurance company to see which customers contacted them about making claims on their safety deposit boxes after the robbery.’ Hacker glanced between us and waved a computer printout at us. ‘Who wants this?’

‘Me,’ I said at the same time as Brad.

Hacker handed it to me. ‘Ladies first.’

I scanned the list of names and addresses. Twenty-two names. Romeo said that there were six hundred boxes and eighty were broken into. Is this all there is?’ I glanced at Hacker.

‘Yep.’ He nodded. ‘After the initial contact with the insurance company to see what evidence they had to provide for a claim, most of the safety box holders didn’t go on to actually file a claim.’

I sighed. That just made my job even harder. ‘Well, I suppose there’s going to be a lot of stuff in the boxes that the owners don’t want anyone else to know about. They won’t exactly be making insurance claims, will they?’ I slowly perused the list. The only name I recognized was Vinnie Dawson. I looked up at Brad with a huge smile plastered on my face.

‘What?’ Brad asked.

‘Vinnie Dawson had a safety box at Carl’s bank,’ I said. ‘Well that proves a link between Carl Thomas and Vinnie. We already know Edward Kinghorn was placing big bets on the fight, so there’s a link to Vinnie and Edward as well, but what’s the link between Carl and Levi? What did Carl mean when he said, “I know what you…”? Somehow there’s a connection between Levi and what happened at the bank.’ It was more of a statement than a question. I was still busy trying to digest all the information so far and come up with a plausible reason for everything. ‘Hacker, can you look into Levi’s spending habits? He hasn’t got a lot to show for all those heavyweight title fights. He should’ve had stacks of money coming in.’ I twirled a curl around my finger, deep in thought. ‘So either the contract he had with Vinnie didn’t pay him much of percentage of the winnings, or he’s got some extravagant spending habit we don’t know about.’

Brad gave me a sexy grin. I wasn’t sure if it was a response to the hair twirling or my thoughts on Levi’s lack of cash, though.

‘If Levi did have some extravagant vice, maybe he arranged the bank robbery,’ Hacker said.

‘We can’t rule anything out at this stage,’ Brad said.

‘I think I need to pay a little visit to Vinnie.’ I stopped twirling, just in case.

‘Don’t go and see Vinnie without me.’ Brad’s eyes flashed with a hint of steel.

‘Why not? I’ve got a stun gun and my SIG. I once fried someone’s nuts with a stun gun.’

 ‘It’s not that I don’t think you can handle Vinnie, it’s purely for my own selfish reasons that I don’t want anything to happen to you. I’ve got a meeting this morning, but we can go and see him this afternoon.’

I gave Brad a salute. ‘Yes, boss.’

‘Promise me?’ He gave me a wary look.

I made a crossing my heart sign. ‘Promise.’

‘Let me have a look at the list.’ Brad held his hand out and I passed it to him.

‘We’ll split the names and I’ll do half,’ Brad said.

‘Hi,’ Tia wandered into the room. Today she wore orange leggings, a baggy orange jumper with an orange belt, and orange pumps. This much orange should only be allowed on an actual orange. Still, what did I know? I expected she was wearing one of her dad’s creations, and I’m sure he knew best. She blushed and did a goofy grin when she saw Hacker. ‘This just came for you, Amber.’ She handed me a brown Jiffy bag package as Hacker made goo-goo eyes at her. Young love!

I took the package and ripped it open. Inside was a small pink box with a pink bow. It was the kind of box you’d get jewellery in.

I sucked in a breath. Was this from Romeo? Had he decided to ignore his ultimatum and just propose instead? ‘Wow, and it’s not even my birthday.’ I tried to mask my panic at the scary thought that this could be an engagement ring. I wondered for the squillionth time why I couldn’t just commit to him. Then I realized the main reason was sitting right in front of me.

Brad leaned forward over his desk for a better look. A muscle ticked away in his jaw.

I opened the lid. Then my eyes nearly popped out of my head.

I dropped the box on the floor and leaped out of my chair.

‘What?’ Tia cried, craning her neck to get a better view of the box.

I stood and pointed to the box on the floor. ‘It’s a nose! Someone’s sent me a real nose!’ I clutched my chest, trying to breathe normally.

Shit, crap, and buggeringhell. Not to mention fuckety fuck! It wasn’t that I was scared of a nose. I’d seen enough post-mortems to last a lifetime. It was just that I was a bit shocked. I was expecting a diamond ring, not a bloody nose.

Brad picked up the box, staring at the nose nestled in white tissue paper. The tic was getting more pronounced now.

‘Holy crap!’ Tia turned her face away from the box and slapped her hands over her eyes. ‘Who would send you a nose?’

‘Psychos.’ Hacker nodded gravely and his plaits wobbled. ‘Sometime people doing Voodoo send noses as well.’

I flopped back down onto my chair, staring at the box in Brad’s hand. ‘Great, now I might have a Voodoo curse, too.’

‘It’s a message,’ Brad said.

‘No kidding!’ I flapped my hands in the direction of the nose box and slumped back in my chair.

‘Who sends a nose as a message?’ Tia slid her fingers wide over her face so her eyes just about poked out. ‘I guess we could keep a look out for people walking around with no nose. Then we’d have our culprit.’

I stared at Tia, agog.

‘What?’ She dropped her hands completely, looking confused.

‘Whoever’s nose that is doesn’t belong to a living person,’ I elaborated.

She scrunched up her flushed face, fanning it with her hand. ‘Ew! That is so gross.’

Hacker draped a protective arm around her shoulder.

‘Well that narrows it down, Hacker, seeing as I always seem to be dealing with psychos.’ I took a few deep breaths to steady myself.

Brad frowned at me. ‘It’s Vinnie. I’d bet anything it’s from Vinnie.’ Brad set the nose on his desk and put the lid back on.

I examined the jiffy envelope, hoping for some kind of clue as to the sender. A return address would be a big one, but there was nothing on it except for my name and address scrawled in capital letters that looked like a five year old had written it. Bummer.

‘Hey, there’s no stamp on this.’ I looked up at Tia.

‘There’s a postal strike on at the moment. This came by courier,’ Tia said. ‘Do you want me to phone them and see if they’ve got an address for the sender?’

‘It would be a waste of time.’ I shook my head. ‘Well, if he thinks it’s going to scare me, he’d be dead wrong.’ I eyed the nose and thought maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned the D word.

‘Maybe I should go and see him alone,’ Brad said.

‘No!’ I leaped out of my chair, ready for action. ‘I’m not scared of him.’ OK, I was, maybe just an eensy weensy bit, but I wasn’t going to let Vinnie know that. ‘I’m definitely coming with you later.’

Luckily, my phone rang before Brad could protest further. I escaped his office and sat at my desk opposite Hacker’s.

‘Hey, Amber,’ Romeo said.

Since he was being formal, I did the same. ‘Hey, Romeo. How are you?’

‘I’m good. I called to tell you there was nothing useful on Carl’s laptop.’