Brain Storm (A Taylor Morrison Novel Book 1) (6 page)

Trinity works on enough big money cases that she can afford to do some pro bono work and this was one of those cases. If you can’t afford to put food on the table, you sure can’t afford a lawyer to find dear old dad. I can’t afford to work for free, so Trinity pays me the same for the pro bono work as she does for the big money cases, it just comes out of her pocket. In return, I try to keep expenses down, which was why I was headed back to my condo to make some calls rather than heading to Atlanta myself.
 

I was back out on Cantrell heading into the downtown area, when I noticed the black BMW two cars back in the next lane. That made, what? Four of them this morning. Arkansas doesn’t require a front plate, so there was no way of telling whether this was the same car or not, but being in my line of work, you learn to pay attention. I didn’t know if I was being super sensitive and noticing the car more because of my emotional attachment or if I had picked up a tail, but I like to play it safe. Safety first, that’s my motto. I cranked the Ford over to the left lane and caught the on ramp to I-30.
 

The car behind me stayed to the right. I watched the BMW cut left and follow me onto the highway. I sped up and cut right, just making the 630 exit heading west. It would take me past the Children’s Hospital, and o nto Chenal Parkway. Little Rock is not a small town, but it’s not large either. If it’s not rush hour, the only place you can count on bad traffic was the Chenal Parkway/Bowman area. I needed traffic to lose the tail and hopefully come back behind to get a plate. I glanced back and sure enough, he was with me on 630. As I passed the University exit and the zoo, I went over who might be following me. I had one active case right now, which I had started the leg work on this morning. If I was right, I had picked up the tail right first thing, before I had interviewed anyone. If Trinity hadn’t told anyone I was working the case, meaning Max Drummond, the husband’s lawyer, then I didn’t see how the BMW tied into the case. I used my bluetooth to call Trinity.

“What’s up? I’m at the check-out.”
 

“Did you tell anyone I was on the case yet? Drummond maybe?” I changed lanes and signaled for the exit at Baptist Hospital and watched as the beamer moved into position three cars back to follow.

“What? Let that jerk know I had an investigator hunting his client? You know better than that. Why? What’s going on?” I had her full attention now as I passed the exit without slowing, the Beamer right behind me.

“I have a tail. Black BMW 325i – no front plate. I’m on 630 crossing 430 now onto Financial.”

“Head back to me!” Trinity practically screamed in my ear. “I’ll get his plate when you drive by. I’m heading to the car now.”
 

I looked down at her number on my screen and frowned at her through the phone. This seemed a bad idea to me on many levels. First of all, if it was a tail, how stupid would the guy have to be to not figure out I was making a big circle. I was betting as soon as I headed back onto Cantrell, he’d pull off. Second, and more importantly, I hated getting Trinity involved. I was low profile and kept to the shadows. Very few people knew me or what I did and that worked well for me. Trinity was anything but low profile. She was regularly in the news, in the paper or at some function. If someone was interested in me, I could hide, but Trinity stood out like a sore thumb.

That being said, unless I called the police or managed to lose him and sneak up behind him, my chances of getting his plate were slim to none. I could always stop at a light and run back and confront him, but that was a good way to get shot and I tried to avoid putting myself in those situations as much as possible.

“No,” I told Trinity, making my decision. “You head my way. I’ll head into the bookstore. You come into the parking lot from the Parkway entrance and park on the end facing the exit. Call me when you’re in place and I’ll leave and pull out that way so you can see the plate if he follows me out.”

Trinity agreed and said she was on her way. I came off the highway onto the Parkway and within minutes, was in the book store parking lot. I drove around, taking my time to find a space big enough for the Expedition. I had the extended length on it so I was bigger and higher than most anything else on the road making me easy to see. The size and big V-8 engine meant I paid at the pump, but it was a comfort to know I could also run over almost anything I needed to and live to tell about it. Not that I ran over things on purpose. It was just good to know I could. The Tank, which is what I affectionately called my vehicle of choice, was my own personal security blanket.

As innocently as I could, I gathered up my bag and headed into book store. I managed to turn at the display at the door in time to catch the BMW glide past, out of the corner of my eye. Satisfied I wasn’t imagining things, I headed in and then straight to the left to the attached snack shop, where I could get a cup of coffee and keep an eye on the parking lot at the same time without looking suspicious. Within minutes, my phone rang.

“I’m here” Trinity was breathless, a hint of excitement in her voice. I frowned at the phone again, not pleased. Someone was enjoying this way too much.

“I know. I see you,” I replied. “He’s here, parked by the toy store facing west. I’m coming out the coffee shop door now.” I grabbed a discarded newspaper and took it and my coffee through the door and out into the sunshine, hoping my tail wouldn’t get suspicious at the fast in and out.

I jumped up into the drivers seat, secured the coffee and fastened my seat belt. I hadn’t decided yet on the plan for after Trinity got the plate number, but I knew it involved losing this guy. I took a deep breath, pulled out of the parking spot and rolled past Trinity to the exit. Glancing in the rearview, I watched the BMW slide into place two cars behind me.

“Got him!” Trinity yelled into my earpiece. “What do I do now? This is so much fun! I can’t believe I pay you to do stuff like this!”

For crying out loud! What was wrong with her?
 

“Trinity, you don’t pay me to be followed,” I informed her, keeping my eyes out for the BMW. I wanted to make sure he was following me and hadn’t noticed Trinity. I caught sight of him changing lanes, three cars back. So far, so good. “You pay me to do research, sit for hours on a computer, make phone calls and talk to people. This is not part of the job. This is something else. This is dangerous.”

Silence met me on the other end of line. I thought we’d lost the connection for a second, but then she came on. “You’re right. What was I thinking? Someone is following you. That can’t be good. What do we do now?”

“Just give me the plate and then get back to your office. I’m going to lose this guy and then I’ll have the plates run and call you. You okay?”

“I’m good. Be careful. And don’t forget to call me.”

I felt better as soon as we hung up knowing that Trinity was out of the picture. If I was being followed, I needed to find out why and quickly. Knowledge was everything. Ignorance could get you killed.

IN THE END, I decided the easiest way to lose the tail was to go to the police station. It’s someplace I would go normally and what tail is going to risk being made at the police station? Not this one, I hoped and sure enough, I watched as he rolled right past the entrance while I parked the Tank.
 

I grabbed the coffee, seeing no sense in letting it go to waste, and hustled myself inside. I know a lot of the guys at Little Rock PD and doing the type of work I do gets me in the door. The fact that I stay out of trouble, do a decent job, try not to break the law and am on their side of putting the bad ones away, means they help me whenever they can.
 

“Jonas in?” I called out, and got three hands all pointing to the back of the station and along with a couple of grunts. Little Rock has more than its fair share of crime and the station was a busy place. With a recent high-profile murder, I knew the timing wasn’t good for me to show up, but then again, I was a citizen, they were the police and I had a plate number.

I shoved through the door and headed back toward the offices where Jonas was likely to be. I knew most of the force by sight, but Jonas and I had touched base on a couple of cases in the past years and I was comfortable working with him. Technically a detective, Jonas Hill was the type of cop you wanted around when things went bad. Big, and by that I mean BIG, black and mean looking. Jonas looked like he could take care of himself and any trouble that came along. The first time I met him, was on a case where the father had kidnapped his own daughter. The Dad had been abusing the girl and the Mother had sole custody. Dad decided to take matters into his own hands, which in turn had instigated an Amber alert and a three state hunt. Trinity had filed the criminal papers on dear old Dad so I was asked in when the kidnapping occurred. Jonas made the mistaken assumption I was working for the defense at first and until we got it straightened out, we had some bad moments. Once he found out I was on his side of the investigation, things settled right down. We ended up working quite well together. Jonas had good instincts and I tried to keep out of his way as much as possible. I think he liked me. At the very least he tolerated me. He had been there when Keith was killed, keeping me informed and explaining the process. He was one of the good guys. Big and scary, but a good guy. Which I tried to remind myself of, when he scowled up at me.

“What?” He glanced up when I entered his office and immediately went back to writing the report on his desk. He was busy and I decided to cut right to the chase, sure he would appreciate it.

“I need a plate run.”

“Why?” He quit writing and sat with the pen poised above the paper, waiting.

“I picked up a tail today. Black BMW 325i.” That got his attention. He looked up, meeting my eyes with a questioning look. Having worked on Keith’s case, he knew the car make and model. Knew that it was never found. I was sure he noticed it each time he saw one, just like I did. My request to run a plate on that particular car and one that was tailing me no less, had him raising his eyebrows.

He pulled out a request sheet and motioned for me to sit down. I filled him in on the details while he wrote out the information. After he had gotten the ball rolling he leaned back in his chair and looked me in the eye.

“Tell me what’s going on,” he demanded. “What cases you working on.”

“Just one. For Trinity Davis. A child support case. Everything else is wrapped up unless someone got out lately I don’t know about.”

He snorted at this. Like I said, I fly pretty far under the radar and like it that way, for this very reason. The bad guys don’t need to know who got the goods on them. Just that the goods have been got and they are in trouble. I could count the number of people who knew what I did on one hand. A revenge scenario was highly unlikely and Jonas knew it.

“How come you’re twitchy?”

Twitchy? What’s that supposed to mean? I shrugged and gave the “what are you talking about” gesture, which he figured out pretty quick.

“Twitchy. Scattered. Frayed. What aren’t you telling me?”

Like I said, instincts. Jonas has them oozing out of his skin. He learned back in his chair, stretching his tee shirt tight across his chest and closed one eye, pinning me down with the other. On some guys that look would probably come off as a flirt or showing off. On Jonas however, it is the I am big and tough and I know you’re withholding information, don’t make me hurt you look. He did it well.

“I had a bad day yesterday. An altercation down at the coffee shop by the condo. Spilled coffee, accusations, that type of thing.” I might have to talk, but I didn’t have to tell him everything. “And no, I don’t know the guy, didn’t get a name, and don’t see that it has anything to do with this. I just don’t like confrontations and it rattled me a little.”

I was saved from any further rattling on by the return of the officer with the information on the plates, which he handed to Jonas.

“Stolen.” Jonas slapped the form down on the desk. “When did you loose him?”

“Just now, when I turned in here. He drove by out front.” Jonas rose and pulled open his drawer to get his gun.
 

“Stay here,” he ordered. Holstering his gun, he called out for some assistance and four other officers followed him out the door.
 

Twenty minutes later he was back, none the wiser and not any too happy about it. There had been no sign of the car. I could leave, but was to let him know if I was followed again or noticed anything strange. He was putting out an all points and would have a car drive by the condo tonight on a regular basis.
 

Great, I thought as I headed out the door. Doesn’t that put you at ease? Could be a long night and it’s not like I had gotten much sleep the night before. I needed to call Trinity and let her know what was going on. I also needed to tell her to watch her back. I didn’t know why I was tailed, but Trinity had been with me and there was a possibility she may have picked up a tail too. She needed to pay attention. I headed home, taking some comfort in the thought that Jonas was on the case and keeping an eye on things, all the while knowing that I would spend the night up watching for the phantom BMW.

SIX

I GLANCED UP as the door happily chimed that another customer had entered. There had been a steady stream of coffee drinkers all morning, but so far, Denzel hadn’t showed. I went back to the newspaper, I hadn’t been reading. This was my third day on stake out and I was on about my fifth cup of coffee of the morning. I was going to have to make a break for the bathroom soon and hope that Denzel didn’t show up while I was occupied.