Deep in Death: A Shelby Nichols Adventure (10 page)

I swallowed and glanced at Ramos. “Uh…see ya.” I started toward the door.

“Shelby, wait,” Ramos said. “I’m sorry…it…it won’t happen again.” He was thinking he’d been blind-sided by the smell of my hair, but he’d try and be good, even if it wasn’t how he normally behaved. He just hoped that someday he got to kiss me at least once before he died. It could happen at any moment with the way things were going, but…

“What? Are you kidding me?” I caught his smile and smacked him in the arm. “You’re terrible.”

“What? What did I say?”

“Nothing.”

He was thinking,
that’s right
, and I could only shake my head. With a groan, I told him goodbye and hurried out the door to the elevators, his chuckle trailing after me. Once the doors swooshed closed, I leaned against the wall and shook my head some more. That was close. Too close. What was I thinking? Where was my brain? The fact that he wanted to kiss me certainly gave me a rush, and I tried not to let it go to my head. Still, I couldn’t help the goofy smile that spread over my face.

Chapter 5

The smile was still there as I entered the police station. I hurried to Dimples’ desk, but he was gone, and a small worry that I’d have to deal with Bates crept over me. I glanced in that direction, but his desk was empty too, so maybe it wasn’t so bad. I found one of the other detectives and told him I needed to check the dead files. He shrugged and told me to go ahead before returning to his paperwork, but I caught that he was glad it was me going down there and not him. That room gave him the creeps.

Dang! Why did he have to think that? I was feeling all brave and courageous up to that point, but now dread clenched my stomach into a tight ball. Would something weird happen to me again? I wasn’t sure I could take another one of
those
kinds of incidents without falling apart and screaming my head off. I sighed and pulled out the paper from my pocket with the missing women’s names, then started down the stairs to the basement.

Gingerly, I opened the door to find the light still on. Had it had been on all this time? I shrugged, not feeling bad about leaving the light on…not after what had happened. Since I had to go inside again, I decided to do it fast. Just go in, grab the folders, and get out of there. No lingering to look at the files for me.

As I entered, the musty smell hit me first, bringing with it the remembered panic. Hesitating, I focused on my task. With a deep breath, I hurried to the cabinets, half expecting to feel a chill in the air and maybe even smell some flowers, but when nothing happened, my breath wheezed out and the tension drained from my shoulders. Moving methodically from cabinet to cabinet, I soon had all three folders in my nervous hands.

The only thing that dampened my success came from realizing that with the files here, it meant they were unsolved. Still, I hoped that somewhere inside was a clue that would link them together and point to the killer. Besides the company in Darcy’s building, it was the only other lead I had. I rushed to the door with only a slight twinge of nervousness and pulled it open. Relief flooded over me when I stepped into the hall. This time, I reached back in to turn off the light and hoped I’d never have reason to go back inside that room again.

I made it back to Dimples’ desk in one piece and sat in his chair. Taking a moment to glance around, I decided that no one cared what I was doing there, so I quickly found a piece of paper and wrote Dimples a note to let him know I’d taken the files. With that out of the way, I gladly left the building.

It was great to get home after such a hectic day, and sudden weariness washed over me. After what I’d been through today, I had no desire to do much of anything, so I stacked the files in the den and changed into a comfy pair of jeans and a tee-shirt.

My appointment with the Marketing Solutions Company wasn’t until tomorrow afternoon, so I had plenty of time before that to go over the files. Right now, I just didn’t want to think about it. My cell phone rang and I contemplated not answering, but seeing that it was from Thrasher Development, I quickly picked it up.

“Hello Shelby,” Uncle Joey said. “Do you have a minute to talk?”

“Yes.”

“Good. So…what does Alec want from Kate.” I told him the gist of it and heard him sigh. “Did you tell Kate?”

“Yes. She even offered me money not to tell you.” I had no loyalty to Kate and it felt good to tell him the truth. “She wants to handle it her own way, but I don’t think she knows about Jon and Julia coming to see you, right? So it’s probably not a good idea to let her take care of it. Besides, I’m not sure Alec would hold up under the pressure from his family, no matter how much he loves Kate.”

“Hmm…” Uncle Joey said. “Julia came to do damage control after my little meeting with Jon, so I don’t think they’re on the same page, and I don’t think either of them knows that Alec has feelings for Kate. There might be a chance to use this to my advantage.”

“How?” I asked.

“I have a plan, but it looks like I might need your help after all.”

“Really?” Sudden unease washed over me. Now that he was asking, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to help. Especially since Ramos had wanted me to stay out of it. But how could I turn him down? “Uh…sure. What do you need?”

He noticed my hesitation and huffed out a breath. “Don’t worry, Shelby. What I have planned won’t be dangerous, and you could bring your husband. In fact, now that he’s my lawyer, it makes perfect sense for him to come.”

“Chris? Wait. I know about your agreement, but if you’re asking me to help you, Chris might not think that’s part of what he agreed to.” There was silence on the other end of the line, and nervous tension clenched my stomach. Oops.

“It doesn’t matter what he thinks,” Uncle Joey growled. “He’s coming as my lawyer. The fact that you’re coming with him is part of his job.”

I sighed. Now Uncle Joey had us both over a barrel. He was like the king of conniving dudes. “So what is it you want us to come to?”

“I’m holding a small dinner party for the Passinis tomorrow night where we’ll be celebrating our up-coming merger. It’s at my house with all of my friends, so there's nothing for you to worry about. You’ll be perfectly safe and hear everything I need to know.”

“So you’re going through with the merger? You know they’ll try to take over Kate’s side of the business, right?”

“Yes. But that’s not going to happen. I have it all figured out.”

“Okay,” I agreed, knowing that if anyone could get the better of a situation, it was Uncle Joey. “So the party’s at your house? That should be nice. What time?” The only time I’d been to his house, I thought I was going to die, but I still remembered how amazing it was. It would definitely be nice to see it again under different circumstances.

“Seven.”

“Okay. I’ll tell Chris.” I wasn’t sure how happy Chris would be about it, but since we were going together, he couldn’t be too upset. Plus there was food involved. “What’s for dinner?”

Uncle Joey snorted. “I’m not sure…but something Italian.”

“Oh good, I love Italian food.” I realized I was excited and it kind of shocked me. “Is it formal, as in suit and tie?”

“Yes.”

“Great. That will work, we’ll be there.”

“Good,” he said. “And just so you know, besides the Passinis, Kate will be there along with a few of my other associates.”

“Oh yeah…right,” Damn! Kate with my husband in her sights curbed my excitement.

“Don’t worry, Shelby,” Uncle Joey said. “I’ll make sure Chris doesn’t sit next to her. Besides, if she’s in love with Alec, it won’t matter.”

“That’s true. But you’re forgetting that I have to listen to her all night long. We didn’t exactly part this afternoon on the best of terms you know.”

“But she knows you can hear her, so maybe it won’t be so bad.”

“That’s true,” I agreed, but I didn’t believe it for one minute. Now that she knew I could hear her, it was like a secret weapon. She could think whatever she wanted and have the pleasure of insulting me without anyone else knowing. I’d just have to tune her out if I could.

“Good. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow night.” He disconnected and I sighed. Dinner didn’t sound too bad, even if Kate would be there. So that left telling Chris. I had a feeling that was going to be the hard part.

The rest of the day went normally enough. I got a phone call from Billie asking me if I could meet her at the Attorney General’s office for an interview she had with him the next day. Since it was an hour after my appointment with Marketing Solutions, I told her I could, and we disconnected.

I had dinner all ready, but as usual, Chris was late getting home from work. Since Josh and Savannah had other things going on, we couldn’t wait, so we ate without him. By the time Chris got home, they had both left, so while he changed his clothes, I microwaved a plate of food for him to eat.

While he ate, I told him about my day, starting with my visit to Darcy’s employer, followed with my visit to her husband, and finally, what I’d learned from Detective Parker. By the time I got done, he’d finished his food.

“Wow. So you think it might be a serial killer?” Chris wasn’t too happy about that. If I figured out who it was, it could be dangerous.

“I don’t know. I guess it’s a possibility. I’ve got an appointment with Marketing Solutions tomorrow, so I’ll see if anything stands out.”

“You’ve had a busy day. Weren’t you supposed to go to lunch with Kate too?”

“Yes.” I nodded and proceeded to tell him all about it. I started with getting there late, and ended with her wanting to bribe me with another five hundred dollars not to tell Uncle Joey. “I told her I’d ignore that since being in love made some people stupid. She didn’t like that much, so I don’t think we left on the best of terms, and now that we’ve been invited to dinner at Uncle Joey’s house, I’m not so sure it was very smart of me.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

Poor Chris. His life would be so much easier if he wasn’t married to me. “Oh…well…I went to Uncle Joey’s office after lunch to tell him about Kate and ran into Julia Passini. She’s Jon and Alec’s mom?” Chris got that glazed look in his eyes that spelled trouble, and I hurried to explain what I’d overheard her thinking, and how the Passinis were planning a merger with Uncle Joey’s shipping company which Kate ran, and how because of that, Uncle Joey planned to invite us to dinner. “He wants both of us to come. That’s good, right?”

“Um…” Chris narrowed his eyes. “Wait a minute. Our agreement is that if I help him with his cases, he leaves you out of it. It seems to me that asking you to eavesdrop on the Passinis isn’t part of that agreement.”

“Well…he’s kind of gotten around that part. See, it’s actually that I’m coming with you since you’re his lawyer, not the other way around. And since I’m going to be there, Uncle Joey just needs me to listen to the Passinis so he can make plans that don’t include him getting killed. He promised it wouldn’t be dangerous.”

Chris was thinking that Manetto getting killed wasn’t so bad and maybe we shouldn’t go.

“Chris…that’s not helping.”

“All right, all right. But it really bugs me that he’s got both of us in his clutches, and I feel like a chump that I fell for it, and worse, that he pulled one over on me. How did this happen?”

“Kind of puts a new light on what I’ve been going through these last few months, huh?”

He twisted his lips. “Yeah, I guess. So what time is this big dinner?”

I told him the time and place, adding that dinner was going to taste great to help him feel better.

“Hmm…” He glanced at me with narrowed eyes. “So…you know what’s for dinner?”

“Yes…something Italian.”

He chuckled. “Of course! I should have known.”

“Oh…I didn’t think of it that way.” I laughed, then shook my head to think I’d told Uncle Joey how much I loved Italian food. I mentioned this to Chris and he could hardly believe it.

“I’ll bet he loved that.”

“Maybe,” I said, shrugging. “We were talking on the phone, so I don’t know for sure.”

Chris snorted. “I didn’t mean that literally.”

“Ha, ha. I knew that. I’m just messing around with you.” I playfully hit him in the arm so he’d believe me.

“Uh-huh. So…is there anything else besides food that I’ll get for going? You know…for compensation?”

“Sure,” I said, playing his game. “You get to come with me. That’s a plus, right?”

He smiled. “Yeah. You’re right. So maybe it’s not so bad that I’m Manetto’s lawyer. At least in this situation.” He was thinking how good it would feel to be there where he could keep an eye on me, and not have to hear how it went from me later. Yes, this was good. I wouldn’t be able to leave anything out, or lie to him, because he’d be there.

“I don’t lie to you,” I said, although I couldn’t say the same about leaving stuff out. “And mostly what I leave out isn’t important.”

“Right,” he said. “Thank goodness for that.”

I didn’t like the direction this was going, so I changed the subject. “So,” I said, kissing his cheek. “You want to get started on that compensation now or later?”

“Depends,” he answered. “How long will the kids be gone?”

***

The sun rose the next morning with the promise of another beautiful autumn day. After getting the kids off to school and a quick shower, I settled in to look over all the files, hoping to find a bigger connection than the one I had.

A couple of hours’ work later left me empty-handed and frustrated. Maybe they weren’t connected at all, and the fact that they each disappeared in October a year apart was just a coincidence. I sure couldn’t find anything that stood out. At least I had that appointment with Marketing Solutions, or I’d feel like a complete failure.

I drove to The Corporate Office Plaza and pulled into the parking structure, this time making sure I wasn’t parked anywhere near number four. It meant I had to walk further, but that didn’t bother me. Stepping inside the lobby, I glanced at the directory and followed the signs to Marketing Solutions, LLC.

A wide double-door with the name in bold letters above stood before me, and I couldn’t help the shiver of dread that ran down my spine. Darcy’s killer could be inside. I might come face to face with him. How was I going to handle that without giving myself away? On the other hand, maybe I was just being optimistic and this lead wasn’t going anywhere. Thinking of it that way settled my nerves, and I knew that no matter what, I wanted to find Darcy’s killer. That mattered more than any unpleasantness I might face.