Don't Call Me Hero (17 page)

“Call before you make another road trip, okay? I’ll see about switching shifts or something.”

“You got it.”

I watched the road until Rich’s silhouette disappeared in the distance. I thought about what to do next with my day. I could try to go back to sleep, or I could finish up the paperwork from my busy night. Neither option sounded all that appealing, but only one of them didn’t scare me. 

CHAPTER TWELVE

“Hold the elevator, please!” a voice called out.

Not thinking, I threw my arm between the two closing doors. The metal seized on my forearm before the doors shuddered back open on the first floor of City Hall.

Julia slipped into the elevator, looking uncharacteristically flustered. “Thank you,” she said, not bothering to look in my direction. She stared at her cell phone and chewed on her lower lip.

“Good morning, Madam Prosecutor,” I greeted, not able to hide the ice in my tone. After being traumatized from walking in on Rich and Grace that morning, I’d nearly forgotten the blow to my ego that seeing Julia on someone else’s arm at Summer Solstice had caused. Seeing her again reopened the hurt.

Julia looked up from her phone at the sound of my voice. “Oh, good morning,” she returned. “Thank you for holding the elevator.”

“No  problem. New shoes?” I bit out.

“No. But my legs are a little sore from the weekend.”

“From pruning your roses or from something less innocent?”

Julia’s manicured eyebrows pinched together. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, Detective.”

We both stared straight ahead as the elevator ascended to the second floor. I worked the muscles in my jaw. This woman was impossible. She ran hot at night, but icy cold in the daytime. I could feel my anger rising along with the elevator. I’d just about made up my mind to stop playing this game with her.

Julia punched a button, and the elevator wrenched to a stop. A shrill alarm sounded.

“What the hell are you doing?” I blustered.

Julia folded her arms. “Tell me, Miss Miller. Have I done something to incur your wrath this morning?”

“I’m fine,” I snapped.

“So you say, but the barbs in your words would indicate otherwise.”

“Why do you even care?”

Julia’s lips pressed together in a straight line. “I thought you and I had an understanding. An … arrangement, if you will.”

“You mean how you let me fuck you, insist you don’t date, but then the very next day you’re cozied up to some hunk of a man?”

Her features furrowed. “Hunk of a man?” she echoed.

“I saw you at Summer Solstice.”

Her face continued to display her confusion and barely veiled anger until she unexpectedly laughed.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “I fail to see the humor in this.”

“Reggie, my
cousin
, was in town yesterday. My parents practically raised him, so he’s like a brother to me. He visits now and again and looks me up when he does. He’ll be pleased to know you think so highly of his looks.”

“Oh.” I blinked. “Good genes, I guess.”

Julia punched the emergency stop button and the lift lurched back to life. “I’m glad we’ve resolved your idiocracy at least for one day.”

I stared at my shoes, feeling like a fool. I didn’t want to wear my emotions on my sleeve.

I felt the faintest pressure against the side of my hand. I looked over to see Julia’s hand barely grazing my own. A feminine pinkie finger reached out, tickling the side of my hand. I licked my lips and stared straight ahead rather than acknowledge what she was doing. This was all too confusing.

The elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open on the second floor.

“Have a nice day, Detective,” Julia clipped, sashaying out of the elevator.

I stared after her retreating form, heels clicking on the marble floor that led to her office. I was sure she walked with an exaggerated swish of her hips, and I privately smiled that the show was all for me.

+ + +

A single streetlight illuminated the house at the end of the residential street. The ranch-style home was covered in grey vinyl siding, and a single metal pipe from a wood-burning stove stuck out of the flat roof like an antennae. The yard was tidy; boxwood bushes lined the front of the house, and flowerboxes overflowing with petunias framed the front door. All the interior lights were out in Chief Hart’s house, which wasn’t unusual considering it was just after midnight.

I peered out into the thick night. “What are we doing out here?”

“It’s called a stakeout, Miller.” David slumped down in the drivers’ seat of the squad car.

“And why are we staking-out Chief Hart’s house?”

“Because someone wants us to think we spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars on police radios.”

“And what? You think Chief Hart is a radio hoarder?”

David slapped the steering wheel. “No. Of course not. But what if he pocketed the money that the invoice said went to police radios?”

I squinted at a small, shadowy figure squatting on the front stoop. “Is that a lawn gnome?”

“Yeah. It gets stolen at least once a month,” David dismissed. “It’s like a rite of passage for high school kids around here.”

“I take it you stole it at one point in time.”

David chuckled darkly. “I plead the fifth.”

I let out a deep breath. “A man with a lawn gnome doesn’t exactly scream ‘money embezzler.’”

“It’s always the person you least expect.” David’s eyes never strayed from the police chief’s darkened home.

“And what exactly is the Chief spending his money on, Addams? Replacement lawn ornaments?”

David’s fingers wrapped tightly around the steering wheel. “There’s something going on, Miller. I can feel it. I just don’t know what it is yet.”

“I don’t think we’re gonna figure it out tonight.” I clapped David on the shoulder. “How about some pie at Stan’s, huh? I’ll even buy.”

David stared out the windshield. “Okay. Fine.” He shifted the parked car into drive. “But this isn’t over.”

+ + +

I knocked on the wooden door with the words “City Prosecutor” stenciled on the outside.

“Yes?”

I poked my head through the doorway. Julia didn’t look up from the stack of papers on her desk. She wore reading glasses perched near the end of her nose. Instead of looking matronly, the glasses only added to her appeal. No surprise there.

“Peace offering for being an idiot yesterday?”

Julia’s head snapped up, and she removed her glasses in one smooth movement at the sound of my voice.

“I thought you might like some lunch.”

“And what grease-laden product have you brought with you today, Detective?”

“Cheeseburger and fries.” I produced a carryout bag from Stan’s. The grease spots were already visible through the white bag.

Julia laid her hands on her desk. “You know I don’t eat that,” she said sternly.

“It’s for me,” I beamed. “I brought you a chicken Caesar salad.”

Julia’s mouth twitched. “What kind of chicken?”

“Grilled. Not fried. No breading.”

“Come in.”

I burst through the office door before she could change her mind and revoke the invitation. I put the bag with Julia’s salad in front of her on the desk and sat down in an opposite chair with my own food on my lap.

“So I guess I found the magic words. Or food.”

“You just caught me in a moment of weakness,” Julia brushed off. “I’ve been elbow deep in contracts today, and I lost track of time.”

“Your weakness is my gain,” I said as I unwrapped my cheeseburger. Stan put the melted cheese underneath the ground beef patty, and it made all the difference. It was one of the best burgers I’d ever had.

“And you’re awfully persistent.” Julia pulled the plastic container that held her salad out of the takeout bag.

“Only because you’re so stubborn.”

“So if I had said yes the first time you asked me to dinner, you would have lost interest in me by now?”

“Why don’t you keep saying yes, and we’ll both find out?” I challenged between mouthfuls of burger.

Julia delicately stabbed her salad with the plastic fork she’d found included in the bag. “Clever, Detective.”

“Hey, I’m not just a pretty face attached to a smoking hot body,” I shrugged. I fished a fistful of fries out of the bottom of the bag and shoved them in my mouth.

“I don’t see how a steady diet of Twinkies and beer could possibly help your physique.”

I lifted the bottom of my Henley top, revealing my defined abdomen. “If it works, why question it?”

I saw Julia’s eyes fall first to my tightened torso before she returned her gaze to her salad container. “Do you ever sleep, Detective?”

I tugged my shirt back into place. “Pardon?”

“I know for a fact that you work hellish night hours, and yet I see you at City Hall during the day. Do you ever sleep?” she repeated the question.

The seemingly harmless inquiry caused me to squirm in my chair like she’d caught me in a lie. I shoved my half-eaten burger back into the carryout bag. “I’m sorry. I’ll go. I know you’re busy.” With a quick look around to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything, I awkwardly stood up.

“Cassidy, I didn’t mean for you to leave.” Julia’s refined features furrowed.

“No. I—you’re right. I should go.”

I hustled out of the room leaving behind the lingering scent of fried foods.

I stumbled out of Julia’s office feeling like a fool. My shoes squeaked on the tile floor, and I rushed down the second floor stairs to escape outside even though I harbored no fantasies that Julia might come after me.

I’d been able to get the woman alone, close to being civil, close to the woman with the dancing eyes that I remembered from the first night we’d met. But I’d let an innocent question about my sleep patterns rip that moment away.

+ + +

I flinched when a file folder was slapped down in front of me. A large hand pinned the papers to the spare desk in the police department.

“What’s this?" I asked. I opened the file and inspected its contents. I shuffled through the papers inside.

“I went online to the State’s grant allocation portal,” David said. “They’ve got a list of every grant they’ve awarded to each county in the state.” He took the folder back and flipped through the papers until he found the printout he wanted. He slid it across the desk.

I picked it up and read. “Embarrass was awarded three and a half million dollars from the State?”

“And that’s just been in the past five years.” David was practically salivating with energy. “They don’t have older information online, but I’m going to write and get the ten previous years.”

I picked up the full file again. “Where did that kind of money go to?”

“I’m still working on that. But if it’s more car radios, we have to do something about this.”

I picked through the printouts. “I’m guessing you’d like some help.”

David’s grin was both boyish and charming.

“What do you need me to do?” I sighed, giving in.

“Yes!” He punched his fist in the air. “Okay, so here’s the deal,” he said, his voice lowering and his face taking on a serious look. “Every purchase order goes through the City Treasurer’s office. No money goes in or out of City Hall without those ladies knowing. I’ll track down that end of the paperwork if you can take care of the grant money side of things—how much money was awarded, for what, and who wrote the grant. Then we can compare notes.”

“And you want to do all this without the Chief knowing?” I guessed with a frown.

David nodded. “Until we know for sure, this has to stay between you and me.”

“I’ve known Larry Hart all my life, David. He and my dad were best friends growing up. I just don’t see him being the mastermind in some money fraud scheme.”

“I’m just asking for a little discretion right now. Who knows? Maybe that three and a half million dollars is legit and was spent fixing up the town. But maybe it’s just the tip of the iceberg, and this place has been crumbling down around its ears for no reason.” The lines of David’s face were hard and drawn. “This is my home, Miller. I just want to do right by it.”

I stood up and struck the bargain. “Then let’s figure this thing out, Addams.”