Seeing Is Believing (4 page)

"Listen, I can take the hint if you two
wanna
be alone to play naughty girl gets a spanking." He
thrust the machine toward Reed, who took it and signed. "Have a good time."

Frank rushed out the door and Leslie
crossed toward Reed, her arms raised to slap his face. He grabbed her wrist, turned
her and delivered five more swats, the sound of it filling the back room.
Leslie prayed that
Tambi
, or any customers, didn't
hear the spanking. She struggled as he pulled her against him.

"Behave, and calm down."

"You're fired! Get out." She continued
to struggle but he held her body close to his. Anger soared through her, making
her want to scream. Instead she silently fumed. Who the hell did this man think
he was? "Let go of me."

"Not yet, not
until you're calmer."
She detested the humor she heard in his voice.
"Besides, you can't fire me from my fake job. And that's exactly what it is,
remember? Fake."

"Calmer? You just spanked me. How dare
you?" She pushed out with her arms, trying to break free from him but it was
useless. He held her close, his eyes alight with humor. Was he laughing at her?
How dare
he
!

"I didn't really spank you," he replied.
"It was a few taps. If you want a spanking I'll give you one. It was the only
way I could think of to distract you and keep you from opening the boxes in front
of the deliveryman."

"You jerk, you creep, you as..."

"Don't say it."

"You...donkey."
She struggled
more. "Let me go and get out.
Now."

"No." He tightened his grip and she
wanted to cry out in frustration. How dare he treat her this way? She'd agreed to
have him stay here because she didn't want someone to use her as an unwitting
drug smuggler, and here he was, spanking her.

They stood together for a few minutes,
her back pulled into his chest, his arms still tight around her waist. "Are you
going to calm down?" The unruffled tone of his voice made her want to scream
more. How dare he act as if nothing were wrong?

"Fine, I'm calm. But I'm warning you,
unless you leave, I'm calling Chester and have him forcibly take you from my
store."

"Doubt it." He loosened his hold just a
little. "Don't you want to see what's in the extra boxes?"

"Of course I do." She stayed still, her
anger still high. "It doesn't mean I want to do it with you around though.
Right now I think you're a big, fat jerk."

"I did what I felt I had to do." He
loosened his grip but she didn't rush out of his arms. She was afraid if she
moved too quickly he'd spank her again.

"Fine, just
don't do it again.
Creep."
This time she pushed against his hold and he
released her, letting her step away from him. She turned and narrowed her eyes,
letting him know exactly what she thought of his actions.

"Don't.
You.
Ever.
Do. That.
Again."

When he did nothing more than lift his
eyebrows at her, she
waned
to lash out and slap him.
Instead she stepped toward where Frank had left the stacked boxes.

"Don't open them yet," Reed said. "I
realize we both want to know what's inside, but I think it's best if we wait
for Chester. Let me call him. Then, when he gets here, we'll open the boxes and
see what's inside."

"And if I refuse? If I say this is my
store and I want to open them right now, to see what's inside?"

"Then I might think you're somehow
guilty in all of this. You should cooperate with us, make it easier on all of
us, including you, and think of the big picture. We need to bust this thing up,
figure out what's going on.
And to do that we need a law
enforcement official here when we open the boxes."

Leslie hated to admit he was right.
Despite her anger at her spanking, especially the fact he'd done it in front of
Frank, she shouldn't fly off the handle. The boxes needed to be sealed when
Chester arrived. That way she couldn't be accused of planting something inside
them. Just because Reed was working with her didn't mean he didn't think she
might be involved. He might just be here to keep an eye on her in case she was
involved.

"Fine, I'm going up front, but don't you
ever, ever, spank me again. Do you understand me?"

His grin made her want to throw up. "I
understand, but I'll do what needs to be done. So you do me a favor and don't
do anything that deserves another spanking. You have to admit, it worked. You
were pretty distracted."

She blew a raspberry at him,
then
stalked into the main part of the store. A few
customers sat at tables, enjoying sweets and coffee.
Tambi
waited on a few high school students who were buying sodas and cookies. When
they were gone, she grinned at Leslie.

"You should have just told me the two of
you were playing around. That way I wouldn't have feared for my job."

"We're not playing around."

"Right,"
Tambi
said, her grin growing. "I peeked in to investigate the noise and saw him
spanking you. That's playing around."

Leslie fought the urge to tell her the
truth. She didn't for one minute believe
Tambi
was
involved in any drug smuggling, but if
Tambi
told her
mother what was happening, then it was possible her mother would tell someone
else, and then all hell would break loose, as they say. She may be angry with
Reed right now, but sabotaging the whole investigation would get them absolutely
nowhere. Best to just let
Tambi
think they were just
kidding around.

"I have to admit, he is pretty
handsome,"
Tambi
said with a wink. "How long have you
known him, really? And why are you not telling anyone you're involved?"

Leslie tried to think quickly. Things
just weren't working out the way she wanted. "I haven't known him that long,"
she said, truthfully. "And I'm not positive it's going to work. I don't want to
let things out, and then have everybody question me like there's no tomorrow if
it doesn't work out, you know what I mean?"

Tambi's
sad look let
her know she knew exactly what she meant. Small towns were notorious for
gossip, and
Tambi
had endured more than her fair
share when she'd dated a man she'd thought would marry her and love her
forever, then had skipped town the minute he'd discovered she was carrying his
baby.

"Your secret's safe with me,"
Tambi
said with a wink. "I won't tell a soul I saw him
spank you. I promise."

"Thanks. It wasn't really a spanking,
just a few taps." Oh
geeze
, now I'm defending him? I
need to get a grip on myself and realize that he's not a good guy where I'm
concerned.

"Whatever it was, it was contact, and it
sure looked like a spanking from my end." They both looked toward the jingle of
the front door. Leslie swallowed a cry of shock when Betty Whitehouse strolled
in, a huge smile on her face.

"Hi," Leslie groaned out the word even
as her stomach raced down to the floor, falling so quickly she thought she
would faint. "Back so soon?"

"The hands gobbled up that pie yesterday
like it was water. I told them I didn't buy them all the time, just every once
in a while, but they begged me to come back and get a few more today, so I'm
here. I'm hoping you have several pecan and pumpkin ones made up already.
That's what they requested."

Leslie wondered what sort of noise she
could make to get Reed to come running, so he could see his number one suspect
had returned. And now that she was back, Leslie had to admit that it made her
look pretty guilty. She'd never once mentioned anything about buying pies for
her ranch hands. It had always been about buying pies for her husband.

What had brought about the change? She'd
already been in twice this month, and now she was here, back for the second day
in a row. And it just happened to be on a day when the store had received a
delivery.

Leslie smiled,
then
cleared her throat. "We have just what you need, Mrs. Whitehouse. I have
something to take care of in the back.
Tambi
will
help you. Enjoy your pies."

She tried not to hurry as she walked
toward the back room. If Reed had been right, then Mrs. Whitehouse was being
used as bait upfront while someone was emptying the boxes in the back. But when
Leslie made to leave, Mrs. Whitehouse didn't make a move to stop her. Instead
she chatted with
Tambi
about pies. The last words
Leslie heard her say before she went into the back room was that she thought
she might buy a few dozen cookies, too.

When Leslie arrived in the back room,
she was surprised to find it empty. Fear gripped her insides. The unopened
boxes still sat in the same place they'd been earlier. She took a step inside
and called Reed's name. No answer came and she took another step.

"Reed?"
The back door
flung open and she jumped, putting her hand on her chest as Reed came back
inside. "Where have you been?"

"Trying to chase the pickup that pulled
up outside, then took off when they saw me in here. Unfortunately I'm too old
to go as fast as a car."

"Mrs. Whitehouse is outside." She
repeated what the older woman had told her, and Reed
nodded,
his frustration evident by the look on his face. "She didn't try to stop me
from coming back here, and I refuse to believe she'd put me in
harms
way. She's too sweet for that."

"I would say that means she has no clue
about what's going on," Reed replied. "Her hands are using her." He nodded to
someone behind her, and Leslie turned to find Chester standing in the doorway.

Chester looked at the boxes,
then
glanced back at Reed. After Reed related the tale of
the pickup, Chester sighed. "Let's open them up and see what's inside. Then
we'll decide where to go from there."

Leslie picked up her box cutter,
carefully slicing open the first box. She pulled out several handfuls of small
plastic caskets and skulls. Each handful made her hopeful that she would find
nothing more than what she'd ordered. But after a fifth scoop of souvenirs, she
stared down at the brown paper wrapped package that sat near the bottom of the
box.

"Something tells me that's not Halloween
candy," she said with a deep sigh.

Chapter Three

"May
I ask exactly what you're doing?" Leslie stared at Reed, who stopped working
long enough to give her a look that said she should know exactly what he was
doing. He started to put more of the big brown bags that they now knew held
cocaine into the boxes.

"Reed, answer me."

"Go in the other room, please."

She dug her heels in, despite his order,
and shook her head.
"No way.
Tell me exactly what's
going on, right now."

"Leslie, this isn't your investigation,
it's mine." He gave her another look, this one a little softer. "And although I
know this hurts you to know people have used you in this way, Chester and I
have decided the less you know about this the better. Please, go in the other
room."

The shop was still open, and for a
Tuesday, there were quite a few people milling about, buying slices of pie and
hot drinks. It had been cool today, and Leslie knew that always attracted
people to the store. Still,
Tambi
had everything
under control, and there was no way Leslie was leaving right now. Reed was just
going to have to deal with it.

"Listen, buster, I've said it before,
and I'll say it again. This is my store, and I want to know what's happening.
Now, you either tell me why you're putting the drugs back in the box instead of
Chester taking them to the sheriff's department, or I'm calling up media
outlets in Amarillo, and Albuquerque, and spilling my guts. I'll tell them
everything, just to make sure the story gets out and people know I had nothing
to do with the smuggling."

The shocked look on his face made her
smile. "You wouldn't."

"Try me."

He stopped what he was doing, and she
watched him consider the pros and cons of letting her know what was happening.
Finally he shook his head in defeat and sighed in disgust.

"We're setting a trap. We're pretty sure
the guys will come back tonight for the goodies. We're going to make it look
like the boxes haven't been opened. They will either take the entire box, which
I doubt because it would be a red flag that someone was here, or they will open
the boxes, take out their merchandise and then reseal them. While they're doing
that, I'll be able to snap a few photos with a fantastic camera I have that
works well in dark places. Then, after next week, we'll be able to watch the
guys we see tonight, and track the drugs, see whether the people we're working
with right now are the actual dealers, or if they're just middle men trying to
make a quick buck."