Sharp Edges (26 page)

“Mrs. Shepard,” murmu
red Parker, with a grim expression. “I’d hoped to never meet with you under similar circumstances. I’m terribly sorry to hear about your friend.”

I nodded and wiped my face. “I know. I just don’
t understand what’s going on.”

Franklin’s eyes narrowed. “Well, it’s probably safe to say t
hat these two deaths are related. I think we need to sit down again and try to figure out what the hell is going on.”

“
I know,” I sniffed. “My best friend and husband have been murdered, my kids threatened. I just don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

Parker raised his eyebrows.
“Your kids were threatened?”

Crap.

I sighed. “Yes. I guess we need to talk about that, too.”

The two cops looked at each other and then turned back to me.

“You have something to tell us?” asked Parker.

“I don’t know for certain but I thi
nk I might have an idea of who’s behind these murders,” I said.

I sat down with the two detectives and started from the beginning, telling them about
my first encounter with Tina, the confrontation with Jerry, and getting threatened by an unknown assailant. The only thing I left out was Jake’s involvement.

“So, someone broke into your home and threatened you, and that was
before
your husband was murdered?” said Parker.

I crossed my arms under my chest
. “I was frightened. The man threatened the lives of my children.”

“You should have called the police,” said Franklin
with a disapproving look. “Now two people are dead.”

I
sighed. “But Jerry is a cop and I believe the man who threatened me is, too.”

“Do you know
this
Jerry’s
last name?” asked Parker, writing in his notepad.

“Actually, I
guess I don’t,” I said.  “I know he’s a cop only because I saw him in uniform.”

“
You have the address for him and his wife, Tina?” asked Franklin.

I told them the street and
a description of the townhome. “It’s the one for sale. You know, I’m not even sure if they’re still living there. In fact, I heard that he might be staying in the hospital right now. That he recently had surgery.”

“Really?” asked Parker. “So
, he’d probably have an alibi tonight, if that’s the case.”

I nodded. “Probably, but he has someone else doing his dirty
work for him, anyway.”

“We
’ll try and locate Jerry and his wife,” said Franklin.

I frowned.
“What if his goon comes after me or my kids? Now that I’ve reported it to you guys, we’re sitting ducks.”

Parker scratched his head. “We’ll get you some protection. I’ll appoint a couple of officers to watch over your family
for the next couple of weeks or until we crack this case.”

I sighed.
“Thank you.”

“Is there anything else
you’d like to add?” asked Franklin.

“Well, Darcy told me that she had a date tomorrow night,” I said. “Some guy she met on an online dating site.”

Parker nodded and scratched his dark blonde stubbly chin. “Interesting. Do you know which site she used?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Well, we’ll be going through her computer and files to see if there’s anything that might help locate her killer. I’m sure we’ll figure out the dating site as well.”

“
By the way,” I said. “Did you talk to those women I told you about? The ones my husband was messing around with?”

Franklin nodded. “Yes, and they both have alibis
for the night your husband was murdered.”

“Figures,”
I said.

Parker sighed
. “Interestingly enough, they don’t deny the sexual relationship one bit. The two women live together and own a pretty successful shoe business. It appears that your husband was working on some new advertising gimmick for them.”

“It wasn’t all he was working on,” I said,
looking down at my wedding ring, wondering why I hadn’t yet removed it.

“
The women were definitely on their own agenda,” said Franklin. “At first glance, you’d take them for a couple of straight-laced gals, but once we started asking questions, they pretty much boasted about their sexual exploits. They’re a little strange, but you can’t arrest them for that.”

“
Bummer,” I said.

“Are you sure that’s all you have for us?” asked Parker.

I sighed. “I don’t know. If there is anything else, I’ll call you.”

“Good. Now, I’m going to make a couple of phone calls so you
’ll have someone watching your house. Meanwhile, keep the rest of your family in tow,” said Parker.

“You mentioned phone calls earlier
. I’m going to have your phone tapped, just in case it brings us any leads,” said Franklin.

I raised my cell phone. “
Speaking of phone calls, I still have one of the numbers in my cell phone; the number of the woman who called and eventually texted me.”

“
Could you find that for us?” asked Parker.

I scrolled through my
call history until I reached the number in question. “This is the only one that doesn’t pop up as a ‘private’ number,” I said.

Parker
took the phone from me. “This might be a break. As far as the unlisted numbers, we can get that information from the phone company.”

“
So, um…are you going to call that number?” I asked as he wrote it down.

Parker shook his head. “Not yet. I want to put a trace on the number and see whose it is before I
even think about calling them. If they’re connected to these murders, they might bolt if we don’t do this right.”

“Chances are they dumped that number anyway,” said Franklin. “They’d have to be
complete idiots to kill someone and leave their phone number out there for us to find.”

“I’m almost positive it was Jerry’s wife, Tina,” I said.

“Well, leave it to us. We’ll check out this Jerry character and see if we can come up with something,” said Franklin.

“Mrs. Shepard, this isn’t an easy question to ask, but I have to do it,” said Parker.

I sighed. “No, I did not kill my best friend, Detective.”

“Thanks for that, although it isn’t the questio
n I had in mind. My question is, did Darcy and Scott have any kind of sexual relationship?”

I stared at him in horror.
“No. Darcy was my best friend!” I paused, feeling my eyes fill up with tears. “She would
never
do something like that.”

“Was there anyone else she may have had a sexual relationship with?” asked Franklin.

I smiled bitterly. “No. She was pretty loyal to Herbie, actually.”

Parker’s eyebrows shot up.
“Herbie?”

I wi
ped away another tear and smiled bitterly. “Forget it, private joke.”

“Mom,” I said
into my cell phone twenty minutes later as I sat in Darcy’s parking lot. “Where
are
you?”

“We just got home. My cell phone died, I’
m sorry I missed your call, dear. What’s going on?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “It’s Darcy,”
I squeaked. “She’s been murdered.”

There was a sharp intake of breath and t
hen she moaned. “No! Darcy? How? Why?”

“I don’t know
, exactly,” I sniffed, cradling the phone on my shoulder while I reached for a tissue. “It might be related to Scott’s death.”

“For the love of God, Lindsey!
You need to go the police or the FBI. This isn’t something you can just run and hide from.”

I sighed. “I know. I spoke to the detectives on Scott’s case and they know about it now. Which reminds me, we’ll be under surveillance for a while by the police, to make sure we’re protected.”

“What about Jake’s guy?”

I snorted. “
I doubt Jake really had a guy watching out for us.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because, I’ve caught him in a couple of lies so I don’t really believe anything he’s told me.”

“Really?
He seemed like such a nice man, too. He even stopped by when we arrived home from the movie tonight.” she said.

My throat went dry. “What?”

Jake was back?

“Yes. He was looking for you. I didn’t know exactly where you we
re and he seemed quite agitated when I told him that.”

“
Well, he has my number, too,” I said.

“He told me that someone stole his cell phone and that he didn’t know your number by heart yet.”

Right.

“Well, I’ll be home
, soon. I have a few things to say to him, actually.”

“Poor Darcy,” sighed my mother. “I just can’t believe it.
First Scott and now her? I’m really frightened, Lindsey.”

“It’ll be okay,” I told her, although I was
quite scared myself.

“Oh, somebody’s at the door. I’ll see you in a little while.”

“Wait, mom! Don’t…”

Click.

I sighed as the phone went dead. “Crap,” I mumbled, tossing my phone onto the passenger seat. Now that things were getting much more dangerous, I didn’t want her just answering the door for anyone. But knowing my mother, she’d throw the door open and invite the person in with a friendly smile.

When I reached my house, I noticed that Jake’
s lights were on. Part of me was happy that I’d get the chance to have it out with him; the other was somewhat scared of the actual confrontation. I’d always avoided conflict until I was forced to face it and even now I debated on just simply giving him the cold shoulder.  

Sighing,
I pulled into my driveway and got out of the SUV. As I walked up the steps, my front door swung open.

I stared in surprise.
“Lieutenant Parker – what are you doing here?”

He smi
led. “I couldn’t find anyone to cover your place for the next couple of hours, so I decided to do it myself until backup came. So for now, you’re stuck with me.”

I moved past him into my
house. “Well, thank you for that. Where’s Franklin?”

He shut the door
. “We’d driven separately to Darcy’s tonight because he had to get home to his kids.”

I cocked my ear.
The house seemed unusually quiet for eight-thirty. “That’s fine, he infuriates me anyway. So, where are my mom and the kids?” I asked, setting my purse down.

“
Oh, they’re fine. Kids are up in their rooms and your mom is lying down. She mentioned that she had a long day.”

Someth
ing about the way he watched me was a little unnerving. If I didn’t know it, I’d say he was actually checking me out. I cleared my throat. “Okay. Well, would you like some coffee?”

He stepped closer
and pulled a piece of lint from the front of my T-shirt, near my right nipple, as I held my breath. “Sure,” he said, smiling. “But only if you’ll join me.”

“Sure,” I answered, quickly
, turning around and leading him towards the kitchen. “You know, I have one of those Keurigs. I can make a cup in less than two minutes.”

“That sounds great then.”

“Sit down, please,” I said, motioning towards the counter stools.

“That’s okay. I need t
o stretch my legs out a little. You don’t mind?”

“
No, not at all. So, um, do you have any kids?” I asked.

He smiled. “No. Not with my job.”

“I’m sure you’re always working.”

“Yeah.
Plus, I have a pretty big family. If I want to see kids, I just go visit one of my nephews.”

“That’s good. Are you m
arried?” I asked, trying to keep up the small talk.

His lips thinned. “No.”

Although I’d noticed he looked perpetually tired, he was still very a good-looking man, so I assumed he had girlfriends. “Well, marriage is tough,” I said. “You’re probably better off not being married, especially with your busy career.”

“Well, it’s not only that,” he said moving closer to me.

Too close, actually.

An alarm went off in my head and
I took a step back until my buttocks touched the counter. “Oh?”

He cl
osed the distance, trapping me. “I’d fucking kill myself if I had one of you whores waiting for me at home,” he growled.