BLACK in the Box (23 page)

“Which leaves us screwed, doesn’t it, boss?” Roxie said, and yawned.

“That’s the technical term, all right.”

She stretched, and Black did his best not to ogle her slim frame and pert breasts jutting beneath her tank top, unfettered by any restraint that he could see. He failed, but she seemed too tired to call him on it. “I had another thought, once you put your eyes back in your head.”

“Sorry. What does your shirt say?”

“It says, ‘Will kick the ass of old perverts who stare at my boobs.’”

“That’s what I thought.” Black shrugged. “What was your breakthrough?”

“It’s about Nancy. You say she and Alec got engaged recently?”

“Right.”

“As a woman, it doesn’t make any sense that she didn’t call her parents. I mean, why wait? That just doesn’t happen.”

“Maybe she’s just weird?”

“Could be. But she’s literally hiding the ring, isn’t she?”

“She said she didn’t want to damage it.”

“No woman on the planet wouldn’t wear an engagement ring she’d just gotten.”

“Maybe she does during the day.”

“Or maybe she’s trying to keep it quiet for another reason.”

“Like?”

“That’s where I run out of ideas. I can’t think of any.”

“Maybe she wasn’t actually engaged to him?”

“Why lie?”

“Good point.”

They both thought about it as Black paced. “I don’t know what it means, Roxie. It seems like it might matter, but I’m not sure why or how.”

“You spend most of your life like that, don’t you?”

“Very funny. I’d have thought your rapier wit would have deserted you by now.”

“You staring holes through my shirt brought it back.”

“So what’s the next step?”

“I’m DOA on accessing his files unless we find the dongle. Why don’t you go see if it’s in the car, just in case?”

“I kind of got mugged the last time I went out.”

She stared at him without reaction. “You did not.”

He nodded. “I did.” He described the altercation, and the corner of her mouth rose along with one eyebrow.

“You went all Dirty Harry on them? Now that I would have paid to see.”

“My arm hurts.”

“Maybe you’re stroking out. Your diet’s crap and you never exercise. You’re a heart attack waiting to happen.”

“That’s reassuring. But no, I think it has more to do with being swatted by a baseball bat.”

“I hear that can smart.” She checked something on the monitor again. “So you going to look in the car?”

“If I can find someone to go with me.”

“You’ve got a gun, boss. Just whip that bad boy out and pop anything that moves.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. What about you?”

“I’m going to dig somewhere else. I’ve got a weird feeling about Nancy. When did you say she was going to visit her parents?”

“Over Christmas.”

“Okay. Leave me be, Gunner. Don’t come back without Mugsy or a dongle.”

“With my luck, he ate it.”

She threw him a dark look. “Are we done?”

“Sorry if you thought I was…staring at you.”

“Yeah, well, looking’s free. Just don’t get all grabby or anything. I can totally see you standing over my shoulder, sneaking a fondle.”

“I’d never try to fondle you, Roxie.”

“I wasn’t talking about me, boss. Now be gone. One of us has work to do.”

“I’ll go risk my life again.”

“That’s the spirit.”

Chapter 46

Tom placed a call to his triad superior again when he was alone near the furniture aisle. He looked around to confirm there were no eavesdroppers and whispered into the phone.

“I figured out how I want to do this. I’ll need a car with another enforcer in it.” Tom explained what he had in mind and waited for a response.

The boss thought for a few moments. Tom heard him speak to someone in the background. When he came on the line again, his voice was hard. “I can have someone there in ten minutes.”

“That will be perfect. I’ll do this in fifteen.”

Black stopped near the rear exit door and called out to Henry, whom he could hear moving around near his office.

“Henry? Can you come here for a minute?”

The security man rounded the corner a moment later. “Yeah?”

“I want to take another look at Alec’s car, and I need a hand. You free?”

“Sure. At least it’s still warm out, so I won’t need my jacket,” Henry said pointedly.

“Sorry about that. I talked to Larry. He’ll cover a new one.”

“That’s some cat you got there.”

“He’s actually not mine. I’m watching him for someone,” Black said, trying to distance himself from any association with Mugsy.

“Thing’s a menace.”

“Tell me about it. You have a flashlight?”

“Lemme go get it. Be back in a second.”

Henry returned and they walked outside. Black looked around the dark lot and leaned closer to his companion. “I got jumped out here a little while back. Couple of gangbangers.”

“Yeah? How come you’re still standing?”

“I convinced them of the error of their ways.”

“What did they look like?”

“Just a couple of thugs. Asian.”

“There’s a lot of bad apples around here, especially at night. You saw what happened to Alec’s car.”

They moved to the Hyundai, and Black rummaged through it while Henry held the light on the interior. It became quickly apparent that there was no dongle. Black straightened and grimaced, holding his lower back. Henry smirked, but Black didn’t engage – he’d been young and invulnerable too only a few short years before. Life would catch up with Henry soon enough, and he’d get to discover firsthand the joys of entropy at work.

Back inside, Black nodded a thanks to him and went in search of Mugsy, who he hoped would be getting hungry by now. Brent and Nancy were having a hushed discussion at the far end of the liquor aisle, which they broke off as he neared, their expressions unreadable.

“Still haven’t found your cat?” Nancy asked.

“Nope. When he wants to stay gone, he’s pretty good at it,” Black said. “How are you holding up?”

“I think I’ll finally be able to sleep when my shift’s over.”

“Are you still planning to see your folks for the holidays? I mean, in spite of what happened?” Black asked.

“I’m going to get back to it,” Brent interrupted, leaving Nancy alone with Black.

“I…I haven’t decided. I just want to get some rest now. Maybe after some shut-eye I’ll be able to think clearer, you know?”

“Yeah, it can’t be easy.”

“No, it isn’t.” She glanced down the aisle and then back at her cart, which was stacked high with cartons of beer. “I’ll let you know if I see your cat.”

“Please. Name’s Mugsy.”

“I remember.”

Black crossed to the snack area, where Tabitha, Lee, and Kristen were reloading the display racks with junk food. They all stopped what they were doing, their expressions clearly relaying that they feared having more of their precious time wasted. Black gave them a small salute and asked about Mugsy, to which they replied that nobody had spotted him.

Black hated to go back empty-handed, but he had run out of things to do other than wait for Stan and McCarthy to arrive. Then his phone buzzed like an angry bee, and he eyed the screen. He’d gotten a message. His heart began beating faster as he opened the inbox, his thoughts now on Sylvia again, and saw it wasn’t from her. It was from Roxie, displaying her usual economy with words: “Get back.”

With a glance at his watch he moved to the administrative offices door, his footsteps echoing off the high ceilings in the cavernous store. He hurried to the room and found Roxie sitting, waiting for him, a look of expectation and triumph on her face.

“I knew it. Nancy’s a liar,” she blurted.

“What? About what?”

“Her parents are dead. Killed in a car crash eight years ago. Up in the central valley.”

“How did you find that out?”

“First I dug around in the employee schedule and saw that both she and Alec were on the day after Christmas. So the story about going to see them was a lie. Then I checked in Alec’s file. His Mom’s alive, lives in Brooklyn. It’s almost eight in the morning there, so I took a chance and called her. She’s broken up about Alec, obviously, but through my stealthy ways I learned that she wasn’t expecting him. Not that it was even possible to get there and back in time for work, unless all you did was stay on flights and drop by to kiss her and say goodbye.”

“I’ll be damned…”

“So then I smelled rat all over and went online to see what I could learn about our Nancy. Took a little work, but it’s all in the public record, and her name showed up in the obituary as a survivor.” Roxie smiled grimly. “I told you that whatever was going on with the ring didn’t make any sense.”

Black nodded. “Then she lied to the cops, too.”

“Of course. The question is why?”

“Because she’s trying to hide something. Unless she’s just pathological. Which actually describes about half the chicks in this town, but don’t get me started.”

“Chicks?”

“Sorry. I mean women. And I didn’t mean to generalize.”

“I can’t believe how intolerant you are. Misogynist.”

“But I’m not,” Black protested. “I love women.”

“No wonder Sylvia left you.”

“It’s not that. And she didn’t leave me. We’re just working things out.”

“Whatever, boss. But if you hate women, you can’t expect them not to hate you back.”

“Roxie, don’t bust my chops.”

She laughed. “I love to watch you squirm. You don’t do politically correct very well, do you?”

“So you aren’t offended?”

“At being lumped in with a bunch of sociopaths? Why would I? It’s charming company. You should put that on your Match.com profile. They’ll be falling all over you.”

“Match?”

Roxie shook her head and exhaled in exasperation. “I keep forgetting that you still use a dial phone.”

“Did you find anything else?”

“Well, Alec’s got a lot of bookmarks for precious metals sites in his unsecured area. Seems like he was a gold bug or something. Real-time tracking, bullion banks, the whole deal.”

“That’s not all that weird anymore. A lot of people think the dollar’s going to be worth its weight in toilet paper eventually. Anything more?”

“Not really. Some bookmarks for travel sites. He really liked Costa Rica. And prostitutes, because a third of his sites deal with how to negotiate the best deals there.”

“Planning his honeymoon?”

“Men are romantics, aren’t they?”

Black chuckled and then his demeanor grew serious. “I’m going to go find Nancy and sweat her. I want to do it with you here. I could use the feminine intuition on this.”

“Sure. I always enjoy the master at work. It’s like watching Picasso or something. You could sell tickets.”

“Try to limit the sarcasm when she’s here.”

“This
is
me trying. You should hear what goes on in my head that I don’t voice. It’s dark.”

Black looked down at her full-sleeve tattoos and her ebony outfit and shook his head. “Hard to believe.”

Chapter 47

Nancy was still stocking the liquor section when Black approached her. Something about his body language must have put her on alert, because she visibly stiffened before plastering an obviously fake smile in place. “Mr. Black, back so soon?”

“Nancy, I need your help with something,” Black said.

“Um, sure. What can I do for you?”

Black lowered his voice in a conspiratorial fashion. “Not here. In the office. I have a few more questions for you.”

“I’m still pretty behind, Mr. Black. The bins won’t stock themselves, and it’s almost six o’clock. It’ll be light out pretty soon.”

He checked the time. “The police will be here any minute. We need to cover a few things before they get here.”

That shook her. “The police are coming back?”

“Purely routine. They need to finish up with the crime scene and tie up a few odds and ends.”

“Ah.”

Nancy checked off an item on her clipboard and set it on top of the remaining beer cases, and then followed Black to the administrative offices. When she entered the corridor, she eyed the crime scene tape stretched across the IT room’s doorway with a troubled expression. Black held the door to his office open, and as she stepped in, Nancy appeared surprised to see Roxie sitting by the terminal, waiting.

“Nancy, this is my assistant, Roxie. She’s doing a little follow-up. Hope you don’t mind if she’s here while we talk.”

“Um, no, not at all.” Nancy gave Roxie a nod. “Nice to meet you.”

Roxie didn’t say anything, just gave Nancy the blank stare.

“Great. Have a seat and we can knock this out in no time.”

Nancy sat down and Black pulled up another chair. She looked at him expectantly.

“So, Nancy, Roxie here was looking at the personnel files and saw that you and Alec were scheduled to work the day after Christmas.”

“Really?” she asked, her voice instantly guarded.

“That doesn’t really jive with you going to see your folks over Christmas, does it? Because that’s what you told me.”

Nancy tried another smile. “It must be a mistake, that’s all. Mary probably entered it wrong or something. She was always doing stuff like that.”

“Oh, that explains it, then. Where did you say they live? Someplace in the central valley?”

“In a little town outside Fresno. Middle of nowhere.”

“Really? What’s it called?”

“Dinuba,” she answered without hesitation.

“Sure. I think I passed through there once. Not a lot going on, is there?”

“No. It’s an armpit.”

Black laughed, but to his ear it sounded forced. “Were you going to drive?”

“No other way to get there.”

“Take Alec’s car?”

She shrugged, but looked puzzled by the line of questioning. “Or mine. Either way.”

Black’s stare hardened and he stared at her wordlessly. She shifted in her seat, now visibly uncomfortable. Seconds stretched by and Black shifted his gaze to Roxie. She gave him a slight head shake, and he took another tack. “Nancy, could you show Roxie your engagement ring?” he asked.