Christy Barritt - Squeaky Clean 04 - Dirty Deeds (3 page)

Except when they didn’t.

A huge, historic-looking building appeared out the front window. And when I said huge, I meant
huge
. Its exterior was all red brick. Massive columns stood probably six stories high. It was bigger than the White House. Bigger than my high school.  Maybe even bigger than my local mall.

Lush green grass stretched in front of the circular drive. A pond with a gazebo was to one side. Old, grand homes could be seen lining the surrounding streets. A fancy golf course teased behind the building.

The tow truck stopped. I hadn’t even stepped out when Riley appeared by my side. His hand grasped mine. “You okay?”

“Of course. I’m fine. You think I’m going to let a mountain road defeat me?”

“If a mob boss can’t defeat you, then I don’t know what I was thinking.” A hint of a smile pulled at his lips, even though I knew he was worried about me.

The tow truck driver grunted beside us. “You should probably unload your bags unless you want me to take them with me to the repair shop.” He nodded toward Riley’s car as he extended Riley’s no-frills key chain. I’d recently added a flip-flop and crime scene tape lanyard to mine.

“You need to call your insurance company?” the driver continued.

Riley took his keys and stepped toward his mangled mess of a car. “I only have liability. Calling them won’t do me any good.”

No sooner had Riley opened the trunk than did a swarm of uniformed men surround the car and begin pulling luggage from it. I stepped in to help.

“Let them get it, Gabby,” Riley whispered.

I grabbed my suitcase. “That’s ridiculous. I can help.” I placed my luggage on the little brass cart beside me, which caused one of the valets to scowl.

Riley leaned closer and lowered his voice. “Gabby, really. Let them do their job. You can just relax.”

Relaxing was not something I was good at. “But, I’m perfectly capable of—”

I stopped talking as Riley shook his head and shoved some bills into the valet’s hand. That’s when I resigned myself to step back and relinquish my control of the situation. There were worse things than being waited on hand and foot.

A moment later, Riley had his arm around my waist and was leading me inside. There was no going back now. We climbed extravagant, stately steps and stepped into one of the fanciest lobbies I’d ever seen.

When I was a kid, my mom had made me dresses that mimicked the ones from the movie
Annie
. So, it only seemed appropriate as I stepped onto the rich marble floors of the building that I mumbled, “I think I’m going to like it here.”

Yes, I was like the Little Orphan Annie stepping into Daddy Warbuck’s mansion—a person coming from nothing stepping into extravagance like I’d never known or dreamed of. The only thing that would make it more perfect was if the entire staff burst out into song and dance.

I paused for a moment, half expecting it to happen, before releasing my breath and resisting my urge to tap dance. That was a good thing because I
couldn’t
tap dance.

We only made it two steps when a scruffy-looking man in a flannel shirt came running through the front door. There was something urgent, maybe slightly crazy, in his eyes.

“You’re Riley?” His voice sounded breathless, frantic.

“That’s right.” Riley nodded.

“I recognized you from the picture Jackie has on her bookshelf. Have you seen her since you arrived?”

Riley shook his head. “No, we just walked in, though. Why?”

“She’s missing.” Panic laced the man’s voice.

Riley’s hands went to his hips. “What do you mean missing? How long has it been since you saw her?”

The man ran a hand through his unruly, thick brown hair. “Three hours. She took a hike. She was supposed to be back by now.”

“Maybe she ran into someone she knows?” I suggested

The man shook his head. “No, something’s happened to her. I’m sure of it. She’s in trouble.”

“
Trouble
trouble?” I asked. My pulse sped.

The man’s eyes met mine. “Yeah,
trouble
trouble. You’ve got to help me find her.”

I glanced at Riley. So much for acting like a normal couple.

And so much for minding my own business too, for that matter.

CHAPTER 3

“Jackie!” I yelled. I stood at the edge of a massive boulder. Below me was a streaming river that made my head spin for a moment. Still, I didn’t move. There was something I kind of liked about living on the edge.

Riley grabbed my hand and tugged me back. “Careful.”

“Always.” I grinned.

The rest of Riley’s friends had been gathered, and we’d divided up into groups to search for Jackie. The man who’d run inside to find us was Clint, Jackie’s boyfriend, apparently. Riley and I had decided to take one of the longer trails that looped around the resort’s property. Summer was in full bloom around us with vibrant green leaves filling out the oak and maple trees. The sky overhead was a brilliant blue and the air felt crisp.

Maybe I
would
like it here.

I expected Riley to urge me down the trail again, but instead he pulled me forward and wrapped his arms around me.

I raised my face, realizing that Riley was one of the nicest views around here, and he had a lot to compete with. “What are you doing?”

“I told you I had all week to tell you how pretty you were. I wanted to take my first opportunity now.” The pupils of his eyes swirled with emotion that made my stomach burn.

I was one lucky girl. I told myself that all the time because it was true. Riley was the man of my dreams. “You’re making me blush.”

“I want to make you blush for a long time.” He lowered his head, and his lips came down on mine. When he pulled away, he brushed a hair out of my face. “I love you, Gabby.”

I let my head rest on his chest for a moment, comforted by the sound of his steady heartbeat. Steady … that’s what Riley was. I needed that characteristic in my life. “I love you, too, Riley.”

He stepped back but kept his fingers intertwined with mine. “We should keep looking, huh?”

“You don’t seem worried.” Which was strange. It wasn’t that Riley worried a lot; it was simply that he had a heart for justice and helping those in need, which was just one more reason we were so perfect together.

He’d just opened his own law firm several months ago, and he only took cases that were socially driven. He’d given up a job as a hotshot prosecutor in L.A. and decided to follow his dreams of making the world a better place instead. That said a lot about him.

He shrugged. “I guess I’m worried. It’s just that Jackie has always had a habit of not thinking things through very well. I suspect she got distracted by something. Maybe she went off on a different trail. Maybe she lost track of time. I don’t know.”

I tried to compute what he was saying as we started down the trail again. “Can people in law school afford not to think things through?”

“Jackie’s always been a bit spacey.”

“But she’s an assistant district attorney.”

Riley shrugged. “I don’t know what to say. I realize this won’t sound very nice, but we were all a little surprised that she actually made it through law school. I don’t think being a lawyer was ever her dream. It was more of her mom’s plan for her life.”

“Do you have a picture of her? It helps me to put a face to the name.”

He pulled out his phone, swept his fingers over the screen, and then showed me a picture. Jackie Harrington looked an awful lot like a young Jackie Kennedy. She had the same bobbed brown hair and petite build. Only Jackie Harrington had a slight sparkle in her eyes, a sparkle that belied her otherwise sophisticated demeanor.

“Pretty,” I mumbled. My gaze scanned the area around me, looking for a sign of something out of place. “Her boyfriend looked awfully upset. Beside himself, for that matter.”

Riley helped me over a tree that had fallen in our path. “He did.”

“You said you’d never met him before?” I landed with a thump on the rocky ground below.

“No, he wasn’t in school with us. I think they’ve been dating a year or so. Not really sure. I know from a couple of posts she’s put on her social media sites that her mom doesn’t really approve of the relationship.”

“Why?”

“Jackie comes from old money. Her boyfriend … well, he’s a construction worker. Sure, he has big plans to start his own company one day, but he hasn’t yet. Jackie’s mom doesn’t think he’s good enough for her.”

I liked Jackie’s boyfriend already. This was great. There was at least one person here I could relate with. But the rest of the people, the ones who came from old money? I had no idea what to do with them.

We continued to walk. My mind wandered to my last trip to the mountains. It had been a long time. I wasn’t exactly a world-traveler kind of girl. No, my family’s idea of a vacation when I was growing up was heading to the beach for a day. Once, my dad had set up a tent in our backyard, and my brother and I had spent the night there, eating gummy worms until our stomachs hurt and telling scary stories with a flashlight. Tim had probably been too young to stay outside without any adults, but we’d made out just fine. I smiled at the memory.

The last time I’d been to Virginia’s mountains, my dad had brought me. I’d probably only been seven. It was one of the few times in my childhood that I could remember my dad being sober.  After one of his friends died of a heart attack before reaching 40, my dad had been determined for two whole weeks to turn his life around, so he’d quit drinking and tried to be the father he’d always wanted to be. Those two weeks had been great, and I remember as a little girl I’d prayed they wouldn’t just be a phase. I wanted a family like those happy ones I’d seen on TV.

That weekend in the mountains with my dad had been fun. We hadn’t stayed in a place like Allendale, but my aunt had let us use an old fishing cabin. The place was a dump and hadn’t been used in years. I still remember the smell of dead fish and rotting leaves.

My dad had made a campfire, and we’d roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. We’d explored trails through woods so deserted that we didn’t see another soul. He’d told me stories about when he’d learned to surf as a kid and how he’d gone out to win a championship competition on the East Coast. The honor had gotten him endorsement deals and, he hadn’t said it, but probably tons of women.

My mom had been the one who’d caught his eye. In her younger days, before cancer ravaged her body, she’d been a real looker. Life had worn her down well before the cancer, truth be told.

“Your dream vacation? What would it be?”

Riley’s voice pulled me from my thoughts, and I shrugged. I never spent a lot of time thinking about traveling, actually. My life seemed to be my friends and my work. I was always on call as a crime scene cleaner and had no vacation days or even sick days, for that matter. If I wanted to get paid, I had to work. In fact, I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been out of town.

In college, my friends and I had driven down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a weekend trip. That had been probably eight years ago. The thought made me want to put an “L” on my forehead. I really needed to get out more.

Before going on this trip, Riley and I had sold some stuff online in order to raise the cash. Riley could have used his law firm money, but he said he didn’t feel right using people’s donations to fund a class reunion, even if there were workshops tied with it. That was Riley for you. Since he took on a lot of cases pro-bono, people and organizations often donated to help keep the firm going. He’d gotten some pretty big endorsements from some national faith-based organizations.

“My dream vacation.” I closed my eyes but only for a moment. “I guess I’d want to go on a cruise to somewhere tropical and warm.”

“A cruise, huh?”

“I want ocean water so warm it feels like a bath and sand so soft it’s like a cushion under my feet. Nothing fancy, but definitely clean. It has to have good seafood and maybe a place to catch a show.”

“Good to know.”

I stole a glance at him. “How about you?”

He shrugged, a grin tugging at his lips. “Anywhere with you.”

I squeezed his arm. “And that is just one more thing to love about you. But let me guess—you’ve already traveled the world.”

“I’ve been a few places. It’s not so much where you go as it is whom you’re with.”

“Have you been practicing your one liners or something?” Don’t get me wrong. Riley was incredibly sweet and sincere, while still being masculine, smart, and even a little tough when times called for it. But the one thing he wasn’t was smooth. He was too into being authentic to be the type to have lines he used.

“No, maybe this is just what getting away from it all does to me.”

I tucked away that information for later and glanced at my watch. “We’ve been looking for an hour. I wonder if anyone else has had any luck finding Jackie.”

He pulled out his cell phone, squinted at it, and then held it in the air. “I don’t have a good signal out here, but they said they’d call if there’s news. Let’s walk a little bit more.”

The woods were pretty desolate, probably not a good place for a woman to be hiking alone, even at a fancy resort. I could easily imagine being out here on an early morning walk where I’d have some uninterrupted time with God. We could talk about Him dangling my dreams in front of me and then snatching them away. And I could tell Him how, despite that, I was so grateful for His forgiveness and mercy in my life.

I hadn’t been a Christian for long, but living for someone outside of myself was a life-changing thing. I still had rough days, and I still had days when doubt crept into my psyche, at least for a few dwindling moments. But most days I felt new and alive, and I wondered how I ever lived before without the hope I had now.

Riley was a big part of that.

Riley sighed and turned toward me. “We should head back. Maybe someone else has heard something.”

I nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” Part of me would much rather remain on this hiking trail with Riley than go back and mingle with his friends. I don’t know why the thought of hanging out with them had me in knots like it did. Feeling like the outsider of the group was never my first choice, I supposed.