Front Page Fatality (12 page)

Bob opened his mouth and I shot him a look that clearly said “shut up.”

“You can read all about it in the morning,” I grinned at Parker. “And you don’t even have to cough up the seventy-five cents.”

Bob did the chuckle/wince thing again.

“I thought I said no more wisecracks.”

“No wisecracks? Why don’t you take away her shoes while you’re at it, boss?” Parker shook his head, his eyes on me as he addressed Bob. “Good to have you talking to us again. You gave everyone a nice little jolt of adrenaline.”

“Sorry.” Bob grinned. “No game tonight?”

“Nope. I was at the ballpark trying to hunt up a story when all the excitement actually was in your office today. And you always say nothing newsworthy happens in there.” Parker glanced at the heavy, stainless Tag Heuer on his wrist. “I have to run, though. Rest. Feel better. We’ll miss you, but we’d like for you to, you know, not die.”

Bob snorted. “Thanks.”

Parker nodded as he backed out the door. “And holler if you need anything. I’m usually around somewhere, and I have certifiable experience. I made sure my mom got downtime when my dad was recovering.”

Well, check you out, Captain Ego. I felt a grudging wave of respect for the second time since Friday as he disappeared with a wave. First he’d been gentle with Katie DeLuca down at the riverfront. Now Bob. I remembered the days after my mom’s mastectomy all too well. Caring for an ailing parent was a damned sight harder than chasing crime stories or interviewing ballplayers.

Bob turned his attention to me. “I take it you got your story done?” he asked between bites of what appeared to be instant mashed potatoes.

“I did. Les wasn’t happy with it, though. He’s sort of a prick, you know that? Get better.”

Bob chuckled. “He means well. I like to think, at least. He is completely unforgiving with the budget, though, and he doesn’t miss much. What’d you do?”

“What’d I fail to do, actually. I didn’t call the lawyer’s wife.”

“You trust your cops.”

“And you think I shouldn’t, either?” Damn. If they both thought I should’ve called her, then Charlie might have actually done it, if she knew Neal was missing. I reminded myself she hadn’t called Aaron about it, and hoped she didn’t have another source on the force. I’d seen nothing on the station’s website at five-thirty, but there was always a chance they could be holding it for the eleven.

Bob shrugged. “Most of the time? I think you’re okay. It’s hard to cover a beat and not grow fond of the people, and I know you have your favorites down there. But on something like this, you have to question everything. No sense in losing sleep over it, but get it tomorrow.”

“Consider it done.”

“Anything new?” He sipped milk out of a carton so small I wondered if they’d swiped it from an elementary school cafeteria.

“Don’t you need to be eating more than that?”

“This is what they brought.” He shrugged. “What else did you find out?”

“Good stuff. Not on the lawyer, but on the drug dealer murders and the missing evidence. You’ll never believe who I happened across this afternoon.”

I talked while he finished what passed for dinner. He murmured or looked surprised occasionally, but didn’t interrupt. When I sat back and sighed a few minutes later, he stared at me for a long moment and then cleared his throat.

“Damn, kiddo,” he said. “This really is like chasing the white rabbit down the hole, isn’t it? Things keep popping up, and one is more spectacular than the last. But you listen to an old man and take some advice. You’re getting into investigative territory, here. These are the stories that make careers, and the kind of thing that might get you noticed by the guys up at the
Post
.”

My mouth popped into a little “o” at that and he smiled.

“I might be old, but I’m still pretty sharp. I know that’s your brass ring, and I’m glad you want it. Makes you work harder. It’s my job to talk you into passing it by if the time comes—and that could be sooner than later if you’ve got something here. But I’d be an asshole if I didn’t warn you to watch yourself. Investigative reporting is a whole different beast. You’ll be in as much real danger as a cop working a case would be. Drug pushers, crooked cops. These are not people you want to piss off.”

“I am careful. I promise. But you wouldn’t give that speech to one of the guys.” I hated being treated like I wasn’t as capable as a man, but it wasn’t worth arguing with him about. I like it when guys open doors for me and kill bugs so I don’t have to, and I figure the chivalrous impulse that makes them do those things also compels the good ones to be protective. 

“I’m a big girl. And you know all those meetings you bitch about me being late for? I take body combat four days a week. So maybe it’s them you should worry about.”

“Judging from your stories, they have guns. And experience using them.” He leaned back against the pillows and I noticed his coloring had faded a bit. “But remind me not to piss you off.”

I changed the subject. He had no business being preoccupied with dangers lurking in my story.

“So, I was thinking today, after I met Troy,” I began, trying to sound flippant. “And no matter what happens with this case, I might do a feature story on his family. A sort of ‘growing up in the city’ piece.”

Bob didn’t open his eyes as he shook his head. “A feature? Do you even remember how to write one?”

“Of course I do.”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t. I am shocked you want to. That kid must’ve made quite an impression. I don’t see why not, though you might not want to start until you finish this. You can only do so much at once.”

I agreed and told him goodnight as the sun faded into half-light outside his window. “I’ll check on you tomorrow. Have to make sure you don’t, you know, die.” I stretched my face into my best exaggeration of Parker’s wide smile, and Bob did the chuckle/wince thing again.

“Dammit, Nichelle, that’s three.” His smile didn’t fade. “Knock it off.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Go find your story,” he said. “And don’t get too crossways with Les, either. They say I’m on house arrest for a while, and I don’t want you on his shit list when I get back. He never forgets anything, and he’s a pain in my ass when there’s someone in the newsroom he doesn’t like.”

“I’ll do my best to fly under his radar.”

“You’ll have to fly under Shelby’s, too,” he said. “He’s suddenly become her biggest fan the last few weeks, which makes me think I don’t want to know exactly what’s going on there.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I rolled my eyes, thinking of her sniffling into Les’ chest in Bob’s office earlier. From Parker to a snappish, balding bean counter? There was no figuring Shelby out on any front. “No pun intended. And ick.”

“It’s none of my business, so long as it doesn’t affect my newspaper. But just watch it. I know you two ladies don’t get along, and I know why.” His words began to slur sleepily. “She’s not as good as you are, kid, but she could get there. She’s a hell of a writer. She just lacks your personality and experience. But if she’s got Les’ ear, you might have a rough stretch coming. So don’t screw up.”

“You got it.” I backed out of the room as he drifted off.

A bike with a red helmet was in the space next to my car, but it was a Honda, not a BMW like Parker’s. I considered our resident jock for half a second, a little ashamed of myself for stereotyping him as a talentless, shallow ass. He seemed like a decent guy, really. The kind I wouldn’t mind having as a friend. When I had time for friends again, anyway. I hadn’t even spoken to Jenna since Friday.

I rolled the windows down and turned the music up as I tried to make sense of what might be going on at the PD. What if it was a cop? What if it was the lawyer, and he took off because he didn’t want to share with the drug pusher? What if said drug pusher had someone on the inside?

I tried to ignore Bob’s allusion to “investigative reporting,” but the words pulsed through my head in time to the music. It was what I’d always wanted. And it might be right in front of me, if I could just figure out how to get to the answer first. And who I could trust to help me.

I grabbed my phone and dialed Aaron’s cell number. Everyone might be a suspect to Mike, but Aaron couldn’t be in on this. I’d heard enough of his war stories to know he’d been a damned fine detective, back when he’d worked in homicide.

“Nichelle?” he said when he picked up after the third ring. “What’d I miss now?”

“Don’t get me started,” I said. I gave him the short version of Bob’s medical situation and continued into how I’d met Troy and what he’d told me about his brother and Noah.

“Look, Aaron, there’s something really bizarre here. Something that could be huge. I want this story more than I’ve ever wanted anything, and I need to know what you know. On the record, off the record, whatever. No bullshit. I’m calling in my favor.”

He let out a short, sharp breath.

“How do I get myself into this shit?” He paused, and I waited. Finally, he said, “off the record, you promise? You cannot put my name on this. Internal affairs hauled in everyone and their brother for questioning today. They’ve got this case locked down tighter than a nun’s panties, and even I don’t know everything. I can tell you where to look, but that’s about it.”

“What have you got?”

“Someone really wants the lawyer to go up for the stolen evidence,” he said. “His wife reported him missing, and she and his buddies at the CA’s office suspect foul play. But I’m getting a lot of pressure to put out a story listing him as our prime suspect in the robbery. They know you’re going to have that in the morning anyway, so they’re throwing this guy under the bus solely on the strength of a signature on the log, best I can tell.”

“But you don’t think he did it?”

“I don’t know what I think. This is all really fucked up, if I’m being honest. And I don’t like being asked to put my name on something that’s trumped up. Especially when all accounts paint this guy as a decent one, as lawyers go.”

“What if the kid’s right, and the drug pusher is your murderer?”

“You’re thinking he left his stuff at the scenes to throw us off because he was going to steal it back?” Aaron sounded doubtful. “Except this wasn’t a breaking and entering situation. They’ve searched every inch of that locker. There’s no sign of anything wrong. Except the shit that’s gone, that is.” He paused, them asked, “You think this kid will talk to me?”

“I told him you guys might have a few questions for him. He seemed fine with it.”

“This might be the break we need. Jerry’s gotten little or nothing out of anyone he’s talked to. I suppose it’s too much for me to hope the kid knows who his brother worked for?”

“If he did, he didn’t tell me. But I didn’t get the idea he knew.” I fished the receipt out of my bag and read Troy’s phone number aloud.

“Thanks. And off the record, remember?” Aaron said.

“All access, remember?” I countered. “If you come up with anything, you call me. You promised.”

“I suppose I did,” he said. “All for keeping a vigilante out of the paper. I think I’m getting screwed on this one. Just don’t get me fired.”

“I wouldn’t have anyone to call for information if I did,” I said, my mind already chasing Bob’s rabbit down the next hole. “Hey, Aaron? Did you happen to hear anything new on the boat crash? I didn’t get around to calling Jones.”

“As far as I know, they’re still trying to figure out what Freeman and Roberts were doing on the river, and they haven’t had much luck. Your story was good. What’d you make of Roberts’ wife? I saw that she told you her husband absolutely would not have been out there without orders. You think she’s telling the truth?”

“I think she believes that, at the very least.”

Aaron murmured something I didn’t catch and then he was quiet for a minute.

“What?” My inner Lois perked up.

“I don’t know,” Aaron said. “I have a hunch. I used to be good at following them. Let’s see what I can manage to stir up if I poke this hornet’s nest.”

“Don’t stir up more than you can handle. I recently got a lecture about these particular hornets being nasty business.”

“Could be,” he said. “I’ll call you if there’s anything here. If I’m right, I may need your help as much as you need mine.”

“If you’re right, you’re going to need a week out on your boat when this is over. You going on vacation this summer?”

“I’m good.” He laughed. “I’ll have two kids in college come September. No vacations for a while. I’ll take the extra paycheck for my time off. I can always go out to the boat on the weekends, when I don’t have a media shitstorm at work.”

Passing the
Telegraph
office as I hung up, I glanced at the trucks lined up to transport the papers coming off the presses in the basement, resisting the urge to hop out and grab an early copy to see what Les did to my story. But it’d be there waiting to stress me out in the morning. I wanted a hot bath, a decent meal, maybe a glass of wine—and my bed. And to not ever have another day like this one.

I shoved the kitchen door open and bent to greet Darcy out of habit, but she wasn’t there. And she wasn’t barking.

I turned and looked over the low wooden fence, but she wasn’t in the backyard, either.

“Darcy?” I dropped my keys on the counter and walked through the kitchen into the living room. The last of the evening light was just enough to illuminate the shadowy shape that didn’t belong. I froze, wondering if I should scream as my heart rate shot into the stratosphere.

“Is that her name?” the broad-shouldered man who was sitting on my sofa holding my shedding, long-haired dog with complete disregard for the Armani suit he wore asked in an Italian-by-way-of-Jersey accent. “Nice dog you got here, Miss Clarke.”